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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-01-02 SpecialTOWN OF GROTON — MINUTES OF SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 2019 AT 4:00 PM THE TOWN HALL, 101 CONGER BOULEVARD Those present: Donald F. Scheffler, Supervisor Richard Gamel, Councilperson Crystal Young, Councilperson Randy N. Jackson, Councilperson Sheldon C. Clark, Councilperson April L. Scheffler, Town Clerk Francis Casullo, Attorney for the Town Also present: Mack Rankin, Bob Fouts, Sharon Fouts, Brian Weir, Mike Neville, Josh Barron, Lester Coit, Kim Becker, Doug VanBenschoten, Elizabeth Conter, Lance Coit, Rick Neville, Sr, Joshua Rood, Jerry Rood, Joe Graham, Dave Boyes, Rosemarie Tucker, Andrew Sullivan, Dick Slocum, Ellard Keister, Eric Satterly, Martin Henry, Pat O'Neill, Glenn Morey, Steve Simons, Tom Jacobs, Scott Metcalf, Jeff Lucas, Tim Phelps, Jen Phelps, Rod Mott, Andrea Perkins, Mike Perkins. Supervisor Scheffler - This afternoon's meeting, we're going to interview those who have shown interest in the position. The interviews will be in public. They will be a little bit different than a regular interview. We have decided that the way it's going to work is that in no particular order we're going to call the candidates to the microphone to give a 3 to 5 minute speech on why they want the job and their qualifications. Then the Board will discuss it and we may or may not make a decision today, we don't know. It won't be open to public comment, but just between the Board and those interested in the position. So, I don't know what order the resumes are in.....I will call first, Mike Perkins. Mike Perkins - I've lived in the Town of Groton all my life. I've done this kind of work for most of my life. I've worked for the Village of Moravia for 24 years and Superintendent for 22 1/2 years. I'd like to serve our community here and look out for what's best for our community and the taxpayers of our county and township. Councilperson Gamel - Mike, do you do budgeting down there as well? Mr. Perkins - Yes. Councilperson Gamel - So, you've worked with budgeting, ordering, salt and materials? Mr. Perkins - Yes. Councilperson Young - Tell me about your experience with conflict resolutions. Give us an example of maybe a conflict that you may have had with either a supervisor, or peer, or one of your employees. Mr. Perkins - I ask to have a meeting. If I had two individuals who weren't getting along, talk to them separately at first and ask them if we can come to a compromise and sit down, work the situation out and come to some kind of agreement so that we can all work together and get our jobs done and stay friends and work together. Councilperson Jackson - If you were to come aboard, what do you feel would be one of your first plan of attacks? Mr. Perkins - Well, first off, get all the employees together and see where we need to go, what other employees we need to hire to fill positions, hopefully get everybody's blessing, and talk about what they think would be beneficial to the Town and all that. Councilperson Clark - Have you had experience working with other towns? Town Board Minutes Page 2 January 2, 2019 Mr. Perkins - Yes, we work with the Town of Moravia and Locke when we do our paving and stuff because we don't have a lot of equipment. The Town of Moravia, Locke, Venice, they all have bigger equipment than we do and are always willing to help out. When we can help them, we reciprocate. Supervisor Scheffler - What computer skills do you have? Mr. Perkins - None. I'm illiterate when it comes to that and I'd be the first to admit it. Councilperson Young - Have you had a lot of experience handling complaints if maybe if there was something where a community member wasn't happy with something and they give you a call? Mr. Perkins - That's a daily thing. That's part of the job. Councilperson Clark - Mechanical ability? Mr. Perkins - Some, yes. Councilperson Clark - Could you advise a mechanic? Mr. Perkins - Some of this newer equipment, no, because it's computerized, and we would be leaning more on them to know. Changing tires and greasing and things like that, yes. Councilperson Clark - Would you be willing to jump into a machine if we're short one day? Mr. Perkins - Well, sure, I have to run equipment. I have a CDL and all that. Supervisor Scheffler - Next will be Martin Henry. Martin Henry - I've lived here all my life and just looking for something different from what I'm doing now and thought it might be a good opportunity to just try it. Councilperson Clark - What have you done? Mr. Henry - I work for Suit-Kote. I started out as a driver, moved into the office as a weigh master and dispatcher. I'm still a dispatcher; hire trucks; schedule the blacktop; and drive when I have to. Councilperson Gamel - Have you ever done any ordering from the State or anything like that? Mr. Henry - I do not have to order anything. I take orders and schedule the delivery, or whatever. Councilperson Jackson - If you became involved, what would be your first act that you'd be looking into? Mr. Henry - I agree with what he said, you have to get the guys together, see what they do, see what needs to be done. It's kind of a joint effort. You can't have just one guy shouting orders. Councilperson Young - So, what are your qualifications that you possess that would qualify you for this position. Mr. Henry - Well, I think I'm good with people. I have to deal a lot with customers, which would include the public. I don't have a lot of budgetary experience, but I think I could learn it. Councilperson Young - So you don't handle a budget now? Mr. Henry - I do not do the budget, no. Well, I put in for trucks I need and they decide either yes or no. Councilperson Clark - If you had a big conflict with workers or a small conflict, how would you go about working it out? Mr. Henry - Well, first I'd to talk to them myself and if that doesn't work, then you have to call a meeting with whoever is involved, whether it's the Board, or in our case it's Human Resources, and sit down and have a meeting and do paperwork write-ups or whatever and settle it. Supervisor Scheffler - Are you able to motivate people? Get 105% out of them? Town Board Minutes Page 3 January 2, 2019 Mr. Henry - I believe so. It's the people around you that are hopefully self motivating, but yes, I believe I get the job done. Supervisor Scheffler - Are you open to sending guys to training classes? Mr. Henry - Absolutely. Councilperson Jackson - Other than trucks, do you have any experience with other equipment as well? Mr. Henry - I run a loader. During the winter, I'm there pretty much by myself and I load trucks. I have a little bit of escalator experience. I'm not going to say I'm an operator, but I have run other equipment, but most of it is driving a truck. Supervisor Scheffler asked for David Canfield, but he was not present. He then asked for David Boyce. Mr. Boyce - I've lived in the Town of Ithaca for 23, 24 years, someplace in there. I work at the Town of Ithaca Highway Department and have been there 23 years. I've had my own business of running a construction company, 20 years ago or so. Councilperson Young - So, what do you know about this position and what do you think are the qualifications that you have? Mr. Boyce - I'm a crew leader. I manage anywhere from 3 to 10 people at various times. I've had supervisory training through TC3. There's 2 levels of it and I've taken both levels. Councilperson Young - The supervisory training through TC3, what was that? Mr. Boyce - It was anywhere from writing a review to how to deal with difficult people, there was a lot. Councilperson Clark - Computer skills? Mr. Boyce - I'm not illiterate by any means, but I'm a "hen pecker." I can get by. I've taken one computer class at work and am certainly not afraid to take more. The way my schedule works, I do nights during the winter from the end of November to the first part of March, and that's usually when they send people to classes. Councilperson Gamel - Have you ever had to deal with the State in your position? Mr. Boyce - A little. You mean as far as ordering stuff? Councilperson Gamel - Well, ordering stuff or in any manner, like calling in to clarify or talk about road situations or anything like that? Mr. Boyce - One of the things we had was a sewer issue that was on East Shore Drive. There is a cross - pipe that comes across the road and then the railroad tracks sit right next to it and then our sewer is there. When the railroad tracks came through, they cut the sluice pipe in half and never fixed it. To make a long story short, it backs up and it would come across the tracks and then it got to the point where it was eroding the road above the sewer main. We had to dig down to see if it was our issue or theirs. I've helped with ordering trucks off of State bid a couple of times. Councilperson Jackson - As far as if you were to come on board, what would be one of the first things you'd tackle? Mr. Boyce - First day, you've got to bring everybody into a meeting; get all their ideas; see where we all stand; where we can improve. Try to get everybody on the same page and bring everybody up to what my expectations are and what they're looking for expectations out of me. Just so everybody is on the same playing field. Supervisor Scheffler - A quick question to clarify, when you started out you said you lived in Ithaca for 23 years. You may have misspoken or I may have misunderstood. Mr. Boyce - I've worked there. Town Board Minutes Page 4 January 2, 2019 Supervisor Scheffler - You live in Groton though? Mr. Boyce - Yeah, I live on South Main Street. Councilperson Jackson - Do you have any experience with outside town people who may have questions or issues, negotiations? Mr. Boyce - Like the gentleman said before me, every day. Every day. This is Ithaca. Ithaca is notorious for problems. Councilperson Clark - Can you run most of all the equipment? Mr. Boyce - I can. Before I was a crew leader I was a heavy equipment operator. Councilperson Clark - Any diagnostic work with equipment? If you had a mechanic could you work with him some? Mr. Boyce - Most definitely. I do with the 2 mechanics at work now whenever they need an extra hand, or I assign someone to work with them. We do what we have to do to get the job done. I have a Class A too. Like I said earlier, I had a construction business. And I've dabbled in lawnmowers, to pass the time. I just recently bought a 10 -wheeler. Supervisor Scheffler asked for Patrick O'Neill next. Patrick O'Neill - My wife and I have resided here for 20 -plus years. We came to Groton and made a life of it. There's a lot of good people here. I've been on road the since I've been in Groton, traveling, working abroad, upstate New York, all over New York and including Pennsylvania. I applied for this job because I ran for Highway last year, thinking I could help, come off the road and make a difference and bring my experience to the Town. It's a great community and I choose to work here. This is what I plan on doing, working. Councilperson Gamel - Have you ever had anything to do with payroll or scheduling experience? Do you do any of that with your job? Mr. O'Neill - Absolutely. Computer literate as well. I also did data entry for that too, as well as manual, hand written. I know they switched over to these paperless logs and scheduling for your truck driving. I know municipalities are exempt from the 10 -hour rules and 12 -hour rules. I'm fully aware of it and I do comply with DOT's traffic and law safeties. Councilperson Young - Give us an idea of a time when you had conflict with an employee, or supervisor, or peer and how you dealt with that, how it was resolved. Mr. O'Neill - Several years down there's all kinds of attitudes, experiences, and people's emotions on the road because I travel so much. I assess them; see what the situation is; separate them; talk to one and then talk to the other one; and see if we can come up with a mutual agreement. I also document it as well, because if it becomes recurring it might be a situation that we have to look further into. I also let them know that I am documenting it and keeping track of it. So, later on down the road if there happens to be another issue, we'll address it then. But having said, has it ever come to that? I think it's the best thing if we work together as a team environment. Councilperson Clark - Your first day? Mr. O'Neill - First day, it seems to be a consensus of getting the guys together. I think that would be a great idea, getting the guys together, but I also think it's about trying to assess the equipment we have; what I've got to work with; what's the situation I'm coming into. Whoever you pick, they've got to come in and assess what's going on, what have I got do, and have the guys help you, and I'm sure they will. I think the men here in the Town know their jobs and they'll do it well and they'll be a huge advocate in helping the next person stepping into this job. So, it would be assess and get the people together. Councilperson Jackson - So, if you have a situation where there's something you have in place as a rule that you've put forward and a guy comes in to challenge it, you're open to that? An open door policy? Town Board Minutes Page S January 2, 2019 Mr. O'Neill - Absolutely. And I would share that with the Board. I believe in transparency. I have nothing to hide. So, if I'm there and I'm doing the job and something comes up that needs to be .... may be a mediator, maybe, could be somebody else, a neutral body person, to advocate whether it's a real situation or if it's a bad situation. But if it's something that's been in place, it's the rules we go by, and we do it today, and then we'll move on past that. Councilperson Jackson - You feel you're capable of working through problems with community members? Mr. O'Neill - Absolutely. Supervisor Scheffler - You're able to work with other governments, other towns, and share equipment, share people, ideas? Mr. O'Neill - It's amazing what the opportunities we have here in our community. Look right here, we have the Village here. You've got other towns and municipalities that we could be working together. I think that if we work together using equipment and shared service; started working together; share trucks; and working with eachother as a community instead of its own entity, we'd work together and I think we'd get much farther done versus renting equipment because there's a cost. I know when you're paving roads and so on and so forth, you have to rent stuff and adds an added value to what you're doing on your job when you could actually share or borrow that equipment and swap off as well as help. It would be huge. And yes, I'd be a huge advocate of it. Councilperson Young - So, it sounds like you've had some budgeting experience, working with budgets. What's the largest budget you've had to manage? Mr. O'Neill - A million dollars worth of equipment that traveled with me across the state that I was responsible for as well. And I did my own maintenance too, on the road, fixing, preventive maintenance as well, scheduling maintenance programs and so on and so forth to keep our equipment that we do have in shape, whether to retire or continue. Supervisor Scheffler - Those are the resumes that I have. Is there anyone else that I've missed that is interested? Okay, at this point the Board will look over the answers, the resumes. We will try to do this without being personal or mentioning names or whatever because I don't think that would be right, but we will do it in public. We may or may not make a decision today. We may want to think about it overnight. We have a meeting tomorrow where we could decide. Attorney Casullo - Probably what you want to do is, if you want to deliberate in public you certainly can. Or, you can think about what you want to do overnight and think about whether you want to make a decision tomorrow night. You don't have to. Let me go through your options. You can make a decision today, but you have to be careful about making a decision today. Technically, the resignation of the Highway Superintendent becomes effective at 12:00, Thursday, January 3rd, so if you make the appointment today, a prospective appointment, which in the public sector you are supposed to stay away from, but given the somewhat uniqueness of this position and given where we are with the weather you could. Or you could deliberate individually tonight, think about what the candidates have said, and have discussions. You can have discussions, 2 of you, as long as you don't have discussions with 3 because that constitutes a meeting. Then you could come back here tomorrow and make a decision if you so choose. It's my understanding, Rick indicated that he won't be here tomorrow, so Rick could make the Supervisor aware of who impressed him or not. Then tomorrow you can come back here and either make a decision or hold off on making a decision, which is your prerogative. Although eventually, just for the operation of the department, you're going to have to make a decision fairly quick. Then the final option that I want to lay out is the 5 -day absence rule starts tomorrow with the Deputy, who resigned effective the same time as the Highway Superintendent. So that position stays open for 5 days which would take you to your Organizational Meeting on January 8th. If you haven't appointed a Highway Superintendent then the Board has the right by law to appoint a Deputy Highway Superintendent, at which point that person would serve instead of the Highway Superintendent. Then once you do appoint a Highway Town Board Minutes Page 6 January 2, 2019 Superintendent he would have 2 options, either keep the person you appointed as Deputy, or replace him or her, because the appointment of a Deputy is at the discretion of the Highway Superintendent, if there is one. I think that pretty much lays out your options. Supervisor Scheffler - And we're all interested in following the rules. Attorney Casullo - Let me explain why it's done this way. If it was an employee of the Town, you could go into executive session and discuss this. There's not a lot of case law on this, I've checked with Albany. It's what the Committee on Open Government has said and 1 or 2 case laws have said. The thing that makes this unique is that this appointment of the Highway Superintendent is an elected position and the public has a right to hear what the various candidates are saying about their abilities and their qualifications. Whoever you select is going to be running again in November and because it's an elective position is why it's so important that you do it out in the open. Supervisor Scheffler - What's the feeling of the Board? Do you want to discuss it here or think about it overnight? Councilperson Young - I don't need to think about it. Councilperson Gamel - I'd like to think about it. Councilperson Young - In my mind we're down to a couple of people that we would want to choose between. Councilperson Jackson - I would definitely be prepared tomorrow. I don't think I would need 5 days. Supervisor Scheffler - I'd kind of like to think and reread my notes and give it till tomorrow. Councilperson Clark - I agree. Councilperson Jackson - Especially if Rick can cast his vote tonight? Is that how that would work? Attorney Casullo - No. If Rick isn't here tomorrow, he can't cast a vote. It would be the 4 of you. What I said is, if Rick can't be here tomorrow, he could tell the Supervisor, or speak to each of you individually, and tell you who he thinks the strongest candidate is, so at least you know what his viewpoint is. But if he's not here, obviously he can't vote. Supervisor Scheffler - We'll think it over, that's the consensus of the Board, and we'll try to make a decision tomorrow. Attorney Casullo - And you already have the meeting noticed for tomorrow? Supervisor Scheffler - Yes. It's 4:00, same place, tomorrow. Councilperson Jackson - I agree with that. Councilperson Young - Yes, I just want to make sure that all of the candidates are totally aware that if they don't get elected in November then they are basically out. Attorney Casullo - Let me explain that one more time. Whoever gets appointed to the job, has the job until December 31, 2019. That person, if he chooses, can keep it just until December 31 St and not run. But the position of Highway Superintendent for the Town of Groton will be on the ballot at the November election. If the appointed person decides to run, that's fine, but whoever wins at the election will take over only for two years, because this would be the second year of a four-year term. So the successful candidate at the election will have the job for two years not for four years and will have to run again in two. So, the appointment is only good until December 31, 2019, because the position is up for election in November. So, any candidate, between now and tomorrow, you should check with your Board of Elections, because if you think I'm saying anything wrong, tomorrow is the time to bring it up. But I think we've checked this and we're all on the same page. It's sort of unique because some people were thinking that if they got appointed that they would have it for three years. That clearly isn't true. And some people were thinking that if they get appointed and then win the election that they would have it for Town Board Minutes Page 7 January 2, 2019 four years. You don't have it for four years, you have it for two. You need to understand that if you're appointed. Councilperson Jackson - And also to be clear, if someone doesn't get appointed, they could still run in November. Consensus of the Board was to come back on January 3rd to make a decision. There being no further business, Councilperson Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilperson Jackson, at 4:37 pm. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler, RMC Town Clerk