7/10/2000 Town Board Meeting comments.

After the preliminaries John Steger asked for reports from the various people. Neither Marilyn or Max Stoker was there so they didn't have a report but they had the Justice dollar numbers. I didn't take good enough notes about the other things so they will have to wait till next month for the minutes. Then John asked for public comments. A nice fellow whose name I don't know talked about litter on the main roads and that he had picked up 15 or 16 bags of litter and there was lots more. He inquired about putting up 'No Littering' sighs on the road and also about setting up an 'Adopt a Highway' for the road. Don Armstrong said he would look into the legal details of doing this. It is very refreshing to see people doing things quietly without fanfare for the town without being asked,. There are some very good people in Preble.

After that when no one else seemed to want to talk I brought up the following four items to the town board.

1. Minutes available on disk.

I would like to ask that all town boards (ZBA, Planning and Town Board) minutes and any other documents that can be made available be made available to the public in electronic format (on disk)

The board discussed this for a bit. John asked me some questions about why having the minutes on paper wasn't good enough. I explained the advantages to everyone if they were available on disk. Ann Brennan liked the idea. Betty Ann Pitman asked if there was a problem with getting the minutes to people on disk. Overall the board seemed favorable to having the minutes to all the meetings available on disk if it wasn't a problem doing so. They were going to check with the ZBA/PB secretary to see if she had a problem. Jane said she didn't have a problem with it. Seems like it is a go.

2. Turning private roads into public roads.

Two years ago this issue came up and there was some discussion about it. I've been thinking about it since then and I think it would be a good idea for the following reasons.

Increase value of property, which would increase tax base and may offset the cost of maintenance.

Costs citizens are now paying to plow and maintain the private roads could be used to pay off a bond that would be used to upgrade the roads.

It is possible that doing this would incur no costs to Preble but in the end would enhance those areas of Preble now served by private dirt roads and increase the tax base for all time.

The board told me that they had looked into this in the past and the requirements that people would have to meet in order to turn over a road to the town. Basically it seems that a private road would have to be brought up to specs by the private owners and then it could be turned over to the town. This is like a developer would do if they were making a subdivision with roads. Seemed reasonable to me but it is too bad that the town couldn't help facilitate a project like this otherwise it seems that it would just die. Pity.

3. Flooding of East Song Lake road.

See the original story HERE.

First contributor to the problem was the ‘channeling’ of the creek bed south of the road that prevented overflow flooding from jumping the creek and going into the wetlands north of Song Lake and then into Song Lake. While this can be a problem if left unfixed it did not cause any immediate home flooding and there was time to correct the breech in the creek wall before any problem occurred. Now all the water in the creek has to flow under the very small opening/culvert that cannot accommodate it and thus the water floods both the Eller and Gregory property.

Second contributor is Song Mountain when they installed drainpipes from low wet areas of the slope to the creek. These drainpipes were installed to prevent ice buildup in the winter but in the summer the areas that once held water run-off so that it could dribble into the creek now immediately drains that water into the creek. This water when combined with the already gushing creek vastly overpowers the culvert capacity and adds to the flooding.

Both of these conditions were done under the auspices of the town of Preble and therefore Preble may be responsible for the damage. As a taxpayer we now face being sued by the two homeowners for the damage done to them.

This problem has to be remedied immediately before more flooding and more damage and more costs to the taxpayers of Preble occurs.

The cure is to replace the culvert/bridge on East Song Lake Road. The creek north also has to be widened and deepened to accommodate the excess water resulting from Preble’s actions.

I also spoke about Song Mountains DEC requirement to fix the creek.

John said that the problem is the culvert that is supposed to be 4 feet deep and was instead plugged. He also said it was not in Preble but in Onondaga county and their problem. I expressed concern that because the water condition had changed because of actions Preble had taken that we were in a position to be sued. John didn't put much store in that and continued to say it was not their problem. I asked about Songs DEC requirement and he said that Song wouldn't do anything until the ZBA appeal was over with. I pointed out that the appeal didn't have anything to do with the DEC but he wasn't interested in that argument.

John then told me that he was told last Friday (7th) that Song had laid off their remaining two employees until the appeal was over. (On reflection I think John blames the appeal for the layoff. I think that bad decisions, bad management and bad planning are responsible. After all the appeal has to do with replacing the dams with a well and Song to this day still have their dams. While they want more water for the future the appeal did NOT have anything to do with the water they have now. Except for a few days they were able to make all the snow they needed last winter. Song may have laid off these two people to put pressure on the judge to find in their favor. If so they are pretty cruel hearted to treat their employees that way.)

4. Substandard pay.

While preparing the minutes of the Town Board for inclusion on the web site I noted that the Secretary for the ZBA and PB was raised from $40 to $50 per meeting. My experience with employees in the past made me wonder about the fairness of this as it seemed very low for the work involved. Wages for secretaries start at about $15.00 hour. Therefore the $50 per meeting would only cover 3 hours and 20 minutes of work.

It appears that there is a 3 to 1 ratio of work after the meeting in transcribing the notes and making corrections etc. This would mean that the $50 payment is only just and fair for a meeting lasting less than one hour.

The 6/1/2000 ZBA meeting lasted 4 hours, from 7:30 to 11:30 and is fairly typical for meetings in the last two years. Using the 3 to 1 ratios would mean 12 hours of after meeting work for a total of 16 hours work for an hourly wage of only $3.12! This is about 1/5th what should be paid for a secretary and fully $2.12 LESS per hour than the current New York State minimum wage of $5.15. I feel that a pay increase tied into the length of each meeting should be approved immediately. For meetings up to one hour the $50 payment would suffice. Meetings over one hour should be prorated at the $50 per hour rate. This would result in an hourly wage of $12.50 per hour, which would be close to the standard pay for a secretary.

I have not had any communication with the ZBA/PB secretary and she is not aware of my coming here tonight. Therefore there should be no recriminations against her for my actions here tonight.

This brought a fair amount of discussion mostly in the form that if the secretary wanted more money she should ask for it. The problem I have with this approach and one I couldn't seem to get across to the board is that employees in a low position sometimes are intimidated by the fear of loosing their job if they asked for more money. My feeling is that the pay is embarrassingly low and should be raised even if it not asked for. The board also noted that the ZBA and PB board members are unpaid volunteer positions and that the Town Board itself is not a high paying position. ($800 year for board members, supervisor gets about $6K if memory serves) However the town does have several paid positions besides the ZBA/TB secretary. I'll have to look into the details and report on that later.

One of the reasons for labor laws is to prevent employers from taking advantage of workers. However labor laws do no apply to municipalities unless it is a civil service job. I don't think this is the case here. The low pay troubles me in this case. I don't think that the rectory is doing this on a volunteer basis like the other people on the boards and paying so low goes against my feeling of fairness. The Town Board did not like my ideas about increasing the pay and instead stated that she should come to the board and ask for a raise. That in itself seems intimidating to me and would deter many from doing so. Just the sort of thing I don't like about all this. As I write this I can't help but wonder what the secretary will think of my actions tonight. Likely she would have wanted me to mind my own business, as she seems perfectly able to take care of herself. But it just bugs me so I had to say something. Sure hope she understands.

After the discussion had gone on for a considerable length of time Del Knapp, ZBA member was asked about it and he said that most meetings didn't take too long unless a 'windmill' was there! Everyone cracked up, including me! I have been one of those 'windmills' on more than one occasion including tonight. I had never heard that expression before but with my name being what it is I've heard much worse said about me.

After this John talked a bit about a ski business wanting Road Runner service and the cost of it, no determination but he hoped it worked out for them. The meeting turned to new business and I left. On the way out I leaned over to Del Knapp and with a big smile said 'I bet you're glad I'm leaving now."

After the next Town Board meeting the minutes for this meeting will be available. I'll see if the minutes for the last meeting are available and post them later in the week.

Final thoughts. Everyone on the board was friendly and nice to me despite all the things I've said about the goings on over the last two years. I think people would rather be nice to each other even though they disagree. I know that is the case with me. I have some very strong feelings about what some of these people have done and may continue to do but it is not personal with me. I hope that we can continue to treat each other in a civil manor and work together to make Preble a better place for everyone.

Sincerely,

Frank 'WINDMILL' Hogg

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