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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-12-27 SpecialTOWN OF GROTON — MINUTES OF SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2018 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 Charles Rankin, Bookkeeper Francis Casullo, Attorney for the Town Also present: Elizabeth Conger, Ellard Keister, Brian Weir, Lester Coit, Logan Wannall, Steve Simons, Nathan Wannall, Mike Neville, Josh Barron, Ben Nelson, Andrew Sullivan, Scott Metcalf, Lyle Raymond, Dave Boyes, Mike Smith, Patrick O'Neill, Richard Neville, Sr, Julie Graham, Joe Graham, Mack Rankin, Rod Mott, Dick Slocum, Tom Jacobs, Eric Satterly, Glenn Morey, John MacLean Supervisor Scheffler - First let me explain the strange timing of this meeting. Due to the necessity to work as quickly as possible on this matter, the constrains of meeting announcement requirements, the desire to have all Board Members present, and the vacation and holiday schedules, today is it. Rick Case, Jr., has decided to retire after 21 years of dedicated service to the Town of Groton. Words can't express our gratitude for all that he has done for the Town over those years and we wish him well and a long, happy retirement. The responsibility to appoint a replacement falls to the Town Board. I will read highlights of the process: 1. The position is a Town Board appointment from appointment date to December 31, 2019. This is not a Civil Service, competitive job, it's an appointment. 2. There will be an election in November 2019 to elect a Highway Superintendent to complete the remaining 2 years of the current 4 -year term. 3. The election in November 2021 will be for a full 4 -year term. 4. The appointed individual will have to run for election in November 2019 and win to continue in the position. There is no assurance of any position beyond December 31, 2019. So that means we will appoint someone and you have to understand that there is no guarantee. 5. An internal candidate appointed to the position will be required to resign their current position, with no guarantee of any employment beyond December 31, 2019 unless elected in November 2019. 6. Appointment will be made by the Town Board after 12:01 am on January 3, 2019 at a time and date yet to be determined. 7. Rate of pay is yet to be determined. Privilege of the Floor: Patrick O'Neill - My wife, Colleen, and I have been residents of the Town of Groton for the last 22 years. When we first arrived in Groton, my wife worked for Express Mart and I worked for Suit-Kote as a truck driver/laborer for a few years. I moved up quickly to a supervisor and loved my position. My wife started out as assistant manager and was promoted to a manager and eventually became in charge of all 78 stores in operations management for Express Mart. We both worked in positions that required not only Town Board Minutes Page 2 December 27, 2018 leading and coaching employees, but working with the public as well. Our jobs were demanding, but also rewarding at the same time. It is unfortunate that the Town has to deal with the short notice from the Superintendent of Highways at this time, but as you all recall, I did run for the last election of Highway Superintendent. I was running for the people of Groton and for the job. It was nothing personal. I felt that I had something to offer, new ideas, and a working relationship with the people of Groton. I bring a lot of knowledge to the table from working construction for many years, safety concerns, traffic concerns, preventive maintenance programs, scheduled maintenance programs, expenses, project estimates, training, working with the traffic and public as well, and upcoming jobs and reporting to the motoring public as well as the residents and employees of the Town of Groton. Working with the residents in the municipalities is what I did well when I worked for these companies and I'd like to continue that with you. All I'm looking for is an opportunity. Once again, I'm sorry for the inconvenience that you guys are under. I'm willing to take the opportunity to stand up and work for the Town. Nathan Wannall - I have a letter that I've written to Mr. Scheffler and the Board: We are writing this letter of recommendation on behalf of Mr. Pat O'Neill for consideration as interim Highway Superintendent. We have personally known Pat for the past 12 years. He is one of the first people we met when our family moved back to this area. We have found him honest in his dealings; fair in his judgment; reliable in his actions; and a decent person to work with. He is glad to help a neighbor or teach something new to an up and coming laborer. As you're aware, Mr. O'Neill has expressed an interest in this job and ran for the position in recent elections. He comes with 30 -plus years experience managing road crews for some of the largest highway companies in the State. Mr. O'Neill has not become complacent by staying in one place, but continues to grow personally and professionally by taking on new challenges throughout his vast career. The knowledge he has gained are strengths that he can bring to our highway department here. While Mr. O'Neill has not lived in Groton his entire life, he has chose to make Groton his home and has lived here for many years. He owns his own home and has expressed many times his plans to retire right here in Groton. Knowledge, roots, experience, willingness, ability, honest and dependability are reasons Pat O'Neill should be considered for the position of Highway Superintendent. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, we can be reached, my son and I, at 607-229-6689 or 607-660-3121. This is signed by myself, Charles Nathan Wannall and my son, Logan Wannall. Rick Neville - I'm a retired employee from the Town of Groton. I have a couple questions. What prompted Rick to resign the position other than just retirement? There's all kinds of rumors flying around. Everybody knows that. Supervisor Scheffler - We're not here to get into that. You'd have to ask Rick that. We're moving forward at this point. Mr. Neville - I understand totally, moving forward. It's just the past years with Cornie, I think Rick was hand picked for the position through the Republican Party. On and above that, I think there are avenues of not being the "good old boy" or whatever, which everybody has heard that. I think this should be a fair, back to the point, we need somebody. As far as I'm concerned, Rick did a hell of a job, and I think there's retired members hear that worked with me. I understand that he didn't get along with some of the County stuff. I don't believe he did everything with the County that he could of and I hope the new guy does. And work with the Board, come to the meetings. That's really important, don't just get the position and then not come to any of the meetings. Like I said, I'm not knocking Rick, he treated me super. No one else wished to speak. Supervisor Scheffler - There will be some anticipated openings in the Highway Department. They will be jobs that are hired by whoever is appointed to the Highway Superintendent position. They are anticipated, but I am not saying they will be there or they won't be there, that will be up to him or her. The anticipated positions are mechanic and possible laborer, or motor equipment operator. You would have to go online through Tompkins County Human Resources. The appointment for Highway Superintendent will not be made today. By law, we can't take any action on this until the position is Town Board Minutes Page 3 December 27, 2018 actually, physically vacant, which would be midnight on January 2nd. After that point is when we will have to make a decision and make an appointment. Ellard Sovocool - Does the appointed person have live in the township? Supervisor Scheffler - I believe so. They have to be electable, which means they would have to be a resident. Some one asked if a person hired for any other highway positions would have to be a resident and it was answered that no, but from a contiguous municipality if not the town. The Town Attorney was out of the room, attempting to research and find answers to some of the issues. It was decided to take a break until he returned to advise the Board. The meeting was reconvened at 4:25 pm. Attorney Casullo - I didn't realize that the Deputy has also resigned the same day as the Highway Superintendent, which means that 12 o'clock, January 3rd, you are without a Highway Superintendent and a Deputy. Normally, you shouldn't appoint someone prospectively, meaning you don't appoint until the position is actually open. However, the concern that I have is that the gentlemen in the Highway Department are not unionized and there is no foreman either, so you are in a situation where overnight on January 3rd and you have a pretty significant storm, and things need to be done, orders need to be given, and who's going to give them. If it was in the summer, I wouldn't be as concerned about this. Talking with the State, and they're supposed to be sending me an opinion that I can look at, given these types of circumstances, there's a school of thought that says that if you meet on January 2nd and appoint the Highway Superintendent and then come back on January 3rd and reaffirm your appointment that you made January 2nd. That way, come 12 o'clock on January 3rd, you don't have a gap and that person is in charge to handle what needs to be done especially if there is a storm or bad weather. There is no real good way of doing this. Councilperson Gamel - So you're concerned about that one day? Attorney Casullo - What I'm concerned about is, you have to be understanding of the Open Meetings Law. You can't do an open meeting at 12 o'clock in the morning, 4 o'clock in the morning, you should do it so the people can be here and see what you're doing and find out what's going on. The problem we have is you guys all have work schedules, and the earliest we can get here to appoint a Highway Superintendent on January 3rd is 4:00 am. So, you're going to have a gap from midnight to 4:00 am. If you have bad weather, what are you going to do? Councilperson Gamel - Just for the record, I have one hundred percent confidence in the team we still have that that would get done. If it's just for a day, I'm not concerned, our guys will do it, unless there's a legal issue we have to worry about with no one in charge. Attorney Casullo - I'm not saying I'm not confident in them. At the end of the day though, if there's an issue or a problem, there's going to be nobody over there from midnight until 4:00 that says the buck stops with him or her. That's the issue. I'm concerned about that if we have a meeting January 2nd and you appoint somebody, then that person is there and making the decisions as the Highway Superintendent then we come again on January 3rd at 4:00 pm and ratify what you did on January 2nd, it seems that it would work. My concern is that if there is bad weather, it's a big deal. The people I talked to at the Association of Towns are a little bit stumped on this too. Technically, the better thing is not to appoint prospectively, but we're in Upstate New York in the middle of winter and we're trying to meet with the Open Meetings Law and not have the meeting at 12:01 am or 4:00 am either. You're trying to juggle two or three balls trying to keep all the legal issues on the table and do the best you can. We're trying to comply with the Open Meetings Law. We're trying to do the best we can, but we're in Upstate New York in the middle of winter and we can't leave a position open, well two positions open, for that period of time and hope that nothing happens. I don't think too many people are going to argue with that. Supervisor Scheffler - Can we appoint a Deputy for that day? Town Board Minutes Page 4 December 27, 2018 Attorney Casullo - If the Deputy had resigned for a period of more than five days, the Board could have appointed, but his effective date is the same day that the Superintendent is quitting. So, that doesn't work. Clerk Scheffler - If the weather is fine, you don't have to worry about it. Attorney Casullo - I think you set a meeting for the 2nd and then you set a meeting for the 3rd. Then we've covered our bases. We can see what's going on and if we need both meetings, fine, but I think you need to be covered initially. As soon as you appoint a Highway Superintendent, one of his first duties is going to need to be appointing a Deputy, and then we get back to running the way we need to run. I want to make sure we cover all our bases and if we don't need them both, that's okay. If it turns out that overnight on January 2nd is 40 degrees and partly cloudy, it's not that big of an issue and you can wait until January 3rd Councilperson Jackson - You mentioned that you don't have a foreman. Would it solve the problem if we appointed a foreman? Attorney Casullo - You can't appoint the foreman. The foreman has to be appointed by the Highway Superintendent. But so that we never get into this situation again, I think we have to look into the legal way to get a chain of command down to three people. Then we won't have this issue because the foreman, with instructions from the Highway Superintendent, with the absence of him and the Deputy, that person could take care of the highway operations, not the administrative part and paying the bills. But that's down the road. Ellard Keister - We currently have three people in command. It starts with the Superintendent, then the Deputy and the third person in charge is always the mechanic, which just happens to be the Deputy. But that is the chain of command. Steve Simons - What's the problem with holding two meetings? Am I missing something here? Supervisor Scheffler - No problem other than we have to get the whole Board together and available to do it. Attorney Casullo - The general rule is that you don't appoint prospectively... Steve Simons - Oh, I agree. I'm just saying if it needs two meetings, then it means two meetings. Supervisor Scheffler - Yes, and that's what we will do. Scott Metcalf - Is it legal for one of the Board members to do the Superintendent spot for overnight. Attorney Casullo - If there is anyone who could do it, it would be Don, under his emergency powers, but the school of thought is that if there are other ways to handle it we should try to keep Don not doing it. That would only be for a real, real emergency. Don was not elected to run the Highway Department. RESOLUTION #18-082 - SET DATES FOR TWO SPECIAL MEETINGS MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Gamel RESOLVED, that the Groton Town Board hereby schedules a Special Meeting for Wednesday, January 2, 2019 at 4:00 pm, at the Town Hall, 101 Conger Boulevard, Groton, New York for the purpose of discussion pertaining to the Highway Superintendent position and the prospective appointment of a Highway Superintendent, and be it further RESOLVED, The Groton Town Board hereby schedules a Special Meeting for Thursday, January 3, 2019 at 4:00 pm, at the Town Hall, 101 Conger Boulevard, Groton, New York for the purpose of either appointing or reaffirming the appointment of a Highway Superintendent. Ayes - Gamel, Young, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed Town Board Minutes Page S December 27, 2018 Supervisor Scheffler - Do you want to go into Executive Session to discus.....? Attorney Casullo - Let me tell you about Executive Session. If it has anything to do with discussing qualifications or appointments relative to this position, the better course of action is, it really should be done in open session. So I can't counsel you to go into Executive Session. That's because this is generally an elected position and the people have a right to know what the qualifications are. Supervisor Scheffler - Okay, we will just review then and then make a decision on the 2nd or 3rd then. There may be more applicants by then too. Councilperson Gamel - I think we should hold off. Supervisor Scheffler - Yes, we should because we did say January 1 st for letters of intent. There being no further business, Councilperson Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilperson Young, at 4:54 pm. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler, RMC Town Clerk