Board of Trustees

. Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting April 21, 2020 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 Larry Kraus 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 Public Hearing – 2020-2021 Village Budget Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to open the Public Hearing – 2020-2021 Village Budget. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Moore: For clarification, we'll be keeping this open for 10 days to allow people to submit comments. Correct. Manager Revella: That's correct. Attorney Donovan: The budget needs to be adopted by May 1st, it will be a few days late for that. The public notice indicated that the comments on the budget will be accepted for 5 days. Manager Revella: We gave you an update as of yesterday. You should have it. Mayor Rumbold: What was the final number after everyone sharpened their pencils? Is that the document that you sent us? Manager Revella: Yes, with the numbers that were approved by the board on all those items as well. As 4/20, there were some small shortages. We had also given estimates for the fund balances, the increases after this year as well. As of right now, in the A Fund, you would need $35,422 in Fund Balance to balance and make the tax cap. $4,779 in the Water Fund to balance and $25,900 in Sewer Fund to balance. 1  . Mayor Rumbold: You're suggesting we use Fund Balance for that? Manager Revella: I would. There are 2 items that we'll likely discuss in executive session that may play a role in the A Fund, but that's the only fund that would be affected by that. Mayor Rumbold: What's the total that has to come out of Fund Balance? Manager Revella: A Fund $35,422. Water Fund $4,779. Sewer Fund $25,900. Trustee Kraus: You said we had to take out 80 grand, where is that? Manager Revella: That was before we did the adjustments that we did after the last budget session. Reduced that down a lot. Trustee Kraus: Where did you take it from you? Manager Revella: It was approved from different areas. It's on this sheet that was emailed on Friday. Some adjustments in revenue and some adjustments in expenses. Trustee Kraus: Estimated cost? General? Manager Revella: That's capital. Trustee Kraus: 39 grand. Where did you pull it from? Manager Revella: 39, that's all from the A Fund. Then there was a small adjustment in health care since then. Which makes it $35,422. Trustee Svarczkopf: Just to answer that question, we're gonna pull that $35 out of the General Fund. Manager Revella: Fund Balance. That's the proposal right now, if you don't make any adjustments after executive session. Mayor Rumbold: Are you confident in your sales tax revenue estimate? Manager Revella: We took out a bunch from this current year and the next year as well. A portion. Mayor Rumbold: What level of confidence do you have with that estimate? There are Board members that are concerned that you're being overly optimistic with these sales tax revenue numbers. Manager Revella: I'm not sure where they would have pessimism from. The numbers are pretty straightforward. We took a 50% reduction on the current and future sales tax revenue, which is probably more than what we need to. Trustee Kraus: Do we get any funds from the County and the State? Manager Revella: We get lots of funds from both. 2  . Trustee Kraus: With everything going on, how are you certain we're gonna get those funds this year and next year? Manager Revella: I'm not. So, we reduced that. Sales tax we get from the county. Allocations that are already done are guaranteed funds. So, if there's other money that we would anticipate getting after next year, that would be a problem because they're not approved yet. They'd be approved during this year when all the hardships going on. What we are going to get this year was approved last year. Trustee Kraus: The challenges that are going to come up now, because a lot of people aren't working, even with unemployment and income from the feds, however, that's going to end someday. Then who knows if they're gonna have the job. If businesses are going to reopen. We're going on unchartered waters here. Manager Revella: Correct. But the Governor still wants us to put our budget in, regardless. No leeway and no time extensions. Trustee Kraus: I understand that. But we have to look at that to. It's just a tough call. Mayor Rumbold: And that's why you’re guesstimating. That's why we're taking Fund Balance and we're applying it to try to make everything work. Everybody's in the same boat. We don't know what's going to happen but we still have to try to formulate a budget that keeps the Village running. Trustee Kraus: I understand that 100 percent. Mayor Rumbold: Once we approve this budget, no matter what the number is, the Manager has to make it work. So, if something happens within that budget year, then he's got to make the tough call about how to make that amount of money work. You can't change the tax rate. You can't change the amount of the budget. All you can do is move things around to make that number work. That's what he gets paid for. And if he's confident in the numbers that he has before him, then he's got to make it work. Trustee Kraus: I understand that. Will this be under the tax cap? Manager Revella: If we use the fund balance, we're under the tax cap. Trustee Svarczkopf: I know last year we got off the fiscally stressed list. If we use the fund balance, will we continue to stay off? Manager Revella: Absolutely. We're still gaining fund balance even using what we're talking about using, we're still increasing. Trustee Svarczkopf: What if we lose an extra $150k in sales tax and we have to take that out of the fund balance as well. Do you still think we would be not stressed? Manager Revella: I would not take it all out of fund balance. We would have to make other cuts through the year to make it balanced. We could still use some and still be under. 3  . Deputy Mayor Moore: Can you just verify what the fund balance is projected was to be for the public? Manager Revella: We can post it as well. Projected fund balance at the end of this current budget year for General Fund is $825,492. Water $505,157. Sewer, $401,740. Deputy Mayor Moore: With taking these suggested amounts out of each fund, we are still adding to that to the fund balance. Manager Revella: For the general fund. We will likely to the water and sewer, we just didn't project it out because we're ahead of the game on those. Deputy Mayor Moore: In the 5 day period, any written comments, since it's just public hearing, we're not required to answer them. We're just required to receive them. Attorney Donovan: That is correct. Trustee Svarczkopf: Facebook Live has a delay. I just want to make sure that everyone was able to make a comment if they want to. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to close the Public Hearing – 2020-2021 Village Budget. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Hearing – Local Law 2 of 2020 – Tax Levy Override Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to open Public Hearing – Local Law 2 of 2020 Tax Levy Override. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Manager Revella: We will not need it to pass it this year. You are more than welcome to discuss it. My recommendation would be not to pass it. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to close Public Hearing – Local Law 2 of 2020 Tax Levy Override. Seconded by Trustee Kraus. All ayes. Motion carried. Approval of March 31, 2020 and April 7, 2020 Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve March 31, 2020 and April 7, 2020 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Action Items Resolution 19-19-20 – Budget Transfer Manager Revella: As we go through the year, there are different accounts that go up or down, depending on the needs of the Village to be adjusted. We've had several, will probably have 1 more before year end, but just to get things up to speed, most of these won't change again, but some of them might like adjustments in electricity for gas instead. Education instead of publications. Deputy Mayor Moore: I'd like to just point out that we do itemize our budget much more than we're required to, which is the purpose for having to do these budget transfers on a regular basis. Thanks for keeping us in the loop and approving them. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve Resolution 19-19-20 – Budget Transfer. Seconded 4  . by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Memorial Day Parade Request Manager Revella: If they do have it, they should be able to social distance enough on the parade route. It's not too packed to be able to continue if they need to. Attorney Donovan: Any concern that violates the executive order on non-essential gatherance? Manager Revella: This is after that date. I'm not sure, we'll see when that comes up if it's extended. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve Memorial Day Parade Request contingent on Executive Order not being extended. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Trustee Ramos). Motion carried. Liaisonships Trustee Thompson: I asked if this could be placed on the agenda a while ago, but we didn't make our required cut off for getting things on the agenda. We visited this, we had discussion about this and it sort of fell by the wayside. I just think that perhaps it's time to revisit again and make a decision. I just still feel very strongly that we should redefine the roles of the liaison. I know there are a few other board members who were thinking about that. We had a committee. There were lots of notes and suggestions. Then it just did not get resolved one way or the other. Mayor Rumbold: Do you want to revisit what your concerns are? Trustee Thompson: My concerns are that I just am not really comfortable with people on the board getting so involved with the daily operations in the various departments in our Village. I thought the discussion was, we were going to try and do more of a community outreach so that people on the board were more in tune to the various activities and organizations and what their needs and wants were throughout the Village. Mayor Rumbold: I'm not processing that as a liaison. So, instead of being liaison to departments, you want to be a liaison to the community? Trustee Thompson: Yes. Does no one recall those conversations? Mayor Rumbold: It's been a while, it's nice to get my memory refreshed. Deputy Mayor Moore: I'm totally unprepared note wise to have this conversation tonight and I apologize for that, but I do have a lot of notes from when we talked about this last time, that if we're so willing to have this conversation, I will bring those notes to the next meeting. Manager Revella: There were discussions for example, economic development, community groups, there were different ones that were listed there. The Town was another. Deputy Mayor Moore: The idea behind it when we discussed it last was to get away from Board Members having an appearance of having control of Department Heads, with the Village Manager, who is essentially in charge of the Department Heads and Board Members taking a lead in other areas in the community. But I will pull those notes together and have it ready for the next meeting. 5  . Mayor Rumbold: Can we make sure that Cheryl and Willie are included in this because they're the ones that are going to have to deal with this? I'd like to know their thoughts on it. Are the Elections in June? Manager Revella: The Village Clerk had the meeting with the elections board, but they did not confirm a date. Mayor Rumbold: Are there any provisions? Let's say it's June. There's not a lot of time for new Board Members to get up to speed. Usually they take office in April. They've got some time under their belts to deal with a new fiscal year. Did he make any provisions about that? Manager Revella: No. Mayor Rumbold: I don't think we can let them into executive session either because there hasn't been an election. Manager Revella: Your executive session is your executive session. You are permitted to invite anyone you want into those. But I understand your concern. Trustee Thompson: When all of us were first newly elected to the board, we had no input about any of this liaison stuff. We knew nothing about it. We were informed about what it was and what we could possibly do once we took office. I don't understand the concern for Willie and Cheryl, because that's never been a concern before. Mayor Rumbold: Because this is extenuating circumstances. They would be in on this discussion or they would have been talked to about it. They would have known about it. I didn't have an opportunity to speak to them at all. You're going to make a decision about something that's going to impact 2 people after the fact. I've invited people to sit at the table and talk about a budget in the past. I just felt like it was a courtesy to 2 people that are going to have to jump in after an election and there's no downtime, so to speak. Manager Revella: There's no issue with the sharing information with the 2 other people that are planning to be Trustee after the election. Deputy Mayor Moore: If it's the pleasure of the board, while I gather my notes from stuff that we've talked about in the past, to reach out to the Board Members and kind of refresh memories and rehash conversations so that we can have a clear and precise conversation at the next board meeting. Mayor Rumbold: I'd like to look back and see what I have. Deputy Mayor Moore: Honestly, when I agreed to be the second to put this on the agenda, it was before a lot of this craziness that honestly, I forgot about it. That's why I was not prepared to speak about it tonight. The budget and everything else that was more of my concern. We'll be happy to get all that together and be more prepared to have a clear and concise conversation at the next board meeting. Payment of the Audited Bills Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to pay the Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Kraus. All ayes. Motion carried. 6  . Correspondence Trustee Svarczkopf: Received a couple e-mails about the budget. Trustee Kraus: Couple of e-mails about the budget. Trustee Thompson: E-mails about the budget. I also received a few messages about potential price gouging at our gas stations in the Village of Walden. Mayor Rumbold: Did you tell them that there's information out there where they can report it? Trustee Thompson: I did. I directed them to the Orange County Website where all those numbers are. I also spoke to John, who told me that it was getting looked into. Apparently the prices for gas in our Village are within the normal limits. Deputy Mayor Moore: E-mails regarding correspondence on the budget. A few e-mails and conversations and questions regarding Bulk Pick-up. Trustee Ramos: E-mails about the budget. Trustee Sebring: Same thing as everybody else. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Svarczkopf: Just hearing about Bulk Pick-up, I know a lot of people go around looking through stuff. I know that the virus can stay on surfaces for up to 5 days, I'm hearing. So, just be careful. Put gloves on. Deputy Mayor Moore: I just want to say thank you to all of our Village Employees and our Department Heads for continuing to work through this and keeping the Village on track and mostly to all of our residents for sticking together and getting through these crazy times as we have. Trustee Ramos: I would like to commend Valley Central School District for providing lunches for all the WES and all the students of Valley Central. They have constantly provided meals on an everyday basis. Now it's Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Have the children engaged in their daily scholastic abilities by using their Chrome books. Teachers are engaging with the students. I know this is a trying time, but they're definitely doing a phenomenal job and I'd like to commend them. Thank you. Mayor Rumbold: I've had a lot of compliments from members of the community about our personnel are still working. They're very helpful when the need arises. Thank you, to everybody for sticking to the schedule and coming into work and getting it done for the Village of Walden. Executive Session - Personal history of a particular employee Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to enter executive session to discuss personal history of a particular employee. Seconded by Trustee Kraus. All ayes. Reconvene Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. 7  . Deputy Mayor Moore: Are there any appointments that need to be made since the last re-org meeting that we would need to do prior to elections when we were able to do that? Manager Revella: All of those have been extended by the same executive order. Attorney Donovan: That's correct. Trustee Svarczkopf: I'm not sure if anyone else has gotten comments, but a lot of people that I've seen have actually really enjoyed watching these meetings online. There were just 24 people watching live. I think most of the budget sessions were over 700 views. I think that it would be worth the discussion to consider when we do return, figuring something out on how to push the stuff out, because we've got a lot more engagement. If we even had 24 people at a board meeting, we would be thrilled with how much engagement that was. I think we need to really have a good discussion on that. Deputy Mayor Moore: I agree. I think I did mention that in the last budget session that I would like to find $20k dollars to be able to do that. That would include about $7k worth of upgrades to technology in the building, which comes from the estimate that you and I talked about, Dan, Then an estimate that was sent to the Village Manager from Acquisitions Marketing regarding doing a live streaming of our meetings would be about $21k that we would have to find to be able to do that. That's a conversation we can have whenever the board wants to have it. Manager Revella: Just to make sure everyone got the capital projects lists for prioritization. I tried to go over those as well as I could with Department Heads. I could not get Queenan on today to talk about them. But I did go over them with Department Heads to try and prioritize as well as we could. Our same limits are the same as every year. $500k for general fund, $250k for water, $250k for sewer. It really just depends on what Senator Skoufis comes back to us with for the Community Center as to what we can afford to do this year. I'll send out the prioritization list that we came up with to everyone so they can look at it. Anyone that has any different opinions, please let us know before we adopt the budget. 8  . Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting April 21, 2020 Motions & Resolutions Public Hearing – 2020-2021 Village Budget Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to open the Public Hearing – 2020-2021 Village Budget. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to close the Public Hearing – 2020-2021 Village Budget. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Hearing – Local Law 2 of 2020 – Tax Levy Override Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to open Public Hearing – Local Law 2 of 2020 Tax Levy Override. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to close Public Hearing – Local Law 2 of 2020 Tax Levy Override. Seconded by Trustee Kraus. All ayes. Motion carried. Approval of March 31, 2020 and April 7, 2020 Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve March 31, 2020 and April 7, 2020 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 19-19-20 – Budget Transfer Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve Resolution 19-19-20 – Budget Transfer. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Memorial Day Parade Request Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve Memorial Day Parade Request contingent on Executive Order. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Trustee Ramos). Motion carried. Payment of the Audited Bills Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to pay the Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Kraus. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session - Personal history of a particular employee Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to enter executive session to discuss personal history of a particular employee. Seconded by Trustee Kraus. All ayes. Reconvene Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. 9