City Council

CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS CITY COUNCIL MEETING CITY COUNCIL ROOM WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2009 1:30 P.M. PRESENT: John Franck, Commissioner of Accounts Ken Ivins, Commissioner of Finance Ron Kim, Commissioner of DPS Anthony Scirocco, Commissioner of DPW STAFF PRESENT: Patrick Design, Deputy Commissioner, DPW Michele Boxley, Deputy Commissioner, Accounts Eileen Finneran, Deputy Commissioner, DPS Kate Jarosh, Deputy Commissioner, Finance Shauna Sutton, Deputy Mayor Joe Scala, City Attorney EXCUSED: Scott Johnson, Mayor RECORDING OF PROCEEDING The proceedings of this meeting were taped for the benefit of the secretary. Because the minutes are not a verbatim record of the proceedings, the minutes are not a word-for-word transcript. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Ivins called the meeting to order at 1:32 p.m. PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD Frank Dudla of 23 Casino Drive and former deputy of public safety stated he has learned over the years that adequate staffing is key to an effective department. For years the police and fire departments have provided a proactive approach to public safety for this City. Because of this, we don’t experience some of the problems other cities experience. Any reduction of staff reduces the response time. You say you can’t afford the current staffing, he says you can’t afford not to have the current staffing. You can’t put a price on someone’s life. Al Colucci of 9 Lexington Road stated the budget shouldn’t be political or personal. From 2005 – 2009, DPW’s budget increased from $1.1 million to $1.7 million, which is a 5% increase. Over a 5 year period, that is modest. During that same time, public safety’s budget went up $4 million or 25%. That $4 million did not include any additional staff. Before looking at eliminating positions in either department, look at where the $4 million increase came from. Debra Fuller of 32 Lakewood Drive stated he has been a resident all her life. She has had occasion to use the fire department due to a fire at her home and medical issues with her family. The paramedics who responded were trained and qualified to handle any medical emergency. It is a disservice to compromise the safety of the residents of Saratoga Springs. Dave Bronner of 5 Royal Henly Court stated the City is in a tough fiscal situation. They need to determine where we are going to go from here. Do we have the right number of police officers? The commissioner suggested hiring an outside expert to evaluate the number of officers and he agrees. The same process should occur with the fire department as well. There is too much politics going on here and we need to City Council Meeting 5/27/09 move away from the scare tactics. The demographics of this City are much different than other cities like Albany, Schenectady, or Troy. He doesn’t feel we need a fire house on the East Ridge. Kevin Genier of 51 Hawthorne Boulevard and president of the firefighters union stated the mayor made a statement regarding the state park being in the middle of the City and that skews some of our numbers. The state park is in the middle of the City and skews the number. They do respond in the state park and SPAC. There is also a grant proposal that would allow the use of federal funding to prevent fire department staffing reductions. This is something the Council may want to look into. If the fire staff is decreased, the ISO rating could decrease causing the insurance premiums to go up. He presented the each member of the Council with a copy of the GIS study that was done. Ed Lewis a Wilton resident and president of the Saratoga PBA stated this City is kept safe because the officers keep it safe. Before anyone here was on the Council, Jamaican drug dealers moved into town. The department started a drug unit, shoved these people out and took care of the problem – they’re proactive. They have solved 2 homicides. They are going to scare the residents with staff cuts. The Council is responsible for the 0% tax increase and knew the VLT money was not guaranteed and still you made it part of the budget. Why? Paul Veitch of 6 Sherri Road stated on your worst day you call us (police). When your kid is hurt you call us, the fire department. Cutting services is going to cut response time. When you call us we ALWAYS show up. If we don’t have the resources we can’t respond and it is unsafe for everyone. Commissioner Ivins closed the public comment period as the time allotted had elapsed. Mayor’s Department Nothing at this time. Accounts Department Nothing at this time. Finance Department Nothing at this time. Public Works Department Discussion and Vote: Authorization to for Mayor to Sign Green Innovation Grant Application – Geyser Crest Well Field Improvement Project (09-158) Commissioner Scirocco moved and Commissioner Ivins seconded to authorize the mayor to sign the Green Innovation Grant Application for the Geyser Crest Well Fields improvement project. Commissioner Scirocco advised that the governor called for projects to be submitted for a new grant program funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This grant is designed to promote water conservation, energy efficiency, green infrastructure and other green innovation projects. There will be a 10% match required from the grant recipients. The program has to be 100% under contract or proceeding with construction no later than January 1, 2010. The grant applications are due by May 29, 2009. They are asking for $214,000 in grant money. They are looking at a construction date of August. Commissioner Scirocco added that Nancy Wagner was the person was the person that brought this grant to his attention. Therefore he commended her for her efforts. Aye - All Page 2 of 4 City Council Meeting 5/27/09 Public Safety Department Commissioner Kim advised that he originally planned to present this information at the June 2nd City Council meeting, but due to discussions and the press, they wanted the people to have the facts. He thanked his staff for getting the information ready in a short time period. Commissioner Kim started the presentation by stating the following disclaimer: that this is not the recommendation nor should it be construed as a recommendation by the Department of Public Safety. This is an analysis of what the cuts would be if this City Council acts as such and cuts $1.3 million from the department of public safety. At the last Council meeting- each department was given budget cuts to work with. All departments were given 3.85% to cut with the exception of the finance department and public safety. Finance was given 3.28% to cut and public safety was given 6.89% to cut. The statement was made that all the money is in the department of public safety – it is true they are the largest department and highly trained people. The difference between the DPS 2009 budget and the DPS 2008 actual is $674,000.00. Finance then took the $670,000 and added it to the $763,000, which would have been their fair cut, to total $1.3 million or 6.89%. The mayor returned $72,000 in 2008, therefore, by use of this math, he should be cut $163,000. Commissioner Kim reviewed the areas where they were able to save in 2008 for a total of $600,000 in savings. Commissioner Kim stated if they got rid of every person in his department with the exception of 1 police officer and 1 firefighter, they still couldn’t come up with $1.3 million dollar in savings; they still would fall short by $300,000. To meet the $1.3 million amount, DPS would have to cut $133,000 administratively from his office, eliminate 14 firefighters, 18 patrol officers, a sergeant, 2 dispatchers, 2 vacant dispatch positions, 2 parking enforcers, school crossing guards, overtime, etc. (see attached presentation for complete list). Commissioner Kim went on to describe the impacts that would be realized with the elimination of police and firefighters, such as an increase in response time. Every community has a fire protection service rating. If an insurance company says they know the fire department can’t get to a fire, the City’s insurance will go up; that’s a hidden tax. They don’t have enough police to staff for special events; this is one of the tough choices they will have to make. Chief Moore advised the total number of patrol officers in 1976 was 49, in 2009 they have 43. After the cuts proposed, they will have 18 officers left. It takes 5 police officers to put 1 police officer on the street 24/7. So far this year, they have had a 15% increase in calls for service. We can’t make these cuts; we would be endangering every police officer that is employed by this City. There has to be a better way; there has to be another place to find money. He is here to work with the Council. Commissioner Kim stated his department is ready to deal with a budget issue that needs to be dealt with. This isn’t the way to do it. There are revenues out there that can solve this. We should be planning for next year and grab revenues for today. The sale of High Rock may be one- time revenue, but we have done this before and it will provide us time and bridge us to the future. Commissioner Franck asked for a copy of the presentation. He was the only one consistently saying they shouldn’t put the VLT money in the budget. The Council was told by Albany they were going to get half; and he still didn’t feel they should put the money in the budget. When you hear the word revenues that means tax increases or user fees. Even if we get $4.5 million (for High Rock lot) we will still have to buy equipment. He is cutting in his department. He doesn’t see any way for there not to be a tax increase next year. Commissioner Scirocco stated the last thing they should be doing is cutting on any essential services. He agrees with Commissioner Kim in regard to the parking lots. He thinks they need to take a look at every piece of property the City owns and see if they can get it back on the tax role. He can’t imagine spending $6.5 million on a recreation center when they could have done something with the bonds to turn it around. They need to get their priorities straight. He felt if they left the VLT money in the budget, the state would recognize the fact that it is host benefits for the City; it made all the sense to leave it in there. The only place we have to go now is take bodies out. Commissioner Franck advised the Council that most host communities didn’t put the VLT money in their budgets. Albany didn’t care if we had the VLT money in the budget or not. That money is gone for good. Page 3 of 4 City Council Meeting 5/27/09 Commissioner Ivins stated Governor Spitzer announced 2 years ago that he was going to cut the VLT money in half and then nothing the following year. Last fall Governor Paterson said he was cutting the VLT money in half. He lied to us. If we had taken all the VLT money out as Commissioner Franck said, we would have had this meeting last fall. He put one-time money in to compensate for the loss of the VLT money. He pushed for a 2 – 3 % tax increase. He also received 50 e-mails from the community asking for a 0% tax increase. He asked Commissioner Kim for the line items that support the presentation. He plans to come back to the Council at the next Council meeting with a presentation on the entire budget. ADJOURNMENT Commissioner Ivins moved and Commissioner Scirocco seconded to adjourn the meeting. Ayes - All There being no further business, Commissioner Ivins adjourned the meeting at 2:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Lisa Ribis Approved: 5-16-09 Vote: 5 - 0 Page 4 of 4