Lyons Dissolution Meeting
March 21st, 2013

Dissolution Members Present:  Corrine Kleisle, James Pacello, Richard Bogan, John Cinelli, Joan Smith, Brian Manktelow, Thea Hall, Sergei Bartishevich

Dissolution Members Absent/Excused:  James Brady

MRB Group Members Present:  Connie Sowards

Videographer:  Mark DeCracker

Public Information Meeting was called to order at 6:00pm

Connie Sowards from the MRB Group introduced herself to the audience.  Connie was the Seneca Falls Village Administrator/COO prior to their dissolution.  Connie is currently working with the Village of Lyons thru their dissolution process.   Along with Connie, Mike Hattery and Diana Smith from MRB Group are also working with the Village of Lyons.

The MRB Group is currently working on fiscal collection of data with both the Town and Village.

The Lyons Dissolution Committee then introduced themselves to the audience.

Sergie Bartishevich advised the audience as to when the Dissolution Meetings are, where and the times.  He invited the public to attend them.  Sergie reminded the public of the www.lyonsdissolution.org website that they could view for updates of the Dissolution progress.

The public was then invited to speak.  Sergei asked that they state their name, address, comments and/or questions.  

Tom Gowan -  Lawrence Street, Lyons NY - Tom has worked with the Village for 21 years.  Tom's question was about benefits.  He asked what will happen to his vacation/sick time should the Village dissolve.  He mentioned that his time, under current agreements could be used  towards his retirement.  Tom also asked if the Village will continue to cover his health insurance after dissolution.  Tom stated he would like to know if the Village employees would go from the Village to the Town with the same benefits or would they need to start all over as a "new" employee.  Sergei stated it was just to early in the Dissolution process to be able to answer his questions.  The Union will however be involved in any decisions regarding his questions.

Donna DeWolf -  Rte 14, Lyons NY - Donna also had the same concerns as Tom Gowan.  She is looking for time frame as to when they would know about the vacation/sick time, benefits, healthcare.  	

Connie commented on both Tom and Donna's concerns that there is certain legal obligations the Village has regarding these benefits.  The Union would need to be involved in decisions along with the Village and Town Boards.

Joanne Greco -  Montezuma Street, Lyons NY - Joanne thanked the Dissolution Committee for all they were doing.  Joanne mentioned that she had heard that the Town has already started planning for jobs, water, etc, the County infrastructure instead of Town.  Brian Manktelow answered that the Town has been in discussions over personnel, but nothing in great detail.    He said that the Town does have some ideas they are working on.    Brian commented that he has had discussions with the Water Authority and also an outside source.

Joanne Greco also asked about the reserved monies set aside for equipment, etc for example for the Fire Dept.  All is determined by how the account was established originally and for what purpose.  Example...This money  could go into a general fund account or into the FD  district account.  The Village will need to work closely with an attorney on issues like this.

Sean Dobbins -  William Street, Lyons NY - Sean asked if there was going to be alternatives laid out if no dissolution?  Sergei explained that there will be two plans that the Dissolution Committee will propose (State Law).  A plan for dissolution will be proposed as well as an alternative if no dissolution and presented to the Village Board for their approval.  The Village Board can then approve or run with it and expand on it.  It is just going to be a plan, Once that's approved both the plan/alterntives, it is then up to the village residents if they so choose to do the 25% number of petitions to force it to another public referendum.   The voters can then decide if they still want to dissolve the Village or go with an alternative plan. 

Steve Corcoran - Canal Street, Lyons NY - Steve commented that he was under the impression that this past November that the Village would dissolve after the vote.  Steve also thanked the Dissolution Committee for their work.  Again, it was stated that it is a State Law to come up with a plan for the Dissolution as well as an alternative plan.

Jack Bailey - High Street, Lyons NY - Jack asked who would be the responsible party for the appraisal and evalutation on equipment?  It was stated that the Sub Committees are currently getting Town/Village inventories, estimated appraisals now.  The Village is not going to hire anybody to do the appraisal until after the Village is dissolved.  Jack mentioned that there was a big discrepancy between what the Village said the appraisals were  and when the Town got the reports they ended up doing another appraisal which ended up costing more money.  

Jack also asked with this dissolution going thru, what is the state aid amount of money to help assist?  He thought that there was a large amount of money that was available from the state to move forward with dissolution.  There is a grant to help pay for the consultant which is 90% of $55,000.00 that was budgeted.  If the Village dissolves there is some money available from the state.  (Full explanation can be seen via video)

Sergei asked if there were any other questions/comments from the audience.   The Public Meeting was completed at 6:45pm

Sergei called the Dissolution Committee meeting to order at 6:56pm

Sergei stated that he had not received any comments/questions via the website from the past week.

Richard Bogan from the Public Safety committee reported the following:

*On 3/20/2013 - The sub committee met with Charles Witt, LFD Foreman and Robert Darcangelis, LFD Fire Chief.  The LFD has currently has 2 full time drivers.  They split coverage throughtout  the week working alernating 48/56 hour schedules.  There is 8 part time drivers that fill in to cover relief work, vacation time for the 2 full timers.  The FT employees, in addtion to providing full time immediate response also maintain the Fire Station and Equipment. These drivers all village employees.  All the employees with the Fire Dept are all EMT certified and provide back up response to back up ambulance EMS calls and cardio respitory calls.  In addtion to those drivers, the dept has 50/60 volunteers with approximately 30 of those being active members.   The Fire Dept Volunteers receives 2% monies from contributions and Volunteers do their own fundraisers.  The volunteers have used this money in the past to help purchase trucks and equipment.  The station, firetrucks and equipment are owned by the Village. One truck still has a yearly payment that is being paid by the volunteers.   The Town pays the Village for fire coverage.  
*A service analysis form was given to Charles Witt and Robert Darcangelis.
*Persons who may assist the sub committee with explanation of possible entities such as a fire district were identified.  The sub committee will reach out to those persons to gather facts both pro/con of establishing a district entity.
*The Wayne County Emergency Service Coordinator would be an excellent source of information.  FASNY would have information that they could provide the Committee.

Corrine Kleisle from the Admin/Finance committee reported the following:

*The Sub-committee met with Denise Darcangelis, Village Clerk/Treasurer and Karen DeSain Deputy Clerk.

*Both Denise and Karen gave the Sub-committee their job duties, which are very extensive.  Their positions are full time, Mon-Fri 8-4 and are salary.  They also put in some evening work for meetings, etc.  There is a part time clerk position within the Village office that is currently vacant.  This is an hourly position.

*The Clerk/Treaurer and the Deputy Clerk are appointed positions with a 4 year term by the Mayor.  Connie will look into the appointed positions to see if they are eligble for unemployment benefits.  She did state that elected positions are not eligble to collect unemployment.

*Repititive services that are critical - Tax bill collection/water & sewer bills/State & Federal forms.  The recording of the Water/Sewer bills is time consuming, last billing period there was 299 bills collected on the last day payments were due.

*Corrine stated she wasn't sure as to how the computer system would work with the Towns computer system as they are both different programs.   The Village uses specific programs for payroll, bookkeeping, water bills.

*Shared services with the Town  include code enforcement and water district billings.  For the Code Enforcement position, the Town pays his wages because he is a Town Employee.  The Village provides his vehicle, office space, phones and clerical support from the Village Clerk/Deputy Clerk.  

*The Sub-committee will interview the Town office staff next week.

John Cinelli from the Water/Sewer committee reported the following:

*John met with the Mayor and Tom Gowan last Friday.   Tom handles the daily tasks for the water plant with assistance from Rich Wunder.  Both Tom and Rich are full time DPW employees for the Village working the majority of their time on releated water/sewer requirements.  Mike Salerno is a Contractural Employee.

*Tom reported that there is approximately 16 different job duties (on file) that this department performs.   This list is quite extensive.

*There is approximately 30 plus shut offs every billing period, when the bills are then paid Tom/Rich then need to go back to the residence to turn the water back on.

*Tom and Rich do 80 to 100 posting each period as well.

*The Sub-commitee will meet with Mr. Chadwick on 3/22 who works in the Sewer plant.

*The Water/Sewer dept is self sufficient.  They have their own budget.

Jim Pacello from the Public Works committee reported the following:

*Jake Emmel provided a list of all the Town Equipment along with a listing of all job descriptions for his man power. (this information is on file).  Jake has also made some recommendations if the dissolution went thru.  He would need to keep all of the Town equipment.  He would require a secretary to 25-30 hrs. (Brian stated that the Town office could handle this position)  Deputy Hwy Super and Hwy Super would need a increase in pay.  Would need at least 4 men per day to do daily work, 1 man with knowledge shut offs.  Sewer dept would need to be maintained by 2 men.
*The Water Dept is under the jurisdication of the DPW at this time, Tom Gowan and Rich Wunder would go out and assess the problem.  It may be handled by the two of then or need to call in some DPW crew.  The time for the DPW crew called in would be charged back to the water dept. fund.
*Mike Salerno provided a list of equipment, list of job services and they have  an extensive list of duties/monthly schedule (on file).  Any help from the Town would be a big plus for him.
*During the transistion is when an appraisal would be done on equipment.
*The town could plow the roads going out of the Village, example Maple, Canal.  Brian asked if the man hole covers have changed?  Brian said he talked with the Superintendant about plowing these roads before, he was told that the man hole covers are too high.  If they plow uses the shoes and not the blade, they won't have an issue with manhole covers.
*Parks - these are all maintained by the Village.  They need to be mowed, weeded and all the flowers tended to.  There is part time summer worker and 2 laborers that handle this. 

*Sergei stated he has heard for years complaints about the Village watering flowering on the weekend.  Corrine mentioned that under the union contract and under the recommendation of the florist that they are watered everyday.  Brian asked if the Town wanted to come in to help with leaf pick up, would it be ok under the current union contract.  Corrine stated that it would be ok for them to help.

Thea Hall from the Courts committee reported the following:

*The sub committee met with Larry Hartwell, Julie DeWind and Mrs. Perry.
*In 2012 for the Village, there was 2,052 court cases handled by one full time justice and 1 part time justice (for fill in if fulltime was unavailable.  This averages about 160 cases per month.   The Village income from fines was approximately $59,000.00
*In 2012 for the Town, there was 718 court cases handled by 2 town justices.  This averages about 60 cases per month.  The Town income from fines was approximately $17,225.00
*If the Village dissolves there is not enough extra work to justify having 3 justices.  The Village would be losing income if it was a shared service.   A shared service could not be done until Larry Hartwell's term is up under local law.

Joan Smith from the Zoning/Codes  committee reported the following:

*A service analysis form was given to both Denise Darcangelis and Bob Darcangelis.
*Bob had stated that there was 987 Village violations and 113 Town violations.
*The Code Enforcement officer for the Village has more contact with the Police Dept than the Town.
*The Fire Dept works closely with the Village Code Enforcement officer with any fires, etc.

Old Business

John Cinelli asked Connie Sowards if she thought the committee was going in the right direction?  She stated as long as the sub committees have an understanding of what the current operations are, amount of services, fiscal collections and have they have working documents they then  have the basis for their next steps.  She is very impressed on how quickly the committee took the learning curve and have been moving ahead. 

Sergie announced that the committee would now go into executive session at 7:50pm.

Respectively submitted

Connie Rios
Lyons Dissolution Scribe