ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION COMMITTEE MINUTES - NOVEMBER 12, 2014

MICHAEL E. PLOCHOCKI, CHAIRMAN

MEMBERS PRESENT: Mr. Corl, Mr. Shepard, 1Mrs. Rapp

MEMBERS ABSENT:  Dr. Chase

ALSO ATTENDING:  Mrs. Tassone and see attached list

Chairman Plochocki called the meeting to order at 9:05 A.M.  A motion was made by Mr. Shepard, seconded by Mr. Corl to waive the reading of the minutes of the previous committee.  MOTION CARRIED.  A motion was made by Mr. Shepard, seconded by Mr. Corl to approve the minutes of the previous committee.  MOTION CARRIED.

1.     WATER ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION:  Tom Rhoads, P.E., Commissioner; Michael Lannon, Deputy Commissioner; Nick Capozza, Sewer Maintenance & Inspection Engineer

        a.     A Resolution Approving Proposed Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District Consisting of Design Engineering Costs for Improvements at the Baldwinsville Treatment Plant in and for the County of Onondaga, New York

Chairman Plochocki said that items 1a-1j were discussed last month, public hearings were approved and now they are approving the projects and authorizing the bonds.  Protocol entails multiple resolutions and that was why there appears to be so many items.  All of those items are an extended discussion of last month. 

In answer to Chairman Plochocki, Mr. Rhoads said that items 1a and 1b pertain to the Baldwinsville Treatment Plant; one is the project resolution and the other is the bond for engineering work at the plant.  Mr. Rhoads passed out a fact sheet on the project. (On file with Clerk)

Mr. Capozza:

• 3 different drivers for the project:
• SPDES permit - new permit issued July 2014, more restrictive disinfection required by May 2018; facility background - currently have disinfection, use chlorination to meet bacteria requirement, disinfection tank system works fine, will continue to meet permit and hasn’t changed, need improvement on de-chlorination, currently have total chlorine residual limit – the amount of chlorine left after treating bacteria, changing from 2ml to .8ml, can’t meet requirement with existing infrastructure, must add additional process tankage, use chemical to reduce chlorine further and mixing equipment, need in place by May 2018

• Asset renewal -  32 year old facility, outdated, hard to get parts; renewal for mechanical, structural, architectural and electrical
• Mechanical – new pumps, values, aeration equipment, screens and motors

Useful life based on various industry-accepted standards, i.e. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, most assets have outlived expectancy

1Mrs. Rapp arrived at the meeting.   

Credit to staff maintaining equipment

• Structural – great need for concrete repair on several columns, concrete beams and support structures for the facility, some erosion of concrete on process tankage
• Architectural – building improvements, windows, restrooms, code compliance, etc.
• Electrical – install fire alarm system and some motor control centers that run pumps and processing equipment; incidental energy efficiencies associated with new pumps
• Code compliance – install fire alarm system, facility doesn’t have one, new safety mandate in electrical industry called Arc Flash, identifies potential for equipment to send arc or short, in turn used to identify protective equipment necessary to work on equipment, very important for compliance, various building codes also
• Requesting funds for engineering design of various improvements

Chairman Plochocki said that his questions were neither softballs nor hardballs; he just knows that the caucus will ask.  He has a series of three questions that would generally be asked for all of these items.  Collectively these items are a lot of money and he asked why they are doing them all together and why now.   Mr. Rhoads:

Chairman Plochocki said that with regard to why now, all of these items could be brought forward one a month over the next several months however, these are all grouped together.  He asked if it would be fair to say that the main reason was that it was winter, they would be moving toward construction season, were in the process of beginning design of these projects and wanted to get them going.  Mr. Rhoads said that this was correct for several of the projects.  The timing of the Baldwinsville project was necessary to meet the SPDES deadline of May 2018.  Many of the other projects on today’s agenda have to do with construction and getting them out for bid over the winter season.  If projects are bid in this downtime, they start awarding work at the beginning of the year and get good competition, which improves their opportunities for better pricing.  In answer to Chairman Plochocki, Mr. Rhoads confirmed that there well might be opportunity cost now, as opposed to waiting on these.

Chairman Plochocki said that when Legislator’s ask if there is another ask coming down the pike, he would imagine that that answer would be a big yes, as most of the projects are for engineering costs.  Mr. Rhoads responded that Baldwinsville and the Westside project are for engineering.  In answer to Mrs. Rapp, Mr. Rhoads confirmed that $3.4 million was just the engineering portion of the Baldwinsville project.  Chairman Plochocki said that this means they can expect bonds for construction coming forth.  Mrs. Rapp asked how much they anticipated those costs to be.  Mr. Rhoads responded that collectively the Baldwinsville project would be $20 to $30 million dollars, by the time they are all done.  Chairman Plochocki said that the point was that this was the beginning of big projects. 

Mrs. Rapp asked what this would do to the sewer rate.  Mr. Rhoads responded that it was an excellent time for borrowing.  He did not have the information with him but would get back to her.  In answer to Mrs. Rapp, Mr. Rhoads said that the costs were anticipated as part of their long-term CIP, was part of the curve they have been planning on and was built into the rate schedule they have been providing to them.  Mr. Lannon added that it was included in the model.  Mrs. Rapp said that the rate was the big question, adding that there are no surprises.  Mr. Rhoads agreed, adding that this was a 32-year-old plant that will not keep running.  Mrs. Rapp said the anticipation and knowing that they are not going to see this giant blip… Mr. Rhoads interjected saying that Mr. Lannon is doing a very good job of leading their Asset Management Program, a program where they do not replace everything; have a program where they do immediate infrastructure repairs and longer-term items are put out farther and farther.  They understand that the resources are scarce.  They used to replace everything on a plant like this, now they surgically replace only those things that are absolutely at end of life or items that can be replaced with a piece of infrastructure that has energy savings which will pay for itself, those are the type of projects they are looking for.  Mrs. Rapp said that eventually they would all need replacing so they are constantly making repairs, just like a house.  Mr. Rhoads responded that it was like a house that was running nonstop 365 days a year, 24/7.  The plants are responsible for taking care of all the things that they do all the time.  Mr. Lannon said that over the past 32 years there hasn’t been a lot of capital investment at Baldwinsville so now it’s time.  Mr. Rhoads said that much of the oxygen has been taken out of the room by the ACJ projects, a half a billion dollars invested in other parts of their infrastructure.  Because of that, some of the satellite treatment plants and some of the other pieces of infrastructure had to be put aside and now they have to pay the piper.  Mrs. Rapp said that this was her concern because that bill is becoming due and all of a sudden, all of this was becoming due.  Mr. Rhoads responded that he understood but what they have seen time, after time, after time was that if they do not do these they fall into consent judgments.  Mrs. Rapp said that as long as they have the rate figured out.  When she talks to her constituents the one thing they want done is infrastructure taken care of. Mr. Rhoads said that they still have a rate far below the national average.  Mrs. Rapp said that the rate was half of Lake Placid’s.  Mr. Rhoads said that it might seem like a lot but the $30 a month rate for the sewer was far better than the rates paid for TV, internet access or cell phones. This was infrastructure required for the environment and there was no doubt in his mind that this was a very worthwhile expenditure.

Chairman Plochocki said that he had asked about follow-up costs to these projects but also wanted to know if they would be starting other big projects within the next year.  Mr. Rhoads responded that there are some capital projects funded as part of the recent budget process.  Chairman Plochocki said that those projects were funded and asked if this was a complete list or where they going to get six more request next month.  Mr. Rhoads responded that they would not have six projects next month.  For the remainder of 2015 capital projects they would probably be asking for $2 million dollars in I & I bonding – the inflow and infiltration work they have been doing, which was part of the larger capital picture presented to the Legislature.  The funds would be used to do work with municipalities, helping them with their sewers and reducing WEP’s long-term costs for pumping, storing and treating.  They may come back for energy conservation (ESCO) projects, projects that are self-funded with energy savings - no rate impact, may borrow money but debt service would be paid with energy savings from the replacement of equipment.  Mrs. Rapp asked about the White Pines site.  Mr. Rhoads responded that it was not in the CIP.  Mrs. Rapp said that it would be an additional project should they decided to move forward.  Mr. Rhoads responded that they do not have this on the radar screen, as the County Executive has not proposed this at this time.  These are all projects that they presented during the budget presentation and they do not have a plan to move forward with White Pines at this time.  Mrs. Rapp said that this could be a problem should a firm come in and want to develop there, there are no sewers and they have hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of investment that is not doing anything.

Chairman Plochocki said that a good portion of the Baldwinsville project is required for compliance with laws and permits and Mr. Rhoads agreed.  Chairman Plochocki asked the percentage for required work and asset management.  Mr. Rhoads asked he was asking the percentage for SPDES requirement.  Chairman Plochocki said that he was asking the percentage for any required work.  Mr. Rhoads said that this would be tough and Mr. Lannon agreed.  Chairman Plochocki said that he was looking for an estimate and asked if it would be the majority of the project.  Mr. Rhoads said that a little less than half of project would be required if they include all the code compliance issues.  Chairman Plochocki said that half of this was mandated repairs and the other half is asset.  Mr. Rhoads agreed and added asset replacement or renewal, not all of them would be replaced.  

Chairman Plochocki asked if the debt service on the bond would be paid for from the CSD.  Mr. Rhoads responded that all the bonds are part of the Consolidated Sanitary District so they are all part of the rate structure, none are real property tax borrowings. (*See Correction – page 9)

A motion was made by Mr. Shepard, seconded by Mrs. Rapp to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        b.     A Resolution Authorizing the Issuance of $3,400,000 Bonds of the County of Onondaga, New York, to Pay the Cost of Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District, Consisting of Design Engineering Costs for Improvements at the Baldwinsville Treatment Plant ($3,400,000)

A motion was made by Mr. Shepard, seconded by Mrs. Rapp to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        c.     A Resolution Approving Proposed Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District Consisting of the Hiawatha Trunk Sewer Rehabilitation Project in and for the County of Onondaga, New York

In answer to Chairman Plochocki, Mr. Rhoads confirmed that item 1c and 1d would be discussed together. 

Mr. Rhoads:

• Sewer serves area around Stella’s Diner the Northside of the City, down Hiawatha passed Destiny, then down Solar through Inner Harbor area
• Fact sheet distributed (On file with Clerk); 80+ year old facility, sewer line joints blocked with calcifications from Allied waste, very restricted flow, sewer doesn’t have capacity for additional growth, 1 of the highest growth areas of the community, many things planned for Inner Harbor area

• Tuberculation in pipe causes CFO to go off more frequently during heavy rain events;  proposing construction project to remove tuberculation, then line pipe to allow faster flow and increase original capacity, 50-70 year lifespan for renewed infrastructure

Mr. Capozza said that the other component to this project is that they are segregating out some of the flow and forcing it across Hiawatha.   Chairman Plochocki interjected, saying that before they get to that Mrs. Rapp had a question on the first part.  In answer to Mrs. Rapp, Mr. Capozza said that this would absolutely decrease the overflows.  It segregates out the area with higher strength waste.  There are many restaurants and commercial places in that area and by delivering that flow directly to Metro, it doesn’t have to go through the combined sewer system, capturing the high strength waste rather than going through the overflow.  

Mr. Capozza said that an environmental education platform is going to be built on the lake.  In answer to Mrs. Rapp, Mr. Capozza said that it would be located on the mouth of Onondaga Creek and the canal.  Mr. Rhoads added, at the end of the trail.  Mr. Capozza said that they certainly do not want constant complaints from NYSDEC with regard to sewer overflows.  This has a multi benefit, the Creek Walk will be protected at a higher level and they won’t have as many complaints and detractors from other things that come along when the CFO goes off.  This is ultimately part of the ACJ, as they will get more capture by default.

A motion was made by Mrs. Rapp to approve this item. 

Chairman Plochocki said that much of the calcification is a result of Allied Chemical.  Mr. Capozza said that this was correct, similar to the wastebeds; they generated so much waste that a lot of it was used as fill.  A couple things prevent them from digging up the pipe and replacing it with traditional open cut.  It is located in Oil City and there is a lot of petroleum product in the ground there.  Mrs. Rapp said that it seem as if this was much more cost effective; $4.5 million for the whole project as opposed to  $3.4 just to see what was there.  Mr. Capozza agreed, adding that this was already bid with a blanket contract so they have very good costs if the contractor can get in and out quickly for some of the work.  The unknown was the difficulty of getting the calcification off so that they can slip the new pipe inside.  Chairman Plochocki said that many of them also have high hopes that the governor would deliver on his $1.5 billion; this was an area of the County where they would like to see economic development and underbelly infrastructure was needed for that.   

Chairman Plochocki asked if it would be fair to say that this project was more asset management, there would be incidental benefits for the ACJ but that was not driving this, it was more of an aging asset problem.  Mr. Capozza and Mr. Rhoads:

• Was a little bit of everything, anything done in combined sewer area goes towards the capture percent, have to maintain the percent captured, going up to 95% at the end of 2018
• Want to ensure CFO’s don’t overflow, have invested a lot of money in CFO capture, can’t have any backsliding; state having them install flow meters, if  models and flow meters don’t match up the state will recalibrate the model and it will fall backwards – a place they do not want to end up
• Also economic driver, asset renewal but renewal required for economic development of Inner Harbor and entire Northside

Seconded by Mr. Corl.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        d.     A Resolution Authorizing the Issuance of $4,500,000 Bonds of the County of Onondaga, New York, to Pay Costs of Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District, Consisting of the Hiawatha Trunk Sewer Rehabilitation Project at a Maximum Estimated Cost of $4,800,000 ($4,500,000)

A motion was made by Mrs. Rapp, seconded by Mr. Corl to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        e.     A Resolution Approving Proposed Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District Consisting of Improvements to the Ley Creek Pump Station in and for the County of Onondaga, New York

Mr. Rhoads & Mr. Capozza:

• Largest pump station in fleet, serves tremendous portion of the County; critical asset renewal, property damage in millions and millions of dollars likely if project is not completed
• Pump station beyond service life; service area extends back to East Syracuse, includes Town of Dewitt, Town of Salina, and small portion of the Village of Liverpool, very large service area
• Fact sheet distributed (On file with Clerk); April 2011 came close to flooding substation at facility, closest they have ever come to cutting the power to a facility to protect it 

• Project would flood protect the substation, upgrade motors and equipment, use some variable frequency drives (VFD)– the more water they get the faster pumps run, runs at most efficient point using list amount of electricity, current VFD’s obsolete, last time one went down custom shop manufactured pump from multiple pieces, used everything they had in stock and were not to expect this again
• Asset renewal, restoring back to design capacity, occasionally have overflows, would increase reliability
• Significant health and safety issues with facility, HVAC ventilation system antiquated at best, causing significant corrosion and damage to area it’s trying to ventilate, not exhausting gases generated from wastewater 
• Big long-term project, would end up getting 30 years out of the project, well worth the investment, especially considering the number of people the facility serves

In answer to Mrs. Rapp, Mr. Capozza confirmed that the new equipment would have utility savings.  Mrs. Rapp asked if this was factored in some how.  Mr. Capozza said that with the engineering report, he could not give her the exact numbers but the current motors are monstrous.  Mrs. Rapp said that they had to be gas suckers.  Mr. Capozza said that the new system would be more efficient.  They always do projections but a lot of their work was done because of wet weather so it is harder to track.  Gallon for gallon, this would be cheaper. 

In response to Mrs. Rapp, Mr. Rhoads said that efficiencies would improve with the replacement of the assets.  One of the things that is quite complicated and the reason they keep coming back to talk about I & I - this pump station should serve 10-20 million gallons per day but needs to reach into the 60 million gallon range in order to serve high wet weather events in the spring.  Because of I & I issues they are forced to buy pumps that are 3 times bigger than what is needed for dry weather flow.  This is why they continue to ask for I & I.  They use VFD pumps to help the pumps operate in a more efficient range because of the oversized pumps and it lets them last a little bit longer.

Mrs. Rapp said that at Oak Orchard and MWB they added solar and asked if there were any opportunities for this.  Mr. Rhoads responded that solar was not possible at this particular station as most of the property was transferred to a private property owner.  In answer to Mrs. Rapp, Mr. Rhoads said that wind turbines were not possible now but maybe in the future as the efficiency improves. They continue to look at alternatives.  Mrs. Rapp said that there was all this NYSERDA money out there now.  Mr. Capozza said that they are always beating the bushes to try to find… Mr. Rhoads interjecting saying that those were ESCO projects, bigger capital projects planned that they would come back, i.e. aeration systems at some of their other treatment plants, could replace them with a more efficient system that reduces their energy costs and the energy savings are then used to pay for the infrastructure.

A motion was made by Mrs. Rapp to approve this item.

In answer to Chairman Plochocki, Mr. Capozza said that 20% of the project was reducing the exposure for potential consent orders and the remainder was asset renewal.  There are also economic drivers as the area has a lot of vacant industrial land that is ripe for redevelopment; has everything someone would want with sewer, water, and electrical infrastructure.

Seconded by Mr. Corl.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.  

        f.      A Resolution Authorizing the Issuance of $4,980,000 Bonds of the County of Onondaga, New York, to Pay Costs of Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District, Consisting of Improvements to the Ley Creek Pump Station at a Maximum Estimated Cost of $5,480,000 ($4,980,000)

A motion was made by Mrs. Rapp, seconded by Mr. Corl to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        g.     A Resolution Approving Proposed Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District Consisting of the Design and Engineering Phase of the Relocation of the Westside Pump Station and Various Conveyance Improvements in and for the County of Onondaga, New York

Mr. Rhoads:

• Fact sheet (on file with Clerk); 1960’s station, on lakeside by Honeywell Visitor’s Center, Loop the Lake Trail  coming through the area
• Wet weather constrained, station overwhelmed and released sanitary sewer into the lake on more than a few occasions; asking for engineering investment, part of Westside Project talked about, anticipate entire project would be $15M including engineering, part of the $100M project includes $15M for the West Side Pump Station 
• Through engineering hope to increase service area, take some load from Baldwinsville station and move to Metro WWTP
• Provides opportunity for additional economic development, currently wet weather constrained; area around old  P&C Warehouse and many portions of Solvay
• Requesting engineering for replacement of the West Side Pump Station with new assets and hopefully rerouting some flow from Baldwinsville so they don’t have to expand that capacity 

Chairman Plochocki said that those on the committee know the answer but for the benefit of everyone, Metro is a plant significantly under capacity with all the upgrades that have been completed and it would be great if they could send more wastewater to it.  The main thing that this was allowing, by essentially bypassing the Baldwinsville plant, was that they would be redirecting wastewater from overburdened plants to a big updated plant.  Mr. Rhoads add that Metro has a higher level of treatment and has aerobic digestion so when they put load at Metro they convert waste into energy.  

Chairman Plochocki asked what the percentage was for compliance verses asset renewal.  Mr. Rhoads reiterated that they have had numerous raw sewage discharges to the lake.  Mr. Capozza said that they have had numerous complaints directly from the NYSDEC regarding odors at the visitor’s center.  Mr. Rhoads said that they are flirting with a consent order.  This is urgently required and if delayed they would probably be looking at a consent order in the near future.

Mr. Corl asked if they were rebuilding at the current location or a different location.  Mr. Rhoads responded that they were evaluating the alternatives.  As part of the engineering, they are looking at potential alternative locations or restoring it at the current location.  There are many conveyances and they hope to optimize the conveyances if they relocate.   Mrs. Rapp asked if there was just one other choice.  Mr. Rhoads said that currently they have three.  Some are not as cost effective as others though it is premature to whittle down their options.  They would like to maintain their flexibility.  Mrs. Rapp agreed saying that this was what the engineering was all about.  Mr. Corl said that it would provide recommendations for appropriate locations and it would take into consideration brownfield remediation in Solvay, along with future development capacity.  Mr. Capozza and Mr. Rhoads:

• Engineering report would detail most efficient range of pumping capacities and what could be done without oversizing, could cause just as many problems if they go to big
• Are constrained by pipelines along Rt. 690 - 2 pipelines, 1 owned by Honeywell, WEP has 36 inch force main, engineers looking at what Metro could handle, can raise pressure and push a lot of water but doesn’t help if Metro is overwhelmed with flow, need a balance
• Executive summary to be shared when completed, would detail benefits and capabilities for additional conveyance; part of this was going after I & I in Geddes and Solvay, every dollar spent would leverage more capacity for economic development, many positives working together
• Only asking for engineering today, after engineering would prepare SEQRA, which looks at environmental aspects

In answer to Mr. Corl, Mr. Rhoads said that it would be well into the spring, probably summer before the report was completed.       

A motion was made by Mr. Shepard, seconded by Mr. Corl to approve this item.   Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED. 

        h.     A Resolution Authorizing the Issuance of $1,300,000 Bonds of the County of Onondaga, New York, to Pay Costs of Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District, Consisting of the Design and Engineering Phase of the Relocation of the Westside Pump Station and Various Conveyance Improvements at a Maximum Estimated Cost of $1,600,000 ($1,300,000)

A motion was made by Mr. Shepard, seconded by Mr. Corl to approve this item.   Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED. 

        i.     A Resolution Approving Proposed Improvements for the Bear Trap-Ley Creek Drainage District Consisting of the Demolition of the Burnet Avenue Maintenance Garage in and for the County of Onondaga, New York

*Mr. Rhoads said that he misspoke early when asked if these items all related to the CSD, items 1i and 1j relate to the Bear Trap-Ley Creek Drainage District.  

• Drainage District project, inherited significantly under maintained asset, old highway garage became part of drainage property, responsible for taking down, structurally poor condition with parts of it are falling down
• Going through Phase 1 Environmental Assessment, anticipate demolition issues and environmental remediation issues with this type of structure; propose $500k for demolition and remediation of site
• Located in East Syracuse on Carr Street; campus remediation badly needed, eye sore detracts from  community; not taking responsibility for environmental legacy now perhaps allows for continued migration

Mrs. Rapp said that it is just abandoned and not doing anything for them.  Mr. Rhoads said that a small piece of the campus was used for a pump station where they do chemical injection.  There was no other use at this time for the Bear Trap-Ley Creek Drainage District or the sanitary district. Currently he cannot speak about an alternative use there.

Chairman Plochocki said to reiterate something from the last meeting, and for the record, he asked about the half million-dollar cost, which seems exorbitant.  He was sure that other members of the caucus are going to have a problem with that at least from the get go.   If he recalls the answer was that this was not simply taking down a building, environmental remediation also needed to be done and that environmental remediation was driving up the costs.  Mr. Capozza:

Chairman Plochocki said that in term so of the compliance aspect it was just the danger.  The building was at a point where it could topple and there would be problems.  Mr. Capozza agreed.  Chairman Plochocki said that while there was no consent order, they are flirting with disaster.    

A motion was made by Mr. Shepard, seconded by Mrs. Rapp to approve this item.   Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED. 

        j.      A Resolution Authorizing the Issuance of $500,000 Bonds of the County of Onondaga, New York, to Pay the Cost of Improvements for the Bear Trap-Ley Creek Drainage District, Consisting of the Demolition of the Burnet Avenue Maintenance Garage ($500,000)

A motion was made by Mr. Shepard, seconded by Mrs. Rapp to approve this item.   Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED. 

        k.     Amending the 2014 County Budget to Provide for the Transfer of Funds to Pay the Cost of Emergency Repairs ($335,000)

Mr. Rhoads:

• End of year budget transfer, anticipate emergency repair line would end up over budget, moving money from materials and supplies and all other expense lines to cover shortfall  
• Several significant emergency repair projects, Belgium Pump Station area, Butternut, and Salina; if they don’t replace assets through management end up replacing them anyway because they wear out
• No rate impact, just moving funds within 2014 budget 

A motion was made by Mrs. Rapp, seconded by Mr. Corl to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        l.      Authorizing the County Of Onondaga to Grant a Permanent Easement to National Grid for the Construction, Operation and Maintenance of Utility Lines for the Transmission and Distribution of Electrical Power

Mr. Rhoads:

• CSX rail line runs along backside of Metro, federal mandate requiring CSXh have additional signal served by National Grid; National Grid has high-tension line on the property with easement
• Small piece of property required - roughly 100 square feet for National Grid to make connection from existing pole to new CSX signal

In answer to Mrs. Rapp, Mr. Rhoads said that it was not a crossing; it is an additional signal warning of a curve in the rail.   

• Additional easement doesn’t conflict with things on their property; Mr. Lannon did a great job, working with  railroad can be difficult, $0 dollar transaction but able to get approval for significant emergency repair work WEP needs to complete within CSX’s right-of-way

A motion was made by Mrs. Rapp to approve this item.

In answer to Chairman Plochocki, Mr. Rhoads said that they had not heard from CSX for several months when they were talking about WEP’s project and when they told CSX that this item was never going to make it to the table, they started to listen.   WEP used the power of leverage, and hopefully the Legislature’s approval, to get something they need as well.    

Seconded by Mr. Shepard.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

Chairman Plochocki said that they normally do not take questions and comments from the public, but asked if former Legislator Baker had a question.  Mrs. Baker asked a question that did not pertain to protocol and Chairman Plochocki said that there was a difference between committees and public hearings. A working committee meeting was not the time for public questions. The public was welcome to ask questions and make comments at public hearings.

2.     OFFICE OF THE ENVIRONMENT:  David Coburn, Director; Mark Donnelly, Executive Director OCRRA; Amy Miller, Agency Engineer OCRRA

        a.     Determining the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Proposed Regional Solid Waste Partnership Under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), with Onondaga County Acting as Co-Lead Agency with Cortland County, to be Adequate in Terms of Scope and Content to Commence Public Review Pursuant to SEQRA; Authorizing the Publication, Circulation, Service and Filing of the DEIS Documents; and Calling for a Public Hearing

Chairman Plochocki said that this item was the DEIS for the proposed Regional Solid Waste Partnership with Cortland, often called the Ash for Trash deal.  Regarding the DEIS, the Legislature has been through this process many times, most recently over the past few months, and was very familiar with the process.  He emphasized that this was the DEIS, not the FEIS, the beginning of the process, not the end.  This would initiate the comment period, etc.  The question they need to ask themselves today and what they would ultimately be voting on - was the DEIS ready for public comment. 

Mr. Coburn:

• Action today – determine if DEIS is adequate for public review and comment; May 2014 Legislature passed resolution identifying themselves as co-lead agency with Cortland County, SEQRA process determined Type 1 action - significant effect on environment; were instructed to prepare DEIS and the reason they are here today
• Introduced Mark Donnelly and Amy Miller - good partners working with them in development of DEIS; Kristen Lawton - does a lot of good work with them; Don Lawless – OCRRA Board Member and former county employee;  John Brusa – from Barton & Loguidice, also instrumental in development of DEIS and here to support them; Lori Toralli, Luis Mendez, and Polly Johnson have all been instrumental in development of these products, has a great deal of support today
• Document 5 volumes; executive summary distributed to committee (see Attachment A)

Chairman Plochocki said that all of the material was received and reviewed in electronic form.  Mr. Coburn apologized for all the paper involved in the process, adding that he feels great guilt over the paper generated.  Chairman Plochocki said that there has been a lot to read over the last few months. 

• DEIS starts analysis with a description of the proposed project, talks about potential environmental impacts and mitigation measures considered as part of that
• Volume 1 talks about potential impacts and mitigation in 3 different ways, organized as impacts common to both Cortland and Onondaga County, then impacts associated with actions in Cortland County and then actions to be carried out in Onondaga County
• Volumes 2 and 3 are documents associated with permit applications carried out in Cortland County, deal with engineering reports and operation manuals
• Volume 4 was the transportation analysis associated wirh transportation of municipal refuse and ash along route
• Volume 5 deals with ecological impacts and correspondence with the National Heritage Program and US Fish and Wildlife; another volume includes drawings associated with the transfer station in Cortland County
• Very briefly impacts to both counties:
• Transportation - indicates no change in level of service on Onondaga County Roads, minor change on local roads in Cortland County; Mr. Brusa could answer any questions about that; NYS DOT concurred no significant impact on transportation
• Air - looked at in terms of truck traffic and greenhouse gas emissions, decrease in vehicle and landfill emissions due to shorter distance traveled and incinerating raw garbage rather than putting into landfill; no anticipated change in types of waste accepted at waste-to-energy facility, facility currently has aggressive screening program to keep unwanted and disallowed material out of the incinerator; Cortland County’s transfer station (where trucks would be loaded to bring municipal solid waste to Onondaga County) has new set of screening practices, equally aggressive, no impact expected for unacceptable waste
• Impacts to Onondaga County:
• Environmental Impact - SEQRA done, DEIS prepared for waste-to-energy facility at full design capacity when incinerator was first constructed, no change expected in permit from proposed partnership, no need to assess impacts already assessed as part of original assessment in permitting the facility; mitigation measure – continued use of emission control devises already in place
• Public Health – plant would be operating within emission levels evaluated as part of health risk assessment when facility was initially permitted; have talked about how they have redundant health risk assessments as part of last EIS on Wastebeds 1-8, health risk assessment done for incinerator no less conservative or redundant, identifies parameters likely to be coming out of stack based on stack emissions from existing facilities at that time, levels of emissions likely, conservative assumptions about quantities, estimate at the high end, then pathways these constituents might get to people and cause problems, make conservative assumptions about how the pathways would exist, overestimate, i.e. where you may have maximum soil  ingestion was different from where you would have maximum inhalation but they combine them into the most significant areas for the most conservative assumption, then make conservative assumptions about frequency and duration, i.e. assume individual would have maximum exposure over the span of 70 years, plant design life only 50 years, conservative on that assumption also, based on all those conservative assessments of public health vernacular basically said it was an acceptable risk; no proposed mitigation other than continued use of emission controls in place
• Fiscal Analysis – financial benefit approximately $1 million  to $1.2 million for Onondaga County per year; benefit would allow reasonable tipping fee and continuation of green programs – waste reduction recycling, household hazardous waste, shredding, florescent bulbs and batteries, all those kinds of things cost money, absent the partnership likely adjustment to tipping fee, assessment is laid out in DEIS               
• Capital improvements are all in Cortland County and why many volumes are associated with those actions; Mr. Brusa able to answer questions on Cortland County impacts        

Chairman Plochocki asked that he speak about alternatives, adding that he had a member of the public ask him to what extent alternatives were discussed in the DEIS and asked for a summary of that.  Mr. Coburn:

• Alternatives considered in Onondaga County were no action - to not have the partnership;  if they didn’t have Cortland Landfill location for disposal would look at other ash disposal alternatives
• In 2013 Cortland County approached OCRRA, indicated they were unable to cover the cost of their bonds for landfill operation from landfill revenues, proposed looking at collaboration, OCRRA and Cortland Counties determined there was potential economic, environmental and stabilizing benefits associated with the partnership, came to County Executive and Legislature, were directed to put together proposal and assess the project; that project is being assessed in the DEIS
• Knows some people are interested in looking at an array of different ways to handle municipal solid waste in Onondaga County,  those charged with developing project and doing DEIS were not charged with reinventing the award winning solid waste management system in place today, were charged with assessing impacts associated with this particular proposed partnership  

In answer to Mrs. Rapp, Mr. Coburn confirmed that today they were just calling for the public hearing and public comment period.  Chairman Plochocki added, and to approve the DEIS for that.   

In response to a member of the public, Chairman asked if the unidentified member had a procedural question, meaning the way the meeting was operating.  Mrs. Baker responded and Chairman Plochocki interjected saying that the questions were not procedural questions, i.e. are they going to vote on this today was a procedural question, are people allowed to ask questions in a meeting was a procedural question, again this was not a hearing.  There would be hearings and there would be plenty of room for public comment.  He would strongly encourage anyone with concerns about the DEIS to address the public comment period, which was what it was for.  

Chairman Plochocki said that this was not personal to Mrs. Baker or anyone from the public, these are working meetings and the public was here just to watch and ask procedural questions only. 

A motion was made by Mr. Shepard, seconded by Mr. Corl to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.    

        b.     Approving the Classification of an Unlisted Action Under the State Environmental Quality Review Act; Declaring Lead Agency Status; Accepting the Environmental Assessment Form; and Accepting and Adopting the Negative Declaration for the Onondaga County Solid Waste Management Plan

Chairman Plochocki said that people have asked him if the committee had read the document and the answer was of course they had, they were given copies accordingly in order to review it.  He was also asked if this was made available to the public.  It was his understanding that like some documents, i.e. the FEIS from the last project, there are certain times when until some things were voted on they were not released to the public to avoid multiple copies that could cause contradictions, etc.  He heard a rumor that this was put on one portion of the County website but rumors and possibilities notwithstanding, his understanding was that officially a draft of a solid waste management plant was not released to the public until this committee voted on it.  Mr. Coburn said that he did not know that there was a hard and fast rule about posting to a particular public site.  The comment period would not begin until the entire Legislature takes an action to begin that process.  He is not sure that there is far more benefit in having the document posted or not.  The fact is once the public comment begins the information would be posted and available for everyone to look at.  

Chairman Plochocki asked Mr. Coburn to provide a brief description.  Mr. Coburn:

• Two actions; one addresses SEQRA (On file with Clerk), declares Onondaga County as lead agency, environmental assessment performed, identified as unlisted action; some communities updating their plans have identified the action as a Type 2, more of an administrative act, in the name of transparency they called this an unlisted action, prepared a long environmental assessment form, determined that updating of the plan would not have a significant impact on the environment; one resolution carries out SEQRA action 
• Other resolution begins public review and comment on the draft Solid Waste Management Plan itself  

Chairman Plochocki said that because this was a SEQRA review of a plan in other words, a paper document, no earth was being moved and there were no physical changes.  This was an unusual SEQRA situation and if he understood what Mr. Coburn said, many communities would list this as a Type 2 action and would not go any further with this.  Mr. Coburn said that some have, they have seen it listed both ways.   Chairman Plochocki said that in the name of transparency they were taking a further step and listing this as an unlisted action, etc.    

Chairman Plochocki asked that Mr. Coburn get into the negative declaration a little further.  He could make an educated guess but asked that Mr. Coburn talk about why he feels this was appropriate here.  Mr. Coburn said that the long environmental assessment form lists no impact to the environment in every intense for adopting the plan and updating the plan itself.  There was no capital project and there was no explicit change in the way that they manage waste in Onondaga County because of the update.  With that, there was no identified impact associated with the action. 

A motion was made by Mr. Corl, seconded by Mr. Shepard to approve this item.  Ayes: 3 (Shepard, Corl, Plochocki), Noes: 0, Abstentions: 1 (Rapp); MOTION CARRIED.   

Chairman Plochocki acknowledged that he saw someone’s hand but was hesitant to call on her given what had been happening at the meeting.  An unidentified member of the public said that the question was procedural and asked if the meeting would determine when the public comment period and hearings would actually be.  Mr. Coburn said that there wasn’t a specific date for the public hearing.  It would be determined by the time the full session acts.  This was to call for a public review and then a hearing date would be established.  Chairman Plochocki said that the question was a procedural adding that generally, they set a date but in this case, they had not.    

In answer to Chairman Plochocki, another unidentified member of the public stated that she believed her question was procedural.  Chairman Plochocki said that if it was not, he asks that she stop talking when asked.  She asked if item 2b should state DEIS, rather than Environmental Impact Statement.  Mr. Coburn said that it was an environmental assessment form because it was a negative declaration, which does not call for the preparation of a DEIS.  The reason being that there are no actions being taken upon which to assess environmental impacts, there was no capital project.  Chairman Plochocki noted that the question was procedural.       

        c.     Calling a Public Hearing to Consider the Draft Local Solid Waste Management Plan Update

Chairman Plochocki said that there was not a specific date; they were just calling for the hearing.

A motion was made by Mr. Shepard, seconded by Mr. Corl to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

3.     METROPOLITAN WATER BOARD:  I. Holly Rosenthal, Executive Director

        a.     Approving an Amendment to the Currently Effective Schedule of Rates to be Charged for Water and Water Service Provided by the Onondaga County Water District

Ms. Rosenthal:

• Requesting rate increase, follows public hearing resolution presented last month, increase is $.05 per thousand gallons as a wholesale rate 

Chairman Plochocki said that the $.05 cent increase was simply what was approved during budget by the Legislature.  Ms. Rosenthal agreed.  Mrs. Rapp said that they have talked about this a lot.  Chairman Plochocki said that he understands that there was appropriate protocol and motions that they had to go through but he wanted to make sure that this was simply what they had spoken of and there were no additional $.05 cent increases.  Ms. Rosenthal confirmed that was correct.

Ms. Rosenthal said that through the Law department they are in the process of changing the procedure so that the rate change corresponds to the budget public hearing and budget approval and they would not have these resolutions as a separate step. 

A motion was made by Mrs. Rapp, seconded by Mr. Shepard to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:34 AM.

Respectfully submitted,

KATHERINE M. FRENCH, Deputy Clerk

Onondaga County Legislature

* * *

COUNTY FACILITIES COMMITTEE MINUTES - NOVEMBER 12, 2014

JUDITH A. TASSONE, CHAIR

MEMBERS PRESENT:  Mrs. Rapp, Mr. Shepard

MEMBERS ABSENT:  Mr. Dougherty, Mr. Ryan

ALSO PRESENT:  see attached list

Chair Tassone called the meeting to order at 10:39 a.m.  A motion was made by Mrs. Rapp, seconded by Mr. Shepard to waive the reading and approve the minutes of the previous committee.  MOTION CARRIED.

1.     TRANSPORTATION:  Brian Donnelly, Commissioner

        a.     Transfer from Supplies and Materials 693000 ($73,016) to Maintenance, Utilities and Rents 694130 ($73,016)

• $73,000 to Maintenance, Utilities and Rents; higher than expected outside repairs for trucks and utilities
• Offset in fuel - cost of fuel dropping dramatically; even with transfer, still expecting $150,000 surplus in that account

A motion was made by Mrs. Rapp, seconded by Mr. Shepard, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

2.     PARKS AND RECREATION:  Bill Lansley, Commissioner

        a.     Amending the 2014 County Budget to Release Contingency Funds for Distribution to the NBT Bank Stadium ($83,550)

• Contingency funds for stadium; $83,550 - $65,000 put in for physical improvements dedicated to replacing roofs
• All roofs needing replacement including one that is $47,000; rest of the money allocated to other repairs
• $18,550 for expense items they have on annual basis at stadium, including permits and handling the fire extinguishers

Chair Tassone asked if they took bids on this.  Mr. Lansley responded it is a County contract for the roofing.  There are nine roofs there which would be $447,000 to replace; they do not all need to be replaced today. 

Mr. Lansley responded to Mrs. Rapp that the contingency money is in a maintenance account (214). 

Chair Tassone asked when they would start. 

A motion was made by Mr. Shepard, seconded by Mrs. Rapp, to approve this item.

Mr. Lansley responded to Chair Tassone that they would do the critical roof now, so it will be done before winter.  It is over the ticket booth operations, and has been leaking. 

Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        b.     Transfer from Total Salaries 641010 to Equipment 692150, $12,900

• Critical equipment (heavy trailer); bill for it is $12,900 – had existing trailer which was condemned and pulled from service; this is needed to move heavy equipment including backhoes; difficult to continue work without the trailer

Mr. Lansley replied to Mrs. Rapp that they are replacing the trailer.  The trailer was sent to WEP for inspection.  Occasionally WEP will say it cannot go back out, so they auction it off.  Mrs. Rapp asked if they get any money for it.  Mr. Lansley answered it is auction money, which is usually just scrap. 

Chair Tassone asked how old the equipment is.  Mr. Stevens responded it had been there for a while, and was condemned by WEP due to the rust. 

Mrs. Rapp asked if the replacement is brand new.  Mr. Lansley replied yes. 

A motion was made by Mrs. Rapp, seconded by Mr. Shepard, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

3.     ONONDAGA COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY:  Bill Fisher, Deputy County Executive

        a.     Confirming Appointment and Reappointment to the Onondaga County Public Library Board of Trustees (Marilyn R. Tucci, Virginia Biesiada O’Neill, Christina Rothman Ondrako)

• 3 nominations with 2 that this body previously approved; Virginia Biesiada O’Neill is currently the president of the board, so this is a renewal term; Christina Rothman Ondrako filled a vacancy last year
• Marilyn Tucci was a county employee in OCPL doing fiscal officer work; received suggestion from board; thought it was good to bring in someone with experience with the library

Mrs. Rapp stated she knows Marilyn who was involved with the Liverpool Library. 

A motion was made by Mr. Shepard, seconded by Mrs. Rapp, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

4.     CNY ARTS:  Stephen Butler, Executive Director

        a.     Amending the 2014 County Budget to Make Funds Available to CNY Arts for Distribution to Musical Associates of Central New York, Inc. ($70,000)

• Request $70,000 from contingency; joined by Symphoria board member John Garland

Chair Tassone stated the report looks good.  Mr. Butler commented the financial figures are for the first month of their fiscal year.  They brought in $300,000 of their $1.7 million dollar budget in month one, so they are off to a good start.  Their concerts have been getting great reviews.  They also have a cultivation program for youth where they distribute free tickets for those under the age of eighteen, and five dollar tickets to college students.  This program is going well; over 5,000 children and youth attended concerts.  Mrs. Rapp asked if that was in the first month.  Mr. Garland replied there were hundreds of kids the first month with Wizard of Oz, and thousands since they started the program in the previous season.  Mr. Garland commented with Halloween in October they’ve had hundreds of kids approaching one thousand. 

Chair Tassone stated this is the last installment.

Mrs. Rapp asked if there were any updates they are especially proud of.  Mr. Butler responded they have a musical director coming on board, and the Symphony continues to grow.  This is important for shaping the work as well as the Orchestra.  Mr. Garland said the musical director will start full time in September of 2015, but he is conducting a number of projects to get to know the people in the community.  The new musical director is coming from the Pittsburgh Symphony as the resident conductor.  Mrs. Rapp asked what the difference is between a conductor and a musical director.  Mr. Garland responded a music director oversees the artistic aspects of the organization (Symphoria is a collaborative effort), and provides leadership in the organization.  Mr. Garland stated one thing that has been a huge success is inviting high school and community music groups to perform on stage at the Crouse-Hinds Theater.  West Genesee’s wind ensemble played this past weekend, which gives them a chance to play in a real concert hall.  The free tickets for the kids has been a huge success, and diversifies the audience.  Mr. Butler commented that the kids come with their parents, who purchase tickets.  The first month they are at ninety-seven percent of goal for subscriptions, which shows their marketing efforts have come a long way. 

Mr. Butler replied to Chair Tassone that they have a very busy season coming up.  Mr. Garland responded to Mr. Butler that there are six masterworks performances at Crouse-Hinds Theater and four pops performances.  The holiday pops on December 19th is sold out, so they added an additional performance on December 20th in the afternoon.  They will be joined by the Syracuse Children’s Chorus, the Syracuse Pops, and a dance company of kids.  Julia Goodwin, known for America’s Got Talent, has been a great success too.  Mr. Garland said they have over fifty full orchestra programs scheduled this year, so they are busy. 

Mrs. Rapp asked if the orchestra has grown.  Mr. Garland responded the orchestra’s core is at about fifty people, and they supplement the size of the orchestra with substitute musicians.  The core has not substantially grown, but they have had good retention of their members.  Mrs. Rapp asked if the musicians are able to support themselves better.  Mr. Garland answered the funding is from a combination of sources including the County Legislature, CNY Arts, and the foundation.  They have some work to do on that.  Mrs. Rapp commented that will be when it stabilizes; being able to do the concerts and support themselves.  Mr. Fisher stated that is the real challenge, and the foundation board is aware of that.  The model is one of two in the country where the musicians operate it as their own collective.  In that kind of environment to spend aggressively on marketing to grow revenue is something they would not be able to do; unless they are sure the money is coming in (risk it).  The foundation board is trying to figure out how to accelerate the revenues, because in the long run, the musicians cannot afford to be a part of this orchestra.  Mrs. Rapp commented that is the fear; losing everyone.  Mr. Fisher agreed, and said the progress is not great.  The revenue now is approximately $1.6 or $1.7 million, and they need $2.5 to $3.5 million for the musicians to live here and support their families.  Mr. Garland agreed with Mr. Fisher that the average wage is around $10,000.  Mr. Fisher stated the money that comes from here is very important for the total.  Mr. Fisher said the County Executive appreciates the Legislature’s continued support as it has a lot of jobs involved. 

A motion was made by Mrs. Rapp, seconded by Mr. Shepard, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

5.     ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION:

        a.     Skӓ·noñh–Great Law of Peace Center Update - Gregg Tripoli, Executive Director

Mr. Tripoli:

• Currently have $100,000 ask to Legislature to support construction phase of center housed in County owned building
• Asking for any questions the committee may have that will help garner votes needed to get appropriation, which is essential for this project; County already supported first two phases of conceptual planning and development
• Make clear – do not have intention for coming to County for operating expenses; this is the last County appropriation they will ask for; appropriation to help with construction of facility

Chair Tassone asked what the construction part will be.  Mr. Tripoli responded it is to repurpose the facility, into the plans shown, to create a new concept of the museum.  Different from traditional historic museums, this is an oral history experience that tells the history of the native community as per their tradition.  It has objects and art, but it is not an object based museum; those items are there to support the narrative.  The narrative explains the history and values of the Native American community particularly in regard to Onondaga Lake, and what the lake has meant.  Some of the stories have national and international significance. 

Mrs. Rapp asked if $100,000 is the ask.  Mr. Tripoli responded yes.  It will probably be $400,000 cash, and another $100,000 in-kind, so $500,000 total.  Mr. Tripoli stated they are committed to raising eighty percent of the funding. 

Chair Tassone asked when they think this will be finished.  Mr. Tripoli answered November 2015.  They have applied for a lot of grants and asks, and a lot are contingent on the County.  Mrs. Rapp asked if the County will service the match for the grants.  Mr. Tripoli replied some of the grants have matches, but most do not.  Particularly the local foundations are waiting to hear what the County will do.  Mrs. Rapp asked if they have secured any.  Mr. Tripoli responded they have written over $685,000 in asks, and the decision making has not occurred yet.  The Regional Economic Development Council (expecting to hear before election) could be any day now.  Mrs. Rapp heard the 18th.  Mr. Tripoli said they heard from one local foundation who has given them their full ask of $25,000, which is contingent.  The money from the County is the final seal, but also the leverage needed for additional funds. 

Chair Tassone stated this is just an informational, and asked Mr. Tripoli if he knew when he would be back.  Mr. Tripoli said he can come back as soon as possible.  Mrs. Rapp asked if it would go to Ways and Means.  Mr. Fisher commented that the County Executive had a resolution in her budget to take $100,000 out of room tax surplus through a contract County Facilities would administer (it is a county building so want to ensure it is maintained the way the County wants).  Mr. Fisher was hoping they would vote on it today or at Ways and Means.  Mrs. Rapp agreed with Mr. Fisher that Mr. Tripoli stated the operating budget does not require any County dollars; which is important to the County Executive’s office.  Mrs. Rapp asked if this is a onetime ask.  Mr. Fisher agreed.  Mr. Tripoli commented:

• Discretionary art and cultural institution; not like OHA that is collecting, processing, storing history of County and City
• Facility is different; purpose to increase tourism, particularly heritage tourism, to provide a unique amenity for County in County’s most popular park; tell story not told
• From political and spiritual seat of confederacy; most formidable enemy on continent prior to European arrival
• Covers everything including Great Law of Peace, which created first democracy in west; democracy is what created the matrimonial clan system - put women in power and leadership
• Could be argued that America’s democracy was not a true democracy until 1920s when women could vote; from the very beginning, women were in leadership positions; this was first represented democracy in the west
• Story of bundling of arrows and eagle, and burying the hatchet; literally where that globalism came from - the Great Law of Peace on shores of Onondaga Lake
• Influence on founding fathers (Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson) who wrote about Great Law of Peace; used in arguments to convince separate autonomous colonies to come together to create more perfect union
• Things that happened in local Native American history on shores of Onondaga Lake are international in scale
• Collaborative to create center very unique; made national news; there is a local indigenous nation, a local historic society, 5 academic institutions – all came together to create this center; most didn’t see eye to eye
• Basic differences have plagued communities for decades; largest % increase in tourism market coming from Asia and European market where Native American history is huge
• Can capitalize on other things happening with lake:  Loop the Lake, DestiNY USA, inner harbor and amphitheater
• Lake is once again becoming the center of economic development; adds value to tourism, cultural, recreational draw

Mrs. Rapp asked if Mr. Tripoli is getting any pushback from the Amphitheater.  Mr. Tripoli heard different people say different things about who is supporting it, and Mr. Tripoli is asking that this project be looked at on its merits.  Mrs. Rapp clarified she is talking about the partnership with the Onondagas.  Mr. Tripoli responded the Onondaga’s have already reconciled themselves to the fact that they can agree to disagree on things, and the amphitheater is probably one of them.  Mr. Tripoli stated they need to concentrate on finding a consensus of where they can work together to benefit the community.  Mrs. Rapp asked if the Onondagas are still all in on this as far as the partnership.  Mr. Tripoli responded yes.  The point of the Onondagas is to find consensus.  The point of the Great Law of Peace is to recognize there are times where they will agree to disagree, but generally for the benefit of the good.  Mrs. Rapp heard rumors that the Onondagas were not all in.  Mr. Tripoli said the Nation has put money into this.  They had a meeting last Friday where almost the entire counsel of chiefs were there to discuss the narrative, content and art to be used, and they are in the final phases.  There were at least ten clan mothers there, which was huge.  Mrs. Rapp stated it is not an issue, so that’s great.  Mrs. Rapp commented that most of what is going in are video screens.  Mr. Tripoli said there are quite a bit of objects and art, but the majority of the focus of the center will be film.  A documentary style oral history where the Haudenosaunee are telling the history as it was told to them in previous generations.  Mrs. Rapp asked if there are any structural changes to the building.  Mr. Tripoli answered no; very few.  There are some issues with sharing offices with Soil and Water on the second floor, because people will have access to the building and the main exhibits (on the way to a meeting, etc.).  The center was designed to be non-object based.  There are some areas that will have to be closed off (i.e. the temporary gallery and catering kitchen).  Mrs. Rapp asked about the restaurant.  Mr. Tripoli does not think having a restaurant right now is a good idea after doing the surveys in phase two.  There is not a lot of pedestrian activities.  Mr. Tripoli believes it will be a great place for events. 

Chair Tassone asked about their ideas for the grounds.  Mr. Tripoli responded they are currently doing trails with the Boy Scout troops, and working with SUNY ESF.  People did not want an exercise site, but walking trails are very popular.  There will be walking trails with interpretive signage to identify plants and trees, and talk about what Native American’s used the surrounding plants and trees for. 

Mr. Tripoli replied to Mrs. Rapp that they have budgeted for two additional people for attendants in the store.  The general manager of the store is already an OHA employee.

Mr. Shepard asked what they will be doing with the outdoor facility.  Mr. Tripoli answered that it is a boring building, so they will be dressing it up a little by covering it with vegetation.  It will look like it’s growing into the landscape, and it’s an inexpensive way to tie the center into the environment.  Mr. Shepard asked about the fort specifically.  Mr. Tripoli responded it will become a house museum with mobile tours, interpretive panels, and the rooms will be set up as how they were at that time.  The museum will speak to life at the fort, how they made their meals, and how they lived.  The fort is the site of the first formal contact in Central NY between the Native Americans and the Europeans; Onondagas and French Jesuit Missionaries.  Mrs. Rapp asked if they would be telling both stories.  Mr. Tripoli said yes, and particularly for St. Marie it is important.  The center will really be the Native American perspective.  When introducing the European component, it is necessary to talk about contact and colonialism, the effects on the Native American’s, and how well they are dealing with it.  Mrs. Rapp commented it is a modest investment for something with a major impact. 

Chair Tassone stated there is no resolution.  Mr. Tripoli asked what the next step is.  Mrs. Rapp stated a resolution would have to go to Ways and Means.  Mr. Tripoli stated this is a very exciting project, and they are right at the end of two years of hard work, so they would really like to get this over the last hump.

Mr. Fisher stated there was a resolution at budget with two parts to it:  $100,000 for the center and $50,000 for the Landmark.  Mr. Fisher asked if Law could make sure that the Legislature has what the County Executive has.  Mrs. Rapp asked what is going on with the Landmark.  Mr. Fisher responded last year the Landmark Theater added some people to the board.  Alan Naples and Eric Mower have been heading up a group that is trying to raise additional dollars for the Landmark Theater, and they had some success; including a Gala at the Landmark on Saturday night.  The County Executive, a year ago, asked for an additional $100,000 (on top of what comes from CNY Arts), and the Legislature approved $50,000 out of one bucket and $50,000 out of another.  One bucket was current year room tax and the other was surplus.  This year the Legislature approved the current room tax in the budget, but the resolution, that would have taken an additional $50,000 in surplus, was taken out and not voted on.  Mr. Fisher said it was part of the budget, and believe it was in the same resolution.  Mrs. Berger agreed.  Mr. Fisher stated the County Executive put it forward, so if the Legislature wishes to act on it, then the County Executive would continue to be supportive. 

Mrs. Rapp asked what they will need to do to make it happen.  Mrs. Berger responded that if the committee desires to, they can vote on it in concept, or they can have the resolution that was available for budget day sent to Ways and Means.  Mrs. Rapp thinks they should see the resolution, and Chair Tassone agreed.  Mrs. Rapp stated there needs to be some kind of explanation.  Mrs. Rapp asked if there was $50,000 of room tax that the Legislature approved.  Mr. Fisher said it was out of the 2015 room tax budget.  Mrs. Rapp asked if the $50,000 that did not pass was from this year.  Mr. Fisher answered yes; surplus room tax.  Mr. Fisher responded to Mrs. Rapp that there was a surplus between $400,000 and $500,000 last year, so that is what it would draw upon.  This year is out, because they would not have that until January or February.  There is already money left over from closing out 2013, which is the source of the $100,000 for the center and the additional $50,000 for the Landmark.  They are not counting on any more money this year; it is surplus that exists.  Mrs. Rapp asked if someone is going to make the case for the Landmark needing the extra $50,000.  Mr. Fisher responded yes.  The Landmark has had a lot of success growing revenues, but they are still running a deficit.  They believe with public dollars, the fundraising campaigns would be more successful.  They believe they can raise $100,000 to $150,000 a year, and with the $100,000 from the Legislature, this would be $200,000 to $250,000.  This is what they need to get back to where they want to be.  Mrs. Rapp asked if their mortgage was in jeopardy.  Mr. Fisher responded the Landmark owns the property, but there are bank loans.  They are making some interest payments, but not all, and they are certainly not paying on the principle.  Mrs. Rapp stated the Book of Mormon was packed, and every night was sold out.  Mrs. Rapp said to the owner that it must help a lot, but the owner responded not really; they rent the theater and the promoters get the take (similar to the amphitheater).  Filling the theater does not make a difference.  Doing this minimizes the risk, but also the opportunity.  Mr. Fisher commented, as President of that board, he has worked with them over the year trying to make sure they have a strategy to work with the County Executive and the Legislature to get the extra money.  Mrs. Rapp asked if Mr. Fisher feels good about the strategy.  Mr. Fisher replied the County Executive has offered a couple times to have SNG help give them advice, and they have had conversations, but it has not gone that far. 

Chair Tassone asked how many years does the Landmark need help.  Mr. Fisher responded they were hoping for five years of support with this year (2014) being the first year.  Mr. Fisher stated the County Executive said she if the voters commit to keeping her in office, then she will continue to seek approval for next year, and three years after. 

Mr. Fisher replied to Mrs. Rapp that downtown there are many businesses that were packed during the performances.  Mrs. Rapp commented people go out to dinner and shop.  Mr. Fisher said there will be a lot of activity on Salina Street (i.e. Gannon across the street, Redhouse, the Sibleys building, the pipewalk project, 90% occupancy in the apartments, the Central Library opening, more garages opening), which should help the Landmark Theater.  Mrs. Rapp commented that it is a magnificent building, but would hate to put money into something that has no opportunity to pay the County back.  Mr. Fisher stated theaters have competition, so it is tough to make it without public dollars. 

Mr. Fisher said they will need someone to sponsor the resolution for it to be on Ways and Means.  Mrs. Berger said to get the resolution on the Ways and Means agenda, the Chairman of Ways and Means would have to decide.  To have the resolution considered in session, it will need a sponsor.  Mr. Fisher stated perhaps Chair Tassone could have a talk with Legislator Knapp.  Chair Tassone said they have a caucus coming up.

6.     FACILITIES MANAGEMENT:  Duane Owens, Commissioner; Archie Wixson, Deputy Commissioner; Rustan Petrela, Senior Management Analyst

        a.     A Resolution Authorizing the Reconstruction and Construction of Improvements to Various Buildings in and for the County of Onondaga, New York, at a Maximum Estimated Cost of $2,025,000, and Authorizing the Issuance of $2,025,000 Bonds of Said County to Pay Costs Thereof ($2,025,000)

Mr. Owens stated they are requesting authorization for bonding of $2,025,000 for reconstruction of improvements for various buildings in the downtown campus area.  Chair Tassone asked what the downtown campus area encompasses.  Mr. Owens responded there are ten to thirteen buildings downtown including the Convention Center, War Memorial, Everson Museum, Justice Center and Sheriff’s Department.  Mrs. Rapp asked if the County owns the Everson.  Mr. Owens replied the County owns it with the City, and they have a ninety-nine year lease (50/50 ownership).  Mrs. Rapp asked if Facilities does the Everson’s maintenance work.  Mr. Owens answered no.  They have a lease agreement that gives them full responsibility and oversight of the property.  They are responsible for all of the maintenance and repairs.  County Facilities has done things recently in the surrounding area with sidewalks, which are the Everson’s responsibility; but if someone slips and falls, the lawsuit goes to the County.  The sidewalk repairs are to avoid any possible legal suit. 

Chair Tassone asked if any of the $2 million will go to Carnegie.  Mr. Owens said no.

Mr. Owens:

• Civic Center – $880,000 – contingent progress and renovation put in motion in 2011; initially started with poor conditions on 7 and 8; moved to situation with space to renovate
• COB – abatement; completed abatement project; remodeled several floors; invited committee to see progress

Chair Tassone said she would set it up.

Mr. Owens:

• Completed Probation from Civic Center (CC) to 1st floor; Chronic Care on 6th floor; Probation 5th floor just completed
• 75% of Probation in County Office Building (COB); small portion in CC
• Part of funding to do 4th floor COB; 2nd floor also, but not requesting funding; still doing study and design; larger project; extends from CC to COB; this money for 4th
• Funding from previous authorization to start and get 6 done; will start next year

Mr. Owens agreed with Chair Tassone that the $880,000 is for the Civic Center.  Mr. Owens responded to Mrs. Rapp that the old money would do the sixth floor, and the $880,000 would do the second floor.  Mr. Owens stated the Ed Kochan money is $700,000 to complete the fourth floor, plus the lobby areas and bathrooms on each floor.  Chair Tassone asked if they are completing all the bathrooms on each floor.  Mr. Wixson responded they are completing all of the common toilet rooms as they renovate (outside the bathroom occupied area).  The lobby restrooms will be done too.  Mr. Owens answered Mrs. Rapp that the majority of the work is done in-house.  This depends on the resources available.  Mr. Owens said help is based on what needs to be bid depending on availability of resources.  They max out the resources first, then look at biding.  Facilities saves the County money when they can do things themselves.  The in-house design saved hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Chronic Care on the sixth floor of the COB was done by an outside design firm, and was totally contracted.  Facilities did the fifth floor of the COB saving over $600,000 in the total cost of the project.  When at all possible, they will do it themselves.  Mr. Owens commented that the work they do is top notch.  Chair Tassone agreed. 

Mr. Owens stated $880,000 is for the Civic Center, and $700,000 is for the COB.  Facilities is requesting an additional $745,000 for various projects throughout various facilities, and the downtown campus area.  Mr. Owens clarified that the request is $445,000, and the $300,000 was already authorized and appropriated by the Legislature under the 960 account.  Chair Tassone asked what buildings this includes.  Mr. Owens responded some funding will improve the Civic Center building, and some for the Everson Garage and Community Plaza.  The Everson Garage’s alarm system will need to be replaced, so they are looking into that, and the concrete stairwells in the garage are deteriorating.  Outside the Civic Center, the column’s concrete and mortar is deteriorating, so they will need to reassure the columns and replacing the mortar.  There is still a major asbestos problem throughout these old buildings, especially down below in the tunnels where the trades are working; at times it will have to be replaced.  Mr. Owens stated the $745,000 is actually $645,000.  Mr. Petrela commented that the request to the Legislature was $300,000, but the Legislature approved $200,000. 

Chair Tassone asked if the County owns the Everson Garage.  Mr. Owens responded yes.  If they think of the Everson Museum and the plaza itself, the footprint the Museum is on is the property owned by the County and City jointly.  The plaza going north is owned solely by the County; including the garage.  Mr. Owens agreed with Mrs. Rapp that it is where the fountain is.  Mrs. Rapp asked if the City is funding this at all.  Mr. Owens is not sure on the details of funding for the Museum. 

Mr. Shepard asked if the County spent $500,000 on engineering related to the garage not too long ago.  Mr. Owens responded they spent $200,000 related to the garage floor.  That design is completed, and the estimate is done.  The study and design were done three times, because the first two times the price was coming back at a crazy number (over $2 million).  Facilities finally did the right thing, got a good study done, and shaved off the price.  Mr. Wixson stated they were under $900,000.  Mr. Owens said they shaved off $900,000, and they will be requesting that funding in 2017.  Mr. Petrela agreed with Mr. Owens, and said it was originally $2.5 million which was cut to $1.7 million.  Mr. Owens said they got it to where it needs to be, and will request it in 2017.  The reason it is pushed out to 2017 is because of the pressure of debt service in relation to operation costs.  Mrs. Rapp asked if the estimate will be preserved.  Mr. Owens responded there is a little accelerator on it, but with the consumer price index running around two to three percent, the worst case scenario would be an increase of four to five percent. 

A motion was made by Mrs. Rapp, seconded by Mr. Shepard, to approve this item. 

Chair Tassone stated it will still go to Ways and Means.

Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

Chair Tassone responded to Mr. Owens that she does not know when Carnegie will come up again.  It was originally on the agenda, but was pulled.  Mr. Owens said it is not a cost savings project, but a revenue generating project; which makes a big difference.  Chair Tassone stated they will need all the information, and will have to rehash it to decide if it’s a benefit to the taxpayers.  Mr. Owens asked if they saw the numbers.  Chair Tassone responded they did get some numbers when the audit was done.  Mr. Owens said very rarely do they have a project that produces. 

The meeting was adjourned at 11:40 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Jamie M. McNamara, Assistant Clerk

Onondaga County Legislature

* * *

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MINUTES - NOVEMBER 12, 2014

BRIAN MAY, CHAIRMAN

MEMBERS PRESENT:  Mr. Jordan, Mr. Holmquist, Mr. Dougherty

MEMBERS ABSENT:  Mr. Ryan

ALSO PRESENT:   See attached list

Chairman May called the meeting to order at 12:06 PM.  A motion was made by Mr. Jordan, seconded by Mr. Dougherty, to waive the reading of the minutes of the proceedings of the previous committee.  MOTION CARRIED.  A motion was made by Mr. Jordan, seconded by Mr. Dougherty to approve the minutes of the proceedings of the previous committee.  MOTION CARRIED.

1.     DISTRICT ATTORNEY:  Barry Weiss, Administrative Officer

        a.     Amending the 2014 County Budget to Accept United States Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Funds for the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force ($17,374)

Mr. Weiss:

• Have been working with DEA for a number of years; IMA now requires approval of funds, will be used for personnel 

Chairman May said that his understanding was that this was a large chunk of money that now must be applied for and received individually by each agency or department touching the taskforce.  Mr. Weiss agreed.  Chairman May said that they have approved funds for the Sheriff and Probation.

A motion was made by Mr. Dougherty, seconded by Mr. Jordan to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

2.     SHERIFF:  Dick Carbery, Chief – Civil; Jennifer Fricano, Accountant 1

        a.     Amending the 2014 County Budget to Accept Federal Homeland Security Funds for the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office and Authorizing the County Executive to Enter into Contracts to Implement this Resolution ($20,000)

Chief Carbery:

• $20k grant for explosive detection canine team initiative, can only be used for those purposes
• Will purchase SUV, replacing patrol car currently used, car will be sent to auction; van will cost more than $20k, using $6,035 of donated funds to make up the difference, need to accept grant then assumes it will go to Vehicle Use Review Board

In answer to Mr. Dougherty, Chief Carbery said that he did not know who donated the $6,000. The canine program itself tends to get donations.  In answer to Chairman May, Ms. Fricano said that a foundation was not set up for this.  There is an account that takes in donations for various things and the donor can stipulate what the funds are to be used for.

Mr. Jordan asked the condition of the car going to auction, noting that the issue of the day has been patrol cars and if the car was in satisfactory shape, why wouldn’t they hold onto it for a while.  Chief Carbery said that he had not seen the car himself but asked the fleet manager what would happen with the car and was told that it would go to auction.  His assumption was that it would be that particular car going to auction based on the conversation.   A car used for canine purposes was difficult to put back into normal service.

A motion was made by Mr. Dougherty, seconded by Mr. Holmquist to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        b.     2014 OT Transfer Resolution-Sheriff Police/Civil ($1,250,000)

Chairman May said that items 2a and 2b would be discussed together, first discussing the whole scenario and then working their way through each resolution. 

Chairman May said that the Police/Civil side was still tracking favorably.  Conversely Custody was high but they knew that this was coming.  For all intense and purposes they have seen much worse and he credits everyone in the Sheriff’s administration for reining this in, it was not easy getting to this point.   

In answer to Chairman May, Chief Carbery said that today’s bus crash would add about 50 hours of overtime.

In answer to Mr. Jordan and Mr. Dougherty, Ms. Fricano provided the following information on Police/Civil:

• $1,256,147 total overtime through  1st half of month 10
• OCSPA payment was not included in earlier projections – wouldn’t be comparing apples to apples, month 7th amount high due to OCSPA retro payment; budget amount for 2014 now $1.9M including OCSPA formerly $1.7M
• Holiday pay lumped into month 12 for the year, about $500k
• $700k released from contingency those far, operating in the red; $1,250,000 requested covers shortage, projected overtime for 2nd half of month 10 through month 12 and holiday pay; overtime budget $1.9M, projected to come in as $1,866,852

Chairman May said that he did not like the fact that holiday pay was included in overtime as it muddies the water and makes it harder to understand.  He would also like to understand the settlement amount and asked how much it was and why overtime wasn’t included in the original settlement amount.  Ms. Fricano said that the settlement wasn’t included in the original budget and if they were doing a projection based on the past 3 years and included those amounts, they wouldn’t be comparing apples to apples and the projection would be skewed.  Chairman May said that it was not settlement money, it was money that was owed in 2014 as a result of the settlement for overtime.  Ms. Fricano agreed.   Chairman May said he understood and asked about how much it was.  Ms. Fricano said that the retro payment itself was about $180k in month 7.  Chairman May said that this was totally unbudgeted money as a result of the settlement; the money wasn’t in the settlement because it was for 2014.     

Mr. Jordan said that there was a 23% variance on the custody side and asked why.  Chairman May said that they have been receiving quarterly reports which have shown the Police side to be at or near budget.  The Custody side has been showing a minimum of $600,000 overrun from very early in the year per his memory and asked Ms. Fricano to validate that.  Ms. Franco said that early on it was $500,000 and the reasons for that are all the things Chief Gonzalez spoke about a few Public Safety Committee meetings ago – constant watches at the Justice Center and all of those things.  Chief Carbery said that he did not have specifics but can tell them after being there for six years, often the budgeted amount was not what was expected and from the beginning they often felt that they would be over some amount.  The amount would mainly be determined by constant watch, which would fluctuate from 2 – 21, significant when they consider 21 people watched 24/7 mostly on overtime because the staffing plan accommodates 2.  They have no control over this and have done many studies over the years indicating a significant amount of the deficit would come from that.  This was why 3-4 years ago they starting talking about building the Behavior Health Unit; huge difference if one deputy could watch 5 people.

Mr. Dougherty said that he has heard this explanation before but looking at the numbers, with the exception of August and September the numbers don’t change that much and are relatively constant; perhaps this was his point, they are constantly high.  Chief Carbery:

• Normally August increases due to vacation, hunting season was another time
• In his experience it did not  fluctuate greatly, were averaging 9-11, 2  and 21 were an anomaly;  significant amount as staffing plan only accommodates 2, doesn’t know current constant watch average

Ms. Fricano said that in speaking with Chief Gonzalez over 90% of the overtime was mandated.  In answer to Mr. Jordan, Ms. Fricano said it was mandated because of constant watch, hospital stays, and transportation of prisoners.  Chief Carbery said that the Commissioner of Corrections mandates a certain number of posts, which fluctuates a little bit as there are a few less posts on A-watch, 11 PM to 7 AM but when businesses open there are posts that absolutely have to be staffed and they frequently visit.  In addition data was sent to them every day and the count was sent twice a day. 

Chairman May said that Chief Gonzalez has done a very good job of explaining a lot of this to the committee over the last year.  There are a couple of things that are noteworthy that they can’t lose sight of.  A few months ago they received a report on the infirmary and he would hate to think what this number would be without the savings from the infirmary.  Just handling things in-house was a huge savings over the mandated things that they are stuck with.  This year they also had to budget around a $1.9 million dollar loss of federal inmate revenue because there was no place to put them.  They have constant watches, full jails, and lost revenue. 

Mr. Jordan said that they talked and were seriously considering the building of a new wing to resolve the constant watch issue, were engineering in the ability to have one person watch multiple people but that got sidelined to wait for the elections.  He questioned what the annual debt service projections were if they built what was proposed verses the anticipated constant watch overtime savings.  It seems as if there would be a significant savings, especially concerning overtime.  Mr. Owens said that they had not gone that far, they had a rough estimate as far as cost but needed at least 30% of the design complete to get good projections.  They have a preliminary scope of work, the RFP is ready to go on the street but that was about as far as they got.  Chairman May added that the RFP was ready for release if it was determined to go forward.  Chief Carbery:

• Monroe County has a 1 to 5 watch setup, Commissioner would review whatever plan they come up with, could be 1 to 6; mission was to be able to see the person and make sure that they don’t harm themselves, currently have more 1 to 1, have a few locations that are 2 to 1
• Provides more savings than just constant watch, new wing would free up 69 cells currently used for Behavioral Health Unit, would save money from boarding out and possibly provide revenue from housing federal inmates; in 2006 housed 101 federal inmates at the Justice Center @ $102.50 per day = $10k per day
• Can’t lose sight of better treatment for people with mental illness in jails – the major problem in the US today;  would be better way to take care of them and an absolute “no brainer” in his mind

Mr. Owens said that there was some potential for savings from energy, which they could look at in more detail.  The new tower would put them in the position to get a new micro turbine and if used correctly could provide energy savings; hooking it up to the Justice Center and the Steam Plant.  Again, they cannot provide good projections until they get to about 30% of the design process. 

Mr. Jordan said that it was crime that the legislature let the additional wing get shelved.  They are leaving money on the table if building additional capacity elevates this problem - $200,000 per month in overtime costs alone was ridiculous.  Mr. Dougherty said that they can’t lose sight of the fact that they could make the overtime go away by hiring people but along with that comes pension and benefits that may overshadow this by fair.  Mr. Jordan said that just making an initial investment for facilities that allow one deputy to watch 5 or 6 constant watch inmates was significant.  Chief Carbery said that it was huge.  Mr. Jordan said that they then add to that savings with the ability to take in federal prisoners that they receive reimbursement revenues from.  He again questioned what the debt service would be if they built the wing, and added  that they could have been progressing and coming up with a plan, now 6 months’ worth of savings have been wasted.  Chief Carbery said that he brought this up years ago.  Mr. Dougherty said that this was something that they needed to take this up with the new Sheriff.  Mr. Jordan said that a quarter of a million dollars a month in overtime expense was a huge number.  This was not the day- to-day operation, it was above and beyond that, it was just overtime.  Chairman May noted that the quarter million dollars in overtime per month was for this year, which was a good year.  Mr. Jordan agreed.   

Chairman May said that there was some debate about how people end up in the Behavioral Health Unit.  It has become a place where all of these people are dropped and according to some people, some should not be there.  In his mind a final solution is building the tower.  Mr. Jordan said that he was not saying that it was the solution but the discussion or consideration has stalled for months and they need to figure out the best way to go in terms of finances and get it done.  Chairman May said that financially and systemically they need to understand that they are doing it right; are people going through the justice system and ending up in the wrong place.  Chief Carbery said that this was the question throughout the country.  They have talked about diversion, mental health courts and things like that but they would need someplace to divert them to.  Different parts of the system would have to come together for that.  Over the last 20 years he has been on three Jail Population Study Committee’s in Onondaga County.  They have looked at everything possible in terms of the system to see if the system itself bogs it down between cops, courts and the DA.  They have made whatever changes they could to keep the population down but the average length of stay keeps going up.  With mental health, there are so many coming through the door and frankly when they get to the designation of 1 on 1 they have to error on the side of caution.  

Mr. Holmquist said that he agreed with Mr. Jordan and the Chief.  This committee has talked about this for years and has explicitly talked about this proposal for two years.  They were making great progress, Chief Balloni provided them with monthly updates for a long time and at some point this year he was told by the County Executive to stop.  Now they have lost revenue from federal inmates and have made no progress.  He understands that this was not 100% how they wanted to proceed and there are other alternatives but they were making great progress and stopped.  Now they have wasted a year, it will take time for the new Sheriff to get on board, he has a lot on his plate, this was possibly the biggest issue but there are many others also.  Everything was now going to cost more, interest rates are going up soon so that could be another potential hit.  He was deeply disappointed in the County Executive and the Legislature’s leadership as this committee has talked about this every month and have up streamed and urged someone to do something and no one has listened to this committee or the professionals that present to the committee every month.  Literally nothing has been done and it is embarrassing.  What was even worse was that their concerns were not recognized, no one has said a word to them or provided rational or communication.  Chairman May said that his assessment was that everyone was looking to everyone else for a solution and no one was necessarily drilling into the issues.  Mr. Holmquist said that the County Executive told the Sheriff’s department to cease and desist with no rational and asked to be corrected if he was wrong.  Chief Carbery said that he doesn’t know, as he was not there.  Most of the people that he talks to, on all sides of government, seem to realize that something has to be done and seem to think that this was probably the direction to go in.  Waiting for the new Sheriff would be 49 days.  Hopefully they will stop into the department and talk with them before that time.  This would continue to be his recommendation, it was put on the table 3 years ago and he feels as strongly about it today as he did that day.

Mr. Holmquist asked that Chairman May let their concerns be known to their leadership from this point forward and the since of urgency. Chairman May said that this item would be added to the December agenda for discussion, perhaps brining in Chief Gonzalez and getting to where they need to be.  Mr. Holmquist asked that Ms. Rooney be invited to the meeting so that their questions could be answered.  Mr. Jordan said that this was a huge item that needs to be addressed.  If it was not the number one item, it certainly was in the top 10 and if the new Sheriff could be filled in to at least where things ended, the work that was done and the conclusions arrived upon then he could hit the road running and get this fast-tracked so that they can determine what the best solution was and get it implemented.   Mr. Carbery said that this would happen, the under Sheriff reached out and told them they could have whatever room, place or access they wanted and he expects that they would be contacted within the next week or so.   He has made a list of things to talk about and this item and the evidence/property facility were high priority.  

Chairman May said that they need to advance this issue as priority but most importantly because things have just stopped, they need to know that the issue was being worked on.  Many people from different places need to get together and attack this problem and perhaps this was what they could influence.  There are people in one contingency that believe this is a systemic issue and there are others who believe they need to build the wing.  They also need to protect the safety of those inside and they need to weigh in on this also.  They need to initiate progress because they can’t keep doing this.  Mr. Jordan’s point was a good one, they have a choice to stop this or try to solve it.  They have been stuck and need to get moving.  Mr. Jordan said that he was not advocating a rush decision but by the same token they cannot be paralyzed by options.  There are always different options but a decision must be made and they need to come to this decision as quickly as possible.  They have been talking about this for years so it was not as if it hadn’t been studied.  Chairman May said that the record shows where they stand on wanting to address the issue. 

Mr. Holmquist said that he likes the idea of having Chief Gonzalez at the meeting as he was probably more knowledgeable about this than anyone and would be adding a lot of value however, if everyone was on board, which he thinks they are except for the County Executive, someone should talk to her and ask if she was going to agree with this.  At the end of the day they need her support and there was no since in doing all this work if she was not on board.  In answer to Mr. Holmquist, Chairman May said that he would try to talk to the County Executive or Ms. Rooney and the County Legislature leadership.       

Chairman May said if there were no further questions about the overtime, these two resolutions simply release the budgeted money put into contingency for overtime. 

A motion was made by Mr. Holmquist, seconded by Mr. Jordan to approve this time.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.     

        c.     2014 OT Transfer Resolution-Sheriff Custody ($1,000,000)

A motion was made by Mr. Holmquist, seconded by Mr. Dougherty to approve this time.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.    

3.     CORRECTION:  Daniel Boyle, Assistant Commissioner Management and Administrative Services

        a.     Transfer from Account 695700, Contracted Services to Account 694130 Maintenance, Utilities and Rents $40,000

Mr. Dougherty asked if something had changed.  Mr. Boyle said that they were able to save some money on the food end of contracted services and also trash removal, don’t have them come as often.  The utility amount was set by budget and they were short.

A motion was made by Mr. Dougherty, seconded by Mr. Holmquist to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

4.     EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS:  William Bleyle, Commissioner

        a.     A Resolution Authorizing Engineering Design of the Replacement HVAC System at the E911 Main Center in and for the County of Onondaga, New York, at a Maximum Estimated Cost of $350,000, and Authorizing the Issuance of $350,000 Bonds of Said County to Pay Costs thereof ($350,000)

Mr. Bleyle:

• Design and replacement of HVAC at main 911 center, built in 1990, occupied early 1991, system will be 25 years old in 2015, told cooling tower core of the system was nearing end of life in 2012, recommended replacement before catastrophic failure;  computer room air condition tied into system, critical consideration
• Moved ahead with study for replacement of cooling tower and computer room air conditioning system which was undersized; Engineering firm recommended standalone air conditioner system so that if any part of HVAC system failed air conditioning in computer room would not fail simultaneously; study also found 28 heat pumps attached to cooling tower were at end of life, confirmed in discussions with Facilities, whenever they have a problem parts often are not available, have to cannibalize air conditioners and heat pumps from stockpile of old units        
• Received funding for NYSERDA study of their system, discussed replacing heat pump and cooling tower, very involved and expense project if done at the same time, cooling tower currently indoors; NYSERDA completed study in 2013, recommended existing cooling tower and heat pump system be replaced, considered 3 different options, recommended replacing existing system with variable refrigerant flow (VRF) heat pump system, more effective, doesn’t rely on cooling tower and eliminates expense of replacement, also yields projected annual energy savings of $15k, recommended replacing outdoor air ventilation system which was not effective, along with exhaust system  and hot water system boilers with high efficiency direct-vented hot water boilers
• Seeking $350k for engineering work associated with system replacement; 2016 CIP plans for replacement of the system    

In answer to Mr. Jordan, Mr. Bleyle said that the current system heat pumps are end of life and have to be replaced.  They are water operated heat pumps tied into the evaporative cooling tower.  The recommendation was that they eliminate the cooling tower or water system and go to VRF heat pumps - standalone pumps that would not require a cooling tower, eliminating the cooling tower component.  In answer to Mr. Jordan, Mr. Bleyle confirmed that there were still 28 heat pumps; study looked at options and recommended the heat pump system based on long-term operating costs and energy savings.  Areas of the building are cooled at different rates, i.e. administrative offices shut down at night, felt this was the most cost effective option.

In answer to Mr. Dougherty, Mr. Widay said the lifespan for all HVAC systems was 20-25 years.  As Mr. Bleyle stated they are cannibalizing the existing heat pumps.  VRF technology was a new design and technology, which was more efficient and they are looking for NYSERDA or National Grid to provide some rebates.   In answer to Mr. Dougherty, Mr. Bleyle said the projected cost for the heat pumps was almost $2 million.  Mr. Widay said that the current heat pumps have R22 in them and are being phased out by the EPA within the next 5 years.  Chairman May said that $2 million dollars for 18,000 square feet was a lot.  Mr. Dougherty said that it seemed very high.  Chairman May said that they have millions and millions of dollars’ worth of public safety equipment and investment in that building that has to work and can’t be damaged, harmed or falter in anyway.

A motion was made by Mr. Dougherty, seconded by Mr. Holmquist to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.    

The meeting was adjourned at 12:55 PM.                   

Respectfully submitted,

KATHERINE M. FRENCH, Deputy Clerk

Onondaga County Legislature

* * *

HEALTH COMMITTEE MINUTES - NOVEMBER 13, 2014

*DANNY J. LIEDKA, CHAIRMAN

MEMBERS PRESENT:  Mr. Corl, Mrs. Tassone, Dr. Chase, Ms. Williams

ALSO PRESENT:  Also see attached list

Chairman Liedka called the meeting to order at 9:35 a.m.  A motion was made by Ms. Williams, seconded by Dr. Chase to waive the reading and approve of the minutes of the proceedings of the previous committee meeting; MOTION CARRIED. 

1.     HEALTH:  Michelle Mignano, Deputy Commissioner; Anne Rooney, Deputy County Executive/Human Services

        a.     Create R.P. 01 404300 7617 Public Health Social Worker 1 Grade 11, $51,144-$56,605, effective December 13, 2014

Ms. Mignano:

• Position for Healthy Start; Lisa GreenMills was instrumental in writing grant, which allows Health Dept. to keep Healthy Start at an increased level over next 5 years; happy to provide City of Syracuse with service
• Applied for both level 1 and 2 funding; level 3 the best (most money); expected level 1, but when submitted level 1, the department was asked if they wanted to apply for level 2
• Health Dept. was afraid they could only get 1 grant at level 1 or 2, and they wanted to ensure Healthy Start would continue; the dept. was allowed to apply for both levels without jeopardizing one or the other grant
• Ms. GreenMills scored 100 out of 100; it is a nationwide competitive grant; level 2 funding enhances services in working with community; how to engage with community in working with clients and young people
• Position - help work more broadly with enhanced offerings, and coordinate contracted social workers in the program

Ms. Mignano responded to Ms. Williams that when the department does not have the funding, then they do not have the means for the position.  

Dr. Chase asked how long the grant is.  Ms. Mignano responded five years. 

A motion was made by Ms. Williams, seconded by Mrs. Tassone, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        b.     Transfer from Preschool Services Account 696450 to Professional Services Account 694080, $250,000; Transfer from Preschool Services Account 696450 to Professional Services Account 694080, $30,000; Transfer from Preschool Services Account 696450 to Supplies and Materials Account 693000, $10,000 - ($290,000)

Ms. Mignano:

• Cost of pharmacy increased 1.5 yrs ago; national shortage of INH and rifampin (treat TB); manufacturing shortage changed market economy for the drugs; shipments increased, production normalized, cost hasn’t gone down
• Not tremendous increase, but few more TB cases

Ms. Coughlin said there are usually about twelve cases a year, and they are at thirteen year to date. 

Ms. Mignano:

• Couldn’t foresee costs before creating budget; next year’s budget they assume to be at a more stable level; hope for no other surprise; did not budget for this amount

Ms. Williams asked why they are taking it from Preschool.  Ms. Mignano responded that every year they budget for Preschool assuming there will be a rate increase.  NYSED sets the rate for the Preschool providers, so the department assumes there will be cost of living or inflation.  NYSED has not given providers a rate increase in the last three or four years, which is surprising.  If the department does not budget for it and there is a rate increase, they would not have the means to cover it.  They budget for a three to four percent increase on the last known; they are not increasing it every year.  Ms. Mignano replied to Mr. Corl that it will absolutely not result in a decrease of services. 

A motion was made by Ms. Williams, seconded by Dr. Chase, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

Ms. Mignano:

• Other transfers:  (1) down a Pathologist; using contract Pathologist to cover; provide relief for MEO and Pathologist; (2) increased costs – did truck spraying and aerial spraying; didn’t anticipate doing both; quite a phenomenal summer

*Chairman Liedka arrived at the meeting.

        c.     Confirming the Appointment of Indu Gupta, M.D., M.P.H. as Commissioner of Health for the County of Onondaga

Ms. Rooney:

• Introduced Dr. Indu Gupta who has been on the job for a week and a half learning the ropes
• Dr. Gupta knows Onondaga County; headed up Communicable Disease Division in the early 2000’s; received a Master of Public Administration at the University of Pennsylvania; most recently at UCLA Medical Center
• Chairman Liedka part of interview process; Dr. Gupta’s passion, knowledgeable, intelligence and empathy for people came out across the board; everyone very impressed during interview process
• Not easy to hire a new Health Commissioner because of approvals at local and state levels; also Dr. Gupta had to return from California; every step of the way Dr. Gupta has handled everything asked of her
• Everybody will be impressed with Dr. Gupta’s depth of knowledge and warmth; she has a love of this community, because she was here for several years; when able to release the name, people remembered her
• Health staff carried ball very well last 6 or 7 months; cannot thank Ms. Mignano enough for what she has done since last April; owe gratitude to Ms. Mignano and everyone in the department that kept working
• A challenging summer from mosquitos to bats to Ebola, which shows level of professionalism at Health Dept.; will see that Dr. Gupta will maintain that level and carry it further
• Whole heartedly request the committee’s support

Chairman Liedka thanked Ms. Rooney and the staff for involving a committee member in the process; the hiring and privileged information was handled very well.  Chairman Liedka stated they picked who he would have picked.  Hats off to the Health Department and Ms. Mignano who came into a lot of health issues, and did not miss a beat.  This speaks volumes to the people that are in the department. 

A motion was made by Ms. Williams, seconded by Dr. Chase, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:52 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Jamie M. McNamara, Assistant Clerk

Onondaga County Legislature

* * *

PLANNING & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MINUTES - NOVEMBER 13, 2014

KATHLEEN A. RAPP, CHAIR

MEMBERS PRESENT:  1Mr. Liedka, Mr. Corl, Mr. Plochocki

MEMBERS ABSENT:  Mr. Knapp,

ALSO ATTENDING:  See attached list

Chair Rapp called the meeting to order 10:35 a.m.

1.     SYRACUSE – ONONDAGA COUNTY PLANNING AGENCY:  Don Jordan, Deputy Director GIS Services

        a.     Calling for a Public Hearing on the Proposed Inclusion of Viable Agricultural Lands within Certified Agricultural Districts Pursuant to Section 303-B of the New York State Agriculture and Markets Law

Mr. Jordan:

• Jan 1- Jan 31 annual open period for additions to agricultural district, a number of requests received, state law requires public hearing on requested changes – prosed for Dec. 16, 2014

In answer to Chair Rapp, Mr. Jordan said that Mr. May was on the Farmland Protection Board, which has been reviewing the requests.  Chair Rapp said that Mr. May sent her a vague email stating he had some concerns about one of the parcels, she did not realize that he was on the board.  Mr. Jordan said that he would contact Mr. May to see what the concern was.  Chair Rapp said that it did not sound like a fatal problem but was a concern.  Mr. Jordan said that it was probably related to item 1b, the review of District 3 which includes Lysander.  

Mr. Plochocki said that his concern dealt with 1b also, as item 1a was just adding to the district and item 1b could include removing land from the district.  Mr. Jordan:

• 4 districts in the County, reviewed and recertified every 8 years
• District 3 in review this year, includes northern part of the County from Elbridge to Manlius, people can request land be added or removed from the district during the review process, only opportunity for removal of land    

Chair Rapp said that there was land being removed and the landowners did not want it removed.  Mr. Jordan:

• Law allows landowners and municipalities to request modifications to the district, previously had only received request from landowner
• This year the Town of Elbridge submitted removal requests for anything less than 3 acres and not currently receiving an agricultural exemption – by this assumed they were not involved in agriculture

In answer to Mr. Plochocki, Chair Rapp said that items 1a and 1b could be discussed together, he could proceed with this question.  Mr. Plochocki said that his district did not include Elbridge but many of the residents contacted him and were very upset by this.  Many of them have less than three acres and may not be involved in a major farming operations but have chickens or other animals.  From what he has seen on the map the entire stretch includes areas that have a lot of houses with old barns and that sort of thing.  They may not be a fully functioning modern farm but there was still residual farming activity going on in a lot of those places, which could be threatened by this.  Mr. Jordan:

• Farmland Protection Board met to review those requests, tabled the Elbridge requests, recommended approval of landowner requests; Board concerned landowners were not aware or making the request themselves, also concerned viable farmland was coming out of the district by using the broad-brush
• Board sent letter to landowners effected by the change advising them that the town had requested their land be removed, asked if they were ok with this or if they wanted their land to remain in the district; response time still open, are receiving responses, some agree and other’s do not   

Chair Rapp asked how this would worked procedurally.  Mr. Jordan said that all requests would be considered at the public hearing.  At this point the board was looking at all requests, then making a recommendation to the Legislature as to what properties they think should be added and removed.  Chair Rapp said that it could change after the public hearing.  Mr. Jordan said that it was conceivable that based on the responses the board could have conversations with the town asking them if they still wanted to continue with their request or modify it based on the reactions received.  Chair Rapp said that they are just approving the public hearing and what goes to the public hearing was yet to be determined.  Mr. Jordan said that was correct.

A motion was made by Mr. Plochocki, seconded by Mr. Liedka to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        b.     Calling for a Public Hearing for Renewal of Agricultural District No. 3, Towns of Camillus, Cicero, Clay, Elbridge, Lysander, Manlius, and Van Buren

In answer to Mr. Plochocki, Mr. Jordan confirmed that this item was just calling for the public hearing prior to the session on December 16, 2014.  They would be coming back to the committee with the resolution approving the changes and assuming that this was all ironed out by then and nothing comes up at the public hearing, they could take action on the resolution at that session also; not entirely sure how this would play out.

Mr. Corl said that they would be presenting the Farmland Protection Review Board’s recommendations at the next committee meeting.  Mr. Jordan said that the board would meet again next week and ideally come back to committee next month.  Chair Rapp said that once they have an actual proposal in front of them they can make the decision to approve it or not.

Mr. Plochocki asked how someone should proceed if they objected to their land being removed.  Mr. Jordan said that residents effected by this should have received something in the mail to which they could respond and show their intentions, could also call SCOPA and the town to discuss their concerns.  Chair Rapp said that she would suggest they call the town since the town was the one making the request, and attend the public hearing if they did not receive satisfaction.

A motion was made by Mr. Liedka, seconded by Mr. Plochocki to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

2.     INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:  Kevin Sexton, Chief Information Officer

        a.     INFORMATIONAL:  Amending the 2015 County Budget to Make Funds Available for Information Technology to Support Continued Growth and Performance of its Enterprise, Citrix, and Sharepoint Environments ($170,000)

Mr. Sexton:

• Distributed copies of replacement resolutions for items 2a and 2b, slight wording change
• Two informational items, both involve funding decreased from two budget lines – 1st is furniture and equipment account, $170k was put into contingency, budget line increased $18k this year over last year

In answer to Chair Rapp, Mr. Sexton said that the $18,000 increase included the funds put into contingency, which was minimal percentage wise.

• Important account for 2015, supports tremendous growth in Citrix and Sharepoint Environments; Citrix Environment used for hosting remote or multiuser applications, benefit – install, maintain and upgrade once and available for everyone, don’t have to hit individual desktops, used extensively, supports dozens of applications and hundreds of users; Sharepoint number one document management environment, used for all project planning in IT, County Executive’s office, Health, OCPL, MWB and are bringing on other departments, hugely important environment
• Account supports servers and storage for those environments, won’t be able to grow and support additional departments without additional funding       

Chair Rapp said that these funds were budgeted and put into the contingent account.  Mr. Sexton agreed.  Chair Rapp asked if they needed the funds now.  Mr. Sexton said that they didn’t need the funds now, just need them in 2015.  Chair Rapp said that the intention of the Legislature was to see how things were rolling out.  Mr. Corl said that they would then make a further request when the money was actually needed.  Mr. Sexton said that they need to make the request now so that the funds are in the account by 2015.  Chair Rapp said that this was what she was asking, he needs the funds by January 1.  Mr. Sexton said preferably yes. 

Chair Rapp said that they need the funds because the environment needs to be added to.  Mr. Sexton said that they were maxed out on servers and needed to add virtual environments, which requires additional storage; need additional server and storage equipment purchased, are now at a standstill with capacity.  Chair Rapp asked that he explain what would happen if the funds were not released.  Mr. Sexton said that for Sharepoint they would not be able to bring on new departments and their hands would be tied as far as adding large documents and further projects.  For Citrix, they are adding new applications all the time to support the remote standpoint and would be unable add any further applications.

In answer to Mr. Corl, Mr. Sexton said that any department that requests access would be added.  Sharepoint provides a portal where documents could be maintained, provides folders and directories for ease of navigation and was different than what was used with Windows Explorer, on a regular PC.  They can create little websites and project areas.  It was useful from a navigation standpoint as they could control user access and allow other departments access as well; new means of document management for the world they live in, other than hanging a bunch of files out in individual folders.  Mr. Corl said that as of now, no other departments have approached them looking to expand.  Mr. Sexton said that the library needs additional storage.  Ms. Clark said that the Metropolitan Water Board has a project that they want to use Sharepoint for.  Mr. Sexton said that they have increased need from the PeopleSoft projects as this was where all their documentation goes.  The flood gates would open as soon as people know they have capacity.  They haven’t spread the word around too much because they have a limited environment.

Chair Rapp said that during the budget session it seemed as if things had not progressed to the point they had hoped they would be at for this stage of the game.  They would hate to be in a position where they were stopping the progress, but on the other hand they want to make sure that was in has been executed and was working well.  Mr. Sexton said that the progress she was referring to was not specific to these two environments.  He would assume she was referring to the mainframe application.  Chair Rapp said that the Clerk’s office comes to mind.  Mr. Sexton said that the Clerk’s office has needs as far as the Clerk’s application, Wi-Fi and other things of that nature.  They have made progress in restoring stability to the Clerk application.  He knows that they have need for Wi-Fi but he hasn’t heard of anything else.   Mr. Corl said that before they take on new departments they should focus on getting the Clerk’s office up to speed, from what he has seen. 

Chair Rapp said that it sounded as if this was a whole different thing.  Mr. Sexton said that this was something that the Clerk’s office could make use of.  Sharepoint would be great for all the documents they maintain and how they would like to organize them also.  Chair Rapp asked if he felt that they had staff capacity to finish what they have already started and start this new application.  Mr. Sexton said that they had a few people trained and were getting others on board also; want to expand the knowledge base as well, have intern doing special projects also.

Chair Rapp asked Mr. Fisher if he had any comments.  Mr. Fisher:

• Continuing down the same path, items moved off a mainframe have to be replaced with something, will never get there if they start and stop;  asking for additional storage, continue to move away from technologies, hardware and people supporting mainframe, need to keep moving forward
• 2015 IT budget exact same amount as 2014, $18k increase in IT line was reduced from somewhere else, not asking for overall spending increase; to keep going need to spend money, enter into contracts January 1
• During budget hearing felt there was not enough time to ask questions, brought back to committee for another opportunity, also going to Ways and Means; looking to have contingency funds put back into IT’s budget so they have enough money January 1   

Mr. Sexton said getting back to supporting the Clerk’s department, they support dozens of departments and thousands of users.  The only two items made known to him were the two he mentioned and he believes they have the Clerk’s application under control.  If there was anything specific they would get people in there to analysis what their needs were as well.  Mr. Plochocki said that he would like them to do that as he was hearing a lot of feedback from the Clerk’s office and perhaps there was something that could be arranged if he spoke with the Clerk. 

Chair Rapp said that she appreciated Mr. Sexton coming in because during budget this whole thing just sounded as if everyone was speaking in a different languages.  Mr. Sexton said he understood.  Chair Rapp said that this makes since to her.  In answer to Mr. Plochocki, Chair Rapp said that the funds were in contingency because she does not believe that anyone understood exactly what they were paying for and Mr. Sexton coming back and telling them where the money would be going was very helpful.  Mr. Plochocki said that he liked the Deputy County Executive’s explanation as well.

A motion was made by Mr. Plochocki, seconded by Mr. Liedka to approve this item. Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.      

        b.     INFORMATIONAL:  Amending the 2015 County Budget to Make Funds Available to Secure Professional Services Needed to Supplement Information Technology Staff while it Migrates Legacy Applications off the Mainframe ($440,000)

• Another contingent account, core to them moving ahead and getting legacy mainframe applications onto lower cost virtualized environments
• Also supports PeopleSoft projects namely Human Capital Management which would be replacing all applications that support human resources, benefits and payroll, project in midstream, without contingency funds project would come to a halt; still rely on specialized services that know how to implement, develop and configure PeopleSoft - need consultants to assist with this, number of staff know PeopleSoft also but bulk of development team is working on getting legacy applications off the mainframe – rewriting, reposting or doing research on getting them replaced, are in a bind
• Without funding project would stop, have a number of resources and teams that would benefit from the project – Comptroller, Personnel and HR  

Chair Rapp asked if any of the funding was going to support the City professional services, passed last month.  Mr. Sexton said that this does not support the City.  Chair Rapp said that this was for County people and training.  Mr. Sexton said that they had an IMA for that specific funding for the City.  

A motion was made by Mr. Plochocki, seconded by Mr. Corl to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED. 

3.     FOCUS GREATER SYRACUSE:

        a.     Final Report – “How to Make CNY Age Friendly” – Chuckie Holstein

Ms. Holstein:

• Introduced Jennifer Creighton who put together the final report; heard from thousands of people about this and how they could retain people here   

• Were way ahead of their time 12 years ago -  a professor from SU School of Social Work, a health care consultant who recently moved here from Washington and FOCUS decided they would try to get the nation to notice that the largest bulk of population would be retiring in a few years – baby boomers;  municipalities weren’t preparing for this – health care, housing, towns, and villages, it went nowhere; last year national media started talking a lot about what was going to happen to municipalities when the boomers started retiring, FOCUS took advantage of opportunity, found funding and decided to do yearlong study, result of yearlong study has many implications for elected officials, various government departments and individuals     

1Mr. Liedka left the meeting.

• Concerned those about to retire have more wealth than other generations, don’t want them to move away, will impact sustainability of  the County and community, almost a 3rd of the Onondaga County population are boomers, biggest retirement bulge ever seen in the population, found that Japan and France are having the same trouble, all beginning to realize that post WWII babies have grown up and are about to retire, want to keep them for a number of reasons, places like Florida and South Carolina are actively recruiting in CNY to get people to move there

• Most educated generation because woman began to be educated and took jobs outside of the homes    

• Love to buy toys, boats, motorcycles, etc.,  need to kept them here
• 2nd move usually back to where they started, less wealthy and more needy of tax based programs

• Impacts every phase of life in the community, wanted to dig deeply into people’s wishes, wants, needs and what they planned to do; held a dozen or more community meetings which brought people together and gave them a preliminary literature search of what was going on in the nation, then asked what they thought could happen here – provided a lot of information

• Steering Committee helped guide them, took practice survey and told them what was wrong, revised survey and made it better, provided a lot of information on the business sector, academic sector and so on
• Online and print surveys went out to entire community, reached slightly into adjacent counties because people were so interested, every zip code in county was covered; recently went to AARP meeting on Age Friendly Communities, 480 submitted surveys from all of NYS – compare that to the almost 2,000 surveys FOCUS received from Onondaga County, majority were high middle and high income

Chair Rapp said that almost 50% were below the $50,000 household income.  Ms. Creighton said that several did not wish to provide their income.    

• FOCUS groups dug into what people were planning and thinking of doing, informal setting meet at Destiny Skytop
• Key Informants came to FOCUS office as individuals or small groups, key people for the community willing to talk about the impact boomers leaving would have on their particular sector, different from FOCUS groups and surveys, was actually dealing with organizations, businesses and culture of the community

• Community meetings were held in a variety of places, all provided good feedback included in report 

• Indication that there is entrepreneurship
• Want to age in their own home;  very active group - not as sitable as her generation

• Milken Institute rating based on the four bullets listed
• Was just invited to talk to Homebuilders and Remodelers Association, they need to know about this; transportation is a big issue that comes up over and over again

• i.e.  2 floor house with bed and bath on the 2nd floor – how could it be retrofitted to be age friendly  

• Recommendations approved by Steering Committee before being listed in the report; suggestion for housing safety checks came from the County Office of Aging – often homes are in poor condition, no one going in to check on them on a regular basis, windows were falling out, no heat and so on, safety check idea new to them but thought it was important; believe there is an entrepreneur idea for home maintenance, offering service to change a light bulb, cut the grass or shovel the sidewalk
• Federal Transportation Bill has not been passed, talking about cutting it again, suburbs have very little if any public transportation – became a headlight for them; believes Fayetteville has volunteer program taking people to doctor’s appointments who cannot drive any longer

• Call-A-Bus for persons with disabilities of any age, cost transportation company $45 per transit, person transported only $2.50,  if older and don’t have disability or doctor’s prescription need to rely on something else – family, friends, neighbors, volunteers or possibly a new venture in this community
• Health services will be overburdened, Health Commissioner agrees this is a serious problem, are going to get together and talk about their findings and how they can help; NYS provides some great programs, not all income related – don’t have to be low income to receive services but few people know about them, long-term care overbooked particularly for those with alcohol and substance abuse and the need is growing    

• Probably will need more care givers in the home as people want to age in place; intreged by biotelemetry – Google is make a new play at health care and some sort of technical things that will help keep people at home, have Welch Allyan, Bristol Myers and all kinds of creative research at the medical colleges and universities, hoping they can do something here

Chair Rapp asked if this would be teleconferencing with the doctor.  Ms. Holstein said that persons would moniter their vital signs at home and the information would get picked up faster than finding someone on the floor and calling an ambulance or 911.  A housing expert from Christopher Community said that they had put this equipment in one of their housing units but there was nobody on the other end to receive the information.  There has to be that kind of coordination so that if they get the information from the equipment somone is there to receive it and do something about it immediately.  This is something that is coming their way and they could make it happen faster if they recognized it and worked together.

• Happy to see OCC represented, boomers want to continue learning, as universities and colleges look at what they are offering they should consider this as well - literature search found 60 universities in the US have retirement communities on their campuses – could be in store for CNY – why not

• Reminder any trails built need electrical outlets, people in wheelchairs want to use trails but are nervous about electric chairs running out of juice, need to be able to charge them, cellphone users  would like power as well
• Taxes are a major area that must be resolved, need to educate the public on what taxes are providing

• Some postponed retirement as they can’t afford to retire and some love what they are doing and don’t want to quit; very little preretirement planning, call in radio show for preretirement counseling might help for those not willing to go for counseling; somehow need to retain workforce things boomers are taking with them
• Your too Young to Retire program held, anticipated 50 would attend, 90 signed up, overwhelmed by the number people, want to do more of these, see where people want to be and possible talk about entrepreneur opportunities for the aging community

• People nearing retirement and deeply involved in their community are less likely to move away 
• Retired engineer on Steering Committee member recommended pulling together retired professionals for a large major project, 1st thing that came to mind was retrofitting houses to age in place - with engineer, architect, plumber, carpenter and a few others probably could take on a few projects like that, current volunteer center usually 1 to 1, i.e.  Meals on Wheels, teaching reading, etc.,  need to create some sort of forum where people think in terms of bigger projects, another large project was developing libraries into community centers, professionals could help plan this along with the OCPL and would probably free

• Haven’t been hit to badly yet but future doesn’t look good, those moving away want to become someone in a the community and give large donations to that communities efforts
• Key Informant suggested finding travel agents to identify very good but less expensive resorts combined with good airline tickets, encouraging people to go to the sunbelt for 4-5 weeks but not move away from the community 

• Recent Wall Street Journal article on Momma’s and Grandma’s Apartments - across the country people are beginning to build separate small houses on their property or apartments within their existing housing    

Chair Rapp said that they just talked with their children about this and told them they had to buy a home with a carriage house.  Ms. Holstein said that the carriage house idea was perfect or a double story garage, they know that multigenerational opportunities are there.

• Don’t want to park in garages downtown, want to park on easy well lite streets, safety issue needs to be looked at very broadly; older people want to keep their sidewalks clear but are physically unable, may need to find a way to help them with this kind of maintenance

• Need to get the word out, wanted to present report to the Legislature first, will be released November 21, 2014 

• Presentations like this one will probably come up with more items for Phase II 

• Fact sheet on local and state taxes is vital along with a comparison     
• Wall Street Journal and the NY Times have almost daily articles about what is going on nationally for the boomers

• Town Centers can be exciting, likes to compare them to London’s high streets, can be the place people go,  prevents isolation  

• Project Investigators were people that wanted to be involved with their working group

• Printed report provided to Chair Rapp, will be on their  website after November 21,  has very detailed appendix – to many pages for them to  print

        http://www.focussyracuse.org/2014/11/shaping-an-age-friendly-cny-community-report/

Chair Rapp said that this sounded like a great opportunity for Brewerton and Marcellus.  Mr. Plochocki agreed.  Ms. Holstein said that they would be glad to consult and share with them what people are saying.  Chair Rapp added, and North Syracuse.  This topic is the big buzz for most people she knows in her age category, what’s next, do they go or stay, their kids aren’t here and do they take their checkbooks with them.  Ms. Holstein:

• Concerns her that people leave with their checkbooks and stock, sell their house, cut their ties here, and spend a great deal of money in whatever state they move to
• Chaired Loretto Board for 13 years, was involved in building the Nottingham; saw residents return to NY after becoming frail, spending their wealth and needing services, often spending down to the point of needing tax based services  - would rather keep people here, spending their wealth while they are healthy
• Believe they can keep them here, need to figure many little ways to do so, i.e. entrepreneurship, civic engagement, cost effective way to travel for a few weeks and return, all are possibilities
• Aging in place biggest opportunity, housing for aging in place not always available, need to talk to renovators from the Homebuilder’s Association to see what they can do, have date to meet with soon  

Mr. Plochocki said that this was fascinating.  They paid great attention to detail, as with everything they do.  For himself it was helpful as he knew that there were many baby boomers in his district but did not realize that his district had the greatest percentage or that the numbers were that high.  Ms. Holstein said that they are not feeling the pressure yet but it is coming.  They might was well be prepared and plan for this rather than having to do something after losing people to age friendly areas.  AARP has been doing studies on age friendly, though not quite as in depth as they were able to do for their own purposes here so they are a few steps ahead of the others at this point.

Chair Rapp said that this market is ripe and ready for entrepreneurs, especially the homebuilder’s community. 

4.     ONONDAGA COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE: 

        a.     INFORMATIONAL:  DOL and DOE Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Initiative – Dr. Casey Crabill, President

Dr. Crabill:

• Here to talk about food, brought loafs of bread for legislators and staff, gives them opportunity to promote the Hospitality Program and great work students do; college created opportunity to move further into food industry, one of the emerging industries in CNY, found exciting opportunity for college to become more involved
• Past 4 years federal government and Department of Labor have used funding from Trade Adjustment Act to provide community colleges opportunity to develop training programs that are industry driven and community routed; OCC was an applicant in the last round, are 1,200 community colleges in the US, 71 grants were issued, very proud OCC received a grant in the maximum allowable amount of  $2.5M
• Excited for this opportunity, over the next several years will develop CNY Food Pathways, has been in the paper, people used the term agribusiness –  not unrelated to regional agribusiness but is not limited to agribusiness
• Focused on food development and processing sectors in the economy - everything from serving, processing, packing, and moving food from this area, 3 year implementation period, 1st year curriculum development, next 2 years are training, implementation and then an evaluation year is conducted
• Working with local businesses not new to OCC,  have 45 different programs currently responding to many pieces of the local economy, everything from computer training to health programs from phlebotomy – a very short-term noncredit up to Registered Nurse – long-term and credit, have been at this for awhile
• Grant will allow a couple of significant changes:
• Successful application grant based on partnering with community agencies across CNY to get referrals for student that could benefit from these programs, outreach will be different
• Proposal contemplated curriculum development process using DACUM, not a new technic but important, uses employers to design learning outcomes, bringing businesses to the table for specific training, ability to communicate skills to employers much more on target with what businesses are looking for, i.e. business needs someone to calculate torque, would ask what evidence the business would need to show proof that person can do this in the way they needed it for their business; at same time employers are concerned about a person’s ability to actually go to work, integrated soft skills into training from day 1 to completion, i.e. on time, appropriate dress, addressed and responded to each day, built into training not a seminar at the end or some grand expectation, actually becomes part of the to work training – not just how to operate a machine but what attitudes, skills and abilities need to accompany a person to get and keep a job
• Partners helped in development of the grant and will help in the operationalizing of the grant, worked with CNY Works, CenterState, Work Train, MACNY, and the local philanthropic community; Catholic Charities has been developing and delivering preliminary food service programs, will be wrapped in so that wherever there is need in the industry they will be responsive
• Number of employers asked to be a part of this from the beginning - Agrana Fruit, American Food and Vending, Byrne Dairy, Decorated Cookie Company, Food Bank of CNY,  G&C Foods, Giovanni Food Company, HP HOOD and Tops Market

Chair Rapp said that an executive from Byrne Dairy told her that the food processing industry has the largest multiplier of any sector of the economy, from growing, transporting and producing the dollar turns over and over within the same community.  Dr. Crabill said that if they look at the ancillary businesses that get supported by that activity one can see the multiplier effect across the community. 

• Initially came up with 5 modular type programs, understand everyone in the food industry doesn’t needs a degree but need something more than a high school diploma because of the work skills and specialized environment; built model on stackable credentials, each piece has “currency” the next time they come back, able to add onto it, movement across a carrier pathway will be possible, modular programs are: 
• Food Science Safety and Quality Assurance – technical end; Byrne Dairy has a many food lab techs
• Food Production and Processing;  brewers excited to have someone looking at their industry, also people on the farm end and packing   
• Distribution, Logistics and Supply Chain – have to be able to move products grown and sold, lots of opportunities with this
• Hospitality Service of the Food Industry, already have a degree program but need stackable credentials to get people ready to move into the degree program
• Supervisory Training Relative to the Food Industry
• Every training opportunity grounded in growing food industry has spinoffs that would support other industries, i.e. Logistics training developed with food partners but are a number of industries that could benefit from people with logistic skills; goal was to be very focused in application and development but extensive in the types of skills offered, particularly as they go up the stackable credentials, anyone starting in the program will have outcomes that could be stacked into their hospitality, business or manufacturing degrees, creates a web of training that supports the emerging industry sector but doesn’t limit people to initial jobs where they may or may not hit a family sustaining wage
• Very important to know they “cracked the nut” allowing for increased training capacity without having program already in place,  very hard to get funding to do the kind of  research and development necessary to build a quality program, once students are in the program tuition revenue will sustain it but to get funding for development was huge
• 3rd year of grant has substantial funds for development of additional teaching, training and an entrepreneurship kitchen, hope to locate in downtown location, part of their goal was to spread training into areas where people have better access   

Mr. Plochocki said that he could not applaud those at OCC enough for this kind of a program.  They joke in law school, and sadly it was not that much of a joke, that they are there for 3 years, learn an enormous amount that is very interesting but only 5%-6% of it is useful in the real world.  Law school is so driven towards theory and ancient legal history that they learn far more about property law was in the early days of the colonies than they do about how to handle a speeding ticket, it is not practically oriented.  Law schools are constantly criticized yet they never change and he doesn’t know that they ever will.  It would revolutionize the whole legal system in America if there was a different paradigm in Law schools.  Similarly businesses tell him all the time that they need people and want to hire, but can’t find the right people and have to make do with what they have.  Finally some institution gets it and has been getting it, as they have had this program in a little different format for a while and going so far as to ask the industries to design the program to meet their needs was fantastic.  Dr. Crabill said that they were excited about that and expect certificates to have a sort of endorsement on the backside.

• Millennials like to see where they are going, even going up levels in a game, hope to employ some of that in the way they communicate this - student completes, shows what they completed to employer which communicates something specific to an employer who was in on what the skills were and how they were measured
• Will assist with employer complaint– person earned the piece of paper but can’t determine what they know 

Chair Rapp said that when they did the search for President Crabill, workforce development was one of the major skills and leadership they were looking for and obviously she is awesome at this.  Dr. Crabill said that this was the fun part.  People say that not everyone needs college but everyone needs something.  Mechanisms and funding for the collegic piece have been in place for a while but they missed this.  She was with the CNY folks from the Federal Bank of NY who were talking about research that says employers want to hire and the more they drag them down by not having people ready to go, the greater the drag on the CNY economy.

Chair Rapp asked if there was any news on OCC and the Inner Harbor.  Dr. Crabill:

• Got their building through 2020 grant - collaborative project with EFS, building had to be a SUNY building in order to use 2020 funds, SUNY didn’t own the other buildings but owns the EFS building
• Design and development of facility truly collaborative, started by Neil Murphy but Quentin Wheeler has picked up same relationship - haven’t missed a beat
• 1st floor - multipurpose classrooms, couple offices for OCC information, i.e. financial aid, enrollment; able to roll all programs through this because of multipurpose classrooms

Chair Rapp said that this was very exciting, it won’t just be food service.  Dr. Crabill agreed.

• 2nd floor -  wet science labs, supports EFS work at the lake, engages OCC students in research with EFS, should increase transfer for stem students
• Wonderful facility all credit to Mr. Murphy the brainchild for this; EFS will be staffing, won’t need more money for duplication of financial aid staff
• Don’t have construction plan yet, working on it

In answer to Chair Rapp, Dr. Crabill said that she did not have a construction timeframe as of yet.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:52 AM.                   

Respectfully submitted,

KATHERINE M. FRENCH, Deputy Clerk

Onondaga County Legislature

* * *

WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE MINUTES - NOVEMBER 24, 2014

DAVID KNAPP, CHAIRMAN

MEMBERS PRESENT:  2Mr. Jordan, Mr. Holmquist, 1Mr. Kilmartin, 3Mr. May, Mrs. Ervin, Ms. Williams

ALSO PRESENT:  Chairman McMahon, see attached list

Chairman Knapp called the meeting to order at 9:50 a.m.  A motion was made by Mr. Kilmartin, seconded by Mr. May, to waive the reading of the minutes of the proceedings of the previous committee.  MOTION CARRIED.  A motion was made by Mr. Kilmartin, seconded by Mrs. Ervin, to approve the minutes of the proceedings for the previous committee.  MOTION CARRIED.

Chairman Knapp welcomed Dr. Indu Gupta, who was confirmed by the Health Committee, as the Commissioner of Health, and will be going to the December 2nd session for vote by the full legislature.  Dr. Gupta thanked the members for their consideration.

Chairman Knapp thanked the county employees from DOT, Parks, and WEP, who assisted Buffalo with their snow storm.

CONSENT AGENDA

1.     TRANSPORTATION:

        a.     Transfer from Supplies and Materials 693000 ($73,016) to Maintenance, Utilities and Rents 694130 ($73,016)

2.     DISTRICT ATTORNEY:

        a.     Amending the 2014 County Budget to Accept United States Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Funds for the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force ($17,374)

3.     SHERIFF:

        a.     Amend 2014 County Budget to Accept Federal Homeland Security Funds for the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office and Authorizing the County Executive to Enter into Contracts to Implement this Resolution ($20,000)

4.     HEALTH:

        a.     Create R.P. 01 404300 7617 Public Health Social Worker 1 Grade 11, $51,144-$56,605, effective Dec. 13, 2014

        b.     Transfer from Preschool Services Account 696450 to Professional Services Account 694080, $250,000; Transfer from Preschool Services Account 696450 to Professional Services Account 694080, $30,000; Transfer from Preschool Services Account 696450 to Supplies and Materials Account 693000, $10,000 ($290,000)

5.     CORRECTION:

        a.     Transfer from Acct. 695700, Contracted Services to Acct. 694130 Maint., Utilities, and Rents, $40,000

6.     PARKS AND RECREATION:

        a.     Amend 2014 County Budget to Release Contingency Funds for Distribution to the NBT Bank Stadium ($83,550)

        b.     Transfer from Total Salaries 641010 to Equipment 692150, $12,900

7.     METROPOLITAN WATER BOARD:

        a.     Approving an Amendment to the Currently Effective Schedule of Rates to be Charged for Water and Water Service Provided by the Onondaga County Water District

A motion was made by Mr. Kilmartin, seconded by Mrs. Ervin, to approve the items on the consent agenda.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

REGULAR AGENDA

1.     COUNTY CLERK:  Chris Plochocki, Deputy County Clerk

        a.     Mortgage Tax Apportionment

• Total apportionment is $3,615,703.21
• Up 26% over previous period, but down 20% from same period last year.
• More normal – was unexpectedly high last year, as in the midst of a refinance move

A motion was made by Mr. May, seconded by Mrs. Ervin, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

2.     CNY ARTS:  Steve Butler, Executive Director; John Garland, Symphoria Board member

        a.     Amending the 2014 County Budget to Make Funds Available to CNY Arts for Distribution to Musical Associates of Central New York, Inc. ($70,000)

• Request release of $70k in contingency, passed by County Facilities Committee

Chairman Knapp asked about the plan for the holiday season.  Mr. Garland said that a lot of regional concerts are coming up, starting right after Thanksgiving with a tour of western New York, then all around the region (i.e. Oswego, Herkimer, Cortland).  So many tickets were sold for the Syracuse performance on Dec. 19th, they had to add an additional show on the 20th.  Also, yesterday afternoon’s show at St. Paul’s Cathedral sold out.  In answer to Mr. Kilmartin, Mr. Garland said that 12/19 and 12/20 is the Holiday Magic show – part of the pop series with Nick Ziobro, vocalist.  This year Julia Goodwin was added, who won the Michael Feinstein competition and recently was on America’s Got Talent.  A dance company, Syracuse Pops Chorus, and Syracuse Childrens’ Chorus is also part of that show.

Mr. May said he continues to struggle with how this is funded.  The county should support it, but doesn’t feel ROT should be used to do so.  He congratulated Symphoria on a job well done.

Mr. Jordan questioned the annual budget amount of $1,732,000 and YTD actual of $323,000 - appearing to be far under budget in terms of revenue.  Mr. Butler said that the season is over 50 performances – single tickets generate a lot of that income.  The allocation from the Symphony Foundation is not in there at this time.  Mr. Fisher said that their fiscal year begins September 1st and ends August 31st.  They are only one month in.  Mr. Butler said that the report shows subscription income and a little bit of the first month’s activity.

A motion was made by Mrs. Ervin, seconded by Ms. Williams, to approve this item.  AYES:  6 (Knapp, Jordan, Williams, Ervin, Holmquist, Kilmartin); NOES:  1 (May).  MOTION CARRIED.

3.     FINANCE – REAL PROPERTY TAX SERVICES:  Don Weber, Director, Real Property Tax Services

        a.     Call for a Public Hearing on the Assessment Roll for Southwood-Jamesville Water District

        b.     Call for a Public Hearing on the Assessment Roll for Warners Water District

• Items 3a & 3b are for preexisting water districts – apportioning the water districts.  The apportionment resolutions will be in the 2nd session in December. 

        c.     Onondaga County Sanitary District General Apportionment

        d.     Onondaga County Sanitary District, 2015 City Abstract           

• 3c & 3d - apportioning sanitary districts for the county

       e.     2015 City Drainage District Abstract

• City drainage abstract – Harbor Brook, Meadowbrook, Ley Creek

       f.      Bear Trap – Ley Creek Drainage District Tax – General Apportionment

       g.     Bear Trap – Ley Creek Drainage District Tax – Town of Clay Apportionment

       h.     Bear Trap – Ley Creek Drainage District Tax – Town of Dewitt Apportionment

       i.      Bear Trap – Ley Creek Drainage District Tax – Town of Salina Apportionment

       j.      Bloody Brook Drainage District Tax – General Apportionment

       k.      Bloody Brook Drainage District Tax – Town of Clay Apportionment

       l.      Bloody Brook Drainage District Tax – Town of Salina Apportionment

      m.     Authorizing General Apportionment of Harbor Brook Drainage District Tax

       n.     Harbor Brook Drainage District Tax – Town of Geddes Apportionment

       o.     Meadowbrook Drainage District Tax General Apportionment

       p.     Meadowbrook Drainage District Tax – Town of Dewitt Apportionment

• Items 3f – 3p - Town portions of the apportionment

A motion was made by Mrs. Williams, seconded by Mrs. Kilmartin, to approve items 3a – 3p.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

      q.     Onondaga County Water District, 2015 City Abstract

A motion was made by Mr. Kilmartin, seconded by Mrs. Williams, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

       r.      Allocation of 2015 Onon. Co. Water District Special Assessment Among Zones of Assessment and Fixing the Composite Rates for the Several Towns and City of Syracuse within said District

A motion was made by Mr. May, seconded by Mrs. Ervin, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        s.     Resolution Authorizing the Purchase of Tax Collection and Delinquency Software in and for the County of Onondaga, New York, at a Maximum Estimated Cost of $600,000, and Authorizing the Issuance of $600,000 Bonds of said County to Pay Costs thereof

• Current tax collection software package was developed in house 20-30 years ago; on the mainframe
• Everything on the mainframe has to come off at some point
• Replacement is needed to collect taxes in the county
• Currently there is one retired person, works 2 -3 days/week, who maintains it
• Want to get a more robust, up-to-date system
• Want to collect taxes countywide on standardized software--same for towns, villages, schools; have a single data base
• Currently everyone is doing their own thing; and have to balance back at the end of each collection period
• Borrow $600k to purchase a new software package

Mr. Kilmartin asked how long it would take to purchase the software and implement it either partially or fully.  Mr. Weber said they would go through the normal RFP process, which could take a while.  There are varying estimates from the vendors on the implementation, but most say 12 – 18 months.  In answer to Mr. Kilmartin, Mr. Weber said that he has spoken to a few counties, but none that have done anything like this recently.  Whenever a product is implemented like this, there will be some problems, but nobody had any real horror stories.  The city is going through it right now and are having a program written for them -- we are keeping an eye on what they are doing.  

Chairman Knapp asked how many options are out there.  Mr. Weber said that there are a few.  An option was to rehost the existing programand move it off the mainframe.  it would cost close to $500,000 to do so.  It would keep what they have – no increased functionality. 

Mr. May asked what is to be gained.  Mr. Weber said that with a newer software there will be efficiencies, but that isn’t the main focus – just being able to collect taxes.  It is a small staff – 4 people in the tax collection unit.  The goal is to be able to do the work that they do now and hopefully be able to do it better.

Mr. May asked if there will be integration with PeopleSoft.  Mr. Weber said it will be a separate application, but will require that it integrates to PeopleSoft.  The current system doesn’t do that.  When they collect all of the money, at the end of the day, they have to key the amount collected into PeopleSoft.  That will all be updated daily or hourly.  

In answer to Mr. Jordan, Mr. Weber explained that the $600k is for the purchase and implementation of the software.  There would be annual maintenance fees going forward, which are not known, but the industry standard is 20% of the cost of the product.  The numbers vary widely from the vendors.

Mr. Fisher said that the towns do things in many different ways; but when they are done collecting taxes, they send it over to Real Property Tax Services to complete the delinquency collection process.  There are some inefficiencies with the way it is handed off and in manually collecting taxes.  Maybe we could get them to use a system that several are using already. 

Mr. Weber said that one vendor, BAS, has a tax collection software that some of the larger towns use – Salina, Cicero, Dewitt, and they are writing the software program for the City of Syracuse.  It would make sense to look at what they are doing.  At the end of the collection, all of the towns and villages, send in an abstract file with the owner’s name and amount due.  His office has to balance it back to their collection at the end the collection period.  If everyone were on the new program, his office would be able to see as soon as they took a payment; could see how much is left to collect.  It could be on line; people could make payments on line. 

Chairman Knapp asked if there would be a cost to the towns or would the county be buying those licenses.  Mr. Weber said that he doesn’t think it is anticipated at the moment to charge the towns anything.  Right now they pay for their own; it would be incentive for them to move to the county system.  In answer to Mr. Jordan, Mr. Weber confirmed that when a payment is put in from a town, the information would be put in one large data base.

Mr. May said that there may not be efficiency within county government in terms of staffing, but there is a trend in some towns and villages where they are consolidating offices – some of the duties of receiver of taxes are being combined.  It may introduced efficiencies at the local level. 

Chairman Knapp sees the need and supports the concept, but does not want to borrow the money.  He asked if year-end funds could be looked at.  Mr. Morgan said that they are finalizing the forecast for next week; at first glance it looks like we will be close and within budget – does not know of any surpluses that could support this with cash.  Fund balance could be used, but he wants to wait and see how the year ends. 

Mr. May referred to the 12 – 18 month window, and asked if there could be a deposit or would the whole thing have to be paid.  Mr. Morgan said it would depend on the contract terms.  Mr. Weber said that the 12 – 18 months is the window to implement – that would be when they could start collecting taxes on the system.  The longer we wait, the longer on the mainframe, and the longer we are paying costs associated with it.

Mr. May asked if it can be shopped without a resolution for the whole amount.  Mr. Carroll said there is concern about putting something out onthe street without financing behind it; it could hinder the contract.  They typically don’t shop until the funding comes through Ways & Means Committee.  He does not want to be disingenuous to the vendors – there is a lot of time and effort put into the proposals.  Mr. Jordan noted that he has said for years that he hates the process where we say we will spend up to a certain amount of money.  A better way to go is passing a resolution saying that we are committed to doing something -- authorizing moving forward with the proposal without actually putting money behind it.  He understands the cost of preparing bids, but that is part of the cost of doing business.

Chairman Knapp said that the resolution is considered.  No vote will be taken.  Language can be added before session that says that if there is cash available, cash will be used.  Mr. May said that being disingenuous to vendors is a little less of a concern than the legislature’s fiduciary responsibility.  If there is a way to commit intent without giving away the farm with the number, then it is a lot better way. 

Chairman Knapp took the agenda out of order.

11.   LAW:   Gordon Cuffy, County Attorney; Kathy Dougherty, Senior Deputy County Attorney

        a.     Settlement of Claim

Mr. Jordan made a motion to enter inter executive session to discuss the matter of the pending litigation Kimberly Hurrell-Harring, et. al. vs. State of New York, et. al.  Mr. May seconded the motion.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

A motion was made by Mr. Kilmartin, seconded by Ms. Williams to leave executive session and enter regular session.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

Chairman Knapp stated for the record that no votes were taken while in executive session.

A resolution was distributed entitled “Authorizing the Settlement of the Class Action Lawsuit Filed with the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Albany, In the Matter of Kimberly Hurrell-Harring, ET. AL., ON BEHALF OF THEMSELVES AND ALL OTHERS SIMILARLY SITUATED, PLAINTIFFS, AGAINST THE STATE OF NEW YORK, ET. AL., DEFENDANTS, INDEX NO. 8866-07.”  A motion was made by Mr. Kilmartin, seconded by Mrs. Ervin, to approve the resolution.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

4.     SHERIFF:  Richard Carbery, Chief

        a.     2014 OT Transfer Resolution-Sheriff Police/Civil ($1,250,000)

• move from contingency overtime account to operating budget for police
• recent projection leaves $114,000 balance

Chairman Knapp asked if there was still a little bit of money left in supplies and cars on the custody side.  Chief Carbery confirmed that there is.

Mr. May said that this releases the budgeted amount for overtime; passed unanimously at Public Safety Committee.  It is tracking toward a positive.  The hat should be tipped for the year-long effort to make it happen.

A motion was made by Mr. May, seconded by Mr. Jordan, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        b.     2014 OT Transfer Resolution-Sheriff Custody ($1,000,000)

• releasing $1,000,000 from contingency overtime to operation budget on the custody side
• projection is for a deficit of $726,800 in custody

Mr. May said that this was discussed in length at Public Safety Committee.  Most of overage projection is due to the constant watch scenario.This removes budgeted contingency.  A strong effort was made to keep the number as tight as it could be – knowing that the the legislature and county hasn’t done anything in the past year in solving the constant watch/mental health situation in the Justice Center.  We have to get moving in the behavioral health situation one way or another.

Chairman Knapp referred to the new health care contractor – hoping that it would have a positive impact with not having to take as many folks to the hospitals – asked what effect it has had.  Chief Carbery said that it has helped quite a bit with the hospital details.  There have been a couple of months when the hospital detail was significant – there were folks that had problems that couldn’t be taken care of in the infirmary.  The bulk of the overtime is from the constant watch.

Mr. Jordan said an emphasis has to be made that there has to be a solution for the mental health component of this.  It is a shame that nothing has happened in the last year – it is costing $200,000/month just in overtime.  Mr. May said that the other side is the revenue piece that just isn’t there – the 2015 budget lacked $1.9 million in federal inmate revenue, which we can’t get.  Mr. Holmquist agreed and noted that it is really disappointing.

A motion was made by Ms. Williams, seconded by Mr. Jordan, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

5.     EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS:  Bill Bleyle, Commissioner

        a.     A Resolution Authorizing Engineering Design of the Replacement HVAC System at the E911 Main Center in and for the County of Onondaga, New York, at a Maximum Estimated Cost of $350,000, and Authorizing the Issuance of $350,000 Bonds of Said County to Pay Costs thereof ($350,000)

• 911 Center built in 1990, occupied in 1991 – HVAC system will be 25 years old in 2015
• Typical life expectancy is 20 -25 years
• 2012 sought to replace evaporative cooling tower – heart of the system – was at end of its life
• Worked with Facilities Management; study by Ramtech Engineering – determined that 28 of the heat pumps in the building were also at the end to their life; confirmed by Facilities Management – many parts unavailable for repair
• 2013 NYSERDA study was done regarding options for replacement of the system – came up with 3 options including replacing the heat pump system-water based and evaporated cooling tower.  Recommended replacing with a refrigerant flow system – lowest life cycle cost – saving $14,000-$15,000/year in energy costs; easiest to maintain
• $350,000 for detailed engineering work
• Will come back to the table in 2015 to replace the system in 2016

Chairman Knapp said this is part of the CIP.  Mr. May said that it went to Public Safety Committee; Facilities Management came in; it passed unanimously.  It is a lot of money, but the equipment that is being protected, in a mission critical function, is unavoidable. 

A motion was made by Mr. May, seconded by Mr. Jordan, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

6.     INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:  Kevin Sexton, Commissioner

        a.     Amend 2015 Budget to Make Funds Available for Information Technology to Support Continued Growth and Performance of its Enterprise, Citrix, and Sharepoint Environments ($170,000)

Mr. Jordan questioned why there is an ask for release of 2015 funds in 2014.  Mr. Sexton said that it is important to keep the momentum going and to make the purchase early in the year.  There is usually 30 – 60 days to turnaround the acquisition of the equipment necessary – would like to get it in sooner, rather than later.  Mr. Fisher said that it was in the County Executive’ budget; the Ways & Means report took some of it out and put it in contingency.

In answer to Chairman Knapp, Mr. Sexton said that $170,000 was not the whole amount in the budget for this line.  Mr. Fisher said that the total amount was $270,000 for the budget line; leaving $100,000.  They can’t do it for $100,000; they will halt the project.  IT capital projects require a lot of planning; there are a lot of people lined up and committed to this project. 

A motion was made by Ms. Williams, seconded by Mr. Kilmartin, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        b.     Amend 2015 County Budget to Make Funds Available to Secure Professional Services Needed to Supplement Information Technology Staff While it Migrates Legacy Applications Off the Mainframe ($440,000)

 Chairman Knapp asked what else is left on the main frame besides the County Clerk, Real Property Tax.

Mr. Sexton:

• CHAIRS 2 is targeted for the end for January – it is criminal justice—Sheriff, police and other agencies.
• IIS – inmate application will be off the mainframe in early 2015
• Retiree database – will be off by end of the year
• GENESYS will be gone once Human Capital Management is in
• A couple of application for Health Department
• Other ancillary applications

Chairman Knapp asked if new software is being looked at with any of these versus bringing over the old system, similar to what Real Property Tax Services is doing.  Mr. Sexton said that they are – looking at one now for ESP, Civil Service testing application – people apply on line and county reports test results.  It is a much lower cost initiative, but just as important.  Chairman Knapp noted that there are a lot of wheels in motion – staying ahead of it and possibly it won’t have to be done, if we get new applications.

Mr. May asked if all of the $440,000 is needed, or can it be done on an incremental basis, to procure the resources needed.  Mr. Sexton said that it is all needed because of the cost of the consultants that they have – there are 8 consultants working on the project.  Their bills need to be processed timely, to keep coming back to ask to move more money out of the contingency account will cause delays.  Mr. May asked about a quarterly process.  Mr. Sexton said that the funding they have “honestly only gets them a little bit past the first quarter.” 

Mr. Kilmartin suggested moving forward with this, and having Mr. Sexton come back and report monthly to provide an update – see the progress, where it is being made and tracking the activity.

A motion was made by Ms. Williams, seconded by Mrs. Ervin, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

1 Mr. Kilmartin left the meeting.

7.     WATER ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION:  Tom Rhoads, Commissioner

        a.     A Resolution Approving Proposed Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District Consisting of Design Engineering Costs for Improvements at the Baldwinsville Treatment Plant in and for the County of Onondaga, New York

Mr. Rhoads said that these are all of the projects in the CIP for the coming year (items 7a-7j)

• New state permit (SPDES) requires more restrictive disinfectant
• Have to chlorinate and then dechlorinate
• Hard deadline of May 2018 to get the system online and functioning
• 32 year old facility – much of the assets are well beyond their useful life
• Considerable amount of work needs to be done
• $3.4 million for engineering

In answer to Chairman Knapp, Mr. Rhoads said that Agrana is up and going and contributing.  The project serves Baldwinsville, Lysander, and Van Buren.

Mr. May said that the plant is adjacent to a neighborhood; asked if the upgrades will help with that situation.  Mr. Rhoads said that the development came along with some very expensive homes up against their back fence line.  There are some odor and noise issues – they are working on them currently, but as part of this project there will be significant improvements for odor control enhancement and noise abatement.

Chairman Knapp asked for confirmation that all WEP projects require public hearings and they are already scheduled.  Mr. Rhoads agreed.

In answer to Mr. May, Mr. Rhoads said that the only agenda item that is part of the west side enhancement is the westside pumpstation relocation project.

A motion was made by Mr. May, seconded by Ms. Williams, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

2 Mr. Jordan left the room.

        b.     A Resolution Authorizing the Issuance of $3,400,000 Bonds of the County of Onondaga, New York, to Pay the Cost of Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District, Consisting of Design Engineering Costs for Improvements at the Baldwinsville Treatment Plant ($3,400,000)

A motion was made by Mr. May, seconded by Ms. Williams, to approve this item.  1,2 Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        c.     Resolution Approving Proposed Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District Consisting of the Hiawatha Trunk Sewer Rehabilitation Project in and for the County of Onondaga,

In answer to Chairman Knapp, Mr. Rhoads explained that it will not be dug up – a Roto-Rooter type thing is run through it and a soft liner is blown in and then hardened with UV light.

A motion was made by Ms. Williams, seconded by Mrs. Ervin, to approve this item.  1,2 Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        d.     A Resolution Authorizing the Issuance of $4,500,000 Bonds of the County of Onondaga, New York, to Pay Costs of Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District, Consisting of the Hiawatha Trunk Sewer Rehabilitation Project at a Maximum Estimated Cost of $4,800,000 ($4,500,000)

A motion was made by Mrs. Ervin, seconded by Ms. Williams, to approve this item.  1,2 Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        e.     Resolution Approving Proposed Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District Consisting of Improvements to the Ley Creek Pump Station in and for the County of Onondaga

In answer to Chairman Knapp, Mr. Rhoads explained the multiple pumps keeps the flow going. 

A motion was made by Mrs. Ervin, seconded by Ms. Williams, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        f.      Resolution Authorizing the Issuance of $4,980,000 Bonds of the County of Onondaga, New York, to Pay Costs of Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District, Consisting of Improvements to the Ley Creek Pump Station at a Maximum Estimated Cost of $5,480,000 ($4,980,000)

A motion was made by Mrs. Ervin, seconded by Mr. May, to approve this item.  1,2 Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        g.     A Resolution Approving Proposed Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District Consisting of the Design and Engineering Phase of the Relocation of the Westside Pump Station and Various Conveyance Improvements in and for the County of Onondaga, New York

• Built in 1962 – services Town of Geddes, significant portions from Camillus, Solvay, some portions of Van Buren and Lysander
• Well beyond useful life and significant incapacity constraints
• With high flows, it goes overboard – has spilled sewage into the lake a number of times
• Engineering to investigate bringing additional flow from Baldwinsville-Seneca Knolls (Agrana is taking up a lot of capacity) – move more load from Geddes and Van Buren into Metro, where there is some capacity
• Total package is roughly estimated to be $15 million
• The difference between the total cost and the bonding is because of cash on hand

In answer to Chairman Knapp, Mr. Rhoads said that it currently pumps to Metro; would like to bring down other areas to Metro which currently go to Baldwinsville.

A motion was made by Ms. Williams, seconded by Mr. May, to approve this item.  1,2 Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        h.     A Resolution Authorizing the Issuance of $1,300,000 Bonds of the County of Onondaga, New York, to Pay Costs of Improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District, Consisting of the Design and Engineering Phase of the Relocation of the Westside Pump Station and Various Conveyance Improvements at a Maximum Estimated Cost of $1,600,000 ($1,300,000)

A motion was made by Mrs. Ervin, seconded by Mr. Knapp, to approve this item.  1,2 Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        i.      Approving Proposed Improvements for the Bear Trap-Ley Creek Drainage District Consisting of the Demolition of the Burnet Avenue Maintenance Garage in and for the County of Onondaga

• Originally constructed by Town of Dewitt as their highway garage; then came to the drainage districts in the 70’s
• It is no longer used by WEP, flow control or drainage districts
• Potential for ongoing environmental concerns; significant eyesore
• With demolition will be environmental issues of lead paint, asbestos, PCB transformers, probable hydraulic oil and other fluids in the ground

Chairman Knapp asked what will be done with the property.  Mr. Rhoads explained that there will be a small chemical injection off to the side of the property, not in the building.  Right now he does not perceive any real significant use for the property.  It makes sense to demolish; it will probably come down if they don’t do something; potential for contaminants to migrate.

Mr. Holmquist asked if there will just be land when done; Mr. Rhoads said that it will be where the building is.  The property will still have the chemical injection station on it.  Chairman Knapp asked if there may be opportunity to get rid of the property after demolish. Mr. Capozza said that the chemical injection station is off to one side, so there could be a subdivision.  

A motion was made by Ms. Williams, seconded by Mr. May, to approve this item.  1,2 Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        j.      A Resolution Authorizing the Issuance of $500,000 Bonds of the County of Onondaga, New York, to Pay the Cost of Improvements for the Bear Trap-Ley Creek Drainage District, Consisting of the Demolition of the Burnet Avenue Maintenance Garage ($500,000)

A motion was made by Mr. May, seconded by Mr. Holmquist, to approve this item.  1,2 Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        k.     Amending the 2014 County Budget to Provide for the Transfer of Funds to Pay the Cost of Emergency Repairs ($335,000)

A motion was made by Mr. May, seconded by Mr. Holmquist, to approve this item.  1,2 Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

2 Mr. Jordan returned to the meeting.

8.     FACILITIES MANAGEMENT:   Duane Owens, Commissioner

        a.     A Resolution Authorizing the Reconstruction and Construction of Improvements to Various Buildings in and for the County of Onondaga, at a Maximum Estimated Cost of $2,025,000, and Authorizing the Issuance of $2,025,000 Bonds of said County to Pay the Cost thereof ($2,025,000)

Civic Center Office & Masonry Improvement - $880,000

• Continue renovation in Civic Center in process of doing the 7th floor
• Initial CIP in 2012 requests $20 million for renovations and provide swing space to renovate floors 7 & 8
• One floor will be done with funding they already have; need additional funding to do the second floor
• Outside masonry columns are deteriorating – will need to initiate a project to reinforce them
• Continue ADA enhancement

Mrs. Ervin questioned why it isn’t already compliant.  Mr. Owens said that they have been grandfathered in, but will be all in compliance shortly and taking it very serious

Ed Kochian County Office Building Renovation - $700,000

• 1st and 5th floor renovated for Probation and 6th floor for Chronic Care
• Funding for renovation of 4th floor, elevators, lobbies and bathrooms

Mr. May said that being accessible and being compliant are two different things.  He asked if anyone can get there, work, or do what they need to do now.  Mr. Owens said that they can.  Mr. May said that this strives for compliance; Mr. Owens agreed.

                Downtown Campus - $445,000

• Repair Everson Garage fire system
• Repair expansion joint in Everson Garage, which is leaking into the Everson
• Many buildings have asbestos that needs to be removed and replaced

In answer to Chairman Knapp, Mr. Owens noted that the downtown campus is the court house, COB, Civic Center, Public Safety Building, Justice Center, Sheriff’s Dept., new court house, and steam plant.

Chairman Knapp asked about the window project in the Civic Center.  Mr. Owens said that the project is almost done; windows are all installed, wrapping up the project now – removing plywood and last minute punch list.  It was done on time and within budget.  There have been little to no change orders.  They are finding out with a number of projects what previous contractors had missed, and quite a bit was missed.

Chairman Knapp asked about the roof over the theater.  Mr. Owens said that the upper roof is complete; the lower one should be done in a couple of weeks.  Also, they are nearly complete with the roof design of the office tower of the Civic Center.  When they get a final report, they will come back to legislature as asking for funding.

Chairman Knapp said that he would like a status report on the COB and Civic Center projects in January.

A motion was made by Ms. Williams, seconded by Mrs. Ervin, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

9.     MISC.:

        a.     Authorizing Onondaga County to Pay for the Difference in Pay Between Military Base Pay and Base County Salary to County Officers and Employers While Performing Ordered Military Duty (Sponsored by Mr. Liedka)

Chairman Knapp said items 9a and 9b are done every year.  Item 9a is to make up the difference between county pay and military pay if they are activated as part of the reserves

A motion was made by Mrs. Ervin, seconded by Mr. May, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED.

        b.     Providing Continuous Individual and Family Dental and Health Insurance Benefits through December 31, 2015 at County Expense for those County Offices and Employees During their Active Military Duty (Sponsored by Mr. Liedka)

Chairman Knapp said that this continues their health and dental benefits if activated.

A motion was made by Mrs. Ervin, seconded by Mr. Jordan, to approve this item.  Passed unanimously; MOTION CARRIED

All committee members asked to be listed as cosponsors on items 9a and 9b.

3 Mr. May left the meeting.

10.   PURCHASE:  Sean Carroll, Director

        a.     Revenue Contract Report

Chairman Knapp said that there isn’t an official report today, but Mr. Carroll hasn’t been to committee for a few months, so he asked address the committee.

Mr. Carroll:

• Because there aren’t revenue contract reports, doesn’t mean that there aren’t revenue contracts – they go in cycles
• Will report on 2 revenue contracts at the next meeting:  parking lots and vending
• Hopes to have the committee revisit Best Value legislation in December

Chairman Knapp asked if Soil and Water Conservation District can access the county contracts.  Mr. Carroll did not know; will get an answer for the committee.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:45 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

DEBORAH L. MATURO, Clerk

Onondaga County Legislature