HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-10-13TB 10-13-15
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TOWN OF DRYDEN
TOWN BOARD MEETING
October 13, 2016
Present: Supervisor Jason Leifer, Cl Daniel Lamb, Cl Linda Lavine,
Cl Deborah Cipolla-Dennis
Absent: Cl Kathrin Servoss
Elected Officials: Bambi L. Avery, Town Clerk
Other Town Staff: Ray Burger, Director of Planning
Jennifer Case, Bookkeeper
Jane Marie Law met with the board, Ray Burger, and Kevin Ezell prior to the meeting to
discuss Airbnb, how it is functioning in the community and matters of zoning, code
enforcement and regulation. She recommends that municipalities legalize and regulate Airbnb.
That allows the municipality to delineate it, regulate what it is, and set a creative model. It
also gives Tompkins County enormous exposure for tourism.
Supv Leifer called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m.
Budget – Supv Leifer said Rick Young will be at the October 19 budget workshop to
discuss the Highway Department budget. Budget requests from the fire departments were
distributed to board members. Supv Leifer asked the board to compare these to prior years.
Some requests include explanations. Some departments are looking to increase their
equipment reserve. Neptune going to review their proposed budget this week and will provide a
breakdown. These will be reviewed after discussion of the Highway Department budget.
The preliminary budget is basically what departments requested with some numbers
massaged. Scenarios using different amount of fund balance and the effect on the tax rate
were shared with board members. Supv Leifer said if we lower appropriations from last year,
the rate will still likely go up because there is less fund balance. His feeling is if the people of
the town still want these things, they’ll have to pay for it. The DRYC wants two full time
positions and people want trails. If there is grant money for the trails, there will be a match
component. The amount of unencumbered fund balance is not healthy. He has begun talking
with the Highway Superintendent about taking a year from putting money in the highway
equipment reserve. This can all be discussed next week.
Until development is place, we are still in a fix. There are three new developments
coming into Varna that will contribute. A solar company has been talking about putting in at
least two two-megawatt systems. But those things won’t be ready in time to help with next
year’s budget. The workers comp insurance is being put out for bid because they’ve increased
the premium $47,000 due to one fire department claim in the past six yea rs. That alone would
have taken us to the levy cap.
Supv Leifer asked board members to review the Highway Department budget prior to
next week.
Cl Lamb reported he had spoken with the State Comptroller’s staff and it appears they
will be able to perform our audit.
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Planning Department Update
Morris Road – This involves a collapsed residence. Code Enforcement has declared it an
unsafe structure. The owner has a demolition permit but has not made progress. A neighbor
has an issue with a tree on the property that could be a hazard. The legal process hasn’t been
accomplished and the town can’t enter the property. Demolition cost to the town is estimated
around $15,000 and there isn’t enough money in this budget to do it . The board may take
action at the November meeting.
South Hill Recreation Way – This has been held up with an ownership legal dispute.
Caroline has been advised that NYSEG does have legal ownership. R Burger expects the effort
to reinvigorate and will be bringing a resolution to the board to support that in the future.
There are four contiguous Dryden landowners involved. He added that it appears there is
ammunition for both sides of the case.
Board members have the written Planning Department update. There will be no
hearing on the Verizon tower because they have not received the required statement from the
State Historic Preservation Office. Public hearings scheduled for next week include the Simms
Hill telecommunication tower, the Clarity Connect tower on Midline Road, open development
areas for Tiny Timbers and a property on Scofield Road, and the Ideal Storage business on
Freeville Road.
There was discussion about holding a public hearing to approve the easements for the
section of trail from Varna to Freeville and the application that is being submitted for funding
for that trail. It was decided to pass a resolution recognizing the easements that have been
secured in support of the application.
The ZBA will have two items for its November 1 meeting. One is an area variance for
Tiny Timbers and the other is a minor subdivision on Route 79.
Public utility moratorium checklist – Cl Cipolla-Dennis has talked with Atty Brock on
some of the issues and emailed her a few days ago asking for a status update. There has been
no response yet. S Brock did say that the Planning Dept has a list of changes that need to be
addressed in the Zoning Law and she has a list as well. Cl Cipolla-Dennis also has some items
and said it may be time to combine lists. Supv Leifer said there will also be requested changes
from the Ag Committee. He will get together with Marty Moseley and see what the Planning
Board is suggesting. It can be done after the budget work is done in November. Most are
clarifying statements and making sure definitions are consistent. Maybe it can be
accomplished in January.
Solar law – Cl Cipolla-Dennis will be looking at this and considering comments received
from David Weinstein and Marty Moseley. She’ll then send it back to the Planning Board.
Hopefully the Planning Board will then want to move forward with it. She’d like to have a
public hearing on it in November and adopt it.
Cl Lamb reported the DRYC had a good discussion regarding staffing the Recreation
Department. Members of the public were present and they discussed what they thought
worked and what they thought they could do to create an effective search process. He shared a
process used at the town level in the State of Pennsylvania to recruit and how to look at
backgrounds of potential recreation directors. It is very much a management profession and
has to have some credentials in terms of business management and to a certain extent human
resources. They want to convene a search committee representing the various interests on the
commission. He, the DRYC chair, and Cl Servoss have offered to serve and there are
recommendations from the DRYC for others to serve on the search committee. After
conducting its work the search committee would present three candidates to the town board.
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They would like to start the process as soon as possible for the recreation director position.
The DRYC has recommended one full time and one part time employee to work under the
director in what has been the traditional staffing model. This recommendation was based on
what staff currently does. The committee discussed with current staff what t hey could do until
personnel are replaced, how many hours a week they are currently working, and what it takes
to run the department.
Stephanie Mulinos had Sharon Todd, a long time DRYC member and professional in the
recreation field who helped develop the recreation master plan, present at their meeting. There
was professional as well as community involvement. The re has been a lot of progressive effort
to build the department to what it is. It was done because recreation provides demonstrable
value to the community. It’s about quality of life. Youth development programs are costly.
The town is currently way overmatching what they have to in order to have that programming.
But the cost to not provide that programming that provides intervention and support and
healthy adult relationship building they need at a critical point in their life is that the kids end
up in the juvenile justice system, and that is way more expensive. Dryden has the largest
number of mobile parks in the county. There are a lot of people in those parks who are
marginalized and disenfranchised and need these services. That’s what this is about. She
understands the fiscal constraints. Cutting the position and the department sends a message
to the community that quality of life is not important.
Supv Leifer said his message is that we can do these, but need to be willing to pay for it.
The message heard for years is that they are not. He means an increase in tax dollars. Unless
the people who ask for the programs are willing to say they will pay for it, then it’s not going to
happen. People have to understand it is going to cost them more. S Mulinos said recreation is
a tiny piece of the town budget.
Cl Lavine said this is not a question of whether the service is needed or important or a
question of the budget. It’s more a question of what we are spending. Her investigation
suggests that when we hired the first recreation director she shooed away the existing
volunteer people who were doing various activities. We actually n egatively affected the
volunteer base and then have claimed that we couldn’t find volunteers. It appears that we
don’t put enough effort into that and we could easily make that part of this job description .
She believes that if this is important to the community, people do volunteer. But it’s not part
of the model we have used. We used a model that paid people to go actually monitor games
and run games that easily could, if they exist, have volunteer coaches or do have volunteer
coaches and the model we have is that someone has to be there anyway.
Cl Lavine pointed out that each time she signs vouchers there is a $3.50 cent charge
each for multiple packages of cups. That means there’s no planning. They could have been
purchased in bulk less expensively. Why are we buying people uniforms and balls?
She suggested that we need to assess what we’ve done before we charge ahead and do
the same thing, which she thinks is wasting taxpayer money, and using that money frivolously
so that you can’t accomplish the larger purpose. She also suggested that the bo ard ask Steve
Stelick and his wife, Lisa, a human resources director, to head up a committee to define these
positions. It is being suggested that we need a director as if you brush over the idea of who is
going to define exactly what the role of that is. In looking for the best candidate, the person
doesn’t have to be in recreation or physical education, but needs to have management skills
and computer networking skills that everything depends on. The position can be defined in a
way that would enable local people with wide variety of backgrounds to apply for these jobs and
have the skills we want without having to call it something that filters out people illogically and
bureaucratically because they happen to fall into a particular basket. We need to take a few
steps back and re-examine what these roles are supposed to be before we put out a request for
people to apply for this job. Part of that should backtrack to where this started from which
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needed to have more of a volunteer base. We need someone who is a volunteer coordinator and
has computer skills and management skills. There is a lot to define here.
Cl Lavine said it is not clear to her that it is our town’s investment in recreation that
serves the trailer park people. A lot of that seems to come from Cooperative Extension and just
passes through us. She has heightened respect for recreation. But we are wasting money if we
are spending money on cups every time something happens and pay for footballs and outfits
that are only going to last a year, we are throwing away money that could be spent on
important activities. We are clearly throwing away money by not coordinating with things like
the Ithaca Youth Bureau and Cooperative Extension and others more.
Cl Lamb said we heard from Steve Stelick the history of the program and he has been
engaging in the very things Cl Lavine is talking about. He learned there was a need for this
sort of thing. It was driven by volunteers. It got bigger and Dryden got bigger and we have a
need now that goes beyond what a volunteer effort can meet. The DRYC had a very productive
meeting and discussed how they want to see the department handled going forward. It was the
sense there should be someone with a professional background in the field to do the thi ngs
that people care about. We don’t have the capacity as volunteers or the DRYC to know all the
needs and assess all the needs on a volunteer basis. That is the job of someone who is a
professional in the industry and we can expect that from and hold them accountable to run the
program.
Supv Leifer reminded the board that if we do this, we have to pay for it, and we don’t
have fund balance to rely on. If they are asking for two full time people, they’ll have to accept
that property taxes will go up. He wants people to understand there is a math problem to solve
in the budget, and he’s not blaming it on recreation.
Cl Cipolla-Dennis asked if the board can move toward the staffing that the DRYC wants.
Can they bring on a Recreation Director and leave the two part-time people in place right now
for the first year, get a good plan in place, and then look to moving to a full time coordinator for
2018, doing it incrementally? It also gives the new director time to define what that
department should look like and what they want to do and set it up the way they want. Cl
Lamb said he thought the commission would go along with that.
S Mulinos agreed that is reasonable. The DRYC wants a director vs a coordinator; the
important distinction being someone who has leadership capabilities plus the ability to vision
long term and do more planning activities; someone who has a real understanding of recreation
planning. A coordinator is really a program implementer. She said Jennifer’s observation was
that she and two part-timers was just more demanding.
Cl Lavine said we need to seriously look at the job description, label, and skills. How
you define the job description is important because it weeds out people that you might like to
really leave in. You need to consider what you lose and gain in the title. She wants
professional advice about that. The label is less important. It should be described broadly to
attract competent applicants who have the skill sets we want without necessarily a particular
label.
Points/comments made in discussion of what would be lost or gained in calling it a
director vs. a coordinator:
Skill sets vs. degrees
Label may be less important
Describe broadly enough to attract competent applicants with skills set and not
necessarily a particular label
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Civil Service defines job descriptions
Test for Recreation Director is offered soon and that will restrict the potential applicant
pool because of the restrictions and guidelines we are forced to follow through Civil
Service.
Hire the best match for the position though it may be a bit off the Civil Service
description.
It is alright to add “in-house” additions to the job description.
Match what you’re looking for with the title that you pick.
What is gained by hiring a director rather than a coordinator in terms of civil service
demands?
More education
More experience
Different exam
Different people will apply
Coordinator is not necessarily about planning
Cl Lavine said you rule out some potentially excellent local people wh en you narrowly
define and lock yourself in to that smaller pool. You don’t have to hire anybody. You could say
there was no one in the group you want and then hire someone else temporarily. You can have
someone with a degree who doesn’t know anything. There is a pool of great talent around this
area. You want someone with good communication and management skills. This person can
expand the reputation of the town. You can exercise the bureaucratic degree to the exclusion
of people who have all these qualifications.
Supv Leifer said some skills can be added to the in -house job description. If the core of
this is to get someone who is not only going to be able to coordinate volunteers and programs,
but also plan for the future, which seems to be most important to the commission, then the
board needs to decide to keep the budget the way it is now, accounting for a director and two
part-timers, and then next year talk about maybe converting a part -time position to a full-time
position if the need exists.
Cl Lavine said she hasn’t received an answer to the question: What do you lose by
calling it a coordinator and not a director? Does it expand the base of possible applicants?
Cl Lamb said it would lower the bar on who applies for this job. There will be people
that won’t apply. You won’t have the same caliber of applicants if you lower the classification
of the position. Cl Lavine said it is a challenging job market and you might get someone very
talented. She is talking about the bureaucracy that defines the difference between a
coordinator and a director. Supv Leifer said the group that was asked to look at this said their
primary focus is someone who can handle planning for the future, running the programs now,
and running volunteers. She wants to know what the job description is from the Civil Service
point of view. This is a bureaucratic technicality.
Cl Lamb said the difference is that a director looks at planning, looks at the long term,
does needs assessments. A coordinator will be a different quality of applicant. Cl Lavine is
asking for details. She doesn’t wish to waste taxpayer money and wants to serve the needs of
the people in terms of recreation. She would like to know what it rules out and rules in. She
would like them to defend what was suggested.
Cl Lavine noted that she did not get an answer that compared the two bureaucratic job
descriptions such that a reasonable, responsible board can figure out why it should be called
one and not the other.
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RESOLUTION #154 (2016) – RECREATION DEPARTMENT STAFFING
Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
RESOLVED, that this Town Board will maintain the budget request for 2017 for the
Recreation Department with a staff of Recreation Director and two part-time assistants, and
the DRYC is hereby charged with establishing a search committee for a new Recreation
Director.
2nd Cl Lamb
Roll Call Vote Cl Lavine No
Cl Cipolla-Dennis Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Supv Leifer Yes
Cl Cipolla-Dennis said the finance committee met this afternoon and recommends that
Jack Davison be authorized to purchase for the Recreation Department following the current
purchase policies.
RESOLUTION #155 (2016) – AUTHORIZE PURCHASER FOR RECREATION DEPT
Cl Cipolla-Dennis offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves Jack Davison as authorized
purchaser for the Recreation Department until a Recreation Director is appointed.
2nd Supv Leifer
Roll Call Vote Cl Lavine No
Cl Cipolla-Dennis Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Supv Leifer Yes
RESOLUTION #156 (2016) – APPROVE ABSTRACT #10
Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves Abstract #10, as audited, general
vouchers #713 through #811 ($253,663.13) and TA vouchers #84 and #85 ($3,712.78), totaling
$257,375.91.
2nd Cl Cipolla-Dennis
Roll Call Vote Cl Lavine Yes
Cl Cipolla-Dennis Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Supv Leifer Yes
Teamsters update – Supv Leifer reported they have an agreement ready to go to the
union. The wage increases are 30, 35, and 40 cents per hour. With respect to health
insurance, they’ve agreed that beginning with the next agreement, everyone in highway will
contribute to premiums. If we go past December 31, 2018, and haven’t agreed to something
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new yet, then deductions won’t have been taken from their pay, but it will be back-paid to
January 1, 2019. It’s an incentive to get everyone to the table to negotiate. HEO requirements
for two employees will not be in the agreement anymore. The fiscal impact is about $15,000
per year increase overall in wages. The next agreement will have the full health care
component that we want. It will have to be introduced at the same time for non-bargaining
people. Currently people hired after January 1, 2010 pay 10% of the premium. This
agreement has to be voted on at the Highway Department prior to the board approving it. Supv
Leifer will provide board members with the draft.
RESOLUTION #157 (2016) - RECOGNIZING THE SUCCESSFUL NEGOTIATION OF
TWENTY-ONE TRAIL EASEMENT AGREEMENTS CRITICAL TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF
THE DRYDEN RAIL TRAIL IN THE TOWN OF DRYDEN, AND FINALIZATION OF SIX
EASEMENTS TO DATE
Cl Lamb offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
WHEREAS, the Town recognizes the importance of preserving the Town’s natural
resources and rural character, and providing resi dents with more opportunities to observe and
enjoy the natural beauty the Town offers,
WHEREAS, the Dryden Town Board recognizes the importance of developing mixed use
commuting and recreational trails, as resources vital to improving the Town’s economic base,
tourism, property values, public health and fitness, and quality of life for Town residents,
WHEREAS, the Town acknowledges the extraordinary effort of Task Force members
have made building support for this initiative throughout the community,
WHEREAS, the Town greatly appreciates the numerous property owners who have
embraced this community project and have enthusiastically entered into easements for allow
this project to move forward,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Town of Dryden shall expedit e action to hold
a public hearing at the soonest date possible to act on accepting and finalizing the easements
for the purpose of advancing the Dryden Rail Trail.
2nd Supv Leifer
Roll Call Vote Cl Lavine Yes
Cl Cipolla-Dennis Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Supv Leifer Yes
The board will discuss choosing a date for the public hearing on the easements next
week.
The budget hearing will be held November 10 at 6:00 p.m.
An application has been received for a Planning Board alternate that can be acted o n
next week.
Supv Leifer informed the board that Jon Sinnigen, a thirty-year Highway Department
employee, passed away this week. Flowers have been sent from the town.
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There may be a need for a resolution next week on payroll questions. The finance
committee recommendation is to pay out the remaining vacation to his estate.
There are four budget mods that need approval.
From the Clerks office: $1200 increase to miscellaneous revenue and to town clerk
contractual. This is money coming in and going out for sale of trash tags.
From the Rec Department: A $250 transfer from community recreation to software. It
has been under-budgeted for the last couple of years and will be fixed for next year; and
$3,750 Legacy Grant money going into Rec Mi scellaneous grants and into Rec
equipment so it can be used to purchase fitness equipment for the Jim Schug Trail.
From the Planning Department: $900 is being moved from the Stormwater Management
account to the Watershed Monitoring account for the Six Mile Creek gauge station.
RESOLUTION #158 (2016) – APPROVE BUDGET MODIFICATIONS
Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the following budget modifications:
To Acct To Acct
A2770 Miscellaneous Revenue A1410.4 Town Clerk Contractual $ 1,200.00
A2005 Rec - Misc Grants A7020.201 Rec Equipment $ 3,750.00
From Acct To Acct
A8790.401 Stormwater A8790.403 Watershed $ 900.00
A7330.4 Community Recreation A7020.405 Software Upkeep $ 250.00
2nd Cl Lamb
Roll Call Vote Cl Lavine Yes
Cl Cipolla-Dennis Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Supv Leifer Yes
R Burger asked if the board wanted to see a presentation on the Tiny Timbers o pen
development area. The best way to deal with the interior lots for access is by taking this
action. It is coming on recommendation of the Planning Board and they have gone over the
plat exhaustively. The variances will be handled by the ZBA and the f inal plat will be approved
by the Planning Board. The documents are on the website and there are extensive notes in the
Planning Board minutes.
Cl Cipolla-Dennis said the Planning Board has recommended that the Town Board
charge them with looking at areas and ways in our zoning law that we can do cluster
development (such as Tiny Timbers) and define appropriate places for that to happen. Then
these projects wouldn’t have to come to the Town Board. These types of tiny hous es are
becoming more popular and we are likely to see more of them. We do n’t want to make it
difficult.
At next week’s budget workshop Supv Leifer will have another scenario of the fund
balance sales tax shift. At this point he is trying to limit the rise in the rate even though we are
lowering spending.
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There being no further business, on motion made, seconded and unanimously
approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Bambi L. Avery
Town Clerk