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Grafton Town Board: Minutes Not Approved, Bills Not Paid

September 12, 2014 By eastwickpress

by Alex Brooks

The Grafton Town Board meeting began with a comment from Town Councilwoman Barbara Messenger about the minutes of Town Board meetings. She said they are missing minutes from earlier in the year, and the minutes that have been submitted for the last few meetings by Deputy Town Clerk Cathy Goyer she finds unacceptable, because they contain bias, hypotheses and speculation. She said the minutes should not quote what people say in the meeting.

[private]Cathy Goyer said the minutes from earlier in the year have not been completed because it’s hard to reconstruct what happened at a meeting from someone else’s notes. About the ones that she has done, she said she has read minutes from many towns in the region and there is a variety of ways of doing them. She said she has looked at guidance from the Association of Towns. She said, “Nothing says you can’t quote someone, as long as I don’t put a spin on it, which I have not done.” Then she added, “The minutes will stand as written from the Clerk’s standpoint. The Board doesn’t have to approve them.”

Barbara Messenger said she has been working in Town government for a long time, first with the Planning Board and now with the Town Board, and everyone she had worked with acknowledged that “we don’t quote people in the minutes.”

Messenger then asked Goyer when they might expect to see minutes from the February and March meetings.

Goyer said, “I suggest you call Sue.” This referred to Town Clerk Suzanne Putnam.

Barbara Messenger asked the Board if they should have the Town Attorney look at the minutes. She said there is one statement in there that is false. Town Supervisor Frank Higgins said if Messenger is concerned about it, she should have Attorney Ferlazzo look at them.

Town Councilman Rick Ungaro then made a motion to approve the minutes from the August meeting, but there was no second to his motion so they were not approved.

Public comment followed, in which David Buckley asked Rick Ungaro and Frank Higgins if they thought the minutes were accurate. Ungaro said, “I find them to be accurate.” Higgins said he thinks there are some inaccuracies in them.

Highway Report

Highway Superintendent Herb Hasbrouck said his crew is working on a bus turnaround at the end of Old Siek Road. He said questions have been raised about water flow, and, as a result, the Town has to get a permit to have its ditch water run into a tributary that eventually flows down to the Tomhannock Reservoir. He said that water runs down that way naturally and the work that he is doing doesn’t really affect it but he has to get a permit anyway, and it is slowing down the project. Hasbrouck said he has sold off the old truck that he was trying to get rid of and he needs to buy a plow for the new truck. He had two bids, of $6,700 and $7,200 for the 10’ plow and $8,200 and $8,300 for the 11’ plow. But Supervisor Higgins said he needs to have three bids before the Town can authorize the purchase, so Hasbrouck must go back and find another bidder.

Ambulance Back In Service

Joe Allain announced that the ambulance is back in service. It had been out of service on a couple of occasions over the past month because of a burned out circuit board. The board could not be replaced because they don’t make that part any more, but the mechanics bypassed it, with the loss of a few non-critical functions. Supervisor Higgins said it is a reminder that the ambulance is getting old and will need to be replaced soon. He said he had put in a call to NYS Senator Marchione’s office to inquire about funding for a new ambulance. She is looking into it, but another opportunity arose out of that inquiry. A stretcher with a mechanical lift capability was available for $7,000. Higgins said it would reduce liability for the Town and speed up patient services because the crew would not have to wait for lifting assistance. The plan was to have the Town pay $3,500 and the Ambulance Squad pay $3,500 from its own funds. The Town Budget has a line for Ambulance equipment, budgeted at $4,500, so this purchase would fit into the Town budget. All four Town Board members present voted in favor of the purchase. Higgins said this is not a beat up stretcher that someone discarded – it has only 28 hours on it and it is available because it was used by a service that disbanded.

FEMA

Higgins said he had received a letter from the State emergency aid agency, saying that it had received a decision from FEMA about the Dunham Road Bridge project authorizing a payment to the Town of $81,812.75. Although Higgins hailed this as good news, he was flabbergasted to hear from the State Emergency Aid contact that it will probably take a year before the Town would actually see a check. Another disappointment was that the State Emergency Aid agency seems to have lost the documentation from the Town’s FEMA claims, and they need it now to recoup the 25% that they put in. The State seems to acknowledge that the Town submitted all the required documentation, but they can’t find it. They are coming out to Grafton this week to try to scan the Town’s copies of the documents to rebuild their file, but there was some question whether the Town could produce all of the documents that the State is looking for. Higgins said, “The Town Clerk takes care of those records.” But Town Clerk Sue Putnam has been sick and has not been able to come into the Town Hall much over the past six months. Her appointed Deputy, Cathy Goyer, said she is having difficulty finding all of the records requested by the State agency.

Time Warner Cable

The franchise agreement with Time Warner Cable was ready for the Town Board’s approval. It is a ten year agreement, starting with the date of approval by the Public Service Commission. The Board approved it unanimously, 4-0.

Government Efficiency

A letter was received from County Executive Kathy Jimino reminding the Town that all units of local government have to submit a “Government Efficiency Plan” by June 1 of 2015. The County volunteered to coordinate a County-wide plan that would take care of the obligations of any municipality that joined in. The Board unanimously agreed to participate with the County, as it seemed an onerous task to create their own plan independently.

Dog Officer’s Report

The dog officer reported that he had a situation with a dangerous dog and an individual was bitten. This matter was resolved in Town Court by Judge Snyder. The dog will have a microchip implanted to reveal its whereabouts, and the owner was given an order to keep it on a leash.

Lifeline Service

The New York Department of Public Service asked the Town to help publicize the lifeline discount, which provides low cost telephone service for income-qualified people. Details are in a letter that is posted at the Town Hall and on the Town web site.

Town Hall Painting

Rick Ungaro painted the back of the Town Hall by himself, which cost the Town less than $100. He said it bothered him to see it looking so shabby back there, and he is pleased to see it freshly painted.

Not Paying The Bills

The meeting concluded with an uproar when a motion to pay the bills failed to pass. Barbara Messenger said she hadn’t had a chance to look over the bills. Cathy Goyer said the bills had been out all month for Messenger to look at. Messenger said no they have not. Ungaro made a motion to pay the bills, and Mike Crandall seconded, and Higgins and Messenger voted “Nay.”

Higgins said that when he came into office the Town’s bills were in chaos, and it took him many months to straighten it out. He said, “Mrs. Putnam has appointed Cathy Goyer as her Deputy, and she is handling the vouchers again, and we have the same mess we had before. Bills will not be paid. I have had no communication from the Town Clerk in over three months.”

Goyer was furious at this speech, and the meeting ended with heated arguments breaking out all over the room about when the bills were or were not available for Town Board members to examine and whether or not they were competently handled by various different people who have managed them in the recent past. The details of these arguments are bewildering and not worth repeating here, but there are several things that emerged from all the discussion. The Town bills are normally a Town Clerk function, but Town Clerk Sue Putnam has been too sick to do her job for several months at least. Prior to the appointment of Cathy Goyer as Deputy Clerk, the Supervisor’s Secretary, Joe Allain, was handling the vouchers. Since her appointment Cathy Goyer is handling the vouchers. She is working in the Town Clerk’s office several hours a day without pay. Rick Ungaro and Mike Crandall seemed to be thankful to Goyer for filling in and doing many of the Town Clerk’s tasks, but Goyer is not getting along well with Higgins or Messenger, and there is a lot of tension and conflict around the Town Hall. Without a motion to pay the bills, there is a very urgent problem of bills going unpaid, and it is not clear how this will be resolved.[/private]

Filed Under: Front Page, Grafton, Local News

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