Unofficial Town Board Meeting Summary
September 11, 2014
Town Board Members Present: Claire LaPine, Bryan Garvey, Harold MacDougal, Mark Wrisley and Edward Gardner, Supervisor
Also Present, Town Clerk: William Morgan
Public Present: Andy Buchanan, Dianne Lansing, Jane Terlow, Olive Alexander, Anita Shapiro, Lauren Murphy, Pat Gardner, Bradley French
Meeting Called to Order at 7 PM by the Supervisor. Followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and A Moment of Silence for the Victims of the 9/11 Attacks.
Roll Call taken and all Town Board Members were present.
The Town Clerk read the Town Board Meeting Minutes of August 7, 2014. Councilman LaPine noted that the Resolution on the hiring of Ann Holland was missing the wages agreed upon. She also repeated that she is still not receiving the minutes in advance of the meeting, as requested last month.
A motion was made and seconded to approve corrected minutes. All in favor.
Andy Buchanan presented information on bids the Grange has received to replace the existing roof. The Grange has accepted a bid for $11,500. This amount will be paid in full by a donor. Councilman MacDougal questioned if the selected contractor has Insurance and will pay those working for him the prevailing wage. Councilman Garvey added that contractors usually designate employees as subcontractors to avoid paying the prevailing wage.
A motion was made and seconded pending receipt by the Board of proof of Insurance. All in favor.
Supervisor Gardner presented the need to separate the clerk to the Supervisor position into 2 separate jobs. Patty Gardner is now doing the bookkeeping and the clerk is performing only secretarial functions. Robin Crandall from Westport is currently doing payroll functions. Supervisor Gardner suggested there was no need to advertise the positions. The salary budgeted for the Clerk to the Supervisor will be split in half. (See public comments below for clarification.) There was much discussion about doing this, particularly for the long term. Salaries will be very low and how will the town attract people willing to fill the now part time positions.
A motion was made and seconded to reduce the œSecretarial position to a 5 hour day, 5 day weekly schedule. All in favor. (Note: there was no reading of the entire Resolution either before or after passage, therefore, exactly what was approved, other than the Clerk to Supervisor hours, is unclear to us.)
Supervisor Gardner spoke of the Library Committee and donated Funds being accepted by the Town. He stated the OSC (Office of the State Comptroller) advised that the Town was not allowed to manage the funds. Both Councilmen LaPine and Wrisley questioned this as it always been done in the past. After further discussions it was revealed that an account for the Library had not been established at the beginning of this year. (Editorial note: there was no discussion of the money for the library that was included in the 2014 budget. Source: Appropriation line item A7410.4 $10,000 in the 2014 Budget and decades of budgets historically.) Councilman Wrisley requested an end date (12/31/2014) on Library funding being excluded from Town Management and an account be set up for 2015.
A motion was made, including the end date, and seconded. All in favor.
Resolution to accept the resignation of Bill Bateman as Chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals. The Town Clerk will advertise the vacant position in the newspaper.
A motion was offered, to include acceptance of the resignation with regrets, and seconded. All in favor.
A Resolution was offered to declare a Town Highway equipment surplus. Advertisement of Bids for purchase is to be submitted by the Town Clerk after he gets specific information on what is included from the Highway Superintendent. Bids are to be closed prior to the next Town Board Meeting.
A motion was made and seconded to approve the Resolution. All in favor.
The first 2015 Budget Workshop is scheduled for October 2, 2014 at 6:30 PM at the Town Hall. This is a Public Meeting and all residents are encouraged to attend.
Motions to accept the Supervisors Report, the Town Clerk’s Report and the Zoning Officer’s Report were offered and seconded. All in favor.
Motion to accept the Abstracts (Bills) was offered and seconded. All in favor.
Supervisor Gardner offered information on the County’s request for bids for Waste Disposal. Only 2 Companies presented bids: Casella and Circle. There will be further discussion at the County on Monday (9/15). As soon as the Supervisor has additional information he will have the Town Clerk post the information on the official town Facebook page.
Water Project update – The Supervisor stated that he was not ready to share any information on the Water Project.
Public Comments: Olive Alexander requested a confirmation that her understanding of the salaries for the 3 position split of the Clerk to the Supervisor was correct as follows. The budgeted salary for the Clerk is to be: Budgeted Amount of salary less $2400, $200 per month (paid to Robin Crandall for payroll). Result to be divided in half, with ½ to be paid to the Clerk and ½ to Bookkeeper. Example using $23500.00 (for demonstration purpose only) annual amount budgeted for Clerk to Supervisor Salary:
$23500.00
-$2400.00
__________
$21100.00
divided by 2
__________
$10550.00 each
Supervisor Gardner confirmed that this was correct.
At this time the Town Board adjourned to go into Executive Session for the purpose of ??? and the recording ended.
