Greenport moves forward amidst another chaotic town board meeting
Town of Greenport, NY, September 9 — Greenport's September town board meeting was another tempestuous affair. Despite lasting less than 40 minutes, grievances were aired but unlike prior meetings, some actual progress on important issues was made.
Dolan questions the unusual time slot
Early into the meeting, James Dolan expressed his displeasure with the meeting being held at 4 PM. Official reason for the early start was that both Supervisor Eldridge and Town Attorney Rob Fitzsimmons had to attend the County Board of Supervisors meeting later that day, at 7 PM.
Dolan suggested that Rob Fitzsimmons could have been replaced with Leann Michael, who had been hired by Greenport earlier this year to serve as an assistant attorney. In the direction of Supervisor Eldridge he remarked: "As far as you going to the county meeting, my immediate question would be what's your priority. I think it's an attempt on your part to discourage residents from coming or making it difficult for them to come".
If that had been Kathy's goal, it certainly failed given that town hall was once again packed.
Greenport's Town Engineer is AWOL
The attention then turned to what Kathy Eldridge called the "comprehensive plan" but it was unclear if she was referring to the so called Inflow and Infiltration (I&I) study that the town had asked Water and Wastewater Superintendent Jimmy Rutkey to do a few months ago or if she meant the bigger plan that Rutkey, Highway chief John Mausolf and Town Engineer George Schmitt were supposed to create after the flooding in Lorenz Park at the end of July.
Whatever it was, a new issue quickly became apparent: George Schmitt has gone incommunicado. John Mausolf expressed his frustration thusly: "What's going on with the engineer? Has he been told
not to contact me? I got emails, and I got phone calls. And I get no answers. Something's going on". The problem wasn't limited to Mausolf. Deputy Supervisor Clayton Clark confessed that he had been unable to reach him either.
The specific issue with George Schmitt arises from the fact that he isn't only the Town Engineer of Greenport. He also works for other municipalities in the county, Stockport for example, and it seems pretty apparent that he is serving too many masters at this point. John Mausolf seemed to think so when he suggested that Greenport hire another engineer.
Retirement payments and payroll still in disarray
The Highway Superintendent wasn't done yet. Just like in meetings prior, he complained that retirement contributions for his employees in the Highway Department are still not processed correctly. At fault appears to be this time town account Mike Torchia, another service provider hired by Greenport, who has been conspicuously absent from at least the last four town board meetings:
"We still have retirement problems. Apparently, Mike Torchia is in charge of retirement. He's not putting extra effort in to call up there to speak to anybody. My guys got letters stating they owe money. They go on retirement online: It says they owe money. Mike says they don't owe money".
But then there are also people that don't appear to get paid at all. Mausolf recounted a conversation he recently had: "And as he's leaving, he said `Now I gotta go to town hall because my granddaughter didn't get her last paycheck from the town park`. After making a couple phone calls, I found out there were three or four different people that weren't getting paid on time. And who's in charge of payroll? Supervisor Eldridge."
Irregularities in payroll and retirement payments started showing up around three months ago. At the June board meeting, then-Town Judge John Porreca confronted the supervisor about incorrect data in the Kronos timekeeping system affecting the Town Court clerk's office. Soon thereafter, similar issues emerged in the Water and Highway Departments.
It may not be entirely coincidental that these problems started occurring after Supervisor Eldridge fired her confidential secretary Debbie Mausolf, who handled most of the payroll and timekeeping, on May 19. What is astounding is that three months later, these issues still haven't been resolved.
The Supervisor changes the billing address
Another thing the audience learned during the meeting was that bills that used to be sent to the Highway Department are now going straight to town hall after the supervisor changed the billing address. As a result, the Highway Superintendent is no longer aware of bills as they are coming in.
The way departmental municipal bills normally get paid is that the department head receives and reviews the bill, fills in and signs a voucher and passes that to the supervisor or their confidential secretary who turns the voucher into a check. The voucher, signed by the department head, is a legal and necessary requirement in this process.
However, the Highway Department and John Mausolf apparently no longer receive any bills and can therefore no longer produce and sign vouchers. Mausolf questioned the legality of this and turned to Town Attorney Rob Fitzsimmons: "My point is, if these bills are being paid without a signature on a voucher, I don't even believe that's legal".
"You're the signature guy, correct", confirmed Fitzsimmons.
This wouldn't be a Greenport town board meeting if there hadn't also been a moment of levity and that moment was now. As Deputy Supervisor Clayton Clark promised he would look into the billing and voucher issue, he reminded Mausolf to provide him with a list of the bills that had bypassed the Highway Department. This left Mausolf and audience member Mike Grisham perplexed as Mike wondered aloud: "How does he know what he hasn't seen?"
Vacancy on the town board
During the public comment section, Sarah Sterling brought up the issue of the town board seat vacated when Frank Iaccino resigned weeks ago. She proposed an open process whereby residents interested in filling this vacancy could put forward their name and it would be up to the current board of four council members to pick one.
While this particular proposal might be a little unwieldy in practice, one got a sense that there might be a fifth board member, wherever they may come from, be proposed at the next board meeting in October.
Greenport to register in the Climate Smart Communities program
As Kathy Eldridge asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting, Jim Dolan objected and indicated that he still had comments to make.
He brought up Greenport's potential registration with the the NY State Climate Smart Communities program. Greenport is lagging behind most other municipalities in the county with respect to climate remediation measures. It is in fact one of only three municipalities countywide that haven't yet registered, the other two being the Village of Chatham and the Town of Livingston.
While participation in this program is voluntary, it is highly advisable that Greenport take part in it as it will improve the town's chances when applying for NY State grant money which it will soon need as it starts addressing its numerous wastewater issues.
Rob Fitzsimmons, who has assisted several municipalities in their enrollment, explained the process: The town board must initially pass a resolution in which it adopts the New York State Climate Smart Communities pledge. And then it's off to the races. But he added a caveat—it's a fair bit of work: "Now, someone has to work with the webmaster. Someone's gonna have to go to all the town facilities and read the meters. Someone's going to have to do a fluorescent light or LED light image. So that doesn't work unless you have a leader of the climate smart group and at least two or three other members".
Realistically, the number will need to be higher even. When I visited the Stuyvesant Climate Smart Task Force, I learned that they had eight volunteers and they were all highly dedicated and it still took them over three years to achieve bronze certification.
As a next step, Town Attorney Fitzsimmons will prepare the Climate Smart resolution for the October board meeting and there's little doubt that it will pass since it already has the explicit support from Deputy Supervisor Clayton Clark and James Dolan.
News regarding the Joslen Blvd Flock camera
For well over a month, Greenport residents have been wondering how a Flock camera operated by the Sheriff's Office wound up on municipal land in the Greenport Town Park. This makes this camera the only Flock camera in the county that is not located on private property.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting later that evening, I asked Sheriff Jackie Salvatore about that particular camera and she said that she had only learned about this camera earlier that same day. As a next step, Jackie will contact Supervisor Kathy Eldridge who will hopefully bring it to the town board for a vote whether the camera can stay or whether it should be removed.
While the issue of Flock cameras remains highly charged and controversial throughout the county, at least Greenport will finally get to weigh in on one camera that has mystified its resident over the past weeks.
