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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-30-2003 Special TOWN OF GROTON MINUTES OF SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2003 AT 7:00PM Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman Absent: Duane T. Randall II, Councilman Victoria Monty, Town Attorney Also present: Donald N. Palmer, Frank Satterly, Dewey Dawson, April Scheffler Supervisor Morey – I guess April presents this to the Board, the Fiscal Year 2004 Town Budget. Clerk Scheffler – You all got your copies. Supervisor Morey – Any discussion on the fiscal budget, tentative fiscal budget? I’ll even take questions or comments from the public if you want to. Donald Palmer – I’d like to be able to address a few points when the time is right. Supervisor Morey – It would be the public meeting, but come on ahead. Mr. Palmer – You’d like me at the mike? Supervisor Morey – Sure, if you could please. Mr. Palmer – Okay. Well, basically I’m here tonight to ask the Board to at least look at some particular areas in the tentative budget before it is accepted as a preliminary budget and to look beyond the just the dollar and cents of the budget and the percentage of change but look at a couple of the human resource elements that enter into the equation. Most of the comments that I’ll be making tonight are going to deal with the justice category, which is the A1110 series. Peg is at the New York State Magistrates and Court Clerks Conference at Saratoga and she doesn’t know I’m here tonight so I’m kind of going out on a limb. But as I reviewed the budget I saw some things that I thought needed to be addressed and thought I would take the opportunity to at least present them for your consideration. You know, Peg was here and talked with you at the work session developing the budget and she felt pretty comfortable that the questions had been answered adequately and there didn’t appear to be any strong objections to anything but in Special Town Board Meeting Page 2 September 30, 2003 reviewing her copy of the budget she was quite taken back by some of the actions that were taken. And I guess I am going to try to address as I saw some of the concerns and see what can be done. Specifically, I guess I’d like to start looking at the compensation line for the (Court) Clerk. The requested amount for the position was $16,600 for the year and the amount that appears in the proposed budget is $15,500. The way I approach this is that it looks like a reduction of about 95 hours for the year and I think that’s where the issue seems to come up because Peg, when through the process of developing the budget, she had as best she could, come up with what she felt were honest numbers to represent what the need was for this year. She’s looking at about 27 hours a week to take care of the Town business and for some reason that’s been cut back. I guess I don’t know the reason for it and maybe somebody can help address that but she was quite upset about it quite frankly. It was sort of a slap in the face after all that she had been doing for this transition year; transition year phasing out of the Village st Court system April 1 and you know, that followed right after the death of Arland and the transition there. She had a brand new judge. She was a little bit offended by this whole thing. So, that’s my first point on the justice line. The second area deals with the contractual services and included in that is the training that the justices and the clerk are expected to undergo to meet the minimum requirements and ongoing credentials. Prior to this year, when Peg was working for the Village as well as the Town, she was able to attend two conferences a year, one sponsored by the Village in which virtually all her expenses were covered without any challenge and the Town had a cap of $600, which we all know doesn’t go very far these days when you go to a conference. But, none the less, it doesn’t look like there’s any increase in level of training which is something that I would expect to see, because you not only have a need for the Court Clerk to stay on top of things, but you have a new Justice that’s going to come on board in January and there’s mandatory training that he’s going to have to finish, whoever that is. I guess what I’m asking for, just kind of summarizes these two points, I’d like to see the salary line reinstated to the requested amount of $16,600, which is an $1,100 increase over what’s in the proposed line and I would suggest the contractual line services be increased by an amount of about $900, which would take in the additional training requirements. You’re looking at about a $2,000 increase in that department for those two items, which is going to have a nominal impact, if any, on the overall budget when you go to the calculation of the rate per thousand. Part of my justification for this is, and again Peg doesn’t know I’m here, but I think, you know, you have to put some credence to the fact that she’s put 30 years plus of service to the community and she’s well regarded in what she does both at the County level and at the State level. Next year she will start a term as president for two years of the Court Clerks Association of the State of New York, so obviously she’s well trained and she likes her job, she likes what she’s doing, and I think she’s good at it and I think if you get beyond just looking at the numbers part of it that there’s a human resource element that comes into this picture. If you try to keep people happy and recognize some of their accomplishments it’s a lot better than saying, well if she doesn’t like it, she can take a hike and you bring somebody else in because that’s a very expensive process as you all know if you’ve dealt with people in your career. When you recruit people and train people, it doesn’t happen over night. I just think this is a way that the Town Board can recognize some of her accomplishments over the year. The transition, I think this year of 2003, by phasing out the Village Court system and putting all the responsibility over on to the Town went very smoothly. There have been several comments to me by the Justices throughout the County who have been observing this process, the District Attorney’s Office who has contact with what’s going on. It’s been a very smooth process. If it were not, then you people here on the Board would be hearing a lot of bad repercussions and I don’t think any of that has happened. The third area that I think at least ought to be looked at and maybe you’ve already looked at it and discussed it. I don’t have a real vested interest in it, but when you look at the category of the personal services for the Judges themselves, in the 1110 category .11 and .12. If you look at the budget for ’03 you had a Special Town Board Meeting Page 3 September 30, 2003 budget for those two positions of $18,000. Keeping in mind also that the first three months of this year part of the workload was carried by the Village Court system. In the year of ’04 the combined two positions is $17,000 and these fellows, whoever they’re going to be, are expected to carry the full load and hit the road with their feet going. I just think maybe you should take a hard look at that thing because regardless of whether it’s the incumbent or the newly elected person, when the police call for an arraignment they’re not going to ask, you know, are you the junior judge or the senior judge, they’re going want someone to come down at 2 o’clock or 3 o’clock in the morning, whatever it might be, and handle the arraignment professionally. So, I think there’s some value in saying that probably those two positions should be pretty comparable in their pay scale and probably should be increased from what you’re showing here of $17,000 for the year of ’04, just my opinion. That concludes my comments on the justice area. Any questions before I move on to the other two? Supervisor Morey – You have two more things? Mr. Palmer – Two more, just comments for other categories other than in the Justice. Supervisor Morey – Well first of all we’re very thankful for Peg and what we did, they asked for a 3.5% increase. We gave her a 3.25% increase. But what the total hours of last, she got a raise and she’ll be paid per hour, okay? Mr. Palmer – That’s correct, but if you extrapolate and take that rate per hour…. Supervisor Morey – But what we used in the last time was what she worked last year and how many hours she did. It will still come up as a raise, just what she, pretty close to what she wanted. Mr. Palmer – Well, I don’t think so, Glenn. Supervisor Morey – Okay, I’ll check that out, Don, but I think we are correct. Mr. Palmer – I guess I…. Supervisor Morey – And also, just to point out, that we have taken out all of her expenses for this convention she went to this time, okay, because we knew how important it was to have her represent the Town of Groton as well as the professional club that she’s a member of. We certainly don’t want her to walk. We’re very supported of her. And basically, the Judges’ salary, they have all said publicly that they’re interested in public service and the money is secondary so we’re taking them for their word. Mr. Palmer – I can’t address that issue. I’m just looking at the numbers on that side. I haven’t talked to the individuals and it’s not my part to try to justify for them. I just looked at the numbers and it just looked like it’s inconsistent when you look between the two years. Supervisor Morey – Yeah, well. Go ahead, your second? Mr. Palmer – But I would ask that you take a look at the salary issue because … Supervisor Morey – I will. I prom….yes. Special Town Board Meeting Page 4 September 30, 2003 Mr. Palmer - ….when you look at the whole picture, you look at the rate per hour, it looks like there’s a reduction of about 95 hours. Supervisor Morey – And also the training and conferences, we gave the Judges exactly what they wanted in the budget. Mr. Palmer – I don’t know what the detail was line by line. Supervisor Morey – Okay. Mr. Palmer – The second item, I’ll just move on and make it a passing comment on my part, and that’s the Town Board salary, it looks as though there hasn’t been an increase requested for several years and it continues on to ’04. I realize that salary is not a major incentive for this position but I think you box yourself into a corner at some point if you don’t recognize some appreciation of the value of your time devoted to this function. And I guess the final question I have, which I haven’t been close enough to it, I just want to ask it in the form of a question at this point, is the debt service, which is in DA9720. I guess I’m not familiar with what that represents, what it is, where it is and the interest on it. Supervisor Morey – Say it again, DA what? Mr. Palmer – DA9720.6 and 7. Councilman Sovocool – Is that the grader? Councilman Scheffler – That’s the excavator. Councilman Sovocool – Or the excavator. Councilman Scheffler – Excavator payment. Mr. Palmer – What, you’re financing it through a……. Supervisor Morey – Yeah we’re, yes, it’s a municipal loan that we had to buy the excavator. The excavator that we had 4 years ago was basically on its last legs. It was 25 years old and we took a municipal loan out to pay for that over 5 years. It will be paid off next year. Mr. Palmer – So that’s paid to some loan company like…….. Supervisor Morey – Groton Bank. Mr. Palmer – Oh, it’s through the bank. Do you know what the interest rate on it is? Supervisor Morey – No, not off the top of my head. It did when we first did it. Mr. Palmer – Okay. Well, thank you for the opportunity for letting me speak here tonight. I don’t know what action needs to be taken or what action will be taken but I said what I wanted to say. Thank you. Supervisor Morey – Thanks, Don. Anyone else? Frank? Dewey? Rick? Special Town Board Meeting Page 5 September 30, 2003 Frank Satterly – Just a question. I do have to agree with Don because I was an elected official at one time. You can’t go forever without some kind of a, and I’ve said that in the Village, without some kind of a raise. But, just curious, this is the first time I’ve looked at this thing, percentage-wise for elected officials, like Town Clerk, Judges, are they all the same percentage rate? Supervisor Morey – Yes. Mr. Satterly - Okay. I didn’t know. Clerk Scheffler – Rick’s didn’t figure out that way. Supervisor Morey – We gave him exactly what he wanted. Clerk Scheffler – Oh. Supervisor Morey – All right. We were going to set a Public Hearing for next month but I think we’re going to hold off until November because there has been some additional requests too, so. As far as the Board’s salary and the Supervisor’s salary, we are committed to the customer, community service, and money is secondary here, so. There’s an awful lot of people out there hurting and we feel that pain, so, I appreciate that, your confidence though. Any other questions from the Board? Discussion? Rick, you want to say anything? All right, Louie? Don? April? Sheldon? Okay, take a motion to adjourn. Clerk Scheffler – Are you going to set your Public Hearing? th Supervisor Morey – Oh, no we’re not going to. We’ll do it October 14. So, it will probably be November so we can have discussion if there is anything. There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, at 7:17PM. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler Town Clerk