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2012-11-08 Mtg 26 SP TOWN BOARD MEETING MTG. # 26 NOVEMBER 8, 2012 RES. 328-331 7:00 p.m. TOWN BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT SUPERVISOR DANIEL STEC COUNCILMAN ANTHONY METIVIER COUNCILMAN RONALD MONTESI COUNCILMAN JOHN STROUGH COUNCILMAN TIM BREWER-Absent TOWN OFFICIALS Budget Officer Barbara Tierney Superintendent of Water Bruce Ostrander Director of Wastwater Mike Shaw IT Director Ryan Lashway Highway Superintendent Mike Travis Superintendent Pine View Cemetery Mike Genier PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE LED BY SUPERVISOR DANIEL STEC PUBLIC HEARING 1.0 ANNUAL TOWN BUDET FOR 2013 NOTICE SHOWN PUBLICATION DATE: 10-29-2012 Supervisor Stec-We just have one item on the agenda tonight and that is to conduct our public hearing on the Annual 2013 Annual Town Budget for the Town of Queensbury. Following the public hearing I think it is likely that the Town Board will consider adoption. As I typically do I prepared a power point presentation and it is actually a brief one. I think a fair summary is and actually looks like Town employees and the press vastly outnumber the public that is here tonight. Basically the 2013 budget is real similar to the 2012 budget as far as there is no new chunks of money in there for anything particularly special with the exception we added some additional funds for paving. Road paving we put in a little more money for paving roads because we could do it this year and we recognized that we wanted to make sure that we do the best we can to keep up ahead of the roads. Besides that, really it is whatever the economy dictated in terms of energy prices, health insurance prices, pension costs and in fact those are some of the bigger chunks. So, anyways here is our presentation. (page 1) The General Fund expenditures, again this is just the General Fund and the General Fund includes money for highway and cemetery. They are separate funds and we transfer money out of the general fund to fund highway and cemetery, it has been done that way since before I was supervisor. But, by way of explanation next year will be twelve million four hundred and seven thousand six hundred and fifty four dollars. Then when you factor in the total of all funds including highway and cemetery so actually highway and cemetery get counted twice. They get counted once in the General Fund and then second when you add them up for a total of all funds. Again, this is always been reported this way so it is an apples to apples comparison, but I thought I would just point that out too. Twenty eight million nine hundred and fifty two thousand three sixty six and again that is all the lighting districts that is all the water, wastewater districts, fire and ems that is everything. The levy in the General Fund, pardon the loss of the dollar sign there, one million eight hundred and seventy thousand eight hundred and four dollars and is down thirty six and a half thousand dollars from 2012. So, not a lot to get excited about but it is down slightly as opposed to being up slightly. The General Town Tax therefore will be down slightly as well from 2012 it will be sixty four point seven cents per thousand so it is about a one point seven percent reduction in the General Town Tax. So, again not anything to get particularly excited about but less is better than more. (page 2) In the General Fund, and again these are some of the big chunks, now the Total General Fund Budget is down, like I said the levy is down thirty six thousand dollars, thirty six and a half thousand dollars but just to put that in perspective the increase in the retirement contribution alone was a hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The health insurance cost went up and our rate is going to be up more than two percent but the reason why health insurance is up as a total of about two percent is because frankly there is fewer policies out there. So, our total health insurance costs are only up two percent but the rate is actually up, Barbara what is a good guess? Budget Officer Barbara Tierney-Thirteen Supervisor Stec-Thirteen percent and that's consistent with what we are seeing in other municipalities around the region. We did not budget any vehicles in 2013 that is not to say that we won't be buying any vehicles in fact I anticipate the Town Board looking at replacing a couple of vehicles here between now and the end of the year. But the 2013 Budget does not include any vehicles. For the fourth consecutive year the Town Board is not taking a pay increase and I do not think it is for four consecutive years but I think at least for three. None of the other elected officials will be taking a raise. That is really indicative of the economy, it is flat and I think that you are seeing that in a lot of municipalities that elected officials salaries historically had tracked with the rest of the town employees and that was true at the County. But a few years ago I think a lot of elected officials around the state while they were still giving contractual increases to their unions and where they could, increases to their non- union people. think a lot of towns and cities and villages and counties around the state and schools have frozen salaries for elected officials or senior administration. (page 3) 1 have put this slide up in years past but again to give you a snap shot of some of the bigger funds that we have there is your cemetery fund and your highway fund. The cemetery is up twenty two thousand dollars which is a four percent increase, highway is up a hundred and ninety four thousand which is five point four percent and again some of that is an increase in asphalt. I cannot remember off the top of my head how much we increased it. Fifty Thousand dollars, so it wasn't an obscene increase but fifty thousand dollars' worth of asphalt Mike would tell you will not go awfully far. Again, this is a budget so the Town could depending on the economic conditions and the price of asphalt and what Mike or anyone else wants to accomplish we could always have this revisited and buy more or less of whatever. The goal is we would like to do a little more road paving next year than we did this year. Solid Waste the transfer stations you can see it is actually down a smidge down about six tenths of a percent or four thousand dollars. That solid waste fund has been pretty steady. Councilman Montesi-Is that because there is less going through? Supervisor Stec-Some of it is a factor of less volume which means there is less revenue but also less expense at the burn plant. (page 4) In the emergency services that is your fire and ems combined you can see that it is up thirty eight thousand dollars from four point one nine million to four point two three million and that is less, that is point nine two that is not ninety two percent it is a point nine two or a little less than one percent increase in emergency services. So, emergency services has been reported and I think Morey you have done a good job representing that in the paper and these recent contracts that they all have flatten out so congratulate the fire companies and rescue squads for working with the Town to control emergency services. You can see that the total of all the lighting districts is going to stay at a hundred and forty thousand dollars so no change there. Wastewater is actually down a little bit and the total water budget is going to be up two point seven percent. That is their expenses, that is their appropriations for all those funds. That is the presentation short and sweet so I will open the public hearing and if there is anybody from the public either Pliney or John that want to or any of the Town Employees if you want to, you do not have to. Mr. Pliney Tucker-This is the easiest budget you have ever done isn't it? Supervisor Stec-Well, I have done nine of them now. Mr. Tucker-You are going to be fifty miles away when this thing... Supervisor Stec-I am going to be living here and paying taxes too. But, no, it is a good budget, like I said we are trying to in this economy while we are recovering we are trying to just maintain what we got, nothing new, nothing exciting we are just trying to get through until the economy recovers. This does that you know it maintains our services. Like I said the one area that we tried to throw a little bit more money because I think I cut Mike a little too much last year was in the asphalt for highway, so I want to give him a little bit more. I am sure I did not give him as much as he wanted. John, Yes. Mr. Salvador Mr. John Salvador-Thank you, my name is John Salvador I am a resident in North Queensbury I have here a fact sheet from the Highway Department there are, the Highway Department claims to be responsible for maintaining over fourteen miles of sidewalks including repair, replacement and snow removal. How much of that Highway Budget is credible to that item? Supervisor Stec-What was the question, John, how much of the budget is what? Mr. Salvador-Responsible for maintaining over fourteen miles of sidewalks including repair, replacement, and snow removal, how much of the total highway budget is that particular item? Supervisor Stec-Barb, do you have specifics in front of you? Budget Officer Tierney-No. Supervisor Stec-I do not have that number off the top of my head, John. Councilman Strough-Mike is shaking his head no, I do not think Budget Officer Tierney-I do not believe it is tracked separately. Highway Supt. Mike Travis-If there is any kind of maintenance that needs to be done on it then it is up to the Town Board. We have not done any maintenance as far as physical maintenance, repair or anything on .. Supervisor Stec-Mostly snow removal right. Highway Superintendent Travis-We do the snow removal, we do not charge that back to the Town.. Supervisor Stec-By local law the snow removal is only on State and County roads, town roads is the responsibility of the property owner. The idea being that big trucks on big roads are going to pile mounds of snow that will be above an individual home owner property owner to deal with on a County or State Road. Highway Superintendent Travis-If there is any general maintenance that has to be that is normally, that would be considered by the Town Board. Then the funds are given at that particular time. Councilman Montesi-So, when a neighborhood puts in extra sidewalk for instance, Fort Amhurst or Garrison that is a general fund item that we give to you? Highway Superintendent Travis-Like in the past say for example like the ones we did all new curbing on Fort Amhurst and sidewalks that were put through, it went out to bid and that was paid for through the Town Board. Councilman Montesi-We are obligated to Mr. Salvador-I would like to know how many dollars is it costing us for that particular item? Fourteen miles of sidewalks. It costs the Highway Superintendent money to do this activity. Highway Superintendent Travis-..all the sidewalks that were State if you recall when they redid the State system down there that was all given to us free of charge by the State. Councilman Montesi-Yea, but we have got to maintain it. Highway Superintendent Travis-Yes, we do. Councilman Montesi-It is not a matter or we can't say no we do not want to have sidewalks. Highway Superintendent Travis-The State once they put them in we have .. Councilman Montesi-We can't say no to it. Highway Superintendent Travis-Right. Supervisor Stec-Correct. We do not have that number for you. Mr. Salvador-How many dollars Supervisor Stec-We do not have that number for you, John, next question. Mr. Salvador-The significance of this is that the sidewalks are not all over town they are only in certain parts of the town and the rest of us who don't have sidewalks are paying for this. Supervisor Stec-That has been the case for twenty years. Mr. Salvador-I do not think it is right. Supervisor Stec-Ok, I heard you. Mr. Salvador-We have lighting districts on Route 9 we have a lighting district it is not too hard to expand that district to include the maintenance of the sidewalks. Not too difficult at all. Supervisor Stec-Our Attorney might disagree I do not know if that is the case or not. A lighting district, the State spells out what districts can do and I mean a lighting district might not, it may say well there is a sidewalk next to those lights but the State law on districts may or may not allow it. It might not be as simple as you suggest, that is all I am saying. But, I understand what you are saying. Mr. Salvador-One is on top of the other you just have to. The point again is that everyone in town is paying for sidewalks and everyone in town does not have sidewalks in front of their place. Mr. Tucker-Everybody in Town is paying for Lake George everybody does not have a piece of Lake George. Supervisor Stec-He is correct but he is also out of order. But you are right Pliney. Mr. Salvador-He has threatened to pull the plug on me. We went through the rigors of approving a cell tower, for Verizon Wireless, I think it was understood that all the costs that the Town incurred in bring that project to fruition was to be borne by the water district. Likewise they get the benefit of the revenue. The contract says that Supervisor Stec-Is that relevant to the 2013 budget John? We are here for the budget. Mr. Salvador- Yes. Supervisor Stec-Alright we will see. Mr. Salvador-The contract says the agreement shall commence based upon the date the lease is granted a building permit. My understanding is they were granted a building permit on or about October 15t Supervisor Stec-I do not know if they were or they weren't. Mr. Salvador-So they start paying lease agreement sixty days after that and that money goes to the benefit of the Water District. That should be reflected, that annual contract should be reflected as income in the water district budget. Likewise the cost of bring that project to fruition all of the costs should be borne by the water district and not by the town general fund. Have we taken the trouble to do that? Supervisor Stec-I guarantee you that all the costs and revenues will go to the proper accounts as we incur. This is a budget, it is a plan, the level of detail that you are asking about right now... Mr. Salvador-If you don't have good tight accounting and good tight cost control you do not have control. Supervisor Stec-I assure you I think we do. I think everyone in town thinks we do, except one or two people. Thanks. Pliney do you have anything, any comment. Mr. Tucker-No. Supervisor Stec-Anybody else? Mr. Tucker-No TV so we will get out early., Supervisor Stec-Any discussion by the Town Board? I will close the public hearing. Councilman Strough-I just want to thank the Town Directors and Supervisors and Barb Tierney and everybody and Dan Supervisor Stec-And Barb, mostly Barb She did a great job, and the Department Heads. Councilman Strough-Again, a good budget. RESOLUTION ADOPTING ANNUAL TOWN BUDGET FOR 2013 RESOLUTION NO.: 328, 2012 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. John Strough WHO MOVED ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. Ronald Montesi WHEREAS, the Queensbury Town Board conducted a public hearing on November 8th, 2012 concerning the proposed 2013 Preliminary Budget and all interested persons were heard, and WHEREAS, the proposed 2013 Preliminary Budget sets forth the proposed 2013 salaries of the Town's Elected Officials as required by New York State Town Law §27, NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Queensbury Town Board hereby authorizes and directs that the 2013 salaries for the Town of Queensbury Elected Officials shall be as follows: TOWN SUPERVISOR 67,276. TOWN COUNCILPERSON (4) 17,382. TOWN CLERK 66,442. TOWN HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT 67,161. TOWN JUSTICES (2) 42,969. and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby adopts the 2013 Preliminary Budget presented at this meeting as the Town of Queensbury Annual Budget for 2013 with the following modifications: and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED, that the Town Board further authorizes and directs the Town Clerk to enter the Adopted Annual Budget in the minutes of the Town Board proceedings, and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED, that a copy of the adopted Annual Budget for 2013, including a copy of the S495 Exemption Impact Report, is attached and made part of this Resolution, and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby states its support of non-profit and other community organizations by providing funding as outlined in the Schedule of Contributions which is contained in the supporting documentation to the 2013 Adopted Budget, and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED, that the Town Board further authorizes and directs the Town Clerk to prepare and certify duplicate copies of the Adopted Annual Budget and deliver one copy to the Queensbury Town Supervisor so that he may present it to the Warren County Board of Supervisors. Duly adopted this 8'h day of November, 2012, by the following vote: AYES : Mr. Metivier, Mr. Montesi, Mr. Strough, Mr. Stec NOES : None ABSENT: Mr. Brewer (complete budget on file in Town Clerk's Office) Discussion held before vote: Supervisor Stec-I will add to what John said, I am glad that there is a group of department heads here but Barb did a great job as always in the process this year we had a nice tight process. The department heads came in it is like they knew what we needed to do without being told and they came in with very tight budgets. So, I thank you guys for doing that. I think there is also a comfort level that they also know that as we go through the year if something changes, comes up, and we need to, that is why most of these, most every town board meeting that we have had there is usually some resolution on there to amend the budget. Again this is because this is a plan, but it is a plan that subject to change by a process which is town board resolution to do that and so I think that the departments would all say that they have never gone without something that they absolutely had to do whether it was in the budget or not we would find a way to amend that or we would say we are going to wait until next year to do that. But, so I thank the department heads for their effort. Councilman Montesi-Is sales tax revenue up in the County? Supervisor Stec-Yes. That is reflected in the proposed County budget and it is reflected in our Budget as well. Any other discussion? (no one spoke) vote taken RESOLUTION CALLING FOR AN EXECTIVE SESSION RESOLUTION NO. 329, 2012 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. Ronald Montesi WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. Anthony Metivier RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby enters into an Executive Session on employment matters that may result in the promotion or hiring of an individual, non- elected official that will be retiring in the near future. Duly adopted this 8th day of November, 2012 by the following vote: AYES: Mr. Metivier, Mr. Montesi, Mr. Strough, Mr. Stec NOES: None ABSENT: Mr. Brewer RESOLUTION ADJOURNING EXECUTIVE SESSION RESOLUTION NO. 330.2012 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. Ronald Montesi WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. John Strough RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby adjourns its executive session. Duly adopted this 8th day of November, 2012 by the following vote: AYES: Mr. Metivier, Mr. Montesi, Mr. Strough, Mr. Stec NOES: None ABSENT: Mr. Brewer (no action taken during executive session) RESOLUTION ADJOURNING TOWN BOARD MEETING RESOLUTION NO. 3319 2012 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. Ronald Montesi WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. John Strough RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby adjourns its Town Board Meeting. Duly adopted this 8t' day of November, 2012 by the following vote: AYES: Mr. Metivier, Mr. Montesi, Mr. Strough, Mr. Stec NOES: None ABSENT: Mr. Brewer Respectfully submitted, Miss Darleen M. Dougher Town Clerk-Queensbury