Board of Trustees

. Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting March 26, 2019 Mayor Rumbold called the regular meeting of the Village of Walden Board of Trustees to order at 6:30pm. On roll call the following were: Present: Mayor Sue Rumbold Deputy Mayor Faith Moore Trustees Brian Sebring John Ramos Dan Svarczkopf Absent: Larry Kraus Lynn Thompson Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Kelly A. Kelly, Village Treasurer Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Village Manager’s Report  Met with the engineers for Ulster Ave project and also with the contractor. We do finally have a timeline for the project. Hope to start by June 1st. Will have signs up prior to for the works zone. Entire project will be one lane the entire time so they can work on one side of the street at a time, to do the drainage, the curbing and the sidewalk and retaining walls. The company will be renting space I believe on Main St, for the duration project so that they'll have a local office.  Responded to a few different resident concerns. Snow removal disputes. Requests for waivers for garbage can placements.  Did review PBA negotiations with Deputy Mayor Moore and Trustee Ramos, Chief Holmes special counsel.  IT personnel, including the Edmunds software people have been integrating the system to the server. Some clumps working out. Hopefully they'll be done soon.  The proposed village budgets have been delivered to all the board members and placed in the library and on the Web site for review for the public.  Reviewed a few things with the Village Attorney including the local laws that are on the agenda tonight.  Went over a few housekeeping issues with Trustee Thompson that she's concerned about. Trying to work out some of those.  Went over some worker's comp issues with the clerk and our special counsel.  Been reviewing the garbage contract with the Village Attorney and the garbage company to see where we're at. And trying to get those numbers together for the budget. Have estimates for now.  The new DPW secretary started working. March 26, 2019 1  .  Went over some personnel matters and communication issues with the Mayor, so hopefully addressing concerns from the public.  Went over the waterfront project with the DPW Superintendent and Rec Coordinator. The engineer also went by, you go down to the bottom of Maple St and Pine, and you will see that the underbrush is cleared out, so they can get that project moving.  Also got to take part in Community Reader Day at the elementary school.  I've got a petition and some other issues, concerns from people on Donna Christie. Dealing with large vehicles, trucks, tractors going up and down Donna Christie Lane to access the farm in back. I believe they're supposed to use the farm road and not Donna Christie. So, we're working on alleviating those concerns. They're tearing up the roadway and causing problems blocking the roads from residents there.  I will be away from April 17th to April 22nd. Taking the kids to go see my father for Easter holiday. He's had some health issues. Mayor Rumbold: If it's beginning in June, have we alerted MPB? Manager Revella: Yes. Traffic will be one lane. It'll be sections so it won't be the entire length of the project at one time. Probably a couple blocks at a time. Trustee Sebring: The state doesn't have a requirement? Because of the school buses starting after 9? Manager Revella: No. They're aware that they cannot and they will at times have to block both lanes to do certain things, but it only be temporary and they know not to do it during those hours. Trustee Svarczkopf: What's the plan if they have to block both ways? Manager Revella: Either it will be a temporary full shutdown. So, it would be like 30 seconds. That's what they're supposed to do. Sure, some cars will go around. Approval of March 26, 2019 Minutes Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve the March 26, 2019 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Trustee’s Committee Reports Village Offices Liaison – Trustee Svarczkopf Trustee Svarczkopf: The office is busy. The servers are being transferred over. That's slightly getting in the way of moving between two separate programs. Town of Montgomery & Library Board liaison – Trustee Kraus Absent Planning and Zoning Boards as well as the Building Department Liaison – Trustee Thompson Absent Police Department and Justice Department Liaison – Deputy Mayor Moore Deputy Mayor Moore: Spoke to Chief a couple of times since our last meeting. There was for the month of February 44 tickets issued. The snow parking event from a 3/3 into 3/4 of 2019, resulted in 6 cars being ticketed, 3 cars being towed. We have been making sure that we're posting on the website as well as the Facebook page. I think it is working. We still have 1 officer that is out for an March 26, 2019 2  . injury. We do expect that officer to be back on April 15th. Reviewed the fuel usage and vehicle mileage usage. Recreation & Parks Department and Valley Central School Board Liaison – Trustee Ramos Trustee Ramos: Wasn't able to attend the school board meeting yesterday. I was in Washington DC. However, Friday night was the basketball game for the teachers and firemen and policemen and it ended up being a tie game. As you read through the newspapers, they are looking at establishing a bond to care of some infrastructure in some schools. I've been in touch with Mr. Xanthis on issues with Walden Elementary School. The little amount of fixes that they're about to do with Walden and we're going to sit down again and talk about what more do for Walden Elementary. Great job by the Parks and Rec and DPW in clearing the underbrush over there, looks phenomenal. Can't wait for the park to get up and being used by our residents. 136 kids for basketball. A couple of games that were called by some weather cancellations and all the sports on- line are strictly by credit card now and not cash. DPW Liaison– Trustee Sebring Trustee Sebring: I spoke with Fred today, the DPW has been busy repairing many catch basins throughout the village. They've been cleaning the catch basins for MS4. They removed the snow on Main Street after the storm. Two guys are sent to the Town of Montgomery, with the sewer jet for a problem that they had. They cleaned the trucks after a snow storm. With the water department they replaced a few frozen meters, mostly in abandoned houses. They replaced 25 new meters. And they also post carded on Sherman Avenue so they can get in their houses and put the new meters in. Mayor Rumbold read the community events into the minutes. Public Comment on Business of the Board Jerry Jacobowitz: Principal of a company that owns property in the Village of Walden and we've submitted to the village a petition for a change of zoning on property on Edmunds Ln and that was submitted to the village on March 4th. Under the Village of Walden zoning law Section 305-66, expressly says that an amendment proposed shall be referred by the Board of Trustees to the Planning Board for report and then again in section 305-70 referrals to Planning Board every such proposed amendment or change whether initiated by the Board of Trustees or by petition, which is what we submitted, shall be referred to the Planning Board for report before the public hearing is held there on. Attorney Donovan: We had some communication, I know I emailed you today. Mr. Jacobowitz: I didn't see it. Well, I don't know what that is other than about the $500, so here it is. Here's another $500. Now there's no issue about that. What I'd like the board to do which I think the statute says you're obligated to do, refer it to the Planning Board for a report. You're not bound. You didn't give up anything. Your power is still all your power with your law that you passed. So, we can get it to the Planning Board. They will review it. Planning issues are there strength, but there are other things to be talked about here which could come back to you folks. Action Items Edmunds Lane Project Attorney Donovan: So, the code doesn't have any specific time period within which to do that. It just says that you must do that before you hold a public hearing. It's up to the board. Obviously, it makes sense to get the Planning Boards input. You're not bound to any particular course of action. It's just the Planning Board's input before it comes back here for a public hearing. Understand that March 26, 2019 3  . Jerry I don't know when you want to call SEQR into this, if the board's going to move forward at some point, I don't know if there's any other involved agency, but will have to conduct a SEQR review. I don't know if any have been submitted. Mr. Jacobowitz: Yes, an environmental assessment form, part of the application. At this point, no action is being taken that will generate having to comply with SEQR. Attorney Donovan: Correct. I'm just letting the board know that this is like the first step in the process. Mr. Jacobowitz: When it comes back to this board, then they have to comply with SEQR Trustee Ramos made a motion to refer to the Planning Board for review. Seconded by Trustee Svarczkopf. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Hope Not Handcuffs Manager Revella: Just so the board's aware, the police department does have the general order in place so the officers down there know the protocols to follow and this program should the board choose to adopt to participate in this program. Attorney Donovan: I have had a couple of conversations with Chief Holmes. He has asked me to review the general order. Which is 19.25. The general order appears to protect the village and set up some clear policies and procedures. My suggestion is that if the board wants to move forward, it would be a motion to participate in the Hope Not Handcuffs Program, subject to the policy and procedures as set forth a general order 19.25, may be amended by the PD from time to time. Mayor Rumbold: The police department is in possession of all the phone numbers? They know who to call? What's going on, so they can properly do this? If we decide to. Attorney Donovan: That was my conversation with Chief Holmes this afternoon. Deputy Mayor Moore: Police Dept has everything they need to be able to go through and will follow through suit with their little bin of other goodies that they have. Mayor Rumbold: And that'll become part of the Chief's report to the board? Manager Revella: If anything comes up, yes. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve participation in Hope Not Handcuffs with procedure 19.25, that can be amended by the police department as they see fit during this program. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Building Security Plan/Office Security Mayor Rumbold: Have we heard back from the vendor? Manager Revella: Not since the last communication and I've communicated with him again to get more clarification and haven't gotten a response twice to e-mails and phone call. I'm trying again. There really aren't a lot of options out there for those types of vendors unfortunately. The only other option is to do something ourselves and which I don't want that kind of liability on our employees or on the village. March 26, 2019 4  . Mayor Rumbold: These are suggestions. Would we present these to that particular company? Manager Revella: Most of these can be done in-house. Mayor Rumbold: Those that can't be done in-house, can you point them out to us and just let us know which ones. Would they have to be RFP? Manager Revella: Depends on the cost of that. Most of them, I don't think so. Even if you added them altogether, probably under the threshold. Mayor Rumbold: Obviously these weren't things that we discussed last budget. So, is this something you're anticipating would go somewhere in this year's budget? Manager Revella: If the board wants these things done, yes. If you see his first line, he'd be more than happy to discuss these matters with you if you like. Mayor Rumbold: Budget sessions are going to be coming up. So, if anybody has any questions, we'll address them to Chief and see if the answers are satisfactory about these things. You can tell us which ones can be done in-house. So how would we know what the cost would be if they are done in-house? Have you had time to look these over and get any kind of estimates? Manager Revella: I have some costs for a couple of things like just say for example there was cameras on this list, we have cost for that. Example if there was something about a lock, we know how much a lock cost. Those kinds of things we kind of know roughly what that would cost. Dean's pretty good at estimating a lot of the stuff too. So, we feel good costs from him as well. So, it's not too bad. Trustee Svarczkopf: Let's say for example there are cameras on that list. We wanted to look at the other ones as well, as opposed to this specific one that you're talking about. Manager Revella: Well these are for safety and security so anything as to safety security, sure. Mayor Rumbold: So, if anybody has any questions get a hold of John or Chief. If you're talking about building security, that would come out of the general fund. So, it's not something that will come out of the police budget specifically? Manager Revella: No. Unless it was something police related. The police department itself does need a couple of cameras. Those will come out of the budget. Mayor Rumbold: Have you heard anything back from the judges about their area? Manager Revella: I haven't got anything back from Judge Ozman, yet. Judge Mishk has given suggestions in the past and we've brought them up to Judge Ozman as well. Intro to LL Maple St Parking Lot Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to set Public Hearing for LL 2 of 2019 for April 2, 2019 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Intro to LL West Main St Loading Zone March 26, 2019 5  . Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to set Public Hearing for LL 3 of 2019 for April 2, 2019 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Intro to LL Main St Timed Parking Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to set Public Hearing for LL 4 of 2019 for April 2, 2019 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Budget Sessions Manager Revella: We should have to have the public hearing on the budget April 16. Mayor Rumbold: I suggest you look over the budget and if anybody has any questions contact Kelly, John. I wouldn't contact the department heads, leave it to Kelly and John to answer those questions. Manager Revella: Just so the public is aware, there is about a $200k difference between tax cap and where we're at. We are looking at those areas now to see where we can find room to stay under the tax cap, because that is the goal. There were 2 suggestions on the one sheet that we put with the packet. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to set Budget Session Dates 4/2, 4/3, 4/5 and 4/8 6pm, here on the 3rd floor. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Liaisonships Tabled Section 256-24/25 Code Revision Discussion Attorney Donovan: Crosswalks and how we charge people and make sure the fines are appropriate. What the manager and I discovered looking through those two provisions, is we indicated that snow is gonna be removed under the direction of the Superintendent of Public Works. Which may or may not be true. So, it's my recommendation that you swap out Superintendent of Public Works and you put in Village of Walden and that will allow the manager, Building Dept, Superintendent, someone. Achieved by drafting a local law. Trustee Ramos made a motion to direct attorney to draft local law. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Arbor Day – April 25, 2019 Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve Arbor Day on April 25, 2019, 9:30am at Walden Elementary. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Public Comment None Payment of the Audited Bills Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to pay the Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Correspondence Deputy Mayor Moore: Received information from Mary Ellen Matise regarding Village Historian. March 26, 2019 6  . Manager Revella: I just want the public know that the board did receive the correspondence regarding the Donna Christie issue. So, the public is aware. Going over that in executive session. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Deputy Mayor Moore: I just wanted to make everybody aware that the OC Municipal Planning Federation are holding their annual spring classes. The full day class is on Friday April 5th at the Trotter's museum in Goshen. And there are 2 2-hour classes on April 3rd and May 14th. Village Clerk has a copy of these if anybody is interested. I know some of the boards have requirements for continuing education. However, there are some really good classes coming up. Also wanted to thank everybody for their support in the last election and coming out to vote. So, thank you for everybody that took their time to go out and vote. And I just wanted to make the rest of the board aware that I am on vacation during the April 16th board meeting. Trustee Ramos: I had the privilege of attending the ordination of our old MPB Priest. Bishop Mum was at the Basilica in Washington D.C. Basilica happens to be a phenomenal venue for this type of ordination. 3 hours, over 2000 people were there and it was just phenomenal. It was an honor and privilege that 2 of our bishops were ordained to serve the military services for the whole world. And it was an honor for me to go. Mayor Rumbold: I also like to thank the community for their support in the last election. I will do my best to serve this village for another 2 years as their Mayor. Executive Session Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss Collective Bargaining Negotiations, personal history of a particular person. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried Reconvene Trustee Svarczkopf made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore.5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. March 26, 2019 7  . Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting March 26, 2019 Motions & Resolutions Approval of March 26, 2019 Minutes Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve the March 26, 2019 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Edmunds Lane Project Trustee Ramos made a motion to refer to the Planning Board for review. Seconded by Trustee Svarczkopf. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Hope Not Handcuffs Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve participation in Hope Not Handcuffs with procedure 19.25, that can be amended by the police department as they see fit during this program. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Intro to LL Maple St Parking Lot Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to set Public Hearing for LL 2 of 2019 for April 2, 2019 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Intro to LL West Main St Loading Zone Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to set Public Hearing for LL 3 of 2019 for April 2, 2019 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Intro to LL Main St Timed Parking Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to set Public Hearing for LL 4 of 2019 for April 2, 2019 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Budget Sessions Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to set Budget Session Dates 4/2, 4/3, 4/5 and 4/8 6pm, here on the 3rd floor. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Section 256-24/25 Code Revision Discussion Trustee Ramos made a motion to direct attorney to draft local law. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Arbor Day – April 25, 2019 Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve Arbor Day on April 25, 2019, 9:30am at Walden Elementary. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Payment of the Audited Bills Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to pay the Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. Executive Session Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss Collective Bargaining Negotiations, personal history of a particular person. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. 5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried March 26, 2019 8  . Reconvene Trustee Svarczkopf made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore.5 ayes. 0 nays. Motion carried. March 26, 2019 9