Town Council - Regular Meeting

the uh agenda two item two adoption of agenda. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Motion made and seconded. Are there any changes, alterations, corrections to the agenda, additions? Hearing none. Those in favor of the agenda signify by saying I. I oppose. Nay. Agenda's adopted. Agenda item three, approval of minutes. A special meeting executive session of January 27, 2026. Move to approve the minutes of the special meeting executive session. Second January 27th.

Motion made and seconded. Is any discussion? Hearing none. Those in favor signify by saying I. I. Nay. Eyes have it. Minutes are accepted. 3B regular meeting January 27, 2026. So moved. Second. Motion made and seconded to accept the minutes as presented. Are there any errors missions, additions? Hearing none. Those in favor of accepting the minutes signify by saying I. I.

Opposed. Nay. Carried. Agenda. Item four, public remarks. Is there anyone present who would care to make public remarks at this time? Not seeing any hands out there raised. So I think we shall move along. Anybody online?

Agenda item five, presentations. No presentations this week.

You agenda item six, bids and contracts review and possible action on police union contract. Uh thank you. Uh this item as the uh material in the packet uh reminds you is coming back to you from uh your meeting last week uh or LA two weeks ago rather. It is the uh agreement between the town and the police officers union uh that would be renewing effective uh essentially July 1 of this year and running through uh the uh June 30 of 2029. As I outlined in the packet, there are a number of changes primarily related to pension and some economics. Uh, as I told you before and as we've discussed a number of times, uh, the goal was to, uh, within reason make East Hampton uh, an attractive place to work so that we can compete for the very few people who are interested in being police officers and that we can continue to fill our uh, open positions. Just as a quick run through, uh the council's heard this, but for the benefit of those who have not, um there are pension changes. Uh we've changed the final earnings calculation from using 60 consecutive months of pay to 48 consecutive months of pay. And there is an allowance that for a an officer who is injured on duty and has workers compensation that impacts that he can substitute out a month at either end or two up to six months uh for a different uh pay. Uh we modified the li the eligibility for retirement bringing it back to 20 years for all of the employees. It had been 20 for some and 25 for others. So now it is a 20. One of the more significant items is the institution of a cost of living adjustment beginning at age 62 of 1% annually.

And the last thing related to pensions is a provision that allows an individual who comes to us with service either as a police officer or a veteran uh to purchase up to five years of that experience to enhance uh their uh retirement or uh reduce the number of years that they would serve with us and there are some provisions in detail around that. Then there are other items uh related to wages and other economics. wages are increased three years at 3% rather in each of the years of the contract. The pension related the pension contribution made by officers increases to 2% to 10% for all of the employees. There again was a break. Some of the employees were paying 8%, some were paying 10. They'll all pay 10 now. In the third year of the agreement, they'll pay another half percent of their uh health insurance premium. So they'll go up to 15% of whatever the premium is at that time. And we're eliminating pay uh the premium pay that officers received when they served as the officer in charge in certain circumstances. We've just eliminated that uh in favor of uh basically practice that has made the most senior officer on the shift uh responsible for those duties. There are other operational changes that increase some flexibility for the chief in making sure that we're covering shifts on certain uh events, community events, and other times uh that are also included and those will become effective as soon as the contract is executed. So, those are the items uh the council wanted the community to have an opportunity to review. To my knowledge, we did not get any comments. We didn't hear any this evening. So, it's back to you. What's your pleasure?

I move to approve the contract. Oh, take it off the table, I guess. Or no, it's in front of you now. That was your direction. Move to approve the contract. A second. Motion made and seconded to approve the labor contract with the police union. Are there any the any discussion, any questions, any comments? We've had this for nearly a month, so

pretty well knowledgeable of what's there. There's no uh dis further discussion. Those in favor of the approving the police union contract signify by saying I I post nay. Contract is approved. Uh thank you. I'm sure the officers appreciate that as well as does the chief. So we'll move that forward. Thank you. Do we have to do something on the pensions? Uh

ultimately you will. Um uh the question was do you have to do something with the pension? You'll get uh in uh it's already in process but you'll get an uh maybe this last meeting of this month or certainly the first meeting of March. Uh you'll get a document to make an amendment official amendment to the pension plan that outlines those things that I discussed this evening for you for your review at that time. Thank you. Moving along in the agenda seven, resolutions, ordinances, policies, proclamations. None of those this evening. Agenda item eight, continued business, subcommittee reports and updates. Jack,

Mr. Chairman, the American 250 committee, which was formed last year, right, has been moving along and made a lot of progress. The basic um approach of the committee is to have people in town organize events and a lot of things are happening. Uh Kathy is putting on our uh the America 250 website a calendar that lists a whole bunch of events. One event is this Saturday at 11. There's a history um talk.

Yeah. Captain Fever. Uh uh but I I wanted to mention is that there will be a July 4th parade in Middletown for um basically all the towns in our county or in our area. And uh the American 250 committee is trying to figure out how to get a uh East Hampton participation in that. And so if there are any volunteers and it's not going to be don't really want it to be town, we want it to be the people of the town. I we don't want to be the council or the uh town government itself. We want this people participating and so we'd like volunteers. So if anybody uh would like to volunteer, they can contact Kevin Wright or myself.

Okay. Mr. chair for the POCD steering committee. Um that survey is still active. It will be active through about uh probably the end of March, but if you haven't completed the survey for the plan of conservation and development, please do so. And next week, we will have two focus sessions. On Wednesday 218, we will be talking about the village center and what is going to potentially happen down there over the next 10 years. And then on Thursday 21:19 we will be talking about infrastructure which is primarily water and sewer. And both of those meetings will be in this room at 6:30m. Thank you. Any other I can talk Rich?

Yes. Thanks. Uh just a quick update on the uh firehouse uh site committee. Uh it's going very very well. uh must say just what we've done so far is um thanks to the hard work of our town manager, we uh have posted a uh request for proposal to different consulting firms to take a look at the condition of our three sites. Um and right after that on February 2nd, we had a mandatory walkth through by anybody interested. uh seven firms uh did did uh did the walkth through. Uh we will be looking for the final proposals from those who want to propose uh this Friday. We'll take a look at them as a committee and u uh chew on chew on all the proposals, pick the ones that we think will will uh do the uh do the best job for East Hampton. uh interview them honor about uh March 2nd and move on from there. So, we're making good progress. Uh very very proud of the work uh not just our staff has done but certainly the the chief uh fire chief and the committee very dedicated people and uh it's great to be with them.

Thank you. Is there anyone else? If not, moving on. Agenda item nine, new business. Have none this evening. Agenda item 10, town management report.

Thank you. Uh, as always, my uh full written report is included as part of the packet and on the town manager portion of the website. Uh, so folks can take a look at that. I want to comment on one thing that's on that and then talk a little bit about um another item that uh the council had requested some information on. Uh so on the first page of my report, you'll note that the uh prevention partnership is once again applying for um the grant that covers the cost of our youth drug and alcohol prevention program. The we had some of you who are paying especially close attention will remember me standing at this podium not that long ago saying where we're making that grant application. uh the CDC and the federal government sort of took about 3/4 of a fiscal year off. Uh they decided not to uh award those grants a year ago or uh or so when that was first put out uh and have come back and are now uh getting back to uh awarding those grants. So you'll recall that we've held uh this grant for five almost five years now and we're moving into a second phase. And so now we're part of a group of uh prevention partnerships across the country that can compete for those last five years, years 6 through 10 uh of that grant. And the goal there is to uh move the grant uh move the the activities rather sponsored by the grant to being more locally funded and less uh federal government funded. So that's part of the goal and part of the work that will go on in the next five years in that grant assuming of course that we get it. Uh the small gap that we had in uh funding from the federal government has been covered with our uh opioid settlement funds. The town received uh receives about $18,000 a year and we've been sort of stockpiling

that uh and uh had uh in excess of $100,000 to bridge that gap uh from those funds. So that's been ongoing uh as we've needed it uh in add to supplement the over uh the carryover funds from the federal government. So anyway, that's going on. That uh application goes in uh this week and uh we should all cross our fingers and send uh good thoughts to the CDC and the White House in hopes that they'll choose us again. The other thing I wanted to mention and talk a little bit about was uh at the request of the council was the overtime and sort of where are we at uh with our snow removal and and ice removal uh activities and costs for this fiscal year. Matt Walsh uh who was uh not in the office today but was able to put together some of this information uh and provide it to me is also online. That's the Ashley Walsh we see up there. Um, he's masquerading as his wife, I think, tonight. Um, but Matt is here and can uh can respond if need be to any specific questions you might have that I don't have the answers to. But I I just wanted we just wanted to talk a little bit about that uh and sort of bring you up to speed. So, a couple of weeks ago or two weekends ago, I guess we could say, we had a pretty significant event um in town. We received depending on where you were anywhere from about 14 to 20 inches of snow uh over a fairly long period of time. That response for our the main response for our employees was about 36 hours uh of straight activity with time off for rest a little bit in between there uh so that uh they're not uh overly delirious uh so to speak. That event alone, that main response cost about $25,000 in overtime. That's about $800 an hour uh

to respond to that particular event. Uh that included most of Sunday and again most of Monday. As you can imagine, that particular event coupled with the other events that we've had has had quite a significant impact. So, just as a real high level uh overview, um the department's overtime budget is $65,000. As of this payroll that goes out tomorrow, we have spent uh over $123,000 on overtime responding to events this year. That's $58,000 over budget. road materials. That's the cost of all sorts of materials that get put on roads, but most notably in this instance, road salt and sand that we use for deicing. You may remember me saying uh that we were having some challenges along with the rest of New England in getting salt. So, part of our response in this the major event I referenced and and really in the last several events uh has included sand uh as well as some salt as that has come in. But we are at about 76,000 expended in that line, which is about half of the $355,000 line. So, right now it looks good, but I'll remind you that as that line gets consumed, that leaves less for other activities in the spring, and that helps supplement our road paving activities in the spring, uh, crack filling, um, small paving activities, and those sorts of things that go on in the spring. a little bit more about overtime. Um, this year the department has, as of this, as of today, I guess you could say, responded to 26 adverse weather events. That's since November. Four of those have been double time Sundays. One of those was a double time holiday. The others were peppered

across regular hours and of course always overtime hours because they storms never come, as the lawyers say, never come 9 to5. They come on Sundays and Saturdays and start at four o'clock in the afternoon and all those fun things. So that always has a pretty significant impact on the budget and it's the same situation as we've had in other years. You may recall from the material that we gave you a while back about salt use uh that the town responds to about 24 events in an entire season. So we're already surpassed that. We have a couple of months of of winter yet to come. Uh and so that creates a significant impact. As I alluded to, a lot of that stuff happens on weekends and and uh and off hours creates some overtime. Last year, we exceeded the budget by about $34,000. Um but we've historically been able to deal with that. In particular, Matt points out that in the past, our overtime budget was about $118,000. We had some sum some winters that were pretty light, pretty nice to us, and we took advantage of that and trimmed that budget back. Well, Mother Nature said, "Haha, not so fast. Here you go. You're going to be over again." So, we dropped that budget in 25, increased it slightly in 26, the current fiscal year. uh and you're seeing the the impact of that at this point. Uh on road uh materials, I'll just remind you as I said that budget is in pretty good shape. Um Matt would want me to tell you that it's been very difficult getting deicing materials from our suppliers. Remind you that we've been using that salt sand mix that we used to use quite a bit. But that creates of course its own issues because now we have to clean up all that sand uh in the spring as the thaws come and try

to keep as much of it as we can for example out of the lake. So that gets consumed and it impacts those smaller road repairs. Matt would also want me to point out that winter snow removal activities especially heavy snow uh takes quite a toll on equipment. Uh so uh hydraulic lines break in rare occasions axles break. Things of all sort go on and so that takes a truck out of duty. It can take a person out of duty to go and do that repair. So it's very uh heavy on uh on vehicles. Uh can cause engines to have significant problems. We had one that had to be rebuilt. Uh thankfully we have the skill levels to do a lot of that in-house and that saves us a great deal of money. uh but it it does take time. So uh that continues to go on. As I mentioned uh before we have been able to overcome these sorts of overexpenditures in that department uh usually by under expenditures in other areas. We're we're able at the end of the fiscal year to offset some of that even within the own the department of public works budget. And in worst case scenario we can as you have seen before we can adjust between budgets uh between departments rather in the general government fund in the general government side of the ledger. Uh so uh although we've seen some pretty significant expenditures uh we're right now in uh well we're certainly going to watch that and we're always careful uh but we think we'll come out okay and be able to overcome. Uh but it's the main thing I think that it's important for people to know that you know these are human beings and they have to they work as I said for that one event they were 36 hours straight and then they get an evening off and then they're back at it the next morning moving snow and I know

there were people in the community that were upset about how long it took to get through the village center or how long it took to get all of the sidewalks clear. Um probably we were about a week or maybe uh maybe through the following Tuesday before all the sidewalks were clear. Uh that takes a lot of energy and a lot of time and a lot of equipment and resources uh especially when it's that deep to to be able to respond. So patience is uh all we can ask for uh as our guys get through and and do that work. So that's a basic highle uh overview of all of that. Like I said, Matt is here if you have specific questions that you want to ask him, but uh I know you were interested in kind of knowing where we were at. Thank you.

I do have a question. Um so I know that we had purchased the new snowblower. I don't remember how long ago it was, but we have the newer snowblower for the sidewalk. And at for a while, we were still using the old one as well, I believe. But now that one is that one out of commission completely now? No. In this particular event, it just the snow is too deep. Okay. Because that the older version is a correct me if I'm wrong, Matt, but the older version is basically a plow is a Vplow, right? And with a unit of that size and a snow bank that's 2 and 1/2 ft tall, there's no place for it to push. So, we have to use

wondering is what we have now sufficient? Do we have to consider additional equipment or anything like Uh so Matt and I have been the public works director and I have been talking about uh what are the options for um equipment. Do we have what we need? While it's hard to plan for the most extreme uh we should talk about those sorts of things every time we have the opportunity to to be stretched, right? To be pushed. Uh do we have the right equipment? There's Matt there now. Do we have the right equipment in place? Are there other things that we can do uh to make things uh more efficient? Uh we've talked about updating our ice and and our snow and ice response policy uh to include some of the things that we learned in this particular event in this heavy duty event that we don't have all that often. Matt, you're on and and live if you want to say anything.

Uh can you hear me? Yes, we can.

Okay. Uh so back to the uh the two snowb blowers, we actually have uh two trackless machines which um one of them as Dave alluded to has a Vplow on the front and the other one has a snowb blower. Um one of the issues uh with as Dave alluded to with the deep snow is that that little Vplow just doesn't work. There's nowhere to put the snow and actually uh and you guys may have noticed it actually broke down uh this week and was stuck at the library for a little while. Um that is an older machine and uh has become kind of unreliable. So we're looking into some other options as to what to do and some other equipment. Those trackless machines uh for those of you that have been on the capital committee have been become extremely expensive for what we use them for. So, uh, I'm investigating some other things to try and, you know, accomplish the same the same job.

Yep. Definitely. There any questions of uh public works director? I would just like to comment and point out that they have my vote of confidence in the work they've done and the quality of the work. I know there's been some comments in the community that they didn't think the snow was removed off the roads, but anybody that's dealt with ice and that quantity of snow knows should know better. And it's not like our employees are purposely leaving snow on the on the road bed. They're right. They're dedicated. They're working hard. And I I hear them as they go by my house at 2 or three in the morning.

Yeah, I'm sure Matt could give us an explanation as to why the snow is on the road with the temperature less salt. Yeah, I I I actually I really appreciate that opportunity to opine on that. Um

uh we had the salt shortage is a huge issue and we had actually have had salt on order since before Martin Luther King Day and we literally have been getting it in in dribbles. Um, so what happens when you have a snowstorm and you can't go out and pre-treat the road with salt is that the snow and ice actually sticks to the pavement and what that causes is, you know, you can plow it and plow it and plow it and the the plows actually ride up over the snow and ice that's stuck to the pavement. So it gives this appearance like we haven't been there or uh, you know, we're we're you know, not doing our our job out there. And uh it it just makes for a a not nice uh finished product when

you know I think we've all kind of gotten used to the black roads. You know eight hours after the storm everything looks great and it looks like the highway and uh you know unfortunately without you know the salt it just it doesn't look like that. Um so it's kind of back to the way it was in the 80s and 90s before we went to straight salt. Right. Any other questions? Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Good work. And thank you. Are there uh off that topic, are there any other questions? I'm certainly willing to answer them on my report, but otherwise, those are the two items I wanted to touch on this evening. Got one, Dave. Sure.

Uh and this is on the library report, um which is always a tremendous report. a lot of data, the whole nine yards on the last page u of of detail under the strategic plan indicators of success. Mhm.

Uh I looked at this I said are these typos or so what's the story? If you look under promotion and website presumably website views number of website views you know we go from an average and and yeah under website for example there for four lines sessions users page views you know for November December they're running on average for all categories like 3,000 hits now all of a sudden in January it's four times that um I just thought that was amazing and and I was just wondering if you knew perhaps why that might be.

So um you you see a similar jump in the January social media information Instagram, right? We had a post or two that went as they say viral and very likely was driving a lot of that activity. It was uh shoot now I can't remember which post it was. It was a post that the library staff had put together about an an activity or something going on at the library and it was especially attractive to people and it went I can't remember the post frankly but okay

uh it went viral and it probably is the main factor for driving all of that engagement and it really goes to what the staff has really been working on at the library for quite some time about engaging with the community in different ways and using their social media. They for those of you that are on social media, regardless of the platform, they're on a handful of them. You see our staff, whether they're talking about programs or they're talking about the library in general, about things that are available there and activities and and that sort of thing. Um, they get attention and it really this particular one just lit up.

And I I'll tell you the reason I brought it up is first of all, it was a dramatic increase. Mhm. Um but to but to bring that to life and say whatever they did that month please keep doing it you know very simple because that is a that is a tremendous a four time in increase tremendous. So please pass that along whatever they're doing please keep doing it. Yeah the library staff does an absolutely fabulous job with their social media. They're having a they're having a good time doing it and they think and they put a lot of energy into it. They think about it. Hey, find ways to be engaging, find ways to be funding.

I will be half because uh from tremendous success there and please again third time, please keep doing it. I will do it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dave. Uh agenda item 11, appointments. Uh Mr. Chairman, we do have a few appointments this evening. Um one, let's uh God bless you. Thank you.

You're well. The um first uh first and I'll roll them all into one motion. Like to appoint uh Matt uh Vatello to the parks and recre Advisory Board for a full full position for the term ending 123128. I'd like to uh nominate uh Christopher Anderson uh to the alternate position on Brownfields with a term ending 63029. And I'd like to nominate George Koso to the ethics commission for the full term ending April 30th, 2028.

I will second those. Motion made and seconded. Is there any discussion, questions? chair. If not, those in favor of the appointments as presented for parks, Rex alternate for Brownfield and for the ethics commission. Please signify by saying I. I oppose. Nay. So, agenda item 12, tax refunds. Mr. Mr. Chair, I make a motion that we return 15 tax refunds totaling $6,68846 to the right ballooners. Is there a second?

Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? If not, those in favor signify by saying I. I. I.

Oppos? Nay. Adopted. Public remarks. Agenda item 13. Get one last chance here. Anyone do I have any takers? Seeing no hands raised, move on. Agenda item 14, communications, correspondence, and announcements. You have the January 26 board and commission summary as part of your packet and it's posted online. Are there any questions or comments regarding that? Seeing none. Agenda item 15. The council is going to go in into executive session regarding strategy and negotiated negotiation regarding potential purchase of property.

Mr. Chair, I make the motion that we go into executive session regarding the potential pro purchase of property and I invite the public utilities administrator and the town manager to that session. There will be no business conducted after the session closes. Second. Motion made and seconded. Is there any discussion? If not, those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. We are now going