Board of Trustees

Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 486 THREE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED THIRTY-EIGHTH REGULAR MEETING Rutherford Hall Village Hall November 12, 2019 A Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Scarsdale was held in Rutherford Hall in Village Hall on Tuesday, November 12, 2019 at 8:00 P.M. Present were Mayor Samwick, Trustees Arest, Crandall, Lewis, Ross, Veron, and Waldman. Also present were Village Manager Stephen Pappalardo, Deputy Village Manager Cole, Acting Village Attorney Esannason, Deputy Village Attorney Garrison, Village Treasurer McClure, Village Clerk Conkling, and Assistant to the Village Manager Katzin. ******** The minutes of the Regular Board of Trustees Meeting of Tuesday, October 22, 2019 were approved on a motion entered by Trustee Ross, seconded by Trustee Crandall and carried unanimously. ******** Bills & Payroll Trustee Lewis reported that he had audited the Abstract of Claims dated November 12, 2019 in the amount of $3,650,543.33 which includes $13,836.39 in Library Claims previously audited by a Trustee of the Library Board which were found to be in order and he moved that such payment be ratified. Upon motion duly made by Trustee Lewis and seconded by Trustee Crandall, the following resolution was adopted unanimously: RESOLVED, that the Abstract of Claims dated November 12, 2019 in the amount of $3,650,543.33 is hereby approved. Trustee Lewis then reported that he had examined the payment of bills made in advance of a Board of Trustees audit totaling $17,082.02 which were found to be in order and he moved that such payments be ratified. Upon motion duly made by Trustee Lewis and seconded by Trustee Crandall, the following resolution was adopted unanimously: Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 487 RESOLVED, that payment of claims made in advance of a Board of Trustees audit totaling $17,082.02 is hereby ratified. ******** Mayor’s Comments Mayor Samwick stated that his comments this evening were very brief; more reminders than comments. He reminded residents that is it leaf season and there are a good number of leaf piles in the streets which creates a hazard. He encourage homeowners to make sure their leaf piles are on the grass. He also encouraged homeowners to mulch their leaves in place first and foremost. The second reminder concerns the license plate reader being used for parking enforcement in the Village Center. He stated that there are different regulations for parking in different areas in the Village Center, therefore, one must be cognizant of the zone that they are in, the time limits assigned to the meter and that the Village is now using the license plate reader for parking enforcement. He encouraged the community to use the parking app Pango to pay for parking. It is hoped that these changes will improve the parking situation in the Village Center. ******** Manager’s Comments Village Manager Pappalardo stated that he had a couple of items this evening to discuss. First, he introduced a new member of the Village staff in the Village Manager’s office. Aylone Katzin has recently been hired as an Assistant to the Village Manager, replacing the position previously held by Josh Ringel who left the Village to take a promotion as Assistant Village Manager in the Village of Tarrytown. The Village is very excited to have Aylone on board; he comes to the Village via Binghamton University where he received his Masters in Public Administration and he has worked for a few years in the Village of Portchester Manager’s office and for the Town of Rye. He welcomed Aylone aboard. Mr. Pappalardo stated that the second item he would like to speak about is sewers. He noted the presence of Mr. Schwend this evening and stated that he missed the last Board meeting at which that Drake Edgewood NA President Greg Schwend attended and spoke about neighborhood sanitary sewer concerns. Village Manager Pappalardo stated that he “has prepared a statement for this evening to provide the Village Board members, some of them who are new, some background Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 488 information on the issues of concern. The Village Engineer, David Goessl is here this evening, who will pick up where he leaves off and provide even more information for Mr. Schwend and the Board. Mr. Schwend and various Village staff have been in conversation for a number of years about both flooding and sanitary sewer issues within Drake Edgewood specifically on the dead end of Barry Road. David is present this evening to discuss these issues, but I thought I would start by providing some background information on both topics. This section of Drake Edgewood along the Hutchinson River is located within a FEMA 100 year flood plain. These areas are mapped by FEMA and indicate areas of high risk for flooding. A one-hundred-year flood is a flood event that has a 1 in 100 chance, or 1% probability of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. FEMA places a certain amount of inches of snow in a 24 hour period that would equate to a 100 year flood. We have seen that these so called 100 year floods, based on those inches that they equate to it, are happening a lot more frequently that they were. They have since been increasing the amount of rain that would be equivalent to what they consider a 100 year flood. Suffice it to say that areas that are in that flood plain are areas that are wet and will flood. The current standing high water level of the Hutchinson River itself, abutting these properties exacerbates the frequency of flooding. This section of the Hutchinson Riverbed abuts over 100 homes in New Rochelle, Scarsdale and Eastchester and is in need de-silting and clearing of existing obstructions inhibiting the flow of water downstream. During certain rain events, the riverbanks overflow exacerbating flood conditions in this floodplain. As we’ve discussed a number of times over the years with the Village Board and community, the Village is collaborating with New Rochelle and Eastchester on a multi-million dollar capital improvement project to perform the aforementioned work along the Hutch. In addition, the work includes enlarging four existing public culverts to move the stormwater downstream at a faster pace. This is quite a different engineering technique to what we saw with the South Fox Meadow storm water project where we actually built large detention basis to hold the storm water in Scarsdale before meter flowing it out to eventually the Bronx River on the west side because the Bronx River itself didn’t have storage capacity. This is a little different – the receiving waters in Eastchester actually have the capacity to take the water. In this case, based on the engineering studies, we want to get the water out of Scarsdale faster and down to where it will ultimately end up. After numerous starts and stops over the past years, the proper Intermunicipal agreements are now in place with a total of $3.5M in County and NYS grants dedicated to the work. Pursuant to a formal RFP process, an engineering consultant is now engaged and has started the necessary investigatory work toward preparing preliminary engineering design documents. David might want to update us on that. This is a complicated project that involves obtaining rights of entry from numerous private property owners and includes the study of a dam in which ownership issues exist, which could complicate things as well. Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 489 Despite these obstacles the three municipalities are committed to seeing this project through, as we believe it will have a positive impact on reducing the number of problematic flood conditions for our respective residents. If the job is done properly, a number of the homes that are along that riverbed that located within the FEMA 100 year flood plain will hopefully be removed from that designation. Also of concern are related sanitary sewer conditions on Barry Road. In 2011 Westchester County conducted certain flow-monitoring tests of the Village sanitary sewer flow along the Hutchinson River and determined that during certain rain events the flow levels spiked. This would indicate stormwater entering the sanitary sewer system thorough either direct stormwater connections to the sanitary system, known as “inflow”, or stormwater entering the sanitary system through faulty sewer pipes, whether Village or private sewer laterals, this is known as “infiltration”. Collectively inflow and infiltration are referred to as I&I. Previously concerned about I&I, the Village lined defective sections of sanitary sewer mains on Barry, Carman, Johnson and Tunstall Roads between 2002 and 2007. The form liner sealed the pipes closing any cracks through which stormwater could enter. After the 2011 County results, the Village conducted smoke testing in the area to determine any residential discharges to the sanitary sewer such as yard drains, driveway drains and roof leader downspouts. The tests resulted in 12 violation notices issued to homeowners. Although the County study indicated the possible presence of many sump pumps, smoke testing only identified one as they are typically installed before a house trap which inhibits the passing of smoke. Sanitary sewerage in this area enters a 12” County-owned trunk sewer which is located within the Hutchinson Riverbed, through Village sewer mains located at the dead ends of Southwoods Lane, Barry Road, Tunstall Road, and Carman Road along with additional connections located at Boulevard and Sprague. It is important to note that the City of New Rochelle homeowners on the opposite side of the Hutchinson River also discharge sewage to this County trunk line. During this 2011 time period, the County reported that the trunk line was operating at 60% hydraulic capacity and the pipe had considerable scaling, tuberculation along with two noticeable dips. The County subsequently flushed and cleaned 4,000 feet of the trunk line in 2012 removing accumulated grit and debris. This County trunk line requires annual cleaning in order to handle the volume. During certain rain events the County Trunk runs full and backs up causing the sewer manhole at the dead of Barry Road to effectively pop with the sewerage discharging onto the roadway. These issues have and continue to be concerning to the Village and are part of our comprehensive sanitary sewer evaluation study or to what we refer to as the SSES for all three of the Village sewer districts. Mr. Schwend has talked to us recently about studying a section of the Bronx Valley and Hutchinson Valley Districts where an interconnection diverts sewerage from the Bronx Valley to the Hutchinson Valley. Adequate study of such a request is necessary to understand the impacts on both districts before any action can be Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 490 taken. Subsequently, staff has discussed such an analysis through a change order to our existing engineering contract for the Mamaroneck Valley study. This is something that the Village wants to talk to the engineers about to see if we can’t expedite that and have a better understanding as to why that diversion was made and what the impacts might be if any physical changes are made. I spent the time to explain all of this to make the point that the Village is working on the flood and sewerage issues in this area while recognizing we still have much work to find a solution to help mitigate current conditions. Suffice it to say that if there were any easy fix to any of the issues discussed, we would have made them by now. I am going to call on David now to speak to some of the more technical issues and thoughts about how the Village may be in a better position to help the residents moving forward.” David Goessl, Village Engineer, stated “good evening Mayor, Trustees, and all in attendance. I appreciate the opportunity to speak before you. As the Village Manager has prepared a statement, I also have a statement of facts and a little bit of history on the situation in the Hutchinson River District. By way of background, The Village owns and maintains approximately 439,700 linear feet (or 83 miles) of sanitary sewer pipe in three sewer districts: the Mamaroneck, the Bronx River Valley and the Hutchinson River Valley. By comparison, the Bronx River Valley contains 62% of the system, the Mamaroneck is 37% and the Hutchinson River is 1%. The Hutchinson River sanitary sewer district is comprised of 1,239 linear feet of sanitary sewer pipe. The majority of the clay tile pipe was installed in the 1920’s and serves 277 residential parcels in the Drake-Edgewood and Arthur Manor neighborhoods and is confined between the limits of Eastwoods Lane and Rodney Road to the North, the Eastchester limits to the south and Madison and Johnson Roads to the west. The Hutchinson River, which is also noted as the municipal boundary New Rochelle and the Village, forms the easterly boundary. Westchester County’s trunk sewer also situates along this watercourse. As mentioned by the Village Manager, both Village and City contain sewer discharge flows to the trunk sewer along a 4,000 foot linear length corridor. As the Village Manger previously mentioned, the 2011 Westchester County study included flow monitoring and televised pipe inspection of the trunk sewer over a ten week period between May and August of 2011. The report identified 5 discharge locations for which local flows from the City of New Rochelle and the Village discharged local sewer flows into the trunk. The analysis of the flow monitoring provided data which indicated spikes in flow rate during rainstorm events which is often an indication of surface water inflows and commonly seen with open area drains, driveway drains, roof leaders, submerged manholes etc. some of which was common construction in the 1920’s through 1950’s. But more interesting was the fact that the flow monitoring also showed that sustained Village Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 491 discharges in exceedance of the 150gpdpc flow rate as defined by Westchester County which occurred in 9 of the 10 weeks. With the rain there was a spike in flow rate, but also elevated flows throughout 9/10 of the study period. The elevated flow rates are often an indication that that you have added sources of infiltration condition and a high probability of many sump pumps throughout the community adding excess water to the sewer system. The 2011 study also stated that much higher flow rates were seen from New Rochelle metered flows entering the trunk sewer parallel to and downstream from the Village access points. While the Village and City of New Rochelle performed additional metering with consulting firms Dolph Rotfeld Engineering, Arcadis Engineering and ADS Environmental, smoke testing in the Hutchinson district identified 12 residential properties with illicit sewer connections and/or fractured laterals. Corrective actions taken by property owners in 2014 may have helped the situation, but it did not solve the problem as sanitary sewer backups still occur along Barry Road and Tunstall Road during wet weather events. As there already has been considerable efforts performed by the County, Village and City of New Rochelle to study and resolve the issue with backups in the Hutchinson District, moving forward staff offers the following recommendations. 1. Continue funding SSES and related CMOM projects in all three sewer districts. The Village will explore an opportunity to work with our present consultant H2M Architects + Engineers to revisit the prior studies and consider performing additional tasks such as wet weather pipe televising inspections and/or flow monitoring to identify additional infiltration sources. Smoke testing doesn’t quite find all the sources. Adding wet weather televising, you could possibly see sources as they enter the sewer pipe. The results are fairly successful. The additional SSES work would include a full evaluation of any cross connections between the Hutch and Bronx River sewer districts and to better understand any remedial measures that may be required should such connections be eliminated. We understand removing the Barry Road interconnection could have implications on a drainage area servicing 200 homes across both districts. 2. As New Rochelle excess flow rates indirectly influence the Barry Road and Tunstall Road sewers via the common trunk sewer, Village staff will continue to work with City of New Rochelle staff to monitor City efforts for remediating inflow and infiltration sources identified in the 2013 Arcadis study and again in the 2018 GHD Engineering SSES report. 3. Propose to work with Arthur Manor and Drake-Edgewood Neighborhood Associations to assist the Village with determining just exactly how many sump pumps are connected to the sanitary sewer. After all resolving the issues of sewer backups and surcharging manholes will require support and participation from property owners that may have illicit plumbing. Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 492 4. If it is determined that the majority of homes have illicit connections to the sanitary sewer system, the Village can explore the possibility of adding road drainage in areas lacking so that property owners may have access to properly discharge their water. 5. Continue working with Westchester County to ensure that cleaning and servicing of the trunk sewers continues regularly so that hydraulic capacity is maintained. The 2011 report indicated that the hydraulic capacity was at 60% and that does not allow much room for any additional waters from infiltration. The most recent flushing and removal of grit and debris was performed by the County this past summer. 6. Continue dialog with Village Management and the Board of Trustees to consider adopting language in the local code to identify defective sewer laterals and illicit discharges into sanitary sewers. Peer communities on Long Island and within Westchester County have already done so in working with property owners at the time of sale and title transfer. 7. Staff will offer consulting services to property owners to consider options to better protect themselves from sewer backups such as installing a check valve or gate valve, along with providing educational advice with the proper handling and removal of illicit discharges.” Village Manager Pappalardo stated that they have been talking about having a property owner, prior to the sale of a home, provide the Village with engineering certification that their sewer laterals are operational and that there are no illicit connections to the sanitary sewer system. Village Engineer Goessl stated that some communities have video tape as added measure to determine if the laterals are defective. Other communities just have a visual inspection for illicit connections such as sump pumps, roof leaders, gutters, driveway drains, etc. These inspections have been performed by both qualified engineers and municipal staff. The Town of Mamaroneck Building department staff perform these inspections; it is part of the normal fee scheduled for what they call a discharge compliance certificate. Other communities have a licensed plumber perform the inspection and execute an affidavit. Village Manager Pappalardo stated that they will move something like that to the Board’s agenda. Trustee Crandall thanked Village Engineer Goessl for his report. She stated that many residents live in older homes, built in the 1920’s or 1930’s. She stated that she wanted to understand that if she wanted to make sure that her downspouts, etc. flows where it is supposed to, a regular licensed plumber could help her with that assessment, or would she have to find some type of engineer. Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 493 Village Engineer Goessl stated that either party could assist her. A plumber could come out and dye test a source, consulting with DPW staff, obtain access to open a manhole in the street to pour some dye into her sewer and see if it shows up through perhaps a driveway drain or leader downspout. If it shows up in the manhole, obviously it is a direct connection. Another method is to perhaps scope out a pipe with a simple push camera. A lot of plumbers have that technology that they carry with them in their vans. Smoke testing by the Village is our preferred method because it is widespread; as you pump smoke through a system, you can walk the neighborhood and see where the problems are. However, on an individual basis, either dye testing or a push camera scoping would be the way to go. ******** Public Comments Mayor Samwick opened public comment at this time. He reminded everyone that public comment is a 5 minute period but a chime will ring after 4 minutes to remind the speaker that there is one minute remaining in their comment period. Should more time be needed, there is an additional public comment section at the end of the meeting. David Raizen, President, Scarsdale Volunteer Ambulance Corps, stated that it Annual Fund Drive time for the SVAC. The SVAC mailed its fund drive out to all the residents in Scarsdale last week. There has been a great response so far; there are approximately 400 donations in the first week for approximately $40,000. Edgewood is the leading donor. Mr. Raizen stated that SVAC is doing approximately 1,800 calls this year; they are on track again with the enormous mutual aid in the neighboring communities which represents about 25% of their call volume. They have only had 2 calls going out for mutual aid. Half of their budget comes from donations from residents and the other half comes from soft billing for ambulance calls. They get paid over 80% of the time and more than 80% of the bill. They do receive some stipends from the Village; fuel, electricity and some maintenance for the vehicles. Aside from providing 911 service, they transport people home, if there is medical necessity, they will take people to doctor’s offices; it is not just limited to providing 911 service. They are generally able to staff all three ambulances at a moment’s notice with advanced life support. Mr. Raizen stated that SVAC runs CPR and EMT classes – they run four different EMT classes during the year, one specifically for Scarsdale High School students, for the Senior Options program and they run at least two CPR classes per month and set up for organizations in the community. As it is fundraising time, Mr. Raizen stated that they need the community to help them. They operate every year just a little in the red or a little in the black. Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 494 Mayor Samwick thanked Mr. Raizen for all he does with the Ambulance Corps and to the members of the SVAC; it is a real treasure to the community and is a phenomenal volunteer effort. The number of hours put in is truly remarkable. Greg Schwend, 49 Barry Road, represented the Drake Edgewood Neighborhood Association stated that he stands before the Board in the same position as 8 years ago and at that time he asked for the Village and the Board to treat this problem as if it were happening to them. The first reports he has had of this problem was in 2005 from the neighbors. They didn’t get together to present anything until 2011. After 2001, Westchester County did maintain their trunk line in a way that was responsible and the 60% capacity was improved greatly by their cleaning of line; they noticed that their problem reduced and it seemed to have gone away for a few years. However, recently the problem has recurred, happening at least 3 times last year and at least twice this year. He stated that he knows it is happening on Barry Road but did not know about the adjacent roads. Mr. Schwend pointed out a section of the Village Code, Chapter 244, Sewers and read from it regarding maintenance of the sewers by the Village. He also read from the Westchester County Code regarding maintenance of sewers by municipalities. Mr. Schwend stated that they know they have a flooding issue, they know that there is an Intermunicipal Agreement to take action on the flooding and they appreciate it. However, this is not the cause of their sanitary sewer overflows. The cause is too much rainwater getting into the sanitary sewer system. What he didn’t know was that a lot of Arthur Manor is connected into a sewer system and a lot of Edgewood is connected in a sewer system that has an overflow connection that goes into the top of the Barry Road line. The Barry Road line has overflowed in the past probably 20 ft. over the level of the river. Flooding is not the problem. Mr. Schwend stated that smoke testing may have happened in the Hutchinson River District but other district that he believed is causing their problems, the Bronx River District, carries many more homes. It is likely that there are a lot of illicit connections going into that system that need to be investigated. He stated that he appreciated the idea of the establishment of local law that would allow entry into homes to determine whether or not there are illicit connections. The idea of an inspection during a sale will take care of something over time, but they need something now in a widespread way to make improvements to the system. Trustee Arest reminded Mr. Schwend that there is another public comment period at the end of the meeting if he has additional comments. Mr. Lin, Barry Road, stated that he moved into his house in 2010 and at the closing the previous homeowner told him about the shut off valve in case there was a big storm and sewage started to back up. He stated that he appreciates the efforts the Village is putting in to resolve the situation. The situation did improve after 2011 but the problems are back and are a Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 495 little disgusting and gross. It would be appreciated if something can be done soon to alleviate the issues, for the health of his family and neighbors and the value of their homes as well. Mr. Zhang, Barry Road, stated that he just moved to Scarsdale two years ago and had heard many good things about the town before he moved. After he bought the house he was surprised to find that after a rain event, there was some backup in the basement. He spoke to the neighbors about it and found out about the sewage system issues. He stated that he hoped the Village would try to help the residents find a solution to tackle this problem as soon as possible. Ben Assa, stated that he is a junior at Scarsdale High School and would like to propose the idea of a Scarsdale Youth Council comprised of approximately 10-15 residents from ages 14-18 years. (8th -12th grade). The benefits of having such a council would allow young residents in Scarsdale to advocate for themselves and discuss local issues pertaining to them. It would encourage volunteerism and civic education. They could help promote leadership and community service projects. They could discuss issues such as distracted driving, vaping, and smoking among young residents. He stated that he is aware that there is an Advisory Council on Youth and he stated that in his opinion, it would be beneficial to have a subset working along with that Council comprised of actual youth. He stated that he knows that the Council is working on how to engage youth in the current renovations going on at the Scarsdale Public Library. It would be good to have youth give communication and feedback in this regard. Other benefits to having a council such as this is that it would improve certain leadership skills such as public speaking and increase their knowledge of local government. He stated that he has more specifics in terms of how the council would operate and how they would work with the Advisory Council on Youth. Mayor Samwick noted that they had previously communicated about this and he stated that the Advisory Council on Youth just recently met, so hopefully they will have something to get back to him with. Robert Harrison, 65 Fox Meadow Road, complimented Ben Assa on his excellent presentation and stated that the Village should follow up on his proposal. Mr. Harrison stated that he would like to speak on behalf of a dear friend in his memory, Jim Labick. He lived at 17 Brookline Road in Scarsdale for many years. Jim was very active in the Scarsdale Forum and he worked together with a number of residents on the Village Fiscal Affairs Committee and the School Fiscal Affairs Committee. He came to the microphone in this room as well as at School Board meetings and we worked together to see that the Boards did their best to keep our tax rates down and look for ways to be as efficient as possible. He stated that he hadn’t talked to him for about a year and received an email from Michael Otten and Bob Berg who also worked closely with Jim over the years. He was about 80 years old and he had some illness and moved to Nashville to live with his daughter, Sharon over the last year or two. He was an important contributor to the Forum reports. Mr. Harrison Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 496 stated that he felt it was important to inform the residents of Mr. Labick’s passing and his daughter hopes to have a memorial service within the next month in Scarsdale. At this time, Mr. Harrison asked for a minute of silence in memory of Jim Labick, an important volunteer to Scarsdale over many years. As no further comments were offered, the Mayor closed the Public Comment portion of the meeting. He thanked everyone who contributed this evening. ******** Trustee Liaison Reports Trustee Crandall stated that she was quite sad to find out about Jim Labick, who she knew through the Forum. It is certainly a great loss; he was a wonderful man. She asked Mr. Harrison to let the Board know if there will be a service in town. Turning to the liaison reports, Trustee Crandall stated that “I'm the Village Board Liaison to The Junior League of Central Westchester. This year their Holiday Boutique is on Thursday, November 21st from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the C.V. Rich Mansion in White Plains. Funds raised will enable the Junior League to support programs that promote health and literacy, provide food and necessities to the underprivileged, empower low-income families, help preserve community history, and train effective community volunteers. Take a look at their website for more information: http://www.jlcentralwestchester.org In my capacity as Liaison to the Friends of Scarsdale Parks, I was invited to a meeting of the Scarsdale Forum Downtown Revitalization Committee. Scarsdale resident and FOSP Board Member Betsy Bush, who is studying architecture at Columbia University, presented her proposal to renovate Boniface Circle in the Village Center. It is my understanding that the Revitalization Committee will be submitting a memo with further details regarding this proposal. The Scarsdale Youth Advisory Council recently met. They discussed several issues relating to young people in the community including respect for various cultures, drug & alcohol use, social media addiction and pedestrian safety. They plan to submit suggestions for the Freightway Project that would be beneficial for the under 18 crowd. Have you heard about Scarsdale's most recent recognition? The New York League of Conservation Voters is honoring the Village and the Conservation Advisory Council tomorrow night for our Food Scrap Recycling Program. This successful initiative would not have been possible without the collaborative efforts of past Public Works Superintendent Benny Salanitro, current Public Works Superintendent Jeff Coleman, his Assistant Tyler Seifert, the staff at the Recycling Center and the members of the Conservation Advisory Council. Congratulations to all involved. Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 497 The CAC recently published an article on the Scarsdale10583 website entitled "Scarsdale's Recycling: It Really Does Get Recycled!" The Village website at www.scarsdale.com also has lots of helpful information. Don’t wait until the New Year to reduce your refuse. The Village pays by the ton to cart garbage away. The more the community recycles, the less we have to pay in tipping charges. With budget season approaching, I thought that was a good thing to mention. The Westchester County's Climate Crisis Task Force is meeting this evening to jump-start a County-wide tree planting campaign in 2020. The project will provide recommendations on where more trees can be planted, what tree species are likely to thrive in a changing climate, and how local communities can participate in restoring forest cover. The County is partnering with the Westchester Land Trust on this initiative. Last but not least, it was my honor to represent the Village Board at yesterday's Veteran's Day events in the American Legion Memorial Garden and also at The Ambassador of Scarsdale Senior Living Community. This year marks the 100th Anniversary of the Scarsdale American Legion Post 52. Congratulations to Post 52 on this momentous anniversary and thank you to all who have served our country.” ******** Trustee Veron stated “I have several updates on the Village Center: The Scarsdale Business Alliance (SBA) Meet and Greet held last Thursday, November 7th was again very well attended. It is a real positive that the merchant community comes together to discuss opportunities to enhance the Village shopping, dining and service experiences. I am grateful to Village Manager Steve Pappalardo for attending and introducing himself to members of the business community. We get many questions about what the Village is doing regarding vacancies as it is in our collective best interest to see a thriving Village Center. We all know that the property in the Village Center is privately held, but as a government we have been doing everything in our power to make Scarsdale welcoming to new businesses. The Village has made itself available to prospective tenants to explain the permitting and build out process and to answer questions. As recently as last week, Building Inspector Frank Diodati met with a very eager tenant seeking to fill the Lange’s space. A big thank you to Frank for his responsiveness. And finally, with the snow flurries today, it seems that the time is right to begin to think about the holiday season. Please mark your calendars for our annual Light the Dale festivity set for Friday, December 6th. I am very pleased that this event has been transitioned from a grass roots initiative into an official annual Village activity.” ******** Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 498 Trustee Arest stated “I would like to quickly report on the budget priority working session which took place at 6:30 pm tonight where we received an early look at the 2020- 2021 budget including some of the forecasted positives such as a sales tax revenue increase as well as potential negatives based on existing trends, such as reductions in cable franchise fees, recreation youth camp fees and mortgage tax revenues. I appreciated the ability to continue the effort from last year to start the budget process early and enjoyed the dialogue amongst the Board and staff regarding what we hoped to receive in terms of data during the budget process as well as priorities that we hope to give additional attention. There will be a lot more to report over the coming months but the biggest takeaway for the community is that your Village Hall is hard at work on fiscal planning. The budget calendar was just shared with the Board and will be shared the community soon. January 27th is the all-day budget meeting and I encourage all residents that can make the time to attend. Thank you.” ******** Trustee Arest Trustee Arest stated that he would like to make a motion to amend this resolution to specifically add the words ‘with Village Board consent’ following the phrase ‘two additional one year periods’ in the first RESOLVED, and he read it as follows in the below resolution, seconded by Trustee Crandall and carried unanimously. Trustee Arest stated that the previous Village Board in February of 2017, did a rather extensive search with issuing an RFP to make sure the Village was comfortable with the auditing services at PKF O’Connor Davies. It is a very important role to audit the Village financials and the search led to a confirmation that the Village had engaged the right firm at the time. A three year term was decided on for that period. Subsequent to that, the Village staff has recommended that we continue our engagement of PKF O’Connor Davies and he stated that his experience has been positive with them. He stated that he was witness to the search that took place in 2017, although he was not on the Board at the time but at the public sessions of those meetings. He stated that he is very comfortable with them continuing on, especially with a three year extension and two additional one year options, but with Village Board consent, which can obviously give the Board the option to submit a new RFP to the public to get additional responses to vet to insure at that time that the Board is comfortable continuing with their services. Upon motion entered by Trustee Arest, and seconded by Trustee Crandall, the following resolution, as amended, regarding Authorization to Execute a Professional Services Agreement to Provide Independent Audit Services was approved by the vote indicated below: Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 499 WHEREAS, pursuant to New York State Municipal Finance Law, the Village must complete an annual independent audit of the Village and Justice Court financial statements; and WHEREAS, an RFP was last issued on February 03, 2017, and pursuant to staff evaluation of the three vendor proposals received at that time, the firm PKF O’Connor Davies (PKF) was found to have served the most similar clients in terms of budget, population size, and form of government, to have performed well under prior auditing engagements with the Village of Scarsdale, and to possess the number of local professional staff necessary to complete a timely and thorough on-site audit of our financial statements; and WHEREAS, the Village continues to be satisfied with the work performed by PKF, including the controls they implement to achieve an accurate, independent audit of the Village financial systems and records, and is desirous of renewing the Agreement with PKF, which has now expired; and WHEREAS, PKF has proposed a competitively priced three-year Agreement, including an option to renew for two additional years, with the proposed 2019-20 audit fee of $67,900 unchanged from the prior year’s fee, and subsequent years to increase at a rate of roughly 2% annually for 2021 ($69,200), 2022 ($70,600), 2023 ($72,000) and 2024 ($73,500), as may be applicable; and WHEREAS, in recognition that the prior RFP revealed that PKF’s on-site presence, accessibility to staff throughout the process, professionalism, and system of checks and balances on the work they perform are unmatched in their field, and further that the Village has been fully satisfied with their services provided through prior engagements, staff recommends award of a three-year Professional Services Agreement, including an option to renew for two additional years, to PKF O’Connor Davies for provision of independent auditing services; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, that the Village Manager is herein authorized to execute a three-year Professional Services Agreement, including the option to renew for two additional one-year periods, with Village Board consent, in substantially the form attached hereto, with PKF O’Connor Davies, LLP, 500 Mamaroneck Avenue, Ste. 301, Harrison, NY 10528, to perform independent audits and related services for the Village and Justice Court for fiscal years ending May 31, 2020 ($67,900), 2021 Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 500 ($69,200), and 2022 ($70,600), and if extended, 2023 ($72,000) and 2024 ($73,500); and be it further RESOLVED, that all costs for such services be charged to the General Fund Budget Account No. A-1325-ADMIN-AUDIT-400 477. AYES NAYS ABSENT Trustee Arest Trustee Lewis None Trustee Crandall Trustee Ross Trustee Veron Trustee Waldman Mayor Samwick Before voting ‘nay’, Trustee Lewis stated that as noted in the Agenda Meeting, he stated that he would prefer to see data and a competitive process to justify agreeing to a multi-year price increase for PKF. In the absence of that information, he votes ‘no’. ******** Written Communications Village Clerk Conkling reported that five (5) communications have been received since the last regular Board of Trustees meeting. Please note that all written communications may be viewed on the Village’s website at www.scarsdale.com. • An email from John Gliedman regarding stop signs at the intersection of Lyons and Sprague Roads. • An email from David Han requesting a stop sign at the intersection of Sprague and Madison Road. • An email from Linda Peretz regarding the Freightway Site Redevelopment; a response from the Mayor is included. • An email from Mayra Kirkendall-Rodriguez regarding vehicles illegally passing school buses. Responses from the Mayor are included. The Municipal Services Committee Traffic Survey Report dated January 18, 2018 attached to this email may be viewed under written communications on the Village’s website. • An email from Greg Schwend, concerning sanitary sewage issues on Barry Road. The Westchester County Department of Environmental Services Sanitary Flow Monitoring Report dated October 12, 2011 attached to this email may be viewed under written communications on the Village’s website. ******** Village Board of Trustees 11/12/2019 501 There being no further business to come before the Board, the meeting adjourned at 9:03 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Donna M. Conkling Village Clerk