Town of Charlton

Saratoga County

Town Board Agenda Meeting

 

February 23, 2009

 

The Agenda meeting of the Town Board of Charlton, Saratoga County, New York was held at the Charlton Town Hall and called to order by Supervisor Grattidge at 7.30 pm.

 

Present:  Councilman Gardner, Councilman Lippiello, Councilman Salisbury, Councilman Verola, Supervisor Grattidge, Town Clerk Brenda Mills, Attorney VanVranken.

 

Supervisor Grattidge announced that this meeting is to set the Agenda for the Regular Meeting of the Town Board on Monday, March 9, 2009.

 

 

APPROVAL OF ABSTRACT

 

A motion was made by Councilman Verola and seconded by Councilman Salisbury to accept General Fund Claims No. 1113-1137 in the amount of $22,727.81 as set forth in the Abstract No.104.

 

Vote: All Ayes, No Nays  CARRIED

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

Supervisor Grattidge announced that tentatively March 31^st has been set as the date of the special election for the Congressional seat.

 

The deadline for article submission for the Spring Newsletter is Friday February 27, 2009.

 

The Town Board will be having a Water District Workshop on Monday March 2, 2009 at 7:30pm.

 

The Saratoga County Department of Public Works sent notification that they will be repaving a section of Jockey Street south of Route 67.

 

The New York State Office of the Comptroller is changing the way that Justices send in money collected.  Beginning with the February report, the Town will hold the money in the Town’s bank account and make monthly remittance to the State.

 

Supervisor Grattidge looked into the $8 environmental fee that was being charged by Parraco Gas with each delivery.  Parraco has agreed to remove the fee since it was not disclosed in the original agreement.

 

A letter has been received from Architect J. Paul Vosburgh detailing the framing defects at the new Town Hall.   A meeting was held with the Bonding Company to make them aware.

 

A confirmation letter was received from Fiscal Advisors confirming the sale of the $700,000 bond.  It is a one year bond anticipation note with an interest rate of 2.25%.  The successful bidder was Ballston Spa National Bank.

 

The Building Inspector has provided an outline of the procedures that will be used during fire safety and property maintenance inspections.    It is part of the New York State Building Code, and pertains to multi family homes and businesses or places of public assembly.

 

The Town received the Sales Tax Report for the month.  The amount is down about 5% from last year’s amount. 

 

Supervisor Grattidge received the Mortgage Tax Report and stated that he was unhappy to see that for the month of January the Town received only $1, 261. 50.    The Town had anticipated receiving approximately $100,000 for the year, and based on this trend they may have a real shortfall. 

 

Supervisor Grattidge said that based on the reduced revenues, he would like to have some budget discussions.  He has been notified by the Town of Milton that they removed the Hazardous Waste Collection from their budget for this year.  Therefore, there will be no Hazardous Waste Collection Day for the residents in Charlton this year.

 

Supervisor Grattidge said that he confirmed with County Waste that they would hold the price to not more than $7,500 for the Bulk Item Pick-Up, but in light of the budget reports, he made the suggestion that they postpone this item until 2010.   Councilman Gardner said he felt that every other year might be acceptable.

Councilman Verola said that she felt we should give the residents more notice and not cancel this year and wait and cancel in 2010.  Councilman Lippiello thought that by putting the cancellation in the Newsletter, that would give sufficient lead time.   Councilman Salisbury said he is aware of an alternative which is for people to take things to the County. 

 

A motion was made by Councilman Lippiello and seconded by Councilman Salisbury to suspend the Bulk Item Pick-Up for 2009.

 

Roll call vote:  Councilman Gardner: Aye, Councilman Lippiello: Aye, Councilman Salisbury: Aye, Councilman Verola: Aye, Supervisor Grattidge: Aye  Approved

 

Supervisor Grattidge said that they had budgeted $8,500 for Party in the Park.  In the past couple of years, we have been able to get back about $2,200 from a Youth Week Grant.  He has looked at reducing the costs of the normal event, or we could pull the plug and have the event next year.  The Town is going to have an Explore Charlton event in September.   Councilman Verola said she thinks it is wise to cancel the event during these economic times.  Councilman Gardner said that it is discretionary spending, and he thinks back to how the event got started as a celebration, but was funded by private money.  Over the years it has evolved into an expense to the Town, so he can let it go.  Councilman Lippiello said he would like to see it reduced in cost, rather than eliminated.  The committee has been meeting, they have thought of using tents, but maybe they could cut back on the use of tents, shorten the time, cut back on the music, and reduce the amount of fireworks.  He feels that it has a tremendous value for that weekend, a strong community bonding.

Councilman Salisbury asked if they really needed to make a decision tonight.  Supervisor Grattidge said that because they need to get information in the newsletter, they need to make a decision.  Councilman Salisbury said that he feels that this is much more of a luxury than the Bulk Item Pick-up, so since we eliminated that, we should also eliminate this.

 

A motion was made by Councilman Verola and seconded by Councilman Gardner to suspend Party in the Park for 2009.

 

Discussion:  Dave LaFountain asked if there was going to be any discussion from the floor.  Councilman Verola said no.  Councilman Lippiello stated the event has already been listed on the State and County calendar as a part of the Celebrate 400, so in a sense we made a commitment.  Supervisor Grattidge said that the parade, the Saturday morning race and the Historical Society events will still take place.  Councilman Verola said that she still has all the paperwork from the original event where she raised the funds privately, if someone really wanted to still have this event, they could try to raise the money.  Supervisor Grattidge said that there is still to potential of getting the Youth Week Grant money again this year, as well as the money for the Explore 400 grant, which is about $1,000.  That basically gives a budget of $3,200.  Councilman Gardner asked if there is a possibility that the State may cut those moneys.  Supervisor Grattidge said that the grant paperwork is not in yet,   He feels that we would still need some private money.  Councilman Gardner said that maybe some things could be cut so the costs would be reduced, if you are sure of the grant money.   Councilman Verola said that the newsletter deadline is Friday, and she does not know how they could get groups to meet to discuss this before Friday.  Possibly they could extend the deadline for the newsletter.  Supervisor Grattidge said that he could try to reschedule a meeting for next Wednesday.  Councilman Verola said that if he could do that, we could probably finagle it.

 

 Supervisor Grattidge tabled the motion for now, and said he will try to reconvene the committee to put together a crash budget, before they totally pull the plug on it.

 

 

 

                     

MOTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS    

 

A motion was made by Councilman Verola and seconded by Councilman Lippiello that Resolution No. 53 –A RESOLUTION TO AMEND RESOLUTIONS NO. 4 OF 2008 AND 2009 FOR THE CORRECTION OF THE COMMENCEMENT DATE OF ASSESSMENT REVIEW BOARD be approved.

 

Roll call vote:  Councilman Gardner: Aye, Councilman Lippiello: Aye, Councilman Salisbury: Aye, Councilman Verola: Aye, Supervisor Grattidge: Aye  Approved

 

A motion was made by Councilman Verola and seconded by Councilman Salisbury that Resolution No. 54 –A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE TOWN OF CHARLTON BUDGET FOR 2009 WITH RESPECT TO THE RECEIPT OF FUNDSFROM A NEEDS ASSESSMENT GRANT AND AUTHORIZING THE TRANSFER OF FUNDS NECESSARY TO PAY GALLEGO INFORMATION SERVICES FOR THE PROCESSING OF SUCH GRANT be approved.

 

Roll call vote:  Councilman Gardner: Aye, Councilman Lippiello: Aye, Councilman Salisbury: Aye, Councilman Verola: Aye, Supervisor Grattidge: Aye  Approved

 

A motion was made by Councilman Verola and seconded by Councilman Gardner that Resolution No. 55 –

A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE TOWN OF CHARLTON BUDGET FOR 2009 WITH RESPECT TO THE RECEIPT OF FUNDS FROM A BOND ANTICIPATION NOTE ISSUED BY THE TOWN BOARD OF THE TOWN OF CHARLTON AND FOR PURPOSES OF PAYING FOR A NEW TRUCK WITH HOIST FOR THE TOWN HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT be approved.

 

Roll call vote:  Councilman Gardner: Aye, Councilman Lippiello: Aye, Councilman Salisbury: Aye, Councilman Verola: Aye, Supervisor Grattidge: Aye  Approved

 

A motion was made by Councilman Verola and seconded by Councilman Lippiello that Resolution No. 56 –

A RESOLUTION ACKNOWLEDGING RECEIPT OF A SPECIAL EXCEPTION PERMIT APPLICATION FROM MICHAEL MALONEY REGARDING THE REBUILDING OF THE CHARLTON TAVERN AND ACCEPTANCE BY THE TOWN BOARD OF PRIMARY JURISDICTION OF SUCH APPLICATION PURSUANT TO THE ZONING ORDINANCE FOR THE TOWN OF CHARLTON be approved.

 

Roll call vote:  Councilman Gardner: Aye, Councilman Lippiello: Aye, Councilman Salisbury: Aye, Councilman Verola: Aye, Supervisor Grattidge: Aye  Approved

 

 

Supervisor Grattidge said that the Town Audits will continue on Tuesday night of the Zoning records and the Tax Collector.   Councilman Verola will notify the Justices of the need to audit their records.

 

Supervisor Grattidge said that at the next meeting he would like to have a resolution done to request that the Postal Service return the mailbox to Town Hall.

 

Supervisor Grattidge would also like to have a resolution done regarding the scope of work by HR Consulting concerning job descriptions, performance appraisal programs, and a wage and salary administrative review program.   It would cost just under $10,000 to do these three items.  Councilman Gardner said that he thinks that we should move forward with this.  The largest expense that the Town has is wages, and this gives us tools to base this on.  Councilman Verola thinks that we should do it, but she is not sure that we need to do the job descriptions.  She thought that we sent the job duties to the County and they would provide a job description.  Supervisor Grattidge said that every job is titled from the County but that is not necessarily a job description, and most of jobs don’t fit into civil service.  Councilman Verola said that she thinks that we should do it, thinks that it is a good management tool.  Councilman Lippiello said that he does not think that it is that beneficial, $10,000 worth of beneficial to get job descriptions for jobs that we have had in place for many years.  The $5,000 for the salary comparison really bothers him.  He thinks that is extremely high.  Basically what they are going to do is to take a look at the position and what our people do in those positions and try to find a comparable position, hopefully in municipal and private positions, and then give us a rating of where we think our people should be on that pay scale. He thinks that we have a pretty good idea of where our people should be on the pay scale.  He just can’t see $10,000 for those services.  He thinks that is very high and personally is not sure that it is that valuable of a tool to have in place.  Councilman Salisbury said that he thinks that it is a very valuable tool, and we do need the job descriptions.  The ones that we currently have are just generic description.  I think we could start with that.  We need salary scales, we have employees that have been here 10 years and some that have been here only a year and they are getting the same pay.  Our Employee Handbook said that we would start doing employee appraisals and we have not started that process as of yet and I think that it is about time to start.  Supervisor Grattidge said that he does not feel that we should spend this amount of money.  Part of being elected to this job is that we perform these duties ourselves.  We do get spreadsheets from the County that show what comparable jobs in other Towns are paying.   But as this is an item that has been discussed and we have it in our budget, he will ask the Town Attorney to prepare a resolution to be voted on at our next meeting.

 

Attorney VanVranken handed out the final draft of the agreement that will be made with the Fire Departments that are purchasing gasoline from the Town.  He also gave the Board information about SEQR called the SEQR Cookbook.

 

Councilman Lippiello wanted to add that he is concerned about security, and if we are going to spend $10,000, we have a new Town Hall sitting down there and we have 12 computers that he would like to see connected to a server and a firewall.  He thinks that $10,000 would go along way towards paying for that.  Councilman Verola said that we have a grant application for the server.  Councilman Gardner said that we budgeted $10,000 for furniture and computer hardware.  Councilman Lippiello said between furniture and computer hardware, we are probably going to need a little more money than $10,000.  Supervisor Grattidge said that we have additional offices at the new Town Hall that need furniture. 

 

The meeting adjourned at 8:30pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Brenda Mills

Town Clerk