Board of Trustees

. Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting December 3, 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 John Ramos Larry Kraus Brian Sebring Dan Svarczkopf Lynn E. Thompson Absent: Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Kelly A. Kelly, Village Treasurer Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Mayor Rumbold made a statement recognizing people in community dealing with substance abuse. We decided to join Hope Not Handcuffs so people knew there was somewhere safe that they can go and get the help they need. Presented Certificate to Jody Nicoli. Sgt. Werner introduced Part Time Dispatcher Samantha Veaz. Public Hearing Local Law 8 of 2019 – Parking on West Main St Trustee Ramos made a motion to open Public Hearing Local Law 8 of 2019 – Parking on West Main St. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Moore: I did have a conversation with Superintendent Fred Perna. We went and took pictures and measured to see if we could restripe and move parking spaces down to make room for turning. And there was no possible way to do that. So to make the room, would be to just remove the entire parking space. Trustee Ramos made a motion to close Public Hearing Local Law 8 of 2019 – Parking on West Main St. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Hearing Local Law 9 of 2019 – Water Meters Trustee Sebring made a motion to open Public Hearing Local Law 9 of 2019 – Water Meters. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Becky Pearson: 167 Walnut St. My feeling on the part of this is that maybe some people work in the city or far away and the hours that they're putting in, and if the hours are from 9 to 5, maybe 1  . they cannot be there. Maybe they don't have friends and neighbors that they rely on. For example, I haven't done it yet. I work and I know I live right here, but for me, I would have to have someone come and sit. Evenings would work. Saturdays would work. I don't know if you've looked at maybe possibly changing some of the hours and put them in instead of creating a law for that. The water meters were replaced in 2000 something, are these the same ones or are they new ones? Mayor Rumbold: If I remember correctly, I think we were putting meters in places that didn't have meters. Like Squire Village. Becky Pearson: It was a readable meter so that people didn't have to go in the home, they could drive by and read the meter. Manager Revella: Those were Sensus Meters. The ones now are cellular. We don't have to drive by or anything. We can read them from here. Becky Pearson: Okay, so they are very different. Mayor Rumbold: And people can check their water usage from an app on their phone. Manager Revella: You can set up alerts, as well. Becky Pearson: Are they trying to set different hours for people to be able have them put in? Manager Revella: We flex hours. We do weekends as well. Just have to call and make an appointment. Mayor Rumbold: This is just for a zero response kind of thing. Manager Revella: We have guys working Saturday and Sunday as well. Regularly. It's required for testing. Becky Pearson: How did you come up with $75? Treasurer Kelly: It was recommended at a conference I went to, because there's other municipalities that have gone through this. Somebody going out to actually read a meter vs. imposing those fines for people who are not complying. They felt it was appropriate amount that would incentivize people. And they said that they still have people that just don't want to do it. And there's a lot of people that just pay it. Mayor Rumbold: It just so happened that the meters that we have put in around that time were horrible. They kept failing. We're repairing them all the time. Whether they were a cheaper meter or we got a bum lot of them, but they really needed to change. Trustee Ramos made a motion to close Public Hearing Local Law 9 of 2019 – Water Meters. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Hearing Local Law 10 of 2019 – Stop Sign Northern Ave and Ivy Hill Rd Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to open Public Hearing Local Law 10 of 2019 – Stop Sign Northern Ave and Ivy Hill Rd. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. 2  . Trustee Ramos made a motion to close Public Hearing Local Law 10 of 2019 – Stop Sign Northern Ave and Ivy Hill Rd. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Village Manager’s Report • We had a PERB meeting, but did not have a follow up yet. We were supposed to, but the CSEA has not requested it yet. • Did go over some bail reform issues in the County contract for radios with Chief Holmes. The Attorney is going talk about that later. It goes into effect January 1st, so everyone's aware. • Had a few meetings with the Village Treasurer. Talked about some things with the Comptroller regarding some audit issue and to make sure we're on the right track. • Attended a webinar on zoning and planning with NYCOM. Pretty much the same things that we're going over in the Comp Plan as well and trying to make our Zoning Board open to things that we want to be more conducive to our way of life in the Village. • We had an Edmunds Seminar, Treasurer, Building Inspector and his assistant also attended. We went through a timeline for a notation, talked about some ins and outs. Want to make sure we weren't going to lose that much downtime to transition. There's a follow up going on March, April, trying to push things faster, but it's likely going to be May. Dean is working it out with them to make sure it's okay with their schedules, because they're going to be shut down while it's going on for a couple of days. • Went over some upgrades and cyber security with the Village IT Contractor to make sure we were up to date. • The locksmith was here. Locks were upgraded at Village Hall. Front door and all bathrooms and doors on the second floor also got new locks so at the end of the night every door can be locked if we want too. • Had a good meeting with Trustee Thompson and a resident of the Town regarding Town projects effecting our waterways. Put some letters into the Town, making sure they're looking out for our best interests. Most of that fell on deaf ears. But we're still going to pursue and keep on that as we can. • The trees is in the square, decorations are up and we are ready for Thursday's tree lighting ceremony. • Had a good meeting with Trustee Thompson and Trustee Svarczkopf and the people that are interested in the Package Lighting building. • At the meeting with the OCTC, we did a Transportation Subcommittee. The project is being implemented now. The Transit Orange Project is supposed to help you navigate the County through public transportation. Supposed to be able to put in two locations and it will tell you the best way to get from one place to the other through bus, train, Uber, taxi. They are working out kinks. Hopefully once they work it all out, because they don't have every possible route in there, it'll be fully operational. Trustee Svarczkopf: Were there any suggestions from Cyber Security? Manager Revella: The suggestions that came, came last time. It's just a matter of making sure we keep implementing them. Like the passwords are changed after so many days. Trustee Kraus: How did the Jets trip work out? 3  . Manager Revella: Good. Trustee Ramos attended as well. Some fun activities there. Trustee Kraus: Financially? Manager Revella: We did better than last year. Approval of Minutes - November 19, 2019 Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve the November 19, 2019 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Deputy Mayor Moore). Motion carried. Trustee’s Committee Reports Village Offices Liaison – Trustee Svarczkopf Trustee Svarczkopf: Moving along with Edmunds. The Building Department started its implementation. Clerk has been busy updating websites, social media as well as physical media in and around the building. Town of Montgomery & Library Board Liaison – Trustee Kraus Trustee Kraus: Few things going on this month. There will be a Holiday Train Display on the 14th of the month. On the 19th there will be a Mystery Book Group. Planning and Zoning Boards as well as the Building Department Liaison – Trustee Thompson Trustee Thompson: I attended the Town of Montgomery Budget Hearings Special Meeting on November 20th. It was very confusing. They passed their budget. A lot of increase on the budget from the original. Our taxes will be going up. It was very, very chaotic. The Supervisor wasn't there. Deputy Supervisor wasn't there. It's recorded. And we will have our taxes raised. Village and Town wide. Manager Revella: Do you know how much the raise is going to be? Trustee Thompson: They gave it on a $200k home in the Village will typically go up $17 or $18 dollars a year. It was substantially higher for people in the Town. They did give some funding to the Ambulance Corp. They asked for $300k, which is the bare minimum to keep the, viable for 12 months. They gave them $100k. They de-funded the Police Department by a $100k. Everybody had a lot of concerns about that with the new state mandates coming out and not knowing. I haven't seen the absolute finalized budget. Manager Revella: It had to be sent to the state the next day. Trustee Thompson: I thought maybe we would see something online, but I have not been able to find anything. Trustee Sebring: They took away the guard at the front door. Trustee Thompson: The Police Department took him away, because they lost $100k. Trustee Sebring: If the board had known what they know now, they would have probably not have bought their second police car. Mayor Rumbold: Is that an A or B fund? 4  . Trustee Thompson: That went back and forth too. I believe that was an A fund expense. Manager Revella: It didn't used to be. But they know that legally it's allowed. Trustee Thompson: There was a lot of discussion about the appropriateness of things in the A fund. As far as the security guard being taken away at the front door, I've heard a lot of concerns from the public about that. People like that security post there. They like the fact that the camera system was updated. There's a little bit of public displeasure about that. Trustee Sebring: They took a lot of money away from Highway. Trustee Thompson: Let's see what they do with our bridge. Petitions were turned in. The letters of support from all of our emergency service people and our Village were turned in. We'll keep trying. I do know they did replace the benches on the Rail Trail. I don't think they've got the cracks sealed before the cold weather. I met with Dean and Darlene today. Wanted to see if there was anything new with the Edmunds program. They said they just had a telephone conference. There's nothing being implemented so far. The wish is still for a full time Code Enforcement Officer. There's a lot of work to be done with that. Dean is up to date with this fire and safety inspections for the area he's working on now. If he keeps going at the current pace, they should be complete by March of 2020. Mayor Rumbold: When would they start again? Building Inspector Stickles: We will start Area 1 in June. Doing Area 2 and 3 right now. It's every 2 years. Trustee Thompson: Neither of them had any complaints. Just that they hope we continue to pursue them getting another employee so that they can try and stay on top of all the code issues of our Village. Mayor Rumbold: We've advertised for that, correct? Manager Revella: For part time. Then we discussed at the last meeting, a full time position. I don't feel comfortable advertising for that, until we start doing the budget to make sure that we have funding for it. Trustee Thompson: I had asked if we could have some data compiled to do some price comparisons about contracting from the outside. I realize the fee will probably be high, but we also would not be having to provide some health and retirement benefits if we did that. Manager Revella: We gave a comparison between part time, full time last time. Trustee Thompson: About outside contractor. Manager Revella: We have to get the pricing. We have the pricing that the Town has, but I wouldn't know if it would be the same pricing. Trustee Sebring: What if we look into the possibility of any of these Towns that have a part time Code Enforcement Officer and we have an Intermunicipal Agreement, where they work over there 5  . and work over here, too, until you can decide whether or not you want to have a full time position. Manager Revella: It's possible, I just don't know if the hours will work because we'd want probably want the same hours they are working in the other place. Trustee Thompson: It would definitely be something to contemplate about. I just think we should explore all our options. Police Department and Justice Department Liaison – Deputy Mayor Moore Deputy Mayor Moore: Reviewed gas, car maintenance, and secondary employment. D.A.R.E. Graduation is tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. for Walden Elementary. Reviewed the budget and verified spending is on track. Had a couple questions, thank you Kelly answering those questions. Recreation & Parks Department and Valley Central School Board Liaison – Trustee Ramos Trustee Ramos: Walden Elementary School lost a very wonderful lady. Please keep her and her family in your prayers. She passed unexpectedly. The wake is on Sunday and then funeral is on Monday. Going to be some hard shoes to fill there. The School District doesn’t have a meeting until Monday. Park and Rec, the snow is here and they are going to be busy. They are on track and doing a wonderful job. DPW Liaison– Trustee Sebring Trustee Sebring: The Water Department installed 14 new meters. Postcarded houses for new meters. Highway had sweeper out. Cut the trees back on the routes. Cleaned out basins. Helped put up the tree with the decorations. The contractor was working on Valley Avenue doing the sewer lining. They did an excellent job plowing through this past storm. Mayor Rumbold read the community events into the minutes. Public Comment on Business of the Board None Action Items Local Law 8 of 2019 – Parking on West Main St Trustee Ramos made a motion for Negative Declaration. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos made a motion to adopt Local Law 8 of 2019 – Parking on West Main St. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Local Law 9 of 2019 – Water Meters Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion for Negative Declaration. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Svarczkopf made a motion to adopt Local Law 9 of 2019 – Water Meters. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Local Law 10 of 2019 – Stop Sign Northern Ave and Ivy Hill Rd Trustee Ramos made a motion for Negative Declaration. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. 6  . Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to adopt Local Law 10 of 2019 – Stop Sign at Northern Ave and Ivy Hill Rd. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Contract with County for Radios Manager Revella: They gave me an updated copy today in the mail. I had given it to Dave before the meeting to review, make sure there was no major changes. Attorney Donovan: Appears to be the original counterpart of the contract had very odd numbering starting at number 220. Then would jump to 300 and something. They had corrected those typographical mistakes. I think if you recall, the issue that I had with the contract is the length of the contract of 15 years. Had a conversation with Chief Holmes. He is very much your favor of the contract. He believes there will be a cost savings up front. John will confirm that because the County is buying the radios. Chief does believe that some will have a long life. But those that require maintenance after warranty period, which is only two years, is up. He kind of used that as that's our cost now because we lease the radios now. So, he's very much in favor of the contract. I believe the Village of Harriman already signed on. This will be discussed at the Village of Goshen meeting next Monday. I don't know what other communities have signed on. The concern that I always is the length of 15 years. Trustee Ramos: The 15 year contract is way too long. We're waiting for the end of the contract to make sense of how much it's going to cost. Attorney Donovan: If the machinery starts to break down at some point in time, it's our cost. After the 2 year warranty. I'm not aware of any deadline that you're under. The manager will talk economics. If this becomes an issue for next year's budget, I raise the legal. There are obviously other issues. Trustee Thompson: What is the life expectancy of the current radios? Manager Revella: Same company. Trustee Thompson: Fairly good success? Manager Revella: Yes. Trustee Thompson: We're not going in with the anticipation that this is going to be a disaster in 2 years? Manager Revella: No. 5 to 6 years is hopeful. Even then, you're still looking at a savings. Even if we projected out 15 years with the amount we put into the budget for this equipment every year. If we replace 2 a year, starting in year 2, we're still saving. Plus, we give the shared service incentive from the state upfront. Just have to keep that in mind in future budgets that there is going to be a cost going forward. Trustee Svarczkopf: Because we lease them now, do we get new ones every couple years? Manager Revella: As they break or become obsolete. But not every year. 7  . Trustee Svarczkopf: How long do they last right now? Manager Revella: People that are good with them, 5-6 years. Chief has had one for longer. The other incentive is that this equipment, we would be able to speak Count wide with all the other departments. Deputy Mayor Moore: Is it possible to do a spreadsheet that shows the comparison? I think it would be good to have the visuals. Look at what the cost is upfront compared to what we spend on the budget now. Manager Revella: There's no cost up front. Deputy Mayor Moore: The cost savings. Trustee Svarczkopf: In 5 or 6 years, all the Towns that sign on, will most likely be having the same issue with things breaking. Would there be incentive then for the State to rebuy things at that point? Manager Revella: It's on us, we should have a good price range since we're all in the same boat. Mayor Rumbold: What's the cost per year? Manager Revella: There isn't one. Mayor Rumbold: So, they're buying us the equipment. The County is not getting any cost and any money from any municipality to participate in this? Manager Revella: No. Deputy Mayor Moore: We just have to replace the equipment as it breaks. Mayor Rumbold: I'm trying to decide why we have to participate in this for 15 years. Manager Revella: I'm not sure of the duration was, but that's what the bid was that the County put out, I believe for the different companies when they were doing it. Trustee Thompson: What happens in that 15 year period, if there is a significant change in the technology and something bigger and better and the greater comes out and we're stuck with these clunkers for 15 years? Manager Revella: If the life expectancy is 5-6 years anyway, technology advances in that amount of time. Mayor Rumbold: I'm going to assume that since the County went out to bid for this and this company got this bid, we're getting these radios they're getting the radios at a reasonable price. Do we know offhand what the replacement cost is? Manager Revella: That's one of the questions we have. 8  . Attorney Donovan: The answer is essentially, we're on our own. In any contract that exists of this duration, there is speculation, what happens at year 5, year 7. You get a best guess. You can't get an answer with a certainty. The question is, if we're comfortable with the 15 year contract. It's a long time for me. Trustee Svarczkopf: Is there another option of continuing to lease the new equipment that will tie into this new system? Attorney Donovan: I don't think it will tie into the new system. Based on my conversation with Chief Holmes. Mayor Rumbold: How did they come up with that 102? Did we give them a list? Manager Revella: Yes. Attorney Donovan: It's actually the contract, there's substantial list of equipment. Mayor Rumbold: We have no idea after a 2 year period, what the cost to replace a piece of this equipment is? Manager Revella: We can only go by today's cost. Attorney Donovan: We can cancel the contract. There is a penalty which you would have to pay the County, the cost of the equipment less depreciation. How that's calculated, I have no idea. Trustee Sebring: I'd like to see a few more Police Departments. Manager Revella: It will be all Police Departments. All five districts and all Ambulance Corps in the County. They all have this contract. Mayor Rumbold: They're all signed on? Manager Revella: No. But they all will be discussing this. Mayor Rumbold: What happens if only half sign on? They're the only ones to be able to talk to each other through this system? Attorney Donovan: I don't know the answer to that. Mayor Rumbold: That doesn't make sense to me. Should be all or nothing. Manager Revella: That's kind of how it went. The Village also agreed to go in on this, but we were not given terms. If we were supposed to get terms to discuss, that never happened. That's why Dave reached out to their legal department. Trustee Sebring: I'd like to put this off until budget time to get more information. Attorney Donovan: You may not want to wait until April. 9  . Trustee Ramos: I'd like to see how many departments sign on. We're talking about 700 to 800 digital trunk system. To me, that's still old. Right now, there's 900 sitting on a couple of mountain tops that the DEC uses. Some other state agencies also use. And when 700, 800 decides to drop off the face of the planet, now we're stuck with them. I'd like to see what other agencies have signed on. What are their logistics and the amount of equipment that they're using? I guarantee they're going to have multiple radio systems besides the County. Mayor Rumbold: If the County is buying a system that now supports the setting of 800, what happens years down the road, they decide they're going to upgrade their system, we're out of that 2 year period, and will we be forced to purchase new equipment to be compatible? Manager Revella: Yes. I don't know if they would waste 10 million dollars to upgrade their system. Trustee Sebring: I would be inclined to wait until budget time and maybe since John is real up to date on this kind of system, that if you would check in with other Police Departments and even Rockland County, see what problems they have. Then come back and give us a report. I'd rather have something like that rather than ask a consultant that's being push this system. Manager Revella: This came up because the County, the State and FCC required this upgrade to system. Once we got that information of what the parameters were, they went out to bid. This company bid based on the specs that were given. They didn't push the system. The County, the State, the Feds did. I told Chief to have Greg Cherry come talk about it next meeting and talk about it with us because we have too many questions. Mayor Rumbold: We don't have any idea what the cost is. What does 1 radio cost now? Manager Revella: Like $5k? Mayor Rumbold: If it's $5k now, who knows what it's going to be down the road. And they can charge us anything they want to charge us because we're locked in. Trustee Svarczkopf: Do we have any other options? Manager Revella: They're saying that we don't. But we'll have them come here and tell us that. Trustee Svarczkopf: The first I-phone came out in 2007. That was 12 years ago. If you tried using one of those today, it wouldn't work. Signing on for hardware for 15 years, is ridiculous. Trustee Ramos: I'd like to see what Goshen talks about at their meeting, too. Trustee Thompson: I believe the Town is also going to sign on to this. Manager Revella: Correct. Trustee Thompson: There is always talk about consolidation of Police Departments because it's the biggest expense in our budget. What happens if you're doing this and you dissolve the police department? 10  . Attorney Donovan: I haven't analyzed that. I'm not sure, because the contract is with the Village, not the Police Department. My sense of all this is that the County, communications people and the local Chiefs had this great idea that we should all have the same radio system. They were concentrating on how can we talk to each other? How can we get a good communication system? Then it got into the hands of the lawyers. I expressed a couple of concerns that was never discussed. We had this great thing in mind, that was going to accomplish a lot and help public safety and now there's these details that have come up at the 11th hour that make implementation problematic. Discussion – Trustee Expenses Mayor Rumbold: I thought as a board that we should discuss this and make a decision. It came to my attention that there have been circumstances where Trustees have signed up for an event, a meeting, which there is a expense to the Village and for some reason they couldn't go and the Village still had to pay. It's been suggested that if you sign up and you don't go or don't stay, that you have to reimburse the Village for the cost of the event, unless you can dins someone to go in your place. Manager Revella: I think that's been the practice for the board for a long time. Mayor Rumbold: I don't think it's been enforced. Manager Revella: Will make sure that we follow up if it happens in the future. Mayor Rumbold: Everybody be aware that if you sign up for something, make sure that it's something you really think you can go to. Resolution 7-19-20 – Accepting Youth Bureau Funds - SYEP Trustee Ramos made a motion to accept Youth Bureau Funds for Summer Youth Employment Program for $6,000. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 8-19-20 – Accepting Youth Bureau Funds – Teen Center Trustee Ramos made a motion to accept Youth Bureau Funds for the Teen Center for $7,000. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment Becky Pearson: Couple comments. Just thinking about how you replaced the water meters 10 years ago and you're replacing them again. And I think that the contract is long. I don't know what you can do about it. If they didn't have an attorney drawing up this agreement. Can you counter? Attorney Donovan: What I'm saying is the attorneys got involved at the end and drafted the contract. Becky Pearson: The other thing was, there was a Public Hearing set for today for the Comp Plan. Manager Revella: Next meeting. Payment of the Audited Bills Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. 11  . Correspondence None Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Svarczkopf: As we know, the procedure for putting items on the agenda doesn't currently exist. We were counseled that we should establish clear and unambiguous rules on that. We've yet to discuss the topic. We were told in the absence of such rule, long standing procedure should be followed. These procedures as described to me where if 2 board members who ask for someone to be put on their agenda will be put on the agenda. I requested on November 19th that Edmunds Lane be put on the agenda and since then, nothing. When we received our board packet, the topic was not on there. I inquired why. I got an answer that I won't discuss at this meeting, but there was a new reason why it was not placed on the agenda. I was told 2 members can put the item on the agenda and there was no stipulation on that. Also, if the item wasn't going to be placed on the agenda, I would have at least liked a call because I asked for it to be put on. I would like to make 2 requests. 1, to formalize rules for those requirements. 2, I'd like to publicly ask that Edmunds Lane be put on the agenda for the second meeting in December. Mayor Rumbold: What specifically about Edmunds Lane? Trustee Svarczkopf: The person making that request wanted to give a presentation to us. Mayor Rumbold: Does that have to do with the Planning Board letter we got? Trustee Svarczkopf: Yes. Mayor Rumbold: That letter document hasn't been paid for. Trustee Svarczkopf: I asked for and did receive the documentation on that. Again, 2 people asked for that to be put on. I didn't realize there was a stipulation that 2 people had asked. Mayor Rumbold: Why would you want to put something on the agenda to discuss a document that wasn't paid for? Trustee Svarczkopf: I understand that concern. I spoke with gentleman and he says that that has been paid. I don't know if they've been paid. I've been told that they haven't and he says they have. That's not really my concern. 2 people asked for it to be put on the agenda and it was not. All I'm asking for is, for us to formalize those rules. Mayor Rumbold: Are there 2 people that that would like this put on the next agenda, even in view of the fact that the fees for the Planning Board haven't been paid? Is that the way we're going to do business now? If you're going to advocate for someone, I would think that you would advocate for the taxpayers of the Village of Walden. Why would you move on with the next phase, if you will, if there's still an outstanding bill? Is there anyone here willing to put that on the agenda given the fact that there's an outstanding bill? Trustee Svarczkopf: When I asked if he was aware of that? I was told yes. When I spoke with him, he said absolutely not. Can we send him those bills again? Manager Revella: Yes. He was informed of those at the Planning Board, as well. 12  . Mayor Rumbold: Did you ask to see the receipt or the check? Trustee Svarczkopf: I spoke with him late today. No, I haven't that yet. Again, my request was number 1, formulize the rules. Mayor Rumbold: No problem there. Your second request is to put something on the agenda. Who is the other Trustee that's requesting it to be put on the agenda and are they still okay with that? Trustee Thompson: I have requested the second request, however, this is new information that the bill has not been paid. If it's our Village's standard practice to not allow someone to present unless all fees are paid. I absolutely think that we have to go by our standard practice. If that's how you treat anyone who would like to present to us that they have not paid their fees on in full. I think that that's reasonable. Once we have clarification that all fees have been paid. Then I would be fine with putting something on the agenda. I do agree with Dan. We need to be crystal clear on how we're going to move forward. Do we need 2 people to do the agenda? Do we need someone who wants to present to have all their bills paid? I think we need to follow this policy and process. And if that's the process, I'm fine with waiting until we have proof. Deputy Mayor Moore: I have been in my own time, kind of working on creating a standard policy since it was mentioned that we should have that standard of practice. If it's okay with the rest of the board, I would like to put that into writing and send it to everybody so that we can then have conversation and formulize. Then we can talk about it. Not saying what I put in writing everyone has to go with it, but as something to start with. Mayor Rumbold: Absolutely. Deputy Mayor Moore: I'll get that to the board before the next meeting so we can talk about it. Trustee Svarczkopf: I request to get those bills out to him so that we can figure it out. Because he was unaware of them when I spoke with him. Treasurer Kelly: They were sent twice, but I will send them again. Trustee Thompson: How do we pay our NYSEG bills for our street lights? Manager Revella: It's based on usage. Kilowatt hours. Trustee Thompson: What recourse do we have, that are absolutely not coming to this Village in a timely manner to fix the multiple streetlights that were out? I am very, very concerned about the 3 lights that are out in front of the post office. I saw a child almost get hit by a car because you could not see this little person trying to cross the street. It's way too dark there. Manager Revella: The NYS Public Service Commission is who you complain to. There is no one else that has authority over them. That division is the one that oversees public utilities in the State of New York since the State broke it up into these private companies. The problem is with our private company, they were a New York State company, owned in the United States. They sold to a foreign entity. Since that time, it's been disastrous. We've complained and written letters. Our Senator's representatives, sent letters on our behalf as well. It hasn't really gotten us anywhere. Newspaper. I'd 13  . love for them to help us. Because it is a problem and safety hazard. Definitely concerned about it. Especially the ones on our main thoroughfares. I spoke to NYSEG on Sunday, because they out doing services and they assured me that they had stacks of work requests for the Village, including lights. They've been getting to them, they were on the west side. They did MPB, as well. I told them if they're in the Village, do the thoroughfare first. Hopefully, they will. If they don't get through in the next month, we're going to have to do the letters again. Mayor Rumbold: Can you adjust your bill if there's certain number of lights out in the Village? Manager Revella: We're not using the wattage. Trustee Sebring: But if you have them put up a light, they will tell you how much that's going to run you for whole month or year by the size bulb they put in there. They know how much each light costs. Mayor Rumbold: There's no cost when it's off. Trustee Sebring: I don't believe that. Trustee Thompson: I just read an article about other municipalities going after these utility companies for the defunct polls. Manager Revella: We had 2 of those. The problem is that even though we can get NYSEG there to do a pole replacement, the other utility companies have to come switch wires before they take the old one out. That's the problem, coordinating with Spectrum and Frontier to get the other wires off. Trustee Thompson: There's a stump of a dead pole on the corner of Riverview and Rifton. They just have to come and rip that out of the ground. It's not connected to anything. The green streetlights, up and down Main Street and the Square. There's nine of them not working. Manager Revella: It could be the switch when they put the wreath's on. They might have covered the sensor. That could be a sensor. I didn't know. But we fix those. Trustee Sebring: Can we possibly look at creating a committee to look at the purchase of the lights? If we're gonna have so many lights out in a Village, maybe we could talk to Maybrook and see how they went about buying their lights. Give us an idea of what it would cost to have our own lights and then be in control of our own street. Manager Revella: Half was through a grant and the other half was they raised the taxes 9%. We can try and get a grant for at least half. Trustee Thompson: I attended 2 water things, recently. 1 was up in Annedale. There were people there from Climate Smart Initiative. Then we did a telephone conference on Monday. There is funding out there through the Climate Smart Initiative to help with some of these lighting projects. So, between now and Christmas, our Climate Smart Task Force, which is John and myself in conjunction with Patricia Hannigan, I'm hoping that Dennis Leahy will also communicate with this. Because he is willing to share information about how he got all those lovely street lights on 208. There are ways for us to keep going down our checklist to score points, so when funding does open up again, we want to get ourselves positioned in the best possible place that we can. There's a lot of 14  . pieces with water that also are very pertinent to Climate Smart. Kate Schmidt has a few things that she would like to share with us. I will just continue to share anything that I learned about this because I think there's a lot to gain. Manager Revella: I think that if we put NYSEG on legal notice about the streetlights are out that it's causing a safety hazard. That might get them a little motivated. Trustee Thompson: I did attempt to follow up with our cleaning service. Has she provided the documentation that was requested to get her some supplies? Manager Revella: You ordered stuff when she asks? Clerk Kraus: Yes. Whenever she emails me. Trustee Thompson: I just want everyone to know that I am trying to follow up with her, but she did not reply. Deputy Mayor Moore: Just a follow up, at the last budget session, we had 911 come and give a presentation on the possible opportunities that come with that. We had talked at that time about having the Chief also come and talk about his side of the importance of keeping dispatch. Just wondering if we could possibly do that, now that we are going to be starting to talk about budgets. I want to thank the Police Department, DPW and Parks and Recs for taking care of us during the storm. I want to thank Lynn for taking the lead, I know Brian helped her, on the Hill St Bridge. Trustee Sebring: I had one person mention to me that going into Hannaford’s, past Franco’s, some people fly down that hill and fly into the parking lot. And possibly talk to John Joseph about putting a stop sign there. Maybe that's something that can be looked into. Manager Revella: Can't force him because it's private property, but we can ask. Trustee Ramos: I made a suggestion that he put a stop sign before the gym, where it comes on from Albany Ave. He sat there a couple of times and watched it himself and put a stop sign there. I think we prove that there is a need, he will be more willing to accommodate that. Mayor Rumbold: I just want to mention that if you can, get to the Walden House some time during this holiday season. They really do a beautiful job decorating the house. There will be meetings there. They're having a holiday gathering this Saturday. Great job on the tree in the Square. Thank you so much to the Sager family for donating the tree. Decorations look nice on Main Street. Everybody's complaining about the lights. It's an ongoing complaint. Executive Session – PBA, CSEA and Personal History of a particular employee Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss the employment history of a particular person and collective bargaining negotiations for the PBA. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 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. 15  . Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting December 3, 2019 Motions & Resolutions Approval of Minutes - November 19, 2019 Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve the November 19, 2019 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Deputy Mayor Moore). Motion carried. Local Law 8 of 2019 – Parking on West Main St Trustee Ramos made a motion to open Public Hearing Local Law 8 of 2019 – Parking on West Main St. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos made a motion to close Public Hearing Local Law 8 of 2019 – Parking on West Main St. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos made a motion for Negative Declaration. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos made a motion to adopt Local Law 8 of 2019 – Parking on West Main St. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Local Law 9 of 2019 – Water Meters Trustee Sebring made a motion to open Public Hearing Local Law 9 of 2019 – Water Meters. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos made a motion to close Public Hearing Local Law 9 of 2019 – Water Meters. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion for Negative Declaration. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Svarczkopf made a motion to adopt Local Law 9 of 2019 – Water Meters. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Local Law 10 of 2019 – Stop Sign Northern Ave and Ivy Hill Rd Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to open Public Hearing Local Law 10 of 2019 – Stop Sign Northern Ave and Ivy Hill Rd. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos made a motion to close Public Hearing Local Law 10 of 2019 – Stop Sign Northern Ave and Ivy Hill Rd. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos made a motion for Negative Declaration. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to adopt Local Law 10 of 2019 – Stop Sign at Northern Ave and Ivy Hill Rd. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. 16  . Resolution 7-19-20 – Accepting Youth Bureau Funds - SYEP Trustee Ramos made a motion to accept Youth Bureau Funds for Summer Youth Employment Program for $6,000. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 8-19-20 – Accepting Youth Bureau Funds – Teen Center Trustee Ramos made a motion to accept Youth Bureau Funds for the Teen Center for $7,000. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Payment of the Audited Bills Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session – PBA, CSEA and Personal History of a particular employee Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss the employment history of a particular person and collective bargaining negotiations for the PBA. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 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. 17