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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB-11/08/2001-BHPRELIMINARY 2002 BUDGET PUBLIC HEAR1NG November 8, 2001 4:00 P.M. Present: Supervisor Jean W. Cochran Justice Louisa P. Evans Councilman William D. Moore Councilman John M. Romanelli Councilman Brian G. Murphy Councilman Craig A. Richter Town Clerk Elizabeth A. Neville Town Attorney Gregory A. Yakaboski NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that the Preliminary Budget and Preliminary Capital Budget of the Town of Southold, Suffolk County, New York, for the fiscal year beginning on January 1, 2002 has been completed and filed in the office of the Town Clerk at the Southold Town Hall, 53095 Main Road, Southold, New York, where they are available for Inspection and where copies may be obtained by any interested person during business hours. FURTHER NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that the Town Board of the Town of Southold will meet and review said Preliminary Budget and Preliminary Capital Budget and hold a public hearing thereon at the Southold Town Hall, 53095 Main Road, Southold, New York, in said Town at 4:00 p.m. and at 7:00 p.m., on Thursday, November 8, 2001, and such hearing at any persons may be heard in favor of or against the 2002 Preliminary Budget and 2002 Preliminary Capital Budget as compiled, or for or against any item or items therein contained. FURTHER NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to Section 108 of the Town Law, the following are proposed yearly salaries of members of the Town Board, the Town Clerk and the Superintendent of Highways, to wit: SCHEDULE OF SALARIES OF ELECTED OFFICIALS (ARTICLE 8 OF TOWN LAW) Officer Supervisor ..................................................................... Members of the Town Board 4 ~ .......................................... Town Justice and member of the Town Board, Fishers Island ......... Town Justice 2 ~ ............................................................. Town Clerk ................................................................... Superintendent of Highways ............................................... Tax Receiver ................................................................. Assessors 3 ~ ............................................................... Trustees 5 ~ ................................................................ SUMMARY OF TOWN BUDGET -- 2002 Less Less Salary $ 63,736 24,591 28,036 39,157 62,458 69,063 28,124 48,652 8,186 2 Estimated Unexpended Amount to be Fund Appropriations Revenues Balance Raised by Tax General $16,214,479. $2,654,039. $1,322,500. $12,237,940. General- Outside Village 1,386,942. 819,000. 293,000. 274,942. Highway- Town wide 1,264,610. 40,400. 122,000. 1,102,210. Highway- Outside Village 2,488,560. 70,700. 91,500. 2,326,360. Community Development 148,000. 148,000. 0 0 Totals 21,502,591. 3,732,139. 1,829,000. Dated: October 23, 2001 Elizabeth A. Neville, Southold Town Clerk." 15,941,452. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Is there is anyone that would like to address the Town Board in relation to the 2002 Budget, either pro, con, suggestions, recommendations, we would be very happy to take them from you at this time. Our Community Development Block Grant hearing will be after we finish this one. Community Development will be in a couple of minutes. If there is no one to talk in this direction we will go on to Community Development. Mr. Horton? JOSHUA HORTON: Josh Horton from Greenport. In regard to the budget and the 7% increase, and as I sat in on the meeting this morning, and John Cushman elaborated on the increases in insurance to what I believe was remarked at 100%, is it the Board's intention to put this out to bid, aggressively put this out to bid in an emergency state, so to insure that 100% is across the Board? SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: We put our insurances out to bid and we will be looking at this also. COMPTROLLER JOHN A. CUSHMAN: Typically we put our insurance out to bid about every three years. ! think this is our third year coming up. Our broker is actively seeking other quotes. The Board wants to put together a bid package to solicit quotes from other brokers for next year we could do that. It may not be practical to do it at this late date though. JOSHUA HORTON: I urge the Board to consider that and act aggressively to pursue that in regard to the increase of taxes that you had this year. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Thank you. Anyone else like to address the Town Board? Anyone else like to address the Town Board in relation to the 2002 Budget? (No response.) If not, ! will recess the hearing until 7:00 P.M. this evening. 3 PRELIMINARY 2002 BUDGET PUBLIC HEAR1NG November 8, 2001 7:00 P.M. Present: Absent: Supervisor Jean W. Cochran Justice Louisa P. Evans Councilman William D. Moore Councilman John M. Romanelli Councilman Brian G. Murphy Town Clerk Elizabeth A. Neville Town Attorney Gregory A. Yakaboski Councilman Craig A. Richter SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: This is a continuation of the Town Board Budget hearing for the Budget for 2002, and this time we will take comments from the public. Anything you might want to share with us, any questions, we would be very happy to answer them. Is there anyone that would like to talk to the Board or share with the Board in relation to the Town Board Budget 2002? JIM DINIZIO: Jim Dinizio, Greenport. On page 4 there is a Fire Fighting Contractual Expenses that you didn't have last year, now it looks like you have $2,000 in there. Is that you are hiring? Page four the last line, because previous you don't have any money there, and then it says Budget Amended, $1,980. Where does that come from? Is that the Fire Marshall? It is. You didn't have him last year? SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: We have always had on staff or hired by the Town Bob Fisher, and there is funding there to continue him through the winter months, not as a full timer, but to continue, because we have had many places of business and so forth suggest or recommend, including the Fire Department, that we have someone through the entire year. He has always just done it in the summer, and we agree with the concept because you have your shops and stores, and artificial decorations and everything through Thanksgiving and through Christmas, and so they felt there was a need year round for checking. JIM DINIZIO: Is that all that he gets? Well, ! can tell you that being the business as ! am. ! am in the fire alarm business, so ! see a need for controlling that type of stuff, not just because ! get more money. If this is that person, do you pay him $2,000? SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: This isn't it. This is a Fire Coordinator part. JIM DINIZIO: Oh, this is just for the Fire Department? 4 SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Oh, I am sorry. Okay. Yes. Suffolk County Fire Coordinator, so I apologize. Your pages aren't the same as mine. JIM DINIZIO: The confusion is that it looks like you didn't have anything proposed for it, now you do. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: It has always been $2,000. TOWN ATTORNEY YAKABOSKI: 1990., the third column budget as amended, Jim. JIM D1NIZIO: Right, but it says, previous actual, and there is nothing there. TOWN ATTORNEY YAKABOSKI: In 2000? JIM DI1NZIO: Yes, ! was wondering how you are adding this now. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: John, do you want to look and see what he has? COUNCILMAN MURPHY: 2001, this budget was 1980., and we took the $2,000. COUNCILMAN MOORE: We didn't spend any money last year. JIM D1NIZIO: That is even better. ! hope that can happen again. Can ! just ask about the process, because you have all these lines here, previous and amended, and tentative, and primary, and then it says, adopted budget. Will the public see that number before you vote on it, or do you just take the comments, and then you have these numbers in there? How do the adopted budget numbers get on that line? SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: It is my responsibility as Supervisor, one of the jobs ! have, that the rest of the Town Board doesn't have is to develop a Budget. ! sit down with our Comptroller, Mr. Cushman, and we develop the Budget. That is my Budget at that point. Then it goes to the Town Board, and the Town Board reviews it, they cut, they add, and it then becomes the Preliminary Budget, and the Preliminary Budget is what is there now. Then through the hearings, and we hear what people have to say, and if there is you know a very legitimate kind of change or input, we certainly would look at it, but the Board probably will pass this, this evening. JIM D1NIZIO: It will be more than likely. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Let me tell you, Sweetie. ! don't mean to call you Sweetie, Jim. JIM D1NIZIO: You can call me Sweetie. That is a compliment. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: If there is anything left you save it for next year. JIM D1NIZIO: Budgets, in my opinion, have always been frugal. At this time ! am not questioning that. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: So, as you follow across this, what John tries to do is give the Board, you know, the history, so you see what '98, and '99. So, you see the actual monies that were spent, and it helps them. It is a tool to help them determine perhaps what the figure should be this year. JIM D1NIZIO: I have different picture than you do of it. I only go to 2000. But, that is what I was doing, trying to follow it, and you know, I am really kind of looking at the Fire Marshall kind of thing. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: What did we put in for Fire Marshall? TOWN COMPTROLLER CUSHMAN: Both year-round and part-time, that is in the Building Department Budget. JIM D1NIZIO: What does that mean year-round part-time? SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Year-round the Christmas holiday season, so he can go and look at .... 17 lA hours. JIM D1NIZIO: Window decorations and those kinds of things. What about alarm systems, and you know, fire codes and those kinds of things on a part-time basis you feel that he can do it. COUNCILMAN MOORE: Presently he is doing that, and the fact that the Building Department, one we expect the building to drop a little bit with the economy, but the Building Inspectors have power that a Fire Marshal has. So, with the part-time Fire Marshal, and the existing Building Inspector, and maybe this isn't far enough, but it is a half step. JIM D1NIZIO: Well, I don't want you to go that far. COUNCILMAN MOORE: A full-time position pays $50,000, benefits and the whole nine yards, and you say, boy, the guy sits on his keister by April or May. JIM D1NIZIO: No, I understand that, because I do see something coming from being on the Zoning Board, and that is the past two meetings we have required people to put full blown wet systems in their homes. There is a certain safety implied with the wet system that the Town also guarantees, and that they inspect that. You know, they inspect that, and they expect it to fully work, and there should be some mechanism that allows for that to be inspected, so that proof that system has been inspected, so that when you do have a fire it actually works. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: You are talking in a residence. JIM D1NIZIO: These are in residences, yes. Naturally. That is something that we have added recently, because the person wanted to put a room on what we call the third floor. I disagree with it, but it is three flights up, and again, if we are requiring that, you know, then we have got to know, or someone has to know that system works, and some requirement has to be made by the town that says, look, you know, if you are going to do this every two years you have got to have someone come and inspect it, someone sign off and saying this thing works, because you know when the Fire 6 Department shows up, and the house is burning, and that thing hasn't gone off, no, the Town is not responsible in that they can get sued, but certainly it is implied, and I know legally it is probably will not. Again, if we are saying to look you can have this third floor, you can have this bedroom up there, we are going to require you, the Zoning Board is going to require you to have a sprinkler alarm system throughout your house, $70,000 or $80,000, because you are up in that room. I am going to feel pretty bad if I require that, and I see it burning and that didn't go off. Somewhere along the line the Town has to, I believe it is the Town, because I know Riverhead Town does it. Every six months I have got to inspect that system, and say, yes, it is okay, and then it is me. If it doesn't go off, you know I have to prove that I tested it right, and I sign off on it. It is my insurance. So, I wondering if that is what you are doing? But you are not. You are just inspecting decorations to make sure the public is safe. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Commercial. JIM D1NIZIO: Right. You make sure the aisles are clear. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Not residence at this point. You know, Riverhead did put a law in that allows them to go into, because of that fire that they had where some people were injured. JIM D1NIZIO: Some people died. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Easthampton has five inspectors. They do any house in town that wants an inspection. We are not to that point. This is as much as Mr. Fisher has time to do in relation to business and commercial and occupancy, and just you know, it is all safety, health and safety. COUNCILMAN MURPHY: Is that something new? This is the first time I heard that you are requiring when you go to a certain floor a wet sprinkler system. ! think that may be something that has to be addressed. JIM D1NIZIO: It is something I oppose. I voted against it, because just for that reason. The State doesn't require it than why have it? COUNCILMAN MOORE: You guys better make sure the Building Department is aware of that condition you proposed. JIM DINIZIO: They don't get a C.O. unless they have it. You can have it, and it still doesn't work. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: If you get the C.O. it is inspected, but at the time of installation and not two years down the road. JIM D1NIZIO: Right. Two years down the road, or a year down the road, or two days down the road, what happens? Thank you very much. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Thank you, Jim. We will bring it to the attention of the proper places. Anyone else like to address the Town Board in relation to the Budget? 7 CHRIS EMERY: My name is Chris Emery. Mr. Moore, you mentioned in terms of the economy and financial downfall with what has happened in New York. I looked at the Budget and it looks like there is about 14% decrease in projected revenue from the town? Is that correct? COUNCILMAN MOORE: John, is that correct? TOWN COMPTROLLER CUSHMAN: Yes. CHRIS EMERY: With everything I am going through each individual grouping within it, and looking at them, I am finding that the total general government support is showing a 9.2% increase. Would it not be prudent to try and hold that number down since our revenues are going down as well? COUNCILMAN MOORE: That has been attempted. I mean we just had news today for example that our liability insurance, we have been told to expect a 100% increase in liability insurance premiums. We got a 54% increase in Workers Comp that we have been told about. So, those costs we are stuck with them. 17-~A % increase in health insurance costs, my percentages pretty close so far? We have to take half the budget surplus that we had the previous year, and apply it to the budget this year, and I think Jim said it before. He said before. He said, the Budget of this town have been pretty frugal throughout, so the Supervisor and the Town Board going through this process didn't find a lot of places to go cutting just because of what happened in September. CHRIS EMERY: With September in mind the Emergency Preparedness dropped from 13.5 to preliminary of 12.1. Is that prudent given the fact that we are facing potentially more dangerous. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: We certainly did not cut any of the concerns for the safety or the plan for anything that is in place as far as Emergency Preparedness is concerned. CHRIS EMERY: Is there anything that 12.1 does then? SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: There is a lot of things in relation to the safety of the community. I am serious. We work very closely with Millstone. We work very closely with Plum Island. When I came into office the plan, I was not happy with. We have worked on it in relation to Fishers Island, because they are in the ten-mile zone from Millstone. The plan we have in place is in relation to a release from Millstone the threat now is a little different. I have called together all the Emergency Preparedness people. About two weeks ago we met. We had Dr. Huxsoll from the island and we had three people from Millstone. We asked for updates. We wanted to know what the security was now. The Chief of Police is the Deputy for Emergency Preparedness along with Officer Sawicki, because Police Headquarters is open 24 hours a day, so if we have to have a notification there is someone there to take that notification, and then I am notified immediately as is my Deputy's. We at the meeting, which includes the Red Cross, it includes all the Fire Chiefs, all the Fire Departments, it includes all the schools. It is a group of people that have worked on this plan. The ham radio operators, all this is in place. We came together. We discussed what we felt we needed this time, and we felt very strongly that there has to be a better line of communication to the entire community, so that if something happens we are able to notify them with a series of sirens, and they would know what that meant, so we are looking at education of the community. We are looking at a uniform siren system. CHRIS EMERY: Everything you are saying is here now. That is what you are saying. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Everything is. We are doing things. ! went to a meeting the other night in Riverhead, and there was U.S. Custom was there, and oh golly, just assorted agencies, and again they were able to assure us that certain things are being done. There are some things they can't tell you. You know the Sound is being patrolled. They are patrolling in front of Millstone. There was a small plane that was flying over, and by golly, before they knew it there were two jets on each side. So, yes, we are being watched by agencies, but we are working on the education and that part of it. Anyone else like to address the Town Board in relation to the Budget? JOHN KENDALL: My name is John Kendall. ! can see the need. ! just want to say in general that regardless of the fact that some budget costs are necessary, as a person who is on a fixed income representing others or speaking for others, a 7% increase is a cause for some concern. You know it may be necessary or not, but ! am looking forward to other increases in the other years, and it does mean something. It has an economic deficit to it. So, ! just wish the Board would bear that in mind. Thank you. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: ! have always said we spend it wisely. Believe me, it is not just spent to spend it. We try to spend as wisely as we can same as we do at home. JOHN KENDALL: Okay, thank you. CATHERINE STEADMAN: Catherine Steadman. ! may have been misinformed, but was there $190,000 in the budget for the fairground piece. If so what is that for? SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: That is in the Capital Budget. The arrangement or the partnership that we formed with the County is that they will buy the land. No, wait a minute. The $190,000 isn't in there for the fairground. The $190,000 is in there for the Peconic Lane Park. We can't afford to put $5,000 or $6,000 in a budget this year to develop that park, so what Jim did, Jim McMahon who works this budget, cut it ! believe in half two years, so it is $190,000 and $190,000 that year. JIM MCMAHON: That is for Mattituck Park. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: It is for the fairgrounds? So, $190,000 each year to develop that park up there. The deal we made with the County is that they would buy it, and we would develop the recreation, and it has to be active recreation. So, how many acres is it, Craig? Thirty eight acres. CATHERINE STEADMAN: ! haven't seen a tax map. Does that include that whole piece as it runs? SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Where the Strawberry Festival is now. CATHERINE STEADMAN: On the corner piece. Does that extend all the way there to the woods? 9 SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Part of the woods is in that property. COUNCILMAN MURPHY: All the way up, just where the power lines are. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: It goes into the woods. Part of it is wooded, and there is a down slope. CATHERINE STEADMAN: There is actually only two where there are evergreen trees, because formerly Evans, ! don't know who the new owners are, own a piece behind that, that backs up to the properties that are on Westphalia. So, it doesn't go all the way back to the back of the woods. It actually comes forward, because Evans owns the strip, or formerly owns it. So, what is actually in development? What is in the $190,000 or $500,000 going to be used for? SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: They purchased the land. We have to develop it with active recreation. So, what we are looking at putting there is possible tennis courts, because there are no courts up in Mattituck area, baseball diamonds, kids, possibly soccer field. Jim is just now developing the plan that has to go to the County, so they see what kind of recreation we will be providing on that property. The majority, hopefully, will be left empty and free, so the Strawberry Festival can continue to have their fundraising there. It is important that non-profit has a place to raise funds. That money comes back into the community. The Boy Scouts have already requested it for next year for their antique car show. So, it is going to be used. CATHERINE STEADMAN: Does developing it include electricity, lights, bathrooms? SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Yes, and water. CATHERINE STEADMAN: Will we be having hearings on this, because ! really don't want to have large lights in my backyard, and ! had left a message for you when they had the last Fair there. All ! heard was loud music. Now, don't get me wrong. ! have nothing against these people using it for quiet enjoyment, but ! really did not need to hear loudspeakers, and loud music. It sounded like ! was in K-Mart, and they were doing the blue light special. ! heard that all day Saturday. It is a busy road, so we put up with traffic, but ! don't want to have to put up with noise from the Fairgrounds. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Would you please see Jim McMahon, and like ! say he is just developing where things will be situated, and perhaps now is the time to say, Jim, ! would like some input. Okay? So, we can look at exactly where you live, and what is being planned, and we will try to work the best we can with you. CATHERINE STEADMAN: ! am pretty far from it. You have got neighbors that are closer than ! am, and you know, again, we are not against the noise. You know, occasionally we do have people who have parties and they have graduations and things of that sort, but every weekend ! don't want hear it. SUPERVISOR COCHRAN: Okay. Call Jim, please. Anyone else like to address the Town Board? (No response.) If not, ! will close the hearings. 10 Elizabeth A. Neville Southold Town Clerk