Mayor & Village Board of Trustees

VILLAGE OF PELHAM BOARD OF TRUSTEES REGULAR MEETING TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 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. Village Administrator’s Report 7. Public Comments # Agenda Items: Non-Recurring Items 8. Presentation by Westchester County Executive George Latimer (Good Neighbor Policy) 9. Discussion on Changing Date of Local Election 10. Discussion on Sexual Harassment Policy 11. Discussion on Parking Management Software (Mobile App, Parking Permits & Enforcement) 12. Resolution Authorizing the Village-Wide Bagging of Short-Term 2 & 3 – Hour Limit Parking Meters for Holiday Shopping Starting Friday, December 14th through Wednesday, January 2nd 13. Other Business Recurring Items 14. Authorizing Accounts Payable 15. Authorizing the Minutes of: September 25, 2018 16. Adjournment to Executive Session Next Regularly Scheduled BOT Meetings: Tuesday, December 11, 2018 Tuesday, January 8, 2019 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 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 ☒ ☐ ☐ Village Administrator Small ☒ ☐ ☐ Asst. Village Administrator Scelza ☒ ☐ ☐ Village Attorney Smith ☐ ☒ ☐ Mayor Volpe welcomed Omar Small, and said that the Village is very proud and honored to have Omar join our Village as the new Village Administrator. Mayor Volpe explained that Omar had already been hard at work over the last month and a half. He thanked him for his service and commitment to the community. Mayor’s Report: Mayor Volpe congratulated the people that ran the Pelham half marathon and the organizers of the event, particularly Todd Cross. He said that the event was another large success with hundreds and hundreds of runners. He explained that the proceeds were donated to the Pelham Civic Association, one of the sponsors, which in turn donates to residents in our community or in the surrounding communities that have need. Again, he thanked Todd Cross and the other organizers along with the Police Department, Fire Department, EMS, the DPW of our Village and the Village of Pelham Manor for making it a safe day for all the runners and spectators. Mayor Volpe said that regarding the monopole proposal by New York State’s contractor Crown Castle, there were no updates yet on a new location. He said that NY State and its representatives said that they would get back in touch with us when they finish their study on whether or not another location exists that's suitable. He said that as of now, it was not going across from the library and the high school, middle school complex. Page 2 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Mayor Volpe said on Monday morning at 8:30 am here at Village Hall, he, Mr. Small and some others will be meeting with representatives from the Board of Education, respecting preliminary and very early plans on the construction of the new Hutchinson school, which is not taking place in the near future, but they have some plans they want to share and some concerns that they want to raise. He reported that the Village of Pelham has a holiday party each year and this year it is on Wednesday December 12th at Sergio’s. He went on to say that the night after that is the Westchester Municipals Officials Association meeting that is being hosted by our community at Baci's. He said it should be very interesting and encouraged the Trustees to attend because there would be a PowerPoint presentation showing what is going on in Pelham regarding one or two developments, and some of the newer buildings being proposed. Mayor Volpe wanted to take a moment and recognize the loss of Mr. Lester Kravitz, who passed away on Sunday. He extended his condolences to Lester’s family, Rosalie and his daughters. He said that Lester was a long-time member of our community, a realtor, a town civic and very active in the community for a number of years. Trustees’ Report: Trustee Ferrara- Nothing to report Deputy Mayor Kagan wanted to make two announcements on behalf the Police Department. The first was regarding the holiday season and packages. He said if you are expecting packages on or around your porch, bring them in or arrange to have them brought in. He said not to leave them sitting outside to be stolen if you can avoid it. His second announcement was that the Third Street Bridge was scheduled for closure on Friday. He clarified that it is not the Hutch itself, but the actual bridge between Mount Vernon and Pelham and that it will be closed for rerouting Friday at 10:00 am through Monday at 5:00 am. Trustee Kamal Eldahry – Nothing to report Trustee Mullen said he had been getting a lot of really good feedback about the MY VOP app. He said that there was some confusion because the information that is contained in the MY VOP is specific to the Village of Pelham. He explained that it does not include information related to Pelham Manor although he said that Manor residents were certainly welcome to download it, but the waste collection schedule is only for the Village of Pelham. He welcomed Mr. Small aboard said he was glad to have him here. Trustee Potocki-Nothing to report Page 3 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Trustee Spira-Cohen gave a quick update on the streetlight switch over to LEDs. She said that it is still in the design phase and they were waiting to hear back from the vendor, but she encouraged anyone who has any lighting issues, now was the time to voice concerns. She could not promise anything, but she said that you can certainly email or submit comments through the VOP app for anyone who wanted to weigh in with a concern or comment. Village Administrator’s Report: Administrator Small said that he, Assistant Administrator Scelza and some of the other staff went up to the Department of Transportation to get some information regarding the bridge closing. He said that the DOT wanted to start that process after the rush hour and that was why he believed 10:00 am was selected. He gave a timeline for the construction during that period, demolition would take place on Friday, paving was set for Saturday and then striping was scheduled for Sunday, if the weather holds up. He said that hopefully the weather holds and they can complete the bridgework. Page 4 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Item # 7 – Public Comments Pat Lavin, 651 Boulevard said that she had volunteered at the Pelham half marathon and that it was a wonderful success and she was proud to have been there. She said that her concern is living on Boulevard and near the bridge where the bridge construction is taking place. She said that there is a traffic situation and also difficulties with the large number of high school kids coming out of school and crossing Wolfs Lane. She said there is only one crossing guard there to handle all this traffic with all the changes that are going on with the traffic and the bridge. She thought there were still going to be the same problems even after the bridge completion with the way our town is growing and all the new traffic that's coming in. She thought that the Village was going to have to take a really good look at some creative ideas about how to handle it. She said that another observation she made was that there was a lot of jaywalking, particularly near the train station and she thought that it really needed to be more strictly enforced, both car traffic and pedestrian traffic, so that people would get used to the idea that they really had to abide by the rules. Another issue she had was the Christmas parking with the bagged meters for shoppers. She explained that in her area she had to permit park on the street near her residence and has to dig herself out of the snow and she loses her parking place whenever she pulled out. She said if a shopper takes it and they don't have to pay anything, it hurts and at least maybe we can come up with a way to make it more comfortable for everybody. Mayor Volpe said that with regard to parking during holidays, tonight the Board was going to vote on a resolution authorizing the village-wide bagging of parking meters for the holiday period. He said that it was done every year for the last 30, from December 14th this year to January 2nd. Mayor Volpe also spoke about the fact that there were too many resident cars. He said that the Village accommodated some residents in Ms. Lavin’s building years ago by coming up with a limited number of overnight parking permits in the area. He explained that the Village was mindful of her concerns with regards to the traffic. He said that he would ask the Deputy Mayor, who's the liaison to the Police Department, speak to the Police Chief about addressing the issues she raised in of respect traffic control. Page 5 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Non-Recurring Items Item # 8 – Presentation by Westchester County Executive George Latimer (Good Neighbor Policy) Mayor Volpe welcomed County Executive George Latimer, who was in attendance to make a presentation about his Good Neighbor Policy. Mr. Latimer said that this was his first opportunity to come visit, so he appreciated the Village taking the time to allow him to share the information on this executive order. He said he was making the effort, in this his first year in office, to visit every Village, Town and City Council all across the County. He went on to explain the executive order that he issued in the beginning of the year, which applies to all of that portion of County government that's under the direction of the County Executive with the exception of the District Attorney, the County Clerk, the Board of Legislators, and the Board of Elections. He said that it encompassed all of the operating departments in the County government, the Department of Environmental Facilities that deals with sewers, the Parks Department, the Health Department, Mental Health Department and all of the other operations of County government have to respond to this executive order. He briefly described that what this does is create a program called the Good Neighbor Policy. He went on to say that the Good Neighbor Policy is a change in the way the County government will make internal executive branch decisions to stretch out the time-frame and allow local elected Village, Town and City Boards to have a chance to comment and take public comment before the County institutes something within in their own sphere of responsibility. He further explained that as you have in the Village, the County has County-owned facilities, structures for which the County has authority to take action on such as parks, sewer, treatment plants and a host of other different entities. He said that the question of how many of them are in the Village, has yet to be determined and that conversation will be separately offline. He said that under those circumstances, as it is within Village holdings, the County can act unilaterally without the official approval of a local government where the facility is located. He said what the Good Neighbor Policy says is before the County can take a significant action impacting a municipality, within County authority, they must first send a delegation to make a presentation to the Village Board, if it affects the Village directly. He gave an example, if the County were going to pull up a sewer pipe and close a street, before that could be executed, they have to come and present that proposal at a scheduled Village Board meeting. He said at that meeting, which allows the press and the public to hear the presentation, then the Village can ask any questions to any of County Commissioners, or County Executives along these lines. He said that once the presentation is done, a 60-day clock starts ticking and the County is restrained from taking that action until 60 days have elapsed. He said that gives the Village time to do Page 6 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 any number of different things such as research something that you feel you need to know more about, hold public forums so that your residents can comment, offer an alternative, or whatever the Village thinks is appropriate in that timeframe. At the end of the 60 days, the County would request a letter of support, opposition or neutrality to whatever the action is, and that would be a formal request of letter so we know where do you stand on it before we go forward. He pointed out that then the Commissioner or,- the head of the department, has to respond to that letter with some reaction to it before the order to move forward on it. He said that it doesn't change the County’s power to do it, but by stretching it out and giving the Village input into it, it changes the way the County has to think about what they’re going to do. Mr. Latimer finished by saying that he had asked the Board of Legislators to consider turning this into a law, which would lock it into place and give it a permanence. Mayor Volpe thanked Mr. Latimer and told him he appreciated what he was doing with this program. He also wanted to discuss parking issues in the Village in relation to three or four specific County parcels. He stated that one of the things that has troubled him is that there hasn't been an effective use of County and State land contiguous to the parkway and in our land starved Village possibly the Village could get some County land at our expense in collaboration with the County, where the County says take this and use it for parking. Mr. Latimer said he thought that the County would be open to have that discussion try to determine what the circumstances are and how it would work. Mayor Volpe felt that now is really good time to discuss it because with the State improved property of the bridge contiguous to the community, there's already construction going on at some sites and before we go ahead and do improvements like grass, we might be able to come up with some additional parking in our community. Trustee Potocki brought up what he thought was a big issue regarding Lincoln Avenue and bus routes. He said that it had been discussed in the past, where the County said they will work with us on this but as far as he knew there was not yet a resolution. Mayor Volpe said there was not a resolution and frankly thought that was incumbent on the Village and Mount Vernon to go to the County and say this is the problem that we need to address and then join with the County to work on a solution. Page 7 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Item # 9 – Discussion on Changing Date of Local Election Mayor Volpe opened up the discussion on Item # 9, the continuing discussion on changing the date of the local election from March to November. He explained that it was back on the agenda because the last time the Board met, he had given the Board a draft of a resolution and asked them to review it. He reminded them that there had been a discussion and that number of questions had come up. Trustee Kamal Eldahry said that there were a couple of questions one of which was "What would happen to the terms for sitting mayor’s and trustees?" She summarized general village election law, which states, “A proposition changing the date of the general village election shall not become effective until the election regularly scheduled to be held more than 120 days following its adoption. The term of any village officer whose successor is scheduled to be more than 120 days thereafter shall be extended until the date fixed as a result of such proposition for his successor to take office." Trustee Mullen clarified that everyone on the Board gets extended eight months and the people elected at that time also get extended. Trustee Kamal Eldahry further clarified that would be the same for the mayor and the three trustees that will be reelected in November of 2021, they will serve two years and eight months. Deputy Mayor Kagan said that he had an issue with being elected for a period of term and then holding over office longer than he was elected for, but said that after looking at it again and looking at the calendar that Trustee Kamal Eldahry had put together, he thought that this was the state's intention in the law and on that point, the law at least provides some clarity. Trustee Potocki said that many know that he’s not a big fan of this idea, but wanted to pass on that he had heard one idea that actually made some sense and that was if the village election did change to the November elections, that having a convention as opposed to a caucus would allow for more time for candidates that might want to be considered for the ballot. Mayor Volpe clarified that further by saying if you change the election date, the current system of having a caucus within the statutory time frame, at the end of January for a March election, that is roughly a seven or eight-week period where different candidates express the desire to run. He said they show up at a caucus with their supporters, they hope to get picked as the candidate for a particular party, and the whole process takes about eight weeks. He explained in that time frame it can be difficult to petition your way onto the ballot given the limited amount of time. He said in the past there were some legal challenges in the Village over this issue. He said that if the election is changed to November, there would be a convention roughly in May and if someone was dissatisfied with the results, there's a longer time frame to do a little bit of the campaigning, the petition and the signing of petitions necessary to get on the ballot for a primary, which would be held by September before a November election. He said that one of the downsides to that model is that some people don't have the time or want to be that involved for five or six months as a potential candidate. Page 8 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Mayor Volpe went on to say that the biggest issue for him is that if you have a local election at the same time as a federal election, whether or not there would be confusion because of the prominence of a federal election on a presidential or a big state election, and would the local election get the attention it needs because the issue in March is not confused or pushed down by the election of the president, governor or a senator. Trustee Potocki added that if you looked at the ballot this November and added three more lines it would be hard to follow. He said that in a Mayor or Trustee election, you're looking at three, six or seven people, that's it. He said when you get good opponents that will get people voting for a presidential election it just gets lost in the ballot. He said that he heard the argument that it's more democratic to have more people vote but that maybe it's not as good for village government for that to occur. He said that if people care enough about this village, they will come out in March to vote. Trustee Kamal Eldahry agreed that those who do vote in March, definitely, would have more of a focus on the vote but at the same time, she thought that it is such a smaller number of people. She said there are people who care but when you counted the number of elections and how many times people had to vote some people couldn’t make it to vote. She added that she did not think we can assume that all the extra votes will come in November, or the majority of them even would be people that are just voting along the ticket line. She thought that a lot of people could very well be people that had to educate themselves on the elections and what was going on at the village level. She said that's what she was fighting for. Trustee Mullen said that we are assuming there is going to be a dramatic difference in how people vote in November as to how they vote in March. He said it was important to be careful about assuming that the people who vote in March care more about the Village. He said lots of people don't end up voting in March for a whole range of reasons, one just comes down to the fact that they actually don't get exposed to that election. He thought that the arguments that he heard from residents is that they feel like it gets more lost in March and that's why they like the idea of moving it to November because at least then people are looking for the elections. He said that he had come a long way from the beginning of this conversation, which has been happening for a long time now and he was starting to think that it's not going to be that dramatically different and we were just talking about a different date. Trustee Ferrara wanted to know, if the Board decided to put this on the ballot and give people the choice to vote, whether they want to change the day or not, what's the information that we're going to provide residents in order for them to make the right decision. She said that she would rather focus on the kind of information that we need to have clear for the residents and then let them make their decision in March whether or not to vote yes or no to change date of the village election. Mayor Volpe said that the Board would first have to agree on what that information should look like and if we're going to issue something from the Board, it has to be objective. He said that we need to lay out the cold facts and have a PowerPoint or a two-pager on it. Page 9 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Trustee Kamal Eldahry said that they had put a PowerPoint together and there's certainly much more that they had learned since then that can be added to that, have it updated and make it available to the public. Deputy Mayor Kagan said that he thought the other open question was how do we properly notice it and when do we have to actually address the question. He was not sure there was a solid answer on that. Trustee Mullen said that he did not think that the law actually says that. He said it's very specific about when you have to do the petitioning process but not in terms of when you have to have a resolution by the board. Trustee Kamal Eldahry said that we do know what Dobbs Ferry did. She said that they decided to be on the safe side and follow the same guidelines as if it was passed by petition and they stayed within a window of no earlier than 36 days no later than 60 days. Mayor Volpe said let’s move this discussion ahead and update whatever it is that the Board would consider on the 11th of December as a potential information piece to the community. He suggested the Board get that in advance of the next meeting and in advance of the creation of the agenda so that the Board has time to look at it and comment and then have the discussion again on another day. Page 10 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Item # 10 – Discussion on Sexual Harassment Policy Trustee Spira-Cohen introduced documents with the draft of the full sexual harassment policy that incorporated comments from the last discussion. She said that the package also included the current complaint form from the Employee Handbook and the proposed new complaint form. She explained that the idea is that the new policy incorporated many elements of the previous policy but rather than red line the current policy, it was easier just to redraft it. She said that it is quite a lengthy policy, mostly because of some of the new requirements from the New York State law. Her suggestion was not to put this entire policy in the Handbook, but to try to make it a little bit more manageable by condensing it and put the basics of it in the portion that would replace the current section in the Handbook, and then the full policy would be included as an Appendix to the Handbook along with a complaint form. She said that if the Board has particular comments on content or feedback, they were willing to hear it. Mayor Volpe suggested that it would be productive if the Board took the time and reviewed it, and then it can be discussed on the 11th of January. He appreciated all the time and energy Trustee Spira-Cohen, Trustee Mullen and Deputy Mayor Kagan have put into this. He explained that the Board worked a couple of years ago to come up with a up with the necessary Employee Handbook, that now had a policy in place that needed to be updated. Page 11 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Item # 11 – Discussion on Parking Management Software (Mobile App, Parking Permits and Enforcement) This item on the agenda was tabled. Page 12 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Item # 12 - Authorizing the Village-Wide Bagging of Short-Term 2 & 3 – Hour Limit Parking Meters for Holiday Shopping Starting Friday, December 14th through Wednesday, January 2nd Resolution Authorizing the Village-Wide Bagging of Short-Term 2 & 3 – Hour Limit Parking Meters for Holiday Shopping Starting on Friday, December 14th through Wednesday, January 2nd Be it resolved, that the Board of Trustees of the Village of Pelham hereby authorize the Department of Public Works and Police Department to coordinate and implement the Village-wide bagging of on- street, short term, two & three-hour limit parking meters in the Downtown during the holidays, for holiday shopping from Friday, December 14th through Wednesday, January 2nd. Vehicles may park free-of-charge at short-term two or three hour limit parking meters for a maximum of two hours. Vote Record - Item # 12 - Resolution Authorizing the Village-Wide Bagging of Short-Term 2 & 3 – Hour Limit Parking Meters for Holiday Shopping Starting on Friday, December 14th through Wednesday, January 2nd Village of Pelham Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Yes/Aye No/Nay Abstain Absent ☒Approved Mayor Volpe ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Approved as Trustee Ferrara Motion ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Amended Trustee Kagan ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Tabled Trustee Kamal Eldahry 2nd ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Withdrawn Trustee Mullen ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Discussed Trustee Potocki ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Trustee Spira-Cohen ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Page 13 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Item # 13 – Other Business In other business Mayor Volpe asked Administrator Small and Assistant Administrator Scelza to look at the Accounts Receivable of uncollected fines and forfeitures. He said that the Village had addressed this about a year and a half ago and the Village ended up recouping a lot of uncollected money that was out there. He said that he would like them to give him an update on that because he’d like to reinvigorate those efforts on the Accounts Receivable. Page 14 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Recurring Items Item # 14 - Authorizing the Accounts Payable Trustee Spira-Cohen 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 $210,831.67 Capital Projects Fund $1,568.71 Trust and Agency Fund $0.00 TE Private Purpose Trust Fund $0.00 Grand Total $212,400.38 Be it further resolved, that this Board hereby approves payment of the above mentioned claims and authorizes payment thereof. Vote Record- Item # 14 – Resolution Authorizing the Accounts Payable Village of Pelham Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 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 Page 15 Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Item # 15 – Authorizing the Minutes of September 25, 2018 Vote Record- Item # 15 – Authorizing the Minutes of September 25, 2018 Village of Pelham Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 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 Item # 16 – Adjournment to Executive Session The public portion of the Board meeting was adjourned at 8:45 pm to enter into Executive Session to discuss five particular personnel matters after which time the Board would adjourn for the evening. Vote Record- Item # 16 – Adjournment to Executive Session Village of Pelham Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Yes/Aye No/Nay Abstain Absent ☒Approved Mayor Volpe ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Approved as Trustee Ferrara 2nd ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Amended Trustee Kagan ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Tabled Trustee Kamal ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐Withdrawn Eldahry ☐Discussed Trustee Mullen Motion ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Trustee Potocki ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Trustee Spira- ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ Cohen Respectfully submitted, Terri Rouke, Village Clerk Page 16