Board of Trustees

. Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting June 18, 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 Trustees Faith Moore Brian Sebring John Ramos Dan Svarczkopf Lynn E. Thompson Absent: Larry Kraus Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Gina Somma, Deputy Clerk Kelly A. Kelly, Village Treasurer Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Manager Revella: Wanted to announce a new part time employee, William Taylor, Code Enforcement. And then we have representatives from Orange County Emergency Services here to talk with us about what they do and what they could do. Presentation – Orange County Emergency Management The sum and substance of the presentation/question answer is below. Trustee Svarczkopf: How many dispatchers do you have on at any time? Brandon Casey: Depends on the shift. Usually, 7-10. Trustee Svarczkopf: Would it cost us anything to go this route? What's the difference between part time and full time? Brandon Casey: My position since coming on as commissioner is, we don't bill back. Because it's all taxpayer dollars. So, it's at no cost to you. You do lose a little bit, with your local dispatchers. There is the knowledge of your village, so you lose a little bit of that. In a village you pay extra taxes to have more services. You live in a village and expect a lot of services. So, it's really an issue for you guys to decide what is an acceptable loss is. What level of service do our residents expect? We provide a pretty good level service. Trustee Thompson: When a municipality decides to get on board with you and disband what they've been doing or go part time, do you absorb any of the dispatchers that might be displaced or suddenly they're unemployed? June 18, 2019 1  . Brandon Casey: We have a civil service list right now, so we have to go off the list. What we have done in the past is, we can hire dispatchers part time, per diem or if they're trained. If that were of interest to some of the dispatchers, we could do that. Then we could offer them a full time position because there is a current civil service list for dispatching and we kind of have to go off of that. Trustee Thompson: The photo that you brought says on the bottom of it that it was not including calls that are directly called into the police department. Brandon Casey: Correct. Trustee Thompson: I would need to know what kind of a number that is because that can change that data pretty significantly. Brandon Casey: Every Police Department has a 7 digit phone number that people have been calling for years. When you see those Police Departments that do full time dispatching, the 7 digit phone number rings into the building as well as 911. We don't know the amount of 7 digit phone calls that you get in the PD or all of those non-emergency or maybe emergency calls. We say 911. There are some people that live here forever and they always call the PD. The Chief can answer that question better than I can. Trustee Thompson: I heard stories, that since you're at a call center where you do not know every little nuance of every municipality, that sometimes something is dispatched to an incorrect Village. Let's say 3 Villages have a Maple St and the response has been sent to the wrong Maple St. Brandon Casey: It does happen occasionally. We work through those. It really has to do with the addressing person. Every municipality has a 911 addressing person. Usually someone like the clerk or someone that has that as an addition to their duties. So, it does happen, it's rare. With majority of our calls coming in on cell phones, if we do a level 2, where we can ask the system to tell us where cell phone is and it can get us about a hundred feet from where it is. Deputy Mayor Moore: Explain to me the process. So, I call 911 and say that I need help at 2 Northern Ave. Brandon Casey: Once you start calling, the call taker starts making the entry in the CAD. The CAD is available to the Police Department, so they can see that call as it evolves. We want to finish the entry before the system tells us what the closest available unit is, but the fact the matter is the police can see that and they're dispatching on it. It's pretty close. We have to adhere to standards. They have to go through the screen. If they don't do that and something goes wrong, well why didn't you follow the standard protocol on making these entries. Name? Where are you? Are you still at the scene? What's your phone number? All those things need to be answered. Gregory Schmid: But that doesn't mean that help isn't already on the way. We will continue to ask questions but as soon as we verify your address, name and phone number, we pick an incident type based on what you're telling us. If it's a high priority call, dispatched immediately at that point. Then I will continue to ask questions on the phone and give any kind of life saving instructions. Deputy Mayor Moore: What about calls such as our elderly that our Police Department currently does checks on a regular basis? Let's say we decide to go on a part time basis, then you're handling all of our stuff on the weekends. Is that something you handle? June 18, 2019 2  . Gregory Schmid: No, we don't. We don't handle elderly checks unless there's an actual concern. Deputy Mayor Moore: What about situations such as snow emergencies? When our 7 digit number is ringing to you, what happens with those calls? What happens with the tows? Gregory Schmid: We still process all that normally. Obviously, your non-emergent lines are lower priority than the 911 calls coming in. But our phone system prioritizes it and we'll make sure that the first available operator gets the 911 call, then the next available person will get the next 7 digit call. Deputy Mayor Moore: In your building, does the person that answered the call handle the call from start to finish when you're dispatching for the Police Department? Gregory Schmid: When you call 911 you're getting, majority of the time, everybody in our center can answer 911 calls. Whether they're dispatcher or just a call taker. Majority of the time, it goes to a call taker. They stay on the phone with you until they deem it necessary to disconnect and the dispatcher is on the radio, is a different person, usually, will be the one that's giving it out to the Police Department. And as the call taker is typing all the information, the dispatcher is reading it live as it goes. Deputy Mayor Moore: When the call taker or dispatcher is on the phone, I know one of the systems, they can plug in to see how many calls have come into that address, has this person called many times before and they see if there's been domestics. For example, our dispatchers know our community members. They know if I call and they say I have been there 17 times, I'm sending somebody now, I'm not even going to try to find out. Who's doing that? Is it the call taker? The dispatcher? Are they automatically doing that with every call or are they using their discretion? Gregory Schmid: The dispatcher is looking at a little box. It will highlight to let them know if there's previous calls there. They will look at that in the cab system. They will see how make previous calls were there. Brandon Casey: Police know regardless of who tells them on the radio, to go to the Jones house. So, your cops know that. Deputy Mayor Moore: When you dispatch, it comes through the cab system? Is that how it gets from the 911 caller to our police officer? Brandon Casey: When a priority call comes on the air, an alarm goes off in the car, so they turn the radio off. It's a priority call and it will give us the 2 closest cars. There might be 3 other cars that are 10 or more feet away. They won't dispatch those cars, but everybody hears that and will start heading over. Deputy Mayor Moore: Do we have any concern of the radio systems that are coming into play of everybody being linked together and having maybe too much chatter on the radio for that? You're dispatching the Village of Walden the same time dispatching the Sheriff the same time you're dispatching Goshen. Brandon Casey: They have talk groups. Each Police Department will have their own talk group. The priority channel goes out. But now we're going to have the ability to say it's a bank robbery in the Town of New Windsor. We can push them on to a tack channel and they can run that operation June 18, 2019 3  . on that without tying up the priority channel. The new system is state of the art system. Unbelievable coverage. Your police officers should be able to speak to anywhere in the county on the help link. It's really a fantastic system. Fire and EMS are on that system. There's always a possibility of say a school shooting where everybody is coming. That's an old system. If the system is used properly, it should work. Deputy Mayor Moore: Procedurally, is it like flipping a switch? Dialing a number? Is it saying 911 is going to take our calls on A-lines, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. How does that happen? What happens if we have somebody call out on a Tuesday night and we wanted you to take our calls? Do you have capacity to do that? Brandon Casey There was a time where we had an option where it would ring a couple of times here and no one answered, it rolls over. Can it still be set up that way? Gregory Schmid: Depends on the phone system. A lot of Police Departments have that or they just call us at a certain time. Deputy Mayor Moore: I'm assuming like any other business, you staff for call outs on your end. You then would know you're scheduled to take our calls. Brandon Casey: Yes. If that's the event, we have a lot of distractions. We always are hiring and training people. We have minimal staffing and we maintain that minimal staffing. If we were to absorb a large Police Department. We have to consider increasing our minimum staffing. The numbers we've seen for your night calls, just on what we know, we can do your nights. I don't know what the Chief does here, if you take a lot of elderly checks at 8:00 and 9:00 at night that we don't know about, those calls don't come into us. But the numbers we've seen it wouldn't affect our operation that much. Deputy Mayor Moore: Has there been any municipalities that have went this way and then after a while changed their mind and went back? Brandon Casey: I don't think so. Manager Revella: I thought Town of Warwick might have been in that situation. Brandon Casey: We talk to them all the time with eliminating their dispatch. They waffled back and forth on what they want to do. But the new system, I think once everybody's comfortable with it, I think you'll probably see more places that maybe eliminate their dispatching, at least down to their day time. Again, I'm a supporter of the daytime police operations and dispatch capabilities during the day, particularly in a village where people that live in a village expect a higher level of service. Trustee Ramos: Back in the day when we had radio silence for 5-6 hours, while we were not able to communicate. That was detrimental to officers on the street. You had to take care of business by yourself. I think between the distinction of voice and data that the cad system and the 911 system has gone beyond leaps and bounds. I truly like the new radio systems. Brandon Casey: Also, the portables have GPS technology. Trustee Ramos: To reiterate on what the commissioner mentioned, if he had the 2 closest cars and June 18, 2019 4  . you're right one could be 10 feet away when that message comes up in the cad and those tones go off, obviously, everybody is going to roll. At least I have knowledge that I'm going to a violent domestic or a man with a gun and those other 2 cars won't be alone. It's an amazing tool to have. You could use the CAD system on a standalone basis. You could avoid using voice because everybody has scanners. The input person can sit and say, hey this is for CAD only. No voice. For my colleagues, you mentioned PSAP. Could you give me the words? Brandon Casey: Public Safety Answering Point. Trustee Ramos: Do you have any margin of error? Brandon Casey: I don't know what it the percentage is. It comes up. Gregory Schmid: And we also have the human element. Almost every single time, it's caught immediately or very soon after and corrected so that there is no loss of service. Trustee Ramos: The Google Earth imagery, is that automatic when they enter either a grid coordinates or the address? Gregory Schmid: Yes. As soon as the phone rings and that pops up on the screen, it immediately zooms in and shows right where they are on the map in the satellite view. Trustee Ramos: If there's no cell phone, landline, margin of error would be none if you have Google Earth pin pointing. Gregory Schmid: That's why we also verify every screen it comes because 3-4% of the ALI screens, Automatic Location Information screens, that when you call 911 from a house, about 3-4% come up wrong, with Lane, Road, Street. So, we always have to verify that. Trustee Sebring: How long does it take for the county to catch up on new streets are in development? Brandon Casey: Each municipality has someone that is your 911 addressing coordinator. So, that person is responsible to get that information out to us. Then the phone companies when they assign a phone, they give an address to it and then we have to go through our verification process. Trustee Sebring: For all your dispatches that you have, do they individually take calls as they come in or let's say, dispatcher 5 cover a certain district of the county? Brandon Casey: The way it's set up is there are call takers. And then there's fire, EMS dispatching area and there is a police dispatching area. It will go through the call takers. It's not somebody who's assigned. As they come in, they type in information and it goes to the police or fire dispatch. The dispatchers have the ability to answer phones if we get overloaded. There's a supervisor there as well. Trustee Sebring: If your dispatchers were in certain districts for a period of time, so they get to know the area and then maybe a month later they go to another area. Brandon Casey: Every Fire Department has it's own mutual aid management plan with who backs them up and what tankers come to them and they change it. We try to work with all the Fire June 18, 2019 5  . Departments and Police Departments and the EMS on their response and their backup. It's a lot for the dispatchers to learn. Maybe some of the ones who have been there for 20 years or really knowledgeable about all places. But we're talking about an entire county and they need to know the whole county. We couldn't have someone to working on the City of Newburgh for just 1 night. They do a pretty good job of it. Like I said there is a bit of a drop. Are my dispatchers going to know what your dispatchers know about that alley that used to be behind the thruway market and now there's a fish store there. Trustee Sebring: How many towers do you have? Brandon Casey: The new project calls for 15 towers. Have 13 built out. The most important ones, we had a legal snag on that a couple of weeks ago. That should be up in the next month or so. Towers are built, it's just getting the equipment on there. Trustee Sebring: If you have a tower go down during an emergency, how long does it take to go to another tower? Brandon Casey: This system will back feed. It's instantaneous. So, there shouldn't be any drop off unless you lose a couple towers in an area. Trustee Sebring: What do you do to cover dead spots in the County? Brandon Casey: This system guaranteed us 95 percent on the street coverage and that includes the woods in West Point and everywhere in the county. We have some additional equipment that we can push out. I think we're going to have fantastic coverage. It's going to be thoroughly tested. Going to run the systems concurrently. Trustee Sebring: Do you run off of any satellites at all? Brandon Casey: This is a terrestrial based 7-800 trump system, it's a microwave net. All these little microwave dishes have to hit another one. It shoots to the other. That’s powerful. Trustee Sebring: I've worked in many parts of Orange County, there are no dead spots like up on the top of the mountain on Route 6. Brandon Casey: That's the one spot that I'm concerned about, because the park commission doesn't want towers and radios and things. But the public safety concerns outweigh that to me. Trustee Sebring: You're overrun time from a shift going on and a shift going off, particularly the dispatchers in our village, does it cut off exactly at the time specified or do they get to hear what's going on say 20 minutes - half hour prior to that cutoff time? Gregory Schmid: I would say for the most part, unless we're monitoring a large incident going on, we’re just relying on what that dispatcher is telling us. Brandon Casey: If you're coming on duty, you can pull up the CAD. Trustee Sebring: What I'm concerned about is personal talking back and forth prior to shift coming on and off. June 18, 2019 6  . Brandon Casey: They could do that. Trustee Sebring: How long would it take to go from our system to yours? Brandon Casey: It's just telling your phone company to point your seven digit number to not ring at that phone. Gregory Schmid: We have to get another phone line installed and put it with our system. Trustee Svarczkopf: How many towers do you have to lose before we lose redundancy? Brandon Casey: I don't know. I know the system is designed to back feed. Gregory Schmid: It also depends on where you are. If you're talking about Walden specifically, there's quite a few towers in the area that would cover, if all went down, even if 3 went down. Which is very unlikely. Trustee Svarczkopf: We're going to that system no matter what, right? Manager Revella: It's in the budget. Brandon Casey: We're giving you hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment. Trustee Svarczkopf: Our dispatchers, during the daytime will still hear those radios? Manager Revella: They're ours. Brandon Casey: Will have all new portables. All new mobiles in the car. Get a base station. The Fire Departments will get portable mobiles. EMS portables. Millions of dollars of equipment going out. Trustee Svarczkopf: The only decision we're making is whether to route our phone numbers during weekends and nights. Brandon Casey: You can do it full time. My recommendation is not to because of the location of the police department. You're right in the center of the village. I wouldn't recommend going away from your day time police operation and dispatch. . Deputy Mayor Moore: I won't hold you to it, but when would you anticipate the whole new system running and everyone having their equipment? Brandon Casey: We're hoping to get up in September of this year. We have to get this system up before the leaves come off the trees. In order to accept full testing on the system we have that full foliage. Manager Revella: You're volume for 911 calls, just for example, probably have 10 times that per year. So taking 10,000 calls a year, is that going to change your personnel? Brandon Casey: If we were to take over your daytime operation, we'd have to look at that. June 18, 2019 7  . Manager Revella: I know you're not going to prioritize calls for welfare check, but you're still taking the call regardless of whether it's priority or not. Brandon Casey: That's why you should maintain your daytime operation. Village Manager’s Report  We had conference with DOT and the Village Engineer, our contractors. It was a big meeting on Main Street for the Ulster Ave Project. We had John Queenan hand deliver our permits the 2nd time to DOT Newburgh to make sure we were covered this time. So, we can actually get started. Our end date hasn't really changed. We're trying to get there soon. Once the construction date comes up, they'll start putting out the construction ahead signs and the lane closures. They do have only certain hours they're allowed to work.  We got the canvass letters back from full time police officers. We're interviewing on Thursday for that position.  Went to a wonderful luncheon at the Sunshine Society and the Rec Coordinator at the Lakeview House. They gave a donation for a person to go to summer camp.  Went over bonds with the Treasurer, capital projects and mail issues with water/sewer and tax bills. All resolved. The post office called to apologize and weren't sure what the happened either.  Was able to create a Code Enforcement position through civil service and now we have 2 part time Code Enforcement positions that we're able to utilize as we need to.  Went over numerous FOILs with the attorney and the clerk. Some ridiculous and some not so much but we're following up.  Also been following up on a new legislation at the State Senate. There was one that was in a few years ago regarding making deposits at local banks from municipalities and non-profits. There is currently legislation pending in Senate committee to do that as well. There's also a mandate put out by the tax and the finance department saying that all communities of all states from the IRS to all states need to have some plan of action in place by 2025 as to how they're going to handle that and whether they're going to let that happen. New York State will hopefully be done before then. It's really a burden on our staff to travel, which is going to be now, 20 minutes each way to the bank instead of using the banks for here in town. And it's also a burden to our employees who might not have an account because they didn't have to go to our bank to cash. And right now they're going to sterling which is on 300 for that branch is closing in August. Deputy Mayor Moore: I'm not sure if Trustee Ramos was going to talk about this in his report, but are we making sure vaccinations are all taking care of for summer camp? Manager Revella: It's mandated from the county. All staff and attendees are mandated. Approval of June 4, 2019 Minutes Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve the June 4, 2019 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. June 18, 2019 8  . Trustee’s Committee Reports Village Offices Liaison – Trustee Svarczkopf Trustee Svarczkopf: The audit is starting soon. Got the official requests for documents. We have posted for the part time position. We have someone filling in right now. Town of Montgomery & Library Board liaison – Trustee Kraus Absent Planning and Zoning Boards as well as the Building Department Liaison – Trustee Thompson Trustee Thompson: I went to the Planning Board meeting last night. Very full agenda. Lot of things going on here in the village. They talked about Overlook at Kidd Farm, Millspaugh Ct, Edmunds Lane, Anytime Fitness, Franco's Pizza. I met with our new Code Enforcement Officer today. Seems to be right on track. Settling in to the new position. Darlene is doing well. The computer people will be here tomorrow to get him up to speed. Dean has been really busy. Trying to keep up with everything. Fire & Safety Inspection letters and everything are out. I didn't get to meet with Dean, I wanted to ask him if people have been calling to set up appointments. I don't know if John knows. Manager Revella: Yes. Trustee Thompson: Brian Sebring attended the Montgomery meeting. It basically turned into a very angry Medline warehouse meeting. Police Department and Justice Department Liaison – Deputy Mayor Moore Deputy Mayor Moore: I will give you mileage, gas usage, time off for the Police Department. I just want to say that I want to give some good jobs to our officers and the Police Department. They have been doing some great work lately, as well as our dispatchers. I am really looking forward to hearing Chief talk about this issue. I spoke to a couple of officers here and there regarding the presentation tonight. But I did not actually see the Chief. Recreation & Parks Department and Valley Central School Board Liaison – Trustee Ramos Trustee Ramos: This Sunday we have the Yankees game. We have 30 passengers. Anyone still interested, tickets are still for sale. We leave at 10:00 from the Oak St parking lot. Camp is at 90 children right now, but I anticipate in the next couple of weeks that the numbers will triple. Spoke with Mr. Xanthis in Valley Central School. They're looking to set up a speaker. It's understanding and regulating emotions which will in turn improve academics for any school children from K to 12. Quite a few staff members are going to that training so that they can infuse it within the elementary and middle school and high school. I attended, June 13th, Viking Curriculum for Excellence. They're definitely looking at the homework issue. Trying to minimize the homework and steadily have the children complete a review for during the week. We talked about grants. DPW Liaison– Trustee Sebring Trustee Sebring: I didn't get a chance to talk to Fred this week because I've had a busy week getting my daughter loaded to go to Texas. The water department sent out postcards for the water meter. They did road mark outs at several locations. They found numerous curb shut off valves at multiple places to fix. Flushing sewers and sweeping. They've been patching the road holes. They've been repairing basins again. Mayor Rumbold read the community events into the minutes. June 18, 2019 9  . Public Comment on Business of the Board Manager Revella: So, the public is aware, Letter B is tabled. Becky Pearson: 167 Walnut St. We're doing animal waste tonight. I'm assuming that this is different, but I don't see where it still says that people in their own property have to pick up after themselves. Attorney Donovan: If you get to the end of A, it does talk about it. C also indicated that if it's on your property, it's got to be cleaned. Becky Pearson: I did some research. We don't have a kennel law. I understand that it's part of that but there is a catalog. I'll leave this with whoever wants to read it. You can have a kennel law that is a private kennel or a non-commercial kennel. *Read from catalog* All dogs in the Town of Montgomery have to have a license so maybe it's something that you can maybe work with the town on. Action Items Section 214 – Animal Waste Trustee Svarczkopf: It says the owner must disclose the feces in a plastic bag and placed in the garbage. There are no other ways to do that according to this law. Attorney Donovan: You have language in an appropriate fashion. I'm open to any suggestions that anyone else wants to have. Trustee Svarczkopf: I'm just saying to limit it to that just plastic bags seems odd. That it also says it must be placed there promptly. Is there a legal definition on promptly? Attorney Donovan: Sooner rather than later. Trustee Svarczkopf: My question is, what is the definition of promptly? Even if you can prove that it wasn't today, I'm saying it promptly is within a year. Without a legal definition, I don't know if that holds any merit. Manager Revella: If you're talking about a sense of reasonableness, if the judge thinks that 500 times defecating is reasonable, then that's different. Trustee Svarczkopf: But we're also talking about a law that only applies to people who are being unreasonable with their dog. Manager Revella: Yes. It's the judge's reasonableness. Not theirs. Trustee Svarczkopf: I understand, what I am saying is it needs to be spelled out. Manager Revella: Do you want 1 day? 3 days? Trustee Svarczkopf: Then we say daily, well prove it. Trustee Thompson: Promptly means with little or no delay. Immediately. June 18, 2019 10  . Attorney Donovan: It's a very difficult thing to do. Your comments are very well taken, because you're standing in court and someone says I did it promptly as soon as I saw it. I was on vacation. The kid down the street was watching my dog for me. This is like a law that tries to make people do what there shouldn't be a law needed to have them do. It's by no means perfect. It's up to you guys if you want to make changes. Trustee Thompson: I also found what Becky found about the kennel. I think it might be worth considering some language that has to do with that. I'm just saying those seem to be some of the properties where we're having a lot of difficulty. People that have multiple animals. I don't know if there's something about the definition such as that would be helpful to us or overkill. Attorney Donovan: Kennels sometimes are a different animal. I don't know whether, quite frankly, if we deal with kennels in a zoning ordinance. That's a land use issue as opposed to a property maintenance issue, where I've suggested this go in the code. But if you want to somehow fall back and try to put that together. Trustee Thompson: If we're going to go through all this trouble and have language to try and make sure that people maintain their property in a way that is not offensive to their neighbors. If there's anything else we can add to it, I guess that's what I'm asking you. Can we be absolutely certain that we have this as helpful as it could possibly be? Attorney Donovan: Absolutely certain? No. You don't have it absolute certainty. Relative to this particular law, you may never have it absolutely certain. Trustee Thompson: Then if you don't think any of the language about kenneling will improve this at all. Attorney Donovan: Kenneling is generally handled in a municipal zoning ordinance. But if you did a parallel provision of zoning for kennels and you wanted to modify this to accommodate that. That could happen. You guys have to let me know how much time you want me to spend on it. Trustee Thompson: I just don't want to keep revisiting this over and over again if it's not going to make it any more beneficial, easier to enforce. Attorney Donovan: There does come a point in time, where you gather public comment and then you may say to adopt this local law. We'll see what happens. How it's applied in real life. Maybe there's unintended consequences, maybe it works right. Maybe it doesn't and it comes back and gets revised. That's the way these things generally should work. Manager Revella: I would think that the kennel you would still have the same issue. If you had 2 dogs that poop all the time. The kennel issue is not going to resolve that. Trustee Svarczkopf: I don't see this law changing at all resolves any issue. Manager Revella: It gives us a tool to give them a notice of violation. Trustee Svarczkopf: We've already stated that we would have to catch them in the act. I don’t see how it's enforceable. Manager Revella: You don't have to catch them in the act in this one. If the feces is there on the June 18, 2019 11  . property. Trustee Svarczkopf: I don't own a dog. There is a dog that poops on my yard and the owner decides to violate Part B and leave it there. Now, I get fined under Part C because it's there. Manager Revella: Yes. That's correct. Just like if I go to your house and litter on your yard and they don't catch me, it's on you to clean it up. Deputy Mayor Moore: I would be okay bringing this to public hearing with the change. I don't need to see it again and have continued conversation, but I agree with Dan, about disposing it in a plastic bag. I think it should be something in an appropriate manner. I, personally, have 3 dogs. I take care of my yard. I do agree however that there are going to be some issues where it's enforceable. I do not expect the Code Enforcement Officer or the Building Inspector to have to walk into my backyard through a stockade fence with 3 Rottweilers and check my yard. However, I am very conscious as a neighbor of being mindful of all of the neighbors that whose backyard touch my backyard so I take care of that. I am fine with this going to public hearing. I would also like to have a conversation with Becky regarding some of her research and further down the road maybe having a conversation under zoning or another section of this regarding kennel laws because I do agree that there would be some importance to having inspections of making sure the dogs are being taken care of and not just bred. Attorney Donovan: If we would in paragraph C, delete the language by placing such feces in a plastic bag, it shall be sealed and deposited in a covered garbage receptacle. Delete that language so it will read all feces deposited in a sanitary manner. Deputy Mayor Moore: I would be perfect with that language. Trustee Svarczkopf: If this is going to go into law, the fine structure, for me, is way too high. Attorney Donovan: That's a matter for the board. Trustee Svarczkopf: $250.00 is ridiculous. First offense, maybe $25, second offense, maybe $100. If this is happening repeatedly and you want to stop it, third offense maybe $250. Manager Revella: You have to remember that it's going to cost us at least that much go to court the first time. It's the same as littering. Trustee Thompson: Did you talk to people in the village, Dan, that are constantly playing with this topic. They're going to tell you that that fine isn't high enough. Trustee Svarczkopf: To be fined $500 to let my dog poop in my yard, that I pay taxes for, that I own. It seems very ridiculous to me. Attorney Donovan: That's the 3 strikes and you're out version. Trustee Svarczkopf: I understand. It's my yard. My property. Trustee Thompson: And I'm your neighbor and don't want to deal with the mess in your yard. Trustee Svarczkopf: I hear that argument as well. June 18, 2019 12  . Deputy Mayor Moore: Just for the record, there is simple green odor control for your lawn. Trustee Ramos: I agree with Deputy Mayor Moore. Trustee Sebring: I agree with Deputy Mayor Moore also. But my take on this whole thing is that in this village at some times it had been brought before to board that certain neighbors have one or two dogs that are on a chain and all they do is just run around, kill the grass and all you see is dog poop all over. If they do clean it up they just throw it in a pail and just let it sit there and after a while that smells. That's what I see is the reason for this law. As far as everybody else having a dog or two, this is not for that, because then you're going to get everybody calling the Code Enforcement Officer that this guy's dog is pooping in my yard and I don't have a dog. Which to me, is petty. This is for the bigger items that the problems of the complaints come before us or the Building Inspector and Code Enforcement Officer. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to set Public Hearing for Section 214 – Animal Waste for July 16th at 6:30pm or shortly thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 5 ayes. 1 nay (Trustee Svarczkopf). Motion carried. Resolution 1-19-20 – Climate Smart Communities Tabled Turn the Town Teal Request Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Turn the Town Teal Request. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Surplus of PD Car 6 Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve Surplus of PD Car 6. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment Anita Vandermark: 76 Highland Ave. We're very fortunate with having Walden Community Council in this village. They always are there for a positive attitude, positive image in the village. In addition to having the Flag Day ceremony. Involved with concerts in the park. I was very dismayed when I read about a couple of young men not happy with the bicycles and flowers. Really ecstatic by Fred Perna's very nice article. I certainly want to commend him for that. Deputy Mayor Moore: I know you are very diligent about posting the hours. Is there anywhere else that you can post it? A resident was just asking me and I told them to check your Facebook, but I didn't know if there was somewhere else that I can direct them to. Trustee Thompson: He usually puts a sign on his front door that says when he'll be back and what hours. Rick Penney: 52 Capron St. Want to address some of the 911 issues. Some may know, fire chief for last 35 years of the fire department. Also retired Lt. from the Sheriff's office for 25 years. Have a lot of experience dealing with emergency communications. There are times that 911 is not going to be available. They are far and few between. We've had incidents where we have a man in our firehouse to do dispatch as a volunteer, because the system was down. I know they've gone leaps and bounds since that time. I have to agree with Commissioner Casey in regards to making sure June 18, 2019 13  . someone is here during the day when people come in. They're asking for directions. How to get to the courtroom? Where's the Village Clerk? Where's water? I don't know if you guys take into account, the extra administrative duties that the officers are going to have to pick up. A lot of the dispatchers start putting in the narratives into the reports. I know on the fire service end, we could purchase a patch that would relate to data from the CAD system to our fire reporting system and it would start to report with some of the information. I'm not sure if impact can do that. So, now you have an officer sitting at a desk, doing his whole report thing that's not started, start to finish, which is taking him off the streets. Now some of the administrative tasks that dispatchers do are going to have to be picked up by somebody. Either police officer is going to do it, the Chief is going to have to create another administrator’s position to handle it. You know they get the FOIL request. They enter the order of protections into the database. You know they do numerous other functions that you may not even know about that they do. It may only be $350k a year. Which is big. As a taxpayer I understand where you're coming from. I've been a manager. I've been an elected public official. You get a medical emergency, pulls up in front of the police station and runs in, you got someone to talk to. Can't pull on that door and no one's here. Just something about. Becky Pearson: Thank you for all the support for Flag Day. How are the mailing's going? Have we had that happen yet? Manager Revella: Not yet. Becky Pearson: Any news on the bluestone on Ulster Avenue? Manager Revella: We're stockpiling. Becky Pearson: In the minutes, I read about an annexation. What's that about? Manager Revella: There's not anything for the board. If it comes up, I'll bring it to the public, but they haven't come back since. Becky Pearson: Joint board meeting is on for the 16th? Manager Revella: Yes at 6pm. Becky Pearson: Will there be an agenda sent out? Manager Revella: No, it's 1 topic. Becky Pearson: At the end of the minutes, there was an executive session where you voted on spending money for Well Exploration. What does that mean? What are you exploring? Mayor Rumbold: Potential Well sites. We're exploring the possibility that there may be an area that the Village could possibly utilize for a well. We're exploring those. That could mean dialogue, it could mean doing a perp test. It could mean any number of things. We're exploring. Becky Pearson: I also saw there was job opportunities that are on your website, but I did not see one for Code Enforcement Officer. Was there one listed? Manager Revella: Months ago. It was posted and we'll post it again for another one because there is an opening still. Civil Service has the requirements listed on their website. June 18, 2019 14  . Becky Pearson: When did the discussion happen? Is it a new position or is it the old Code Enforcement position? Is a part time or full time position? Manager Revella: We only have part time Code Enforcement. Becky Pearson: Is this person filling the position of the old part time person or is it a new position? Manager Revella: There is no new budget line, if that's what you're asking. Becky Pearson: I'm asking whether we created a new position. Manager Revella: I have created a new position. I said that earlier in my report. Becky Pearson: When was that discussed in the village board meeting about how much we were going to pay somebody, that we're going to have a new position? Manager Revella: There isn't one, because it hasn't happened yet. Becky Pearson: So, there's no new hire for new positions? Manager Revella: No. Becky Pearson: I'm confused. Do we have a new hire in our Code Enforcement? Manager Revella: Yes. Becky Pearson: Is there any position that was created? Manager Revella: Yes. Becky Pearson: When did the board have the discussion to create a new position? Manager Revella: They don't have to have a discussion about that. You're talking about funding the position, that hasn't happened. Mayor Rumbold: Last board meeting we actually talked about having 2 positions. Becky Pearson: But when did we talk about how much it was going to be? Manager Revella: We didn't. Becky Pearson: How do we hire somebody without it being talked about? Do they get paid the same amount as the first one? Manager Revella: We haven't discussed that yet. Becky Pearson: If you hire someone how do you not discuss that? Manager Revella: I did not hire someone for the new position. June 18, 2019 15  . Becky Pearson: Do we have a new hire or not? Manager Revella: Yes, we do. Becky Pearson: Can somebody explain this to me? Mayor Rumbold: This is public comment. You have the right to stand up and comment. Becky Pearson: My comment is that this board that I know of, I went back in the minutes and has not had a discussion on hiring a new Code Enforcement position. I read from January until last meeting. It doesn't say it in there. Doesn't say salary. Doesn't say it's a new position. Mayor Rumbold: As long as the manager acts within the budget that he has, he has the authority to hire. Becky Pearson: To create a new position? I don't think so. I don't think that's allowed. Mayor Rumbold: As long as he acts within the parameters of that budget. He does what he needs to do with that budget. We don't dot every i. Cross every T. Micromanage. Becky Pearson: I'm not saying micromanage, but when you create a new position, the board should about it being created and talk about salary, talk about time, talk about job description. Talk about everything. I don't know if the board knows about it. It's not talked about in public. That's how the public knows what's going on. My comment is, I feel sad that the discussion has not happened publicly that you're hiring new people. That the salaries and job descriptions are not talked about. Manager Revella: It's a civil service title. The job description is publicly available on the website. Mayor Rumbold: We just had the discussion last meeting so anyone that was there for the discussion knows about it. Becky Pearson: Manager's contract was renewed? Deputy Mayor Moore: It wasn't up this year. George Brown: Scofield St. I'm a Dispatcher on the A-line shift for the Village of Walden Police Department. I also previously worked for the Orange County 911 center for about 12-13 years ago. I do know a little bit about the 911 system and obviously a little bit about here as well. The 911 system that they briefly touch, they use, what they call, a Pro Q-A. It's a card system. It's basically a script that they get their dispatchers. You call 911, they read from the script. They actually get punished if they deviate from the script. The guy here is Greg Schmid, who was my trainer for call taking. He was one of the few that actually fought against it. He took a call and he got punished because it was a bee sting call and he got punished because he asked if the bees were still around. He wanted to know for the EMT's in case they were allergic. That's a stupid simple thing and most people want fight it. *George Brown made referenced a story about a Polk County Fire Captain* I do see benefits in the scripted questioning 911 callers for a new employee only. Someone that hasn't dealt with these types of calls and can't think them on their own. After a while using this, you become mindless. You become a telemarketer reading off a screen and in an emergency situation, I just don't see the benefit of it. There's also the personal touch that our employees here bring. The June 18, 2019 16  . lady downstairs in the office right now working, not only does she answer phone calls, she has a touch with this one mentally challenged individual, he brings her gifts all the time. Chocolates, flowers, stuffed animals. She takes care of dogs that are loose in the area. Kathey Penney, here. She and her husband opened a food pantry to help support the veterans. The VFW. Myself, I spent almost 20 years, umpiring little league here. 18 years with the fire service. I'm trying to raise a family here and I took a pay cut because I wanted to work here. Chief Holmes: This is informational. The presentation you got tonight, there are two parts to it. I want you to understand that. The one part was about the new radio system. Which we talked about in the budget. So, that I think you better to separate. That's going to be up and coming for the communities around us. The idea is it's going to work. We hope. The tower system, the minutia about that, the CAD. That will come for all of us in the emerging services. The primary question is exactly was what up there in budget time. Is talking about the options of what we're going to do with dispatch? It comes up all the time. It obviously is based on revenue. It's always based on costs, etc. As you can see here, you have quite a few of our dispatchers here. There is a passion for our dispatchers. I have a passion for our dispatchers. I have a lot of questions. Just roughly from my years of service here, with the questions that came up from them that they didn't have all our calls for service. I can tell you that our walk in service here on the average depending on the year, your walk in complaints are anywhere 15 to 20 percent of your service. After that, your 7 digit phone and your 911 calls as it gets more popular. We've been training our kids to call 911. You're going to see that difference, but it's almost the same. 40 to 50 percent a year are coming from your 7 digit phone line. The others will be 911. Depending on the year. Don't forget the stats that you put out there, include medical, fire, as well as, police related calls. I want you to separate those two parts. The new radio system coming up, we're all hoping that's going to go well. There will be some things in the future we're going to have to talk about during budget frame. It's going to take away all those dead spots. New technology. As far as how we're going to set up our alarm systems. Breaking the County down into zones. But more importantly when I do get my opportunity to talk, it is exactly what you're seeing here. The passion of the people that we have working for us. The passion of the people that do call for us. And having an expectation of a person sitting there. It's not them against us. We have to work together. Hopefully when I have my opportunity to talk, I will answer a lot of the questions that you have. I have some of the information now. I do appreciate the fact though that we are happy with the discussion now and not 16 days at the end of the budget year. Payment of the Audited Bills Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to pay the Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Correspondence Trustee Thompson: I just like to say we've got the NYCOM Flyer. We're hosting NYCOM again here. Monday the 24th at 6pm. I hope as many people from our board can come. Deputy Mayor Moore: In addition to the Montgomery Day invitation, I did receive an e-mail from a concerned citizen regarding his neighbor regarding the dog poop, but it was a different incident than the one that initiated this conversation. I believe the Village Manager responded appropriately that is an issue that they are addressing. I did just get a bunch of stuff from Becky, as we were sitting here regarding kennels. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Svarczkopf: Could we get some clarification on what needs to be reported there? Because I've been told in the past, it wasn't about village business, per se, that it doesn't need to be reported June 18, 2019 17  . during the communications section? Manager Revella: Correspondence? Trustee Svarczkopf: Yes. Manager Revella: If they sent you something as Trustee Svarczkopf. Trustee Svarczkopf: Anything that has Trustee Svarczkopf on it? Manager Revella: If you're getting correspondence as trustee, yes. It's your official correspondence. That's all it's for. Just to report what you got. Whether you want to share the entire correspondence is up to you. Trustee Thompson: I just wanted to say that I did attend the Flag Day ceremony and it was lovely. Community Council and the Veteran's Park Committee did a really, really nice job. The turnout was nice. I hope more people come every year. I know our one agenda item was tabled, but I just wanted to let the board and public know that I'm working really hard on that to get the information that everybody feels that they need to continue to move forward. I talked to three people at the county level. We're going to be putting something together early in July to get more information. It hasn't been forgotten. It was tabled because I just had been having a really difficult time getting the information that everyone has asked for. I have been and is still going to local board meetings. I went to the Wallkill River Watershed meeting this week and the Tin Brook meeting and they are having a meeting with John Revella tomorrow. Hopefully by the next board meeting I'll have some more information to report to everyone on that. I was just wondering, where are we going with the safety issues in our municipal building? It seems like that has kind of been stagnant and it's been on the news again recently that there was a horrific accident in Virginia Beach in a public building. I hope that progress is still being made. Manager Revella: We took several measures already and have a couple more in the works. I don't know if you wanted to discuss that in public or not. I can show you a couple of things in the office. Deputy Mayor Moore: I just want to remind everybody that on Thursday night at 7 pm here in this room, we are having a job fair for the Summer Youth Employment Program. We've had 25 applications ranging from the age of 14 all the way up to the age of 18. Which is wonderful. We do have 15 positions. Very excited for that. I just wanted to say the Sunshine Society has a beautiful display in the Walden Savings Bank this month and thank you for they do. Thank you for bringing up the post and pictures from Fred. I, too, want to say how amazing that was. The models were great. The pictures were great and to shed some light on the community and I actually have somebody that contacted me that they have a bike they would like to donate. Trustee Sebring: On Facebook they have 'Memories of Growing up in Walden'. Any residents that you know that have old time pictures and memories, that you'd like to share with everybody on Facebook land, especially for Walden residents. Just something to think about. Mayor Rumbold: Flag Day was great. Beautiful ceremony. Lots of people. Sunshine. A great service to the community by the Community Council and the Veterans Memorial Park Committee. I have to tell you George. I get what you saying about dispatch. The night that I had to make that phone call, you answered the phone. As hard as it was to make that phone call, you make it a little easier. Because it was your voice on the other side of the phone. I know what it means to have our June 18, 2019 18  . dispatch. Familiar faces. Thank you all for your service to the Village of Walden. Executive Session Trustee Ramos made a motion to enter executive session to discuss the employment history of particular person, the Collective Bargaining Negotiations for PBA. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. June 18, 2019 19  . Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting June 18, 2019 Motions & Resolutions Approval of June 4, 2019 Minutes Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve the June 4, 2019 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Turn the Town Teal Request Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Turn the Town Teal Request. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Surplus of PD Car 6 Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve Surplus of PD Car 6. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Payment of the Audited Bills Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to pay the Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session Trustee Ramos made a motion to enter executive session to discuss the employment history of particular person, the Collective Bargaining Negotiations for PBA. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. June 18, 2019 20