HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-11-18-STB TOWN OF ULYSSES
SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING
NOVEMBER 18, 2005
PRESENT : Supervisor Doug Austic , Town Councilpeople Lee Scott, Robert Weatherby;
Roxanne Marino and Don Ellis ; Town Clerk Marsha Georgia; Deputy Supervisor
Richard Coogan .
Others Present : Lucia Tyler
* * Note : Full discussion available on the tape dated 11 / 18/2005 .
Supervisor Austic called the meeting to order at 8 : 30 AM . Mr. Austic had contacted the
New York State Comptroller and was told that the expense for Attorney and Elected
Official offices are Town Wide Expenses (A Fund) so money should not be put in the B
Fund for Attorney expense .
Ms . Marino said even though they are used for only outside the Town such as Zoning.
Mr. Austic said that if the Attorney is defending the Town he would also be defending
the Village . Mr. Austic said that you could if the BZA or PB asked for Attorney help
than that could come out of the B Fund . $ 10, 000 was added to the B fund, Labor
contingency B1990.41 for this possible need. The fund balance used in the B fund was
increased by $24, 000, to 59, 000 .
Mr. Ellis commented than because of the general ruling you would not set the Budget up
that way.
Mr. Austic said that is what he has done in the Budget that he presented . He did leave
some money in the B Fund contingency in case something happens .
Mr. Austic had moved the money back to the A Fund (from B Fund) that would pay the
Deputy Supervisor.
Ms . Marino said that it was a big change from the previous budget meetings discussion.
Mr. Austic explained that he had found out that if the Town has used all the Sales Tax
that they can in the B Fund and the DB Fund than you can use some in the A Fund
without affecting the tax rate for the Village . Mr. Austic ' s proposal is to put everything
back in the A Fund, where it was previously, because no matter what the people are doing
they are Town employees, and use some sales tax ($ 50, 000) to cover that additional
expense to keep the tax rate down and would not affect the tax County rate . Ms . Marino
felt this was a big change from all the previous budget meeting discussions where using
more County sales tax in the B fund came up, and Board had concerns over the effect it
would have on raising the County taxes on Ulysses residents outside the Village .
The Board had a long discussion about the changes that Mr. Austic had made.
Mr. Ellis moved to make the following changes and approve the Preliminary budget,
version dated 11 / 17/05 , with these changes .
A Fund Attorney A1420 . 4 change to $20,000
A Fund Contingency A1990 . 4 increase by 5000
A Fund Deputy Supervisor A1220 . 12 decrease by 10,000
B Fund Planning Mang. B8020. 11 increase by 10,000
B Fund Reserve B9950 . 9 reduce by 15 , 000
B Fund General CE B8020 . 4 increase by 15 , 000
Mr. Ellis said that the foregoing is his resolution but he recognizes that there still is some
math to do before the Board is finished .
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11 / 18/2005
Ms . Marino seconded the motion for discussion but she needs to find out what the final A
fund Contingency number is .
Ms . Marino amended the motion by moving that the A Contingency Account A1990 .4 be
increased by $ 2 , 500, which would make that line be a total of $ 12 , 500 . Mr. Ellis
seconded this motion.
Mr. Austic aye
Mr. Scott aye
Mr. Weatherby aye
Ms . Marino aye
Mr. Ellis aye
Adopted Amendment.
The Sales Tax will be added or decreased where it is appropriate.
The original motion to adopt the Budget made by Mr. Ellis, seconded by Ms . Marino,
which is as follows :
BE I * RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Ulysses adopts the
Preliminary 2006 Budget, version dated 11 / 17/05 , with the changes made in the
following funds :
A Fund Attorney A1420 .4 $ 20 ,000
A Fund Contingency A1990 .4 7 , 500
A Furid Deputy Supervisor A1220 . 12 10 , 527
B Fund Planning Mang. B8020 . 11 15 ,000
B Fund Reserve B9950 . 9 33 , 500
B Furid General Envir. CE B8020 . 4 18 , 500
Mr. Austic aye
Mr. Scott aye
Mr. Weatherby aye
Ms . Marino aye
Mr. Ellis aye
Adopted 2006 Budget (As Follows) .
The Board discussed the Attorney position and will be negotiating his contract.
Ms . Marino said that she has a resolution that she would like to propose . Ms . Marino
read it into the record as follows :
The 2005 budget relied very heavily on funds from fund balance accounts, funds
that are no longer available in similar amounts to provide assistance for the 2006
budget. This in combination with other budgetary pressures likely to continue into the
future now creates a proposed increase in the tax levy for the next fiscal year that many
find unacceptably high. The taxpayers of the Town expect fiscal stability.
Be itiresolved that during the 2006 before the preparation of the 2007 budget, the
Town of Ulysses will review and revise the long-term financial plan for the Town. Such
plan should include consideration of the optimum management of fund balances and
reserve fund accounts. To assist in the development of this financial plan during 2006,
the Town Board will retain one or more experts well qualified to provide advice on
municipal financial planning.
Mr. Ellis said that it would be important that the resolution does not reflect, indicate or
imply poor planning decisions in the past. Mr. Ellis feels that in general the financial
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11 / 18/2005
management of the Town has been excellent and there should not be anything that
implies that.
Ms . Marino said that she does not think this resolution does that and she is not trying to
imply that. Ms . Marino is trying to imply that she thinks that it is a good idea, given the
budgetary considerations that the Board will have in years to come, to look at the long
term financial plan for the Town and get advice on it .
Mr. Ellis said that even if he agreed with Ms . Marino that the management could have
been better he thinks that it would not be necessary and not at all useful to have a
resolution that implies anything different .
Ms . Marino said that she could get rid of the introduction and that her motion is really
that the Town of Ulysses revise and review its long term financial plan, if the Town has
one, and that the plan includes consideration of the optimum management into the future
of fund balances and reserve accounts . The Town Board should talk to someone that is a
outside expert qualified to provide advice on municipal financial planning.
Mr. Scott said that his take on Ms . Marino ' s proposal is that she has the cart before the
horse and he thinks the Comprehensive Plan is pretty much what Ms . Marino is talking
about .
Ms . Marino says no that she is talking about a financial not a land use plan .
Mr. Scott says that they are related .
Mr. Ellis said that Mr. Scott has made a good point and he was thinking about that the
other day that economic planning is part of the Comprehensive Plan .
Mr. Scott said that you have to know where the Town is going as far as new business and
so on and so forth . It is not just land planning or anything like that .
Mr. Ellis said that if it was just land planning then it should be called land planning and
not comprehensive planning, comprehensive planning needs to take in a whole range of
things .
Mr. Scott said absolutely and he thinks that the fiscal responsibility has been excellent
over the past years .
Ms . Marino said that she is not in anyway trying to imply otherwise and if the wording
does that she is willing to change it .
Mr. Scott said but what he is saying he thinks that is part of the comprehensive plan
procedure and that is what he is getting at .
Ms . Marino said she is talking about a small subset of that process, and talking about
when you read the stuff from the State Comptrollers and every body else they talk about
the Town having a long term financial plan. The Town is going into a phase of difficult
budgeting issues that many people think will last for several years because of the
increased cost of war and everything like that and plus the natural disasters that have
happened with all sorts of Federal level budgetary cuts, which trickle down to impact
towns very significantly, and we are seeing that this year. Ms . Marino thinks in light of
that coming it would be a good idea to sit down with somebody who is an external expert,
not do some extensive, massive thing that would cost $ 10 , 000 . It would be like some
personal finance planning. Have an expert sit down and give some advice on what the
Town ' s plan is and how maybe the Town should change it ; just the financial plan for the
Town, managing the Town ' s funds and see if it makes sense . Ms . Marino said she is not
at all saying that it has not been done well in the past ; it has been done extremely well .
Ms . Marino feels that there can be large turnovers on the Town Board every two years
and most elected officials are not trained in this at all . Ms . Marino said as much as the
Board works on it and studies it, it is the Board ' s bottom line responsibility. You get
advice. People get advice in their own life in their own financial planning.
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Mr. Scott said that Ms . Marino is misunderstanding what he is saying, that the first thing
a planner will say is what are the Town ' s goals, where is the Town going, what do you
want to do .
Mr. Ellis said that a financial planner couldn ' t go ahead without the rest of it. Mr. Ellis
said to Ms. Marino that this is an important part of the planning that should be done and
he welcomes the resolution and he would second her resolution for the purpose of tabling
it for three reasons : it needs to be tabled because we need to actually identify some
people who may offer these services and get an idea about what they are like because it is
a whole new thing and the other reason it should be coordinated with the comprehensive
planning and the third one is to be sure to come back to this and be sure it does not fall
through the cracks . Mr. Ellis said he thinks that it is an important thing and if the Town
is going to do it effectively during 2006 the Town needs to be doing something with it by
April or something like that and not let it get way out towards budget time or it will not
work.
Ms . Marino said the resolution is just a statement that the Town will do this so why
would we have to table that, to figure out how we ' ll to do it? It is just a resolution that
we will do it because the Board thinks that it is important, it does not say actually how
the Board will do it. Ms . Marino does not understand that but if that ' s how it goes , that ' s
how it goes, that ' s fine .
Ms . Marino re- entered her motion for her resolution as follows :
Be it resolved that during the 2006 before the preparation of the 2007 budget, the
Town of Ulysses will review and revise the long-term financial plan for the Town. Such
plan should include consideration of the optimum management of fund balances and
reserve fund accounts . To assist in the development of this financial plan during 2006 ,
the Town Board will retain one or more experts well qualified to provide advice on
municipal financial planning.
Mr. Scott stated that he would abstain from this vote because he is not going to sentence
the new Board to three or four meetings per month to do this .
Ms . Marino said that she did not think the Board would have to do that .
Mr. Austic asked if there was a second to this motion.
No second was heard.
Mr. Austic asked Mr. Coogan if he had something that he wanted to discuss with the
Board .
Mr. Coogan said that New York State is offering quality communities grants and the
amount can be anything. It is strictly for planning purposes . Mr. Coogan said that
looking through their requirements one thing is that whatever level of funding the Town
seeks, the Town has to pay 20% and this cost share can not be in-kind, it has to be cash,
in-kind can be added on for additional . Mr. Coogan said that on the resolution before the
Town Board it basically states that the Board would give Mr. Coogan the authorization to
fill out the forms to apply for the grant, it gives Mr. Austic the responsibility and
authorization to sign for any financial commitment for the Town. The grant would be to
develop a plan for revitalization for the center Hamlet of Jacksonville. It would qualify
under the grant applications because Jacksonville is on a brown field. It would be for
doing a plan for a park and ride, which is something that Jacksonville has preliminary
studies and plans for. Tompkins County Planning and the Transportation Council would
support this . This is something that the Town has enough information in house that
within the net week and a half Mr. Coogan could get a grant put in. Mr. Coogan looked
at a possibility of a total budget of $20,000 , which is a number that Mr. Coogan came up
with and he does not have the details . What he did was to put it in and if the Town says
the plan would be $20,000 the Town would have to come up with $4000 .
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The Jacksonville Community Association is a 501 , C3 and would be a willing partner to
conduct public outreach for the project. The Town would get points by having
cooperation inter-municipally or with a 501 , C3 .
Mr. Ellis asked out of which budget would the $4000 need to be available, 2005 or 2006?
Mr. Coogan said it would probably be late 2006 or early 2007 .
Mr. Ellis feels this is an excellent kind of thing and should be gracefully accommodated
and welcomed in the overall comprehensive planning to have funding for any of these
specifics within that activity.
Mr. Austic asked if it was a possibility for grants to do comprehensive plan studies .
Mr. Coogan felt that there was not enough information to pull it together for a concrete
plan within two weeks .
Ms. Marino said that she agrees with Mr. Coogan, and thinks that actually it is the thing
for the Town to go for in the long run. This grant comes up every year and she thinks the
Town would be in a way better position in a year to look at this grant application for
comprehensive planning.
Mr. Coogan said that this grant is just for developing a plan for the hamlet of Jacksonville
and not for construction.
Mr. Ellis moved, seconded by Mr. Austic the following resolution :
Quality Communities Grant Program 2005 -2006
WHERE AS a resolution is required authorizing Deputy Supervisor Richard
Coogan to submit an application to the Department of State Quality Communities
Program (2005 -2006) for Environmental Protection Funds to develop a plan for
Revitalizing the Center of the Hamlet of Jacksonville, that resides wholly within
the boundaries of the Town of Ulysses . The plan shall include a transportation
park and ride and adaptive reuse of an 1826 church/meeting house on land that
was that was adversely affected by a gasoline spill . This resolution shall also
authorize Supervisor Douglas Austic to execute all financial and administrative
processes for this project, and
WHERE AS funds solicited through this program shall be used for the express
purposes of revitalizing a community effected by a petroleum spill , encouraging
community growth where there is the necessary infrastructure, and public
transportation, and
WHERE AS the project cost is estimated to be $20, 000 and the Town ' s share of
the cost if the grant is award shall be $4000, and
WHERE AS the Jacksonville Community Association, a 501 (c) (3 ), is a willing
partner to conduct public outreach for this project,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Town of Ulysses supports this project,
Revitalization Initiatives for the Hamlet of Jacksonville.
Mr. Austic aye
Mr. Scott aye
Mr. Weatherby aye
Ms . Marino aye
Mr. Ellis aye
Adopted .
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Hearing no further business Mr. Ellis moved, seconded by Mr. Austic to adjourn the
meeting. Unanimously approved. Meeting adjourned at 9 : 50 AM.
Respectfully submitted,
Marsha L . Georgia
Ulysses Town, Clerk
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