[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