Workshop Minutes
City of
November 13, 2007
WORKSHOP
The City of
Council Members in
attendance were: Clara Lou Gould, Phil
Shea, and
Also in attendance were City
Attorney Gerard Pisanelli, Building Department
Excused: Council Members: Elizabeth Foster, Charles Kelly, and Eleanor
Thompson and City Administrator, Joseph Braun,
AGENDA
Budget Presentations:
Presenting their Budget are
the following: Details of any budget can
be seen at City Hall:
Council Member Gold: Have
you calculated the overall increase to be sure that it does not go over
4%? We would like to keep it at 4%. We are asking that of every department comply
with our request.
I
will do the Building Department first.
Percentage wise, most of the items have gone down. We reduced the budget from last year except
for a couple of areas. One of them is
Clerical. What I have proposed is a
promotion for Jamie. She has been
working there for nine years and I wanted to elevate her position to senior
typist. Item for the Purchase Office
Equipment can be reduced by $4,200.00.
There
were no questions for the Building Department Budget.
Building Department:
Fire Department 2008 Budget - Personal Services - Also presented by
The
only thing of significance is the overtime.
We will see that the overtime is someplace in the area of 33% for next
year.
Overtime
is calculated by using 5-year averages for things like sick leave, jury duty,
bereavement, and calls at shift change and fire callbacks. Contractual leave time for P.L., vacation and
holidays is based on time on the job and is easily calculated. Overtime for training and any special events
such as Beacon Day and parades is then added.
The
increase reflects the 12.75% increase for the 3-year contract. In addition, the new contract requires the
career firefighters to be come certified as Code Compliance Technicians. The training is provided by the state but has
to be done on overtime. A budget of $21,
700 is included.
T
Note: This $21,700.00 can be removed from the line
item because the union has decided against that at this point. So when you look at that you can reduce that
by $21,700.00.
Due
to the ever increasing complexity of the services provided (technical rescue,
confined space, swift water, high angle, trench collapse) and the decreasing
number of qualified volunteers the Chief and training coordinator feel it is
necessary to run a 40 hour class for the career firefighters so we can be
assured of a minimum number of qualified firefighters at the scene of a
technical rescue call. The training will
be provided by Mike Davis but has to be done on overtime. $12,852 has been included in this budget to
accomplish this training.
Again,
do to the continued decrease in qualified volunteers responding to calls the
Chief has modified the department response policy which calls in all available
off duty members on every 2nd alarm fire.
Based on past years I anticipate the policy change will add
approximately $5,600 to the overtime line and is included in this proposal.
The
overtime amount requested does not include overtime that will be incurred with
the expected retirement of one firefighter in 2008.
Chief Tim Joseph – Fire
Department Presented his budget
Chief Tim Joseph: I
put in for a full time secretary at a salary for $27,000.00 an amount told to
me by Civil Service. Most of the items
on my budget are either 0% increase or decreased. The part time secretary that we have now can
only work17 hours or less a week otherwise we have to make her full time. I have the largest dept in the city. We have roughly 75 people that we have to
keep records on. The other increases
that I put in for is for confined space equipment. If someone goes into a manhole and it is not
ventilated properly, someone has to go down to get him out.
Council Member Gold: Did
you add the property tax discount that you want to give to volunteer
firefighters?
Chief Joseph: That
would not be in the fire department budget.
Any fire fighter that comes into the dept must complete 160 hours of
training. On top of that they are
required to have 108 hours of training that we do here in town. These are federally mandated. They also have to go through our in-house
training. There are a host of scenarios
that we come up with in our training program.
All firefighters have to have a harness.
This has to be in place by March.
Mike Davis runs drills three times a month. Most of that is mandated training. If you don't have practice drills you will
not be considered professional.
Mayor: Gould: Is
there any opportunity's for people to observe what they do to observe those
drills, which could create interest in becoming a volunteer?
Chief Joseph: Anybody
is welcome to come any Tuesday night to observe what we do.
Council Member Gold: I
will put this information on the website.
Do you think that we should pay the volunteers $10.00 an hour?
Chief Joseph: It
is about time that we start to take care of our volunteers.
Council Member Gold: I am going to suggest that we add that as well as
mileage to the budget
Council Member Shea: I notice that there is a big increase for consulting
in your budget.
Chief Joseph: We plan to use a consultant. We came up with a number of different
scenarios and put down a time that we thought it would take both physically and
financially to accomplish our special needs.
We did not know exactly what the council would be looking for. It is a rough estimate on what it would take
for the engineer to give us what we need.
We will not do anything with the $10,000.00 this year. We would use that consultant to do work, as
we need it.
Chief Joseph: We were very pleased with his work. He had all of the qualifications that we
required.
Regarding
Gas and Oil: With the projected price of
gas and oil going up, this figure would have to be increased from the 1% that I
originally budgeted.
Originally
I wanted to replace one of our pumpers but Joe cut it out of my budget. I want to make our present pumper our spare
rig and would like to sell our current spare pumper. He also cut out a chief's car. We are going to have to replace one of our
cars. We usually get our cars from the
state bid.
Another
one that Joe cut out of my budget was a John Deere ATV (all terrain
vehicle). I feel that we should not
partner with Fishkill. If we were called
because of mutual aid, the fire department in that area should be responding
also. We had a call where we were there
and the other fire department did not respond.
That is not how mutual aid works.
I would prefer to spend the
$15,000 ourselves. We spend more
time in Fishkill than we should be.
Dutchess Junction wants to have absolutely nothing to do with that
mountain.
Another
item I had is to hire 4 more career staff until we get it up to four. Joe cut that out of the budget. To hire one man with the benefits package
would be $67,000.00.
The
council thanked Time Joseph and
Iola Taylor – City Clerk was unable to attend because of illness. Her budget was for a total of $195,015.00%
Property Tax Discount For Firefighters (Emergency Workers?) Present as Local
Law not Resolution.
Council Member Gold: It's a great idea that can bring in more
volunteers. I think it would be a good
idea to go higher than that.
Chief Joseph: Even 20% would only cost 8,000.00. I am all in favor of a strong volunteer
force. Mayor Gould: Jerry said that it should be a local law
rather than a resolution.
Council Member Gold: The law as written is for 10%, which should be changed
to 20%.
Mayor Gould: This is a good start.
It can always be changed.
City Attorney Pisanelli: distributed a copy of the local law
Cabaret Law: Continue Discussion.
Building Department Input. Noise
Concern.
Council Member Gold: I thought that this law would be applicable
to noise and activity outside of the business that disrupts the
neighborhood. I do not want this to
affect
Mayor Gould: Part of the problem is that they are outside of their
establishment and they should not b outside.
Council Member Gold: asked City Attorney: Can we localize this to one
location? The establishments have
apartments above them. Joe was
suggesting that they take into consideration the size of the parking area. We can go back and look at that. The residents that are close to the
establishments should not have to live with this. We should act on the noise law.
Council Member Shea: We should work the ABC laws into our cabaret laws.
City Attorney Pisanelli: It would make sense to me to concentrate on
the parking lot size.
Council Member Gold: What about telling them that they have to keep their
doors closed? This might solve some of
the problems.
City Attorney Pisanelli: I will try to get together with
Outdoor Furnaces Input from Building Department
Council Member Gold: There is only one furnace in town. We want to consider if someone wants to buy
one. This is not a problem now but it
can become a problem.
Council Member Shea: The way the law is written now, we would have to shut
down the one we have now.
Council Member Gold: Maybe it should be allowed for a certain size
lot.
Council Member Gold: The wood they are using should be checked.
Mayor Gould: The law should say that they could be inspected. City Attorney Pisanelli will continue to work
on that with
Council Member Gold: We have to do something. There are a lot of places in Beacon that
would be fine.
Council Member Shea: I think that it is a bad idea.
Council Member Gold: I think there has to be a law to control it. I will get a copy of the law now and try to
work something out.
University Settlement Camp: Authorize Mayor to sign Management Agreement with NYS
Parks regarding University Settlement Camp
Mayor Gould: The state park has been working with Attorney
Pisanelli. They want the management
agreement in place so they can sign it.
Attorney Pisanelli corrected what needed to be corrected.
Council Member Gold: In the details of the contract, although we have the
rights to the water, I think that we should have exclusive rights to the
reservoir.
Attorney Pisanelli: We have signed a resolution.
Council Member Gold: Regarding the taxes, whom are we paying our taxes to?
Mayor Gould: The
This
will go on the agenda
Empire Zone Boundary Revision
Mayor Gould: There are new boundary lines. They sent us a new map.
John Foreman: (from
audience). They are excluding unsuitable
lands and are including suitable lands.
This
will be placed on the Council Meeting Agenda
DEC Grant Hiddenbrooke: Authorize Mayor to sign Grant for DEC Funds
for Hiddenbrooke. See attached.
Mayor Gould: This $150,000 grant needs to be signed.
"Tallix" Subdivision: Swap Properties
There
is a piece of property that Tallix has no use for. It will take time for surveys to be
done. My thought was that improving this
piece of property I suggest that the city give them a license to do that. The property is located at a cul-de-sac at
the end of
Everyone
is okay with this. This will be placed
on the agenda for November 19, 2007.
Agreement:
This
will be placed on the agenda for November 19, 2007.
Water
Meter Replacement: Mayor:
Mayor
Gould: This involves those residents who did not have their
meters replaced yet. We need more
information and will have to wait for City Administrator Joseph Braun.
YDDP - Youth Development Delinquency
Prevention:
Program Funds: Authorization
For The Mayor To Apply For And Accept Funds For Juvenile/Community Relations
(Code No. 08130210R015) Totaling $3,888.00 For The Year 2008 Youth Development
Delinquency Prevention (YDDP) Programs.
To be put on the
agenda for Mayor to sign authorization.
Authorization
For The Mayor To Apply For And Accept
Funds For Recreation & Culture (Code No. 08130210R015) Totaling $4387.00
For The Year 2008 Youth Development Delinquency Prevention (YDDP) Programs
To be put on the
agenda for Mayor to sign authorization.
Absentee Landlords - Requested by Eleanor
Thompson - (Excused).
Mayor Gould: This is at the request of Council Member Thompson who
is not here this evening. We will wait
until she is here.
City Attorney Pisanelli: Eleanor noticed that there are a lot more properties
with absentee landlords than was first thought.
This
will go on the next workshop when Council Member Thompson is present.
Appointments / Ratifications:
Mayor Gould: I sent letters to ask if
these people want to be reappointed.
Council Member Gold: I will put this up on the
website.
Conservation Advisory Commission - Two Year Terms (4) Expiring Terms
Fire Advisory Committee = Two Year Terms (1) Expiring
Term
Human Relations - Two-Year Terms - (7) Expiring
Terms -
(4)
Vacant Positions
Planning Board - Three Year Term - (4) Expiring
Terms
Recreation Board - Three-Year Term - (3) Expiring
Terms
Zoning Board of Appeals - Three Year Term - (2)
Expiring Terms
Announcement
Other Business:
REMINDER:
Public Hearing for Comprehensive Planning -
Comprehensive Plan Set Two Public Hearings:
Wed.
– 11/14/07 in the Evening at the
Sat. - 11/17/07 in the Morning at the
Upcoming Workshop Agenda Items
Departmental
Budget Presentation Schedule
Auditors
November 26th - Workshop
Street / Parks - Zep Thomaselli
Water - Jamie McCollum
Sewer - William O'Keeffe
Recreation -
Monday December 3, 2007 Council Meeting:
Vote on City of
PH Furnaces
PH Local Law for storm water
PH Illegal discharges
PH New section damage caused by sewage
The
workshop ended at 9:17
p.m.
Respectfully Submitted by
Lucy M. Cullinan - November 18, 2007.