Town Board - Regular Meeting

Great. Thank you for your patience. Um, we are ready to go. So, I will call the town of Rochester Town Board April 9th, 2026 business meeting to order. If you could all stand for the pledge to the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Counciloman Albo. Councilman Coleman here. Councilman Smeith here. Councilman Wyn here. Supervisor Nan here. So, good evening everyone. Um we are starting off our business meeting um this month with interviews for the public boards that we have vacancies on. Um we have a practice an adopted policy of interviewing candidates for public boards in a public meeting. Um so first up we have Joshu Royo. So, um, if you could come up and we've got,

welcome. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Um, you are, um, an applicant for the zoning board of appeals. Um, so, first, thank you for, um, um, applying for that role. Um and um so my we have a basically like a 20 minute interview that we will do um we'll start um with I have two questions for you and then the board will um each ask you a question um and then uh if you have any questions for us we we have that at the end.

Right. So, um, so the zoning board of appeals is a quasi judicial board that hears requests for variances and interpretations of the code. Um, why are you interested in this role and what is your familiarity with the town's current zoning code and the character of our neighborhoods?

Sure. Um, so I'm Josh Royo. Um, presently I'm a public servant for the past 15 years. I work for the US General Services Administration. Um I'm an Army veteran. I also do a lot of real estate investment development on the side. Um I recognize the role of public service and that it's really helpful in ensuring that local governments function um and serve the people. And so I recognize the zoning board of appeals as you said is a quasi judicial role. It's not a legislative role. So I come in with no agenda. I have um significant experience at the GSA level as a federal servant interpreting complex policies applying it to a $60 billion per year program. The multiple award schedules government uses to buy everything from office supplies to complex IT consulting. Um and I'm a licensed real estate agent, still formerly from New Jersey before we moved up here. Um but definitely have experience. have done over 35 million in lifetime sales as a part-time uh agent and so have a lot of experience with uh zoning uh tends to come into play into play a little bit more often when you're talking about a 17 by 85 lot where you want to make any change you're really uh looking at setbacks uh applying and uh so I'm someone who can look at the policy I recognize that uh the role isn't to bring about your um and you know what your personal preferences or how you might decide the matter is to apply the law and decision frameworks that are prescribed uh to make a fair decision. Um having that governance in place is critically important to ensuring everyone is treated fairly. And so my my understanding from just the meetings that I've watched is that we have a really well functioning board. Um so I'm not coming in with any type of agenda. I'm coming in um offering to serve and to lend my experience.

Thank you. Um and we did do roll call, but I totally forgot to do introduction. So, let's just quickly um do that for you. I'm so sorry. Misa Michael, supervisor Nen. Oh, Kate Fenber is asking me Alex. Nice.

So, and the five of us, uh Kate is our clerk and the other five of us are the board members, so we'll be the ones doing the appointment. Okay. So, um thank you for that answer. It sounds like you um have a good understanding of what the zoning board of appeals does. Um my next question is about um how you would apply the balancing test. So basically uh for considering variances, there's um especially um area variances, there's a balancing test where you are weighing the benefit to the applicant against the health, safety, welfare of the neighborhood. Um my um question for you is um are you comfortable making a decision that might be unpopular with a room full of neighbors um when you feel that the um legal m criteria have been met for the other the other side of the decision?

Yeah. So I I think in the role it doesn't matter whether you're comfortable or not with it. You have to apply the law. That is what you must do. um as a public servant um especially being at a GS-15 management level if you're around long enough you're going to see both uh kind of sides of the coin in terms of organizations and you have to be able to maintain a little bit of dissonance and that the law may not be what you would like it to be if you were making the law. Um but it's not your job to do that. It's your job to apply the law and to apply the standards to balance the uh interest of the applicant against any detriments that those um or that that application may have on community be it health, safety, environmental. Um but you kind of have a prescribed framework. Um it varies from you know area variances which there's a little bit more leeway in gray space versus use variances where there's kind of strict tests as to um you know what what criteria must be met. Um, but yeah, I'm I'm able to make that decision. Um, I think no one likes to see things go in a direction that you feel is wrong, but the the law is the law and you have to apply it uh evenly and fairly to all.

So, I will open it up to the board um if you're okay and we'll start. Sure. Um, thank you so much for not only applying but also interviewing in such a public manner. It's an intimidating process um for many. So, I appreciate you so willing to do it though. I'd love to interview public. Um, and I have two pretty simple questions. Um, one, are you an eligible elector of the town of Rochester? Yes, I am. You're registered to vote? Yes. Um, and then my next question is, um, do you think um, just lost it? Go ahead, Michael. I'm going to find it again sometime.

Want to echo what Charlton said. Thank you for your interest and for being willing to do interview through this process. Um so one of the things ZBA does and sounds like you watch some of the meetings so you understand some of the dynamics of the group is you know there's discussion there's debate uh there's negotiation to ultimately come to solution I'm curious what specifically about your personality what would you bring to that discussion how do you kind of handle yourself in these group environments what kind of role would you play

I I think having good active listening skills is critically important to let the applicant kind of express their opinion to ask probing questions to really understand uh their needs or concerns and the same goes for uh members of the community and and their concerns. Um at the end of the day, I think it's really important to be able to remain objective and to remain focused on, you know, what the role of the zoning board is. Um what what frameworks they have to abide by, what the code says. Um but that's that's how I would approach it. I would be very methodical. I think key to everything is preparation, doing your homework, coming into the meetings prepared, knowing what uh codes apply um and what really the core issue is. So if you come in prepared, you're a good active listener uh and you can remain objective. That's kind of the core tenants and what makes a good board member. All right.

Are you open to if we don't select you for the ZBA, are you open to appointment on another board or consideration of another board in town? Um, I would be open to the planning board. I think given my background, um, I also run a vacation rental management company. um from an optics perspective, not an objectivity, but an optics perspective. I could see others um maybe viewing me as someone who's friendly towards short-term rentals, but um in in general, I think I'm most interested in the zoning board because that's where there are no, you know, optics considerations like that. Um I'm able to remain objective in either position, but I think my primary interest lies with the zoning board.

Great. Thank you. I appreciate your honesty. So, in your work, either professionally or just from watching um you know, the the meetings or just from talking with your neighbors and everyone in Rochester, what would you say are some of the largest concerns that the public has about development philosophy in Rochester?

I mean, I think there's a lot of concerns about individual property rights that's often best served through the legislative pro uh process. As I mentioned, zoning board isn't meant to change the law. how they're meant to interpret it. Um, but I know, you know, people being able to develop their land is a significant concern. Um, the, you know, types of use of land, obviously, um, anytime a new type of business is moving in and your new neighbor, um, that's going to generate some interest. Um, but th those be the two primary ones. Um, again, I'm relatively new to town. My wife and I moved here, um, just in this past March. Um, so I'm still getting to know people. Um, but I'll be someone who will be an active listener. I want to understand the concerns. I would be accessible. Uh, and certainly always open to listening.

Do you see any gaps in our code that you would be interested either per personally or professionally in the town board addressing?

I I just don't view it as a role of a zoning board um to do that. And to be perfectly candid, I'm someone that will need to continue doing my homework on the code. I'm I'm more familiar with R2 because I did a a project with a pool and a pergola and an outdoor kitchen and now my wife and I are building a couple of houses up on Cooper Street. So, I was up there up on a ridge trying to measure and make sure that I wasn't going to need a zoning uh variance myself. So, um I'm I'm very familiar with setbacks, height restrictions, frontage, things like that. Um but there are areas where I'm going to have to do my homework. I'm going to have to learn as I go. Some of that will be, you know, organic. If I'm appointed, I will study it. A lot of it will come from as issues arise, I will do research and make sure that I'm well prepared to address it.

Thank you. Um, are you familiar with the town's comprehensive plan?

Um, I have seen the town's comprehensive plan. I couldn't recite it to you. Um, but I'm I'm not an expert on it. And in your work as in real estate development and sales, have you ever had a situation where you personally in your role as a developer or or um in building process have had to appear before a board like the zoning board of materials to apply for variance? Uh to be perfectly candid um being in Hoboka, New Jersey and and Jersey City where I did projects, I tended to select projects that did not require variances because the the cycle time was often in excess of a year to 18 months that made those type of investments more challenging. Um in a smaller community, I think you can see variances go through, you know, if they're if they're clean and they make sense when you apply the appropriate standards a little bit faster than that. Um but, you know, that's certainly not why I'm here. I think that um you know recusing yourself in public um disclosure of of any potential conflicts and avoiding that is is really key to retaining public trust. Um but I haven't had to appear for it because I've generally um in the past tried to avoid situations where I knew there would be a zoning issue and kind of a roll of the dice as to whether a variance would be granted

in and in your uh sales and purchasing representative capacity. Have you ever had clients who have had to go through a zoning board of appeals type process to see? I and I've helped connect them with attorneys who specialize in uh kind of land use and and appearing before zoning boards. um certainly done that to see conversions from a three family to a two family and um coverage type issues especially in um Jersey City where you have some undersized uh lots non-conforming lots that you want to do anything to them you really have to have to have a variance

and what's sort of your reaction to that process and how it worked out for your clients

um I mean in general I think I I was transparent that it was a little borious pro uh pro process. Um it did work out the two times that I've been involved where they were able to get the variance. A lot of times they were hoping for a six-month type thing and it was 18 months and that certainly hurt the investment for them. Um but I feel like down near the city it's kind of a different world a little bit in terms of uh some of the challenges that you face. Some are very similar. I mean, you have the same basic ones. Um, but maybe the volume of applications that are coming through and the number of hearings that have to be held delay the cycle time. So, I didn't didn't have to um to deal with too much of that.

Um, so as a if appointed um you would be a public officer and you'd be subject to both the New York State and the town's ethics code. Are you familiar with the code of ethics at all?

Um, I'm not uh entirely familiar with it. I'm confident that I would have no issues. I'm a federal employee, a public servant um and and pretty um pretty familiar with, you know, the the limitations on what I can do as a as a federal employee. would certainly if uh you know appointed confirm that but I have never been convicted or charged less much less convicted of a crime. I just don't see any possible conflicts or or ethics concerns.

Yeah, I think the it's disclosure of of um of interest in so you know I think um that's the main part of the ethics code. Then you'd also take an oath of office. Um there's also a training. So there's two things. The meetings are the third Thursday of each month at 6:30m and there is a training requirement that you do uh four hours of training annually. Um are you prepared for that time commitment? Yes, of course. Okay. And do you have any questions for us?

Um yeah, I I'd love to know your thoughts on the best way to get up to speed to start contributing meaningfully um as quickly as possible. Are there resources on the board um that that could kind of mentor me uh for a little bit or um anything you'd recommend if appointed I do to uh best serve the community?

So, we have um we do have some online resources provided by New York State that we provide all new appointees um and those are really good primers. The required training is also something that you can take online. Um and then definitely the code itself um reading the the town comprehensive plan and then when you're going through the application um I you know learning as you go by studying the code I would say is definitely how a lot what happens for a lot of people but understanding the limitations of the board is what you really learn in those trainings. Um, and there's some other publications that we have compiled for new appointees.

Great. Um, just I I always ask this, is there anything um any questions that you might have of me still that about my background that I could uh give you information on that would be helpful in making a decision? Have you worked collaborative collaboratively in large groups in a leadership capacity? How would you describe your personality?

Yeah, I' I've definitely worked collaboratively on large groups. I sit on IT governance boards for eight figureure investments. I've been a vice president of a condo HOA. So, feel like that's kind of a miniature town in a way. There's always uh you know, lots of diverse interests. Uh I've been vice president treasurer of a condo board with 144 units. Well, thank you, Josh. You Nice to have

I mean I don't want to crane my neck so I hope to speak everybody.

So welcome. you are here for um you applied for the vacancy on the board of assessment review. Um that term expires in 2027. So um it's not a full 5-year term. Um as you know, the Board of Assessment Review is a quasi is also a quasi judicial body that listens to grievances and makes determinations based on evidence. Why are you interested in serving in this term and what experience do you have with local property values?

I for those of you who don't know my name is behav um I served you 25 years on the zoning board of appeals which as we have just learned is a quasi judicial board. Also, I want to help the town board. And I'll give you that definition of what that means if no one minds. It's a judicial power authority delegated to boards to act like a court by holding hearings, investigating, evaluating evidence, and rendering binding decisions. is it it is a court-like but not part of the judiciary. What that means is in the same capacity as I sat on the zoning board of appeals and made decisions and rendered decisions on people's property then property that is what would happen if I joined the board of assessment review um in my tender if this helps anyone tenure I believe there for four article 78s and one use variance. Four article 78s we won because we did a well doumented plan which is what is required of the board of assessment review as well at the end of their listening to grievances and going over the records that are given to us and making decisions. Um, I've lived here 75 years. I've probably investigated and looked over more properties than the current

town assessor to make the zoning board decisions that I made. I know the lay of the land in most of the town. I know where the clay pits are. I know where the sink pools are. I know what people have. I know they have rock ledges or they don't have rock ledges. So some of that's going to come into play on the board of the subject review because that's why people are looking to change their reassessments. So I have a lot of knowledge of the town. And the other thing I know that doesn't always seem to be important is I know the boundaries of my town and Jaggerville is also even though it's up off 55 is a part of the town of Rochester. people forget about that, but it's also part of the town of Rochester and they may have to have reassessments as well. So, if it were to come in under an elemental address or whatever they're deemed up there, I'm not sure if it's Graville or Elville, they would also be a part of our town. And what else can I say to you? I've uh I served five years on the town board where we made decisions. three of those years as deputy supervisor and I've been in municipal government now for 14 15 years serving in different municipalities so I have a pretty good idea and they're also I know too um well you ask me questions because I can give a whole bunch more to each

I have one question then we'll go around the board so um as you know the board of assessment review is sep separate from the assessor's office um and separate from the town board and this year is particularly sensitive due to the townwide reval. Um how will you separate your personal opinions on town policy and the reval itself from the statutory requirement to determine a property's fair market value based strictly on the evidence presented?

Same way I did 25 years on the zoning board. And if no one has ever been before my board when I was on there, the law is the law is the law. And whatever governs on the properties, that is the way it will be applied. You're not going to like me perhaps when I'm done matters not to me. You don't have to like me. You just have to respect the board and the operation that it does. Should I turn next? Um, are you an eligible elector of the town of Chester?

Yes, I am for um 75 minus 18, whatever that is. That may Okay, I trust you. That's it. My my room pass your house every morning. So, um and then um are there any other fords that you would be open to consideration on? currently. I know you all Oh, let me see. Many others. Yeah, I've been on many others. Nah, no. Just Okay. I just wanted to make sure before I I have a lot of applicants before we place something. Nope.

Thank you. Oh, and also just thank you for being here and being interviewed publicly. I know serving on a board in town, you're very accustomed to uh this type of a setting. Yeah. So, thank you though for still being up for it and for applying. Thank you. Thank you for your interest. Thank you for your years of service to the town. I think we all know you here. Uh I think we all know that you're well researched. We all know that you're not shy about sharing your opinions as well. Absolutely not.

Um and thank you too because I know uh at some of the meetings that have been happening, I mentioned that we have this open seat and that we can fill a seat. It's an important um position as you're aware. So getting back to um what Erin had mentioned, obviously there's a lot of interest in this. There's a lot of concerns. I also think there's a need for education and for people to understand the process and what's available to them. I'm curious how you would balance because obviously you have perspectives and opinions about current assessment. uh how you would balance similar to what Aaron was saying, your personal opinions about the assessment of what's happening with your role as kind of an arm of the town government that is has the responsibility for um being fair and equitable in terms of how these discussions happen.

My opinions are my opinions. The law is the law. That's simple, huh?

It is. And then would you be comfortable in a position as you're operating in this capacity as a town official uh keeping your opinions to yourself and then a operating as as the board intends which is to not give any p perception that there is favoritism andor that properties are not being held to the same standard. If you are asking me if I will not stand up at a meeting like this and speak again, that's my right.

My opinion on the board, however, or my role on the board is exactly that, a role on the board whereby I am held to a different standard and that is the standard that I will uphold. I would never ask you not to speak in a meeting because I always appreciate your comments even when there are slings and arrows directed at me. Would I would I if appointed I would still probably I would still speak it. If that keeps me off the board my right but as far as serving on this board the two have nothing to do with not a US. Hi. Over time, as you've served on these boards, have you seen an evolution in the role or the function of the ZBA or the board of assessment review? Um, as the town's grown and evolved,

address the board of assessment review in your question because I have not served. I'm sorry. Have I seen a role change in the zoning board of appeals?

Yes. Their work has probably increased too bold. Maybe they still have it hasn't increased as high as the planning burden. But sure, you've got more people moving in, more people wanting to do buildings, more people wanting to build homes. Yes, most definitely. But the law hasn't shifted. It may have modified in some respects, but the law has not changed and there are still five criteria to meet for an area of variance. and um serving on these boards, do you think that these boards need more resources for education and outreach? And how would you address that? How would you want to see that? I think the gentleman who just spoke needs to get his feet wet. He needs to serve for a while. He'll get he'll get his feet wet. Four hours of training a year is not enough. It's not enough. And three hours of training. I will comment in the board of assessment review. Three hours of training is not enough. I called the state department today and asked for a copy of their manual for the grievance board of appeals, which is how I do my job before I even get appointed. These are my notes from the town of BGO. Um, they do not offer a hard copy. I am going to print it from online because it is the only thing available and I will study that whether I get this or not. So I will be well prepared when I do speak and if I do speak

always. In your many years of home ownership in the town, have you ever appeared uh with a grievance before the court assessment? No. Um, oh, I I I take that back. I did for someone else. I had their permission to speak at the grievance board during the time frame that Alan Lavine served on the board. So, you can research that and stick a year to that. I don't know what that is. I'm sorry. I did. I was on board with Allen. So, might

have it was it was with someone else's. All right. Thank you. Um, so you've already mentioned the training requirement which I was going to ask you about. Um, do you have any questions for us? No, but there's also a disclosure that has to do so that uh the Yeah, the disclosure um is for anyone who would be appearing before the board or has an interest in anything. did a little. Okay. And are you okay with signing that disclosure when presented at the point that

I would for the record? That's sure. You knew about Oh, if uh if that's the case, it's part of the dove. Yes. Okay. I think anything else? Okay. Thank you.

Is uh cliff here yet?

Yes. Hi, Clip. Welcome. Um, thank you for putting yourself forward and um, as everyone has said, uh, doing an interview in an especially public, um, way tonight. Um, you have applied for the board of assessment review. Um, and we I have the same question. So you might be hearing them twice. Um, but as you know, the Board of Assessment Review is a quasi judicial body that listens to grievances and makes determinations based on evidence. Why are you interested in serving in this term? And what experience do you have that prepares you for this and with local property values?

Uh, well, I'm retired, time on my hands, and I'm willing to give it to the community. I also know it's difficult to find people to sit on these boards. Um I was on the zoning board. I certainly would be and I succeeded her as as chairman after she uh left. Um and I know we had often um difficulty finding somebody to sit on the board. In fact, we often operated without five members. So sometimes we were down two people. So it's difficult. And um I know you had an opening and I thought I can you know serve and and uh serve the need. Um I've been on the zoning board as I said I was the chairman after Z left. Um when Mike Bton used to uh do his night his light shows um I was his alternate on the planning board. Um you know I've had a long career. I've done a lot of things. Um and uh I think I can do the job.

You um so the board of assessment review is separate from the assessor and the assessor's office. Um separate from the town board. The decisions made by the board of assessment review are made by that board. Um and this year is particularly sensitive due to the townwide reval. I went to the meeting last was it last Saturday? is interesting. Um so just um how will you separate your personal opinions on town policy and the the reval itself um with the requirement to determine a property's fair market value based strictly on the evidence presented?

Yeah, I think Zulli asked a question earlier about having a period before the um assessment review board. Um I think I did maybe quite a long time ago, maybe 30 years ago. My property taxes I think dulled overnight and I wasn't all that happy about it. So I I filed a grievance. I met with the board and nothing happened. Okay. Um I met recently with the assessor. Um I had an informal meeting with them. Same reason. Um and my feeling is look as long as it's fair, as long as the same standards applied across the board, that's really all I want out of it. So, um I think I can do that. I I understand what the criteria is. I understand what the role is. Um as long as it's fair, as long as everyone's treated the same way, that's fine.

So, yes. Um thank you for being here. Um not that you're not accustomed being a member of the CVA of something of its environment. Um, I assume that that this answer is yes, but are you an eligible member of the town? Yes. Wonderful. Um, and are you open um to potentially being appointed to a different board or any other boards in town that we have agencies on?

It depends. Um, I liked being on the zoning board because that dealing with individuals and their problems. Um, the same thing with this particular board. Um, you're dealing with people. I'm not all that excited about the idea of working on the planning board or making planning decisions. I I prefer something like this dealing with PC. Hey, I would go positive like we also have an ethics committee or we have um housing committee that also has openings. trying to rep um but we all that's fine that the assessment review is totally okay to say just it's a case by case basis and it depends on what the role is I suppose. Great. Well, thank you.

You're welcome. Michael, Cliff, thank you for your interest. Thank you for your service along with me. Um I guess I won't ask the same question, but I'm curious if you could speak about your understanding of how assessments relate to things like the tax levy and what kind of what you think the role of the board of assessment review is in terms of evaluating these assessments, particularly in a room where we've done a townwide assessment. uh and how that kind of plays into the concept of equity and fairness with with respect to uh how people are being assessed.

Well, as I understand it, um the taxes are going to be the taxes whatever the the you know the school board or the town or the town whatever the number they come up with that's going to be shared among all the the homeowners in this town. And so the question is how does my particular piece of property fit in with the overall scheme? it's not going to change the amount of taxes I owe in so far as it's going to exceed or or be less than that percentage of a whole. But it's just a matter again of applying the same standards across the board and and making sure that trying to be as fair as possible and um make sure that everyone whatever they their their issues are they're heard. But basically, you you you look at the assessment. You I think there's a a presumption that the assessment is correct. It's it's sort of like the zoning board. The law is law as B said. Um and if you come in for variance, um you have to explain why you think you're entitled to variance. Same thing with with an assessment review. You come in, you have to present your issues with evidence and the board then will decide whether or not your treatment conforms with the treatment of a similar property. There's a barrier. Thank you. So on this board, do you feel that there's like an educational component and um what when you're in your background or your experience would help you um communicate information effectively to the to the public and people that you're you're working with?

Well, I think a lot of people misunderstand the role of the different boards. And I've seen people come in to the zoning board with a completely different idea of what they could do and couldn't do. But the question is, can you explain what the role of the board is and how the the system, the process works and make sure that the people they walk away not being satisfied with their decision, at least they understand how you reach that decision and why.

Thank you. you've already asked my main question which you said you appeared before board an assessment review in the past but um and you you said that I think you had several years ago and in your recent discussions with the assessor on an informal um um comparison of your own property values um do you think that there are ways that the town might be able to improve education for the for the people of the town in those uh in those processes both how is divided by uh property owners and those that proportional share that you were discussing as well as the appeals process that you also alluded to. Well, I know as I said I I attended a meeting I don't know whether it was last Saturday or the Saturday before last but it was two Saturdays ago and I know there are series of these meetings um scheduled and I think they're a great idea. I think the um the meeting I attended um because this is a new process because these assessments are all new. I think people are a little confused and a lot upset because it it looks like it's a big change. Um I think people need to understand that. I think these meetings do that. Um, I think there should be more designed to educate like what the process is, how it works, how you can participate in it, how you compile a grievance, how you can present your your issues and less on individual grievances because that's kind of it dissolved into sort of a not a free-for-all, but it was I didn't get as as much out of it as I was hoping to. I was hoping to learn something. I didn't learn all heck a lot, but I think you could. I think in other meetings if you focus on educating it'll be more useful meetings will be more useful and um people will involve.

Thank you.

Um and I I'm not sure but those meetings might have been from the the community group not town not the the town um hosted meetings. Um, so because you were on the zoning board of appeals, um, you're aware that you would be under the ethics code of New York State and, um, the town of Rochester. Um, as was mentioned before, there's also disclosure that board of assessment review members would need to disclose any interests in grievances that are being seen. Um and would you be prepared to do that?

Understand conflicts of interest and make those public and then there is a training requirement that um has to be I think uh there's maybe one like on the next week and then um if that can't be done uh that training has to happen and be certified before the board of assessment reviewer you've prepared you're that I've been through that with the zone board. I've been through that in my prior career had to have um continuing education part of the job. Do you have any questions for us? Okay. Anything else from

one question? Sure. Um would you be able to if you serve on the board of assessment review or any other quas um board uh be able to keep your personal opinions about anything to do with the reassessment um any determinations that you made as a member of that board?

Yes. In my prior life, in my business career, um I understand that the first thing you have to do is understand both sides. Um, and if you don't understand both sides, you can't do a good job of representing the sides you represent. And you also can't do a good job of of deciding issues that are presented to you if you don't understand both sides. So, yeah, I have no problem. Secondly, my personal opinion means we said the law because the law is always to deal with and we both had plenty of decisions that we had to make that we didn't necessarily agree with. We didn't necessarily agree with the law, but it is the law and it's not up to me or the board to change the law. It's our job to apply it. That's what we do.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you. For the people that have come in later, we do have lots of chairs in the front if you'd like to sit down. Um, our next items on the agenda, we have continuations of public hearings. Um, so first I'll start um by opening the continuation of public hearing for local law E of 2026. This is the continuation of the public hearing for um the proposal to impose a temporary moratorum on battery battery energy storage system facilities. Um is there anyone present that is attending tonight to speak about the moratorum on the battery energy storage system? Do we have anyone that joined? And then did we receive any written comment?

Yeah. Okay. So, this was um referred to the Oolster County Planning Board. Um they have 30 days from the referral to um to enter that. So, we uh aren't going to close the public hearing until such time. Um, they did have their meeting this week, but it usually takes them a little bit. Um, so I would like to make a motion to leave the public hearing open for written comment until Monday, April 13, 2026 at 5:00 p.m.

Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Great. So, next up we have the public hearing for local law D of 2026. This is the continued public hearing um for a local law repealing and replacing chapter 132 vehicle and traffic the code of the town of Rochester um with a new law. Is there anyone here who would like to I have one person signed up um so we'll start with the list first um and then I'll ask if anyone else would like to speak. So um Alana Blum

um so as president of law here um I took an interest law and I see cover you know several scenarios with the types of regulations um and supportive of what I needed. Um, however, I have concerns about enforcement. Per usual, this town has enforcement issues. So, I was talking to the supervisor the other day and the prospect of potentially um the board exploring uh the use of surveillance as a mechanism for enforcement. I would encourage and like to hear that conversation and see what you guys come up with in terms of the legality of that and the um uh feasibility of implementation. April.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak on the on local law D, the vehicle and traffic law? Um, what would the board like to do with this public hearing? You want to leave it open for a little bit? Um, give me a referral comments. We did not have to refer and we are right. No. And we didn't get any comments from the public any I would move that we close the public. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor?

I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Okay. So, we want to keep with our reports.

Yeah. Okay. So uh our our next uh section of the meeting are the reports and then after that we have our public comment portion of the meeting. Um so this should go quickly because we gave reports at our last meeting. Um so the first is the um financial report for the town. So I've shared in the public folder for the public and the folder for the town board. both um our year-to- date budget versus actual and the financial reports for the highway fund and the general fund. So the very high level summary of um the March report is that for revenue um in general fund we received $139,000 $870 sorry $139,870.17 for expenditures we had we saw um 325,26327 for highway fund. I'm trying to save paper but means I have to open and close documents. And then just while I wait to open this, um the budget versus actuals are all the books are caught up for 2025 expenditures and revenues that were previously being shown in the reports. So the budget versus actual only reflects our 2026 revenues and

expenditures. However, since the financial reports are a snapshot in time, they do um they might include a few things that are meant for that budget. So, that's just my um so we received uh 800 uh $86,2083 of revenue in the highway fund and $146,990 of expenditures. Um, we didn't have any expenditures in capital fund, but we're going to start seeing a lot in capital fund because we moved all of our bridge projects to capital. Um, and so that's actually going to lessen the activity we see in highway fund quite a bit. Um I didn't just looking over the budget versus actual there was nothing really that um is jumping out that I wanted to bring to the board's attention other than our heating costs have exceeded the 50% mark so far for the year. So that's just something we are going to keep an eye on because we um we didn't budget uh for both quite such a cold year and such a quite high increase in um the costs of the heating. So um we I am expecting that we will need to modify those budget codes.

Question on the heat bills. Are we able to avail ourselves of any um price cap uh which type products were um from any Russian buyers? Oh market price. What do you mean like we don't pay market price? So we get a municipal

but I understand but is it market price based on I mean price that we get is based on market price. Is it fixed for the year or is it floating price and is there a way to drop that float? Uh, I believe so. I believe the board looked into this a few years ago. I can I can reopen that topic. I think at the time the prices were really high, so I think we opted to stick with the um the market.

Um, all right. So, for supervisors report, I gave a very lengthy report um at our last meeting. So, I don't want to make everyone sit through my my long um reports. I in terms of correspondence, what I wanted to bring the board's attention to is a few events um that um have been sent to me recently. So, on April 29th, um the county is hosting a um a youth um mental health awareness event at the Stone Ridge Library. I posted the flyer um at the front of the building here and I shared the flyer with the board in our wrap-up folder. Um, I also received outreach about hosting a um grant workshop through the Association of Towns. Um, and I'm going to actually pitch that we would like to um see if we can host that because I went to that last year and I I drove a couple hours. I think it would be a great um opportunity for us to host. Um, we also, um, there's a training, a finance and personnel training hosted by the Association talents that was announced this week and I shared that flyer with the board. If you would like to attend that, um, please let me know. and the other um correspondence I had, I met with the Hudson Valley Regional Council um about our town and our needs and our um infrastructure needs and was given um quite a long list of reference

of grants that we should um consider pursuing to meet those goals. and I put that correspondence in the folder um with for the town board. Um the few updates that I just wanted to give is um uh first I would like to thank Sheila, our dedicated cleaner, who a lot of people probably see if you're early to the meetings because she sets up. Um she spent the um time a lot of time this past week cleaning the community center floor. So, if you could all look down and see how clean and white it is, it actually is quite incredible. And um it makes a huge difference. And she that was her really wanting to to make that happen. And I I appreciate um the improvement to the space that it's made.

Does she have any product endorsements? Um I think so. But this is because there's like a special um way that you clean this type of floor and then there's a coating that gets put on. I was going to say, did we get her? Did she have a floor? Yeah. She running around in here on it at night. She and Harry uh did that together. Y

Yeah, like a Zambon. That's exactly what I was picturing her like she would Oh, beautiful. Um, my other announcement is that we've uh uh very uh softly opened the new municipal park bathroom. Um, there will be a official ribbon cutting on for that on April 29th, but um the park has been very busy. It's going to be very warm a few days it looks like and so the bathrooms are open. Um, we put signs up for the hours that we're posting them because we're still working out the cleaning schedule. Um, but they are now, um, open and can be utilized by our, um, the people using our amazing park. Um we are also doing um the town is hosting some educational um uh sessions regarding the reval and we're moving into that the part of it where we will be doing a lot of um uh discussion of the um grievance process and what happens after the tenative rule is filed. So we do have one of those sessions this Sunday. Um, it's actually at the firehouse, um, at the Award Firehouse at 10:00 a.m. Um, and that's all I have for my report.

Okay. Um, for the month of March, $45,764.35 was collected. Um, I just want to remind everybody we are in a New York State burning ban until May 14th. Uh unpaid notices will be mailed out at the end of next week for taxes and they will go out the last week of April. Uh we continue to have a high volume of foils and um some additional research that we've been looking for up with OSI. Um, and we continue to help the assessor's office with what we can with the whole grievance process and meeting the assessor. I'll be with Councilman Coleman on Sunday and that'll be that's all I have. Great.

Um, so for the highway report, I don't have an official report, but there's a couple things. Um the we recently the tree clearing was done um for the voicemail bridge project. Um so that was actually

um a very um uh the highway department was going to do that and then we ended up having to have our on call tree service do that at the last minute. And I so I just wanted to thank um them for coming in three days before it had to be done and getting taking care of those trees and doing a very very good job. Um the next thing that the superintendent wanted me to report is the extension the project 32 extension um has uh is almost complete. So, if you live on Stony Hill, especially, you might see that there's now a road um that will be that is for the detour route for project 32 bridge, which is being replaced in 2027. I wanted to let everyone know though that that road will not be open until the bridge has to be closed. So, it is a beautiful new road. Um, but it will be we do have to wait to open it until the bridge is closed. I just uh wanted to announce that because I think people might want to use that road. Um, but it will will need to be officially opened um in coordination with that and that the bridge closure is up to the county on when they would like us to to do that. But it is forthcoming and it will change the traffic pattern um because the that section of project 32 will only be accessed by um that extension and then project 32 will become a dead end at the bridge. Once the bridge is replaced though it will become a through road. So it will no longer be um a deadend road. Um, I also last at our last meeting I did thank Councilman Coleman for all the work he did at the community center when our plumbing

backed up and he did do a lot. I did forget to mention that our highway department was here. they did the trenching and also worked overtime. Um, making sure that that um that that was taken care of and it also definitely helped save the town on costs when we do our own excavation work. So, I just wanted to thank the highway employees um and Harry who um is in buildings and maintenance for their work on that um lovely issue that we had. They were in the hole, too. They were in the hole. Yes. Very thin text gloves.

Okay. And then the only um I do have some um code enforcement items for discussion. So, I don't have a code enforcement office update um department update. Um the assessor's office has been backtoback scheduled with meetings with property owners um and they're continuing that. um they are now booking um um appointments into May. Um so they're trying to see as many people as possible. Then I also have the um report from our recreation department um that I'm going to pull up right now. Um, so summer registration, oh, it begins at 9:00 a.m. Monday, April 13th. Paperwork can be found on the town website. Please read it thoroughly. There are a few changes this year. Also, keep in mind that this program is only open to town of Rochester residents. It's an excellent program. Um, now that the weather is starting to get warmer, um, I, this is Ashley Sweeney, our recreation director, would like to point out that the lawns at the town park and behind the community center need to be mowed on a weekly basis. Both properties get used every day. Um, and we are putting a schedule in place for that. Um, the recreation department is taking up signups for Earth Day, Adopt a Road event. The cleanup days are April 18th and Saturday, April 25th. Call the department to sign up or for more information. We are um asking people to wait until those dates to put the garbage bags out because that's when the town will be picking the bags up. Otherwise, they'll they're going to be hanging out on the side of the road for a while. Um, Ashley would like to thank the Ellenville Regional Rural Health Network and Cornell Cooperative Extension for providing a wonderful

nutritional cooking workshop for our seniors on Wednesday, April 8th. It was a great experience and we look forward to working with them again in the future. There will be another teen on Wednesday, April 15th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the community center. It's a great way for teens to get to know each other and explore avenues that interest them. Call the recck department for more information. Save the date. Friday, May 15th will be the spring fling lunchon. We will begin taking signups for that next week. And lastly, we are very excited for the installation of our new playground equipment behind the community center, which is happening very soon. Thank you to the town board for making this happen. There are still many improvements that Ashley would like to make in the space, but this is a giant step in the right direction. Thank you. The kids will be so grateful. And um that is all that I have. Next up, we have the um court. Do you have anything to report court?

Um has the carpet been installed? It is being installed on the west. And then I noticed that we also have a RFP for uh metal detector. Yeah. So we I um my clerk Stacy has taken over now the the ordering for the smaller supplies. So, we're she's making good progress on getting everything. One other thing that you know the highway department does to save us money uh the side door of the courthouse the next time they have uh plans for they could a little ramp.

Yes, I'm going to talk to them about it. We we do have to pay we still have to pay for that. So, we'll have to get um get that worked out. Much cheaper than a contract. Yep. Exactly. Okay.

So, board and committee reports. Um we'll start with um our town clerk, Kate, who's also the historian for the Historic Preservation Commission. Um so, I'm just going to repeat what I said two weeks ago because we have a bigger crowd here today. Um, I don't know if anyone's ever attended a Hamlet talk series that our HBC puts on, but um, the next, uh, Hamlet talk series is going to be the Hamlet of Whitfield, and that will be held in August, and we're going to host that at the Acord Speedway. Um, so look for dates for that um, to be confirmed. Um, they also are planning a stonehouse tour of pre revolutionary stone homes in the town of Rochester. And the final thing um that they're working on is doing a farm inventory database. They have a group of right now 10 plus people that are working on districtricting um where the election districts are. They are working on all dairy and chicken farms in the area dating back as far as you can go back as long as we can have it documented. They're for operational farms in the town of Rochester. The idea is to start collecting a database of all the farms that the town of Rochester has had. Um, and June 13th at 10:00 a.m. here, they're going to take those results and actually post them on a larger town of Rochester map so we could see exactly where all the farms were in the town of Rochester, the names, the years of operation. So, um, anybody that's interested in, um, being a part of that or learning more, please reach out to me. I know Jim Ays is spearheading that project right now, but I can get you, um, in contact with him. or if anybody in the community would like to come on June 13th and see how those results get placed on the map. I think that'll be a pretty cool uh database.

Have to be a current dairy or chicken farm or just historic. It could be either or. They're just trying to get a database of all the time. Is could is there a way to um connect with the agricultural advisory committee to ask on that because I think that event would be great. Yeah. I know it's growing season and so they might not might not be a great time. Yeah. But they may even be a good resource too. Um the farm at 234 airport road uh was one of the first African-American farms in the state. I've been trying to do research on I have I have some information on that museum.

Yep. Um Charlotte,

um I don't have too much um added from my report two weeks ago. Um but I do want to let the community know about an event tomorrow um that I forgot to let them know about at the last meeting. Um Olster County and the city of Kingston are hosting an accessory dwelling expo uh tomorrow at the Andy Murphy Midtown Neighborhood Center in Kingston um from 12 to 6. Um there is a link to free register. It's a free event, but they're just trying to get a headcount, I believe, beforehand. Um, but there will be speakers um from different development agencies. There are also speakers from Ruckco. Um there specifically I myself am going um to hear their 1:30 p.m. talk about um building a better ATV um from an expert in rooted modular homes um to look for us for the town to just see for a reference for uh anyone here. But I just wanted to encourage the community to go to that event if you're possibly able to if you have time to. If not, I'll come back with a report of how much I can from the event for us um for info and references. And then um I have nothing new for elder care. Um I would like to again request that we maybe entertain the idea of having a liaison to the Rotary to our local Renault Valley Rotary Club. Um, also because I know we had spoken about repair cafes earlier this year at one point and as a member of the local Rotary Club, I'm happy to help to not only be the leazison but help coordinate those events and and get them happening for us now that the months have gotten warmer um and schedule.

And you were talking about the chairs. Oh, yes. Yeah. this. We're just waiting for uh the Rotary to um approve our prospective pro um how much the project is going to cost us in supplies um at our next meeting and then we'll be able to start doing it like a calendar plan for Okay. how that might also be a fun thing for the public to see. Oh yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, we can work on that so we can coordinate on that. But I do just think that that would be um

I think it would be helpful. older ordering club's newer in our area, only a couple years young. Um, and they we really care about community service and trying to help build a uh build, rebuild, and rehab, you know, a better community for all of us. Um, and especially with giving back to the community and doing all we can to help the town, the residents of the town. So, I'd like to announce Charlotte Smith as the liaison to the Rotary Club. Wow.

Wow. Who says I can't get anything down, guys? Um, that was quick. Thank you. And then the other um request I just wanted to make um of the town board, it kind of piggybacks off of the assessment uh reassessment workshops that you guys are doing um and meetings for the community is that I would like to plan and schedule a um a grant um workshop not separate from your association of town ones um that's for municipalities but one that's for individuals where they can come and if there's something that they're looking to do for a home improvement or they're looking for, you know, funding for fixing a car, for starting an art project, things like that, they can come in and get a consult with myself and then other voluntary um grant writers that I'm hoping to get and grant professionals to come and do that. Uh I'm hoping I can have that done in the summer at some point um for a schedule depending on the community center and town as well too. Um, but there's a lot of funding available right now through RPCO. Um, and through Olter County, um, specifically for affordable rental upgrades, um, vacant rental improvement programs, lead testing, senior home improvements, um, mobile home weather upgrades and weatherization grants, things like that that I think that our community could really benefit from if they only knew about them and also had someone who could help them write them. So, um, I would like to schedule that and volunteer my services to

That's a great idea. Um, Alexis,

so ECC has not met since the previous update, but hopefully everybody sees the amphibian crossing signs and we appreciate the public's help in the little critters make their way across the road. uh climate smart um has submitted the final point points towards bronze certification. So that's very exciting. Um and then the rooted in Rochester grant initiative uh Heather Ehart is working really hard on getting the final touches on the ballots and from all the community um ideas that we collected during those events. So we're really excited. It'll be a townwide mailer and everybody will get a chance to vote on the projects that they want to support. So, that'll coming up in in the next coming months. And then for agricultural, they haven't had um a meeting, but we do have the first meeting of the spring set April 20.

Okay. Um Michael,

I'll be fast. Um planning board, not a lot of changes since uh the last meeting. I did sit down with chair, vice chair or town planner and uh the secretary of the CBA planning board got some updates on some of the applications currently in front of them. I know they're also still interested well our planner in particular interested in looking through some of the sections of code conservation subdivisions etc. I'm providing feedback on that. Also our last meeting we had discussed um doing some research on the CA founded way. So, I know uh they were going to start looking at that or Dave Church is going to start looking at that. Uh ZBA uh nothing to add. They do have a meeting on the 16th. There's some public hearings scheduled for that. So, that's next Thursday. Uh ambulance improvement district. So, uh we do have a signed contract with Cape Pass. Um I did right before this meeting got some uh financial data from them, so I haven't had a chance to look at that yet. Uh we also sent an updated contract to Martown First A Unit. Uh we they have signed that. We have not fully executed that yet. Um but we're waiting. Once we get that signed, we can hopefully get the reports we need and then review them with the committee and get them their payments. Uh free exchange recycling. Uh stop by the exchange uh at the transfer station. Everything sounds like it's going well there. recommend talking with um the folks running the free clothing exchange. So, we still need coordination in terms of the shed. So, I know that's something that you're talking to the recck department about um and they have put a deposit down on that. Uh I did get some feedback based on our discussion at last week's meeting. Tina gave me some some answers to some of the questions that came up. So, I can share those with the board as well. And I believe that they have one scheduled for August 12th. of the

community center at April 12th. Thank you. Which is this coming Sunday. So

I saw Carol who will be um running it on Sunday and she encouraged the town board to stop by and see how they do things because she felt like that would answer a lot of questions about um she said it's a welloiled machine. They have a lot figured out. So okay. Um, and then I gave mine as a department report. So that Okay. Um, so now we're at the public comment portion of our meeting. So this is one of two opportunities in our business meeting that we reserve to hear from the public. Um, we do ask that the public address your comments to the board and not to each other and not engage in a debate with each other. Um, we also, um, the board will not engage in discussions during the public comment portion. So, if you are asking us questions, um, while you're talking to us and we're not saying anything, it's it's our adopted practice um, to wait until we've closed that portion of the meeting to address any questions or comments, concerns, or topics at that time. So we the next agenda item after this is called town board member time. So we do encourage people to stay for that um just so you can hear if there is any discussion about anything that you've brought up it would happen during that part of the meeting. So we do have five we do have four people that have signed up. So, I'm going to go off of that list and then I'll we'll see um I'll open it up to anyone else that hasn't spoken yet. Um if you'd like to speak. So, first um Alexandra Napa. Did I say that right? Hi. Did I say that right?

Yes. Nita. Oh, Nikawita. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you so much. Um so, um I'm homeowner here in Hort and um I'm here tonight to because I have some recommendations for regarding the structural flow of our property tax system. Um I'm advocating for a shift towards um justified fairness, a system that protects long-term residents from being priced out of their own lives. Um I think that the current um system um does not fit our times and our needs any longer. Um um we keep wrestling with the um assessor's office um but that functions on a on a panel that I think it's not um any longer. So currently our system creates what I call um unrealized volat volatility uh in um growing communities like ours. Older modest homes are being um reassessed based on nearby luxury construction and speculative market um values. people who have lived in their homes. So decades should not be penalized because new high value properties are built nearby. Um this is not a realized game. You haven't sold your home. You just live in it or try to live in it. This creates um financial volatility. We are being taxed on unrealized market value. In short, the growth of our town is

unintentionally penalizing the people who build it. Um, it ignores the reality that a house built in the 50s, let's say, is not the same as a luxury build home in 2024. Market growth should not be a penalty for staying put. the solution. Uh to achieve the justify fairness, we need a new assessment structure that is um predictable and grounded in reality. My proposal my proposal focuses on three things. Number one, standardized depreciation assessments must must account for the age and condition of a home. A house built um decades ago should not be compared to a luxury built from a recent time without an objective standardized appreciation scale. Number two, stabilization caps. We need to cap for long-term. We need caps for long-term own occupied property residents to prevent sudden tax um spikes that force seniors and working families out of their homes. And number three, income sensitive safeguards. Our tax liability should not exceed a reasonable percentage of our actual household income especially per our seniors and working families or fixed on fixed budgets. Ultimately um we need um

completely new um structured framework nailed in place by law. So the assessor has clear permanent rules to follow rather than a blank page to fill. We must work together to um turn this vision into reality that serves and leaves no room for constant adaptation and juggling of numbers. We deserve a system where the the math and transparent u outcome for u for is foreseeable for every home owner. Thank you.

David Lindcott. Okay. Um, Clayton, how big

those meetings that your candidate referenced for the BA were the meetings that you scheduled and you were there. He was in the crowd. So, just be aware that wasn't the meetings that the committee is held held on the same night said now you conveniently are holding that morning at the same place. The unfair and unequal reassessment was is bigger than what happened back in 1990. Took over a decade to recover from that crime. If you don't know what happened, you should check it out. Part of the political knowledge of the area. This is bigger because the suspects will be here forever. Rural gentrification will be unstoppable. Farmers will sell. Real estate companies will get rich. Streams will be packed. Project 32 stream. It'll be packed. It'll be packed with garbage. Forget heritage. Sorry, Kate. That's going to be gone. Say goodbye to that because that's going to disappear, too. Continue to recognize those similarities from 1990 when I was in high school. I'm starting to believe that not everything being done by this board in the assessor's office is above water. Tried to give him a fair shake. I went and spoke to him. It's not. Letting this play out fails to protect the town and the vulnerable landowning taxpayers. Your heads are in the sand, unfortunately. It's not going away. It didn't go away in 1990. This isn't either. It needs to be addressed. We've come to you requesting enhanced notifications and outreach. Still haven't done anything. I get more information on Facebook and other networks about Sullivan County, Martable Town, and other surrounding areas than I do about the town of Rochester. I can come up with a half a dozen ways for you to enhance notification, but

that's your job. That's not my job. That's not my job to make sure that this happen. I have a network of people now that have been organized where we can disseminate information to. You guys aren't taking that opportunity. Um the lies have continued to be pushed by this board. The answers of CV assessor in the 3 33 33 33% theory, they're not fitting. We've gotten information recently that there are less than 30 properties in the town that have been discovered to have actually decreased in assessment. not even coming close the assessment values that were increased of 800 to a,000% in some cases. Further proof that things aren't above water is the assessor's unwillingness to answer the most basic questions regarding sales process. And I use the word sales process because it's not a negotiation, it's sales. Inconsistent sales approach that not it's not the same for everyone. It stinks of bias. Some people are getting reductions before they even get to the assessor's cubicle. Others bring every piece of information they can possibly get their hands on and the sales price doesn't change. For those people, the last thing they hear from is an opinion. I think that's what the prop sell for. I don't know how many times I've heard that. This one really ticks me off because the assessor's assistant or the assistant assessor, the deputy assessor is identifying themselves at the SEC as the secretary to the assessor. They don't even know what their title is. I listened in on a phone call that was made. I can confirm that directly. You as the town board have now been held complicit for failing to supervise on

behalf of the town's people you represent. Let's move on to another concern. The March 12th town board meeting where approximately 150 respectful considered taxpayers were in attendance. One of which was your deputy fire chief. And if you're here, thank you. Appreciate your service. he would probably say that that chair is blocking a means of aggre egress. So that problem reared its ugly head and we became aware of it after an interview by the town supervisor with local newspaper. In that interview, supervisor Nan stated that safety protocols have been put in place to address the chaos chaos at the previous town meeting. You had over 150 people at that meeting. They showed a level of respect for a formal proceeding that should be commended, not used as an excuse to create a dis for future meetings. And this layout all this change happened because of a computer screen being viewed by the public. Okay, that's what sparked everything. Furthermore, the only time a break was called was after for the second time you lost control of your board, not because of the public. And the worst part about it is the person that's supposed to call it didn't. It was your town clerk that had to call the break in the recess because things were spinning out of control. Thank for doing that. I mean, she she shouldn't have to do that. This all happened because a member of the board became unhinged. They were questioned about their attentives attentiveness and actions while public comments were being made

during that m that break once it was called. The worst part is not a single town board member attempted to calm her down, escort her away, deescalate, and improve the situation. The only one that did was Mike Coleman after I went up to him and said, "Hey man, do yourself a favor. Maybe go talk to her and escort her away and escalate this thing." It continued to go on. I'm not upset at Charlotte. I'm more upset at the fact sound board just threw her to the wolves and let her go. I went up to her and said, "Charl, you're throwing a lot of stuff away right now for doing what you're doing. Don't do it." She was locked in. I had no influence. That's when I went to Mike Coleman and said something. You guys should be doing that, man. You got to look out for one another. All right. One last item and I'll shut up. Tonight, town board, you're interviewing for vacant positions on the B. Now, this all came to me came to my light at about 4:30 this evening. Up until the last meeting, town of Rochester, Citizens United, Mike, you were there. You had zero applicants. We had to once again do the board's job and find an applicant that could fill a position. So, we did. We got somebody to volunteer their time to apply. Now, by some miracle, you got another applicant. The fix is in. We know it. We know it. We know what you're doing. Okay, we see it. The whole community. I'm not the only one that recognized it. We all saw it. Now all of a sudden you this miracle advocate appears after we put behind the pew up. Come on. Come on. And ex I hate being political about this. Democrat.

Democrat. Democrat. Democrat. Democrat. Democrat. Democrat. Come on. You guys You guys have an opportunity here and you're not taking it. You're you're just ignoring it. You brought home that brought brought forward a lifelong member of this town behavior and knowledge as a fellow land owner to make fair and equitable decisions, knowledgeable past and integrity. Remember that word, integrity. She's 25 year plus member of the town's uh the town's chair and chair of the town CBA. She she's going to bring a balance to this bar. You don't see it because you feel that maybe because she's my mom or she's on this side of something that she's not going to be fair. She's got 25 years of integrity just on the ZBA and then another four and a half on your town board. It's looking like No, it is. It is not even looking like it is. The strings are being pulled from above you. You're not able to make your own decisions. That's the way it's appearing. If I were you, I'd take the opportunity. I'd put be on that bar and cut those strings a little bit because it you you're starting to show it heavy. That's all I got. Becky

Becky Glicks.

Um, hey, actually before I start my public comment, I just want to let you know that if the historical society is interested in the dairy farms from Olter County, we have a list in our house of every single dairy farm uh that submitted milk um over the course of a week from 1952. Oh, wow. Great. Thank you. And it's interesting that we're talking about history because I'm going to give a little history lesson to him. I'm speaking for both my husband Barton and myself. He couldn't be here because we're farmers and he's exhausted and I am too. We both often say we don't care if someone has lived here for 500 years or 500 minutes. If you pay taxes in this town, you're a part of this community. But history is contextually important, especially now. None of you were here 60 years ago. Am I correct? You don't have to answer me. I know you are. Weren't because both of my husband and I were. We've watched this place go through many iterations and changes in that time. And we know there are very there are a few real old-timers who could tell you about many more. Back when both Abarton and I were children, this area was composed of agricultural communities. In fact, it was the tail end of the agricultural economies of golden age in Olster County. An agricultural economy means that farms are the driving economic force. Farms require goods and services to remain in operation and this town had them all. Things like machinery dealers and repair services, large animal veterinary services, mills for grain and seed, and operations like Aguay, the building we're in right now. There were also processors like the crebury on Kaiserike road. Agriculture supported all of these commercial businesses whose generally higher commercial property tax payments

balanced out the agricultural exemptions on property taxes farmers still receive to this day. In short, these two different forms of businesses balanced each other out tax- wise, providing a strong economic foundation for the towns where they operated. As farms dwindled throughout the 1970s, the commercial businesses supporting them disappeared too. Today, the few small farms that are left as well as the handful of larger agurism operations have to drive a long distance for the services that used to be local or the services have to drive to us. What this means from a property tax standpoint is that the large land owners, mostly farmers, hold the bulk of the property in this town at a reduced agriculturally exempted rate and pro and provide a exemptions through leases on other large parcels owned by others. The problem with this is that there are few commercial businesses bringing in the greater tax revenue for balance. We hear so much from all of you at this table and from others too that you want to preserve, support, and nurture agriculture in this town. That it's an important asset from a tourism standpoint and especially from the perspective of preserving open space. But you have a huge problem. You need businesses to make up the shortfall in property tax income created by your self-proclaimed passion for open space. We now understand your fixation on bringing business to the town of Rochester. The open space some of us provide is nice, but with houses or even better commercial businesses built on the land, you generate a whole lot more income. How it looks from our view is that while words are nice, you actually don't appreciate farms for what we give to our community because from a financial perspective, you don't really want us here.

Our land would bring in more money and other uses. The vehement pursuit of specialty boutique businesses, including the overdevelopment of this hamlet with little infrastructure to support what you want built here, flies in the face of what doing of doing what is right. To add insult to injury, the citizens of this town will now also bear the burden of a pilot, a payment in l of taxes for one of those businesses. We do not feel supported by you. We feel used. I once heard from one of you sitting at this table that quote, "Anytime money can be brought into this town, I'm going to vote for that." That's a direct quote. I wrote it down when it was said. This is hugely concerning. It has played through my head many times since it was said to me. What this means is that the money is the driving force between behind every decision you make, regardless of the impact on the people you represent. This assessment process has angered me and my husband. We are doing lots of listening. And what we are hearing isn't a lack of understanding from ignorant, uneducated locals. In fact, what we are hearing are voices from across generations, political viewpoints, and socioeconomic brackets. We are listening to stories that are heartbreaking and deeply disturbing. The biggest thing we hear and a view we share is that you, our town leadership, are not willing to accept accountability for an assessment that was poorly performed and for hiring this the assessor who performed it. We want you to show your support for your citizens. There are actions you can and should take, but for some reason you won't budge. You can pass a non-binding resolution that calls for further investigation of

the preliminary assessment because you're concerned with the results. You can request an independent audit by New York State. There are several other actions you can and should take, including foiling the assessor's records of his communications with Gar along with his internal review records and field review logs. This taxation has been applied in a way that is glaringly uneven and arbitrary. As reasonable people, surely you can see that the mistake you are about to perpetuate has been done before and there's research to back it up. I refer you to the book escaping the housing trap by Marone and heresis. In fact, the exact scenario we are currently experiencing is discussed by real experts, not simply us mere mortals who are confused with misinformation. I dis I quote, "The higher the value of the property, the larger the gap between the assessed value and the market value. Assessed value with cons was consistently under reportported resulting in a lower tax bill for owners of more valuable properties. This is true in absolute and in percentage terms. The pattern held across all communities studied. A tax levy is applied proportionately across the tax base. The net result of these errors is that a disproportionate amount of the tax levy is paid by the owners of lower valued properties. What you have here are poor neighborhoods subsidizing rich neighborhoods. We see this everywhere. It's not only unfair. The laws say this is not supposed to happen. End quote. The people of this town are more than just numbers on your bottom line. We are more than what you see as a distribution of 1/3 one-third to meet the demands of

your budget. We are human beings that make up your community. We are your neighbors and some of us are your friends. We are from all political viewpoints and walks of life. We are not confused, a term that is frankly condescending and offensive. We are not perpetuating misinformation. We are trying to find our way out of a mess you created when you decided to hire Gar and then compounded your mistake by appointing an assessor who did not do his job. We are demanding that you take accountability for an assessment that has been poorly and lazily performed and help the community that put you in those seats. We are demanding of you to do something.

That was everyone that signed up on the list. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak? Yes, James. How's it going? Good evening. My name is James Frell. I own two adjacent parcels here in town. This week, I tried to speak with the assessor directly. I called and never received the response. I reached out to the town's clerk office. I don't know who I talked to. Um and uh told the assessor's unable to take my call. They may not have an opening for a meeting until the 17th. I can't remember if you said May or you said April, but I was like clearly that's not going to happen.

Um and the best path forward was an email. So I emailed I asked asked about the assessment of my first piece my first property. I shortly received a response. I re received a response that said uh a wetland designation had been overlooked and needed to be added. Well, that's good for me, right? So that meant it would go down. Uh I then asked about my second piece of property uh via via email, which sits right next door and was told that the wetland had been accounted for on that one. So, I'm left with a straightforward question that I believe no reasonable person would dismiss. I have two adjacent properties uh that share the same access to the same wetland. How can I have uh any confidence that one was assessed accurately and the other one was not? If uh one was missed, what else was missed? Um this is not about my specific numbers. This is about the process. when basic property characteristics are being omitted or caught uh only after a resident asks this is not fair or equitable or not a fair or equitable assessment that is an incomplete one. I'm asking the board to take this seriously that the assessor has not demonstrated the reliability this community deserves and to take actions accordingly. Thank you.

There anyone else? Yes, I'll I'll speak. I don't have anything prepared. Um, but I echo everything everybody said. I went to the assessor early. They didn't know when he'd be back, if he'd be back. I left questions. I didn't get a I kept calling. Didn't get a response for weeks. Um, they offered up a number that was slightly less and I still had questions on the value, how they value land. And I'm like, "Oh, well then you really need to come in and talk to the assessor. So,

I finally got to the assessor this past week and even before I went in with my satellite pictures and my markup of my surveys and everything else, he offered me money off. I go, "But you don't know my questions. You don't know what my land looks like." Um, and the thing was he reduced my land assessment and then increased my house assessment from what they were going to decrease it because I found errors. on the property card. I did get my full property card. I found more errors. So, I have to go back to him. He gave me a list of um land sales that he used to assess the land. There are so many errors in it because he said I have to compare neighborhoods. So, I looked at where my neighborhood was. There are all across the town properties that say that are in my neighborhood. There's like one 10 miles away. Like, I didn't even know our town was that big. like there's one five miles this way, there's one and it's just like what are the neighborhoods? So, I need to go back in to say is there a neighborhood map so we can figure out even if that's fair. Um, a couple other questions I asked about the process and how they because there's no real sales comparisons, what adjustments you make. He told me I have to file a Freedom of Information Act um request law request. He wasn't going to give me the information until I go through that process. So, it's just like I'm just trying to get answers to make sure is it fair? We're all wanting it to be fair and we go to grievance day and they're going to see if it's fair and consistent. It is not. It is absolutely not fair and consistent. The assessor won't answer your questions. They won't tell you how things are valued or anything. So something has to be done. There has to be a stay on this, you know. Just just

state your name. Sarah.

And uh would anyone else like to Yes, Barbara. Uh Barb for now um I just want to say before I say something else that this town board would represent 7,000 people that represent them. Remember that

7,000 voices in this town and when you have a place here of 150 that's 7,000 public seats. Now I'm going to change the subject subject. I want to thank the town board for sponsoring Earth Day again this year. And if say I'm not supposed to speak to the public, but if that spaceship going up there and you've seen that Earth that we live on from space didn't give you chills and hope and make us realize that we are all earthlings living on this planet and we better learn to protect it and get along to the moon. Um, my name is Susan Gris. Um, I've been a homeowner here for phones 40 years in Florida. Um, one of the reasons we moved here was it was such a beautiful place and such a diverse place. And one of the um things that really got to me right towards the beginning of when I moved in is that all these different people of different political perspectives all got together for the first time it seemed to um protect the landfill because toxins were being brought in from New Jersey. And I thought, wow, look at this. Like people who disagreed about this and disagreed about that. But we all got together for that. And I remember wheeling the baby carriages to stop the trucks. I mean, it was very movie time. And I feel like this is another one of those times when the whole town, everyone I talked to, I mean, I'm looking on Next to Rochester and everybody is upset about this

because I was shocked to get more than um more than double 160% raise. And it doesn't make sense. It just doesn't make sense. And I heard all of the questioning about candidates um about education. Well, it seems to me that if you're going to shock people, you start off by explaining how this is being done, why it's being done, instead of just getting these numbers that are like astronomical and don't make any sense at all. And I have to say I was extremely moved by the first speaker to talk about the fact that people who've been here for a long time or people on a fixed income, working families that are struggling. The town is not just a geographic location. It's who we are. And we don't want to lose who we are just to like have people with more money move in and change everything.

It's like we're here. We need to stay here and we need to be supported to stay here. We need to work it out how that's going to happen.

And to go from what was to like something totally different like um that's not working and we have to find a way to make it work. My name is Martha Jones and I would just like to ask each and every one of you on the board if you feel the assessor has done a good job. If you think not just personally but as board members if the assessor did the job that you hired him to do because I don't think so and I don't think anybody else so either. That's my question.

Not even close. Good evening. My name is Devon Dalt. I'm a resident of the town of Rochester. Thank you for this opportunity of comments here tonight because we're at a critical moment and I want this board to understand exactly what that means. Tenative assessment role has not yet been filed. That means this board still has the opportunity to intervene before a deeply flawed and potentially unlawful reassessment becomes the official record of this. Here's my understanding of the situation. The town hired an outside firm to conduct initial appraisals. These initial appraisals, based on what we've heard tonight and at the earlier meeting, were riddled with errors. Rather than conject correcting these egregious errors through any documented professional methodology, the assessor has be making informal adjustments to at least some of these individual property values. Essentially negotiating assessments on a case-byase basis with no written rationale and no consistent standard. That is not assessment. That is arbitrary evaluation. And my understanding is that arbitrary evaluation is not just poor practice. It is a violation of the New York State Constitution and the real property tax law which require that all properties be assessed uniformly and at a consistent percentage of full market value. It's also a violation of the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution. This board appointed the assessor under state law that makes this board the appointing authority and it makes the integrity of this town's assessment function this court's responsibility. The board doing nothing in the face of a known constitutional problem is not a neutral choice. It is a choice of legal consequences.

Arbitrary assessments expose the entire community to legal risk. Taxpayers ultimately bear the cost of litigation, settlements, and courtboarded reassessments. Addressing this now is far less costly than addressing it later in a boardroom. Uh um in addition, my understanding is that under New York's public officers law, failure to properly administer the functions of one's office can constitute maladministration, a standard that applies not only to the assessors, but potentially to the appointing authority that has been made aware of a problem and has not acted. And under federal civil rights law, individual officials who act with deliberate indifference to known constitutional violations can face face personal liability. Independence from political interference in valuations is totally different from immunity from unconstitutional conduct. This board has heard concerns about the fundamental inequity and unfairness of this assessment, these constitutional violations about in this process before. Tonight is further notice on the record. Most fundamentally, I'm requesting that the board provide leadership. Part of leadership is solving a problem when it arises. as laid out above and for many other citizens. This is a real problem for this community and for the board. In response to previous notifications of arbitrariness, the board has responded with some version of one this is complicated or two we don't understand the process. In actuality it's not complicated and we do understand the process. The question is, do you understand?

So what I to sum up what I'd like to say is this award does have the power to act to solve the underlying constitutional issues. The question is whether it will while there is still time. Thank you.

There anyone else would like to address the board? Um, I'll let Dave go since you haven't gone yet. A lot of people come a long ways to come see what we got, but there's a lot of people that come here to try to change it to what what they came from. If you want to come here, keep it as what it is, not not what New York City was or where you come from. Come enjoy what we have. Don't try to change it. Anyone who hasn't spoken yet who would like to address the board you

as long as I'm the it's to do with my official capacity. Oh, I well Barbara had something she wanted to say. So, I just wanted to say that when I moved here in 1990, Reval hadn't been done. I hadn't lived here 70 years, but reval had not been done in 40 years.

And I think that is part of the problem that has brought up I think finally with us that Reval hadn't been done for 40 years here in this town. people were having houses that were never on us as newcomers way more than she a lot of people. So is finally catching up with us and not having the result for those J.

I'm addressing the board in a in a matter in which Michael as well as Aaron is somewhat aware so the rest of you can be brought up to date and when perfect timing. I purposely waited for all the people who I know expressed some opinions of which I've already expressed on a personal level of of my opinion of the assessment thing. This somewhat does dovetail with all of the expressions that were brought in the comments. Um but I'm specifically touching on a couple things here. um as your emergency management director. Um and this involves our group of dedicated volunteers in this town of which we have a dedicated group. I know Dave Lindscott been one of those from the our volunteer corps of ambulatory people and so forth. We also have another group and that group is not being I think properly watched over and which and I'll express in a second the dovetail of where we could have a problem and that is the firefighters that we have are all volunteers. We are 100% volunteer fire fighter supported um personnel and although about a year ago and I spoke at both the school board and I spoke to our board and in fact all of you or who were here when it was voted on last year two years ago I lose track excuse my memory anymore. However, it was voted on that the 10% reduction for different taxes. The school board then voted separately. That finally did go through. However, here is the problem

with that. And that is very simple. That is only for property owners. And it just so happens that a person who I happen to know very well here sitting to my right, Tim, uh not a property owner, but one of our finest, and I'm not trying any way embarrassed the man, but he's been very responsive to our needs in the community as a firefighter. All right? And he doesn't own any property. So that benefit does it precludes certain persons because they are not property owners. I have brought this again uh to Erin as well as uh Councilman Coleman as to an idea that I have to at least show immediate and especially right now with gas, fuel, diesel, so forth being really up there with the ongoing situation in the Middle East. Um, I'm looking at doing what would be a study that I would hope would become something in the way of a permanency. And that would be to help supplement these firefighters in the way of they when they respond to any of our emergencies and that includes ambulatory or otherwise, they are using their personal vehicles. And pure and simple, the least I think we could do as a community appreciating them would be to have set up through our fuel services here in the town to cover for a period. And of course, this only pertains to the actual um firefighters who are fully

qualified, and that's a term that I'm aware of of how they stay um up to date with all the training and so forth. But with that said, they're not just responding for fires, emergencies, accidents, and so forth. They're responding for all the training, and they're using their vehicles to get there and to get back home again. Um, so I'm looking to do something and again this would be perfect for tonight's discussion. You guys do whatever you want. I am available if you like more about it. But I implore you and and this is where it dovetales. The persons who we're talking about, they are renters or in some way they're not property owners. That's something else that we have to consider because if if we end up going to a paid fire department in this town, we could very well go bankrupt. We're talking million-doll trucks. That's what these apparatus cost. All right? And so the fire department is an absolute necessity for our town. And by the way, I'll just bring up another example. The what happened to us. This is something else again dovetailing with what I'm bringing out here to the town board. We recently had an issue on Frankle Road. That is a private road that I've been on now long before it was Frankle Road for approximately 50 years. I've resided off of Franle Road there. And we lost a great portion of that road, a couple hundred feet of it due to this insane winter we had that we've all experienced and the then immediate melt of I'm sorry, thoring out in which a lot of the

road was was upended and there was no way to get in. We lo and behold worked out perfect for my comments tonight. An ambulance had to come because one of our neighbors, elderly neighbor, broke his hip. And the ambulance couldn't get through except for the immediate work of the the equipment that happened to be hauled in by one of the other neighbors that was able to get the road open at least to get that person, the ambulatory person out of the property. I bring that up because as uh uh supervisor um an owen talked about project 32 which I'm very familiar with because my niece lived on just the first vehic put a light off in my head. Closing off a road has other problems and that is we need to know that there's a way for our emergency services people to get people out of there. You can't close off where people live. So there has to be something else. So again, I'm trying to dovetail all this as your your emergency management guy and you want to fire me for giving you the truth. Well, I'm only kidding. Although, by the way, anybody who wants a job, this is how much it pays because somebody else asked me how much they pay in you. I'm gladly volunteering with my background in and helping out with that. Uh, the last thing that I'd like to say, oh, two things. I'm sorry. Quick little stop sign was added. So whatever your funding was to the height department, I really appreciate at Lower Whitfield

Road, a stop sign was added going, I want to say that east northeast coming out of Whitfield, Lower Whitfield onto Whitfield Road. That is the scene of a serious accident in which one of our members in the community was basically declared dead who miraculously was brought back by uh emergency services and that happened because there was such a problem with that intersection. So now there's two stop signs there and that's really good. I noticed that tonight. I don't know how long ago it came in. couldn't have been too long ago. But every once in a while, we do something that really makes it safer. The last thing I want to say to everybody, uh, as a public notice, the bears are out. How do I know that? Because a bear took my beloved 12-year-old rooster. And if you asked me 10 years ago, I would have said, "I wish a bear would eat." But in the last 10 years, he's become quite a buddy. And the other night, 40 foot of my uh coupe went down. The bear disappeared, as well as killing a couple of the others. I bring that up because the bears are out of hibernation now. They are very hungry now. And people with small animals, small children have to be aware. These are extremely hungry, dangerous, wild animals. So, I give that out just to keep an eye out there. Um, and thank you guys for discussing what I brought up with the firefighter thing. Any questions? Thank you.

Yes, you had one more. Yep. Hi.

Um, my name is De. Um, I live here. Um, I doubt anybody on this board would ever say we only want wealthy investors to be able to afford homes here or we don't want people from this community to continue living here. But if you choose not to act to resolve the problems, um, that is what will happen and it will happen on your watch. Inaction has consequences. When assessments rise in ways that are based on errors, inconsistencies, or flawed data, it accelerates displacement and reinforces inequality. The people who actually have roots in this community, the people who live here, work here, and contribute to the town become the ones who can no longer afford to stay. I understand reassessment itself is required by the state. No one is arguing that you can simply opt out of the process. But since this is something that has to be done, it has to be done carefully, transparently, and fairly. When a reassessment is built on faulty data, it doesn't just reflect market pressures. It amplifies them. Yes, there are larger forces at play. Housing prices rise, markets change, inequality exists. But that makes it even more important that the part of the process you do control is handled fairly and accurately as possible. Right now that is not happening. So this comes back to responsibility. As board members, you have the unique responsibility and opportunity to make sure everything possible is done to ensure the process is fair, to correct errors, to communicate clearly, and to

protect residents from avoidable harm. Then the outcome will be predictable, a community that becomes less accessible for the people who already live here. I don't believe that's what you want, but unless meaningful action is taken, that's the direction this will move. Thank um going once, going twice. Okay, I'm going to close this public comment portion of the meeting. Um, we do have another one at the end if anyone sticks around that long. Um, so now it's town board member time. Um, I would like to open it up to the board. Um, I usually don't speak first, but I just wanted to um clear up the record because a newspaper article was cited um as a way of criticizing something that I said that was in the newspaper article. Um, it was not I was not interviewed for that article. It was a misquote from a meeting. And if you go back and watch the meeting, it's 100% clear that I never even said anything about the meeting erupting into anything. Um, I mentioned that I noticed that the door was blocked and people had contacted me and let me know that they've been standing outside unable to enter. So, I wanted to straighten the table out so that we could move chairs closer in so that no one had to block the door at future busy meetings. So, just wanted to clear that up. And with that, I will open it up to the board members.

Yes.

First of all, I I do appreciate the new setup of the way the tables are. gives us an opportunity to ask will be you face to face rather than looking at each other um said at the front of the room. A few things I'd like to that have come up that I'd like to correct. Uh first of all the last townwide assessment that I'm aware of not in 1990 I believe it was in 2003. I was the chairman of the board of assessment review at the time and we heard approximately 150 grievances as well as uh ratifying a number of stipulations that the assessor at the time had agreed upon uh will lead um that demonstrates that there is an appeal process to validate um or to correct any errors that are in assessments in terms of classification, quality of of homes etc. Um there's been a lot of talk about uh all the new homes that are going to be very expensive that are driving our prices. That is true, but keep in mind that the way the tax levy is distributed, it is distributed on a proratic share of value. So, if a new $2 million house is built, and I'm not advocating for that, um it reduces the tax burden and proportional share that all of the remaining owners in town pay as a portion of that tax levy when looked at at other. Um I did an analysis of approximately 4,700 properties that were uh revalued in this recent assessment process. Uh somebody stated that uh there were only a small handful where there were no red no increases. Um approximately 934 of that uh 4700 number uh were reduced. That's 20%. 98 properties which is 2.1% had no change at all in net value. Um the aggregate

value of those uh 4700 properties on an applesto apples comparison. the average uh the the equaliz increase was 18%. Um which means that if your assessment was increased by 18% um uh you see no real basis in change because it your proportion doesn't change. And um when you total the number of properties that had um increases of less than 18% on that basis, it represents nearly half of the properties in town by parcels. Not value, but by parcels. So um I think that um if we're going to start throwing out statistics, um I'd be happy to sit down and and go uh and discuss this with anyone when we're talking about what the actual change is in town. There are a lot of mistakes when you when anybody comes and does a evaluation of 4,700 or or just under 5,000 properties in town. There are bound to be mistakes and some of those mistakes are egregious outliers. Um as somebody mentioned once a trailer on one acre came back at $800,000. That's an obvious mistake. Um and there are several appeal processes and processes that town board has tried to uh communicate that can get those mistakes uh corrected. Um the first process was through GAR and admittedly there were a lot of problems and complaints that we have raised with GAR on that um on that process. Uh there is now a process that will last um until about um Wednesday which is May 21st I believe I think on the date where property owners can meet with the assessor and work with them on a oneonone basis. After that you can try the grievance report of assessment and if you're still not satisfied with that result there's a small clinic process.

So there are four appeals processes that people who uh feel that their properties are misassed can appeal to. Um so that certainly mitigates any constitutional challenge that um has been raised that uh by anyone here. So um the process isn't perfect. We'll be the first to admit that. Um, but there are ways to um to sort out those egregious errors and we hope that you would um if you're in that situation, we hope that you would avail yourself those um those processes and the 18% was of market the um equalized value

equalized value to the revised assessment the proposed assessment value. Yes. Um do you want to go? Yeah. Okay. Um, so, uh, a couple things that I want to address. Um, for the first one, thank you everyone who came to make comment. Um, I always appreciate hearing from the public. Um, first thing, um, New York State Fire Code, um, requires a three-foot egress between objects to be able to exit a building. These four childs are three feet. I counted them. Hold on. And that's Nope. This is my time, Clayton. and a half. If you look at either end, there's about the same amount on either end, but okay.

I continue. Anyway, so um I tried to make sure there wasn't any egress there. Apologies if it's a couple inches shy to our ser emergency service here. Um that being said, um and my opinion from this seat where I said if I had gotten a chance to at last month's meeting to speak, I would have said that I'm very sorry to you all. that I'm sorry that you've had to deal with this, to deal with the upset, to deal with the overwhelming, the anxiety, the, you know, sudden jolt to your chest when you opened and read that letter because even though I understand the process, I had the same exact feeling you all did when I opened it and saw that my property and me apparently I'm a millionaire also now. Congratulations to all of us. Um even though we won't be able to afford anything despite that um I would have agreed that there's been some huge issues in this entire process in the past I would say at least from my perspective at least eight months of it. Um and I put the majority of those on to GAR. um and the lack of followup because I reported during our budget meeting with the assessor and that I have gotten received calls from several residents with incorrect information on their property logs. That was the first letter you guys got from them and they didn't get a chance to mail it back in time and if they still had time to send it back, which I was told they did. I was one of those residents who had to send mine in late because there was over 10 errors on there and I reported that and reported those issues from the beginning of this. So, I understand your guys anger. I

completely empathize and fully feel that. I don't feel and like a I would rather be sitting out there with you guys than at this table because in all honesty, I'm the black sheep here because I'm the only one born and raised here. and to try to explain your perspective and the optics and how it would be received from you guys is is very exhausting. Then to have the same people scream at me for two and a half hours during a meeting and not give me a chance to speak and then having the doorway to leave blocked cause me to have a panic attack was a little upsetting and I apologize for my behavior during my medical incident that happened at that meeting. And everything else I will say is I've been doing my own research whether or not it's been said or stated publicly for a response from at least my position and my oath to the constitution of this country. I've been doing my own legal research and things about this process and about what's gone on. Um, and I would just like to remind the people of this town that according to New York state law, assessors are able to be elected for a township. Ours is appointed. I'm just going to leave it at that for tonight. I've said enough. I'm going to leave the time to the rest of my fellow board members because I desperately need to use the restroom. So, excuse me, guys. Do you want to go? Go ahead. Um, I want to start by acknowledging what Jerry said because there's there's no explanation for why people volunteer to run into burning buildings and save people's lives other than that they just have a commitment to their fellow she left earthwings humans uh people. It's

dangerous. Um it's a huge time commitment and it blows my mind how fortunate we are to have as many people uh volunteering to support this community and and it is I mean a paid service would be a significant cost of town and it just amazes me that they're willing to do this. So I just want to express my appreciation for all of that and everything that they do. Anything we can do as a board, I am all for it. And I'm highly confident that uh the residents uh if they saw an increase in taxes that was to help uh fill the gas tanks of people that were speeding to the firehouse so that they could make it on the truck to get to a burning building. I'm sure they would all do that. Um, I'm running into this issue again where like at the last meeting I took a bunch of notes and I'm like I need to respond to all these points and then I realize people don't want to sit here the entire night to respond to those things. I will say

enough because I can't hear you. Yeah, I'm I'm sorry. Um,

let me just wave your hand in the back. I can't hear you. Um, I think I think it's really important uh as a member of the board to be able to hear tough feedback from residents and to take that to heart. Personally, you know, one of the things that I've been trying to do as we've been getting this feedback is to reach out to people to be more engaged in the community. There are events at the firehouse. I've attended two of them. Uh, I appreciated all of the response I got from people there thanking me for coming, thanking me for hearing them out. I stayed afterwards, spoke with Clayton B, uh, Troy Dunn. I think they were all good conversations. Uh, I've also been involved in sessions that we've been doing as a board. Supervisor and Allen has been there. Uh Kate and I will be doing one at the firehouse. Uh which was as much about um this location not being available as it was about wanting to do it at the firehouse. You know, I think I share a lot of the concerns that people are bringing up. I think this board shares concerns about unintended consequences of property values rising. Uh this board is very pro- agriculture. Um even if it may not appear that way, uh we don't want to see large family farms, small family farms, um people who have been here for years being displaced. Uh and and we want to protect those things. And I I am concerned as we see property values rising that that may become an issue. And I think in reference to the first woman who spoke and I think she stepped out um one I think there is a standardized appreciation that happens as part of the valuation of properties and in fact when uh when the assessor is making changes it's looking at things like oh your home was built in the 1950s hasn't been updated since the 1950s therefore that

is why the price is changing. Some of those other things that were mentioned uh are state issues. I think we should give as many and as large of an exemption to seniors as possible, but that has to be done at the state level. You know, we have the enhanced star program if they want to increase that so that less of that burden falls to seniors. I think they should absolutely do that. Um any laws that they can have to stop these unintended consequences, I think are important. uh at the same time and I don't know maybe maybe I'm one of the people that said uh confused people are confused or or it's complicated uh and I I agree with that it is because I still need people to explain it to me but for me the most fundamental issue that we need to resolve is making sure that people have information and that people are aware of the process and what they need to do to ensure that the record is correct. It's part of why we've been trying to do the sessions. Um, and it's it's a little bit um concerning to me that that information that message is not getting out to people that it seems like there is a perception that this board is actively trying to uh work against the residents. I can tell you it's not the case for anyone sitting here at this table right now. Um, and if you want to discuss it, I will stick around after the meeting or you can call me on the phone. I've had several good conversations with people. I'm happy to talk through that. I do think it's critical that people understand what they need to do and I've seen information that's inaccurate. Um, things like May 1st being a final deadline when the role gets set and there's no change after that. Uh, that is not true. As I mentioned, there are multiple uh stages that people can go through to go before uh either talk to the assessor after May 1st, talk to the board of assessment review, go through the SCAR process, um to actually grieve it if they don't agree with the board of

assessment review. So, there are multiple phases and we are in the middle of a process. Nothing is is finalized right now. And it's important for people to understand, even people who got a letter that said their taxes would go down to make sure it's accurate because right now everybody is going in and and things are changing across the board. So if you got a letter that said your taxes are going to go down $50, but your property information isn't accurate, you still need to correct that because the goal is to have correct information across the board. And my fear is that when that role comes out in May, people who got a letter that said they were going down, it's not going to go down as much or it might, you know, might go up slightly. And so it's critical that people are aware of that and communicate that that to their neighbors and that they make sure that they have the right information. The other thing is just because a role gets published this year doesn't mean you can't come back next year and say, "My assessment was wrong. You were you were $100,000 high and I forgot to come in." You can come in next year when this whole process starts again and say, you know, I don't have a roof anymore and that building fell down and I would like my assessment to be relooked at.

Why? Well, why do we have to do that? That's ridiculous what you're saying. All right. Sorry. The the alternative that people have alternative the the alternative that people have suggested. Guilty to proven innocent, sir. Yeah, I'm leaving. Thank you. Thank you. The the alternative that people have suggested alternative you people are ridiculous.

The alternative that people have suggested uh is visiting each property and uh making sure that we go to every home. Uh and I think you know this board can discuss this. We've discussed adding additional staff to the assessor's office. There are tax implications to that too. So, I think, you know, the easiest thing and and the best way to do this is to actually rely on the actual homeowners to tell us what they have and to communicate to the assessor. And anything we can do to facilitate that, I think I think we need to do. Um,

I'm not I said I wasn't going to go through my list and now I feel like I'm going through my list. So, I'm going to stop here. I did want to clarify one thing. There is a neighborhood map. It's in the assessor's office. I looked at it. I saw what you saw. I'm like, these neighborhoods don't seem like neighborhoods. they seem like they're kind of all over the town. Uh I did reach out to the county and I got like an actual version that we can look at to understand that. So, um I'm going to be reviewing that to see if we can get a better understanding. I I'd go to the assessor again tomorrow and get a copy of the map, but it's like it's up in the little bulletin board. You could take you could take a picture of it. Every time I go in there and I leave with information, I have more questions I have to go back. It's just like things don't get answered.

Yeah. So, um, I I I am following up on that to get more information. I'm not going to keep reading through my notes. Um, I want to close by saying I appreciate everybody coming here and the piece. Uh, I appreciate that people are upset. And again, I'm I'm here to listen. You can talk to me in a meeting. You can talk to me oneonone. I know some people call me uh and talk to me oneonone. And um I I hope that you will trust this board and that you will work with this board to figure out what we need to do to move forward. And

yeah, everybody's tired and wants to go home. So I'll just keep this brief. Um I wasn't raised in um Olster County. I wasn't raised in Acro, but I was raised in Delaware County, even smaller, more impoverished farming community where I saw dozens of of of dairy farms go out of business. So, I don't want to be characterized as somebody that doesn't care about about small farmers. That that is completely inaccurate and I I raised my children here and I have my farm here. So, I I very much care about this community. Um I I I would like to look a little bit into the ideas that were were put out by some of the speakers here, the justified fairness system at least to gather information, anything that we can do to understand this process and and and put that in into process. Like nothing happens quickly at the town board level. We're always working at you know a deficit of what happened not to make an excuse but pri prior administrations and the decisions that were made and everything's always at a lag. So I you know I I'm just in the process of looking at if there's any recourse with GAR if there's anything that can be done. I would personally like to understand the process of how data who gets um reductions in their um you know assessments and what the data that goes into that is that from a personal perspective because you know I I am going through those same processes that all of you are. Um so I I just wanted to say that I'm in a data gathering and and and we care and we're not up here to to kick everybody out and I I I really hope that we can communicate that to you all. I'm sorry.

Um,

I also forgot um earlier. Um, the only other response I wanted to give was, um, someone said that everyone sitting at this table was a Democrat and I'm not registered and have never been registered to a political party. And I've said that several times on the record. I've been in every advertisement and every interview I've ever given. So, just to be clear, please stop making me guilty by the association. Just because I run on their ticket doesn't mean I'm registered to their party. Um, so thank you everyone for coming and I I um I think what I want to say is I I do understand the perspective that people have and why you would feel the way you feel about some of these things. Um I speaking for myself I am listening. I do take my job as someone who is um needing to protect the town and your the residents from risk. I take that very seriously. Um, you know, as the person who's overseeing our contracts and our agreements, um, and I just want you to know that, you know, we are definitely keeping our eye on this process and taking to heart what you are sharing. Um, also in the position that at least I am in. I try try very hard to be um as uh accurate and factual in the information that I share. And I know sometimes that comes off as that I'm not necessarily saying as much as people might want. Um but it is part of the position that we're in um being on this side of the table. So um I also feel for everyone. And I agree with what Charlotte said um about the how much this has shaken our community and that is something that I take very seriously.

So um thank you for coming and um with that I will end town board member time and we will move on to resolutions. I was thinking about the gas meant to say that is my

they do want to watch it. So that'll get00 No, I appreciate

you're on mic. He doesn't. Well, social.

Yeah. No, I agree. Especially right now.

Yeah, I think they get me because the information I provided

you not too early on your birthday. Oh March 29th. Oh, March 29th. You said last week's birthday. Happy birthday. Thank you. Thanks. isn't not an envigable position. She she loves talking about that today. So I was one of the last people talking that's I say on a daily basis and it's becoming a joke but most of her and I am like

doesn't have to keep running but it wouldn't Ashley didn't give me a letter. I don't know. I can think of

25. I'll get married before you go.

See you guys later.

If I want to I'll check next time I read them. Yeah, my mom used I don't want mine. The first time I wrecked my husband before we did it, I made him cry. sound rearranged sound.

You got rid of the baby crew without her. I figured that was before. I figured that was a good time. She wasn't using it. Oh, no. It was good. Overwhelmed today. I know I get I wasn't um But I learned and I emailed him. Did they have That's the only reason I have I guess I'm going to be setting it back up tomorrow. Set mine back up, but mostly keep just like Well, that's what she was using it as like a Now she just has like the toddler floats around our house wherever like she has something dangerous that she has.

That's what I was doing. I was sitting with your head next to the bed and I had bought one of the railings I was like and then you didn't think hyperfixated that job you did bud you always do too listen I once redid and reframed an entire window above my kitchen sink and I was so in the next day he pulled me over because I did all of that and didn't do the dish below

I had oh Man, I see why are sad now. I started out and they spiral into me reframing on the window. Yeah, I was protesting but that was meaning to reach out. I was raised by a border. So

actually some of that a lot of random pieces of wood shed the my random pieces of little tiny wood from doing a project or whatever used to put the wheels on that podium because I needed like sort of like I needed like this I don't know where all that stuff is. Okay. Um, so I guess Alexa said something. We can go ahead and reconvene the meeting um and move on to um acceptance of the minutes. Did anybody have a did you guys have a chance to look at those today?

I personally did not. I went to go skim one of them and then I got Do you guys want to those? Okay. So, we're going to table acceptance of the minutes and then also acceptance of donations because we received most of what we had at the last meeting.

So, I'll move to acceptance of abstract 4A of 2026. I'll make a motion that the town of Rochester Town Board accepts the 4A 2026 abstract and approves the payments in the following amounts. Um, so this is from what was audited this week. General fund 43,938.88 highway fund $14,226.34 nothing from ambulance fund capital fund $11,000 street lighting fund $41486 and escrow $12,18940.

Do I have a second? Is it any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Um I thought I was going to have to do a budget modification tonight, but it turns out I don't. So, we don't have to do that. Um so, in front of the board, I have two RF.

Um we are uh needing to order the new metal detector for the court. Um, and um, Zia, I was kind of going to lean on you for this because they had sent me a specific model that they wanted to order, but in our procurement policy, we get three quote. We have to do an RFP and get three quotes, but I also found it on state bid. So, we if you we could just um check in with them and make sure that's the exact one they want. Yeah. And then in that case, we don't have to issue the RFP. We can go for the state bid and might get a better price actually because it would be on that contract. So,

can you send me what specifically requested?

Uh, yep. Um, so then the next one, the one with the town seal on it. This is for the code enforcement management software. Um, I stuck this in the backup for the board last night, so you might not have seen it. Um, but I wanted to get your feedback on whether or not you as a board want to officially release the RFP or if you want to have the code enforcement office handle it and keep the record and present to you. The reason why I'm asking you that question is because when we had the conversation about software, it came up that there's a concern um there's a concern that we would uh get another software program that might not be compatible with some of the new um tools that we have acquired for the town. And I guess I wanted to know what level of involvement you guys wanted to have in that process. I'm fine if we do a subcommittee if not everyone wants to to like be there to do the um interview, you know.

Yeah. The assessment demos of everything. Um, I'm happy for it to be a sub subcommittee, but I would like to sit on the subcommittee and be able to give input, especially I've been through a lot of our software demos and presentations in my five year tenure here now, and like I like I was through Munich Lab and our website ones. So, I just I there's things that like I remember from those and I've also been re-reviewing Munich Collab, our original like package we got from them to see what like the features that they had listed were. Um, so it's kind of like fresh in my brain anyway, but I'm also open to whatever else the rest of the board.

Yeah, I mean, I would I would like to see I spoke with with them briefly about it. I would kind of like to see a demonstration of the software. If we release this RFP and we get three responses, we're not obligated to purchase anything. No, no, no. I think what I was thinking is if you guys want that level of involvement, we should release the RFP as a board. Yeah, I think we should release it, see what what's available, make sure that it's sized right for their needs, for our needs. Um, and then the code enforcement office will absolutely be a part of that. So, um,

that was kind I wanted to to feel I want to know what you guys need in order to make the decision. Um, I think when something me personally in my seat here, I think when it's something like this where it's an actual equipment of some form that a department's requesting or needing, unless it's something like really like I don't need to see all of our options for basketball hoops, like I trust the right department to pick those out. But I I do think that we should be included and involved because we're the ones who oversee all the departments. So inner department has to leave like if one office is using Munich lab and the other one's using near mapap and the other one doesn't know that the other one has it like you know I want to make sure we're making the most out of our subscriptions and things with that and what we have available.

Good distinction. Are you asking what we need to know to release the RFP or what we need to know to make a decision? No, I it was more like yeah for what part of the process do you need to be involved in? So, for the RFP, I put this together. I think it's just very general. The code enforcement officeed it. Um, the only thing that I left open was the deadline that we wanted to receive the proposals by. Um, but I uh Alexis or Zalie, did you have anything about

I I am concerned about having a plethora of different systems and um I don't have the technical understanding to see how they work and interact. So, um I can offer absolutely no, but you want us to be aware of that. I Yeah. Yeah. I'm worried about software creep, too. Yeah. Especially what we're dealing with on the school board right now.

Um so, I mean, obviously I think like if Michael's eyes are on it, that's probably, you know, a good start. Um, I've evaluated software systems before in my previous life. I don't know it's useful um because I don't understand the code enforcement to the same degree that other people do. But um yeah, whatever is useful. So we'll release the RFP as a board and then we'll make sure that the two of you in whatever iteration are part of the demos, right? Whether we do it as a full board or whether we make sure that you guys are part of it.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. If it's like the code enforcement is doing it and I can like join in on a Zoom call or something of it like for scheduling wise and logistics wise, I'm happy with the easier method for that for us. Great. Um so any um comments about the RFP? I used our template, the new template for the new from the new policy. And um Did you want to select the date?

Yeah, I wanted to select the date. And then I think the delivery I want to put both myself um and the code enforcement office. And it should just be by email. Well, I guess they can do whatever they want, right? Never mind. They can do whatever they want. Well, it says that you could do it however you We're just giving them the option. So, I get um and then can I just ask um in the proposal requirements? Can we just um can we ask that they also give us any allocart add-on features?

Sure. Like a you know wisdom if they have any if applicable. also have the training options thing. Um, I have that in there. Uh, it's in the key requirements. Okay. So, um, do we want to give it um the conference officer was like, we just need two weeks. Um, but we might when you get there for like 60 days.

Uh, I was thinking we probably won't have time to actually like review or approve anything until our May workshop meeting anyway. If we want to put it for our May uh business meeting to be due like we can review them then and then make sele like if we want to and make selection or if not we can have until the next meeting then too. Usually what we will we'll send this RFP. They'll schedule before they send us anything, they're going to want to schedule meetings, right? Mhm. So then that so that they can like interview and get to know what we want. Then they usually send a proposal like two days after that.

Do we have a list of software vendors? Yes. Okay. Yeah. And we're going to reach out to them and notify them that. Yeah. So let's do it. Let's time it for the May business meeting, but we'll have get started on it. Um, so the May business meeting is Oh, B14. Whoa. Um, so I do it for April 30th. Oh, are you were you saying you want it before the meeting?

I think for the proposal um 3 weeks, 21 days. We could have it like May 8th. Yeah. And then we have a whole week. Oh, I see why that we all were so alarmed. Now I see it's starts off. Yeah, it makes our meetings very weird. Now that I see it like the other days, oh yeah, we we should think about that workshop meeting. Actually, that week is going to be

um Okay. All right. So, I'll make a motion that the town of Char's new town board releases the um RFP for code enforcement management software as presented with the following amendments to add allocart add-on features under the uh proposal requirements and to include in the submission instructions that they should be sent to the town supervisor and the code enforcement officer. The email addresses of the town supervisor's email address e and town of rochester.ny.gov and the CEO at townof rochester.ny.gov. uh and fill in the address at 15 Tobacco Road with the deadline to be received by 400 p.m. on Friday, May 8th.

Any discussion? Do you want to put a time on I said 4 p.m. Sorry.

Any more discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Okay. Then I have an appointment. Oh, my um computer might have to record. It is not. It's my I took notes on my agenda. I'm just on my laptop. So Okay.

Well, I can when Kate gets back, I'll just make that a motion. That's okay. Um, so I'll make a motion that the town of Rochester Town Board appoints Aiden Boutton to the position of recreation aid for the afterchool program part-time at the rate established in the PA scale starting Monday, April 13, 2026. Um uh with the on the recommendation of the recreation director Ashley Sweet.

Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Um

then um we had a meeting about the climate smart um and so we are not doing that resolution tonight. We had that today. So we're going to table that. And with that we have our second public comment portion of the meeting. Uh would you like to address the board again?

Yes. Glad everybody else hung around. Um, a couple things. Something Sally said went down 20%. You didn't mention how many went up. So, I'm just curious if you have that number and how that corresponds with the 33 33 33% idea that's being broadcast. It's also said that there's four ways to grieve the process. There are four if you go to GAR first. There are only three if you go to the assessor first because then it would be the the assessor the BAR and then the small BA. The assessor himself has made it known that he makes the corrections to GAR based on his determination. Just throwing that out there. And there were three different there's two different dates that were thrown out for the B. When is it? You said the 20. Somebody said the 20th. Somebody said 28th. I think Zalie, you said 28th. Your website says the 26th.

The 26th.

Okay. Tr I didn't mean to speak over you. I just thought that was funny because you said it's 4 feet. Well, it is what it is. It was kind of kind of funny. Um, you did mention Charlotte VAR being in fall. When does the assessor hold the responsibility for being in fault, too? because he evidently did not properly review these assessments before they were massma mailed and it was his responsibility. When's the town board going to hold that person accountable? I haven't heard a single thing from anybody saying that the assessor was wrong for doing that their election of duty. And based on something Jerry said, there was a time, so I was a volunteer fireman for a while where the state actually added part of their funding to the fire departments that allowed for first responders to utilize their gas pumps on certain occasions. I don't know what happened there. So, I would advise the board to maybe look into that to find out if that's still part of their budgeting process. you may find that they still have that in place. Um, it's all I got. Appreciate it. Great.

Um, I did want to also I forgot in to board member time. Um, the accusation that we received an application then found another applicant. The it was the second applicant we interviewed actually applied first. then we got the other applicant so that it didn't happen in that order. Um, and I can forward the emails with the timestamps if you would like. Can I have another public comment?

If we would have known that at that meeting, then I wouldn't have taken the time to canvas that crowd for somebody to fill this position just like I've done with so many other people for the ZBA. That information wasn't shared. It wasn't broadcast. It wasn't told. It wasn't said to anybody, but we received one applicant that she received an applicant for the BA. It's going to have lots of Yeah, we've we encouraged multiple applicants, but it hadn't it hadn't had lots of applicants. It had zero. It's true. It had zero, right? But we're happy we're saying we're happy that we have more than one applicant.

I I agree. I'm just calling out the coincidence of things that happen to be coincidental to the fact that we found somebody that would have the interest to fill that position on the bar because it looks like it came from us. And I'll I'll qualify this. I'm probably going to get in trouble with a lot of people over it because it came from us. It looks like all of a sudden, oh, we can't have somebody that that group wanted. We have to have this person go in. I could understand it and I would buy it more had you had the opportunity to bring forward say two others for the interview but you brought brought in one person and quite frankly based on the question here they don't care if they take that position they're willing to take it somewhere else I would take the person and fill as many positions as I could I would fill that other position if you have vacancies that that person's willing to take and then take the one person that wants to commit themselves to the V for the D. My mom was specifically chosen because she committed herself to staying neutral in this. She removed herself other than talking to Mike. She's not going to any more of those meetings simply because of that. It's in the best interest of what she knows in this town, not just for the people that attended that meeting. It's for everybody. It's for the people that don't know what they don't know yet that end up going to the bar. That's why I I almost felt like we were stepped on because of something that was opposing something somebody else won. You understand where I'm coming from with this? How it looks? It's not

It portrays something in that value. It may not be accurate, but it portrays it. And that's the first thing a lot of people saw once that happened. You saw the reactions, man. And I hadn't talked to anybody. That was something I wrote on my own without consulting anybody else. It it it stinks. It doesn't look true. It doesn't meet the lips test. I don't know how else to say though. That's just my opinion. Lucky for me, I'm allowed to have it. Are we allowed to respond? We've done Yes, we need I mean you you can respond. We And then we need to move into the session.

Yes. Yeah. I just had two things. I one wanted to thank you for the information about the New York State um budgeting that they would budget for their fueling stations to allow um volunteer firefighters because I'm happy to look into that um with Jerry. I told them earlier that I I'm happy to look into that project for him. And number two, I do just want to clarify because I was the one who asked the man that question, the other interviewee, he said that while he would be willing, he preferred to be put on the board of assessment review and I wrote it down like he was not confident in the maybe willing in my eyes from like looking at him while he answered. So I had only circled just assessment review everyone on my note. So I just want to say for the record I didn't feel I didn't feel like he was wishywashing just so that you knew from the one looking like who asked and look when he answered um he seems like he really wanted to that was it really seemed to entertain the EBA. So I just for myself wanted to give back and have that interpretation that he's just lost on um which one as the previous person uh other general he was but thank you again for your comment as always and being loving you coming and making it and now we move on to the next

bill. So, um the code enforcement office priorities update. Um I um wanted to update the board after I we spoke about the code enforcement office and their needs. Went back and spoke to the code enforcement officer and um sort of uh I guess I would say the request um it is evolving. So, one of the thoughts they had is that um because we recently uh promoted Alyssa to the um assistant building inspector um getting her out in the field is really important and um so they were thinking well instead of if there is an opportunity to have more staffing could there be someone who's in the office? So, I did bring up that that is challenging because we had already kind of said no to another department about that. So, the plan we came up with is that um we'll have some temporary assistance in the office. I'm going to assign my clerk um to that office. So, we're switching her schedule up a little bit. So, she'll be working in my office less. She has one project that I'm gonna make sure that she she's gonna make sure that she stays on top of, but otherwise she'll be assisting there. We're going to do that for four weeks. I asked in the meantime for them to start logging time so that we have an understanding of like what tasks are taking what amount of time because I uh I know that for the board the increasing staffing right now is like something that would be really challenging um in terms of like we can't

fund it with fund balance um because that we shouldn't we shouldn't fund like uh staffing position with fund balance. Um so they're um they actually already started doing that. So I have um some of the time breakdown. Um but then I thought that this is coming up a lot where I'm assigning I'm like making sure that other departments have what they need by assigning our the clerks flexible to different departments. I think we should maybe think about having another person who can do that. Well, my question would be how much of this is catch up work that's been, you know, I dealt with Keith's office a lot of it is catch up scanning and records management things and

and um what I don't want to I mean I'd be very reluctant to add some permanent basis um for what is a temporary thing because then you're going to use that expanded employment um those demanded hours as a baseline for future group future and um to the extent that we can keep that baseline as low as possible temporarily even and that's one of the reasons why I wanted them to start doing time tracking as long as she's willing to do it. Yeah.

Um I have some concerns with this plan. Number one, are we paying your clerk a differential for doing a third department's job now and floating to another and having to know the like knowledge base or another? I made it well, we talked about that it's she's going to uh stick solely to the clerk duties that are in the civil service position.

Okay. Um, and number two, that while I know the catchup game that the code enforcement office is playing right now, and I'm happy to give them staff because they've been a severely underfunded and under staffed department for a long time now. Um, I wouldn't oppose trying to figure out a way to get them a part-time st another staff member in there, but that's not my concern as much as that your office is already overburdened with work. You're running you're managing two bridge projects that aren't even in your you know official capacity. Your response three that aren't even your responsibility that you're not the superintendent of highways and bridges but your office is managing all of those grant fundings and projects right now. I'm worried about the effects of those hours being moved from your office out of it and not having those hours for you to have support in your office for getting communication, getting everything done that needs to be done for the dayto-day of the town, too. Um, I think that the clerk does a great job. I don't want her to not like if I'm not I'm fine with her going wherever she would like to, but I also want to make sure that the supervisor's office is um fully equipped and staffed, especially with the increase from the reval that we've gotten in inquiries at town hall just on all the departments. It's increased our need.

What's the time period you're thinking? So, so one thing is we made it four weeks because we're in a transition period. Um, the first quarter projects have been completed. We have one last project that I had signed to her that she's going to stay on and the next thing she was going to do are new things that haven't been started yet. So I was thinking 4 weeks um for her and um and then keep getting information about what what is that doing for their is that what is that doing for their department in terms of like the inspection schedule because that's the

yeah if we need people out in the the field I think the worst thing we can do is kind of cut off that um office uh for public communication about not having anybody on the phone. So, I assume that's what she's right. Yeah, it's mostly that. Um, and then also we are going to keep our we have two weekly meetings. We're keeping those, but they'll just be on teams. So, and then the other ongoing duties she can do from that office. So, the communication duties that she does, she's going to keep those, too. So, we're Well, I personally trust you and your knowledge of your clerk's time management. So I I'm

and we also I mean we're also going to all check in. We I have meet regular meetings with the code enforcement office too. So we're going to keep on it. I'm also very right now I'm very uh enveloped in my I'm very in my annual financial report. So until I get that submitted, I'm not we're not going to be able to start any of our new projects. So, and my only other concern is I'm fine with it for four weeks for it being a temporary thing to evaluate and see what could happen with a clerk being added to that department, but this same clerk was the temporary fill-in for planning and zoning board secretary, and now she is splitting her time between like we added that position on to make her full-time, but she's now your clerk and doing that. And I just I don't want to keep bouncing someone around that's been here less than a year. Even though yes, I I'm fine with it temporarily. I don't want her to get re assigned or moved there permanently.

Unless you want unless Yeah, she requests that when we put a position in there. But I just I think that I think that your clerks are bailing out the employment issues or lack of like scheduling in all the other departments. Well, I agree, but that's why I'm saying I mean, we have had requests for more positions that we weren't able to put in because of our budget. And that's why I one of the things I'm saying a lot of towns have a clerk, the same role as a clerk, and they can go between departments. It like you talked, we've talked about that a lot, a floater.

Yeah. And that's kind of what I was thinking. This four-week period, if I can figure out how we can do that even with a temp, I think that would be helpful for two of our departments at least.

Yes. Yeah. No, and I'm fine with that, looking at the the potential of that. But I if that person moves to that position, then that creates a hole in your office. And if that's that clerk positions full-time for planning and floating, then that also creates a hole in the planning and zoning board that like it creates two part-time positions that we now need to fill for moving one person into a new position. I'm looking at like longevity and I don't want to deal with in general another problem where we're short staffed or or down to like two employees in the code enforcement office again at one point you know with so I just don't want that to happen to any department though like and especially the supervisor's office I guess is

where my brain's at with it. I'm fine with it, but I I worry about if we keep bouncing our like transferring employees. If we don't have an employee that's specifically a floater and we keep doing that to an employee, that is not um conducive as employers. I I definitely hear your feedback. Thank you.

Um so I have I will circulate this to the board. It was handed as a paper copy to me today. So I have um there is an analysis on time and um this is just for like uh general the things that they've started measuring in terms of like how long like a level one um he split it up to like levels one through three of issuing determination letters and like how the escalation of the violation process adds time and money. So, I will circulate that to the board. Um, and also an explanation of what they're doing when they're preparing those. Um, he also did some research on fees because he watched our last meeting and we were talking about comprehensive review of fee schedules and charging for violations with a fee and whether or not we could do that. Um, and Mary Lou is still looking into that part of it because we had questions about that, but I have the um all the different uh fee schedules that he found that he compiled and gave to me. There's only one town that um is charging for violations. And I was going to look up there whether or not they have any laws on the books that specifically allow them to do that or if it's something that we could do. Um, but they also charge for legal fees, it says. So, I feel like that has to be something they would have in a law to be able to do that. But, um, that let's see. And then the other thing is we um I'm going to skip ahead because it's the code enforcement office request. So, on the body camera policy, that's another big one for them um to

just be able to have that record when they're out in the field. um especially because you never know what can happen. Um so what we had talked about is needing to have a cam a policy before we implement the use of the cameras because it's a records retention. There's a lot of it has to do with records retention and the c the chain of custody for the recording itself. Um, so our uh Brian who is the labor attorney that we've been working with, he was the one that told us we needed to have the body camera policy. So he took a look at it and gave me some homework with you guys. So he wants to know, do we want this policy to cover all enforcement officers or just the code enforcement office? And based on that, he will get us a red line.

All all negative one. Okay. So that's going to be a longer we need to take the policy that we have and add some things and um adjust some things he said. So he will you I will get back to him and then he will send us a red line version of that. Okay. And that policy has like implications for how foils are handled. Yeah. So like, yep. I I'm just trying to remember. Do we redact any personal information? or like those towns where like people just end up as superstars

because of foiled footage be because it's just like some young woman having a bad day and like anybody in the public can just get these recordings and they make entire YouTube channels out of that and I would rather not feed into that ecosystem. Yeah, Brian's probably good. But somebody having a bad day isn't Right. Right. Yeah. But I mean like if they're not like you know per criminally if they're just happen to be like in the the um you know footage just incidentally but it's spoilable. It is spoilable. There are different laws about it though. So they are considered a temporary record.

So that is all in it's not something that stays forever. So um so that is in the policy and that policy would have a retention and destruction state.

It does right. That's the same one that we've been looking at that u Michael drafted and then updated a little bit. Um so Zalie, I know I didn't get back to you with the food pantry lease agreement, but I thought it would be helpful for us to just discuss it with the board and make sure that we have direction from them too. So basically what we're doing is uh converting what is sort of a momentum of understanding type agreement into one that's more of like a lease with standard lease terms like term renewal and uh provisions uh a greater delineation of maintenance responsibilities and and um potential liability if if they damage the property. Um I mean it's pretty straightforward. Um the only thing that um I had as a question that Aaron raised was trash removal. I talked to Ron. He said that they have about half a bag of trash every week and what they've been the way they've been handling it now is um asking one of their volunteers to take it home with them and get rid of the rest of their trash. and the pantry has asked if we could if they could put it in once a week with trash that I guess Harry comes around and and takes to the master station anyway. So I think from a cost perspective it's negligible. Um it's just a matter of whether we want to to do that. We can do it as a temporary accommodation and then see how it goes without a continual obligation. Um or we can just say that. Um there's no wet garbage because they do compost and all the stuff. Um um and I don't recall what we we didn't get in the conversations of that. Um recyclable stuff like

cardboard boxes. So that's basically that's basically and no costly stuff. No costly. Yes. But they have obviously they have liabilities and and certain of their inventifications and liabilities uh would extend beyond termination.

Makes sense. So the things that we um there the things that Zulli has put into the proposal which what you guys have in front of you is the currentou. Um, but we talked about having the it much more clear what the town is responsible for in terms of maintenance of the building and um what what the uh communication protocol should be to report issues and then also to request things um

and also not to make sure that they don't do any renovations without the the other thing I forgot mention is use of the bathroom. Yes. So um it's not it's not addressed in the current correct lease at all or the current agreement at all. So um

there was a concern about um if the department is using this room um they normally don't allow the public into the building or into this room which is necessary to get into the uh restroom. Um, and I don't know how to mitigate it. Maybe have them go down the other hallway and come the side door so they're not coming through here or I don't know how to address that. I don't know how much of an issue it is,

right? I don't really find that to be this is a community center like unless it's like a books where someone's paying for this space or like a lecture from a government body or something like town event. I don't think that like if someone walks through to go pee during line dancing, it's not that big of a deal. But if we're having an executive session here and they just wander in. Yeah. So if there's a specific session that the that the whatever department or whoever's using this space would like to make sure no one walks through them, then I think that that would be on us to notice the food pantry.

I think the way I wrote it in now is uh with with some mindfulness to to scheduling. Yeah, I think that's all. Yeah. Um I think the awareness of the scheduling is something that we wanted to make sure we had. We also limit it to uh food pantry volunteers and not at all members of the public if that's they are general members of the public. I'm sorry. They're general members of the public. They're members of the community who are volunteering there. This building is open to the public during the after school program. That's what we're talking about. Okay. Is people walking in throughout the after school program and

well that door will be locked in. So yeah, so we put I think we just want to have something in there that we can make sure that we're communicating what those times and events are that there would need to be some kind of check-in and maybe there could be a sign on that door. Um it's just something that has come up and since we're reviewing use this one do they usually use this one? Sometimes people will come through here and then sometimes people come through there but um so I think that's the main um I don't think it's an issue when there's programming like the um during the day

or like events or anything like that. And what would we do if another department kept an office open while the after school program was here and came to use the restroom? Well, they had their own public. They had the the employees on a member of the public came in and asked to use the restroom and had to use these public restrooms during the after school program. I'm wondering what would be the our policy of that. You know, I don't know. I I I just find

I don't think that that there's usually this door is closed. I just find the service that they provide for our community to outweigh whatever unless there's a legal reason that they can't walk through a room that the children are in. I don't see how it's an issue that needs to go into their lease agreement. Hey guys, it's almost 10:00. kind of like hash this out some more times. I'm not hashing anything. I'm just saying do what you guys want. Go ahead. Burn out, you know, waiting their trial to jury, whatever you want to do to the nice nonpolish.

Okay. So, if anyone um I'm I think as long as it's that small of an amount, um I think we should write that in there. We al you know, we allow the other agencies in town for their for the agency waste for them to use the transfer station. So, um I think I don't have an issue with it. It the cost is negligible for sure. Um, so what I'll do, I'll uh look through the graph to get them and send it to Ron and see what their comments are. We can be discuss. Okay.

And the co-owner on their mailing address needs to be changed from the former president that hasn't been their president for two years. Yeah. On there. And we should probably just put their board president or executive officer so that we don't have to change name and release every year. Yeah. We um it's in the I only have a little one bar. Okay. Um so the uhou for the closed for free did you you said you had conversations about that. Did you want to was there anything else on that? No I think it's just we have draft but there was just some clarifications to questions that were asked about the board. Okay. I think it's all

um we spoke about it with the departments today. Um and I think we are hopeful that we'll be able to put in walk paths into the new areas where the sheds will go. So um and then that is all I have. Um exactive session. Are you doing any ground prep or anything for that? Yeah, I think so. Do you know the title slide? I'm working on it.

Um, all right. That's all I have in except for executive session. So, um I'll make a motion to enter into executive session at 9:57 p.m. uh for the purposes of discussion um of matters regarding the employment history of a particular person. Matters leading to the appointment of particular persons um matters regarding the discipline or um of particular persons and matters regarding possible litigation. Second.

All in favor? I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Quick piece of advice, look up Doc's directive 4943.