[0:30] i would like to call the meeting to order

[0:32] at 1003. could we please stand for the pledge of

[0:36] allegiance by supervisor bruno

[0:46] the united states to the republic for which it stands

[0:50] one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all

[1:05] we'll start with the roll call

[1:09] mr conover here mr leggett here mr diamond mr mcdevitt here

[1:17] miss framer here mr bruno here mr driscoll here mrs frazier here

[1:24] ms smith miss hogan here mr dickinson here mr marlena

[1:31] here mr straus here mr wilde mr mcgowan here mr beatty here

[1:38] mr thomas here sheffler here mr garrity here chairman sieber

[1:44] president established thank you may i have a

[1:47] motion to approve the minutes from the december 18th board meeting

[1:50] and from the january 8th organizational meeting

[1:54] that motion is made by super supervisor mcgowan second by supervisor bremer

[1:58] all those in favor

[2:04] of me

[2:07] thank you uh supervisor smith i appreciate that one extension

[2:14] at this point in time with when our federal and state elected leaders join

[2:19] us i'll defer the floor over to them they have an incredibly

[2:22] busy schedule today so out of consideration for their uh

[2:26] schedule and also the busy schedule we have in front of us

[2:29] i would ask that you please hold your questions

[2:32] we will hear from them a quick update and of course would encourage you to

[2:36] reach out to them individually in the coming days as well so let me

[2:40] know

[2:43] happiest woman stephanie thank you for joining us this morning the floor is

[2:47] yours thank you congresswoman sieber and thank

[2:51] you to all of the members of the board in warren county i

[2:55] am currently driving back from washington dc to the district for

[2:58] district events this weekend so that's the

[3:01] background noise and background view here today i wanted to make a couple of

[3:05] statements first on the very horrific events that

[3:08] occurred last week at the united states capital

[3:11] so first i want to make very clear that i condemn the violence and the

[3:15] destruction that occurred at the united states

[3:17] capital i was on the house floor it was an incredibly scary moment for

[3:22] the entire american people their actions were un-american americans

[3:27] of course have the right constitutionally to peacefully protest

[3:30] they do not have the right to commit violence and destruction of

[3:34] federal property and we are working with law enforcement

[3:37] to ensure that they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law

[3:40] i also want to thank our u.s capitol police for their

[3:44] tremendous service and courage we lost one capital police officer in the line

[3:49] of duty at during the events and another police

[3:53] officer subsequent who was lost in the line of

[3:57] duty we are committed to working with our law

[3:59] enforcement to ensure that they have the resources we need

[4:03] as we are headed towards the inaugural for president-elect biden

[4:06] our focus is making sure that we have a safe and secure inauguration

[4:10] and then get back to the people's work i also wanted to provide an update on the

[4:15] coveted relief package and resources that will be received by

[4:20] the residents small businesses and other important federal funds going

[4:24] to the north country and across the congressional district so in

[4:28] december after many many months we finally broke

[4:31] through the gridlock and passed the covert relief package and there were a

[4:34] number of provisions that are going to be really important for our community

[4:38] so number one for our school districts there's four billion dollars

[4:43] of elementary and secondary school relief

[4:46] fund and that will go to local school districts it has to go to the school

[4:50] districts by law by january 2022 so there's one year for those funds to

[4:55] be allocated across the district in addition there is federal support

[4:59] for uh independent schools so the non-public schools in the district as

[5:03] well they have also struggled for new york

[5:06] state d.o.t infrastructure projects there was 400

[5:10] million dollars included in the legislation warren

[5:13] county has benefited from previous rounds of infrastructure funding and

[5:16] we're going to make sure that much of those funds come to the district

[5:20] higher education obviously the importance of suny

[5:23] adirondack is critical i just announced yesterday over 45

[5:27] million dollars to our higher ed institutions suny adirondack is

[5:30] receiving 4.8 million we are working with uh president duffy

[5:35] uh and in close communication with her team in addition their support for

[5:40] child care through the community block development grant

[5:43] program and then additional funds for broadband this is

[5:46] on top of the announcement i made in december for the

[5:49] 100 nearly 100 million dollars that new york is going to receive

[5:55] through the rural broadband fund that we were not initially eligible

[5:59] for and i work for the fcc to make us

[6:02] eligible i've spoken with many of the town supervisors

[6:04] in warren county about specific uh localities and neighborhoods and

[6:10] locations where that build out process will begin so

[6:13] without rachel we have a lot of work ahead of us i will turn it back over to

[6:17] you thanks for the opportunity to give an update

[6:19] thank you congresswoman stefanik and we certainly appreciate your efforts and

[6:23] advocacy on our behalf at this time i'd like to welcome

[6:27] assemblyman matt simpson it's nice to see you back

[6:30] now on the floor is yours well thank you and i want to

[6:34] congratulate uh you chairwoman sieber on uh

[6:39] you know uh being the chairwoman of the board for uh 2021

[6:44] and uh i want to congratulate all of you in the new year and

[6:49] you know i'm i'm missing uh with covid i'm not seeing you all as much as i have

[6:55] in the past but we i can assure you we've been in our office

[6:59] uh working diligently in response to the many calls around covid one of the

[7:06] issues that is really behind most of these calls is the

[7:12] confusion around how to you know

[7:18] secure an appointment for a vaccination or where do you go

[7:21] and how do you call and um right now i'm going to give you a number because this

[7:26] is uh the main state number to call

[7:30] for appointments and vaccinations um it's 1-833-697-4829

[7:39] i was on a call yesterday with the governor's office it's

[7:43] uh you know there's limited vaccines right now and there's about

[7:46] seven million people in this first phase that are eligible

[7:50] um but i think that uh we need to look at how we can communicate to

[7:56] this group of people a lot of these seniors

[8:00] are having difficulty managing the information as it's coming through on

[8:03] social media it's coming through on the you know facebook and

[8:10] we really need to do a better job somehow we need to communicate

[8:13] uh more effectively with these seniors because they just

[8:16] you know we deal with computers all day we deal with uh

[8:20] press releases we deal with this information

[8:23] we have to disseminate this better to uh to our constituents so

[8:28] that's what we're working on those are probably 99

[8:31] of the calls and it really concerns me you know thinking that people are just

[8:35] confused about where to go how to call who to talk to

[8:39] and when they're going to receive these

[8:41] vaccinations i have um we've had session this past

[8:47] week two days i had committees i am the

[8:51] ranker of social the social services committee so i'm

[8:55] very excited about that that appointment i'm also on the

[8:59] environmental conservation committee the local government's

[9:03] committee and also the tourism arts and sports

[9:07] development committee so uh i'm very busy we are

[9:12] i encourage you all to come and visit my office and meet my staff

[9:17] and uh please reach out to me you know the i was very encouraged about

[9:22] the i just got a message on the phone number i'll do that after i'm

[9:26] done here i was very encouraged about uh the governor mentioning uh broadband

[9:33] that is something that's just so critically important

[9:37] um you know especially with this covered response

[9:41] these seniors not not everybody in the north country in this district

[9:44] has access to these uh social media posts or the way that this information

[9:50] is being disseminated so um i'm very happy for congresswoman

[9:55] stefanik's work on that and and i'm looking forward to

[9:58] working more and helping make this a reality in the north country

[10:05] um i'm looking at my notes so the number that i had said it's 1-833-697-4829

[10:17] and with that i've uh i've got to head over to another meeting

[10:21] but uh i wish you all well and please stay in touch if there's anything that i

[10:26] can do any of your um constituents in your towns have any

[10:30] questions you know surrounding covid or any other

[10:35] issue please uh reach out to me my staff and

[10:39] myself were working to deal with those every single

[10:43] one of those issues and i'm very proud so far of how we're

[10:47] managing that so thank you thank you assemblyman

[10:51] simpson and we appreciate your advocacy at the

[10:53] state level on our behalf as well please bear with me this morning we a

[10:59] few changes in our agenda um our first just just moving things

[11:03] around uh our first item that we will be

[11:07] doing this morning will come from our county administrator ryan moore

[11:10] with a presentation from our newly appointed personnel

[11:14] chair claudia bramer thank you madam chair uh i'm very proud to announce the

[11:20] uh january 2021 employee of the month and our employee of the month uh this

[11:26] this month is assistant director of public health

[11:29] pat belden and she was nominated by our 2020 employee of the year public

[11:34] health director janelle jones i'd like to read first from the

[11:38] nomination that janelle has written it is with pleasure

[11:42] that i nominate pat belden assistant director of public health as

[11:46] employee of the month during these unprecedented times pat has

[11:50] gone above and beyond each and every day to meet the needs of

[11:53] the residents of warren county she has worked tirelessly with state

[11:57] regional and local stakeholders on warren county's response

[12:01] from early on in the cobig 19 pandemic the mindset has been we stay until the

[12:06] work is done which means working from the early

[12:09] morning hours until well in the evening to ensure that we as a county are on top

[12:14] of all the aspects of the kovig 19 response

[12:18] and we are very grateful for her effort whether it was putting in place the

[12:22] local contact tracing team establishing copic 19 testing public

[12:27] education and most recently vaccine administration

[12:30] we are fortunate to have pat among us leading the charge pat has been with the

[12:35] agency since 1990 and she has demonstrated passion

[12:39] dedication leadership and professionalism for her time with us

[12:43] her knowledge experience and efforts have contributed to the success of

[12:47] warren county's response to this pandemic she has been

[12:50] and continues to be an inspiration for staff

[12:55] leading them through each and every day and both pat

[12:58] and janelle are also an inspiration to me and to all our other department heads

[13:02] and employees and everybody in the community that has collectively

[13:05] responded so well to this pandemic you uh too are

[13:08] irreplaceable you've been at the core and at the heart of everything that

[13:12] we've done and there are never enough words to thank you for all of that

[13:16] so congratulations it is very well deserved

[13:36] [Music]

[13:44] i just want to reiterate our thanks to you for all of your work pat and also

[13:47] for you janelle director and assistant director this has

[13:50] been an amazing year you guys have stepped up so much

[13:53] and warren county is a highlight of all the counties in our area and we really

[13:58] appreciate your tireless ongoing work and that of your staff and

[14:02] all of the volunteers that you have brought into the fold as well

[14:06] dozens of them thank you so much great job thank you very much

[14:10] and keep up the good work thank you you're welcome to say anything like

[14:15] thank you

[14:32] this time i have no doubt that you will stay standing for just a little bit

[14:36] longer as i ask for a standing ovation and applause and extreme gratitude for

[14:42] frank thomas who was our previous chair of the board and is our

[14:45] current budget officer for 2021 please join me and thank you

[14:49] thank you

[15:06] supervisor thomas we are not done yet i am positive that they are not up to

[15:12] par to go fishing with you and i was gonna get you one and i

[15:15] thought how much fun would that be alone so i hope you take

[15:46] at this time i'm incredibly proud of the members of our board

[15:51] we've had a change in leadership but more importantly

[15:54] we've come together unified and i've heard today

[15:58] from our majority leader our minority leader

[16:02] and from craig leggett the supervisor from the town of chester

[16:06] who represents our independent and our um unaffiliated political vote or our

[16:11] voters are electric and we have all come together in

[16:14] agreement that we would like to submit a letter

[16:18] on behalf of the board of supervisors to our community and to our elected leaders

[16:23] supervisor leggett is that correct

[16:27] thank you minority leader ms bramer that is my understanding as well thank you

[16:31] chairman thank you and majority leader supervisor

[16:34] baby that's spot on that's correct thank you

[16:37] again i'd like to thank the board and on behalf of the board i will now read the

[16:41] letter into the record

[16:44] the warren county board of supervisors condemns all acts of violence

[16:49] the warren county board of supervisors condemns all the violent and destructive

[16:54] acts done by the people particularly

[16:57] those acts that have been perpetrated by those

[17:01] that do not seek peaceful protest and those that have contributed to the

[17:05] violence and destruction in 2020 and 2021

[17:09] including those acts that attack the capital of the united states of america

[17:13] on wednesday january 6 2021. this implores all judicial and law

[17:20] enforcement agencies to administer swift and sure justice upon all who

[17:24] broke the law and behalf of all victims who suffered

[17:28] from the vet from the acts of violence that occurred

[17:31] on that day and all of those days before us and

[17:36] the warren county board of supervisors acknowledges that

[17:39] president-elect joseph biden and camilla harris

[17:43] are elected and that the 2020 national presidential election as determined by

[17:48] the united states electoral college and accepted by the

[17:52] u.s congress just as we have as americans as this

[17:56] great country acknowledged the election results in all previous

[18:00] elections and we express support and gratitude

[18:04] to our warren county board of elections where we all serve

[18:08] the great county of warren here at home and the warren county board of

[18:14] supervisors firmly desire to see a peaceful

[18:18] transition of power on on january 20th 2021

[18:22] and ask that all who have been elected by the people

[18:26] for the people support this desire with their words

[18:29] and actions in the same way that we are committed

[18:32] each individual supervisor on this very board

[18:35] to respect communicate and are committed to the transition here before us today

[18:41] on january 15 2021 in our hometown county

[18:46] warren county usa and the warren county board of supervisors

[18:51] asked the clerk of the board to send this letter to

[18:54] to of support to senator schumer gillibrand

[18:58] congresswoman congresswoman stefanik state senators

[19:01] stack state assemblyman simpson and to other persons or entities so

[19:07] desired by the board including but not limited to all elected

[19:11] supervisors and all elected regardless of political

[19:15] affiliation in the county of warren in an effort to

[19:18] begin 2021 in unity and justice for all sincerely

[19:23] the warren county board of supervisors

[19:30] at this time i'd like to move forward to the state of the county address

[19:40] and i'm also going to include our moment of reflection since i've

[19:44] gone all over on our agenda this morning if we could please take a moment as we

[19:49] come together to reflect and to believe in all of the

[19:52] possibilities and hope for the new year keeping in mind who we work for and

[19:57] serve the citizens of warren county

[20:00] collectively we represent a diverse population

[20:03] from our most northern friends and neighbors in north river to our vibrant

[20:06] and iconic city of glenn's falls especially affectionately known as

[20:10] hometown usa we represent not just one person and not

[20:14] just one political party we represent all 65 000

[20:19] and i believe it's 597 individuals in our community

[20:24] let us come together as a board of supervisors to serve all

[20:27] in our beautiful county i stand before you as the newly elected chairwoman of

[20:33] the board to deliver the state of the county

[20:35] address and i would like to welcome those of you joining us

[20:39] virtually members of our board our employees and our invited guests

[20:45] i would also like to especially welcome my family here today

[20:48] please welcome my husband kevin knight my son dylan

[20:51] and my brother and sister-in-law ken and trudy siever

[20:54] with all of my heart i thank you and your support and your patience does not

[20:58] go unnoticed none of us could have imagined what 2020

[21:03] would bring let alone predict what will lie ahead of

[21:06] us for 2021. i doubt any any one of us would have

[21:10] expected that we would be here wearing masks

[21:13] stayed socially distant all of that would become normal for us

[21:18] we would monitor testing and contact tracing and depending on the

[21:21] results schools and businesses alike would learn

[21:24] how to keep going virtually from kindergartners to grandparents we

[21:29] learned that zoom isn't just a sound that a car makes it

[21:33] is how we stay connected with each other we have endured a lot this year and we

[21:38] have learned how to thrive in our chaos we have discovered how resilient we

[21:42] really are as a community as a country and as the warren county

[21:48] board of supervisors i would like to thank our county team

[21:52] this team was led by supervisor frank thomas county

[21:56] administrator ryan moore and our incredible clerk of the board

[21:59] amanda allen and not last not least but last but not least what

[22:06] however this thing is last but not least thank you don

[22:11] our incredible director of public affairs you are a liaison to the media

[22:15] and you continue to play an inter and in trickle

[22:19] you can continue to play one of the most important roles um

[22:23] to show our citizens the most current information

[22:27] and to make safe decisions now beyond that administration

[22:31] our departments have done an extraordinary job and i cannot think of

[22:35] a department that has risen higher to this relentless challenge

[22:38] than our employees in public health under the very capable leadership of

[22:42] janelle jones i know all of us are grateful for your

[22:45] tireless efforts to keep us safe and lead us to the day when we are all

[22:49] vaccinated thank you doesn't capture the full

[22:52] magnitude of our gratitude all of our department heads have worked

[22:57] hard and were disciplined in migrating their options so that

[23:00] there are operations that we could continue their daily duty

[23:05] to our citizens without compromising our staff's health or public safety

[23:09] through this crisis not one employee was laid off

[23:13] and none of our offices stopped delivering on their responsibilities

[23:17] i thank each and every person who works for this county

[23:21] we know it can be hard but please know how much you are valued

[23:25] now admits these challenges you may expect that we would have terrible news

[23:29] financially but that is just not the case we have received 1.2 percent less

[23:34] in sales tax than the prior year which is reflective of our new york

[23:38] state shutdown however our sales tax still generated a surplus

[23:42] of 271 thousand five hundred and seventy six dollars

[23:47] this is a clear credit to our 2020 board chair

[23:50] supervisor thomas budget officer supervisor gary

[23:54] and is very much attributed to our hard-working treasurer

[23:58] mike swann with a change in the chair and with board leadership i want to

[24:04] build on the good work the good solid work of our budget

[24:08] officer from 2020 supervisor thomas or from 2020 supervisor garrity and

[24:14] supervisor thomas i am happy to report that he will join

[24:18] our newly established bipartisanship leadership team as our budget officer i

[24:23] thank him for his leadership his guidance and his friendship the 2021

[24:28] committee assignments were disseminated to the supervisors yesterday and they

[24:32] are now available on our website each assignment was made with a goal of

[24:37] having balanced representation by region and party and with a goal that we

[24:41] develop a cohesive approach that raises up every corner of our

[24:46] county we are better when we work together and

[24:49] we when we raise each other up we are warren county strong

[24:54] no one person will have all of the answers and just as

[24:58] none of us could know what 2020 would bring

[25:02] and we did not know that we were facing a pandemic

[25:06] we do not know what 2021 will bring but i can promise you this i will make

[25:12] sure that every voice of every member of this board is heard

[25:17] because each of you are important to our success

[25:20] i promise to every citizen that you will be able to see

[25:24] our meetings on youtube so you can see the issues that we are addressing

[25:28] the options that we are discussing and know that your voice can be heard

[25:33] i have set up an email for your suggestions email any idea

[25:37] to warren county strong at warren county ny.gov and while we don't know

[25:45] what we will have to face i don't have a doubt in my mind

[25:49] that together we can handle whatever this year brings

[25:52] for we are warren county strong may god bless our

[25:56] county our country and her citizens thank you

[26:07] at this point in time i declare a public hearing is open for the warren county

[26:12] local law number two of 2021. this is a local law amending

[26:17] local law number five of 2009. it is establishing the office of

[26:21] emergency services for warren county and i request that the clerk read the

[26:25] notice of public hearing aloud privilege of the floor extended to

[26:29] anyone wishing to be heard on this matter

[26:33] notices hereby given that the board of supervisors of the county of war in new

[26:36] york is considering the adoption of a proposed local law number two for the

[26:39] year 2021 entitled a local law amending local law

[26:42] number five of 2009 establishing the office

[26:45] of emergency services for warren county notices further given that pursuant to a

[26:50] resolution adopted by the board of supervisors on december 18 2020

[26:53] a public hearing will be held by the board of supervisors on january 15 2021

[26:57] at 10 am in the supervisors rooms at the warren county municipal center

[27:00] route 9 queensborough new york at which time and place

[27:03] all persons interested in the matter of such local law number two for the year

[27:06] 2021 will be heard concerning saying no due to the coca-19 pandemic which has

[27:11] caused the closure of the warren county municipal center building to the public

[27:14] this hearing will be held by a zoom video conference

[27:17] those wishing to speak during the public hearing must contact the clerk of the

[27:20] board or to receive an invitation to the

[27:23] meeting comments can also be submitted by mail

[27:26] in writing or by email to 1340 state route 9 lake george new york 12845

[27:31] or to allen a at warren county warrencountyny.gov no later than january

[27:35] 14 2021 comments can also be made during

[27:38] the meeting through the chat feature of the live stream video offered on warren

[27:41] county's youtube page a copy of said local law is available

[27:44] for inspection during regular business hours by contacting the clerk for the

[27:47] board of supervisors at the above stated address and may be

[27:50] viewed on the warren county website i have not received any comments or

[27:54] requests to be included in the gym for this

[27:57] okay uh john lee do you have anything particular to this

[28:02] in the last few minutes on youtube good morning chairwoman receiver no there is

[28:05] nothing on youtube right now related to this

[28:08] public hearing thank you very much at this time i would call for a report

[28:14] from our county administrator thank you madam chair i have a very

[28:18] brief report this morning and that is to acknowledge the

[28:21] employee anniversaries for the month of january

[28:24] with 30 years service in warren county rebecca hill from the social services

[28:29] department and with 20 years of service to warren

[28:33] county wayne farmer in the sheriff's department we thank

[28:36] them both for their dedication and for their hard work

[28:38] and everything that they've contributed to these citizens of this county

[28:42] appreciate it thank you thank you county administrator more

[28:47] carry no further privilege or privilege of the floor regarding our public

[28:51] hearing i will call that public hearing closed

[28:53] at this time i would like to ask our county attorney mary kasem for

[28:58] good morning good morning um i don't have a substantive report this morning

[29:02] however i do want to publicly thank everyone in my office

[29:05] unfortunately i've been out sick since christmas

[29:08] every single person in my office has stepped up to ensure that our office

[29:12] continued to run smoothly and efficiently

[29:14] not only are the people in my office the most supportive group of individuals

[29:18] i've ever worked with they're the most competent and able

[29:20] employees i've ever had the pleasure of working with

[29:23] they not only kept the office running smoothly but kept my family and i fed

[29:27] when we couldn't leave the house i'm so lucky to work with these people

[29:30] every day and the county is extremely lucky to have them as employees

[29:34] this ends my report report for today i'm excited to be back

[29:37] and i'm really hoping 2021 only improves from here

[29:41] thank you county attorney mary jose i appreciate that

[29:45] at this time amanda would you please read the reading of communications

[29:49] yes we have a november 2020 payment in the amount of

[29:52] thousand two hundred forty nine dollars from capital district regional off track

[29:57] vetting court and the 2020 regional benefit

[30:00] distribution installment number one in the amount of two thousand four hundred

[30:03] eight dollars also from the oaktv thank you ms allen at this point we will

[30:10] move on to reading of resolution resolutions resolution number four was

[30:15] distributed to the members of the board of supervisors

[30:17] posted to the warren county website on january 12th which meant the

[30:20] distribution deadline specified in the current roles of the board and is

[30:23] therefore considered to be on the floor resolution numbers 5 through 21 were

[30:27] distributed to the board and posted to the warren county website on january

[30:30] 14th as this did not meet the mailing

[30:32] deadline specified in the current rules of the board a waving of the rules will

[30:36] be required to bring these all of these resolutions to the floor

[30:43] okay um call for a motion regarding the wait we're just gonna have to bear with

[30:48] me today because we've got a lot of wave in the rules

[30:52] thank you supervisor garrity emotion await the rules that second of vice

[30:55] supervisor thomas all those in favor opposed

[31:00] okay resolutions five through 21 are now considered to be on the floor

[31:05] thank you is there any discussion regarding resolutions 5 through 21 from

[31:09] members of the board

[31:13] hearing none is there any discussion from members of the public regarding

[31:16] resolutions 5 to 21. mr lehmann

[31:22] uh no public comment on youtube related to these resolutions

[31:29] are there any roll calls for 5-21

[31:44] thank you at this time supervisor hogan i believe you have a floor resolution

[31:48] that is required to come before us today for requested from you

[31:52] i do thank you um i sent out an email last night to

[31:58] everybody thanks for uh asking for your support

[32:02] for a floor resolution to set a public

[32:05] hearing at the time of our february meeting

[32:08] uh there is a short grant opportunity um that closes on march 5th

[32:14] through the cdbg that was brought to my attention by wayne lamont last night

[32:19] in order to apply for this grant which could fund infrastructure projects

[32:26] in various parts of the county uh we need to have a public hearing

[32:30] so we would have to set it today in order to hold it in february and meet

[32:34] the bartender so i guess we need to promote the rules

[32:40] that motion is made by supervisor bramer seconded by supervisor mcgowan

[32:45] any discussion all those in favor all right opposed that motion carries

[32:53] thank you next we'll need a motion to bring that

[32:55] resolution to the floor the motion is made by supervisor

[32:59] mcdevitt seconded by supervisor mcgowan any discussion

[33:06] then all those in favor that motion carries thank you that

[33:12] motion will now or that resolution will now be

[33:15] waiving rules resolution will be number 22 and the resolution setting

[33:18] in the public hearing will be number 23. you'll see those in writing after the

[33:22] meeting supervisor i'm not sure if you want to take it now

[33:26] because i don't need a uh formal resolution but i would like a

[33:30] motion from the board to related to the mullins building

[33:33] demolition like you can take that now or tell

[33:37] [Music] without objection okay thank you i'll

[33:42] just explain quickly um the contractor in doing the demolition

[33:46] has discovered that more of the materials that were

[33:49] originally thought could be hauled away as not asbestos contaminated if they are

[33:55] able to wash it down they can haul some of the bricks and

[33:59] wood that are still kind of intact and big pieces

[34:02] but we need to in order for them to do that we need to submit to the department

[34:06] of labor a request to amend our variance which means

[34:11] getting permission from them to not treat it all as asbestos contaminated so

[34:16] i would like emotions from the forest it just has to

[34:18] be a simple motion i can make the motion in fact um that we submit that variance

[34:23] request to the department of labor is that

[34:26] second supervisor mcgowan thank you

[34:31] and i'll i'll just um that we are requesting that the contractor pay

[34:36] for the cost of submitting that a variance application to the department

[34:39] of labor and so far they have agreed in concept to do

[34:42] that there may be an additional cost if it

[34:46] takes them a couple of extra days two three

[34:49] days is what we're thinking in order to do that obviously that work

[34:52] is on them but we do have a consultant that is on site

[34:56] to watch out for our interests and to make

[34:59] sure that they are doing what they're supposed to with the

[35:01] potentially asbestos contaminated material and that could cost up to two

[35:06] thousand dollars we do have that money in the

[35:08] environmental testing reserve fund so i'm not worried about that but i did

[35:12] want to make that make you aware of it and we'll try to

[35:14] limit that as much as possible but i want to see this go forward

[35:18] without any delay um so i really hope that you guys will

[35:22] be understanding in that small cost that might occur it be

[35:26] incurred by the county just make sure that everything is done

[35:28] properly thank you thank you questions supervisor yeah i

[35:35] just would like to say i support claudia's

[35:37] efforts in this regard i i'm saying it for you know a couple of years i mean

[35:41] this this is a this is a an eyesore that sits

[35:44] at the crossroads of glens falls in queensborough is the

[35:48] first thing you see when you come in or exit it and

[35:52] it will be refreshing positive uh and and i think economically will be

[35:59] a very positive moment for for the county so i

[36:02] i really support claudia's efforts here thank you supervisor mcdonough superbug

[36:06] and just so you know for those of you on zoom i think i can still see far enough

[36:11] that if you wave your hand i can see you and i know that amanda is

[36:14] checking the little green with hands as well so i believe i can

[36:18] see supervisor baby and then on the floor following him

[36:21] supervisor mcgowan uh supervisor baby okay thank you madam

[36:26] chairman um yeah i'm all for obviously moving

[36:30] forward and getting this building uh torn down

[36:33] uh the sooner we can get it back and the tax rolls i.e

[36:37] sold to someone the better it is for all county residents that's just common

[36:41] sense uh so i i look forward to uh to uh

[36:45] assisting them as long as there's no additional costs

[36:50] uh i think it makes comment it's good common sense to do the right thing so

[36:54] let's get this thing building down as mr mcdavid sets on eyesore

[36:58] and let's get it back uh let's get it up for auction and uh let's get it back

[37:02] somebody buy it and let's get back on the county tax rolls so i'm all for that

[37:06] thank you supervisor mcgowan thank you mr chairman

[37:10] better that is much uh much different than um

[37:14] what uh the kind of the rumor was yesterday so

[37:18] the two thousand dollars i i just i been on the record and

[37:22] i and i'm i'll i'll say this that uh i i did say this i knew this project is

[37:27] gonna cost us more money um i'm very pleased to hear that two

[37:31] thousand dollars is um is really a fair amount to get this

[37:37] out of here so i i really appreciate all you've done i just want

[37:40] to go on the record saying no no no no i told you also that it was going

[37:44] to cost us some more money but 2 000 i'm happy with so let's keep

[37:48] moving forward and get this building out of queensberry

[37:51] thank you supervisor mcgowan is there anyone else that has a question

[37:56] before i yield back to supervisor mcdevitt

[38:00] i believe that would be supervisor dickinson's hand

[38:04] mr kruller i have a question i thought we were going to make

[38:10] a parking lot out of this property for the bicycle trail

[38:17] thank you for your question supervisor dickinson supervisor bremer would you

[38:21] if you have any additional information regarding that

[38:24] as far as i know the board has not made a decision a final decision on the

[38:29] future of that piece of property right now my

[38:32] my focus has been to get the building demolished

[38:36] as everyone knows i thought that we could do something to rehabilitate the

[38:40] building and maybe sell it to someone to use for you know bike shop

[38:44] or an ice cream parlor or something but that was not the will

[38:47] of the board so we went forward with the demolition and i want to give a lot of

[38:51] credit to our real property director lexi delorey has been working on this

[38:57] a lot and really working it through the process and negotiating with these

[39:01] people and she's been on site our public

[39:04] information officer has been on site taking photos and making sure

[39:07] everything's going smoothly so that is my focus and as far as i know

[39:11] there is no no determined outcome for the future of

[39:15] this property it is a piece of warren county property

[39:18] that has been taken in the foreclosure and we can

[39:21] do with it what we want thank you supervisor bramer

[39:25] our county treasurer mike swann

[39:30] good morning everybody just as a point of clarity this property right now

[39:34] is in the auction scheduled for october of this year

[39:38] all right and that's for my instructions because it was

[39:42] taken by for back taxes and that's the normal procedure

[39:45] if this board or the town of queensberry wishes to

[39:48] do something else with that property that's your discretion you can

[39:52] move forward with whatever you want to do but just so that you're clear right

[39:56] now it is headed for the auction and i hope

[39:59] thank you super thank you respond are there any other questions before i

[40:05] go back to supervisor mcdevitt's supervisor straw

[40:11] oh yes you know i've been working very hard to get this building removed

[40:16] despite the opposition from some of the other

[40:18] county supervisors uh and i'm glad to know that we're going to get this down

[40:24] and i want to thank lexi for helping us do that

[40:27] um you know and it has been mentioned um that it could be

[40:35] a crossroads way station for the trails that glenn's falls is

[40:40] developing and the trails that queensberry are developing and

[40:44] tying in with warren county's trail that this would be an excellent

[40:49] opportunity to create a weigh station area for

[40:55] bicyclists and pedestrians who wish to use the trails because this location has

[40:59] an excellent crossroads location as supervisor mcdivitt pointed out

[41:06] so there so indeed i think the county should consider putting some kind of a

[41:12] way station there given the triangular uh configuration a

[41:18] lot and given the 30-foot setback that's

[41:21] required there there lies little developable

[41:27] remaining properties so i would doubt that there's

[41:30] any interest outside interest in the property

[41:34] and given the nature that it does have some

[41:38] um brown filled tint to it there is still some a degree

[41:45] of pollution in the soils so that's not going to suit well with

[41:50] people that might be interested in this so

[41:53] i think at the end of the day the county should seize the opportunity

[41:58] to create a great public amenity for this particular piece of property by

[42:04] creating a way station parking area bicycle repair station and so forth and

[42:10] and it could be part of the larger empire trail system so um

[42:17] i think the board should consider that thank you

[42:20] thank you supervisors are there other comments

[42:24] supervising with david i i just uh let's get the building torn down

[42:29] number one i i know emotionally it rings uh

[42:33] kind of positively that let's get it back on the tax realms

[42:37] the problem having looked at this and

[42:42] kind of looked at a couple of diagrams when when you look at setbacks

[42:46] when you look at parking requirements in the town of queensbury

[42:49] you're looking at a piece of property that is literally just fairly over an

[42:53] acre you have a very small small piece of

[42:56] property and in in trying to uh interest a a

[43:01] commercial endeavor is it just the property is just too

[43:06] small but let's let's get it torn down and we

[43:08] can discuss uh you know what we're to do you know where

[43:12] we're going in the future very good supervisor

[43:14] thank you any further questions or discussion regarding

[43:18] uh this resolution at this point in time could i have a vote right

[43:26] vote on resolutions we'll start with resolution number one

[43:29] for this one right yeah yeah was that one wave

[43:33] no it's just a motion

[43:37] do i have supervisor thank you we just needed a vote

[43:40] we don't need to have a written resolution

[43:43] just emotions which we didn't get yeah and that's what we're voting on

[43:48] right correct thank you without objection of a call in for the

[43:52] vote um on resolution number one doesn't have a number yet on supervisor

[43:57] brainer's requested resolution all those in favor aye opposed

[44:04] thank you that motion carries thank you moving forward

[44:12] now we're going to vote on resolution i'm sorry supervisor thank you

[44:15] madam chairwoman um presented in front of you was a resolution i

[44:21] wanted the board to act on this is a resolution that came out of a

[44:26] passion from last week i put it forward before

[44:31] for democratic supervisors and for republican supervisors and i

[44:37] took the recommendations and advice from them on that and this is what came

[44:44] before you i pull this resolution i will not bring

[44:47] this to the floor because the the substance and intent

[44:52] of it were were carried down with a letter that was read by the chairwoman

[44:56] and that will be carried forward and will be part of the record

[45:00] thank you thank you very much at this point in time we'll begin voting

[45:06] on our resolutions before us resolution number four enacting look law

[45:11] number two of 2021 entitled the local law amending local law number five

[45:15] 2009 establishing the office of emergency services for warren county

[45:20] mr bruno yes mr driscoll yes this is frasier yeah

[45:28] mr smith is hogan yeah mr dickinson yes mr molina yeah mr straub

[45:36] jess mr wilde yes mr mcgowan yeah mr beatty yes mr thomas yes

[45:43] ms shuffler yes mr garrity yes mr conover

[45:47] yes mr leggett yes mr diamond service for diamond mr mcdevitt yes

[45:54] mrs bramer yes chairman saber yes resolution passes and resolution 21

[46:01] which is amending the table of organization of salary schedule

[46:04] mr bruno

[46:08] yes mr ditko yes yeah ms smith is hogan

[46:15] yeah mr dickinson

[46:21] mr dickinson

[46:25] yes thank you mr molino mr straus no

[46:32] i and i'm voting no because it's creating two new positions that look

[46:37] political to me and aren't really needed and so i want

[46:40] to save twelve thousand dollars for the uh

[46:42] warren county taxpayers by saying no thank you supervisors travel when we're

[46:47] finished we'll address their comments mr wild

[46:54] yeah mr mcgowan yeah mr baby yes mr thomas yeah miss shuffler

[47:01] yes mr garrity yes mr conover

[47:08] yes

[47:20] while there wasn't a request to have discussion on this particular

[47:22] reservation i feel without objection if i could please just address supervisor

[47:26] strauss concern and for the matter of public

[47:28] uh information and transparency during this process as we looked at

[47:35] modifying our board structure many suggestions came forward about is there

[47:41] a way to have multiple vice chairs and is there a way to have additional

[47:45] leadership positions i'm very appreciative to both our county

[47:49] attorney's office our county administration and

[47:52] our county clerk who worked tirelessly to look through uh decades and decades

[47:59] of resolutions local laws state laws and what came to light was that in 1968

[48:07] we had uh bear with me because i have it

[48:11] um number eight

[48:16] rule one regardless there's a resolution from 1968.

[48:19] uh that was passed and it established the position of vice chair and financier

[48:24] and what that resident that resolution was fine and it continued to about 1994

[48:28] and in 1994 and 1995 a stipend was attached to the vice chair

[48:33] and finance chair at that point in time uh i am sure with

[48:38] all good intent they believe that that was possible

[48:40] there was additional language somewhere along the line that there could be

[48:44] a stipend for our fiscal coordinator i will be clear that our treasurer's

[48:48] office has done an exceptional job with our budget and

[48:52] at that time they had allocated that additional

[48:56] section in the law to the treasurer's office is from what i understand

[49:00] um and it moving forward we continued to carry on the vice chair

[49:05] in the finance chair stipend we found out that that was incorrect as

[49:10] we started to look at what was going on with our restructuring

[49:14] many times we're not perfect many times we don't have the ability to go back

[49:18] decades and look at all the information and we are as good as the information

[49:21] that is before us and that we continue to seek

[49:24] this board is committed to research to transparency

[49:28] and accountability and as such we needed to

[49:32] step up to the plate this year so what we did

[49:36] with full research and support from our legal team

[49:39] and again from our county administrator we went ahead

[49:42] and spoke with members of our board and we found out

[49:46] under the law that we could have a position of chair

[49:49] a position as my majority leader a position of minority leader

[49:54] and the budget officer this is done all around the state of new york and is

[49:59] completely well within the guidelines of any type of

[50:02] uh legislative body like we are the majority and you may assign

[50:08] additional duties to a majority and a minority leader from the period of

[50:12] 2021 it was decided on that we would go ahead

[50:15] and assign duties of the vice chair and finance chair to the majority leader

[50:20] and that position is then a chair appointment

[50:24] supervisor doug beatty was asked to lead in that capacity

[50:28] we also then established that for for the year of 2021

[50:31] minority leaders additional responsibilities would be personnel

[50:34] chair that then was appointed to supervisor

[50:37] bramer this was then established and requests

[50:42] were made for each political affiliation to caucus

[50:45] we are legally permitted to do that again thank you to our county attorney's

[50:49] office for researching that and ensuring that

[50:52] we have the proper documentation in front of us we moved forward and just

[50:57] this week we had a very civil respectful

[51:01] and productive caucus on both of our behalf

[51:04] this took place last evening i appreciate everyone who participated in

[51:09] that but in no way shape or form is this to

[51:12] leave out anyone who is not affiliated with a

[51:16] party we represent the people supervisor craig leggett is not

[51:20] affiliated with a party and as such we certainly appreciate

[51:23] and respect the position that you bring to the board in your opinions

[51:27] in an effort for full transparency and cooperation

[51:30] supervisor legend and i committed to each other that weekly we would make

[51:34] sure we check in he provided some priorities that he

[51:36] would like to see move forward on this board

[51:39] i notified him of the caucus he was notified and provided the information of

[51:43] this committee structure dates moving forward

[51:47] and much information that went into how we made our appointments

[51:51] also at the same time i followed up with him after our caucus

[51:56] and then followed up with majority minority leaders to make sure that

[51:59] those common grounds were provided to us and

[52:02] we are going to be dedicated to meeting monthly um

[52:06] as caucuses and to make sure that we always bring the information in front of

[52:09] each other this was not a political move this was

[52:12] an effort for us to unify as a board now as it relates to the finances behind

[52:17] it i'm very pleased to tell you that i am not a fan either of spending

[52:23] tax money when we don't have to so in that vein

[52:26] i reduce the stipend of the chair of the board

[52:30] and with full support we reduced the stipend for the majority leader

[52:35] allowed by law the minority leader allowed by law

[52:38] and the budget officer allowed by law that was done with 100

[52:43] support and agreement from not only supervisor bramer supervisor baby and

[52:49] supervisor thomas we had support as well from our county

[52:52] administrator county clerk and county attorney i'm

[52:56] very pleased to say we are returning money to the general fund

[53:00] approximately three thousand dollars it might be a little more than that

[53:04] um but we did want to move forward and make those changes while we were saving

[53:08] money as well for the taxpayer but more

[53:10] importantly just as importantly we were communicating and unifying and

[53:15] leading by example i appreciate everyone's feedback in that

[53:19] i called every single supervisor on monday and we've had continued

[53:23] dialogue since last friday and i promise all of you that that

[53:27] dialogue will not continue at the same level and

[53:30] frequency that it has been i assured supervisor merlino i will

[53:34] teach him how to block me on his phone for all hours of the night so that i

[53:38] don't wake him up and uh uh again i could not i could not

[53:43] appreciate more every single supervisor who agreed

[53:46] to chair sit on committees and work

[53:49] collaboratively that is a general message

[53:52] of a unified message from supervisor leggett from our majority party

[53:57] and from our minority party and i look forward to moving forward in such a

[54:00] fashion are there questions regarding why those

[54:03] resolutions were amended for reporting today and the policies and procedures

[54:08] were changed my question is so you are basically

[54:14] saying that the net we are we are saving money by by paying

[54:19] the supervisor baby an additional six thousand dollars

[54:22] and supervisor graham or an additional six thousand dollars

[54:26] no sir just a point of clarification what i am saying and amanda can help me

[54:30] i'm sure the exact numbers uh the finance chair

[54:33] was making approximately 8 900 before that we reduced that to six

[54:38] thousand dollars the budget officer was making i think

[54:42] nine thousand nine hundred and something dollars we reduced that to six thousand

[54:46] dollars the chair of the board was making a

[54:48] statement of approximately 23 000 and something um

[54:53] and the uh i think i'm pretty close with numbers here yeah 22 654.

[54:58] um we then took that collective amount of about 41 000

[55:02] and reduced that um thereby creating the position

[55:07] under the law which is allowed of the minority leader

[55:10] for personnel recognizing the incredible work that also goes into that

[55:14] but how important it was to be able to have a minority leader as well

[55:18] and i think we have established this week the benefit

[55:21] of communication and collaboration so we are returning

[55:25] that approximately three thousand dollars in change to the general fund

[55:30] okay so again my question is yes supervisor

[55:33] i appreciate your question but in transparency and the full commitment to

[55:37] the robert's rules of order i will come right back to you are there

[55:39] any questions or comments before i return back to supervisor mcdavid

[55:44] supervisor bremer thank you one of the um

[55:49] things that you didn't address was the stipend of the personnel chair prior to

[55:54] this year could you please i'd be happy to prior to that

[55:58] um up until 2017 that position was combined personnel chair and finance

[56:04] chair and in 2017 they went ahead and made a

[56:08] resolution to separate that then at that time personnel was removed

[56:13] finance was removed so with the intent of past

[56:16] practices to go back and also to do it in a legal and appropriate fashion under

[56:20] the accordance of the law that then um that was how we move

[56:24] forward instead does that answer your question supervisor bring money

[56:27] because are there other questions supervisor straub

[56:32] yes um who decided who was going to be the leaders of these

[56:39] political positions

[56:43] i mean how did that get decided i'm happy to

[56:46] defer to our county attorney under the advice that i have received from members

[56:50] not only the board administration and upon reviewing the law

[56:54] that was uh due to the position of vice chair finance chair and personnel

[56:58] that those could be appointed positions by the chair and then

[57:02] supported by the caucuses afterwards as we spoke

[57:06] um and because of the delegated duties to both of those positions

[57:10] but at this time whether a county administrator or a county

[57:13] attorney would like to win that would be absolutely fine please

[57:17] at least time our county administrator i i could speak to the statutes that

[57:21] the chair has referenced county law county law

[57:25] section 200 which is not a law that's passed by the county of warren

[57:29] it's a state law it's just it's called county law it provides the umbrella

[57:33] under which counties that are organized like ours operate uh and when i say

[57:38] organized like ours i mean non-charter counties

[57:40] uh there are counties larger counties like westchester a lot of these bigger

[57:43] ones are charter counties we're in non-charter county so we have

[57:46] to operate under the umbrella of county law

[57:49] county law 200 speaks to how you can pay members of the board of supervisors

[57:55] members of the board of supervisors are supposed to all get the same salary

[57:59] unless they're one of three positions and that would be chairman of the board

[58:04] majority leader and minority leader uh and that was the deficiency that i

[58:09] guess we've had all of these years going back to when

[58:13] the vice chairs started to get the stipend and we don't

[58:16] know what the historical uh basis of that was because it was about

[58:20] 25 years ago we looked through all our files and

[58:23] couldn't find any any record of the debate on that

[58:26] uh but but that's what county law 200 says you can you can give an extra

[58:30] extra salary to the majority leader the minority leader and the chair and

[58:35] in recognition of the extra workload uh county law section 351 deals with the

[58:42] budget officer the budget officer doesn't necessarily

[58:45] have to be a member of the board of supervisors

[58:48] but county law section 351 states that if it is a member of the board of

[58:53] supervisors it can either be the chair of the board

[58:56] or it can be the chair of the budget review committee

[58:59] in our case that's that's the budget committee and

[59:02] county law section 351 authorizes an additional salary to be paid to the

[59:07] budget officer so that's the legal structure that we're

[59:10] speaking of yeah but that doesn't answer my question

[59:13] excuse me supervisor at this point i i want to just go back to um

[59:18] give anyone else an opportunity yeah well well you didn't answer my first

[59:22] question my first question was who appoints the

[59:26] political positions that being the board majority leader and the board

[59:30] minority leader i mean it's a simple question i'm

[59:33] supervisor i'll request a point of order we'll follow robert's rules

[59:37] we have other supervisors he didn't answer my first question supervisor

[59:41] the chairman of the board gets to appoint those officers

[59:49] are there any other questions from anyone that has not yet been hurt

[59:53] i'll give one more opportunity a second opportunity to speak supervisor

[59:56] mcdonough trying to get an answer to

[1:00:01] the current system this is what it's costing the warren county taxpayers

[1:00:07] the smaller system this is what it's costing

[1:00:10] is it is it more or is it less it is less supervisor mcdevice

[1:00:16] would you like those numbers yeah let's just keep going up sure yeah it's on

[1:00:20] resolution i apologize resolution 21

[1:00:24] has those numbers in there the chair of the board is 22 654

[1:00:30] the vice chair is 8404 and the budget officer is 9 92.

[1:00:37] those are the amounts that are in the salary schedule currently that were

[1:00:40] adopted into the budget if you add those up it's forty one

[1:00:44] thousand and fifty dollars the proposed changes would be twenty

[1:00:48] thousand for the chair and six thousand for each of the other

[1:00:53] positions budget officer minority leader majority leader so that adds up to 38

[1:00:57] 000 gives you a total savings of 3 50 questions thank you supervisor mcdevitt

[1:01:05] for their secondary questions supervisor strong

[1:01:10] yes thank you um so you get to appoint the majority and

[1:01:15] minority leaders well if if someone has dissention and

[1:01:20] disagreement with you you certainly aren't going to appoint them

[1:01:23] so i just i get the bottom line is we could save twelve thousand dollars here

[1:01:27] and we should supervisor straw i appreciate your

[1:01:30] comments i if supervisor braymore who is minority leader would like to

[1:01:35] talk about her ability to speak with her caucus and um

[1:01:41] you know i certainly can have supervisor baby talk about his

[1:01:45] we've all meant you don't know if that's necessary at this point in time

[1:01:49] you can decline or you can decide to pay something supervisor brainerd

[1:01:54] thank you chairwoman i would like to decline to get into the internal

[1:01:58] workings of the democratic caucus at this time

[1:02:01] we did have a caucus yesterday and we will look to

[1:02:08] go forward with our caucus meetings in an appropriate manner discussing

[1:02:14] legal matters as we did yesterday and

[1:02:19] i also want to assure this board that i was able to meet with the department

[1:02:22] heads yesterday during the chairwoman weber's department head meeting and i

[1:02:26] really appreciate it for inviting me and i

[1:02:28] intend to do a lot of hard work here it's going to take me away from

[1:02:32] what you guys all know is my own practice i

[1:02:35] i have um

[1:02:40] work that i do for myself and this will take time away from that and i

[1:02:44] appreciate the opportunity to serve the board and go forward

[1:02:48] um

[1:02:51] thank you supervisor bramer supervisor baby

[1:02:58] you're on you excuse me um i think it's been clearly

[1:03:04] said uh uh there'll be a savings of three

[1:03:08] thousand dollars from past years i think that's unprecedented

[1:03:12] uh that the uh that there's money going back into the county coffers

[1:03:16] so uh you know i think that says it all the taxpayers are being well served by

[1:03:21] that so i think you your comments and miss

[1:03:24] framers say you know thank you okay at this point i

[1:03:29] and without objection i would like to start to close discussion on this

[1:03:32] however and i'm not going to myself i just want

[1:03:35] to remind all of you that the majority of the minority leader

[1:03:38] while they're now established you may decide at any point in time

[1:03:42] to have different duties that would associate with them

[1:03:46] it's a lot of work that they're both asked to do and i can assure you that

[1:03:49] this week they've been incredibly busy and i would thank supervisor strauss for

[1:03:53] his questions to bring up such an important discussion here today

[1:03:56] and i do recognize that there's other questions on the board room

[1:04:00] supervisor charity i just have a statement today somebody sits there and

[1:04:03] said it's unprecedented to save this county money i saved the

[1:04:08] county over two hundred thousand dollars when i was forced to be my role

[1:04:13] administrator and then i stayed on administrator

[1:04:17] for another uh about a year and a half so don't say it's

[1:04:20] unprecedented please let's take the fact we are saving money which i i agree with

[1:04:26] it i'm happy with the positions that is the chairman's right to do that

[1:04:31] but other people have saved this county a

[1:04:33] lot of money and other people have worked a lot of hours away from their

[1:04:37] other jobs to do things so please let's just clarify i mean i fully support this

[1:04:43] i think this is a great way going forward supervisor gary

[1:04:46] thank you for your comments and i know sometimes

[1:04:48] zoom is a little hard to hear i think he was just referring to the specific

[1:04:51] 3000 that was reduced from those stipends and giving back to the budget

[1:04:55] i am so excited to hear many many of us say

[1:04:59] because we have all had a collective role in not only saving money but

[1:05:02] working together um and i'm sure that was the intent of

[1:05:06] which is difficult to hear i'm sure i'm

[1:05:08] positive so i just again am so excited for the

[1:05:13] commitment of this board to report respectfully

[1:05:15] supervisor thank you chairwoman stever the vice chairman used to sit

[1:05:20] and the chairperson seat and the absence of the chair

[1:05:24] who will do that now by the statutory requirements the vice chair

[1:05:29] um it will be within that position of the majority leader because

[1:05:32] you may not have the legal authority to appoint that vice chair from what i

[1:05:38] understand from what i've been told and i'm not explaining that correctly

[1:05:42] we'll have our county administrator it's my understanding the 1968 local law

[1:05:46] which was passed by the warren county government equates the vice chair

[1:05:49] position to the to the finance chair so it's the

[1:05:52] finance chair that they will perform those duties uh the

[1:05:55] pieces i referenced earlier in the county law those

[1:05:58] relate uh strictly to the senate to the stipend state

[1:06:02] and i will also that's a good point supervisor like it i do think moving

[1:06:06] forward we need to really review a lot of the different resolutions that may be

[1:06:09] out of date i do believe that there's other parts of

[1:06:12] that resolution that will need to come before us for a public hearing

[1:06:15] um so that we can notify our public of some of those changes

[1:06:19] uh but those changes have not yet been made and i look forward i hope

[1:06:23] supervisor like it with your involvement and your appointment to nego that you'll

[1:06:27] have an opportunity to help us with some of that legislation

[1:06:30] this year and clean some of those things up so i'm counting on you for that

[1:06:34] thank you are there other questions supervisor conor i see your hand

[1:06:40] thank you uh chairwoman um just um i i don't have an issue with the

[1:06:46] reorganization in fact i think it brings a certain logic

[1:06:49] uh to uh and brings us into compliance so i don't have any problem with that

[1:06:54] however to the point to supervisor straub brought up i think that going

[1:06:58] forward i i don't think it's

[1:07:03] wise going forward to have the majority party picking the

[1:07:08] minority leader i think that the minority caucus should

[1:07:12] provide that to us i don't think that needs to

[1:07:15] be changed necessarily today because there seems to be general

[1:07:18] consensus among all of us regarding uh how we're going to move forward at

[1:07:21] this moment in time but i think that to the question

[1:07:25] of who selects and you would expect that the

[1:07:28] majority chairperson would uh have great sway within the majority

[1:07:34] caucus as to who the majority uh leader should be however

[1:07:39] in terms of the minority i think that the minority uh

[1:07:42] party uh should select its own um minority leader and i think that going

[1:07:48] forward i think maybe that issue should be revisited and um and

[1:07:53] perhaps we should might want to consider um an amendment

[1:07:56] on that so that the minority leader is selected

[1:08:00] by the minority party thank you thank you supervisor conor

[1:08:04] mcconnell your points are well taken and again i

[1:08:06] believe that there was discussion regarding that in both offices

[1:08:10] but not a formal vote taking it i can only speak for a majority caucus and i'm

[1:08:14] more than happy to move forward in the future uh with our majority

[1:08:18] caucus to help coordinate and mediate that dialogue and i am sure

[1:08:23] that that dialogue will also be committed to being

[1:08:26] uh complete it was a minority party as well

[1:08:29] but i i agree and i i hope supervisor connor

[1:08:32] that we can count on you to work with supervisor leggett as we look at

[1:08:36] restructuring and looking at some of those uh previous documents i think you

[1:08:40] bring an incredible amount of attention to detail to that and i i

[1:08:45] look forward to input are there other comments or

[1:08:48] questions regarding this did you speak on this one yet peter uh

[1:08:54] i i i i don't think i have this this is a new one

[1:08:57] okay this is supervisor thank you uh the more i've heard about the issue

[1:09:02] uh i uh i'm a little bit unsure uh of how i feel

[1:09:06] about it i personally need a little more time to

[1:09:09] think about it uh and that being the case um i i will vote

[1:09:13] no on the issue i'll change my vote from yesterday

[1:09:16] i believe we have already voted on that i um

[1:09:19] and because we don't normally have the change after the vote i'm sure

[1:09:23] what we can do is make that documented so that your intent

[1:09:27] is absolutely reflected and i appreciate the support of this board moving forward

[1:09:33] it is of course unprecedented that we are moving and

[1:09:36] changing and unprecedented in a way supervisor guarantee that we're just

[1:09:40] changing the actual um leadership structure so that

[1:09:44] it does reflect an accordance of the law um and that specific one i don't believe

[1:09:50] has been done before um and that is no reflection at all

[1:09:54] about um the attention we've given this matter previously it's just simply that

[1:09:59] we're all taking a look at this information now

[1:10:01] and trying to make it as in compliance and

[1:10:04] effective as we can so supervisor carried i appreciate your input

[1:10:08] on that and the work you've done to help make that happen

[1:10:11] so thank you

[1:10:14] i can only say you know it was done according to the rules as i said up

[1:10:19] nobody did anything that they they followed the rules as a set up and it's

[1:10:23] a chairman's appointment so i look forward to all of us talking

[1:10:26] more about the rules of the board and also the uh the organizational structure

[1:10:32] in 2022 and then 2021 will be full of a lot of good dialogue so that we can

[1:10:38] certainly help that chairperson next year

[1:10:41] in coordinating those efforts and moving forward

[1:10:45] and with that i'll close the discussion without objection on that top although

[1:10:48] supervisor connor you hope this is your second opportunity and we'd love to

[1:10:53] thank you i just uh i just want to say to my colleagues

[1:10:56] that um while i'm comfortable at this moment in time i i'm i'm also i

[1:11:01] would say to the uh the minority party that i'm uh receptive

[1:11:06] to uh a changing of the rules at some point

[1:11:09] in time as to um how the minority leader is

[1:11:13] selected i mean it seems that we're in general

[1:11:17] concert right now and i'm and i'm good with that but i think that

[1:11:20] just logic tells me going forward that the majority parties shouldn't be

[1:11:25] selecting the um minority leader going forward i

[1:11:29] think the minority caucus should select the minority leader going forward

[1:11:32] and i just would say to my uh colleagues that

[1:11:37] this supervisor would be receptive to an appropriate amendment

[1:11:40] of the rules at the appropriate time thank you thank you supervisor connor i

[1:11:44] think we're all on the same page to be able to

[1:11:46] make amendments and have discussion as we move forward throughout this year in

[1:11:50] a unified respectful manner and i uh also am under the understanding

[1:11:55] that even though that appointment for personnel chair was made

[1:11:58] in accordance with the law assigning it to the minority leader

[1:12:02] that there are discussions taking place in that party as well

[1:12:05] and should something change we are more than willing to hear that

[1:12:10] um because here on this board and this year

[1:12:13] we are going to stay wide open to those discussions

[1:12:16] uh and supervisor leggett i want you to understand in no way shape or form

[1:12:22] do i want you to feel like when we say bipartisan that that leads you out of

[1:12:26] those discussions again i as chair have the ability to say

[1:12:31] that we will continue to meet continue to talk and probably won't keep calling

[1:12:35] you at six a.m like i did this morning but we will continue to have

[1:12:39] that dialogue thank you thank you and with that

[1:12:45] we are going to have a collective vote on the balance of the resolution

[1:12:49] resolutions all in favor all right opposed unless he cares and i

[1:12:57] very much appreciate that

[1:13:01] next we will move to the privilege of the floor

[1:13:04] mr lehmann well you know what first let me say before we go to privilege of

[1:13:10] the floor typically we go to the public first but i'm sorry i

[1:13:14] stand corrected privileges of the florida are public

[1:13:17] mr lehmann good morning uh we'll start with the youtube comments uh

[1:13:24] we have one from gina mintzer wishing everyone a happy new year to our new

[1:13:28] board we have one from zane belden saying way

[1:13:32] to go mom for his mother pat belden and her award alexandra

[1:13:37] belden also saying ooh congrats alexandra has

[1:13:40] also been that that's pat's daughter she's

[1:13:42] been a huge part of helping out down there

[1:13:44] in public health throughout all this gina minster thanked pat

[1:13:48] said pat thank you for your service and all the ways you have met each and every

[1:13:51] challenge this pandemic this pandemic has presented uh

[1:13:57] karen duros said congratulations rebecca hill on 30 years

[1:14:02] and we also have some email comments that were sent in

[1:14:06] uh let's see we can start on the public health

[1:14:10] theme uh we had one from beecher baker who's the

[1:14:14] superintendent of schools for had luxury central school

[1:14:17] who wrote i would like to publicly acknowledge the warren county public

[1:14:20] health department for their professional expertise

[1:14:23] incredible work ethic and compassion in working with warren county schools

[1:14:26] during this pandemic we have had hadley lucerne are grateful

[1:14:31] for the relationship that has developed and the trust that we have in each other

[1:14:34] to do the right things for our children and staff i cannot say

[1:14:38] enough great things about the department and specifically janelle jones and pat

[1:14:42] belden they are incredible people to work with and our school is eternally

[1:14:46] grateful many thanks feature baker senior

[1:14:48] superintendent of schools

[1:14:52] we also have a number of emails that were sent in uh

[1:14:55] in reference to supervisor leggett's uh letter and the uh post article about the

[1:15:01] potential resolution uh here's one from bernice menace i

[1:15:05] m-e-n-n-i-s i very much support like it's clear

[1:15:09] simple important resolution condemning the terrible violence at the capitol and

[1:15:13] the simple necessary affirmation of the fair

[1:15:16] election of biden and harris to think of this issue as divisive or

[1:15:20] unnecessary because not directly involved with warren county

[1:15:23] is almost unreal warren county is part of our country

[1:15:26] going through dangerous times simple statements like this must be

[1:15:29] spoken aloud to silence our voice or to see it as divisive feels immoral

[1:15:35] signed bernice menace here's one from diane collins on the

[1:15:39] same subject please share with the board of supervisors my strong

[1:15:43] endorsement of the legit resolution in my request to pass it on

[1:15:46] we cannot look away from the violent insurrection attack on the capital of

[1:15:50] the united states and our elected officials by misinformed

[1:15:53] lawbreakers thank you diane collins

[1:15:58] here's one on the same subject from paul nasrani n-a-s-r-a-n-i

[1:16:02] i reside in lake george and founded my business adirondack creamery

[1:16:06] in warren county the horrific attack on the capitol last week has shaken our

[1:16:10] democracy to its core january 6 2020 was the only time outside

[1:16:14] of the war of 1812 that our government has been directly attacked

[1:16:18] and as processes attempted to be physically overthrown

[1:16:22] the emerging photographic evidence reveals members of far-right

[1:16:25] anti-government and neo-nazi groups murdering a police officer and directly

[1:16:29] threatening the lives of our vice president and congressional leadership

[1:16:33] these groups have been given legitimacy to act and as a direct result

[1:16:38] president donald j trump's claims of a fraudulent election

[1:16:41] based on information and conspiracy theories all of which

[1:16:44] have been disproven in multiple court cases

[1:16:48] and dismissed by state election officials as well as his own director of

[1:16:51] the cyber security and infrastructure security agency for the

[1:16:56] sake of our country and for the safety interests of all people in north country

[1:17:00] including our elected officials and law enforcement

[1:17:02] i'm sorry our election officials and law enforcement please

[1:17:06] issue a formal statement denouncing the violent attacks on the capitol

[1:17:09] affirming the legitimacy of the november 20th november 2020 elections

[1:17:14] locally and nationally and expressing the need for a peaceful transfer of

[1:17:17] power on january twentieth two thousand twenty one

[1:17:23] uh here's one from a uh mary beth uh milot fesano of bolton landing i want to

[1:17:29] express my support for supervisor leggett's resolution at the county board

[1:17:32] of supervisors meeting today january 15th i think our county election

[1:17:37] officials worked very hard in the last election and their work should be

[1:17:40] acknowledged for the safe process they completed for voters of warren county

[1:17:44] we must acknowledge the winners locally and nationally because warren county

[1:17:48] election officials are professional and they maintained integrity at every

[1:17:51] step of the election process national election officials did the same

[1:17:56] secondly i believe the board should condemn the violence that occurred last

[1:17:59] week at our at our nation's capital the people who

[1:18:03] caused the violence could not accept the results of a fair and safe election and

[1:18:06] should be prosecuted for the crimes they committed

[1:18:09] furthermore i believe there should be a peaceful transfer of power next week

[1:18:13] please vote to support supervisor legacy resolution

[1:18:16] let warren county stand for democracy thank you

[1:18:21] uh here's one from a jane conna kana dear supervisors these are times to

[1:18:26] stand tall and to be courageous i fully support the position the

[1:18:30] position of taking a position against the rebellious group who attacked the

[1:18:33] capitol building recently i encourage you as a group to do so and

[1:18:37] stand for what is right and good in the united states

[1:18:39] jane kanna

[1:18:42] we have one from a ginger ginger kunzel k-u-e-n-z-e-l ginger henry kunzel

[1:18:48] dear miss sieber and edna frazier congratulations miss sieber on being

[1:18:53] elected to your new role as chair of the board

[1:18:55] today i'm writing about an urgent matter now is not the time for warren county to

[1:18:59] engage in partisan politics it is time to show the residents of our

[1:19:02] county and state that warren county is taking a stand

[1:19:05] in favor of uniting the country supervisor leggett's resolution which

[1:19:09] you will hopefully consider on friday should be voted upon immediately

[1:19:12] our town and county leaders need to take an immediate and public stand to

[1:19:16] demonstrate that you unequivocally stand by the 2020 election process

[1:19:20] and results conducted by warren county and that you acknowledge the election of

[1:19:24] president-elect joe biden representatives who continue to continue

[1:19:29] to consent contest the results of that election

[1:19:31] despite all evidence need to hear that warren county does not

[1:19:34] support these efforts which only serve to divide the country and threaten our

[1:19:37] democracy the resolution is language expressing

[1:19:40] appreciation to election officials and poll workers in our county

[1:19:44] worked hard to ensure our free and fair elections is also something that you

[1:19:48] should be able to support furthermore since i think i can assume

[1:19:52] that neither of you condones the violence and destruction that occurred

[1:19:54] at the capitol building on january 6th it should not be a problem for you to

[1:19:58] approve the language and supervisor legacy resolution

[1:20:02] while i am a firm believer in process as edna knows from my

[1:20:05] from the time we served together on the haguetown board it should never be used

[1:20:09] as a convenient excuse to delay an urgent resolution

[1:20:12] i hope that i can count on both of you to carefully consider and then support

[1:20:16] supervisor leggett's resolution it certainly should shed a positive

[1:20:20] light on our county and its leaders and demonstrate a

[1:20:23] commitment to unifying the people of our county and our country thank you for

[1:20:27] your consideration best regards ginger henry kunzel

[1:20:31] and i do have a couple others here that i got to dig through

[1:20:35] okay these are both from christine straus

[1:20:39] regarding uh the

[1:20:43] appointments that were just discussed at large supervisor beatty now refers to

[1:20:47] himself as majority leader and there are other references to minority leader if

[1:20:51] the title majority leader if the title majority leader minority

[1:20:55] leader refers to the makeup of the board by gender

[1:20:57] couldn't that be considered sexist if the title majority leader minority

[1:21:01] leader refers to the political affiliation

[1:21:03] of the board of supervisors couldn't that be considered partisan

[1:21:07] chairwoman sieber has touted bipartisanship wouldn't that undermine

[1:21:11] bipartisanship if these are new leadership positions

[1:21:15] doesn't that create another layer of government also are there stipends with

[1:21:19] the newly created positions i don't know if you want to address those now

[1:21:24] or you want to like me to read the second one which has uh some similar

[1:21:28] questions from her well mr lehmann hasn't released that

[1:21:30] particular question i believe they have been

[1:21:33] addressed in detail earlier during the record of this meeting

[1:21:36] you'd like to go to her second letter i understand this is again from

[1:21:41] christine strau i understand the selection of the committee chairs is the

[1:21:45] decision of the chairperson of the board of supervisors

[1:21:47] however i would like to point out 2019 election votes

[1:21:51] at large supervisor beatties snagged the last seat on the board with three

[1:21:55] thousand two hundred three votes at large supervisor weil received the

[1:21:59] most votes for a seat on the board of supervisors at three thousand five

[1:22:02] hundred four votes town supervisor and member of the board

[1:22:05] of supervisor strau received the most votes of any sitting supervisor at four

[1:22:09] thousand three hundred and eleven supervisor beatty chairs three

[1:22:12] committees supervisor wild chair zero committees

[1:22:16] town supervisor stroud shares zero committees can

[1:22:19] chairperson sieber take this question absolutely thank you mrs straus i

[1:22:24] appreciate you taking the time to reach out to our board

[1:22:27] um i and don keep me focused on those three questions i believe the first one

[1:22:32] was regarding supervisor wild who he and i have spent a considerable

[1:22:35] amount of time together this week supervisor wild has worked very hard

[1:22:39] with an economic task force that has brought together a private public sector

[1:22:43] in our community but given the time that he has spent on

[1:22:46] that and actually it was his suggestion that we and it made

[1:22:51] perfect sense that we reduced the size of our

[1:22:53] committees and the number of committees that we give

[1:22:56] to our members of the board certainly recognizing as supervisor garrity said

[1:23:00] earlier we all have not only obligations in the private sector

[1:23:05] but many of our board members approximately 50 percent

[1:23:09] also work very hard running their municipalities so

[1:23:12] we look forward to that continued relationship

[1:23:15] um and you know so that discussion um supervisor while i'll get right

[1:23:21] if you could let me continue please the second question was regarding supervisor

[1:23:25] like it supervisor leggett and i have also had

[1:23:28] many conversations about board appointments in fact i called and

[1:23:32] spoke to every single member of our board with

[1:23:34] the exception of supervisor stroud who did email me back and i certainly

[1:23:38] appreciate his input on those committee selections as well

[1:23:42] it's tough when you reduce committees and you try to meet the

[1:23:45] need of all of our and wishes of all of our members

[1:23:48] but i think we've done an incredible job of being able to communicate

[1:23:52] large in part because of those leadership positions but also because of

[1:23:56] the hard work that everyone has put in all week long so again i certainly

[1:24:00] appreciate that unity i think i've addressed those questions and since it

[1:24:03] is during the public comment period john i would ask you to continue reading

[1:24:06] the public comments

[1:24:12] that is all the public comment we have at this time

[1:24:15] thank you very much

[1:24:20] at this point in time i would request privilege of the floor for our

[1:24:23] supervisors in this board supervisor gary yeah

[1:24:27] i was handed a news release from uh lake george area winterfest

[1:24:34] wristbands are now on sale um this was handed to me i hope everybody

[1:24:39] will get a copy of this this gets sent out to the supervisor i know where it

[1:24:42] came from i think it came from tourism but uh the winterfest wristbands are now

[1:24:48] on sale and then the second part of this is

[1:24:53] i still have concerns about us promoting this

[1:24:56] event i think it's for february because i'm

[1:24:59] just getting into tourism i know we're trying to promote business in

[1:25:07] february and i know there's pros and cons to doing this

[1:25:11] and i know they need to put together a safety plan that has to be submitted

[1:25:16] to the county and i don't believe it's happened yet maybe it did i don't know

[1:25:20] but i'm just saying

[1:25:23] i want to see businesses flourish but every day we get a list of increased

[1:25:31] number of cases and now we're asking uh we're asking people from outside the

[1:25:36] area to come into our area and support our businesses

[1:25:40] i'm just not sure i i really i'm just not sure if this is the right thing to

[1:25:44] do i know uh the committee advanced it

[1:25:48] um so i just i bring those points up today

[1:25:52] and i just hope everybody everybody in every uh every aspect of where we are

[1:25:59] just think a little bit more about this um i i know it's not about the oma

[1:26:03] almighty dollar i i get that it isn't really

[1:26:07] it's trying to spur uh something in the wintertime which we all

[1:26:11] would hope for um but i think you know with a lot of

[1:26:16] vaccines is lagging up here and then now we're still asking people

[1:26:20] to come in to our communities you know i will ask that to distribute

[1:26:27] the news release and i would ask that the organizers of

[1:26:30] this event continue to keep our concerns

[1:26:34] uh in mind thank you supervisor please thank you supervisor gary i'd like to go

[1:26:39] one step further after hearing from supervisor

[1:26:42] this week as well moving into this meeting is uh

[1:26:45] given the fact that this starts in the month of february would it be

[1:26:48] permissible and would you not object to adding on an

[1:26:51] occupancy text and tourism meeting in the coming few days

[1:26:54] so that we could hear directly from the organizers during our meeting schedule

[1:26:58] on the cove and safety plans which while they have not been filed with the county

[1:27:01] we are going to ask that they are filed um

[1:27:04] for your committee meeting i think they have one on the 25th is that soon enough

[1:27:08] of january for you or do you want to move it up i

[1:27:11] think given the great concern it would be wonderful to have that moved up and

[1:27:14] we'll work with the scheduling if just whatever amanda

[1:27:17] amanda wants to come up with i'm i'm agreeable supervisor shuffler is that

[1:27:22] agreeable that's fine thank you very much

[1:27:24] thank you without objection from the board regarding that and i can certainly

[1:27:28] have a role call on that as well supervisor right while i see your hand

[1:27:32] and i'm going right down the road to get to you

[1:27:34] um if we could make that happen that would be great supervisor ryan the floor

[1:27:38] is your sir man i'm sure woman thank you um i have

[1:27:41] no objection to having the the group promoting

[1:27:45] winterfest come in and convey their plans

[1:27:48] it makes sense based on the changes that's occurring here with the coast

[1:27:52] virus but i would like to make a comment on an

[1:27:56] interesting oversight on your state of the county uh

[1:27:59] as far as our sales tax um i know that we need to recognize

[1:28:06] the county individuals that were involved with our budgeting

[1:28:09] and trying to make sure that we were able to

[1:28:13] maintain our revenues and keep our budget straight

[1:28:18] but there was a large group of individuals that you didn't mention

[1:28:22] that were the private sector they came together started to communicate with

[1:28:26] each other and there may be questions about the

[1:28:30] value that they added to our local economy this summer i

[1:28:35] myself have no doubts that they added significant value

[1:28:38] and i just would like to call out and recognize them

[1:28:42] for their hard work their lack of political

[1:28:45] desire um they're purely communicating with each other

[1:28:50] taking time out of their own business to help support this county and the

[1:28:54] revenues that this county sees and again i'd like to commend them for

[1:28:58] their help their help and support them going

[1:29:02] forward thank you thank you supervisor wilde and

[1:29:06] justin response my only hope was that i didn't keep you

[1:29:09] here until three o'clock this afternoon with the state of the county

[1:29:12] i did read the last 10 states of the county and there was

[1:29:15] a lot of information about why everyone had different committees and how we

[1:29:19] change structure and because we made such an effort to

[1:29:23] meet together in the last week um you know i did i did

[1:29:27] talk to everyone that i would try to keep it short

[1:29:29] notwithstanding that i have a great appreciation for the members of our

[1:29:34] community and i so look forward to that public

[1:29:37] relationship and to supervise our wildest uh point i

[1:29:41] appreciate his passion and energy that he brings to this as

[1:29:45] well but you know what that's a very very valid point and i was

[1:29:48] wondering if supervisor if i keep calling him the supervisor i must

[1:29:51] want him to run if i could have treasure swan without objection speak to us about

[1:29:57] the impact of the occupancy tax and where we're at it is really important

[1:30:01] that we keep our eye not just on tourism but our overall

[1:30:05] economic growth here in warren county super part oh oh i'm not running

[1:30:11] normal iran understood confuse if i'm nominated

[1:30:15] okay treasure swan the accuracy tax i really don't have

[1:30:23] concrete information right now on we were down

[1:30:27] 17 18 the last time we looked however on the positive side my staff is

[1:30:33] completely overwhelmed right now with the payments that have come in from

[1:30:37] the short-term rentals because we went from having 250

[1:30:42] checks coming in to over a thousand okay so the stack is like that i don't have

[1:30:49] totals yet i don't dare ask them

[1:30:54] i'm waiting for them to process everything we should have something

[1:30:58] i mean we will definitely have the figures in march i want to try to get

[1:31:01] something in the middle of february is exactly

[1:31:04] where we ended up in 2020 um we're going to be down there's

[1:31:09] no question but we're not down as much as what i had

[1:31:12] anticipated and i would just like to say about the

[1:31:15] sales tax thank you for reiterating that we're down 1.2 uh

[1:31:21] which is just phenomenal i mean considering

[1:31:24] everything that happened in 2020 i was praying that we would only be down two

[1:31:29] percent and it was less than that so i you know

[1:31:32] i think we did yeah very we did very well dr knockout

[1:31:36] would yeah well thank you your prayers were

[1:31:39] hurt and we appreciate your efforts and i believe i'm starting to cross over

[1:31:44] from privilege of the floor into announcements so we will firm that

[1:31:48] up as we move forward so i make sure i get that right

[1:31:50] supervisor bramer then supervisor mcdevitt

[1:31:53] thank you so much this is less of an announcement and more of

[1:31:57] taking the opportunity for privilege of the floor but in light of

[1:32:00] all of the public comments that i received

[1:32:04] over the week and particularly those that we heard today

[1:32:08] through mr lehmann reading all of those comments i do want to say that i am very

[1:32:13] proud of this board for our bipartisan statement

[1:32:16] condemning violence around the country and in particular what happened last

[1:32:21] week at the capitol it was very upsetting to all of us and i'm glad

[1:32:27] that we were able to come together and put forward a statement about that

[1:32:30] and that we stand by and are grateful for our board of elections here in

[1:32:34] warren county and also that we are acknowledging the

[1:32:38] election of president joseph biden and kamala

[1:32:41] harris president and vice president on january

[1:32:44] 20th i really appreciate that we were able to

[1:32:47] pull together and compromise um to make that statement come out of

[1:32:53] warren county it's really it's really great and i'm proud to see

[1:32:56] that i also want to take another moment to

[1:32:59] say that i know everyone here regardless of party is committed to

[1:33:03] a fair and efficient distribution of the vaccines in warren county

[1:33:07] and to working with the governor's office to iron out obstacles that may be

[1:33:11] hindering our ability to maximize distribution to our residents one way

[1:33:16] that i plan to contribute to the board this year is to confer with our

[1:33:19] department of health janelle jones our county administrator

[1:33:23] our director of public affairs director of office of emergency services

[1:33:27] our chairwoman and all my colleagues on this board to

[1:33:31] identify and understand problems with the vaccine processes and

[1:33:36] procedures coming out of the state as we encounter

[1:33:40] those and that we will accurately convey those

[1:33:43] problems to the governor's office representatives with the goal of

[1:33:46] assisting the state to find solutions to those problems as we

[1:33:51] already know and we're hearing from our seniors in

[1:33:53] particular there's a high demand for vaccines

[1:33:56] so the information that the state puts out about warren county vaccination

[1:34:00] sites and reports and appointments needs to be timely and accurate and

[1:34:06] for instance there there were errors in the information that was put out

[1:34:10] um we need to identify them and work with our state officials to correct the

[1:34:14] information as quickly as possible and i am committed to working with our

[1:34:18] dedicated staff and my elected officials here at the

[1:34:22] county to work those out um and working with our business

[1:34:27] partners and most importantly all of our constituents

[1:34:30] thank you the opportunity to have a privilege before today

[1:34:33] thank you supervisor bramer um i do see the hands up on zoom

[1:34:37] amanda's making me a list as they all arise but before that we did have a hand

[1:34:41] of supervisor like that just very briefly uh uh i i think one of

[1:34:46] the things uh going forward with a change in administration's uh uh

[1:34:51] a very powerful and significant position in the u.s senate

[1:34:55] is the majority leader i believe we have to reach out uh and i

[1:35:01] think we are currently doing that uh as we speak i i

[1:35:06] spent some time with uh jim cephalon the other day

[1:35:10] and and we both i think agreed on the importance of developing

[1:35:14] a positive relationship with the new majority leader as we

[1:35:18] as we move forward uh with new majority leaders uh there there

[1:35:25] is uh there's just an opportunity to in terms

[1:35:32] of economics in terms of helping this county uh go forward that

[1:35:36] that if we indeed our strategic and

[1:35:41] good about this that that we will indeed i think

[1:35:45] win the day in terms of our fair share of uh

[1:35:48] economic dollars for positive development uh

[1:35:52] in warren county and just a thank you to craig

[1:35:55] thank you for your courage in bringing forth your resolution

[1:35:59] uh you started the ball rolling and then and and

[1:36:02] and i i thank you for that it was important and uh

[1:36:06] well done thank you thank you supervisor i'm sure we all um support those

[1:36:13] comments supervisor mcdevitt and also working with

[1:36:16] our um senator both uh schumer and senator julie brandt thank you

[1:36:22] next up on our list we had supervisor hanover

[1:36:29] uh thank you uh uh madam chairwoman uh i just wanted to say uh

[1:36:34] just in accordance with our rules the the chairman of finance

[1:36:38] uh is not only the um also the majority leader but is also the

[1:36:44] deputy um chairperson of the board and i just

[1:36:47] want to congratulate um the supervisor beatty uh on that

[1:36:51] position and um uh uh

[1:36:56] is part of uh our organization a reorganizational effort thank you

[1:37:00] thank you mr conover thank you supervisor conover

[1:37:04] uh and yes congratulations to supervisor baby normally

[1:37:08] we we would have talked a little bit more that more at a reorganizational

[1:37:12] meeting so i appreciate that opportunity today for us to have this in-depth

[1:37:15] dialogue supervisors trial your hand was up next

[1:37:19] yes thank you well two things uh one is uh in reference to chris

[1:37:24] strauss um thing is yes you have a

[1:37:28] a county supervisor that probably understands

[1:37:32] in greater depth than any other county supervisor

[1:37:35] the issues facing queensberry and that person does not land a

[1:37:40] chairmanship and that's hard to defend when another

[1:37:43] supervisor has three chairmanships um you know

[1:37:48] and to remove me from the bloom festival all right

[1:37:52] well we know where this is going but there's another more important topic

[1:37:57] and that is craig leggett's resolution his resolution was an

[1:38:01] opportunity for us to vote for and show unity uh and

[1:38:08] we voting in unanimously i believe it should have been a vote

[1:38:15] that shows unanimity and to avoid it otherwise shows

[1:38:19] otherwise but joseph warren he said that you depend

[1:38:26] and on you defend the fortunes of america

[1:38:30] you are decide the important question on what's the rest of happiness and liberty

[1:38:35] of millions yet unborn act worthy of yourselves all right

[1:38:41] that is joseph horn is our county's namesake

[1:38:45] he would have voted for this resolution in downtown glens falls we have the

[1:38:51] civil war monument and that is dedicated to those

[1:38:56] soldiers they did not run from injustice they did

[1:39:01] not hide from wrongfulness they gave their

[1:39:05] lives defending the truth so you know there was a slurry of emails

[1:39:10] going before the the county supervisors

[1:39:14] uh asking for us not to put this to a boat

[1:39:18] we should have clearly have put this to a boat but every one of those 644

[1:39:23] soldiers listed on that civil war monument

[1:39:26] would have voted for this resolution i find it very difficult

[1:39:31] that anyone would be opposed to craig leggett's

[1:39:35] resolution they had three truths one we were opposed to the january 6 2021

[1:39:42] storming of our nation's capital number two we recognize that the

[1:39:48] election was valid three we recognize that our

[1:39:52] president as of january 20th will be joseph biden

[1:39:57] all right who would disagree with that so

[1:40:04] putting this as a proclamation and to avoid a vote

[1:40:11] is just not the right thing to do if you wanted to vote in disagreement

[1:40:16] you have that opportunity to do so but i think

[1:40:20] that the rest of the board of supervisors should have joined me

[1:40:25] joseph warren and 644 civil war soldiers devote in support of

[1:40:32] that resolution and stand together and stand for truth

[1:40:37] so i i the proclamation is better than nothing

[1:40:42] but this should have been brought to a vote thank you

[1:40:46] thank you supervisor strava nice really i'm sure we all do appreciate those

[1:40:49] passionate comments a couple points of clarification it is

[1:40:53] not a proclamation we wrote a letter and developed a letter put that into the

[1:40:57] record supported by the board and we will send that letter to those

[1:41:02] individuals that were listed previously um on on that letter and just to recap

[1:41:08] that senator schumer senator gillibrand congresswoman

[1:41:11] stephonic state senator steck state sen assemblyman simpson and to all

[1:41:16] their persons or enemies so desired by the board including but not limited to

[1:41:20] all elected supervisors and elected regardless of political affiliation

[1:41:25] in warren county that being said um i also wanted to let you know that while

[1:41:31] we did make every attempt to communicate i'm so sorry we weren't able to connect

[1:41:35] by phone but i did appreciate your email asking

[1:41:38] to be facilities of chair at that time the facilities of chair had

[1:41:41] been expressed by several members of our

[1:41:45] board and appointed to supervisor mcgowan given his private

[1:41:49] business and expertise in that particular area

[1:41:53] also with his involvement in the facilities chair previously

[1:41:57] you did however ask to be put on occupancy tax tourism

[1:42:01] which you were appointed to and the only other committee you asked was about

[1:42:04] facilities which you were appointed to but then i think i did appoint

[1:42:08] a couple other things too regarding the special appointment for the balloon

[1:42:11] festival while that was not included in your

[1:42:14] conversations with me via email that decision was made because we believe the

[1:42:18] town of queensbury does have you representing them

[1:42:20] amanda as our clerk of abort had contacted them several times

[1:42:24] and i also want to say that upon talking with kevin he just

[1:42:29] it was uh recommended that because of the

[1:42:32] involvement of our facilities committee particularly under the airport that it

[1:42:36] would be important for supervisor mcgowan who we all know shows

[1:42:39] up bright and early all weekend long to help

[1:42:42] everyone park and coordinate throughout that process so

[1:42:45] i apologize if i didn't get to all the questions of uh

[1:42:49] christine straub and hopefully that does now address those

[1:42:53] remaining questions i believe there are other hands for our comment

[1:42:57] supervisor thank you madam chairman um earlier this week in response to

[1:43:07] the chairwoman's request i uh i copied each of you on

[1:43:14] what i was looking for in 2021 certainly um directly or indirectly uh

[1:43:21] phobic is going to uh impact a lot of the decisions that we've made

[1:43:26] uh it's already been discussed that there is

[1:43:29] concerns and and people who um are upset about the uh the formula for

[1:43:35] distribution of of

[1:43:50] is also that there's it still remains the number of

[1:43:54] individuals who are interested in getting the vaccine and in the spirit of

[1:43:59] trying to get our our numbers up uh

[1:44:03] uh janelle jones has said a hundred percent

[1:44:07] i think i uh mentioned in my uh uh letter uh that i would be satisfied with

[1:44:13] with ninety percent uh uh other uh people are talking about

[1:44:17] seventy five to eighty percent uh let's shoot for that hundred percent

[1:44:21] that uh that our public health uh director is is

[1:44:24] uh looking to achieve but uh it's for the best of all of our

[1:44:30] uh uh citizens and i think it's responsible

[1:44:34] the responsibility of us in our own ways to creatively uh

[1:44:39] uh find ways to uh help educate and inform uh residents of our community

[1:44:45] thanks thank you supervisor driscoll we

[1:44:47] appreciate that i know we're all committed to the largest percent

[1:44:49] possible uh supervisor driscoll i also want to

[1:44:52] mention that in terms of your appointments my i

[1:44:55] we have corrected and i'm not sure you saw that in the amended

[1:44:58] resolution but preview requests the potential conflict so that has been

[1:45:02] resolved with community action i believe it's supervisor mcdevitt that has since

[1:45:05] been appointed to fill your shoes um under that special congratulations

[1:45:10] supervisor looks at it to that point of a couple other changes

[1:45:13] that took place very briefly ida the ida is a situation where we work

[1:45:19] collaboratively now with um chairman sam hall over in

[1:45:23] washington county we of course have had a lot of

[1:45:26] discussions this year about the ida and as we were making uh those

[1:45:29] resolutions last night supervisor wilde had

[1:45:33] expressed to me he was interested in coming off of the ida

[1:45:36] i thought we had an additional vacancy but it was a clerical error

[1:45:39] um supervisor simpson had long uh left that ida and so he was nice enough to

[1:45:44] call me this morning and let me know of that and

[1:45:47] of course county administrator ryan moore

[1:45:50] uh it was a late night last night trying to get those rights so we did correct

[1:45:54] that and supervisor while we were able to

[1:45:56] honor your request have you removed from that and now we do

[1:45:59] have a vacant position i've talked to our chairman over in

[1:46:02] washington county again that's a joint process we'll be looking at their

[1:46:06] appointments next month and we'll continue to work very hard

[1:46:08] collaboratively to find a person or um and also with the idea on those

[1:46:13] recommendations so just that was also amended i think you

[1:46:17] saw that in your packets i think those were the only ones though

[1:46:20] however i do want to say under the announcement section thank

[1:46:24] you all of you for being so willing to whether it's a member of a

[1:46:28] team of the committee or a chair or your special appointment

[1:46:32] i've asked that you give it three months and if something really isn't working

[1:46:35] then let's talk about it and i know i do have that ability

[1:46:39] under um the sheriff's position to go ahead and make some of those switches

[1:46:42] but i really appreciate the commitment if

[1:46:45] you could give it three months supervisor titled

[1:46:47] and then supervisor is it oh it's you up on the screen too oh yeah

[1:46:53] geez that's that's crazy okay sorry super i thought

[1:46:56] you wrote the bills game uh with your background supervisor madam

[1:47:00] sure thank you um i was trying to uh hold my public

[1:47:05] comment but since you brought it up about the

[1:47:08] idea um i don't believe that that truly

[1:47:11] represents our conversation that we have in private

[1:47:14] that i did agree to continue for a few months

[1:47:17] right so that's um that's not totally true so getting out through that

[1:47:24] side i believe i have to florida also um

[1:47:28] there's a couple of things that are going on here that are troubling to me

[1:47:33] and it's all about politics that's not what we're here for

[1:47:37] we're here to do the people's business we can argue about language we can argue

[1:47:43] about anything but what we do is set an

[1:47:46] example for the rest of our community and the county and it's important for us

[1:47:51] to be able to put aside some of these political

[1:47:55] differences and do our best for our constituents and

[1:48:00] passion is a good thing i've said this many times

[1:48:04] passion is great anger does not fall into that realm

[1:48:08] of being great so we need to control our anger but pursue our passions

[1:48:15] and hopefully as we go forward we can support our new chairwoman

[1:48:20] we can support the group we'll do the county's business and

[1:48:23] do the best we can moving forward but to be honest

[1:48:26] i'm tired of politics i'm totally part of it

[1:48:30] now my last point was um there's only one football team

[1:48:36] in this state that plays in our great empire state

[1:48:40] and it's been 25 years that i've been suffering

[1:48:44] supporting my team the buffalo bills and all i would like to say

[1:48:48] is go bills supervisor wild thank you and in light

[1:48:53] of that passion and of course i think we all agree we're sick of politics and

[1:48:56] we'd really like to just move forward and get to the work that people put us

[1:49:00] here to do i am more than happy and i believe that

[1:49:03] i would need um and i don't know the procedure and

[1:49:06] i'm sure amanda will help me i am more than happy to amend that

[1:49:09] resolution if there was a misunderstanding

[1:49:12] and make sure that your name and your appointment remains on the ida to

[1:49:15] continue to serve the important work that you have um

[1:49:19] been doing since elected amanda could you tell me that procedure given my

[1:49:23] misunderstanding yep you're gonna need um i'm just trying

[1:49:27] to find that resolution real quick thank you for your patience

[1:49:32] it's important that we listen to all members of our board

[1:49:35] number 20. so what the board will need to do is go back and make you've already

[1:49:38] voted on this you're going to make an amendment to

[1:49:40] um you're going to make a motion to amend resolution 20.

[1:49:43] we're going to change that vote vacant spot to um

[1:49:47] thank you supervisor like it makes that motion man in a second

[1:49:50] that is made by supervisor mcgowan all those in

[1:49:55] well favor thank you that motion carries and i'm sure

[1:49:58] um we're all very grateful for your continued community service on the board

[1:50:02] of the ida thank you very much supervisor weil

[1:50:06] at this point in time without any more privilege the floor

[1:50:10] are there announcements no bills um john are there any announcements

[1:50:19] uh no chairwoman c there is nothing additional on youtube at this point

[1:50:24] at this point in time i would very much like to

[1:50:28] say thank you on this board we are all county supervisors and we represent our

[1:50:33] constituents as county supervisors i am so

[1:50:38] impressed and so encouraged by all of your courage to stand tall

[1:50:42] and to be warren county strong and please have a motion to adjourn today's

[1:50:46] meeting that motion is made by supervisor

[1:50:48] leggett and seconded by supervisor mcgowan all those in favor

[1:50:54] opposed thank you that motion carries happy 2021.

[1:51:09] you

Board of Supervisors Meeting - January 15, 2021

Transcript