Board of Trustees

Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting December 15, 2020 Mayor Taylor called the regular meeting of the Village of Walden Board of Trustees to order at 6:30pm. On roll call the following were: Mayor: Susan Taylor Present: Deputy Mayor John Ramos Trustees Brian Sebring Willie Carley John Elliott Cheryl Baker Lynn E. Thompson Absent: Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Kelly A. Kelly, Village Treasurer Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Village Manager’s Report Manager Revella: Went over a few special counsel issues for personnel. Discussed with a couple board members, will go into detail tonight in exec. Went over the Transportation Council projects, there's a big one in Middletown for their signaling. Newburgh is finishing up a couple of their bridges and there'll be some more updates at the next transportation meeting. Clerk is still going through some FOILs. Christmas in the Square event went off without a hitch. Was well attended and people were safe and wearing the masks. The sidewalk project on Maple and Walnut finished. The pump station at Pine Street is up and running. Both a CDBG Grant. Working with the Treasurer on getting the audit and union contract calculations together. We'll go over the union issues in exec as well. Went over the pandemic response plan with Trustee Carey and went over some police reform items as well. Went over some current events with Trustee Elliott to bring him up to speed. Had the police reform meeting. We have the next one coming up on January 4th, 6:00 p.m. Had a great meeting with the DPW Superintendent, Village Engineer, Sewer Engineer and the DEC, to go over DEC violations and consent order. We seem to be on track. They're going to give us some updates so that we can get a better timeline of what to do and in which order, because we really didn't have that from them yet. They're happy with our progress. Going over some Climate Smart items with our engineers office, because they have the details on the projects we did in the past in order to get those uploaded for Climate Smart points, which will help us with grants in the future. Parks Department, they’re prepped for winter, everything is winterized. They helped to put on the Christmas in Square. Want to thank the Police Department and Public Works for all their help. They did get the DVR fixed at Bradley Park. And setting up an event for New Year's Eve and for the spring. Which there will be more information on that coming up. The Building Department is working on CO's, building permits, fire and safety inspections, housing code violations and doing online training. They are limited because the courts are closed again, so we'll see what we can get pushed through. Clerk's been working on 207c matters, updating those, as well as social media, remote access for people. Finance Department has been making sure and preparing for the upcoming audits. We have internal and state. We also have some federal funds that have to be audited, a little bit different process and will take more time. Helping with union calculations and closing bonds. Public Works, we did have an issue at Well 8, with an electrical problem. It was 1 covered by warranty, thankfully. They finished cutting back for the plow routes so they should be ready for the storm. All the vehicles are ready, plows and sanders are all on. Finished the DOH reports and has been reviewing the digs from dig permits to make sure people are compliant. The Police, they've finished doing upgrades to the station for now. We'll see what we can work on the budget for the future, but working on police reform, steering committee, accreditation, vehicle enforcement details and overtime and staffing issues. Which we'll be going over during the budget transfer process. Justice Department, courts are now closed. They'll have some limited matters for hearings and appearances remotely, but that's about it. Library is still doing their services by appointment. There are no further restrictions yet from RCLS or the state. So they're staying on task with that and doing children's programing online and interactive as they can. The Attorney has been helping with police reform, pandemic policies and annexation discussion, which will have later. Trustee Thompson: I would just like to comment on the Climate Smart submissions. Can you please really stay on task with them? I'm almost wondering if we can have some sort of a timeline to accomplish some of the goals on that list, because they seem to always sort of fall off to the wayside and we really need to get some of that taken care of. I do want to come and see you on a few that Lanc & Tully don't to take care of that I think we need to work on together. Manager Revella: Yes. Mayor Taylor: I know what our snow policy is, this seems to be an extraordinary snow storm. Is it still the 24 hours to get everything cleared or do we give a little leeway given that it's going to be a large amount of snow? Manager Revella: 24 hours after the storm ends. If we get to the point of a state emergency, it'll be extended, otherwise it won't. Mayor Taylor: Do you think it would help because I know that we still have issues with people parking on the street, do landlords have any kind of responsibility to inform their tenants, if they do not have off street parking what their alternatives are? I'm sure we have new people that never lived here before that that don't realize where may be the municipal parking lots or where they're allowed to park. Is that's something that landlords usually do? Manager Revella: They have no legal obligation to do so. I would hope and encourage them to do it, but there's nothing we can do to force them to do it. Mayor Taylor: I just thought maybe it would help their tenants out to point out where people can go because they don't have off street parking. Approval of December 1, 2020 Minutes Trustee Thompson made a motion to approve the December 1, 2020 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Baker. All ayes. Motion carried. Action Items Resolution 13-20-21 - Budget Transfers Trustee Thompson made a motion to adopt Resolution 13-20-21 –Budget Transfers. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Police Reform Manager Revella: To reiterate from the other night of the public meeting on the 7th, we went through some policies. They were rules and regs, written directives, vehicle pursuit, driving, roadblocks, supervision of prisoners, arrest procedures, use of force and firearm policies. 2 Obviously, we'll continue discussion on those. But we did go through those and then on the next agenda domestic violence, prevention of transmission of communicable diseases, dispatching medication procedures, prisoner debriefing, advanced taser use, body armor, electronic recording of interviews and identification procedures for photo lineups. That's not all inclusive or exclusive, but those are the topics that are on the agenda. Mayor Taylor: I know at that point, but do you foresee members of the community being able to attend and sit in the audience? Manager Revella: It was open for the audience the last meeting as well. Mayor Taylor: And people can submit questions? Manager Revella: Absolutely. They have a couple of platforms for that as well. Mayor Taylor: Have we been getting much response from the community? Manager Revella: There have been some comments. There are minimal so far. Trustee Thompson: There were some complaints that the audio/visual quality was poor at the last meeting, so people had a difficult time participating because we weren't really transmitting as well as we should have been. I don't know, because I was in the room so I didn't have a problem, but people were unhappy. They just felt like they couldn't follow what was being discussed and what was being said and make their comments or give their input. Manager Revella: They said on the Livestream they were having difficulty, but once they got to the recording, they heard it perfectly. Trustee Thompson: Hopefully we won't have the glitches the next time, so the community will be a little bit better equipped to participate. Manager Revella: Yes. Mayor Taylor: That's why I'm mentioning whether they can actually come and sit in the audience, I don't know if people realize that they were able to come as long as there was social distancing. How many people would you say with social distancing we can get in that room for these meetings? Manager Revella: Probably 40 to 50. Mayor Taylor: This is live so the community knows that if they want to come to the meeting, they can, but there is a limit to how many that room can hold and that could change at any time. Manager Revella: That's correct. Mayor Taylor: We're getting close to that 6% figure for Orange County. Manager Revella: I just want to let the board know that the Police Chief is in the room just in case anybody who had any follow up questions from the board. Trustee Carley: I went online to view the policies and I didn't see them, nor did I see the agenda. We asked for the policies to be put online so the community can view it. Also, so that the community can see agenda items and if they have 1 of a special interest. They could come on that 3 day. They know that that topic is being talked about that day. A concerned citizen was asking a question about who was on the board. I explained who was on the board and then the committee, the group that was kind of overseeing the Police Reform and then the second part of any socially active groups. I told them we did invite them, but no one showed up. The other question came, how many board members are inviting people? I couldn't speak to anyone in particular. I know personally, I invited several people and told them to be on, if they have some questions or concerns or want to be involved and they just didn't show up. I just wanted to convey that that was talked about and we hit every social platform that I'm aware of but I think we did our best to reach the public. Mayor Taylor: I did invite several members of the community. I know that 1 gentleman that I did invite was participating online. He did ask if he could go into the room and I said, as far as I knew, yes. But again, that could change at any moment. Manager Revella: To Trustee Carly's comment, that's true. The policies aren't uploaded yet. We're trying to get the webmaster to assist in that. Trustee Carley: The recording of the meeting, if there are any recommendations. We didn't have someone recording the minutes or anything like that. We were just basically doing it ourselves. That was a good point that I said I'll bring up here and have the board or John determine how we're going to record those and upload recommendations or conversations of the meeting. Manager Revella: Our entire meeting was recorded. Trustee Carley: I'm not talking about the meeting with the board when we're in public. The Steering committee. Mayor Taylor: How did people give their questions? Did they email, was it something that they were typing in as they were watching the meeting, did we give them an email address? How did we invite people who were watching to participate and send in their questions or their comments? Manager Revella: We have specific e-mail addresses for those kinds of questions and comments. Plus, they can put it on any social media platform we have, including Instagram and Facebook. We have any avenue that's available to them to make those comments and questions that they might have. Trustee Carley: The e-mail is there on the Web page, too. When they click in, there are 2 emails, one for the Village, one for the Police. People do have a platform to give a comment if they really, really want to. Mayor Taylor: I did feedback with the 1 person that I invited that didn't attend. Anybody contacting people that they did invite to find out why some of those people didn't participate? Trustee Carley: The 2 I contacted, said busy. Trustee Thompson: 1 of mine forgot. Trustee Baker: The ones I had reached out to said they were just busy. Mayor Taylor: When is the next meeting? Manager Revella: January 4th, 6:00 p.m. 3rd floor. 4 Mayor Taylor: On our website and our Facebook page, correct? Both the Police Department and the Village? Manager Revella: Correct, as well as Instagram and Twitter account. Annexation - Biagini Manager Revella: I did talk to the Town Board. They're on board. Unfortunately, their meeting is on Thursday. I don't know if that makes a difference to us, but I was told that the Town would have i on their agenda are in favor of it. But Dave did do some drafts for this board to consider. Attorney Donovan: If the board is interested in moving forward this evening, I have prepared 3 different action items for you. The 1st is the Negative Declaration of SEQR and the 2nd is a Resolution authorizing the annexation and the 3rd is adopting the Local Law, which would put this property in the R3 zoning district. I was in communication with the Town Attorney also I understand that this is on the next Town Board agenda. The Town Board needs us to act under SEQR before they could act. If the board is so inclined, you're free to act tonight. You need to adopt those 3 resolutions and that will be up to the town to act. And then there's some administrative work to do after that to effectuate the annexation. Mayor Taylor: I did get an email today from a citizen saying that they don't recall seeing or hearing reasoning that the board has found this annexation to be beneficial to the Village. They wanted to hear a conversation. I know we've had this conversation. But they wanted to hear from board members why we felt that annexing this property into the Village would be beneficial to the Village. Trustee Baker: Being new to this, I actually had more questions. I can understand why we would want to annex the property and the value of bringing in more revenue and taxes. I did have some concerns, was it and I could have missed it, do we know what we're expecting as far as revenue return on this development that they're proposing? Manager Revella: They're not proposing any development at this time. You mean developed as R3? I'm not sure you mean. Trustee Baker: R3 as far as residential, but they haven't determined as far as how many homes that are single residential homes they want on the property. Manager Revella: No. Mayor Taylor: I think that's 1 of the questions, we don't know what's going there. How can we annex the property if we don't know what's going there? But someone stating why they want to annex the property and giving us an idea of what they want to do there. Does that hold their feet to the fire, Dave? If they say this is what we want to do, will you annex the property. If there's nothing in place, they could change their mind once they get the property annexed. Correct? Attorney Donovan: Any number of things could happen. They could decide not to develop it. They could be sold to a different person. I think when you zone it R3, you have a general idea that is likely to be single family homes. In terms of the number of homes that could be supported, that's something that's going to need to go through the Planning Board process and determine, I have no idea the existence of steep slopes, wetlands, archeological issues, any other rock, whether it would include blasting and putting in a road, if that's what they wanted to do. There are a number of issues that could limit the amount of development. The answer is we really can't hold their feet to the fire, 5 because there is no specific plan. All that can happen legally is they would have to comply with the law in terms of advancing their subdivision. Assuming that they want to do residential subdivision, which I think is likely to happen at some point in time down the line. Trustee Thompson: I have to just keep reminding myself that this is all about the property, not the project. I just feel like some people on our board and people in our community are jumping ahead and thinking about the project. There is no project. This is about the property. I'm in favor of the annexation because I really feel like it's a parcel in our Village where there's fairly high stakes and I feel that I would like the Village to be able to have as much control as we possibly can. And if we annex the property, we then become the people that get a higher stake, more of a voice of what can be developed on that property. Everyone's acting like we already know what the project is. We don't. We know what the zone is so we have a good idea of what the project can be. When we get up to the place where we need those answers about the sewer capacity and all those other things, I feel like this is not the time that those things are of greatest significance. Manager Revella: That's correct. I would just say that any new development coming in or any new development of property existing in the Village needs to understand that if there's issues with capacity in places, they're gonna have to help us overcome those hurdles and make sure that's clear up front in the minutes. It's not a secret. Trustee Thompson: I'm in favor of it because of all the reasons I just said and the unknown part about the capacity that can definitely be addressed as this moves forward. Trustee Sebring: I'm in favor of it because it is going to put more tax in our base, it's going to give the Town more tax base. As far as the sewer, that's all in the planning stage of the Planning Board, plus the engineers. It is right on our borders. We've already allowed a development across the street. I don't see any problem with annexing that piece of property into the Village. I know there's questions out there as to what they want or what people think is going to go there and we don't know. Don't worry, there's going to be a lot of people watching this, which I understand. It's fine. But as far as an annexing that in, I'm in favor of it. Trustee Elliott: I am also in favor of it. Basically, for all the reasons that everyone just stated. On top of that, if it does turn from land to a project, I'll say, the benefits to the Village are huge. Not just taxes, parks, everything benefits from it. I'm definitely in favor of it. Trustee Carley: In 2009, I was annexed into the Village. I think Walden is a wonderful place, so I can see why people want to grow here. I have a question, I need some help with this, Dave and Mr. Revella. The SEQR application, when they fill that out, I was looking at it and I see some questionable stuff for me. When they fill it out, we review it and then it gets sent to a board or does the board send it to us and then we have it on file? Attorney Donovan: The applicant fills it out, they complete it and they send it to us. This has been completed by the applicant. Trustee Carley: On page 4 of the application, does the project include new residential uses? And it clearly says yes. But of course, they may not have the initial phase and all the information that's there and it's empty. Then on the bottom part of that, does the proposed action include any excavation, mining, dredging so far so on and it says no. It's a wooded area. I'm grass area does require that, based on my limited knowledge. On page 7, Will the proposed action result in a substantial increase in traffic? Now splitting hairs between the project and the annexation of the land itself, I hear it, but I understand why people have some angst about it, because if we're asking all this stuff, they're not just saying, "do you want to buy land or inherit some land?" Is clear as a 6 project that's going to be connected to it however far down the road. When I read through this and I see the little things, will the proposed action have outdoor lighting? Says if yes, you're supposed to explain that. I know they can't explain everything because you don't know everything. But my point is that little things like that I think should have been in the SEQR and they should have some type of answer. I'm all in favor of annexation period, but I think we have to go through the process correctly so we'll be very well aware as much as possible as we move along. I'm in favor of R3 there 100%. But when I look at stuff like that, when there are empty spots, I have concern. Attorney Donovan: Let me try to answer it this way. The action is the annexation and it's going to be a residential zone, so I assume that's why they answered it that way. As if and when there's an application part of the Planning Board, there has to be another SEQR evaluation done. Another environmental assessment form has to be completed and the answer for a site specific project. I'll pick a number, say there are 20 homes. The environmental impact of those 20 homes has to be evaluated. The answers on the SEQR environmental assessment form have to address the site specific project with the number of homes. I don't know how many homes could be supported by that project if it's 10, 20, 30 or 40. But all the impacts of those homes, the roads, the drainage, lighting, noise, impact on habitat, when there's actually soil being moved, all those have to be evaluated by the Planning Board before whatever specific project is proposed could be approved. Does that answer your question? Trustee Carley: It does. I appreciate that. I understood the annexation of the land. There's another review that's more detailed that would cover these areas so that we as a board could be very clear or clearer concerning what's going on. Attorney Donovan: Absolutely correct 100%. Deputy Mayor Ramos: Just to reiterate what everyone has said before, I'm all in favor of the annexation. It provides us with a myriad of advantages to establishing new residences, new families to come into the Village, more taxes, and just to just to look at the pros of annexation and establishing it as an R3 is the families that are going to come and move in. They're going to take advantage of everything that the Village of Walden, which we provide for them water, sewer, we have trash pickup, we have street lighting, we have snow removal. The bottom line is our property values will increase and which makes everybody's home more marketable in the future. Last but not least, it advances and it enhances our Parks and Recs. For each residence that are going to be built there, 2 or 3 children are going to be there and they are going to take part in all of our recreational programs that we have and take advantage of all that. Lynn was completely right about not knowing is the crucial point of it. But now we will be in the driver's seat. Our Planning Board will facilitate everything that's going to occur on that parcel of land. I'm all for it. I think this is a great thing for the Village of Walden and it would be a good thing for families to come in. Mayor Taylor: We take it seriously, the annexation of property into the Village. We know that any project that would be proposed on that property, sewer and water capacity would be part of that discussion. Right now, we have no control over that property because it's in the Town of Montgomery. They could allow anything that goes along with that zoning that they have. I would hope that the Planning Board would be mindful of the esthetics as I said before. If a project goes here, I hope that it keeps in line with what the Village looks like. The type of project would mirror kind of what our neighborhoods look like now so that project would be part of the Village and it wouldn't look like something that was just kind of attached. Trustee Thompson made a motion Negative Declaration. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. 7 Trustee Elliott made a motion to adopt Resolution 12-20-21 – Approving Annexation. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Ramos made a motion to adopt Local Law 5 of 2020 – Approving Annexation. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Liaisonships Trustee Thompson: I hope everybody received the little bit of history that Marisa was able to provide that Faith was kind enough to dig up. I was in from the inception about redefining the role of the liaison because I do agree that John Revella is the Village Manager and I don't know if the word is control, but he is in charge and the supervisor of his Department Heads. It's sort of a fine line with the original liaison role because we're really not to be so much involved in the daily operations of the various departments in the Village. That's John's job. He does get a report from all of his Department Heads which has been getting shared with us. I was very skeptical about the liaisons when I first got on the board, but I've told you numerous times, Madam Mayor, that I thank you for that, because I found that was how I learned how things work in our Village. I didn't understand the connection with the Library in the Town of Montgomery, but once you jump in, it's an unbelievable learning experience to learn how these different departments work and how they sort of lock in and interlink together. That part of the liaison position is a good thing because it forces you to become involved and to learn the different departments in the Village. That is good. It also promotes good dialog between the board and the Village Manager. You just have to be really, really careful not to get too involved with the daily operations in the various departments. I do agree that John should be in charge of the various departments, not the liaisons. We are just sort of a presence. We have no authority, no power. The other thing that I don't like about the liaisons is we kind of got like into little boxes. I personally would like, if we're going to go back to the traditional role, to have people have to move around to get experience, learn the people, learn the roles of all the different departments. I think that you can't be compartmentalized and stay in the same liaison role. I don't think that helps anybody. I think it makes for almost too much of a relationship with a Trustee on a Department Head. I still want to learn more about what goes on in our Village and all the different departments. That's just me. I realize I don't need to be a liaison to do that. There were a lot of people in the community that had approached me from different organizations that felt like the board did not understand their role in the community and what they were trying to do in our community. Which is where this redefining the role, how it came about. Those organizations within the Village wanted to be more in touch with the Village Board. They wanted the board to know more of what was going on in the community, and I agree with that. We have new people on the board. This kind of stagnated. We never moved forward after we went to all the trouble to identify different things in our community that perhaps we could be more connected with. It stopped. We named all these things and a lot of them are awesome. But we never went any further with it. We lost the traditional liaison role and we never implemented the new liaison role. I'm asking the board, what would you like to do and can we please implement something and get back to work on this? Deputy Mayor Ramos: I totally agree with Lynn, to be compartmentalized. Because with the new dividing up or assessing all the various agencies or groups that we have there's like 33 of them and we didn't add the VFW, the American Legion, the Rotary, the Knights of Columbus and other specific groups. We all have to, as a Village, we should know the pulse of everything that goes on around us. I agree that we need to do something and do something now. I'll be more than happy to sit and devise up of little numbers and little pieces of paper, put your hand in the hat and we go with 33. We're all involved in everything here in this Village. Even though with this Covid that's going on, we're still telephonically and we still reach out to the various areas through either Zoom or telephone. But I agree, we should move on. We should get together and all of us pick a number of agencies or groups that we should volunteer to be a part of. I'm all for it. 8 Trustee Thompson: You don't want to go back to the traditional liaison role. You want to redefine the role. Deputy Mayor Ramos: We should redefine it, but obviously we're looking at a big batch of areas that we should concentrate on. Granted, I understand that John Revella is the Village Manager and we are the vocal points of whatever Liaisonship areas that we attack. But I think it's a good listening point for all of us. It gets all of us a little finger in everything that goes on in the Village. We can change over quarterly and go to a different area and help out there. Trustee Baker: I'm actually in favor of it being the way it was, with the caveat, like Lynn said, not staying in 1 area for however long you're on the board, but to rotate around, so that you understand all the departments. I almost feel like that it's being divided. You're either a liaison or you participate in the community. As board members, it's the same couple of Trustees that are at all the events, we should already be out in the community. To me, it shouldn't be like an assignment. You have to join this group and participate in those activities. You should already be out there participating, whether it's at the VFW or something at the Walden Rotary Club has. I don't think it's necessary to have like assignments for what groups you're going to volunteer at. I think it's important for the individual departments to have an advocate for them. Whether it be the court or the Rec *inaudible* in favor for the way it was. Trustee Elliott: I think it could be a good thing, assuming no one's overstepping their bounds. It almost seems like we're talking about changing the meaning of liaison here. I believe the meaning of it is just open communication. So, it could be a good thing for these departments if they have an issue and they're not comfortable just going to one person. To kind of have the bridge between, but as long as we keep it as just the bridge between. I don't want to create a problem that's not there. I'm definitely open to discussing how to proceed. Trustee Carley: I don't see the role of the liaison changing from what we had before. When I was on the board before for Parks and Recreation, hey Mike, how are you going? What's going on? Go over his stuff, whatever, whatever. Any concerns you want to bring up on to the board? They may not even be there or they can. We can expound on it. I think that role is always there and we're supposed to maintain that. Like Trustee Elliott said, means a bridge to communicating something to someone. However, what I see that was brought up by Faith, areas of responsibility have changed. Now, I like what she has here personally and I like the idea of rotating, so you can become well versed in the Village and all the different areas. I just want to put that out. Not the role has changed, but the responsibilities and the rotation because we didn't rotate before. So, those things are changing. That, I think is very good and helping. Just to comment on what Cheryl said, I can't go to everything. I have an outside job or I have this, I have family, I have whatever, so I can't go to everything in the Village. When I was the liaison with Parks and they had something, unfortunately Parks had everything and they were busy all the time and I can't make it to everything. I can just make it to 1 or 2 of the events and just to kind of show that face for the Village Board. We can't make it to everything. That's why we're designated that area so that we can say that's where I'm focusing on. But if we rotated, I think that would be real nice. For those 90 days as Deputy Mayor Ramos said, 7 liaisons, have 7 areas, rotate through. I think that would be nice. You can get a good feel of the Village and understand where everybody's coming from. Trustee Sebring: When you and I went to the Town of Montgomery meeting between the Planning Board and the Town meetings, we learned a lot. How receptive are these other organizations going to be? I think there is Orange County Chamber of Commerce or the Rotary. How receptive would they be to having us come in to their meeting and listen? I understand changing around. You get a better view of organizations that are in the Village. I went to a few of Community Council meetings. I helped out on the Harvest Fest. So, for the new members, yeah, it is important for them 9 to see how the Village is run and the organizations that we have here. I'm in favor of changing it. But 3 months, I don't know, maybe 4. You just get involved in an organization and 3 months you're gone. Maybe you get hooked up on something that you like. I would think maybe 4 months change, but that's up to everybody else. Mayor Taylor: How do you want to move forward with this? Are we still going to discuss it or you want to have time to think about it? Trustee Thompson: I'm a little confused because it sounds like some people want to be more involved with the different organizations in the Village, but others want to go back to the more traditional liaison role, but move around to the various departments. I think we need to be very clear on what we're going to do and then implement something. Mayor Taylor: If you think about why the liaisons were instituted to begin with, because there were issues with Department Heads, you had 7 board members, 7 different opinions and sometimes they would be inundated by board members asking questions, having opinions, whatever the case may be. That's why the liaisons were formed so that 1 board member would interact with that Department Head and it wasn't a constant flow of people asking questions. It was kind of give the Department Heads a rest. The board would find out what was going on or there would be discussions about what was going on, but it wasn't invasive to the point of one given day 3 board members may approach the DPW Superintendent, for instance. I always thought that it was the duty of a Trustee to be involved in the community. Go to certain events, attend church suppers, Harvest Fest, whatever the case may be and volunteer their time where they could to help those organizations with whatever event was going on. That was the choice in the Trustee, given their time, their families. Personally, I think it should and maybe I'm old fashioned, but I liked the freedom to be able to decide where I could be, what I could do and I didn't want to be dictated to or feel guilty because I couldn't go to many things because of the job I worked. You have people like Willie, when he was on the board, he was out of town. He would get yanked out and off he went. That was his job, his responsibility and he had a family. I'd like to see Trustees be involved in the community. I don't think it should be looked at as a job and I think if everyone wants to know what a certain organization does in the Village, invite them to a meeting, put them on the agenda. Let them tell everyone, not just board members, but if we're still online with these meetings or at least it's in the minutes, what happens with these organizations. But I'll tell you what, you get tired. Sometimes I don't know how Lynn has the energy, Brian Sebring, you're all over the place. I do what I can do, but I'm certainly not going to take vitamin B12 injections so I can go to every little function within the Village. I think if you're talking about trying to go to this meeting, that meeting, just so somebody is there so you can bring a report back, you're going to wear your little legs out and you're going to be tired and instead of being enthusiastic about something when it starts to become a chore. Then the dynamics change of that. That's what I'm afraid of with this, because when I looked at that list, I thought, you got to be kidding me. We're 7 people trying to divide time between all these organizations. 33. Trustee Thompson: We didn't need to do all 33. When we all sat down together, when John, Faith and I sat down together and compiled a list of things that go on in our community, there's a lot of things going on in our community and I don't think a lot of people realized how many activities and organizations take place on a regular basis in our community. Some of these organizations felt like they wanted, I don't want to say more of a voice or more representation, but I think it was troubling to them that we didn't even maybe know that some of them existed or what their purpose was or what their goals were. Mayor Taylor: Is that our responsibility? I think of it in a different way. If you're an organization within the Village, you should be tooting your own horn. You make sure people in your community 10 know who you are and what you're doing. I don't know that it's our job to inform the public about that organization. They should be the ones doing outreach to the community. Come to a board meeting. You want to get it on the agenda and do a presentation? No problem with that. Let people know that you're here. If people want to get involved, what does that entail? But it's almost like we're the advertising agency. We're going to this place, we're bringing the report back. In my view, it's the responsibility of the organization to present themselves so people know they're around and most people know we have a fabulous Community Council. A lot of people, maybe more so senior citizens in the Village now we have the Sunshine Society. That in our Village you can get a walker, a shower chair, a wheelchair. We have that service for our community. Many people don't know that. I think you guys are going to be biting off a lot to be able to get to all these meetings. And you don't want to do it halfway, you want to present a nice presence at these meetings. I think you're going to get tired and people have other issues and of course now you're in the middle of a pandemic. I think if you think about it and talk about it, there would probably be a better way to do this than to assign people, dates, times. I think you're going to wear yourselves out. Trustee Thompson: That's why I'm asking the question, because I'm hearing that we have several people on the board who are very much wanting to do the more traditional liaison role that we've done in the past. So, if that's the case, then all of these other things are a moot point and we need to go back to a more traditional liaison role. But I would like to see us move around. I'm not saying weekly or biweekly. I think after several months, it's not unreasonable for people to be assigned to go to a different department. A lot of these things do link together. I'm just putting it out there because we got rid of the traditional role. We never moved forward with this redefined role. So right now, nothing's happening and I feel like something should be happening. Mayor Taylor: I think everybody needs to think about it. You made a commitment to be a Trustee. I get it. I'm just saying not everyone can give that amount of time. I just feel that everybody needs to think about it now that they're understanding and hearing the conversation and understanding what kind of decision you have to make as the board, how you're going to do this, instead of snap judgment, let's do it this way. Why don't you think about it and see if you can come up with ideas about how to accomplish this without killing yourselves. You're talking about a lot of time and commitment. And if you make a commitment to get involved with an organization, you better be able to fulfill that commitment. You need to think about what you want the role to be and where you want it to go and come up with some ideas because I'd rather you not make a knee jerk reaction and get yourselves bound. Trustee Thompson: That's fine, but can we kindly pick a date and have a date for another discussion? Because I really don't want this to drag on for weeks. Mayor Taylor: You can put it on the next agenda. Everyone needs to think about where you want to be. You want to go back to the Liaisonships? Do you want to integrate the community into it? How are you going to do that and not wear yourselves out? Deputy Mayor Ramos: Let's finalize it in January. Trustee Thompson: I'd like to get it finalized so we can implement. Mayor Taylor: Put it on the next agenda and by then everybody should have figured out what it is they want. Manager Revella: I just want to remind the board that we will be discussing the emergency preparedness policies at the next board meeting, so just make sure you look over that. 11 Payment of Audited Bills Deputy Mayor Ramos made a motion to approve Payment of Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Correspondence Trustee Thompson: I had an email this afternoon from Becky Pearson about the annexation and some questions that she had. I also have had several messages from our previous cleaning service, which I sent on to you and to Mr. Revella. Trustee Elliott: Just the email that Lynn got from Becky Pearson. Trustee Sebring: I received that email, too. Deputy Mayor Ramos: Just the email that I received from Mrs. Pearson. Trustee Carley: I missed Mrs. Pearson. I did receive another email talking about police committee. Is there going to be any citizens invited to be on the committee? I'm assuming they mean in the Steering Committee itself, to help out with that. Trustee Baker: Just Mrs. Pearson's email. Mayor Taylor: I got the same one. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Sebring: I attended the Christmas lighting, which was well attended. It was cool, but it was cold. Good attendance and there was a lot of kids wanting their picture taken with Santa. It was an eventful night and the Christmas tree looks fabulous. Mayor Taylor: Absolutely, I agree. Deputy Mayor Ramos: I want to reiterate what Brian said, it was a fantastic event, Parks and Rec's employees and Mr. Bliss provided a safe environment for all the kids and practiced social distancing. The program went very nicely. I thank everybody for that. Trustee Baker: Same as John and Brain. Kids were very excited to have their pictures taken with Santa and all the snacks that came afterwards. Also just a reminder to the community, I believe tomorrow is the last day to submit the flier that was handed out for the holiday decoration contest. Trustee Thompson: I agree with everyone else that the Christmas Tree Lighting and Santa Claus event was very well attended and it was done very nicely, followed all the Covid guidelines. The tree looks amazing. I can't believe how many houses in the Village are decorated beautifully this year. I hope everybody is putting in to get their house on that list and maybe win 1 of the gift certificates. That would be nice. Something John just said about the emergency preparedness. Is it a requirement or a suggestion that everyone on the board takes that FEMA program? Manager Revella: NIMS Training? You do it once and done. I don't know if it's mandatory, but it's highly suggested. Attorney Donovan: Mandatory for an elected official? No. Trustee Thompson: I did learn a lot from that. I think John Ramos has taken that. Maybe it's something our newer board members would like to look into. It's not that time consuming and it's 12 online. It's not that difficult. Is there anything new to report on Edmunds? How is the Edmunds programing going? Manager Revella: Right now, it's not even on, because they're off and they're not available to take any calls. But the process with the Building Department has been going well. Trustee Thompson: I wasn't referring to the Building Department in particular, I was just asking generally how things are going. Things are not going. Manager Revella: Not today. Trustee Thompson: I was over at Olley Park, what are the 2 big, huge things on poles across the water? Manager Revella: Bat boxes. Helps keep the insect population down. Mayor Taylor: Tree looks fabulous as always. A very nice event. Which I think our community could have or really needed to have an evening of festivity and some fun. I just want to mention that with the holidays coming and everything going on, if people could really make an effort to make a donation to our food pantries, there's a lot of families that really depend on those food pantries. I know it's tough for everyone, but if you can do that, please make an effort to make a donation. Executive Session – Collective Bargaining Negotiations with PBA, CSEA Deputy Mayor Ramos made a motion to enter into Executive Session to discuss collective bargaining negotiations with CSEA and PBA. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Deputy Mayor Ramos made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. 13  Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting December 15, 2020 Motions & Resolutions Approval of December 1, 2020 Minutes Trustee Thompson made a motion to approve the December 1, 2020 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Baker. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 13-20-21 - Budget Transfers Trustee Thompson made a motion to adopt Resolution 13-20-21 –Budget Transfers. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Annexation - Biagini Trustee Thompson made a motion Negative Declaration. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Elliott made a motion to adopt Resolution 12-20-21 – Approving Annexation. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Ramos made a motion to adopt Local Law 5 of 2020 – Approving Annexation. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Payment of Audited Bills Deputy Mayor Ramos made a motion to approve Payment of Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session – Collective Bargaining Negotiations with PBA, CSEA Deputy Mayor Ramos made a motion to enter into Executive Session to discuss collective bargaining negotiations with CSEA and PBA. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Deputy Mayor Ramos made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. 14