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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-28-2003 Budget Hearing TOWN OF GROTON PUBLIC HEARINGS ON PRELIMINARY BUDGET AND FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT CONTRACT TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2003 – 7:00 PM – AT THE TOWN HALL Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman Duane T. Randall II, Councilman Also present: Colleen Pierson, Peg Palmer, John Norman, Lester Coit, April Scheffler, Richard Case, Liz Brennan, Jennie Daley (Ithaca Journal) PUBLIC HEARING ON 2004 BUDGET The Town Clerk read the Notice of Public Hearing, which was published in the Town’s official paper, the Groton Independent, on October 22, 2003: NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Preliminary Budget of the Town of Groton for the fiscal year beginning January 1, 2004, has been completed and filed in the Office of the Town Clerk on October 17, 2003 at Groton where it will be available for inspection by any interested persons at all reasonable hours. FURTHER NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Town Board of the Town of Groton will meet and review said Preliminary Budget and hold a public hearing thereon at the Town Hall, th 101 Conger Boulevard, Groton, New York, at 7:00 P.M. on Tuesday, the 28 day of October 2003, and that at such hearing any person may be heard for or against any item therein contained. All interested citizens will have the opportunity to give written and oral comment. Senior citizens are encouraged to attend and comment. Handicapped persons needing assistance or aids should contact the government before the meeting by calling 898-5035. Pursuant to Section 113 of the Town Law, the proposed salaries of the following Town Officers are as follows: Supervisor …………………………. $ 8,500.00 Town Clerk & Tax Collector ……. $27,878.00 Highway Superintendent………….. $47,052.00 Councilman (4)…………………… $ 1,654.00 ea. Public Hearing on Preliminary Budget Page 2 October 28, 2003 FURTHER NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN , pursuant to Section 184 of the Town Law, th that a Fire Protection and Ambulance Service hearing will be held on Tuesday, the 28of October 2003, following the Preliminary Budget Hearing. The proposed contracts with the Fire Company in the Groton Fire Protection District are hereby specified as follows: Groton Fire Department……………. $75,000.00 Ambulance Service…………………. $69,000.00 BY ORDER OF THE GROTON TOWN BOARD. April L. Scheffler, Town Clerk DATED : October 17, 2003 Supervisor Morey – Thank you, April. Do we have any public comments? Peg? Peg Palmer, Court Clerk – I wish to thank Don for being my advocate on September 30, 2003 when the Board presented the 2004 tentative budget, as I was unable to be present. After reading the minutes of that meeting and speaking with the Town Supervisor, I still question the Board’s rationale for reducing the Court Clerk’s salary from the asked for $16,600 to $15,500. It was stated that the Clerk received a 3.25% hourly increase. This is true, but the line item of $15,500 effectively reduced the position by 95 hours a year resulting in a reduction of salary. One explanation was the Board reviewed the Clerks hours for 2002 and used them to produce the $15,500 and the second explanation was the Clerk can still work as many hours as needed. If she uses up the line item amount the balance would be transferred from the contingency fund. I would like to address the second issue first. Up until the mid-90’s that is how the Clerk’s salary was paid. The line item in the budget was never enough to cover a full year and transfers were continually being made from the contingency fund. I personally don’t believe this is what the contingency fund is set up for. In the mid-90’s the Court presented the numbers, hours worked times the hourly rate, to the Board and asked them to make the line item salary reflect the actual amount expended for the Court Clerk’s salary. This made for a more realistic budget. The Board asked the Court to present a budget proposal for the year 2004. The Court requested 27 hours a week for the Clerk. At the hourly rate of $11.84 this would equal $16,610. This brings us to the first issue of using last year’s Clerk’s hours to determine this year’s salary. Last year the Clerk worked 12 hours a week for the Town of Groton and 15 hours a week for the Village of Groton. The Village of Groton Court closed on March 31, 2003. At that time the Town picked up the total number of hours. In the 2003 budget 12 hours were budgeted for the Court Clerk from January 1 to March 31. 27 hours were budgeted for the Court Clerk from April 1 to December 31, 200. The Court still does not know if 27 hours is enough hours as the year 2003 has not been completed and the work load continues to increase. We certainly wouldn’t ask for less than 27 hours for 2004. But that is exactly what the Board has done by reducing the line item, therefore reducing the Clerk’s annual salary. th I just received this afternoon the minutes of the October 24 meeting, which unfortunately I was unable to attend that also, where you did discuss Don’s presentation. I would like to address one Public Hearing on Preliminary Budget Page 3 October 28, 2003 comment made by the Supervisor. “Yeah, since she’s an hourly wage earner,” and I’m assuming you are referring to Peg Palmer, since her name doesn’t appear here or the word court clerk doesn’t appear here, so I’m doing a lot of assumption I guess, “she’s an hourly wage earner. She doesn’t get paid when she’s not working. So, if there is anything else above it you take it out of the contingency fund.” When she’s not there, nobody else is there doing the work so that when she does come back she essentially is going to work twice as much to catch up. So, in reality she is working 52 hours a week. But in time spent she is working 52 hours a week because she has to make up for the work when she’s not here. Thank you. Supervisor Morey – Thanks, Peg. Comments? John? John Norman, Town Justice – I just want to reiterate what Peg just presented. When we presented the budget for the year 2004 we presented it for 27 hours per week for the Court Clerk. The Board at that time asked if 27 hours was adequate and Peg said yes at this time. I think the line item for the Court Clerk should be 27 hours per week with a salary of $11.84, which would be the $16,610. The only other comment I want to make, anybody read the newspaper on Saturday at all? Supervisor Morey – What article? John Norman – The article’s on elected positions. I happened to see that the Town Justices in Enfield earn $12,879, the little Town of Enfield. For 2003, we had in the budget for the Judges, $18,000. I think for the year 2004 the $18,000 should stand and it should be split between the two Judges making it $9,000 in salary for the two Judges. That’s all I’ve got to say. Supervisor Morey – Thanks John. John Norman – Any questions? Councilman Sovocool – Not from here. Supervisor Morey – Colleen? Colleen D. Pierson, former Town Clerk – Yes, just a quick question. I sent a request in to Glenn requesting an increase in the health benefits paid by the Town for myself and I never heard a word. As usual, I don’t get any reply or anything. And I want to know if you did ever do that? Supervisor Morey – We discussed it and we decided not to this year. Ms. Pierson – You did discuss it? Supervisor Morey – Yeah. Ms. Pierson – Okay. Supervisor Morey – And the reason why I can’t get ahold of you is because your phone is unlisted. I don’t have your phone number. Ms. Pierson – You had it when I was here. Public Hearing on Preliminary Budget Page 4 October 28, 2003 Supervisor Morey – No I didn’t, I…. Ms. Pierson – It was on the main sheet with the phone numbers. Supervisor Morey – Well, I never even thought about it. I thought it was unlisted. Ms. Pierson – You didn’t want to talk to me, did you? Supervisor Morey – No, that’s not right. That certainly isn’t right. Ms. Pierson – Well, I’ll give you my phone number then, or April can. She knows what it is. But I know everyone had one. Rick had one. Everyone had one. Supervisor Morey – Well, when I called you that one time, I got the phone number from Rick and I respected your privacy and never wrote it down. Ms. Pierson – Oh, okay, whatever. I’m pretty sure you had the list with it on there. Two, three years ago we spoke about my insurance after I left and you and I talked about it before you got elected your first term. You were going to see if you could get my health insurance paid for 100% after I retired. It was anyone with over 20 years of service and a full time person. Never did talk about it again since, but I would really like to have you consider that. It’s a big burden on me and I wish you would discuss it with the rest of them. Supervisor Morey – But I did bring it up. I did start paying 25% of the….. Ms. Pierson – Yes you did, last year. Supervisor Morey – No, it was a couple years ago. Ms. Pierson – If you could do anything about it, I’d appreciate it. Supervisor Morey – Certainly. Ms. Pierson – Thank you. Supervisor Morey – Rick? Richard C. Case, Highway Superintendent - I have no comment unless somebody’s got questions. Supervisor Morey – The Board? Louie? Councilman Sovocool – I’ve got none. Health insurance is a problem for everybody. I know that……. Supervisor Morey – Peg, do you want to say anything? Peg Palmer – Yeah, I have one other question that I was put up to by Don who’s unfortunately at another meeting tonight. He asked me to get a number from you on what the unrestricted fund balance is for 2003 on the budget, which doesn’t show up on a line item. Public Hearing on Preliminary Budget Page 5 October 28, 2003 Supervisor Morey – Do you know right off the top of your head? Liz Brennan, Bookkeeper – No. Supervisor Morey – I have to look it up. Councilman Sovocool - $130,000, is that it? Supervisor Morey – It sounds right. It’s $130,000. Peg Palmer - $130,000? Supervisor Morey – Yeah. Louie, you got any questions? Comments? Councilman Sovocool – I’ve got none. Supervisor Morey – Don? Councilman Scheffler – Nope. Councilman Randall – Nope. Supervisor Morey – Sheldon? Councilman Clark – All set. Supervisor Morey – All right if there’s no more comments I take a motion to close the Public Hearing. Councilman Randall moved to close the Public Hearing, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, at 7:15 PM. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey Supervisor Morey – Next discussion is on the action of the 2004 Budget. I suggest we do it th next Board Meeting, November 11. I’d like to open the Public Hearing for Fire Protection and Ambulance Service. I think we can disperse from reading from reading the legal notice because April already did. PULBIC HEARING ON FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT CONTRACT The Public Hearing was opened at 7:16 PM. Supervisor Morey – Any comments on the fire and ambulance service? Lester’s here if anybody has any questions. Lester Coit, Fire Chief – First of all I’d like to let the Board know, we thank you for your continued support for the Groton Fire Department. With your support and also the Village Board Public Hearing on Preliminary Budget Page 6 October 28, 2003 we remain one of the few ambulance agencies that are not billing for their services. And we can attribute that to the support that we get out of the Town and the Village and also the taxpayers. Over the next couple of years you’re going to see, hopefully, some major changes in the Fire Department. We’re looking into building a new facility. It’s a long ways away. It’s not going to happen overnight. But we’re going to try to do it with the least amount of burden on the taxpayers as we can. Right now, if OSHA was to come back into the Fire Department, like they have in the past, they could essentially shut us down any time. We don’t have the right facilities for decontamination and other, so on and so forth. We’ve come a long way in the last couple of years as far as our training and stuff like that. Right now it costs the Fire Department approximately $2,000 per firefighter just to outfit them in turnout gear and pagers. We’ve just been notified that our compensation insurance is going to increase form $11,000 last year too, two years ago, to next year it will be over $31,000. The reason being is the insurance rate is always based on the population in which you serve, the fire department serves. It’s not on how many accidents or anything. It’s on the population that you serve. Over the past 15, 20 years we’ve been assessed on Village population alone. They took the new census here a couple years ago and they caught on. They caught up to us, so it’s going to be a major increase. Between the $31,000 compensation, there’s also another $25,000 in liability and automobile insurance. Supervisor Morey – Any questions for Lester. Comments Loiue? Councilman Sovocool – No. Supervisor Morey - Don? Councilman Scheffler – No. Supervisor Morey – Tyke? Councilman Randall – No. Supervisor Morey – Sheldon? Councilman Clark - No. Supervisor Morey – If not, I’ll take a motion to close the Public Hearing on the Fire Protection and Ambulance Service. Councilman Randall moved to close the Public Hearing, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, at 7:18 PM. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey Supervisor Morey – All right. I guess there’s no discussion. We’ll pass this on the next Board thth meeting too on November 11. Discussion on changing the date. November 11 is Veterans Day. Does anybody want to change the date? The celebration’s at 11 o’clock in the morning. So, Louie? Councilman Sovocool – No, Tuesday’s fine with me. Councilman Scheffler - It’s okay with me if it’s okay with everybody else. Public Hearing on Preliminary Budget Page 7 October 28, 2003 Supervisor Morey – Okay with you, April. Clerk Scheffler – Yes. th Supervisor Morey – So, the next Board Meeting will be Tuesday, November 11, 7:30. There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, at 7:19 PM. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler Town Clerk