Town Board - Regular Meeting

Like who the heck is do you mess things up like that all the time?

Okay, everyone. Um, welcome to the Town of Rochester Town Board January business meeting. It's January 8th, 2026. I'd like to call the meeting to order. If you could all stand for the flag, allegiance to the flag of America is absent. Councilman Coleman here. Councilwoman Smeik here. Councilman Whit here. Supervisor now.

I'm here. So, the first item um on our agenda is the acceptance of the agenda. I'll make a motion that the board accepts the agenda as prepared by the supervisor with the following amendments. We will be tableabling resolutions GH and I. We'll be adding two resolutions. one to set a public hearing for local law C of 2026 and one uh to authorize this signing of the Cross contract and just adding a discussion item about um a staff member going full-time or going from 35 to 40 hours.

What was the um local C?

It's in front of you. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Okay. So, we have um the December financial report. I um all the numbers for the year are tenative. Um so, we have tonight we'll be signing some bills and mo most of them are abstract 13 of 2025. So, what that means is these are bills that we got in that are for uh 2025 bills that we don't receive or aren't prepared for payment until 2026. So, there's going to this we get bills that trickle in um during the month of January. So, I can't really close out the books. Um I mean I can and then we then I have to do an adjustment for those things. Um we I uploaded for the board and the public a fiscal year 2025 fiscal year um budget versus actual. Um the two things I want to say about that for um general fund and highway fund is there's some revenue that isn't in those and then there's some expenditures that are not in those. So, um I did do we should be where we need to be with those. Um we did not take out a planned ban in general fund and it looks like if we utilize the three $300,000 of fund balance that we planned for, it's actually going to be a little bit less than that. But we are going to have we'll have that break even because our revenue and our expenditures were both

uh different from what we planned. So just wanted to say those are draft versions. Um yes. Did um did we get the franchise name in? Not yet. And then the fact we were missing some of the chips. Did that also not come in yet? We weren't. I don't I don't think we're missing anything. I have to comb through that. But um that there was a chips did come in in December. Is that is that in that budget versus actuals? You're not sure yet?

It it's posted um I did the bank transfer when I got back. So in the highway fund, it's not posting until the third. So I'll I have to do a journal entry adjustment to get that to show up for. So that's why that was

Yeah. So for revenue in December, general fund had $428,67416. Highway fund had $261,93087 that I included the chips in that because it actually got it actually came in at December. General fund expenditures $420,57925. Highway Fund $239,77754. Street lighting $888.11.

Thank you.

Um so for in the supervisor's report, I wanted to just make a opening statement for the year. um to begin by welcoming everyone to our first business meeting of 2026. As we start the new year, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the work of town staff, the board and committee members and community volunteers um and my colleagues who are public officials who help keep the town of Rochester running dayto-day. Municipal government works best when there is consistency, cooperation, and respect for process and each other. And I appreciate the professionalism that makes that possible. In 2025, the town focused on strengthening internal operations, advancing long-term planning around housing and community preservation, and continuing investments in community spaces. The year was also marked by careful groundwork, um, public engagement, and an emphasis on transparency and fiscal responsibility, positioning the town for continued progress 2026. In 2026, as we look towards setting our priorities, which we will be doing this month, the town board's focus on achieving our priorities will be on steady, responsible governance. That means continuing to strengthen our internal operations, ensuring transparency and compliance with state law, and supporting staff so they can do their work effectively and efficiently. It also means being thoughtful and deliberate as we move from planning to implementation on several long-term initiatives, including addressing housing and appropriate development, town infrastructure, and in community engagement and community investment. We will continue to prioritize clear

communication, orderly meetings, and respectful public engagement. Our goal is to make decisions that are wellinformed, fiscally responsible, and aligned with the long-term interests of the town, and to do so in a way that is open, informed, and accessible to the public. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the board, all of you. I feel like we did um a lot we made a lot of progress in working together as a team. Um and I think that we'll see how our priorities discussion go, but I'm really looking forward to continuing to do this work with you in 2026.

Great.

Clerk tax collector report. Um so for January tax bills are out. They are due January 31st without any penalty. Um as of end of today we have already collected $222,3951. Um for town clerk for the month of December $39,62711 was collected. Um the 2025 clark annual report uh was $684,742.35. All accounts have been reconciled and all monies have now been turned over to the supervisor for the 2025 year. A liquor license was filed for a court social and that's all I have. Um, I did not receive a highway report other than the superintendent wanted me to acknowledge the uh how much weather we've been having and that the um highway staff has been dealing with all of the hours and the work um incredibly well. for department reports. Um the assessor's office is uh if this this is their busy time um where people start coming in for exemption season. Um but also our assessor is going through combing through every single property um the report the property summaries that have been given by our firm that's doing the reval GAR. Um so he's going line by line um to double check their work and make sure that everything is as accurate as can be. So we're at the last leg of the rebal. Um,

I received a report from the constabularary. Um, three neighbor to neighbor calls and quality of life complaints, two traffic complaints, nine court rece proceedings remain open. Um, and there have been, it looks like welfare checks calls for seniors as well. Um I don't have any other department reports. So our next item is the board and committee reports. I am mixing it up for 2026 and I have a new order. So starting off with the liaison reports. Um uh Kate with the historic preservation committee.

So the HPC did not meet in the month of December. Um I did meet with Phil Christopher today. He is the gentleman that they are looking to have become chair. I don't ever talked to Deb, but they are hoping for Phil to become chair and she her to become vice chair. Okay. I don't know if that's You could do that tonight.

Okay. Um and just want to remind everybody both the January and February meeting for HBC will be held the fourth Monday due to the holidays. Um Martin Luther King Jr. and then President so they will be meeting the fourth Monday instead. Um and he did today suggest that if the board is looking for vacancies, how he got involved was by the meet and greet that we held time with all the different departments and he thought that was like really impressive and would like to see the board do that again. Okay, we should do that. I did that, but it was before I was the supervisor, I think. Yeah, he just thought that was very effective and would like to see the board do that again.

That's great. um town justice court. Sally, we [clears throat] um have received some confirmation that the uh that we can use certain funds for some of the expenditures that the justices have requested and we're still working on.

Y we ordered two of the big things. Uh, Charlotte, your trio. Uh, we'll start with the housing queen. We'll pull the other ones. They are working on trying to get their, um, kind of agenda and trajectory and itinerary together for the year for what they're going to be working on this year. Um, so if you guys have anything that you're looking for us to task or aim them with, um, shoot me a message. let me know. I'll be at their meeting next Wednesday. Um, and then for elder care, the latest updates for the month of December, since the weather turned nasty, we received a lot of calls from participants asking about road conditions. Uh, they were advised and asked if they needed emergency medications, we could assist. Several asked about warming centers located and they provided the information for them. And then for the Senior Youth and Recreation Commission, um, happy new year from the Town of Rochester Recreation Department. Our first event of the 2026 year will be a community bus trip to Resorts World Casino in Monaceel on January 30th from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Fall Department. For more details, you must be at least 21 years of age to attend. Save the date for Friday, February 13th. The rec department will be hosting a Valentine spaghetti dinner this year from 6:00 p. p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Harold Litman Community Center. The public is invited to attend. The event is free and you must call the recreation department to sign up. Both basketball and after school programs are going very well at the moment, as well as the weekly senior exercise classes. Check

out the quarterly newsletter on the town's website for upcoming events and programming. And we're excited for the new year and looking forward to all that it brings for the recreation department. Um, as a side note, I don't know if the um the department is aware of yet that our playground was ordered um right before the end of the year. I figured that they were I think I texted them, but I couldn't remember. Um, and I actually got uh the call this morning and it will be shipped on February 2nd. Great. Uh, it will be here in time for the spaghetti dinner, but it will not be installed then unless we have unless warm weather.

Unless a meteor strikes Buffalo and claws the ground down here. Um, unlikely it will be installed before March. But uh I also made contact with that um oh with our installer to get on their schedule and I have some details that I'll work with on for the other half of that um procurement for this rest order. Okay people that's all. Yeah. Um Alexis is absent. Um Councilman Coleman.

Yeah. So, planning board um continue to sync periodically with Chairman Jones. Um they have their meeting on Monday, this coming Monday the 12th. I think there are two public hearings. I don't know if one is a new one, one is a continuation and they have three agenda items that they're dealing with, three applications. Um, [clears throat] I I I do continue to hear concerns about access to legacy archives of some of the records they have. So, they're eager to know that can be resolved. Um, zoning board of appeals, their meeting last month was cancelled. Um, and I think there too, you know, it's good that we're putting out the call for applicants because we have spots available on the ZBA and it's going to be in a board and board. I think we had someone here earlier that's going to have to talk to them. So, good to uh get some some people available for that ambulance improvement districts. Uh so, we have the contract on the agenda tonight. I uh when I was serving uh in my interimm capacity, I neglected to finalize that. So, I it is finalized now. So, we can send that out as all the changes both from the committee and and that the board wanted. So that is good to go and no updates on the pre-exchange recycling continues to operate. Appreciate all the work the volunteers do there. I did get contacted by someone about the um repair cafe. Uh I don't have contact information so I have to figure out how to get back in touch with that person. filter. Great.

Um, so now it's time for our public comment portion of the meeting. We are not doing participation via v via Zoom tonight. Um, so I this is the time that I'd like to invite anyone who's here with us to address the board.

Okay, I'll do it. two two things. Um, I want to thank Kate for for being very prompt and getting me my card this year as emergency management coordinator. Um, as I don't think I ever got one last year, but I also believe maybe Kate, you could actually backtrack. I think I'm coming up pretty close on 20 years of not having an emergency while yours truly has been your emergency management coordinator. And I did promise way back when call Chipman swore me in or then it would have been Ronnie Summer, I guess. And uh I said, "Well, you will not have emergencies while I'm in charge. I will not permit them." So, I've been keeping a 100% track record. I wish the rest of the board, previous boards could say that and it will continue under my toutelage. However, um I do have uh a couple and and as far as that goes, this position, if we could get something out, this has come up a couple times this week that the situation with the weather has been nothing short of hideous in the way we're getting literally hours of warming. And so our furry friends, the deer, which can cause tremendous amounts of problem on our roads, as if we don't have enough issues with it. I stopped one of our local businesses, body shops. Seven vehicles in the last 48 hours have come in. All deer auto collisions. The deer come out when you put salt out. The deer come out when there's no other food. They will eat that salt. So, if we can put out a general observance to the

people driving on our roads, please be aware of them being out there at dusk and dawn, but now more so at any time of the year because um it's really tough. And these cars that I just looked at in the last few hours, they're doing quite a bit of damage. As Cindy will tell you, she actually hit two together many years ago and uh it's can be quite dangerous, you know. So, if we can maybe get some out over our site to be aware that deer are now feeding much more so the size of the roads. Um and and that's my first comments for the year as far as management stuff goes. Um, my other my main thing that I wanted to bring it up tonight, I think it's a perfect meeting to bring this up because I see we're scheduling for a um public comment and so forth in regards to the senior citizen which I think I'm in that category um to be held. I know you're coming up on to come up with a date on that. I am requesting in that regard um that you also have this might take a little bit of a committee to put together but this has been very confusing nothing to take away spent some time with me yesterday over our latest tax bills for the town general tax 39.7 I'm going to round it to 40% tax increase obviously saying a change from prior year last year's when I pulled back my 25 tax uh 24 to 25

taxes was 66%. When you do the math that's over 100%. If we're still using usual math but it's not. It's it amounted to in one case one of my properties my house there approximately $200 I believe it was so there's no way that it's 100%. I would this is my request and we put together something to help anybody who would care to come I'll definitely be there um to understand how the taxes and what these increases actually do mean because I'm still confused and it's nothing against Kate because I think she did the best she could do but it it really should be explained what each one of the lines and what we're going to see because you get really scared when you see a 40% 60%. I didn't even know that last year was 66%. So, um, if that could be done, I think that would go a long way trying to help to educate the the power of our our people in the town. All right. Thank you again. Thank you guys for for serving and hopefully we'll all have a good new year once this snow goes away.

Um, so I'll close the public comment portion of the board member time. I guess I do have uh something I want to bring up um to the rest of the board's attention since I was unaware of it until 5:30 yes uh yesterday uh last night uh that there was a public hearing held here for uh by the Olter County IDA this industrial development agency for a pilot application for a business in our town which is the greater ary um project um that I'm sure many are aware of. It's been through before the town board and before the planning board in the past couple years. Um [clears throat] but news of this meeting came as a shock to myself. Um, not only as a resident who I went luckily and was able to make it here in time to give comment as a resident, but as a member of the leadership body of this municipality, I'm very very desri um frustrated um and disappointed with how the IDA handled noticing uh the meeting. They also did not use the proper name of this building in the notice. Um, which even though the address is correct to people in town who know it is the Herald Litman Community Center, they were probably confused if it was here or not or if the notice was real. Um, and also it wasn't published in our town's newspaper. And when I inquired about that um separately from the actual public hearing, I was told that it was not legally required that it be published in our town's

adopted paper. But according to the IDA's bylaws on the website and their adopted notice for that public hearing, it says that it has to be uh circulated in a newspaper that is circulated and reaches all the residents of this town, which the reason we don't adopt the daily Freeman is because of that. So, I just find that not allowing like it's still open for written comment for a few more days. But I personally believe as an executive body of this municipality that us not being invited to the conversation or even being specifically informed about it, unless everyone else was besides myself because of how I voted on the original project and I was targeted against for that and excluded from being informed. Um, I I do think that we should collectively make a statement to the IDA expressing that the um disappointment in not being made aware of not only a public hearing that they're hosting in our town, but on something that affects our tax levy in the future potentially. and that we are we were to be potentially blindsided by that. Um, and I just find that to be inappropriate as the power that be to try to make decisions over our taxing districts without inviting our opinion or our comment as a governing body over the taxes of this town. So, um, I just wanted to bring that up to everyone. Um, hopefully the rest of you guys didn't know like I did. Um, but were you that is what I had to say.

Um, to be completely honest, uh, the IDA reached out to me to utilize the build with the building. And when, um, the lady came to pick up the, uh, key, she did say, "I have to put the notice on the bulletin board." I said, "Go right ahead." I didn't even pay attention to it. So, I knew there was a public hearing. I did not know what it was on. [clears throat] And it wasn't until I got a call yesterday when someone asked me who the applicant was that I went over and actually looked and saw who it was. I do feel like on our end, especially myself, it's a good learning curve because even though it's not our responsibility to make sure it gets out there, it's a good resource for us to I mean we could have put it on our town. Honestly, I didn't even think about that at the time and I was this was literally le it was the 30th so I was elbow deep in tax bills but I did not pay any attention to what she did. So for me myself I feel like it's a good learning curve. So now moving forward if they utilize our building I will pay more attention to that I could forward it to Aaron. We could forward it to the board. So I think collectively we I could even do better with it in the future. They sent Yes. So too they sent they send um notice to the county executive, the school superintendent, and me. It was mailed on December 23rd. I It was in my mailbox on Tuesday, and I didn't even look at it. So yesterday when I got a call for some issues with the building, that's when I [clears throat] found out about it. So I I agree they they did send notice and had I not been on vacation I might have

certified no just priority was to be certified according to this also to me to you and to the county it was certified and that might be why you guys didn't get it in time school district got there certified but I I'm not the one that certified it I signed on two that were to Aaron might have been certified they ended up in my inbox on two this past Gotcha. Um I do want to say though, Kate, I do not feel like this is on your office.

Um when I specifically asked the IDA representative here about to suggest the same thing that we could have put it on our website and that we have a text alert system that we could have put it on. So to please notify the supervisor's office next time so that like

we can know um and have it posted so that the town residents get to know so you get actual public engagement for the public hearing. And the answer was, "Well, I would have expected the town clerk to do that." And I'm sorry to have that be a response. And knowing that they came on the 30th of December in the middle of our clerk and tax collector getting all of our tax bills out, I just that just adds to more of the level of disappointment that I feel for this process. And I feel like it was not due process for our community. I think that they should give more notice and I think because that like I'm saying that was mailed on the 23rd, right? That's when they officially gave noted like when they said they started feeling

and I also the school superintendent made some comments I agree with that like

I mean I would like to see that them weight the opinion of the taxing communities more than they do. Um I mean I have personal opinions about pilots but I think I will spare you from that at this moment. Um, and I agree and I think I don't I think that it's a fine idea for us to send a letter um that states those things that like nonopinion of like as a group I think not an opinion of it process and and their actual public notifying process I find extremely disappointing and not actually democratic for it. And I feel also we have had to we've had to republish public hearing notices from a typo in a name.

Yeah, they put the wrong name of this building. And I understand our residents should know the name of our building, but this is the the only the address was accurate. There could be more buildings behind this building for all the county knows to that we needed. That could actually mean it's the Quanzai Hut that no longer exists as the town of Rochester Community Center. So, I find it just really disheartening that that was how it was handled for our township, that it was scheduled the day before Christmas Eve, and that's when they mailed the notice on the busiest mailing time of the year between the holidays and tax bills that all go out that same week. So, I just I find it um really disheartening and I would appreciate the board putting in a letter of

Yeah., You know, just reflecting on the fact that we were all blindsided, even though yes, our clerk should circulate notice to us on things, that was their clerk's responsibility to circulate notices to the agencies. But normally, when somebody circulates something to the clerk, they give it to the clerk. The clerk is on the board. Right. In this case, they just put it on the board.

Yes. But I'm saying they did they didn't put in their motion to designate our clerk to circulate notice to us. They designated their clerk to circulate notice to us. So that was on their responsibility to make sure it was in our hands before that public hearing. I didn't even know any of the details and had to find the application myself today because they didn't even have copies available last night for the public

to know what was in this application or what was said. And I from an overview standpoint think that the board should all make sure they read it because I was there for the entire review process from start to finish. And I don't I I think that there's things that as a the governing body that approved all these documents that they've submitted should see and make sure that we are reading if we are going to be losing out on $1.9 million in taxes over a 15-year period.

Yeah. I think the other thing I wanted to say is there no one knew whose meeting this was. So a lot of people thought that we as a town board snuck in some public hearing to give someone a tax break. And that's the other reason why I wish we had had more notice like in a project. There was another pilot public hearing last year that I think I shared with someone that I also didn't I found out about like the day before. Um seed

I just found out about their application today looking for the ACOR one. So I just I find it very disheartening that I'm not even that we aren't even forwarded paperwork on this and they are making decisions about how much we get in our tax budget. So, I'll just finish my thought that um I just feel like if we had more notice, we could have made it clear because I was answering questions all day of people asking me why the board why we are not communicative and why aren't we getting the word out about this? And I was like, well, it's not our and then why didn't you put it on the YouTube page? I was like, oh, it's not our thing. We have no say actually over their scheduling. So I do Huh?

Or their decision. Yeah. No. Or their decision. But I think as far as being able to be informed about the decision being made for our municipality, we were absolutely failed on by the IDA. At the very least being informed, let alone being able to state our opinion on it as the municipality affected by it. Well, hopefully based on even comments the superintendent made, maybe the IDA as a whole collectively can see maybe they can make improvements as well. There definitely was a lack of communication all around.

Yeah. And I don't and I'm not finger pointing at anyone except for the person who has a legally binding motion to circulate those notices. Other than that, it's not I don't think it's our clerk's fault for not looking at their bulletin board during tax season, right? I don't think any of that is on you or your clerk's for that. So, myself person. But great. Thank you guys for wanting to work on that. I can like um since I've like over read some of the language already, I can like start the draft fun bullet for us to do a workshop meeting if you want.

Yeah. I mean, I also have strong opinions about pilots. I also don't like them about Are we allowed? Where's America? I don't I don't like them. You can say you don't like them, but we can't really do anything. I don't And it's not It's not because we're losing 1.9 million. It's because we're shifting the burden of that 1.9 million to the rest of taxpayers. Correct. So there may be valid reasons why pilots make sense, but I I agree with you that the community should have an opportunity to weigh in on that and determine if it's appropriate in that case. Um, we can the public hearing is open for written comments, so we can still put it on the website if we want just to say how long till the 20th.

The 20th. I heard two things. I had 16th and I have the 20th. So we should confirm. Uh, I'll find it to confirm for you guys. I heard the 20th and that's also what I wrote down at the meeting. Um it was right at the end of the video when they said the 20th. Um because I asked I I asked to speak again to make a request that they keep the public comment open at least for written word.

But I personally would like to see them renotice the public hearing and allow for inperson comment again because I do feel like there was an unfair advantage. We also have um even though we have done our damnedest to make sure that broadband is everywhere in town, we have portions of the community that don't have access to internet at all times during all weathers to be able to submit print. Do you know where they are? What what you want because they actually want they we'll talk about the info because depending on what they can do for our channel, I'll give it to them. [clears throat]

I think it's on the agenda. Just get give it to you guys later.

Any other um topics from the board? Yeah, I uh got from Kate the compilation of the comments related to speed and traffic issues and received comments from about 19 people um over period of time that are primarily in Lucas Avenue um County Route 6 Boy Mill and Dun Farms. uh a number on Cherry Town Road near the corner of Sydill Road. Um at further in uh Bridgeview Road near the former Fairus Villa Queens Highway, the lower part uh below. What's that for sure on the left? Um

Hamilton, huh? Hamilton. No, last time Rochester City or not. No, no, no. Um anyway, the first one on the left. Oh, Crown. Yes, exactly. Uh traffic related to uh Wood Road um and also Deep South. We'll look at those in greater detail. a lot of New York County roads. Uh some portions of state roads including 209 between Saunderskill and um the bridge. So

did you say Kaiser on that list, Sally? Thank you. I was like, does that count in county road six or not? I remember that coming up with the um Yeah, great. Thank you. Thank you both for the work on it. And many of these are the same roads that have been consistently an issue as long as I've been in office. Many of these are the same. So it's an ongoing thing. It's nothing new. No one new in town that's creating that. It's Oh, can I just ask a [clears throat] generalized question if we know it during wartime too?

Um do we know how far up that we maintenance and service trails end? Do we know how far I mean I I could not tell you but it is in the it's in the row the what I don't have it with me but

yes the mileage thing what you're talking about. Okay. I just wanted to knew off the top of their head cuz I drove there through there the other day um for the first time in like 15 years and surprisingly made it. So, um I was just curious how far up we actually service that road or not because after that last house where there used to be a 53 Jeep Willies on the left, you you there's no you need a lifted truck. So, I don't see why we're loud because when I was there it looked loud

partially. So, I was just curious, but it's a really fun drive. If anyone has truck and wants to do it, have you gone all the way through? Oh, I have during Hurricane Sandy and then I got stuck in town. Very fun when I did it.

Yeah. Councilman Coleman, did you have something you wanted to say for during town over time? You don't have to. I yeah I I do want to comment um something from the last meeting. I voted uh against the resolution to reauthorize the constabularary and I want to make clear that we have a lot of really great employees that are helping support that and they do a lot of great things. My concern is that I think there needs to be more awareness of some of the engagement that's happening there. And I think that's something that I would hope that we can fix moving forward. We're hearing about traffic complaints. We hear in the monthly report that there's traffic complaints, but I've never seen documentation of where those traffic complaints are. I know one of the roads values list is in that list. We hear about neighbor neighbor engagements. I would like to know more about those neighbor engagements. What are the issues? are these things that the town board should be addressing because right now to me seems like there's a lack of information uh that's being provided and so that's something I think we as a board need to address. It's a it's also a matter of who actually gets the phone calls what sort of coverage is there for those.

Yep. And we're kind of going back in registration if it's

and also whether or not it's being communicated to the building department on these short-term rentals. I know that was a concern a few months ago that that wasn't even being relayed to that department and that should really be the department that's handling that. Great. And I agree with Jerry's request on the tax. Yes, I too.

That would eliminate a lot of misinformation, especially around budget time. And even if you did a a short tutorial, um made a quick YouTube video to put on the website or and could show it prior to um a public hearing because people do. They hear 30% and they think their whole entire tax bill is going to go up 30% and that's what the whole town starts hearing. I think this is a good way to eliminate a lot of that scuttlebug.

Yeah. And I Well, I think Supervisor Nan did a good job with the kind of summary at the front of the budget. It might be good to have that as a separate YouTube maybe just do a re-recording of that because that that was really helpful to kind of go over okay some of the things that are raising that are cost of medical care cost of retirement you know there weren't a lot of major things we didn't go [snorts] buy new buildings or anything so that increase was really stuff that's outside of the boards so but yeah the information is out there if you look at some of the the budget reports and I don't was that included in the actual budget print that's on the website. Not the adopt, not the adopted one, I don't think.

Might be good to have that up there, too, just so it kind of because I thought that was really useful information. I also really like Jerry's idea and I think that it's a great opportunity to create one of those like third um spaces with an event for it to be able to like like maybe in like September sometime when it's not like right before our bucket season when we aren't too crazy with the schedule and like maybe the week before school starts we could do it so the community centers empty and like do it as like you know like a one hour like here's your budget, how to read your budget or your not your budget um your tax bill um like meeting with coffee, tea, and cookies.

Just let whoever wants to come. Did that last week for a reval like 2000 or so? And this might very well um go hand in hand with the reval information that comes out here. Yeah, I was thinking that too though that like when Jerry had mentioned it when he was speaking that we should reach out to Joanne and the assessor and the assessor's aid to see if they would be willing to like give us information or give us like any like points or one of them be here to answer any questions someone might have from their department.

I know we're planning on public engagement ahead of the publishing of the 10 of the um Yeah. So that'll be, you know, earlier. But I think I think these are I think Yes. I think that these are great things for us to It's also been inflamed a little bit by letters from the service that Yeah. Yeah. challenges. Yes. Those have the the law firm letters that are out the letters that law firms have been sending out that represent Yeah,

there are companies sending letters out to people about knowing that we've had a reval and that they give you can hire them and they can cut this off exemption. And I just think that's just businesses that used to revs. I get those. Oh, I've had a lot of calls. I have not. I've had probably three or four polls about I like you should maybe post something on the town website that those adverts I don't know like buy or beware or something like that seems crazy like I don't want some little old woman who doesn't understand her or like some some senior person who doesn't understand their tax bill to go and hire a lawyer because they send them postcard.

Yeah. Instead of going to the assessor, right? Like like maybe we just make a like more known on the way like if you have questions about your bill call or your assessment call the sexers's office first before a lawyer law firm. We get that on the radio maybe. I don't know. Okay. So let's we've got an audit at the end of the meeting. So um let's get through our agenda. So sorry about your cameras. It is completely your fault. I blame myself for this. Should Should I hold the remote at like that typical IT thing where walk up to

No, it's we can All right. Um, I'll make a motion that the town board accepts and approves the me minutes of the December 11, 2025 business meeting, the December 22nd, 2025 special meeting, and the December 23rd, 2025 workshop meeting. Second, any discussion? Didn't we have one left over from November to do? No, it was October. No, that was on We did that in Never mind. Go on. Yep. I We have all in favor. I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Did you have any donations? There's not since All right.

So, no donations. Um, next up, scheduling a public hearing. Um, did everyone have a chance to look at the um local amending the tax exemption for senior citizens? Um, so that what I have in front of you is another one. We'll talk about that at the end of resolutions, but it's the same chart. Um, so for local law A, that's amending local law 2 of 2023. Um, and it's to match the county what the county just did. So the county just their um exemption is exactly this. So it's just easier if ours matches. Is this like a 5,000 increase on this one?

It's a 5,000. Yep. I just wanted to make sure I was remembering the last number, right? Yeah. I put the the current law in the SharePoint as backup. Um I had issues trying to get on SharePoint today, but I also was just in general having computer issues. So, okay. So yeah, it was the previous one capped out at 4,000 uh 45,400 these numbers. Oh, did I do something wrong? No, it's it's like what happens if it's exactly 41,600.01,

then it's 50%. No, it's not. Says less than less. And then the next one says O2 or more. So if it's exactly Oh, so it should be O2 or less. Yeah. No. Or less than. Less than or equal to. Or less than. O2. Less than or equal to. Yeah. Equal to. Second as amended.

Um, well, that's how the old one was, except this one just has sense for some reason. But but right now the way it reads is that if my income is $41,600 and 1 cent I get no exemption. So it would I would change more than zero but less than or equal to 41600.01. It should be 01 not O2 is what you're saying.

No no no no 01. And then the next one would be 41,600.2 or more than or more but less than or equal to. No, I think you're right. It should be zero. It should be 40. The first one should be 01. Let me just make um

No, it's the second one should be 01 and then it's accurate. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, the second one should be 01 and then we also need to add two zeros just for continuity at the end of that other one on that line. This also what we're looking at right now, just so you know, is not the is not local. Um,

but Sally's point still. Yeah, Sally is still at the right. But even if you change the one, I think it's still what this is exactly would be. No, you need to put or or equal to in all the in all the lines. Yeah, because otherwise if you hit the otherwise you miss otherwise you miss that number the number in the right hand. If you get exactly that amount, if you hit exactly that amount of income, but since your tax filings delete cents, it doesn't matter. I don't know why the county I just copied the counties. Um, they did it right. Right. And ours,

we also need to correct section two. So does the county apparently. We think it's supposed to not exceed 37. That's the but it's 50,000. That's the 459- C. So, this is also not the law that we're looking at right now in the resolution. So, can we do the Are we able to table and pass the next meeting or do we need to pass it? I would like to schedule the So, if we could just uh schedule Oh, that's where you have to have the law. how it's worded.

But I'm just looking up the I Okay. All of the ends shouldn't be 0.01 and then that solves it with because they would be more but less than 42,600.01 and then it would be 42,601 or more but less than 01. That's how we update. We just add ones at the end.

Yeah, that works. And the first one, the two, right? the the 416,000.2 should that should be a one and then the other one at the end would be 001 then all those way down. Yeah. Um well then we can't schedule the public hearing cuz um is that a material change? Right. You have to have the law in front of you in final version in the version that you're scheduling the public hearing on.

Let's schedule it like this so that we can amend if we amend it after the public hearing, right? The number. This one we could do, but this is the not the one that this is not A. This is C. So this one we can do, but A I I shared that's why she kept saying that's not the one. Yeah, [laughter] this is a one that Jeremy asked me if I could add this so that the um exemption for disabled persons with limited income matches it, but it's it's the same. Should we do what Z said and schedule it and then it's a different I just said that we could do that. Okay. When do you want to schedule?

Um so I want to schedule it for our workshop meeting. Yeah. So that would be um

chair when January 22nd, 2026. We'll do that at 6:30 to start the meeting. Second that motion. What's your date there? Sorry. January 22nd, 2026.

Uh, so we have a motion. A motion and a second. Any more discussion? Um, all in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. So I will work on that you guys so that we have it in hand more than se if we're going to adopt a version that's any different from what we have the public hearing on you guys have to have it physically in hand seven days before um you have to come pick it up. Yeah. So I'll let Yeah. I'll let you Yeah. Um, you don't want to certify mail.

Sorry, I was going to talk about how that would cost $50. [clears throat] Good night, Jerry. Well, what I was thinking is we'd have the public hearing on the 22nd. I don't want to adopt it necessarily on the 22nd, though. I guess we Oh, well, so then we can have the final version on the 22nd. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. So the next one, scheduling a public hearing on local law B of 2026. So, I'll make a motion that the town board schedules a public hearing for local law B of 2026 rescending local law 1 of 2011 to be held on January 22nd, 2026 immediately following the public hearing for local law A of 2026 at the Herald Lipton Community Center and request the town clerk publish and post the required notice. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries.

The next one um I the home rule authority language uh for the resolution was in SharePoint. So, I'll make a motion that the town board adopts the 2026 home rule authority resolution as presented and authorizes the supervisor to submit the necessarily uh and then I'm going to say home rule forms to the New York State Legislature.

Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Um the next one, um I'll make a motion that the clown board authorizes the clown supervisor to execute the consultant agreement with Tectonic Engineering Firm as presented. Second. Any discussion?

All in favor? I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Um the insure our insurance broker said that they she won't have all the numbers for me until tomorrow. But that means we can just do this at the workshop meeting. So we're tableabling G. And then I did say we would table H. But let's go ahead and I'll make a motion to appoint Phil Christopher as chair of the Historic Preservation Commission and Deb Medbach as vice chair.

Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Um we also don't have the um quote for the truck yet. Um so I wanted to schedule public hearing for the one you guys were looking at. Um, so shouldn't we just change everything to zeros? We change the the two in the first one, the two cents to one. Oh, yeah. We should just change it all to zeros. Yeah, because it's the same. They're all changing to ones in the left column.

Yeah, in the left. Change the left column to zeros. Change the first one to zero. And then that's way easier to read than with these pennies. Yeah, I should just change altitude. You're here, Erin. Also, is that top 37,000 correct or no? I think I'm going to I'm going to look I didn't have time to look into that because that's citing New York State tax law. And I think that is the tax law. I don't know. But if they but if their income can't exceed $37,000 and they can't apply for any of these anyway.

No, if your if your income is higher than that then we are giving you these exceptions. Ah then shouldn't that first one start at 37,000? Well, we're saying that we're making it more generous. were saying if you go I don't know I honestly I I'm fine I know that I've never I've never questioned these before. I All right. So I'll make a motion

that the town of Rochester Town Board schedules a public hearing for local law C of 2026. um amending a local law amending local law 1 of 2023 amending chapter 128 taxation code of the town of Rochester to be held on January 22nd, 2026 immediately following the public hearing for local law B of 2026 um at the Herald Lipton Community Center and request the town clerk circulating notice. Yes. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Um we have every year we do a contract with Cross Point which is we have a contract for the physical phones that we use for our phone service. Um we they are the total contract um between the town hall and the community center is $1,50. Um I spoke with Kathy who is of Cross Point. She's encouraging. We're supposed to be offboarding off of this type of phone, the ESI phone, and um she really wants us to move towards cloud-based. So, what she's saying, she told me today if we go ahead and sign the contract, just send her a first quarter payment and then if

we decide we want to upgrade or change our phone service, then we she won't charge us for the full year. So, um, so I just wanted to have the Is there a explicit termination clause in the contract? It No, it's just a service maintenance agreement basically. And that's an added fee. Um, yeah, but she said just send her the quarter and um you got the contract.

Um, wait, what should we say in the resolution? Let's say it in the resolution, I guess. So that we sound supervisor is authorized to sign the contract with the amendment that under the condition that the contract is amended or that the vendor agrees to accept a quarter end termination.

Are you making that motion? Yeah. So, uh, the contract in the or the total for the year 2026 not to exceed $1,50.

We have a second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Okay. Then um we need to amend our holidays that we adopted at the organizational meeting to include July 4th. We miss that one. It's on a Saturday Monday.

You give them Friday. So holidays on Saturdays you get to Friday. Holidays on Sundays you give to Monday. Unless you're actually working on the schedule fourth when you get the fourth. So how would that work with the transfer stations on the fourth?

So the way that it works is because we don't have that policy. We make that in our schedule. So, in our compensation and benefit manual, if a holiday falls on a day when a full-time employee is not scheduled to work, they get a floating holiday, an extra floating holiday to use. So if we make July 4th a holiday, then all full-time employees will get a floating holiday and the transfer station will be closed and those staff members will get paid for that day.

So then employees are getting paid for July 3rd, which is a holiday, which is the official holiday. Is that the official holiday? I think okay. I don't know. I'm sorry. I didn't even look at it. Stacy told me about it at the end of the day. Well, it's not the official holiday, but it's it's up to the board or it's up to the town whether they Let me look. What did we adopt? Federal holidays. I think July 3rd, right? But is it either we give them the holiday on the Friday or they get a floater? It's not both. Right. Right. Should not both. Yeah. So, I would give them I would give them the third. All staff.

All staff. the third and then those staff who are normally scheduled to work on the fourth would get a floater. Right. So the transfer station would be closed on the Friday, Friday the 3rd and then they don't work on the transfer station would work on the port closing on the I'm sorry. Why are we closing on the third? Well, that's traditionally like if a holiday fall fell on a weekend, that's how they would do it. If it fell on a Saturday, you got the Friday and fell on Saturday.

Okay. So, I see what Stacey was saying. Okay. So, we made the third a holiday, but July 4th, the transfer station is open. So, what do we want to do about that? What should we make? Well, no one's gonna call their You're better off giving them the floater on the Friday and then give them the Saturday off because I think most people are going to think they're off that Saturday. Just close the transfer station. Give them a floater for the third and then just close on the 4th. So, the whole town except for the transfer station will be open on the third. Is that what we're saying? Town will be closed. Close the transfer station. Transfer station will be open town. the town other offices. That's what I just said. Yeah,

you said the whole No, I said the whole town except for the transfer station will be closed on the third, right? And then they'll be all right. I want to talk to staff and they get a floater. Um I want to I think I want to talk to them about that because we'd have to amend this more. We'd have to because that goes against our exact what's what would happen is otherwise the transfer station employees would get two two days two holidays yeah equivalents which is I think is fine because they often times don't get the holiday

open on Friday and leave the transfer station open give them a holiday a floater holiday for the day and then give them the one for Saturday or open on Wednesday and like or we open an additional day We should open Sunday. We're going to open an additional day. You should open Sunday for people to bring the trash to all of the properties. Does everyone even I I even use the transfer station and I have pickup service after 4th of July. All right, let's not do this because I want to talk to them. They have a better idea of like

what is going to work and if they're all like, "Yeah, we'll work." But they maybe were expecting that they're going to be closed, you know. Yeah. I don't think it's fair to make them stay open if the rest of the offices are closed. Um but if I had a vote on another day for them to open, I would say so. Okay. I guess that could be their option Friday. Um before or after. All right. So, we got through resolutions. I will follow up. I guess it'll be a very important thing though to figure out because we're going to be coming up on that in the next couple years with a lot of holidays on. Yeah. So, I know. [clears throat]

Um All right. So, I just wanted to see if you guys had any priorities that you wanted to list off um on our first business meeting. I mean, I know the one there's ones that were carrying over from last year, but I think it's good it's good to hear from you guys.

Um, well, I'm glad we took the step on the housing fund. I think, you know, pushing that as quickly as possible through would be great. And remember, the timing was tight in terms of being able to get that for referendum. Um, we've talked a lot about having public forums or listening sessions on noise. I think it'd be worth having one on noise or specifically amplified sound. Uh, I think it might also be worthwhile looking at lighting because I know there have been a lot of complaints about lighting that is intruding on other parcels. So, but I think we're going to do it either we do two separate ones or we do it as one or have multiple sessions that people could talk about both of those. Uh, I know one thing that comes up for the planning board is the conservation subdivision, uh, needing to do revisions to that and I know our planner has a lot of ideas and has been kind of collecting those, but it seems like that's something that the planning board has been struggling with just in terms of needing some of the language clarified. Uh, comprehensive plan revisions. I think we've, you know, we're all aware that we want to get to that, but we've just had too much to do. But I think this might be a good time to do that. And then the last thing I know when I was talking with um Olter County EMS, there's real concern about specifically ALS across the county. So I I think it would be good if we could coordinate with other towns with the county trying to figure out if there are things we can do because some of it I think involves changes at the state level. So it would be good to kind of coordinate to make sure that we have a plan for how we're going to provide ALS in the county moving forward.

Okay. Um, qu question on the community preservation fund. When does that actually It takes effect on February 1st and the county clerk prepares our forms for us. Yeah. Um, and they've uh I I've been going back and forth with them about it. So, is that filed uh transactions that are conveyed on February 4th of contract? Um, I can't remember. I think it's 30 days from the filing of the law. Any contract executed 30 days after filing of the law?

Well, in the law, it takes effect February 1st. Um, but I don't know if it had stipulations in the plan of exactly when for how the grandfather for that. It had it. It wasn't in the actual It wasn't in local law H, but it was in local law I, I think, whichever one. It was in the 200 the 170 something plan. It was in that for how it was implemented once the taxing district was formed. Okay.

Or the tax the transfer tax was formed. So I remember it being like those at that time table was like a intersection in that memory server and stuff. Okay. Um any other priorities? No priorities. [clears throat]

None that happened at the start of last year. Pretty good motion. I feel like you've already got some deals moving up close to projects and stuff. So, some a little bit. They might not have full traction yet, but a little bit of um I would like to see um for priorities for um myself. I I do think that the um uh claim a home rule and doing the housing transfer tax um should be a priority of ours. I knew we didn't have the same makeup when it first came of the board when it first was proposed to us. Um but board had given like full support at that time in pursuing both the community preservation and the housing transfer tax. So, since one has passed, I'd really like us to see to get get the other on the ballot this year. Um, as a goal to like ensure that it gets on this year if we can. Um, and I'm happy to help and support any way of like doing any scheduling and contacting that you need with um, Senator Ober's office. Um, so that's one. Um, I also would like to myself for the housing committee, I would like to task them with um I guess not task them, but have a conversation with them about the next um Olter County Housing Smarts community initiative to like check off item for us to tackle now that we've fully closed out our um we finally closed out our consultation um with Hack and we did our um townwide um I can't remember the exact verbiage of the checklist item, but we did that one. So, we have room to do another now um to kind of use what we got out of that one

and keep that momentum going to maybe tackle potentially getting them to work on a housing plan this year for us to go handicam with the comprehensive plan that we're hoping to rewrite. That's also a priority of mine. I would like us to at least start the work on uh reviewing the comprehensive plan um this year at some point. And I also in the zoning code I would like to take a look at and um get some red lines back on um STRs, ADUs, and manufactured housing parts. Um, affordable housing, and I would like to take a look at if we have it. I can't remember right now, um, but if we have a chapter to do with rehabilitation or bonuses. If not, I would really like us to take a look at and potentially add a chapter um with some form of incentivizing rehabilitation of dilapitated and abandoned properties that have gone to the wayside. Um I know we have some things in there for like I think a larger scale rehabilitation, but I don't think we have one for like if someone were to come in and like redo like a duplex or something where it's one of the smaller scale housing projects. So, I'd like to take a look at that. Um, and I would also like to um introduce it won't be till probably closer to the summer months and I would like to work on um potentially with um Councilwoman uh Alba and the ad committee, but I would like to propose a new chapter of subdivision myself for our zoning code that I'm

hoping to be able to get completed by the end of the summer to bring to you guys before uh budget season. Uh that would be a little more creative. Uh in the similar theme of how we have conservation subdivisions set up but in an agriculture way where we still um preserve the prime farmland but we allow subdivisions and build development on a certain percentage of the land and the rest has to be conserved for and used for agricultural purposes. So, I'm going to hopefully workshop that some some of those and get some ideas and feedback from the ad committee. Um, but I would like to introduce a a chapter that my working title is a homestead subdivision um chapter where it allows some of our larger, more generational farms that don't have other generations to leave their property to or to continue their farming to make smaller almost mini farms out of their larger farms to be able to sell. Um, so I want to bring that to you guys, see what I can find and research if there's any other similar codes to kind of work off of in other townships at all. So, um, those are zoning wise my priorities. And I would also, and I've started to work on this, and I'll upload it to SharePoint now that I've like stood on my TV, um a uh update and red line of our um employee handbook and procedures, policies, um manual, uh to include like I know that we've slowly updated certain portions of it like like we change the holidays every year and we've improved edited the I'm blanking on the section that you updated last.

Yeah.

But we've kind of only done it like section by section as time go has gone on. We haven't done like a full cover to cover I think review of it. So I've kind of started to slowly do a review of like literally a physical red line in my binder that Kate made me five years ago um with the handbook in there and our updated policies I've inserted. So, uh, I'm also happy to have another council person if anyone else wants to work on that at all with me. But I figured if I can do some base work on some of these projects to make it more of, um, something for you guys to review and then all of us edit together instead of us all trying to work on one blank document to build from there that it might be easier, more efficient for us. Also, I would like to work with um Jessica to get the inventory of our trucks and our fleet um from the highway since we have yet to receive that. Um I'm happy to be the one to go and uh I work and do a lot of uh inventory management my career. So, I'm happy to go and do that with um Jessica if I know it's also the busy crazy snow ice season. So I move on that superintendent Friday or whoever else there might not have had time to do it as of yet. So I'm happy to extend the invitation of help.

We got something though, right? Yeah,

we got we got part portions of it, but like I still haven't like the maintenance log isn't in there. So, I'm happy to go in and just kind of solidify that list that we requested because especially seeing that like I know we tabled it, but seeing another truck purchase on the agenda without like fully knowing where we're at and what year like what year, what how long we think it's going to last on each truck itself gives me anxiety when trying to make these decisions and approve it even though it's not our department. So, yeah. And I would also like to make sure that your office gets as much support as this help and like any other department in town that needs it because I do see how much your office is burden is the wrong word but I guess overwhelmed with and inundated with work requests things like that. So if there's small projects like doing the playground or things like that that I could take off of your lap to make your life easier, I am happy to do it while I'm just in school and not working through the spring. Thank you, Charlotte. Um, so my I have my like internal goals for town functions. I want to continue to build off the momentum of our new um outlook slash uh suite of applications we have that allow collaborative work um to happen. I think piggybacking on the employee handbook. Um the lawyer that we work with that focuses on labor has we've talked about a few things. He thinks that we definitely need to go through the whole thing because there's some stuff that is he thinks really should be updated. So it's long overdue. Um, but then just having more ability to

have a everyone on staff on the same page. So, we building out like a SharePoint page that has our policy manuals and our holidays and like a communication site. Um, I'm excited about that. Um, and using shared calendars. Um, so that's a big one is just like continuing to be efficient with um operations. Um, the everything you guys have said, the things that I'm going to need that are my that I really want us to do, but I need the board to approve are our 10-year planning for both infrastructure and finances. Um, and then additionally the public engagement. Um, I had kind of put this on my list already, but the idea of having more town sponsored or sanctioned meetings that bring all of our boards and commissions or representatives from all of our boards and commissions together and then just having more forum type events. Um, I think we know how to do those. and the community really appreciates them. Um, and then I also want to continue to work on regaining or continuing to build on like public trust in enforcement of our code and our laws. Um, and I think there's a lot that you guys said that is also on this. So great. Um, I like I would I want to put we have a town board

document SharePoint site that I using to organize meeting documents and I want to put our priorities somewhere in there so that we can like tie what we're doing in our meetings and see like an overall all calendar of what we're doing. I think that would be helpful for everyone. So, that's kind of what we're working towards there. Um, anything else on town board priorities before we move on to the next discussion item? Yes.

And I'll remember to be Oh, trainings. I would like to see us get um a wider variety of trainings than just the flyer funds that our staff like scheduled annually or semianually like I'd like to see a UFJ um training course for townwide training. I certain things like that and like this stuff I'm going to be compressing like talk down talks for our high risk in public interfacing offices things like that. So with kind of in conjunction with the handbook thing I I'm hope I'm happy to research some different training options that are available to us

for employees and also for our volunteers. Yeah. Our boards and commissions. Yes. And our boards and commissions. I think there's some like really great free ones that we could utilize for a lot of them, especially like the senior youth and recreation ones. I I have a couple in mind to bring to the the committee. So,

um so our next agenda item is the virtual participation at public meetings. Um guess I just wanted we didn't decide on anything at our organizational meeting. Um wanted to see how you guys are feeling about a lot of towns don't do the Zoom participation anymore. Um we started doing it during COVID and kept it cuz we thought that it was good to encourage different forms of engagement. Um, but given the events that happened last month, I just wanted to see if you guys

Why didn't other towns cease doing it? I assume the same reason we're questioning it because there's been five other towns in Olter County that this has happened to.

Yeah. And also, I would say um the one thing just preparing for this meeting that I kind of didn't realize is there's a lot of management that goes involved in making sure the Zoom link on the agenda and public notices like we've had to renotice things because of that. Like there's just it's not a big deal, but like I think also just the I was I was starting to think like, okay, well, we could make people register and they're like, "Oh my gosh, who's going to do this?" Because the biggest vulnerability we have is publishing a link publicly. That's how this happens. That's how that type of is because the link is public. So the way the the be the recommended way around that is that people have to register for a link. But then that's like

is that a link to speak or is that a link to observe? Um God because the reason why we're publishing a link is for people to speak. anyone can observe a meeting on YouTube. Um I think it's just are we do we want to keep allowing

I I think it's a great thing to allow people to speak however they do it because it can be a schle to get in here to make a comment or to to question. So I don't I mean I think it's a benefit to have it but I think that there need to be there should be controls over um who is allowed to speak whether they text in while they're online and say here's my name and and please let me speak as opposed to just admit. Um,

I don't I think that it's hard to make people sign up to speak online when we don't require people to sign up to speak at every meeting. I think that that's a little like we need to have a solid stance on that. Like if we're going to have people register to speak, we should have them register to speak every time in whatever form they're speaking, you know, like, and I don't mean that they have to do for if they're coming in person, they have to sign up beforehand. They can still, but we should have a sign up list for them to sign up on then here. If we're going to make people sign their name to a list for Zoom access, we should make them sign a their name to speak here. No, no, I'm not saying I'm not saying in a bad way. I'm just saying like to make it um

cohesive. I think that we would have to do it make a solid like I guess rework our public speaking like our rules of engage whatever it's that we do. Say your name and you can Yeah. speak. that one.

Um, I I agree that I want to keep it because I it I mean there are places in town I could take 30 minutes to drive down here. That's not even accounting for bad weather. To me, I think the big the big risks in just admitting anyone is somebody coming up on video and doing something you don't want or somebody posting GIFs or other stuff either into the chat uh or on their video. So, I know Zoom has a lot of settings. We've enabled some of them so that you can't post GIFs in the chat. You can't u turn your microphone on yourself. you can't turn your your video on yourself. I think if we eliminate video and the ability to post those things and then we only have the audio, that's those are important layers of control because somebody may say something on there, but somebody could also come in here and say something.

Um, and the other issue that we had when that was going on that Charlie and I both struggled with was they implement uh code to actually make it hard to bounce them out. And there are things you can limit which we've turned on so that that doesn't work anymore. So as soon as somebody starts doing anything, you can block them out. So I would like to see if we just look at all the recommended settings to minimize those kinds of intrusions. I would like to see us keep it before we have to go to registration and then you have them get a code which even even there I mean are they going to contact Kate? Are they gonna contact Aaron? We can automate it with like a third party app,

but then they'll just get a they'll they're still going to get a code. Yeah. And you're not going to be able to detect. So I I think it's important from an access perspective, but I also do not want anything like that to happen again. So I think we should look at what controls we can put in place and if we minimize it just to audio participation like the audio

I will say I'm devil's advocate about only having the audio is that we have no proof that it's who that person is for the record then if that in person we see the person giving comment it can't be someone playing a recording coming off camera of someone else speaking. I personally find it at this point to be a liability for us to take public comment via Zoom. I think that if we are going to do it that at all that they that there should be a registration process. But that being said, what department is going to take that on that isn't inundated with too much and that's under staff for how much work they have now in our township? I don't think that that's possible. So I think the easiest way to do it is to just negate it. People are able to watch from YouTube. If someone has ex, you know, extreme circumstances, they live all the way up on Palintown Road and it's the middle of the winter and their car doesn't start in minus30° weather and they write into the clerk, we can approve that and allow someone in a case- by case basis who's written into the board to the clerk to request to make comment via Zoom. But I don't think that personally um after what happened um I myself am not okay at being risk of that happening again. I am happy that my husband and my child weren't watching from home as they do sometimes that night. I'm happy that my Jewish daughter especially was not watching for that to come up. not the not even the fact that she's an infant and the rest of it, but just from a hateful and anti-Semitic standpoint, I'm not okay with what happened. And I don't want to be at risk of that ever happening again. And I understand that I fully agree to the public's right to publicly engage us and to make comment,

but they are always welcome to make written comment on anything at any time. and they're also welcome to come in person and if they're not able to to submit written comment through the that doesn't have to be certified mailed through the clerk's office via email but I think myself I have not often felt unsafe at this table and I felt extremely unsafe in my community as a Jewish woman that night and I'm not I personally don't want to be at risk of that again myself and I don't want anyone one else who may hold the seat. It's not going to be a risk of that or anyone. Luckily, no one was here watching from the public to see it either in a 65 in view. [clears throat] So, that's where I stand on it. Um, and yeah, I think it also opens us up for liability because anyone who was watching that at this point could have done something and legally towards the town like I felt assaulted leaving here after that and I haven't been assaulted in a long time since actually being assaulted. So what about I mean one like way cuz one thing I what if we allow Zoom participation through registration for public hearings cuz what I was thinking about public hearings is we notice those well in advance so there's time to do the registration whereas like for I post the agenda like unless we're using the same link link every time which is puts us at risk. I think I would be like generating a new meeting link and then there would only be a few days for people to register whereas I think a lot of people would join cuz they just found out like we most people that come

we don't have a lot of participation for our meetings like addressing the board through Zoom sometimes we do but I think the public hearings if it's a hot topic we get a lot of participation through Zoom so I Wonder what you guys think about that. I mean, I think that we're clearly not going to decide anything nice. So, I think that we could since this is a private something to have some boards as a board, do you mean or Yeah. It would be kind of nice though to decide on the public hearing portion because we have three public hearings coming up and I have to host that in the next couple days. So I think it would be good it

and if we're not going to do it for the public hearing right now. Yeah. If we're not going to do it for the public hearings, we need to pass a resolution because it's we passed that initially saying that that's our policy. No, our pol it's not our policy that we anyway that it's our policy to allow participation through Zoom

with public hearings. I am fine with that and I think that that alleviates a lot of the burden on a whatever department is going to take the registration for a public hearing. I those are very well noticed and I do agree that gives you guys more time to be able to make the registration. Um the other thing is our meetings are the same exact week, same day, same weeks every single month. So like if someone can't get here, our meeting schedule rarely changes unless a holiday falls on that Thursday. So like they have ample time to know that they can submit comment before our meeting before they need to know when they're able to submit comment for um and what time our meetings would be scheduled and when to be able. So I'm with it. The other thing I can do cuz I put the on the agenda put a link an email link so that we could put a thing on the agenda that's like if you

want to submit com to make it more obvious that people could submit comment through an email too. So, let's keep it for the public hearing, I guess, through registration, but we're not going to have people participate in our next meeting in the town board member time through Zoom. Correct. So, we won't let anyone in hearing comment and I'll set it up as a registration link. Um, so I was just looking up Huh. for the public hearing.

Yeah. So for the public hearing people can participate but they have via zoom but we'll have to do like a cut off of registering. Um so we'll put that maybe we should make that resolution right now or I guess we didn't really there's no rules about it. Uh um I was just thinking in the notice we should put a cut off for the registration for Zoom because we I won't be able to get those necessarily.

I was thinking 3:30 by like how we do the regular like uh closeout. Yeah. Yeah. By 3:30 the day before or something or the um day at whatever work for your office. Yeah. I don't think we need to do a resolution for that because we didn't. Okay.

So, moving on. I wanted to Well, are we ready to move on? I think we're ready to move on. Um, I wanted to introduce a project to you guys that I've talked about. So, um, I don't know if you guys know about the saga of the codification on e-code. where I wanted to have the new local laws which are no no longer they're no longer new because we replace chapters of code. I wanted to have this put up on e-code, but they like won't do it until we finish our codification project that was started in 2019 that didn't get finished because things get busy, but it's means that it's been like very outdated. So, this document that was created in 2019 to basically e-code goes through all of your laws. They find discrepancies and typos and then they prepare a local law for the board to fix things.

This document is from 2019.

Yes. And then when when we pass that local law, they have like a per perfect copies of all of our local laws and that's what they work off to put it on to the e-code site. So, uh, when we do the codification, we're going to stick all the new laws that we've passed. It's 2019. They still have to like review all of those, but Marylu and I went through this PDF that I put in SharePoint. Um, I don't even know if what I'm telling you guys makes sense, but basically we're trying to have like a a technically perfect set of all of our code and then they're going to put that on our website um on the e-code site. And then moving forward, I'm going to sign us up for a different plan that does this quarterly. So like instead of us having to initiate it um because that's how other towns have like really up-to-date e-code sites and ours is like I think it's a nightmare like

so if I understand what we're saying is we need to we need to go through our entire code with and prepare a fully compiled version that has all amendments yes and changes and it's they're we're paying them to help us do that. But we initiated our contract with them to do this in 2019. And so they we had this 100page document that they're like, "We need you to go through this." So Mary Lou and I went through everything in that document that had not changed. Now the document was what? The contract or the document.

It's the it's the it's in SharePoint. Um it's like basically they use that document to prepare the local law for us. So it's a question and answer thing where um Marylu and I went through it and we identified everywhere where they needed to use like a different PDF. If you Michael could I don't know if you could go to the e-code site to kind of illustrate what I'm talking about but right now if you go to e-code it says code but really the name of you need to go to new laws right

and explaining to people that you need to find our zoning code by going to the new law link and scrolling all the way to the bottom and clicking on local law 6 of 2024. So we have that on the website but do you want no it's okay. So they have to take all of that basically and and compile it. They haven't started that because they wanted us to go through this original docet. So Mary Lou and I did and I'm introducing this project for you guys because it's going to be front and center. It's going to be front and center for us this year. Um because we really need to get our code.

Let's do it. So, um, Mary Lou is working on, so the document I put in is the working document that Marylu and I had, and it has all my notes in it. She's working on answering some legal questions. I don't think you guys are going to have any opinions on those. What we have to do though, the biggest thing for the board is our fee structure. So, they pointed out in this document that we do not have a consistent way of talking about fines and fees. So, next at our next meeting, I'm going to bring this to you guys and we're going to solidify how we want to do our fines and fees in our code. Um,

do binds have to be specified in the code or can it be um can we reference like a schedule as adopted by the town by town resolution from time to time? We that's we can do that for we can do that for fees. They recommend we we can do that for fees. I don't think we can do that for fines. No, fines are set. Yeah, fines are set. fees are adjust adjustable.

Yeah. So, basically, I'm going to compile I have like notes in that document, but I'm going to pull all of that together and come up with like a proposal that we can workshop at this meeting. And then Mary Lou will be at the next meeting also. And I think she'll share the progress that she's made on the items that I flagged for her. Okay. I just wanted to tell you guys about that so that you're prepared and also know how urgently I want us to do this and how important it is. Um, no Aaron email policy for the three years worth it gets uploaded.

Email policy. Um, I don't want to put you on the spot, but do you want to talk about this and if you have an opinion of which one you want to go with? So, um, I submitted to the board three samples that I received from the state archives. I've been going through them like together and highlighting what sections like some of the wording I like better in one sample more than the other. So, would the board want me to put a policy together and distribute one policy to everybody for us to work on? I'm totally okay with that if you're willing to take that work on. Yeah, I will do that and I'll have that before the next uh day. Great job. It's a lot of work on the records. Yeah, it's like a whole another job. I'm like I redo the stuff. I'm like,

you gota be like the administrative record. Well, you already made the retention tags. I saw I didn't make it. I didn't implement anything. I don't even know what you just called, Michael. So, stop. I actually found these policies to be real eye opening. Yeah. of a lot of things that we should be doing and how by not having these things how it can create issues that we're seeing at this time the issues we're dealing with right now. Yeah.

But a lot of with um with a lot of the retention and the that can be automated so we can set up rules. Um, and what I was just saying is, um, I've been I'm teasing Michael a little bit because he has been me he messed with some things while he was the deputy supervisor. Um, but he's made some uh categories for the retention schedule that so it'll be a policy that staff and officials have to like categorize your emails by a retention schedule, but you can set up an automation that'll do it automatically for certain emails.

I'm the youngest one here. Um, and I don't know how to do any of that on an email. So, Michael, you be prepared to do it for a lot of our employees because I'm a millennial, so I think like by genetics I'm supposed to know how to do that, but I don't. Yeah. So, well, there'll definitely be training. That's how I feel, too. I find it to be very overwhelming. I mean, I already sort my emails, so I'm like, wait, what do you mean? I have a new category and I just Nope. Also, that it will do it for me is a new thing to my ears. So, yeah, I've been doing that already for stuff and it's amazing. Just getting it out of my inbox.

It's less about how you organize stuff and what it does in the background. Like when something is a record, it automatically gets archived. Kate or future clerks would have access to it. So, it's and then you just have to know when you're sending an email, it will say, is this a record? And basically it has to do with town board business or decisions or anything that it is. Yeah. Some things are like permanent. Some things it's like one, two, there's like different years. Well, all boards of supervisors is permanent. So, Michael, you're saying that the records are inside the computers files. The little monkey.

Okay. Um, so thank you, Kate. um ambulance district contracts. Are we the other Yeah. The the other thing I like to say on this is we should we should think about it too in terms of other electronic media because we have like teams chats and things like that. So we should we should see if there's guidance on stuff like that for what needs to be maintained. Yeah. Because I didn't see any of that. Yeah. And um well, [clears throat] do we have a social media policy? Not yet. Not yet. Website policy. It's coming.

Okay. There's nothing in our handbook either with the social media. Not for retaining records. Not for retaining records. Just like you can't be on Facebook at work cuz I know I've read one before, but I'm thinking to myself, was that just a draft? We looked at it one time. But in one of these policies, it did talk about like Instagram messaging and your messaging in Teams. Like all those things are records. So they are things that we need to um but I don't know would that fall under email or would that fall under just records management? I assume they're considered records. Do people use aside from team messaging?

I don't know to be honest. I have no idea what each department does. I just happened to read that today one of the samples and I said oh well yeah that makes sense. It's nothing I've ever used so I don't know. the teams me not teams but like this was like instant messaging. Oh communicates that way. Yeah. You know well when I was a banker it was verbot and just because of that reason. Yeah. I would say maybe instead of this being labeled as an email policy, maybe it's electronic records retention policy so that it's just like clear that it's anything computerized record, electronic records so that we can get

social media, teams, whatever we want there to make sure that it's covered under it. As more things come out, we can add them, you know. Okay. Do we have anything for ambulance district? Yeah, you and I just need to talk because that's finalized. They said we'll send it out. Well, the board has to authorize that. No, they agreed. We did. Oh, you told me you had to work on it. Just accept all the Oh, I see. I see. So, it doesn't need to be an agenda item. No.

Okay. Um, so my last thing is I added um let's see, our zoning coordinator was asking about going up to 40 40. We've authorized her to work up to 40, but if her schedule goes up to 40, then she's going to be like a 40hour a week employee. Um, so I want to I we could just do that right now. I can make a motion to um I make a motion that the town of Rochester Town Board

authorize the zoning coordinator position to increase the hoursly hours for the zoning coordinator position from 35 hours for up to 35 hours a week to 40 hours a week and effective tomorrow. What's your effective Monday? Effective Monday. I was in I was like, what day is it? I don't even know how to make that. What's that? 12. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Effective 12 and second. Any discussion? All in favor? I

opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Okay. So, we have an executive session now. Wait, did we do um we have something else that we added? No, we did those cross. Oh, yep. Can we do it? Yep. I forgot we did the cross. Okay. Motion to Hang on. Oh, sorry. Hey, do you remember if we did the resolution for the amal contract? I know it was on the agenda for discussion, but I can't I think we all agreed to move forward.

Did we do it as a resolution? I don't remember if it was a resolution, but I do think the frame moving forward. Yeah, I think we did because I think that I did that resolution on the fly also. I did that one and then the one for the playground. I thought so. Back to back. Yeah, because we did the playground and then you asked if any of us had any comments. You talked about the one thing that you made the change to in there, the Maryl that you incorporated all the Maryl stuff. You were like, "No, just approve it." Would you? Okay. I I remember us.

Should we do a resolution just in case it didn't? I make a motion that the town of Rochester Town Board authorize the town supervisor to sign and execute contract offer offer to accept the contract offer for to offer the contract to offer the contract to the Marble Town first aid unit and Grant. I just made sure I got that name right and then first states second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Not having that meeting.

So I'll make a motion that the time I just want to amend that motion for the 2026 year 2026 contract. Correct. I just want to make sure the year was in there for the official. So we have an amendment. Um, do I have a second on the amendment? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries.

Okay. So, I'll make a motion that the town of Rochester Town Board enters into executive session at 8:29 p.m. for the purposes of discussing matters that lead to the appointment of particular persons and for the discussion of the litigation um of Brooke versus Town of Rochester. matters pertaining to the litigation. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. And then we won't come back onto the stream, but we will.

Michael, before you close the meeting, um just for public information, I will be abstaining from one of the two topics in the executive session. Okay. You'll be recusing yourself. Yes. Yeah. Sorry. Recusing myself. I know the public won't see that, but I just wanted to make sure it was part of the record.