HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-10-28-Town-Board-Budget-Workshop-MinutesDRAFT
Town of Danby Town Board
Special Meeting
via Zoom Video Conferencing
28 October 2020 at 7:00 PM
Attendees:
1.Call to Order
1.1.Meeting called to order at 7:06pm by Town Supervisor Joel Gagnon.
1.2.Additions/Deletions
1.2.1.Ulinski would like a couple of minutes to share workplace violence poster.
1.2.1.1.Withdrawn due to tonight’s special meeting status; will bring it up in
later meeting.
1.2.2.Schnabel would like a few minutes for broadband update.
2.Privilege of the Floor
2.1.Ronda Roaring: would like to move the new planner confirmation discussion to
the beginning so she does not have to stay for the entire meeting.
3.Confirmation of Town Planner
3.1.Gagnon: pleased to report that David West has accepted the offer to be the
new Town Planner. West will start working part-time on December 1, while
finishing up part-time with the County (his current employer). Salary is $66,500.
3.1.1.Ulinski: this salary is what was already projected in the 2021 budget we are
working on.
3.1.2.Schnabel asked for more details about who West is.
3.1.2.1.West currently works with the county. Prior to that, West was half of
the Randal and West Consultancy firm. He oversees multiple programs
that the Town of Danby currently administers, including the program for
Town Board Joel Gagnon, Supervisor
Leslie Connors
Jim Holahan
Sarah Schnabel
Matt Ulinski
Recording Secretary Janice R. Adelman, Town Clerk
Bookkeeper Laura Shawley
Court Justice Garry Huddle
Members of the Public Ronda Roaring
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Town Board Meeting Town of Danby October 28, 2020
affordable housing. He was a standout among the applicants with a
combination of experience and training, not to mention his status as a
local, that puts him in position to pick up where Jason Haremza (previous
planner) left off.
3.2.Resolution No. 126 of 2020: Confirm Hiring David West as Town Planner
3.2.1.Discussion: none
3.2.2.Vote:
4.Broadband Update
4.1.County Budget Committee approved the proposed study, to which we pledged
$5k.
4.1.1.Final budget approval pending.
4.2.Discussion around whether the Town’s tech committee has a role in this effort
and where it will go in our Town budget.
4.2.1.Feeling that the town does have a role to fill.
5.Warrants
5.1.Resolution No. 127 of 2020: General Fund Vouchers 345–364 for
$13,576.01
5.1.1.Discussion: none
5.1.2.Vote:
Moved By:Ulinski Seconded By:Holahan
Councilperson Aye No Abstain
Connors X
Holahan X
Schnabel X
Ulinski X
Gagnon X
Moved By:Connors Seconded By:Ulinski
Councilperson Aye No Abstain
Connors X
Holahan X
Schnabel X
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Town Board Meeting Town of Danby October 28, 2020
5.2.Resolution No. 128 of 2020: Highway Fund Vouchers 193–203 for
$3,048.02
5.2.1.Discussion: none
5.2.2.Vote:
6.Budget Discussion
6.1.Ulinski wanted to discuss the budget again, particularly around the issue of
taking the standard 2% salary increase from our staff at a time when staff needs
as much financial support as possible.
6.1.1.Ulinski's proposal:
6.1.1.1.Keep the 2% raise for all staff (except the newly hired planner) but not
include 2% raise on the stipends provided for elected officials.
6.1.1.2.Presuming that Ulinski is reappointed as deputy supervisor, he will
decline the additional stipend associated with the role and zero that
budget line out for 2021.
6.1.2.Gagnon asks if this includes people who are paid by the hour; it does.
6.1.3.Clarification regarding who are elected officials vs paid staff
6.1.3.1.Town Clerk is an elected official. However the current clerk was
recently appointed by the board. She humbly requests to keep the 2%
raise projected for 2021.
6.1.3.2.Other elected officials who would forego the 2% raise are:
6.1.3.2.1.One Town Supervisor
6.1.3.2.2.One Deputy Town Supervisor
6.1.3.2.3.Four Council Members
6.1.3.2.4.Two Judges
Ulinski X
Gagnon X
Moved By:Connors Seconded By:Holahan
Councilperson Aye No Abstain
Connors X
Holahan X
Schnabel X
Ulinski X
Gagnon X
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Town Board Meeting Town of Danby October 28, 2020
6.1.3.2.5.One Highway Superintendent
6.1.4.Shawley calculates that this plan would add about $3700 to the alternative
budget:
6.1.4.1.about $2400 in general (including social security and medicare)
6.1.4.2.about $1200 in highway (including social security and medicare)
6.2.Ulinksi brings up items that have been left out:
6.2.1.about $5k for energy in the highway grant
6.2.2.about $2k for workplace violence initiative
6.2.3.$5k for broadband
6.3.Discussion on contingencies and fund balance
6.3.1.The fund balance is whatever is left over at the end of the year
6.3.2.Ulinski notes that our taxes don’t support all of the things we want to do
right now, but there’s not a lot of fat in our budget, which is a problem. We
want to lower tax rates for big landowners, this will lower our budget even
more; the only way to increase the budget is to do more land development.
6.3.2.1.Gagnon brings up the opposing point in which residential
development could demand more services than it generates in taxes such
that you end up having to raise taxes to enable all of the services.
6.3.2.2.Ulinski replies that these are all good questions that the Board has
been able to avoid for some time due to the fund balance. However, if it
needs to be spent, the Board would be looking to lay off; Ulinski doesn’t
think the Board wants to be in that position. Without having the answers,
it is good to be talking about them.
6.3.2.3.Gagnon agrees noting that this year is especially important given the
pandemic.
6.3.3.Ulinski looked at our tax rate compared to other towns; we are right in the
middle expensive for the Finger Lakes; we don’t have a lot of room to
maneuver to increase the tax rate.
6.3.3.1.Gagnon: a few years ago, the tax rate in the water district went up
hugely. With this proposed budget, the water tax rate will go down $150.
6.3.3.2.Ulinksi: again Water District is another problem that needs fixing.
6.3.4.Shawley: from 2014 to 2021, the tax bill increases by about $34 by $100k.
6.3.4.1.Ulinski: do we look at the budget as a function of annual rate of
increase that we have to do or the annual rate of increase that our town
taxpayers are seeing total?
6.3.4.2.Gagnon: it’s confounded, which is part of the problem. As Sarah
pointed out, our assessments rise, and as our assessments rise, the
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taxation rises with it, but the tax base is also rising. There’s a bigger pot
from which to levy the taxes.
6.3.4.3.Shawley: believes we can offset next year with health insurance,
where we can get better coverage for employees at a lesser rate.
6.4.Discussion on Culture and Recreation budget lines
6.4.1.Senior Citizens: Holahan spoke to the Seniors and they would like to be
able to use the money they weren’t able to use this year, next year.
6.4.2.Gagnon: With respect to the Community Council, the Senior Citizens, the
Park, and the West Danby Community Association, we’re not giving them
grants to spend any way; we’re giving them contractual money. That is, in
exchange for our support, we’re authorizing them to spend money for
certain purposes up to X, or not to exceed X.
6.4.3.DCC: Gagnon stated that he doesn’t think it’s fair to the DCC to say that
you need to figure out how to juggle your budget to make it work.
6.4.3.1.Gagnon: I’d like to add $2k to the budget to count for the drop in
support from the Cooperative Extension for the Youth Services person.
They had a $3k shortfall because of it.
6.4.3.2.Schnabel: Do we have a contract with them? It seems like we’re
working off of their budget being the contract with them and I don’t think
that’s how we should do it.
6.4.3.3.Gagnon: That’s not how we should do it. We used to have a contract
and I believe we should have a contract with them. Important to say that
we are authorizing them to spend this much money for these programs
that they are contractually bound to. If they are short or over one line or
another, they’re not free to switch from one to the other without coming
back to us to renegotiate.
6.4.3.4.Gagnon: Whatever they don’t spend from the town in a particular
year, it does not roll over to their budget in the next year. They are not
authorized to use leftover money the following year. That said, they’re
really very good about not spending frivolously. All of these organizations
are good about that. To the extent that they couldn’t spend the money
because of COVID, it’s still there in our fund balance, but it can’t be
accessed by them to offset expenses in the following year; we have to
budget for.
6.4.3.5.Schnabel: that’s what I’m wondering—is it going to be less this year
that they submit for reimbursement? And how much?
6.4.3.6.Gagnon: We only know what they've asked so far to be reimbursed
for; this is considerably less than what they’re budgeted at.
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6.4.3.7.Connors: you’re talking about adding some to make up for what the
county is not giving them. Is it $2k or 3k?
6.4.3.7.1.It’s $3k, but I’m proposing adding $2k because there’s already
$740 added in the budget from what they had last year. In other
words, Laura took last year’s budget and added 2%.
6.4.3.7.2.Shawley: they asked for 2021 exactly $40,053. Last year for 2020
they asked for $39,312. What they’ve submitted for 6 months is
around $16k.
6.4.3.7.3.Gagnon: So we actually have in our budget what they asked for?
Then I withdraw my suggestion.
6.4.3.7.4.Ulinski: I propose that we authorize that funding based on them
getting us a signed contract.
6.4.3.8.Discussion around the Danby News
6.4.3.8.1.Postage costs versus printing costs
6.4.3.8.2.Print only versus online for spreading information
6.4.3.8.3.Connors has the contract that describes the mandate.
6.4.3.8.4.Contract is worth re-visiting.
6.4.4.Schnabel brought up website and email maintenance in the budget. We
don’t have a contract with him either, as far as she (or the contractor) knows.
6.4.4.1.Schnabel: Can we do the same thing regarding contracts with this
line? Someone needs to be appointed or labeled to do the job of email
maintenance.
6.4.4.2.Ulinski: this is a different discussion aside from the budget.
6.4.4.3.Schnabel: seems like the current contractor didn’t want to do the
website maintenance.
6.4.4.4.The internet committee is now just Sarah and Leslie since Alex and
Jason are no longer here. Do we still need to have an internet
committee?
6.4.4.5.Communications, onboarding, offboarding, etc. Where do these
things sit?
6.4.4.6.Discussion turned toward moving to another web host, with email
capabilities, with pros and cons of staying with Digital Towpath.
6.5.Resolution 129 of 2020: Motion to Set Public Hearing for the same day as
the Board meeting, along with the local law public hearing, on 9 November
2020
6.5.1.Discussion: none
Moved By:Ulinski Seconded By:Connors
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6.5.2.Vote:
7.Discussion of Next Meeting Agenda Topics
7.1.Broadband Update
7.2.Report of Workplace Violence
8.Adjournment
8.1.Meeting adjourned at 9:10 pm.
______________________________________________
Janice R. Adelman
Town Clerk
Councilperson Aye No Abstain
Connors X
Holahan X
Schnabel X
Ulinski X
Gagnon X
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