[0:00] Uh, I'd like to welcome everybody to the August 20th meeting of the town of

[0:03] Southeast. If you could rise for pledge of allegiance.

[0:07] I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

[0:12] republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and

[0:17] justice for all.

[0:22] » Thank you. Uh, just to remind everybody of the exits. We have two exits in the

[0:25] back of the room on each corner and one exit up here in case of an emergency.

[0:29] Uh, I would ask everybody to turn off their cell phones or put it on vibrate.

[0:33] Um, appreciate that. And I'll ask the clerk for roll call.

[0:39] » Councilman Cypress absent. Councilman Larka

[0:42] » here. >> Councilwoman Lewis absent. Councilman

[0:45] Mazada >> here.

[0:47] » Supervisor Castellano >> present. Thank you.

[0:51] » Uh, okay. Uh, first item on tonight is public hearing. So, I'd like to make a

[0:54] motion to open up a public hearing uh for Verizon of New York LLC. Do I have a

[1:00] second? >> Second.

[1:01] » All in favor? >> I

[1:02] » I Okay. Uh if anybody would like to speak uh about the uh non-exclusive

[1:08] cable franchise with Verizon New York LLC.

[1:13] Step up to the podium here.

[1:18] Well, I didn't get any um feedback from the public the last couple weeks or

[1:23] anything about it. And um with that, I guess I'll make a motion to close the

[1:28] public hearing. >> Second. Second.

[1:29] » All in favor? Thank you. I >> I

[1:32] » All right. Uh we'll move on to our regular work session. Uh item number one

[1:37] uh for discussion is uh the building department update from Michael Levine,

[1:40] our town building inspector.

[1:52] Is this on?

[1:58] » Good evening everyone. Uh just have a brief summary tonight. Uh

[2:04] review some work activities uh for the year to date. Uh so far we've

[2:12] done 946 permits compared to,266

[2:19] for uh year end 2025.

[2:23] Uh we've issued 414 certificates year-to date compared to year end 2025 we did

[2:31] 601 building inspections. Uh this year we've

[2:36] done 1120 year to date compared to year end 2025 where we did 1125

[2:45] fire inspections year-to date we've done 246

[2:49] compared to year end for 2025 [clears throat]

[2:52] of 266 notices of violation year to date we've

[2:58] done 266 year end for 2025 we did 378 8

[3:05] uh revenue year-to- date 446,880

[3:12] compared to year end 2025 of 471761.

[3:18] Um [laughter] what these numbers reflect is that our

[3:23] office remains busy. Um they also indicate that our work volume for the

[3:28] year is on par or trending higher than last year. our revenue for 2026 already

[3:34] exceeds the budgeted amount for the year. So fiscally, we're in good shape.

[3:41] Um, as a department anyway, one of the biggest challenges the

[3:46] building department faces is dealing with contractors and property owners

[3:50] that do not comply with our local regulations and New York State code

[3:54] requirements. The time and cost expended by the

[3:58] department in addressing and correcting compliance issues is tremendous and it

[4:04] impacts opportunities for efficiency. Um

[4:09] examples range from people that pull permits

[4:15] don't close them out. So, we have to chase after them,

[4:21] try to compel them to renew permits, close out their permit, and to bring the

[4:27] the property into compliance. Um, other examples would be somebody that applies

[4:34] for a permit, um, does not submit a complete

[4:39] application and we have to chase after them to get

[4:44] them to submit the the proper documentation.

[4:49] Clearly, and probably the biggest issue is property maintenance violations.

[4:54] People are not maintaining their properties in accordance with the code.

[4:58] And that's not just residential properties. Um,

[5:03] commercial properties that don't maintain their their property in

[5:07] accordance with the code create a situation where uh public safety is at

[5:13] risk. Um, so all of these issues and of course it's it's part and parcel to what

[5:20] we do, but there's I I think a lot of uh what we seem to

[5:29] experience is

[5:32] something the public needs to take responsibility for. Um, they don't they

[5:39] don't seem to take the fact that they take out a permit seriously. they don't

[5:44] look at the permit, they don't look at the scheduling requirements. Um, and

[5:50] over time, uh, obviously it's a liability, but it's also it's a big cost

[5:55] issue. And, um, you know, it would be something that would would be nice if,

[6:03] uh, we saw, uh, more compliance rather than less.

[6:09] Um, as provided to the board, we're beginning to see attrition in the

[6:13] department as anticipated, and I've provided my current

[6:18] recommendations to the board in recent correspondence. [snorts] Uh, looking

[6:22] ahead to 2027, we'll prepare and train for the

[6:26] implementation of software upgrades to provide an online permitting portal. The

[6:31] portal will provide contractors, professionals, and property owners the

[6:35] ability to submit permit applications electronically.

[6:39] Um, finally, I want to take the opportunity to thank my staff for the

[6:43] work that they do. Um, and

[6:47] if there's anybody that has any questions on the board, I'd be more than

[6:52] happy to address them. >> Sure. Any questions,

[6:56] » Mike? Uh, has that um no show fee helped at all

[7:02] » for uh was it inspections that we put in? I

[7:07] mean, I don't think that you'd ever really see

[7:12] a big impact with that because it's kind of

[7:18] somebody that that is a no-show that is charged the fee. Of course, they won't

[7:24] won't do it again, >> right?

[7:25] » But it's not going to impact the hundreds or whatever other people that

[7:31] are are scheduling appointments. and thanks for um the analysis that you and

[7:38] Alex worked on and we saw that come through and we'll be discussing that. So

[7:44] » yeah, I I thought that that was beneficial. I appreciate the uh being

[7:50] asked to to go through that exercise. It was it was good. Yeah, it's always

[7:54] helpful um to to go through that, you know, both from your perspective um to

[8:01] lay it out on paper and see how it looks from a present state to what a desired

[8:06] future state might look like. It helped us too because

[8:09] » sure, >> we don't want to be in the position to

[8:12] to guess what you need, right? Because you're the department head. You know

[8:16] exactly what it is. Um, but to be able to spell that out on paper to help us

[8:21] like connect dots, I know for myself it it helped a great deal. So, so thank you

[8:26] for doing that. >> Sure.

[8:28] » Um, I had a question regarding two items that you mentioned. You know,

[8:35] you mentioned how, you know, onus on the public to some degree to assist in being

[8:41] more compliant with with their permit requests,

[8:45] » right? So I how do you couple that when we once we get the online permitting

[8:51] software up and running? Do [clears throat] you think that will

[8:54] assist or make that maybe the public more compliant because it's more user

[8:58] friendly, easier to manage, maybe easier to communicate? So do you think

[9:04] ultimately when when we roll this out that will yield a benefit to the

[9:08] department? >> I hope so.

[9:10] uh you know the the online portal

[9:16] uh is kind of an interesting uh application for a building

[9:22] department. Um I I personally feel that you're going to have a have a lot of

[9:30] people that are just going to kind of continue to do it the oldfashioned way

[9:35] because that's how they do it. There are going to be people that, you

[9:41] know, like let's just say like a a plumbing contractor that might submit 75

[9:46] applications a year. Certainly for that contractor,

[9:51] it would be very beneficial if they can do it online because they could they

[9:56] could probably knock those out very quickly. Um

[10:02] the person that I have concern is where they try to use the portal and

[10:10] they experience issues and we have to engage

[10:16] you know continuous kind of phone dialogue or email dialogue to try to

[10:21] help them through the process. So I think that that's kind of a concern of

[10:28] mine. Um but at the same time I think that when we go through the training

[10:35] process we have to make sure that we have a a standard or a system in place

[10:41] to address those questions as they come up.

[10:46] » Yeah. FAQs on a website are always helpful. you know with AI now there's

[10:52] there's chat bots right which which you feed the information to which which

[10:56] certainly could be useful so I hope when we deploy the software we're also kind

[11:03] of bringing that other technology right behind it because it would address many

[11:07] of the things you just spoke of so that you're less staff reliant

[11:11] » yeah I was I was actually thinking about [clears throat] it yesterday because I

[11:14] was on I was on the phone with a robot >> and I was asking the the robot questions

[11:19] and it was providing ing me with very capable responses and I was like, how do

[11:23] you get that into what I do for a living? And uh so

[11:30] it's definitely I guess that's where the world is heading in a lot of a lot of

[11:35] ways. >> Yeah.

[11:39] » No, I'm glad to see u you know the increase in activity in the department

[11:42] and you guys are doing a great job keeping up with it. Um so you know

[11:45] compliments to you and your staff on that. Uh definitely looking forward to

[11:48] the online permitting uh issue. I think that'll you know it's the next step for

[11:53] us and I'm looking forward to it and try to help any way we can. So I appreciate

[11:58] that. >> Super. Okay. I think that we're unless

[12:01] there's any other comments or questions. >> Thanks for getting all the solicitors.

[12:06] » Thank you, Peter. [clears throat] >> Hopefully the sheriff's department gets

[12:09] them too. >> Thanks very much.

[12:13] » Okay. Good evening. >> Thank you.

[12:17] Uh number two for discussion we have uh Putnham County District Attorney Robert

[12:20] Tendy here to give us an update on uh scamming that's affecting Putnham

[12:24] County. >> Thank you.

[12:30] » Speaking of AI Sesan >> okay um I want to thank you for letting

[12:35] me come here and talk about this because this is something that uh four years ago

[12:41] was a concern, three years ago was more of a concern. Lately, it's just gotten

[12:46] really, really crazy. And as this has been happening more and more over the

[12:51] past several months, and I've been going to various senior centers and various

[12:55] social groups and talking to them about it,

[12:58] people are still getting scammed a lot, not just in this county, but all all

[13:02] over the world. Certainly in America, and certainly seniors are hit more than

[13:06] more than most. Um, so I thought it would be a good idea to come to each

[13:11] town and talk to the board, but more importantly, it's on it's televised, so

[13:16] people can watch it and see it because these I'm going to give you an example

[13:20] of what I'm talking about. A very good friend of mine who's an international

[13:23] attorney, a very bright man. He travels all around the world. He got scammed not

[13:28] too long ago out of $250,000. He's a really bright guy. Um, it was a

[13:35] email and a phone scam. It was very very sophisticated. Uh he thought it was a

[13:39] bank. He thought it was a client and he fell for it. Fortunately, he has

[13:44] commercial uh theft insurance, so they covered it. But that's that's that's a

[13:49] lot of money. I mean, he's a multi-millionaire. It's not a lot for

[13:53] him, but it's a lot of money. And it's it's how they did it. It was so well

[13:57] done that this sophisticated businessman actually fell for it. So, I want to go

[14:02] over a couple of some of these scams you've all heard of, but even though

[14:05] you've heard of them, they bear repeating because people keep falling

[14:08] for them. In Putham County, two years ago, we had a woman who was scammed for

[14:12] $120,000. Fortunately, we caught the person who

[14:15] did it. It's very unusual that the person's actually in the country, but in

[14:18] this case, the person was uh not too long ago in my town, Putnham Valley, a

[14:23] woman was scammed out of $50,000. Recently, someone was scammed out of

[14:27] $15,000. Um, some people have their bank accounts

[14:32] used as conduits to transfer money because they think they're speaking to a

[14:38] friend and they're not and they get told the story. But I'm going to go over some

[14:41] of these examples and uh, you really need to be vigilant.

[14:45] Um, one of the things that every is probably

[14:49] the oldest scam in the book as far as phones go, it's the grandparent scam.

[14:55] your grandchild calls you and says, "I'm in Mexico and I'm in jail and I need

[15:01] money to get out." And you may all be familiar with it and you're like, "How

[15:05] could somebody fall for something like that?" They do it all the time and they

[15:08] fall for it all the time. Um, sometimes you get a call from somebody claiming to

[15:12] be your grandchild's friend. Your grandchild's been in an accident.

[15:15] They're in the hospital. They can't contact the parents. Uh, we need

[15:18] information for the doctor. Please give us your credit card number. Something

[15:21] like that. People are still falling for these scams. If you get a phone call

[15:25] from somebody who says, "I'm in Mexico and I'm your grandson and or I'm the

[15:29] friend of your granddaughter or whatever," just don't even say anything.

[15:33] Don't say, "Oh my god." Just hang out the phone. It's a scam. It's a scam.

[15:38] That's all there is to it. Um, speaking of AI, I speak to so many

[15:44] people who think they're being clever when they get a phone call from an

[15:51] unknown party and they start talking to them, grilling them, asking them

[15:56] questions, thinking they're going to like, I'll show you. I know you're a

[15:59] scammer. All they're doing is cloning your voice. They're recording your voice

[16:03] and they're cloning it. And if your kid does it or a relative does it or a

[16:07] neighbor does it and these people are very very sophisticated, you will

[16:11] eventually get a call from your neighbor or your daughter or they might get a

[16:17] call from you and it's going to be your voice and it's going to sound real

[16:23] and all you have to do is go online and look at these AI videos. I mean, they

[16:26] looks they're amazingly real. I just saw a video there that's it's

[16:32] spectacular. I'm so proud of this lion. It raised a rabbit. It's amazing.

[16:38] It's fake. My son-in-law had the opportunity to go

[16:44] to Egypt recently and he did an archaeological dig and he sends me video

[16:50] from Egypt and he's surrounded by all these ancient places and he's digging

[16:55] and he's talking to me. He was in Walden, New York. The whole

[17:00] thing was fake. He wanted to show me how easy it is. I'm like, I didn't know know

[17:05] you were in I didn't even know you knew where Egypt was. [laughter] The It

[17:09] looked great. I was like, what the hell's going on here? I really almost

[17:14] believed he was in Egypt. Bank scams. If you get a call from your

[17:19] bank and your bank says your your account's been compromised. We think it

[17:24] may have been hacked. We want to go over some information with you to make sure

[17:27] that what's going on is legitimate or illegitimate. give us your social last

[17:31] four digits of your Don't do it. Don't do it. If your bank calls you,

[17:36] hang up the phone. Get in your car and drive to the bank or hang up the phone.

[17:41] Go online, get the real bank number. Call the bank number that you're used to

[17:45] calling and talk to them. Don't accept the phone call from the bank.

[17:50] They are so good at that scam. It happens all the time. I you may have

[17:55] heard a news reporter in Los Angeles about two months ago fail for this. They

[17:59] called him up and they they wanted his banking information and he went all the

[18:04] way to the point of actually going to the bank to take out money for them.

[18:08] That's when he realized this is crazy. This can't be real. But they're so good

[18:11] at it. They're really good at it. So don't fall

[18:15] for it. If somebody calls you and they say they're from the IRS and they're

[18:18] going to garnish your wages, just hang up the phone. All right? The IRS when it

[18:24] contacts you folks is too late. All right? When you get contacted by the

[18:29] IRS, it's going to be by a bank account garnishment, wage garnishment, etc. You

[18:34] get a call from the IRS, just hang up the phone. Then, if you want, you can

[18:36] call the IRS, but don't ever do anything on a phone call. It's like when you're a

[18:41] kid, your your parents tell you not to speak to strangers.

[18:45] You don't speak to strangers on the phone. It's that simple. You just don't

[18:48] do it, but everybody falls for it because you get you get comfortable.

[18:53] This scam is very, very dangerous and it happens a lot in Putham County because

[18:56] we have a lot of power outages. the nice egg scam. If somebody comes knocking on

[18:59] your door and says, "We're from Nice. There's been a power outage. We have an

[19:03] indication that there might be a short in the wire going, "Can we come in?"

[19:06] Don't let them in your house. It's really, really dangerous. They'll

[19:10] either hurt you or when you're not looking, they're going to steal

[19:12] something. Do not ever, ever let anyone in your house if you don't know who they

[19:16] are. It's really, really dangerous and it happens often.

[19:21] Um, the debt collection scam. You get a call from somebody who says, "We sent

[19:26] you a notice four months ago. You haven't responded. It's for $2,500. It's

[19:31] at this address." They give you the address. You're like, "Well, wait a

[19:33] minute. That's my neighbor's address." And they go, "Oh, well, we have your

[19:38] address. We have your information. So, it we're going to garnish your wages.

[19:42] You want to call an attorney, that's fine." And you get all upset. And then

[19:45] they say, "Well, I tell you what, we'll put everything on hold, but we got to

[19:49] make sure that you're you're being legit with us. Give us $500. Give us your bank

[19:54] account number or give us your checking account number, your debt debit card

[19:57] number, or even your credit card. Give us 500 bucks. And you do it. You're

[20:02] talking to a stranger, a total stranger, and you're giving them personal

[20:06] information and money. Don't do it. Anytime you get a call from anybody or

[20:14] anytime anybody, if you don't know these people and they ask you to transfer

[20:17] money from your account or give them information to your bank, from your

[20:20] bank, just don't do it. Please don't do it. And this one is very common among I

[20:27] guess you'd have to say seniors and it it hits me really really hard because

[20:31] I'm 70 years old now. And if I get a Facebook request from Destiny Love and

[20:39] Destiny Love tells me she really likes my posts and she's really interested in

[20:42] me. She wants to know more about me. Destiny Love doesn't give a damn about

[20:46] me. Destiny Love just wants my money. And at 70 years old, I have to admit it.

[20:51] Even at 30 years old, you should admit it. There is no destiny, love. It's some

[20:54] guy in Thailand who's trying to get in my bank account.

[20:58] But you'd be surprised how many seniors in Putham County have fallen for this

[21:03] where they get in touch or somebody from their old high school days gets in touch

[21:08] with them via Facebook and before you know it, they're talking to this person

[21:11] for 3 months, four months. They're exchanging pictures. They're exchanging

[21:15] family pictures. because they're exchanging information about where they

[21:17] live, their vacation homes, and next thing you know it, your friend from high

[21:22] school, who was maybe your boyfriend in in sophomore year is asking you if he

[21:26] can transfer money into your bank account, not out, into your bank

[21:32] account. And you say, "Well, I don't want to give you access to my bank

[21:35] account." He says, "Well, I'm just transferring money in. I'm not taking it

[21:38] out." [snorts] And you're 75 years old and you give them access to your bank

[21:41] account. It's really common.

[21:45] So, how do you prevent this from happening?

[21:51] It's really very easy. Don't talk to strangers. It's that simple. Don't talk

[21:57] to strangers. Don't give them information. Don't give them banking

[22:00] information. Don't give them any information.

[22:04] If somebody calls you and you don't know who it is before on my way here tonight,

[22:08] my phone's ringing. I don't recognize the phone call. I could have hit answer

[22:11] on my car. I didn't recognize it. no message. It's just a scam call.

[22:17] Everybody gets them. But sometimes people pick it up.

[22:23] Lately, you're getting calls from numbers that look like they're from this

[22:26] area because they're they're creating fake phone numbers to appear on your

[22:32] phone. I forget what the term is. And you say, "Oh, it's an 845225 number.

[22:37] It's got to be legit. Maybe it's a friend of mine. I haven't had a call in

[22:41] four hours. I'm lonely. I want to pick up." and you pick it up and you say

[22:45] hello and there's no answer and you say hello and there's no answer and you say

[22:50] is anybody there and they're recording your voice and every time they do that

[22:55] they get more voice information on you but not only that I was speaking to a

[23:01] gentleman tonight says family members getting a ton of these calls what

[23:07] happens is every time you pick up the phone that's a data that's a data post

[23:13] for all these scam artists. They know that you are likely to pick up the

[23:17] phone. You pick it up once and talk, you're going to get five more calls. You

[23:20] pick it up twice, you're going to get 20 more calls. So, just don't pick up the

[23:24] phone. Don't talk to stranger. You don't recognize the number. If it's somebody

[23:27] you know, they're going to leave a message.

[23:32] If anybody says to you they want you to be part of the investigation,

[23:37] hang up the phone. If anybody comes to your house, and this has happened

[23:42] because it happened to the woman who lost 50,000 bucks in Fountain Valley.

[23:44] They actually came to her house and they convinced her that there was an there's

[23:48] a problem going on at the bank and she gave them all the banking

[23:53] information because she thought they were agents.

[23:58] This is really important and it sounds silly and it might be a pain in the

[24:02] neck, but it's a good way to prevent any scams, especially from family members.

[24:07] Have a code word with your grandkids or your kids. Just keep it to your family

[24:15] whereby if if your grandchild's going to call you or your child's going to call

[24:19] you and you you know your child's 38 years old, have a password. So if you if

[24:26] I see my son's calling me, I pick up the phone. Password. Tomato feet. I know

[24:31] it's him. Password. Oh, come on, Dad. Stop. Click. Hang up the phone. It's

[24:37] serious stuff. So, I hear tomato feet all the time for my kids. Password

[24:41] tomato feet. If they don't say tomato feet, I don't use tomato feet. I use

[24:46] something much better than that. I hang up the phone

[24:49] and it's it's no nonsense. And I have to say the same thing to them because it's

[24:54] too dangerous. There this is happening. Uh last year in the United States over

[24:59] 20 billion dollars was stolen. 20 billion from scams.

[25:05] So, it's something that's really, really serious. If you just stay vigilant, if

[25:09] you don't let your guard down, if you don't talk to strangers, you're not

[25:13] going to have a problem. They only are able to steal from you because you talk

[25:17] to them. So, please don't do it. It's very easy to avoid it. Don't let your

[25:23] guard down and you'll be fine. All right? So, I really appreciate the time

[25:28] that you gave me to talk to you today. Um, it's a very important issue. It's

[25:32] very sad when I got a call from a 82-year-old male or female who I know

[25:37] and says,"I just lost 30,000 bucks." I said, "Why didn't you call me?" And

[25:44] the answer is always the same. They sounded so real.

[25:48] It's always that they sounded so real. So, if you think you may be a victim of

[25:53] a scam or you have questions about it, even mailings,

[25:58] you might get Oh, this is a great one. I'm sorry I left this out. a fellow I

[26:02] work with who's in the cyber security business received an envelope in the

[26:07] mail from a law firm saying that he's part of a um

[26:13] class action suit which he was three or four years ago and that he's got money

[26:18] coming to him even though the suit that he was in was settled. So he's thinking

[26:21] well maybe there's more money. So he calls

[26:27] and as he's talking to the person, he says to himself, "Wait a minute. Wait a

[26:31] minute. What am I crazy?" Hangs up the phone.

[26:35] He takes the paper that he got. He looks up the law firm online. It doesn't

[26:39] exist. The whole thing's fake. But he was about

[26:43] to talk to somebody because they thought he had money coming to him. So it's

[26:48] something is if they look up to see what law firms you've been in. They look up

[26:53] to see what lawsuits you've had. This information is easily accessible to

[26:57] anybody who's really good at at um technology. They can get a whole bunch

[27:01] of information about you and they do. So, uh just be very careful about

[27:05] anything. And if you have any questions, don't ever hes if especially if you're a

[27:09] senior, don't ever hesitate to call the Putnham County District Attorney's

[27:12] Office. All you have to do is say, "I'm a senior. I want to speak to Mr. Tendy.

[27:17] If I'm in the office, I'll take your call. If I'm not, you'll speak to one of

[27:22] my investigators. But please call the office. Don't do like two friends of

[27:26] mine did who did not call me and they're they're friends. I said, 'Why didn't you

[27:30] call me? Because they sounded so real. Just call the office or call the local

[27:34] PD or call somebody, but don't talk to these people because you're going to get

[27:39] you're going to get scammed and it's going to hurt. 50 grand is a lot of

[27:43] money to somebody who's 82 years old and living on a fixed income. That's their

[27:46] savings, right? It's really rough. So, please be vigilant. Please be careful.

[27:50] All right. Any questions? >> I'm good.

[27:54] » All right. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

[27:56] » Thank you for coming out today. Appreciate

[27:57] » You're welcome. Take care. Thank you. [clears throat]

[28:01] » Don't forget your

[28:06] » Okay. Uh number three on our agenda tonight is the 2027 Putnham County Real

[28:11] Property Tax Services Contract. Um we have this on the agenda. I I know uh

[28:17] Lori Bell, our tax assessor, is here. Could you talk to about this um item?

[28:34] » Hi, good evening. So, every year the town enters into a contract with Putnham

[28:38] County for various services. um mostly printing of tax bills, change

[28:44] notices, um that the assessment role, the tax role, a few other things, tax

[28:49] maps. And so the director over in Putham County was trying to come up with a more

[28:55] um a fairer way to price those items depending on what which town wanted

[29:00] which services. So a hard copy of a tax map is a certain dollar amount. A

[29:04] digital copy is a different dollar amount. And some towns still want the

[29:07] hard copies, some are okay with a digital. How many copies of the role do

[29:11] you want? Two, [clears throat] one, whatever. So, she worked through that

[29:14] contract last year to come up with a flat rate per parcel for basic services

[29:19] and then almost like a like a Chinese menu. You just pick whatever else you

[29:23] want and you add it to the contract. And that's those are the items almost all of

[29:27] them that I've checked off for that contract for 2027. And then they'll

[29:31] calculate what the total cost to the town will be. I think for us, the way

[29:35] she broke it out, we're going to spend a little bit more, but I guess it's fairer

[29:39] to some of the other smaller towns, but it there's no change in the services

[29:42] that we're going to get from the county is the bottom line.

[29:45] » Okay. >> And they decided in the past they would

[29:48] start the signatures at the county level and they circulate [laughter] it back to

[29:50] the towns. It makes more sense that the town signs it first and then you get

[29:53] everybody else's signatures. That's why you have it prior to July uh June

[29:58] January 1. We weren't getting the fully executed copies until like April,

[30:02] halfway through the year. >> [snorts]

[30:04] » So that's all that is >> and you're comfortable with it. So

[30:06] » absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. >> Great. Thank you.

[30:10] » You're welcome. >> Any discussion on this uh item?

[30:12] » No. >> Uh item uh uh number four on our list is

[30:19] a New York State Crest grant application. Um recently Senator Pete

[30:24] Arkham uh reached out to our office um to tell us about a potential grant

[30:29] application that we could apply for. Uh, so I did speak to some of the department

[30:33] heads and uh, you know, we're just trying to narrow it down. Uh, the

[30:38] application is due on September 11th this year. So I'd like to get ahead of

[30:42] it, make sure uh, you know, we get a good application and hopefully have a

[30:47] fair shot at one of these grant applications. $100,000 is a lot of money

[30:51] certainly to the town of Southeast. Um, in speaking with Mike Berdick, our

[30:55] highway superintendent, he does have a shovel ready project that he has at the

[30:58] highway department that he would like to uh apply for, and certainly I think it's

[31:03] a good idea as well. It's uh to rebuild the salt shed that they have. It was

[31:07] originally installed in 1998. Uh they put a new roof on it in 2020, but it it

[31:12] does need some renovation and painting. [laughter] And uh he has some estimates

[31:16] that cost about 150 to $160,000 on that project. Obviously 100,000 would cover a

[31:22] substantial part of it. Um so that's one project that uh I got from uh some of

[31:27] the department heads also from uh our parks department. Uh we had a discussion

[31:32] about Lake Tanetta. There was an old well at Lake Tanetta that is no longer

[31:36] active. They stopped using it years ago. No one really seems to be quite sure

[31:40] when they stopped using it. Uh but they do have water that's supplied to the to

[31:44] the restroom over there and to the um lifeguard room, the snack shack. And uh

[31:49] we were thinking about potentially putting in a well there so we'd have

[31:54] good drinking water available to the people that go to that park. Um it also

[31:58] would help with the restrooms because the water that they're using kind of

[32:02] causes some plumbing issues as times goes by. Um we have a a rough estimate

[32:08] [laughter] that it's going to cost about 100,000 maybe a little bit more. So it

[32:11] would be a great thing to apply for whether it's this year or maybe next

[32:15] year. Um but something to think about. Another item that came up was security

[32:20] cameras for all our properties, uh, our well systems in our sewer, uh,

[32:24] districts. Uh, you've seen it on the news a lot lately. It's there's a lot

[32:28] of, uh, chaos going on and you don't and having good legitimate security cameras

[32:34] would benefit this, and I I think we could, uh, have a good application in

[32:38] for that as well. U, but those are just three of the items that came forward to

[32:42] me. And um you know if anybody has any other uh ideas certainly we have a

[32:46] couple weeks to think about it and talk about it uh and then we'll put in an

[32:50] application to the senator's office. Any questions or comments?

[32:54] » Joe, I see that they're [cough] aimed at public safety.

[32:58] » Mhm. >> Um [clears throat]

[33:00] does that mean I mean we're allocated the money but is there any reason if it

[33:07] wasn't public safety related that they could deny the application? Well, I

[33:11] » if it was a salt shed for instance, >> I asked that question and really didn't

[33:16] get an answer other [cough] than, you know, everything goes towards public

[33:20] safety. And >> does a salt shed qualify? We're going to

[33:23] have to make that decision in the next couple weeks.

[33:25] » Yeah. Provide salt for the roads when it's snowing.

[33:28] » No, I'm sure there's a way we could we could connect dots. Um,

[33:31] » it's for the safety during the snowstorm. We definitely going to need

[33:34] salt on the roads. It it seemed very vague to me when I asked about it. So,

[33:39] it seems like it's open to a bunch of items. I mean, originally it was like a

[33:43] police car, but we don't have a police uh department, that kind of stuff. Um,

[33:47] the security cameras were one of the first things that came to my mind for

[33:50] security purposes. [cough] And, you know, the health and well-being of the

[33:55] the the park would be uh another thing. We'll look at it and try to narrow it

[34:00] down to to something that's uh and the senator's office was great. Uh very easy

[34:06] to talk to. Um, and >> I'm sure they would assist us and say

[34:10] you're you're way off. That's not going to make it or

[34:12] » I think they will. That's why I'd like to get ahead of it before September

[34:15] 11th. But we'll continue the conversation, I guess, unless you guys

[34:18] have any other questions.

[34:24] » Okay. Uh, item number five on our list here is a discussion for 1460 Route 22,

[34:31] Tax Map 57-1-14, uh, performance bond. uh establishment.

[34:38] Um let's see here. Um so it was uh sent to us from the uh planning uh board, an

[34:46] architectural review board. Um it is in the amount of $15,500.

[34:52] Um this project has outside storage. It's a construction company that's

[34:56] looking to take over the property. Um so estimated site improvements which uh

[35:01] totals $39,300. [clears throat] There's inspection fees and other uh

[35:06] involved there. $4,500. Um and it's in front of us to if we set

[35:12] up a performance bond. Any questions, discussion? Nope.

[35:16] » No. >> Okay. Item number six.

[35:21] We have discussion um for APAP Land Management LLC, the Putinham County

[35:27] Industrial Development Authority. This is payment in lie of taxes, a pilot

[35:33] agreement for tax map 35-2-6. [clears throat]

[35:39] » Hey, Mr. No, thanks for coming back. And um I just uh I asked for this to be

[35:44] added. I know we're going to vote tonight, but I did have some um

[35:48] questions since I wasn't here at the last meeting. I watched the video, but I

[35:51] don't know that they were answered there either. And I just want to confirm some

[35:55] things. So, just to confirm, you're we're not being asked to approve the

[36:00] pilot itself. The pilot's approved, and this is to vote to um authorize the

[36:07] supervisor to sign some paperwork that allows us to

[36:13] be able to invoice the IDA for the money per the schedule that's being presented

[36:20] as part of the already approved pilot. >> That's that's correct. We've we've gone

[36:24] through the entire well actually the whole uh project has gone through the

[36:29] entire process approval process >> and we don't authorize the project until

[36:34] it's completed all of those authorizations.

[36:37] » Okay. And then what we're asking you to do is we're notifying you that yes, we

[36:42] we've come to this part now and because the IDA has taken hold [clears throat]

[36:50] of the property, okay, we are a taxexempt uh operation and when we lease

[36:56] it back to them, we send that to them so that they would be taxexempt. But rather

[37:00] than do that, the legislation has set it up this way and our [clears throat] own

[37:05] tax uh un Unified tax exempt policy uh has set it up so that we create this

[37:13] pilot payment in le of taxes program where you get the value of uh the

[37:19] assessed property that was originally there. So that that whatever the taxes

[37:24] on that is that continues and then you get a portion in our case the typical

[37:30] portion is 50% for uh the first year and then it goes in a cascading uh amount up

[37:37] to paying full amount over 10 years uh for the rest of the benefit or the uh

[37:45] » improvements >> the

[37:47] okay >> the improvements [clears throat]

[37:49] » the the improvements the improvements of the project Okay. And so that's that's

[37:53] what we're asking you to do is just basically sign the agreement so that we

[37:57] can facilitate the processing and the administration of that uh process.

[38:02] » Okay. Yeah. Thank you for clarifying that. Um we've gotten or I've been on

[38:06] the board with other pilots and we've gotten beat up like we are giving a

[38:10] discount and we shouldn't approve it. But if we we're not approving that.

[38:15] We're just approving a signature to to get money or we get no money. That's it.

[38:19] Those are our options. So, I do have two questions. You just actually hit on one.

[38:23] I didn't hear it last time, but um my understanding was that the pilot only

[38:29] applies to the improvements, but the IDA takes title of the property, leases it

[38:36] back to the owner. So does how does the land value or the property

[38:44] pre-improvements does that stay on the tax roll or is it

[38:48] calculated that full amount today plus 50% of the

[38:52] » part of the arrangement is that you would get the value of the property the

[38:57] property is uh the the tax bill that we get from Lori

[39:03] is uh is a bill that shows us the full value of the property. property and then

[39:08] the value of the the assessed value of the improvements with the discount based

[39:15] on the pilot in whatever year it's in. And that's the bill that we pay. So the

[39:19] bill comes from from her office. Okay. As opposed from the regular uh tax

[39:26] office. >> Okay. So the whole property comes off

[39:28] the tax roles. >> That's correct. They pay 100% of

[39:32] whatever the land was or pre-improvement value plus 50% of the improvements.

[39:39] » That's correct. Well, the first year and then 45, you know, 50

[39:42] » and then and then we invoice for that amount.

[39:44] » That's correct. >> Okay. Um and then my last question is

[39:49] about the clawback. not has nothing to do with these two projects, but there

[39:53] are um or is a pilot on other big projects and part of that calculation

[39:59] [clears throat] was jobs. I think there were supposed to be a few hundred um but

[40:04] it doesn't have to be specific about that, but

[40:07] if job count commitment is not met, does that warrant a clawback?

[40:14] » It it can and it does. it gets, you know, it gets looked at uh in the case

[40:20] of one of the projects that was along uh Route 22. Um they the comp the company

[40:28] had gone bankrupt and uh so it got a little crazy because we didn't give back

[40:35] and turn the title back over to the town so that they could completely take care

[40:38] of it. This was in the town of Patterson and uh you know it it it complicated

[40:44] things but uh the clawback is something that's decided on by the board but our

[40:51] we have a policy for it and basically [clears throat] in our uh authorizing uh

[41:01] uh lease we uh establish you know goals and then we re review those goals.

[41:09] And if they don't make them, then there's the possibility depending on

[41:13] what the problems are that we can claw back certain percentages and we have a a

[41:19] schedule that that we would look at based on, you know, their failure to

[41:23] meet the goals. >> And if there is a clawback, does that

[41:26] get uh dispersed to the taxing authorities?

[41:30] » I don't know because I've never done one yet. Okay.

[41:32] » But I believe it does. It comes back and and and we get uh I think it goes back

[41:37] to the state though. >> Okay.

[41:39] » Okay. >> Um Okay. I just think Southeast is the

[41:45] uh best town in Putnham County for development and economic growth and I

[41:51] would like to see you know some more solicitation of businesses in but um

[41:57] anyway you've answered questions. That's that's the important thing that the IDA

[42:01] and the whole economic development team in Putham County is trying to do is

[42:06] develop our commercial base so that we can, you know, ease the the burden on

[42:11] the residential base and uh >> I guess the last two have been here

[42:16] already. Um but anyway, uh you've answered my questions, so thank you.

[42:20] » Yeah, >> thank you very much. Unless there's any

[42:23] other questions. >> Any other questions? We're good. I just

[42:25] have Bill at the end of the pilot period the property reverts back to the

[42:30] property owner. Correct. >> At that time we return back or

[42:32] » Yeah. We we return the uh the property well we return the title to the property

[42:38] owner >> or the the original property owner and

[42:41] it goes back on the tax roll >> right at the full value at that time.

[42:44] » Do they have to refinance it at that point?

[42:46] » Excuse me. >> Do they have to refinance it? How how

[42:48] does that work with the title change >> the title? No, it just that that's part

[42:53] of the [clears throat] in our case it's like a $500 fee just to

[42:57] return the fee the title. >> Okay.

[43:00] » But it's uh >> you know it's just part of the closeout

[43:02] of the the whole lease agreement. >> Thank you.

[43:06] » Thank you.

[43:10] » Okay. Uh item number seven is the exact same uh situation with the Kinsley Group

[43:15] for development. Uh we won't rehash it again, but it is the Putin County

[43:19] Industrial Development Authority. Uh payment in le of complaint is this pilot

[43:22] agreement for tax map 7-2-252, but everything was just uh discussed, so

[43:28] I don't think we need to belabor that anymore. And then I'll go to item number

[43:34] eight. That's discussion on the A districts that we're trying to have. Um

[43:40] would you like to speak to that one at all because we don't have unless we have

[43:43] somebody here? >> Yeah. Uh there's been an ongoing issue

[43:45] with um uh some confusion around a districts and what um protections there

[43:50] are aren't. Um we've invited the uh members of the a board to come. Um this

[43:56] is like the fifth time they they were supposed to be here tonight. Uh they did

[44:00] let us know two days ago they wouldn't be able to attend. So um I believe

[44:04] they're going to attend the next meeting. So we'll put on for discussion

[44:06] at that point. >> Hopefully Thursday, September 3rd. They

[44:09] indicated they would be here. So hopefully we'll see. [clears throat]

[44:13] Okay. Uh, with that, I'm going to make a motion to go into our regular meeting.

[44:17] Do I have a second? >> Second.

[44:19] » All in favor? I. >> Okay. Item number one, I'd like to make

[44:23] a motion to wave the reading of the correspondence.

[44:26] » Second. >> Second. Thank you. All in favor? I.

[44:30] » Um, number two, I'd like to make a motion to approve the vouchers in the

[44:34] amount of 1,71,41.72.

[44:40] » Second. Thank you. All in favor? I. >> Uh item number three, I'd like to make a

[44:47] motion to wave the readings of the budget [clears throat] transfer and

[44:49] accept such transfers as submitted. Do I have a second?

[44:53] » Second. >> All in favor?

[44:54] » I. >> Great. Um item number four is um the

[44:59] supervisor's report. I just want to give a brief update on what's some of the

[45:03] stuff that's going around in town. Um we're we remain in great financial

[45:07] shape. uh we've begun the um budget process for the uh for the 2027 uh year

[45:13] and uh started speaking to all the department heads. Everything's moving

[45:17] along nicely, so we're trying to stay ahead of the curve and get everything

[45:20] taken care of uh so we're ready for the budget season entirely. Uh we're

[45:24] [snorts] looking to make some improvements here at Town Hall and at

[45:26] Lake View Manor. Uh we're in the process of getting some new doors for both uh

[45:30] the town hall and Lake View Manner and that's moving along well. Uh also get

[45:34] some new windows here at Town Hall. So hopefully we'll see some of these

[45:37] improvements in the next couple of months. [clears throat] Um,

[45:40] additionally, uh, we're looking at resurfacing the field in front of the

[45:45] gazebo and the lecture zone field. Uh, as many of you know, it used to be a

[45:49] baseball field or softball field. There was a lot of clay in the middle there.

[45:52] We got a lot of calls from youth uh, sports that wanted to use the field. I

[45:58] think it'd be ideal for younger uh, people to use the field. Um, but in

[46:03] order to do so, we're going to have to tear up all the clay, uh, fill it with

[46:06] top soil. Uh, our highway department is, uh, ready and capable of doing it. So,

[46:11] we've already had some discussions with them, and then we're going to seed it,

[46:14] and hopefully by next year we'll be able to use it for youth soccer, lacrosse,

[46:19] um, pee-wee football, or something to that effect. Um, with that, I went to

[46:23] the Village of Brewster uh board meeting last night to discuss uh they have the

[46:28] Tri-State parking lot there um right next to the gazebo. Um, a lot of the

[46:34] feedback I got from the school and people that wanted to use the field was

[46:37] there was no place to park. There's minimal parking there, but we have this

[46:40] big um parking area that's called a tri-state parking that's owned by the

[46:46] village. uh the village was very interested in participating in allowing

[46:50] us to allowing these groups to use the field whenever there's an organized

[46:55] event. Uh they were very kind to have the sunset uh concert series use the

[47:00] parking lot during that time period. So late in the day and on weekends when

[47:04] there's an organized event there, they're going to let us use their

[47:06] parking facility which will be fantastic and make it um much nicer to get there.

[47:11] And certainly it's a it's a gateway to the village of Brewster and it's a it's

[47:15] a gem in the town of Southeast with the reservoirs in the background and I'm

[47:19] hoping this all comes to fruition um as we move forward. Um and u I had the

[47:26] honor of attending uh Putnham County Sheriff's substation naming in

[47:30] Nelsonville today after uh late uh Sheriff Kevin McCall. It's a great

[47:35] ceremony by the uh Putnham County Sheriff's Department. Um Kevin was a

[47:39] dear friend, outstanding guy and it was a really beautiful event they had over

[47:44] there. So I was glad to attend on behalf of the town of Southeast. Uh finally I

[47:48] I'd like to tell everybody that uh we got our first uh film permit issued

[47:52] which is exciting and uh you know hopefully more to come in the future. We

[47:56] just passed the passed it recently and uh like the next day I got a call from

[48:02] somebody who works for Netflix and uh they're going to be they got issued a

[48:05] film permit. So, good stuff for town of southeast. And that's uh that's all I

[48:10] have for the supervisor's report. So, we will move on to um item number

[48:17] five. Uh setting of the uh meetings and dates uh public hearings. All meetings

[48:23] will be held at 1360 Route 22 in Brewster, New York at 7 o'clock unless

[48:27] otherwise noted uh for next month uh Thursday uh September 3rd, 2026 and

[48:34] Thursday, September 26 uh September 17, 2026.

[48:40] » Second. >> Second.

[48:41] » Make a motion. Second. All in favor? I. >> And on next on the agenda, we have

[48:54] Uh, I have a resolution authorizing the supervisor to execute a non exclusive

[48:59] cable franchise uh with Verizon New York Incorporated.

[49:05] So, I'd like to make that motion. Um, do I have a second?

[49:09] » You have to read it. >> I'll read the resolution. Sure. Um,

[49:13] [clears throat] it resolved that the supervisor is hereby authorized to

[49:16] execute a cable television franchise agreement with Verizon New York

[49:20] Incorporated for the provision of cable television service within the town of

[49:25] Southeast in a form and substance that is approved by the town attorney and to

[49:30] intend authorized to the extent authorized by New York State Public

[49:35] Service Commission. I will make that motion. Do I have a second?

[49:38] » Second. >> All in favor? I

[49:41] » great. Thank you. Uh item number seven uh is another

[49:47] resolution we have. This is again going back to the pilot agreements that we had

[49:51] before that we just discussed. Uh the first one is for APAP Land Management

[49:55] LLC. uh resolved that the town of South resolved that the town board of the town

[50:01] of Southeast hereby approves the town's participation and in acceptance of its

[50:07] application shares of payments made pursuant to the pilot arrangement

[50:11] approved by the Putinham County Industrial Development Agency based upon

[50:15] the following uh schedule actual only to increase the assessed violation of

[50:23] subject premises attributed to the improvement ments made in connection

[50:27] with the project. Uh first year is 50%, second year is 45%. Third year is 40%,

[50:34] year four is 35%, year five is 30%, year six 25%.

[50:40] Year 7 20%, year 8 15%, year 9 10%, year 10 5%. And be it further resolved that

[50:47] the clerk of the town of southeast is a authorized and directed to transmit a

[50:52] certified copy of this resolution to the Putnham County Industrial Development

[50:56] Agency and the assessor of the town of Southeast and the Town of Southeast

[51:01] receiver of taxes. I'll make that motion. Do I have a second?

[51:05] » Second. >> All in favor?

[51:07] » I I

[51:10] » Okay, moving on to number eight. This is the Kinsley Group resolution. It's uh

[51:15] the same as we just discussed a moment ago. be resolved that the town board of

[51:20] the town of southeast is hereby hereby approves the town's participation and

[51:24] acceptance in its applicical share of payments made pursuant to the pilot

[51:30] arrangement approved by the Putnham County Industrial Development Agency

[51:34] based upon uh the following schedule only only to increase the assessed

[51:41] valuation of subject premises attributed to improvements made in connection to

[51:45] the project same schedule as before Year 1 150% year 245%

[51:51] year 3 40% year 4 35% year 530% year 6 25% year 7 20% year 8 15% year 9 10%

[52:02] and year 10 5% and be it further resolved that the town of southeast is

[52:08] authorized and directed to transmit a certifi be it also resolved that the

[52:12] clerk of the town of southeast is authorized and directed to transmit a

[52:17] certified provide a copy of this resolution to the Putham County

[52:20] Industrial Development Agency, the assessor of the Town of Southeast, and

[52:26] the Southeast Receiver of Taxes. I'll make that motion. Do I have a second?

[52:32] » Second. >> All in favor?

[52:33] » I. >> Thank you.

[52:38] » And we're moving on to item number nine. Uh this is a resolution of the 2027

[52:42] Putham County Real Property Tax Services as previously discussed tonight. uh

[52:47] resolved [clears throat] that the supervisor is hereby authorized to

[52:51] execute and deliver to Putnham County a uh a Putham County real property tax

[52:58] service contract dated as of the 1st of January 2027 for the 2027 tax year in

[53:06] the form and substance annexed here too and it and be it further resolved that

[53:12] the town clerk shall forward a copy of this resolution to the assessor forth.

[53:16] with. I'll make that motion. Do I have a second?

[53:19] » Second. >> All in favor?

[53:20] » I. >> Okay. Item number 10.

[53:26] Um, this is uh involving the uh 1460 Route 22 uh site plan uh tax map

[53:34] 57-4-1-14

[53:38] performance bond establishment. um the project name um be resolved. Um let the

[53:45] bond in the amount be established for this project set forth the project name

[53:50] 1460 Route 22 commercial site plan. Uh the bond amount the site improvements is

[53:56] $89,300. The erosion and settlement and sediment

[54:00] control $15,500. And be it further resolved that a

[54:05] certified copy of this resolution shall be transmitted by the town clerk to the

[54:10] planning board secretary and to the building inspector Fort W. I will make

[54:15] that motion. Is there a second? >> Second.

[54:17] » All in favor? I

[54:22] » item number 11 uh this evening is a big geyser. This is 22 Sutton Place tax map

[54:28] 78-2-16.3.

[54:32] This is a release of a performance bond established uh establishment of a

[54:36] maintenance bonds. So, uh, resolve that the town clerk is hereby directed to

[54:41] cancel and return the original performance security for Big Geyser site

[54:45] plan site plan, uh, 22 Sutton Place in Southeast, tax map number 78-2-16.3,

[54:56] uh, in the remainder of the secured amount of 22,500

[54:59] and to return any and all original bonds,

[55:04] uh, deposits, letters of credit, dictionary

[55:09] and of secured posted connected um connections with the project. Upon the

[55:16] express condition that the applicant owner first file a landscape maintenance

[55:21] bond in this in the security amount of 13,000 for a period of two years and a

[55:28] storm water maintenance bond in the security amount of $14,500

[55:34] for a period of four years. I will make that motion. Is there a

[55:39] second? >> Second. Is there a type?

[55:42] » There's a 14,500. [clears throat]

[55:48] » You seconded. >> You seconded. All in favor? I

[55:50] » I >> Thank you.

[55:56] Then moving on to uh new business. If any town board member has any new

[56:00] business they would like to bring forward.

[56:04] » I do not. >> Okay. Being none, uh, we'll open it up

[56:08] for, uh, recognition of the public for public comment. Please come up and state

[56:11] your name if you could state your name and and, uh, Yep.

[56:14] » right up front here. >> And you're at and you reside at

[56:19] Southeast. So,

[56:27] » hi. Good evening. >> My name is Joy Sarah and I'm a resident

[56:34] in Brewster here. And I would like to make the town aware of an incident that

[56:40] occurred on July 29th at the building department in connection with a foil

[56:48] request that I submitted. I wanted several copies of documents,

[56:54] most of which could be copied at the building department, but weren't because

[56:59] the clerk assigned to assist me was incapable of making photocopies.

[57:05] I was told that I was not allowed to assist her. Ultimately, I was told that

[57:11] I would have to return on Friday to pick up the photocopies that I could have

[57:16] walked out with on Wednesday while I was there. I was also told by this clerk

[57:22] that the copies would be made at a fee of the hourly rate of the lowest paid

[57:28] employee of the town of Southeast. I was not told what that rate was, nor was I

[57:36] told how long the process of inserting the single 8 1/2x 14 page and 26 11 by

[57:45] 17in documents into a document feeder to copy would take.

[57:52] Mind you that the consumer protection laws clearly state that employee time

[57:58] may only be charged when the request involves other records, those that are

[58:04] larger than 9 by 14 in or which are maintained electronically and even then

[58:11] only in circumstances in which at least 2 hours of employee time are needed to

[58:18] prepare the records. I picked up the documents on Friday, July 31st. I was

[58:25] charged 50 cents for 27 11 by 17 in pages and 25 cents

[58:35] for the 1 8 1/2 by 11 14 uh to 8 1/2 x 14inch page. Whether this was computed

[58:43] as I was advised it would be or in some other fashion, I can't say because the

[58:48] invoice I was presented with did not indicate.

[58:52] Contrary to the consumer protection laws governing foil requests, I was not shown

[58:59] nor advised of a published fee schedule prior to fulfilling my document request.

[59:04] [clears throat] I also needed copies of three mapsized

[59:09] pages that I was told had to be sent to the town engineer for copying at a fee

[59:16] of $15 paid in advance. I paid the requested fee and I asked for a receipt

[59:22] on town letterhead acknowledging the payment and noting the names of the two

[59:28] documents I was paying for. The clerk refused to note the names of the two

[59:34] documents on the receipt. Not only is it entirely reasonable for me to have asked

[59:40] that the names or a clear description of the documents be noted on the receipt,

[59:46] failing to do so cannot create a record of which documents my prepayment

[59:51] covered, effectively leaving me without proof of payment for the [clears throat]

[59:56] documents in question being reproduced and leaving the town vulnerable to a

[1:00:01] claim that they failed to provide the requested prepaid documents. I waited

[1:00:06] three weeks to receive those three pages. I [snorts] would like to point

[1:00:10] out that under foil, records must be available for inspection and copying.

[1:00:15] This is a direct quote, i.e. at at all reasonable times, i.e. during all hours

[1:00:22] that the entity is regularly open for business. End quote. There must also be

[1:00:28] a published schedule [clears throat] of fees if more than the 25 cent per copy

[1:00:34] allowed by law is to be charged. I'm pretty wellversed on foil law. New York

[1:00:40] State Association of Town Clerks, Association of Towns, and New York State

[1:00:45] Committee on Open Government all offer online courses on foil law as does Sunni

[1:00:52] Sunni Albany. I'm aed at the egregious incompetence of the clerk that I dealt

[1:00:58] with. Not only did she lack the basic skill of photocopying, she had a huge

[1:01:04] chip on her shoulder. It is disconcerting that the town with

[1:01:10] our tax dollars pays for the services of such an unskilled, ill-mannered, and

[1:01:17] unprofessional individual. I left there insensed and I wanted to

[1:01:23] file a complaint with the attorney general's office and let them decide if

[1:01:28] in fact the consumer protection laws were violated by the actions of the town

[1:01:32] so that the town can be guided accordingly in the future. It is pretty

[1:01:37] sad that I even have to come before this board with such a narrative.

[1:01:43] So that is what I have to say. >> Thank you. Appreciate your time. We'll

[1:01:49] certainly investigate it. >> Thank you.

[1:01:52] » Oh, I'm getting your microphone here. Sorry.

[1:01:54] » It's okay.

[1:01:58] » And I waited two weeks to come here so that I could be civil

[1:02:04] and not name names or or or detail the shenanigans that I had to put

[1:02:12] up with. >> Well, we appreciate you coming out

[1:02:14] tonight. We'll take a look at it. >> Thank you.

[1:02:23] » [clears throat]

[1:02:25] » Hi everyone. >> How are you?

[1:02:27] » I'm fine. Um my request is going to be simple then. Um

[1:02:32] what would be really helpful? I'm really interested in when the a districts are

[1:02:36] in front of you and I was very interested in the IDA and I'm not sure

[1:02:40] how you can do this or if you can do this and certainly you don't need to

[1:02:44] hold a public hearing but is there any way I mean tonight Bill's still here but

[1:02:49] is there any way to accommodate the public by allowing them to ask any

[1:02:53] questions at that point or does it have to be in a public hearing it's just or

[1:02:58] because I don't want I mean no one wants [clears throat] to hang out till the end

[1:03:01] of the meeting till public comment so that's my question

[1:03:04] » for certain things we've like your favorite topic maple road you know we've

[1:03:10] kind of opened the floor up um >> I know and that was really rough so I

[1:03:14] understand why it's not it's difficult >> you know for the a [clears throat] I

[1:03:19] thought about this for the a board I didn't know if any of the um a property

[1:03:24] owners would come in if they had I would have you know asked the board if it was

[1:03:29] okay if they could speak um but you know I I don't know if you're asking for like

[1:03:35] every topic. Um but you could always I mean there's usually only six people

[1:03:40] here. You could always throw your hand up and we're pretty good at recognizing

[1:03:44] people that want to talk. I think >> because I really don't believe it or not

[1:03:47] I don't like to be disruptive during your meeting. But I do and I do love

[1:03:50] public hearings even when on the planning board. But I'm just trying to

[1:03:55] think of how we can make it user friendly without being disruptive

[1:03:58] because I know the Maple Road one I think went off the rails and and lasted

[1:04:02] a really much longer than we would have thought. I mean, I was grateful to Joe,

[1:04:06] but I think it was rough. >> It was it was I think we've talked about

[1:04:10] this. It's always good to let people >> Yeah.

[1:04:12] » you know, get it out. Um >> Yes.

[1:04:15] » But I mean, if you if you want to ask a question and Bill wants to answer, I'm

[1:04:20] have no problem with that. when the a um Will and I talked about this at one

[1:04:24] point like you don't >> I I wanted to make maple or it may have

[1:04:30] been another topic a public hearing but it's not a public hearing so you can't

[1:04:34] make it a public hearing but we can kind of open the floor up

[1:04:38] » okay >> um

[1:04:39] » so it could be case by case or or if someone were interested they could get

[1:04:43] in touch early and say that's something they want I mean because I admire

[1:04:47] » um Miss Zero had to you know waited through this meeting to speak her piece

[1:04:52] and I I just think it's so important to hear the public and I know that you

[1:04:55] » Yeah, I I don't disagree with you at all. Uh 12 years on the legislature, I

[1:05:00] we had endless committee meetings on topics and we always had a great

[1:05:03] opportunity to talk to people and you've been to plenty of those meetings as

[1:05:06] well. Uh we had great conversations with people and then when we had our full

[1:05:10] meeting at the end of the month or beginning of the month I should say uh

[1:05:14] then it was for the legislators to make a decision and then hear afterwards. So

[1:05:18] it's a learning process for me as well, but I am always open to if somebody

[1:05:22] raises their hand to allow them to speak. I think that's always the best

[1:05:25] thing to do in government. But case by case like you said and certainly call us

[1:05:29] in advance anytime. >> The other thing we've done sometimes is

[1:05:32] uh we've acknowledged it's controversial or that people are here. We've asked

[1:05:38] that person to stay like I think for CAC one time we did that and it turned out

[1:05:43] to be a disaster because we made him stay for two hours. But we have done

[1:05:46] that in the past too which is right helpful. But

[1:05:49] » right well any way that this board can be accommodating would be really

[1:05:53] appreciated and I understand it's case by case and I have no problem calling it

[1:05:57] advance as you know so um that would be great and I do have one question if you

[1:06:02] don't mind Bill. Um, so I if the town, and I think this was handled really

[1:06:08] well, but if the town didn't sign on on these two parcels, because they, one of

[1:06:13] them certainly has been on in town for years,

[1:06:17] would the IDA really not withhold our share of the taxes?

[1:06:23] » That's a hypothetical question that I can't answer because I've never heard of

[1:06:26] it happening. >> Okay. because it Yeah, it sounds to me

[1:06:30] » it's it's like hi, you know, yes, we could have taken all the money off the

[1:06:34] tax roll and you guys would be, you know, left left hanging. But the answer

[1:06:40] is that the legislature when it said this said that we had to set up a system

[1:06:45] where we would get back the money that rightfully belongs to the the towns

[1:06:51] giving the benefit and the incentive benefits that we want to the uh project

[1:06:57] and that's why we have that universal tax exempt policy that sets this up and

[1:07:03] that's that's what we use. So the answer is number one, I can never see somebody

[1:07:08] saying, "No, we don't want your money." And number two, we we're trying to make

[1:07:13] it as easy as possible. >> Well, I I think it's a case of um and I

[1:07:16] know we don't want to go back and forth, but I think it's a case sometimes of the

[1:07:20] the town really would like the full bill to be paid, not not have a pilot in some

[1:07:26] cases, not all cases. And I think that's fair enough. Um, I'm not a big fan, as

[1:07:31] you know, of pilots, but it seems to me, and I am not accusing anyone of a crime,

[1:07:37] let's be very clear, but it seems to me it's kind of if you don't do this, I

[1:07:43] mean, life is full of this, you're not going to get your even if you don't vote

[1:07:46] for this, even if you have good reason, we're going to withhold money from you

[1:07:50] even though you're entitled. And that's >> that is not the situation.

[1:07:53] » Let me let me just chime in here because I I was thinking about this too

[1:07:56] » [clears throat] >> um just now as you were talking. the the

[1:07:59] way I see what we approved and it's been so um

[1:08:05] uh misrepresented in the past of what our actual role in this is,

[1:08:10] » right? >> Um when I rewatched the meeting from

[1:08:12] last week, something that uh clicked was that we have to invoice you for the

[1:08:18] money. >> And this just seems purely

[1:08:21] administrative. like any company to set up like a vend we're almost setting up

[1:08:24] like you as a vendor of ours so that we could send you a bill. So I think if we

[1:08:29] voted no and again hypothetically and we said hey where's our money you guys

[1:08:34] would say sign this paper and send us an invoice,

[1:08:38] » right? So it's almost like this this whole thing about pilots it's

[1:08:42] » it's >> it seems like a dog and pony show and a

[1:08:45] little bit of jazz hands thrown in. >> They're like a horrible show that nobody

[1:08:48] wants to watch. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's something I really

[1:08:51] don't like, but I appreciate you're sticking around and um that that does

[1:08:56] clarify >> through the arguments. [laughter]

[1:08:59] » No, but um anyhow, um thank you all. I appreciate it.

[1:09:02] » Thank you.

[1:09:12] » Hi, my name is Dashel. I'm a resident of the town and I also represent the Hudson

[1:09:16] Valley Transparency Project. Um just I recently attended a meeting at the

[1:09:20] Brewster Central School District and what they tend to do at the beginning of

[1:09:23] their sessions between the um work and the regular session and the pledge of

[1:09:26] allegiance. They'll have a they'll have two public comment sessions. They'll

[1:09:30] have one at the beginning that's for agenda items only so that people can ask

[1:09:35] questions of some people that might be there early in the meeting. And then

[1:09:38] they have a public comment that's just general. It could be on action items, it

[1:09:41] might not be at the very end of the session, which I think that might

[1:09:44] alleviate what um some of the concerns she had with not being able to ask

[1:09:49] questions of people who were going to speak here later. I think that um might

[1:09:53] be I can't think of the word, but a

[1:09:56] consideration for the board to take. Thank you.

[1:09:58] » Thank you. >> Thank you.

[1:10:00] » Uh oh, school board member back there. >> We also don't have time limits.

[1:10:08] » Three minutes. Are you all you get?

[1:10:15] » Uh Scott Seaman, Time of Southeast Bruce Board of Education. Like to thank him

[1:10:19] for making the comment. I was going to make the same exact suggestion.

[1:10:22] » We'll do that if you get rid of time limits.

[1:10:25] » I have no trouble getting rid of time. [laughter]

[1:10:27] I when I first joined the board, the time limit was two minutes.

[1:10:30] » I suggested five and they we agreed on three. So, and most people if you talk

[1:10:35] past three minutes, >> no one's listening. you're out of

[1:10:38] control and there's a problem. Anyway, so um we're uh full into finishing up

[1:10:43] construction, getting ready school starting in a couple weeks. On Monday,

[1:10:47] we do have the back to the den uh school event again where we um have a lot of

[1:10:52] people members from the school, the sports, all the activities. We also

[1:10:55] invent our community, invite our community partners down to the turf

[1:10:58] field and people come and talk and meet everybody and and get um you know better

[1:11:02] feeling, get the young men and women prepared for school. Um everything else

[1:11:08] is, you know, we're hoping to have the uh Rosi Center and some of the interior

[1:11:12] work done at the high school uh prior to work. Uh of course, we thank the town

[1:11:16] for all the work they've done on all the adjoining roads and uh to get ready for

[1:11:20] school and to get as much done before we send our 100 buses out onto the road and

[1:11:25] back up traffic. Um and um over at CV Star, we're hoping the

[1:11:30] cafeterium will be done. Um obviously it won't be done at opening but I think the

[1:11:35] plan is either November uh October or November it'll be done so those students

[1:11:40] can be the first ones to actually take place in having their own cafeteria and

[1:11:45] their own gathering area. Right now they have to go to the middle school and it

[1:11:49] also frees up space that we can give back to the middle school um just to um

[1:11:54] alterations changes pull out a lot of additional work can be done. Um, and as

[1:11:59] always, you know, we thank the town for the work you do on our behalf. And if

[1:12:02] there's anything we can do, please let us know.

[1:12:05] » Thanks, guys.

[1:12:12] » Okay. Unless there's anyone else, um, recognition of the town board for

[1:12:17] town board comment. >> Any comments?

[1:12:21] » No comments. >> Okay.

[1:12:24] I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Is there a second?

[1:12:26] » Second. >> All in favor?

[1:12:28] Thank

Town of Southeast, N.Y. Town Board Meeting August 20, 2026

Transcript