Go!...Stop! Police Chief decision on hold...

Wednesday evening the town board adopted a resolution to extend the time for submitting applications for the Police Chief position to replace Ray Philo who retired on March 13, 2010.

During the May 26th Town Board meeting, Councilwoman Krupa explained that while the town received 13 applications, only 6 applicants were qualified by Oneida County; two of the 6 withdrew their application leaving only 4 applicants interviewed thus far. According to Ms. Krupa they have received some additional inquiries and felt that they wanted to give more people time to submit an application. The application deadline is now June 2.

Here is an the discussion that took place during the May 26, 2010 town board meeting regarding the extension for submitting applications.



According to a May 27, 2010 Observer Dispatch article, New Hartford Delays Choice on Police Chief, the board is going to postpone their final decision as to who to hire as provisional chief until the next board meeting on June 16.

However, in an April 27, 2010 OD article, New Hartford moves forward with police chief search, the temporary appointment of Timothy O'Neill could only be for 90 days according to law.

Chief Philo retired on March 13th...90 days would be June 11th. Wouldn't there need to be a "Special Board" meeting called by June 11th to name the provisional chief in order to keep within the timeframe? The 90 day law was the concern a few board meetings ago when they first determined when the applicants would be interviewed and when the provisional chief would be named.

Questions have already surfaced in the comment section of the May 27, 2010 OD article. Some people believe that a backroom deal is about to unfold. If the concerns prove to be true, that would be extremely disappointing to many people that are hopeful that the past is behind us and a new "open" form of government has emerged in the Town of New Hartford.

The timing does make one wonder. The original closing date for submitting an application was April 9th and it has taken until now to get Oneida County approval and get through the interview process. Now all of a sudden, the deadline is extended for one week; the board will only need an additional 2 weeks after the June 2nd deadline to choose who will become the provisional chief; and the law limiting a temporary appointment to 90 days doesn't appear to be a problem. Time will tell...

An announcement with the new deadline for applying has been posted.

Town Board Meeting...

Wednesday, May 26, 2010 in Butler Hall.

Executive session at 6:00 p.m. Regular town board meeting to start at 7:00 p.m.

Agenda is now online!

Stormwater Advisory Committee Meeting...

tomorrow (Tuesday) May 25, 2010 starting at 5:30 p.m. on the third floor Conference Room of Butler Hall across from the Supervisor's office.

The meeting is open to the public.

Stormwater Committee Meeting...

On Tuesday, May 11, 2010, the Stormwater Advisory Committee met in Butler Hall. We videotaped the first hour and a half.



The recommendation of the committee was discussed at the May 12, 2010 Town Board meeting and a resolution was passed to do stormwater work on Christopher Circle.

You can view the May 12, 2010 town board meeting on our website.

New Hartford Public Library...

isn’t following its bylaws; that's the topic of an article in today's Observer Dispatch, but is that just the tip of the iceberg?

Ever since reading about the Utica Public Library vote that will be on the Utica School ballot Tuesday, Concerned Citizens has been reading NYS Education Law and reading through voluminous amounts of information that is readily available online in regards to libraries. There are four different types of libraries...association; municipal public; school district; and special district libraries.

After our research, we visited the New Hartford Public Library [about a month ago] to request a copy of their bylaws and charter. In talking to the Library Director, he stated that he believed they were an association library. However, our research had already led us to a link on the NYS Education Dept. website that lists several libraries in Oneida County; that website identifies New Hartford Public Library as a public town library...NOT an association library.

According to another page on the NYS Education website, a public town library differs from an association library in several ways. Among the differences:

A public municipal library has between 5-15 trustees number between 5-15 that are approved by a municipal governing board. Each trustee is appointed for three or five years and are responsible to municipal government, public, and Regents. They also must be residents of municipality.

Whereas an association library number has between 5-25 trustees that are elected by association members; not by a town board. Their terms of office are set by charter, and they are responsible to association membership and to Regents. Association trustee residential requirements may be established in bylaws.

According to the OD article, Library board President Mary DuRoss said:

...although the Town Board had to approve first-time appointments to the library board, reappointments were a different matter.

Clearly the Library bylaws state that the town board is the appointing authority which agrees with the information on the NYS Education website.

Another difference between a public municipal library and an association library...employees of public municipal libraries are subject to Civil Service Law while association library are not covered by Civil Service. That brings us to another question...have the employees of the New Hartford Public Library been hired through the Oneida County Civil Service?

Our research also lead us to a NYS Comptroller's Opinion regarding reporting that is required of public municipal libraries. According to the opinion letter:

This is in response to your inquiry concerning the filing of annual financial reports by the treasurers of public libraries. Specifically, you ask whether the provisions of section 263 of the Education Law requiring public libraries to file annual reports with the Board of Regents relieve those libraries from the requirement, under section 30(3) of the General Municipal Law, that the treasurer of each public library file an annual report of financial transactions with the Office of the State Comptroller.

Bottom line, according to the Comptroller's opinion letter:

...it is our opinion that section 263 of the Education Law does not operate to relieve public libraries from the requirement that annual financial reports be filed with the State Comptroller pursuant to section 30 of the General Municipal Law.

Why is the report to the Comptroller required under General Municipal Law §30(3) important? According to the footnote at the bottom of the Opinion page:

Also, it has been our opinion that since the term "financial transactions," as used in section 30(3), is not limited to those transactions involving public source moneys, the annual financial report filed by a public library should include information on both public and private source moneys.

Hmm...that means disclosure of not only public moneys, but also private funding. We FOILed copies of the latest reports submitted to the NYS Comptroller's office; however, we received a certified letter from the Library Director informing us that they have never filed a report with the Comptroller. Never filed the report to the Comptroller that is required by NYS General Municipal Law???

Don't get us wrong...New Hartford Public Library is a beautiful library and we are fortunate to have this resource in our town; however, our recent revelations seem to point to a library that has been running "by the seat of their pants" all the while expecting town taxpayers to bow to their every wish; no questions asked. You can clearly hear the indignant tone in their voices at the library budget workshop held last November during the preparation of the 2010 town budget. Each year taxpayers are being asked to fund considerable increases in operating expenses for the New Hartford Public Library...this year taxpayer dollars are funding the library to the tune of $475,000 which is actually less than the library asked for at budget time.

According to the OD article:

DuRoss said if the town government wanted to be more involved in the appointments, it could be.

“They can play a role if they want to exercise that responsibility,” she said.

We are most certain that the town board does want to exercise that responsibility...it's all part of doing their due diligence; something the previous town board failed to do.

According to today's OD article:

A spokeswoman for the state Education Department, which oversees the state’s public libraries, would not comment on New Hartford’s situation.

But she did say the division does periodic reviews of all the libraries’ compliance with their charters.

So what is she saying...they are aware of the situation and have turned a blind eye or they had absolutely no idea there were problems?

We will have more information shortly including documents that were furnished to us through the FOIL process. To be continued...

Living La Vida Loca...

Press Release from Empire Center for New York State Policy...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Lise Bang-Jensen

Wednesday, May 12, 2010 (518) 434-3100

EDUCATORS’ PENSIONS POSTED ONLINE

More than 1,000 retired New York State school teachers and administrators are entitled to annual pensions of more than $100,000, according to pension data posted today on www.SeeThroughNY.net, the government transparency website. The new database from the New York State Teachers Retirement System (NYSTRS) includes name, benefit rate, retirement date and last known employer when available, for 134,796 people collecting pensions in 2009.

So how much is Dan Gilligan, former Superintendent of New Hartford Central School/Town of New Hartford Economic Development Czar making these days whilst he retires in his Arizona home? According to this database, Mr. Gilligan receives $119,573.76 annually!

His predecessor, Robert Bradley enjoys a $100,165.56 annual pension.

One can only imagine what current Superintendent Robert Nole will be receiving when he retires. Here is a copy of Nole's current contract that expires on October 14, 2011.

This database also includes pensions for all retired teachers. Take a look at the annual pensions for all 114 teachers and administrators that are retired from the New Hartford Central School system (this is a pdf document we created from information we found in the database listing).

All schools in NYS are listed on See Through New York. To view the pensions of other schools, click here!

Meetings this week...

Stormwater Advisory Committee meeting - Tuesday, May 11, 2010 in Butler Hall starting at 6:00 p.m.

Town Board meeting on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 in Butler Hall starting at 7:00 p.m. Agenda now online!

D.E.C. Clean-up in Chadwicks...

On March 3, 2010, representatives from the Dept. of Environmental Conservation held a Public Hearing at the American Legion Post 1000 in Chadwicks to discuss the proposed remedial action plan for 3456 Oneida Street in Chadwicks. A videotape of that hearing and handouts were made available on on our blog.

The Record of Decision (ROD) for the 3456 Oneida Street site has now been issued by the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation and is available online.

The Record of Decision (ROD) presents the selected remedy for the 3456 Oneida Street site, a Class 2 inactive hazardous waste disposal site.

New Hartford through rose-colored glasses...

...a town where even the sun wears shades!

We are the best in the three county area...yes we are!

That certainly was the theme at the New Hartford Central School Budget Hearing on Tuesday. We even heard students tell us that their friends in other area schools (Whitesboro and Clinton included) are envious of what we have to offer our students. Wow...what an attitude to instill in our youth...that should get them far!

It must be true...we heard it at the Library budget workshop...Ms. DuRoss said we have the best library in the two-county area. Is that an association library or a municipal library you are talking about Ms. DuRoss?

We know it must be true because when any town-related emails from the police commission were recently FOILed, they said there are none. Five commission members; two town councilmen and one secretary; not one of them has any town-related emails regarding the NHPD.

Guess it must be that our police department is the best in the 3 county area...maybe even in the entire state!

The police commission's purpose was to field complaints regarding officers. Councilman Reynolds made that very clear when Ms. Alessi came to the town board with a well-documented harassment complaint against a NHPD officer.

But apparently, there are absolutely no emails from or between police commission members regarding the New Hartford Police Department. No one ever sent any of them a complaint via email. They never were sent any information from the police chief regarding complaints he received (course he refused to accept a restricted delivery letter complaint, but that's another story). They never emailed each other regarding any town business. Guess, there just was no town business for the police commission to attend to via email because there simply were no complaints!

Well that is except the Alessi matter...oh, and there was the cigar incident, and the lady taken away in handcuffs because of a loud party complaint (sued the town she did) and wasn't there an officer that claimed a disability he didn't have.

So, if there are no complaints...why did a local politician contact us in response to an employee of the police department that was upset at the FOIL request? Why would anyone be upset if there were no emails...wonder if they are all willing to certify to that? Politics...you just have to love it...in New Hartford.

And, we have to wonder why all the executive committee meetings for the police commission? Couldn't be that they were not in compliance with Open Meeting Law...

Nah, not in New Hartford...because...WE ARE THE BEST IN THE THREE COUNTY AREA!

New Hartford Central School Budget Hearing...

Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in the High School Library.

Budget Vote - May 18, 2010 from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the New Hartford High School Gymnasium.

April 28, 2010 town board meeting video...

is now online!

You can also watch previous 2010 town board meetings by visiting our archive!