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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-09-23 Town Board Minutes1 | P a g e Town of Danby Town Board Meeting Minutes Held Monday, September 23, 2024 Board Members Present: Joel Gagnon, Town Supervisor Leslie Connors Katharine Hunter Patricia Woodworth Paul Hansen Town Staff: Laura Shawley, Bookkeeper Mariah Dillon, Town Clerk Greg Hutnik, Town Planner Other Attendees: Ted Crane Garry Huddle Ronda Roaring Jim Holahan Zach Larkins Captain Charles Tilton Theresa Klinger Call to Order 6:02 Additions/Deletions to Agenda The process for submitting highway speed changes to the county highway department. Moved to the end of business Budget Transfer – Moved to financial section Privilege of the Floor Ronda Roaring - “I was very pleased to see the supervisors report. I think it's actually the first time that I have ever seen one, and that I want, even though I requested one last year, and I want to remind you that it has to go to the Comptroller of the Currency. And when I say it's the first time I've ever seen one, I'm talking all the way back into the 1980s when I first started coming to the meetings. The second thing is that I wanted to bring up a bit of wording in this email policy that you have, where right at the beginning of the policy, you say the town legally owns all emails that employees, appointees and oiffcials create and receive so what that means is that if I malign someone in an email to the town board, and someone decides to sue, can I say the town now owns that email and you can sue them. So I think that's not what you mean, and I think you need to rethink that. … I was upset to learn that Paul had brought his grandchild to the pond and wanted the child to swim in the pond and not in the swimming area, and did so when there was no lifeguard on staff. Both of those things are illegal and that you're trying to encour age a child to engage in your illegal a ctivity. And the third thing is that no one has the right to pull any vegetation out of the pond. The pond belongs to the state and the people of the state of New York, and I suspect that people who are talking about doing something like that and pulling weeds out of the pond, don't know m ilfoil from coontail, and would just pull anything and everything out of the pond, and have no idea what role it plays in the pond. And to be talking about the geese and the problems with the geese, I think the problems are with the human beings. And you need to be talking to Jim Brophy about all of this. And even when I go out onto the pond and pick up bottles and cans and other trash , I have to sign a waiver with him, so you're not allowed to do anything there.” 2 | P a g e Ted Crane – “I did have a chance to read over some of the material earlier in the day, the materials for the meeting and a couple of comments. Some of them were repeats of what I've said in the past, disposal of unwanted items. I think it's very important that whatever procedure you have attempts to maximize the income to the town from the disposal of unwanted items, even if it's only five and $10 at a shot. And there should be a policy that s hould include a public announcement of the of the availability and, I guess I really mean public, because some of the stuff that the town gets rid of is of interest to the public, not the scrap dealers or anything else, but to the public. My going up my list from the bottom, you're going to talk about an EV charger. You know, I liked where it was, but I don't really care wher e it is. What does affect me is it does interest me is the saying selection of a provider. My experience with EV chargers, and it's probably no different than anyone else's, is that if a charger is free, if it's a dumb charger, its price upfront is a fract ion of a more of a fancier charger, and it incurs what you might call a de minimis expense to the town for paying for the electricity. And I think that that is highly positive. You get a cheap charger of cheap and if it fails, replace with another cheap charger. And it makes people want to bring their cars to Town Hall to use Town Hall as a place, as opposed to a forbidding institution. On the other hand, if you get a vendor, the customer ends up spending far more than the electricity is worth, and the profi t mostly goes to the vendor, and the town benefits a little considering how much you spend on other things , a nd we'll get to that, spending a few $100 a year on extra electricity, which might be free if you have good PV panels running, spending a few, a few $100 a year and making the public happy is a big positive. And then two things about email, again, I covered this before, and I th ink it was Joel who spoke up and said, you know, they always had the possibility to go outside the town system, which was true, but that would have been wrong. Now you're creating a system where using an email which is not within the town meal is your normal practice, and simple mistakes are going to happen. Plus, the oiffcial policy is now to communicate with people outside o f town email if they don't have town email. And basically, things are not going to get monitored, only the mail that I sent if I was a town person, if I deliberately make a copy into the record, then it will be recorded, but mail that I receive will not be recorded. And you're doing all this to save some money, maybe not so little, but some money by not having to have a lot of accounts. Well, after you spent 10s of 1000s of dollars on security consulting and security hardware and training, saving a few $100 and opening yourself up to the same things you were trying to train people not to do , it just seems a little bit ludicrous, and I already mentioned this to Mariah, but in that proposed agreement that a email user would have to sign it starts off by saying that the town email accounts to be used primarily for town business. No, the word is exclusively. There could be extenuating circumstances where you have to make put a personal message in there. I can see it. But the bottom-line rule is exclusively for town mail, not for anything private, and that's actually part of keeping records.” Garry Huddle – Reported that repairs have been made to the security system in the Town Hall. The problems seem to have stemmed from the last power outage that we had. Huddle also expressed c oncern about the protocol for reading correspondence. Supervisor Gagnon responded that he did say that the correspondence should not have necessarily been read, but perhaps summarized., he could not find the policy that addressed the issue. Huddle asked if the Town Clerk could at least state the subject, and/or a summary and Gagnon responded that we should revisit this and remind ourselves what the policy is. Zach Larkins – Confirmed he has no intention of ripping out any weeds in Jennings Pond. “I think it's really worth reaching out to the state, [to clean up the pond] because that is the correct forward momentum of doing something. It is a jewel of the town, and it was unfortunate how underused it is. I think doing some proper cleanup would get more people there, and maybe we could start doing community get togethers o f sorts. I love it. I go up there and, just like, eat a slice pizza and stare into the void, and that's just like a beautiful place to be, and the water is kind of gross, but, you know, I also have an aversion to murky water . 3 | P a g e Paul Hansen Responded “I didn't bring my grandkids there, [to Jennings Pond my son did, and he said it was gross, basically same thing, because it was gross, goose poop everywhere, and the kids were grossed out. They didn't want to go swimming there for that reason. Supervisor Gagnon mentioned that he though t Roaring was referring to Ann Klingensmith who did some weed removal at Jennings Pond with approval and appreciation from the State . Larkins went on to say that he is very much in support of a skate park in Danby. He has contacted Amanda Piha and will keep the Board up to date. Correspondence Blake Savoy sent an email to the Board with a suggestion about changing the language in the Real Property Tax Exception for Qualifying Senior Citizen and Disabled Persons Law (Local Law #1 of 2024). The Board will - revisit this item at the next meeting. Reports & Presentations Supervisor’s Report and Attachments • General Fund Account Analysis • Highway Fund Account Analysis • Water District Account Analysis Supervisor Gagnon mentioned that the report tells us that we have money in the bank. The only thing that it doesn't tell you is what's the balance in each account . For that you'd have to look at the bank statements, which board members are welcome to look at to provide oversight. Resolution 216 of 2024 To Approve the Supervisor’s Report for August of 2024 Moved by Connors Seconded by Woodworth Vote: Connors Yes Hansen Yes Hunter Yes Woodworth Yes Gagnon Abstain Resolution 216 of 2024 passed on September 23, 2024 Meeting Minutes Resolution 2 17 of 2024 To A pprove the Town Board Meeting Minutes of September 9 , 2024 Moved by Connors Seconded by Hansen Vote: Connors Yes Hansen Yes Hunter Yes Woodworth Yes Gagnon Yes Resolution 2 1 7 of 2024 passed on September 23, 2024 4 | P a g e Resolution 21 8 of 2024 To Approve the Transfer of Funds Between Accounts Shawley explained that she needed to transfer funds because Mary Ann Barr was working extra hours. Dillon responded that she was unaware that Mary Ann Barr intended to work any extra hours and was surprised that she had not been notified of this change in hours or the intent to transfer funds. Connors asked if supervisors typically sign off on time sheets. Shawley said we will return to a more detailed timesheet for Barr. Hansen clarified that from now on, any extra hours are going to be looked at and signed off by the Town Clerk. Shawley answered “Yes”. WHEREAS it is necessary to do budget transfers between accounts when amounts are over budget in certain line items. RESOLVED, the Town Board approves the following budget transfers between accounts: FROM TO A1410.110 DEPUTY TOWN CLERK SALARY A1410.113 PROJECT ASSIST. SALARY 3,000.00 A1410.110 DEPUTY TOWN CLERK SALARY A7150.100 LIFEGUARD SALARY 720.00 Moved by Hunter Seconded by Connors Vote: Connors Yes Hansen Yes Hunter Yes Woodworth Yes Gagnon Yes Resolution 21 8 of 2024 passed on September 23, 2024 Warrant Abstract No 1 7 of 2024 Resolution 2 19 of 2024 To Approve General Fund Vouchers 281 - 312 for $44,846 .94 (Includes a late addition of $90. From Renee Carver for Zoom Accounts.) Moved by Connors Seconded by Woodworth Vote: Connors Yes Hansen Yes Hunter Yes Woodworth Yes Gagnon Yes Resolution 2 1 9 of 2024 passed on September 23, 2024 Resolution 220 of 2024 To Approve Highway Fund Vouchers 1 5 9 –1 72 for $175,781.14 (Excluding Voucher 168 ) Moved by Connors Seconded by Woodworth Vote: Connors Yes Hansen Yes 5 | P a g e Hunter Yes Woodworth Yes Gagnon Yes Resolution 2 20 of 2024 passed on September 23, 2024 Resolution 221 of 2024 To Approve the West Danby Water District Fund Voucher 24 for $165.00 Moved by Connors Seconded by Woodworth Vote: Connors Yes Hansen Yes Hunter Yes Woodworth Yes Gagnon Yes Resolution 2 21 of 2024 passed on September 23, 2024 Business Email Policy – The Board looked over a draft of a disclaimer that Town oiffcials, staff and committee members would sign indicating that they read and understand the email policy. It was agreed that the disclaimer would read that anyone using town email would do so for work related purposes ONLY. Hansen asked if the email policy tells everyone that any time they do any kind of [Town] business email, they should be doing it on the Town email? Supervisor Gagnon replied: “Well, no, we decided that was a change. The previous policy was anybody who does business for the town has to have a town email and use it. We changed the policy, because it was, first of all, when we looked into what we found, that nobody does it that way. You know, the county doesn't do it that way. Most towns don't do it that way. Some towns don't have any oiffcial emails, --There's no legal requirement that everybody has to have a town email if they're going to do town business. But it makes sense for t hem and it's advantageous to have an oiffcial town email for some people. I mean, if I correspond with somebody, the fact that I got a town of Danby ny.gov, email address gives it some legitimacy, as opposed to somebody from Hotmail, can say “I’m the Town Supervisor, or the chair of the CAC”. Jim Holahan, you know, acting on our behalf for as energy coordinator, can say, if he uses the town of Danby email address, it gives- him some legitimacy. It should be captured for the record. But you don't have to have a town email to do it, and that's what we decided the change would be. The previous policy was everybody who does anything for the town has to have a town email. That was very expensive. It's costing us with the new system, $22.50, a month per user to do that, you could - set up a separate email if you want - and do your town business that way. But in order for the email to be captured for the record, you have to include somebody with a town email in you response . It was a simple fix that enabled us to not require everybody to have a town email. But - that generated the need for - a statement that people sign when they get on board, to say, “I'm aware of the policy,” and I've decided I want a town email, or I've decided to use my own email but I understand that when I do in my oiffcial capacity, I have to include somebody who has a town email. 6 | P a g e It was agreed that a paragraph spelling out the new directives would be added, and that the Board would revisit the wording for the disclaimer. One part being for people with Town email, and another part for people using personal email. Create A Committee to Address Changes to Regulations and Determine Membership – Supervisor Gagnon explained that there are two major planning tasks that need to be done, reviewing and updating current regulations, and updating the Comprehensive Plan . Planner Hutnik confirmed that he would like to focus his work on the Comprehensive Plan next year and that it might take 18 months. Discussion ensued regarding how both tasks might be accomplished and wh o might serve on either of these two committees. Hutnik expressed some concern that it may be too much to try to do both tasks. Resolution 222 of 2024 To Extend the Meeting by An Hour Moved by Hansen Seconded by Gagnon Vote: Connors No Hansen Yes Hunter Yes Woodworth Yes Gagnon Yes Resolution 22 2 of 2024 passed on September 23, 2024 Organize Budget Review Meeting at 5 :00 on October 7 th to discuss the budget . Resolution 223 of 2024 To Meet at 5:00 on October 7 th to Discuss the Budget. Moved by Gagnon Seconded by Hansen Vote: Connors Yes Hansen Yes Hunter Yes Woodworth Yes Gagnon Yes Resolution 22 3 of 2024 passed on September 23, 2024 Unneeded Item Disposition Policy Proposal Draft policy was passed out and will be tabled until the next Meeting Determine Location of Town Hall EV Charging Station and Authorize Choice of Provider Due to some federal legislation/subsidy, Tompkins County has investigated getting EV chargers for municipalities that is essentially free to install, to replace the charger at Town Hall that is currently not working. 7 | P a g e Discussion ensued regarding where a new EV charger might be located in the Town Hall parking lot. There was consensus that a location across the parking lot would be best as to not interfere with the accessible parking spot. It was mentioned that several municipalities offer EV charging at no cost to the public. Resolution 224 of 2024 To Authorize James Holahan to negotiate with the Top Two EV Companies for Charging Stations for the Town of Danby Moved by Gagnon Seconded by Woodworth Vote: Connors Yes Hansen Yes Hunter Yes Woodworth Yes Gagnon Yes Resolution 22 4 of 2024 passed on September 23, 2024 Consideration of Spending Guidance for Ithaca Planning Conference Attendance Hutnik’s budget can accommodate several passes for the conference. Hutnik will share a conference schedule for anyone who wants to attend and come back to the board for approval if the sum exceeds $1,000 . ARPA Update Supervisor Gagnon spoke to Jeff Rockwell regarding the renovation for the front of Town Hall. Hansen said he would take care of the wall and will work with Kieth to remove debris. Discussion ensued regarding the front door hardware and automatic door operation. Larkins, who will install any new doors, agreed to do mo re research. Prices for upgrading Hydrants have been very diiffcult to come by Supervisor Gagnon will check with Code Oiffcer, Steve Cortright . Additional Steps for Speed Limit Reductions Leslie to follow -up with emails to the appropriate parties. Discussion of Next Meeting Agenda Surplus Equipment Adjourn 8:46 PM