Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-10-2009 TOWN OF GROTON - MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2009 AT 7:30 PM THE TOWN HALL, 101 CONGER BOULEVARD Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Richard B. Gamel, Councilman Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman Victoria Monty, Attorney for the Town Also present: Rosemarie Tucker, Tyke Randall, John Spence, Donald Palmer, Jacalyn Spoon, John Norman, Elizabeth Brennan, April Scheffler. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the minutes of the February 10, 2009 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the minutes of the February 14, 2009 Work Session as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey Claim Numbers 55-88 of the General Fund in the amount of $39,496.28 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Gamel, seconded by Councilman Clark, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Claim Numbers 23-44 of the Highway Fund in the amount of$ 16,397.80 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. Supervisor Morey offered Privilege of the Floor. No one wished to speak. Town Board Minutes Page 2 March 10, 2009 RESOLUTION#09-024 -2008 BUDGET TRANSFERS MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED,that the Town Board hereby approves the following 2008 Budget Transfers General Fund- Town Wide: From: Contingency A1990.4 ....$593.04 Attorney, Miscellaneous A1420.41 409.96 To: Attorney A1420.4 1000.00 Monthly Reports: Elizabeth Brennan, Bookkeeper/Highway Clerk- Has finished the 2008 Annual Report Gary Coats, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. Richard C. Case,Jr., Highway Superintendent - Absent April L. Scheffler, Town Clerk/Tax Collector - Submitted monthly Town Clerk, Tax Collector and Country Acres Pet Services reports. Enumeration has started and they had been doing a lot of dog licenses. Total new licenses in all of 2008 were 131 and in the last three weeks they have issued 88 new licenses. Victoria Monty,Attorney for the Town - Had nothing to report. John Norman, Town Justice - He and Judge Dawson had submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. He nothing else to report. Councilman Donald Scheffler, as Recreation Coordinator - Winterfest was a success despite the snow shortage. They are signing up bands for the summer concert series and this month they are sponsoring two coach's clinics for the summer youth sports coaches. Duane Randall, County Legislature - Thanked everybody for their cards and concerns following his accident. His presentation of the Distinguished Youth Award will be coming up in April. Criteria are posted on the County website and if anyone knows of a deserving youth, they should make a recommendation. He had some concerns about the strategic reinvestment money for the County. The Town of Groton was not well represented in the application to the State, mostly because we have no "shovel ready" projects. He would like people to keep in mind that there still might be a window of opportunity if a project came up. Mr. Randall's committee assignments for the year are Facilities & Infrastructure and Health & Human Services both of which effect things in Groton. Boards he has been assigned to are the Community Action Board, TC3 Board and the Recreation Partnership Board. Mr. Randall told about a grant coming up this summer concerning green energy projects, which will hire and train youth for these projects. He feels that this is a growing field and will have a lot of opportunity. Town Board Minutes Page 3 March 10, 2009 PUBLIC HEARING- SMALL CITIES GRANT Supervisor Morey opened a public hearing on the Town's application for a Small Cities Grant. John Spence, from Better Housing for Tompkins County, explained that the grants used to be through the Office of Small Cities and is now Office of Community Renewal. This will be a re- application for the Town of Groton for a grant that did not get funded last year. All of the same documentation will be reused. Written evaluation of last year's application does not reveal any real faults but he has been working with other people who have a great deal of experience in these grants and they will review it to see it they should add anything else. The pre-application has been provided to the Town Clerk and will be available to people. Supervisor Morey closed the public hearing. RESOLUTION#09-025 - SET DATE FOR SECOND PUBLIC HEARING MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board set a second public hearing on the application for the Small Cities Grant for April 14, 2009 at 8:00 PM. RESOLUTION #09-026 - TOWN HISTORIAN TO ATTEND CONFERENCE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Clark Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the payment of expenses for the Town Historian, Rosemarie Tucker, to attend the Association of Public Historians of New York, April 26 -29, 2009 in Albany. Supervisor Morey introduced a proposed local law on waiving residency requirements for employees. Supervisor Morey - There has been a concern in the last couple weeks about hiring people from outside the Town of appointed positions. We found out that it is not just a judicial law, it's Town Law, throughout New York State. So, that means that people we appoint to positions, if they are not Town residents, they shouldn't be working here. April canvassed the rest of the Towns and what did you find? Clerk Scheffler -No one else seems to know about these laws either. I went to a clerks meeting and asked the question, how many people had nonresident court clerks, code enforcement officers or others and just about everyone said that theirs were nonresidents. I asked if they knew that there was a law saying that they had to be residents and no one was aware of it. Apparently nobody worries about it unless it's brought to their attention. Supervisor Morey - Which it was. So, I think our intent was to advertise locally and if nobody can fulfill that position then we go to surrounding areas, either Tompkins County or adjoining Town Board Minutes Page 4 March 10, 2009 counties. I asked Victoria to write up a law for us. In the fourth paragraph there's mention of Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County Attorney Monty - I obtained this from the Association of Towns and I filled in the blanks and changed the wording just a little bit. I think this is in the form it should be because the Town of Greenburgh, which is in Westchester County, passed a local law which resulted in the Attorney General issuing an opinion confirming that because that law was passed, it rendered Public Officers Law a special law, and it needs to be there for qualification. Supervisor Morey- Do we need a local law or can we do this by resolution? Attorney Monty - You need a local law. Councilman Sovocool - Now, if we advertise and somebody from the Town of Groton puts an application in, we can hire them. If nobody from the Town of Groton does it, we can hire from outside the Town. Supervisor Morey- Well, if the people are qualified within the Town. Councilman Sovocool - All right, I think it ought to state, if they're qualified within the Town Supervisor Morey - It won't say that in the law. No. Basically we get back to appointed positions; they serve at the pleasure of whoever appointed them. We can't really tell April about the Deputy; we can't tell Rick about his Deputy; you can't tell anything about the bookkeeper; and then there are the judges too. Councilman Sovocool - But we have to approve them. Supervisor Morey - My intent would be to advertise within Groton and if there's no one there who's qualified, we'd have to go outside. When Liz was hired many years ago, that was advertised. When Gary was hired, it was advertised. April has advertised for her Deputy position too. Councilman Scheffler - It should be advertised and preference given to local people first who are qualified. Supervisor Morey - I agree with you. All this law says is you can hire someone from outside, but it doesn't say if somebody is not qualified within the Town. Councilman Sovocool - If somebody is qualified within the Town, I think we should hire them. If they're not,yes, we hire outside. Councilman Scheffler-We can't word it that way? Councilman Gamel - I think you're on two different things here. You're saying that that's the way it should be, but he's saying that's not the way it's going to be. It's going to be based on the judgment of whoever is making the decision. Town Board Minutes Page 5 March 10, 2009 Clerk Scheffler - It's like my appointment for Deputy. You don't approve my appointment; you agree to pay them, basically. You set the salary. A couple councilmen asked if that was correct and Attorney Monty confirmed that was. Clerk Scheffler - You usually do approve the appointment for the minutes but technically you don't approve the appointment but you do approve the salary. Supervisor Morey - If a person comes in and there's nobody advertised locally we can set the salary at minimum wage. Judge Norman - Run that by me again. Supervisor Morey - If we didn't like who was being appointed, we have the right to set the salary, and that salary could be minimum wage. There's no jurisdiction that says we have to pay the same salary as the last person who served in that position. Councilman Scheffler - So it's still up to the department head and we can't specify who they hire. Supervisor Morey- Correct. Clerk Scheffler - Technically, Town Law still states that I can appoint up to three deputies and if you choose to not pay them, they have to work for nothing. That's what the law still says. It's a hold-over from when the clerk used to be a man and would appoint his wife to be the deputy and usually she didn't get paid anything. Jackie Spoon - You could go ahead and appoint somebody and only give them some benefits if you wanted to use that old law Supervisor Morey - I don't knowThat would be interesting. I doubt very much that we'll ever find somebody to work for nothing. RESOLUTION#09-027- PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED LOCAL LAW#1 FOR 2009 MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby sets a Public Hearing on Proposed Local Law #1 for the Year 2009 entitled A Local Law to Establish the Residency Requirements For All Appointed Public Offices of the Town of Groton, for Tuesday, April 14, 2009 immediately following the Public Hearing on the Small Cities Grant. Town Board Minutes Page 6 March 10, 2009 Work Sessions for Code Review were set for Tuesday, March 24 and Tuesday, March 31 at 6:00PM. Announcements: ➢ Zoning Board of Appeals, March 25, 2009, 7:00 PM ➢ Planning Board, March 19, 2009, 7:30 PM ➢ McLean Community Council, March 11, 2009, 7:30PM ➢ Agricultural Day, March 26, 2009 at 10:00 AM ➢ Assessment Review will be in May RESOLUTION #09-028 -APPOINT LOCAL BOARD OF ASSESSMENT REVIEW MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby appoints the following people to the Local Board of Assessment Review: Jack Miller, Jean Morey, Fran Sovocool, and Dennis Butts. There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, at 8:06 PM. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler, RMC Town Clerk