City Council - workshop

Thank you, and thank you, Ms. Clonetta, for your presentation. So I do have a couple of questions regarding staff development training. What other, other than the certification that they have to do annually, what other staff development training do you have planned for your staff?

Okay. And for the clerks, do they have any staff development training as well? No. They don't have to? No.

Hello, Cornelia. I hope you feel better soon. Thank you for showing up either way. I was wondering about the heat hotline how that works because I know none of it it looks like none of it was spent this year and it's not budgeted for next year did the staff or some other part of the department take that over it doesn't exist anymore no I put it in last year's budget just to make about to see if it would balance so I didn't need it so I took it out because the overtime budget suffices What exactly is the heat hotline?

Got it. and that wouldn't be it now it's folded into the overtime yeah okay um i did uh i don't know if this is a mistake or um maybe it's a miscommunication your salary on the first page doesn't match the request on the third page it's off by like

So I have a- This is not correct. The 127 is the correct, which one is the first page?

Okay, so we have to update that first page. Yeah.

Yeah. Do you ever tap into the, I know there's a trust fund for the revenue that comes in from rental registries. Do you ever use that for education? I think that's one of the reasons we can use it. I'm just curious.

There's a lot of paper there's a rental registry trust fund that exists that is that has $328,000 in it that hasn't been used and I was asking if it can be used for some of this stuff.

i don't i i mean we'll learn more but it it exists and it's there and the revenue comes from your the rental licenses correct and that's what it was designed for to bring when we bring on the the additional staff that was supposed to pay for their their salaries the revenue that came from the rental registry so when we look at the revenue side if we could just look how we can use some of the trust fund money to stay away from tapping the general fund it would be great

I just wanted clarification as far as how many vacant positions that you need. Right now I have two.

And what would make, I mean, it's a wish list, but what would make it easier for you guys? How many would, that you would need that would make it easier for you guys?

So we're not comparable to... We're not comparable, no.

So what would be the increase that you...

Yes, my question was, I just want some update on the work on the weekend.

I'm on weekend because like I'm still seeing people working on the weekend.

Ms. Quinetta, heating season starts October 1st, right? September 15th. September 15th? Wow, okay. All right, and that's according to New York State law, right? Yeah, for our area, it's September 15th. Okay, I always thought it was October 1st.

Maybe this is for the comptroller's office. I'm just curious, health insurance, actual for 2025 was 261,900. Spent year to date is 205,000, but we're asking for 450,000. It just seems like I'm not sure why it would double unless the number of staff significantly went up. I'm just curious if that's correct. And we could check later, I know.

Is that a similar formula we talked about the other day?

Thank you for your presentation, Quenetta. I'm looking at your employee data, and it looks like you're at full strength. I know you said there's two vacancies, but you're like 95%, right? Yeah, and because I've never, you know, it's been a long time since we've seen this many cold compliance officers, which is awesome. And I just didn't... Yeah, I just wanted to know if you agree that you're almost at full strength. And then I think because I missed the first 10, 15 minutes, I got stuck in my office with my secretary. But so two vacancies and then you have at least one retirement. Is that what

So one retirement already, or he's going to go?

Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, so he's gone already. Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. Thank you. That's all I have. No problem. I just wanted to point out clarification.

thanks Chad you have an extensive extensive budget with 16 subdivisions so I really appreciate your work and your team they do a great job two quick questions well actually three the the sanitation supervisor seems to be significantly significantly lower than your others feel like your labor supervisor and your what's the other one mechanical I think it is. We have 3 labor supervisors, a traffic supervisor and the is there a reason why the sanitation supervisor is it because of the years of service.

And then the other 2 questions really quickly. We had implemented a number of years ago the street sweeper program correct. I know we've got the the sweet street for the street sweeper with them, you know the truck but that I'm saying separate we wanted to number of years ago and employ formerly incarcerated individuals for the street sweeper program and not only in the warm weather months but even in the winter to help with some of the shoveling of sidewalks that are designated as city-owned sidewalks like you know you go to 9 W near and if a North across the street is that it that sort of hi

I really would love if we can increase that if we could go from two positions to five or seven because I know especially in the warm weather months they're sweeping the streets and hopefully picking up garbage like at the waterfront or whatever right any of the city-owned properties but then in addition if we can keep those persons working during the winter when you got to get the sidewalk shoveled and salted and stuff like that because and then I know their seasonal employees hopefully they and some of them can transition if they work really hard and they do a really great job, as most of the

okay so I'm supportive of working with the council in whatever way we can to pursue that it may be a budgetary item you know it's definitely a budgetary item we just got to do a cost-benefit analysis and figure out what they would cost or if they would come at a free charge to the homeowners or if they come at some sort of financial rate. But I think I really, really, if it's something beneficial to your team, your sanitation team, it's definitely beneficial to, I think, the residents we have uniformity among the the residents and all the you know even the uh businesses that uniformity looks b

Yes, so thank you for taking over during a transitional phase that's going on in the executive office and with George leaving. My question was on the follow-up with the mayor was saying about the former incarcerated and stuff like that. Also, we have a lot of young men that don't want to become incarcerated. And so I know there's three young men I have sent down there to HR. And the problem has been they applied for sanitation jobs, but they were told they need licenses. So I don't know what was going on, because I've been trying to get the HR. I'm just trying to find out. Because like you sai

Okay, because I'm just trying to get that with HR and they referred me back to you and I hadn't seen you.

I'm just trying to tell them when they put these applications in what they need beforehand to make sure you know what they exactly need.

I'm just trying to find out if the procedures make it so when these young men come to me, I can tell them exactly what they have to do.

Okay, thank you. councilmember mclemore yes i agree with my colleagues um as far as um uh with the street sweeper program so i'm not gonna dwell on that um too much um i wanted to know about Again, I know you said it, but I wanted to make sure I heard it clearly. The difference between the sanitation supervisor and the laborer supervisor, even though that may be, that's two different job descriptions, I believe, right? So why is it, it's almost like a 15,000 or more difference. And I'm just trying to check on that to see why is there a difference between Also, the working supervisor is extreme

It's the same as, I believe, when we did the tax, the assessors, and their salary, the one lady's salary, was extremely low. And she's been here for like 30 years or so. Oh, the cashier. The cashier. The cashier department. and and it's the same here i i just don't understand if you've been here for over um 19 years and you're only making 67 and everybody else is is climbing up and i i get what you're saying i i know you don't have the answer but i just want to and you don't have to say anything else If I could shed some light on that.

And all those supervisors are in the bargaining unit?

Yes. So, I mean, it's contractual. Okay. How much... How much are you proposing in the budget for street paving and road reconstruction?

I know the ask and what you reduce, the ask are always going to be more than what, you know what I mean? That's natural.

You got a long way for that. I know you said the vehicles are near the end of his lives, you know, at the end, somewhere around there. But...

Did you say the vehicles or you said the HVAC units?

We got to get that corrected. Is any of the vehicles out of service or need repairs? All the vehicles up?

Okay. I'm gonna pass it on I got a thousand more questions, but I'm gonna pass it on Councilmember Monteverde.

Thank you So a couple of questions Chad and thank you for doing You know stepping in and and doing a great job and trying to trim back where you can so I see that you have a vacant sanitation enforcement officer and I remember when I Mr. Garrison was here years ago when I first came on board. The council was really, you know, hoping to hire and turn that position into a recycling coordinator that would also enforce the sanitation codes as well. I spoke to Julie Noble up in Kingston. That's exactly what she does, but she also writes her own grants so that she can keep herself employed up in Kin

Yes, thank you, Chad. I heard your presentation as I was coming in, so you answered a couple of my questions. Just a couple. One, who helps you manage these 16 departments administratively? administratively I have to admin staff to admin staff and they help with like doing budget costs expenses all of that yeah they do process POS and all that fun yeah fun stuff in terms of managing the budget like tracking overtime all of that stuff is that something that those admin staff do too yeah we have we have books that kind of translate on a day-to-day base a little bit a little bit old-school but ye

Okay, who creates the rate? You create the rate for reimbursement, like how much they reimburse you for?

It's contractual, okay. track actual expenses and things like but then it's contract you know what they yeah I'd love to see that those contracts that's great the other thing is you have on budget line for the DPW the streets and but and bridges okay you have you're asking in 2025 it was 19k that was spent we're asking for 15 um again for next year but to date we've only gotten to six grand is there a reason why we're still going up to 16 or what usually creates that disparity in terms of the numbers so in streets and bridges can be any number of things uh for emergencies

right that's something like we only got expenditures perfect thank you and um that was fiscal year 2025. oh municipal buildings i see 123 grand street yes uh is there any expectation for hold on i wrote my question down right here Are you budgeted to do any repairs for 23 Grand Street, especially like the offices upstairs?

Okay, not the 123 Grand, not the 0208001, not the 123 Grand Street construction and major alterations. It's the second one, the second line on page 32. Yeah, so the...

So just because it doesn't say anything there doesn't mean there's no work going to be done at 123. Correct.

Well I think she's asking about the 123 Grand Street where are the courthouse where are is that the same one or is this

Is there any conversation about this particular building and the maintenance of it like if we can do things differently is it worth it to continue to spend money and put money into this building.

thank you I have a couple of questions just apologies if there's any repeat questions I wanted to know the difference between the overtime for Pete for the PD garage and just the regular like garage I was looking at some of the lines I just want to know like what the difference between like the the two garages are and what the overtime would be used for so the one of the one of the mechanics is

And then if you could also just explain the difference between the sanitation sewer and regular sanitation and also for their overtime. I saw there was a line for the sanitation under the sewer section.

Yeah, that's what I wanted to know. No, that's okay. And then I was also looking at the snow removal over time. So in... As of now, for 2026, the number is a lot higher than what was requested for 2027, and it was almost double that. Are you expecting for the overtime or the numbers to increase for next year? Only because we mentioned this at the past meeting, I think Jason mentioned it, that the costs for snow removal are going up, or for sludge disposal. lunch disposal and sanitation tipping fees so landfill fees for garbage got it okay so are any of those fees included in this or is that a

No, I agree. I'm just asking because if we do go over like we did this year, which is obviously out of your control and out of our control, what did we do this year in order to make up for the money that we didn't? We only budgeted for half of that, and it ended up being more.

no yeah thank you I I appreciate it no problem and then similar question with the sand and salt line I realized I saw that there was like an increase of 250 K since the rise of salt is like the cost of salt is on the rise so I guess what specific, well, I mean, I don't know. I don't want to get into like the, the details of it, but, um, is this like with a specific company that we're using? Um, is this just salt in general all around and how much, um, is this like the amount that we're allocating for? Is that the usual amount that we use every year? Or is this just like an estimation of like w

Yeah, no, I mean, of course, again, this is not, like, something that we can control, but just, like, the prices of everything going up has really, like, I feel like it's really going to shift things and what we prioritize, but obviously salt is important during the winter. And then can you just clarify, does the salt contribute to the roads becoming more brittle and... yeah yeah and the sidewalks too okay because that was leading into my next question about the repaving the roads I mean I know every year we allocate about 1 million and so do you think that there will be an increase in costs f

Thank you for that. And then just my last question is regarding the street lighting. I know that we were switching out the light bulbs with the LED lights. Do you have an estimate of how many street lights have already been converted to LED or which ones are still in need of replacing?

okay actually i lied that was not my last question i'm sorry one more um just because somebody made a comment about this last night uh regarding the montgomery street um and the overgrown weeds um does yeah does dpw um take care of the property behind um the the homes like uh where the where what is that street river street water street yeah river road so so that project that property was formerly a city-owned property that the city RFP for development so right now that property is under control by a private entity oh so not so okay got it okay yeah I was wondering what DPW I mean what the cit

So what's the rationale with why we as a municipality wait until now, like September, October, to start milling and paving? Is there a reason why we can't get it done in June, July, or whatever?

That was always the big fight between me as the mayor and the former DPW uh... super superintendent thank you the former superintendent of dbw because it just felt like you know we waited so late in the season to mill and pave and i'm fully aware of the ADA compliance that has to be done which is the difference and a lot of people don't know there's a difference between the towns like the town of newberg new windsor they don't have sidewalks therefore they don't have to comply to the ADA work which is more costly than the actual milling and paving the curbs and the curb ramps they cost more yo

That's a great point, and I'm glad you said that. Again, it goes back to communication and being able to let the public know. what it really takes and even what Mr. Moore said and what you're saying about all legit and you're right because they work very hard. I think we just got to get better at our public relations and letting the public know this is how hard we worked for the last 10 years and we don't have the staff and so but thank you for your response.

Yes. Paving is going to be forever. 1991, when Audrey Carey came in, Liberty Street, they did Liberty Street, I think it was that year, but they had to hire a lot of people from the community, and they had to pick up them bricks. by hand, they can remove those bricks. And I think they could pay the middle, but they had to leave the sidewalk. They had to leave so much because of the historical stuff. So that was 1991 2015 when we ran for mayor. How many debates did we have about pavement? I told you I would make you the pavement cause are if I want because you were so adamant about the pavement

So this is like I said, this is going to be forever.

forever and forever, but my question was we just found out that they don't have to have a license for sanitation right. Yes, so they don't have to have with that they don't have to have a nice but they but I have 4, 3, 4 men. I have 3 or 4 men were denied jobs because they didn't have with so we need to make sure HR is on top of that.

councilmember Stewart yes thank you you kind of touched on what I wanted to ask first I'll say you guys have been showing out all of the departments working together like seeing the crews out during the blitz and just doing the everyday day-to-day work it is absolutely extraordinary to see all of the crews and the staff working together and you show it out this summer and you show it every year so i just wanted to share with you so you can share with your staff one of the legislative priorities that i'm recommending is that we have an official day of recognition for our staff for city staff yo

And I ask because a lot of our homeowners believe that they are now being responsible for these curb issues that the street levels being raised are responsible for. So that's something that we needed to talk about. So I just wanted to bring it to your attention.

Thank you. I have a couple things. You mentioned in August 20 of those ramps were done. How many are we at now?

got it i also wanted to thank the dpw staff that are sitting back there thank you for showing up appreciate that uh the ev charging station is that uh i'm just curious if any of these cost centers covers that like grant that we got for ann street and the ev charging does that fall on dpw at all i don't think so the first time i heard about it to tell you the truth was last night um but

i don't know the answer to that sorry i would think that that's going to be metered um got it thank you um i did think i think we need a correction on page seven i know that the equipment supervisor is being replaced by the electrician but the page eight has them at 94 000 and this sheet page seven needs to be updated to reflect that so it's at 75 so the total should be 155 000 it's like a difference of 21 000. yeah we have to put a placeholder for that requested position in because from what i understand it needs to be created oh got it by civil service okay um page nine it's a minor thing bu

I just want to make sure we have the right information. And then I'm going to go to the budget, although in the back. You have a lot of pages, sir. Sorry. Your mic's off.

sorry why he's looking for what you're looking for 300 Broadway does it have its own line or is it connected to is it under something else.

uh 300 broadway is uh is owned it's called broadway school courthouse okay yeah thank you so that line item is just for that building okay i was trying to i was confused thank you those multiple lines i was uh for the i know that the sanitation enforcement officer is vacant right now so i know we've been in the city manager's report we have received like reports of Violations, who's handling violations of the codes department right now since that- The sanitation supervisor is doing that work. So they're doing- In between his regular duties. Wow, okay.

Don't they have to go out early, early before the sanitation- Sanitation runs 4 AM to 12 every day.

Okay. Under traffic department, page 32, I don't know if this was like a fat finger error or if this is, it was at 4,800 and we're asking for 48,000.

thousand yeah so that has to be lowered it's going to be we i david actually brought it to my attention today and we talked about it's going to get fixed okay and the other equipment on 205 it says tool replacement 3000 but when you were speaking you said sign potter is actually 40 000 is it 40 or is it 30.

got it uh a question about uh i know that chips consolidated highway aid under highway there's only two lines and one of them is chips and we had 2.9 million dollars and i don't think we used it last year can we just get some clarity on like why we didn't use it does it roll over it was that and the touring route uh funding which i don't see on here at all

Got it. So next year, there might be money left over that will be in that line item, or was it moved to a...

yeah i think we're counting it as revenue which throws off the projections right they uh o'connor davies had recommendations on how to better budget for those those funds okay um off street parking it looks like we need to remove there's the three hundred two thousand dollars there as the top item but i think that that's like there's nothing under it besides ten thousand dollars so i think that that just has to be cleared um for parks there's a other services line that is that we only spend three thousand five hundred dollars on and i know we're looking for a trimmer we have an arborist i know

I know we only, as of date, we only have used half of the park's money, a million dollars. Do we plan on spending it down for the rest of the year?

I would like to see it spent down because I think our parks, it's definitely an issue that gets a lot of commentary. I'm glad we got a grant, but I think that... the the perimeter and the poly so many people are using that park and it's it really needs some love that perimeter you walk around the poly it's like a lot of erosion and it's falling apart yeah not sure if that could be included in this year or next year but it would be great to

Sanitary sewer, there's also an other services line there that we've only used 92,000. It's... It says the appropriation has been increased from the 2026 budget due to operational, but it cuts off the rest and I don't have the electronic version. I'm just curious, how does it go from, we've only spent down 92,000, but what is that 356,000 gonna cover?

Got it. I'm a new kid, too, so I might be asking questions. No problem.

I know the city manager mentioned that we're moving the camera truck and equipment, and I think he also mentioned some software, Sensophone, SmartGrow. SmartCover. Is that in one of these line items? Is that under the other services? Yeah, it is tied into one of the...

The sanitation overtime, I know you're at the budgeted amount as of August. Do you see that remaining flat? I mean, you're asking for the same. I'm just curious if new laborers, is it going to bring it down? Sanitation? Under sanitation, the overtime?

got it and yeah i just wanted to bring that up because that is a legislative priority of mine in the public value standards is like we need to account for the money we're spending to support events and i think our fees and event process should reflect the costs that go into supporting great events agreed um

we're kind of we don't have we have one spot to really get rid of it so yeah is that the goshen transportation or yeah uh yeah new hampton yeah um last question i know uh i'm i'm seeing here and i don't know if it was the street sweeper it looks like we have 75 000 you mentioned that we have two of them running four days a week back in july um

one last thing Chad so it's something to think about you I know that your background is landscape architect right yes so I know that you saw that mayor Mandani and also Kingston but mayor Mandani they planted 18,000 trees in 2026 they're closing it out right and then Kingston I've the lofty goal the on i think it's broadway kingston they're planting i i can't remember how many but you know it's their goal to just continue to plant trees if we can actually have a number in mind you know for planting trees all around the city especially you know with the information that we got from the natural

Sorry, just also last questions that I have. Just, I mean, what wouldn't we be able to do if we had a bigger budget? I had a question regarding the staffing levels. I know you mentioned that for paving, you know, you need a certain number of staffing for that. What would a number be and how far are we from that ideal goal?

so for um re for the roads like specifically um not including um well i don't know if they if they would do the same thing but um like street sweeping but when it comes to repaving the roads specifically um of those people and of those that need to take their time off, would we be able to put in temporary workers, or was there already a line? Because I saw temporary workers for other divisions, but I wasn't sure if there was one for specifically the streets.

oh of course yeah no that's that's insane i think you know um dpw of course all of our departments are important um but when it comes to the work that dpw does i mean it really holds like our city together and so um i would really like to look into adding more positions um specifically for the roads but just in general for dpw i think last year you know we added two positions for the fire department um this year i really do think that the areas that need it the most such as DPW could use additional staffing so if that's if there's a way to make that happen I would I would like to see that and

I agree that it should be a priority. And then just a final question regarding the city electrician. Would you, and it's okay if you don't have the numbers, but would you happen to have an estimate of how much we would spend now in just individual contracts or what

yeah but I I do know I can try to keep track of things he's doing moving forward to try to have an idea of what yeah no yeah I just wanted to know what we spend in a year without having this position and just wanted to compare it to what the requested salary is and what this position would mean for the city so

I love, Giselle said that we want to give higher salaries. I wish we could in all of them. I've seen the postings and the postings are just like, it's tough to get people. but the city has work to do before we can do that because the money has to be there. We have to find other revenue, tax revenue to generate that. We need an economic plan. If we don't have that and we're not generating more money, then we can't raise the rates and the salaries because there's no money for it, right? So we have to I wholeheartedly agree. We are behind the eight ball. But if we don't do something to bring in a

i was i was going to say that i do agree with councilman martinez i think that this department a lot of the things you do affect the quality of life and how people feel about our city which is visiting or living here day to day so i do think it's important to figure out how to build capacity so we no longer have to defer the things I do appreciate the conversations around pooling equipment and spreading those payments out long term to help our short term fiscal position. But also, I think once we have a better handle on that, I think next year we really should look at everything that's deferre

You know I want to sound like a broken record and keep reiterating the same thing. In some of my colleagues have already said it not tonight, but in previous meetings. We have to expand the tax base. When we do affordable housing development on empty lots that's not generating much tax revenue, like last night's vote, when you look at what the revenue, tax revenue was in that empty lot for how many years it lay vacant compared to what it's going to bring the first, second, third year. in addition to the hundred million dollar project that was on private property down at the waterfront that was