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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB Minutes 2024-02-26MEETING OF THE ITHACA TOWN BOARD February 26, 2024 — 4:30 p.m. 'Town of Vthaca P ubluc Meetun s - You Tube µittDse//LlsO6web.zoo-n.Lls/u/88680 28447 1. Supervisor's and Town Departments Year End Reports and 2023 Goals 2. Green New Deal Update — Hilary Swartwood 3. Consider authorization for the Supervisor to sign a stormwater operations and reporting agreement and associated access easement for the Coddington Road Community Center project 4. Committee Reports • Budget • Codes & Ordinances • Personnel and Organization/ERC • Planning • Public Works • Others • Economic Development • Parks, Trails, Preserves & Recreation • Cayuga Lake Watershed Intermunicipal Organization (CWIO) • Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) 5. Association of Towns Conference Highlights 6. Consent Agenda a. Approval of Minutes - b. Town of Ithaca Abstract 7. Reports of Town Officials/Correspondence MEETING OF THE ITHACA TOWN BOARD February 26, 2024 Minutes Board Members Present: Rod Howe, Supervisor; Members Eric Levine, Rich DePaolo, Susie Gutenberger, Pamela Bleiwas, Rob Rosen and Margaret Johnson Present: Judy Drake, Marty Moseley, CJ Randall, Paulette Rosa, Joe Slater, Donna Shaw, and Dan Thaete Mr. Howe opened the meeting at 4:30 p.m. Supervisor's and Town Departments Year End Reports and 2023 Goals (Attachment 1) Mr. Howe noted that members have the written reports on their desktops, and this is an opportunity for department heads to highlight a few items and for members to ask any questions they may have. He added that these reports show the vast number of things that we do; highlights the amount of interdepartmental cooperation we have here; that we are meeting some of our green goals and that we continue to strive to be the best municipality in New York State. Codes — Mr. Moseley highlighted the addition of two positions; increased permits, partly due to NYS mandates, and partly increases from post -pandemic activities. First full year of rental registries and Granicus tracking of short term rentals. This system has identified roughly 60% of the properties we now have operating permits from or are in the process of issuing. We also are going back through all records to verify 1- and 2-family residences and what the true status is. Mr. DePaolo asked about the difference between the number of applications received and permits issued and whether it was a backlog or denials. Mr. Moseley responded that it is the backlog mostly, with only a few variances being sought. Public Works — Mr. Slater highlighted the onboarding of two new administrative assistants and working through that; a lot of trails work last year in addition to our standard CIP projects; and finally, hope to be spending less time on streetlights. Engineering — Mr. Thaete highlighted the implementation of over $4million in infrastructure projects; assisting with trails projects and design review of multiple large construction projects. A large amount of time was also spent on the Town Hall Weatherization project review, contracts and implementation as well as working on the $2.5 million grant for the Twon Road TBS 2024-02-26 (Filed 4/19) Pg. 1 Bridge rehabilitation project. Began in earnest the training and requirements for MS4 SPEIDES permitting and reporting which will continue into this year. Finally, a lot of focus on identifying our water and sewer infrastructure and marking them so when projects happen, people call Dig Safely NY and know where the infrastructure is and we also get notified of the project. Mr. DePaolo asked for more information on the water and sewer infrastructure, in particular, he was concerned about flow meters and ownership issues. Mr. Thaete responded that his department has been working with the Special Joint Committee and the City of Ithaca in particular, on our intermunicipal meters that are outdated and have telemetry that is not working correctly and not providing reliable figures. He said they have been going around with portable meters to document actual flows and get reliable numbers to use in negotiations in the future for billing and replacement or upgrading projects. Finance — Ms. Shaw highlighted the clean audit of YE 2022; adoption of the 2024 Budget with a modest increase and dissolution of the lighting districts throughout the town and implementation of new finance software. Goals are to revise the procurement policy and training the new finance officer. Human Resources — Ms. Drake highlighted the new hires mentioned in other departments' reports; successful UAW negotiations and implementation of new software. Goals are for successful succession planning and other software integrations for payroll. Information Technology — Mr. Little highlighted completion of three of the four big projects of 2023 — installation of new servers; approval of .gov domain; move to Microsoft tenant and the new email filter with better security and filters and associated wireless access points that increased speeds and stability as well as improved firewalls for security. Mr. DePaolo asked if the amount of spam we receive is typical or more so because we are a public agency. Mr. Little responded that we definitely get more as a public agency because we have a bigger footprint out there for scammers to find us but google is clamping down some and our new systems are helping lower the number significantly. Planning — Ms. Randall highlighted a successful first year; telecommunications legislation revisions; limited historical overlay district and large scale solar legislation implementation. Goals are revisions to the subdivision regulations; progress on the New Green Deal and looking at the Comprehensive Plan as it reaches its l Oth year in place; Safe Streets for All and associated TBS 2024-02-26 (Filed 4/19) Pg. 2 Trumansburg Rd and East Shore Dr. projects and the South Hill Trail Extension, and last but not least, a Public Works Manual - with Public Works and Engineering to develop site design and development criteria in the form of a manual to help developers. Town Clerk — Ms. Rosa highlighted the onboarding of two new deputies which will allow her to focus on records management for the first time in a few years; customer service and support in the form of research of existing records for colleagues and constituents. Goals for 2024 are to tackle digitizing the records remaining downstairs and working with other departments to implement digital filing of their records. Town Supervisor — Mr. Howe noted that his "state of the Town" was discussed at a prior meeting, but highlighted the event The Gayogoho:nQ' and Deyodi:ho:nQ' People and Tutelo Park and the opening of the Dali Lama Library as high points from last year. Town Historian — Mr. Howe referred to the submitted report and highlighted the transfer of the Gibbs (aka Bostwick Road Cemetery) cemetery to the Town. Mr. Howe thanked the department heads for everything they accomplished last year. He said we are very proud of our commitment and our services and certainly the town board has a role in that, but a lot of it falls back onto the department heads and their staff, so thank you very much. 2. Green New Deal Update — Hilary Swartwood (Attachment 2) Ms. Swartwood went through a power point presentation highlighting accomplishments from last year and goals moving forward. Mr. Rosen asked about the BlocPower program the City has rolled out and whether the town is involved in that. Ms. Swartwood responded that we have not launched our own program yet, but the goal is to see how it worked with the City but at this point, we do steer people to the City if we think they can benefit from the program. Mr. DePaolo asked about the slide regarding meeting carbon neutrality by 2030 and how we envision meeting that goal when it is hard to quantify. Ms. Swartwood responded that our support of Community Choice Aggregation is a big part of our path to meeting that goal and public outreach and collaboration because this is not just a town issue. Mr. DePaolo followed up, asking the town can insinuate itself into the biggest cause of greenhouse emissions, transportation, when that is dispersed effect and not locally centralized. Ms. Swartwood responded that the Safe Streets for All is a way to encourage alternate modes of TBS 2024-02-26 (Filed 4/19) Pg. 3 transportation. She added that she is not involved in that project, but the County is asking for suggestions from all municipalities on locations for public charging stations. The town has a baseline from 2010.and our Green Fleet policy and she will look at that and get that information for the board. Mr. Howe thanked Ms. Swartwood and noted that these periodic updates are to keep the board and community members informed of our efforts and to see who is involved in the various projects to meet our aspirational goals or reduction. Consider authorization for the Supervisor to sign a stormwater operation and reporting agreement and associated access easement for the Coddington Road Community Center project Mr. Howe noted that this is a standard easement associated with large projects to allow staff to inspect stormwater pollution protection plans. TB Resolution 2024 -025: Authorization for Supervisor to sign the Stormwater Operation, Maintenance, and Reporting Agreement and stormwater related easements associated with the Final Site Plan Approval for the Coddington Road Community Center Addition Whereas the Coddington Road Community Center Addition Project includes stormwater management and treatment facilities which necessitates a Stormwater Operation, Maintenance, and Reporting Agreement, along with associated stormwater easements, between Coddington Road Community Center Inc. and the Town of Ithaca, and Whereas, pursuant to the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act ("SEQRA") and its implementing regulations at 6 NYCRR Part 617, it has been determined by the Town Board that approval of the proposed Operation, Maintenance and Reporting Agreement, and the proposed Permanent Stormwater and Access Easements and Right -of -Way, is a Type II action because it constitutes "routine or continuing agency administration and management, not including new programs or major reordering of priorities that may affect the environment," and thus this action is not subject to review under SEQRA; now therefore be it Resolved that the Town Board authorizes the Town Supervisor to sign the Stormwater Operation, Maintenance, and Reporting Agreement and stormwater easements associated with the Coddington Road Community Center Project, subject to the review by the Attorney for the Town. Moved: Pamela Bleiwas Seconded: Eric Levine Vote: ayes — Howe, DePaolo, Bleiwas, Levine, Gutenberger & Rosen 4. Committee Reports Budget — Mr. Levine reported that they established priorities for the year and reviewed fund balances under our Fund Balance policy. Began looking at CIP and income streams. TBS 2024-02-26 (Filed 4/19) Pg. 4 Codes & Ordinances — Mr. Rosen reported that they continue to work on the revisions to the subdivision regulations. Personnel and Organization/ERC — Ms. Bleiwas reported that they discussed a request for a stipend for COC members; raising our seasonal and intern salaries to match the revised living wage amount; discussed changes to the deferred compensation model. Personnel — Discussed the policy associated with attending sponsored functions such as the employee picnic and revising it to be clear that you get paid the time if you attend and otherwise the employee must use their fringe time, not continue to work as town offices are closed. Planning — Mr. DePaolo reported they discussed suggestions on streamlining the sewer exemption request process and Mr. Thaete will bring a draft to a meeting soon; discussed proposed conservation easements and asked for additional information regarding the assessment of value. Public Works — Mr. Howe reported they negotiated an agreement with Bolton Point for IT support; update on the weatherization project and reviewing the RFPs; began review of a draft Snow & Ice policy; project updates. NYSEG easement for the South Hill Trail Extension should be coming to the board for approval soon. Others • Economic Development • Parks, Trails, Preserves & Recreation — update slated for the Fall 2024 • Cayuga Lake Watershed Intermunicipal Organization (CWIO) — Ms. Johnson. reported that Roxy Johnston is the new Chair with Liz Graeper becoming Vice Chair; discussed the DEC presentation on 303D lists of impairments; sent a letter to the State urging them to uphold the law that empowers municipalities/ watershed management entities to develop rules and regulations to protect the watershed. Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) — Mr. Howe reported on the County Building Administration report and one recommendation was to centralize 911 addressing and create a pipeline for Code Enforcement Officers and Inspectors and more. Many of the recommendations will not affect the town but are more for smaller municipalities. Emergency response program is covered for the first year, but there may be implications for the town in the future; Association of Towns Conference Highlights — Members shared highlights of the presentations they attended. 6. Consent Agenda — coming — abstract details needed to be located Reports of Town Officials/Correspondence TBS 2024-02-26 (Filed 4/19) Pg. 5 Mr. Howe moved to enter closed session to seek the advice Of COUnsel, seconded by Mr. DePaolo, unaniraOLIS. Motion made by Mr. Howe, seconded by Mr. DePaolo to reenter open session and a(tioair n the meeting, unaniMOUS. TBS 2024-02-26 (Filed 4/19) Pg. 6