HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB-11/06/2024 PH 1
1 TOWN OF SOUTHOLD
COUNTY OF SUFFOLK : STATE OF NEW YORK
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TOWN BOARD
4 REGULAR MEETING
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Southold, New York
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November 6, 2024
9 7 : 00 P .M .
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15 B E F 0 R E :
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17 ALBERT KRUPSKI JR, SUPERVISOR
18 LOUISA P . EVANS , JUSTICE
19 JILL DOHERTY, COUNCILWOMAN
20 BRIAN 0 . MEALY, COUNCILMAN
21 GREG DOROSKI , COUNCILMAN
22 ANNE H . SMITH, COUNCILWOMAN
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NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 2
1 INDEX TO TESTIMONY
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3 Public Hearing
4 2025 Budget 3- 16
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NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 3
1 PUBLIC HEARING - 2025 BUDGET
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
3 right . So this is the second public
4 hearing today for the 2025 budget .
5 Would anyone like to speak to the
6 budget?
7 ERICA STEINDL : So hello . I ' d like
8 to thank Southold Town for letting us
9 speak tonight . My name is Erica Steindl
10 and I ' m the Interim Executive Director
11 of CAST . Prior to this position, I was
12 the Director of Education and Outreach .
13 And in that role as an educator, I
14 worked closely with community members
15 and I had the opportunity to visit many
16 of them in their homes , as part of our
17 home visiting education program called
18 North Fork Parent Child Plus . So,
19 during these visits , I learned that our
20 community is a community in need . And
21 that need is great . These families work
22 two and three jobs to make ends meet,
23 and they end up spending the earnings on
24 high rental prices , and inflated costs
25 of living . So at the end of the week,
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 4
1 there ' s not much left for food or other
2 basic needs for these families or their
3 children . And that ' s where CAST bridges
4 the gap . Without CAST services , these
5 families would not be able to put food
6 on the table, or live, or work, or
7 contribute to this wonderful community
8 that we all call home . So we ' re
9 currently on track to provide 450 , 000
10 meals to more than 1 , 500 families . And
11 we ' ve requested $75 , 000 in support . So
12 please keep CAST , these families and the
13 work we do in mind as you finalize the
14 Southold Town 2025 Budget . Thank you so
15 much .
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
17 you for coming . Would anyone else like
18 to address the Board?
19 DORIS MCGREEVY : Hi . I ' m Doris
20 McGreevy, Mattituck . It ' s very
21 interesting the way the Rabbi said that
22 people are shoulder to shoulder . Well ,
23 that ' s what we do in Southold Town . And
24 as you can see from the CAST , a lot of
25 people are having it very, very tough
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 5
1 time . And I feel that you need to
2 explain to me and the group, all the
3 residents , why we ' re going to have a
4 7 . 48 percent tax when the tax cap is 2
5 percent? It ' s chasing people out of
6 here . To be honest with you, just take
7 Halloween . You ' ll find you still have a
8 lot of candy home . No kids . I mean,
9 they ' re not coming around anymore
10 because they ' re not here . They ' re
11 leaving . And one of the major facts is
12 the situation with earning a living and
13 paying taxes . And as CAST mentioned,
14 the food -- and they have their hands
15 full . Probably more than ever with the
16 problems that families have trying to
17 put food on the table . So I ' m just
18 saying I feel it ' s unreasonable to come
19 up with 7 . 48 percent raise . If you have
20 like a special program that you ' re
21 interested in doing, maybe you can you
22 know, span it out a little bit and not
23 raise the taxes to the point where it
24 imposes hardships on people . And it ' s
25 -- it -- does anybody have a reason why?
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 6
1 This is -- I read the thing in the
2 newspaper Somebody wrote a letter to the
3 editor, Mr . Levy, and he was , you know,
4 it sounds like he understands Finance
5 more than I , but he ' s mentioning, we may
6 go over into a financial cliff, if we
7 keep this fund paying -- I don ' t know,
8 spending more than we take in .
9 Something like that . And he did offer a
10 few different ways to accommodate the
11 increase in taxes and balance the
12 budget . And then he also suggested
13 perhaps , you took in too much money to
14 begin with . You know, I don ' t know .
15 But I know that people are hurting . And
16 they won ' t tell you either . You ' ll ask
17 somebody how you ' re doing? And they ' ll
18 say, "oh, I ' m fine . Everything is
19 fine . " Because Southold people have a
20 lot of pride . And when I go door to
21 door many times , and I walk in that
22 house, and I just shake my head because
23 I know these people are suffering, but
24 they don ' t say anything . And I just
25 feel like if I don ' t say anything, I
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 7
1 wouldn ' t sleep nights . I mean, you just
2 -- you may be all comfortable . And as
3 the Rabbi said, you have the power .
4 Maybe you can rethink some of the
5 projects that you have planned in the
6 budget and consider -- consider the
7 people of Southold Town who work very
8 hard and pay their taxes .
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
10 you . To answer some of your concerns as
11 to why it ' s almost 7% tax increase .
12 Last year there was a 0o tax increase
13 for this year ' s budget . And They were
14 contractually were bound to pay the
15 employees an increase every year from
16 their union contracts , both unions .
17 There ' s also health insurance increased
18 about 150 , cost of the Town to pay the
19 Town employees . The cost of operations
20 has gone up tremendously, and inflation
21 has hit the towns as much as everyone ' s
22 household . The cost of insurance for
23 basic things , besides health insurance
24 has gone up . The cost of equipment .
25 When you have to pay $ 440 , 000 for a new
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 8
1 street sweeper, you know, the inflation
2 has hit everything . Including all the
3 manufacturing that we have to deal with .
4 So this Board made a lot of hard
5 choices , including the Town Board ' s not
6 taking any raise because it ' s a
7 difficult time . I ' m on calls with the
8 supervisors in New York State and most
9 towns are faced with the same dilemma on
10 how to provide services that they ' re
11 providing already . Just the basic
12 services of road maintenance , and
13 repairs and keeping the buildings in
14 shape . Everybody ' s in the same -- and
15 paying employees so that they can live .
16 Paying employees so that they have
17 health insurance . Every -- every
18 municipality is in the same boat .
19 Struggling to try to figure out how to
20 provide those services to community .
21 It ' s not -- this isn ' t lightly
22 considered . This has been -- this Board
23 worked very hard on it and I ' m very
24 happy with the Board ' s efforts here .
25 Would anyone else like to address the
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 9
1 Board?
2 COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : The only
3 thing I would just add to this
4 discussion is just pointing out that
5 this Board, as a group, went through the
6 budget line by line with all of the
7 department heads . And the Supervisor
8 did a bunch of really important work
9 with the Town Comptroller early on .
10 Proposed some pretty significant cuts
11 across the board . But in the face of
12 these increases , there ' s not much we can
13 do . The health insurance costs are out
14 of control . And I think this is
15 affecting small business . It ' s
16 affecting municipalities , and it ' s
17 affecting regular people . I think the
18 point that Mr . Levy brings up is kind of
19 longer term financial planning . I think
20 the sort of budgeting that the
21 Supervisor is looking at in these coming
22 years , at least for myself is the first
23 time that we ' ve looked at the budget as
24 a multi -year process . So we can really
25 put ourselves in the position where
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 10
1 we ' re not going off this fiscal cliff
2 that Mr . Levy points out because it is ,
3 you know, our fund balance is a little
4 bit of a savings account . You know,
5 money that hasn ' t been spent in
6 different departments gets put back into
7 this fund . So we are able to draw that
8 down . That ' s something that the State
9 Comptroller recommends . I believe their
10 recommendation is 200 of your operating
11 budget . And we ' re able to have that as
12 a safety net when we face these
13 unprecedented increases . And the other
14 big thing that we ' re facing are these
15 unfunded state mandates . You know,
16 tonight we ' ll be approving monitoring
17 well funding at the landfill for our
18 compost site . You know, it ' s leaves and
19 sticks . And we need to monitor the
20 wells and it ' s tens of thousands of
21 dollars . So we have these mandates
22 coming down from the State . We have
23 health insurance increases . And we are
24 keeping our budget as tight as possible .
25 And as the Supervisor points out, this
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 11
1 is not something that is only facing
2 Southold Town . If you look at the
3 municipal budgets around Long Island,
4 ours actually fares pretty well . Most
5 of them are piercing the tax cap, and
6 most of them are piercing them more than
7 we are . And unfortunately, some of them
8 are even giving themselves raises . But
9 we ' re all in agreement with the
10 Supervisor . At this point in time , it
11 doesn ' t make sense to give the Town
12 Board or the Supervisor an increase to
13 show that we too are going to tighten
14 our belts . I do feel confident that in
15 the coming years we ' re putting ourselves
16 in a good position, where we ' ll be able
17 to go back down to more normal numbers .
18 Because I share your concern . And I ' m
19 quoted in the newspaper talking about
20 scary numbers that I ' ve heard . This
21 idea of almost a 7 percent increase is
22 scary . It ' s just adding to the added
23 expenses and we all face it ourselves .
24 We all experience this . So just rest
25 assured that we are taking this under
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 12
1 careful consideration, and as a group
2 went through the budget line by line to
3 figure out where we can make additional
4 cuts and where we had to put some money
5 back .
6 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : And I
7 think when we introduced the budget, we
8 were very clear that we had priorities
9 of health and safety . Particularly
10 public safety, infrastructure, upgrades
11 that would keep the Town ' s financial
12 systems secure . Things that have been,
13 we ' ve wanted to really make sure we ' re
14 tackling as priorities , while we still
15 look ahead, and are very careful with
16 fund balance and kind of analyzing, you
17 know, if you use this much each year,
18 and don ' t have a good year . If one of
19 those years where that fund balance
20 comes back, then yes , you can be in
21 trouble and we ' re being very careful
22 with all of that . While listening to
23 the needs of, you know, it ' s like we ' re
24 hearing both needs at the same time . We
25 want to keep the taxes down and we want
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 13
1 to help our neighbors . And I think
2 that ' s where we are shoulder to
3 shoulder . And we ' ll find a way to meet
4 all of these important priorities in the
5 town . Looking at Jill who spent so much
6 time just working on trying to get
7 housing issues solved . You know, we ' re
8 trying to tackle it all at once and be
9 mindful of the impact .
10 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : And
11 there ' s people here tonight to speak
12 about coastal erosion challenges and
13 also seeing Justice Evans there on
14 Fishers Island, we ' re going to be making
15 investments in our infrastructure that
16 20 years ago we really didn ' t consider .
17 Now with sea level rise and these
18 coastal storms , we ' re going to invest a
19 lot in coastal resiliency . And these
20 are going to be big items . And they ' re
21 going to keep the roads open and safe
22 for everyone in town . So there ' s a lot
23 of challenges here that we ' re trying to
24 meet and to Anne ' s point, all at the
25 same time .
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 14
1 Anyone else like to address the
2 Board?
3 KAREN MACLENNAN : Good evening
4 Karen MacLennan, Southold . I was just
5 wondering if you could speak to any
6 specific line item in the preliminary
7 budget that ' s dedicated toward coastal
8 erosion? I ' ve reviewed it and I didn ' t
9 see any . And I didn ' t know if it fell
10 under a different line item.
11 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : It
12 would be under capital . I think there ' s
13 something under capital . And we ' re
14 committed to our infrastructure , but
15 those are big projects and they would be
16 under capital expenses . We have a
17 dedicated Highway Department and
18 Engineering Department . And they work
19 together on these projects .
20 COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : So it ' s
21 listed as Sound View Ave Revetment .
22 KAREN MACLENNAN : I saw that . It ' s
23 circled . Okay . Thank you very much .
24 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : So this
25 -- yeah, that ' s not -- unfortunately
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 15
1 that ' s not the only big project we have
2 in town . That ' s that we ' re faced with .
3 KAREN MACLENNAN : That ' s
4 understandable . So the revetment is for
5 other projects not necessarily beach
6 erosion, preservation . It ' s kind of a
7 catchphrase for a lot of projects ?
8 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No,
9 that one ' s specific to that . To that
10 area .
11 KAREN MACLENNAN : Okay . Thank you .
12 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Yeah,
13 the capital projects are specific
14 capital projects . We have to list them
15 separately . So that ' s specific to that
16 area as a capital project .
17 KAREN MACLENNAN : Thank you .
18 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
19 right . Is there anyone on Zoom?
20 (No Response ) .
21 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I don ' t
22 see anyone . Do I have a motion to close
23 the hearing?
24 COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : I will
25 make a motion to close the hearing .
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 16
1 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Second .
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All in
3 favor?
4 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Aye .
5 COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : Aye .
6 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Aye .
7 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Aye .
8 JUSTICE LOUISA EVANS : Aye .
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Aye .
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11 (Whereupon, the meeting continued to
12 the Regular Meeting, followed by a close
13 of the meeting . )
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NOVEMBER 6, 2024 REGULAR MEETING 17
1 C E R T I F I C A T I O N
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3 I , Jessica DiLallo, a Notary Public
4 for and within the State of New York,
5 do hereby certify :
6 THAT , the within transcript is a
7 true record of said Board Meeting .
8 I further certify that I am not
9 related either by blood or marriage to
10 any of the parties to this action; and
11 that I am in no way interested in the
12 outcome of this matter .
13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto
14 set my hand this day, November 6, 2024 .
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17 ( Jed ica iLallo )
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