Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-15-2002 TOWN OF GROTON MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2002 AT 7:30 PM Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman Duane T. Randall II, Councilman Also present: April L. Scheffler Purpose of meeting – interview for Town Clerk Letter was read from Tompkins County Community Action to Walpole Real Estate: “Dear Mr. Walpole: We are interested in the property at 110 Sykes Street, Groton, NY. We would like you to act on our behalf to approach the Village of Groton, the First National Bank of Groton and the Town of Groton with the following: The Village of Groton: Option 1: The Village allows us to use full amount of their financial interest in the property as a down payment for the bank. This amount would then be forgiven over a period of ten years. Option 2: The Village allows us to use half the amount of their financial interest in the property as a down payment for the bank. This amount would then be forgiven over a period of ten years. The other half could be negotiated for payment. Please obtain a letter of support for this project from the Village of Groton and the Town of Groton, which we can include as part of our application. To obtain a commitment letter from The First National Bank of Groton to finance any remaining mortgage amount to be included as part of our application. Also, please have the local Codes Enforcement Officer evaluate the building for any renovations needed to bring the building to C6.2 compliance. Sincerely, Maral Parkes, Early Childhood Department Director” The program description proposed a Head Start program for 40 pregnant women, infants or toddlers and would create approximately 22-30 full and part-time jobs. Town Board Meeting Page 2 April 15, 2002 Supervisor Morey – April, I’m going to ask you a couple of questions. Very impressive resume, very long. First of all, why do you want this job? April Scheffler – I like the job. I like the people. I like being available to the people, the ones who call up and you can actually do something to help. I also like the Town business and I am interested in the laws and how things are supposed to be done. All that kind of thing. It’s very interesting. I like the zoning part of it and the planning part of it too. It’s just very interesting, there’s always something new to learn, always exciting. Supervisor Morey – I noticed on your resume that you didn’t have any education. Did you go to high school? April Scheffler – Yes. Supervisor Morey – Anything beyond that? April Scheffler – No. Supervisor Morey – What about other work experience; have you ever worked before? April Scheffler – Yes. I didn’t put that on because I figured that didn’t apply to this job specifically. I, of course, have been a farmer, everyone knows that. I’ve had my own wallpapering and painting business; I’ve worked in a hardware store; had a babysitting business; that’s about it. Supervisor Morey – I’ll keep on going. What don’t you like about the job? April Scheffler – What don’t I like about the job? I don’t know. Politics, I guess. I don’t consider myself a political person. I guess, for the most part though, I think that the Town Clerk’s Office can pretty much stay out of the politics most of the time, except when it’s election time. Councilman Clark – So, April, have you had any other supervisory experience, handling, working with other people, being the head of other people. April Scheffler – We had people who worked under us at the farm that I directed at times. Councilman Clark – Hiring and firing? April Scheffler – I didn’t actually do that part, no. I did do the training of the two people who came in an helped us with taxes this year. Supervisor Morey – Tell us a little bit about your typical day. April Scheffler – I start out by opening the office, unlocking the doors, checking the dropbox. Do you want me to say what it was like when Colleen was here or when I’m here alone? Supervisor Morey – When you’re here alone. Town Board Meeting Page 3 April 15, 2002 April Scheffler – I usually pick up the mail, get through that the first thing; get it handed out and take care of whatever needs to be taken care of: the bills, get them filed, the dog licenses, whatever else comes in the mail, just take care of that. There’s always other things to work on, something for George would be building permits to do or letters to write, people constantly coming in, phone calls from people from banks asking for tax information, questions on the dog census, complaints, this and that. There are a lot of dog licenses coming in. People come in for marriage licenses. Just a lot of different things that people come in for or call for. Then there’s also, yesterday I ran the reminders for the tax notices and today I got them out. Supervisor Morey – It’s very seasonable isn’t it? January and February is all taxes and this time of year is fishing licenses? April Scheffler – Yes, I’m getting a lot of fishing licenses. Marriage licenses, you have more of them this time of year too, although we had a lot last fall for some reason. Basically, all the things that are on the resume are things that we do all the time. Councilman Scheffler – Do you like it when it’s hectic or…? April Scheffler – I like it when I’m busy. Councilman Scheffler – Do you like it by yourself or when somebody’s there helping you? April Scheffler – It’s better when somebody’s helping especially when you are working on a project, like the minutes for instance. You know, you just get in the middle of typing and following the whole thing and you have to answer the phone or wait on somebody and then you go back and it’s what were they talking about and back up the tape and get going again. Sometimes that’s why it takes so long to get your minutes. You know, you just can’t concentrate to get that done. Councilman Randall – Kind of along those same lines…..It was a good resume, by the way. I think the first thing that popped into my mind is the need for a deputy clerk on a full time basis. From what you listed as duties that you now perform do you feel this is warranted and if so, why? April Scheffler – Yes I do. I think that’s something that Colleen has said for several years. There is more and more happening all the time. There’s more people, there’s more regulations, there’s more things coming up that we need to do, and there’s more things with zoning and planning that are happening. With the deputy needing to do all three jobs you kind of run out of time sometimes. Councilman Sovocool – Do you think you should have a fulltime deputy? April Scheffler – A fulltime deputy in the Clerk’s office you mean? And not doing zoning and planning at all? Councilman Sovocool – I mean the two, planning and the Clerk’s office. Supervisor Morey – He means your job, what you have right now, the planning, the ZBA, the administrative work for the Supervisor, that sort of thing. Is that full time or do you think it’s a fulltime job? Town Board Meeting Page 4 April 15, 2002 April Scheffler – No, it’s full. The three combined are considered fulltime. Supervisor Morey – Have you thought about advertising? What are your feelings? April Scheffler – I’ve talked to a few people who have mentioned that they might be interested but I need to sit down and really talk to them. If they are not people that I think can do the job or I think I can work with, then I guess we would have to advertise. Councilman Randall – I’m kind of curious. The other night you talking about the DECALS system and you kind of expressed a concern about maybe somebody not getting a doe permit and coming over the counter. Do you really feel that is a viable threat and what do you think needs to be done to address that? April Scheffler – Well, hopefully that would never happen. The same as what Peg deals with over there, hopefully nothing is ever going to happen. But it just seems like there are more and more people out there that are walking on the edge and you hear about these things all over the place. Councilman Randall – Do you think we need to address it as a Town? April Scheffler – I don’t feel like it at this point. I hope it never comes to that. I hope we never have to have some sort of a shield up there that we have to talk to people through because it is public servants, it’s being with the public, it’s being close to the public. That’s what the job is about and I would hope we would never have to do that. They never thought they would have to do that at Children and Family Services and places like that but it happened there. Somebody went in there and shot the place up. People are angry and especially if they put us in a position where we have to say, well, you can’t have this because you have a felony or you’re behind on your support payments, or whatever. Supervisor Morey – You could always say something like the computer just went down and go get it at the drug store or something like that. Councilman Scheffler – They should give you some training. April Scheffler – If it comes to that I think probably they will; hopefully they will work that system out. It seems like there are so many things that are becoming more and more connected. Everybody’s number is connected somehow. Councilman Randall – A couple more things. There is an obvious rift between the Town Clerk’s Office and the Town Bookkeeper. Do you feel that there’s a rift and what do you think we can do about that? Because I think that it inhibits the whole Town in some ways. April Scheffler – Well, there is a rift, I guess. I personally don’t feel that it inhibits my ability to work with her on a business level. If I have to discuss something with her, I can discuss it with her and I hope that she can do the same thing. I think she can. We have in the past. It would be nice to have a little more communication between our offices, to be able to say we need this and expect to get it or she can call us and say she needs something and expect to get it. I don’t have any problem with that. Town Board Meeting Page 5 April 15, 2002 Councilman Randall – What do you think we should do to rectify some of that? Councilman Scheffler – Any ideas to make it better? April Scheffler – I’m not sure how to answer that. I guess you all know that we have personal opinions of the whole situation of someone working out of our township and our records being out of our township and our equipment being out of our township and sometimes our office having to pick up the loose ends because this person is not in the office that is provided for her here. That is a problem, but it’s not a problem that I can do anything about and I realize that. Whether I approve of it disapprove of it, I can disapprove of it but there is nothing that I can do about it and I accept that. But I will work with her the best I can and I will work with the situation the best I can. Councilman Randall – The other thing I was interested in was your ideas of increasing the communication and cooperation, especially around here. I mean, do you feel that there is a lack of communication and cooperation? April Scheffler – Sometimes. Councilman Randall – Again, I hate to put you on the spot, but what are your ideas for improving that I guess? April Scheffler – Come and say what you think even if it’s just to walk in and say, “I don’t know why you did that, it was totally stupid.” It’s okay to disagree. I think a lot of times everybody is afraid to disagree. I don’t think we should be afraid to disagree, that it’s okay to disagree. We don’t have to end up walking away in total agreement. We can still disagree and it’s okay. Supervisor Morey – April did come up with a very good suggestion last week when I talked with Colleen and April and that was that department heads sit down once a month for about an hour and I think we’re going to do something like that. Councilman Scheffler – I realize we’re not working in a perfect world but if things could improve we’d like to see them improve…..(recorder did not pick up)… cooperation and teamwork. April Scheffler – Well, I think the guys have felt left out of a lot of stuff. They don’t know what’s going on over on this side of the building and the only reason we know what’s going on is we chat with Rick sometimes or whatever. Supervisor Morey – Do they need to know what’s going on on this side of the building? April Scheffler – No, but they should know what’s going on in the Board meetings, especially if something is said about them. We have started giving them copies of the minutes and I think that just one little effort that we’ve made, to go out there and say here’s the minutes. Councilman Sovocool – They’re free to come to any Board meeting the want to and say anything they want at it. Town Board Meeting Page 6 April 15, 2002 Councilman Randall – Rick has a certain responsibility to them to take back that kind of information also, not that he always stays for the whole thing, but if they ask me I tell them. It’s part of the minutes. Councilman Scheffler – Not to get off the subject but they fear asking or saying anything for fear it will come back to them. Supervisor Morey – April, in your resume it says that when you started the dog licenses were in a shambles, somewhere around 1997, also that many of the forms, for Planning and Zoning especially, we very old. It said that many times they were fuzzy and many contained letterhead with officers who had not been here for many years. Is there any other record management that we should know that needs to be addressed? April Scheffler – Well, I did get the dogs straightened out. Records management in general. They did do an inventory, it was when my daughter was summer youth worker, so it had to be at least 10 years ago. That is totally outdated now. So, we would have to start with a new inventory, see what we have, do a needs assessment, talk to the people at SARA, maybe apply for some grants. I know that there’s a lot of things that need to be taken care of. Councilman Randall – One thing that I’d like to see is an inventory done each year or some time of the equipment that we have here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that. April Scheffler – That Liz should have, an equipment inventory. Councilman Randall – It would be nice on building and grounds for both this side and that side, not just for here. April Scheffler – She should have it in her computer with everything numbered and categorized. She has printed one out before, or a partial one anyways, when we were doing something. But I think she has that on her computer. Supervisor Morey – April, what would you change? April Scheffler – Not an awful lot. Colleen taught me how to run the office and we think a lot alike on the way we do things so the basic things would remain quite a bit the same. Some things would change, probably more computerized things, more things in the computer, some of the filing systems. She knew where everything is and I don’t because they are not alphabetized and I have to look 20 minutes sometimes before I find what I’m looking for. If they were alphabetized I could just find it. So, that’s one of the things, organizational type things. Councilman Sovocool – Summer help could help you do that? April Scheffler – Maybe, yes. Supervisor Morey – Would it be helpful to do an audit for you so you could start off fresh? April Scheffler – You mean a monetary one or what? Supervisor Morey – Comptroller’s audit. Town Board Meeting Page 7 April 15, 2002 April Scheffler – I don’t think so. I don’t see any problems or anything that would warrant that. Colleen was always very thorough, very adamant that everything be correct and done the way it should be done. I don’t see any problems there that would warrant one unless everyone else would feel better about that. Supervisor Morey – When you were asked what you would change I was hoping you would say you would rip out the rug. April Scheffler – I would love to do that. I’d like to paint my office too, or wallpaper it. Supervisor Morey – Well, you can remove the rug any time you want. April Scheffler – Yes, but, can I put another one down? Supervisor Morey – No, I mean the rug on the wall. April Scheffler – Oh, that one. Councilman Randall – I’m going to ask a quick question. What do you feel is fair as far as money? I don’t know what you’re after, so. April Scheffler – Well, I would of course like to have the going wage. Councilman Randall – There’s a lot of ways of looking at the going wage. April Scheffler – I mean the wage that was set for the position. Councilman Randall – Colleen’s going wage? Is that what your saying? April Scheffler – Yes. Supervisor Morey – Is that negotiable? April Scheffler – Possibly. Councilman Clark – I’ve just got one question. You have a dog that comes to work with you every day? April Scheffler – He hasn’t been lately. Councilman Clark – You don’t any more or what? April Scheffler – I haven’t decided whether to bring him back or not. Councilman Clark – I’d like to say I’ve had some questions about it, pros and cons on whether we need to have a dog in the Clerk’s office or not. I just wondered if it was something that was going to be ongoing here. April Scheffler – Well, I was going to ask how you guys felt about it. Town Board Meeting Page 8 April 15, 2002 Councilman Clark – My opinion, I’m not speaking for them, is it’s just not necessary to be in the Clerk’s office during the workday. But that’s just my opinion. Councilman Sovocool – I think everything’s been asked that I was going to. I do think we need better communications and better getting along with people who do work here, whether that be the bookkeeper, Planning Board members or Highway Superintendent or whatever. Supervisor Morey – Two questions, April, why should we hire you? April Scheffler – Because I’m qualified and I’ll do my best to do a good job for you. Supervisor Morey – Last question. What can we do to make it easier for you? April Scheffler – Let me hire somebody and get on with the work. Supervisor Morey – Basically, what we’re looking for is a team player and we wanted you to be honest with us. We want you to treat us just the way you would want to be treated. I think of we have open conversations we not going to run into any problems. Motion was made by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to go into Executive Session at 7:35 PM. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey Motion was made by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Randall, to reconvene Regular Session at 7:45 PM Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey Supervisor Morey - Let the record show that no decision was made. April, we are going to adjourn until tomorrow night and we are going to make a motion to accept you as Town Clerk. Councilman Scheffler – Interim Town Clerk. Supervisor Morey – Interim Town Clerk, at a salary of $20,500.00. Is that all right? April Scheffler – No, it’s not. Board Members indicated that Supervisor Morey had misspoke. Supervisor Morey – Oh, I’m sorry, $25,000.00. April Scheffler – I really don’t find that very acceptable. Supervisor Morey – All right, well, do you want to think about it till tomorrow? April Scheffler – Would you consider the three month and six month raise like you’ve down for the highway employees? Supervisor Morey – How much would that be? April Scheffler – Well, the last one was about $1,000 at three months and six months. Town Board Meeting Page 9 April 15, 2002 Supervisor Morey - $1,000 total or $1,000 each time? April Scheffler - $1,000 a year. Supervisor Morey – So, that would be $500 at three months and $500 the next three months? Say it again. April Scheffler – The last highway employee that was hired got a $1,000 raise at three months and a $1,000 raise at six months. 50 cents. If you get a 50-cent raise it amounts to $1,040 on a 40-hour week. Councilman Sovocool – This $25,000 is giving you what, about a $7,000 a year raise from what you’re getting now? April Scheffler – What I am now is a Deputy. What I will be is a Town Clerk. Councilman Sovocool – Yeah but that salary that Colleen is getting she accumulated over 20 some years. April Scheffler – That’s true but it has only gone up to keep pace with the cost of living. She’s never had any great raises. I also feel that a Town Clerk position should be a higher-level position and a higher paid position than your office workers. Councilman Sovocool – It will be. April Scheffler – May I present my position? As I just said, I feel that the Town Clerk position is a higher-level position than the office workers, do you agree with that? Supervisor Morey – What do you mean by office workers? April Scheffler – Office workers, deputy clerk, court clerk, bookkeeper, office workers. Is that agreeable that it is an administrative type position? Supervisor Morey – Yes. April Scheffler – And for a way to compare different wages do you feel that it is unreasonable to assume that a Town Clerk is going to work 40 hours a week? Supervisor Morey – We can not say that a Town Clerk, what her hours are going to be. April Scheffler – I know that, but do you think that is a reasonable number to use as a comparison? Supervisor Morey – I say again, we have no right to say how many hours he or she will work. April Scheffler – I’m not asking you to say that. We have to have a way to compare. I assume that I going to work at least 40 hours a week. Does that sound unreasonable? Supervisor Morey – No it doesn’t. Town Board Meeting Page 10 April 15, 2002 April Scheffler – At Colleen’s wage right now, that wage figures out to $14.40 an hour. Your highest paid office worker earns $14.22 an hour. That is 26 cents difference and that’s only because you gave her a 1 ½% bonus, which amounted to $426. Supervisor Morey – The bonus was for the five-year increment. April Scheffler – No, the Town Clerk, you gave her a 1 ½% bonus. Everyone else got a 4 ½% raise and Colleen got a 6% raise. At $29,000 that wage would figure out to $13.94, which is 28 cents less than the highest paid office worker. You’re talking about $25,000? That’s $2.20 less than the highest paid office worker. I don’t think that’s right for this job. Supervisor Morey – Her position is presented to the Board. What do they think? Councilman Clark – Who is the highest paid office worker? Tell me again who that includes. April Scheffler – The highest paid office worker is the bookkeeper. If she were working a 40- hour week she would earn $29,578. She doesn’t work a 40-hour week but to compare that to an assumed 40-hour week for the Town Clerk. Councilman Clark – Who’s next? April Scheffler – The Court Clerk, $11.04. Then the Deputy Clerk. Supervisor Morey – April, one question. If in three months you wanted a $1000 raise and in another three months you want another $1000 raise, what’s the criteria for that raise, just give it to you? April Scheffler – What was the criteria for the highway? Supervisor Morey – He had responsibility. Councilman Scheffler – Rick’s specs, whatever they were. April Scheffler – Well, he had to do his job well, right? He had to perform his job. Councilman Scheffler – That’s something that we can’t evaluate once you’re appointed to the job either in relation to the job you do as the Town Clerk. April Scheffler – That’s true. Councilman Scheffler – This is kind of a weird set-up because you’re only going to be working for us for like this much of a millisecond. You’ll basically be an elected official only you’re not an elected official until once you’re elected in the fall. You’re appointed, so you’re kind of like hired, but you’re not. So, we’re in a tough place. April Scheffler – Well, are you considering raising the pay back up to a more respectable level at election time or budget time for the elected official? Councilman Scheffler – What we’ve done in the past is generally not start a new person, like Glenn when he came in here green, we didn’t start him at the base scale, or Rick. Town Board Meeting Page 11 April 15, 2002 April Scheffler – Rick’s went right back up and above. And at no time did he earn less than his highest paid highway employee. Even when it was lowered, he did not earn less. Supervisor Morey – But April, you are not going to be making less than your deputy clerk is going to make. The bookkeeper is my employee and she reports directly to me. April Scheffler – She’s still an office employee. Supervisor Morey – But separate, okay? Councilman Sovocool – It’s separate from the Clerk’s Office. April Scheffler – I realize it’s separate, but it’s still an office employee. Are you lowering the judge’s salary, the newly appointed one? Supervisor Morey – No, he’s only going to be here until November, and then we’ll lower that. April Scheffler – You didn’t for Dewey, when he came on. The wage wasn’t lowered. Supervisor Morey – I had nothing to do with that, okay? Councilman Scheffler – There’s a different law on that too, that you can’t lower the salary of the judge. They’ve got different laws. You can’t lower the salary of a judge for some reason. Other members thought there was something about that. Supervisor Morey – Your question is, no we did not……..(tape did not pick up what was said)….the situation is that we know you’re going to go on, we expect you to go on. You’re the type of person who will go beyond the six months to election time. April Scheffler – Well, I plan on it but if I can’t earn enough money here I’ll have to go somewhere else. Supervisor Morey – We’re not here making money. Councilman Sovocool – You will be making more money than you are now and you’ll be working the same hours. April Scheffler – I’ll be working all kinds of hours and I’ll be taking stuff home with me and going to meetings. I’ll be doing a lot more than I am now. Councilman Sovocool – And you’ll be getting a lot more money, right? April Scheffler – Not compared to what the job should pay. Supervisor Morey – I guess this isn’t a job you’re going to get rich by. You know that don’t you? It’s more volunteer than a salary. Town Board Meeting Page 12 April 15, 2002 April Scheffler – No, no, no, you guys are more volunteer than salary. This is a job. This is a career, same as Rick’s. Rick wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t put his salary back to where it should be, correct? Councilman Sovocool – I don’t know. I don’t know. Supervisor Morey – So, what would you’re criteria be for every three months? April Scheffler – What do you mean? Supervisor Morey – What kind of criteria could we use to raise your salary $1,000? April Scheffler – That I’ve done the job, I guess. Councilman Sovocool – Performance. Supervisor Morey – Any questions, comments? Councilman Randall – Is it possible to go back into executive session? I’m personally not comfortable discussing wage individually. This is a Board decision. MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Clark, to enter into Executive Session at 8:00 PM. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to return to Regular Session at 8:10 PM. The tape ran out at this point and was not noticed. Town Board offered $27,000 salary to April Scheffler and she indicated that that would be acceptable. At 8:15 PM Councilman Clark moved to adjourn the meeting until 7:00 PM on Tuesday, April 16, 2002, seconded by Councilman Sovocool. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler