Town of Glenville - Town Board Meeting Minutes 12/1/2010

Town Board Meeting Minutes 12/1/2010

REGULAR MEETING OF THE TOWN BOARD

TOWN OF GLENVILLE

DECEMBER 1, 2010

AT THE GLENVILLE MUNICIPAL CENTER

18 GLENRIDGE ROAD, GLENVILLE, NEW YORK

Supervisor Koetzle called the meeting to order at 7:30 PM;

Supervisor Koetzle asked the Town Clerk, Linda C. Neals, to call the roll.

Present: Supervisor Christopher A. Koetzle, Councilmen Alan Boulant, Mark Quinn, Sid Ramotar and Councilwoman Gina M. Wierzbowski (arrived at 7:45 pm)

Absent: None

Also present were, Director of Operations James MacFarland and Comptroller George Phillips.

Supervisor Koetzle announced that item #’s 12 and 13 will be pulled from the agenda this evening. He also announced that the Board would be entering into an executive session this evening to discuss contract negotiations.

Councilman Ramotar – “The redevelopment proposal for the former K-Mart property will be submitted to the Town in late December for planning and zoning review. In the meantime the landowner, R & D Management will be going before our Planning and Zoning Commission on December 13^th for preliminary feedback from the Commission. Following this we expect that GECC (Glenville Environmental Conservation Commission) will review the proposal on December 20^th. Some of the projects specifics are demolition of the existing 127,000 sq. ft. building; construction of a new 137,000 discount store; construction of an additional 30,000 – 36,000 sq. ft. retail building and the establishment of 2 out parcels for 3,000 sq. ft. and 6,000 sq. ft. buildings; new sidewalks and tree plantings along Rte 50 an Glenridge Road.

Our Planner spoke with NYS DOT and received an update on the Glenridge Road improvement project. That project is still on course, final design plans will be completed this week or next with construction bids scheduled to go out in March and construction will probably begin in mid-spring 2011 and wrap up in fall of 2013.

Mohawk Honda is now opened; they had their soft opening on Friday.”

Supervisor Koetzle – “Item #5 on the agenda is a public hearing to consider a local law to amend the Code, Chapter 88 – Animals and Chapter 195, Parks and Recreation.”

Councilman Boulant – “Governor Paterson signed a measure into law as part of the 2010-2011 State Budget that moves the remainder of the dog licensing function required by Article 7 of the Agriculture and Markets Law to the level of local government. As a result, the existing roles of both county government and the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets in the licensing of dogs will be eliminated on January 1, 2011. This proposed local law sets the licensing requirements, license fees and surcharges, for the town. Copies of this law are available in the Clerk’s Office”

Supervisor Koetzle opened the public hearing at 7:35 pm; no one wished to speak, Supervisor Koetzle closed the public hearing at 7:36 pm.

Supervisor Koetzle – “Item #6 on the agenda is a public hearing to consider the renewal of the Town’s franchise agreement with Time Warner Cable.”

James MacFarland, Director of Operations – “This has been a long time coming, our past contract expired in 2004, so we have had a number of years that we have been operating on a continuation of the old contract. We were engaged for a number of years with a consortium involving the City of Schenectady, Town of Niskayuna and the County but we didn’t really reach a successful conclusion in the consortium and have this year met separately with Time Warner to attempt to reach an agreement on a new cable contract.

Mr. Mucha, who will speak shortly, and I have met regularly throughout the year and certainly we represented both of our sides strongly in the negotiations. We have a draft contract in place and the key elements that are the first and foremost to the Town’s benefit is a new definition of revenue. Having a very clear definition that really maximizes the potential Town revenue is an important part for us. It’s very similar to what all of the municipalities have so this is bringing us up to kind of the state-of-the-art language in the contract. We do have a senior discount, kind of a rarity among contracts these days, Time Warner has indicated and agreed to grandfather seniors that are currently receiving that discount which is a fairly modest discount but discontinue future discounts. That’s a fairly strong position Time Warner took in these negotiations. We do have, a part of the contract, through this agreement a portable digital camera system would be provided for the Town. The cost of that is going to be roughly $12,000 that is actually borne by the subscribers, of course what that will do is give us the ability to put content out there on public education channels. In contrast other municipalities have agreements to provide equipment in excess of $100,000 so our request in this was fairly modest relative to any subscriber cost. Lastly there was an audit that was done in the past, there was discussion as to what degree that Time Warner owed on that audited work, they have agreed to pay $2,600 which is roughly half of what our previous auditor had found. Mike Cuevas, Attorney for the Town agreed ultimately that half of that audit figure was appropriate.

Lastly and the reason for the tabling of the matter tonight, we did have a local resident ask for the contract to review it and he discovered a fairly significant point that we want to make sure we get right relating to how much of the franchise fee is able to be passed through to the customer, 5% is the standard franchise fee that is proposed in the contract and the old contract indicated a 2% pass through allowance it appears that bills currently are passing through the full 5%. I know the John Mucha has looked into that with council, with Time Warner and we want to make sure we get that right before proceeding with it. We are pretty satisfied from certainly Attorney Cuevas’ perspective as well as mine that this is a good contract for the Town. We do need to clear that up before going ahead so we hope to have that done by the 15^th of this month for your consideration again.”

John Mucha, Government Relations for Time Warner Cable in Rotterdam – “We have worked together for about one year on this agreement. It was a productive process; I agree there was a lot of give and take so that always makes for a good final product.

The current cable franchise agreement with the Town was signed in 1993, since then Time Warner Cable has made many updates to the cable system here and now provides what we believe is a state-of-the-art service to the area. One of the most advanced cable systems in the country. Since 1993 the Town has seen new products and services launched like road-runner, digital cable, video on demand, DVR service, digital phone service, caller ID on TV, start over, look back and the addition of high definition channels now number about 150. The system in the Town is competitive with any video or internet provider in the country and is supported by the best employees in the world and I have to mention at the same time that those Time Warner Cable employees have put up and taken down Town of Glenville banners for many years now as an aid to the Town.

In terms of the agreement I think Jamie characterized it, it has a term of ten years the same as the old agreement, includes payment of 5% franchise fees, which is the maximum allowed by the F.C.C.”

Supervisor Koetzle opened the public hearing at 7:43 pm; no one wished to speak; Supervisor Koetzle closed the public hearing at 7:44 pm.

No one exercised the privilege of the floor.

Supervisor Comments:

Joan Menhinick, Receiver of Taxes asked me about putting an insert into the property tax bills coming to our resident in January. Last year the Board created this “Property Owner Town Budget and Tax Information” form and it basically explained what taxes were in the bill and explained the bill in general. If we want to do this again we have to do this fairly quickly because it has to be printed and included in the tax bill. There is no additional cost except for the paper which was budgeted. If there is no objection we will go ahead and inform her we want to do this again.

Dec. 8^th is our next work session, Dec. 15^th is our next meeting, the employee’s holiday luncheon is on the 16^th from 12:00 to 2:00 pm and our year-end meeting needs to be scheduled.

Tonight we will be discussing union contracts later in executive session and we have memorandum of agreements drafted with two of the unions.

The next few weeks we will be busy preparing information for our Organizational Meeting for January 5, 2011. Board and Commission appointments, contracts, salaries etc; all of these things are on our plates as we approach the new year.

I want to discuss at our next work session our Strategic Plan for 2010 and take a look at what we accomplished or maybe what we didn’t get to, what should be carried over and what we want to ad for 2011.

I attended Trustco Bank’s Tree Lighting and Fire Works celebration on November 26. It was a nice event; I appreciate all that they did for the community. It was catered, the fire works were great and I hope they do it again; it was great for the community.

I get a lot of calls and emails and usually they are of a complaint nature, which is part of the job. This past week I received three comments that I would like to share:

An email from a resident who had an issue with water in front of their house; they wrote me to let me know that they appreciated the fine work done by the Water Department this past Sunday, November 28^th. The break occurred earlier that morning and they were back in business by dark. The Water Department did a great job, Commissioner Coppola was on the scene and was true to his word and the residents would like to thank all of the good people who worked on Sunday to resolve the problem.

Another email I received was great comments about our website; much more user friendly, much easier to navigate and this person asked me to send congratulations to the person responsible for this redesign.

I received a letter from a resident who wanted me to let the Highway Department and the Public Works Department know that the sink hole that appeared in his yard after a severe rain storm caused him a lot of problems. Several days later he received a telephone call from Jeff Gemmette, Deputy Commissioner of Public Works, informing him that he had inspected the area where the sink hole was and thought there was something wrong with the storm drain piping. He indicated that he wanted to send a camera down, the crew Aaron, Bob and Jeff executed the plan and the problem was solved. They did a great job. I just wanted to write you this note to acknowledge the good work these employees did and if the Town has a program that recognizes employees that go beyond the normal expectations I would like to recommend these fine individuals to be considered for that distinction. Being a 63 year old Town resident I appreciate the folks that work everyday to make Glenville the great Town that it is and a great Town to live in.

I would like to summarize the budget now that it is done and filed. There are some comments around Town on it, mostly very positive from people that take an opportunity and compare it to previous years, find that it is a fairly good budget, a solid budget. I just want to summarize some of what this Board accomplished in the 2011 budget. We reduced the use of fund balance by over $200,000, that’s important because that is the rough equivalent of the levy increase, we could have went with a zero percent increase but we thought it was important to begin to reduce the previous administration’s reliance on deficit financing of the budget so that I think was a positive. We eliminated many costs the Town Administrator, the Grant Writer and a few other positions; we absorbed $278,000 in new health insurance and pension costs in this budget. We increased the long under funded paving budget which the FEMA money that was used in the previous budget would have been well used for that but we had to go out and find the money to make that happen as well. We created a $35,000 economic development fund to assist our small businesses in Glenville. We out sourced our legal services saving over $13,000 in pension and FICA costs and lastly we made hard decisions to reduce staff without reducing services. We did all of this without the $500,000 from FEMA, a gift that was given to the previous board, so our Glenville Town Board and staff of this Town ought to take pride in our budget despite the fiction that is written in opinion pages lately. We have accomplished extraordinarily a lot of positive things during difficult times and will keep looking forward and not live in the past.”

Supervisor Koetzle moved ahead with the agenda items.

RESOLUTION NO. 216-2010

Moved by: Councilman Boulant

Seconded by: Councilman Quinn

WHEREAS, there are accounts as described and funded in the 2010 Adopted Budget that have exceeded budget appropriations by at least $100 as of November 12, 2010 and planned expenditures will cause certain accounts to exceed the budgeted appropriations,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Glenville Town Board hereby authorizes the following budgetary transfers:

FROM TO

1. $ 376.07 01.00.1110.4100 Supplies 01.00.1110.1002 CourtCash in O/T

2. $ 110.00 01.00.1315.4500 Fees for Services 01.00.1315.4622 Conferences

3. $ 299.80 01.00.1355.4500 Fees for Services 01.00.1355.4622 Conferences

4. $ 546.54 01.00.1410.4500 Fees for Services 01.00.1410.4433 Maint Contract

5. $ 2,980.02 01.00.1010.1009 Administrator Ins/Bene 01.00.1420.4545 Legal Disbs

6. $ 100.41 01.00.1620.1009 Bldg/Ground Ins/Bene 01.00.1620.1003 B/G Overtime

7. $ 500.00 01.00.1620.2000 Equipment 01.00.1620.1006 B/G Longevity

8. $ 3,884.00 01.00.3121.1003 Dispatch O/T 01.00.3121.1002 Dispatch Cash in

9. $ 2,212.31 A Fund - Fund Balance 01.00.3510.1002 Dog Cash in O/T

10. $ 393.81 A Fund - Fund Balance 01.00.3510.1003 Dog O/T

11. $ 500.00 A Fund - Fund Balance 01.00.3510.1006 Dog longevity

12. $ 305.10 01.00.5010.2000 Equipment 01.00.5010.4622 Hwy Conferences

13. $ 147.98 A Fund - Fund Balance 01.00.7620.4000 Senior Center

14. $ 136.89 02.00.1440.4400 Engineering Planning 02.00.1440.1002 Engineer Cash in

15. $ 281.89 02.00.1620.4109 Renovations 02.00.1620.4100 Supplies

16. $ 16,552.50 02.00.3120.4150 PD Fuel 02.00.3120.1002 PD Cash in O/T

17. $ 670.99 02.00.3120.4150 PD Fuel 02.00.3120.1008 PD Shift Different

18. $ 370.95 02.00.3120.4500 PD Fees for Service 02.00.3120.4622 PD Conferences

19. $ 1,612.69 02.00.7110.4400 Contracted Svces 02.00.7110.4100 Supplies

20. $ 2,830.00 02.00.7110.4400 Contracted Svces 02.00.7110.4500 Fees for Svces

21. $ 19,662.32 04.00.5142.1000 Snow Removal Wages 04.00.5110.1000 Genl Maint Wage

22. $ 240.50 04.00.5110.1005 out of grade 04.00.5110.1002 Hwy Cash in

23. $ 3,500.00 04.00.5110.4477 Rental Equip 04.00.5110.4000 Contractual Svce

24. $ 192.74 04.00.5110.4144 Rails, Paint 04.00.5110.4100 Supplies

25. $ 5,123.76 04.00.5110.4477 Rental Equip 04.00.5110.4143 Drain, Tile etc

26. $ 1,011.73 04.00.5110.4477 Rental Equip 04.00.5110.4533 Legal/Engineer

27. $ 392.70 04.00.5130.2000 Equipment 04.00.5130.1002 Mechanic Cash in

28. $ 211.29 04.00.5130.2000 Equipment 04.00.5130.1003 Mechanic O/T

29. $ 333.25 04.00.5130.4100 Supplies 04.00.5130.4125 Plow/Wing Shoes

30. $ 922.46 04.00.5130.2000 Equipment 04.00.5130.4131 Paint

31. $ 2,670.88 04.00.9785.7000 Lease Interest 04.00.9785.6000 Lease Principal

32. $ 265.72 40.06.8130.4417 Repairs 40.06.8130.4150 Fuel

33. $110,605.92 S09 Fund Balance 40.09.8130.4000 Contract Exp

34. $ 2,753.56 50.11.8310.4666 Print, taxes Etc 50.11.8310.4500 Fees for Services

35. $ 6,517.81 50.11.8330.2000 Equipment 50.11.8330.4200 Utilities

Ayes: Councilmen Boulant, Quinn, Ramotar, Councilwoman Wierzbowski and Supervisor Koetzle

Noes: None

Absent: None

Abstentions: None

Motion Carried

RESOLUTION NO. 217-2010

Moved by: Councilman Boulant

Seconded by: Councilman Quinn

WHEREAS, there is a specific source of revenue generated from a grant that was not specifically included in the 2010 Budget; and the corresponding expenditure of the grant money was also not specifically included in the 2010 Budget,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Glenville Town Board hereby authorizes the following budget amendments to include the grant monies received and expended, or scheduled to be expended:

AMOUNT

1. $ 32,825.00 Increase Revenue Account 02.00.3084.0000 Blg Dept Grant

2. $ 22,256.00 Increase Expenditure Acct 02.00.3620.1000 Bldg Salary

3. $ 8,865.00 Increase Expenditure Acct 02.00.3620.4500 Fees for Svce

4. $ 1,704.00 Increase Expenditure Acct 02.00.9030.8000 Social Security

To record Building Archive grant to be used for Paperless document storage

Ayes: Councilmen Boulant, Quinn, Ramotar, Councilwoman Wierzbowski and Supervisor Koetzle

Noes: None

Absent: None

Abstentions: None

Motion Carried

RESOLUTION NO. 218-2010

Moved by: Councilman Boulant

Seconded by: Councilman Quinn

WHEREAS, the Town of Glenville has been considering the enactment of a Local Law to amend the Code of the Town of Glenville to amend Chapter 88 “Animals” and Chapter 195 “Parks and Recreation” ; and

WHEREAS, a resolution was duly adopted by the Town Board of the Town of Glenville calling for a public hearing to be held by the Glenville Town Board at the Glenville Municipal Center, 18 Glenridge Road, Glenville, New York at 7:30 PM to hear all interested parties on a proposed Local Law entitled, “A Local Law to Amend the Code of the Town of Glenville, Chapter 88, Entitled “Animals” and Chapter 195, Entitled “Parks and Recreation”; and

WHEREAS, notice of said public hearing was duly advertised in the Daily Gazette, the official newspaper of the Town of Glenville, on November 20, 2010 and posted on the Town Clerk’s sign board on November 18, 2010; and

WHEREAS, this Town Board has held a public hearing with respect to the adoption of said Local Law on December 1, 2010 at 7:30 PM, at which time all parties in interest were afforded an opportunity to be heard and to publicly comment on said Local law, amending the Code of the Town of Glenville; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to Part 617 of the implementing regulations pertaining to Article 8 (State Environmental Quality Review Act) (“SEQR”), the Town Board has determined that the adoption of the proposed Local Law does not constitute an action as defined and could be considered without regard to SEQR; and

WHEREAS, the Town Board of the Town of Glenville, after due deliberation, finds it in the best interest of the Town to adopt said Local Law,

;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville does hereby establish a Local Law to amend the Code of the Town of Glenville to adopt Local Law # 7 of 2010, amending Chapter 88, entitled “Animals” and Chapter 195, entitled “Parks and Recreation”, as set forth below:

Section 1. Sections 88-3, 88-7, and 88-9 of Chapter 88 and section 195-23 of the Code of the Town of Glenville are hereby amended, in applicable part, to read as follows:

CHAPTER 88 – ANIMALS

ARTICLE I Dog Control

§88-3 Enforcement

A Dog Control Officer, to be designated by the Town Board as provided by §113 of the Agriculture and Markets Law, may enforce the provisions of this article and the provisions of Chapter 195, §§195-14 A.(11), 195-17 and 195-23 A.(6) which set forth general rules and regulations for the government and protection of park lands in the Town of Glenville, as said sections pertain to dogs, and may investigate and report to a Town Justice of the Town of Glenville any dangerous dog as described in §123 of the Agriculture and Markets Law, and see that the order or orders of the Town Justice in such cases are carried out.

§88-7 Seizure of dogs, redemption of dogs, and impound fees.

Any Dog Control Officer may seize any dog in the Town of Glenville:

Which is unlicensed or untagged, in violation of §§ 109 and/or 111 of the Agriculture and Markets Law.
Which is not leashed or under the control of its owner, in violation of § 88-1 A.(1) of this Article or § 195-17 of Article 195 of this Code.

Any dog seized pursuant to subsection A of this section shall be impounded, fed, cared for or disposed of as provided in § 117 of the Agriculture and Markets Law.
The owner of any dog impounded by the Town of Glenville shall be entitled to redeem that dog within five (5) business days, excluding the day the dog is impounded, provided that the owner produces proof that the dog is licensed and can be identified as the dog licensed to the owner and pays a fee of $25 for the first impoundment; $50 for the second impoundment; and $75 for a third or subsequent impoundment within twelve (12) months of the first impoundment. In addition to the impoundment fee an additional fee of $3.00 for each twenty-four hour period of impoundment shall apply in all cases.

§88-9. Licensing required, license fees and surcharges established.

A. Dogs requiring licensing. All dogs within the Town of Glenville four (4) months of age or older, unless otherwise exempted, shall be licensed.

B. License application requirements. The owner of each dog required to be licensed shall obtain, complete and return to the Town Clerk a dog license application. With the application, the dog owner shall submit to the Town Clerk the license application fee, any applicable license surcharges and such additional fees as may be established by the Town of Glenville. In addition, each license application must be accompanied by proof that the dog has been vaccinated against rabies or a statement from a licensed veterinarian that such vaccination would endanger the dog’s life, in which case, vaccination would not be required.

C. Term of licenses. Each license issued shall be valid for a period of one year and will expire on the last date of the month of the year following the date of issue, except that no license shall be issued for a period expiring after the last day of the eleventh month following the expiration date of the current rabies certificate for the dog being licensed. Licenses shall not be transferrable. Renewals of licenses shall also be for a period of one year.

D. Late penalty. License applications or renewals not made and completed within 30 days of the due date shall incur a penalty of $5.00 in addition to the applicable fees and surcharges.

E. License fees. The Town of Glenville hereby establishes the fee for a dog license issued pursuant to this law at twelve dollars and fifty cents ($12.50) for a spayed or neutered dog and seventeen dollars and fifty cents ($17.50) for an unspayed or unneutered dog. Applicants for a dog license, each of whom is 65 years of age or older, shall pay a reduced fee of five dollars ($5.00) for a spayed or neutered dog and seven dollars, fifty cents ($7.50) for an unspayed or unneutered dog. The Town of Glenville will not provide special purebred or kennel license fees.

F. Exemptions from license fees. Exempted from payment of the license fee are applications submitted for a dog license for any guide, hearing, service, war, working search, detection, police and therapy dogs as same are defined in section 108 of the Agriculture and Markets Law.

G. Surcharge for Animal Population Control. Each applicant for a dog license, including those exempt from license fees under the provisions of paragraph F above, shall pay a surcharge of $1.00 if the dog to be licensed is spayed or neutered, or a surcharge of $3.00 if the dog to be licensed is not spayed or neutered.

H. Change of ownership – notice required. In the event of a change in ownership of any dog which has been licensed pursuant to this article or in the address of the record owner of any such dog, the owner of record shall, within ten (10) days of such change, file with the Town Clerk a written report of such change. Such owner of record shall be liable for any violation of this chapter until such filing is made or until the dog is licensed in the name of the new owner.

I. In the case of a dog’s death, the owner of record shall notify the Town Clerk either prior to the renewal of license or upon the time of such renewal.

J. In the event that an owner loses the original dog license tag, a replacement tag may be obtained from the Town Clerk upon payment of a three dollar ($3.00) fee.

CHAPTER 195 – PARKS AND RECREATION

ARTICLE II Park Regulations

§ 195-23 Permits

A permit will be required in each of the following circumstances:

(6) Use of the Town Dog Park.

Section 2. Effective Date

This Local Law shall take effect January 1, 2011.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution shall take effect when filed with the Secretary of State of the State of New York.

Ayes: Councilman Boulant, Quinn, Ramotar, Councilwoman Wierzbowski and Supervisor Koetzle

Noes: None

Absent: None

Abstentions: None

Motion Carried

RESOLUTION NO. 219-2010

Moved by: Councilman Quinn

Seconded by: Councilman Boulant

BE IT RESOLVED, that the minutes of the regular meeting held on November 17, 2010 are hereby approved and accepted as entered.

Ayes: Councilmen Boulant, Quinn, Ramotar, Councilwoman Wierzbowski and Supervisor Koetzle

Noes: None

Absent: None

Abstentions: None

Motion Carried

New Business

Councilwoman Wierzbowski – “I would like to give a brief update with regards to the leaf program. Superintendent Coppola has informed me that it has been going extremely well. We are on our second, third and fourth pass in various areas of the Town. It has been a success as far as the savings that we were hoping to achieve and next year we will improve the program even more. Things went a lot faster because of the three new locations for the leaf drops which have helped the schedule this year.”

Supervisor Koetzle adjourned this portion of the meeting at 8:00 pm and entered into executive session.

RESOLUTION NO. 220-2010

Moved by: Councilman Boulant

Seconded by: Councilman Quinn

BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville hereby adjourns into Executive Session to discuss contract negotiations.

Ayes: Councilmen Boulant, Quinn, Ramotar, Councilwoman Wierzbowski and Supervisor Koetzle

Noes: None

Absent: None

Abstention: None

Motion Carried

Time being 9:40 p.m., Supervisor Koetzle reconvened the meeting and announced that no action was taken during the Executive Session.

Supervisor Koetzle asked for a motion to adjourn; motion to adjourn was moved by Councilman Boulant; Seconded by Councilwoman Wierzbowski, everyone being in favor the meeting was adjourned at 9:41 p.m.

ATTEST:

______________________________

Linda C. Neals

Town Clerk