HomeMy WebLinkAboutCB Minutes 2017-09-07 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board
Thursday,September 7,2017
Final Minutes
Members Present:James Hamilton, Elizabeth Hageman,Jon Meigs, Mike Roberts, Ellie Stewart, Lindsay
Dombroskie, Will VanDyke,
Staff: Mike Smith (Senior Planner)
Guest: Paulette Rosa (Town Clerk)
1. Persons to be heard: Paulette Rosa,Town Clerk, was present at the meeting to discuss issues
surrounding the Freedom of Information Law(FOIL).There was recently a FOIL request from a
citizen who resides in Lansing in regards to the deer management plan. Specifically, it asked for
any communication the Conservation Board had with specific people at Cornell University and
references/data that was provided.
Paulette provided the following description:
You may or may not have heard of FOIL before but it is the law under which a person can
request documents from government entities in the pursuit of full disclosure and transparency.
We have received a FOIL regarding the Deer Management Plan and more particularly, Cornell
staff's involvement with it.
I do not want you to be intimidated or spend excessive amounts of time on this, but I thought I
should give you all a primer on what the law is and what your responsibilities are as committee
members and holding documents (emails).
Freedom of Information Law
https://www.dos.ny.gov/coop/index.htmI
Bob Freeman basically wrote the law over 35 years ago and still works for the Committee on
Open Government. He is extremely responsive and there is a whole library of responses to
questions posed by different entities. A very useful site.
A document or record is any means any information kept, held, filed, produced or reproduced
by, with or for an agency or the state legislature, in any physical form whatsoever including, but
not limited to, reports, statements, examinations, memoranda, opinions, folders, files, books,
manuals, pamphlets, forms, papers, designs, drawings, maps, photos, letters, microfilms,
computer tapes or discs, rules, regulations or codes. In usage it essentially means everything!
If you are using Town computers or your own, it doesn't matter. Work for the town is
government work as far as the law is concerned.
There are exemptions to what has to be disclosed that we do exercise. Emails between board
members themselves or board members and staff are called intra-agency and these are exempt
if the town wants to exempt them. This is to promote the free-flow of ideas and opinions
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between members without the fear of the public hearing or seeing these comments. If a
member were afraid a person might be able to see everything they say, they may not be as open
as needed to do good work.
The exception to the intra-agency is pieces of the email that contain
i. statistical or factual tabulations or data;
ii. instructions to staff that affect the public;
iii. final agency policy or determinations; or
iv. external audits, including but not limited to audits performed by the comptroller and the
federal government;
Retention Schedule
New York State Archives (http://www.archives.nysed.gov/records/retention mu-1)for the
record retention and disposition schedule MU-1.
NYS has an established retention schedule called the MU-1 Schedule which we follow. Basically,
it is common sense. We keep things either Zero after no longer needed such as an invitation; 1
year, such as a thank you note; 6 years such as yearly reports from agencies (think Lifelong) and
Permanent such as complaints to the Town Board
It is important that in your town work you attempt to keep to this schedule. Any permanent
correspondence or documents should be forwarded to myself or your liaison for filing and
retention.
By following a retention schedule, a FOIL is fulfilled according to that schedule and I can safely
say to the person, "to the best of my knowledge these are all the documents in the town's
possession"
2. Member concerns:
a. Deer management sub-committee will be formed at the next Town Board meeting.
3. Chair and Coordinator reports:
a. Planning Board
i. Dunkin Donuts on Pine Tree Road would like to add a drive-through.
ii. Two lots on Bostwick Road are being divided.The largest parcel of 100+acres
will remain a farm.
iii. A subdivision on Elm Street Extension will redraw boundary lines of four lots to
make sure all have road access.
iv. Cayuga Nursing and Rehab Center on Rt 96 will be updating their facilities. No
additional square footage will be added.
4. Approval of minutes: Minutes from August 3rd were approved with minor modifications—
Moved by Elizabeth, seconded by Mike.
5. Reports/Updates:
a. ERC- Ithaca Townhomes (Holochuck) project was approved.
b. SRC-Waiting for a sign to arrive the end of September for Danby Road. Pine Tree Road
is the next sign to work on.
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c. Communications Committee- Discussion about how to use social media the best or if at
all.
d. Tompkins County EMC- No update
e. Six Mile Creek Volunteer Monitoring Program -Three sites were recently sampled for
BMI: Potters Falls was found to be healthy, 600 Rd in Caroline has no results back yet,
German Cross Road is not done. Plain Street site will be sampled by children coming up
soon.
f. City of Ithaca Natural Areas-Cornell is interested in closing off the Cornell tunnel on Fall
Creek.The City of Ithaca Natural Areas expressed interest in deer management. Mike
and Lindsay would be willing to meet with them if they are interested.
g. Cornell Botanic Gardens Natural Areas-Volunteers have worked twice removing reeds
from Bog A at the McLean Bog and have been successful.
h. Deer Management—Town Board vote on Monday.
6. Other Business: Nothing
7. Work Goals: Ellie has decided she is not interested in being chair of the Board next year.
October agenda will include a speaker from the Finger Lakes Land Trust.
8. Adjourn: 6:42pm
Minutes drafted by Elizabeth Hageman
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