March 15, 2017
NOT APPROVED
Committee Members Present: C. Jessup, D. Healy, J. Hopkins,
K. LaForge, T. O’Grady, D. Root, C. Crandall (Absent: D. Fanton, P. Curran)
Others Present: T. Boyde, J. Budinger, S. Burt, D. Decker,
H. Evans, K. Graves, V. Grant, K. Hollis, R. Hollis, C. Knapp, T. Miner, B.
Riehle, T. Ross, M. Washer, C. Whitwood
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m.
by Ways & Means Committee Chairman Chuck Jessup.
Approval of Minutes
The March 13, 2017, Ways & Means Committee minutes were
approved on a motion by Legislator O’Grady, seconded by Legislator Root, and
carried.
Approval of Legislative Expenses
Committee members reviewed the Legislative expense vouchers
for the month of March 2017 as well as a few from previous months. A motion was
made by Legislator Hopkins, seconded by Legislator LaForge, and carried to
approve the vouchers for payment.
Governor Cuomo’s Tuition Proposal
Chairman Crandall gave the committee some background on the
tuition proposal being offered by Governor Cuomo. It proposed that the
Excelsior Scholarship program provide free tuition to New York residents making
up to $125,000 a year who attend a State University of New York (SUNY) or City
University of New York (CUNY), and that Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and
Bundy Aid be denied to students in schools that increase tuition beyond a
government-regulated threshold. Chairman Crandall shared with the committee
some information that was sent to him by Alfred University President Mark Zupan
and Houghton College President Shirley Mullen. Alfred University and Houghton
College are very important economic drivers in Allegany County. Alfred
University is the second-largest private employer in Allegany County with 481
full-time employees with an additional 981 part-time employees, many of whom
are students who rely on their work-study jobs as part of their financial aid.
Alfred University’s annual payroll is in excess of $30 million. Houghton
College employs 260 faculty and staff with an additional 614 student and causal
workers with annual payroll of $11 million for faculty and staff and $1.2
million for students. Alfred University enrolls about 1,800 undergraduates and
nearly 200 graduate students, and Houghton College enrolls about 1,000
undergraduate students. Equally critical are efforts to impose price controls.
The Governor’s budget that says the state will withhold Tuition Assistance
Program (TAP) aid from any private college or university if the tuition
increase exceeds a government-regulated threshold. For Alfred University, that
amount exceeds more than $2 million a year. Chairman Crandall is asking the
committee to support a resolution that opposes Governor Cuomo’s proposal. In
addition to the Governor, this resolution will get sent to the Senate and
Assembly representatives. Legislator O’Grady stated he has a problem with this
proposal on a different level. Rather than put limits on things and say these
people get to go for free while these people have to pay; he’d like to see the
Governor go at this in a different direction and reduce the cost of SUNY
schools in general. Legislator O’Grady continued that he is currently going
through this with his daughter who is looking at colleges. She has looked at
two SUNY schools, several private schools, and a public school in Pennsylvania,
and he has found that for the same price of sending her to a SUNY school, he
can send her to a public school in Pennsylvania, and that’s a problem.
Legislator O’Grady went on to say this proposal isn’t going to solve the
problem of people going to SUNY schools. All it’s going to do is create more
tax burden, and someone really needs to dig into SUNY schools and figure it
out.
Legislator O’Grady commented that while it has nothing to do
with the Governor’s proposal, the SUNY schools his daughter applied to were the
last to send out acceptance letters. She had to commit to a school before she
even received her SUNY school acceptance letter, so unless you know for sure
that you are going to that SUNY school, you can’t sit around and wait for that
acceptance letter. Legislator O’Grady added that he is completely against the
Governor’s proposal and fully supports a resolution that opposes it. Legislator
Root stated her understanding that the two colleges, as well as Alfred State
College’s biggest complaint is the TAP gap, adding they all felt if the
Governor wants to help out NYS residents then put that money towards the TAP
gap which will help everyone across the board. Legislator Root then recommended
some verbiage be put in the resolution that references that. Legislator Healy
stated he fully supports a resolution along these lines. Legislator Healy
continued that we all are in favor of higher education whether it’s formal or
informal, but one size doesn’t fit all, and the Governor’s proposal is
political in nature much like his SAFE ACT, adding he is aimed towards running
for president, and capturing that youth vote four years down the road. A motion
was made by Chairman Crandall, seconded by Legislator Hopkins, and carried to
have County Attorney Thomas Miner draft a resolution that opposes Governor
Cuomo’s free tuition proposal. Refer to County Attorney Thomas Miner
Ardent Agreement
Human Services Committee Chairman Kevin LaForge requested a
resolution to approve the agreement between Allegany County and Ardent
Solutions, Inc. and transfer $25,000 from A1990.4 (Contingent) to A4191.457
(Ardent Solutions – Contracted). Legislator O’Grady stated that Ardent
Solutions has done a good job developing our plan and have done a lot of work
to get us to this point. This contract is a value for the County in order to
finish what we have started, but eventually they will complete their strategic
plan and will need to evaluate this contract on a year-to-year basis.
Legislator O’Grady stated he supports moving ahead with this one-year contract
but doesn’t want to continually get stuck in these contracts because of a
problem we will always have. Legislator Healy stated he agrees with Legislator
O’Grady in that this is a big step in gaining further funding, and he hopes
years down the road the need for this won’t be there. Legislator LaForge stated
the biggest thing that needs to be coordinated at the County level is making
sure they aren’t duplicating any efforts already being put forth by other
organizations. Legislator LaForge continued another important factor is that
people don’t feel the impact of the drug abuse in our County because often when
someone dies of an overdoes the coroner declares them dead, and the family
doesn’t request any further information, and they go on record as a heart
failure so we aren’t seeing the statistics of these deaths related to overdoses
happening in our County. This request was approved on a motion made by
Legislator LaForge, seconded by Legislator Healy, and carried. Prepare
Resolution
Richardson & Stout Agreement
A motion was made by Legislator O’Grady, seconded by
Legislator Root, and carried to approve the agreement between Richardson &
Stout and Allegany County to provide Workers’ Compensation services for
$25,000. Prepare Resolution
Executive Session
A motion was made by Legislator O’Grady, seconded by
Legislator Root, and carried to enter into executive session at 3:57 p.m. to
discuss the employment history of a particular employee. Immediately following
discussion at 4:35 p.m., a motion was made by Legislator Hopkins, seconded by
Legislator Root, and carried to end the executive session and return to the
regular meeting.
Elimination of Title Searcher Position
County Treasurer requested permission to eliminate the Title
Searcher position and replace it with a Senior Account Clerk Typist (AFSCME,
Grade 10, Base – 7). The abstracting portion of this job will be contracted.
This request was approved on a motion made by Legislator Healy, seconded by
Legislator O’Grady, and carried. Prepare Resolution
Senior Account Clerk Typist
County Treasurer Terri Ross requested permission to create
and fill one full-time Senior Account Clerk Typist (AFSCME, Grade 10, Step 7).
The current Title Searcher is retiring, and with that position being
eliminated, the Senior Account Clerk Typist will replace that position. This
position is needed as the Treasurer’s office continues to need personnel to
organize, file, communicate with abstractors, and ensure all legal items are in
order to fulfill requirements of the foreclosure process. This position will
also maintain extensive database, thousands of property files, and will work
with auctioneer for preparing tax sale auction details. The annual cost of this
position is $37,745 with benefits estimated at $16,875. This position is funded
100 percent with County dollars. This request was approved on a motion made by
Legislator Root, seconded by Legislator LaForge, and carried. Prepare
Resolution (Notify Human Resources contingent on approval of Resolution)
Senior Account Clerk Typist
County Treasurer Terri Ross requested permission to fill one
full-time Senior Account Clerk Typist (AFSCME, Grade 10, Step: Base-7) due to a
retirement. This employee is tasked with preparing the bills for audits, check
preparation, reconciliations, etc. They work with all departments to centralize
payments of invoices, purchase orders, and contracts within budgets. The annual
cost of this position is between $31,375 and $37,745 with benefits estimated
between $14,025 and $16,875. This position is funded 100 percent with County
dollars. This request was approved on a motion made by Legislator Root,
seconded by Legislator Hopkins, and carried. Notify Human Resources
Full-Time Account Clerk Typist
County Treasurer Terri Ross requested permission to fill one
full-time Account Clerk Typist (AFSCME, Grade 7, Step: 5). This employee will
replace the previous employee being promoted to Senior Account Clerk Typist.
This position is the only full-time tax receivable/revenue clerk, and is needed
to collect and process all taxes and revenues received by County both in person
and by mail. The annual cost of this position is $32,815 with benefits
estimated at $14,670, and is funded 100 percent with County dollars. This
request was approved on a motion made by Legislator Root, seconded by Legislator
Hopkins, and carried. Notify Human Resources
Part-Time Account Clerk Typist
County Treasurer Terri Ross requested permission to fill one
part-time Account Clerk Typist (Non-union, Grade 7, Step: 3). This position
will replace the previous part-time employee being promoted to a full-time
Account Clerk Typist. Due to the restructuring of the Treasurer’s office, the
hours of this position will be reduced from 27.5 to 17.5 per week. The annual
cost of this position is $15,690 with benefits estimated at $3,735, and is
funded 100 percent with County dollars. This request was approved on a motion
made by Legislator Root, seconded by Legislator Hopkins, and carried. Notify
Human Resources
Accountant
County Treasurer Terri Ross requested permission to fill one
full-time Accountant (PEF, Grade 7, Step: B). This position is due to the
restructuring of the Treasurer’s office, and the need to increase efficiencies
in supervision and duties, as well as accommodate workload additions. This
position will continue to process all payroll duties along with additional
accounting duties and responsibilities as assigned. The annual cost of this
position is $41,590 with benefits estimated at $18,590, and is funded 100 percent
with County dollars. This request was approved on a motion made by Legislator
O’Grady, seconded by Legislator Root, and carried. Notify Human Resources
Secretary to Clerk of the Board
Clerk of the Board Brenda Rigby Riehle requested a
resolution creating a full-time positon of Secretary to Clerk of the Board
(Non-Unit, Grade 2, Step: 9) and eliminating the part-time position of
Secretary to Clerk of the Board created by Resolution No. 17-12 effective
January 24, 2012. The employee currently works between 17.5 and 21 hours per
week and takes minutes at all standing committee meetings, and then
transcribes, distributes, and files them. The Secretary may complete other
tasks as assigned by the Clerk of the Board. Changing the position from a
part-time to full-time position would result in an additional 14 to 17.5 hours
per week, and these additional hours are needed to complete the following:
1. Take, transcribe, distribute, and file minutes for
special, ad hoc, and sub-committee meetings.
2. Take responsibility for updating the County’s newly
enhanced website with agenda and committee meeting material. This
responsibility has previously been handled by the IT Department.
3. Take responsibility for making any necessary changes to
the Legislative Board and Clerk of the Board pages on the County website. This
responsibility has previously been handled by the IT Department.
4. Bring Allegany County into compliance with recent
amendments to Municipal Home Rule Law Section 27(5)(6) that requires counties
to publish and maintain a list of all local laws adopted by a county on its
website.
Filling this position on a full-time basis will better
enable the County to comply with the Board Rules, Open Meetings Law, Public
Officers Law, and Municipal Home Rule Law regarding how our minutes are taken,
distributed and retained, and how resolutions and local laws are published on
the website. Filling this positon on a full-time basis would also result in our
website being updated and maintained in a timely, consistent manner. The annual
cost of this position is $42,006 with benefits estimated at $18,776.68, and is
funded 100 percent with County dollars. This request was approved on a motion
made by Legislator LaForge, seconded by Legislator Hopkins, and carried
(Opposed: M. Healy). Prepare Resolution and Notify Human Resources contingent
on passing of Resolution
Medicaid Funding
Legislator O’Grady stated the committee should keep a
lookout for the Federal Government cutting Medicaid funding, adding it should
be revamped to decrease the amount of benefits given under that program.
Legislator O’Grady recommended they petition the state early rather than raise
our citizen’s income taxes to cover that loss.
Respectfully submitted,
Meghan Washer, Secretary to Clerk of the Board
Allegany County Board of Legislators
