Town Board - Regular Meeting

board meeting Wednesday, December 10th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. Please silence your cell phones. Notice there's two uh emergency exits in the rear of the room and one to my right. If you would stand for the pledge,

I pledge algiance to the flagation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing and remember those who are serving in harm's way. Thank you. Before we start our meeting tonight, councelor Balo, do you want to let us know what's going on here? Sure. Like, yeah. So, we have two championship teams here from Cicero, right? You can be as loud as you want. here, right?

It's great to have a few of these young men and ladies back from a couple years ago. So, multiple time champions is always great. I went to, you know, as many playoff games as I could go to. I got to tell you, we have some wonderful young men and women here in Cicero. The future does look bright, especially on the athletic field. So, always happy about that. So, what I wanted to do is just honor the young men and ladies here tonight because they are champions. They are Cicero residents. So, we can be as loud as we like cheer these young men and women on. And I'll invite up the coaches of both teams first. Right. So, Coach Vic and Coach Mo. Coach Mo. Oh man, I was not ready for this. Oh man, I'll have Vic start.

Hello. Yeah, I have been here before. Uh good evening. We're here to represent two teams. Uh the Falcon uh flag football girls who won the first trip, right, ever. Congratulations to you guys. Give it up to them. Uh,

so this team this year, 11U North, we won a state championship. We couldn't get the big one this year, but the championship is a championship. We got a state. So, I'm very proud of you guys representing Cicero and your um your town and your community. Keep up the good work. Oh, the team. Okay. Um, uh, so I got two assistant coaches, Coach Jeremiah JJ. Coach, Coach Fred Perry, amazing job, guys, this year. Um, our team, we got team mom and she's Blaze back. Thank you so much. Did a lot of behind thes scenes work. So, we have uh we have uh let's let's start with Sia. This is my son, so that's the first name I remember real quick. S got a big tasty here, CJ. Latrell, raise your hand. Latel, raise your hand. Uh, we got, uh, Addison,

Wesley, Nolan, Maverick, uh, Dante, hey, we got Joey, Prince, Lucky, um, Benson, Eli, Colin, Landon, Lucky, Lucas. Who am I missing? Sully. Sully. Who am I missing? Who? Oh. Oh. Dante. Dante. Dante. Anthony.

And I believe that's it. We're missing we're missing a couple guys. Corey Tupi. They're not here. I don't think. And I think that's that's that's it. Congratulations, guys. I'm so proud to be coach Falcons. Thank you. Um um hey everybody uh my name is Mo, Coach Mo. I've been coaching with Cyro for four seasons now. Uh this was the first ever girls flag team. It was a idea that I had just coaching in the spring. Um I was blessed to be able to get this team together. Um, signups filled up in I think 45 minutes and then they had to like cut it off real quick because that's how many people signed up. Um, yeah, this was the first ever girls tenu league they had in the fall and I knew I had a special group of girls when we first started right from the first practice and then went six and0 in our first six games. Unfortunately had a loss in the seventh. eighth and ninth game. Ended up seven and one in the regular season. Got a first round buy into the championship and took it home. I think you went to that game Mountain Valley where we won a hard-fought game 6-0 against uh Beville and took home the title in our first year ever. So, I was really proud of these girls. Um I'll just introduce them all real quick. I have Mary, Ay, Zoe, Sophia, Aubrey, Delaney, Haley, Diala, my daughter, that's Avery, that's Nina, Emerson,

Harper, Annie. I think we're missing Ju Guu and Emmy. But yes, that was our squad. Um, very proud of them. And just give them a round of applause. They they they really deserve it. Thanks for having us. Everybody in it could be tight. Please. Up. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Good to see you.

Thank you. Congrats, guys.

Yeah. Congrats.

Yeah,

pink is like super in style for like athletic boys right now. My boys always want pink. Okay, Chief, do you want to start our Citizens Police Academy? Oh, okay. Sergeant Snow, come on. Hello. Okay, everyone can hear me. Oh, wait. All right, perfect. So once a year uh we host our citizens uh CSRO police department citizens police academy. Someone close the door. There you go. Okay. So this is our ninth class we've had to date. Uh we skipped COVID for obvious reasons. Um we have now um had over 120 CISOR residents um go through the program. Um and we cannot be thankful

enough uh for the participation um throughout the people volunteer their time to come. Uh this year we did eight weeks um with a val with an optional ninth week. Uh if people wanted to be there uh we cover anywhere from departmental organization um what's how your sister police department stands u different from the rest of the police departments in the county. Uh criminal justice, use of force, women in policing, domestic violence. Uh we did a tour of the 911 center. Um a a ton of stuff that the people come and get information about what we do and everything that we're about. And we we love doing this for the community and we want to continue doing this. Um and we cannot thank you guys enough for for being here because everybody that that teaches was handpicked and does has an investment and really enjoys doing it. So, um I definitely wanted to thank the town board for supporting us, the chief for, um allowing us to do this class because the instructors absolutely love it. Um what we're going to do is we're going to start calling people's names up and just come up here and u present a certificate of uh completion. So, when I call your name, Abigail Ainsworth. Renee Ainsworth. Did I say it right? Sorry. Lori Appel, Ashley Bliss, Gracie Broil.

H daily. They say boys menu. Sorry, I didn't want to butcher it. Vincent Cutry. and Harold Mohammed. No. Okay. Tyler Love, Patricia. Am I then? Aaron Ryan. Uh, Rebecca Sack and Rob Sanuchi.

Okay. Tough to follow all the chanting and everything. I don't have any of that going on here. But um I would first like to thank our group. Uh we went through the nine weeks and it was amazing. We discussed a lot of things. We just kicked ideas back and forth and I couldn't have done it without you guys and I thought it was great. Um, I want to give a shout out to two of our girls here, Kaylee and Gracie. They're going into law enforcement, so I'm very proud of that. And Smith should be here. Oh, sorry. I'm just use mic. So on behalf of our class, I wanted to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Cisro Police Department for organizing and hosting this outstanding class um for our community. Everyone should take this class. I mean, when we started, I got my daughter to do it and fiance to do it. I'm like, you know, just come and do it with me. I don't know really what to expect, but I'm so glad we did. Not only did we um learn so much, you the nine weeks just went fast. Three hours a night after work didn't go fast, but but the the time just went so fast and we were always looking forward to the next class. Um we brought in the medical examiner which was amazing. We went to the 911 center as you said. You stole my thunder earlier and gave all the Yeah. No, that's that's okay. He brought his who was amazing. She kept she was our cheerleader. But um I really want to say I have a different outlook about the police department and I think this is an amazing community opportunity that everyone should do.

We now see you not only as police officers, we see you as parents, friends, sisters, brothers. Um It's amazing to see you as people and not just the person behind the uniform. And I really would like to thank you guys. I didn't even go off of this at all, but um thank you again. And we'd like to present you. So, thank you so make sure you go out and do your ride ride along. Like I mentioned, you'll train you went through the tip of the iceberg. Really, it is. But if you get the opportunity, come out, do a ride along with my cops. They do a great job and I appreciate you folks giving up your time to come see. Thank you. I got a couple.

Thank you. I'll be on the ride along. Chief Oh, thank you. Thank you.

Chief, could you put the back? Okay. Would anyone like to come up and speak on behalf of any agenda items prior to the start of the meeting? Come on up.

Push the button. push the button. Every single time I come here, I forget to push the button. Damn. Well, congratulations on that. That was a great police presentation. Um, I think that's great that they did that. Couple questions. Uh, I got some travel plans coming up. I just want to make sure that Friday, January 2nd, that will be the town or special town board meeting. And have you discussed it with the new board members? I think you're going to see a discussion about it tonight.

Oh, okay. Um, I see that the uh there's training stipens that are going for the South Bay Fire Department to try to get more firefighters and ret and the retention. Is there a budget number on that and a budget code that goes with It's a good question. The South Bay Fire Department will be paying for that themselves. So, we won't be paying anything to the fire department. So what what did we do then? So per New York state law and Robert Germaine please correct me if I'm wrong because this has been a this has been set by New York State. So we have to approve it to be allowed by the South Bay Fire Department. I'm saying that wrong and I apologize. The South Bay Fire Department they're their training their training stipened.

Oh the the fire department has some training stipens in here. There was a uh if they take additional training they get a they get a stipen. I was just curious if there was a budget number. Mr. Pal says that they're going to pay for it themselves. I just didn't know why we had to have this write up then because you're approving training. The town board's approving the training.

Okay. Uh then on number the lateral transfer bonus program for the police department. Um, I see that there's $15,000 signing bonus paid in three installments if they stay three years. This looks kind of like the college basketball portal to me. Um, I mean it if we're going to go poach from the town of Dwit or the town of Manlas, what's to prevent them from poaching our officers here? They already are. Other departments are offering this. We are simply trying to maintain parody. Okay. And if they change it to 25,000, are we gonna maintain parody?

There's there's obviously limits. This is something that we've all discussed a lot over the years because this is this is what happened in 2009. This is why the town of Clay merged their police department with county.

They decided that they didn't want to go through the expenditure. Now, I'm I'm just bringing it up. You know, there's 110,000 people in those three towns that we're subsidizing, Landers, Salina, and Clay. and 110,000 people are just being policed by the state police and the ondog county sheriff's department. We have three levels of coverage here. I think that when I heard the thing about the 911 center, I think that the new board members and the existing board members are going to stay. You should go down to the 911 center and see that. Um especially how the the responses are set up, you know, somebody is committing a murder. I mean, they're not going to send town police department or send the county sheriffs or the state police on that. you know, if there's a call into the call center. Be interesting to see how they route it. The routing is I think you should take a look at that. Um, the only reason I bring it up, we're spending three four million dollars on the police department here. I think they do a wonderful job. The officers that I've met over the years, I think they did a great job. But what I am saying is that if we're starting this poaching piece, it's going to go back and forth. And we're I mean, we're we had a hard time getting the police officers to be able to fill the two spots that we had in the budget. Um, some people can't make it through the academy. That's what I heard the last the last meeting. So, I would think you really should consider reviewing this, you know, as far as how it's going to impact us. If we're going to get poached even more, it's a tit for tat. It's either that or merge merge our department within the county uh on our county sheriff's office. But they did that in 2009, you know, in the town of Clay and they have never put a police department back in. So, and it's nothing against the chief or anybody else. I'm just pointing it out that they did merge at that time and they saved themselves a lot of money and they were able to do other things with it. So, thank you.

Hi, uh Jay Reen, can you hear me? Okay. I will have a very different perspective on versus the last speaker regarding this. Um I am going to comment now on items 10, 11, and 12 which are the copy leases and item number 13 which is the police issue. I will save comments for number 19 where I want to give you guys a very complimentary send off especially for those of you whose terms are expiring till that later uh public input period. I'll read this verbatim and I can send it over to Tracy for the record. Thank you members of the board for allowing me to provide public input this evening. Uh first on the copier leases, this is the right move. When I worked in new home sales or any other real estate sales, everything stopped when our copy center went down. These machines are mission critical and six or sevenyear-old units simply are not reliable enough for a town the size of Cisra. I'd also encourage ensuring that any department dealing with a development dealing with development real estate development or plans has access to 11 by7 ledger printing. It's basically double the size of a normal size piece of paper. It is so much more easier to read plans on leisure sized documents than on anything else. you have to get out that microscope and even on the ledger size documents you sometimes have to do that. So, um

it seems that that that is the case with parks and recreation and their copy proposed copy lease because that makes sense. They'll be printing posters, but don't underestimate how much the central town office and especially maybe Kate's office uh might need access to 11 by7 copier, which may not be at present included. On the police item, I agree that additional school zones or even physical traffic coming like speed bumps on Lakeshore and Thompson make sense. But I do want to raise a gentle caution as you do this about outsourcing in enforcement technology. We all remember the wrongful passing of stopped school bus tickets near the middle school in South Bay. These errors came from a technology provider who has little interest in good governance. And the Cisero Police Department worked hard to help residents correct them. Let's make sure this situation never repeats as we expand school zone enforcement on the $15,000 lateral transfer bonus. In principle, this makes sense. It makes a lot of sense. It's a competitive labor market for these potential employees and nearby departments offer similar def incentives. Uh you've already identified some of them up here. I would even support allowing the chief to offer limited relocation assistance for exceptional candidates coming from further away. That's something you could potentially add and leave at the chief's discretion. It's a $15,000 bonus is very attractive maybe to somebody coming from Watertown, but to somebody who might be coming from, say, Westchester who's

exceptionally qualified, you might need that additional $10,000 in relocation assistance to seal the deal. And if that were placed at the chief's disposal when needed, I think that would make a lot of sense. As an example of how bonuses can apply equitably, let me give you a hypothetical. Our dear town engineer Kate or to retire, the institutional knowledge in that role is so significant that attracting a qualified replacement might also require offering a sign on bonus. This is just the reality. she has too much knowledge and to get somebody who's going to have her qualifications and be able to uh come up to speed quickly on everything that she does will really require a sign on incentives. So I'm not opposed to incentives only that they should have clear caps, public reporting and renewal conditions. This leads to my main budget questions which I want to connect to themes we've heard from councelor Hogan which have been very smart especially her emphasis on grant seeking seeking and careful review of spending. I think councelor Hogan's points deserve real attention and might have been disregarded or not appropriately regarded by this board in previous meetings. First on fund balances, the adopted 2026 budget uses about one just over 1.2 million in fund balance up from 846,000 last year. It's 46% increase in reliance unreserved. My question is after this draw down, what percentage of each major fund will remain in unassigned fund balances? And is any one-time money being used to cover recurring costs such as salary benefits or return highly

highway materials? This is exactly the kind of structure unless issue that careful payment oversight as councelor Hogan mentioned is meant to highlight. Second on police growth in grants. The police department increases from about 3.1 million in 2025 to about 3.46 million in 2026. It's an 8.7% increase but contingency lines, some parks funding, and the beach wages lines were reduced. Councelor Hogan recently noticed noted that the police department is very effective at securing grants and outside funding which is gener genuinely a strength perhaps those abilities that the police department has can be extended to other departments in a very open and honest and transparent way. There are two questions regarding this specifics of this police plan. Why is this level of police and SRO growth the right balance for 2026 compared with preserving more contingency and recreation capacity for the rest of the town? And number two, and will the town under the new supervisor actively support other departments in developing similar grant syncing capacity as councelor Hogan has mentioned so that we're we are not relying as heavily on property taxes and fund balances. Third on the lateral transfer boat bonus program. Tonight's agenda proposes a T tonight's agenda proposes a $15,000 bonus through December 31st, 2026 with the ability to the board to extend it but apparently not cancel it, which is a little bit concerning. My question is how many lateral hires are expected? What is the maximum total cost? Whereas that cost reflected in the adopted 2026 budget and

will any renewal in late 2026 requires separate public discussion and vote. Those guard rails are essential for public trust. In the end, my point is simple. We appreciate the work being done, including the focus on grants and careful oversight, but residents deserve a clear picture of how much of 26 is 2026 is being funded with reserves. how police growth is being balanced against other services and what the total costs and limits are on the new bonus program. Thank you for listening. Anyone else? Mr. Hogan number three.

Move for the adoption of a resolution approving abstracts number 46 dated 1119 2025. Abstract number 47 dated 1126 2025. Abstract number 48 dated 123 2025. And abstract number 49 dated 1210 2025. Second. Discussion. All in favor? I nor abstain. Passed. Move for the adoption of a resolution to approve the budget modifications and transfers as presented. Second. Discussion. All in favor?

I abstain. Passed. Move for the adoption resolution setting a special town board meeting for the 2026 town assist organizational meeting be held on Friday January 2nd 2026 at 6 p.m. at 8236 Burton Road Cro New York. Second.

So I'd like to seek to amend this date. Uh and the reason being is this is when our school district is still on vacation. So, if we are taking into account our district calendars, which I think should always be the case anytime we're scheduling any meeting, um this does not suffice. Uh when you when you schedule meetings at this time and the district is on vacation, you're essentially disregarding parents and children uh and their schedules because we are following district calendar and most are away on vacation. So I it has been brought to my attention that Monday before the zoning meeting does not work for a lot of people. So new proposal would be just at our regular scheduled first board meeting which would be January 14th and we could do it at 5:30 prior to the meeting.

Is that a motion to amend? Motion to amend January 14th 5:30. Um, I'll second the the amended uh the amendment to the motion discussion.

I mean setting aside the issue of the district calendar, I think our cons my consistent position I think council is had taken the same position has been that we should make these meetings as accessible as possible. I don't think that 6:00 p.m. on a Friday, the day after um New Year's sandwiched between a holiday on a Thursday, and then a weekend is really going along with that. So, independent of the issue with the district and people being out of town, I just don't find that to be an appropriate time. Um, you know, we again, these meetings should be as accessible as possible and I think that's not a step in the right direction. Now, I don't think it was an intended step against accessibility. I just don't think it's right. So, um, his preferred time,

I just not having to repeat everything that councelor Karp said, having gone door todo for over 10 years, the common time that is the most mentioned by residents is 7 p.m. Now, I realize that 7 p.m. is not something that I will ever get. So, I'm always willing to compromise on that. That's why the meetings are usually, you know, always held at 6:30 p.m. Uh, according to New York state law, uh, there is no time expiration time limit that exists for having to hold the organizational meeting. Uh, according to, you know, uh, New York state law and according to, uh, the association of towns, there are two ways that, uh, towns hold their organizational meeting. Number one would be the the way that we've done it in the past which would be a special board meeting and as councelor Karp also mentioned the other way is at the first regularly scheduled board meeting. The two times that were proposed in in my perspective were both not good times. Uh 5:30 before our regularly scheduled meeting. We do know in fact all board members it's a regularly scheduled meeting so all board members can attend. So that of course that does have importance when you have board members who preside over a meeting and of course what's more important is exactly what councelor Karp has been talking about for many years. It's you know transparency of meetings. Now we can't tell people they have to attend meetings but what we can do is make sure they're held at times where the majority of our residents can't attend. It's something that I've stood firmly behind and I do believe the compromise would be the 14th before the regularly scheduled board meeting at 5:30.

Sure. Go ahead. I just wanted to make the board aware that the 15th is the first payroll of 2026 and the organizational meeting does set the pay rates for numerous pretty much all of the town employees that aren't uh governed by collective bargaining agreements. Um that will give us very limited time that payroll actually gets processed that Monday. Um, so just putting that out there that it may impact some town operations to hold it at that point in time. Mr. Germaine, the payroll could be approved retroactively. Can it not? But legally,

I don't legally Yes. But I don't know. Legally, yes. Uh my concern is how how do we process how would you like that process that payroll processed with these new rates that haven't been agreed upon necessarily yet? If I pay them at the new rate that we budgeted for and someone decides that that's not what they think that position should be paid and then we get into a whole issue of correcting payroll.

Okay. Thank you for your comments on that. Okay. I'll set everything. All in favor? I Well, you got to second it. You got to second the motion as amended. You second. I seconded the amendment. I not you need Can you do a roll call? Second. Wait, I'll second the motion as amended or the resolution as amended to the 14th to January. Councelor Hogan. Yes. Councelor Morizio. No, this is for the amended version, correct? For the 14. Yes. Okay. Where is he? Councelor Mizio. Yes. Yeah.

Supervisor um councelor Cart. Hi. Councelor Balo. I. Supervisor Erggano. I'm abstaining. Okay. Um, number seven, Trey, you want to introduce uh, it's Keelianne, correct? I'd like to introduce Keian Hines, one of our auditors, uh, from Bonado Corporation, Bonado and Company to, uh, present on our financial statement audit.

Thanks, Troy. Um, good evening everyone. I am Key Hines. I'm a partner with the Bonado group. Um I was responsible for completing your 12312024 audited financial statements. Um to give a little context here, we completed the audit um just before uh September 31st. Um since I have met with management to discuss what future will look like in terms of timing. So the plan would be that um we have this audit engagement scheduled during quarter 2 um for your 1231 2025. So theoretically um going forward I will report out sometime in late spring or summertime. Um high level um I know that you all received a copy of the audited financial statements. Um on page one um is our independent auditor's report. you received um unmodified opinions uh with the exception of two qualifications on the governmentwide financial statements having to do with um the presentation of your LOAP liabilities and um corresponding assets as well as your capital assets. U management is already looking to obtain the necessary information to improve on that financial reporting for going forward. Um, in terms of where you would probably as a board member want to focus your attention if you were to sit down and review the financial statements, um, page 7 and 9 is your fund financial statements. So that's where you're adopting your budget um, for your general fund. As of 12312024, your general fund unassigned fund balance um was just over five million and your fund balance during the 2024 year increased just under 300,000.

Um with regards to gen fund or general fund um budget versus actual, you can find that information on page 35 and then following any other legally adopted budgets for major funds. And then on page 46, you will find the report out on the federal compliance audit. So because in 2024, you expended in excess of $750,000 of federally funded dollars, you received a financial statement audit as well as that single audit with the focus being on compliance. So we tested did you follow the rules that the federal government outlines and then also tested for internal controls. So did you manage and oversee those dollars appropriately to mitigate risk for non-compliance. I'm happy to report that there were no specific findings or concerns around that um uh single audit that we performed. And then on page 53, um if you were to pick one page that kind of sums up this nearly 100page document, um it will list out again our audit opinions and identify that we did have one comment as it related to the financial statement. We did make a few corrections to the financial statements that are reflected in that bound book that you received to ensure that those financial statements were fairly stated. Um again a lot of those um were really cutoff issues between 12312023 and 112024 and you did not receive an audit as of 12312023. Um so we made those adjustments so that we were starting in the right place as of 1 and then closed out your books for 12312024. Um again as I had mentioned we are scheduled to be out here for um second

quarter and again um tenative with where your federal dollars um hit the threshold has changed from 750 to a million. So if you spend in excess of a million we will also perform that single audit. Any questions from this group? Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. My pleasure.

Thank you. Whereas New York State has adopted under general municipal law 200-a authorizing training stipens for the volunteer firefighters to increase recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters. Whereas the town's attorney has reviewed and edited a draft policy to implement the objectives of GML 2000-A. Whereas the members of the South Bay Fire Department, Inc. have an have had an opportunity to review and make suggestions to this policy. Whereas the town board has reviewed the volunteer firefighter trading stipen policy as fully described in attachment A and have found it consistent with the mission and objectives of the South Bay Fire Department, Inc. and General Municipal Law 200- AAA. Now therefore, be it resolved that the town board adopts the volunteer firefighter training siphon policy effective immediately.

Second discussion. Robert, you view no conflict with me on this, do you? You view no conflict with me in this do this without u you want to come up Kevin Kevin Pury Assistant Chief South Bay just to clarify two things one in the 2026 budget we have a line item for the training stipen program the reason we have to bring this to you guys is we're fire protection district which contracts with the town of CRO you guys are therefore the authority having jurisdiction and under state law the AHJ has to give us the approval if we make any changes to this program with dollar amounts that are designated for or set aside for each class. We have to come back to the board for approval. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All in favor? I wish to vote no or abstain. I'm going to abstain. Move for the adoption of a resolution to accept the resignation of Christopher Daniel zoning board of appeals ad hoc member effective 12312025. Term ends 1231 2026. Second discussion. Thank you, Chris, for your time here. Great job and good luck. All in favor? I

I wish to vote no abstain. Pass. Move for the adoption of a resolution that the town board approve and authorizes the town supervisor to sign a 48-month lease with Toshiba Business Solutions for Toshiba E Studio 3525 AC copier for $11,616 and 04. That's interesting. Anadaga County contract plus ancillary fees and any page overage costs for the parks office. Budget code 0017150 400 0000 second. All

in favor of discussion discussion. Fine. Fine. Mr. Rearen does bring up a good point. 78 years is it is a while. So, we're all we're all good with that being seven, eight years. Who's looked into this? The copier. This is Oh, okay. Well, this is 48 months. This is not seven or eight years. That's four years. What it says is the current copier. The current one is 78 years old. Yeah. Sorry, Wayne. All right. What happened with the Paris copier? Um, it previously got leased for a second term, which I think everybody knows I won't do.

Right. All right. the other two copers that you're going to talk about, we bought out those leases for a very favorable rate three or four years ago. And then we only pay $350 a year for supplies and maintenance. Okay? But as you can see in the other two um agenda items, that price starts to go up as the copers get older. So, it's time to get rid of those. We're not going to release or even buy out the lease on a seven or eight year old color copier because the price would be too high to just pay on an annual basis. When also these leases need to go right to the clerk's office, supervisor clerk's office because because we have department heads signing these leases. Is that what you want? No,

I know. I always have the supervisors. That's correct. sign them. I've switched that. I think somebody tried to consolidate. Correct. I'm just going Okay. You aware of that? Yep. Thank you. So does this fouryear so it's is it fouryear lease then four year lease okay and lease of the copier if it's a good copier we may do the same buyout at the end of the lease for example the previous copier that was in the clerk's office um Tracy had lots of problems with that and we just got rid of that and rebid and re put out for quotes for a new copier does it include maintenance throughout that four years it includes maintenance and supplies except for paper and staples throughout the four years. But if anything goes wrong within the four years, anything goes wrong with it.

Okay, it's covered. Thank you. Do you want me to read the rest of it? There's actually the other terms. I think that's just continue on. That's just for information. Taylor, I I vote no or abstain. Pass. With the option resolution, the town board approves and authorizes the town supervisor sign a 48month lease with Toshiba business solutions for Toshiba East Studio 45528A copier for 4,848 under county contract plus ancillary fees and a page over cost for the police department budget code 002-3120-4001-0000. Second discussion. All in favor? I nor abstain passed. Move

the resolution. The town board approves and authorizes the town supervisor sign a 48-month lease with Toshiba business solutions for Toshiba East Studio 4528A copier for $4,272 on county contract plus ancillary fees and page over cost for the town hall. The current town hall copier 78 years old. The lease was previously bought out four years ago. uh annual service and supply costs have risen from $350 to $600 plus and will continue to rise 10 to 15% annually. Budget code 001-1620-4000000-0000 second discussion all in favor I one or abstain passed

whereas the town board of town is committed to enhancing public safety and ensuring safe travel conditions for students families pedestrians and motorists within the town and whereas the town board recognizes that areas surrounding schools require additional traffic safety measures to protect children during school arrival dismissed and other peak activity times and whereas Lakeshore Road in the vicinity of sister elementary school has been identified as an area where reduced speed safety measures would provide significant benefit to the public. And whereas Thompson Road Gillette Road Middle School has likewise been identified as an area where reduced speed limits would improve pedestrian vehicular safety. And whereas the establishment of designated school speed zones is an important step towards improving roadway safety and ensuring compliance with New York State vehicle and traffic law. Now therefore, be it resolved, the town board of the town of Cicero hereby establishes an official school speed zone on Lakes Shore Road in the area adjacent to and approaching Cicero Elementary School with posted reduced speed limits to be in effect on school days during times indicated by signage or flashing beacons. And be it further resolved, the town board hereby establishes an official school speed zone on Thompson Road in the area to an approaching middle school with posted reduced speed limits to be in effect on school days during times indicated by signage or flashing beacons and be further resolved. The town of Sister Highway Department in coordination with the Cicero Police Department, Onai County Department of Transportation and New York State Department of Transportation as applicable is authorized to install appropriate signage markings and traffic control devices to implement these school speed zones. Be it further resolved, this resolution should take effect immediately upon adoption.

Second, discussion. All in favor? I norain passed.

Whereas Tennis Cro seeks to enhance police recruitment and retention by encouraging qualified lateral transfer candidates to join the tennis police department. And whereas the chief of police has proposed a lateral transfer bonus program outlining eligibility requirements, a three-year employment commitment, and a structured $15,000 signin bonus for qualifying lateral transfer officers. And whereas town board has reviewed the terms of said program, including the payment schedule, service commitment, repayment obligations, now therefore be resolved that the town board of the town of Cicero hereby approves and authorized town Cro Police Department lateral transfer bonus program with an effective date of December 15, 2025 and an expiration date of December 31st, 2026 unless renewed or extended by further action. from the town board. And be it further resolved, the town board authorizes the chief of police to administer the program, execute agreements with eligible lateral transfer candidates, and carry out the terms and conditions as outlined in the program document, including until a sign on bonus $15,000 paid in three installments as described, a minimum three-year employment commitment, repayment requirements for officers who resign or are terminated for cause prior to fulfilling the three-year service obligation, and verification of eligibility and compliance with law departmental rules, standards, and pre-employment requirements. be further resolved that the town supervisor, chief of police, and comproll are authorized take any necessary administrative actions to implement this program. Budget code B 002-3120- 0143- 000000.

Second discussion. Uh yeah, if if I could briefly. Sure.

If you'll indulge me, you're not going to have to listen to this much longer. Um I'm disappointed that Mr. Bole left because he commented that we should look into this. Uh we have we don't enter into something like this lightly. I did put on the record at one of our workshops and I think one of the meetings here, we have resisted the by we I mean the the chief um the board, the supervisor and I doing this. Uh I'm not going to say I find it distasteful. We don't want to have to be in this position. The bottom line is we don't we're not the highest paid department in the county. And through the two collective bargaining agreements that I've been the lead negotiator on, we have attempted to make the department more competitive with things like bonuses for um education, you know, depending on what your degree is in, what level of degree, for foreign language proficiency, for training, uh like for example, being an EMT who's certified with defibrillators. We've tried to do that to be able to pay people more without paying everybody more. I apologize to the officers that are here, but it comes down to the budget. Um, in the end of the day, there are far fewer candidates and far fewer people that want to be police officers than there are open slots. And if we want to have a police department, we need police officers. And if other towns and villages are offering these signon bonuses, and we are not, that makes us even less competitive. As I've put on the record before, we often run with half the number of cars and take an equal amount of call volume of a town like Dwit or Camilis or Manlas. And people know that this is a hardworking department. We do not pay as much as Dit or Manlas. So, we need to give every incentive we possibly can to get people to come work here. The chief has taken what was already a great department and made it even better.

Done a great job with it. And that's why we still get candidates, but we need to ensure that we continue to get them. And while I regret the necessity of of implementing this program, I think it's a necessary step if we are going to continue to have a police department attack. And hopefully Mr. Bole watches the recording of this meeting and you can hear all that.

I just want to reiterate too um that I don't know if everyone's aware that we actually run our police our police department with less people than comparative towns. So I know that was kind of sandwiched in with what John was saying, but I just want to reiterate that that essentially what that means is our police force works harder here. So in terms of retaining them and getting them to stay happy and wanting them to come over here um can be somewhat difficult. So I come from a background I used to be an ICU nurse and we used to talk about that how different hospitals had different acuity on different floors and so you they talk within your world you talk and you know where you have to work harder. Um, so I think it's a well-known fact and it's talked that you work very hard when you come to Cicero. So this this is going to help u making sure that we recruit the right the right people.

Okay. All in favor? I I norain pass. Extend emergency sewer contract with JK Tobin construction company inc. Move the adoption of resolution to exercise the option to extend the sanitary sewer repairs contract with JK Tobin Construction Company, Inc. through 2026. Second. Discussion. All in favor? I

move for the adoption of resolution to request a redirection of the existing $250,000 SAM grant to purchase a sewer vac jet truck for the highway department and to allow the supervisor to sign all related documents. The grant was originally given to the town from Assemblyman Sterby's office to assist with building sidewalks on Katherine Road and Brewer. The sidewalk project was not selected to receive uh the New York forward funding as expected, thereby leaving too large of a funding gap to continue. Second discussion. All in favor? I abstain.

Bid for drainage ma uh maintenance contract. move for the adoption of the resolution to advertise for bids for the town's drainage maintenance and improvements contract. Bids will be received at the town hall at 10:00 a.m. on January 22nd, 2026. Second discussion. All in favor? I abstain. Passed. Move to adopt a resolution to hire Sarah McDonald as a part-time as needed clerk in the tax office at an hourly rate of $18 an hour and a start date on or about December 29th, 2025. Budget code 001-13303- 0100-0000.

Second discussion. All in favor?

I nor abstain. Pass. Move for the adoption of a resolution approving the issuance of a commercial lesson license to the James Harvey Spire 787 American Legion located at 5575 Legionnaire Drive in Cicero for the strict and restricted purpose of conducting bingo games with the condition that games be held on behalf of the Syracuse Brigadier uh organization only and that will expire December 31st, 2026. Pursuant to section 481 of the general municipal law, the New York State Gaming Commission's approval of the schedule of maximum rents to be fair and reasonable effective January 1, 2026 contingent upon the New York State Gaming Commission's review.

Second discussion. All in favor? I abstain passed. Move for the adoption resolution for the town board approval to purchase the following pickup trucks from division Ford from budget code 003-5142-0220 to 0-0000. Robert, do we need to read off the three trucks? Do we need to read off the three three trucks on 17 as listed? Okay. Second discussion. I got I got discussion. All in favor? I abstain. Passed.

Move for the adoption resolution for the town board approval to purchase the following loader from Monroe Tractor from budget code 003-5142-0220-0000. It's a new K721 GXR wheel loader with a bucket. Sourcewell contract number 0321190 CNH amount $194,980 with a $65,000 trade in discussion. All in favor I nor abstain passed.

Move for the option resolution for the town board approval to purchase salt from Cargill Inc. in the amount of $120,000 from budget code 003-5142-49-000000. This is Anodoga County contract number 0011251. Second discussion. All in favor? I I abstain passed. Discussion from the board. Sir,

um I want to just tell everybody have a merry Christmas and Chris, I hope you have enough salt for this year. else. Good. Um, anybody like to speak?

Okay. Okay. Okay. Um, I just want to take this opportunity to thank the three board members that'll be leading. Uh, councelor Karp, thank you for your service to our community for all these years and the commitment and the family sacrifices that I'm sure you have given and they have not gone unnoticed.

Mr. Morizio, thank you for stepping up and setting a great example for more young people in our community, hoping that they will come forward and follow in your footsteps. Mr. Supervisor Organo, it's been an honor and a pleasure for you to re represent our town in such a positive way in our time of growth. Also, thank you for your professionalism in all this previous year and the way you handle things with your dignity. Good luck in your next adventures and thank you all.

Thank you. Chad Tazinski, 7169 Island Road. After serving for 16 years on this town board, there's two types of people that I've had the opportunity to meet. Politicians and public servants. Mr. Argano is a public servant. And I'll tell you why. We had a project that started in Burton when I was in office. When I left, that project died. They dug a hole, buried it, and it forever to be forgotten. Not one single person ever saw the vision. All you have is tunnel vision. Politicians have tunnel vision because they're only concerned about one thing, themselves, and getting reelected. He's the only one. If it wasn't for him, it would have never gotten revived again after all these years. And I can only hope whoever takes his place, I know he's here, Mr. Sanuchi or whomever gets replaced next year has a vision and not tunnel vision because the Hamlet of Burton could be a diamond in the rough if we had people on this board that really cared about this town rather than caring about themselves. So, whoever is going to listen to this meeting, please encourage your elected officials to do what's right for the town, not for themselves. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Which microphone we using? This one. try this. Good evening. Um, obviously I also want to say thank you very much, Mr. Karp, Mr. Morizio, Mr. Supervisor Michael. You guys have done a great job. Um, I've served obviously with you, John, and um, being a public servant is not an easy job. It's worse than being a referee or a supervisor in any facility. But being a public servant is the most important thing that you think of when you're elected, that people elected you to do a job for them. And the only way that you can do it though is the cooperation of everyone that sits with you on your board. So again, I appreciate everything you guys have done. Mike, um I want to say something about Burton. That big hole that they dug, they threw me in it. But being from Burton, I am thrilled with what has been done. And if you guys haven't driven through to look at the at nighttime to see the lights, it's the short section that it is. I would love to see it start all the way from McDonald's and go right to the bridge. That would be fantastic. But I don't know if any of you guys, other than I know Mike is gone, have you gone to see the new temporary bridge? I would ask you please go. Go and look at it right now. It'll scare the crap out of you.

I'm telling you, you gotta go look because I'm looking at it and I'm going, "How the hell are we going to even get up on that bridge?" It's it's truly it it is phenomenal what they're what they're doing just with a temporary bridge. But anyway, thank you again. And on a different note, I just wanted to let you know that um Todd Caputo's car place sold for 8.5 million. That's a lot less than 20 million that was supposedly proposed. So hopefully we will find the opportunity to improve with our town hall. Thank you. And Judy, for the record, it was 8 billion the town was going to purchase for. I'll leave it at that.

Anyone up next?

Hey, I just want to um congratulate the town on its achievements this year. Passing the comprehensive plan and concluding that process was a very big and very important thing. It got the community involved in a way that is rare for communities to be involved in central New York and upstate New York in general. That was uh great. Um you managed the traffic chaos that uh occurred in the town of Cicero this year very well with uh some really good um aspects of public communication, public information. And um in a way whether you uh intended it or not you you cleaned up a lot of town politics this year and uh inspired a lot of confidence for people but you laid the baseline all you on the board and I think that's really important to recognize. Uh Mr. Morizio, you've always been wonderful to talk to and to relate to and always very friendly. Um, and I appreciate uh your work here on the board and wish you the best in the future. Mr. Karp, I agree with you so wholeheartedly. 60% of the time, 20% of the time I might agree with you somewhat. Another 20% of the time I completely disagree with you and the other 20% of the time I absolutely can't stand you. you are absolutely my favorite person on this board and I realize that that all adds up to 120% because he is a big legal mind and losing him off the town board's going to be a a bit of a loss. Um, I hope that uh you will find a different way to contribute in the future and uh frankly if you were to have run for supervisor this year as you know I would have been completely behind

you but we realize you can't do that for family reasons. Mr. Aragano you have been wonderful. You have been open-minded. You have been foresighted. You've been communicating with all the people that Cyro needs to have be in communication with about this Micron project coming which is now two years delayed but that might be a very useful time. You have laid the baseline for the success of this community in the future. You have laid the baseline for the fact that in 2026 starting in 2026 Cisero can really really be open for business. So best wishes to you too, sir. Um just add uh Miss Hogan um you provide particularly good insight. Um if there's any way I can help you in your future to develop that insight, um uh you want me to do a little research for you, I'd gladly do it. Uh Mr. Bala, you have always been a stellar representative of the community and someone who absolutely everybody in Cicero can relate to and that's that's admirable. We've seen that in your performance on the board this year and look forward to seeing it in the future in 2026. Congratulations again to you all and uh happy holidays and uh best wishes for the new year.

Anyone else? Enjoy. I just wanted to uh bring attention to the cute little red cars that we have up here, red trucks for you guys to take notice of. Each one of those represents the departments within the town of Cicero. This is something that I started probably seven years now and I bring in something for each department and then we have a little competition of decorating these cars. So each one of these has been decorated by one of the departments. Um and the VIPS really did a hell of a job um with this one. Um, but if you will please take the time to look at them, especially the um the roundabout which is right in front of Miss Rizzio. Um, but anyway, I want to thank all the departments for it and again, merry Christmas.

Thank you. Anyone else? We will be going.

If if I could just for a minute, all bear with me because this is it. Um, just like to take this opportunity to thank all the people that I've worked with, uh, over the last 10 years that I've been up here, department heads, uh, you know, this is not, if I mention anyone, it's not to the exclusion of anyone else. Mr. Proio, Mr. Wesnika, I appreciate you guys. I've learned a lot from you. Mr. Popio, I still have need to call you just in a different capacity. Um, Chief Fratuno, Robert Germaine, appreciate everything I've learned from you. I always find value if you learn something and I've learned an awful lot in my time up here on the town board. You know, 10 years ago when Mark Vineski asked me to meet him for breakfast, I had no idea what it was about and he asked if I'd like to be appointed to the posit the seat that he was vacating because he had just been elected supervisor. I had never thought about contemplated had any interest in elected office. In fact, I had never even been to a meeting as Miss Boyy pointed out in a Facebook post at the time. I remember that.

It was the first time I'd ever had some I'd ever seen someone who did not know me criticize me. It said got you get used to it pretty quick in politics. Um, and I didn't even say yes at the time when when when Mark asked me that. I my wife and I were looking to start a family and I didn't know if I wanted to commit myself to it, but I'm glad I did. I've met some of the best people I've ever met in my life and ever will meet. Again, not to the exclusive of anyone, but you know, I'll call out Robert Germaine and Chief Runo is that I've made some great friends. I've had a chance to reconnect and work with an old friend and my kids have learned a lot from me discussing this and seeing me, you know, do these uh come to these meetings. Two of the three were just here a little bit earlier. They held up some signs. They've been in parades with me. Um so, I'd like to thank everybody, whether you like me or not, for this experience because it has been a fantastic one. and I will always remember it's been one of the again one of the most fulfilling, most educational, best experiences of my life. So, thank you all. I guess it's my turn. First off, I want to thank everyone um in the town of Cicero for their support over the past four years. Um it's been a a great time. I've um met a lot of people along the way, even more than I've already known. And um like said, Steve, uh great. You know, all all the uh department heads, all of our employees. Um they're like a family. Get to know them. I encourage the new board members to get to know your employees. First course of business, meet with your department heads, meet with your employees, and find out who they are and what their needs are. That is important. um and then come up with some ideas and some things that you see fit for the

town of Cicero in the next year. Um I I don't plan on going away. I will be here um in the background working behind the scenes. I have a a goal for next year for the parks and recck department. I'm not going to give you what that is, but I'm going to work I'm working on that now. Uh and also I will see you in uh 27. Thank you very much. Okay, we'll be going into uh anybody else. Well, I I was just I'm sorry.

You're good. No, no, listen. Over the last four years, it's been an absolute honor and a pleasure to serve this town and living here my whole life, it uh it means a lot when you when you get a chance to grow up somewhere and then end up representing them. Um to all of the department heads and all of the employees that work for this town. You guys do a remarkable job. Um I don't think we have any other town in the county that works as hard as you guys do. Things come up all the time and you guys are always right on it. The wealth of knowledge that you have is is very commendable. Um you know, it's been a great great honor to work alongside everybody up here on the board. I know we don't don't always agree, but it's it's been a it's been a fun four years. And to uh Rob, Chris, and Jamie, I wish you all the luck. Um you know, you're you're inheriting a great town and uh I know that they're going to thrive with you guys. So, thank you.

Okay. Um we're going to be going to executive session. We will reconvene for a short minute. Uh so at this time I move for the adoption resolution town board and enter into executive session related to a personnel matter of a particular person with the chief and the town attorney right um okay we'll have him I guess not doesn't need to settlement fine it's fine he doesn't need to I in favor All right. Thanks.

Open it up. Move to resume regular session. Second in favor. I the motion to Miss Cosm. The motion to close executive session was made by me at 7:52, seconded by Mr. Morizio. Yep. And everyone accepted.

Everyone accepted. All right. One resolution to read. Whereas the town board of town of Cisco has been presented with a proposed settlement agreement revolving disciplinary charges involving employee roster number 22-04-007-1 and employee of the town. And whereas the town board has reviewed the terms and conditions of said settlement agreement and finds that approval of the agreement is in the best interest of the town, avoids the cost and uncertainties of further proceedings, and provides a fair and final resolution on the matter. And whereas the town board desires authorize the supervisor to execute the settlement agreement on behalf of the town. Now therefore, be it resolved by the town board of the town of Cicero as follows. One, the settlement agreement between the town and employee roster number 22-04-007-1 dated December 10th, 2025 is hereby approved. Two, the town supervisor is authorized and directed to execute the settlement agreement and to take all necessary action to carry out its terms. And three, this resolution shall take effect immediately.

Second discussion. All in favor? I know or abstain. passed. Make a motion to close the meeting. Second. All in favor? I. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.