Board of Trustees

BOARD OF TRUSTEES September 28, 2020 PRESENT: Mayor Monachino Lapey Trustee Senerchia Trustee Bennett Trustee Cataldi DeLillo Trustee Owen-Michaane Attorney Cornachio Manager Pierpont PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE AND FIRE SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT Mayor Monachino Lapey led those assembled in the Pledge of Allegiance and notified those in attendance where the fire safety exits were located. OPENING REMARKS The Mayor said that Pelham Manor has one active case of Covid. These are confirmed cases through Westchester County via information from New York State. She said that it is so important to wear masks. She said that there is hand sanitizer at the bottom of the stairs. The Mayor said that as we enter flu season we should try to remember health and safety protocols of washing hands, wearing masks and staying six feet apart when in public. The Mayor asked the Village Manager for a brief update on the pedestrian crossing project on the Boston Post Road and Esplanade intersection. Manager Pierpont said that the notice was published in The Journal News on Friday and the notice will be out for four weeks which is the State’s requirement. He said that after that the bids will be evaluated and put in front of the Board for approval so we can get this project moving as soon as possible. Mayor Monachino Lapey asked for an update on the construction at the Four Corners. Manager Pierpont said that there is a proposal to have a new bakery where the Bakery at Four Corners was located. He said that because the retail use and footprint did not change, they did not need to go to the Planning Board. Building permits have been issued for interior demolition and alterations. The Manager said that they have a pretty aggressive time frame, and he said that the Village may have a new bakery by the holidays. The Mayor spoke about opportunities for information and for communication outlets in the Village and the Board’s commitment to be as transparent and communicative as possible. She said that she’s proud of the work she and the Board have done. She said that we’ve made changes and revisions to our website and noted that Trustee Bennett did a tremendous amount of work on that. The Mayor mentioned the Village’s Facebook page and the Nixle text alert system that the Police Chief supervises and which he pioneered in Pelham. She also said that the Village streams this Board meeting live via Fios. People that don’t subscribe to Fios can see the meeting the next day on the Village’s website. She said that she has had questions about opportunities for people who aren’t Fios subscribers. She asked Manager Pierpont for an update. Manager Pierpont said that representatives from Altice, formerly known as Optimum, have been to Village Hall to look at what we have here. He said that Fios was able to do this in a very timely manner. He has spoken to the representatives from Altice and told them that we have Fios set up here and have residents who have their service and we would like to broadcast on their PEG channel. He has had their technicians come to Village Hall three or four times and they have not gotten anywhere. He will continue to follow up and will follow up with them this week. He said that there is no hold up on our end. He said that we want to get it done. We have the network to do that and we just need them to plug into it. The Mayor said that we are very cognizant of requests for information. She said that we’ve added opening remarks to the agenda. They are community announcements and updates on things that are important but are not action items. The Mayor said that this Board formalized and added an opportunity for public comment on the agenda. The Mayor asked the Village Manager for clarification on what the term Abstract of Vouchers means. She said that the Board knows what the process is, but she asked the Village Manager to outline the process for those watching the meeting. The Village Manager said that it is part of our financial internal controls. He said that every Board member receives abstracts for their approval prior to the Board meeting. Each Commissioner gets the abstracts associated with their area of responsibility. Trustee Bennett would get the claims for Police, Trustee Senerchia the claims for Fire, Trustee Cataldi DeLillo the claims for DPW and Trustee Owen-Michaane the claims for Administration. The Trustees get the claims and the backup data for review. The Mayor receives a list of all those vouchers. He said that there is a process to get paid. The Village Manager said that multiple levels of review and approval are done by the Police Chief, Fire Chief and me for the DPW. He then reviews all the vouchers before they are produced. After that, they go to the Board for final approval to pay the vouchers. Mayor Monachino Lapey said that she wants to keep the public apprised of our work under Executive Order 203. She said that we are proceeding according to a methodical, deliberative process. We have indicated that we would look to make the next step this month. The Mayor said that we have reviewed the Order and the Guidance. She said that she, Trustee Annunziata and the Police Chief met with The Bridges of Pelham which is a group of parents of black children formed to address the specific challenges of raising those children in a predominantly white community. The Mayor said that last week Trustee Bennett and she met with the owner of Manor Auto located on Shore Road and Pelhamdale Avenue. She said that this a minority owned business and the owner, Mr. Ganpat, is a longtime community member. He is a resident who grew up here. She said that he wears more than one stakeholder hat. The Mayor said that he has really committed himself to staying engaged with this Board and the Police Department. She thanked him for his time with her, Trustee Bennett and the Police Chief. The Mayor said, as she indicated in the past, that we are now looking to put together additional stakeholder meetings and groups and are in the process of forming a stakeholder working group, which Trustee Bennett will organize while working closely with her. Under the Executive Order, the Police Chief will be involved in the stakeholder group meetings. The Mayor said that we are finalizing placement on the group. She said that she would like to highlight that the Chief continues to take his responsibility under this Order very seriously and he will be attending and advanced training webinar on Thursday which is conducted by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services on the Perspectives on Police Reform. She welcomed Trustee Bennett as the new Police Commissioner and said that she believes that there will be a very seamless flow to her leadership. Police Commissioner Bennett said that she was honored and delighted to be undertaking her role of Police Commissioner. She said that she has very big shoes to fill. She said that last week to start the transition, the Mayor, the Police Chief and she took part in a discussion with a long time resident and business owner. She said it was a very productive, informative and constructive meeting. She said that we look forward to many more of these discussions with our stakeholder working group. Police Commissioner Bennett said that we continue, as we have been over the past few months, to look at and carefully assess all aspects of policing in our community to improve it any and every way possible to ensure that our residents are protected, that they are safe and that all our residents feel comfortable with and have the utmost confidence in our police force. During our continued review, we will be looking at several areas including, but not limited to, police training, police encounters, community outreach, youth engagement and police policy which includes our Vision Statement, our Mission Statement, and our Use of Force Statement. She said that we will be finalizing the members of our working group over the next few days and will probably be announcing its membership by the end of the week. Police Commissioner Bennett said that she looks forward to the work ahead. The Mayor asked Trustee Cataldi DeLillo, who has a Masters degree in Environmental Engineering, to comment on food scraps as a waste management option which the Village has looked at for several years. Trustee Cataldi DeLillo said that she reached out to the former liaison for DPW in the Village of Pelham. That person put her in touch with the current liaison in Pelham. She said both the former and current DPW liaisons will meet with her on Thursday morning, and she said that she will have more details to provide after they meet. ------------ MINUTES FROM THE SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 REGULAR MEETING The Mayor asked if there were any questions, comments or edits. Trustee Cataldi DeLillo had several administrative edits. On the top of page six the second sentence should read The cost associated with it is the same as what we pay now for waste energy. The word not should be deleted and replaced with the word now. She would like the rest of it to read It would be a minimal startup fee, perhaps thousands. The last sentence would stay the same. In the second paragraph, the last sentence should read that the non-county program involved more truck trips. The third paragraph should reflect that Trustee Cataldi DeLillo said that the County announcement was a game changer. The details need to be worked out. She has already spoken with the Village of Pelham in parallel to the Village Manager’s conversations with the City of New Rochelle. The second to last statement should read she said that there will be further conversations with our sister village and we will continue conversations with New Rochelle. If the more beneficial alternative was found to be New Rochelle, we would be on the City’s timeline because of their construction. Trustee Cataldi DeLillo said that on the next page, approximately three quarters of the way down the page, it should read that the Board was very sensitive to the time line. We did the design and floated the money for the DOT work on the Boston Post Road and Esplanade so the work could get started faster. The Mayor said that was a fair and accurate representation of the conversation that transpired. She said that she felt comfortable with these language edits. The Board, with the exception of new Trustee Maurice Owen-Michaane, concurred. After discussion and upon motion duly made and seconded, it was unanimously RESOLVED, that the minutes from the September 14, 2020 Regular meeting be and hereby are approved as amended. Trustee Owen-Michaane abstained from the vote. ------------ REPORTS The Village Treasurer gave the financial reports for June and July. He suggested that the Board focus on the July report since all the information from June was included in this report. The Fiscal Year is still relatively new. These reports show two months of the new year. He said that we should be running at sixteen point six percent on our expenditures. General government is running fourteen point eight percent. Public Safety is at sixteen point six percent, which is right on target, and Transportation, which includes paving, is at eight point two percent. The paving has not started yet. The Treasurer said that it is anticipated that the paving will start the week of October Twelfth. The Treasurer said that the Recreation budget is at twenty six point seven percent. He said that this includes all summertime activities in the parks including water utilities for Shore Park and the other parks. Community services are at ten point nine percent of budget and Employee benefits are at nineteen point two percent. Employee benefits seems high, but he said that the Workers’ Compensation bill for the year comes in June and the entire amount is paid in June. The Treasurer said that this is going to be a challenging fiscal year. The vast majority of paving is being paid for by the utilities that tore up the roads. He said that there is additional money in the budget for paving but said we may wait until Spring to see if we’ll use it for that. Even if the Village doesn’t do additional paving, we will be doing a million dollars in paving this year. Trustee Senerchia questioned whether Public Safety incorporates Police and Fire and was told that it does. Trustee Owen-Michaane asked about the status of building permits this year compared with last year. The Treasurer said that the revenues are a little ahead through July. He said that he tracks those revenues pretty closely. He said that the building permits are ahead of what was budgeted. The Treasurer said that we don’t inflate revenues. He said that it is easier to control expenses than make revenues show up. He said that we are about where we were compared with last year. Building permits have a seasonality. They may slow down during the holidays. After discussion and upon motion duly made and seconded, it was unanimously RESOLVED, that the Village Treasurer reports for June and July be and hereby are approved. ------------- RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN ABSTRACT OF VOUCHERS NUMBERS 27903-27958 After discussion and upon motion duly made and seconded, it was unanimously RESOLVED, that the Mayor be and hereby is authorized to sign abstract of vouchers numbers 27903- 27958. ------------- PUBLIC COMMENT Mayor Monachino Lapey asked if anyone wanted to offer thoughts or ask questions. There were no comments. -------------- EXECUTIVE SESSION The Mayor said that we have a personnel matter regarding Collective Bargaining and the Proposed Monopole. After discussion and upon motion duly made and seconded, it was unanimously RESOLVED, that the Board be and hereby is authorized to conduct an Executive Session to discuss the following: A personnel matter regarding Collective Bargaining and the Proposed Monopole. No action was taken in Executive Session. -------------- ADJOURNMENT Mayor Monachino Lapey asked people to stay safe and said that the link for this meeting will be available tomorrow. She said that she looks forward to seeing everyone soon. There being no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned. -------------- Clerk