SPECIAL MEETING OF THE TOWN BOARD
TOWN OF GLENVILLE
AUGUST 25, 2010
AT THE GLENVILLE MUNICIPAL CENTER
18 GLENRIDGE ROAD, GLENVILLE, NEW YORK
Supervisor Koetzle called the meeting to order at 7:45 PM; called for a moment of silence and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Supervisor Koetzle asked the Deputy Town Clerk, Rose Mercurio, to call the roll.
Present: Supervisor Christopher A. Koetzle, Councilmen Alan Boulant, Mark Quinn, Sid Ramotar and Councilwoman Gina M. Wierzbowski
Absent: None
Also present were Attorney Michael Cuevas, Director of Operations James MacFarland.
Supervisor Koetzle – “We will adjourn after the public hearings into executive session for a discussion on personnel matters and when the Board reconvenes we will take action on the two resolutions before us this evening.
Supervisor Koetzle – “Item 2 on the agenda is a public hearing to consider an amendment to the code of the Town of Glenville being proposed as Local Law No. 7 of 2010, Retirement Incentive Program - Part A.
Supervisor Koetzle opened the public hearing at 7:50 pm; no one wished to speak, Supervisor Koetzle closed the public hearing at 7:51 pm.
Supervisor Koetzle – “Item 3 on the agenda is a public hearing to consider an amendment to the code of the Town of Glenville being proposed as Local Law No. 8 of 2010, Retirement Incentive Program – Part B.
Supervisor Koetzle opened the public hearing at 7:52 pm.
Frank Quinn, Glenville resident – “You are asking for comments, I think it would be helpful if you had shared a brief summary of Part A and Part B so the folks would be better equipped to comment.”
Attorney Michael Cuevas – “Very briefly, NYS amended the law so that municipalities across the state could offer retirement incentives to their employees. These are for all employees except for police officers and elected or appointed officials. In Part A, employees that are at least age 50 could elect to retire early and most employees in Tiers 3, 4, and 5 the normal age for retirement is 62 so if they choose to retire before age 62 they can receive credit, additional retirement service credit, of one month for each year of service that they have. They would, however, still be subject to the early retirement penalty that the retirement system imposes on people. The way the retirement system penalty works is
if your normal retirement age is 62 and you go at 61 there is a 6% penalty off of what would be your full retirement benefit, 6% the next year that you go early and then each year before that is just a 3% penalty. The Town would incur a cost to the retirement system for each employee that retires. Under Part A the Town would be able target employees or titles that would be eligible for Part A. The employees would indicate their interest in participating in the early retirement program and the Town would make the ultimate determination as to whether that would save the Town money. The Town is supposed to demonstrate savings over at least 50% over a 2 year period.”
Mr. Quinn – “50% of what.”
Attorney Cuevas – “50% of the salary of the employee.
The Part B is more straight forward, cut and dry and that is anyone that has 25 years of service credit and age 55, regardless of the Tier, could go without penalty. So that normally you would either have to wait until age 62 to go with the full retirement without penalties or have 30 years of service and age 55 to have no penalty. Again the Town would incur a cost to the retirement system to pay for this benefit and here because the employees are going with a full benefit there would be a substantially greater cost to the Town and there would be no targeting options for the Town.”
Mr. Quinn – “Does the employee and the Town have the option… if no employee said we want to take either option does the Town have the opportunity to target the positions anyway and in sense force it or is it totally voluntary by the employee?”
Attorney Cuevas – “This is totally the option of the employee to participate.”
No one else wished to speak; Supervisor Koetzle closed the public hearing at 7:56 pm.
Supervisor Koetzle – “I would just like to make a quick announcement. We heard today that the County has announced that they intend to move the Glendale Nursing Home out of the Town of Glenville and find a new location for it so that the new facility that they are talking about having a shovel in the ground by September of 2010 here on this site I guess they reversed their course and have decided to go somewhere else and one of the leading contenders is Curry Road in Rotterdam, there is a site in the City of Schenectady that they are looking at as well and they expect to have their decision within four months and there is a possibility that they can find some land somewhere on County property within the Town of Glenville to
construct this new nursing home/senior living center. I was surprised by it because everything that we had heard was that there was going to be a shovel in the ground by September here on this site. I did not get this first hand from County leadership I got it through members of our community who received letters from Susan Savage announcing this policy change. I have not found any discussion among the County Legislatures anywhere, in any of the minutes on the website. This seems to be a unilateral announcement which surprises me even more, I can’t find any rational for it. There was a person who asked Chairwoman Savage what she plans to do with the current site and her answer was they really do not know at this time but they plan on continuing to hold the site as County property.
I was displeased to see it because I do not like the County to take jobs out of Glenville. I will have a call into Susan Savage tomorrow to try to get some sort of rational as to why she is doing this.”
Supervisor Koetzle adjourned this portion of the meeting at 7:58 p.m. and entered into Executive Session.
RESOLUTION NO. 146-2010
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 personnel matters.
Ayes: Councilmen Boulant, Quinn, Ramotar, Councilwoman Wierzbowski and Supervisor Koetzle
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
Time being 8:45 p.m.; Supervisor Koetzle reconvened the meeting.
Supervisor Koetzle moved ahead with the agenda items.
Discussion…
Supervisor Koetzle – “This is the retirement incentive being offered to the municipalities from the State of New York which is opened to all eligible employees who are at least 50 years of age, they get one month service credit for each year of service that they worked and they would still receive a reduction of retirement benefits or penalties for early retirement. The Town would also pay an added cost to the retirement system for each of the employees who take the incentive. That could be paid in one lump sum or paid over a five year period with penalty costs of interest. The Town would have to show a savings of 50% of the salary of the employee over two years if we so choose to offer this option.”
Councilman Boulant – “I would like to quantify my vote this is another one of those tough decisions and with the financial uncertainty of the Town our first budget, there’s a lot of things that we don’t quite understand yet and this could cost the Town somewhere between $200,000 and $350,000 in an initial outlaying cash which could equate to a 4 – 7% tax increase and with the uncertainty of the economy and what the towns are going through I vote no.”
Councilman Quinn – “I am very sensitive to the short term cash flow hit that this would require however from a long term financial standpoint, I think especially if you were in a position to get rid of any positions with this type of retirement incentive but over the long term there’s some pretty substantial savings to be had under this one, Part A. I am going to vote yes on this.”
Councilman Ramotar – “Tough decision, a lot of long term benefits but in the short term I don’t think it will benefit the Town and I vote no.”
Councilwoman Wierzbowski – “I would have to concur with my two other Board members that the uncertainty that we have with the state retirement increases we’re potentially facing, our health insurance uncertainty with the rates how they’re going to be affecting us, our revenues for this year have been down and the money that we would be spending is not budgeted for, I just don’t feel that it is fiscally responsible at this time to vote in favor so my vote is no.”
Supervisor Koetzle – “I see both sides of this and it has been a difficult decision but as I look at the numbers and I look at under Part A, 6 potential opportunities to take advantage of this program, just to put some numbers to this for everybody, we would be talking about $339,000 in cash out if all 6 took this opportunity. $339,000 that is not budgeted right now, it is cash that would have to be found somewhere and where I don’t think we have really identified where that would be. Of that money half of it would be in penalty, the retirement system, it would be money that we would just have to pay and carry and when we look at it, although Councilman Quinn is absolutely correct there would be perhaps a long term
benefit it would take us into at least 2012 to start to realize that. There are a lot of things that can happen between now and 2012 that I cannot just predict and don’t feel comfortable gambling with. Understanding that it was not budgeted, $339,000 for this year, I believe would be too much of a cash hit to this town and I would be concerned with what kind of tax increase that would lead to in the 2011 budget. I vote no.”
RESOLUTION NO. 147-2010
Moved by: Councilman Ramotar
Seconded by: Councilwoman Wierzbowski
WHEREAS, the Town Board of the Town of Glenville has been considering the enactment of a Local Law pursuant to Chapter 105 of the Laws of 2010 of the State of New York to authorize the Town to participate in the Retirement Incentive Program (Part A) provided by that state law; and
WHEREAS, this Town Board has held a Public Hearing on August 25, 2010 at 7:30 PM, at which time all parties interested were afforded an opportunity to be heard and to publicly comment on the aforementioned proposed Local Law;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville does hereby establish a Local Law to authorize the Town to participate in the Retirement Incentive Program (Part A) authorized by Chapter 105 of the Laws of 2010 of the State of New York as set forth below:
LOCAL LAW NO. 7 - 2010
A LOCAL LAW electing a retirement incentive program as authorized by Chapter 105, Laws of 2010 (Part A) for the eligible employees of the Town of Glenville.
Be it enacted by the Town Board of the Town of Glenville as follows:
1. The Town of Glenville hereby elects to provide all of its eligible employees with a retirement incentive program authorized by Chapter 105, Laws of 2010 (Part A).
2. The commencement date of the retirement incentive program shall be September 20, 2010.
3. The open period during which eligible employees may retire and receive the additional retirement benefits, shall be 40 days in length.
4. The actuarial present value of the additional retirement benefits payable pursuant to the provisions of this local law shall be paid as one lump sum, or in five annual installments. The amount of the annual payment shall be determined by the Actuary of the New York State and Local Employees’ Retirement System, and it shall be paid by the Town of Glenville for each employee who receives the retirement benefits payable under this local law.
5. This act shall take effect August 25, 2010.
Ayes: Councilman Quinn
Noes: Councilmen Boulant, Ramotar, Councilwoman Wierzbowski and Supervisor Koetzle
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Defeated
Supervisor Koetzle – “Item 5 is a resolution adopting a local law regarding retirement incentive Part B.”
Discussion…
Supervisor Koetzle – “This is for eligible employees who typically would have 25 years of service credit and are age 55. To retire without penalty for the incentive you would have to be 62 or 55 with 30 years of service. This would allow anyone who meets the 25/55 requirement to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Councilman Boulant – “No”
Councilman Quinn – “I don’t like the way Part B is structured and I think we have less latitude and choice with B as well, so I am voting no.”
Councilman Ramotar – “This is more expensive than Part A and I vote no.”
Councilwoman Wierzbowski – “No”
Supervisor Koetzle – “If you thought the first one was expensive this one is all that and it is on steroids. The cost is so high it wasn’t even something we really entertained, it just would have been significantly more cash that we don’t have so I vote no.”
RESOLUTION NO. 148-2010
Moved by: Councilman Boulant
Seconded by: Councilman Quinn
WHEREAS, the Town Board of the Town of Glenville has been considering the enactment of a Local Law pursuant to Chapter 105 of the Laws of 2010 of the State of New York to authorize the Town to participate in the Retirement Incentive Program (Part B) provided by that state law; and
WHEREAS, this Town Board has held a Public Hearing on August 25, 2010 at 7:30 PM, at which time all parties interested were afforded an opportunity to be heard and to publicly comment on the aforementioned proposed Local Law;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville does hereby establish a Local Law to authorize the Town to participate in the Retirement Incentive Program (Part B) authorized by Chapter 105 of the Laws of 2010 of the State of New York as set forth below:
LOCAL LAW NO. 8 - 2010
A LOCAL LAW electing a retirement incentive program as authorized by Chapter 105, Laws of 2010 (Part B) for the eligible employees of the Town of Glenville.
Be it enacted by the Town Board of the Town of Glenville as follows:
6. The Town of Glenville hereby elects to provide all of its eligible employees with a retirement incentive program authorized by Chapter 105, Laws of 2010 (Part B).
7. The commencement date of the retirement incentive program shall be October 1, 2010.
8. The open period during which eligible employees may retire and receive the additional retirement benefits, shall be 90 days in length and shall end on December 29, 2010.
9. The actuarial present value of the additional retirement benefits payable pursuant to the provisions of this local law shall be paid as one lump sum, or in five annual installments. The amount of the annual payment shall be determined by the Actuary of the New York State and Local Employees’ Retirement System, and it shall be paid by the Town of Glenville for each employee who receives the retirement benefits payable under this local law.
10. This act shall take effect August 25, 2010.
Ayes: None
Noes: Councilmen Boulant, Quinn, Ramotar, Councilwoman Wierzbowski and Supervisor Koetzle
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Defeated
Supervisor Koetzle asked for a motion to adjourn; motion to adjourn was moved by Councilman Quinn; Seconded by Councilman Ramotar, everyone being in favor the meeting was adjourned at 9:50 PM.
ATTEST:
______________________________
Linda C. Neals
Town Clerk
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