Mayor & Village Board of Trustees

VILLAGE OF PELHAM BOARD OF TRUSTEES REGULAR MEETING TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018, 7:30 PM VILLAGE HALL – 195 SPARKS AVENUE, PELHAM, NY 10803 Minutes 1. Call To Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Roll Call 4. Mayor’s Report 5. Trustees’ Reports 6. Interim Village Administrator’s Report 7. Public Comments # Agenda Items: Non-Recurring Items 8. Discussion on Changing Date of Local Election 9. Discussion on Proposals Received for Professional Valuation Services of Certain Village Owned Parcels 10. Other Business Recurring Items 11. Authorizing Accounts Payable 12. Authorizing the Minutes of: September 13, 2018 13. Adjournment to Executive Session Next Regularly Scheduled BOT Meetings: Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Tuesday, December 11, 2018 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Item # 1 – Meeting called to order: The meeting of the Board of Trustees was called to order by Mayor Volpe at 7:30 pm. Item # 2 – Pledge of Allegiance: The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mayor Volpe. Item # 3 – Roll Call: Attendee Name Present Absent Late Mayor Volpe ☒ ☐ ☐ Trustee Ferrara ☒ ☐ ☐ Trustee Kagan ☒ ☐ ☐ Trustee Kamal Eldahry ☒ ☐ ☐ Trustee Mullen ☒ ☐ ☐ Trustee Potocki ☒ ☐ ☐ Trustee Spira-Cohen ☒ ☐ ☐ Interim Village Administrator Scelza ☒ ☐ ☐ Village Attorney Smith ☐ ☒ ☐ Mayor Volpe welcomed Omar Small, who was in the audience and said that he would be starting as Village Administrator on November 26th. Mayor’s Report: Mayor Volpe reported that on the 24th of November, the Pelham Half Marathon will be run. He said that there would be some street closures and he encouraged residents to come out and support the runners and the organizer’s including Todd Cross. He said that it is a great local event with hundreds and hundreds of runners this year. He also encouraged people to support our local businesses by making purchases during and after the race. Mayor Volpe gave an update on the monopole proposal by New York State’s contractor Crown Castle. He said that he has been told that they are potentially looking for other locations for the 130-ft monopole but he had nothing more specific than that. He reported that the bridge leading into Mt. Vernon at Boulevard West and Third Street is progressing and hopefully, the work will be done quickly and there will not be too many more closures. Mayor Volpe said that he, Trustee Mullen, Trustee Ferrara and Ms. Patti Dwyer, Village consultant of Source Municipal Solutions, sat in on a meeting with one of the developers who responded to the Village RFP. Mayor Volpe explained that he and Miss Bourne, Village Planning consultant from Sam Page 2 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Schwartz, had a phone call with the second developer and in item number nine the Board is going to discuss the proposals with respect to getting appraisals on any Village property that would be or could be covered in any agreement with a developer. Trustees’ Report: Trustee Ferrara gave a quick report in case any other trustees have received any calls or emails from Colonial parents who are concerned about the sewage problem that they've had in the school for the past couple of years and to please let them know that we're working on it. Mr. Scelza is already working with H2M Engineering to get bids to take a look at the sewage lines with the cameras and try to figure out what is going on. Deputy Mayor Kagan reported that due to unforeseen injuries to a few members of the police department, the overtime in that department is trending higher and he wanted his colleagues to know that we should expect their overtime number to come in a little bit higher than planned. He was pleased that Suez was starting to finish the 4th Avenue restoration paving for a gas main replacement job. He said that he knew it was a bit of an inconvenience to have the street ripped up but that the huge stretch of street is probably 150,000- $200,000 worth of paving that the Village does not have to pay for. He wanted the public to know that the Village received a retainer letter to engage a counsel for the Cablevision/Altice franchise renewal and hopefully they would be able to make some progress with that. Lastly, he reported that if you've been around social media, you'll see that we have a coyote that lives in the Pelham and Pelham Manor area. He explained that if you see the coyote, there's guidance that the village and the police have posted. If you're concerned, you can call the police department. Hopefully, coyotes won't bother you if you make enough noise. He warned that if you have a small animal, make sure that you keep your animals close and don't leave them outside. Trustee Kamal Eldahry- Nothing to report Trustee Mullen- Nothing to report Trustee Potocki- Nothing to report Page 3 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Trustee Spira-Cohen reported that the Sustainability Advisory Board and Chris Scelza, Interim Village Administrator, met with NYPA and had very a productive meeting regarding the LED street lighting design. She said that it was good to hear through the design process in terms of what the options are. The Sustainability Board had questions and provided some feedback. She said NYPA actually provided pretty detailed comments back in terms of the questions and the SAB have been pretty happy working with them so far. She said to stay tuned for more updates on that project. Interim Village Administrator’s Report: Nothing to report Item # 7 – Public Comments John Cassone, Seventh Avenue, commented that he had read a very nice article on the Pelhamplus website entitled, "Village of Pelham Trustees commend fellow town residents: Volpe and Biaggi, candidates on November 6th election ballot." He said he was so pleased to see this in the paper because in this day of dissension in the political scene, it is great to see that our community is working as a unit. He congratulated all elected officials and thanked them for their service. Page 4 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Non-Recurring Items Item # 8 – Discussion on Changing Date of Local Election Mayor Volpe opened the discussion regarding the possibility of changing the date of the local election which he said has been much debated in our village and our neighboring community, Pelham Manor. He said that he had drafted a resolution which he had shared with the Board members that they would have to pass to get the item on the ballot for the March election. He said that there were a number of questions that had come up and previously the Board discussed putting the item on the agenda for further discussion. He said if the Board were to consider a resolution, it would have to be passed by a majority vote. Then there would be a referendum question that would go on the ballot in the March election. He suggested that the Board discuss the issue and entertain any public comment but he did not think the Board should act on the resolution at this meeting because it had not been noticed to the public. He explained that our current Village election is in March, which is fairly typical in villages around the state. He went on to say that some villages have chosen to change and go to a November election for local officials and time that with state assembly districts, state senate districts, gubernatorial elections, senatorial elections, congressional elections, and presidential elections. He briefly explained that the draft resolution says that that the majority of the Board thinks that we should have a referendum question on whether or not the Village elections should be moved from March to November. He felt that one of the important issues to discuss about this is the question of how long elected officials would serve. Depending on the outcome of the March referendum, if it were to occur, that a person could run for office and not know exactly how long they would serve because some terms could potentially be extended or shortened. Trustee Eldahry felt that the first question should be, when does this resolution need to be voted on in order to place it on the March ballot and is there an actual window. She clarified that the answer for that is for a referendum to be on the March election, the trustees have to pass a resolution between no later than 36 days prior to the election and no earlier than 60. She said another question was regarding whether a referendum can be held on another date, for example, in January instead of March and she explained that the answer is yes but obviously, the date to pass the resolution by the Board would correspond. Anna Riehl, 222 Loring, asked if there could be language on the ballot or in the referendum to allow for the extension or the shortening of the terms of the people that are elected. Page 5 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Mayor Volpe said that this is why he wanted to have this discussion publicly. He said that the Board got a presentation that gave us the initial framework but that this process is complicated and these issues needed to be figured out. Trustee Eldahry felt another question that should be asked is what villages have actually gone through with this and she listed eight Villages out of approximately 42 in the county that had changed their election cycle. Trustee Potocki said that as far as the election cycle goes, the mayor and three trustees would be running on an off-year election, and would not be any major election. Then the other group of trustees would be running on a presidential-governors or midterm type election cycle. Trustee Eldahry said that neither Westchester County nor NYCOM has an official position for or against voting in November versus March. She said, however, NYCOM does have a couple of paragraphs that relate to changing the date of the Village election. Mayor Volpe suggested that the Board sit down with a calendar and figure this out and for November's next meeting come up with the right steps so that people can consider further issues. Marylyn Zelinski, 61st Street, thanked the Board for considering this question. She said that there is overwhelming support for measures that increase voter turnout and also enormous support for letting people decide questions like this, whichever way it goes. She hoped that the Board would decide to pass the resolution to do this. Jenny Driesen, 144 Pelhamdale, said that Democracies work best when the greatest number of citizens participate. She stated that it’s been shown with every November election that the turnout is wildly better than the March numbers. She thought that it is a great thing to move the election to November because we will get more citizens participating in local questions, and that she had great faith in the people of the Village of Pelham, Pelham Manor and Town of Pelham as a whole. That they can analyze and think about national state and local level issues all at the same time. She thought that it was something for the voters of the village to decide either way it turned out. Debra Knapp, 159 Corlies, wanted to voice her support for moving the local elections to November. She thought that that anything that could increase voter turnout and allow people to take advantage of the right to vote would be a good thing and a step in the right direction of allowing people to be more able to fully participate. Trustee Potocki explained that there's one more point that people need to understand, that it will change how candidates are chosen as well. He explained that current candidates are chosen by caucus in each party and if it's changed to a November election, and if there are more interested parties that want to run, than the seats allowed there will be a primary held. Page 6 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Mayor Volpe suggested that the Board try to answer some of the questions and look at the draft resolution that would be shared at the next meeting. Item # 9 – Discussion on Proposals Received for Professional Valuation Services of Certain Village Owned Parcels Mayor Volpe said that in response to the RFP the Village put out months ago to potentially develop Village property, two developers responded. He said that in response, the Village created a subcommittee that could grow in the future with some participants from the residential community and the commercial community. He said there have been very preliminary meetings and phone calls with the developers and both are sharpening their pencils and changing their concepts in response to the RFP, and the RFP is basically saying to developers we have a lot of old municipal buildings and municipal space. He explained that in this process it's incumbent on a village to get valuations for the municipal land. He said the Village has proposals from two companies for appraisals, one is Valuation Plus, Inc. in the amount of $10,000 and the other is Skyline Appraisals, Inc. in the amount of $16,500. He said that whoever is contracted for the job will be looking at the structured Lot 2 including the open-air lot, the firehouse and contiguous parking lot next to the firehouse, parking lot structure 3, and Village Hall at 195 Sparks. After a discussion of the Board the determination was made to go with Valuation Plus, Inc. for $10,000. Item # 9A – Authorizing Agreement with Valuation Plus for Appraisal Services of Certain Village Owned Parcels Be it resolved, that the Board of Trustees of the Village of Pelham herein authorizes an agreement with Valuation Plus, Inc. for the appraisal of various properties subject to an agreement to be reviewed by Mayor Volpe, the Board of Trustees and the Mayor’s designees at a total cost amount not to exceed $10,000. Vote Record- Item # 9A – Authorizing Agreement with Valuation Plus for Appraisal Services of Certain Village Owned Parcels Village of Pelham Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Yes/Aye No/Nay Abstain Absent ☒Approved Mayor Volpe ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Approved as Trustee Ferrara ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Amended Trustee Kagan ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Tabled Trustee Kamal ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Withdrawn Eldahry ☐Discussed Trustee Mullen 2nd ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Trustee Potocki Motion ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Trustee Spira- ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Cohen Page 7 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Item # 10 – Other Business Trustee Spira-Cohen said that there was an article in the NYCOM publication about shared mobility principles for livable cities. She encouraged the Board with regards to what we're thinking of proposing here, that this is a framework that talks about moving people rather than moving cars. She went on to say that we're looking at parking structures versus other types of uses for the area. She thought that they really have to think hard about what the future holds in terms of transit and mobility. She had attended a coffee and conversation with County Executive Latimer, and she did ask a question about transit and the County buses. She reported that the County is putting out some electric buses that are going to have bicycle racks. She said that Mr. Latimer did mention studying the schedules and some of the ridership, and she thought that that we should perhaps have more conversations with the County in terms of transit for this area and public transit because she felt that the last thing, we want is to build a bunch of parking and then regret it. Mayor Volpe agreed and said that he had already asked the County Executive’s office the next time they do a study could they give us more than 16 hours’ notice. Trustee Mullen said that speaking of the County Executive, he will be here at our next meeting November 27th and he's going to speak on his good neighbor policy which is a policy that says when the County is going to be doing something that affects local municipalities, the County Executive and/ or a representative of the County Executive will come before the local governing board and speak. Mayor Volpe gave a brief overview of his conversations with the two developers who responded to the Village RFP. He said that the Village has proposals from both that had been shared with the public several weeks ago. Both developers have responded with a somewhat fulsome response to the RFP where they would build residential units in and around the area between 4th and 5th Avenue and between 3rd Street and Lincoln potentially a hundred or more apartments and replacing the current parking structure. He said that it is still very early in the process and that they both have very different ideas in their proposals. He said that there would be retail components in that area and one of the developers is proposing building a municipal center in the existing footprint of the fire houses and the adjacent parking lot. He said that the discussion that we've had with them was that frankly we don't need as much space as they're proposing from a municipal perspective. He said in the meetings they tried to cut down the number of apartments and the number of parking structures and decks. He said that we had suggested or one of the developers suggested that a way to hide some of the parking is by potentially making it underground. He said that we’ve asked them to consider purchase of the Capital One property on Fifth Avenue and Third Street and then a collaborate with the Village on the parking with the Village parking deck that we have on Sixth Avenue and Third Street. Page 8 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 He said that both developers had been asked to go back to the drawing board multiple times and that it is a very fluid process. Anna Riehl, 222 Loring, said that she wanted to speak on behalf of EcoPel and request consideration of sustainability and green alternatives to building practices and energy sources and that these are made part of this endeavor from the very beginning so that we can budget for them and really be forward in making Pelham progressive in that way. Mayor Volpe thanked her for her comments and said that the subcommittee is pushing the developers to be as green and sustainable as possible. Page 9 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Recurring Items Item # 11 - Authorizing the Accounts Payable Trustee Potocki is auditing the Accounts Payable. Resolution Authorizing the Accounts Payable Whereas, pursuant to §5-524 of the New York State Village Law, the Board of Trustees shall audit all claims against the Village. Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the Board of Trustees of the Village of Pelham after audit of the following vouchers, authorizes payment for services rendered and materials received, for the following items that have been submitted to the Treasurer's Office for payment and authorized by the Interim Village Administrator/Treasurer: Fund Name: Amount General Fund $145,829.50 Capital Projects Fund $27,200.60 Trust and Agency Fund $16,488.50 TE Private Purpose Trust Fund $0.00 Grand Total $189,518.60 Be it further resolved, that this Board hereby approves payment of the above-mentioned claims and authorizes payment thereof. Vote Record- Item # 11 – Resolution Authorizing the Accounts Payable Village of Pelham Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Yes/Aye No/Nay Abstain Absent ☒Approved Mayor Volpe ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Approved as Trustee Ferrara ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Amended Trustee Kagan ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Tabled Trustee Kamal ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Withdrawn Eldahry ☐Discussed Trustee Mullen ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Trustee Potocki ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Trustee Spira- ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Cohen Page 10 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Item # 12 – Authorizing the Minutes of September 13, 2018 Vote Record- Item # 19 – Authorizing the Minutes of September 13, 2018 Village of Pelham Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Yes/Aye No/Nay Abstain Absent ☐Approved Mayor Volpe ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☒Approved as Trustee Ferrara 2nd ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Amended Trustee Kagan Motion ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Tabled Trustee Kamal ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Withdrawn Eldahry ☐Discussed Trustee Mullen ☐ ☐ ☒ ☐ Trustee Potocki ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Trustee Spira- ☐ ☐ ☒ ☐ Cohen Item # 13 – Adjournment to Executive Session The public portion of the Board meeting was adjourned at 9:05 pm to enter into Executive Session to discuss four particular personnel matters after which time the Board would adjourn for the evening. Vote Record- Item # 19=3 – Adjournment to Executive Session Village of Pelham Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Yes/Ay No/Nay Abstain Absent e ☒Approved Mayor Volpe ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Approved as Trustee Ferrara ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Amended Trustee Kagan ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Tabled Trustee Kamal ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Withdrawn Eldahry ☐Discussed Trustee Mullen Motion ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Trustee Potocki ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Trustee Spira- 2nd ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Cohen Respectfully submitted, Terri Rouke, Village Clerk Page 11