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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 . 1 t ■Special Town Board Meeting 2 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 Special Town Board Meeting 3 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. Special Town Board Meeting 4 11 / 18/2005 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 . Special Town Board Meeting 5 11 / 18/2005 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 . Special Town 13oard Meeting- 6 11 / 18/2005 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 MLG : mlg •