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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-12-2004 TOWN OF GROTON – MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2004 AT 7:30 PM THE TOWN HALL, 101 CONGER BOULEVARD Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman Richard B. Gamel, Councilman Absent: Victoria Monty, Attorney for the Town Also present: A. D. Dawson, Rick Beals, Carl Maslen, Gary Coats, Liz Brennan, April Scheffler MOVED by Councilman Gamel, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the minutes of the August 10, 2004 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. General Fund Claim Numbers 253-297 of the in the amount of $20,761.44 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Clark, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Highway Fund Claim Numbers 176-202 of the in the amount of $56,221.56 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Gamel, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Monthly Reports: Elizabeth Brennan, Bookkeeper/Highway Clerk – Submitted her monthly report for the Board’s review and had a few budget transfers to have approved. There will probably be transfers in health insurance for the rest of the year. Town Board Minutes Page 2 October 12, 2004 RESOLUTION #92 – 2004 BUDGET TRANSFER – GENERAL FUND PART TOWN MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Clark Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby approve the following transfer of funds: General Fund – Part Town: From: Contingency B1990.4……………………… $216.30 To: Youth, Summer Help B7310.1…………….. 216.30 RESOLUITON #93 – 2004 BUDGET TRANSFER – HIGHWAY FUND PART TOWN MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Clark Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby approve the following transfer of funds: Highway Fund – Part Town: From: Retirement DB9010.8……………………. $1,945.78 To: Health Insurance DB9060.8……………….. 1,945.78 Gary Coats, Code Enforcement Officer – We issued 16 building permits for the month for a total of $233,000. Life Safety Inspections, I did three, one was fine and two need reinspection. We issued one Certificate of Occupancy. Orders to Remedy, we had one for a pool and a fence, one for a building permit and six for junk vehicles and one going to court later this month. We have resolved thirteen. Mr. Coats talked to the Board about the importance of record keeping for Life Safety Inspections and research he had done on this. He showed samples of new forms that he had ordered for use when doing the inspections to ensure documentation and proper record keeping. Richard C. Case, Jr., Highway Superintendent – Absent April L. Scheffler, Town Clerk/Tax Collector – Submitted her monthly report for the Board’s review. She had received a letter from Stonehedges Golf Course informing her of their intention to renew their liquor license. Consensus of the Board was that they had no objections to the renewal of the liquor license for the Stonehedges Golf Course. Town Board Minutes Page 3 October 12, 2004 A. D. Dawson and John Norman, Town Justices – Submitted their monthly reports for the Boards review. Justice Dawson – We attended the State Magistrates conference last week in Saratoga Springs. It was a good conference, a lot of good training. Peggy got installed as the president of the Magistrates Clerks Association. I was telling Glenn that there were like six people who gave speeches that night and she was the most on the button with her speech. It was the best speech that I heard. I was really impressed with her; she did a good job. rd Supervisor Morey – To add on, Peg wrote me a note on September 23 inviting us to the th banquet but it was October 5. Councilman Sovocool – Little late now. Supervisor Morey – No, it was on time. Donald Scheffler, as Recreation Coordinator – We met last Tuesday and we’re working on our Winterfest for February. We’re also continuing to sponsor, occasionally, music at Center Village Court and we’re going to start running some ads in the paper because that is open to the public and I think we might be able to get more people to come for it. They have a great place to do it and everybody enjoys it. Rick Beals, Public Accountant – Handed out draft copies of the Year 2003 audit. I will go over a summary of the audit report and kind of summarize what it means and what it says and then see if you have any questions. The independent auditor’s report is on page one and that’s an unqualified, clean opinion of your financial statements and what that says is that your financial statements present fairly your results of operations and your financial position for the year that ended in conformity with the kind of principals generally accepted in the United States of America. So, that’s a good, clean, unqualified audit opinion. The next page, page 2, is your combined balance sheets for all your funds; your governmental fund types, your general funds, and special funds; you have fiduciary funds, general fixed asset and general long term debt funds. So, if you look in your total columns, you’ve got total columns for 2003 and we also have comparative columns for 2002. That kind of helps you see how things changed from one year to the next. So, your total assets for the year 2003 were 4.4 million, 4,409,000 to be exact compared to 4,183,00 last year. So, total assets went up by about $225,000. The biggest increase in your assets was in your cash. Cash actually went up by about $210,000 for the year, so that’s a good thing. Liabilities, on the other hand, also went up but they only went up by about $8,000. So, since assets went up a lot more than liabilities, your net assets, your fund balances, which is the difference between your assets and liabilities went up by about $217,000. You can see your total fund balance reserved was $3,038,873 compared to $2,954,000 last year and also your unreserved fund balances went up to $1,086,000 from $953,000. So, your total fund balances increased by $270,000. That’s quite an increase. Also, right now I’m going to direct your attention to page 16. Page 16 has more detailed information about your general fund balance sheet. You can see on page 2, you have a column for the general fund and this is detail of what’s in the general fund, your town wide and your part town assets and liabilities in fund balances. So, you can see total assets for town wide 521,000, for part town 81,745 for a total of 602,980, which agrees with your total on page 2 for your general fund. So, this is a detailed listing of all your assets, liabilities and fund balances for the general fund broken down between town wide and part town. Going to page three, combined statement of revenues, expenditures Town Board Minutes Page 4 October 12, 2004 and changes in all governmental fund types. This is a listing of all your revenues and expenditures in the general and special revenue funds during year and also a total column and that’s compared to 2002 so you can see the increase or decrease during the year. You’ll see that your total revenues were 1,685,000 for the year compared to 1,604,000 last year. An increase of roughly 80,000. There were various things that increased and decreased during the year but the biggest items that increased were property taxes, increased by about 40,000; use of money and property decreased by about, which is probably your interest revenue, decreased by about 60,000; State aid increased by about 85,000; so a total increase in revenues by about 80,000. Expenditures also increased from one year to the next. Total expenditures were 1,471,000 compared to 1,450,000 from the year before with an increase of only about 21,000 so expenditures really didn’t increase that much. So, as a result your excess revenues over expenditures increased during the year. They were almost 214,000 for this year compared to 154,000 last year, so that’s an increase of about 59,000. So that’s a sizable increase and your revenues income statement looks pretty good. Also if you turn to page 17, you have detailed summations for the general fund revenues and expenditures broken out between town wide and part town and also, you have budget compared to actual. So, you can see town wide actual revenues for the year were 447,000. Part town actual revenues for the year were 110,000 for a total general fund, part town plus town wide revenues of 559,647, which agrees with the amount on page 3 for your general fund revenue. Same thing with your expenditures. The total expenditures in town wide of 399,000 and your total expenditures in part town actual, 109,000 for a total general fund expenditures of 509,000, which agrees with the amount on page 3. So, again, page 17 is more detail of your revenues and expenditures broken out between town wide and part town. So, the year was very good. Page 4 is you general fund and special revenues actual revenues and expenditures compared to budget. One thing that I want to point out on this page, in your general fund, your budget column, you actually appropriated fund balance of 58, 147. In other words, you thought you were going to use fund balance of 58,147 in the general fund but you actually ended up with an excess of revenues over expenditures by 50,000. So, not only did you not only use any fund balance, you increased the fund balance. So, that was a positive increase. Supervisor Morey – And where’s this? What is it? Rick Beals – Your actual increase in revenues over expenditures for the year was 50,628. So, your actual result was over 100,000 better than what you budgeted. So, that was very positive. The same thing with the special revenue, even more so in the special revenue fund. You actually had appropriated fund balance from the special revenue fund of 175,000, then in your actual column, your actual revenues exceeded your expenditures by 137,000. That’s a positive difference there, not only did you not use your fund balance, you had excess funds so your actual results were like 300,000 better than what you budgeted in your special revenue funds. So, again, you had great year. The budget compared to actual really tells a lot there. So, that was terrific. The next section of your financial statements are some notes. They’re really designed to give the reader more information about the financial statements themselves. They’re pretty similar from year to year because the requirements are the same each year. (Mr. Beals briefly described each page having to do with this section.) One thing I do want to mention to you is your other receivables. That’s your rehab loan that you have outstanding and you’ve had trouble collecting over the years and I think you’re starting legal action against the organization. If that is deemed uncollectable, then you are going to want to consider writing that off. I don’t know what’s going to happen during this year but you do want to pay attention to that and at some point it’s probably going to be considered worthless. Hopefully you’re going to be able to get something out of that but if it is considered worthless at some point, we do have to write that Town Board Minutes Page 5 October 12, 2004 loan off. I think it’s too early to do that. We’ll have to see what happens. One page 13 is the employees retirement system with the New York State Retirement System that you have. What we’ve seen with various towns and villages throughout this area is the actual required contributions for the year have gone sky-high and I’m sure for 2004, they’re going to be even higher. As you can see for 2003 you paid 24,000 into this system compared to the small amounts that you paid for 2002 and 2001. Supervisor Morey – We’re not paying it in 2004. They’re deferring it to 2005. Rick Beals – Okay, but… Supervisor Morey – We have accrued it. Rick Beals – Yes, you have accrued it. I think they’re just giving you some cushion, whatever that means. So, you can see the retirement contribution is way up. On page 14 is your long-term debt, your statutory bonds. The balance at the end of the year was $81,000 and that’s to be paid off over 2005, 2004, and 2006. Then there’s your fund equity reserves, what you have set aside for encumbrances, unemployment reserve, excess dog revenues, etc. (Mr. Beals described the remaining pages, some of which had already been covered and others that simply contained more detail of previous pages.) Are there any questions? I will say that your books and records are in great shape, as usual. Liz is doing a super job. All I can say is keep up the good work. The financial statements look super. Supervisor Morey – Thank you. What about the Court? Rick Beals – Also, we looked at the Town Court records. We have our report on that. The second paragraph tells you what the purpose of looking at the records was. The purpose was to determine whether the Town Justice Court was properly collecting and recording bail, fines and other charges as well as recording and remitting funds to the State in an accurate and timely manner. All the records that we looked at from Peg Palmer were in perfect shape and we found no exceptions. So, Peg is also doing a terrific job. I always say if it’s not broke don’t fix it. Keep up the good work. These are drafts and I can give you as many final copies as you want. Supervisor Morey – It’s up to you; it’s your audit, guys. RESOLUTION #94 – ACCEPT DRAFT AUDIT MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby accept the draft audit as presented by Rick Beals. RESOLUTION #95 – APPROVE CONTRACT WITH NYSEG SOLUTION MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey Town Board Minutes Page 6 October 12, 2004 RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby approve the contract with NYSEG Solutions for natural gas delivery. Supervisor Morey – April, I’ll get this to you tomorrow after I make some copies. Everybody got a copy of a letter from Joe Graham. Joe is the president of the McLean Community Council. A conversation came up in several council meetings that Cassavant Elementary School doesn’t have any speed limit signs. So, what I’d like to do is write a letter to the State Highway Department requesting that they put speed limit zones around Cassavant Elementary School. A letter has also gone to the Town of Dryden. Clerk Scheffler – We have a special form for that. More discussion took place on the subject. RESOLUTION #96 – REQUEST LOWER SPEED LIMIT FOR CASSAVANT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ZONE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey WHEREAS, the residents of the Hamlet of McLean, through the McLean Community Council have voiced their concerns that there is not a school speed zone around the Cassavant Elementary School and WHEREAS, the Town Board of the Town of Groton, deeming that the safety of the elementary children attending this school is of utmost importance, has considered the issue and believes that the best interest of the public would be greatly served by lowering the speed limit on the roads adjacent to the school to less than the posted 35 miles per hour. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT REOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Groton does hereby request that the County of Tompkins and of the State of New York move to create a school zone having an appropriately lower speed limit on School Street and Peruville Road, adjacent to the Cassavant Elementary School, in the Hamlet of McLean, Town of Groton. RESOLUTION #97 – CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICE TO ATTEND CONFERENCE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Clark Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED , that the Town Board does hereby approve expenses for Gary Coats, Code Enforcement Officer, to attend a New York State Building Officials Conference in Albany, October 18-20, 2004 for a cost of $441.00 plus mileage. Supervisor Morey – Okay, discussion on 2005 Tentative Budget. Any discussion? Town Board Minutes Page 7 October 12, 2004 Clerk Scheffler – I have one question. You expanded the cleaner job to cleaning and maintenance and budgeted less money. Supervisor Morey – I think it’s covered under Rick’s now. Clerk Scheffler – For part of it or what? Supervisor Morey – Yes, because he’s part time, part time. Clerk Scheffler – So, the maintenance is coming out of highway rather than general? Supervisor Morey – Yes. What’s the matter, I make a mistake? Clerk Scheffler – I thought it was maintenance of the whole building. Supervisor Morey – Yes, it is. Clerk Scheffler – So, why is it highway? Supervisor Morey – Because that’s the department now. Rick is supposed to take care of our maintenance. Clerk Scheffler – Yes, I understand that he is overseeing it but building maintenance is general. Supervisor Morey – No, he takes care of the maintenance of the building so the maintenance work is run out of the garage. Clerk Scheffler – Okay, but it makes no sense to me. Supervisor Morey – It’s just like we’re going to get rid of the 26,000 bucks this year too, for you. If not, action on Tentative Fiscal Year 2005 Budget…. Councilman Sovocool – Didn’t we decide to go with 3.5 for everybody? Supervisor Morey – Yes. Councilman Sovocool – You didn’t do that. Supervisor Morey – For who? Councilman Sovocool – The Judges. Supervisor Morey – Oh, no, we discussed that, Lewie, and said we were going to do the same thing to get them together and wouldn’t have a difference between high and low. We already discussed that and we already agreed upon that, that we were going to do that, so we don’t ever have to worry about…….. Councilman Sovocool – We didn’t agree on it, did we? Supervisor Morey – We did. Town Board Minutes Page 8 October 12, 2004 Councilman Scheffler – I don’t remember. I thought we were going to go 3 ½ on everybody. Supervisor Morey - We always said that there is no senior or junior judge and we didn’t want to get involved with that from now on and we’re going to put it down. Councilman Sovocool – I know, we went through that, but then I thought we decided we were going 3.5 with everybody. Supervisor Morey – Yeah, except that one issue, that one item. Councilman Sovocool – I missed that one exception. If it’s all right with the rest, it’s all right with me. Councilman Scheffler – I don’t remember now, but I know it was discussed. Councilman Gamel – I’m unsure where we left it. I believe you said you were going to put it in and you were going to present it. Supervisor Morey – And we’re presenting it right now. Councilman Clark – We’re presenting it right now. Supervisor Morey – If not can we take an action on the Fiscal Year 2005 Budget? Discussion took place on when to hold the Public Hearing. RESOLUTION #98 – PUBLIC HEARING ON 2005 PRELIMINARY BUDGET MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED , that the Town Board does hereby set a Public Hearing on the Fiscal Year 2005 Preliminary Budget for Tuesday, October 26, 2004 at 7:00 PM Supervisor Morey – In your packets this month you got letters from the Association of Towns and Senator Seward about supporting the restoration of traffic fine revenue. I’d like to make a resolution supporting the restoration of the traffic fine revenue. Dewey, do you have anything to add to it? Justice Dawson – No. RESOLUTION #99 – SUPPORT OF RESTORATION OF TRAFFIC FINE REVENUE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey Town Board Minutes Page 9 October 12, 2004 WHEREAS, Vehicle and traffic Law, Section 1803 governs the disposition of fines and penalties collected in connection with convictions pursuant to the Vehicle and Traffic Law; and WHEREAS , Chapter 56 of the Laws of 2004, effective August 20, 2004, changed the distribution of the fines taking them away from municipalities and placing them in the State Treasury, and WHEREAS, this change in the fine and penalties distribution formula will result in a loss to local taxpayers of more than 4200 million in fine monies, monies which have historically been used to fund justice court operations; and WHEREAS, the Town of Groton will likely lose anticipated fine revenues; and WHEREAS, this State Budget provision with its immediate effective date will result in NOW, significant 2004 deficits and will negatively impact town property tax rates for 2005; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town of Groton calls for a restoration of the original fine distribution AND formula in order to provide towns with necessary revenues to fund justice court operations; BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Town of Groton urges the passage of legislation introduced by Senator Bonacic (S.7757) and Assemblyman Cahill which amends the Vehicle and Traffic Law to restore AND BE IT FURTHER this source of revenue to local governments; RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to Governor George E. Patiaki; Joseph L. Bruno, Majority Leader of the Senate; Sheldon Silver, Speaker of the Assembly; Senator Elizabeth Little, Chair of the Local Government Committee; Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, Chair of the Local Government Committee; Senator Owen Johnson, Chair of the Finance Committee; Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell, Jr., Chair of the Ways and Means Committee; Senator John A. DeFrancisco, Chair of the Judiciary Committee; Assemblywoman Helene E. Weinstein, Chair of the Judiciary Committee, Senator James L. Seward and Assemblywoman Barbara S. Lifton. RESOLUTION #100 – APPROVE CONTRACT WITH GADABOUT TRANSPORTAION SERVICES MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby approve the 2004 Contract with Gadabout Transportation Services in the amount of $4,370.00. Supervisor Morey – In your packets this month, also, you got a copy of the request, petition, that was given to us for the Groton Fire District to levy the fire protection tax using the Agricultural Assessed Evaluation. You also got a memorandum from the Department of Town Board Minutes Page 10 October 12, 2004 Assessment on the effect that it would have on the Town of Groton if we did this and also a sample resolution what we want to do. I’d like to make the resolution next month, but when would you like to make it effective? Or would you like to make it effective? Next year or 2006? Some more discussion took place on the subject. It would only effect the Groton Fire District, and not the McLean. Census was that the Board would like to have it in effect for the 2005 taxes. Announcements: Planning Board Meeting – Thursday, October 21, 7:30 PM Tompkins County Municipal Officials, October 26 Groton Business Association – Thursday, October 28 at the Groton Hotel, guest speaker Gary Smith from the school – November meeting will be joint with Rotary, guest speaker Barbara Lifton. Seminar with Tompkins County Planning on Ag & Markets Law and how it relates to local zoning – Monday, October 25, 7:30 PM in the Court Room. There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, immediately seconded by Councilman Clark. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler Town Clerk