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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-07-10TB 7 -10 -02 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETING July 10, 2002 Board Members Present: Supv Mark Varvayanis, Cl Charles Hatfield, Cl Stephen Stelick, Jr., Cl Deborah Grantham., Cl Christopher Michaels Other Elected Officials: Bambi L. Hollenbeck, Town Clerk Other Town Staff: Mahlon R. Perkins, Town Attorney Henry Slater, Zoning Officer David Putnam (TG Millers), Town Engineer Supv Varvayanis called the meeting to order at 7:08 p.m. Board members and guests t participated in the pledge of allegiance. O t a RESOLUTION # 160 - APPROVE ABSTRACT # 107 Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves Abstract # 107, as audited, vouchers #514 through #578, totaling $203,241.84. 2nr1 Cl Hatfield Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Grantham Yes CITIZENS PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR John Bailey of the George B. Bailey Agency, Inc. spoke to the board regarding the insurance market place since the 1990's and how the events of September 11, 2001 have impacted the insurance industry. Reinsurance costs have increased dramatically and there are restrictions on coverage that reinsurance carriers are providing to insurance companies. The increased cost is being passed from the insurance companies to the consumer. In 1993 insurance coverage for the Town cost a little over $58,000 (without an excess liability policy or public officials liability policy). Over time the Town has purchased more coverage and the price today is about the same as in 1993, with more coverage. lie noted that if the premiums had increased each year by 4 %, the premium today would be about $83,000. The current hard market, with strict underwriting and increasing prices, is expected to continue for some time. Another terrorist attack could further destabilize the financial markets and impact the insurance industry. He expects to see a 10 to 15% increase in premiums in the future and assured the board that he would do what he could to try to mitigate that. The Town currently carries a five million dollar umbrella policy and C1 Grantham said that perhaps they should consider reducing the amount of that coverage. Cl Stelick and Cl 1 Michaels are not interested in doing that. J Bailey extended an invitation to meet with the I insurance committee or any interested board members. Page 1 of 15 TB 7- 104)2 Terri Allen, of Dryden Ambulance, Inc., provided the monthly ambulance reports. The monthly call log shows a total of 75 calls in June. Multi -Med has been doing the billing for Dryden Ambulance for about 6 weeks, collecting $6,164.29 in May and $10,313.99 in June. The billing program summary shows all claims turned over to Multi -Med since the beginning of 2002 which had not yet been collected, totaling $85,511.50 to date. Dryden Ambulance, Inc. has collected $93,917.21 to date (including the amounts collected by Multi- Nled). Cl Stelick asked for a breakdown of what the write -offs are. These are the adjusted amounts between Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross Blue Shield for things that are not allowed. With respect to write -offs for individuals unable to pay, D4ulti-Med will provide a report after the account has gone through the billing process and a determination can then be made by the Board with respect to allowing a write -off. The Supervisor has signed the contract with Multi -Med for them to collect any outstanding amounts as of December 31, 2001, COUNTY BRIEFING Mike Lane reported that the County's Medicaid costs will be up about 1.5 million this year, and the Finance Director has reported that sales tax receipts are ahead, about 1.4 million so that will help. State funding has been cut back for numerous programs, and they are still waiting to hear on others. The County has been waiting for a response from the Office of Historic Preservation regarding the Red Mill Bridge. They have responded and they would like to see a one -lane bridge there, citing the Forest Home Bridge as a precedent. They are completely different ' projects particularly because of what the municipalities were looking for. The Town of Ithaca wanted to preserve the bridge, and the Town of Dryden has told the County it would like to see a two -lane bridge because wide farm equipment has difficulty crossing the bridge. Historic Preservation has suggested building a second one lane bridge parallel to the first one. M Lane noted that will not solve the problem because the width of the bridge is the difficulty. He suggested that there be renewed discussion regarding this project so it is clear what the need for the bridge is. He stated he supports the idea of historic preservation, but feels that it can be preserved in other ways and suggested it could be used by the trail program. Triphammer Road reconstruction has begun. In looking at capital projects, it looks like the entire Ellis Hollow Road project will be postponed. There is no federal funding for that program. It is eligible, but has not been chosen. They expect the surface treatment that was none a couple years ago to give them a few more years. The entire project will be postponed until safety improvements can be done in the future. M Lane has received a copy of the Governor's Report on election reform, and one of the things it calls for is for each County to develop a plan by no later than June of 2003 on how they will transition from the existing mechanical voting machines to machines which will probably be electronic and capable of being used by disabled people. They are not sure where the funding for the new machines will come from. The State is trying to leverage $135,000,000 in potential Federal funds, but it is looking like the machines will have to be purchased by the Counties. The State would like substantial implementation of the new machines by the presidential election in 2004. They would also like to have a statewide standard for payment to election workers ($135.00 per day) and solicit more students to work as inspectors. Cl Stelick asked M Lane what the county's position was on an aquifer study other than putting up $5,250 for a needs assessment. M. Lane said it was still in the planning committee and they have not had any further recommendation from them, but he expects it to come up at Page 2 of 15 TB 7 -10 -02 budget time. He will support it. There have been different proposals on how the expense would be split between the County and Towns andthere are people on the Board of Representatives who don't see a real benefit: to their district in an aquifer study. M Lane disagrees noting the progress Cortland County has made in protecting their aquifers with zoning regulations, etc. He encouraged the Town to keep pressure on the County to move forward. Martha Robertson reported that USGS is working on the needs assessment in connection with the aquifer study and a report is expected in late summer or early fall, hopefully in time for the budget process. With respect to the communications project, Steve Whicher, Barbara. Blanchard and Lee Shurtleff went to Albany for advisory committee meetings for the statewide network and met with the director and assistant director of the statewide project. The statewide network is definitely funded and there is a possibility that Tompkins County might be one of the first counties to be rolled out in the new system. It will go first to Albany and then Rochester or Buffalo. They are willing to consider Tompkins County as the third area because the work that the County has done so far has moved the County's project in tandem with the State project, with similar RFP's. The State has said they will put something in writing to this effect. The County's RFP is due back in the middle of August and M Robertson is on the evaluation committee for those proposals. There was a meeting on June 18 where vendors could come and ask questions. About 20 people attended, 7 or 8 being vendors. There are only three vendors who seem to have the capacity to do the whole system. The others would subcontract for portions of the project. They will consider a variety of options, not. only 800 megahertz, although the Statewide system is clearly 800 megahertz. ® There will be a report on the paging project on July 23, at 11:30 a.m. in the old jail conference room. There has been a final report of the freight transportation study from the Transportation Council. It is available on the website. There are roads in Dryden that are a part of the report. The County Budget Committee has started going through capital projects looking at the capital program that was approved last fall to try and update and determine which projects are ready to go and which may be put off for a year or two or three. She is hopeful this will take some pressure off of the operating budget. With respect to stop signs on Ellis Hollow Road, the Public Works Committee has gone back to look at what the process has been in the past in making decisions regarding installation of stop signs. COUNCIL PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR Cl Grantham asked that a decision be made regarding the contract for the aquifer study. She believes that if a decision is not made there will not be Federal cost share for this Federal fiscal year, meaning that the Town may not benefit from-the 30% cost share rate. She is unsure regarding potential State funding, but thinks there may not be funds available this year. The Town needs to agree to the proposal by USGS which includes three phases of work for a total of $398,700. Thirty percent of that is USGS cost share, the balance to be paid by the Town, which may be offset if the State DEC should come forth with funding. The amount 40 is spread over about six years. When that is approved, the Supervisor or Deputy Supervisor needs to be authorized to sign the cooperative agreement. It was noted that the agreement is subject to the availability of appropriations on behalf of either party, and if there are funding Page 3 of 15 TB 7 -10 -02 issues the work could be spread out over a longer period of time. The contract sets the maximum amount and the cost share. There will not be much work done between now and • September 30 (their fiscal year) so there will not be much money due from the Town, and there is $30,000 in the Town's budget for the aquifer study for this calendar year. Cl Grantham agreed to serve as the "point person" in communicating with USGS. Atty Perkins pointed out that the joint funding agreement as presented was blank and did not have dates or amounts in it. Cl Grantham said that once the proposal is approved, they will provide an agreement with the dates and figures for signature. Atty Perkins said that the joint funding agreement does not necessarily give the 'Town the right to terminate the services on 60 days notice. That applies only if the work is not being carried out in a mutually satisfactory manner. However they do appear willing to work things out if there are funding problems. RESOLUTION # 161 - APPROVE AQUIFER STUDY FUNDING PROPOSAL Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the proposal by US Geological Survey to study the hydrogeology of the Virgil Creek Valley in the Town of Dryden, and authorizes the Supervisor or Deputy Supervisor to execute the Joint Funding Agreement, pending approval by the Town attorney. 211d Cl Stelick Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Grantham Yes is Cl Michaels asked what the status of the matter with Finger Lakes Stone Quarry was and Atty Perkins said he had not had a chance to re- evaluate the matter, but will be getting a report to the Board. Cl Michaels said he had visited the site and the area is covered with puddles of white water, and he assumes that water is not supposed to be traveling down the hillside. Cl Grantham said that was included in the comments forwarded to DEC. Cl Michaels noted that the monthly reports indicate that expenditures for payroll are small considering we are halfway through the year and asked why. Supv Varvayanis said they were enthusiastic in the budgeting and noted that payroll amounts depend on how much overtime you get for the Highway Department and what kind of raises are budgeted. It was noted that it had been a mild «inter so less money was spent on overtime and the part time people for snow removal. C1 Michaels asked about the letters received from the State Comptrollers Office. Supv Varvayanis responded that he had asked for a Smart Review a few years ago and they were not inclined to do one. But when they were here doing a Risk Assessment,, they agreed to do the Smart Review. They will look at how funds are spent and invested and write a report. Supv Varvayanis said that all the Towns in the County collect the property taxes and transfer money to the County. The County is insistent on getting all the interest, so the municipalities do not bother to put the money in an interest bearing account. The auditor suggested that the Towns ask the County to split any interest earned. Supv Varvayanis asked Martha Robertson to bring the suggestion to the County Board. Cl Michaels asked if anything was happening with the Emergency Services Committee. They have met: with the Varna Fire Department. Cl Michaels is concerned that there may be 0 Page 4 of 15 TB 7 -10-2 contract problems this year. Supv Varvayanis said that he does not anticipate any contract changes this year and so there should not be any problems. C1 Hatfield noted that the Town is still paying for John Tott:ey s health insurance and Supv Varvayanis said that matter could be discussed Yes in executive session. Cl Stelick inquired about a letter the board had received regarding a Court of Appeals case involving the Town of Lysander. This was in response to a question the Zoning Officer received that was referred to Atty Perkins. Atty Perkins said the case had to do with whether or not the Town's prohibition on single wide mobile homes in an agricultural district can be applied to prevent a farmer from installing a single wide mobile home on his property for housing farm labor. The Court of Appeals says that notwithstanding what the local zoning ordinance says, if it is in an agricultural district and it is a farmer, the ordinance does not apply. You cannot require the farmer to have a doublewide mobile home. ZO Slater said that any certificate of occupancy issued for this purpose will state that it is strictly for farm labor housing. C1 Stelick stated there is currently a vacancy on the Recreation Commission and the Town has received two applications for the position. One from James Wood and one from Vicki Wilkins. There are also two vacancies on the Youth Services Commission. After discussion, the board decided to appoint James Wood to the Recreation Commission and appoint Vicki Wilkins to the Youth Services Commission, pending her acceptance. RESOLUTION #162 - APPOINT JAMES WOOD TO RECREATION COMMISSION Cl Hatfield offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that: this Town Board hereby appoints James Wood to serve on the Recreation Commission for a term to expire December 31, 2004. 2114 Cl Grantham Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Grantham Yes RESOLUTION 0163 - APPOINT VICKI WILKINS TO YOUTH SERVICES COMMISSION Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby appoints Vicki Wilkins to serve on the Youth Services Commission, pending her acceptance. 2nd Cl Hatfield Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Grantham Yes Page 5 of 15 `rB 7 -10 -02 HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT No report. ATTORNEY Atty Perkins stated he has a matter for executive session, Crown Castle vs. Town of Dryden. The Town Clerk was served papers in the matter today. TOWN CLERK Town Clerk reported that after talking with the Board of Elections concerning past problem with polling sites and ADA requirements she would like to move District 8 (Bethel Grove Commumity Center) and District 9 (Ellis Hollow Community Center) to the Bethel Grove Church Activities Building at 1763 Slaterville Road. This would provide better working conditions for the inspectors and easier access for voters. Martha Robertson said she felt that moving District 9 to the Varna. Community Center would work better for the voters in that district. After discussion and a telephone call to a representative of the Varna Community Center, the board decided to move District 8 from the Bethel Grove Community Center to the Bethel Grove Church and District 9 from the Ellis Hollow Community Center to the Varna Community Center (which also serves as a polling place for District 4). RESOLUTION 0164 - DESIGNATE NEW POLLING PLACES Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby moves the polling place for District #8 in the Town of Dryden to Bethel Grove Bible Church Activities Center, 1749 Slateiville Road, and moves the polling place for District #9 to the Varna Community Center, 943 Dryden Road, or if that is not possible, District #9 voters will also utilize the Bethel Grove Bible Church Activities Center, and it is further RESOLVED, that the Supervisor is authorized to pay the Bethel Grove Bible Church and Varna Community Center $100 for each respective district. 2nd Cl Michaels Roll Call Vote ENGINEERING Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Grantham Yes Dave Putnam provided the board with a memo regarding the draft environmental impact statement for the Ithaca Area Wasteuvater Treatment Plan service area expansion. There are two items that need to be discussed tonight. The first is the paragraph that discusses the Town of Dryden and he asked if board members were happy with the language. Supv Varvayanis indicated that was fine. The second item concerns area maps attached to the memo, both showing the same area, that show the existing sewer lines and the boundary of the proposed service area. The analysis in the DEIS suggests that this area will not experience significant growth because of the availability of sewer and D Putnam stated that is where the largest growth in the Town is now. Cl Grantham said that one of her complaints about the Page 6 of 15 TB 7-10 -02 DEIS was that they made blanket statements and don't show any analysis that leads to that ® conclusion. Cl Michaels stated that one of the concerns with real estate sales in the Ellis Hollow area is septic density, especially in the hilly areas. D Putnam said that the Town has no plans to extend water and sewer to the area and when it was realized what the extensions would cost per lot, it would be more prohibitive. Part of the proposal is to divert some of the flow from the Cayuga Heights plant to the Ithaca plant. Supv Varvayanis said he expects the DEIS to be approved. Cl Grantham's comment about the service area is that there are some people in the area who are interested in having water and /or sewer and there are some people who would like it, but don't want to pay the taxes for it, but it does encompass some of the areas on the hills that have problems and since the Town doesn't have to extend sewer out there, but this provides the option to do so, and so the area is satisfactory as defined and should not be smaller. The board agreed. ZONING OFFICER ZO Slater asked the Board to hire Penny Lisi as the recording secretary for the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, as the former recording secretary is no longer available. Ms. Lisi formerly worked as the Deputy Clerk for the Village of Dryden and has experience in taking minutes for boards. RESOLUTION 0165 - APPOINT PENNY LISI AS RECORDING SECRETARY Supv Varvayanis offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby appoints Penny Lisi as the recording secretary for the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals. 2«<, Cl Grantham Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Grantham Yes ZO Slater reported that the new New York State Building Code is now in effect on a voluntary basis until the end of the year and so far no one has applied under that code. Matt Shulman has filed for a county -wide approach to a pre - disaster mitigation, education and outreach grant with FEMA through SEMO and was notified yesterday that SEMO has made the recommendation that FEMA fund this grant. This will utilize media and mailing services, the County Emergency Management Group, the Ithaca City Fire Department and others to put together a county -wide effort to spread the word about pre- disaster mitigation. The CDBG grant application put together by M Shulman for the Forest Home Park project has survived round one of review, so that project is looking better for funding. Notification is expected by October 1. Supv Varvayanis reported that yesterday he met with ZO Slater, Tom Hatfield, Cl Stelick and Matt Shulman to discuss an effort in getting some more commercial development in the Town. They discussed whether the IDA the Town currently has is doing a decent job or what could be done differently. He has been trying to get an Enterprise Zone in the MA Zone north of the Village. Barbara Blanchard has agreed that the County will help with the application. Page 7 of 15 TB 7 -10 -02 He wondered if perhaps someone could be hired to work on this. The board discussed the inactivity of the Town's IDA and the idea of hiring Matt Shulman to investigate whether the IDA • should be continued or if there is a better way to proceed. He has written a memo regarding what he proposes to do in the next 60 days in this regard if the board approves. Supv Varvayanis noted that it may be 90 days instead of 60 because of some personal items M Shulman needs to tend to. Cl Stelick stated he thinks it is money well spent because of his past performance. Cl Grantham noted that we don't have anyone that can be dedicated to work on something like this. She also stated that NY$ Agriculture and Markets has funding available for establishing farmers markets and there has been talk of trying to set one up in Varna. Cl Stelick said that there are often comments about no commercial development in the Town and this is an opportunity to try and do something about. that. RESOLUTION #166 - HIRE MATT SHULMAN Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby hires Matt Shulman to work on the establishment of an )'enterprise Zone in the Town and other tasks as outlined in his proposal of July 9, 2002, at the rate of $35.00 per hour. 2nd Cl Michaels Roll Call Vote Cl C1 Si Cl Cl DISCUSSION: Hatfield Yes Stelick Yes ipv Varvayanis Yes Michaels Yes Grantham Yes Supv Varvayanis - Darrell Harp is first on the list. The interesting thing about him I found out., he carries no liability insurance. You said ... Cl Michaels - I know what 1 said. You told me about that yesterday. That seems very strange to me. I've never heard of an attorney that doesn't carry malpractice insurance. I don't think the Town has an unreasonable position in terms of requirements. All of my clients do it, of any sophistication; it's the first thing we have to provide to any corporation, municipality... Cl Stelick - Is that something that, Deb, when you talked with him, is that something that we can ask of him, or he will not do that. Cl Grantham - He won't do it. Cl Stelick - He won't do it. Cl Grantham - He just doesn't see that. he needs it or that there's a risk. I talked to John Bailey about it and there's of course no way to cover him through the Town directly. John says the Town is protected, of course, but if we were sued and we wanted to turn around and recoup some of that from him, we could sue him, but the insurance would make sure that there was money there to get in a suit. Cl Michaels - To me the point of hiring somebody at that level at that kind of money is that we would intend to rely on the advice that they gave us and if we relied on that advice and it turned out to be inaccurate advice I would certainly see the potential to go after him and I would see the risk of him doing so given that some of the purpose is that we were just sued Page 8 of 15 TB 7-10 -02 over the very issues that we're asking him to consult on. To me, it just is one of the strangest things I've ever heard. I've never heard of an attorney not carrying it... I's not that expensive. It's not like somebody who wants to work as an obstetrician for three hours a month or something and needs to pay $4,500 malpractice insurance to do so. I would question whether or not he could actually get it if he's not willing to provide it. Even us, we're talking about enough services that it would seem justified in terms of a business expense. I assume we have a requirement that we don't hire attorneys without malpractice insurance. D Weinstein - My understanding was he's being hired more as a consultant than an attorney. Do we have that policy for all the consultants? Do they have to, does George Frantz have insurance, and the cell tower guy? Supv Varvayanis - Yes. D Weinstein - Regardless of whether they're attorneys or not, they have to have some kind of insurance? Cl Grantham - Well, we have a precedent for increasing the amount of money that we are paying someone in order to allow them to buy insurance up to our standards, and I think it's worth doing that in this case. I'll make a gift to the Town in the amount of the difference, and we just require that he show us, that he prove that he purchases the insurance with the increased amount. C1 Hatfield - Say that again, Deb. You're going to pay his insurance? Cl Grantham - I'm going to give a gift to the Town and the Towm can pay him an extra isamount in his contract to buy the liability insurance. I'm not going to give him money directly. Supv Varvayanis - We paid Matt extra to get the insurance. Cl Grantham - Yeah, we did. We increased Matt's hourly wages so that he could buy the insurance that we required. We increased it by the amount that it would cost him to purchase the insurance. So there's a precedent. Cl Hatfield - It seems to me that if a man doesn't have enough ability himself to have his own insurance, that maybe %ve ought to forget him. Cl Grantham - Well, if he can't get it then the whole thing's gone, but... Cl Hatfield - If he can't get it, he must be... Cl Grantham - I don't know that he can't get it. He just says he won't get it. Supv Varvavanis - I talked to him. He said it would be $1,400 and he could do it, but we're the first Town that ever asked him for insurance. C1 Hatfield - Does that sound feasible, Mahlon? I mean does that sound like an attorney talking? Atty Perkins - I can't speak to that. All the professionals I deal with feel that it's important for their client's benefit as well as their own protection to carry professional liability insurance. is Cl Michaels - I feel very comfortable speaking to it. It's one of the strangest things I've ever heard. Even for a consultant. They don't go without some type of professional liability Page 9 of B TB 7 -1"2 insurance. The risk is low. I mean that's why it's $1,400. A large percentage of that I'm sure goes to an agency. 1 would have very strong feelings that he carry it. I don't have strong • feelings on how he gets the money to pay for it. I have pretty strong feelings that the Town not subsidize his practice in such a direct way. I think the difference between a contract for Matt in terms of the dollar hour, I mean we're talking about it's totally paid for in less than a day's worth of work at $200. Assuming he's working a full year, you're talking about a fraction of a percent of his revenue for his practice. I don't quite get it. It doesn't leave a very good impression on me. I've never heard him speak. The only thing I've done is go through some of those materials that were provided to you at the course. As I said, it leaves me with a very negative impression, but if we were going to go forward and hire him and the Town was not going to pick it up directly in terms of a net cost to the Town, I don't have any objection to what. you are proposing. Cl Stelick - Mahlon, is that acceptable? What Deb is proposing? Atty Perkins - Deb can do what she wants with her own money. Cl Grantham - It's Town money anyway that's paid to me. I'll just give it back. Atty Perkins - I think its.... I mean, I objected when you gave Matt enough money to buy the insurance he should have been carrying anyway. And I think it's a very, very bad precedent that you set then. And now you are just perpetuating it. Now everybody is going to come to you, including me and Dave Putnam and engineers and River Solutions, and everybody else, wanting to increase the amount: that they get paid to cover their professional liability insurance. Why would you do that? I just don't buy it. I'm sorry. The next guy that we're going to buy an expensive piece of machinery from, a couple hundred thousand dollar piece of highway equipment, are we going to give him enough money to cover his products liability insurance because he doesn't carry it? It doesn't make sense. It's backwards. Those costs are built in to the costs of doing business. If at $200 an hour he can't afford the liability is insurance... I think it's a lot dill'erent than what's being presented to you. Cl Hatfield - There could be another reason why he doesn't want to get it, or can't get it or something. There's something weird there. D Weinstein - The other side of the coin, of course, is we still have conflict in this issue in the Town. And we have a guy who has met with the citizens involved in the conflict, and he's trusted by the citizens, he's trusted by Jack who took his course. We've got a. chance to get this guy employed to resolve a lot of these issues. Atty Perkins - He's not going to be involved in this case at all because he's conflicted out of it. He's already said that. D Weinstein - I know, but in terms of resolving the issues of what the highway supervisor should be doing and should not be doing in terms of maintaining Town roads, he's the guy that many people strongly feel can resolve these issues within the Town. Cl Michaels - Can I ask a question? Did he give us an estimate as to how many hours he thought it would take him to do this? Supv Varvayanis - He did. Do you remember? It wasn't long. 'Delve. Cl Grantham - No. Something like that is what I remember. Cl Michaels - Well, seven hours buys his insurance, so I guess what I would propose as an alternative consideration to having the Town hire him. If somebody is interested in paying Page 10 of 15 $1400 to have a consultant come speak, I meeting whether the Town had hired him directly. I'd rather see if somebody is wU just an insurance contract which is going represent in a year, TB 7-10 -02 personally would be willing to sit down at whatever or not. But have the citizens or you, Deb, hire him ng to provide $1400 go toward services rather than to benefit him and 200 other clients that he may Cl Hatfield - A man in his profession and his caliber and he can't produce.... Atty Perkins - Charlie, he puts his pants on just like all the rest of us. Cl Hatfield - That's right. Pass him by if he can't do the things according to Hoyle. M Robertson - If no other Town has ever asked him to prove insurance, then... Cl Hatfield - Must be he's never worked for any other Town. M Robertson - No, is there something special that we'd be hiring him for? Supv Varvayanis - As far as I can tell were hiring him to do what he does. M Robertson - He has to have that in advance? You believe he has to have insurance? Cl Michaels - For me it would be. I think the reason, it's a very gentile way of not having to asking a lot of questions about his professional background. If he's insurable, a lot of things go away. Other than that, I think what you've got to ask..... I'm not aware.... I mean even people that are teaching up at Connell who maybe do five closing a year or something like that, the New York State liar markets insurance to them, and what I was going to check with Mark is, I was under the impression, although I can't say that it's ever come up in my practice where I've had to verify this, but it's almost an ethical requirement in New York. Mahlon, does it fall to that level or is just something that... Atty Perkins - I don't know that it's actually a breach of the canons not to have it, but certainly it's an ethical consideration that professionals maintain a sufficient protection for their clients. Cl Michaels - It's so out of the ordinary from my experience in the profession that it really strikes me very negatively. The requirement itself is not something that I'd be at all interested in waiving. Cl Hatfield - And it doesn't seem like the citizens of the Town of Dryden should subsidize him just to..... There must be somebody else to do the same work he's doing. Cl Michaels - If we're hiring a mediator, there's mediators that work a lot cheaper than $200 an hour. Cl Grantham - Well, I don't think we are hiring a mediator. He can't do that. He said he can't work on that case, so we're not hiring him to do mediation. We're hiring him to help us look at highway policy in the broad sense and for the future. Supv Varvayanis - What we're looking for is to generate a long -term policy that the Town Board is happy with. Jack's happy with and we hope the citizens will be happy with, and that that can be used as a... 0 Cl Grantham - guideline and a way to avoid future conflicts. Pagc I 1 of 15 TB 7 -10 -Q2 Cl Michaels - I'm all for that. I've spoken out very directly and forcefully that I'm all for that policy being put into place and am willing to participate in many hours of meetings to make that happen because I think that would ultimately benefit the Town greatly. I don't see 40 why he's essential to the process. I do think that somebody advising the Town on policy and all those legal issues is valuable, but not somebody who's not willing to stand by their opinions. And if we adopted a policy that turned around and we got sued left and right over, yeah, it seems to me that that's the point, is having someone who really knows his stuff backward and forward and is going to offer some shelter from that. I get asked to write opinions all the time. We spend a lot of time on it and we charge a lot of money for because, yeah, we're going to get sued if we're wrong. It seems to me the whole point of the exercise. Supv Vantayanis - If I'm hearing you correctly, you're very nervous that he doesn't have insurance because you think he's uninsurable. Deb's proposal would take care of that. Are you satisfied with that? Cl Grantham - Because if he can't get it then we won't hire him. Cl Stelick - How are we going to know that? Can we do a background check on this? Cl Grantham - No. We just tell him go buy the insurance and once you show us the certificate then you're hired. Cl Hatfield - You're going to pay $1400, Deb? Cl Grantham - Well we'll ask if it's possible to get it for just the period of the contract, just: the time it takes to do the work. Or do you have to buy it by the year? Atty Perkins - You buy it by the year. is Cl Grantham - That's what I'll do then. Cl Hatfield - Why are you willing to spend $1400 of your own money? Cl Grantham - it's my town money, anyway. It's my Town Board big bucks, Charlie. Cl Hatfield - I understand that, but why are you ... Cl Grantham - Because I think that it's away to... Cl Hatfield - Do you think he's the only man in the country that can do that? Cl Grantham - Well, I think we want someone in New York, not outside of New York, and I don't know of anyone else. Cl Hat:field - Well, do you think he's the only man in New York that's capable of doing that? Cl Grantham - He's supposed to have written the law, the highway laws that we're talking about, so he's the best one. Cl Hatfield - Well, he doesn't look up enough to me, not being able to get insurance, or doesn't have it. Something's fishy there somewhere. Cl Grantham - Well, if he can't get it, we don't hire him. (8 Rage 12 of 15 TB 7 -10412 Cl Hatfield - I sure as hell wouldn't pay it. A guy who charges $200 an hour can pay his insurance if he... It doesn't matter how good he was. Just on the principal. But it's your money you can do as you please. 1 won't vote for it because .I don't think it's right. If he doesn't have confidence enough in himself to buy his own insurance, why I'd pass him by. Supv Varvayanis - He's got enough confidence he doesn't think he needs insurance. Cl Hatfield - All right. Maybe he wouldn't get our business then. Atty Perkins - He worked for the State too long. Cl Hat:field - I don't think it's good policy for the Town to be doing that. Cl Michaels - I have strong misgivings about it. 1 also have strong concerns about holding out. If people are willing to sit down at a table and start working on these issues, I'd like to see that happen. I'm personally not willing to contribute to buying his insurance. If it's in that cost to the Town, I don't think the taxpayers are out anything. I would reluctantly support your motion to do that if you were willing to do it, but:... C1 Grantham - Well, what would you suggest we do instead? Cl Michaels - Just get together and do it. We have a Town attorney. Maybe I have a false impression of the situation. It seems to me that most of what we have to come to agreement on as a Town has really little to do with law, but that of policy. I think that there is desire for aesthetic considerations that seem to be in conflict twith public safety and I think that talking those issues out... To be honest, I think we might get more out of the assistance of engineers and designers than we would out of legal interpretation. I am an attorney, and if I have a question, it's usually quicker for me just to look it up than come to a meeting and ask about it. Yeah, it saves the Town quite a bit. But as I said, I don't know that my needs... I'm trying to ignore my lack of need for his assistance. If other people feel that his services are of value, I'm willing to support that, but it seems awfully strange to me. I can't shake that. As I said, I'll still support just moving forward on it. M Robertson - Just an outside view. If among the people in the Town we had the ability to resolve this as you suggest we just sit down and do, we would have already done that. It's clear that's not possible. It's not likely to happen with the personnel that's involved here. And that's the kind of situation where you do bring in somebody from the outside. And it seems if this person has gone through the state and both sides are comfortable and feel like they can listen and work with this guy, and I'm hearing that, it's real valuable. H Slater - But if he can't mediate between these two sides, what value is his service to this particular issue? M Robertson - It's separate than that. It's sort of beyond the immediate issues, but the point is he has the respect of both sides that are involved in the litigation. So for the future situation, future policy development, we might be able to move forward with a favored consensus. Supv Varvayanis - Is there any more discussion? Cl Michaels - What's the motion before us? Cl Grantham - That we hire Harp, and pay an additional sum equal to the cost of insurance for him and then we require a certificate of insurance before we go forward, and that I'm willing to make a gift to the Town to cover that insurance cost. izige 13 of 15 T13 7 -10 -02 Supv Varvayanis - I'll pay half. • Cl Grantham - I'll take the friendly amendment. Cl Hatfield - I'll vote no because I don't. think it's right. RESOLUTION #167 - HIRE DARRELL HARP Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby hires Darrell Harp to work with the Town in developing highway policies, on the condition that he provides a certificate of insurance, said insurance to be purchased with funds provided by Cl Deborah Grantham and Supv Mark Varvayanis as a gift to the Town. 2n'' Supv Varvayanis Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield No Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Grantham Yes The Board briefly discussed a letter received from Eugene Madsen asking that his property off Baker Hill Road (that portion in the district) be exempted from special district (water and server) assessments. The board will take the matter up at budget time. Cl Michaels noted that he is uncomfortable to grant a waiver and then have someone decide to put a house 41 there. He asked if there were other lots that were undeveloped that were paying the assessment. Supv Varvayanis and Atty Perkins explained that the formula change in the assessment process would take care of that. This lot is unique because of the terrain and because there is no frontage and it would be very expensive to get an easement and provide services to the lot. There are other undeveloped lots in the district that pay special district taxes and Atty Perkins stated that if in the future a connection is allowed for this lot and it has been exempted for several years, then they basically have gotten a free ride. Supv Varvayanis stated he had received a report from the 1±reeville Fire Department and he will ask them to summarize it in the future. Public hearings scheduled for August 7, include a special permit application of David Fox to operate an automotive repair business at 293 George Road, site plan review application of Kurt Scruda.t:o for location of his business, Walk on Rood, at 1808 Hanshaw Road, and site plan modification application of Ralph Crandall to add a second business, automobile sales, at 1410 Dryden Road. Supv Varvayanis apologized for his name appearing in an ad in The Shopper with the title of Dryden Town Supervisor attached and said that it was not something that he thinks should have happened. On motion of Cl Grantham, seconded by Cl Michaels and unanimously carried, the board moved to executive session at 10:15 p.m. to discuss a matter of litigation (Crown Castle v. Town of Dryden), and two personnel matters regarding specific individuals. The board moved back into regular session at 10:40 p.m. 0 Pagc 14 of 15 TB 7 -10 -02 RESOLUTION #168 - INCREASE HOURLY RATE FOR MATT SHULMAN Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby amends the contract with Matt Shulman to provide for an hourly consulting fee of $35.00 effective July 1, 2002. 2nd Cl Michaels Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Grantham Yes The meeting was adjourned at 10:41 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Bambi L. Hallenbeck Town Clerk Page 15 of 15 Town cf nryden Town Board Meeting July 10, 2002 Name - {Please Printj i J c�� Address �PCO // nn .. f, C c i(