Minutes

City of Beacon Council Meeting

April 21, 2008

REGULAR MEETING:

The regular meeting of the City of Beacon Council held at the Municipal Center, One Municipal Plaza on April 21, 2008 was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Mayor Steve Gold with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

Council Members in Attendance were: Mayor Steve Gold, Deanna Leake, Charles Kelly, Marlene Fredericks, Randy Casale and Sara Pasti.

Excused Eleanor Thompson

Also in attendance were: City Administrator, Meredith Robson

City Attorney, Richard Wolf

Media represented by: Goldee Greene, Beacon Free Press

Residents at beginning of meeting: 20

First Opportunity for Public Comments: Pertaining to any item. Maximum time for this section is 30 minutes. Maximum time for individual public comment is 3 minutes.

Comments contain a brief synopsis of what the residents say at the podium. If you would like your comments posted in more detail in the minutes, please submit them to the recording secretary in writing. Include your name and address.

Michael DiPompo - A couple of months ago there was a bunch of people who brought in a paper and wanted to impeach President Bush. That's a crime and it’s treason. If you want to write to your congressmen so we don't have any problems in Beacon. I suggest that you ask them to change the laws and put in new refineries and dig in Alaska for shale so that we will become self-sufficient in this country. Gas prices are going up and could reach $4.00, $5.00, and $6.00 a gallon. The last time we built a refinery in this country is 30 years ago. We now produce crude and sell it to Japan who refine it and then we buy it back. We cannot process it with the refineries that we have now. This is what is important and not trying to impeach someone who is trying to protect us in this country.

John Siboti, 119 Rombout Ave. - I am here representing the Beacon Elks Club and I'm here to speak about the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation. I distributed copies of a letter written by J. A. Pacitti, Ride Director. They are looking to use the Settlement Camp for an overnight stay. They have been doing this for the last five years. All we need is lodging and showers. I think that this is a worthwhile cause. Insurance wise I do not know what they have. I think this is a worthwhile cause.

Mayor Steve Gold: Thank you for what you do and we the council and the city will try to make it work.

Joseph Galbo, 56 Phillips St.- I was watching the council meeting last week. What is going on with University Settlement Camp?

Mayor Steve Gold: Normally this is not an opportunity for the council to respond. It is an opportunity for the public to comment on any subject other than agenda items. The council is working toward opening up the Settlement Camp for spring, late spring and summer. Our concern is that it is safe and that all of the requirements for insurance and the permits are met. We are trying to put together programs that the community would like to utilize the space for. Council has been working very hard to accomplish these goals. We have never had anything like this before in the city.

Joseph Galbo, 56 Phillips Street - Phillips Street and Kristy Street are used as a cut through from 9D. We have had beer bottles broken on Phillips Street. There is gang graffiti written on signs. I would like to know what the council is going to do with regards to such as putting a committee together. I am very opposed to having that open right now. I think that it is going to ruin that area. We are going to have more kids and cars speeding down and I am against this. There are beer bottles, garbage and people walking their dogs. I think it would help if we had a full police force. We have a problem with gangs. I did inform the Police Dept. of my concerns. There are a lot of people who are interested in helping. There needs to be a bridge between the people and the police department.

Mayor Steve Gold: There is a committee that will be formed. Call my office and file your complaint with my secretary. Leave your name with my secretary and you can fill out an application to help. We appreciate what you are telling us. Please come to our future meetings.

Betty DiPompo, 6 Pierce Place - I want to share information with the council. At the Deli on East Main Street, the police were there and there were about 30 teenagers. I don't know what happened. I would also like to make the comment that the last time there was a teenage situation the police were attacked. Again, I am going to tell this council. If the police had gotten out of their car with dogs, they would not have been attacked. People are afraid of the K-9. Also, the senior citizen that was robbed at Forrestal Heights, I know her personally. What are we doing to protect the people here in Beacon? I wish somebody would get back to me and let me know. Thank you.

Mayor Steve Gold: I don't know if you know this, Betty, but we purchased two police dogs. We have two officers that will be trained with the dogs.

Betty DiPompo: Those are replacements, aren't they? We need four dogs.

Michael DiPompo, 6 Pearce Place - I have to agree with my mother. The dogs do a lot more than scare people. They are trained in drug detection and bomb sniffing. One dog is great. Four dogs are better. The council went back and fourth for a long time trying to decide who was going to pay for the bulletproof vests. My mother got information to get in contact with grants that were available. You were able to get the grant to purchase the vests. We should bring back the four dogs. Not two, but four. I would rather pay for the dogs than for some library, parking lot or settlement camp or where the nuns live.

Hank Dutch, 98 Spring Valley Street - I would be interested in knowing how much the dogs cost. I would like to talk about opening the swimming pool up to the public, which is good because it is a public service. I just wanted to caution that there is a lot of liability attached to having a public swimming pool. When you have something like that the city can get hit really hard with liability lawsuits. I assume that the pool will be used by a certain economic slice which is well and good but I think that we have to be a little bit strict on who we allow. Make sure you have enough lifeguards and some kind of back-up system where if things get out of hand, they need to be able to call the police quickly. This reminds me of another thing - Sunday I was in my house resting, and "bing", I hear something hit my house. It was a B-B. Three youths were walking up the street and shot a B-B s through my window. It missed my grand daughter by a couple of feet. I called the police then I grabbed my camera and jumped in my car and got a picture of these kids. The police were at my house right on target. We found the kids and they were about fifteen. One had a knife. On Spring Valley Street in the summer you can see little gangs walking down the street. Maybe you can have Police community meetings.

Mayor Steve Gold: Thank you for the suggestions. There is a community watch program that is on South Brett Street. If you call my office I can put you in touch with Kathy Deutermann who formed a community watch program in her neighborhood.

Pamala Wetherbee: I watched the show last night. Is 9:00 the time that it started on Channel 22?

Mayor Steve Gold: We don't have a schedule yet but we will post it when we do have it.

Pamala Wetherbee: The other thing - a youth was jumped by nine other youths by the ice cream stand at 5:00 o'clock on a weekday. This was a week or so after the big fight. I think this something that the city needs to address. One of the boys was drunk, lost his contacts and couldn’t see to drive. I would be willing to volunteer but there’s no way I will volunteer when I see what these kids do. This is not just a school thing. This student did not know these other nine youths. He was jumped. He couldn't drive home. He lost his contacts. His eyes were closed. It is a huge issue. I know nobody thinks we have gangs. There are gangs. I would be willing to volunteer but there is no way that I will if these youths do what they do. We are seeing it more and more. The drugs are getting rampant again

Esther Carrington, 71 Beacon St: An issue you told me to put it in writing. It wasn't until the end of March when I heard from the city. We talked on the phone and I appreciate your apologizing to me on the city's behalf. When I was here last, you told me to put everything in writing, which I did. That was March 4. It wasn't until March 31 that I spoke to the Administrator. After speaking to your secretary who had no clue about what I was taking about where the letter was concerned. Why did it take so long from your office to the administrator's office? The administrator had a meeting with the tax Assessor on April 5. It took from April 5 to this last Friday April 18 for the assessors to call me back. Why is it taking so long for someone to call me back? I understand that she has a new position. Why is it taking so long to respond to my letter? It was you who told me to address you with it.

Mayor Steve Gold: I do apologize to you. I actually did look into it a week after you came to the council meeting. I spoke to the assessor within a week. I have to discuss with the council the level on which we give benefits. We currently have a level that has not changed in thirty years that would allow for benefits to be given. When I spoke to the assessor, it was clear that you were not entitled to the benefits that you are referring to.

Esther Carrington: My husband does not fall into the disability category but I am the one that is disabled and I fall under this act.

Mayor Steve Gold: I was told that you were not covered but I will look into this again along with the administrator to make sure every base is covered. I want to apologize again. Please continue to speak to the administrator and we will follow up to make sure there is nothing that was misunderstood.

Joseph Galbo, 56 Phillips St. - This is the second council meeting that I have ever been to. A lot of the residents here are asking questions about the Police Department and what we are doing about our safety. We have a lot of good programs that you are proposing. I think the money would be well spent if we did some more with the Police Department. Right now you have a manpower shortage because it is not staffed to full capacity. I have been a police officer for five years. The reason why we do not draw applicants is because the pay rate is one of the lowest in the county. The starting pay is one of the higher ones but the top pay is one of the lowest paid. It would help with the problems in Beacon if we had a fully manned police department. We need to attack this problem. We do have a gang problem in Beacon. All you have to do is drive down Main Street and you will see that they are in colors and graffiti and behind Brothers you will see gang graffiti on the walls. There is no question that there is a problem. I would like to commend the Police Department. As soon as I called about the graffiti, they were there in a short time. They took pictures. They called the city up and had them come and clean up right away which is one of the things that you have to do. The gangs have to know that it will not be tolerated.

Mayor Steve Gold: I want to remind the public that in this segment it not a forum where the council has to respond to every question that is brought up and to give a full and adequate response as to what the Police Department is doing about an issue. I am glad you are here and I hope that you will come to more meetings. We have had many discussions on how we utilize our police force, and how we recruit more people. Thank you for coming.

Dennis Pavelock: I am one of the people that watched the Pope's mass at Yankee Stadium yesterday. Everything was in place. Security on the roof, snipers on the roof with binoculars looking at what might have been but it wasn't. Everybody had a great time. There were secret service and NYPD all over. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

No further comments - 30 Minute Segment Ended at 7:30 p.m.

Mayor Steve Gold: The next session we have has to do with Public Hearings. There is a second reading of a new local law that involves rental properties or absentee owner registration. Our City Administrator, Meredith Robson will read the beginning of them, then we will open it up to a public hearing so that the public understands what this is about. The law addresses problems that we have with absentee landlords. When there are problems that we have with the building and since the owners are not living there it's hard to reach them. For the first time we are putting in a local law that is going to require that they notify the city who is available to be reached and how the landlord can be reached. That will help our Building Department greatly. This is the second reading that we are doing now. The previous public hearing for this law was tabled.

Public Hearings:

1. Proposed Local Law A New Chapter 173: Rental Properties, Absentee Owner Registration Requirements. (Tabled on April 7, 2008)

City Administrator Robson: Local Law to create a new chapter 173: Rental Properties, Absentee Owner Registration Requirements.

Mayor Steve Gold: If you would like to make a comment on this you have five minutes to say what you would like to say about this subject.

Public Hearing Comments:

Hank Dutch, 98 Spring Valley Street: There is a rental house on Spring Valley Street They sold drugs out of that house for years. They evicted the fellow that was selling the drugs but the apartment that he lived in is unlocked and nobody lives there. Is there a law that a landlord can get a summons for not providing a safe neighborhood?

Mayor Steve Gold: This is a particular law that addresses absentee landlords. Your comment about the property you describe is not included in the law.

Michael DiPompo: Isn't there a law on the books already for that or is this is a new law? I think it is a good idea to have. I was a fire fighter at one time and if a tenant had a problem the fire department had a difficult time locating the landlord. We can't have one law for one guy and another one for somebody else. How are you going to get these people to come in and fill out an application? I see a lot of problems. Now you are telling the people who own the property to come in and fill out papers. They will accuse the city of preventing their constitutional rights.

City Attorney Wolf: This is a local law for inspection in units for owner and non-owner occupied. This makes individuals accountable.

Mayor Steve Gold: If there are no other comments:

Motion to close public hearing: Council Member Kelly. Seconded: Council Member Casale. All voted in favor. Motion carried.

2. Proposed Local Laws of six local laws (A-F) regarding proposed Zoning Map changes in accordance with new Comprehensive Plan

Mayor Gold: We will go on to the next Public Hearing - I'll do them separately. The first is a first reading. It's a first reading of the Public Law. At the last council meeting we had a series of public hearings for new local laws to change zoning in some areas around the city and those public hearings will still be open in one minute. We found that in one of those local laws, "E"; there were three properties that were not included. So we are going to read this as a First Reading of that public law. It is really an addition to what was read last time. Mayor asked City Administrator to read the new "E" law with the new names on it.

City Administrator read the heading from the resolution as follows: Local Law changing the zoning of property from R1-40 One Family Residence District to R1-120 One Family Residence District. She then skipped down to the table and read the Tax Parcel Numbers of the properties.

Under Unfinished Business #2 - A through F Second Reading

Under New Business - Local Laws and Ordinances #1 Revised Proposal Local Law E. First Reading

Tax parcel #	Owner (s)	Owner's Mailing Address
130200-6054-02-596808		1 Municipal Center
(Portion)	City of Beacon	Beacon NY 12508
130200-5955-04-770210	Southern Dutchess Country Club	1209 North Ave Beacon NY 12508
130200-5955-04-675230	Southern Dutchess Country Club	1209 North Ave Beacon NY 12508
130200-5955-04-610320	NYS Bridge	PO Box 1010
(portion)	Authority	Highland NY 12528

Tax parcel #	Owner (s)	Owner's Mailing Address
130200-6054-40-455651 (portion)	William C Toennigs (Primary) M & P Manglass (Additional)	20 Van Kleeck Ave Beacon NY 12508 (Primary)
130200-6054-40-422686	Frederick Stepanek	32 Van Kleeck Ave City Of Beacon 12508
130200-6054-40-406669	Marilyn Brammer (Primary) David Brammer (Additional)	40 VanKleeck Ave City Of Beacon 12508

Mayor Steve Gold's: The Public Hearing that we are holding now is a combination of Local Laws A through F that had the First Reading at our last council meeting. We are re-opening the Public Hearing on that. We will be tabling it and adjourning it at this session. It will come up again for another reading and a final discussion in another two weeks. In addition to the second reading of A through F and continuing that public hearing we made an addition to Local Law E to add a few properties that were omitted from the first. Council has had a workshop discussion on this and home owners are being notified about these zoning changes and we will keep the Public Hearings open until we are satisfied that everyone has been notified and discussions have been all held. Would anyone like to make a comment about these local laws?

Council Member Pasti: I have a question. I thought the public hearing was going to be set tonight and the public hearing wasn't going to take place until thirty days after the setting and also the mailing of the letters to the people so they could come in and speak about it. Is this the first reading of this?

Mayor Steve Gold: We had a first reading at the last council meeting. That's when the first reading took place. If there's a procedure that needs to be put in where we are actually announcing the setting of the final public hearing, I haven’t been given that information so I don't have it available to me.

Council Member Pasti: I thought that May 19, 2008 was the date that we were setting the public hearing.

Mayor Steve Gold: I don't have it in my materials here.

Council Member Pasti: I guess my recollection is that we authorized the sending out of the letters. Maybe the administrator or the attorney can address where we are in the process.

City Attorney Robson: We sent out the letters and I believe that the Mayor wanted to have discussions this evening and that was the original intent was to carry the public hearing to May 19 in order to finalize those public laws.

Mayor Steve Gold: What you are saying is that I need to set a public hearing for May 19 for all of the Local Laws A through F.

City Administrator Robson: All the laws. Local Law E tonight will be the first reading. All of the others will be part of the second reading.

Council Member Pasti: I also thought we were going to have the planning consultant here to answer questions.

Mayor Steve Gold: So I need to formally state that we are setting the public hearing for May 19th. Is this statement right now?

City Administrator Robson: Do you want me to read each resolution by title so that it will be clear for the record?

Mayor Steve Gold: Yes.

City Administrator Robson read the titles of each of the resolutions so that it is clear for the record.

Mayor Steve Gold: The Public Hearing will be set for May 19, 2008.

Public Hearing Comments:

Pamala Wetherbee: The one thing regarding the Southern Dutchess Country club is what the properties are behind it. You have Tompkins Terrace over there that is highly populated then you come in and say that that the zoning will be changed from one acre to three acres. This is the only thing I was thinking about.

Dennis Pavelock: I was not at the workshop. I was looking at light industrial changing to central business. What would that be?

Mayor Steve Gold: That would only be for that roundhouse property.

Council Member Pasti: I would like to say something for the benefit of the public. For people who may be a little bit confused, not all properties that are in that category are being changed. The zoning changes are only for certain parcels.

Mayor Steve Gold: Two weeks ago we read all the properties and their locations. If there are no other comments I would like to adjourn this public hearing.

Motion to adjourn: Council Member Kelly. Seconded: Council Member Leake. All voted in favor. Motion carried.

Community Segment:

Beacon Terminals:

Jennifer Van Tuyl: As you said our presentation is an outgrowth of a decision that this council made in February directing and Mr. Dexter to speak to the owners of all of the empty factory sights in the city and find out what the status of those buildings were. We did meet with you on March 15, and to explain to you the status of the factory parcels that we own. We are here to tell you what has been going on for many months preceding that meeting regarding the properties owned by Beacon Terminals. We are here to advise the council and the public as to the status of our plans. Our plans are not really polished at this point and we are not ready to submit any formal plans. With that in mind we want to make a presentation to the council and to the public. Mrs. VanTuyl introduced Paul Cimenello who gave a brief explanation of the project. Also, Mr. Gissen will be doing a flip chart presentation:

Paul Cimenello, Ecosystems Strategies: Described what the plans are. My company has been overseeing the investigation and subsequently revitalizing various properties in Beacon.

Mr. Thomas Gissen put out his display of on easels and gave a beautiful presentation to the residents.

The council thanked this group for their presentation.

Beacon Youth Services

Dot Paulin: This committee was formed five years ago and was called The Beacon Youth Services. We want to make sure that the youth in Beacon have what they need to grow up and be happy, healthy and good adults. Guest speakers tonight are Pam Seeger, Julann Cobb, and Michelle Rhone. Each one will tell you exactly what we do.

Pam Seeger: The program began with a meeting from the original director. She was surprised that we did not have a collaborative effort. She worked her crusade to connect us all together. There was no information available for her. There were duplications of services. We began meeting in 2004. We had 15 organizations arrive. It was also attended by Clara Gould and John Forman. We created our mission to insure that every young person in Beacon can and will work toward becoming a responsible adult.

Michelle Rhone-Collins: Right now we are in a place where we are tying to find our identity. We had inter-development training. We had some attendance from law enforcement and the school. We are meeting with our government officials. We are in the process of forming our membership structure. This is a crisis time in the community. We are going to hold an open meeting. We are going to have a calend