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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB Minutes 2004-12-30December 30, 2004 Town Board Meeting Adopted February 7, 2005 1 Year-End Meeting of Ithaca Town Board Thursday, December 30 at 10:00 a.m. 215 North Tioga Street, Ithaca, New York THOSE PRESENT: Supervisor Valentino, Councilwoman Grigorov; Councilman Lesser, Councilman Burbank, Councilman Engman, Councilman Stein, STAFF PRESENT: Tee-Ann Hunter, Town Clerk; Dan Walker, Director of Engineering; Fred Noteboom, Highway Superintendent; Jonathan Kanter, Director of Planning; Al Carvill, Budget Officer; Judy Drake, Human Resources Manager; Andy Frost, Director of Building and Zoning EXCUSED: Councilwoman Gittelman CALL TO ORDER: Supervisor Valentino called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. and led the assemblage in the Pledge of Allegiance. Agenda Item No. 3 - Discussion of Cash Management and Investment Policies and Procedures The Board received copies of the Cash Management and Investment Policies and Procedures which will be under consideration at the January 10, 2005 Organizational Meeting. Agenda Item No. 5 – Appointment of Receiver of Taxes TB RESOLUTION NO. 2004-200: Reappointment Receiver of Taxes BE IT RESOLVED, Deborah Kelley is hereby re-appointed as Receiver of Taxes, for a term continuing to January 1, 2006, at the annual salary of $ 5463.51. MOVED: Supervisor Valentino SECONDED: Councilman Burbank VOTE: Supervisor Valentino, aye; Councilwoman Grigorov, aye; Councilman Burbank, aye; Councilman Engman, aye. Carried unanimously. Ms. Kelley signed the Oath of Office Book and was sworn in by Town Clerk Hunter. Agenda Item No. 6 – Appointment of Planning Board Chair TB RESOLUTION NO. 2004-201: Appointment of Planning Board Chair for the Year 2005 BE IT RESOLVED that the governing Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby appoints Fred T. Wilcox, III to serve as Chair of the Planning Board for the term January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005. December 30, 2004 Town Board Meeting Adopted February 7, 2005 2 MOVED: Supervisor Valentino SECONDED: Councilwoman Grigorov VOTE: Supervisor Valentino, aye; Councilwoman Grigorov, aye; Councilman Burbank, aye; Councilman Engman, aye. Carried unanimously. Agenda Item No. 7 – Consider Appointment of Zoning Board of Appeals Chair TB RESOLUTION NO. 2004-202: Appointment of Zoning Board of Appeals Chair for the Year 2005 BE IT RESOLVED that the governing Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby appoints Kirk Sigel to serve as Chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals for the term January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005. MOVED: Supervisor Valentino SECONDED: Councilman Engman VOTE: Supervisor Valentino, aye; Councilwoman Grigorov, aye; Councilman Burbank, aye; Councilman Engman, aye. Carried unanimously. Agenda Item No. 8 – Consider Appointment of the Conservation Board Chair TB RESOLUTION NO. 2004-203: Appointment of Conservation Board Chair for the Year 2005 BE IT RESOLVED that the governing Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby appoints Lenore Durkee to serve as Chair of the Conservation Board for the term January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005. MOVED: Supervisor Valentino SECONDED: Councilman Burbank VOTE: Supervisor Valentino, aye; Councilwoman Grigorov, aye; Councilman Burbank, aye; Councilman Engman, aye. Carried unanimously Agenda Item No. 9 – Appointment of Planning Board Member TB RESOLUTION NO. 2004-204: Appointment of Planning Board Member BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca appoints Rod Howe to serve on the Planning Board for the term of office beginning January 1, 2005 through December 31, 2011. December 30, 2004 Town Board Meeting Adopted February 7, 2005 3 MOVED: Supervisor Valentino SECONDED: Councilman Engman VOTE: Supervisor Valentino, aye; Councilwoman Grigorov, aye; Councilman Burbank, aye; Councilman Engman, aye. Carried unanimously. Agenda Item No. 10 – Appointment of Zoning Board Member TB RESOLUTION NO. 2004-205: Appointment of Zoning Board of Appeals Member BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby appoints Ronald Krantz to serve on the Zoning Board of Appeals for a term of office beginning January 1, 2005 and ending December 31, 2009. MOVED: Supervisor Valentino SECONDED: Councilwoman Grigorov VOTE: Supervisor Valentino, aye; Councilwoman Grigorov, aye; Councilman Burbank, aye; Councilman Engman, aye. Carried unanimously. Councilman Lesser arrives at 10:10 a.m. Agenda Item No. 11 - Consider Appointment of Conservation Board Members TB RESOLUTION NO. 2004-206: Appointment of Conservation Board Members BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby appoints the following individuals to the Conservation Board for terms beginning January 1, 2005 and ending December 31, 2006: Brent Katzmann Lenore Durkee Eva Hoffmann MOVED: Supervisor Valentino SECONDED: Councilman Lesser VOTE: Supervisor Valentino, aye; Councilwoman Grigorov, aye; Councilman Lesser, aye; Councilman Burbank, aye; Councilman Engman, aye. Carried unanimously. Agenda Item No. 12 – Consider Recommendation for Appointment to Tompkins County Youth Board December 30, 2004 Town Board Meeting Adopted February 7, 2005 4 TB RESOLUTION NO. 2004-207: Recommendation for Appointment to Tompkins County Youth Board BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby recommends to the Tompkins County Legislature that M. Gale Smith be appointed to the Tompkins County Youth Board as a Town of Ithaca representative. MOVED: Supervisor Valentino SECONDED: Councilman Engman VOTE: Supervisor Valentino, aye; Councilwoman Grigorov, aye; Councilman Lesser; Councilman Burbank, aye; Councilman Engman, aye. Carried unanimously. OTHER BUSINESS County Boards and Committees Supervisor Valentino commented that Mr. Smith has diligently served the Town as representative to this board for many years. She is concerned that the County Youth Board has 50% vacancy of people who are supposed to be attending. She finds that troublesome. It is a big board and Supervisor Valentino thought the County might want to think how they can have enough in attendance to have a quorum for making recommendations. Another thing that has bothered Supervisor Valentino is the fact the Town Board does not have the authority to appoint their own representative. Under the County’s charter, the Town only gets to recommend a representative that the County can choose not to accept. The County can, instead of taking the Town’s recommendation, appoint someone else on the Town’s behalf. Supervisor Valentino felt the County could impose qualifications for the representative, but should not have the authority to appoint a representative. She wants to ask the County to reconsider this practice and asked if the Board had any objections to her making such a recommendation. Councilman Engman added that the County had this same authority over the Town’s Environmental Management Council appointment. Councilman Burbank reported an analogous situation with the Pegasys Oversight Committee in which the Town recommends a representative, but that reprehensive has to be accepted by the City. Supervisor Valentino thought that had been taken out of the contract. Regarding the vacancies on the County Youth Board, Councilman Engman asked if the vacancies were from the Town. Supervisor Valentino told him, no, they have a lot of different seats. She thought the County had run into a lot of trouble with a lot of their committees having very high vacancy rates. At one point the County talked about appointing people from outside the County. Instead of that, Supervisor Valentino felt they should re-think their committees so they could get people to attend. Councilman Engman reported his experience with County boards and committees has been that when the organization is doing significant work you have no trouble filling the slots. It’s when the committees start just receiving and listening to reports that they start having trouble. It would seem to Councilman Engman that they ought to be looking at what the boards do December 30, 2004 Town Board Meeting Adopted February 7, 2005 5 and what significance it has and make their work important because once it’s important the people appointed to it will come and municipalities will make appointments. Supervisor Valentino commented on the recent statement by County Legislators in support of their pay increase that they devote 30 hours per week to their jobs as legislator. Supervisor Valentino thought they should be working harder to get their time down. She felt they were micromanaging, doing too many committee or too many things if, as an elected official, they are putting in 30 hours per week. They need to take a close look at themselves. Councilman Lesser commented that while they have a rather large budget, most of it is entirely beyond their control. Supervisor Valentino asked the Board if it was okay for her to pass on their concerns to the County. There were no objections. Agenda Item No. 4 – Approval of Year End Abstract TB RESOLUTION NO. 2004-208: Town of Ithaca Year End Abstract WHEREAS, the following numbered vouchers have been presented to the Ithaca Town Board for approval of payment; and WHEREAS, the said vouchers have been audited for payment by the said Town Board; now therefore be it RESOLVED, that the governing Town Board hereby authorizes the payment of the said vouchers in the total for the amounts indicated. VOUCHER NOS. 9683 -9772 General Fund Townwide $ 94,820.04 General Fund Part Town $ 5,021.38 Highway Fund $ 11,050.60 Water Fund $ 257,741.90 Sewer Fund $ 4,811.36 Phase II South Hill Water Transmission $ 21,254.00 Risk Retention Fund $ 278.47 Fire Protection Fund $ 136,671.38 Forest Home Lighting District $ 181.66 Glenside Lighting District $ 62.19 Renwick Heights Lighting District $ 86.89 Eastwood Commons Lighting District $ 179.08 Clover Lane Lighting District $ 20.63 Winner’s Circle Lighting District $ 60.62 Burleigh Drive Lighting District $ 53.75 West Haven Road Lighting District $ 237.27 December 30, 2004 Town Board Meeting Adopted February 7, 2005 6 Coddington Road Lighting District $ 140.14 Trust and Agency $ 5,208.88 TOTAL: $ 537,880.24 MOVED: Councilwoman Grigorov SECONDED: Councilman Engman VOTE: Supervisor Valentino, aye; Councilwoman Grigorov, aye; Councilman Lesser, aye; Councilman Burbank, aye; Councilman Engman, aye. Carried unanimously. CORRESPONDENCE Councilman Burbank acknowledged the letter regarding the completion of the Glenside parkland donation and was very happy to see it had moved forward. He stated he was a little puzzled by the Town’s request that the donor pay the coming year’s taxes on the property. He asked for the rationale of that request. Attorney Barney told him it is the Town’s standard operating procedure. Parks are normally presented as part of the development process, as a condition of development. The Town absorbs the cost of the attorney’s fees for the title search and so forth, which is the largest share of it. But the Town, because we are a tax exempt entity, feels that, basically, any taxes that are to be paid on there should be paid by the developer up until the time the property converts to tax exempt property. In this situation, this is the only tax bill that will be involved because it will be converted as of March 1st to tax exempt. It is to minimize the cost to the Town of acquiring these properties. Mr. Barney reported that he had raised the issue whether the Town should deviate from this practice for this property and the Mountin subdivision. The feeling was that, because the Town does require this of anybody that is giving a park as part of a subdivision process, the Town should adhere to the policy in these instances. Councilman Burbank commented that he understood the rationale but added that it somehow seems like a not very generous way of saying thank you to frequently what is potentially a generous act. He realizes that for somebody developing property this has basically been negotiated, but there are other situations when people are actually giving something they don’t have to and he wished that the Town could be a little more supportive. Supervisor Valentino remarked that many times the donation of land is also very financially beneficial for the people that are turning it over to the Town because of the tax breaks. Mr. Barney stated there was no objection expressed in regard to the Glenside Park donation and that they had collected the taxes in relation to the Mountin subdivision at yesterday’s closing. OTHER BUSINESS Meeting with Ithaca Journal Supervisor confirmed with the Board a meeting with the Ithaca Journal editorial board around 4:15 or 4:30 p.m. January 10, 2005 before the Town Board Meeting. Peter Stein arrives. December 30, 2004 Town Board Meeting Adopted February 7, 2005 7 Agenda Item No. 13 – Swearing in of Town Officials Justice Klein signed the Oath of Office Book and was sworn in by Ms. Hunter. OTHER BUSINESS Cornell Supervisor Valentino reported that John Guttenberger came in to speak with her and Jonathan Kanter about setting up meetings between Cornell and the Town to look at Cornell’s future development. As an example, Supervisor Valentino cited something that had just gotten approved by the City that will have traffic impacts on the Town. As more of this development begins to happen, the more impact it is going to have on the Town. Mr. Guttenberger, Gary Stewart, and Bill Wynn feel there should be some dialogue with Town and a look at transportation. Maybe at some time they would hire a consultant. Supervisor Valentino thought what was generating this is a fear that, at some point, the Town might say, “stop”. They would rather work with us than have us end up at loggerheads at some point. They have proposed a January 6, 2005 meeting between 10:30 and 12:00 noon at Town Hall. Councilman Lesser would need to check his availability. He suggested another possibility would be to have a preliminary report made to the Transportation Committee who could discuss and pass on information to the full board. The discussion comes at an appropriate time because the Transportation Committee is going to pass on a new Town Highway Map for Town Board approval. The map includes a reserve of right-of-ways for anticipated future roads. Joint Youth Commission Supervisor Valentino told the Board that she would be sending out funding recommendations from the Joint Youth Commission in the packet of January Town Board materials. Bolton Point Union Contract Supervisor Valentino told the Board this item would be before them at their January meeting. The contract has already been approved by the union and by the Southern Cayuga Lake Intermunicipal Water Commission. Pretreatment Sewer Agreements Supervisor Valentino told the Board there will be Pretreatment Sewer Agreements before them at the January meeting. These are agreement between the Town of Ithaca, the City of Ithaca, Cayuga Heights, and the Town of Dryden. Mr. Walker explained that the sewage treatment plants are design to treat residential sewage. Pretreatment means that if an industry comes in and they have a stronger sewage, they have to pre-treat it to meet our residential standards. There is currently very little industry within the Town’s service area. Most of it is in the City. These agreements are something the Environmental Protection Agency requires to make sure there are no pass-through violations of chemicals from the plant. It protects the plant and makes sure we can provide the treatment required under our permit with the Department of Environmental Protection. It sets up provisions for fines and regulation. December 30, 2004 Town Board Meeting Adopted February 7, 2005 8 First Street Interceptor Supervisor Valentino told the Board that the First Street Interceptor is long overdue to be rebuilt. Its location is in the City but the Town owns 40% of the flow capacity through this interceptor. The Town has received an engineering report and cost outline from Larry Fabbroni. Mr. Walker has not yet had a chance to closely analyze it. The City is hopeful they can start construction in February. Supervisor Valentino asked Mr. Barney if the Town needed to go through the whole public hearing and approval process. Mr. Barney told her it is any kind of an expansion then, yes, the Town will need to go through the above-mentioned process. Mr. Walker stated it was an expansion of capacity at the sewer lines. Mr. Barney recommended that the Town go through the public hearing and approval process. Cass Park Proposal Supervisor Valentino reported the City of Ithaca has selected Mayor Peterson, Liz Vance, Robin Korherr, and Steve Thayer to serve on the shared recreational facilities committee. Supervisor Valentino, Peter Stein, and Al Carvill will be serving as Town representatives. Supervisor Valentino asked Councilwoman Grigorov asked she would be willing to sit in on the meetings. Councilwoman Grigorov stated she would and they discussed possible meeting dates. 2005 To-Do List Supervisor Valentino shared her 2005 To Do List with the Board and invited them to give her their suggestions of things they think should be on the Board’s agenda for 2005. Items on Supervisor Valentino’s list were as follows: - Affordable Housing – have the Codes and Ordinance Committee look at how we could enhance affordable housing in the Town. One of the suggestions is that, perhaps, any subdivision proposal that comes in would have to have at least 10% of its building stock in the affordable range. - Public Health and Safety- keep these issues in the forefront - Noise Control - continue work with Ithaca College regarding student parties and noise - Wind Power – gain an understanding of this as an electricity provider option - Roadwork – be in the loop of road repairs and improvements the County is planning. - Deer Control - follow-up on report prepared by the Conservation Board - County and Town relations – work to strengthen this relationship. - City and Town relations – work to strengthen this relationship. Department heads will be bringing their 2005 goals and priorities to the January 10, 2005 meeting. December 30, 2004 Town Board Meeting Adopted February 7, 2005 9 Jon Kanter asked that Lake Source Cooling monitoring by added to the list and reported he had received a draft proposal from Benchmark Engineering. Mr. Kanter anticipates a formal proposal will come before the Board at their January 10th meeting. Supervisor Valentino reported that she had informally mentioned a cost sharing arrangement to Cornell’s John Guttenberg. Councilman Burbank felt entering into a community-wide discussion about the creation of a dog park should be a 2005 priority. Councilman Engman reported that he had been deeply involved in previous negotiations regarding a dog park and had a file of information he would be willing to share. Supervisor Valentino reported hearing that Pat Pryor was intending to set up a meeting to discuss the issue and planned to include the Town. She will let Mr. Engman and Mr. Burbank know if and when that will occur. Councilman Lesser wondered if there was anyway working through the Association of Towns or governments in New York State, or municipalities that may have sister cities in Southeast Asia, the Town could try to do something for the people impacted by the tsunami. The effects of the tragedy are going to go on for a long time; perhaps this community could provide some planning assistance or continuing support. March Town Board Meeting Councilman Stein announced that he would not be present for the March Town Board Meeting and asked that consideration of the Supervisor’s “short-list” and subsequent budget modifications be discussed at the April meeting or that the Board schedule a meeting later in February. The Board agreed to hold this discussion at the April meeting. Agenda Item No. 14 - Executive Session On motion by Supervisor Valentino, seconded by Councilman Lesser, the Board entered into executive session at 11:15 a.m. for discussion of a personnel matter. On motion by Supervisor Valentino, seconded by Councilman Lesser, the Board returned to regular session at 11:35 a.m. Adjournment On motion by Councilman Burbank the meeting was adjourned at 11:36 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Tee-Ann Hunter Town Clerk Next Meeting January 10, 2005