Town Board

October 4, 2016

1. Appointments

Police: Kenneth Sgori and Timothy Kolkman,, Sergeant at an annual salary of $117,733, and John Delulio, Lieutenant 

Parks: Scott Ferreira , Groundskeeper

Library Board: Reappointed  Michael Resko

2. Advertised public hearings

Advertised three separate hearings for November 1, 2016 on different laws, all related to affordable housing:

-          repeal Chapter 300-39 of the zoning code and replace it with a new density bonus incentive provision;

-          enact a new Chapter 102, Affordable Housing

-          formally establish the long functioning Yorktown Community Housing Board

Also reconvene the hearing to repeal existing Chapter 102

In a related resolution, the board voted to refer out the proposed laws to town staff and advisory boards as well as outside agencies and municipalities.

3. Tax Certioraris

The board approved assessment reductions for the Lake Osceola Realty Corp, the JV Mall and 3665 Barger Street.  The amount of the refunds was not included in the printed resoltuions.

4. GIS (Geographic Information Services) Agreement.

(See Town Board, 9-27-2016). The board approved a contract with Bowne Management Services for an all inclusive lump sum of $38,300, plus a $3,000 contingency allowance.

5. Agreement with John Micewicz for TV/AV consulting services

Initially, the board agreed to table this resolution at the request of Councilman Patel who wanted to meet with Mr. Micewicz to learn more about what services he would be providing and at what cost. (Note: there had been no prior board discussion about the proposed agreement.) However, at the end of the meeting Town Clerk Quast asked the board to reconsider the issue, explaining that there was a problem with the AV system (she didn’t identify what the problem was) and that since the board would not be meeting for another two weeks, she needed a decision that evening.  The board then proposed passing a resolution authorizing the supervisor to sign the agreement on the condition that it would not go into effect until Councilman Patel met with the provider. Ultimately, however, the board passed a resolution, 4-1 that approved the agreement without any conditions.

6.Courtesy of the Floor

Restore NY grant for highway garage.  Susan Siegel, the person writing this summary, spoke about the need for greater transparency regarding the application and asked the board to clarify what she said were inconsistencies in the grant application that had been submitted the previous day. Howard Frank and Tony Grasso spoke in favor of the grant and Ed Ciffone spoke against it.

After Courtesy was closed, Supervisor Grace spoke for more than 15 minutes about the grant and the overall project, repeating what he had said at last week’s hearing. He said he took umbrage at the criticism that there was a lack of transparency. He noted that last week the town had received $375,000 from the state Dormitory Authority to offset the cost of the foundations for the new buildings but that the town was still “exploring” the different size and types of buildings before coming up with a final plan. He said the plan would include a self contained wash facility for trucks and equipment that would cost $175,000.

7. 2017 Budget

Although not an item on the agenda, in response to comments from Ed Ciffone about using the $5.8 million in uncollected taxes and over $7 million in fund balance to offset any 2017 tax increase , Supervisor Grace said that he anticipated that his 2017 budget would be released soon and before the October 30^th deadline.  He said he anticipated that the budget would show a reduction in expenses.