Substantial Amount of Fund Balance to Create a Zero-Increase Budget. He
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Supervisor James Schmitt opened the regular meeting of the Town Board of the Town of, Pawling at 6: 00 PM November 11, 2020 at the Pawling Town Hall, 160 Charles Colman Blvd., Pawling, New York. Present were Councilmen McCarthy, Johnson, DeRosa, Councilwoman Snow, Town Attorney Nancy Tagliafierro and approximately 10 citizens. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, there was a limited capacity of 15 persons maximum allowed in the building. Social distancing and masks were required. Registration to attend the meeting was required. PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEMS Supervisor Schmitt opened the meeting for public comment and there was none. COUNTY LEGISLATOR ED HAUSER/MURROW/LAKESIDE TRAIL County Legislator Ed Hauser said the County Executive' s preliminary budget has no increase, which was done by all departments cutting back and the County offered a buyout, which was taken by many people. The County will do the best they can to keep costs down. The 2009 Parkland Master Plan includes an action item to create a trail between Murrow Park and Lakeside Park. It is not easy to get between the two parks and the parks are contiguous. The County Executive has released$ 25, 000.00 for a shared services project for the Town of Pawling and the Village of Pawling. He felt the trail would be wide enough and flat enough for the crew to bring their equipment back and forth. This trail would also provide a connector between the two Village sidewalks, and that is why the County was interested in doing it. Mr. Hauser said he would mark the trail, prepare a proposal including a budget and present it to the Board. The Board thanked County Legislator Hauser for the presentation. BETH FERGUSON/FISCAL ADVISORS & MARKETING, INC. Beth Ferguson with Fiscal Advisors & Marketing said she is a municipal advisor. She said the Board might be considering retaining her firm as a municipal advisor. The firm has been in business since 1967, her office is in Hopewell Junction. She has been doing municipal finance for approximately 30 - 35 years. She hoped the Town would retain her. She has assisted Christine Mitchell, town bookkeeper in making sure that when you issue notes or bonds, that they are structured appropriately to fit with the current debt service outstanding with minimal tax impact to the rate payers. Christine Mitchell said she worked together in the past with Beth Ferguson and Ms. Ferguson works closely with Douglas Goodfriend, who is the town' s bond counsel. She said working with Ms. Ferguson gives the opportunity to look at different options for town borrowing and felt she would be a wonderful asset. BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING Supervisor Schmitt said the budget public hearing was still open from last week. Harvey Matcovsky, resident of Holmes, asked why the Board was using such a substantial amount of fund balance to create a zero-increase budget. He asked why the Board was doing this? What is the status of the current budget? Christine Mitchell, town bookkeeper said the 2020 budget is taken into account on a monthly basis. Historically the town regularly uses fund balance for the budget. The town is trying to integrate long range financial planning. She said the 2020 budget is not running in a deficit. Mr. Matcovsky said properties are selling substantially above their assessed values. He asked if the assessor would adjust the tax burden on the new owners. The town' s assessed value needs to be increased. Ms. Mitchell said she was not comfortable speaking for the assessor. Mr. Matcovsky said the ASPCA project is moving along and the property will be taken off the tax rolls because it is a tax-exempt organization. He asked ifthey would be entering into a PILOT agreement, as the Castagna project has done in the past. Mr. Matcovsky asked if there was a separate accounting for the Whaley Lake Dam district yet. Ms. Mitchell said yes and Mr. Matcovsky could come in and look at it his convenience. Joe Olenik, Chief Constable said regarding the constable budget, it is now at$ 29,210.00. He has been working with the Board and said the contractual services needed to be increased by Town of Pawling Town Board November 11, 2020 Minutes Page 1 of 10 400. 00. So, the total new amount is $ 29, 610. 00 and that will cover four constables for court, ammunition, vests, training and unifounis. The constables are a great group and they really care about the town. He asked that the Board to consider bringing the constables back to patrol the parks. Councilman Johnson said he was in favor of moving forward with the constables. Mr. Olenik said he has been in touch with Senator Serino' s office and she has put a red flag on their grant request. So, when grant money is available, their request will move forward. Councilwoman Snow felt that working together has gotten everyone to a good place, where a week ago or two weeks ago, there was talk about not having the constables. She appreciated that the Board was keeping the constables. Councilman DeRosa said he was glad the constables are staying here. They are mostly local guys and he appreciated their service. Helen Grosso asked Ms. Mitchell where mortgage tax was in the budget. Ms. Mitchell said it is line A300. Mrs. Grosso asked where the Laberge Group was in the budget. Ms. Mitchell said under engineering. Mrs. Grosso said people are happy about the zero- increase budget and she thanked the Board for making the effort. Jessica Dickinson, Recreation Director said she has sent the Board emails regarding 2021 personnel issues to best figure out how to run the department. Since 2018, she has been an eager part of this team and has a team who also are eager. In the 2019 budget, she asked for more time for them. She was asked to prove the recreation department could support it and the recreation department had a stellar 2019. In 2020, we have the pandemic but the community is still standing behind the recreation department and she has had programs throughout the year. Her request is that if she can keep her budget as it is now, flat, if she can make Lori Covell a full-time position. They have worked very hard, have worked seven days a week, evenings and weekends. She needs her internal staff to be solid. Councilman Johnson said he had the utmost confidence in Ms. Dickinson and her staff If the request is budget neutral, and doesn' t require a change by the Board, he suggested Ms. Dickinson send the Board an email and explain how she plans to do that. He felt the Board would review the proposal, and get back to her. Once the Board receives her explanation, they can look at it and discuss it. Ms. Dickinson said another point she would like to discuss was a new rec assistant hired at $ 20. 00 per hour when other employees working here for years in the same title do not make that hourly rate. She asked the Board to consider a hiring rate for new staff and bumping up staff in other departments to make that same amount. Supervisor Schmitt said he has heard this from other departments and he expects every department head to fight for their department. Every department is different and not equal. Every time someone is hired, the pay is discussed by the Board. Ms. Dickinson suggested employee evaluations and looking at what the employee actually do, and to evaluate the positions and what they are paid. Supervisor Schmitt said the Board is considering employee evaluations. Town Justice Gayle Zelazny said last week, Supervisor Schmitt indicated he was in the process of getting the numbers from the Sherriff's Office. She was curious to see if he actually did get something we could compare because the constable budget was significantly cut. Supervisor Schmitt said the Sherriff's were at the same number of$22,500. 00 but they couldn' t do everything the constables are doing for the court right now. At this point, he and the Board feel very strongly to continue working with the constables. They got their budget down and there was no point in going forward with the Sheriffs. And there are four constables at court, the Sheriffs were only willing to commit to two. Justice Zelazny echoed Councilwoman Snow' s comments that everyone worked together to get to this point. She felt the way that this came about was shameful. She really thought that to call it into question at the last minute the way that it was done, and to catch people unaware was unnecessary and she is glad it was resolved the way it was, but she said shame on the people who presented it the way they did. It was not the way to handle it. Supervisor Schmitt said there has been an open dialogue with the constables since then and the reason this came up was that there was a$ 60,000.00 budget presented, which was a huge increase. Justice Zelazny felt Mr. Olenik did a remarkable job. Town of Pawling Town Board November 11, 2020 Minutes Page 2 of 10 Steve Goldberg asked Ms. Mitchell if she kept any kind of schedule or roster of contingency expenses. Ms. Mitchell said no. Mr. Goldberg felt it would be in the public interest for people to know how much the process for the special election would need to be budgeted for in the unlikely and unfortunate event that it passes. It will probably be a significant expense.