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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-11-09-PH BUDGE&RTB TOWN OF ULYSSES PUBLIC HEARING 2006 BUDGET NOVEMBER 9, 2005 PRESENT : Supervisor Doug Austic , Town Councilpeople Lee Scott, Robert Weatherby; Roxanne Marino and Don Ellis ; Town Clerk Marsha Georgia; Highway Superintendent James Meeker: Deputy Supervisor Richard Coogan. Others Present : Attorney Bruce Wilson, Fire Chief Jason Fulton, and David Mikula Sr. , and Darise Jean-Baptiste Ithaca Journal Reporter. Supervisor Austic called the Public Hearing to order at 7 : 00 pm . Mr. Austic said that he was not extremely happy to submit a budget that calls for a tax increase and pointed out that he and the rest of the Board members are also tax payers and what ever affects the public affects them the same way. Mr. Austic stated that several factors lead to the conclusion that the Board could not take into account anticipated increases in fuel prices and those kinds of things without increasing the budget. The tax rate per thousand will be $ 1 . 79 over last years rate of $ 1 . 47 per thousand . Mr. Austic opened the hearing up to the public for questions . Mr. David Mikula said that he has been a Trumansburg resident for three years and every year his assessment has gone up, which he thinks is horrible but understands, but he does not understand why the Town tax levy is up 36% when every other Town in the County increasing at most 13 % . The County actually went down . Mr. Austic said that it is not a 36% it is 21 % even though the Ithaca Journal reported that and last year the Town tax rate went down 5 % and that may have been a mistake to do that last year. Mr. Mikula said than is that due to poor planning . Mr. Austic said yes may be it was . Mr. Mikula talked about the increase of sales of houses and new houses . Mr. Mikula said that three years ago 40% of his mortgage payment went to taxes and right now 53 % goes to taxes . Mr. Austic said that it is not all the Town of Ulysses . Mr. Mikula understands that. Mr. Austic said that oddly enough the Town got hit with a couple of strange things this year that they did not plan on and the bills have to be paid . Mr. Mikula asked what was so extravagant that would cause this kind of increase . Mr. Austic said that there is nothing extravagant, there is no increase in a lot of the accounts or slightly increased, some accounts are reduced such as the reduction in the health insurance costs of $ 35 ,000 to $40 , 000; the revenues are down . Mr. Mikula asked how revenues could be down if the mortgage tax is there . Mr. Austic explained that mortgage tax is down because the increase was mostly because of the refinancing of houses . Mr. Ellis said that mortgage taxes have been coming primarily from the refinancing of houses and the mortgage tax from new houses is a very small percentage of the overall te amount. There has been almost a decade of a lot of refinancing. Budget Public Hearing 2 11 /09/2005 Mr. Ellis said that looking at the budget line by line the four things that have the most impact are health insurance increases, petroleum increases, salt, asphalt and the two things that are particularly going down is mortgage tax and sales tax . You have these two large things falling and two types of things rising; a very significant change in the Towns economic situation . Mr. Austic said that he is not saying that the estimate they put in the budget for fuel is a correct estimate and just may be it is over estimated. Ms . Marino pointed out that in 2005 there was more fund balances used to reduce the tax rate . The Town can only do their best at estimating. This year the fund balances are not as high because the Town has had to spend more the last two months the cost of fuel has doubled and the Town has had more expense than was anticipated with the new Zoning Law, with advertising, legal issues and a lot of things like that . Ms . Marino said that it is kind of a balance between having a small fund balance to use one year and the next year the available fund balance could be more and the tax rate gets lowered. Mr. Mikula said that the reason that brought him here tonight just the amount of the increase and he does realize the rate of $ 1 . 76 per thousand is lower than a lot of Towns . Mr. Austic said that the County did a study and the Town of Ulysses since 1995 has been the lowest increase in tax levy of any Town in Tompkins County and even with this the Town will still be the lowest . Mr. Mikula does not disagree with the fact that you have to increase but the thing that brought him here tonight is the amount and that concerned him and he feels that the Town Board has been very open and he appreciates the response . Mr. Mikula said that he will not like writing the check but now it is easier to take knowing why. Ms . Marino said that personally she thought that there is a fair amount of uncertainty on the front the way the economy is right now so she feels that the Board is erring on the side of being conservative in that assuming the revenue from mortgage tax is going to be less, based on : what has happened in the last few months, and that the fuel costs are going to be a lot higher. Ms . Marino said has gone over the budget in detail and may be there are a few places to cut, but she has tried running a whole bunch of numbers every place that it seemed reasonable to cut money and it did not end up saving over $ . 03 or $ . 04 per thousand on the tax rate, at the most. Ms . Marino said that maybe the Board should look again to be responsible but she could not find a way. When Ms . Marino looked at every large number and what it is for and why, it really comes down to a big change from last year in what you have left over as fund balances . The Board mentioned the increase in the Fire Protection budget and what that meant to the taxes . Mr. Ellis said that he has a comment on the fire budget and thanked Jason Fulton, Fire Chief for all of the good information provided to the Town Board and all the work that he had put into the budget . Mr. Ellis said that he does not want this to seem negative but more of a help;, but he sees all the dollars in the budget and then seeing that only $ 734 of those dollars are for fire prevention programs makes him wish that there is more money for those kinds of things . The safety programs like the car seats are terrific . Mr. Fulton said that the Child safety seat program is operated solely from a grant and no local money is put in that. Regarding the fire prevention they do what they can in the school but they get one day at a set time and that is it. This year Mr. Fulton said they did the open house at the fire station. Hearing no further questions Mr. Ellis moved, seconded by Mr. Scott to adjourn the public hearing. Unanimously approved, public hearing adjourned at 7 : 25 PM . Respectfully submitted, Budget Public Hearing 3 11 /09/2005 Marsha L. Georgia Ulysses Town Clerk MLG : mlg 1 3 1 IN' TOWN OF ULYSSES REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 9, 2005 PRESENT : Supervisor Doug Austic , Town Councilpeople Lee Scott, Robert Weatherby; Roxanne Marino and Don Ellis ; Town Clerk Marsha Georgia; Highway Superintendent James Meeker: Deputy Supervisor Richard Coogan. Others Present : Attorney Bruce Wilson, Fire Chief Jason Fulton, and Ithaca Journal Reporter. Lucia Tyler and David Filiberto arrived late into the meeting. Supervisor Austic called the meeting to order at 7 : 30 pm, and led those assembled in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America. APPROVAL OF MINUTES : RTB 8/9/2005, 9/13/2005, & 10/11 /2005 SBM 8/30/2005 Mr. Austic moved, seconded by Mr. Ellis to approve the minutes of the Town Board Regular meetings of August 9, 2005 , September 13 , 2005 and October 11 , 2005 and Special Town Board meeting of August 30 , 2005 as corrected by Ms . Marino . Mr. Austic aye Mr. Scott aye Mr. Weatherby aye Ms . Marino aye Mr. Ellis aye Adopted. APPROVAL OF CLAIMS Mr. Scott moved, seconded by Mr. Ellis to approve vouchers #511 through #585 in the amount of $ 82 , 556 . 97 . Mr. Austic said that before that is done account DB5120 . 04 Bridge Material needs to be increased by $ 19,379 . 50 and transferred from the Bridge Capital Reserve account. Mr. Ellis moved, seconded by Mr. Austic to increase DB5120 . 4 by $20,000 to be taken from Bridges Capital Reserve . Mr. Austic aye Mr. Scott aye Mr. Weatherby aye Ms . Marino aye Mr. Ellis aye Adopted . Mr. Scott moved, seconded by Mr. Ellis to approve vouchers #511 through #585 in the amount of $ 82 , 566 . 97 . Mr. Austic aye Mr. Scott aye Mr. Weatherby aye Ms. Marino aye Mr. Ellis aye Adopted. REPORTS OF REPRESENTATIVES Regular Town Board Meeting 2 11 /09/2005 Peter Penniman, Tompkins County Board of Representative — called and is attending [ear. fl t Ie,t,. ,x, y .;•, .H ` . . . .. .a- a County meeting tonight ." Fire Chief Jason Fulton of Trumansburg Fire Department — reported that from April 2005 to date there have been a total of 496 calls . For this month 238 total calls and of that 165 were ambulance calls . Mr. Fulton summarized what the summer was like . The Fire Department started out in June with 90 calls then went to 100, which was a record, in July 85 , August 71 , September 64 calls and last month there were 69 calls . A couple of other things that have happened within the Department were they have updated some equipment that was 20 years old, some of the rescue equipment, and the mini-pumper was delivered in August . The Board discussed the total of the calls and why Mr. Fulton thought there was such an increase . The Board discussed the additional calls to Cayuga Addiction Center. Mr. Austic has looked into charging the not- for-profit organizations (exempt properties) just for "fire protection" . If the fire tax cannot be done it is possible to charge in "lieu of taxes" . Ms . Marino suggested that Mr. Wilson look into this . Bruce would start to look into the options for recovering some of the costs . Mr. Wilson asked Mr. Fulton if the Fire Department had there own attorney. Mr . Fulton was not sure . • Mr. Austic will continue looking into it for the time being . Mr. Fulton will give a rough estimate of the cost of the ambulance visits to Cayuga Addiction Recovery to Mr. Austic, using numbers from Bang ' s Ambulance . Mr. Austic will go and talk to Cayuga Addiction Recovery informally about the problem and what can be done . It may be just be a matter of changing the contract to have a separate contract for fire and ambulance districts . Mr. Fulton said that the Fire Department has changed the by-laws and are now opening up enrollment to sixteen year olds, before it was limited to eighteen year olds . The sixteen to seventeen year olds are classified as Junior Members . The Fire Departments total enrollment now is up to 75 - 80 people. Planning Board Chairman, David Tyler — absent . TOWN REPORTS Highway Superintendent, James Meeker reported that the highway crew shimmed ..., u, .. a1w . •. Cold Springs Road, from the bridge East of Halseyville Road, hauled in some item #4 for the shoulders on Brook Road and Cold springs Road, installed two driveways on Iradell Road, stoned and oiled Wilkins Road and Honey Bee Lane . The Ulysses Highway Crew also helped Enfield stone and oil, put shoulders down on Cold Springs and Brook Road and paved over the Cold Springs Bridge . The Cold Springs Road Bridge is complete accept for the guardrails, which will be completed soon. The bridge was closed just one month from start to finish. the highway crew is working on mowing back roadsides and starting to get the salt trucks ready for the white stuff that will be here before long. Code Enforcement Officer, Alex Rachun reported that four permits were issued for the month for additions and two for zoning only. One application was received for a Board of Zoning Appeals and one Simple Sub-division on a property on Route 96 that the Planning Board heard . Mr. Rachun said that there are two housing starts waiting for Board of Zoning hearings on area variances . Mr. Rachun said that also there is a minor Regular Town Board Meeting 3 11 /09/2005 sub-division on DuBois Road with three lots that will come before the Planning Board next week . The Planning Board has met with Washington Street Partners and the Planning Board has requested additional information before they are going to deem the application complete. Washington Street Partners, the applicant, agreed to supply that information, it was supposed to be in Mr. Rachun ' s office by Monday, which it is not and the Planning Board is meeting this coming Tuesday and will see if it is here by then. Mr. Rachun also spent three days at the Fire Academy to maintain his certification as Fire Inspector. Mr. Ellis asked Mr. Rachun how many fire inspections he does . Mr. Rachun said that there are routine inspections, which are all the businesses and all the multi units and places like Taughannock Falls Inn, and these are annual . Mr. Rachun also said he has to inspect after any chimney fire if the property owner wants to inhabit the house. Mr. Rachun reported that Orson Ledger faithfully comes in every Tuesday. Mr. Ledger has an appearance ticket again and his fines are going to be just through the roof Mr. Rachun said that nothing is happening at the property and actually it is worse because if you notice at the cabins in Jacksonville the cars and junk are gone but now it all is at Mr. Ledger ' s property. Unfortunately things are getting worse at Mr. Ledger ' s property but Mr. Ledger feels they are getting better. Ms . Marino asked how it gets worse, who moves the stuff there . Mr. Rachun stated that he has heard that Mr. Ledger is now renting the house to someone that previously lived at the cabins and she has moved all this stuff there . Ms . Marino thought that at the last discussion about Mr. Ledger ' s house and property there was a long discussion about condemning the property so that no one could live in that house and that would also get rid of the dangerous person . Ms . Marino said that it seems like it would get rid of this current problem also . Ms . Marino asked Mr. Rachun what happened to that? Mr. Rachun said that he could do condemnation one of two ways and that is imminent danger, which does not exist or being invited in a single-family dwelling. As far as the property itself Mr. Rachun is on the property a considerable amount of time but just not invited in the house. Mr. Rachun said that he has to be careful , it is a real taking and he has to see something that indicates that house is unsafe . Ms . Marino said that it sure looks unsafe from the outside. Mr. Rachun said that if you cleared all the junk away from that house it would not look that much worse than other houses in Jacksonville or other places that are poorly maintained and very much in disrepair. Mr. Austic said that the person that was living in the camper trailer is now living in Ithaca in a shelter or group home . Mr. Rachun said that it is an on going issue . Ms . Marino asked if Mr. Ledger has accumulating fines and if he gets a new ticket every week? Mr. Rachun said that he is not doing tickets every week but when he does one it goes retroactive. Mr. Ledger is coming in Tuesday and the ticket is for three weeks . Mr. Rachun said that Mr. Ledger already has $600 in fines and it will be $ 1200 when he comes in the next time if Judge Rector fines him for three weeks . Mr. Rachun feels that it is an attempt to dangle a carrot but obviously it is not working. Regular Town Board Meeting 4 11 /09/2005 Ms . Marino stated that she finds it amazing from looking at the outside Mr. Ledger' s house that it is habitable to be renting to tenants . Ms . Marino really feels that is a part of the solution here is if there was a way to keep people from living in that house so that it does not keep changing, then you can get a handle on where it is and where it is going. Mr. Wilson said you still have the avenue to take it to Civil Court/Supreme Court and get an injunction and there is always putting him in jail based on the appearance tickets . Mr. Rachun said that the image given at the last meeting made it look like a stagnant thing and it is snot. Mr. Ledger did do an enormous amount of cleaning up last summer g g and Mr. Rachizn stopped the fines at that time and then it started coming back again and than at that time Mr. Rachun started sending notices and re-fined him, and brought him back to court. Mr. Rachun would love to be able to work with him but he just cannot get through to him. At some point Mr. Rachun feels that the fines will become too much for Mr. Ledger. Mr. Rachun is putting it all in the hands of the Court in terms of fining him . Ms. Marino feels that if there is something that the Town can do , we should examine all of our options! for the protection of those in the community. Board Members and Committees - no reports given. Supervisor Doug Austic reviewed his Supervisors report and asked if there were any questions? No questions were heard. Deputy Supervisor Richard Coogan reported that the Hazard Mitigation Plan has been accepted by FEMA and Mr. Coogan distributed a condensed version previously to the Town Board along with a sample resolution. The whole Plan is on the web and there is a hard copy in the building and in the library. Mr. Coogan said that the Town Board would have to pass a! resolution by year- end . If the plan is not adopted the Town would not be able to apply for emergency disaster funding . The Plan is for the whole County except for the Town of Ithaca and the Town of Newfield, so those plans will merge together so that there will only be one plan. Mr. Coogan said that the Scenic Resources Committee would be meeting tomorrow to start the selection process for the consultant for doing the scenic inventory. Because of the cost coming in they are going to drop back to a more sensible approach, which would be an inventory and not be a ranking system because the cost became prohibitive . Mr. Coogan will know more after he meets with the consultants . There is a public presentation on the project on December 15 `n Mr. Coogan said that the Planning Coalition of the Municipal Officers Association would be hosting the County for more dialogs on the work that they are doing on their County Comprehensive Plan. It is scheduled for November 30, 2005 at 4 : 30 PM at the Town of Ithaca Town Hall . Town Clerk Marsha L. Georgia reported that a total of $ 2431 . 50 was collected for the month of October, of that $ 579 was turned over to the Supervisor, $25 for the sale of the first Zoning Law and $ 125 for a plumbing permit. Mrs . Georgiaireceived a letter of resignation from Mr. Hickey member of the Board of • Zoning Appeals . OLD BUSINESS None heard . NEW BUSINESS Possible Action on Budget Regular Town Board Meeting 5 11 /09/2005 Mr. Austic asked if the Board wanted to take action on the budget tonight or would they like to re-consider? Mr. Austic does not see how there is anything accept the possibility of moving some of the Deputy Supervisor money to the B Fund, which really doesn ' t do much except move from one place to the next . Ms . Marino said that except in the B Fund you could use sales tax . She said that she had actually done that calculation. She used moving half of the salary ($ 1 0, 527), which changed the real property tax rate from $ 1 . 79 per thousand (projected) to $ 1 . 75 . Ms . Marino feels that the Board needs to take a look to see if there are any other places to save as well . Mr. Ellis said that we are not saving money because we have no additional revenue so we are just moving money. Ms . Marino suggested using the labor contingency in B Fund for the other half of the Deputy Supervisor salary, reducing the B Fund by that amount . Mr. Austic said that these changes are not major so that we would have to have another hearing. Ms . Marino discussed the changes that had already been made in the A Fund. The Board removes $ 10, 000 from Deputy Supervisor A1220 . 12 and has the other half of his salary paid for from the B Fund but would not increase the B Fund because it would come from the B Contingency Labor. The Board discussed other areas of decreasing appropriations in the A fund, such as reducing or eliminating pay increases to elected officials , reducing deputy clerk salary or hours, but overall it would only change the real property tax rate by pennies . The Board discussed using $20, 000 in fund balances versus using $ 10, 000 . Mr. Austic did not like using $20, 000 . The Board wanted to have Mr. Austic run some more numbers . Mr. Scott asked how the employees were receptive to the health insurance changes . Mr. Meeker said that all the employees realize that health insurance has gone crazy and what he feels the Board is doing is they are cutting the employees health benefit and the cost of living is 4 . 6% or 4 . 7% according to the Social Security and the Board is offering the employees a 3 % cost of living increase. Mr. Meeker said, "you tell me how would you feel", but they are willing to live with it. Ms . Marino said an employee not paying any part of health insurance to her is kind of unusual . Mr. Meeker said they are actually paying it, when you go to the drug store you are going to be paying $ 15 , $25 , or $40 for prescriptions and every time you go to doctors you will be paying $20 for co-pay, so they are paying. It is not that it is coming out of their salary but they will be paying. The Board scheduled the next Budget meeting for Friday November 18 , 2005 at 8 : 30 AM. Replacement for Zoning Board Member Mr. Scott suggested that the Town should advertise . The Board advised Mr. Coogan to get a hold of the interested people that had been interviewed for the Planning Board to see if they may be interested in a position on the BZA. The Free Press and Ithaca Journal reporters present both said they could run something in their papers . Mr. Rachun will put together a description of the Zoning Board of Appeals to be put in the paper. Regular Town Board Meeting 6 11 /09/2005 The Board also thought it would be a good idea to check with Mr. Means about taking on being the Chairman of the Planning Board for 2006 . Approval Barton & Loguidice Review of T-Burg Commons The Planning Board has asked for review, by an engineer, of the information, submitted by Washington Street Partners — T-Burg Commons . Mr. Austic got a proposal from Barton & Loguidice for $ 2000 for their scope of services . The Town will request to be reimbursed from the applicant, Washington Street Partners . • Ms . Marino said the Board should say that if they did not pay than they would not get their project done. Mr. Wilson said that case law allows for reimbursement of reasonable expenses over and above what the Town has . The real question comes that it is not an absolute right it is what is a reasonable expense . Mr. Ellis said $2000 is the cost for the engineer. Mr. Wilson says he is not talking about if the engineer ' s expense is reasonable he is talking aboutlis the request for an engineering study reasonable. Mr. Wilson does not want the Board under a misapprehension of how this works . Under the law they can utilize all the , Town ' s services, the applicant can come in with their own studies and if the Town is unhappy with that or the Town thinks there is something wrong with that than the Town can' request its own studies to counter balance those if they are reasonable. So without having seen what they are coming in with Mr. Wilson is not going to say if it reasonable on unreasonable. The Zoning Law states that the reasonable cost of such additional studies requested by the Planning Board for Site Plan review and shall be paid by the applicant. Mr. Ellis said might be we should ask the applicant if $2000 is reasonable . .a Mr. Wilson crafted the resolution based on what he understood the Planning Board did was to state to conduct a study by the Planning Board on condition the Town be reimbursed by the applicant. The Planning Board has to make a determination if it is absolute necessary and abide by what they are saying. The Board felt that the Planning Board had made that determination. Mr. Rachun said that the Planning Board does not have a completed stormwater plan or a completed traffic plan. The document, Site Plan Review, according to the Planning Board is not a completed document and this is a determination that should be made when the completed Site Plan application . Mr. Ellis said the Planning Board is requesting a consultant before they have even reviewed what the applicant has submitted. The Planning Board is asking for money to be made available for reviewing a plan and the plan is not available to be reviewed . Mr. Ellis than said that the Town Board also has this concern about what is reasonable and it would seem to him when there is a likelihood of contention over what is reasonable we would ask the parties involved before committing the money, another words tell the applicant this is the way the process is going, this is what you should expect, if you have an objection to this tell us now because the Town intends to charge you for it . The Board cannot do anything until the application is complete. Mr. Ellis said the Town Board has a major component missing and that is a representative from the Planning Board. Mr. Ellis said that in lieu of that Mr. Rachun is speaking on behalf of the Planning Board, which Mr. Rachun is uncomfortable with. Mr. Austic suggested that Mr. Rachun get a hold of the Washington Street Partners and see if they feel if $ 2000 is a reasonable expense for this . Regular Town Board Meeting 7 11 /09/2005 Mr. Wilson would like to see it on the record, Planning Board meeting, that the applicant acknowledges that this is a reasonable expenses . The Planning Board is meeting next Tuesday and Mr. Austic suggested that Mr. Tyler, Chairman of the Planning Board tell Washington Street Partners that it appears that the review of the traffic study and stormwater application by the Town Engineers will cost $2000 at the applicants expense . Mr. Rachun said he could talk with Mr. Tyler in the morning and Mr. Rachun was thinking about going in this direction by saying when the application is completed and the Planning Board reviews that application and the Planning Board makes their determination with statements of fact, why this application needs to be further reviewed and put that together and submit it to the Town Board . Mr. Austic said that it would not alleviate the problem the Town Board has by is the applicant willing to pay a reasonable fee for this review . Mr. Wilson said that the Planning Board has to say to the Town Board why they need it and the Town Board can act on those findings . Mr. Wilson recommended that the Town Board needs a finding from the Planning Board once the project application ins complete to show due diligence before approving the hire of a technical consultant to review the application materials . The Planning Board did not have the completed traffic study or stormwater plan as of this meeting. Ms . Marino said you have to know if the applicant is willing to pay. Mr. Rachun said that based on the last Planning Board meeting the applicant will be at there next meeting and prior to the meeting a completed application should be received by Mr. Rachun. Mr. Austic said before the Planning Board leaves that meeting they should know what their findings are and should get the applicant to acknowledge if they feel it is a ' ■ • reasonable request. Ms . Marino asked if you needed something in writing from the applicant that they agree that the expense is reasonable and they will pay for it . Mr. Wilson said that a record of it in the minutes would be adequate but it would be nicer if they just came up with the funds . This has to be delegated to the Planning Board . Tompkins County Area Development Mr. Ellis wants Tompkins County Area Development to tell the Town how much money they have spent in Ulysses in the last two years . Mr. Austic will write a letter to TCAD and ask for that information. Hearing no further business Ms . Marino moved, seconded by Mr. Scott to adjourn the meeting. Unanimously approved . Meeting was adjourned at 9 : 10 PM Respectfully submitted, Marsha L . Georgia Ulysses Town Clerk MLG : mlg