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2003-11-06 SP SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 776 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 7:00 p.m. MTG. #53 RES. 473 TOWN BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT SUPERVISOR DENNIS BROWER COUNCILMAN ROGER BOOR COUNCILMAN THEODORE TURNER COUNCILMAN DANIEL STEC COUNCILMAN TIM BREWER TOWN COUNSEL ROBERT HAFNER TOWN OFFICIALS COMPTROLLER HENRY HESS ACCOUNTANT JENNIFER SWITZER ASS'T DIRECTOR OF PARKS AND RECREATION STEVE LOVERING DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CHRIS ROUND DIRECTOR OF BUIDLING AND GROUNDS CHUCK RICE ASSESSOR HELEN OTTE DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY BOB KEENAN LANDFILL SUPT. JIM COUGHLIN WATER/WASTEWATER SUPERINTENDENT RALPH VANDUSEN DEPT. WASTEWATER SUPERINTENDENT MIKE SHAW PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE LED BY SUPERVISOR DENNIS BROWER SUPERVISOR BROWER-For those of you that might be watching this at a later date on TV 8 this is a continuation, it is a second meeting but it is running back to back with Monday evenings regular Town Board Meeting and we want to thank Evergreen Bank for sponsoring these televised Board Meetings that they have generously done for three months. Also, a unique event occurred between Monday evenings and this evening which is Thursday evening the 6th of September we have had an election. I just want to publicly congratulate my opponent Dan Stec, Councilman from Ward III on his successful campaign and victory in the election Tuesday evening. Congratulations Dan. COUNCILMAN STEC-Thank you. SUPERVISOR BROWER-With that I would like to turn your attention to Jennifer Switzer, Jennifer is in our accounting department, she has done a fine job, she used to work for the City of Glens Falls she has also worked for Loftus Ross Accounting before, prior to coming to the Town of Queensbury and she has been a great asset in the Comptrollers office for almost a year now. I believe that is correct, Jennifer I would like to turn the meeting over to you, so I know you SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 777 have a brief presentation of the budget that you would like to go thoroug h. PUBLIC HEARING-2004 TOWN BUDGET NOTICE SHOWN ACCOUNTANT JENNIFER SWITZER-Thank you Dennis. Previously to this meeting we held a budget meeting that focused on the budget process and tonight I would like to turn everyone's attention to the services that we provide here at the town and just reiterate to all of you what we do here. I will start out by giving a brief description of the departments and the services again that they bring to you as well as what it takes to run the town here at the Town of Queensbury. It is one of the most diverse and complicated businesses that you could possibly imagine. I do not think that there is anything out there that like it and with that I will start right in with the department. The governing portion of the Town Government is composed of the Town Supervisor, the Town Board the Court and Code Enforcement and we all pretty much know what the Town Supervisor and the Town Board do. We also have a Court that has two full time elected judges. Code Enforcement I will talk about a little bit later because I am including that in our Community Development Department and move right on to the officials services. The Comptroller, Assessor, Counsel, Personnel and Purchasing and I will not be talking about every single department as some of them over lap with each other. The Comptroller's Department which I am part of takes care of the finances of the Town. The Accounts payable the payroll, risk management and we make sure that we are complying with all the financial rules and regulations according to the Town the State and the Federal Government. The Assessor's Office is actually responsible for evaluating every piece of property within the Town, both residential and commercial. They handle all the grievances, if you are not happy with your assessment you have the ability to grieve the value of your property and they handle all the grievances as well as administrating over three hundred and fifty million dollars worth of exemptions. The Town Counsel Office basically keeps all of us in line so that we are complying with all the Town and State and Federal laws from the preparation of resolutions to contracts. Moving right along, the personnel and purchasing are right now two departments that are shared both with the Comptrollers Office and the Supervisor's Office with a multitude of duties from level time, workers compo and purchasing taking care of simple things from validating a purchase order which allows a purchase to occur into the Town to actually helping in the process of bids for Town work here. Moving on to the Elections and Official Records which is really the Clerk's Office and one which most of your probably most familiar with. It is almost a one stop shopping office that we have here in SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 778 the Town. It is where you come and pay your taxes your water bills, your licenses, it is where you come to renew your fishing license your hunting licenses, dog licenses, marriage licenses, it is the one place where all the money in the Town is funneled through as far as the taxes and most of the revenue. On an annual basis they receive over thirty five million dollars in cash that is funneled through that office. They are also the official record keeper any official documents that are recorded here at the Town are a part of the Town government are kept in good order by the Clerk's Office. Building and Grounds, we are sitting in one of five buildings that the Town currently operates along with a storage facility that have both maintenance and upkeep both interior and exterior twelve months out of the year. The set up you see tonight is taken care of by our Buildings and Grounds as well as all the events that take place here at the Town. Communications and Technology, you would not be looking at the screen tonight without our Communications and Technology Department and most of us I am sure would agree at least the Department Managers that are here that we would probably would not be functioning without or as well as we do without the technology department. They are the department here at the Town that brings all of our technology from our PC's all of the software our network our web page as well as the phone communications here, as well as some specialized software that they have helped develop and utilize here at the Town. Moving on to Risk Management, as I mentioned before is something that the Comptrollers Office takes care of at this time but it is very important role here in the Town. Highway, Sidewalks and Drainage basically our Highway Department which includes a hundred and ninety miles of roadway and seventy two square miles here in the Town of Queensbury. What you see are snowplowing the sanding the brush removal the sweeping they also install traffic, all the traffic signs that you see in the Town of Queensbury. The spring and fall waste pickup the Christmas tree pickup, traffic light maintenance that is needed at any of the intersections here in the Town as well as stripping of intersections and some of the sidewalks that the Town does have. Moving on to Recreation, again probably one of the more well known departments here at the Town as they offer a multitude of programs for the citizens here from six months to ninety years old. Ranging from swimming programs, yoga, youth soccer, a Q Club that is offered to the youth here in the community during the summer as well as maintaining eleven parks and facilities. Planning and Zoning which is only two of the Departments that are actually part of our Community Development here at the Town. The Planning is more well known over this past year for their Open Space Plan and their Karner Blue Butterfly Management Plan. They are attempting to create the ideal living environment here for all of us in the Town. The Zoning is where the land use approvals take place. Building and Codes, nine hundred plus building permits are issued here in the Town of Queensbury currently as well as over six hundred inspections. Included in the Community Development Department are the Fire Marshal and Animal Control. The Fire Marshal is responsible for the SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 779 inspections of a commercial properties as well as fire education to the youth in the community and the Animal Control is again self explanatory the control of all the wild animals here in the Town and they handle over seventeen hundred complaints a year as well as court cases. Last year there were over thirty court cases that they were involved in. I would like to point out that Community Development was also responsible for procuring two large grants for the town in 2003. One being over nine hundred thousand dollar EDA Grant for the Route 9 Sewer Project and the four hundred thousand dollars small cities grant which actually, began in 2002 and continues in 2003 here at the Town. We do have a Town Historian who does a fantastic job in preserving the towns heritage whether it is through the use of new technology or placing markers which we have seen recently in the newspaper to indicate those significant historical places here that we have. Now we are moving down to the entrepreneurial operations which Henry touched on last week are two and they are Cemetery and Solid Waste. The Cemetery and Solid Waste are two departments that not only serve the citizens of Queensbury but also serve those people in the surrounding areas. I live in Glens Falls and I know that I use the two landfills that are available to me in the Town of Queensbury. Those are staffed and operable five days out of the week. Now I will move on to the Public Utilities and Emergency Services which basically are the Special Districts that we have here in the Town. The first is the Water District which utilizes manpower, machinery and equipment, to supply an estimated one billion eight hundred million gallons of water to twenty thousand plus residents in the Town of Queensbury as well as Kingsbury, Washington County and the Town of Moreau. They maintain our hydrants here and all the infrastructure to supply the water to all the residents here. Wastewater Districts there are currently seven wastewater districts and growing all the time. They are responsible for the collection and treatment for seven water districts which is thirty five miles of sanitary sewer mains. They are also responsible for the maintenance and again they are actively involved in the creation of new sewer districts. Most notably the South Queensbury which is basically finished at this point and Route 9 which will be started in early 2004. Our Emergency Services we have five volunteer fire companies and three ambulance squads here and again they are probably some of the more visible aspects of the Towns services that you are aware of with the number of fire houses and ambulances and fire trucks. Now, I have given hopefully somewhat a brief over view of what we do here at the Town and the services that we provide. I will move on to the appropriations here at the Town. I will first start off with the general town wide operation which include the General Fund, the Cemetery, the Highway and the Solid Waste Fund. What I would really like to point out to you here is you do see the total general fund budget less the subsidies to the Cemetery and the Solid Waste Fund which are the two entrepreneurial funds which I just spoke of and the Highway Fund. This is basically being subtracted out because this is money that is being allocated to these funds but it is already appropriated in SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 780 these other funds. So, to give a better picture of the true general fund appropriations of what it takes to actually run the general fund these are subtracted out and you can see that from 2003 to 2004 there is only one hundred and seven dollar change or one and a half percent. Moving down to the Cemetery, Highway and Solid Waste again there is a thirteen and a half percent increase in the Cemetery Fund but as you will see in the next slide where I have broken down the cost centers this is attributable not to just one area but to a couple of areas. So, overall taking the net general fund appropriations and those three other funds there is really only a three and a half percent increase from 2003 to 2004 in appropriations. What I have done here is just basically broken out the cost centers that we utilize and are mandated by the State and accounting for the different functions here at the Town. Personnel, Equipment, Contractual which is basically the operating cost the supplies the heat the electricity, gas the phone, our debt here at the town which is minimal, our employee benefits and inter-fund transfers and these are what I had just spoken of but another category added on to here. Those funds that are transferred to the operating funds which I mentioned before were the Cemetery and the Landfill the two entrepreneurial funds as well as the Highway Fund. And again I just wanted to point out not dwelling on every single line here but I did want to point out that personnel did increase not quite four percent and you see an increase in equipment which is most notably attributable to an appropriation for drainage here in the Town this year as well as increase in employee benefits and the operating and the transfer to the operating funds. The employee benefits I will get into a little bit, further on down when I explain a little bit further the payroll and employee benefits here in the Town. The transfer to operating funds is the most significant increase that you are seeing here in the general town appropriations from 2003 to 2004. This next slide just gives you a visual picture of that six hundred and twenty four thousand dollar or six percent increase this just breaks down for you where those different cost centers fall in that increase. Forty six percent of that being in the transfer to those three funds that I had mentioned before and twenty percent is increase in the contractual the actual operation of the town here and eighteen percent being in employee benefits. This next slide again demonstrates just like I did for the General Fund, I will continue on for the other three funds that are part of the general town wide operations, the Cemetery and the Highway. Again, I just want to point out a few things to you here. Of the thirteen and a half percent increase in the Cemetery in appropriations from 2003 to 2004 the majority of that is the equipment in the contractual. I believe this is designated for some improvements that you will be seeing in the Cemetery Funds. Moving onto Highway the most significant increase that you see here, increases that you see here are for equipment and employee benefits. The last Solid Waste or our Transfer Stations, an 8 1/2 % increase again you see the most significant increase from one category to another is that in the equipment. Dollar wise you are looking at the most significant increase from one cost center to SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 781 another is the contractual. This next slide represents appropriations for Special Districts our Emergency Services fund which includes the Fire and EMS our Lighting Districts, Wastewater Districts and our Water District. The appropriations from 2003 to 2003 in the first three are pretty much flat, there isn't much of an increase although the Wastewater District does have a little over four percent increase. The most significant increase being that of the Water Department. I will get to that in the next slide to demonstrate to you where the most, where that is coming from and the purpose of the increase that you will see there. So, the total Special Districts in the Town had a thirteen point seven percent increase or over one million four hundred and forty thousand dollar increase from the two thousand three appropriations. That combined with the General Town Operations the General Fund, Cemetery, Highway and Landfill the grand total of all funds appropriations from 2003 to 2004 is a little over one million eight hundred thousand dollars or eight point three percent. Again, just so that you know this does not represent those subsidies that were subtracted out earlier. This demonstrates the cost centers that I had spoken of in the General Fund and the Cemetery for the all the Special Districts that you see here. The Wastewater and the Water I will start with Wastewater the most significant increase that you see here is the contractual, the twenty one point six percent increase and again those contractual costs are the cost of operating the wastewater funds. Moving down to the Water Fund what you see is the most significant which I would like to point out is the most significant is the inter fund transfers to the project and reserves. That significant increase represents a few different projects that the water department is looking into funding next year, a pipe line replacement and improvement a transmission enhancement and a water plant reconstruction. Emergency Services and Lighting Districts, for the last two special districts that I will show the differences in costs areas. Emergency Services basically is just with the Town and how we fund that is through a contract with the various Fire Companies and EMS Squads. The Lighting Districts is strictly contractual that is basically the, all that represents is the energy or the electricity and the heating bills, not the heating bills the electricity that we receive for the various lighting districts in the Town. This next slide I had mentioned before I was going to explain a little bit more about the payroll and benefits and the increases that we have seen here at the Town this year. What I would like you to get the most out of this is the first line that you see the payroll that is actually the gross payroll that you are looking at. The increase from 2003 to 2004 is only four percent, whereas if you look a little bit further down the New York State Employees Retirement System more than doubled in 2003-2004 appropriations. This is something that the Town has known about but only known about for a short time and it is not only affecting the Town of Queensbury it has affecting every municipality in the State of New York due to the Stock Market and the Retirement System and how it had been funded in the past. Just a few notes that I have down in the bottom, the total payroll costs here at the Town actually decreased from thirty nine SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 782 point three percent to thirty eight point nine percent of the total appropriations. Group Health Insurance decreased from thirty percent of payroll to twenty nine percent of payroll. The New York State Employees Retirement System which I had just been speaking of th is more tha n dou bled from five percent of payroll to twelve percent of payroll from 2003 to 2004. The total taxes and benefits increase from fifty two percent of payroll to fifty six percent of payroll. The next slide is basically visual for you of some of the information that I just went over with you. The first slide is the 2003 payroll benefits, of that seven million eight hundred ninety nine thousand dollars in payroll and benefits, sixty six percent is actually represented by payroll, twenty percent is the health insurance. The retirement only represented three percent of the total payroll and benefits in 2003 and eleven percent were your other taxes and benefits which represents your social security and medicare along with some other accruals. Now looking at 2004 payroll and benefits in this aspect, of the eight million four hundred and ninety nine thousand dollars worth of payroll and benefits the payroll is now only sixty four percent of the total payroll and benefits as opposed to the sixty six percent in 2003. Health Insurance is now eighteen percent as opposed to twenty percent in 2003, retirement is now eight percent as opposed to three percent in 2003. The other taxes and benefits decreased as well to ten percent as opposed to the eleven percent. This next slide represents something that I do not think many of the public is aware of is Queensbury's dedication to the not for profits and community service programs in the community and what this is giving you an idea of are those not for profits out in the community that we appropriate money for that we hold contracts with and on a yearly basis help fund some of their programs. What I have done in this case for the community services is showed you, not only your 2004 but the 2003 as well as the different stages of the 2004 that the budget here goes through. The requested is basically that money that these individual organizations requested. The tentative being what our Supervisor here wanted to appropriate and the preliminary as being the Board and the Supervisors preliminary which you are reviewing tonight. With the Community Service Contracts there is only one point four percent increase in contracts over 2003. Last, I will just again briefly let you know the general fund revenues these are only the general fund revenues this does not represent any of the other the subsidies of the two entrepreneurials or the Highway. This just lets you know why right now there is no Town Tax in the Town of Queensbury as well as in 2002 and 2003. Sales tax represents seventy nine percent of the total budgeted revenue here at the Town of Queensbury and eighty nine percent of the net general fund appropriations. That is all I have for you tonight, I thank everyone especially all those Department Managers who passed on to me just what it is that we do here at the Town to bring you the many services that you pay for here. SUPERVISOR BROWER-Thank you Jennifer. Now it is time to Open the Public Hearing on the 2004 Preliminary Budget and I would like SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 783 to request any members of the public that would care to come forward and either ask questions make statements whatever to do so. At this time we simply ask that should you decide to come forward and speak on the record that you simply state you name and address for the record. Mr. Tucker Mr. PLINEY TUCKER-41 Division Road, Queensbury My first question, is to do with the County tax if I read the newspaper right there is a slight decrease in the Queensbury's taxes does the three hundred and what, seventy five thousand dollars is that in that equation? COUNCILMAN BREWER-Yes, it is. MR. TUCKER-The other thing I would like to talk about I had some conversation with Tim over this, the eighty five thousand dollars that you want to appropriate for, could we go into that a little bit and I am having a problem trying to figure out how that is going to lead to paid ambulance services? Could you explain to me how that program is going to work? COUNCILMAN BOOR-Can I go first? I do not know how it is going to work. I think that is why we are going to try it. There is as many of you know, West Glens Falls EMS is looking at the property right next to the current West Glens Falls Fire House and some of us and I include myself in that have concerns that locating two such facilities right next to each other may not be the best way to go and in the event that in the future we either go to third party billing, full time employees for emergency services is that location the best to serve the community. The issue and I do not want to put words in the mouths of West Glens Falls EMS but there is an issue with volunteers being able to get to the, lets say there is a call volunteers have to go to the facility get the equipment and then go to the accident. In the event we have full time employees the time that those would be having to go to the facility to get the equipment would be eliminated because they would be at the facility. So, one of the reason for looking at this is to see if with full time employees the location of the proposed EMS facility is the best or should it be more centrally located. Further more it is probably important to note that we are going to RFP and have a study done to see, including full time employees but not eliminating volunteers where would the best location be to relocate the West Glens Falls EMS who are in need of a new facility. So, that is part of the formula and part of the reasoning for us trying this program. Obviously there was some different opinions as to whether we should go with this firm that firm but I think the firm that we are going to go with gave a good presentation, we can get out of it with a thirty day notice we are not tied into it and I think all of us will learn something from it. We do not have to spend this money we may spend part of it we may spend all of it but I think it will provide us with more information to a very expensive facility by any means if we build a new facility for West Glens Falls SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 784 EMS. We are talking I do not want to give figures but it would be expensive and I do not want to put it in the wrong spot if in the future we are going to have full time employees. COUNCILMAN STEC-Just to add to what Roger was explaining, because there is a big chunk of why we are trying this associated with the fact that we are hoping to gain knowledge and data before we make a million dollar plus decision on a location and firm that project up. I think your question was also about what is the nuts and bolts what is the eighty five thousand dollars for, what is it buying us? Monday through Friday twelve hours six to six or seven to seven I can't remember, but it was Monday through Friday two people six am to six pm so two people for sixty hours of cover a week fifty two weeks a year. As Roger pointed out we can terminate the Pilot Program with a thirty day notice and I think that we are hoping to learn things from that as well and where our short comings are on our day time coverage and that could easily lead us, when we learned wow the number of calls that we picking up now has gone up you know on pace for three hundred a year. Then somebody else starts doing the math and say well, if we went to a soft billing you know now we are talking about x calls a year and if we realize some amount of revenue from soft billing then you could say, you know what we can not make this a Pilot Program in West Glens Falls anymore we might be able to make it a program town wide. We might be able to say you know what this is going to allow us to take a big chunk out of the cost of the building or the tax rate. I think we are hoping that this is the first step to get the ball rolling towards locating the facility as Roger pointed out and perhaps some level of bill for service. We are going to try it with I think it works out to about nine thousand, eight thousand a month. COUNCILMAN BREWER-Since we have to have the people there to find out what the numbers are going to be so that you can find out if its reasonable to assume that you can make a profit doing it, or sustain itself. But, you cannot find that out until you have someone there to count the calls, to count where they go and those types of things. MR. TUCKER-Have you got an agreement with the other two squads that, a month after you put this program in together that they are not going to be sitting at this table asking you for the same thing? COUNCILMAN STEC-We do not have a formula to know what West Glens Falls is? COUNCILMAN BREWER-We have no agreement with anybody. COUNCILMAN STEC-I think Roger made mention that we have talked with one firm but no one jumped up, but that is not set in stone either. We do not have a contract with anybody yet, we have a preliminary we have more discussions that will come up some people SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 785 are happy about looking a little further and there is issues with that. We are going to talk with Empire and there is pros and cons there we have touched on that a little bit. SUPERVISOR BROWER-My concern with the eighty five thousand dollars the reason I was opposed to putting it in the budget was because a demonstration project to do employee leasing for day time EMS coverage to me is not, it is a no brainer that is a very simple to do it is not a lot of work. I think what the real challenge is what we should have done is had the demonstration project should include soft billing. So, we actually do the soft billing we see what kind of revenues can be generated from day time EMS utilization and that, that can pay for the program. We would not have to fund it with taxpayers funds it would be self sustaining because those people getting service from day time coverage would actually be paying the bill if they were insured. I think that was my main disagreement regarding this particular issue. But we do have more work to do there is an item on Monday's workshop schedule that will provide another, a different level of information to the Board and I encourage you to attend the workshop it maybe informative. MR. TUCKER-I want to run my mouth am I going to get a chance to run my mouth. SUPERVISOR BROWER-God, I don't know about that. MR. TUCKER-That is one of the problems with a workshop, you go there and get cut off and everything else. SUPERVISOR BROWER-I have been pretty open about enabling people to ask questions or make comments. MR. TUCKER-Getting back to my original, not my original questions, one of my questions is, are the other two squads and the fire companies going to give you people a chance to make this project work? COUNCILMAN BREWER-Absolutely. MR. TUCKER-I have set out there and I have set where you set and when you start these new programs all of a sudden everybody wants to be a part of it. COUNCILMAN BREWER-Pliney, certainly we want everybody that has any input to this Pilot Program to step forward and let us in on what they might be able to help us with. We do not know how to do this, we are asking for help from any volunteer or anybody that is involved in this kind of work. We want to do the best job we can do, they have stepped forward with a Pilot Program and it is what we have right now we are going to work with that and hopefully the other two SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 786 squads absolutely come in and talk with us. We do not want to exclude anybody. COUNCILMAN STEC-We are a minimum two months probably more than that away from the initiation of the actual program itself. It will not happen until next year. We have two months to ask these questions, get the speed back, perhaps even get a jump on soft billing. Maybe the two of them will hit simultaneously or approximately simultaneously. So, I mean there is a lot more work to be done, the first step was certainly deciding is this something, the concept do we want to pursue it and were we willing to put some money aside in the budget that we may hit some of that, all of that, it is feasible we might hit none of that. But, I think at this point we want to continue asking these questions and head down this road and hopefully find something that we find works. MR. TUCKER-My final questions is to do with the tax cut with the County. What am I going to realize out of the three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars me as a homeowner. COUNCILMAN BREWER-You are not going to have any increase in your County taxes. COUNCILMAN STEC-Don't buy a new car. COUNCILMAN BREWER-You will not have an increase in your County tax. COUNCILMAN STEC-Your County tax, whatever it was last year you can bank on it not going up it will go down a little bit. But,... MR. TUCKER-Town tax, I did not have any Town tax. COUNCILMAN BREWER-No, County tax. Other communities their tax will have an increase ours won't. COUNCILMAN STEC-Ours will be a little bit down. MR. TUCKER-Thank you. SUPERVISOR BROWER-Thank you Mr. Tucker. Well I think Mr. Tucker broke the ice and it is the first time I think in this is my fourth year as Supervisor that I can recall anybody commenting on the budget at our public hearing, so, we thank you Mr. Tucker for your questions. Would anyone else care to address the Board during the Public Hearing? Is that Mrs. Bennett, is that your hand up? I take it back Mrs. Bennett has addressed the Town Board on numerous occasions so I do apologize Mrs. Bennett that was inaccurate. Good evening. SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 787 MRS. BARBARA BENNETT-Mr. Hess am I talking to the Controller or the Comptroller? COMPTROLLER HESS-Its either pronunciation is permitted by Webster or any of the dictionaries. MRS. BENNETT-The definition in the dictionary for Controller is an Executive Officer appointed for the purpose of checking finances and the Comptroller definition is the mis-spelling of Controller. COMPTROLLER HESS-I am glad that you were able to point that out. MRS. BENNETT-First I have got four items that I wanted to mention, then I got something else. First the Budget Officer, you decreased the Budget Officer, this year and last year, before you decreased last year the amount was seven hundred dollars a year which is not very much, like fifty dollars a month, twelve dollars a week. It was my understanding previously that this was a set figure which was a token amount that stayed the same was just to have some authority on the board you know looking out for it. I thought it was a set figure, that it did not change. COMPTROLLER HESS-Actually nobody is paid for being the budget officer. In past years some time ago I think before I came here there was a Comptroller or someone else served as the Budget Officer and in most recent years the Supervisor maintained that but there has never been a stipend associated with that. The Budget Officer the money that is in there a nd the reason it is goi ng down is for note books, it is for paper, we generate supplies to produce the budget and the cost for renting the machinery to put on the show we now own the machinery so we do not have to rent it, so the cost has gone down. It is just a token amount for supplies and materials that, there is no one is paid for being the Budget Officer. MRS. BENNETT-The next thing was Assessor, you knocked them this year and you knocked them last year, you knocked them seven thousand dollars this year, but last year they were re-assessing the Town which they do every ten years that means that year, year and a half they have this excessive workload attached to their regular work load. It does not seem you should knock it those years if anything you should allow them additional fund to cover the excess load. COMPTROLLER HESS-The Assessor's budget in both years was approved as requested. The Board did not make a cut, a substantive cut in the Assessor's budget. If there is a decrease it is because the Assessor requested enough to do what she needed to do. There maybe a small amounts, fifty dollars here or a hundred on line items but as far as the substantive work to get the reassessment done the Assessor has budget has been approved for the funds to do that work. SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 788 COUNCILMAN BREWER-Henry didn't we put the assessment in the CIP Fund didn't we? SUPERVISOR BROWER-But there is an additional story too, we the Assessor requested a hundred thousand dollars to do a rev a I starting next year and we kept that out of the budget but felt that, that would be appropriate for a Capital Improvement Project for the coming year. So, indeed there will be additional allocation but it will be coming out of the capital reserve fund that has been reserved for Capital Improvement Projects. That is what the Board decided to do this year, there is three and a half million dollars in the Capital Improvement Fund. COUNCILMAN BREWER-Next year there will be four, right? SUPERVISOR BROWER-Yes. MRS. BENNETT-There was Building and Grounds, as far as I could see that is something that would naturally go up every year because all the materials they use and they use a lot the cost go up every year. They can never budget the same amount as they did the year past because it always goes up. So, I would be surprised that they would go down. COMPTROLLER HESS-One of the things that happens in government, we generally pay cash for most equipment purchases, we do not finance them with debt where you would have the capital outlay spread over multi years over the life of lease equipment. Last year I think that department bought a vehicle or two that they do not need to replace this year. So, it is generally if you look at it you will find it is pretty much in the equipment and capital costs that will vary up and down in that department and that your personnel and your contractual will be pretty much stable. So, the variation will be in the capital cost area. MRS. BENNETT-Why would central mailing double? Just a curious question. COMPTROLLER HESS-The number of mailings I do not know specifically how many pieces of mail we mail every year but the pieces of mail double the cost of the equipment that we use doubles we have, I do not know if it doubles but it goes up. Jennifer just reminded me there is an accounting change there and what we are doing, in the past years including this year that department paid the postage for the shared department, just a certain part of the town, this year that department is going to pay the postage for the whole town, most of the town there are a couple of exceptions so the amount will double. However, the difference between what we budgeted last year and what we budgeted next year is covered by SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 789 revenue in a revenue account so we will be charging, we will be paying for all postages in appropriations and charging the departments and recovering it from revenue. So, while the budget is doubling we really are not spending anymore because the part that was spent by other departments in prior years is now being spent from one central fund. MRS. BENNETT-Another curious question, Traffic Control went down but I cannot see any better control of our traffic out there. COMPTROLLER HESS-I think it is out of control, right? MRS. BENNETT-I do have one serious thing, I am looking at the appropriations summary for 2004 and I have got the 2003 budget in front of me and you will see the Highway Fund on there, there are about fifteen items there is a transfer of the wrong figures. Take 2003 there are the column of totals of what you are budgeting this year and next to it is the 2002 adopted budget. The 2004 budget there is a total and there is a 2003 adopted budget so you are supposed to take the total from 2003 and put it in the 2003 adopted on the 2004, you actually picked up the 2002 adopted budget figures and everything under the highway fund has the wrong column. COUNCILMAN BREWER-What page are you on? COMPTROLLER HESS-Page two of six. I do not have the whole 2003 here I did not bring that, I will check that and see if that is the case. We are pretty careful about checking, I cannot verify right now, that, that is the case I will correct that before we publish the final document. We pick those up, we pick them up as a page it should all be same all be current. MRS. BENNETT-Well, if you are looking at the 2004 budget you will not see it. COMPTROLLER HESS-But, I know what you are saying. MRS. BENNETT-The only reason I ran into it is I had some questions about something else in looking at it I saw that these were the wrong figures transferred. COMPTROLLER HESS-I will check that and verify it, yes. MRS. BENNETT-And up above the upper half of the page there is cemetery operations you do something similar in that figure except the figure you transferred isn't like any other figure. It should be three thirteen eight seventy, the eight seventy is transferred but the other figure is two of six or something. I do not know where you got the figure from for the Cemetery one. COMPTROLLER HESS-I will have to verify that. SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 790 MRS. BENNETT-That was all I had. SUPERVISOR BROWER-Would anyone else care to comment public ally on the budget before us? Good evening. MR. PETER HARRINGTON-9 Stephanie Lane Also a member of the West Glens Falls Emergency Squad. MS. SANDY BOUCHER-President of the West Glens Falls Emergency Squad. I guess our reason for coming up is based on Pliney's question. The reason that we brought this to the Town Board so everyone is aware is the lack of volunteers during day time hours. Our goal was to better cover our district by doing this it was in hopes of bettering the care that we can give to the community. MR. HARRINGTON-It is not just our agency is not the only one that has this problem it is throughout the State. To give an idea of calls, which you are looking at earlier, for August of 2003 we did one hundred and thirty nine calls for the month of those hundred and thirty nine calls, seventy eight of them were from six am to six pm during the day. For last month we did one hundred and twenty nine runs of those there were seventy two of them from 6 am to 6 pm, that we did cover, those are not calls couldn't get our crews out those are calls that we actually covered. The crews that will be on there will be full ALS crew providing the top medical care in a pre hospital setting that can be given to anybody whether it is here or New York City. There will be qualified techs on with an EMT. Like we mentioned if there is a call that happens to be in the Bay Ridge District and they need help this crew will respond to help that person. It is not just going to be confined to a West Glens Falls District it will help the Town of Queensbury. What you said about soft billing coming up and possibly off setting costs of this it is very possible and very feasible and is done in other communities throughout our area, through out the tri county area where it does happen and does help to reduce the cost on the taxpayers and the burden for that throughout the year. So, we think that the program that we are initiating here will benefit not just us, the people that we are caring for but the town as a whole, with care and with financial gains or less financial responsibility from the Town of Queensbury. MS. BOUCHER-Just so you are aware, we do an average of fifteen hundred calls a year just in, our district in the Town of Queensbury that is a lot of calls for forty members to be doing. COUNCILMAN BREWER-What is the over all amount of calls for the whole town for ems, any idea, roughly? MR. HARRINGTON-You are looking probably somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty five hundred calls. SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 791 COUNCILMAN BREWER-So, twenty five into eighteen? So, there is a good portion of them MR. HARRINGTON-..We do have the Exit 18, Exit 19 the Northway area that we cover and that is growing non stop in that part of town. So, we do have a lot of that we do have the school up there but that does not include the nursing homes that are in our, with Hallmark and with West Mount, we do not handle those. That would be in addition to those. COUNCILMAN STEC-Do either of you this is a question that just came to me, do either of you have an idea of what percentage of calls that either your calls or in the town are to assist non residents, non Queensbury residences, is that tracked or do you have a feel for it? MR. HARRINGTON-Right now it is not tracked, Dan, but we are looking at new software to make that tracking available to us so we can hone down the analysis of our data even better to give you better reports on how it is working and things that are going the treatment the people that are being taken care of where they are coming from Town residents, Non Town residents we will be able to track it in numerous ways which will make it even a better analysis for you. MS. BOUCHER-I mean certain times of years our calls are definitely show a big difference. COUNCILMAN STEC-Summer time I would think you would have more out of towners that you are taking to the hospital. MS. BOUCHER-Thank you. SUPERVISOR BROWER-Thank you very much. I appreciate your comments. Would anyone else care to address the Board this evening during our public hearing? Seeing none I will simply ask, oh we do have somebody? No. Ok. Before I close the public hearing I will ask Henry if you have any comment at all? COMPTROLLER HESS-I just really want to clarify part of the presentation not that anybody remembers it but it was significant enough to me that I would just like to mention it. It has to do with some of the personnel costs, we had said it earlier when we did the prior report and we gave preliminary numbers on what the significance, what the significant cost increases are for employees retirement system and for health insurance. That is not necessarily reflected in the budget in the same numbers. Health Insurance is going up sixteen percent across the board which means the town and employees both their shares will increase sixteen percent this coming year, and for employees retirement system it is going from five percent of payroll to twelve percent of payroll. Those number are not reflected exactly in the budget in fact the numbers are lower SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 792 because last year at this time we had not received the final rates on health insurance nor did we know what was going to happen with the employees retirement system, so we budgeted conservatively if you want to call it that or aggressively but we budgeted higher than we actually spent. So, even though we are spending more this coming year we are budgeting not as, the percentage of increase is not as great in terms of budget and that is the reason for the discrepancy between the information I gave last week and what Jennifer is giving tonight. COUNCILMAN BOOR-The four percent disparity then is because we held more last year? COMPTROLLER HESS-We budgeted higher last year because we did not have numbers and we wanted to make sure we did not run short. So, this year budget is based on known numbers and I will tell you this years number does not have any it is not a soft budget it is a hard budget. There is no extra to be spent there in those two numbers. We budgeted to the towns employee population. So, it is very, very close. SUPERVISOR BROWER-Thank you, Henry. Jennifer did you have anything you wanted to add? Any Board Member care to comment on the budget? COUNCILMAN BOOR-Yes, just a couple questions, one I am sure is a typo, I just want to make sure on, under solid waste equipment in 2003 there was five hundred dollars on equipment 2004 is fifteen thousand two hundred and it only shows it as a ninety six point seven percent increase? COMPTROLLER HESS-I think what happened there is the when the calculation was made it was, the calculation was based on 2004 number the difference divided by 2004 as opposed to divided by 2003. Just a couple pages that, that occurred on. COUNCILMAN BOOR-The only other one is under Water Department did we do any, Ralph is here maybe, we obviously the Board is aware the problem we have with the water tank in the event that, this isn't covered did we put any contingency in on that? I do not remember? COUNCILMAN STEC-Ralph is shaking his head. COUNCILMAN BOOR-Should we have or? WATER/WASTEWATER SUPT. RALPH VANDUSEN-The short answer would be yes, but one of the reason in fact the most significant reason for the large percentage increase in the water department budget is exactly that. Within the Capital Line the contingency to address that situation. Yes, Roger there is money in the budget to address that. SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 793 COUNCILMAN BOOR-That is all I had Dennis. SUPERVISOR BROWER-That was an interrupted answer, Ralph. Thank you. Any other Town Board Member care to comment on the budget at all? Ok. In that case if no one else in the public would like comment I will close the public hearing at this time. COMPTROLLER HESS-The budget will be adopted on November 1ih, that is the comment I wanted to make. Now since there are no disclosed changes it is assumed the budget you adopt on the 1 ih is the budget that you are reviewing tonight. Unless you reveal any changes tonight which I am not sure whether that would necessitate a new public hearing but it would certainly necessitate some type of disclosure. This budget will be adopted on November 1ih. COUNCILMAN BREWER-This is our budget though as we stand today. SUPERVISOR BROWER-This is our budget. COUNCILMAN BREWER-I know this was a hot topic when we had a discussion last week but could you show me where that eighty five thousand dollars is? Just so I have an idea of where it is. COMPTROLLER HESS-Sure, I will tell you what page it is. If you look at the yellow sheet it does not show as eighty five thousand but the emergency services appropriation was eighty five thousand less on the sheet you had before. If you compared the yellow sheet in your three ring binder you will find that this is eighty five thousand more. SUPERVISOR BROWER-Thank you all for attending this evenings budget public hearing and I will ask for a motion to adjourn. RESOLUTION ADJOURING SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING RESOLUTION NO. 473.2003 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. Tim Brewer WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. Theodore Turner RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby adjourns its Special Session. Duly adopted this 6th day of November, 2003 by the following vote: AYES: Mr. Boor, Mr. Turner, Mr. Stec, Mr. Brewer, Mr. Brower NOES: None SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 6, 2003 MTG. #53 794 ABSENT: None Respectfully submitted, Miss Darleen M. Dougher Town Clerk-Queensbury