HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB-11/06/2024 Budget PH 1
1 TOWN OF SOUTHOLD
COUNTY OF SUFFOLK : STATE OF NEW YORK
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TOWN BOARD
4 BUDGET HEARING
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Southold, New York
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November 6, 2024
9 4 : 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 BUDGET HEARING 2
1 INDEX TO TESTIMONY
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3 Public Hearing
4 2025 Budget 3-21
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NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 3
1 BUDGET HEARING
2 COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : All
3 right . So we ' re holding our first of
4 two budget hearings tonight . This is on
5 the 2025 preliminary budget and the 2025
6 preliminary capital budget . There ' s
7 also the Town Board, the Town Clerk,
8 Superintendent of Highway, Tax Receiver,
9 Assessor, Trustees , and Supervisor
10 salaries that are part of the hearings .
11 Because this is a public hearing, it had
12 to be noticed as such . And in the
13 folder here, I have a copy of the legal
14 notice setting the public hearing
15 adopted by this Town Board . I have a
16 copy of an Affidavit signed by our Town
17 Clerk Denis Noncarrow, certifying that
18 it was posted on the Town Clerk ' s
19 bulletin board in the back . I have a
20 resolution adopted by this Town Board
21 setting the public hearing . I have a
22 copy of the capital budget, the regular
23 budget . Have an Affidavit of
24 Publication of the legal notice , along
25 with a copy of the legal notice in the
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 4
1 Suffolk Times . An invoice for payment
2 of that , and that ' s what I got .
3 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
4 you, Greg . Mr . DeChance, are all the
5 notifications in order?
6 TOWN ATTORNEY P . DECHANCE : The
7 notifications are in order .
8 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
9 you . All right . Now we can start .
10 MARC SOKOL : Thank you . Supervisor
11 Krupski and the Town Board . Appreciate
12 the opportunity to speak . My name is
13 Marc Sokol . I ' m the president of the
14 CAST Board . We submitted a letter in
15 May . I have a copy of it here . And if
16 it needs to get put into the record, I
17 have it to give this as well . And we
18 submitted a letter in May requesting
19 $ 75, 000 be allocated to CAST out of the
20 Town budget . Just to give people a
21 sense, CAST, our current active client
22 list , includes over 1 , 500 unique
23 families consisting of about 4 , 000
24 individuals , of which 93 of them are in
25 Shelter Island . So the rest are all in
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 5
1 Southold Town . Based on the U . S . Census
2 Bureau, CAST supports with this safety
3 net about 14 percent of the Southold
4 Town and 31 percent of the children in
5 Southold Town . Since we were founded in
6 1968 , we have never been included in the
7 Southold Town budget . The only funds
8 that we ' ve ever received from Southold
9 Town have been Federal funds under the
10 Community Development Block Grant, and
11 even those funds we are not getting this
12 year . Please , consider this $75 , 000
13 application to CAST . Your community
14 needs it . CAST needs it, and I
15 appreciate your attention .
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
17 you . Yes , ma ' am?
18 MARC SOKOL : Should I give this to
19 someone?
20 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Yes ,
21 please give it to the clerk . Yes ,
22 that ' s perfect .
23 KATHY MAY : I am Kathy May . My
24 family has been here at Cedar Beach
25 since the late ' 50s . My husband and I
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 6
1 live on Pleasant Place here in Southold .
2 My family ' s involvement with Southold
3 community started in the late ' 50s when
4 my parents bought and built a small
5 little house over at Cedar Beach and our
6 involvement has grown well into the 60s ,
7 70s , 80s when my siblings and I worked
8 in Southold, during high school and
9 college . My kids have worked here and
10 there, high school and college years ,
11 nieces and nephews . I suspect that some
12 of you may know that over the past 60
13 years our family has lived here . We
14 have really and collectively established
15 some strong and sustaining roots here in
16 Southold . And I have a lot of respect
17 for all of its community members ,
18 including the ones who live and work
19 here . For you and for others that serve
20 and labor in so many different ways , the
21 ones who are silent partners and the
22 backbone of the town, that ' s the reason
23 I ' m here . My mom was one of CAST ' s
24 earliest supporters . Volunteering and
25 donating since it began in the late 60s
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 7
1 and we - our family have followed in our
2 footsteps , but I ' ve never before come to
3 a public meeting to ask for anything
4 until today . As I probably start by
5 thanking you all because I ' ve been here
6 a long time and I ' ve never bothered to
7 say thank you . So thank you . The
8 community has evolved in those years .
9 And its needs have changed . CAST has
10 changed too . The population CAST serves
11 has grown exponentially . And CAST has
12 changed, in my view, in response to that
13 growth, where at one time it could
14 really be sustained, I think, by
15 fundraising and donations . Today ' s CAST
16 provides programs and events for every
17 single member of our community . I don ' t
18 think it only serves the needy
19 population . I think it serves all of
20 us . A few days ago , my husband and I
21 sat on the lawn at CAST and enjoyed a
22 bluegrass concert with lots of other
23 townspeople . Some of whom I ' ve known
24 for over 40 years . It was great . As we
25 speak, businesses and local groups are
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 8
1 decorating trees for the Fifth Annual
2 Festival of Trees that everybody enjoys .
3 So my point is that CAST benefits all of
4 us . And it supports the neediest
5 members of our community, but it also
6 benefits all of us . I thoroughly enjoy
7 the occasional volunteer work I do for
8 CAST and the people that I ' ve met there .
9 I ' m here to ask you, the Town ' s elected
10 officials , to recognize all that CAST
11 does for our community, and for its
12 people . And in doing so, find a way for
13 the Town of Southold to partner with
14 CAST and some of that good work . And
15 to, you know, proudly support CAST ' s
16 work in any way that you can, but
17 specifically by including meaningful and
18 significant and regular financial
19 support for CAST and the town budget
20 this year, next year, into the future .
21 Thank you for the opportunity to
22 introduce .
23 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
24 you for coming . Thank you .
25 JAN NICHOLSON : I ' m Jan Nicholson .
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 9
1 I live in Peconic . I founded with a
2 friend at North Fork Side By Side, a
3 community foundation which has been
4 opened so many doors to me, meeting the
5 wonderful people in this community .
6 Doing all sorts of things . Government
7 should do heartening things to help
8 people when there ' s a need . And in this
9 country when there is a sudden crisis ,
10 FEMA goes , the Department of Agriculture
11 goes , the Small Business Administration
12 goes . The Salvation Army goes . The Red
13 Cross goes . Local businesses who still
14 have boats in a flood, we see them on
15 the news . Rescuing people from their
16 attics . When there ' s a crisis , all
17 sectors of our community, government,
18 our civil society, our market economy,
19 all go help . In Southold, right now, we
20 have a crisis . One family in seven is a
21 working family that cannot make ends
22 meet , and is relying on CAST for help .
23 And CAST has gone from a budget of less
24 than one million to about three million
25 in a matter of a few years , because this
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 10
1 crisis has come on us so suddenly . It ' s
2 the cost of food and the cost of energy
3 and the cost of housing, and the
4 pandemic accelerated this . So every --
5 this is a time when everybody should put
6 a shoulder to the wheel , including our
7 town government . Now, I want to give
8 credit where credit is do . I want to
9 tell you that you are doing one thing I
10 know about . It ' s absolutely terrific .
11 And it ' s the work that Sonia Spar is
12 doing to reach out to the Spanish
13 -speaking community . It is her mandate
14 to help connect them, to make them
15 aware, and then connect them to the
16 available services and she holds events
17 at the roller rink in Green port and the
18 kids come and skate and while they ' re
19 taking care of the parents . Go to
20 workshops and she has connected them to
21 Stony Brook ' s Knowledge Project . To
22 learn about illnesses , like ticks . To
23 Sun River Health . To learn about
24 getting health insurance . To Peconic
25 Pediatrics , about health issues with
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 11
1 their children . To Sepa-Major, which
2 helps immigrant women with economic
3 empowerment . To Path Stone that helps
4 farm workers . To Mosaic that helps
5 people with disabilities . These are all
6 non-profit services available in a
7 greater area and she is connecting them.
8 So that they can reach for those
9 services too . She ' s introducing them to
10 environmental programs with the various
11 environmental projects and organizations
12 that we have here . She is introducing
13 them to the arts and ran an art show .
14 Showing the work of Latin artists to
15 which they could all come and feel pride
16 in what their community contributes .
17 And these things help integrate this
18 community . And then they will feel part
19 of it, and give back . It ' s an important
20 step in helping them cope . She reaches
21 these people through the libraries ,
22 through the churches , through the
23 schools . It is a terrific thing . And
24 Southold Town is doing this . I want to
25 ask you, do more . It ' s appropriate .
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 12
1 It ' s good to do more because our whole
2 society, the different elements in our
3 society, work together . And one way you
4 can do more is to support CAST in all
5 they are doing . And then I just want to
6 quickly say that all these things
7 address the symptoms of this crisis .
8 They aren ' t getting at the cause of it,
9 but we have that half percent now of
10 money that ' s coming as a tax on sales
11 That ' s meant to help us figure out how
12 to do something about affordable
13 housing . That, getting to the root of
14 the problem. And to use that money, we
15 really need a person to strategize , have
16 ideas form partnerships . Figure out how
17 to layer in a lot of sources . So that
18 we can create some affordable housing
19 with that resource that we ' re now
20 blessed to have . And it ' s just a shame
21 to let that sit with nobody charged with
22 the responsibility to capitalize on it .
23 Thank you .
24 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
25 you for coming . Thank you acknowledging
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 13
1 Sonya ' s work . That was the last
2 Supervisor on Town Board that hired her .
3 She ' s been most effective at what she
4 was hired to do, I think, and then more
5 so . And in this year, we enlisted her
6 for Emergency Management Team because
7 she can do the proper outreach . If we
8 do have another big natural emergency,
9 which there ' s no question . Mother
10 natures , it ' s reliable in that . We will
11 have some major weather event at some
12 point in the future . She ' s great at
13 communicating and she ' s been a great
14 help on that Emergency Management Team.
15 And to your point of this Community
16 Housing Fund, the half percent, that
17 coordinator is in the budget . It ' s
18 going to -- a lot of it ' s going to be
19 administration . As we ' ve gone through
20 the housing needs of the Town, it ' s not
21 ideas . It ' s the mechanical parts of
22 putting together enough funding to
23 provide some meaningful housing for
24 people . So, we ' re looking forward to
25 that . Anyone else? Please .
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 14
1 STEPHANIE MCEVELY : Good evening .
2 My name is Stephanie McEvely and I ' m a
3 member of the Board of CAST . I just
4 wanted to sort of add to what Kathleen
5 and Jan have said about what CAST
6 provides for this community . The
7 families that it serves are really also
8 a safety net for this community . We
9 provide a safety net for them, but they
10 provide a safety net for all of us .
11 They are the people who staff many of
12 the hotels and restaurants , landscaping,
13 housekeeping . They are the people that
14 make our lives easier and make this a
15 community that lots of other people want
16 to come to . They contribute to us , and
17 so we should contribute to them . They
18 have times that are hard . Especially
19 off season, when CAST is more necessary
20 to help them bridge that gap on --
21 They ' re not as well-employed as they are
22 during the Summer . So I just wanted to
23 say there are lots and lots of reasons
24 to help support CAST . We are a
25 community of many different types of
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 15
1 people, but we ' re all part of the fabric
2 that makes this such a great place to
3 live . So I ask you again to please help
4 and contribute to our organization .
5 Thank you .
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
7 you for coming . Anyone else like to
8 address the Board?
9 MARK TERRY : Good evening . Mark
10 Terry, Assistant Town Planning Director,
11 and I am off the clock . I began my
12 career at Southold in 2002 , when I was
13 appointed the Senior Environmental
14 Planner . I was promoted to Principal
15 Planner without compensation sometime
16 after that . In 2016, I was promoted to
17 the Assistant Town Planning Director, a
18 management position . Since then, I
19 requested, during this budget cycle,
20 three-year retroactive raise or stipend .
21 And the reason for that was in 2005 , I
22 stepped up to the plate to become the
23 LWRP coordinator . We wrote an LWRP . It
24 was adopted by the Town Board and there
25 was nobody to administer it . Me being a
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 16
1 sitting environmental -- Senior
2 Environmental Planner, I stepped up to
3 the plate knowing I would save a lot of
4 money for the town and hiring a whole
5 another person to train and implement
6 the LWRP . The LWRP was a comprehensive
7 document that managed our wetlands and
8 waterways and uplands even . It was a
9 very broad and still is a very broad
10 document . At that time, I was working
11 with Councilman Wickham and the Planning
12 Director, Valerie Scopaz . We were
13 negotiating what I would be compensated
14 back then when I was the LWRP or would
15 become the LWRP Coordinator . Valerie
16 requested $ 10 , 000 stipend . The Town
17 Board at that time granted a $5 , 000
18 stipend . And it was a second title . I
19 had two titles . And in my opinion, it
20 still is . The stipend was increased to
21 $ 7 , 000 in 2006 . But after 2006 , I think
22 you remember, 2007 , 2009, there was
23 economic problems . The Town Board
24 sought to take away that stipend . And
25 that was necessary sacrifice . It was
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 17
1 fine . I also do want to couch this
2 whole presentation . I ' m very grateful
3 for working for the Town of Southold .
4 Very grateful to have a job . So it
5 would be fast forward to my Assistant
6 Town Planning Director position . I was
7 capped out on Step 5 in 2018 . So in
8 2018 , I didn ' t move on steps . Every
9 year, I would ask the Town Planning
10 Director to propose to reinstate my
11 stipend . So I could have more money or
12 be compensated for that second title in
13 my position . In 2024 , my base salary
14 was $ 104 , 086 . And in 2024 , a recent
15 hired Solid Waste Coordinator, another
16 coordinator, was hired at $ 125, 000 .
17 $20 , 913 over my salary . Even though
18 I ' ve been there 22 years . In 2024 ,
19 there were eight employees receiving
20 stipends in that budget of $ 6, 000 , at
21 the level of deputies to their directors
22 of certain departments . So the point of
23 this whole conversation is , I am asking
24 the Town Board to reconsider stipend for
25 the LWRP Coordinator position and
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 18
1 recognize that I am essentially a deputy
2 as the Assistant Town Planning Director
3 in the Planning Department . And as you
4 know I work across all boards . Right
5 now I have 22 LWRP reviews on my desk
6 and the stacks like this big . I have to
7 navigate that with the work sessions and
8 the Planning Board work . First and
9 foremost I work for the Planning Board .
10 I also review LWRP ' s for the Town Board .
11 I review them for the Planning Board . I
12 review them for the Zoning Board of
13 Appeals . So there ' s also for all the
14 local laws . So there ' s a lot of work in
15 the LWRP realm of its valley work . So
16 that ' s my presentation . And I don ' t
17 know what was presented to the Board, or
18 if you guys received my resume . And if
19 you know the level of work . I know
20 Brian -- I work with all you the level
21 of work I do . I am very diversified .
22 Very well experienced and I can
23 basically do everything you guys ask .
24 So thank you .
25 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 19
1 you, Mark . Would anyone else like to
2 address the Board?
3 KAREN MACLENNAN : Good evening . My
4 name is Karen MacLennan . I reside at
5 52325 County Road 48 . I ' m here tonight
6 to ask the Board -- first , thank the
7 Board for all that you do . It ' s greatly
8 appreciated . But I ' m also here on
9 behalf of the North Fork Beach Condos to
10 ask the Board to put aside funding to
11 mitigate beach erosion and take steps
12 toward preserving our Town beaches . It
13 would be greatly appreciated . Thank you
14 for your time .
15 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
16 you . It is a great concern of ours .
17 Would anyone else like to address the
18 Board?
19 (No Response ) .
20 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : And
21 just for kind of for the public to know,
22 this was a, after last year, zero
23 percent increase in Town budget .
24 Despite the fact that all of our
25 expenses went up . Health insurance
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 20
1 costs went up for Town employees by
2 about 150 , which is a big ticket item .
3 There ' s contractual increases for every
4 Town employee that were scheduled . And
5 plus the cost of operation . Someone
6 mentioned inflation here tonight .
7 That ' s why we voted to pierce the tax
8 cap for the first time . It is sort of
9 unprecedented because of all those
10 things that happened to us this year .
11 Now I did not put in 2025 Budget a
12 salary increase for myself or Town
13 Board, and I ' m not that it ' s a knock on
14 the Town Board . I think I ' m very
15 grateful to work with this Board . They
16 work very hard . They ' re very concerned
17 about the operations of the Town . It
18 didn ' t seem like the year to put that in
19 for us . So I don ' t know, if there ' s no
20 other comment , we can recess the
21 hearing?
22 COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : I make a
23 motion we recess the hearing till 7 : 00
24 P .M .
25 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Second .
NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 21
1 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All in
2 favor?
3 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Aye .
4 COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : Aye .
5 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Aye .
6 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Aye .
7 JUSTICE LOUISA EVANS : Aye .
8 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Aye .
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10 (Whereupon, the meeting was
11 recessed . )
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NOVEMBER 6, 2024 BUDGET HEARING 22
1 C E R T I F I C A T I O N
2
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 .
15
16
17 ( Jessica DiLallo )
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