Town of Mount Hope Town Board Meeting Sep 30, 2019
The town board budget meeting of the Town of Mount Hope was held at the Mount Hope Town Hall on Sept. 30, 2019 at 6:00pm with the following present: Supervisor Chad Volpe, Councilman Matt Howell, Councilman Brian Carey, Councilman Chris Furman, Councilman Jim Jennings (6:05pm) and Town Clerk Kathleen Myers.
OFFICIALS PRESENT: Police Chief Rickard, Deputy Chief Maresca.
Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Supervisor Volpe called the meeting to order at 6:00pm.
POLICE:
Supervisor Volpe asked Chief Rickard to come back before the board to discuss his request about the addition of 2 full time officers. Budget wise we are good with everything that Paul turned in. Chief Rickard addressed the days and 4-12’s. Friday, Sgt. Briceno got a call from the officer that was supposed to come in that he couldn’t work his Sunday shift because of his full time job. She sent a text out and nobody wanted to work. Same thing happened today. We didn’t have an 8-4 person. A full time person would help firm up the days and 4-12’s. To date there are approx. 95 shifts we haven’t filled. I think after the 1st quarter next year or 1st third quarter you guys could say re-direct that money towards midnight shifts. In October we’re gonna stay until 2:00am on Friday/Saturday nights. We’ll see if there’s more activity then. The best bang for our buck for 2 people would be 8-4, 4-12 Wednesday through Sunday. It covers the most openings and weekend coverage. We are the last PD in Orange County without any full timers. Discussion on a comment made by Councilman Howell at last meeting re: how the guys run the department not Paul with regard to scheduling. It was not meant to be disrespectful. Councilman Jennings asked what happens if a FT calls out sick. Chief: It would get covered by a PT. Councilman Furman asked about trying until 2am. Chief: we don’t have enough money to do that for a whole year. We could do that for the rest of this year if you guys want. Councilman Furman suggested – if we don’t go until 2am and only do until midnight, why couldn’t 1 officer work Wednesday & Thursday 4-12, he would Friday, Saturday & Sunday 4-12 or 8-4. Discussion on scheduling…Councilman Carey: I’m all for fulltime – I would like to see more coverage. I’m curious if anything comes out of midnight-2am. We talked about trying this a couple years ago but we didn’t have enough manpower to cover some of it. We have no FT officers and we’re gonna go into union negotiations for FT officers. If we are gonna go in and say this is what we want, why wouldn’t we ask for a little more. The union is not asking us for FT, it’s us telling the union we want to go FT. I don’t see what your gaps are. If you feel the 8-4, 4-midnight needs to be covered, I’m behind you with that. I would like to see as tests since we have $40,000 left, maybe we can get 2 people for a couple weekends between now and then. Maybe 2 tested between now and end of year. Chief: just because it’s offered doesn’t mean people will do it. Discussion ensued re: scheduling & FT vs PT. Carey: does 9-11 call certain departments every hour? Chief: they do radio checks. Carey: Night Out Against Crime proved that Mount Hope is behind our police department. Chief: every week we get the random surveys back – they’re pretty positive. Next year there’s gonna be some radical changes with the criminal justice (inaudible). Howell: if the officers stay on a 2-3 year average it would be good on the salary end of things. From an employment standpoint I can’t see hiring someone for 2 years to turn around and send them away and now you gotta start again. I know currently we have turnover. Discussion on trucks and preserving the bridge in the village. Carey: spoke re: tickets being reduced. Chief: things will change Jan. 1st. He explained for traffic tickets the 1st appearance – the prosecutor can make a deal and you can walk out with your deal. After that date, he has to comply with all the new discovery rules which is gonna be a ton of stuff. The idea is to try to get people to take deals. Supervisor wanted executive session to go over 2 personnel issues with them.
MOTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Carey to enter into executive session at 6:40pm to discuss 2 department’s personnel. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Furman, Jennings, Volpe; carried.
MOTION TO RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Jennings to reconvene regular meeting from executive session at 6:56pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Furman, Jennings, Volpe; carried.
Following executive session Supervisor Volpe continued the meeting by explaining the budget. He handed out a new budget packet to everyone. He started going over the budget line by line. He cut town board contractual by $1000. He cut justices $400 on equipment. He rounded down their contractual. Supervisor’s equipment line was cut in ½, contractual was cut $150. Independent auditor – $1,000 added. Tax collection – he left the .4 and we removed the .1. Assessor contractual was decreased in to $10,500.
96
Supervisor continued with Town Clerk. He has Paula at $16.45 for 1200 hours. He has Kathleen’s at $51,360 changing the .1 line. Equipment line cut in ½. Contractual was increased due to EZ Pass and other things. Attorney & Engineer lines were left the same. Buildings contractual was cut $500. Increase ie: heat, electric for new youth rec center will come from buildings line. The grant money gets funneled through this line. Contingency was cut $1000. Police is the original stuff from the other day. Equipment was cut $15,782. Control of dogs (.1) was put to 3% like everyone else. Supt. of Highways (.1) was cut $1000. The deputy highway super was cut to $3000. He is not sure what his plan will be for this position whether it’ll be a highway guy with a stipend or it will continue to be his daughter. Veteran’s services was cut $50. Programs for the Aging is at $13,650. Quite a few changes on revenues. PILOT stayed the same. Clerk fees lowered $200. Police fees increased due to SRO. Interest/penalties was changed. Use of properties was raised a little bit. Licenses/permits was raised. Fines/forfeitures (what the court charges) was cut. He made adjustments on page 12.
He continued on to General B. Safety inspection is an increase of $58 in (.1). Celebrations in A covers our Christmas party for the tree lighting, handouts at veterans parade, concert series & community day. The comptroller – the village contributes to the concert series and it shouldn’t come out of A- it should come out of B. Concert series has to come out of B. He had to create a line “Joint Recreation Projects” (B7145.4). He has to create another line “Other Culture Recreation” (B3389). These have to be approved at next board meeting. Planning board (.1) was adjusted for raises. He explained franchise fees. He lowered mortgage tax. Howell: asked about the ‘other culture recreation’ line and should it be the same as ‘joint recreation projects’. Supervisor explained that the comptroller gives us the names. He needed a revenue line so he & Angie came up with it.
Supervisor: Highway is a little different. This is a lot of figuring out the raise and plugging the numbers in. We are estimating that sales tax is gonna go up. ‘Services from other governments’ is our contract with T/O Wallkill & the county for the roads we plow.
Supervisor: Howells fire district is a real number. Mount Hope fire protection district was changed and is a true number.
Supervisor next discussed Hidden Valley. As we get the $6000 hook up fee – we’ll start going to work. It’s 100 houses that pay this. Howell: understands that point but we can’t let that building go to such a state of disrepair that Mike can’t run the sewer plant out of it. Carey: suggested we send the engineer out there to look at it and maybe it’s something the highway guys do to prolong the buildings life currently with a couple repairs. Discussion on raising contingency a little. $206 will be added to the contingency line. When sewer plant was built, it was built anticipating that there was 2 other developments going in to it. We built something for 200 houses but they never came in. You can’t take money from the town to pay for the sewer plant. Thrall library is a number they give us.
Supervisor asked what the board thinks. Councilman Jennings confirmed that this budget will allow for 2 FT police officers and an additional person that Dean wants to hire.
Discussion to schedule public hearing at next board meeting (Oct. 7) to be held on October 21, 2019.
MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Furman to adjourn the meeting at 7:54pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, Furman; carried.
The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 7, 2019 at 7:30pm at Town Hall.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen A. Myers, RMC
Town Clerk
97