March 9, 2010
AGENDA Minutes
Special Meeting of the Village of Solvay Board of Trustees
Tuesday – March 9, 2010
OFFICE OF THE CLERK
ELLEN R. COLELLI
The SPECIAL MEETING of the SOLVAY BOARD OF TRUSTEES at the Village Hall Conference Room, 5:30 pm
PLEDGE TO THE FLAG
ATTENDANCE ROLL CALL: Trustees: Jamie Colucci Present Ronald Benedetti Present David Flaherty Present Thomas Tarolli Present John Fall, Sr. Present Deputy Mayor John McPeak Present Mayor Kathleen Marinelli Present
EXECUTIVE SESSION: 5:35 pm Personnel Issues w/ Michael Tremont and Kevin Gilligan
Motion: Trustee McPeak Second: Trustee Colucci
Ayes - 7 Noes - 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Returned: 5:58 pm
Motion: Trustee McPeak Second: Trustee Fall
Ayes - 7 Noes - 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
PETITIONS: None
PRESENTATIONS: County Legislator Jim Corbett came to this meeting to speak about the
Sales Tax issue. He doesn’t know how much money “we” (the Village) will be getting. He
knows how worried the towns and villages are. He believes there will be some type of change
and will find out more when he attends the caucus for tax meeting on 3-15-10. Everyone is
meeting. He said the City can pre-empt. If they do, then it would be good for the towns and
villages. He knows times are tough and money is tight for the County. Trustee McPeak asks
“How many more layoffs or cuts in pay” can the County handle? The Village of Solvay gets
over 1.1 million dollars now in sales tax. Mr. Corbett explained what his place is in deciding
this issue. He came from Solvay and he will push to protect Solvay. He has already met with
the School District and the Library and will present his findings to Mr. Rhinehart. There are 19
legislators total in this decision and four legislators that want to cut everyone. Regarding the
timing of the sales tax reviews, there is nothing in state or local law that says it has to be every
ten years. Two thirds of the towns contain a village within. If the Village of Solvay gets cut,
then they will have to raise taxes to make the monies taken, back. It was asked if the Towns
actually take their sales tax monies to reduce town taxes to the residents? The Village is not able
to retain any of the monies in surplus taxes. It comes in and goes back out. The Village’s
money comes from the Town and we get 3.5% of what the town gets. Mr. Corbett believes that
interesting things will happen with the Co Generation Plant. He is trying to get more money for
us. The Empire Tissue Company will be an asset when complete. The Board asked when the
decision will be made. Actual monies given will be determined in a few weeks by the end of
April. Something will change with some sort of reduction and he isn’t sure if it will affect the
city. The City hasn’t decided what they will do yet. Whatever the county comes up with,
doesn’t mean we need to wait another ten years to get hit again. Perhaps it can be changed for
review every 5 years or even less. This is so the decrease won’t hurt as much or accumulate to a
large amount. But again, there is no guarantee that every time it comes up that it will be
decreased or increased. He assured the Board that he grew up on Williams Street and will always protect us they best he can. Trustee McPeak asked if this issue was to accelerate consolidation in Onondaga County? He believes not. Trustee Fall asked if the sales tax itself will rise from what it is now. If they can project a deficit for the next few years to get a handle on it, particularly this year and next year, that would be good. If not, it’s going to take a long time to get out of it. Mr. Corbett and others agree that the State is in a mess. For instance, the money they allotted for Van Dyn Nursing Home is gone now. Trustee McPeak asked “please remember us” when you are making this sales tax decision. This issue is about the 3% portion of the sales tax amount. Next year the remaining tax issue will be addressed. Mr. Corbett said he is receiving a lot of phone calls about this. He addressed Supervisor Manny Falcone (who was in attendance) that he will do whatever he can for both the Town and Village. Anyone can also go onto the County’s website for the Comptrollers Report about the sales tax issue. The Board thanked Mr. Corbett for coming to speak.
(Mayor leaves the meeting to speak with Mr. Corbett and Trustee McPeak takes over the
meeting)
MINUTES: Authorization to accept the minutes from the Special Board Meeting on 1-5-10.
MOTION: Trustee Fall
SECOND: Trustee Flaherty
Ayes - 7 Noes - 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Authorization to accept the minutes from the Regular Board Meeting on 2-23-10
MOTION: Trustee Fall
SECOND: Trustee Flaherty
Ayes - 7 Noes - 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Administrative:
The Mayor read a letter from Town of Geddes Parks and Recreation regarding the use of areas in the Village of Solvay that they use for programs and concerts during the summer months. The Mountain Top Playground has been eliminated (due to lack of participation) and a new one will start at the Solvay Elementary School. Camp hours are from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm, Monday through Friday, starting Tuesday, July 6th and end Friday, August 13th, 2010. There will be 3 leaders at each camp for supervision. The other playgrounds are located at Boyd Avenue, Charles Avenue and Montrose Avenue. They will need 2 picnic tables and 2 trash barrels at each site. The Mayor calls for someone to make a motion to approve this. Trustee Tarolli asks if we charge a fee and the Mayor replied no. The room agrees that there should be a charge since the Town charges the Village now. The Mayor says the Board can charge and they decide to discuss this first. No motions made.
Legal: No report
Treasurer:
Mike Fecco reported about an issue with Gail Tarolli. He then passed out a written letter to the Board about her title being placed in the 2009 Organizational Minutes as appointed when she is actually a civil service employee. This does not affect her by appearing in the minutes. He is requesting an amendment with a motion for the original minutes. Trustee McPeak will address this with a resolution later in the meeting. Trustee Tarolli asked why this happened and was it on the original agenda? It was not added to the agenda but did end up in the minutes. Trustee Tarolli asks – how did it get into the minutes? He then addressed this to the Village Clerk. Ellen Colelli responded with yes she does know. The information on the minutes came from a list that the Mayor had given her at the time of the Organizational Meeting on 4-6-09 itself. She simply was told to copy those names to the minutes after the meeting. Trustee Tarolli asks again why wasn’t it on the original agenda? She responds with what was on the agenda came from the Mayor for the meeting. And what ended up in the minutes was handed to her by the Mayor. There was a question at that time whether Gail Tarolli may be the Deputy Clerk but then changed. That may be the original sheet that the Mayor had with that info on it and then she handed that one to the Clerk and not the revised copy. Again, Trustee Tarolli asks the same question – How did that get into the minutes? If it wasn’t on the agenda then she should have copied what was on the agenda to the minutes and not changed it. Ellen says she didn’t make a change herself, she simply copied the sheet that the Mayor handed her after the meeting. She also advised that this was the new administration’s “first” meeting and her first day as Village Clerk. There was a lot of confusion on that day and the agenda was rushed for the meeting. Trustee Tarolli said she was not answering the question and the Clerk had no other reason for this happening. Trustee McPeak asked what effect this has on Gail and Ellen responded with no effect at all. She will add a resolution to the 4-6-09 meeting after it is voted on tonight and that will also be contained in this meetings minutes. Trustee Tarolli said that Gail Tarolli is a typist and not appointed. The room agreed and reassured Trustee Tarolli again that this will be amended and never had any effect on Gail’s employment whatsoever. Trustee Tarolli repeated his question again and said we have to watch what gets put on these agendas. He asked the Clerk to be more careful. This issue in question was from the 4-6-09 meeting.
A question was put to the Board about including an insert on behalf of the RELAY FOR LIFE in June 2010. Mike said the Board has to vote.
(Mayor returns to the meeting and continues)
Mike Fecco confirmed another meeting regarding the budget on March 15th with the Board. (The Mayor reads administrative information – see info in Administrative Report above).
Electric:
John Montone reported and there will be no shortage according to the NYPA for March and April but they have a lot of concerns for the summer months. It may go up. The MEUA semi-annual meeting will be held here locally in Syracuse at the end of April at Embassey Suites. Look for your information and if anyone goes, then we have to have the Board approve a motion for the Village to pay for it. This needs to be on an agenda by the 23rd of April. John will be sending something to the Union about the upcoming work that will be coming out on the design build of the distribution that we were talking about. Officially he has to notify them. Trustee Tarolli asked when the electric meeting was and John responded with the 25th of March. The Mayor commented on noticing the new light poles being put up at the Village Hall. She also asked if he was receiving a list of the streetlights that are out from the Police. Chief Cox suggested Ants Alberti do that job and the Board agreed. Trustee Fall asked if the LED lights are being put in and John said yes. They all will be LED lights. This is an ongoing project – more have to be installed. They will go up on the West end as soon as the streetscape project is completed.
Public Works:
Mark Cazzolli reported that they are moving quickly on the new Highway Garage. The sub grade should be done by this Friday and they will set up the steel on Monday. The building should take 55 days. The discussion of garbage contracts came up and everyone got copies of the Geddes contract – yes. Mark suggest everyone read through that and see what the specifics are and etc. Mark handed out a report on how many units we have (2400) roughly. Right now we are just over 400,000. He referred to sections of the report stating that there is a tipping fee per ton of $69.00 each and you have to consider fuel charges, insurance and maintenance which may amount to $11,000 per year on average. Total it should be between $40,000 to $50,000 per year for two vehicles and interest. Trustee McPeak asked if we needed the trash compactor vehicle and the recycle vehicle – yes. He feels we have to meet the 400,000 threshold and this helps to meet 200,000 of it. This doesn’t have to be decided now as the four men (2 already went to electric) in highway that are there for garbage, are still in the budget to be paid. But as someone goes to electric or retires, then without the men we can look at outsourcing so no one loses their job. We may have to consider about a quarter of a million dollars for a new truck also at some point (Trustee Fall). Trustee McPeak suggested that Mark pursue this further for information. Let’s see what comes back. Perhaps if there was a possibility of joining in a contract with the company that does the Town of Geddes – we may be able to get a better rate down the road. A lot more thought needs to go into this and we need more hard numbers from outside. Trustee Tarolli asked Mark what the last page was and it is referring to the tonnage of the last few years and to special pickups plus the regular trash.
Police:
Chief Cox reported on the Phase II training. The department made $107.00 by charging others and it cost the Village nothing. He also got the phone number from Mark Cazzolli for the gentleman that does the appraising for the auctions. He has 2 police cars to be looked at and when he gets the figures, he will give them to Mike Fecco. Chief is working on getting prices for new police vehicles – state bids. He is getting prices on all three (3) cars that they offer. The Mayor asked what the helicopters were doing flying around Sunday night. The Chief said he had no idea. He said Air one had nothing listed for that evening when he checked. Other trustees said they heard and saw the helicopter also. Trustee Fall came forward with the information that someone was breaking into cars on Copleigh Drive and running through residents’ backyards. He said it was being investigated by the Town of Geddes Police and the NY State Troopers.
Library:
Cara Burton reported that the Library did receive the grant monies for $5,000.00. This is for energy conservation education.
Codes:
Donna Taggart reported that the trial had been cancelled for 516 Woods Road. The bank is going to get involved now. They want the building down. The bank says wait because it may be worth something. Not sure which out of town bank this is. Maybe in Rochester. She said she did a petition on the codes issue on 2nd Street of the man who came into the Board meeting about the cats and birds and food left out. She and Bosco went over several times and really didn’t find as much as the neighbor said there was. This may be a neighbor dispute over a driveway. They did find one cat in the hallway but not a lot of debris like the photos described. The garbage there was then put out for trash day. Didn’t see human food or litter around. And actually found a couple of violations on the neighbor who turned this in originally. They will monitor this situation. Donna said she really didn’t find anything and perhaps if that neighbor is retaliating for some reason, then he might want to advise the Police of this. Trustee McPeak asked if they were happy with the visit. She seemed to believe so. The Chief announced that we need to be careful of coyotes. There is one male coyote about 80-90 lbs. running through Solvay especially around the Behind the apartments on Charles Avenue, Orchard Road, Scarboro, Heritage Circle area. They look more like a fox, ears down and run extremely fast. Look alittle like a dog (german shepard) but wild and mangy. Anyone leaving out garbage may be attracting this animal. These animals seem to be getting brave and worries are for the children who may be playing in their backyards. The Chief says they have used a trapper before but wants to keep this coyote issue as low key as possible. The Village pays the trapper but the individuals who see the coyote have to give him permission to be on their property to setup traps and watch for this creature. This trapper killed 3 last year. The Chief will refer any residents to the trapper but they have to deal with the trapper. He has had no citizen sign up for this as of now. The room discusses this issue. They run where there are food sources. Trustee McPeak asked if these animals are diseased. Chief said the ones last year were. They had mange and are contagious. They may even have rabies. Trustee Fall is concerned for the children near the library and the school. Because we have a large deer population, this is why they are around. John Simiele (Orchard Road) in attendance remarked that they may have gone through his garbage. The Mayor asked about the garbage at Cogswell and 6th. Donna said a letter was sent out. And the garbage was put out. Trustee Tarolli got the call and he went to take pictures on Saturday morning.
RESOLUTIONS:
- Authorization to pay W-M Engineers their invoice for the period of 1/1/10 to 1/31/10 in the amount of $3,990.60 for engineering services.
MOTION: Trustee Flaherty
SECOND: Trustee Fall
Ayes - 7 Noes - 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Trustee Tarolli asked about the charges for the Honeywell drainage to Mark Cazzolli. It was correct. He asked about Gertrude Pool charges and wondered why they did a stop work order. The last stop work order was in November so they may have missed it then and charged us now. Did they get involved in the Barclay plug main? Yes. Trustee Benedetti asked if they were still on the highway garage and Mark said yes. But as soon as that’s done, they are done. W-M was there taking soil samples today. Mark Cazzolli said W-M is doing us a service for the work being done.
- Authorization to approve the hiring of two (2) people as Apprentice Lineworker Trainees for the Electric Department, Joe DeGennaro and Marcus Lukins, effective 3-15-2010.
MOTION: Trustee McPeak
SECOND: Trustee Benedetti
AYES - 7 NOES – 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
- Authorization to approve the write-off of a balance of $62.64 for electric charges for Movie Gallery. This company has filed for bankruptcy and it would be far more costly to file with the bankruptcy court than to just write it off.
MOTION: Trustee Colucci
SECOND: Trustee McPeak
AYES - 7 NOES - 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
- Authorization to change the resolution approved on 1-26-10 regarding Anthony DeStefano’s reappointment date. Per the retirement system, Mr. DeStefano’s reappoinment date should be January 22, 2010.
MOTION: Trustee Benedetti
SECOND: Trustee McPeak
AYES - 7 NOES - 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
(The following resolutions were added on by the Board of Trustees and Mayor)
- Authorization to remove Typist II Gail Tarolli from the 4-6-2009 Organizational Minutes stating that she was listed as an appointed official. This was erroneous and is to be recognized that she is a Civil Service Employee and has no appointed term and removed from the 4-6-09 minutes.
MOTION: Trustee McPeak
SECOND: Trustee Benedetti
AYES - 7 NOES - 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
- Authorization to approve the evaluation of the Electric System, which should take six (6) months, at a cost of $52,500.00 (not to exceed) per Mike Feeco. He has chosen Mr. Neil Collins to conduct the inventory study. This will be paid for by the Electric/Cash account.
MOTION: Trustee McPeak
SECOND: Trustee Tarolli
AYES - 7 NOES - 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
NEW BUSINESS: None
EXECUTIVE SESSION: 7:18 pm Contractual Issues/Parks Letter
Motion: Trustee McPeak
Second: Trustee Colucci
Ayes - 7 Noes - 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Returned: 7:31 pm
Motion: Trustee McPeak
Second: Trustee Fall
Ayes - 7 Noes - 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
- Authorization for the Village to allow the Town of Geddes to use the parks and gazebo for their concerts and summer programs.
MOTION: Trustee Flaherty
SECOND: Trustee Colucci
A Public Hearing will be held at the Library tomorrow at 2:30 pm. Trustee McPeak asked how important it was for the Board to be there. The Mayor replied that she went to the last one and basically is the proposal for the Empire Tissue Company. Trustee Tarolli asked if this is for the pilot figure. Not sure. This is informative with the details to create the project. How much they will pay the village for taxes is unknown at this time. Trustee McPeak asked about the electric program on this and Mike Fecco said John Montone will be taking care of that. Mike doesn’t think they will be a big as Solvay Paperboard. Mike Fecco will be going to this hearing.
ADJOURNMENT: 7:35 pm
MOTION: Trustee McPeak
SECOND: Trustee Benedetti
Ayes - 7 Noes - 0 MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Respectfully submitted,
Ellen R. Colelli
