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2006-12-27 SP MTG57 1 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 12-27-2006 MTG. #57 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING MTG. # 57 DECEMBER 27, 2006 RES. 638-640 7:00 p.m. TOWN BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT SUPERVISOR DANIEL STEC COUNCILMAN ROGER BOOR COUNCILMAN RICHARD SANFORD COUNCILMAN JOHN STROUGH COUNCILMAN TIM BREWER TOWN OFFICIALS ASSESSOR-HELEN OTTE Supervisor Stec-Opened the Meeting…Called for a moment of silence in memory of President Ford RESOLUTION APPROVING AUDIT OF BILLS WARRANT OF DECEMBER 27, 2006 RESOLUTION NO. 638.2006 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. John Strough WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. Richard Sanford WHEREAS, the Queensbury Town Board wishes to approve the audit of bills presented as the Warrant with a run date of December 26, 2006 and a payment due date of December 28, 2006, NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Queensbury Town Board hereby approves the Warrant with a run date of December 26, 2006 and a payment due date of December 28, 2006 and totaling $142, 567.88, and BE IT FURTHER, 2 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 12-27-2006 MTG. #57 RESOLVED, that the Town Board further authorizes and directs the Budget Officer and/or Town Supervisor to take such other and further action as may be necessary to effectuate the terms of this Resolution. th Duly adopted this 27 day of December, 2006, by the following vote: AYES: Mr. Boor, Mr. Sanford, Mr. Strough, Mr. Brewer, Mr. Stec NOES: None ABSENT: None - Discussion held before vote:Councilman SanfordCT Male Bill, requested a year to date total expenditure for CT Male be e-mailed to the entire board. Supervisor Stec-suggested that it include the reimbursable amount also. DISCUSSION PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE Supervisor Stec-Our consultant centered on looking at three Cool, Hughes and Salerno, made a recommendation to go with Salerno. The Purchasing Agent recommended going with the low bidder Cool Insurance. Councilman Strough-The consultant recommended Salerno, I am going with Salerno. Supervisor Stec-Concerned that it is not the low bidder and not local. Councilman Sanford-I agree with Mr. Strough. Supervisor Stec-There was no explanation as far as I am concerned about how he arrived at the recommendation. Councilman Sanford-He did give an explanation, in a memo that he sent me and Joann, and presumably to you but was not distributed to the rest of the Board. Councilman Boor-Noted he received two memos from the consultant, requested a workshop meeting with Joann. Supervisor Stec-Read the following memo from the consultant: Greetings I responded to you with my Treo Palm I will contact you to see if they can modify the sex coverage and increase same as per Salerno and Cool also will determine whether the public official EPO can be modified. Our specs encourage improvements in coverage it is better to have one million dollars sex abuse coverage than two hundred thousand with no premium increase. If you are satisfied with Cool’s renewal and the Board approves it I believe the net result of the RFP was to save the town a bundle of money with substantially better insurance. You referred to your satisfaction with Cool Service does that include competitive premium costs? Were you offered alternative quotes in prior years. Quite frankly from my perspective from my perspective as a consultant I might add with an impeccable representation I do not think Cool has earned the renewal this year. Perhaps I am mistaken however I feel that your RFP has provided the impetus and motivation for the vendors to step up the plate and offer Queensbury the best bang for your taxpayers dollars. Please do not ask me to rethink or reconsider my recommendation. Councilman Boor-Questioned why he did not get a copy of this memo. Can we have Joann at our next workshop, if she received this 3 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 12-27-2006 MTG. #57 original and we paid ten thousand dollars for a consultant and I did not get a copy of his determination I have a problem. Mr. Jack Bieniek a principal of Cool Insuring, we have handled the property and casualty insurance for the Town from the mid 1970’s with the exception of one year 1991 we did not have the business. We take pride in handling the towns account, we work and live here, I think your consultants observations or comments that we were not taking good care of the town the past couple of years I can not agree with that. The insurance companies is coming out of some tremulous times specifically hurricane property damage the 9/11 issues, while the town budget was growing their premiums were at least flat or going down. Reviewed the history of the Town’s insurance premiums with Cool Insurance. Councilman Sanford-Spoke about doing an RFP in February. Reviewed notes from 12/11 meeting with Regent Consultants, statement made that the Town had been overpaying for at least two years, Dan referenced a conversation that you had indicated some time ago that you expected some decreases in costs and Dan asked by the market conditions and if this was to be expected industry wide, his response was that it as not and that in fact the loss experience was the driving force behind the premiums for the coverage, our loss experience has been fantastic. He also reference that we had not had the best product mix in the past, we did not have replacement value on our coverage, and the umbrella was poorly written. Representative of Cool-there is replacement value. Councilman Sanford-Why the spread with the current producer, $226,439 is the new quote vs the 298.057 for 2006? Why weren’t we receiving this rate for the last two years? The consultant felt we could have had that rate for the last two years. What we are getting now as the result of the RFP in 2007 has some products enhancements over the past. Representative of Cool-The only product enhancement that he made was increasing the sexual abuse limit from $200,000 to a million. He did not make any other recommendations. Councilman Sanford-He claim that he did fix what he saw as deficiencies regarding the umbrella and the replacement value. Representative of Cool- There has been no changes to either of those. If he was critical of our umbrella design, he used our summary. Councilman Sanford-Regent did point out that Cool has not protected the town, pointing to poor service by not getting us renewals that reflected our positive loss experience. Only four out of eleven agents quoted our business, I asked them what does that mean, is that unusual? According to the Regent consulting firm this was highly unusual, he was of the opinion that the other agents did not quote because they felt that Cool quote has the inside track, unquote. I thought that was very concerning. Councilman Boor-Note he had the same concerns that Richard has, this inside track line, we paid ten thousand dollars for a consultant and I am finding out that the work of the consultant did went to our Purchasing Agent and was not forward to the Town Board. You can call it an inside track but I cannot believe that we paid ten thousand dollars and someone saw fit not to forward the information or determinations made by this consultant. Further more Mr. Eddy left a message on my recorder, but prior to that Mr. Grasso called me at home and started asking questions about information that I had not had. I know what he was talking about now, because I just read the memo, now I understand that questions that Mr. Grasso is asking because apparently Mr. Grasso had received this memo. I want an explanation of that. Councilman Sanford-We have the paper trail of this, from Gary talking about his conversations with Dan, that is highly irregular, did you talk to Hughes did you talk to Salarno? Supervisor Stec-No Councilman Boor-Aren’t you looking for the best deal for the taxpayers? Supervisor Stec-I was running 4 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 12-27-2006 MTG. #57 down an acquisition of the incumbent. For the record, before last summer of ’05 Jennifer and I put money in the 2006 budget for hire an consultant to put this out to bid, when you brought it up in February I am 99.9% certain that I can recall saying that we already put it in the budget. Councilman Brewer- Requested to have the consultant back here. Councilman Sanford-He will be back because he will be working on the workers comp. Supervisor Stec-read the following e-mail from Mr. Platzer to Joann Watkins-The Hughes Insurance Agency selected insurance has satisfactorily addressed my concern regarding public officials liability insurance coverage prior … however they are unwilling to amend the sexual abuse limit to one million in lieu of two th hundred thousand accordingly as per my December 15 letter, I recommend Salerno. You had this relevant recommendation on the 15th. Councilman Boor-Just make no mistake you are the only agency that had direct contact with any Town Board Member. The reason you had contact is because you had information that no other vendor was given. Supervisor Stec-No, the reason that they were contacted was because they were the incumbent and our consultant said your incumbent has been costing you money the last few years that is the only question that I called and left. Councilman Boor-Did you ever consider having a Town Board discussion so we would know what you are doing behind the scene, so we would know what questions you were asking so if we had a question we might also be able to ask it. Did it ever occur to you that as a Board we are the one that we were the one that authorized the RFP, we authorized the payment of it and yet you are unilaterally determining what information is disseminated to one vendor and not the other. Supervisor Stec- We were told that we were over charged by our current vendor I would not be doing my job if I didn’t ask that question. If I did not ask that question you guys would be sitting here saying why didn’t you ask that question. Councilman Sanford-My understanding is Joann instructed Mr. Platzer to go back to Cool to enrich the coverage on the sexual. Supervisor Stec-They were going back and forth with all of them, right. Councilman Sanford-In fairness to Hughes you should also go back to them if you are going to go back to th Cool. Supervisor Stec-Mr. Platzer did what we asked him to, the 11 he said they were not apples to apples I am going to spend the week to make them apples to apples and that is what he did. Councilman Sanford-It is a stretch to say that I wanted Cool to increase their coverage to be competitive with another competitor, it was never said by me. Supervisor Stec-He left the room th on the 11 saying you will get my recommendation by the end of the week after I make them apples to apples. Representative of Cool-The consultant called us directly to Gary and asked the question about the sexual harassment. Councilman Sanford-Joann called him and told him to do so, when you did not have the same level of as Salerno offered, that is highly irregular. Supervisor Stec-He suggested that I make those calls and said I am not making those calls. Councilman Strough-The only company that had the coverage before all the collusion started to take place was Salerno. The only company that came forward with a proposal that he was comfortable with was Salerno, what happened after the fact I think was unethical. Vote taken RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING ENGAGEMENT OF TOWN OF QUEENSBURY INSURANCE AGENT FOR 2007 RESOLUTION NO.: 639, 2006 5 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 12-27-2006 MTG. #57 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. Richard Sanford WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. John Strough WHEREAS, by Resolution No.: 349,2006, the Queensbury Town Board authorized engagement of Regent Consultants Corp., to thoroughly evaluate the Town of Queensbury’s insurance needs and prepare a Request for Proposals (RFP) to send to insurance agents/brokers interested in providing insurance coverage to the Town, and WHEREAS, Regent prepared and sent out such RFP, and WHEREAS, Regent reviewed all received proposals and has made certain recommendations concerning the selection of the Town’s 2007 insurance agent, and WHEREAS, the Town’s Purchasing Agent also reviewed all received proposals and has made certain recommendations concerning the selection of the Town’s 2007 insurance agent, NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Queensbury Town Board hereby authorizes and directs the engagement of the services of Salerno Brokerage to provide insurance coverage to the Town of Queensbury for the year 2007, and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED, that the Town Board further authorizes and directs the Town Supervisor to execute any agreements and any other documentation and the Town Supervisor, Budget Officer, Purchasing Agent and/or Accountant to take any actions necessary to effectuate the terms of this Resolution. th Duly adopted this 27 day of December, 2006, by the following vote: AYES : Mr. Sanford, Mr. Strough, Mr. Boor NOES : Mr. Brewer, Mr. Stec ABSENT: None ASSESSOR’S OFFICE PART – TIME POSITION 6 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 12-27-2006 MTG. #57 Supervisor Stec-I think it is safe to say that the majority of the Town Board would probably be comfortable keeping this part time position and if I am wrong interrupt. Councilman Boor-I do not know that is correct. Supervisor Stec-We want to talk about the need for the part time position. Assessor Helen Otte-The conversation that I had with Roger it sounded as if the position itself was recognized as being necessary for the function of the office but there was a question about the relationship between the person who is filling the position as the present time, he is my husband and there was a question about that and did the Town of Queensbury feel comfortable in having that situation exist? I wanted to address a couple of these things. The Town has in existence a policy about hiring relatives of people who are already working, it is in the employee handbook, it is called hiring relatives of existing employees, it says the purpose of this policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all eligible candidates. It seems to be a very well written and reasonable policy that you could sustain and that would prevail over legal challenges. It is not picking on one particular set of circumstances and creating a policy to address that set of circumstances, it is a general policy. We comply with that policy in the hiring of the person that is presently filling the position in my office. I think if you want to discuss in the future of changing the policy or something that is your prerogative as a Board. Councilman Boor-I had a five page letter written about the problems I had with that, I did not bring it because I thought we had gotten past whether or not your husband was going to be working under you. I thought you had agreed that was fine, if you are not. Assessor Otte-What I said was I am just repeating really, you said you had concerns about the Town of Queensbury and having this kind of situation exist and I said you certainly need to look at that. That is policy issue, a policy question. The other thing I would like to do is talk to you about the time of year. I do not think it is good government to drop something like this on a Department Head at the busiest time of year on our calendar, I have a report here of the number of inspections we need to make and the amount of work we need to do. By law we have to do these, this is not an option. We have to do this work to create the assessment roll for 2007. It is not just a copy of the re-val roll or numbers we have to proof and revisit every single number that we assign in that assessment roll. I would ask that you do if there is a compromise available here I would re-write this resolution stating that the person that st holds the job presently would be left in place until July 1 at which time the roll is complete and given to New York State and we will then address the issue. Councilman Sanford-I find this very uncomfortable you advancing your husband like this, it is poor form. It presents all kinds of potential problems. To some degree I question the town policy, to have him in the same department in a subordinate, superior relationship it seems highly irregular. I am only one of five no way am I going to support any continuation of continuing the employment situation. Assessor Otte-I guess you feel that you consider that good government is that right Mr. Sanford that you would pull the plug at this point? Councilman Boor-In all fairness, Helen has been working illegally for a year and if I had the prepared statement that I had it is very clear that there is a deception that has taken place. I have six resolutions. Assessor Otte-I have four, with your signature on them, Roger of hiring this gentleman… Councilman Boor-That is why we are here, do you want to know why? Assessor Otte-Because I deceived you that we were married? Councilman Boor-Yes. Assessor Otte-It states it in every one of them that he is my husband. Councilman Boor-That is not 7 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 12-27-2006 MTG. #57 the deception, and this is a perfect example, you are too close Helen you are not listening, you are too close. The deception is that everyone of those says temporary and part time. It is a permanent part time position that continually is renewed. It is not temporary there is nothing temporary about it. Assessor Otte-I have a suggestion I will fly to Los Vegas and get a quickie divorce between now and next Monday and then will you approve the resolution? Councilman Boor-Probably not. Assessor Otte-Thank you gentlemen for your time. Supervisor Stec-Anything else, we are adjourned. RESOLUTION ADJOURNING SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING RESOLUTION NO. 640,2006 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. Richard Sanford WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. John Strough RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby adjourns its Special Board Meeting. th Duly adopted this 26 day of December, 2006 by the following vote: AYES: Mr. Boor, Mr. Sanford, Mr. Strough NOES: None ABSENT: Mr. Brewer, Mr. Stec Respectfully submitted, Miss Darleen M. Dougher Town Clerk-Queensbury