[0:03] uh good good evening everyone I am recording this so that those that cannot

[0:07] attend will be able to watch the copy of the video when it gets posted online um

[0:12] my name is Ben seiden I'm the vice president here at Le Burge group and

[0:16] we're holding an informal public meeting this evening it's really a public

[0:20] information meeting about the uh Village dissolution study and plan if you recall

[0:26] at our initial meeting we had discussed having two meetings during the process

[0:30] one at the beginning and one at the end uh in order to afford a more opportunity

[0:34] to discuss the project and answer questions that may have Arisen during

[0:38] the process we have offered to have and Host this additional meeting this

[0:42] evening this is not an official village board meeting it's a project information

[0:46] meeting I'm going to ask that you all mute yourselves for now and there's a

[0:52] few things we'll go over as we go along again my name is Ben siden and with me

[0:56] tonight is Kathleen Rooney and Lucy stes from

[1:00] team so what I'm going to do is share my screen so you all can see a copy of a

[1:06] PowerPoint presentation uh we'll go through the PowerPoint it'll take some

[1:10] time so those of you that are standing at Village Hall please find a seat and

[1:15] get relaxed uh those of you that are home at your home computer or in your

[1:19] living room uh thank you for inviting us into your

[1:26] house as I mentioned you may you may have met us before back at the village

[1:29] call my name is Ben siden Kathleen Rooney is here uh we have been working

[1:33] diligently with the village and the town uh to develop a study and plan so that

[1:38] you all have as much information as possible uh should a referendum come

[1:43] forward to make your decision how to move forward what we're going to be

[1:47] going over this evening is a little bit about the meeting we're going to thank

[1:50] the village board and town board but we're really going to spend time talking

[1:53] about what a a board initiative process is uh how disolution may affect you as

[1:59] residents both in governance and services answer questions on the fiscal

[2:04] side as to what happens to your village assets and liabilities uh discuss what

[2:08] may happen to your village laws and understand for you all what the fiscal

[2:12] impact of potential dissolution is with you at that point we're going to open up

[2:17] uh to public comments questions and answers and along that line because we

[2:21] are doing a meeting uh online and in person we're going to ask questions to

[2:26] be put into the chat box uh as you go through the as to go through the evening

[2:30] and we're going to answer those as well as those in public at the Village Hall

[2:35] back and forth uh should you be at the village hall or on in person we're going

[2:39] to try to limit those questions to new questions so listen carefully to both

[2:44] the presentation and to the people before you to make sure or to see if

[2:48] your questions already been answered I do want to give a shout out to the

[2:51] community and thank you all you provided numerous questions already on our

[2:56] website through the public comment section uh we did our best to respond

[2:59] respond to as many as we can I do want to point out that we've developed a very

[3:04] thorough presentation which is different than what we had thought about when we

[3:08] envisioned today's meeting I had originally envisioned today simply being

[3:12] a Q&A process uh but by developing this presentation we believe we've answered

[3:17] probably 75 to 80% of your questions so far uh so at the completion or the end

[3:23] of the presentation should you still have questions again please use the chat

[3:27] box and or if you're in public sign up with Robin and we'll go through

[3:32] the process oneon-one uh I do want to let you know that as I'm giving the

[3:37] presentation I won't be looking at the chat box uh Lucy will be with us for

[3:41] about 20 more minutes half hour so she may be able to uh but we will go through

[3:45] those chat questions at the end of the presentation if we run out of time

[3:50] during uh the next two hours if there are additional questions please feel

[3:54] free to continue to use the uh question and comment online I do get the

[4:00] and I respond to as many as I can throughout the

[4:05] week so to begin with we always want to thank uh the village of Tannersville and

[4:10] the town Hunter boards uh as well as all your staff that have worked with us over

[4:15] the last four months to provide Insight information and data so we can do what

[4:19] we do which is provide an unbiased uh informational guideline and dissolution

[4:24] plan so that you have that information to make your decisions it's a daunting

[4:28] process I do want to give that that thank you to all the elected officials

[4:32] and the staff because they have to do this work on top of their everyday work

[4:36] and I understand that time commitment that it takes for you and I want to let

[4:39] you know that we appreciate your efforts on behalf of the

[4:43] residents so some of you may not have been or some of you may have been at the

[4:47] first meeting but everyone that's joined us so far already knows that there is

[4:52] effort underway um a village board initiative process to begin discussing a

[4:57] dissolution plan but what is a dissolution plan and disolution plan

[5:02] addresses all the legal requirements outlined in article 17A of the New York

[5:07] state general Municipal law uh back in 2010 Governor CUO created a new New York

[5:14] law and that lays out what has to occur both in a citizen initiated process and

[5:20] in a board initiated process but in this process here uh prior to the referendum

[5:26] a dissolution plan will provide you the residents with information how affect

[5:30] you it discusses and lays out the impact on governance and representation the

[5:35] future condition and provision of services what could be the potential

[5:39] estimated impact on your taxes at the end of the day what we're going to do

[5:43] with not we but what the village is going to do with their assets and

[5:47] liabilities and how that'll be carried on post dis solution uh there's has to

[5:51] be a section in the document that reviews the impact of existing Village

[5:55] local laws and the codes that are on the books today and what's going to happen

[5:59] into those laws over the next two years post dissolution it's also going to

[6:04] discuss the potential transfer or elimination of positions and finally has

[6:08] to have both the date of dissolution as proposed and the cost of that

[6:12] dissolution now we pointed this out before but it is part of the process

[6:16] that while this plan is The Village's plan and it would be voted on by the

[6:20] village board and potentially a referendum the post dissolution plan is

[6:24] not binding on the town so the town participates throughout the process

[6:29] they're not required to do anything in that plan post dis solution but this

[6:34] plan does lay out The Village's wishes what's going to happen to its assets

[6:38] liabilities laws and governance and because the town was part of the process

[6:42] we hope that should this go forward that the plan as voted on will be enacted

[6:48] going forward we mentioned before and I want

[6:52] to mention again because article 17A does lay out uh two different uh types

[6:57] of government reorganizations one is a village dissolution and the

[7:02] other is a consolidation in a dissolution you only the village

[7:07] residents vote uh it terminates the village and the plan is developed by the

[7:12] village the town government again does not have to adhere to it and the town

[7:16] government makes all decisions in the consolidation both a village and the

[7:21] town vote meaning that residents in the village vote and residents in the town

[7:25] vote again if you recall in a dissolution only Village voters vote

[7:30] but a consolidation both vote in addition it is not a plan that's created

[7:34] in in consolidation it's a negotiated consolidation agreement that both boards

[7:39] adhere to as well going forward and the end result of a consolidation is still

[7:44] uh the ending of a village but it's a different process we want to we just

[7:48] point that out for you to know as anyone that's going to go back and look at

[7:52] article 17A will see is both a dissolution and a consolidation often

[7:56] there are questions as to what is one or the other

[8:01] in a board initiated dissolution planning process uh it's a little bit

[8:05] different than a citizen initiated process in the citizen initiative

[8:09] process you lock into a timeline that is 10 days to certify the petition 30 days

[8:14] to call a meeting to have the vote and the vote is 60 to 90 days and you're not

[8:19] required to have a plan before you vote in a board initia process there's not a

[8:24] timeline it allows you to do the uh data analysis and preparation of important

[8:29] plan and you required to have a plan before you vote it's a it's a very

[8:35] critical difference between the two one is a quick requirement that requires to

[8:40] vote without a plan and one requires a vote with a plan so a board initiated

[8:45] process which which is the way the village has decided to go provides the

[8:49] village residents and the town government Village government

[8:51] opportunity to clearly and cooperatively and collaboratively develop a plan and

[8:56] then get that information out to you the residents in a non Rush format and then

[9:01] allows you to have time to digest that information prior to a potential vote so

[9:06] the process that we are where we are right now is we already developed and

[9:10] collected the the data we've interviewed and developed and worked with your

[9:14] stakeholder groups we've studied the impact of dissolution and we've

[9:17] developed a draft study document and provided our work product to the village

[9:22] board uh over the next week that report will be provided out to the public for

[9:27] your digestion and we do it this way so we can explain the process the data

[9:33] everything that we're doing to develop the plan and then you're able to read

[9:36] the plan with that knowledge as to how it was

[9:38] created uh once we uh release the plan and after tonight uh the village board

[9:43] will have time uh to review that document and then they will then endorse

[9:48] the plan if they want to uh then hold a public hearing on the plan which is

[9:52] required and then they'll revise the plan as necessary and then they have the

[9:56] decision at that point to stop the process

[10:00] or to amend the plan adopted as final and set a referendum date on a timeline

[10:06] here's your timeline it began back in February February 12th when the village

[10:10] board voted to explore the process of dissolution uh in April uh 14th they

[10:16] held their first informational meeting a and then now in August we're having a

[10:19] second informational meeting between April 14th and August now it's August

[10:24] 20th we developed a draft plan collaboratively uh with the village

[10:28] board with the town board with the state Co and those that are actually providing

[10:33] those services on a day-to-day basis um September 12th is is the date uh the

[10:39] village board will potentially endorse or review that proposed plan uh should

[10:44] they endorse the plan the earliest day that they can have a public presentation

[10:48] and a public hearing the plan will be November

[10:51] 4th um November 12th then uh they will either vote to stop the process uh or

[10:57] continue the process forward towards referendum because the village elections

[11:01] are conducted by the county uh the county will be impounding their U voting

[11:08] booths after the general election the county has given us a date of January

[11:12] 14th as a preliminary date should the village choose to go forward with the

[11:17] referendum and in our plan and in our discussion back in April we pick

[11:22] December 31st as the proposed date should there be a dissolution that it

[11:27] goes through and we chose that date to give the vill and the town an

[11:30] opportunity to actually close down a village government ramp up town

[11:35] government create the districts that are required do the transfer of the accounts

[11:40] um develop those executing executor uh documents that were transferring all the

[11:45] grants from the village to the town uh the close out the separation of the

[11:50] assets meaning the sale of those assets or the transfer those assets and the

[11:55] covering those liabilities um often uh people forget how difficult Village

[12:00] government is to actually do and we always choose as long as you can to be

[12:06] in to be in the process of that implementation so you're not slamming it

[12:10] in three months that being said uh this was a

[12:15] locally driven planning process we had oversight from the mayor the deputy

[12:18] mayor and and Village Clerk and Treasurer uh we had two separate work

[12:22] groups one was a public works work Group which covered water Wastewater and DPW

[12:28] and the like and one was land Ed to cover the planning zoning and codes uh

[12:32] we had representation both the village and the town on both of those work

[12:36] groups because we really had to understand what they do today and how it

[12:40] can be provided tomorrow uh the process of a village dissolution as you know

[12:46] focuses on the services that you have today the people that are doing those

[12:49] Services The Village identity Village laws codes planning so the question

[12:55] isn't so much just simply know what happens with this solution it's happens

[12:59] post this solution how that can be provided and how those Services can be

[13:03] provided uh we provided the opportunity for Community stakeholder input

[13:07] throughout uh via the website uh and public engagement input and feedback and

[13:13] we were trying to use the website as the methodology uh for providing feedback so

[13:17] everyone has an opportunity to ask questions and to review those questions

[13:21] and provide the same answer to everyone the planning process again

[13:27] during the work groups I'll review the data and provide analysis we proposed a

[13:32] a preferred post dissolution framework for those Services discussed those

[13:36] different models for providing Services once the town has to provide those

[13:40] services in other words who would be providing them how would they provide

[13:44] them what would the organization look like uh the work groups didn't provide

[13:49] input on Staffing and resources needed uh we strategize together on approaches

[13:54] for integration of local laws and uh land use how we're going to create those

[13:59] boards and de develop those equipment processes we also looked at framing the

[14:05] options to support the transition we also spoke to key

[14:11] stakeholders and figured out the provision of data and information they

[14:14] participated in many interviews and provided ongoing input and feedback and

[14:17] support and identifi the key issues that we needed to understand as we develop

[14:22] this process uh finally the report that will be provided and discussed today

[14:28] does provide what look like this is not a uh a dissolution plan in this process

[14:33] in a board initiative process is not a should we or shouldn't we dissolve it is

[14:39] if you dissolve what's the plan for that dissolution and if the village decides

[14:43] to go forward with the vote so vote on that plan and a vote on

[14:48] dissolution uh we work closely with the uh with the process in the community so

[14:52] we want to make sure that we proactively address concerns there are many concerns

[14:56] you know from the first public meeting we want to share the facts and spell

[14:59] misconceptions about a a government takeover uh we want to answer questions

[15:04] and we want to make sure that that was the first step towards building

[15:07] consensus and finding common ground and we was it really a learning process for

[15:11] us as the Consultants to understand what was happening in the community uh why

[15:16] this process was becoming and discuss from there uh any solutions that occur

[15:22] the website was was available to everyone to ask

[15:25] questions it was provided and updated regularly as we could primarily every

[15:31] other week on Fridays so there are a number of key

[15:35] issues and touch points that came up uh during the questions and answers uh

[15:39] during the initial meeting uh and during the comment section most of it was sent

[15:44] around representation and voice in government a village versus a town it

[15:48] was also discussed that we had to make sure that should the village dissolve

[15:51] into the town that the village identity was still secured and protected a lot of

[15:56] questions came up during and surrounding critical services and what's going to

[16:01] happen to our water what's going to happen to our water rates what's going

[16:05] to happen to our DPW sorry not DPW D sewer services will it still be

[16:10] continued with the city honor its current agreement with the village and

[16:14] the town who's going to take care of the snow plowing of roads and sidewalks

[16:18] there's all there's also a number of questions during the process on the

[16:22] community development of Grants that's already been undertaken by the village

[16:26] and what's going to happen to the downtown revitalization initiative and

[16:30] all the different uh Department of State parks and recreation grants you

[16:33] currently have on lakefront and Beach Improvement projects who's going to

[16:37] maintain our village Parks uh who's going to continue to invest in our water

[16:41] system and what kind of commitment would there be by the town to continue to seek

[16:46] grants that the villain was doing already for the people and folks within

[16:50] its boundaries there are questions and comments about Village zoning and

[16:54] quality of life and the laws and there's a very big push on how going to protect

[16:59] the village assets from vill residents and taxpayers uh so we hope that

[17:04] throughout this process of the next of the rest of the presentation we'll be

[17:07] able to answer most most of those questions and comments as we go

[17:13] forward so at the beginning we have to understand how will this solution impact

[17:18] our services our governance and our

[17:26] processes uh number one is governance how will the proposed this solution

[17:30] impact who and how decisions are made related to The Village services and we

[17:35] want to look at a couple things here I think I missed a slide let me go back no

[17:39] I did so when we talk about Village dissolution we talk to community

[17:43] residents we talk to you about what this all means to you you may have heard me

[17:48] say at the first meeting you have to make a decision for yourself as to does

[17:53] this solution make sense or sense does this solution make sense with an s

[17:59] because it f it makes sense governance wise and doesn't make sense fiscally

[18:04] will I save money and if I save money how much is that and is what's that

[18:09] Worth to me you know what's the balancing uh between sense or sense so

[18:13] on governance you individually every voter has to decide you how will a

[18:17] dissolution impact you individually how will decisions be made according to or

[18:23] related to your services and codes fiscally you want to understand will

[18:27] this reduce my costs now or in the future and with Services uh will the

[18:32] services continue to be Prov to be provided to me who will be doing will

[18:37] they be improved will they not be improved will they be more effective and

[18:41] efficient who's going to take care of my zoning Town doesn't have zoning right

[18:46] now how what's going to happen in my zoning and will they maintain or change

[18:50] my quality of life that that's all part of uh the this your discussion and your

[18:55] internalization of disolution as you learn about the information that we're

[18:59] providing tonight um we're not voting as the Consultants it's not our decision

[19:05] whether or not you dissolve or stay a community all we're supposed to be doing

[19:09] is giving you the information so that you can make an informed decision uh

[19:14] whether or not you want to vote for disolution as you go

[19:16] forward with representation and governance post this solution uh it

[19:23] would would eliminate the village board if you dissolve The Village mayor and

[19:27] board of trustee who are right now elected just by you

[19:32] and for you and represent you and set policy for the village will no longer be

[19:36] there post this solution the town board will be responsible for all decisions

[19:41] made townwide including the area forly known as the village and that's a key

[19:46] point for you all to understand that should you vote to dissolve the

[19:49] government you're dissolving the governance that's the village board

[19:54] that's uh the laws and that make up the community uh right now you have a sole

[19:59] input on your village your village decisions um your village board makes up

[20:05] 100% of decisions and your village electorate is who puts them into

[20:10] Power if you dissolve you have to recognize that Village voters only make

[20:14] up 20% the townwide elector meaning that you're now only 20% of the U voice in

[20:21] government versus 100% in the village there are

[20:25] 395 registered voters in the village and a little over 2,000 uh in the town so

[20:30] your voice may be smaller in a town government whereas right now again you

[20:36] elect solely for your own governance a village board however it's important to

[20:42] understand that there's a long-term sustainability issue with small

[20:44] governments in New York Cate it is not a KN it is not a prop we're not saying

[20:49] good or bad but we have to let people know that in smaller governments there

[20:54] are some challenges for capacity building are there's challenges getting

[20:57] people to run for office there's challenge in getting people to work in

[21:01] the government whereas in a larger government in a town of your size it may

[21:06] be easier to get more volunteers or staff or those willing to take on the

[21:09] role of an elected official the town Hunter has a larger population larger

[21:14] tax base and and more resources and combining governments could result in a

[21:18] stronger organizational structure but I can't say yes or no all we can let you

[21:23] know is that uh individually you control your governance as a village

[21:27] collectively The Village Voice goes down but there are challenges with smaller

[21:32] governments which is one reasons why uh villages do uh Embark Upon A A

[21:38] investigation if you may of whether or not this solution is good for them or

[21:42] bad for them we also want to talk a little bit

[21:46] here about the current state of your Public Works you currently your Village

[21:51] Public Works has one supervisor and three laborers they may they do a whole

[21:55] lot of work for the amount of staff that they have right now and regardless of

[22:00] the outcome of this process uh regardless of whether or not the village

[22:05] board endorses the process and wants to go towards a vote uh or even if you do

[22:10] choose to dissolve I think that everyone when they see your Workforce in the

[22:15] roads or on the sidewalks or in your homes in the restaurants you should

[22:19] really take the step to slap them on the back in a positive way not pushing them

[22:23] out the door but actually congratulating them for the work they do because they

[22:26] maintain all of your streets and streets capes Parks recreational facilities all

[22:30] your public spaces they take care of your storm system uh they're working

[22:34] with the D buyout properties and beautification and they do support your

[22:38] public events they do a heck of a job with the parking lot sidewalks and

[22:44] Street and Road snow plowing in the winter makees to make sure that the

[22:47] roads are safe not only for uh Travelers but really early in the morning for the

[22:51] school district they also maintain all of your water systems and for those of

[22:56] you that don't know you have two plants reservoirs towers and lagoons they all

[23:01] take care of the dam the distribution system and metering systems uh they also

[23:05] fulfill all the obligations of the water system sewer plant school districts

[23:09] related to rights and ways and easements and agreements so they do a lot of work

[23:14] um it's always interesting to me and Kathleen as we go through these

[23:17] processes and we've done two dozen or so of these uh how much work Villages do

[23:23] with so little personnel and people but if you do choose to dissolve

[23:29] uh the town model would be that the working supervisor would be assigned

[23:33] fulltime to the water department and Report directly to the town board the

[23:37] laborers would go to the highway department report the highway

[23:40] superintendent and the laborers of the Village today and the new high the new

[23:45] and larg Highway Department would assist the water department as needed with

[23:49] water breakes or valve change whatever has to occur in in the water system as

[23:53] you go forward uh the town would continue the village uh process of

[23:58] Contracting with a water treatment operator to provide that

[24:01] 247 required emergency response services and oversee the operations and the water

[24:06] testing that's required by the Department of

[24:09] Health in a chart format uh we can show you here and again no one has to take

[24:14] notes the entire presentation is going to be available online tomorrow so you

[24:18] can download read it again and then ask more questions online there's a lot of

[24:23] information here and I recognize that I'm sorry for that I have to go through

[24:29] all of it like this but it'll all be available to you both in uh online and

[24:33] you can recap by looking at the video currently again the vid the uh

[24:38] public works department is all snow plowing and the town officials indicate

[24:41] that they'll provide the same response and resources as the village the again

[24:45] the folks that currently work in the village will be be Prov the opportunity

[24:49] to move over to the town uh the town knows that they will need additional

[24:52] staff to do this work and they're committed to Staffing uh the required

[24:56] level necessary for both the snow plowing the water system the Street

[25:00] Maintenance and the like on the streets they're going to maintain the build of

[25:03] streets and streetscape and drainage as is on the Water Treatment Plant and the

[25:08] wastewater treatment plant they're going to provide the necessary services to

[25:11] abide by the agreements and the obligations uh we've already contacted

[25:15] with uh D and they've already re committed I'll will go over it later in

[25:20] the PowerPoint and presentation but they've already recommitted to the uh

[25:24] folks here in the village and town that the agreement for the waste water

[25:27] treatment plant stands uh the agreement itself does have that successor clause

[25:32] in it and they've also provided documentation they'll continue so that's

[25:36] not an issue so the town will continue uh the obligations of the water and

[25:40] wastewater they're also going to assume responsibility of the parks and public

[25:45] spaces they're going to upkeep the parks trails and public spaces they're going

[25:48] to uh continue uh the grant opportunities and implementation of the

[25:52] grants that the uh that the village has already received and they're going to

[25:56] make sure that that the parks and public space continue to be maintained and used

[26:00] the way they are today on street lights currently the village has 10 decorative

[26:05] fixtures and maintains their own street lights uh the town's going to create a

[26:10] lighting District the bound is the same as the former Village and they're going

[26:13] to maintain your fixures and then on the beautification

[26:17] program and special events the town will continue uh the programs going

[26:23] forward also along the lines of the public works and services you know post

[26:27] this solution as it relates to equipment and vehicles the water system parks and

[26:33] recreation equipment would transfer to the town to provide those Services uh

[26:38] those additional equipment or services or sorry equipment and machinery would

[26:42] be auctioned uh if the town doesn't need them the village would offer the town

[26:46] the right of first refusal to purchase uh vehicles and Equipment through

[26:50] negotiated sales uh the town could assume

[26:55] operations 3 to six months prior to the DAT of dissolution we've done this

[26:59] before uh normally uh if the village chooses to dissolve uh we work with the

[27:05] village in town to do what's called an IMA an intermunicipal agreement uh 3 to

[27:10] six months prior to that date so that uh the transition of services can occur the

[27:15] staff can move over uh the realignment and reorganizations can occur uh any

[27:20] potential uh transfer of equipment can also happen during that time frame and

[27:25] then any additional equipment or assets that's no longer needed by the town or

[27:30] is not in a negotiated sale from the village to the town when they get

[27:33] auctioned off and it provides the village opportunity uh to work and get

[27:38] rid of or dispose of its unnecessary assets uh in a timely P fashion without

[27:44] disrupting any Services post this solution with the

[27:49] highway garage the plan of the town is to continue to work with the village in

[27:52] the county uh and the New York City D buyout program uh with a with a

[27:57] dedication by agreement that any net proceeds will go to offset the village

[28:02] liabilities and then chips that you get directly from the state which is the

[28:07] Consolidated how Improvement program those dollars will continue to come to

[28:11] the community but be transferred to the town on an ongoing basis The Village

[28:15] does not lose that well the village government won't

[28:19] be there but the residents will still get that money there's always a fear

[28:22] that if I if I dissolve my community I lose that state and that state aid and

[28:27] that's not true uh the town Aid gets increased the both the town and what the

[28:31] village had

[28:35] before post dis solution with the water services that came up during uh the

[28:40] initial meeting and it's a key part of the of the overall plan the town would

[28:44] create the Tannersville water district the boundaries would be the V those are

[28:48] equal to what you have today as the village boundary they're going to

[28:51] continue to service all the users inside and the few that are outside uh after

[28:57] dissolution after the water district is created they would then extend the

[29:00] district to the additional Town users that are out of District users right now

[29:04] to en to encapsulate everybody that is currently served by the Water District

[29:09] uh the town would then assume ownership and responsibility the operations the

[29:13] Capital Improvements the maintenance of the assets uh they're also going to

[29:16] continue uh to be the executive of any of the properties and agreement

[29:20] obligations The Village currently has as I mentioned before the village sorry the

[29:24] town will continue to contract for a Wastewater or in this case a water

[29:28] treatment plan operator to provide the ongoing system maintenance and will'll

[29:32] provide the 24/7 emergency response through that operator they're going to

[29:36] assign the working supervisor that currently works in the village to to the

[29:39] water department U directly responsible to the supervisor and town board and

[29:44] town Highway will provide staff support you know water is not a typical Town

[29:49] Highway function many towns have both the water department and the highway

[29:53] department and that's how would work here uh the laborers will go to the town

[29:57] Highway Department department and the working supervisor right now in the

[30:00] village will will staff the water department of the town over a 5-year

[30:05] period uh the town will remove the inside outside Village rate

[30:09] differentials between the village and the few people that are outside right

[30:13] now in the town so that would change uh the overall usage of the five years of

[30:20] the cost of the village residence right now you have about $500 a year for the

[30:25] single family residential user and over the five years it would move up and and

[30:29] even out to $575 give or take uh the commercial base rates also result in an

[30:35] increase in the village I should you do that through the equalization because

[30:39] there'll no longer be a a village and an outside Village rate it'll shift to a

[30:44] uniform rate but it happen over five years won't happen on day

[30:49] one excuse me for a

[30:52] second a major major concern of folks online and at the initial

[30:59] meeting was what's going to happen to the Sue and there was a uh I I guess a

[31:04] fear of the big bad wolf of New York City reneging on its contract uh when

[31:10] you review the initial 1924 agreement uh which is both the village and town of

[31:16] part of uh it states that the D will own operate and maintain the sewer treatment

[31:21] plant The Village owns the land and rways and the village is obligated to

[31:25] provide the services as outlined in the eement R right RightWay agreements but

[31:31] the system is completely funded by D when you review that agreement there

[31:37] is a successor Clause that clearly states that the uh that the system will

[31:43] continue to be paid for by D but we did take a lot of effort The Village The

[31:48] Village attorney and our team to reach out to the uh New York City D and I'll

[31:53] read this to you just so you have it uh but the entity that assumed the

[31:58] villagers Powers related to the SE system which is the successor entity

[32:01] will also assume the Villager rights and obligations paragraph 10 says that if a

[32:07] party of the agreement transfers his powers to another entity then that

[32:10] entity shall assume all powers rights and duties and the successor enemy's

[32:14] rights and obligations on the agreement will be identical to The Village's

[32:17] current rights and obligations and because a city do not

[32:22] currently charged system users pursuer it will a village dissolution will not

[32:27] alter that Arrangement at all that's a letter from the general councel uh dated

[32:32] July 8th so that confirms our interpretation in the and the village

[32:36] attorney's interpretation of the agreement in place so the if you choose

[32:41] to dissolve one less question is what happens to your waste water it'll

[32:46] continue to go as is post this solution is going to impact

[32:51] your entral Administration in the village currently the village clerk

[32:55] Treasurer should coordinates all the operation ation with the village board

[32:59] trustees staff and public uh the village M Village clerk maintains all the

[33:03] records she's also the fil officer birth death certificate um individual Human

[33:08] Resources prepares all the board agendas board meetings and Public Notices she

[33:13] also handles all of the accounts receivable budget development Billings

[33:16] meter readings long-term debt everything that happens in that Village on a

[33:20] day-to-day basis pretty much goes through the village Clerk and treasury

[33:24] but she also somehow has time to prepare and administer the grants you currently

[33:28] have and that's about half her time right now since the village have been so

[33:31] successful with their grants and the clerk treasure also serves as secretary

[33:36] to the planning board and support for the zba so what's going to happen post

[33:40] this solution with the town's input is they recognize the need for the

[33:44] equivalent Staffing they're going to create a full-time administrative

[33:48] position for Grants uh that's also going to include the water department work

[33:52] fiscal work planning board and Zoning Board support special events they're

[33:56] going to add a part-time FIS admin person to support the extended budget

[34:00] and fiscal workload for the process and add additional hours to town clerk's

[34:04] function to handle the expanded foil requests recen requests permanent

[34:09] issuance and collection functions um so the position will have to transfer over

[34:14] to the town and then be shifted amongst the way the town provides uh the

[34:18] services uh to the residents uh justice court uh if you all

[34:24] recall you have both a village justice court and a town justice Court The

[34:28] Village Court right now has about 397 cases last year in

[34:33] 2023 The Village has a part-time Justice and a part-time Clerk and they generate

[34:38] local revenues that do offset the majority of his expenses in other words

[34:42] while government is not supposed to be self-funding it's not supposed to raise

[34:46] enough money through fees or through fines in this case with the court you

[34:52] pretty much cover the cost of the Court uh with with the retained revenues that

[34:57] come through uh the town court handled about 1177

[35:02] cases and has two part-time justices and two part-time clerks post disolution the

[35:08] town and Village courts will have the same same categories of offenses The

[35:13] Village Justice Court be eliminated uh the cases have been discussed with the

[35:18] town and and the town justice feel they have enough capacity at town court that

[35:24] they can handle the additional 400 K or so 397 from The Village Court they would

[35:30] though consider increasing the part-time court clerk hours to handle the

[35:34] additional case load land use planning zoning and code

[35:39] enforcement uh we had a very in-depth discussion with land use work group and

[35:44] it was agreed that's important to protect the natural uh unique nature of

[35:48] the village it's also important to protect the the town outside the village

[35:51] as far as land use and development where the village is more dense than the town

[35:56] uh they each have a comprehens plan the village has a zoning law and the town

[35:59] does not yet have a zoning law uh the town was successful in securing a grant

[36:04] this year uh to update its comprehensive plan and is considering zoning as part

[36:09] of that process uh going forward U as I mentioned the first meeting and I'll

[36:13] mention it again today all Village laws stay on the books

[36:18] post disolution for up to two years meaning that in that two-year period uh

[36:24] the town could will be administrating The Village laws as is or they can

[36:28] either amend them or get rid of Village laws uh but after the two-year period

[36:33] they all go away if they haven't been incorporated into the town The Village

[36:37] zoning laws and town officials they indicate they're going to continue the

[36:40] village laws post dissolution makes sense to continue to protect that Unique

[36:44] fabric that is the Village today with density land use and Zoning even though

[36:49] they don't have zoning right now they would administer The Villages zoning so

[36:53] to do that they' have to establish a zba uh on a planning board side the town

[36:59] Hunter planning board would assume the responsibilities of the planning board

[37:02] of the village right now the village board trustees acts as the village

[37:05] planning board and they right now review site plans special permits and they

[37:11] provide other planning functions so the town would have to create or

[37:15] reconstitute its planning board to include representatives of the village

[37:19] and I said they have to they have a planning board right now they don't have

[37:23] to reconstitute we recommend that they redevelop that town planning board to

[37:30] include members of the that are repres that are familiar with the village

[37:34] zoning today and the village planning today so that's more inclusive and more

[37:39] knowledgeable the issues affecting the village as you go forward on Code

[37:43] Enforcement the town also recognizes that it's going to have an increased

[37:46] work they have a part-time code enforcer right now but it has to be expanded so

[37:51] they're they're talking with us about uh including expanded hours in zoning

[37:56] enforcement code enforcement and talking about how to deal with their short-term

[38:00] rentals and the like so they recognize that there's going to be additional

[38:04] hours and effort that's going to be included in their part-time code

[38:07] enforcement hours to handle the additional Village

[38:13] work I mentioned a few moments ago but I want to restate that all Village laws

[38:18] ordinances are affect up to two years so the carton Village zoning will be in

[38:22] place until a town incorporates into their own uh if the town does a new

[38:28] zoning ordinance they can either incorporate the entire Village code into

[38:32] their new or they can change or augment or make it hybrid but they're going

[38:37] they've already committed to continuing zoning going forward they want to

[38:41] integrate your your zoning into theirs so as they're doing this that two-year

[38:46] process provides time for the town to complete its comprehensive plan and

[38:51] either create a new zoning ore townwide or to incl incorporate the villages into

[38:57] a special type of zoning in in the town they're going to evaluate the current

[39:02] zoning law uh the look at the districts the look at the uses and see how that

[39:06] would relate to a new town zoning law or they could if they don't have zoning

[39:11] coming into place during those Town those two years they can just simply

[39:14] adopt The Village's law into theirs uh they want to make sure that their

[39:19] definitions and their codes and their regulations U mesh with yours so that

[39:23] two-year process allows that meshing that integration going forward

[39:28] um if the town already had zoning then there'd be sort of a hybrid approach but

[39:32] that's not the case here uh right now they don't have zoning districts so all

[39:36] your additions can easily transfer into the town as you go

[39:46] forward so Village quality of life local laws uh you have a a lot of local

[39:53] ordinances and laws in the village uh examples are your water ordinance Park

[39:57] regulations or your motorized vehicles on the bike path or the prohibit

[40:02] prohibit you're prohibiting Mo motorized vehicles on the bike path uh those codes

[40:07] will all go through a process of review and they'll either be incorporated into

[40:12] town law they'll be repealed or amended over the two during those two years if

[40:17] nothing happens in the two years then they're all automatically repeal so

[40:23] those two-year process allows the town attorneys the town board look at each

[40:27] law individually and see how it was created and why it was created or the

[40:32] existence of the village and then incorporate them into theirs if they're

[40:35] similar or um remove them repeal them if they're no longer needed that process

[40:41] again occurs over those two

[40:45] years uh this an interesting little Wrinkle In This is that the town opted

[40:52] out of the New York State cannabis program but the village opted in uh

[40:58] so you have a few at least one uh application for E Canabis dispensary in

[41:06] the village currently under review by the state if the state provides a

[41:12] license to that uh dispensary that'll continue going forward um so there may

[41:19] be a potential impact because the town is not though participating in the

[41:24] program the tax benefit that would that would have come to the Village should

[41:29] there actually be an improved dispensary will not be recognized because they

[41:32] cannot share in that tax benefit uh that's a complication a little Wrinkle

[41:37] in the process but the village right now has has opted in if there was a license

[41:43] dispensary provided uh they can share in the tax benefit from the state to the

[41:48] county and the county to them the town will not be able to do that because

[41:52] they're not they did not opt in

[41:58] uh at this point I'm going to ask Kath Kathleen to talk about the plan for

[42:02] disposition of Village assets liabilities uh Kathleen I'm not sure

[42:06] whether or not you're still muted or not but if not can you start with this

[42:15] Pro

[42:20] Kathleen let me see where Kathleen is

[42:30] cath are you are you

[42:37] muted let me try to find her yeah Kathleen you're still

[42:45] muted are you there then you you have to take the first Initiative for the video

[42:50] as well I can't I can't do it myself you can't do what yourself

[42:58] I cannot put the video on for myself

[43:03] oh and that that's why I couldn't I didn't have the audio as well so thank

[43:07] let me look at you

[43:12] and you co-host you should be able to video put your your

[43:19] video oh now you're off again you're on again

[43:30] um good evening everyone um before we get started I I just noticed a number of

[43:37] um chat box comments that this process is a done deal um we are still in draft

[43:45] mode and one of the main purposes of tonight is to get feedback on some of

[43:50] the the thoughts and processes on the on the preliminary preferred options um so

[43:56] that the um village board can hear them and we can make those changes that um

[44:04] that the village board uh may consider based on what they hear from you this

[44:08] evening so I think your comments and your thoughts are going to be very very

[44:12] important um to the overall process so I just wanted to Quick say that and just

[44:16] make sure we were um I could clarify that so what we're start what I wanted

[44:22] to just talk about first is what what what will happen with the assets and

[44:28] liabilities um and we kind of looked at them side by side and together um and we

[44:36] wanted to see generally what would be the theme as to how the assets and

[44:42] liabilities would be would be disposed of and I think the general thought was

[44:47] that the village assets should really to the extent possible go to the um benefit

[44:54] of the of the village taxpayers so the pro the thought process we used was to

[45:00] really focus it as to use assets and to liquidate a number of the Assets in

[45:06] order to um pay off liabilities that the village

[45:12] has because if with liabilities that would remain on the books post

[45:18] dissolution those would be the responsibility of the village taxpayers

[45:23] so we wanted to we wanted to get rid of as many of those as we possibly

[45:27] could so just taking first look at the um Villages infrastructure and

[45:34] properties um the water infrastructure parks recreation bike trail and public

[45:40] spaces um the thought process was that that those properties um would transfer

[45:46] to the village for continued use for the water district for the water

[45:51] infrastructure and Parks and Recreation the bike trail and other public spaces

[45:56] to be used for the the public as it is right now um th those are Community

[46:01] assets that um I think the town felt would are essential to the overall the

[46:07] greater town community as well as to the um village community The Village um Hall

[46:13] and Firehouse uh the the the thought process

[46:17] is here is to is to sell those assets eventually um in order to um pay off

[46:24] Village liabilities um however we know that um the timetable

[46:32] for this would would put a strain on both uh the fire district the tanal fire

[46:37] district as their a tenant in the building and the um and also the um

[46:43] Town's uh short-term space needs uh issues would would would uh create

[46:50] stress if um we were to try to sell those immediately so um we're looking at

[46:57] a um a uh a staged process for those those

[47:03] uh pieces and then the Public's Works garage it is anticipated that um they

[47:09] would uh continue to be placed in the uh flood buyout

[47:13] program um and that 55 Spruce Street which is your other property um is is

[47:20] planned for sale prior to um the dissolution and then the existing

[47:27] D buyout properties with the uh long-term conservation easements those

[47:32] would transfer to the town for ongoing property stewardship and the sewer

[47:38] property would be a transfer to the town pursuant to the Sewer

[47:41] agreement then if we could go to the next

[47:46] slide so um the equipment um pieces of the water

[47:57] equipment and the recreation parks and recreation equipment um which would

[48:02] include the um stage the mobile stage and trailer uh were envisioned to uh to

[48:09] transfer to to the town similar to the um properties for the um continued

[48:16] Community use the other pieces of equipment as been

[48:21] indicated um would be sold however the um

[48:28] Village and uh Town discussed a possibility of the Town needing some of

[48:34] that equipment and that um there that there would be a negotiated sale prior

[48:39] to the public sale if in fact they came to an agreement and um you can see here

[48:45] the estimated values of those next slide please the um other um asset of the

[48:54] village has is will be whatever it's balances um at post

[49:00] dissolution um we don't know what that will be the really L latest data we had

[49:06] um kind of closed out by your uh the uh Village's uh um accountant was 53123 so

[49:14] just to give you a feel um the general fund at the end of

[49:19] 53123 that was not encumbered meaning that it wasn't tagged for um a

[49:25] particular project s um and it wasn't appropriated in in the following Year's

[49:30] budget was around 421,000 that whatever that level is at

[49:36] the time of dissolution is part of that um package of

[49:41] assets the water fund assets uh the um the the preliminary plan would be for

[49:48] those to follow the um uh F the water service and go to the

[49:54] new tannerville water district which the water district would have the same

[49:59] boundaries as as the current um district

[50:05] is so then on the flip side The Village has uh outstanding bonds as

[50:12] liabilities um there's a compensated balances uh which are the

[50:20] um um payments owed to Village employees for um vacation ACR rols that they have

[50:27] not um at as of the um time of dissolution used and then there are

[50:59] so and then the the the largest of the of the liabilities obviously is the

[51:04] village bonds the snowplow Bond and the water tower Bond are will will are come

[51:11] to fairly fairly close to the time of um dissolution um and so it is recommended

[51:20] that they be sort of the first um of the long-term liabilities uh after payment

[51:28] of the short term to to get to um to um draw down using um village assets the

[51:36] water treatment plant um upgrades as of uh

[51:40] 53124 still had um $2.1 million um uh left to be paid uh and

[51:49] just as a note The Village um does have short-term Bond anticipation notes um

[51:55] that um relative to uh its uh grants that it has um the two major grants that

[52:01] the village has are uh reimbursement of expense after the expense is made and

[52:07] then you have to claim so they need a revenue stream during the project

[52:12] development and project Clos out with with the grant the granes so uh those

[52:18] have a mechanism for um uh repayment and that is the actual grants

[52:25] themselves next slide so this this slide takes the

[52:32] estimated uh asset values which is the top and then it also has the estimated

[52:38] values of the potential liabilities on the bottom and we we broke it into like

[52:45] a phase one and a phase two phase one are those assets

[52:50] that the village could probably get liquidated in a relatively short period

[52:55] of time whereas the part two would be um assets that may take a little bit longer

[53:01] to sell and and get the funding for so we looked at um phase one assets

[53:09] being used to offset the shortest term liabilities obviously the V the village

[53:14] is going to have to pay out all of its accounts payable then it it's

[53:17] compensated balances uh it has its retiree

[53:21] liabilities um and then we do believe there would be enough for this note to

[53:25] pay off the snowplow outstanding debt service and the water tower as well what

[53:31] what still is remaining is the water treatment plant outstanding debt and

[53:37] that is paid currently as um as debt Ser annual Debt Service out of the water

[53:43] fund paid by uh fees We There is a strong potential that

[53:50] there would be assets uh sufficient enough to to partially pay down part of

[53:56] that remaining outstanding debt not all of it but part of it um and um given

[54:04] that the way the bonds are written it would be it would be paying them off in

[54:09] reverse order so right now the bonds um payments end in

[54:16] 2051 this would bring the bond payments would end them probably 15 years 15 or

[54:23] 16 years um earlier than that um which would then enable um the water

[54:29] fund to then have the resources you know for its any other next large project

[54:34] that it may have next

[54:39] slide next slide thank you so the assets and liabilities piece has its own set of

[54:48] issues and it will also flow into what is the fiscal impact I know this is the

[54:53] part that just watching People's comments this is this is really the the

[54:58] um piece that you're interested in so there the village of tville

[55:02] taxpayer will see a reduction and their combined property tax and water

[55:08] bills it the the the primary driver of that reduction in property tax is the

[55:16] shift of Village costs to town outside Village

[55:19] taxpayers you have a very significant differential in taxable assets value on

[55:25] a townwide basis relative to um The Village so that's going to drive the

[55:31] that drives the biggest piece and to to put it in simple terms if there were no

[55:38] cost savings found there would still be a reduction in the village cost because

[55:43] of the way you're going to tax for it the next biggest piece is the citizen

[55:49] empowerment tax credit which Ben talked about earlier and we'll get into that in

[55:53] a little bit more detail as well the reduction in costs um is fairly

[56:00] minimal in in in the entire process uh your community has a pretty pretty

[56:06] strong division of labor in a history of shared

[56:09] services um so there's not a lot of opportunity to eliminate um duplication

[56:16] or find economies of scale so we were able to see find some small things

[56:21] around the margin but as you can see that is not what is driving

[56:26] um what what what we'll see in a minute um and what I mean by the

[56:32] division of labor is you have the town already provides townwide police

[56:37] townwide ambulance townwide assessment dog

[56:41] control um The Village delivers a lot of the Parks and Recreation services and

[56:48] Water Services those are not things that the town has so there aren't any

[56:52] duplication in any of those materially large large program areas and then the

[56:58] last piece that does impact is the last discussion we had on use of Village

[57:04] assets um to pay down liabilities does impact the long-term implication for um

[57:11] Village um taxpayers so just to just to give you a

[57:17] feel we're shifting right right now the town Le or Village Levy is about

[57:23] $447,000

[57:26] the plan the the the model that we put together uh shifts 371,000 of that 314

[57:35] is going to the town tax base if you look at the chart you can see the

[57:41] material difference in the size of the village taxable assess value at 68

[57:47] million versus townwide taxable assess value at 394 million and there is a

[57:53] piece that's going to go to the new town outside Village taxable assess value

[57:57] which would be approximately 304,000 so you can see you're shifting it from a

[58:02] much smaller tax base to a much larger tax

[58:08] base um just quickly I know we've we've talked about this before um but the um

[58:16] tax credit is equivalent to 15% of the combined Village and town tax levies in

[58:22] the year prior diss solution this model was based on the

[58:27] 2324 uh Village tax levy and the town's 24 Levy um and then you it's the

[58:34] combined levies just the and in the town it is not anything to do with Special

[58:38] Districts it's just general fund and um uh town outside highway or town outside

[58:45] Village um and the um and then it's it's equivalent to 15% of that combined Levy

[58:52] and as you can see um 100 % of uh the CC represents

[59:01] $480,000 that's that's larger than the town or

[59:06] the village Levy is right now so you can see how that is materially impacting the

[59:12] fiscal model that you're going to see in a minute um the town would be mandated

[59:18] to uh apply 70% of that tax credit to offset property taxes each year uh the

[59:26] cc is in law uh written as in imp perpetuity um and so that it's ongoing

[59:33] um however uh it is subject to State uh appro Appropriations and since its

[59:40] Inception in 2010 uh there was only one year which

[59:44] was relative um to the fiscal crisis where uh all but 5% was was paid

[59:54] out so here is what we uh modeled what happened to uh we're looking at a single

[1:00:04] family home um with an assessed value of

[1:00:09] 81,000 we're using 81,000 for this particular uh presentation because it

[1:00:15] represents the media it's half of the assessed values for single family homes

[1:00:19] is below that and half is above and so what you'll see is that we

[1:00:26] are recognizing two things going on we're recognizing the current tax bill

[1:00:33] and then we're also Rec or the tax bill from

[1:00:36] 2324 and if you look you'll see the village tax payment goes from

[1:00:41] 529 to Zer the tax the tax payment would go from

[1:00:48] 452 to 703 and the Water fee would go from 500 to 575

[1:00:56] so for this home with that value if there were no CC applied there would be

[1:01:03] a savings of approximately $200 $200 if 70% of the CC were applied it

[1:01:11] would be 272 and if 100% of the CTC were applied

[1:01:16] it would be

[1:01:21] $32 so what we did I'm not going to go through this chart but we put it in here

[1:01:25] so that uh we did a range um in some of the in some of the um uh FAQs coming in

[1:01:32] from folks over the last month or so excuse me there was an ask for can you

[1:01:36] show us a range so I put this slide in here to give you folks a feel at

[1:01:42] different at different um assess values what might be the impact so we won't go

[1:01:46] through this now in detail but know that it's there and you can look at it um

[1:01:51] when it gets posted tomorrow

[1:01:56] so the the this this chart is about the taxpayers outside the

[1:02:02] Village um the town of Hunter outside the village of

[1:02:07] Tannersville uh property taxpayer I am going to just make a distinction that um

[1:02:14] the chart the summary chart here would be for everyone outside the village of

[1:02:20] Hunter as well um their impact is slightly different than the townwide

[1:02:26] so if you're in the town outside Village uh and there were no CTC applied

[1:02:33] there would be a an incre a a potential increase of around four

[1:02:40] 4.7% once that c cc is applied you you would you would see a reduction of

[1:02:48] around 6% and if the entire CC were applied you'd see a reduction of 10% and

[1:02:55] this is one of the primary reasons that New York State put the CC in place

[1:03:02] because they recognized that it it could potentially negatively impact people

[1:03:08] outside the village that is dissolving and this was part of the incentive to

[1:03:13] not have that negative implication to people outside um at the bottom for

[1:03:19] those folks that would be in the village of Hunter um the impact is only if you

[1:03:24] look at the chart above it's only going to be on the um townwide line so we just

[1:03:29] broke that out and put that down below um and so they'd see a

[1:03:34] 14.3% increase on just the townwide um and Highway fund if in fact uh there was

[1:03:43] no application of CC with the CC at 70% they're back to break even and if there

[1:03:50] 100% is applied they too would likely see um a decrease so I know this is a

[1:03:56] lot of information um that's why we added in a couple of extra slides just

[1:04:00] so you could take a look at it um you know tomorrow uh and figure out uh what

[1:04:07] you what additional information you may want or need um and with that I'm going

[1:04:12] to turn it back to Ben thank you Kathleen I know that uh this cc is still

[1:04:19] an issue of concern for people and it happens in every single one of our

[1:04:24] studies is a question is this imp perpetuity how does it get done I know

[1:04:28] you covered it but I want to repeat it another time for those that are that

[1:04:32] either didn't get it first second or third time or I still have the question

[1:04:37] the law states that the CC is good in perp is is in perpetuity however it is

[1:04:43] budgeted annually just like your school runs are just like your chips Aid is

[1:04:48] just like your 8 municipality is in the budget so every year it gets included in

[1:04:53] the budget uh and if you do dissolve that

[1:04:58] $480,000 or so what was that number up 48,4 125 as of today will be in the

[1:05:05] state budget it does get uh real re annually allocated like all other state

[1:05:10] aid but it is in perpetuity uh according to state law I

[1:05:15] just want to restate that for those that going to have that question

[1:05:19] again uh next steps

[1:05:26] The Next Step so the village board has to

[1:05:29] review

[1:05:34] please The Village trustees has to review this draft plan they're going to

[1:05:39] have this over the next month and they're going to deliberate internally

[1:05:42] they'll discuss it uh they'll Listen to More comments from the public uh but if

[1:05:47] they choose to move forward at all they have to endorse the proposed plan and

[1:05:52] the date that they have for the next village board meeting of September is

[1:05:54] September 12 at that time once they endorse it they

[1:05:58] have to set a public hearing by state law the state law will give them a date

[1:06:03] and a certain number of days they have to have and that tentative date will be

[1:06:06] November 4th by the calendar we have uh at that point after the public hearing

[1:06:12] the village board will then either vote to stop the process and say this doesn't

[1:06:17] make sense or sense or they'll adopt the final plan and that's November

[1:06:23] 12 if they adopt the plan and want to give the public the the vote

[1:06:29] and the Board of Trustees will set the date and again in consultation with the

[1:06:33] uh County Board of Elections who runs the village elections the anticipated

[1:06:37] date for the referendum would be January 14th I want to go back again and

[1:06:43] reiterate there is no predestined or predetermined process when a village

[1:06:48] board initiates the development of a dissolution plan it has that plan is set

[1:06:53] forth in state law for what has to be put into to that plan and that's what we

[1:06:57] have developed and that's what we went over today uh if they accept it endorse

[1:07:02] it then it goes to another presentation where we review the facts again uh and

[1:07:08] it's a public hearing at that point where it's a a condensed uh presentation

[1:07:14] and it's a hearing for you all to give your comments on the record at that

[1:07:17] point uh then they will either vote to continue the process or not continue the

[1:07:23] process if they continue the process process then they have to set the date

[1:07:27] of the referendum and then you vote and that vote is a simple yes or no shall

[1:07:32] the village of Tannersville dissolve yes or

[1:07:38] no if the vote is no this solution will not take effect and nothing further will

[1:07:43] occur it cannot be brought up again for four more years uh the village town can

[1:07:49] continue to discuss enhanced shared services they can still look at reducing

[1:07:54] things the villains provide the town can provide uh they can decide that they

[1:07:58] want to get rid of the Village Court or keep the Village Court or anything like

[1:08:01] that uh the village town can still though pursue consolidation if that's an

[1:08:06] issue that they want to do and the third or fourth slide at the beginning I went

[1:08:10] over the difference between a village dissolution and a consolidation the

[1:08:15] primary uh distinction is that in a dissolution while it affects Town

[1:08:20] residents only Village residents vote in a consolidation both vote but it's very

[1:08:26] rare that if the village dissolution goes down that a consolidation begins in

[1:08:31] fact it hasn't happened and I'm aware of in the last 14

[1:08:35] years if the vote is yes well then dissolution will occur on the date set

[1:08:41] in the dissolution plan uh we put in a date of December 31st but the village

[1:08:45] board can change that uh when the new new New York law was

[1:08:50] created excuse me sorry uh there was a lang anguage that allows the uh

[1:08:57] communities to pick the date of dissolution or consolidation again we

[1:09:01] pick and we suggest the end of the uh fiscal year of a town not of a

[1:09:07] village uh so the town can proactively budget appropriately for the new

[1:09:12] services in the upcoming budget year starting January 1st that being said uh

[1:09:18] a village can pick any date to dissolve in a year some like to pick uh the end

[1:09:23] of a village fiscal year and some pick end of a talent the key point with that

[1:09:29] is if you pick a date uh post April 1st you lose the CC in that first year the

[1:09:38] law states that cc is you're eligible for it if you

[1:09:43] dissolve prior to the end of that state fiscal year State fiscal year is March

[1:09:47] 31st so if you dissolve before March 31st the following September you'll get

[1:09:52] your first check and it's really a wire transfer but it's not to say you get

[1:09:56] your first check if the vote is yes the bills will

[1:10:00] line down operations over that year again as we mentioned before we laid out

[1:10:04] in our asset disposition plan uh they'll sell transfer the properties they'll

[1:10:09] sell and liquidate the assets as as stated in the plan the town will take

[1:10:13] steps to ramp up operations and their budget and the Staffing uh they'll

[1:10:17] arrange for Staffing new equipment um they'll create the Special

[1:10:22] Districts and the town and Village will continue coordination to assure that

[1:10:26] smooth

[1:10:30] transition so what we want to do here is I know I asked most of you to refrain

[1:10:35] from asking questions during the presentation because most of the

[1:10:39] questions were answered uh but I see there's a good number of questions slash

[1:10:44] comments in the chat box um we also know that the village all has folks there at

[1:10:51] the Village Hall uh that are available and want to

[1:10:54] ask question question I just lost where my presentation went there it

[1:11:00] went sorry I was trying to get my questions and answers up I'm going to

[1:11:05] try to move screens if I'm not going to be able to uh so you're going to see a

[1:11:09] lot of the side of my head as I read questions I

[1:11:12] apologize can the Village Hall uh unmute so you can ask the first question

[1:11:18] the Village Hall

[1:11:28] well as you're unmuting I'll go through some of these is it possible to record

[1:11:32] for those that canot attend I believe I turned on the recording so it should be

[1:11:35] recording at the beginning uh again someone's talking

[1:11:39] about being a done deal this is not a done deal at all uh the village I I

[1:11:44] can't speak for the village Board of Trustees uh but it's my understanding

[1:11:50] that due to the pending petition uh to dissolve

[1:11:57] the village board chose to do a board initiated process to afford themselves

[1:12:02] and the village residents the time to do a thorough analysis and a plan and I

[1:12:07] mentioned the time frame but I'll mention it again if it was a publicly or

[1:12:10] a citizen initiated process the village clerk has 10 days to certify that

[1:12:15] petition from that you have 30 days to set a datea of a referendum and you have

[1:12:20] a vote between 60 and 90 days from that time period there's no requirement for

[1:12:24] app plan or a study to be developed so Village residents you don't have a plan

[1:12:30] will be voting on their heartstrings or their Pur strings of no real information

[1:12:33] just innuendo and Facebook uh they felt that that's too short of a time to

[1:12:38] actively and caber and thoroughly do a plan so they initiated the process that

[1:12:42] we're going right now with that process we then have to create a dissolution

[1:12:46] plan for what governance would look like post this solution and is not their

[1:12:51] endorsement it is not their saying You must do this they're not saying I want

[1:12:54] this they giving you the ability to study review analyze and then vote on or

[1:13:00] should you get to that point but it's not a done deal could you tell us who

[1:13:04] asked that question it's up there excuse me can you tell us who ask that question

[1:13:12] just now it's not a question it's a comment on the

[1:13:16] chat okay there's no there's no name on the comment well there's someone named

[1:13:20] Barbara Berton okay name that's all okay

[1:13:27] I'm going to just so everyone knows I am horrible at announcing or pronouncing

[1:13:31] people's names so I apologize in advance for my

[1:13:35] butchering of people's names as we go through

[1:13:40] this um all right Gil my friend Gil has a lot of questions so we'll go through a

[1:13:49] couple of them just so you know Gil the majority of the questions you have are

[1:13:52] already answered in the FAQ so I'm not sure if you're asking the questions for

[1:13:56] the public to hear again now or if you if they not answer already on the

[1:14:01] FAQ um I'll do the first one and then I'll turn over the village hall for one

[1:14:06] is how many different departments and government entities did you have to

[1:14:08] contact in order to put the report together I'm not sure the uh purpose for

[1:14:13] that question uh but we spoke to the department heads of both the village and

[1:14:18] the town and the representatives of the Town board supervisor Deputy supervisor

[1:14:23] and the village mayor and the village deputy mayor was representing both

[1:14:27] communities and we reviewed the services that are being provided uh by the courts

[1:14:32] by the DPW by the Water by the sewer and by the uh appointed and elected

[1:14:37] officials that you have in the community and we use that information coupled with

[1:14:41] the information provided by uh the budgets and the services and the state

[1:14:45] state reports to develop the report that we that we have uh Village Hall do you

[1:14:50] have a

[1:14:52] question Village Hall live got to those first okay I just have a few comments I

[1:14:59] uh did ask multiple questions I formally submitted them there were kind of some

[1:15:05] vaguely posted today answers uh I'm Dr Le mcal I was a former mayor for 25

[1:15:10] years uh I am concerned that if this dissolution was to happen uh how would

[1:15:17] it be Equitable for the T Village taxpayers that have built the

[1:15:21] infrastructure the water system and that to be just given away in your

[1:15:25] preliminary study I see today that you're giving away the stage to the to

[1:15:30] the town of Hunter rather than auctioning that off that asset and that

[1:15:34] has been projected to take some of the village assets walk to them or sell them

[1:15:39] to reduce water debt uh the current water debt on the new uh upgrades to the

[1:15:44] water plants is at 0% Finance so it's primarily basically just an expense on

[1:15:50] the Water District or future water district so why would you want to pay

[1:15:55] that down there's really no gain and Village residents that built that system

[1:16:00] and paid that through the general fund not through their water fees the decades

[1:16:04] and decades purchase of the system the reservoirs and all the updates uh

[1:16:09] they're basically going to get nothing in return for everything that they have

[1:16:12] built over decades and I've been a resident here for over 40 years had the

[1:16:17] largest business was the highest taxpayer have my home here plan on

[1:16:21] staying here but all those resources that have been given to the Village

[1:16:25] through tax dollars in the general fund not on the water side are not going to

[1:16:29] be recouped by any Village taxpayer and uh and it seems awfully

[1:16:35] quick to try to liquidate some of these re uh assets especially the Village Hall

[1:16:40] given the fire department currently has a lease how are they going to get find

[1:16:44] new locations for the fire trucks this is an incorporated Village and I

[1:16:49] consider it a business that has assets and resources and giving them to the

[1:16:54] town or not getting reimbursed of them uh doesn't seem Equitable uh and I think

[1:17:00] you did a lot of good diligence and I see some of the numbers just to disagree

[1:17:04] with some of them and uh would like more substantiation of the $83,000 for future

[1:17:12] debt uh for the requirements of the village taxpayers for retirement and

[1:17:17] health for the few retirees uh that would be moving forward so maybe that

[1:17:22] number could get broken down a little more specifically

[1:17:26] well well thank you you had you hit a number of of comments in that one

[1:17:29] comment so I'll hit a couple and Kathleen will jump in and uh add to it

[1:17:34] or correct me if I say it wrong uh tomorrow or when when the report becomes

[1:17:38] available shortly I can't say tomorrow it's up to the village board when they

[1:17:41] release it on draft format uh there is more discussion of what happens to the

[1:17:46] fire uh and the other buildings and Kathleen mentioned it but we'll go you

[1:17:49] can go over it again uh there will be a transfer to the town uh of that property

[1:17:56] with the agreement with the fire department can use it until they either

[1:18:00] buy it or they can move someplace else but it's not g to be kicking out the The

[1:18:04] Village Fire Department in a year as far could I just add a little

[1:18:09] clarification um in we we brought in the village attorney to help us think

[1:18:14] through models that would would help us for a legal process that could extend

[1:18:20] beyond the date of dissolution because we did recognize that um how important

[1:18:26] the fire district is to the community to community safety so the concept is to

[1:18:33] um in in the short term for some designated period of time enable the

[1:18:39] fire district as well as um the town to be able to use the Village Hall asset

[1:18:46] giving both the district and the town time to deal with their space their

[1:18:52] space need issues upon that time then the assets could be sold uh and those

[1:18:59] assets then be used to um offset the liabilities and that's when we were

[1:19:04] talking about that there were some assets that would be you could have

[1:19:10] liquidated in a shorter period of time and some that we felt uh particularly

[1:19:15] The Village Hall maybe a longer period of time

[1:19:19] recognizing the the other important Community needs

[1:19:25] uh I I do want to mention and and you are

[1:19:29] absolutely um correct that Village taxpayers paid for the Village Water

[1:19:35] System you're not transfering while you're transferring it in theory to the

[1:19:39] town in practicality you're transferring the cost of the uh water system to the

[1:19:44] new water district which is still right now the Village um if you were to sell

[1:19:50] the put a number an Actuarial number on it and sell it to the town it's only

[1:19:54] going to be paid back by that water district so you're going to sell it and

[1:20:00] then pay it back with the same people that it already had so there's there's

[1:20:04] not a situation that that's occurred in the past and that's not a general

[1:20:08] practice of of how you do a government reorganization but you're are right the

[1:20:13] village taxpayers paid for that system uh but so of the town taxpayers that are

[1:20:17] in the water district or actually are out of District users they pay that and

[1:20:21] their share of that in their rate the only difference is going to be and

[1:20:25] somebody else had a question on it later on is you know why is there a town

[1:20:29] outside Village rate and a village rate well the town outside villain rate is

[1:20:33] higher than the villain rate and that difference is is their share of the cost

[1:20:38] uh that the villains already paid for into the system and that's going to

[1:20:41] change over time uh when a town takes over and I can't say takeover The

[1:20:45] Village dissolves town now has to provide the services uh so the town will

[1:20:50] have a village uh number one will be Tannersville water district that is as

[1:20:54] of right once you vote if you vote to dissolve that district will get created

[1:20:59] then they're going to create one for the users outside of the village uh so that

[1:21:03] they're separate and over time the rates will be adjusted and it just be the same

[1:21:08] vill the both water districts will be the same as you go on your question

[1:21:12] though about the sale of assets why it goes and pay down a 0% loan that'll be

[1:21:18] up to the village board how they decide to do this in the final version of the

[1:21:21] plan and the draft plan as we do in our communities we always try to use the

[1:21:25] sale of assets to pay down any outstanding debts that you have because

[1:21:29] the debts are still going to be with you and once you dissolve the debt you

[1:21:34] create that Legacy District your debt is still your debt so we as the Consultants

[1:21:39] always suggest in our draft that you use any assets to pay down any of the

[1:21:44] debts however uh it's well within the Villager right to change that part uh as

[1:21:50] they go through the process of the plan as you saw in the timeline and St that

[1:21:54] they rather any leftover money after everything's paid out instead of paying

[1:21:58] down a 0% debt they have the right to say in in the final plan we can cut a

[1:22:02] check to everybody that's up to that's up to the village board as they move

[1:22:06] forward from a draft plan to a final plan um as you go through some more of

[1:22:12] these questions and comments you know if the resolution passes they local

[1:22:16] conflict in law for example Airbnb what isn't and isn't grandfathered in

[1:22:20] nothing's grandfathered in uh you have two years for the town to either adopt

[1:22:25] the village laws um mingle or hybrid or amend their laws to include the villages

[1:22:32] or to get rid of the village laws the only thing that's still grandfathered in

[1:22:36] would be a license from a larger entity in this case if that cannabis uh entity

[1:22:41] was licensed as a dispensary by New York state it would still continue to be a

[1:22:47] licensed uh dispensary The Village zoning law uh the town said is going to

[1:22:54] be pulled into the town either as they create theirs and pulled in or it'll be

[1:23:00] a standalone if the town doesn't have zoning at end that two-year period um

[1:23:04] and then any non-conforming uses will still be non-conforming legal

[1:23:10] uses a question was why would the town from an organizational standpoint have

[1:23:16] water report to Highway they're not having water report to the highway and

[1:23:20] having water report to the town board and the supervisor the laborers will go

[1:23:24] into the Highway Department is DPW laborers or in this case Highway

[1:23:30] laborers I'm not sure what the next question means is this an automatic

[1:23:33] transfer or only the town agrees to do so the town has to provide water and

[1:23:39] sewer they have to staff whether they have to they don't have to take the

[1:23:43] staff but they're going to have to staff it makes sense to take the staff that's

[1:23:48] currently knowledgeable how the water and wastewater and DPW and storm water

[1:23:53] systems work uh but as evidenced in the last you know 24 of these um they towns

[1:23:59] have their own hiring practices and uh they don't have to take the village

[1:24:04] employees but all indications so far in our discussions are that they'll be uh

[1:24:08] transferred over to the town uh Village Hall do you have a question before I

[1:24:15] continue are you done Le uh I I just want to clarify and thank you that I

[1:24:21] just didn't feel it was Equitable to mix what I would call general fund assets be

[1:24:26] auctioned off to reduce water debt which would affect 106 uses outside uh the

[1:24:33] current Village boundaries that our water uses and that those assets or

[1:24:38] proceeds after the debt is paid off which isn't extensive in for the general

[1:24:43] side that then yeah maybe the village taxpayers would get a check in the mail

[1:24:47] that would say here here's your refund for the assets that the town didn't buy

[1:24:50] or didn't need and weren't part of the water system so that you know we we

[1:24:55] would get the money return to the taxpayers of Village of town rather than

[1:24:59] giving to the town a very it's a good idea U and just

[1:25:04] so you know sir it's a great idea and it's absolutely doable I don't normally

[1:25:09] recommend that in the in a draft plan uh because when I do recommend that then

[1:25:15] the N people that are against the process say that I'm trying to uh coer

[1:25:20] individuals with a with a a tax rebate check to vote Yes or no so I I normally

[1:25:26] do a dissolution plan like this with you use it to cut down your current debt uh

[1:25:31] for two reasons one I mentioned already is it's your debt and two because I

[1:25:34] don't want to look as I'm trying to buy anybody's vote with a tax rebate but

[1:25:38] your your comment is absolutely on point uh that there's a hundred and so outer

[1:25:44] District users they may get some benefit from that uh and that's the village

[1:25:48] board to take that into consideration as they deliberate uh between the draft and

[1:25:51] the final plan in the village of Mastic Beach in town

[1:25:57] of Brook Haven it's the only dissolution that we had where at when all dust

[1:26:01] cleared there was about $150 per tax pay per property left over and the town of

[1:26:07] Brook Haven gave that back a year

[1:26:12] later just so you're aware it's only one we had like that uh did I answer all the

[1:26:17] other one questions you had sir uh just just lastly uh the village

[1:26:22] is in no FIS distress because you you alluded to the fact that it's difficult

[1:26:27] for small municipalities to kind of survive given a small tax base their

[1:26:32] area what their resources are but currently the village of Tannersville is

[1:26:36] in no fiscal distress last night correct and it is not struggling to survive on

[1:26:42] any level other than the point that you said perhaps it has difficulty finding

[1:26:46] elected officials or people to volunteer given population and every village want

[1:26:52] the public to know that we're not the village is not in fiscal distress that's

[1:26:55] not what precipitated this act no the village is is is in fine fiscal

[1:27:02] State there there is no debt there's very little debt I can't say there's no

[1:27:06] debt there's very little debt uh comparably speaking uh you don't have

[1:27:09] any audits or findings from o OCS that I'm aware of uh in the village

[1:27:14] Tannersville other villagers do have those uh we had worked with villages in

[1:27:18] the past that have a challenge in recruiting elected officials appointed

[1:27:22] officials and even uh folks that uh just serve as you know Village Clerk or DPW

[1:27:28] and the like and be employees of of a community I did give you an example at

[1:27:33] the first meeting of a community that was pretty much ended up being a village

[1:27:38] run business in which the the mayor wanted to retire but no one wanted to be

[1:27:42] mayor his mother-in-law was the village Clerk and wanted to retire his

[1:27:45] father-in-law was the DPW and trustee he wanted to retire and when my trustee

[1:27:50] moved out of the village no one wanted to service we had to appoint his wife so

[1:27:53] he had a full board uh so they had a challenge at a small community of just

[1:27:56] serving themselves um so when they they decided to dissolve and ended up very

[1:28:02] good for them tax-wise because the town didn't have a tax uh they used their

[1:28:06] assets they had left over to pay off their sewer debt and went into the new

[1:28:10] town with a clean slate so to speak uh so that's just that Community

[1:28:14] every Community is different for every single one you have a question I I have

[1:28:17] a different community did it differently so there's no cookie cutter approach to

[1:28:20] it we do have to though respond to the state uh outline of what has to go into

[1:28:25] dissolution plan

[1:28:29] um I'm going through some of the questions on the chat box I would like

[1:28:33] zoning to be decided before dissolution I'm not really sure what that means um

[1:28:39] the town doesn't have zoning uh they're going to administer The Villages Zoning

[1:28:44] for those two years and that during those two years if they don't have

[1:28:47] zoning after that they'll adopt the village zoning as is uh if they do have

[1:28:52] zoning they will bring it into their new zoning

[1:28:54] um but they're not getting rid of Village zoning at the first meeting I

[1:28:57] let you know that there are three things that a a town can do you can get rid of

[1:29:01] zoning it can create zoning only for that area that's formly known as The

[1:29:06] Village make the rest the rural agricultural or residential or uh they

[1:29:11] can create townwide zoning and incorporate yours into theirs and

[1:29:13] they're looking to they don't have zoning right now but they've committed

[1:29:16] to continuing the village Zone I've already covered uh the

[1:29:22] question about what precipitate the decision to start the investigation it's

[1:29:25] not an investigation the development of a dissolution plan that've covered the

[1:29:30] liabilities and assets already um Gil had another question he

[1:29:35] mentioned over five years the village resident would go from paying on average

[1:29:38] $500 annually for a single home to 575 why is Town paying higher water

[1:29:44] rates in the village we all Source the same order we cover that as well that's

[1:29:48] with the differential between the town and the village Village paid it with

[1:29:52] their assets they Norm there's a lower cost for Village residents than town

[1:29:56] outside Village some some Villages charge two or three times that amount

[1:30:01] town outside Village The Village tville has decided that a Equitable rate for

[1:30:05] the town outside the village users is

[1:30:10] 575 is there another Village uh hall question before I keep going I Margaret

[1:30:16] did you w to No George you're next yes can I ask a question involving the

[1:30:23] village election I believe it's called Article 15 can

[1:30:27] abil actually won its own election instead of having a corrupt Green County

[1:30:32] party running down to 41 Main Street and I emphasize corrupt we can run our own

[1:30:38] election if that's true with a regra and we can do it inh house if we do it

[1:30:43] properly am I correct or am I dead wrong with the corruption I'm not well I'm I'm

[1:30:49] not here to pass judgment on your on your utilization word corruption uh but

[1:30:53] if Villages can host their own uh Village election they like they do

[1:30:58] throughout the state um right now Village elections are run by the county

[1:31:02] uh the village is requesting the county to run that that's up to the Village

[1:31:05] that's not a decision that I make 15 right I've had some uh most of

[1:31:11] my Villages are done uh not my Villages both most of the villages that we work

[1:31:16] with hold their own village election because they hold all their elections on

[1:31:20] their own you answer thank you very much any more

[1:31:26] cou no I don't think you're good I'll talk for DOL

[1:31:30] okay do let D go first yeah um when the presentation was done earlier um you ran

[1:31:39] the numbers um with the with the different items put into the spreadsheet

[1:31:45] and showed that the village residence on a $62,000 home if that was the number

[1:31:52] was going to have a Savings of um a dollar a day or something along those

[1:31:57] lines then you moved on to the out of village and ran those numbers but you

[1:32:04] only ran the percentages and showed those you didn't actually give a number

[1:32:08] is there a number that you could share with us on what the dollar is for those

[1:32:13] uh out of Village do you know what I'm talking

[1:32:16] about yeah but we we didn't run that number honestly sir we didn't run that

[1:32:20] number because it's inconsequential it's the village resident uh we did have a

[1:32:24] percentage there based upon the CC but I'm sure if the village board wants us

[1:32:29] to we can uh do the number analysis just to add it but it's not required uh it's

[1:32:34] a village plan not a town plan understood I just just quick

[1:32:39] Clarity on that Sean um so how did you determine the increase

[1:32:46] to the town outside because I assume it must have been on a

[1:32:51] median and what and then the the part B to that is that at the with the

[1:32:59] increased overhead of the village or is it at the

[1:33:04] current townwide tax leing so we have a chart Sean it's a very detailed chart

[1:33:13] and I didn't want to have to go through this chart because it's a it'll take you

[1:33:17] probably 15 minutes uh but it's in the plan so since you asked I'll pull I just

[1:33:23] pull it up can you all see this chart absolutely okay Kathleen you want to

[1:33:28] walk people through the crosswalk for how we came up with the rates so the

[1:33:33] approach that we took was we we took every line item of the village budget

[1:33:38] and we said what will happen post dissolution will it continue will it

[1:33:44] increase will it decrease we made those assumptions and then we took those costs

[1:33:50] and we applied them to one of the multiple

[1:33:54] Town funds either the a fund the B fund the uh BD fund or the B fund and so what

[1:34:04] you can see if you look at this chart is if you look at where it's the town we've

[1:34:10] got the current Town um Levy um then uh and then the next column

[1:34:18] is how much are we bringing over from the village by fund

[1:34:25] and then we say okay we had three different scenarios no C no CC 70% CC

[1:34:33] and 100% And then we're coming up with a

[1:34:37] post dissolution estimated Town tax levy so that's carrying everything that we

[1:34:45] believe would be include um the overhead the services so that we're bringing over

[1:34:52] $371,000 of increased tax levy in this in this model we then um there is

[1:34:59] another Nuance if you look at the B and the BD fund you if you look at your

[1:35:05] current um taxable assess value for that it's

[1:35:11] $236,000 but because the town or the village of Tannersville will now become

[1:35:16] part of that town outside Village that tax base goes up so we're going to take

[1:35:23] the the existing Town tax levy plus what we

[1:35:28] believe is in each of those funds and we apply it to your um taxable assess value

[1:35:35] and we came up with new rates and we did the same thing for each

[1:35:41] of the funds um the one the one cost that will remain in this model on the

[1:35:49] village tax base is the lighting District um that you know we had

[1:35:54] discussed that that the um the town would continue to um illuminate all the

[1:36:01] lights that the village currently has illuminated however that there would be

[1:36:05] a tax District lighting tax District just as the town has in other areas of

[1:36:10] the town outside um Villages um and that would be a charge back to um The Village

[1:36:16] property

[1:36:18] taxpayer is there anything in more in particular that you you had want want to

[1:36:23] ask on

[1:36:26] this uh no thank you I think you know we're going to have to spend some time

[1:36:31] with that spreadsheet and just sort of take a look at it a little bit more and

[1:36:36] digest it but I appreciate you explaining it to me and and it's great

[1:36:39] to see the numbers yeah and there's more DET there

[1:36:43] there's there is more detail in the plan as well I think it would it would it

[1:36:47] would give you I think what you're what you're looking for my only concern is

[1:36:52] the village let Le current Levy is

[1:36:55] 447 and you're saying the town's only going to go up 314 no 37

[1:37:02] 371 you have to look at all of the funds together so you're looking at 314 plus

[1:37:08] the 31 plus the

[1:37:11] 26 right and that's in the 447 you're

[1:37:16] breaking down the so you're there it's going to be a

[1:37:19] $70,000 savings yeah and and and again what is

[1:37:25] really driving the the savings to the Village

[1:37:31] property taxpayer is not that $70,000 that $70,000 represents a little

[1:37:38] bit more than 10% the big piece is that it's we're

[1:37:41] shifting it from the village tax base to the to the townwide and the town outside

[1:37:48] the the um the new town outside Village those tax bases are so much larger

[1:37:53] that it's spreading it across a much larger base that's what's driving um the

[1:38:00] tax um the the U tax bill reduction in combination with the CC those two items

[1:38:08] represent almost 90 85 to 90% of the whole

[1:38:13] impact the line the line items are important but they are not

[1:38:20] driving Kathy can ask your question I'm sorry to interrupt I think there's a

[1:38:24] Momi here Mr Mahoney Mr kby or anybody else in this group this dissolution is

[1:38:31] with the village of Tannersville correct we decide what we want to do they're

[1:38:36] allowed to ask questions but the bottom line is if they don't like the numbers

[1:38:41] and we vote Yes or no it's our vote not the town of Hunter

[1:38:46] correct um if they don't words it's up to us to vote the

[1:38:52] town of Hunter or any body else for that matter they can have a say in transition

[1:38:57] but when it comes to me as a village wrer I'm very proud to be in Tanis well

[1:39:01] whether I want to dissolv or not I have the say not anybody in Hunter not

[1:39:05] anybody in haes Falls we have the say as a village trustees Endor voters am I

[1:39:11] correct we need to reiterate that so the answer is

[1:39:16] is is is not so you have you have the say and the only say the only vote in

[1:39:25] dissolution thank you but once you vote to dissolve it's up to the town how to

[1:39:30] implement it oh that's that's up to them we have the say so that's what I mean by

[1:39:35] Ish you have the say today and if there's a vote you the only one that has

[1:39:40] a say at The Ballot Box but upon dissolution the town board decides how

[1:39:46] the services will be provided and governed uh and moving forward so they

[1:39:51] will ultimately have the control over all the programs and they have already

[1:39:57] they've been very active involved in this and I appreciate the town board

[1:40:00] because you can't develop a good snapshot of what a future governance

[1:40:05] structure looks like without the open honest discussions with the town board

[1:40:09] and their departments uh so I'm very appreciative to that because we're

[1:40:14] giving you as much detail as we can to make that informed decision but at the

[1:40:19] end they will be the ones in charge and they're going to be the ones with the

[1:40:23] the power to agree or disagree with what we have in the

[1:40:27] plan hence why I said ish uh can I just make one more quick

[1:40:33] comment about the lighting District uh the village is currently uh has a half a

[1:40:38] million dollar Grant to do solar for the village uh which was intended to offset

[1:40:43] all the electric usage uh by The Village including uh water treatment plant uh

[1:40:50] Street lighting Town Hall village hall actually everything was engineered to

[1:40:55] offset that so in the future uh I'm assuming that's going to get implemented

[1:41:01] uh that project so therefore the current Village will actually be generating

[1:41:07] electricity to offset the expenses of the water plant which of course could be

[1:41:12] utilized to uh uh decrease water rents or water fees in the future but also

[1:41:19] there will be plenty of excess to offset the street lights so uh during this plan

[1:41:24] or during this transition will those benefits that the village

[1:41:29] acquired uh stay with the village uh taxpayers going in the future to offset

[1:41:36] that electric bill or that lighting District saying hey they have solar it

[1:41:40] offsets plenty of that and uh and it also should be reflected in the water

[1:41:44] treatment plans because they won't be using electricity they'll be producing

[1:41:48] their own electricity is that possible or is this it's it's complicated but

[1:41:55] and if I could respond please we um we did spend um some time thinking through

[1:42:01] that and we we did not include the impact um in the fiscal because

[1:42:11] everything will have to do with wh which town t What which town utility bills

[1:42:19] will be used as the mechanism for offset just just as you were saying so we took

[1:42:24] a conservative approach and we we we have spoken to it in the draft um and we

[1:42:30] have shown that if it were all to go towards Village um utility Village

[1:42:38] specific utility bills uh it would have one impact but if it doesn't uh that

[1:42:44] that the value of that could get spread over a greater the greater tax base so

[1:42:50] we we spoke to it um but since it wasn't in it wasn't in the fiscal base because

[1:42:56] it doesn't exist we just spoke to exactly what you said that it's going to

[1:43:01] be it's it is a it it does have a potential fiscal

[1:43:07] impact um so I want to go back to the top of the questions but the chat box

[1:43:12] just exploded with chatter on who votes so I because you have about six or seven

[1:43:19] comments on this I'll hit that first a village election you know a village

[1:43:23] referendum is the same as any Village election only registered voters can vote

[1:43:29] doesn't matter if you're a taxpayer and you live somewhere else if you're not a

[1:43:34] registered voter you cannot vote and then whether you're a property owner if

[1:43:38] you're registered if you're a renter and you registered great only registered

[1:43:41] voters can vote that's the uh whether or not you deem that to be fair or not is

[1:43:47] not part of the process uh the law is that the referendum is held like any

[1:43:52] other Village uh vote and only registered voters can vote not Town

[1:43:56] residents only Village in Tannersville registered

[1:44:01] voters and I'm not here to argue the law that's the way it is um let's go through

[1:44:07] some more questions that you have here uh Barbara again asked about the dollar

[1:44:11] amount the liabilities that's been covered Gil we covered that

[1:44:17] question uh residents of Voters again only residents can vote I'm not a

[1:44:23] comment on the village of Hunter and as you go through the vill in

[1:44:29] town what should that's not here um we already

[1:44:35] covered

[1:44:38] CC I have one more person at the Village Hall have a okay Sean

[1:44:45] one um so relating to the Legacy debt District uh based on what I saw

[1:44:53] it looks like you know arguably there would be no debt with the village the

[1:44:59] only debt would remain with the water district correct so so that Legacy

[1:45:06] district is that the same district as the water district or is that a separate

[1:45:13] Legacy District that has no debt so only a legacy is only created to

[1:45:22] cover outstanding debts the analysis so far shows that your assets will cover

[1:45:26] your outstanding debts besides the water district so you may not need to create a

[1:45:30] legacy District however if during dissolution implantation is determined

[1:45:35] that there are additional debts that were not accounted for or not paid off

[1:45:39] with the assets then you would create the actual Legacy District that was my

[1:45:43] sort of question is that you know should unforeseen liabilities

[1:45:49] occur um post dissolution um and should there be a legacy District

[1:45:56] created even with no debt then that would be the appropriate way to go about

[1:46:02] it is just sort of that District handles those debt obligations in your yes

[1:46:09] uh I I'll give an example um right again Kathleen's analysis was detailed and

[1:46:15] it's in the plan uh that assets will cover outstanding liabilities outside of

[1:46:20] the um water plant the Water District if someone falls in the next 18 months

[1:46:27] trips over a sidewalk and sues the village and wins a a lawsuit $1.5

[1:46:33] million and it's above and beyond what the payouts are that's still going to be

[1:46:38] charge back to the former Village residents that would go into Legacy

[1:46:41] District if all of a sudden there are other bills uncovered there's debts

[1:46:46] uncovered or things that occur that have a cost to it that are not accounted for

[1:46:50] in the plan that will go to a legacy but if there's no need for one you don't

[1:46:54] have to create one thank you and then finally last

[1:46:58] question um the writer first refusal of the town to buy equipment at a

[1:47:04] negotiated price uh it should the village choose which is well within

[1:47:08] their right to sell desired equipment prior to dissolution right to to satisfy

[1:47:16] debt or or not um now that is outside of you know the

[1:47:24] the discussion that we we would want but that would be the standard Surplus

[1:47:29] procedure that all the inali have to follow I assume this doesn't bring them

[1:47:34] out of that no they still they still they still have to follow the Surplus

[1:47:38] and then auction um but what that does if they sell everything which is well

[1:47:43] within their right uh then the town would have to purchase the equipment

[1:47:46] necessary to provide the services that's not a legacy District cost that's a

[1:47:50] townwide cost right so it is in both parties best

[1:47:56] interest to negotiate the sale of equipment that

[1:48:01] would be required to continue servicing the former boundaries of the

[1:48:07] village I guess it's Point yeah it's always best for everyone to work

[1:48:12] together on a seamless transition uh there are some cases where there's

[1:48:16] deep-seated Hatfields and McCoy situations that it gets very nasty we

[1:48:21] don't see that here and we don't recommend that because the end of the

[1:48:24] day you're all one I said this from day one you're all neighbors regardless if

[1:48:28] you're in the boundary or out of the boundary you're all neighbors uh the

[1:48:31] animosity and I'm happy to say has not bubbled to the top here but it has

[1:48:36] bubbled to the top in other communities thank

[1:48:40] you is Alexa still here do you yeah my my thing is I guess more of statement

[1:48:48] than questions the tone of this meeting makes

[1:48:52] it sound like this is a done deal and this is not I've already covered that

[1:48:56] three times ma'am yes I know but this came out of like uh for lack of a better

[1:49:01] word rumor or town gossip that someone was circulating a petition to dissolve

[1:49:07] the village of Tannersville so the the board decided to meet it head on and

[1:49:12] examine it itself the people of the village of tville who are here and are

[1:49:17] registered voters have the right to vote this for or against and I I don't think

[1:49:23] that's being emphasized enough everything seems to be gearing it

[1:49:28] towards this is a done deal I'm not really sure why people keep

[1:49:33] saying this is a done deal our charge is to the Village has to in this in this

[1:49:40] presentation and the questions no I'm gonna say it one more time and then I'm

[1:49:45] not going to address it again yeah this is not a done deal the plan that we've

[1:49:50] created is with the plan is set forth by New York State law when a village board

[1:49:54] goes through a bill a board initiated process then from here they have a

[1:49:58] decision to make whether to continue it or not our task which we did very well

[1:50:03] if I may say is to identify and understand what a future governance

[1:50:07] would look like per state law what goes into a dissolution plan from here it's

[1:50:12] up to the village board if they want to continue the process I'll go to public

[1:50:16] hearing and if they want to go to referendum or

[1:50:19] not okay I understand that but but if you do you have a question

[1:50:27] because if you have a question I'll be happy to answer it you have a comment

[1:50:30] I'll I'll ask should hold it to the public

[1:50:33] hearing okay well I I think for the small amount of money that people are

[1:50:37] going to save they're going to lose a lot if they're absorbed into the town

[1:50:40] because then thank you that that's a that that's considered a comment and at

[1:50:45] the public hearing uh it's all comments not questions so I want to get to the I

[1:50:49] only have we're we're supposed to go to eight I'll go a little longer I want to

[1:50:53] make sure I answer as many questions as I can and if not any questions are in

[1:50:56] the chat I will be answered on the FAQ page by

[1:51:01] Friday um will is had Hunter take position on

[1:51:06] dissolution or consolidation uh the town no town that I've been involved with

[1:51:11] except for one uh has taken a formal opinion because it's not their vote uh

[1:51:16] it's not their decision they didn't push this and they didn't request it the town

[1:51:20] Hunter should the village choose to dissolve stands ready to provide the

[1:51:25] services as as discussed already will the slides be publicly

[1:51:29] available yes they'll be up on on the website

[1:51:32] tomorrow um someone asked me to State six positive reasons to approve an adop

[1:51:38] this plan that's not that's not my role uh that's up to you individually in

[1:51:43] the actual plan there's an executive summary which gives each resident the

[1:51:47] opportunity to check a box for themselves as to whether or not uh the

[1:51:51] item is a pro or to help them decide whether or not they want to vote yeah

[1:51:55] yay or nay but that's not our role here uh where can we go if we have

[1:52:02] questions after this meeting uh as stated before you go to the the project

[1:52:06] website under FAQs you can read all the other 30 questions so far and you can

[1:52:12] submit questions to be answered uh weekly as we add

[1:52:17] up uh Steve you had a comment about about

[1:52:23] Michigan in the lottery I'm not going to get involved in a discussion a

[1:52:26] commentary uh but it's been said that town will comply with drri upon dis

[1:52:30] solution the town automatically becomes the new executive of all grants uh and

[1:52:35] they're going to move forward with implementation as the Sip has been

[1:52:39] approved if you if those of you that have been following what drri is uh the

[1:52:44] village was recipient of $10 million award uh they developed a Strategic

[1:52:50] investment plan that was adopted by the state uh the governor announced where

[1:52:54] that money will be uh given to with both the private projects and the public

[1:52:59] projects and the town will move forward on the few public projects that they

[1:53:03] have to

[1:53:08] administer uh commentary there's a lot of comments about voting no and voting

[1:53:12] yes that's not for me to answer again there's a lot of comments

[1:53:16] about why the village shows knew that I've already covered

[1:53:20] that um this is there I just like you're you mentioned that it was a we were

[1:53:26] actually shown the petition they had over they had enough signatures so if we

[1:53:30] allowed it to become as a petition we would have had no time this wouldn't be

[1:53:34] going on okay so just so everybody knows that it wasn't like a rumor or anything

[1:53:40] like that we had we had make choice and we felt this is a better choice in

[1:53:46] board I'm I mean I I say this and I know people are

[1:53:51] going to say I have have a personal uh agenda here I don't um but I always

[1:53:57] recommend that a board take the initiative should there be a petition

[1:54:01] coming to undertake the process because it gives you the village the ability to

[1:54:06] take time to do the fiscal analysis well we've done since basically April um and

[1:54:13] this goes through the actual vote should you choose to vote in January that's a

[1:54:17] 9month process that if you if you did the petition way it slammed into three

[1:54:22] months so I I applaud communities I take that

[1:54:26] leap it's not an easy decision to do but it's something that gives the residents

[1:54:31] here the opportunity now to have three meetings review the plan and make an

[1:54:35] informed decision which way to go so I'm just happy that you chose to do that

[1:54:40] because you're giving your residents the opportunity to read analyze digest and

[1:54:46] make an informed decision

[1:54:53] it's not and I I want to reiterate I don't want to speak for you mayor but

[1:54:57] this is not this by no means says that the village board supports or endorses

[1:55:01] the concept but you're doing what's right as government leaders and

[1:55:04] providing the village residents the opportunity to move

[1:55:08] forward sir can I interrupt you does that say 70 people on chat right

[1:55:14] now comments 70 comments there there are quite a number of comments Andor

[1:55:21] questions so our mailing evently hit home the

[1:55:26] mailing that we requested defitely hit home people got out the home thank you I

[1:55:31] have a curiosity question uh if the voters of the village in Townville

[1:55:38] decide for this to go through can the village still be identified in signage

[1:55:44] upon its boundaries Village of Tannersville no like it will not be the

[1:55:49] village of T Tannersville be the Hamlet of tan

[1:55:53] you can call Historic it won't be a village so the

[1:55:56] term Village is unique in New York state over other community other states in the

[1:56:01] in the Union uh Village is a municipal identity uh it's also sometimes equated

[1:56:08] to a dense area they call the Village but in New York state the village is a

[1:56:13] municipal governance structure you're Incorporated and the differences that

[1:56:17] you control and you're a political subdivision to yourself a village can

[1:56:21] only exist within a town in New York state if you choose to dissolve you're

[1:56:26] no longer a village so your government structur ceases to exist and therefore

[1:56:31] you're no longer The Village you will be a hamlet a place you could have a sign

[1:56:36] saying welcome to Historic tannerville you can have a sign saying welcome to

[1:56:40] the Hamlet of Tannersville but you're no longer a village in other states the

[1:56:46] term Village is used anecdotally to to reference a hamlet or an area of d it

[1:56:53] that is Village like butk State the term Village is a governance

[1:56:57] structure thank you I sound like a teacher there I sound

[1:57:03] like my father I [Music]

[1:57:09] apologize so we're close to8 o'clock uh Lucy has told me that all the meeting

[1:57:15] chat has been is recorded uh through Zoom so we can go through them and when

[1:57:21] there are questions that we are able to respond to we'll put

[1:57:25] them on the FAQ uh but again we're not here to decide for you I have no horse

[1:57:31] in the game uh Kathleen has no horse in the in in the game or in the run in the

[1:57:36] race so to speak uh but we strove to come up with unbiased information so

[1:57:41] that you're able to make your own informed decision as the pros and cons

[1:57:53] Gil you added a number of comments um none of them are questions

[1:57:58] that that I have to answer they're just commentary here um one of them is who's

[1:58:03] going to bid on Village assets Town doesn't want it goes to auction uh once

[1:58:07] they go through the Surplus process it goes to

[1:58:10] auction quite frankly we've had some communities um one I I call it a fire

[1:58:17] sale uh it was at the fire department uh but they auctioned off their gazebo they

[1:58:22] auctioned off their chairs they auction off their tables and the file cabinets

[1:58:26] so that's there other other comments you have in there are commentary that's not

[1:58:30] questions for me to

[1:58:37] answer um will there be an option for absentee voting yes but you have to

[1:58:43] follow the normal absentee voting process of uh requesting absentee ballot

[1:58:57] okay um there was a question in here that I want to share that I SC that I

[1:59:03] scrolled over uh CC it goes to all of the Town

[1:59:07] residents it doesn't go to just the area formly known as The Village everyone

[1:59:12] will benefit because the village is gone so what happens is the new town budget

[1:59:16] if anyone looks online at a town budget at the bottom of the analysis it says

[1:59:20] amount can be raised by tax or a tax levy that will then be reduced by a

[1:59:25] minimum of the 70% with a maximum of 100% or somewhere in between there and

[1:59:30] that'll be the new town amount to be to be raised by the tax levy so every one

[1:59:35] of the Town benefits if you go back to Kathleen's uh discussion on the fiscal

[1:59:39] model of the post dissolution impacts it shows uh that amount by no no CC 70%

[1:59:46] 100% to Village and the town residents the purpose one of the purposes uh that

[1:59:52] the New York state had When developing the CC was they acknowledged uh that in

[1:59:58] dissolution normally Village taxes go down town taxes go up uh from the reason

[2:00:03] exactly why Kathleen uh discussed uh going from a smaller tax base to a

[2:00:08] larger tax base and an addition of the costs the CC goes to everyone in the

[2:00:13] town you will see it if you choose to dissolve the seen on your tax bill your

[2:00:17] tax bill according to the law says that you have to show what the tax would have

[2:00:22] been and what is now saved by the CC as provided by New York State and your

[2:00:27] final amount your tax bill will have two additional lines on

[2:00:36] it uh with that is anyone left of the village had a

[2:00:41] question in the Village Hall

[2:00:56] okay so what we're going to do is we're going to close this for now uh this

[2:01:00] public meeting it's not a public hearing so it's not really closing it so we'll

[2:01:02] end this uh public information meeting uh we're going to post tomorrow the

[2:01:07] PowerPoint in its entirety uh we'll take this extra slide that we just went over

[2:01:12] that we had uh on hand and put it into the slide deck uh so you'll all have

[2:01:17] that information uh when the village uh board approved the draft plan we'll get

[2:01:23] that up online you'll see again in there an executive summary that that goes into

[2:01:28] each of the items we spoke about today and provides that checklist for you all

[2:01:32] as Village residents uh for pro and con uh the village then will go through its

[2:01:36] process of of the agenda and timeline that we set forth of endorsing uh the

[2:01:42] plan and then having a public hearing and then can also during either before

[2:01:46] then or after then we can amend the plan uh and then move forward with the

[2:01:50] process

[2:01:53] there was one more question was the dissolution affect government grants or

[2:01:56] Awards on drri money it doesn't AFF current ones except the town will take

[2:02:01] over as the administrator of them the drri money is given to the Village which

[2:02:06] then will go to the town to administer uh it's a misnomer that is given to the

[2:02:11] Village when the vast majority of that of those funds are are slotted for

[2:02:15] private investment projects and again it's all a reimbursement program so for

[2:02:20] those private projects the have the commercial development the rehab they

[2:02:24] have to do the work to get the money back from the state uh and if you recall

[2:02:28] in our transition of uh Personnel uh the town has already identified a need for a

[2:02:33] grant administrative position uh so they're intending to be able to

[2:02:37] administer the grants should they be charged with doing so going

[2:02:41] forward with that I want to thank you all for participating staying on so long

[2:02:46] we started with about 65 people we have still about 56 plus ones in Village Hall

[2:02:51] uh I always want to thank you for taking time to participate in the process to

[2:02:55] listen to what we had to share I hope you take time to read it again when it's

[2:03:00] online and I hope you take time to read the draft plan when it's available and

[2:03:04] continue to Avail yourselves of the uh Q&A portion of the website um and we

[2:03:10] hope to see you all again soon uh thank you and have a good night

Village of Tannersville Dissolution Plan Public Meeting #2

Transcript