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HomeMy WebLinkAbout8_12_2020 Transcript Regular Meeting08-12-2020RegularTownBoardMeeting.mp3 Supervisor Beth McGee [00:01:28] I will call the meeting to order. This was the regular August 12th, Enfield Town board meeting. Six thirty p.m. Via zoom see? Are there any additions or changes that other board members want to add? Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:01:51] I had one late filed resolution regarding getting the speed limit change going. Rockwell Road, but I'm willing to have that postpone to a later meeting if it would be more to the convenience of the board members. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:02:07] Are we in agreement based on our conversation or at least feedback from the board that this is a formality for the Town board to ask for this speed and safety study? Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:02:19] Mm hmm. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:02:20] Do you mind if we put that resolution that Robert put together on the consent agenda? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [00:02:26] It's fine with me. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:02:30] All right. So let's add that. . Did it. All right. So if there's any. No one had any objection to any of the language or anything in the resolution will go forward with that as is. That's what the consent agenda is about. OK. OK. All right. Mimi Mahaffey is excused this evening. So also. Let's see. I don't guess I have anything else for myself to add to that everything else is on the agenda. So let's move to privilege of the floor with privilege of the floor. Each speaker has three minutes to speak on a topic and speakers should address the full board with their comments, not individual board members or people in the audience or community. I will. I have a timer for that. And you'll hear a chime when it's when your time is up. And if you could please just finish your thought. When you hear that, then we can move on to give another speaker an opportunity. Let's see. I'm going to choose from people who already have their hands raised on the screen and the participant list, if you'd like to speak. Please utilize that feature. You should be able to use star nine if you're calling in on the phone to raise or lower your hand. Both of those. And then you'll show up in our list up at the top so we can call on you to share your privilege of the floor. I will at the end. I will unmute eve ryone. So anyone who was not able to make that feature work for them will have an opportunity to state that they'd like to say something. So our first guest is Ed Heatherington. Ed, are you there? Ed Hetherington [00:04:53] Yes I am, do you hear me? Supervisor Beth McGee [00:04:55] I can hear you. Welcome. Ed Hetherington [00:04:59] Okay. Start out with the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States during which the stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'm also a resident trying to see what all tax rates are going to be an increase, too. I've been reading in the override of information that you had posted online. And of course, there's no figures there. But I'd be interested in hearin g what you feel would be a reasonable tax override. I'm also interested in the fire contract. Want to make sure that people realize how important this fire department is to the community. They do a lot of good things for the community as well as fire prote ction and EMS services. Those are my points of interest. For today. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:06:20] Thank you, Ed. Ed Hetherington [00:06:21] You're welcome. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:06:29] All right, I don't have anyone else's hand raised on the screen. So I'm going to unmute everyone and see if there's anyone who is interested. So I'm doing that right now. Is there anyone who would like to speak for privilege of the floor? Is there anyone who would like to speak for privelege of the floor? OK. Alright. I got unmute myself, too. All right. So correspondance. We had three e -mails this week from three separate residents complaining about ditching highway service and roadsides. Is there any board member who would like to elaborate on those communicati ons? Where did Stephanie go? There you go. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [00:08:07] I could not unmute myself. I mean, do we want to go ahead and read them? That's that's a possibility, too. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:08:16] That's up to the board. I don't have any preference whatsoever. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [00:08:24] My basic understanding is that there are some residents that are concerned with the ditching that's going on and some road conditions in front of their house, and they've been trying to communicate with the highway department and have felt like they haven't been gotten appropriate answers there. So maybe that's something that could be addressed more by the highway department. I don't feel that that's really our place to deal with that as much as it is the highway department's position. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:08:59] OK. County legislator. Oh, sorry, Bob, go ahead. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:09:04] I would like to say one thing. I had a meeting this afternoon with Brianna Thinker-Dale, one of our constituents, and one of the people who wrote a email concerning ditching. She works as a technician for a division of Cornell that deals with soils management. And she taught me a few things today. And one of them is that if you too aggressively ditch, it leads to erosion and runoff. And within reason, if you responsibly allow ditches to have some foliage in them, then that way the water that runs down the ditch, some of it is absorbed into the ground. Now, of course, there's a happy medium to be struck. And I'm not an expert in the area, but I learned a little bit today and I just wanted to give her a compliment on that ground. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [00:10:00] I'm glad you passed that on, Bob. That's exactly true. Thank you. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [00:10:06] It is true that there is legacy phosphate that's attached to the silt. And as that silt runs into our lakes, then it is detaches from the silts itself and the phosphorous causes harmful algal b looms within our lake. So slowing down the runoff, we might want to actually, The county. has some mapping of wetland areas and streams and stuff in the area that can cause more problems than others. And so we might want to look into bio swales and things like that that can allow us to the reduction of runoff. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:10:40] One of the nice things is, as Brianna has requested, to be member a member of our water management committee, I wholeheartedly endorse that. And perhaps on that committee she can provide some of her insight that will help us be more responsible with ditching in the future. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [00:10:56] I totally support her appointment, too. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:10:59] Hmm. Do you want that to be on the consent agenda? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [00:11:05] and we should add Virginia on that as well, so the appointment of both them. I don't think we actually officially made a Virginia appointed to that committee committee, but I know she has expressed interest. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:11:18] OK,. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [00:11:19] I have. I do. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:11:20] Yeah, I know she has. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [00:11:22] I have been technically challenged for the last month. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:11:22] No, it's not funny when that happens, is it? OK. All right. Thank you. So let's see. We'll move on to reports county legislator. We have Anne Korman and Dave McKenna here. So I will on you both and let you battle it out. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:11:53] What Do you think Dave? Tompkins Legislator Dave McKenna [00:11:55] Not ever Anne? Basically, we did not have a meeting last week, so it's not a whole lot to report. Other than none of my committees have met yet this month, other than budget and budget has got set up. The expanded budget meetings for next month and you will find them on the county Web site from the meeting portal. So that says about my report. Anne, you got anything else? Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:12:25] I have a couple of things here I want to hold on, my cat is in the... So for the CoVid testing at the mall that has previously been free, but that wasn't sustainable. We knew. We knew, or at least at the county, some of us had known that that wasn't going to last forever. So. Now, the key to health has had to start charging ninety nine dollars for testing. If you don't fit the criteria and there's a whole list of criteria, such as you have certain symptoms, you've been exposed to somebody recently that has had a positive test for CoVid your an essential worker. And I'm not sure exactly what the definition of an essential worker is at this point. And there's a couple more criteria, and that's on the county health department site. You can go look and see what that is. But if you don't fit those criteria as they now have to charge, because they were operating at a huge loss, trying to do that up over a million dollars, they lost doing that. And so why they've done that criteria is because that's the criteria that most that either the state might reimburse a little bit. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:13:49] But basically, it's what insurance will reimburse. So we are the county is now going to work with FEMA and also New York State to see if we can get some reimbursement for that. And even if we did that, it would it might be something like FEMA pays for 75 percent. The state pays for twelve and a half percent. We pay for twelve and a half percent, which could wind us up with a bill in it. And in the course of a year, it could be over a million dollars that we have to pay. So we're we're going to we're going to work on that. You can go. And it's listed again on our health department Website. It's listed for free testing from New York State, because if you go to one of their testing sites that they have set up, New York State, it's always free. No matter what, for whatever reason you're going. And the closest one I could find online is in Binghamton, though, so it's quite a ways away. Also with ours and and most of the other testing places that I know of, testing sites, they've ours has gone to scheduling people. So you sign up online or you call you you you get your number and they'll give you a list, like a five, four or five digit number. And then you go to the testing site and you tell them that number. And and if you sign up ahead of time to you've done your insurance and all of that. So that's a big, big change. And of course, the colleges open ing, we've had a lot of comments on that. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:15:32] We're not real happy with some of the things that the colleges are doing, but we don't have much control over what the colleges are doing for their opening plans because it's through New York State that they get their approval. But the health department and our law enforcement, everybody is trying to work with them. And why I say law enforcement is because the sheriff's department is going to be the ones that are going to be called out if because the county has a health department and the health department is through. It's kind of hard trying to figure out how to say this. So because county health is health for the president. County is a county issue. The sheriff's department, who was also part of the county, the sheriffs are going right now, are going to be the ones sent out. If people have a complaint that there's a gathering, that people aren't following the protocols. So we can't do it just for college students, then i t has to be for anybody. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:16:32] So if I have a big gathering of people in my backyard and they aren't wearing masks and they're not socially distancing, so this is even on private property, my neighbor or somebody could call the police or call that number and they will they can come over. And I think as far as now, they're going to give you a warning, kind of like a break and hook thing or get people to do the right protocol. I don't know if I'm going to do anything stricter, but just to let you know that we couldn't clamp down just on the students, it has to be people be able to be called on anybody. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [00:17:10] If I could just state I missed. I met the sheriff who is an Enfield official today, and he was talking about that. And I was glad to meet him and know that that was something that they would be assigned to do if it passed. What was it, Officer Koskinen, that was over there? I was sorry. I forget his name. Very nice sorry,. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:17:35] Though. And then there's budget issues. Yes. But I don't know if you want to hear much about our budget issues. We're just starting on that. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:17:45] I would like to make a request that you not make any cuts to mental health in Tompkins County in your budget, no matter how hard it is. With regard to the testing, I did go because we went out of town within New York State last week and I did go to get tested prior so I could let my family know t hat I was visiting, that I would test negative. And I went on Monday. I was notified on Thursday that they messed up my test and I would have to go and have it again. And so my husband also was with me. They would not test him. They said there's one hundre d percent trans transit transmission rate. So if my if I had it, they would only test my husband if I was positive. So we have insurance and I signed up and on the Website and gave my insurance information, so it would seem to me like if we wanted to have the test done, we should be able to get the tests done regardless. So we found that a little very. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:18:50] Well right before you couldn't. But now you can. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:18:54] Starting when? Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:18:56] I don't know if that was within the past. Week. Couple of days ago,. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:19:03] This was last Monday. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [00:19:07] I have a question. I know that they are talking about gathering's, is there a limit to size at this point for gathering's? I think it was it was 50. So if you have a gathering, more than 50 people or any sort of gathering of 10 people in your backyard and they're not wearing masks, you're socially distancing. At what level is the sheriff called or is the sheriff going to respond to something? Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:19:29] So it's you know, it's kind of murky. But if so, it's kind of up to their their judgment. But, you know, if if if they someone said six people, they they might not go. But if you said 10 people and you know that they're, you know, two people from very different, you know, all different families, and then there's five sets of families, they you know, they might go. So I'm not sure exactly when they would go. But you even if you're on private property, if they're not in your family group or you're having a gathering, you know, you need to have social distancing and wearing masks. If you if there's just like four or five people in it and spread out, hanging out, sitting on a deck and they're far enough apart and they have their masks off, you know, that's perfectly OK. But it's when gatherings when people are walking back and forth, people are walking over to beverages and food, those type of, you know, a party type thing, then people everybody really needs to wear their masks because you can't always you're not going to be able to maintain social distancing. And that's why are, as you probably know, are our numbers went up last month. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [00:20:44] All right. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [00:20:45] Is there a policy for sherriffs or IPD responding to these to wear a mask? I know there's been some instances of people being upset that they got pulled over for a ticket and the officer wasn't wearing a mask. I'm wondering what sort of policy there is for that protocol. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:21:03] So we have asked them that. So they have masks and they're supposed to wear them. The if somebody gets pulled over, that's actually the type of thing that was brought up. So if you know again, I'll just say myself, if I was like, weaving on the road or ran through with a stoplight, they pulled me over. They might want to see if there's some odor, you know, if it was they smelled marijuana or alcohol. So in those cases, they're that's part of the protocol that with her discretion, if they they might want to keep their mask off so they can smell something. But other than that, should be wearing them. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [00:21:45] OK, thank you. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:21:47] Anne is there any effort? I was involved in a Cornell sponsored chamber sponsor zoom conference yesterday and it was a.?Joe Molina, who is the vice president of university relations, spoke to the possibility. And I wonder if the legislature would consider this of asking the state to set up a state testing site in Tompkins County, given the huge student population, that maybe the state could s et up a site that's similar to what we have in Syracuse and Binghamton so that people wouldn't have to drive so far to get a free test if they were asymptomatic. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:22:26] Right. We've been asking that. And, you know, we've heard consistently. No. And, you know this the state with their limited resources. I guess you would say their financial resources and the and the big financial hole that the state is in. I, I don't think it's going to happen. If they were able to get 100 percent reimbursement from FEMA, I bet that they would, but they're not. We're having trouble doing it. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:22:58] But you all you'd have to do is bring a shine nurse, let's say, to spare space in the health department. And they could set up a state lab similar to what they have in BinghamtonI mean, if they're taking come one, come all in Binghamton and. Syracuse. Why not have more convenient by having one up at near the airport at the Tompkins County health department. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:23:19] Right. I'm just saying, you know, I'm just playing devil's advocate that they're, you know, they're going to look at. Well, that's going to cost us money. Like I said, for 10 for 12 and a half percent of our of our share. If we had to pay for all, you know, that percentage of all the students and all this and all the workers that are getting tested or people saying, hey, I'm going out of town, I want to get tested, you know, because I'm seeing people or so. That wou ld cost us if we pay that much, we're going to be paying near a million dollars. So you're talking you know, I'm not always so great at math. You know, how many would that be? Six or seven million dollars. It would cost the state to come here. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [00:24:08] Is that when you think about the average students that are going to come into to the county? I mean, the population jumps from this to that. It's a pretty big jump. I know they're talking about limiting people who live in or coming from red areas, but still, it's a very big concern. I mean, we're not sort of at the bottom of the totem pole. I'm sorry. I can't remember what the jump is when Cornell fully enrolled or I say is fully enrolled. I know they had plans in place for ha ving people that are students that are in red areas, too. There are studies online, but it's still a big concern. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:24:48] Right. And the CDC had at one point one of the CDC officials had said in a in a hearing at that to all testing was going to be free. And it's not what.e. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:25:04] Cornell is taking care of, testing its own students as often as twice a week. They're doing that and they've got a lab they're going to setup up at the vet college. Sure. You heard the student population. It's the off campus so -called townees that we're worried about the people who would otherwise be eligible for a free test in Binghamton or Syracuse, but just don't want to drive there. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:25:27] Well, they're there. Cornell is is not just testing the on campus, but they're going to they're trying to figure out how to test the off campus because whether you're on campus or off campus, all students and staff are supposed to be tested twice a week at Cornell. I haven't read the Ithaca college plan that just came out today, I think today or yesterday. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:25:53] Well, what what Mr. Molina said yesterday in his zoom conference, which was very informative and I hope that Cornell will post it on their own Website and everybody ought to to go through the hour, but they're going to test their students, their undergrads twice a week. Graduates, I believe, graduate students once a week. Faculty and staff once every one to two weeks, depending on how much interaction those professors or staff members have with the student population. But again, if you're not an employee of Cornell or one of the other institutions of higher learning, you don't have an option other than paying ninety nine dollars up at the shopping mall. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:26:40] Right. So that's why we we are working on trying to figure out how to either totally eliminate or reduce the price to a very small amount, ideally, of course, we'd like we'd like to to reduce it to zero so that anybody could get tested and not have to go through what Beth or anybody has had to go through. You know, I mean, all along I remember talking with you guys with this board several mon ths ago when this first started, and there was very few people thet qualified for testing you. And so it opened up to more and more. But still, just anybody that's wanted to go get tested, because I'm thinking I'm you know, they've never been able to befor e. So I'm surprised even that Beth's was able to get in under the criteria of being somewhere else. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:27:39] Back and. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:27:39] I did. And that's not how I did it. I did it over an essential worker as a government worker. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:27:44] Oh, did you OK. And as an essential worker, yeah,. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:27:50] As you know, what was the breakdown that you talked about that the county is considering, you should 12 and a half percent county share. How else would it be broken down? Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:27:59] So this is how it's set. Set up the FEMA reimbursement is seventy five percent for them. And we're supposed to kick in twelve and a half percent. And the state is supposed to do twelve and a half percent. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:28:13] That sounds like a pretty good deal to me, frankly. And I know it's going to be an expensive item, but this is priority number one. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:28:22] We are. We are. We think so, too. And we are working on it. Even, you know, as far as I am concerned, I mean, I haven't talked to everybody. All the other legislators. But as far as I'm concerned, if if if we have to pay a million dollars over the course of a year, then if that's going to help save lives, then we should do it. Right. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:28:44] Well, the cost also that you have to equate into that is shutting down an economy again if you don't. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:28:50] Right. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:28:50] You know, if you don't manage it. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:28:53] Right. We don't want to go back. You know, it's a different phase of opening. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:28:58] Right. All right. Thanks, Anne. Thanks Dave. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:29:09] You're welcome. I might cut off early, so but I think a couple of you have my cell phone number if there's a question about anything. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:29:16] OK. Tompkins Legislator Anne Koreman [00:29:17] And Dave is on too. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:29:21] By the way, that is her cat, Buttercup, who has been to a number of county legislature meetings and is somewhat of a celebrity. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:29:30] Indeed. OK, supervisors report. I did not prepare a report this month. I've been working on the policy manual, training the deputy and the confidential secretary with the bookkeeping software and prepping payments and gathering data for the budget and the tax cap information and also prepping for the resiliency plan. I facilitated the public hearings and two meetings and I'm working with Rene Carver to order the equipment and get it set up. Town cl erk report. Ellen? Can't hear you. You're not muted. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:30:36] Looks like she's muted to me, somewhat muted. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:30:43] She's not muted. That's not on this end. While she works that out, is the Highway Superintendent available? I do not see. Anywhere, unless it's B or the phone number three four two two nine two four. Is Buddy Rollins available for the highway report? Supervisor Beth McGee [00:31:43] All right. That's typical. Alan Teeter? Code Enforcement? Are you there, Alan? Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:32:07] There's an Alan who is muted. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:32:09] I am trying to unmute him and it has to. He has to respond to that. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:32:18] Ellen is not muted. Maybe Allan is amazed that it would be. This early that he would do every day. Somebody sent me a text. let me see? OK. Now I'm trying to undo Alan and rule out unmute. Allan, if you can hear us, but you're having a problem, send me a text so I know. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter [00:33:27] I think I'm on. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:33:28] OK. Alan, there you are. Yeah. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter [00:33:30] There's two Alans' on. And so that's probably what's confusing Supervisor Beth McGee [00:33:34] That's what I'm trying to do. OK. OK. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter [00:33:36] My last name's on there, so. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:33:38] OK. Code Officer Alan Teeter [00:33:40] So for the month of July, I issued seven building permits. Which brings us to 24 this year to the permits for four single wide ones. A new single wide and one is a replacement on an existing lot. I received one complaint for a plumbing issue in a rental unit that's been resolved, I believe. I got to send a message to the landlord and the tenant has not responded. So I think it's been taken of. The work is continuing on a new cell tower on Fish Road. The towers up. I don't see any equipment on there yet. So I think that's probably not the cre w that does have flights. Hopefully I'll be done pretty quick or started anyway getting antennas on it. I've been continuing my online training both through this back in the Department of State. I completed about 14 hours of the required 24 hours of in-service training. It's a lot of one hour courses, but I'm working our way through. We've got some time. Yesterday, I tended to assume training on sexual harassment. I wasn't sure whether it. I'm always confused about whether that's required for Town employees that are also members of the fire department. I just went ahead and did it anyway to make sure we're covered. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:34:55] And did you get a printable or mail emailable certificate for me? Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter [00:35:02] They said they would be mailed. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [00:35:05] I attended, they said it would be mailed. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:35:07] Great. That's great,. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter [00:35:11] Hopefully it will be mailed, but it should be all set. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:35:14] It would be great if everybody would take that though them. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter [00:35:19] Yeah, that was quick and easy, you know, 40 minutes or something. It was over with. So was it. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [00:35:24] What I said was that it wasn't painful to do that. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:35:29] Yeah. Good. Alan, as long as you're on there. Is that it for your code report? Code Officer Alan Teeter [00:35:38] Just a couple of minor things. The new house is being built on Iredell Road. that's been started the foundations in. And there's a barn on the intersection of Sheffield and Iredell Road. I just got plans for that. They're going to convert that to a rather large house house. I think it's about 4000 square feet, but that'll be coming along soon. They're starting the foundation on that. This year, I think they're going to follow up doing the house. Yeah. Pretty large, pretty expensive house, I think the last thing is I want to mention, you know, the office has been open for a while now and it's been working pretty well. Generally, people call before they come in. So that's been working . The only concern is on Monday during court, I'm just putting a sign on the door that says any code enforcement business should come to the side doors. I think they'll be fine. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:36:37] All right. Do you want to. Does anyone have any questions for the code officer Bridgeport? Do you want to go ahead and do your fire report? 1st Assistant Cheif Alan Teeter, EVFC [00:36:49] Total calls for July 19. There were 11 E.M.S. calls. Three motor vehicle attempts to service calls and two fire calls. One was mutual aid to Interlaken. And one of those calls was an error that was actually a Newfield address. Trains for August. We had a general meeting last Thursday. Tomorrow, we're having training on our new gas meter by the company that's has sold it that has sold it to us. Unfortunately, they're expensive meters and they don't seem to last more than three or four years and you have to buy another one's They are coming so training on that. On the 20th we have training on new tools, extrication tools from the Holmatro Company. The ir salesman is coming down to do a demonstration. We don't plan on buying any tools, but they want to come down and show us the new tool. So we said, sure. Now on the 27th we'll be doing the water flow, training, running hand lines. And lastly, the next of ficers meeting will be on September 1st. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:38:00] Thank you. Anyone have questions? All right. Thank you, Alan. Ellen, did you get the audio worked out? You are not muted. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [00:38:25] Maybe try to call in from your phone, see if that has better audio? Councilperson Virginia Bryant [00:38:32] Yeah, I'm really getting good audio from my phone. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:38:42] Is Dan Walker available? Do we see him? [00:38:47] Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:38:47] I'll unmute him. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:38:50] Good evening, everyone. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:38:51] Hi Dan. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:38:52] HI Yeah, everybody. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:38:57] Got a report for us? Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:38:58] Yes, I do. First off, I did take this harassment training yesterday, also. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:39:03] Excellent Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:39:04] I didn't see Alan there, but they told us they'd be e-mailing us. Certificate's. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:39:11] Great. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:39:12] So it was a painless way to take it, so I recommend it to everybody. We have we approved a subdivision and Thomas Road Three Lot subdivision last week's meeting. They're basically three to six acre lots and a five acre lot. The. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:39:44] Go. There is. Where'd you go Dan? Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:39:49] I don't know if we must be the pad is getting a little tired out here. So we had a three lot subdivision approved and we have a four lot subdivision that's been submitted for properties that are in the Applegate corners area by the, basically there's three big existing lots. One of them that doesn't have any frontage because it's oriented north south and whenever they build houses on Mecklenburg Road, they've lost the frontage. But that will be on the agenda next month. And I believe we'll be setting a public hearing for that for the October meeting. We'll talk to the owner and they're fine with that time schedule. There are three large lots, seventy five acres. Seventy five acres. And I think 80 acres or something like that. Then a fourth lot is a small one for about two acres, two and half acres for part of giants wholesale concrete. Casting's storage over there. So that's, those are the agenda items I'm dealing with, we did review the New York stretch informatio, and Alan showing in the process there, it's basically doesn't really impact the planning board at all. It's all building code related. But we will be on social and commercial buildings, which is where the biggest impact. We'll be reminding people that they have to follow all of New York state's codes for their buildings. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:41:44] Did you get my link? Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:41:46] Yes, that worked that worked fine. I shared my screen. unfortunately two of our.. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:41:52] No, no, no, I meant something or I suggested that a planning board members had questions about the NY Stretch, then I set the link for the Town board meeting when Terry Carroll came. Oh. To talk about it. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:42:05] Actually, I went online and I said the information material. There was an information pamphlet online. OK. Two pager that I sent out to everybody. Just a comment on the road ditching heavy metal. Town engineer and a former life for 20 years and currently working at a lot of sediment erosion control projects. It is important when they do ditching that they reseed it and prevent additional erosion. So it is there's a process to go through. I know the county. Has a hydro seeder that they loan out to highway departments so they can they can hydro seed it and fiber mulch it at the same time to allow the grass to grow back. So grass in the ditches is not a bad thing. It's just when they get overgrown and a lot a lot of silt builds up tha t they need to be maintained for proper drainage. But that is it is important to. If it's on a steep slope, put in check dams also to prevent a lot of erosion going down. So I think Buddy sent some training in that through the local roads program. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:43:20] I would hope Buddy would do that because I checked the ditch in front of Brianna's house today and it has not been reseeded to my observation. In fact, there are places where water is obviously gushed down and eroded and a little bit of what was ditched out. So. All right. I just hope that'll be a follow up on that. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [00:43:41] ... We had an early.. almost 45 years ago from the county... And we have five beautiful maples. If they'd done that th ey'd be dead now. So. And plus, it was the right way to do it. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:43:59] I will I will say that last year, Becky had asked Buddy about reseeding when they did Rotherwick Road Colvert. And he said that he wasn't going to get the reseeder from the county, that he was just hoping that it would grow up on its own. So if that's a priority for the board, then the board should talk about that at some point, perhaps in your water protection discussion. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [00:44:23] Yeah, I will talk about it. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [00:44:25] It is going to be on our agenda. Is stormwater management and different types of land use ordinances, setbacks, things like that, that we could talk about riparian buffers and ways to implement that into our management plans. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:44:39] Oh and the town board does have authority over that department as far as if the Town develops a storm management plan. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:44:49] Town highway departments are covered by a general New York State sediment erosion control permit. Which some of them don't always acknowledge, but that does ask them to use best practices for sediment erosion control. So I'll definitely help bring in a bunch of information to the meetings. So we can build that up. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [00:45:12] Thank you. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:45:14] Dan, could you send that information to us so that we would have information on how the ditches are supposed to be handled? Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:45:23] Yes, I can. I can send out. Councilperson Robert Lynch [00:45:27] Thank you. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:45:27] It's built in in the erosion Control Regulations. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [00:45:31] Cornell Roads has a lot of that information too Robert, if you'd like to look them up. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:45:35] Right. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:45:39] Thank you, Dan. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:45:40] Questions? Supervisor Beth McGee [00:45:44] I don't know. Thank you. [00:45:46] Thank you. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker [00:45:47] Good evening. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:45:49] Thanks. So, Ellen, I have two phone numbers. Did you call in on a phone number? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:45:54] Can you hear me now? Supervisor Beth McGee [00:45:55] Yes, we can. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:45:56] OK, perfect. I just troubleshot my mic and they fixed the problem, so just quickly before I start my report, I wanted to touch on what Anne said about the gatherings before this new policy happened, there was a pretty well publicized like festival in Enfield. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:46:16] I did work with the code officer and we reviewed the mass gathering policy, which actually in Enfield starts at 500 before there would be any kind of permitting for a mass gathering. So, you know, that's interesting. Just something the board might want to look at if there was a permanent process before the 500 mark. I think it would be pretty rare that a gathering and Enfield would ever hit that mark. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:46:40] So so, yes, this month, the main thing this month is we have a special guest on tonight, our SYEP intern, Mela, Mela Cowan is going to give her report. She's going to introduce herself and give her bio. So before that happens, I'm just going to go over like I will post my Town Clerk report on the LaserFische for anyone to review. I'm just going to hit a few highlights. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:47:12] So we did do a full copier overhaul. So the copier was basically rebuilt by the people who service it Eastern Copier, the copier and printer fax, there are certain limitations to it because we have an older model, so we will never being able to use it for air printing. But the printer on the Town Clerks desk can be used for air printing. And what's most relevant to the Board and residents is there is an email address where you can send documents and th ey would automatically print in the town hall. And so we do have a way to charge for copies or printing. So that will probably be reviewed in the electronic payment policy. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:47:59] So one of the most important things we did this month was I did an audit of the tax receiver and Town Clerk accounts to look for any errors or any issues when I was first learning Williamson. So that's been completed and everything balanced, which is very exciting. We've been working with our SYEP inte rn. That's been a very exciting process. We're working on a town clerk procedure manual to get our procedures so that they can be easily communicated between staff people. We're working on, we finalized our public information plan. How how that happens. We are. I'm starting to institute certain procedures like every month at the beginning of the month, we're going to send a calendar update request to all of the Town departments and organizations just asking for calendar updates. And Williamson software, we're always learning how to utilize that in new ways. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:49:05] And this month, the abstract was produced in the cloud for the first time. So that was exciting. And, you know, we're just open for business 17 hours a week. And we are, if people come into the town hall, it's one at a time, but we're still emphasizing curbside service. And then finally, I did put the local laws on the ballot. I worked with the attorney and the board of elections to do this process completely correctly and on schedule. So they are on the ballot. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:49:35] And this the 15th, this Saturday, Mela and I will be working at the county's rabies clinic from 12 to three, just helping to facilitate that clinic, which is open to our residents. The goals for this upcoming month are to network the computers in the town hall. That remains a goal so that I can continue training my deputy on the Williamson software. And so she can access that from her computer. We are working with the DEC to get the hunting licenses on board. That's been a long process, but we're in the final moments of that process. And exciting news is Deputy Clerk Patricia Speno took the notary test yesterday. So she'll be, once you get your pass result from that test, you can apply for a notary public commission from the state of New York. So that's in process. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:50:33] And I did want to mention that the Town town hall has been without a vacuum cleaner for about six weeks now. And so. We'd like to put in motion to replace the vacuum cleaner or at least update it so that we could have a vacuum cleaner in the town hall. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [00:50:56] That's should be almost done just so you know. I've, I should be able to pick it up within the next, I would say within the week. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:51:02] OK, great. Great. Fantastic. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [00:51:04] I would like ask. Excuse me. I would like to ask certainly any policy procedure manual you come up with, you know, be reviewed by the board. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:51:14] Oh of course. [00:51:14] Ok. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:51:19] I'm just I'm the policy and procedure manual, just involves policies like, how do we open? How do we close? You know, wh at do we do on a daily day basis? How often do we check the mail? What do we do to prepare for a meeting, those kind of procedures? Councilperson Virginia Bryant [00:51:35] I understand. But the looks. Everything went bad. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:51:40] So we can see you. I can hear you, Virginia,. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [00:51:42] OK. All right. I don't want I mean, we really need to get our act together with the employee handbook and procedures and so on. And I would not want to see some manual off to the side that we haven't looked at or approved. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:52:01] OK, so now I'm going to give the floor to Mela if there's no questions. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:52:06] I do actually have a few questions. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:52:08] Sure. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:52:09] So I understand that you've been in communication with Brian Mclroy about the retirement workday resolution. So if Patricia has now been here since May 8. She should be able to do. She would be the last one that wouldn't. That might be a close cut there as far as time. But she should be able to do three months of tracking. I also would need that from Alice and Ellen and from Brian. And then a resolution worked. A workday resolution should be prepared and ready for Septembers' meeting with all of those three months. Yeah. tracking of of tasks. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:52:55] So. So that has taken place. I can discuss that further in the Town Clerk position review later on. However, Brian d id inform me that because minimum wage is what it is, the Town Clerk position can not submit more than thirty two hours to the state for the retirement system. So it doesn't matter to New York State. If I am working more than 32 hours, I can only claim tha t thirty two hours for retirement because that is how much my position is funded for minimum wage. It is true that a minimum wage does not apply to elected officials, but in the eyes of the State, you cannot work more than whatever minimum wage is times yo ur position. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:53:43] OK, so I'm just putting this before you and the board that in September there should be a worker a Work Day resolution prepared and ready for the board to approve at the September regular meeting. The other question is the networking to use Williamson? Have you checked with Williamson about the number of devices that you can have networked in using that? Because we only pay for the three devices, the Clerk for the supervisor and for the bookkeeper. So before they're networked and you have more than one person in the Clerks office using that on two devices, you should check with them about that. And the board would need to approve another device cost. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:54:28] So just to clarify, I was only speaking about tax collecting software from Williamson and Town clerk plus from Williamson, I do believe that it is most appropriate for the cloud accounting software to remain on one computer. And I wouldn't, I wouldn't seek to have that networked. Williamson felt that that it would be best for reconciling Williamson at the end of the day and talking about Town clerk plus and tax collection for the computers themselves to be networked, but the software to be formally only on one device. Because there's something about having the software, if we had multiple licenses. Right. So each different computer has its own Williamson Town Clerk plus and Williamson tax collection. Then there would have to be a reconciling procedure. So it is better for just multiple log ins to be able to use that the same software, which is ultimately only on the one computer. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:55:36] OK. I just want to make sure that we don't get an unexpected bill. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:55:40] Sure. Sure. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:55:41] And then the other question that I had is you said that you balanced the tax collecting account. Can you please send the bank statement that shows that the tax account is at zero? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:55:52] So there is there's a hold up on that. And I've communicated with the bookkeeper on that. The issue is that I when you look at these statements that the when you look at the statements from the bank, the bank is calculating interest on our account. However, it is never being paid into our account. It's sort of fantasy interest that they hold to like offset fees. So the person who taught me how to reconcile an account does live in a town where interest is paid to the supervisor. So I looked for that. Like, what interest should I pay to the supervisor? It appears that there is interest on the front page of our statement. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:56:39] And so I paid that to the supervisor and the amount was two hundred thirty dollars and three cents. And unfortun ately, that interest was never paid into our account. That is, it's not our, it turns out that our tax collection account is not interest bearing. So I worked that out with the bank. I have a letter from the bank to that effect explaining the situation and I will just need a check back from the supervisor for two hundred thirty dollars and three cents and then I can pay the rest that what I owe the county after the reconciliation, which is in the realm of about nineteen hundred dollars. And that was a Williamson error that, you know, just being there to the software. So, so I just need to do that before I can bring the account to zero. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:57:32] So where is so where is the nineteen hundred dollars. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:57:37] In the tax collection, in the tax collector account. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:57:42] It's in the tax collector account, but it hasn't been paid to the county? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:57:46] So it had to do with some payments I got at the last minute for taxes that when I did my reconciliation, I turn those payments over to the county. But I didn't take them off my unpaid. So it's just a process of learning the software, which anyone would go through. So I, you know t hat's the purpose of the final audit to find any type of error like that and then do a final settlement, so the county is aware of this situation. And so as soon as I can get that checked back, then I can resolve the account to zero. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:58:20] OK, so in order for. In order for me to provide you with a check, I'm going to need to have that explanation from the bank and have the bank statements that indicate that. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:58:36] Sure. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:58:39] Because that I've never heard of that. And I've never had that problem before. So as far as interest. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:58:44] I don't believe that the Town Clerk Linton was paying you interest because the account has never been interest-bearing. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:58:53] Yeah, that's what I'm saying is I've never encountered that problem before, so I would just need to have verification of it through the bank statement and an explanation from the bank about that so I can justify t hat, put it with a voucher and a check stub. So people understand why we're taking money out of the general fund for that. And if you can provide that for the whole board, that would be good. And then let us know when that is fully paid. Everybody's taxes are clear, though. How will we how do we know that? So everyone's tax payments have been applied appropriately, is how how can we know that? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [00:59:39] Everyone's tax payments have been applied appropriately. Supervisor Beth McGee [00:59:45] OK. OK. If you if you need payment, if you can prepare the voucher for me and then provide the bank information and maybe a letter from the bank explaining that that I can put with the voucher. That would be great. Then we can have everything in order before preparing a check. All right. Thank you. OK. On to if there's no are there are there any other questions for Ellen? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:00:20] So I was gonna have Mela OK. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:00:23] Yeah. All right. Wonderful. Go for it. Mela, are you there? SYEP Intern Mela Cowan [01:00:36] Yeah, sorry, it crashed for a second. [01:00:38] Great, great. Welcome, welcome. SYEP Intern Mela Cowan [01:00:41] Thank you. So I guess I'm just going to read the bio that I created for myself as an introduction. OK, so Mela Cowan is a senior at Ithaca High, she has been part of the Youth Council Ambassadors, otherwise known as YCA for two years. YCA is a collection of students from schools around Tompkins County who work in focus groups based on fixing the issues children and young adults face in the county. Mela's group was focused on confirming racism and discrimination in schools, as a part of that group, Mela met with multiple influential people in the community and got their ideas on how her group could go about bringing this issue to light. Along with the other ambassadors, she set up a virtual expo where multiple people could meet and discuss the issues without taking up much time in their busy schedules. After collecting inf ormation and by talking to these people and completing research on their own time, the members of YCA presented a slideshow to Common Council in Ithaca. The members of Common Council were so impressed by the members that they gave out awards. Mela hangs th is award in her room as a reminder of her hard work and dedication to the people of Tompkins county she looks forward to serving the town of Enfield and doing her best every day. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:02:07] Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:02:08] Thank you, Mela. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:02:11] Do you want a report at all on the work that you've been doing? SYEP Intern Mela Cowan [01:02:16] Iike currently? Supervisor Beth McGee [01:02:18] In the town hall. Do you want to speak about that at all? SYEP Intern Mela Cowan [01:02:24] Like what I've been doing for Enfield so far? Supervisor Beth McGee [01:02:29] Yeah. SYEP Intern Mela Cowan [01:02:30] OK. So mostly I'm just sort of been editing transcriptions and working on Trint, which has actually been really fun. And it's sort of like a good way to kind of get to know, like, the people. And. Yes. I really enjoy doing that. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:02:55] Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:02:56] Great. Well, we're happy to have you here. SYEP Intern Mela Cowan [01:02:59] Yeah. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:03:00] Yeah, I'm thrilled. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:03:03] Does anyone have any questions for Mela? All right. Thank you, Mela. Welcome. We're glad to have you. SYEP Intern Mela Cowan [01:03:16] Thanks. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:03:19] Ellen? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:03:21] Oh, I was just going to say that. Just clarify that Mela is working remotely and that's been going really well. And she has written a letter to residents that actually went out to residents and got posted on the Town Website. And we have she's working with the Jurassic Parlament program, the free part of the program to learn. So tonight is another opportunity to learn normal Town meeting procedure. And we have a goal for Mela of taking the Notary exam by the end of September 30th. When the program is over. [01:04:00] That's fabulous. [01:04:02] Great ... All right. Let's see. Bob, do you have a TCCOG? Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:04:16] TCCOG met since our last Town board meeting, there was a very informative virtual town hall meeting with Cornell officials in late July to discuss their reopening plans. However, as things go, it's largely been updated by more recent announcements from Cornell, which have been well publicized, talking about the twice a week student testing and the desire to limit students arrival from states that are on Governor Cuomo's quarantine list and most of that has been well publicized. I won't take up too much more time, but it was an informative session that we had in late July. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:05:04] Great. Seems like there was a conversation about something at a recent supervisors meeting about.. Stephan ie, can you recall what that was that we were talking about. Potentially talking with TCCOG about. No, I can't remember. I'm sure you'll hear about about. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:05:32] There'll be a meeting later on this month I'm sure. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:05:35] Right. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:05:36] Talking about broadband. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:05:37] Yes. It was talking about broadband. Yeah, like reviving that TCOG committee. But Mark was part of that conversation. So if he's if he's going to bring it to TCOG then he'll do that. All right. Any questions about TCOG for Bob. OK. So then I will move that we adopt the consent agenda, which will include the audit claims, the speed and safety study request. And for Rockwel l Road and also the appointment of Brianna Ricordell and Virginia to the Water Protection Committee. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:06:27] I'll second it. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:06:30] I emailed a resolution for the appointments. Did everybody get that? Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:06:38] Yes. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:06:39] Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:06:39] And then Bob put together a resolution for the safety study request. Everybody got that? Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:06:47] Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:06:49] OK. Let's see, where is Ellen? We need to have the, oh here we go. Ellen, would you please read the warrant? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:06:59] Sure. The Town board authorizes the supervisor to pay general fund vouchers, one seventy two to one eighty eight. Dated eight twelve twenty twenty in the amount of eleven thousand six hundred eighty nine dollars and sixty five cents. Highway funds vouchers. One hundred and eleven to on e hundred and twenty nine. Dated eight, 12, 2020. In the amount of nineteen thousand six hundred thirty three dollars and sixty nine cents. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:07:33] Thank you. And do we have a resolution number for the speed safety resolution? And also one for the appointments? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:07:43] Fifty five and 56. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:07:46] Great. All right, and I. I CC'd you on the resolution for the appointment. Is there any further conversation about that? Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:08:08] Brianna is a good ad to the committee, as is Virginia. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:08:14] Yep, thank you. Thank you, Virginia, and Stephanie. All right. If there's no further questions, would you please Call the vote. Ellen? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:08:29] Councilperson Bryant. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:08:33] Should I vote on this? Supervisor Beth McGee [01:08:35] Yes. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:08:36] OK. Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:08:38] Councilperson Lynch. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:08:42] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:08:42] Councilperson Redmond,. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:08:45] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:08:45] Supervisor Beth McGee. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:08:48] Aye. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:08:55] OK. All right. Moving on to the solar bid. I forwarded my notes from the conversation with the Town attorney. So based on those notes, I would suggest that we open the bids that we have and then, and then make a determination if there will be ones rejected based on primary criteria and how you move forward. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:09:37] That's good. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:09:39] That's good. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:09:42] So do you have those bids in front of you? Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:09:47] I do not I I'm look back and see here. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:09:51] Were we actually sent those once they were ready to be opened. I didn't actually see them get sent to us. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:10:02] When they were received, they were sent. That goes back a ways. So I have to go back and search. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:10:08] Seven One is when we received one from Amanda Postma. And then the only one that I have for the only other bid I have was provided to me in paper. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:10:46] So well, actually, Amanda Postma sent it to Town Clerk supervisor and Stephanie. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:10:59] On seven one and then the Clerk forwarded it to the board on the 8th, I believe. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:11:17] I did receive something from Rebecca too. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:11:23] On seven, eight. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:11:25] So,. Yeah,. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:11:25] I do have that. OK. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:11:28] Right. And was that from Rebecca or was that from the Town Clerk? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:11:34] That was from Rebecca. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:11:36] And she sent it on the 8th. Did she send that to the Town Clerk. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:11:43] I am looking at that I was sent on the eighth. Then there are five PDFs attached. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:11:51] That's seven days after the date. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:11:53] Right. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:11:54] Oh i found Amadas too, ok Supervisor Beth McGee [01:12:08] And what is the. That was on the eighth? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:12:14] I saw one on the one from Amanda's on the 8th and then the one from. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:12:21] From I'm sorry. The one from Amanda. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:12:24] Is the first. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:12:25] And then the one from Rebecca is on the 8th. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:12:29] Well, I have trouble with the bid being submitted late this old time. Whatever. But I really have trouble with that. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:12:40] So unfortunately, I seem to think that was not OK from the just from the notes that you sent us, Beth, I'm not really sure how I feel about that. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:12:47] In the email from Rebecca or from the Town Clerk with Rebecca with her RFP. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:13:00] She sent that to the Town Clerk on the 8th at 5:12 p.m. and then that email was sent from the Town Clerk the same day. So that's when it was received was seven days late Supervisor Beth McGee [01:13:14] it was due the first. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:13:18] I know that's what bothers me. I hate to be a nit picker but that's not. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:13:26] Well it's important, Virginia, because we've got to make sure we're in legal compliance. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:13:31] If we weren't.. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:13:31] Right and I and my in my professional background, if a bid is received, say it was due on Sunday, we got it by tw elve o'clock, twelve a.m. it would still be accepted. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:13:48] But if it came in at 12:00, or if it came in the next day, it would not be accepted. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:13:53] You're you're correct, Virginia. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:13:56] I mean, it sounds really harsh, and I don't like that, but that's just the way business is done, I've driven, I've driven bids to albany to get it in on time. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:14:09] Unfortunately, it does seem like that's the the way that Guy is reading this as well. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:14:15] The question I want is if we just limit ourselves to the renovus bid, are we tying our hands? Would it be wise? And I'm just raising this as a hypothetical. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:14:27] Could we should we reject both bids and rebid again in hopes that we would have at least two competitive bids to consider? Supervisor Beth McGee [01:14:40] I think that legally you're going to get the same two. And what that does is set up the one who didn't send it in on time, in with an opportunity that the other one already abided by. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:14:54] So. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:14:55] Yeah, I think you'd be in a legal mess. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:15:00] I think you might be right. And unfortunately, you know, I hate to say that because I know she's an Enfield resident and I'd love to support women. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:15:09] I really do too, I feel the same way you do, Stephanie, but we left the bid out, or we put the bid out. There was time to do it. And the way the bid process works for Blee statewide is you get it in on time. Even if you drive it to Albany or whatever. I'm sorry. That's old fashioned. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:15:32] Well, I will also tell you that the that Tony Hasan from from Nyserda did communicate with me or ask last week how we're doing on this and he would like to move forward. So rebidding it is, to me is just this is really it's really quite ridiculous, actually,. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:15:57] Totally, totally ridiculous. And I don't think, it is a waste of time, money, and we need to go forward on this plan, Tony. They've been very patient with us at Nyserda. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:16:08] The other issue that we're having, if you look at the bids, Renovus does come in in only a couple thousand dollars lower. So even if we were to accept both, then we would have to accept Renovus as the best deal for what we're getting. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:16:21] So either way, yeah, it would end up with Renovus in this one. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:16:26] Well, I wouldn't be able to make a judgment Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:16:31] What was that, Robert? Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:16:32] We were advised not to open the bid, so I wouldn't be able to compare the two. Stephanie, it just has Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:16:39] Oh, I thought that we were allowed to at this point, to open this, i though this is what we,. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:16:42] we just opened them. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:16:44] Yeah, we opened a few days ago Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:16:47] I can't compare them on the spot. Maybe Stephanie can, I can't compare them on the spot and still conduct business at a Town Board meeting. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:16:55] Well, here is my personal perspective on this. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:16:59] We have. We asked that they also be 10 pages and the proposals, there's five PDFs, each of them are minimum eleven pages with one as a contract that's 30 pages. So and that is the one that was late. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:17:21] So I am I am not going to vote for rebuilding this Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:17:30] How low is Renovus' bid, was that within the 10 pages. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:17:35] Where is it where is it. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:17:36] The one thing that I would say is that Rebekah's is slightly higher in kilowatts, so it might, you know, even though it's two thousand dollars more. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:17:47] Renovus' is six pages,. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:17:49] How many? Supervisor Beth McGee [01:17:50] Six. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:17:51] Six pages. That complies Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:17:54] Now, what about the issue that was raised at a previous meeting about the lack of an onsite inspection by. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:18:04] We didn't require that. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:18:07] We dicided that that was not, that was more recommendation than a requirement by the language that we had in the RFP. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:18:16] It was a request, not a requirement. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:18:20] No, you'd have to. You'd have to state that as a requirement. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:18:24] Otherwise, you know. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:18:32] Is there any possibility additional delay in view of Covid that the Nyserda grant could be rescinded? Supervisor Beth McGee [01:18:43] I have no idea, but I do know that they are ready for us to move on this. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:18:47] So,. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:18:48] Yeah. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:18:50] They gave us leeway to rebid it a second time. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:18:56] And that's amazing to me, but I love it Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:19:02] Given the fact that it seems to be the board's consensus, that of the Rebecca Carpenter bid is defective because it was late submitted and also too long, and it appears to be that the renovus bid seems to have support within the Town Board. I can't review the chapter and verse of that Renovus bid tonight. Is there any possibility that we could have a special meeting later this month? It's to consider the solar bid over at Novas. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:19:38] I think we need to move on and get this get this off our plate, it's been on our plate how long. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:19:45] Just to give you a general view. I know you want to look at these more, Robert, but Renovus is looking at about a little over 24 kilowatts. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:19:54] And it's coming in at I believe it was, sorry, fourtyeight thousand, fortyeight thousand. And Rebekah's is at fifty thousand. And she varies based on her set up between a little over 26 kilowatts to a little over 30 kilowatts. So it is a little bit more power. It is two thousand dollars more. But really, legally, I don't think that we can accept her bid based on what we're what we're hearing from Guy. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:20:22] How does everybody know all of these details? Because I was instructed not to open these bids. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:20:28] We just opened them. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:20:30] We're looking at it right now. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:20:31] I know, but I can't. You might be able to review these things and approve contracts on the spot. I can't do that. I have to have time to look at them. All right. I just can't all of a sudden just sight unseen, approve of a bid and so if you want to approve the renovus bid tonight, I'm going to have to abstain. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:20:54] I mean, I'm OK with a special meeting to do this if we want to, you know, look at it in a week or whatever. But it s eems pretty clear from Guy that we really are only left with one option here anyway,. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:21:08] In my view. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:21:10] We only have one bid and that qualifies. And it comes in below the required amount. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:21:19] And I'm going to move that we because we're not looking at even apples and oranges or apples and apples because we're only looking at one bid as far as I'm concerned. So I'm going to move that we accept the bid from Renovus and move forward with Nyserda to complete this project with Renovus. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:21:39] I second it [01:21:42] I'd be OK with moving forward with it. It doesn't seem like we have a lot of options otherwise, Robert. I mean, the only option would be to really delay this. And it doesn't seem extraordinarily worth it to us to do that, given that we're not getting pressured from Nyserda as well. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:21:57] Well, I would rather wait a week to to look at the details if you want to go ahead with it. That's fine. I will abstain tonight because I don't buy a car that way. I don't buy a solar project that way. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:22:12] Ellen, did you have information for this? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:22:15] I didn't. I don't know that it's useful at this point. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:22:18] I was going to clarify the exact process by which the second bid came in. But I think at this point, it's not useful to share that. I could share it privately with the board. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:22:28] Did it come in earlier by the date that it was due? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:22:32] So it was not under originally sent to the Town Clerk. It was originally sent to Councilperson Redmond. Then it was delivered to the Town Clerk on the date that I sent it by email. So I don't know when it was sent to Councilperson Redmond, but I would assume it was the same day. So it was delivered in a paper version. And then I coordinated with the bidder and Councilperson Redmond to, you know, at first I thought I'd have to scan the whole thing. And then I coordinated to get an electronic version sent out to the Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:23:08] The submission of this bid was totally off. Now I wouldn't say off the wall, but it should not have been submitted that way. There's a way to submit a bid and a way not to submit in bed. And really, I can't. I mean, I can't believe that we would even at this point, a bid comes in. It's on time and its put until the t ime we open them. And if another bid comes in after the time its due. Unfortunately, we can't accept it, I mean, legally, it's just not appropriate or not allowed. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:23:48] So we've had a second on this, and I will I will also say that I was all for rebidding this prior. But you can't keep putting out RFPs until you get an answer that you want. You have to legally abide by your terms. And Renovus is an extremely reputive, reputable company who does these projects all the time. I, I feel that I'm looking at their project proposal and it is well within our limits that we requested. I believe that they would be proud to do a municipal project like this, and if there were any problems with it, they wouldn't be able to use it as an examp le of such. So I have no doubt that Renovus would do a great job for the town of Enfield on this project. I have no doubt that Rebecca would do a great job on this project for the town of Enfield. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:24:44] But unfortunately, I. I just don't think that there's a way around that, especially after the legal console. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:24:53] You think we would run the risk of jeopardizing the Nycerda grant. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:24:59] I think rebidding it would be irresponsible and unethical because what you're doing is you're creating a situation where you are telling a business that has already abided by all of your criteria that you want to give somebody else another chance. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:25:18] So. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:25:19] I would not want to ever do that. That is totally I mean, I sound harsh, but it is totally out of sorts with the bid process legally and ethically. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:25:30] And for, say, I'm going to have to agree that. I mean, like I said, I'd love to see this go to Rebecca in the sense of having a local Enfield resident that does it and a woman owned business. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:25:38] But it doesn't seem like a legal option for us without getting ourselves into a sticky situation after Guys advice, I'm going to have to go forward with saying that we really should take the bid that we have that was submitted on time. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:25:54] You don't want to wait another week to look at it. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:25:57] I don't think it's going to affect it either way. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:25:59] It doesn't make it makes sense. I mean, we have this. We basically have one bid on our on our plate. And it's not going to change it by waiting a week. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:26:08] We're still going to be in the same situation. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:26:10] As the responsibly submitted bid we've looked at. I mean, no, I can't I can't see delaying for another week. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:26:23] All right. Would you call the vote, please? Ellen? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:26:28] OK, I'm ready. Councilperson Bryant,. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:26:33] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:26:33] Councilperson Lynch. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:26:35] Abstain. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:26:37] Councilperson Redmond,. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:26:38] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:26:40] Supervisor McGee. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:26:42] Aye. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:26:45] Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:26:49] So, Stephanie, will you be in touch with Amanda, please go forward with that Supervisor Beth McGee [01:26:58] All right. The reopening plan. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:27:02] Rene has worked with me and with the companies that we're ordering the equipment from in order to prepare invoices that I can purchase tax free from them. So I'll be ordering that equipment this Friday, hopefully have it within a week so he can start setting that up. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:27:24] Although at this point, I have no idea if we'll ever end up reopening. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:27:31] And also I did. Hold on. Let me pull up an email from. Hold on one second. I'm going to have to go quiet one more down. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:27:41] I need to pull up an email from Pat Baker about cleaning, one second. I'll be right back. [01:27:53] I don't care. [01:27:56] I won't bring my puppy into it. Is that Beths? [01:28:03] Seven month old chocolate lab is bouncy, bouncy. [01:28:09] Ann Korman brings her cat. We have dog problems and my cat Angel just lo st her supper here over on the side. But I want to talk about that. [01:28:17] We love Athose. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:28:20] OK, well One second. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:28:24] Pat gave me some information. I had a discussion with Pat Baker about. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:28:30] Moving forward, in the event that we needed extra cleaning of the Town, Town Board space and courtroom. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:28:41] So there, let me make sure. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:28:45] I want to make sure I wasn't just talking away and looking at this and not not on there. So she said if extra time is needed, I can be there when needed for weekly Monday court, depending on what everyone wants. I can clean or disinfect sometime on Sunday or Monday or any day after the Wednesday function so it can be done for court function. Four times a month equals two hours for first of the month Wednesday function depending on what everyone would want. I can either clean and disinfect Tuesday evenings or Wednesday even ing just before the function. Once a month equals half hour. But as we know, once a month is unrealistic these days, as far as meetings, so you'd have to take that in consideration. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:29:36] So. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:29:39] She said if just doing the basic cleaning and disinfecting, it would only take maybe an extra half hour each day that is needed. Just the top floor that would be disinfecting the bathrooms and all hard surfaces. She would continue the regular schedule of full cleaning every other week, as she has been doing, and will make sure that the schedule continues. So the cleaning is before the Town board meeting might have to make adjustments to keep the schedule the day before the meeting. So as we know, we're kind of playing it by ear right now because we have no idea what what will make sense as far as public meetings and what the governor is going to allow. And what kind of gathering's we want to manage. I do think that if you're going to plan on, i mean, the executive order allows us to do meetings this way. So that doesn't mandate us to do them this way. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:30:45] So. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:30:47] But if you're going to have public meetings, you have to manage that in some way and you have to have a process in place to manage the people entering the building. People signing in. So you can do tracing if you need to. Making sure that the surfaces are clean, that everything is available for everything, is clean for each function as well as you're going to want to set up the equipment and have that whole process in place. So, you know, when you're going to have a meeting that all your electronics are functioning and in place where they need to be. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:31:21] It's interesting because at the public hearing, people complained that people who don't have Internet, couldn't see someone is now named themselves "Not that Alan". That's funny. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:31:36] People who don't have Internet or that there was less access to the meeting. And Rene reminded me that it used to be people could only attend the meeting if they listened after the fact or if they were able to walk into the building. And now people there's 21 people here. We've had up to 60 people, more than 60 people at a meeting in Zoom. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:32:01] If you have those in place, you would also get people who would be at the meeting in person and are hearing it in real time. If people don't have Internet, they could and they don't want to be in the building because of Covid. We also offer a whole parking lot, two buildings, free Internet for them to log into these meetings. There's more access. Plus people that don't have Internet can call in on a landline. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:32:26] So there's never been more access to Enfield meetings. And it's really something that the board should be proud of to continue this sort of access. We've never had more access to meetings than this. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:32:39] So I'm very, excuse me, I'm very proud of the fact that there is more access. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:32:46] I will continue to work with Rene. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:32:49] Whatever else the board wants to work on as far as systems in place. People should start thinking about that. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:32:57] Then how how you're going to have people meeting in public. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:33:01] We ought to get the system in place because you never know, the governor might decide, oh, the open meetings law is back in full force and we can't just meet remotely. We've got to call for that possible eventuality, which may not come by the time of our September meeting, but perhaps before the budget process is read, is done in October and November, it may be an issue. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:33:27] Yep. So I would actually like to see somebody take that on and have that. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:33:33] Have those procedures in place for a September meeting. That would be terrific. We'd hoped to have the electronic end of things in place by the September meeting as well. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:33:49] And that would be our goal by the September regular meeting or meeting back in person with the electronics and would be proper, proper Covid protocols. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:34:02] Develop some some protocols, if you want for the Covid. I guess testing and stuff that we would have I don't know if we do it. We can talk about it further and see to whether or not we want to have temperature checks at the door and things like that. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:34:15] OK. And also how you might get that done, who you might have do it. Are you gonna have volunteers do that. That's a risk for volunteers to take. Are you going to pay somebody to do that so or is there going to be a board member that's going to do that? You'd have to think through those aspects of it, too. This is inviting several people. And I think right now I think Betty had said something like a maximum of 17 people can be in the room. So you're talking five board members and a Clerk. So if you have I don't know if Allan were to attend, if the Highway superintendent were to attend, then you would be rejecting people at the door. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:34:58] Likely, ultimately. So you can so you have to think about the logistics of that and how that would happen. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:35:06] What about a board member who's got a health problem which put him or her at risk? Can she attend by zoom? Supervisor Beth McGee [01:35:17] That would be a good question. With regard to open meetings law and we can certainly approach that because I personally think that board members who are at risk should have that option. And it would also, especially if we're always going to do it by zoom also, it would also mean that you reduce the number of people at the table. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:35:42] So. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:35:43] you would have potentially had more people participating than we ever have. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:35:48] Well, I think we've already voted, Virginia, that we're going to go forward with having the zoom meetings available at all times. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:35:56] I'm just concerned, you know, if there is a board member who has a health problem, we're coming to a meeting where there are 20 people or 30 people. If that person could attend Via zoom or if that's ilegal. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:36:14] Well, another question should be asked is that if a member is sick or has Covid and wants to take part in the meeting, as a board member, they should be able to do that from home. Via zoom. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:36:27] So. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:36:28] I agree with you. I agree with you. I mean, that's one of the questions that's been put to me by other people having nothing to do with Enfield talking about having board meetings with other organizations. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:36:40] So I think it's something we need to investigate and come up with a plan for. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:36:46] My suspicion is the governor will probably continue his suspension of the open meetings law for a number of months because Covid is not going away. I don't want to meet. We want to meet in the community building. That's fine. But I think a lot of the exceptions to the rigorous, rigid rules of the open meetings law will probably be waived by executive order. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:37:11] Yeah, I just I don't disagree. But I do think that we need to be responsibly prepared for anything at this point. Numbers look really good in New York State. This could be just one more part of it all. Next wave of, you know, our next phase of moving back into normalcy. So. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:37:34] In terms of volunteering to do the possible temperature checks and other Covid protocols. Ellen, you're an EMT. Might there be volunteers from the Enfield volunteer fire company that might be willing to step in and do that volunteer effort during our meetings. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:37:55] So I can't speak to the fire company's behalf, but it certainly would be something Alan is our E.M.S. chief. So certainly something that, you know, if that request was submitted, the board could consider that. I was going to note that in CMCs protocol if you're doing temperature screening, that you have to be in full PPE and that does include safety glasses. So if you're getting that close to a temperatu re screening. But I was also going to share with the board that I have seen protocols that involve people self screening at like a station. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:38:31] You know, the gun is there. They're provided with it, and then they write down their own temperature. That could certainly be an option as well. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:38:41] Alan I see is in our meeting. Could he be unmuted to respond to my question? Supervisor Beth McGee [01:38:54] Alan? 1st Assistant Cheif Alan Teeter, EVFC [01:38:54] yeah, sorry, I didn't hear the question. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:38:58] I wondered if volunteers from the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company could be involved in any Covid screening that we might need f or attendees to in person Town board meetings in the future. 1st Assistant Cheif Alan Teeter, EVFC [01:39:13] They could they could certainly be asked. I mean, it's personal choice for them, but I wouldn't be opposed to asking. And I expect someone would. There's a couple of people who work in the food pantry quite often for EMTs or as other people. So, yeah, I think it's probably a reasonable to ask. Thank you. Thank you. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:39:38] I know many have said in prior meetings that she will not attend any in-person meetings unless everybody is masked, and I presume that includes Town Board members and that's going to lead to some communication problem by us that we're going to have to speak through masks and might not be as clear and candid as we otherwise might be. I don't know if that's been considered by the board members. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:40:03] Well, I've certainly considered it because I noticed. Well, you know, when I have a mask on, which I don't have peop le and I try to enunciate it's a difficult problem. And so I wonder how that's going to how that's going to play out. When you're in a big meeting, it's just very difficult. As opposed to what we're doing right now. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:40:24] I wonder if Face Shields would be an effective substitute. If we could all have face shields, perhaps, and we'd still be able to articulate. But we have a shield in front of us so that we wouldn't contaminate others if we happened to be contagious. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:40:39] I would think a face shield would be more of a vocal block than a mask would. As far as Mike's picking it up, if especially if you're trying to utilize the equipment to record the meetings,. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:40:56] Just questions. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:40:57] I've read a little bit on this. Not enough to report. But both face shields and or masks do make it necessary for one to speak clearly, enunciate. It's very difficult to get the kind of sense yo u get from even as from a via zoom meeting where everybody can say what they have to say and you can hopefully hear it clearly. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:41:25] So I can talk to Rene about masks and face shields. And the impact on sound. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:41:34] But my goal would be that, first of all, we have to maintain distance. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:41:40] But I'm not going to be in any building that's inside without a mask on with other people either. So. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:41:53] All right, so, Stephanie, you work on protocols going forward for procedures? I will work on the equipment, installation, order and installation and then keep the board apprized of any developments. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:42:12] Hopefully that'll be ready by the September meeting. We will likely meet here again virtually. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:42:43] All right. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:42:43] So moving on, I guess. And so. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:42:56] Let me I'll connect you with Pat Baker Supervisor Beth McGee [01:42:58] Stephanie, with regard to cleaning and then that that space since the public will be there and then. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:43:09] That yous can. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:43:11] Let the board know what you'd recommend for that. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:43:19] OK. Cleanup day's schedule. I already send a proposal for that, anybody get that? Supervisor Beth McGee [01:43:31] It was in his long letter. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:43:38] Sent on the 10th. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:43:45] The one asking for a special meeting. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:43:48] Oh, I did not see that part of it. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:43:52] Let me see if I can pull it up. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:44:17] He said it was sent on the 10th. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:44:29] I'm not finding it, but I'm also so technically challenged a little bit. My. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:44:36] It's the subject is auction equipment and agenda. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [01:44:41] OK. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:44:50] OK. I found it. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [01:44:52] I've got it now. I've got it now. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:44:56] So he's proposing Thursday, October 15th, from one to five p.m. Friday, October 16th, from one to five p.m. and Saturday, October 17th, from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and he needs to set up two dumpsters for it. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:45:16] It sounds reasonable to me that. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:45:17] He needs to set up Dumpster's for it not to. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:45:19] Sorry. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:45:23] So I'll move that we schedule the cleanup week for October 15th from one to five p.m., October 16th, from one to five p.m. and October 17th from eight to 12 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the highway facility. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:45:47] I'll leave room for the questions. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:45:52] Would you please call the vote Ellen? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:45:56] Councilperson Bryant. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [01:45:57] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:46:00] Councilperson Lynch. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:46:01] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:46:02] Councilperson Redmond. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:46:04] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:46:04] Supervisor McGee,. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:46:07] Aye. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:46:07] Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:46:15] All right. Stephanie, you had wanted to have paving of the community building parking lot on the agenda. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:46:23] Yeah, I haven't heard anything from Buddy on that. And he is not on this call, so I don't know if we can go forward. I did ask him to be present here and present that, but it doesn't appear that he's on there. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:46:39] I did see there is another highway person on here. Oh, maybe they're not a nymore. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:46:47] Let me guess. Highway employee can't respond to about an issue like that. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:46:52] OK. I just didn't know if that maybe they had talked about it at all, but I guess I guess we'll have to leave it from there. The other thing that we could do if Buddy doesn't want to move forward with that is contract to like suit Kote or something like that and ask them for an estimate. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:47:11] Sure. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:47:11] So they have a state contract where we could contact them Supervisor Beth McGee [01:47:19] We, Suco, I imagine, has the state contracts, and that would not necessarily be a bidding process. So if we the board wants to reach out to them to get an estimate on that, then that's certainly reasonable. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:47:36] Therce's no harm to get an estimate, but I don't know if we've got the money to do it this year. We'll get an estimate. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [01:47:46] Well, it's better than getting no response from your highway supervisor. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:47:52] All right. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:47:55] So that's ok then I'll reach out to them and ask them to give us an estimate on that. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:48:01] Sure. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:48:03] I would be happy to take part in any meeting with them if they need to have any details. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:48:15] I would like to maybe meet with you and talk about the area that we're talking about. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:48:22] And I have a pretty good idea just looking at it. It needs to be done. But we should talk about it in more detail for sure. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:48:29] Great. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:48:33] the website policy Supervisor Beth McGee [01:49:03] I'll move that we adopt the municipal website content policy for the town of Enfield. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [01:49:11] Second that. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:49:18] Discussion. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:49:19] Why do we need it? Supervisor Beth McGee [01:49:23] Well, towns that have Websites should have policies that direct how the Town Web site is used. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:49:34] That's a responsible legal action to take. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:49:38] We've gotten along with it all up to this point without a website policy, correct? Supervisor Beth McGee [01:49:43] Actually, the former Clerk and Deputy Clerk and I worked on a Website policy prior to this. It just never came up to the board. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:49:53] In fact, we told the board several times that we were working on that. It just we never had an opportunity to put on the age nda. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:50:01] It calls here for a Web master and a Website administrator. Do we know who those people are going to be? Supervisor Beth McGee [01:50:11] That should be a Web master. Should be someone who the board would appoint as a board member because it did an asset of the Town. That should be managed by the Town board. And the administration of that to be delegated. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:50:29] Could be delegated to a Town board member. But the administrator is a person. What? Well, right now it is the Town Clerk. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:50:42] Should we make her administer. The administrator will remain the Town Clerk. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:50:49] If the Town board wants it to remain with that position, that's that certainly under the board's purview to direct. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [01:51:00] Well, I definitely think we need a policy in place. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:51:06] I think it's a good idea to have a policy on all sorts of these things, I mean, you know, the more precise that we have things spelled out, the last chance that we run into trouble with the conflict. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [01:51:18] So there's always a a good idea to have a policy don't fall back on. [01:51:22] And there's actually been. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:51:24] Since the Town Clerk has been the person who has been having oversight of this Website for months. I'd like to hear her opinion on whether this policy is needed and whether this policy is wise. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:51:44] Would the board like to hear that? Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [01:51:49] I think is with the Boards perview to decide this, we don't need. I don't feel we need input from everywhere. I think it's something that the Town Board should be responsible for. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:52:05] I would like to move an amendment to the Website. Policy under definitions of informed updates to the public. I would like to replace the existing language with by adding additional language. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:52:20] The Town Supervisor, and this is additional or other persons as designated by the Town Board, may provide a monthly post informing the public of actions of the Town Board, upcoming concerns Town business and other topics as agreed upon by the Town Board, as has historically been done in a Town newsletter. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:52:47] The Town Supervisor has been the person who has written for the Town Board as the representative for the Town newsletter. That's always been that way. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:52:57] But it need not be that way always in the future. It could be other board members. And other personnel. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:53:07] Well, are you looking for that job, Bob? Is that what you're angling for? Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:53:12] Am I looking for what. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:53:14] The job to to write the board's perspective on the town's Website. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:53:18] I think every board member should have that opportunity to provide that input. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:53:23] you do, you have it on your Website. It's not a place for opinion. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:53:28] That is my. That is a something else, its not connected with Town government. This would be allowing. I don't want this Town Website to become the personal sounding board for one person, whether it be the supervisor or any board member or the Town Clerk or the Town Highway superintendent or the Town Justice or anybody. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:53:54] Have you ever read any of the submissions that I put together with updates for the Town on the Town website? Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:54:01] Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:54:02] You did. Did you find that they were political in nature or did you find that they were informative about the actions of the board and the departments? Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:54:11] What you have said Beth's that you're not going to be supervised for much longer. We may have other people in that position, and I don't know if they adhere to the same standards that you have. I would still like to hear Town Clerk Ellen Woods opinion on what is being proposed tonight before I cast my vote. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:54:43] Ellen. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:54:47] Hi. So while I believe that there are certain advantages to having the Town Clerk act as the website administrator or the Web master, it isn't formally part of the Town Clerk's official duties. The advantages I see are that Town organizations are able to get updates done very, very quickly. And some of the work that's done on the Website, any Town Clerk would be doing anyway, which is compiling documents, making sure that agendas are posted. But in talking to other Town Clerks, it's not necessary for a town clerk to act as a Website administrator. And it's not guaranteed that a town clerk would bring the level of, you know, HCML and other Website maintenance skills. You know, when I came into this role, I had experience with HCML cascading style sheets. It was not easy, but possible for me to teach myself WordPress to the extent that I needed to to manage the Town Website. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:55:51] I mean, also. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:55:53] you taught yourself how to manage the website. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:55:56] Of course I did. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:55:58] Ah. Oh. Did we meet together in my office ever to discuss how to manage the website? Because I don't think so. Oh, tell me the training that I received, Beth, tell me which training I received. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:56:11] OK. I don't need to do this with you. That was just a surprise for me to hear that. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:56:17] I think that I was handed a very well put together Website, but I definitely taught myself to maintain it. And I have taken it to new levels. I've also done a lot of consolidation of pages. I have done all you know, I don't know what is the per hour rate the board thinks that a Website administrator gets. But it isn't nine dollars an hour or seven dollars an hour or however much I'm working for. So it's pretty hurtful to me. But that doesn't matter. I would have a really, really so much appreciated as a public information officer and as someone who's been doing a bang up job managing the Website. I would have loved to be invited to the meeting where the Website policy was created. So that that's true. And I would just like to say that I'v e been doing an amazing job ensuring access to information and timely updates. The calendar for this month is completely up to date. The board documents are posted quickly and professionally. And I've added a lot of images and community updates to the Town Website. So if the board wants me to continue doing that, I think that could be reasonable. But I also think that the board should consider, you know, putting some resources towards Website management, which is normally billed at a very high rate. So and I do believe that specific sections of this Website policy were specifically directed towards the Town Clerk. For political reasons, and I think that's just unfortunate. So that's that's my thoughts on the policy. I do think having a policy, if you're going to maintain any type of Internet or Web presence is a fantastic idea. Thank you. Councilperson Robert Lynch [01:58:11] Ellen, would you like the board to vote for this policy tonight or to table it for further consideration? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:58:19] If it was possible, I would love to have the policy reviewed by some type of, you know, some type of Internet consultant or expert. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [01:58:29] I would like a formal review of the policy and I would like the board to consider and the public to consider whether or not parts of the policy were directed at the Clerk. For political reasons. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:58:47] So I will just say that the policy that was put forward is the same policy that I had been working on with the former Clerk and Deputy Clerk over the last two years. So there was no meeting to develop the policy. The one thing that was added to it, which actually was agreed upon when I actually had the former Clerk and Deputy Clerk review it to make sure that it spoke to what their experience was with the website, was the specific issues about content that is not political. We've had this issue time and time again in the town of Enfield about using public assets for political use, which is completely inappropriate. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:59:34] And so a campaign. So having excuse me, this is a for discussion now. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:59:39] So we're going to have a discussion as a board. So when we have political information or promotion on the Website, it's completely inappropriate. Supervisor Beth McGee [01:59:53] And the board has Directive over that. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [01:59:58] It'cs unethical. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:00:00] I haven't seen the political promotion,. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:00:02] OK. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:00:04] I haven't done it. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:00:07] Either way, we should protect Supervisor Beth McGee [02:00:08] it doesn't make a difference if you've seen it or not, do you think it's appropriate? Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:00:12] No, no, it's not appropriate. OK. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:00:14] So do you have an objection to having it in the policy? Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:00:19] I have not. No, I have no objection to that. But I don't want to see a policy that is thrust upon certain people in Town government against their will without sufficient input. I think we should give this more time. I think that the supervisor and the Town Clerk should meet to try to iron out the differences of opinion that they seem to have tonight. And the one thing I don't want to do is to get so complicated with this Website policy that we end up spending tens of thousands of dollars for administrators and webmasters and designers. And all of a sudden we're we're spending money that we don't have. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:01:02] So I don't want to do that. We are free to. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:01:05] Look around for other policies in other other Town similar to ours to see how they relat, to us. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:01:12] This policy is built on that. It was built on recommendations and other policies from many other municipalities. It was built because or based on information gathered that other communities had found was an important way to approach the challenges that they had come up with, with using their Website. That's how, it wasn't just written. It was written based on data and information that was gathered. So the other thing is, is that you have this this Website has run this way for and by the way, I know how much Website administrators get paid. I built this whole site for free for the Town. I volunteered to do that. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:01:58] It took me a couple months to make sure that it was built in 2013. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:02:04] I'm sorry. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:02:05] They do take work. Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:02:07] Yes, they do. And so. And they take money if you have someone else, do it for you. So. And the Website was managed by the former Deputy Clerk extremely well. It was, she took off with it and made it in a very, very effective Website. She utilized that as a place to store documents and provide access to the public in such a great way. I was so pleased and and proud of her for doing that. Now, all of a sudden, it is it why does it why is it a hardship? I don't understand that. So all of a sudden, since January 1st, it's a completely different animal. I don't get that. So there isn't, in my view. This isn't going to cost thousands of dollars more. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:02:53] The one thing that will change in that, though, is if we transition the Website over to the other server like the board had already approved, then you put it in a managed WordPress environment where you just pay for the managed WordPress to fix it. And that's generally about 50 bucks a pop. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:03:17] I here are my thoughts with regards to the policy. It doesn't sound as if there's a part of this policy that anyone disagree with Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:03:28] It does seem like there may be some concern that Ellen has it. It was directed at her. I don't see that there's any foundation for that. It seems like a basic policy that to me, when you look at it, this is, you know, a run of the mill policy that you would have for a Website. So I don't think there's any grounds for that concern. And I didn't hear in what Ellen was saying that there was any concern with any specific part of the policy that she disagrees with. And I didn't hear from you, Robert, any part of the policy in specific that you disagree with? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:04:01] So, like I said, this is pretty run of the mill policy. And it's really good to have policies when it comes to disagreements that you can fall back on to say this is how the policy reads and then make decisions based on that. So when I read over the policy, I didn't see any part of it that was directed toward an individual. It just seems like a very basic, like I said, like the standard protocol for dealing with website policies and much like the other policies that we're enacting. You know, they they are just the way the way to do things. So based on that, I see no reason why we couldn't just vote this into, you know, vote this forward. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:04:40] My concern, again, is the genesis of this policy may have been a picture of the Town Clerk with some graphic that she posted on the Town Clerks page that had some resemblance to her prom card for political activity. And I fear that the policy arose from that concern. And here we are fighting political battles again with Town policy. And that's my concern. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:05:08] You can feel that way. But again, you can ask both the Town Clerk that was formerly in the office and the Deputy Town Clerk that formerly held that office. You can speak to them directly and ask them if this policy was in development throughout that time, because it absolutely was. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:05:28] We should have a policy in place. So when do we when do we wait until? Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:05:34] it didn't come to a head, didn't come to a vote until Ellen posted her picture. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:05:39] OK. OK. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:05:41] Well, then that means that there is a need for it. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:05:44] Exactly. Here's my thought on this, is that it was in works before this ever came about. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:05:50] It never actually got voted, voted into office or into, you know, into policy. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:05:55] But now it seems like we're at that point where, you know, we are at a, you know, impasse. And there would be good to have. It would be good to have a policy to fall back on with regards to making these decisions. And so I think that these issues will continue to happen throughout, you know, the f uture of Enfield and in different forms. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:06:17] And we should have a policy that we can always turn back on. If it's not, this is going to be, you know, some some other thing, you know, 10, 20 years from now. But it's always good to have a policy in place to look at when there's some sort of disagreement. This was a policy that was is, like I said, basic run of the mill. This is what you do for, you know, Town board policies regarding Websites. There's nothing that's specific directed toward one person or, you know, that that I feel like is inappropriate in any way. So, you know, given that this is not something that's something that's worked on just because of the situation, but has been worked on before and isn't has a clear need. I see no reason why we shouldn't move forward with this. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:07:03] So the Town Clerk has also been appointed as the Website administrator and delegated to the Town Deputy Clerk for many, many, many years. So that's already in place. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:07:18] This just defines what that is. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:07:22] Well, I'm going to say something that is not popular, but I do not think that on a Town Website, we should have a picture of anybo dy. like the resumé, and it's nothing against Ellen, but it just isn't appropriate for Town Website. We're not you know, we're not star bring anybody at any time. We're looking at the Town of Enfield. And I know that's probably obnoxious but that's the way I feel. I don't think a Town website should have that. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:07:56] Point of clarification, parliamentary wise, I had put an amendment on the table to add some language to informed updates to the public. I presume we did not get a Second, so it will not be considered. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:08:10] So where are you suggesting that goes? Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:08:14] Under, that's on the first page. And it's informed updates to the public. The Town Supervisor and I would add or other persons designated by the Town Board and then going back to the original script may provide and I would say, periodic in place of monthly post informing the public of actions of the Town Board, etc., etc. The rest of the paragraph can remain as drafted. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:08:44] I have no problem with that. But I would suggest we add majority of the Town board. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:08:49] That would be fine. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:08:53] So after the Town Supervisor. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:08:57] Or other person. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:08:58] Or persons designated by a majority of the Town Board and then may provide in a place of a monthly. It could be periodic posts. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:09:10] So we wouldn't be locked into doing one every month. Or we could do one off and then one month, once a month. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:09:19] Yep. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:09:25] OK, so. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:09:27] Is there any objection to that amendment? Supervisor Beth McGee [02:09:30] Who, I'll Second that Supervisor Beth McGee [02:09:40] All right. Please call the vote on the amendment. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:09:45] Following the vote on the amendment, Councilperson Bryant. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:09:50] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:09:51] Councilperson Lynch. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:09:51] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:09:52] Councilperson Redmond,. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:09:54] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:09:55] Supervisor McGee. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:09:57] Aye. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:10:14] So I am wondering how to title this policy. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:10:24] We have a policy manual that's in flux. So perhaps titling it policy number 2020, dash one. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:10:38] For the time being. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:10:40] Sounds good to me. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:10:55] OK. Any further discussion from the board? Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:10:59] I will vote for it. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:11:01] But I want to make sure that it will never be used as a political hammer by any person, present or future. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:11:09] And the Town board has control of this Website and its control should be never questioned. Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:11:19] I think that the changes that we made. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:11:24] Prevent that from happening from any one person on the Town Board and also having the restrictions on content. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:11:34] Also do the. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:11:37] So please, Call the vote. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:11:43] Councilperson Bryant. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:11:49] Virginia. You're muted Virginia. Virginia. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:11:56] Can she hear us? Where'd she go? Let me just text her. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:12:15] She's unmuted. Here we go. So, Virginia, can you hear us? Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:12:20] Yeah, I'm trying, somehow my phone did something crazy. I'm looking at a jamboree. so let me get back in there. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:12:28] OK. You know what? I'm gonna take you off video. And that way we can just hear you. It might help your band with a little better for right now. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [02:12:35] My phone was dying. It was hotter than a pancake Supervisor Beth McGee [02:12:42] Ok so Ellen called the vote. So she's waiting for you. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:12:45] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:12:45] councilperson Lynch. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:12:51] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:12:51] Councilperson Redmond. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:12:53] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:12:54] Supervisor McGee. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:12:55] Aye. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:12:56] Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:13:07] Alright, electronic payments policy. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:13:33] I will move to adopt the electronic payments policy. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:13:39] Is there further discussion? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:13:42] I actually wouldn't mind having some input from the Town Clerk on this as it will affect her position the most. And so if there's anything that she sees that should be changed, I'd like her to bring it up now. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:13:56] Before we actually officially adopt this, Ellen, you're not muted. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:14:01] I don't I don't see anything that immediate needs to be changed. There would need to be, you know, some type of purchase order for the scanner in order to enact the policy. And as I've mentioned, having the computers networked would allow us to process financial transactions right at the desk, which would streamline processing. There is a computer at the Town Clerks desk. And so one thing that we would really like to achieve in our office is to be able to input a transaction right when a, just like a cash register, when someone is at the counter. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:14:42] OK, but that doesn't require any changes to the policy or additions to the policy. So, yeah, I guess I'm OK with that, then we should move forward with this just the way it is. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:14:53] So you should go ahead and contact Williamson to order the swiper. And that would be a Town Clerk contractual. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:15:07] So you would provide a voucher for that out of the Town Clerk contractual line. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:15:17] How do how do I order? How do I order it without? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:15:22] Would they just invoice me. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:15:24] They should send an invoice for you. They should. If they don't, then let me know if we need a credit card for it. And then I can help with that. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:15:34] So just shoot me an email. Let me know and then I can help with it, but otherwise, if they'll invoice. That would be great. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:15:46] All right. Any further discussion? Supervisor Beth McGee [02:15:52] All right. Please call the vote. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:15:55] Councilperson Bryant. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:15:57] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:15:57] Councilperson Lynch. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:16:00] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:16:01] Councilperson Redmond. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:16:04] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [02:16:05] Supervisor McGee. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:16:05] Aye. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:16:06] And let's call this number 2020 Dash two. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:16:17] Attorney contract policy is next. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:16:35] So I offered a policy when the agenda went out because I didn't see a policy from you yet, Bob. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:16:41] So. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:16:44] Then I submitted mine. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:16:48] I submitted it in a timely way before the meeting, and I. I drafted it. So the two, your policy and the policy I drafted are in conflict. So the board is going to have to decide which policy they prefer. I prefer mine and I'll let other board members speak for themselves. [02:17:17] Sorry. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:17:19] Well, I prefer mine because it is. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:17:24] Many, many less words. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:17:28] And simpler to follow. The board had already addressed what their concerns were and the need for the Town Supervisor to be able to communicate with the attorney and that the board could then appoint other people to do that per issue as necessary. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:17:49] And that is why I proposed the policy that I put together. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:17:54] My policy regards the supervisor as we are taught in Town Board school as one of equals, and that no supervisor is above in the opinion of any other board member. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:18:08] Furthermore, we have two other in fact three others counting the Town justice elected officials who should have equal access to legal counsel to resolve issues that are unique to their own administrative responsibilities. The town's highway superintendent and the Town Clerk should not be second class citizens or second class administrators. The Town Supervisors should not have special authority that the other elected officials do not. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:18:42] So the Town supervisor doesn't have special authority. The Town supervisor has special responsibility that other board members don't have. And so having the responsibility to communicate with the Town attorney is different than the than a special authority to communicate with the attorney. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:19:02] I need to interupt, I'm sorry, but I don't know when your e-mail was sent out, Bob, but I'm looking at my e-mails and granted, I've been challenged, but I don't have any e-mail from you regarding your policy. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:19:16] You don't have a copy. We sent out Town of Enfield draft policy regarding authorization for contract with the attorney for the Town. It's two pages long. It had 13 paragraphs. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:19:30] If you go onto the Website, the Enfield Town Website, you can find that under the post for today. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:19:38] I'll look there. Excuse me for interrupting. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:19:41] Draft policy. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:19:42] The first one is under that Beth's was under was under Town of Enfield policy. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:19:50] The other ones starts draft policy. OK. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:19:56] so here's my take on this, is that Robert's policy does not address the issue that we're having with, I'd say, large communications with the attorney that's causing larger bills than what we as a Town should be having. So with having appointed to be able to review whether it's a legitimate reason to contact the attorney so we can avoid these larger bills. So I would support Beth's, but if we wanted to write in some sort of language into there about making it more accountable to the Town board, I would support that. But I don't want to make it a possibility for every elected official to directly contact the attorney without having some sort of go through with the Town board, because that's really just not going to address the issue that we're having. And I don't want to be left out of thousands and thousands of. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:20:57] Yeah, I agree. Just pulled it up from the Town Website. Thank you. But I agree with that. I think there's got to be a check point at some point, not maybe a checkpoint, but a discussion before random calls. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [02:21:11] go in I mean, they'll just go up and up at two hundred and twenty five dollars an hour. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:21:20] And honestly, we wouldn't even know if someone had contacted the attorney until after the fact is everybody is allowed to directly. Exactly. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:21:28] And so we might be, you know, socked with thousands of dollars of bills without without knowing it until after the fact. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:21:35] We kind of went through this informally during the winfirm stuff, when firm engagement, because we had people contacting the Town attorney who was the same person. And he was reporting back to us. What do I do? I can't do this. I mean, this is nuts. I'm sorry to put it that way but it was out of control. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:22:02] Well, I've got an invoice that I signed a voucher for on Monday for more than a thousand dollars in legal services, and I think the majority of those were commissioned by the Town supervisor. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:22:14] Actually, I think you're incorrect. The majority of those were the Town Clerk working with the attorney in order to put together the public announcements. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:22:25] I agree. I looked at I looked that voucher over very carefully. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:22:31] So like I said, Robert, if you wanted to put some sort of language into that, into Beth's, that would make it clear that the supervisor is beholden to the Town Board. I would support that. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:22:42] But having every elected official be able to contact the attorney without approval of the Town Board did just, it leaves a situations where he may have very large bills. No, I don't think that I should as as a Councilperson be able to contact the attorney whenever I. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:23:00] I don't either. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:23:01] And my memories during the winfirm stuff, it was a problem. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:23:07] So, Bob, you've made a claim. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:23:10] So the communication that I had with the attorney this month was at the direction of the board. One was for the solar RFP. And another was to connect with the Town Clerk, the attorney, in order to put together the ballot initiatives and review the law. So what other things are on the bill that were the majority of the Town supervisor to this this bill? Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:23:31] But I'll tell you one . Supervisor Beth McGee [02:23:33] So you're not so you are saying that this bill was the majority of the Town supervisor. But now you're saying it wasn't? Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:23:40] Well, I can't. I have I'd have to go down. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:23:43] That's what I'm asking you to do. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:23:44] I see lot. I see a lot of B.M. on this. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:23:47] OK. So what is it? Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:23:48] Recent review of letter from b.M regarding seven local laws and review five of the seven, thats Forty five dollars right there. There we go down on the six, six fifteen receipt and review two additional term appointment local laws repeated review of reply from B.M. additional questions. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:24:12] That's what I'm saying is a lot of it is at the direction of the attorney of the other supervisor. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:24:18] So this was for clarification for the Town board on the laws that were proposed. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:24:26] Give me the strength. What prompted my language that I put in here is back several months ago. The Town supervisor, without consent of the Town board, contracted the Town attorney and had local laws drafted specked local laws, blindsided me with laws to eliminate the positions of our elected positions or Town Highway superintendent and Clerk, and to lengthen the supervisors job from two years to four. I don't recall that we, on the Town board ever authorized the supervisor to have the attorney for the Town draft that legislation. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:25:09] So you're incorrect. So you're actually either lying or ignorant of the issue. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:25:15] This Town supervisor already had done the research based on Laury Mythindemasi at the AOT. She I have that email from her. She sent me information about it and told me where to look at other laws on the Department of State Website to inform what other towns had been able to do. That's where the draft of the laws came from. Every single one of them, Guy never produced any of those. What he did do was he sent an email in response to an article from the Ithaca. voice that said The Ithaca voice is wrong on this. You don't need resolution about it because they incorrectly reported that you need a law. And I knew that. And I just responded and said, I know that. And so that's the only interaction that guy Growe had with me. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:26:12] And he did not charge for that because he recognized. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:26:16] I saw that on the bill, that there was no charge. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:26:20] So you're either misinforming people on purpose or you're just I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you're ignorant to the topic because that never happened. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:26:32] I see, I saw something like a four thousand dollar legal bill that we signed off on when. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:26:38] We signed off on a four thousand dollar legal bill because your Highway superintendent doesn't know his job. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:26:44] And he created months of walking off the job and creating issues for his employees during a state of emergency. That's why we had four thousand dollars in legal fees. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:26:55] And I don't recall. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:26:55] When you start questioning that issue. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:26:58] That's when the Town supervisor has to reach out to the attorney. and you pander to that, you pander to that. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:27:08] So that's what. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:27:08] If you want to keep doing that. You go ahead. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:27:11] I want to avoid the Town supervisor acting like he or she is more influential or more important than the Town board as an aggregate. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:27:22] The Town board wasn't acting. The Town board couldn't make decisions. It is the Town supervisors responsibility to be a steward to the funds of this Town. If you don't know that that is the job of the Town supervisor, I certainly hope that you don't ever run for the job. It's embarrassing that this board actually could not make any decisions through Covid and I had to reach out to the attorney. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:27:48] Did you ask the board to make decisions during Covid? I would have gladly. [02:27:51] You were asked to. Over and over again. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:27:55] You were asked to over and over again. This board was so indecisive during that state of emergency. Someone had to get legal recommendations from the attorney. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:28:04] In your opinion. In your opinion,. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:28:06] OK. Alrigth, in my opinion, it's my job to manage the Town funds. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:28:11] It's my job to do that. It's actually it's all your jobs to do that. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:28:16] But you put that responsibility on me. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:28:20] If I ever serve as Town supervisor, I will never act like a king. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:28:24] You abdicate your responsibility all the time on this board, Bob. So don't tell me what you will or will not do. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:28:31] It is true that you were the liaison to the highway department. But I did not see any sort of policy drafted from you in recommendation with dealing with how we are going to deal with people getting paid for work. That was not done through tax dollars. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:28:43] In fact, you voted against that policy that we put forward. And even though you ran under the campaign of being fiscally responsible and tightening our belt loops. But that policy that I voted yes for and you voted no for saved our town forty thousand dollars by having a choice between whether or not the highway department guys were going to be paid for their unemployment from Town funds or the federal government. I chose to have it be paid for from the federal government. You chose to have it be paid for by the Town. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:29:13] I saved our Town forty thousand dollars by voting yes to that policy. You should've been working this out with the highway department before it ever. You should come to those meetings prepared and having discussed this with the highway department on how we were going to fiscally handled these responsibilities, as well as talking about how we're going to handle a hiring freeze, as well as talking about how we're going to handle the materials that he needed. Why do you take me talking a Buddy about gravel? Why hadn't you worked this out before? I couldn't get a response from him, so I had to use my layman's term, which you're lucky I have experience doing a quarter mile long driveway, so I know the amount of gravel that I need to lay on the road. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:29:47] You know, you're lucky I have some understanding of what that costs because otherwise we'd be floundering as to what that costs. I set that at fifty thousand dollars because that was my best judgment that I could do in a layman's situation, because you had not gone to Buddy and actually talked to him and created a policy and come forward with some sort of resolution for us to deal with. So I'm kind of frustrated that you're now turning this into the fact that Buddy went to the attorney without any sort of board approval cost us thousands and thousands of dollars wit h because you did not go out of your way to talk to him and resolve these things beforehand. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:30:23] The highway superintendant is an independent. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:30:25] I have to, I have to step in here. I'm sorry just but I find it very. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:30:30] Virginia, one second. Bob. Bob has. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:30:35] Go ahead, Bob. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:30:37] I said at the Highway superintendent has independent elected authority, and I deferred to that. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:30:46] And thats an abdication of your responsibilities. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:30:51] He doesnt have indepedent authority to spend Town money, but the Town people put into our budget Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:30:58] Our job is to deal with the budget. And I did not see you actually going out of your way to disable that even though you are the highway liaison and you abdicated that responsibility to us and mainly to Beth's to deal with. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:31:09] So it's frustrating to me to have you look at this, you know, knowing that Buddy went to the to the attorney. Cost us thousands of dollars to find out what we already knew, which was that he could not actually go ahead with the plan that he wanted to do was to just ramrod these these bills through to us to pay for his guys, to do nothing, to get unemployment from the Town, which some people say, oh, well, you know, Cornell's paying me. So that's fine. But we are not Cornell. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:31:34] We are we are in charge of the taxpayer dollar. It is our job to say the taxpayers are, you know, have given us this responsibility. It's our job to to use their funds appropriately. And when there's a clear avenue for the federal government to pay for unemployment and it's been you know, they even had a six hundred dollar extra stimulus with that, you know, it was a clear path that we could have used. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:31:59] I had no I had no understanding as to why you voted against that policy and wanted to cost our Town forty thousand dollars and use money that was a taxpayer dollars for work that was not being done. And so when he went to the attorney and tried to see if he could do that any way, I did not see you going to him and trying to work this out. I saw you just sort of dropped that ball in that responsibility on our laps. And luckily, Beth's went to the attorney and said, this is what's going on. And he clearly said that, you know, we had the authority to say that we have A) hiring freeze, B) an expenditure freeze, and that still isn't being listened to, even though we said that fifty thousand dollars Buddy went over to sixty five thousand dollars, whereas if he had just told me he want to spend sixty five thousand dollars, I would have okayed that amount because it's still within the 20 percent budget cuts that we were looking at as a possibility at that time. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:32:49] I don't know what the what the Town attorney provided upon my request was a full review of what the board's authority was in that situation and what the Highway superintendent authority was in that situation. He wrote a very clear review for you so you could understand it as a new board member. And that is what I solicited from him. That is what he provided. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:33:11] This is about the atorny policy Supervisor Beth McGee [02:33:20] And we're getting into the weeds about this other issue, which Sunday it's going to all come out. What an absolute atrocity. This entire situation during Covid was in the town of Enfield with abdication of responsibilities. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:33:34] But anyway,. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:33:36] I do think it's a given example of why we need this attorney contact policy, though,. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:33:41] thats why it's in place. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:33:44] I'm not going to add any more inflammatory stuff because I have my own opinions about what's going on and the lack of response when somebody's presence or at least communication. Is asked in a meeting and ignored. It's the largest portion of our budget. That the taxpayers of Enfield pa y,. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:34:10] As you can see, we've had several requests by the Highway superintendent tonight or this week about approvals and he is again not here to answer the questions of this board with regard to those approval. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:34:23] That's totally unacceptable. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:34:25] Maybe because he doesn't like being belittled. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:34:28] Oh, really? Supervisor Beth McGee [02:34:30] You're new here because you just showed up last February and decided all of a sudden, you know everything about Enfield local government and you don't. Because I was a great proponent of the Highway superintendent. I worked very hard with him. And maybe you should have a conversation with me some day about why I have changed that policy in my work. I would still be very supportive of it if I had accountability, if I had answers. If the board could actually give public transparency to the way that the highway department spe nds the money, that would. I'm sorry, the Highway Superintendent decides to spend the money. But your choice is that you just think everybody knows how to do their job. You just let it happen and you abdicate your responsibility to oversee that and underst and where the money is going. That's, you are a steward of public funds. It's an embarrassment. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:35:28] I don't want to be a micromanager and I never will be. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:35:31] but you are the highway liaison. You should be the one that's coming to us and saying, I talked to Buddy and this is how much it's going to cost us to pave around the community building. I talked to Buddy and this is why he needs this equipment and this is what it's going to cost. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:35:44] I talked to Buddy and this is how much money he needs to get through CoVid. So he doesn't have to come here and talk to us because you already did. But you have not done any of this. This isn't micromanagi ng. This is communication so that we can make educated choices through the through the avenues that we have regarding the budget. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:36:05] Well, given the parkinglot is not in the two eightyfour agreement. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:36:10] So, I mean, I don't think Buddy has any responsibility to do that. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:36:14] He doesn't. But he can. You can pay for that out of the A fund. Nobody is telling him to do it. People are asking what what would it cost for the highway department to do it at the expense of the A fund do you understand how that works? Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:36:31] Yes. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:36:31] But I also understand that paving the parkinglot came up on the agenda without any pre discussion of it or a little bit of mention of it last month. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:36:42] Stephanie reached out to him. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:36:43] She reached out to him directly to ask him first. Out of respect, if that's something that he would want to do as the highway department before, honestly. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:36:54] But wondering why I had to e-mail him. Why weren't you e-mailing him? when that clearly came up at our last meeting as the Highway Liason, why weren't you trying to find out what the estimate was? Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:37:03] Because I don't think we can aford. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:37:07] But you don't know, you would have to actually find out how much is it going to cost us. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:37:10] Because if you would talk to him and gotten that estimate, then I would say, yes, we can't or no, we can't afford that. But as the highway liason, you drop the ball on that. And therefore, I picked it up for you. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:37:19] Stephanie. At the last meeting, it was talked about having shoot cold or somebody like that to a contractor. And I mean, we're into the probably the tens of thousands of dollars. You kno w, you were in a meeting with me with the fire department, with a fire company this past month, and they said how much it would cost to repave their lot. And they want to do that. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:37:40] All right. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:37:41] and we'll be able to have. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:37:44] tens of thousands of dollars to do that, I'm sure. I don't think you hear. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:37:49] So we're just going to let it sit there forever until it erodes. I mean, we have to have some sort of plan for these things. We have to have a monetary plan for how we're going to deal with these things. And I would hope as the highway liaison, you would have gone to him and say, is this a possi bility? How much is it going to cost us so that you can come and Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:38:07] Inform the rest of the board when we're talking about budget items, how we can actually fit this. Can we save for this? Is this something that can happen this year? Maybe we'll have to wait until next year. Maybe that's a fund that we should start putting money into so we can do it three years from now. But we don't know because we don't know how much it costs. and when I asked Buddy. He wouldn't respond. And you dropped the ball and didn't actually do this. So I did it on my own. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:38:28] OK, so we're talking about an attorney policy. I am going to ask that we table these. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:38:37] And if there are other Town board members who want to talk about or if you want to review these two policies, we can put it on the agenda for the September meeting. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:38:54] I'll second that motion to table. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:39:01] All in favor of tabling. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:39:03] Aye. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:39:04] Aye. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:39:05] Aye. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:39:08] All right. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:39:13] Well, that was a healthy discussion. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:39:16] Comprehensive plan update. OK, one second. Stephanie, can you give an update, please? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:39:22] Yes, I edited that. I will get it back to your inbox. I am reaching out to several different historical societies in our area to get information about the indigenous population. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:39:35] To add a little segment before it gets into post-colonial times here in the town development in the Town establishment. So once that is done, we can then review it from there. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:39:51] My hope is that we would have it on the agenda for adoption at the September meeting. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:39:56] Yes, definitely by then. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:39:59] If the county planning department weighed in on their opinions on it. Yeah. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:40:03] I already sent that to the board. They reviewed it. They sent us Kudo's on it. And you should look in your e-mail for that. I sent that. Months ago. They were pleased that it had so many initiatives that follow the county plan, and we're happy to have received it. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:40:28] So look in your e-mail for that. It was a nice letter from Scott Doyle. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:40:37] All right. Fire Contract. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:40:41] Stephanie and Bob. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:40:43] Right, Stephnaie Want to answer? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:40:47] We met with them, it was a great meeting, we got a tour of the fire hall and they were very informative as to, you know, their needs. And the only requests that we made to them was that they approve. They have the approval for fund raisers come through the Town. So if there is any injury or loss of life, the insurance policies would cover that. And then I also requested that they provide the two quarters a report wording that they're behind in. And they said they would do that. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:41:25] Yes. As far as their requests, they would like to increase their training and their network gain and increase their recruit. Pension. They would also like increase their retention. And basically, it's a sort of retirement system. And the fire chief and the president do the vast majority of the work for the fire company and they are asking for a stipend. That would be approximately one hundred and fifty dollars a month each. But they also have requests for a vehicle use for themselves. So when they are onsite and, you know, it's cold or rainy or hot, they have something to do their work in while they're onsite at an accident or a fire. And they have looked into a grant so that they can, a FEMA grant, so that they can get more sets of turnout gear. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:42:31] They applied for a grant that for thirty five sets at three thousand two hundred dollars each. So one hundred and twelve thousand dollars total. And they're waiting on hearing from that, they should hear hear about that within the next year. They do have concerns about the blacktop paving around their building. They think it'll cost them about one hundred thousand dollars for paving. And we had a bit of a discussion about shared services with the highway regarding snowplowing, because that is an issue for them, is plowing out the snow if there's a heavy snow. So if Buddy was here. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:43:13] Or it wanted to act as the liaison. You know what that costs would be to the Town, whether that's a possibility for us. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:43:21] That's already done Supervisor Beth McGee [02:43:27] That's already in the contract. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:43:29] They seem to think it was not being done and they had actually bought their own plow equipment to plow around the fire company. They said the department does stop by, but it kind of depends on how busy they are, whether or not they they want to do it. They did not think it was part of the contract to have it plowed out by the highway department. So I didn't read that in the contract when I was looking through that. But I could look more closely at that. And then as far as the contract, they would like a five year contract. But I know that people on the board have concerns about it being that long of contract. They also feel like they need a bit of an increase in the amount that they have for their contract and they're looking for because they are own issues with finances this year because of CoVid. They of course, they would like a much higher percentage, which they're looking at a to a two percent increase for this year and then stepping up at least one percent each year during that contract. So that's somet hing that we can talk about as the Town board is, as, you know, what we can do financially for them. Anything else you want to add to that Robert? Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:44:41] Stephanie's done a pretty good summary of it. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:44:44] We did stress, the two of us that it would be wise, in view of the Town finances that we're going to be facing this year in the Town contract for the fire company could be as little as possible in the front years with a step upward in, let's say, a year's three or four or whatever. I'd like to see a five year contract. We are all in agreement that it should be a multi-year agreement. We weren't specific and we will have another meeting at the end of August where I hope we can get down to b rass tacks on this. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:45:23] I'm just because there was language in the former and Buddy has said. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:45:33] In meetings that he does not have a problem plowing that. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:45:40] But I thought that we had that language in the contract. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:45:45] When I looked over, I didn't see that actually in the contract, but maybe I maybe I was missing it. But they did say that the highway department does occasionally plowed them out, but it's kind of their own choice to allow them out. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:45:58] OK. It says it's item number 13, the Town agrees to provide through the Town Highway Department and at the discretion of the Highway superintendent adds time, personnel and resources permit. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:46:10] Snow pliant plowing for the fire company, private premises, particularly as to the apparatus, apron's and parking areas for the term of this agreement. So so if people have an issue that that's not being done, then that's your elected highway superintendent that's choosing not to do that. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:46:33] Perhaps in the next hour, they'll have to be more specific. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:46:37] But what's going to be more specific I'll do it. The Town shall do it. So you're going to direct the Highway superintendent to do that? Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:46:47] Within the extent of law, I would hope that that would be considered public property that the Town Highway superintendent is duty bound to maintain. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:46:59] I don't know. Good luck. You bring that to me. Good luck. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:47:05] It's actually held by private. So we can't direct the highway department, unfortunately, to do that because it's been an issue. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:47:14] They did feel that they need to to buy their own equipment to plow it out. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:47:20] So that's just something that we know that people should be aware of, is that it's an extra expenditure they've got. But mostly I'm concerned with mostly for as far as this. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:47:33] This conversation with the board, I'm I'm interested into hearing what the other board members feel should be the the length of the term of the contract and what sort of percentage increase we feel that we can handle given the current state of our finances. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:47:50] Well, we don't really know where our finances are going to be. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:48:00] One Second here. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:48:18] So the actual contract. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:48:24] For 18. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:48:28] And 19. So this actually essentially was a two year contract because it was signed on December of 18. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:48:41] And we had talked about this. I'm sorry. I want to backtrack for a minute, Bob. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:48:48] A resolution for you and Stephanie to meet with the fire company isn't necessary. The board is going to negotiate this contract. The two of you are not. You can be liaison's to communicate concerns to to the fire company. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:49:07] But that's this isn't. You're not negotiating the contract. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:49:11] And then, you know, the two of you are the board. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:49:15] The Town board is negotiating with the board of the fire company. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:49:21] Beth, you are not the mayor of Enfield. The town board will make that decision. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:49:27] Oh, that's right. The Town board will negotiate the contract. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:49:31] You are not you are not the mayor of Enfield. You are not the county executive event. You can put your motion forward and this resolution and you can vote down four to one. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:49:43] All right. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:49:43] Oh, go for it. Resolution to authorize contract negotiations with Enfield volunteer fire company, whereas the current multi -year contract between the town of Enfield Enfield Volunteer Fire Company is set to expire on December 30, first 2020. And whereas serves in the best interests of the Town, its residents and the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company for the parties to commence and complete negotiations for a new contract. In a prompt and expeditious manner. And whereas this Town board has designated Councilperson and Deputy Supervisor Stephanie Redmond and Councilperson Robert Lynch as liaisons to the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company, assigning them duties to meet regularly with Enfield, a volunteer fire company leadership and discuss the parties needs and requirements. [02:50:35] Therefore, be it resolved that the Enfield Town board hereby designates Councilpersons Stephanie Redmann and Robert Lynch to negotiate with the Enfield, a volunteer fire company, toward formation of a new, preferably multi-year contract providing fire protection services for the town of Enfield and its fire protection desperate for 2021 and beyond, and resolve further that councilpersons Redmond and Lynch are hereby directed to undertake negotiations with the Enfield volunteer fire company, in expectation that a successfully negotiated agreement will be completed in time for adoption by the Enfield Town board at or prior to its regular DEC 2020 meeting. And I so move. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:51:24] I don't feel comfortable with even having that authority myself. There's a reason that we have five people on this board and so we all had input into these a contract. And this is a major contract. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:51:34] to our budget. I don't feel that the loss should be the only people that are negotiating this contract. It's up to us to bring this information forward and then it's up to the board to discuss these things and decide what is the most appropriate path forward and then to vote on those policies or that procedure from their. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:51:51] Yes, it's the entire boards responicbility to do that. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:51:56] But there is a strategic negotiating imbalance here in that the Enfield volunteer fire company can meet in private and come up with its negotiating plans or as we negotiate in public, which gives us an inherent disadvantage in any negotiation. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:52:15] There's no decision, if you have questions about if you have questions about stipulations that they're asking for. Then contact a person or two persons that have worked on this with them before adn and ask what the history is of it. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:52:28] History is of it. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:52:30] So two persons. It's a Town board meeting. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:52:35] No, it isn't. You can contact one town board member and ask. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:52:41] You you could listen to the past Town board meetings with regard to the five year contract over the whole period that we did before to understand the history of it. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:52:51] It was a mess. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:52:54] Yes, actually, I think when you and I final authority over that makes you and I the mayors of this. And I don't think it's appropriate at all. There's a reason, like I said, for five of us to have input on these negotiations. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [02:53:06] So I would feel like I was giving I was giving up the trust to the Town population if I allowed what you're describing to happen. Bob. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:53:19] Is there a Second on this? Supervisor Beth McGee [02:53:26] All right. So anyway. I can just tell you that historically we've talked and they have asked for multi-year contracts, of course, the fire company would like a five year contract. That is ideal for the fire company with the Town making budget. It's not ideal for the Town to do that. We did talk. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [02:53:52] But what? We don't know that. And we did talk. We, chad, our budget say. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:53:59] We did talk in the past in past negotiations about the potential of a longer contract than a two year contract that we had and potentially going to a three year contract if the highway department had followed through with all of the reporting that was required, that if we could get through a contract where they abided by those those terms, that then we would consider a three year contract. A three year contract seems reasonable there. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:54:32] You know, one issue came up this evening that I think would be a reasonable thing that might turn my mind around about a three year contract even and make it longer would be if it was contractually agreed that they would provide people to attend the Town board meetings and provide the services that you had asked about. Bob. If that was a contractual condition and if there was a if that was somet hing that would help provide a longer term for the contract. Five years is a very long time. It took a very long time to create a contract that was actually a quality legal contract that gave accountability to both the Town board and the fire company to one another with a Town board wasn't even meeting its legal obligations in order to protect firefighters. In the last contract. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:55:38] I believe we should have a minimum three year contract. I would be open to a five year contract, but I would also be open to a three year contract. If that's the wish of the Town board. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:55:50] I don't think it should be any shorter than three years. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:55:52] I agree with you. I agree with you. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:55:56] So it sounds like we are in agreement with that with the three year contract. Now, how about increase? Are we OK with a two percent increase for this year as they've done every year? And then what about stepping up to three and four percent the following year? OK. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:56:10] So three and four percent is a nightmare scenario for this Town right now. So we don't even know what the tax cap is going to be. I have some initial figures on that and I'll be working on that in the next week. But it is not going to be a four point one eight tax gap like it has been last year. In fact, it might be half that. If we're lucky. So, yeah, that's a that's a consideration that you should probably have with. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:56:40] People that you want to that have experience with this. So you could talk to about it if you you know, you're not governing as a board privately. But if you need information from the board members who have actually done this negotiation for these communications with the Town or the fire company in the past, then ask those questions. There's no there's no reason why you can't ask us individually those questions to gain that experience. But we also, again, we'll know better. You have until Deceber, the board has until DEC to make this. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:57:21] Happen, remember, you have to have a public hearing on this. So don't think that you're going to just, you know, have the board approve it. You'll have to have a public hearing on it. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:57:30] We have a lot of information that's coming down the pike. We don't even know what it is yet. Based fon Covid and based on everything else in the county is struggling and everybody's struggling. I think we need to wait. Do we not wait? At least follow along with the knowledge before we start making decisions on money that might be or not be or we will have to make some sort of decision. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:57:55] Kind of in the dark, as we really don't know. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:57:57] And I understand that. I understand that. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:58:01] So I guess I would like to have some weigh in. And if everybody's okay with at least a two percent increase in the first year, let's start there. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:58:10] So there's no way this board can make that decision right now. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:58:14] They can certainly propose that. I'm just curious. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:58:19] I'm certainly willing to consider that. I'm not negating my thought at all. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [02:58:25] But I'm still very nervous about what's coming down the pike. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:58:30] The fire department people said in our discussions that if it's going to be a very short term contract, they won't settle for two percent. They want more. They would only settle for two percent if it's going to be a fa irly long term contract. I think Stephanie will agree with me. That was the that was the gist of the discussion. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:58:49] That was probably the most important thing that was discussed. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:58:52] They said they would agree with two percent for this year. They said they would like to see an increase in the following years and not necessarily because of the length of the contract, but because they feel like they need more than a two percent increase. So that's something we have to talk about, is how we're going to handle that. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:59:08] But let's let's start with the first year. I think that we should all discuss whether or not within this first year with given our financial situation, if we can even handle a two percent increase within this first year. I didn't know that until the budget is proposed. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:59:26] I was kind of wondering about the same federal. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:59:28] Budget isn't doing till late September. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:59:32] Our budget is due. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:59:34] Give me the preliminary budget is due September 30th. But my intention is to propose the budget to the board at the September board meeting. Councilperson Robert Lynch [02:59:46] So when we meet with the fire company at the end of August, we're not going to have any real directive from the board as to what to offer. Right. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [02:59:56] That's true. Supervisor Beth McGee [02:59:57] I mean, you think there might be times you don't have to meet with them only once a month and you don't have to meet with them at the end of August either, if you already met with them at the beginning o f this meeting. You can't. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [03:00:09] That's true. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [03:00:10] No wonder it would be best to postpone then until after we have more information at the September meeting. If that's gonna be the case, it will have some information September me. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [03:00:19] It seems best that we postpone that then,. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:00:21] Just so you know that your fire contract is part of your whole overall budget. So that impacts everything, not just the fire line. It it impacts your entire tax cap. Your limits. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:00:35] We're not going to be able to stay within the tax cap this year. That's guaranteed. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:00:41] Ok. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:00:43] And I stuck my record on that one. We're going to have a whole year coming up. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:00:48] We're going to have a real tough year and the taxpayers had better get used to it because it wasn't our fault. We didn't bring this pandemic to Tompkins County, or New York state, and we're just gonna have to suffer through it. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:01:03] Wow. That wasn't my perspective on the budget year at all. So that's an interesting statement that you've made there. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:01:12] Tough times lay ahead, toug htimes Supervisor Beth McGee [03:01:18] All right. Well, you heard it here, folks. All right. So. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:01:29] Do you think you can postpone that meeting until after the September board meeting? Because that is my goal to do the preliminary budget. At that meeting rather than waiting until the 30th. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [03:01:41] I think that would be fine with me to postpone it. Is that OK with you, Robert? Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:01:45] Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:01:46] I mean, it'll give you more information to work with. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:01:49] We don't always meet with them and discuss what we came up with tonight. There wouldn't be any harm in meeting, but we couldn't engage any hard negotiations. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:01:59] Well, the other thing is this, that it's very informative to meet with the fire company, to develop relationships with them and to meet their members and to learn about their processes. These are all very valuable things. And if you use that time, I think they may see that as a waste of time this time. But I can tell you, I don't think it's a waste of time for you guys to do it. I mean, we would spend four hours at a meeting with them, learning about their operations and stuff very easily for hours would go by. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [03:02:29] So her meetings with the fired fired company shows you've been elected even when you were on the board prior to that and improved our relations incredibly well. I mean, just communication, for heaven's sake. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [03:02:46] I think it'd be fine to offer to meet with them. But if they feel like it's a waste of their time at this point, I don't want to waste their time. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:02:52] So I'll be glad to meet with them. And if Stephanie wants to be ruthless, hold the meeting as scheduled. It'll probably be brief and we won't be able to get into any great substance. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:03:07] Yeah. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:03:07] I think that you should have some information in September, you know, to go forward with at least some preliminary information. OK. The tax cap law. So, Bob, you have just asserted that there's no way we're going to meet the tax cap. So we definitely have to adopt a law. So we should set a public hearing date. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:03:33] Or so we don't want to know what the tax gap is because the state hasn't come down with it. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:03:38] No. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:03:47] And generally, I would advise that you do it anyway. Some board members have wanted to do it in January just because it's a way to avoid the issues that are the impact, the Town. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:03:59] If there's an error in the taxes, when you when they when when you do the budget. So. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:04:08] OK, so let's give it 10 days anyway so a public notice can go out. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:04:18] What about the twenty six? Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:04:21] We have to do it before the September meeting. [03:04:26] Oh, well, no, I guess not. I guess not. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:04:30] September Buddy. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:04:32] All right. That's the ninth. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:04:39] I'll take your word for it. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:04:49] Three to six o'clock, so we can do the meeting. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [03:04:56] OK. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:05:02] Well, maybe we should do 615 because then we won't sit there for 20 minutes if nobody gets to talk about it. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:05:10] And remember, I have our first meeting with our new situation, presumably in the in the community building. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:05:18] Yeah, well, it's just six o'clock. OK. So six o'clock for the tax cap law, public hearing. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:05:31] Far as we know, we'll plan on it being in Zoom, but it may be in the community building. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:05:39] So that gives the Town clerk plenty of time to put out the public notice for that meeting. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:05:49] All right. Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:05:53] And so the Town Clerk position review. Is there anyone who is interested in doing that? Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:05:59] That that hearing, we have to have a vote on that. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:06:03] I move that we set a public hearing on what is the date, September 9th at six o'clock for a public hearing for the tax cap overridin g Second. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:06:16] Any other discussion? All right. Please, Call the vote. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:06:23] Councilperson Brian. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:06:26] Where did she go? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:06:34] Councilperson Lynch. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:06:36] Aye Councilperson redmann. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [03:06:40] Aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:06:41] Supervisor McGee. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:06:41] Aye Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:06:43] So we don't technically need another vote on that to carry it out. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:06:46] Let me see if she's. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:06:55] Last year. All right. Well, hopefully she'll pop back in. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:07:06] OK, that is done. Town clerk position review. Is there anyone who is interested in taking on a review of that position? Supervisor Beth McGee [03:07:25] Prior to budget time. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:07:28] I think you should come up with the budget. I think that's the appropriate time to consider expansion of anybody's salaries. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:07:38] Right. But in order to make informed decisions about it, it would be great if that review was done prior to the budget. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:07:52] I'm asking to be recognized. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:07:55] Sure. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:07:57] So I've prepared a chart which I can share with the board right now or after the meeting. So every Town Clerk elected Town Clerk in Tompkins. You can divide their salary by. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:08:13] Twelve dividing it by four point three and then dividing it by 40. And the lowest number that you will get is 16. So that's Caroline. Caroline is currently open six hours a week and they have met, I believe, 15 times this year. That's their board. So the next lowest Town Clerk salary in the town of Town in the county of Tompkins is thirty four thousand. I think it's 34, 400 som ething. So anyway, so the next one was Town Clerk gets paid sixteen dollars an hour approximately. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:08:50] So it doesn't matter if the Enfield Town board thinks that this is a 20 hour a week position because every other Town in Tompkins understands that it is a 40 hour a week position. And it is paid at that rate. So that's what I have to say about that. I actually don't really. So it is sort of inherently an issue to make a woman depend on a spousal income to survive. So that is an issue. But and this position has affected my spouse's income because he has to do the majority of the childcare. And I anticipated a 20 hour a week position. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:09:33] However, I would say that money is not my primary motivator, but it is very hard for me to you know, every day I question what I did wrong in my life to wind up in a position at, you know, over twenty five where I am making less than minimum wage. I don't understand what I did wrong to do. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:09:59] And I would say that also in every Town in Tompkins that Clerk make significantly more than the supervisor, because most of my work is not things that I elect to do. There are things that I am legally obligated to do to serve the board and to serve the people. So not a lot of my job duties are discretionary. And when I when I talk about how much work I do for the Town, I never include little extras. I do like putting the town meetings on Instagram. That's all. That's all things that I do for fun and to make myself happy and to just, you know, add a little flair to my life. But it's not what I calculate when I calculate what my job duties entail. It's the time that I spend in this office doing things that I'm legally obligated to do. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:10:52] So naturally, as I progressed in my position, I am sure that a lot of my onboarding time and the time that I spend training my deputy will be reduced. But the fact remains that for every other Town Clerk in Tompkins, you can divide her salary by 40 and you can get at least a living wage, whereas you cannot do that with mine and get even New York State minimum wage. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:11:28] What we have to decide here is a two step process, in my opinion. We have to decide how many hours per week we expect our Town Clerk to work. And the same goes for the Town supervisor. Do we regard them as half- time positions or do we regard them as three quarter time positions or do we regard them as full time positions? Obviously, if we regard the Town Clerks office as a full time position, twenty thousand dollars has been sufficient. It is not respectable wages in the modern scheme of things if we regard it as a 20 hour a week position when it comes to about nineteen dollars an hour. By my calculations. So it all depends on first we have to decide the Town has to decide that through its Town board. How many hours we expect our elected representatives to work in terms of the Clerk and the supervisor, and then we can set a meaningful salary. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:12:33] And so how do you propose to do that? Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:12:37] I guess we have to have a future discussion about it. I don't think we can discuss it tonight, but I think it has to be a two st ep process. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:12:48] All right. Well, I guess that's that. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:12:56] I would just like to to suggest that there might be some scrutiny about the hundred thousand dollar a year compensation package that you give the man that fills the Highway superintendent position. Without question. I know that might be a real problem for some people on this board, but nobody ever questions that. All right. Is there any more discussion on that? Supervisor Beth McGee [03:13:31] OK. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:13:37] So we will move into privilege of the floor. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:13:44] This was a long agenda tonight and we had additions to it. So I appreciate the conversation and the ability to get through it. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:13:53] I still don't see Virginia. Oh, she says there is some animal issue going on outside of her house. OK, so privilege of the floor. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:14:12] Again, comments should be made to the entire board, not individual residents or Town board members. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:14:24] And three minutes for each speaker. I'm going to call on the people that have their hands up and then I will on mute everyone to see if there's anyone else who would like to speak. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:14:36] Ellen. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:14:43] She's not on anymore. But I want to just thank the board for welcoming Mela. I thought she did a fantastic job tonight and we're really excited to have her be part of our Enfield Town government. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [03:14:58] Thank you. What a treasure. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:15:01] She's great. We'll look forward to hearing how she goes on her. Her notary test. That'll be exciting. Ann coreman. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:15:21] I keep trying to unmute you Anne, you do it. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:15:24] There you go. County Legislator Anne Koreman [03:15:25] All right. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. County Legislator Anne Koreman [03:15:28] So I just had one quick thing I heard earlier about Gathering's, and I heard Ellen say something about, I didn't catch it all, but something about a gathering. County Legislator Anne Koreman [03:15:40] If you have people that you here want to have gatherings in course, they need to be 50 people or less. County Legislator Anne Koreman [03:15:50] But even lower than that, you can refer them to our health department and they will walk people through it on how to do it. County Legislator Anne Koreman [03:16:00] So, for instance, the Town of Ulysses. Democratic Committee. We had a. A caucus and 30 feet. County Legislator Anne Koreman [03:16:12] Thirty five people came and that was over two weeks ago, although whenever I go to something like that, especially helping organize it, I was like counting down the days, like, OK, is it two weeks sense so that we didn't cause a pandemic or something, but they helped walk us through of how to do it, where to do it. County Legislator Anne Koreman [03:16:29] And just every single precaution and signage and every little thing that you could think of to make it really safe. So if somebody is having a wedding or anything, just please feel free to tell people to call the health department. They will help them figure that out. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:16:49] Thank you, Anne. And we did have a report to the health department. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:16:54] I think Ellen and Alan had mentioned it and there was a great deal of public concern about that online, that they shifted from one type of event to then calling it a protest. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:17:10] So then they could have it be, you know, without restriction or people being concerned about it and reporting it. And there was really concern that it was an unmasking event, that it was intentionally to be out against masking. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:17:29] So I also heard other information that people were very respectful there and did social distancing. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:17:37] Who knows if that happened or not. But, you know, it is important that in in we may want to review that that law, especially due to Covid the law that we have in place. And it used to be. So the reason why I think that the reason why we put that into place, that was several years ago. That was before I was on the board, was because the Muse fest used to be here. So it was just lots and lots of people would come to that. And I don't think it was. It will. It would maybe it was. But they they determined that they needed to have some control publicly over that type of event and Enfield. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:18:18] And of course, that was I think it was right around the time that grassroots was getting big, too. So, of course, the community is concerned that this is going to turn into grassroots as well. Ann. Enfield. So, yeah, I mean, if we want to revisit it because of the pandemic, that would be certainly reasonable. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:18:36] If you want to set a amount of people that you can have in an event as it is, I think I mean, we now have 50. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:18:46] We don't know what that might change to. But I guess locally you might have the ability to at least permit and give recommendations and have people have to come to the code officer and make a request. So at that time, you can inform them of the best ways, the best practices and the ways that they should go forward with an event. Ellen? Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:19:11] I was just going to cosign what you were saying, that if you lower the threshold, there could just be a permitting process and where they would submit their plan for social distancing, for public safety and make provisions for that. And that that's what is usually done. And I know the city Clerk of I thaca. does that quite a bit. So so I just think that it it wouldn't be to prohibit gathering. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:19:42] It's to be a point of contact for information to have an idea. Then you can know, oh, there was this event. You should let county public health know, because if they want to drag when a pandemic grows out of control, then maybe it's at event. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:19:56] You know, and there's certainly areas in which between the code officer and the Clerk, we act as like a little bit of a public health. County health department liaison, you know, with the rabies control and other ways. So it would definitely be an appropriate thing to have a permitting process. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:20:20] My understanding, though, is that a permit application was never devised. I'll go with that law. But they're a dime a dozen. So if the board would like to review that, which I think that would be an admirable thing for us to do, consider at this time going forward. And especially we've admitted here tonight that it could be a very long time before we're out of this forgood. So if ever so Allen has provided that the language of that law for me. So I can I can forward that to the board. So you take a look at it if you want. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:20:59] You're right. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:21:05] All right. Did you have something else, Ellen, Ellen, or are you done? Supervisor Beth McGee [03:21:13] All right. Continuing with privilege. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:21:16] Marcus Gingrich. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:21:21] Marcus, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Marcus Gingerich [03:21:24] OK. Yeah, I just wanted to. I realize it probably doesn't make any difference at this point, but it it seemed a little odd to me. From where I'm sitting, that this these bids was not at least, I guess, this case, it was one bid, but that you wouldn't actually read it over and make sure that the fine print. Maybe there's maybe there's not much. I mean, maybe I you know, because I'm not there and I can't see it. Maybe there's not much to see. But it just seems odd that you wouldn't actually check to make sure everything is in order and then you have. Marcus Gingerich [03:22:02] But that was just what stuck out to me, you know, from my view at 30000 feet, so to speak. And one thing that kind of bothered me. In this time when a lot of tax payers are really. Hurting financially and having to probably tighten their belts. Marcus Gingerich [03:22:26] I hear comments that, well, everybody is going to have to Second up because we're going to it's going to hurt a lot worse. And that, I don't know, there just seems a little strange that if everybody else has to tighten their belt. Shouldn't government have to tighten its belt, too? And maybe I heard that wrong. But that was just my reaction to that. Marcus Gingerich [03:22:49] And it seems to me that. Our government needs to be sensitive to the situation that its taxpayers are in as well. So that's pretty much what I had to say. Thanks. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:23:04] Thank you, Marcus. It is my intention to provide a budget or propose a budget that is within the tax cap. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:23:16] The board can dicker over that. Any way they wish. But it is my intention to provide that. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:23:29] So the and I will also say that I have been able to read. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:23:40] The proposal, because it's only six pages long. And it meets the requirements of our request. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [03:23:53] A segnifiacnt portion of the six pages was just information about the company itself. Right. Like, essentially that's the meat of it. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [03:24:02] It was really within only a page or two. And it was pretty standard. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [03:24:08] I was able to pull it up on my screen as we watched, as we went through it. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:24:16] OK. See anyone else? Supervisor Beth McGee [03:24:19] I'm going to unmute everyone now to see if there's anyone who would like to finish up privilege of the floor. I have I have unmuted everyone. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:24:32] People are staying muted. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:24:35] So is there anyone who would like to speak for privilege of the. [03:24:41] Thank you for listening to that. You're going to have to go right now. OK. su Supervisor Beth McGee [03:24:50] All right. Are there any announcements? Supervisor Beth McGee [03:24:57] So I do have an announcement. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:25:00] The Black Lives Matter Enfield group has been meeting regularly. There's 10 to 15 people right now that are meeting, whether distanced outside or in my garage or on Zoom and working on initiatives. We also have a sign initiative that we're working on. We've already placed 40 signs in the town of Enfield. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:25:29] We've also experienced first we had signs ripped out of the ground and thrown in the ditch. Several of them at one time. And then we've also just in the last day or two, had signs stolen and completely removed from the same places. So we'll keep putting those signs back up and they might even get bigger. You never know. So if anyone would be interested in signs there, a suggested donation, if anyone is interested in having signs, we do have more. And we just use the six the donations that people give to order another batch of them and place them around Enfield. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [03:26:07] So if I wouldn't want to badger signs or I wanted to sign, I would contact you. Correct? Supervisor Beth McGee [03:26:14] Yes, you would. So any board member, Bob, Stepahnie, I think you have one, Stephanie. Maybe not on my agenda. OK. Just get in touch. OK. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:26:26] We're done with privilege of the floor, but we might have an announcement here, Julie. Hold on one second. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:26:33] Julie, are you there? I'm I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Julie Schroeder [03:26:40] OK. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:26:43] Julie. Julie Schroeder [03:26:44] Black Lives Matter sing. [03:26:46] Julie. Sorry. It was ah. [03:26:50] Julie Shrader. [03:26:51] Yes. Yeah I got it. Julie Schroeder [03:26:52] So I have a Black Lives Matter sign in front of my house. Listening to you guys at the meeting tonight. I'm standing at my kitchen sink and a car pulls up. Young guy, baseball cap. Loud music. I'm thinking maybe he's just, you kn ow on his phone, but he grabs my sign on my lawn and zooms away. Julie Schroeder [03:27:14] So I don't know if other people have seen this happen or not, but it's happened up and down my road quite a bit. And I'm happy to have another sign. I'm going to hang it high in a tree so it can't just be grabbed. But it's a huge problem that there's this act. I ran out the door. I get yelled out the window, gotten my car zoomed off, thought I could catch the guys, but I didn't. So, I mean, it's just a bold face mo ve right in. And what are they going to do with it? What good does it do them? Yeah. All right. [03:27:44] So anyway, I was disappointed. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:27:46] I'm disappointed. Couincilperson Virginia Bryant [03:27:48] Very angry. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:27:52] Well, don't get angry. Julie Schroeder [03:27:54] No, I know we get we get another sign. [03:27:56] Yeah, and we get another one get into good trouble. I've got cameras so people can go ahead and steal a sign out of my yard. I thought I could get the license plate. That's what I was going. Well, thanks for your valiant effort, Julie. OK. And we do have more signs, so I just got another shipment of them. [03:28:17] I thought it was just at night, but this was, you know, in b road daylight. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:28:21] That is crazy. It was not. That's crazy. Ellen. Thank you, Julie. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:28:31] I'm sorry, I just had two announcements, additionally, I received an email forwarded from the supervisor that to morrow from nine a.m. to 10 a.m., anyone over 60 can go to the food pantry. It's not normal food pantry hours, but anyone over 60 in the town of Enfield can go from nine a.m. to 10 a.m. and sign a form to receive twenty dollars in farmer's market coupons. So I'll put that up on the website. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:29:05] I try not to put anything up before a meeting so that that's the top post. But I'll put it up on the website tonight. But if you know anyone over 60 who would like to shop at the farmer's market, that is from 9:00 a.m. to 10 a.m. tomorrow. And then also just mentioning again, the rabies clinic on Saturday, that is two seven four six six eight eight to register. I think they're very nearly full. But the great thing about it is it's registering by the car so you can get many animals done at once. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:29:42] Can we do thta with kids. I will just also say, Ellen, that you can make those posts sticky so they stay at the top. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:29:53] OK. It's in the side panel where you have the date and stuff that you wanted to post her schedule at. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:30:00] You can you should be able to do it there. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:30:03] There was one other thing that oh, I just want to mention here that the Town board has not approved any chipps funds to be appropriated. So just know that that was a request and the Highway Superintendant was not here to have that conversation, to answer questions about the project going forward for Aiken Road, why it was one hundred thousand dollars more than the initial estimate of it was. So no chipps funds have been appropriated for expenditure. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:30:34] So let me just also add. Let's see. [03:30:40] Oh. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:30:41] Do we want to do a quick motion to allow the Highway superintendent to sell the old super highway superintendent struck? [03:30:49] Before we leave behind me,. [03:30:51] I can I can Beth's. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:30:53] All right. I'm going to move that. We approve the Highway superintendent to sell the 2016 RAM truck and the Alamo modercycle bar a fuel tank. [03:31:09] And used tires. And Stephanie, you Seconded that. [03:31:16] Is there any discussion,. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:31:19] I presume, Buddy's authorized this? Supervisor Beth McGee [03:31:22] He asked for it. He asked for it in his e-mail. Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:31:27] OK. Please Call the vote. Ellen. Councilperson Brian. Councilperson Virginia Bryant [03:31:37] I Councilperson Lynch,. Councilperson Robert Lynch [03:31:39] I Councilperson Redmond. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [03:31:42] AYE [03:31:44] Supervisor McGee. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:31:45] aye. Town Clerk Ellen Woods [03:31:48] Most include. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:31:50] All right. Thank you. If there's no more announcements, I will make a motion to adjourn. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond [03:31:56] Aiken. Supervisor Beth McGee [03:31:57] All right, good night, everybody. Thank you for hanging in there. Got a lot of work done. Have a good night.