[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