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Council Chambers Tonawanda, New York November 17, 2009
A Regular Meeting of the Common Council
Present: Council President Zeisz Present Councilmembers: Waterhouse, Kossow, Davis Excused: Perkins
Pledge of Allegiance led by Council President Zeisz
Prayer led by Council President Zeisz
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE MAYOR
A letter from the Erie County IDA Leadership Council dated November 12, 2009, regarding the creation of an eligibility criteria for projects seeking IDA incentives.
A letter from the Department of the Army Corps of Engineers dated November 10, 2009, regarding the Seaway FUSRAP Site Record of Decision. Ordered filed
COMMUNICATION FROM CITY OFFICIALS AND CORRESPONDENCE
The following monthly reports were received by the City Clerk:
Referred to the Committee of the Whole Ordered filed
MOTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS
215. By Councilmember Waterhouse seconded by Councilmember Kossow Resolved, that the bills be allowed as audited and that the City Clerk be authorized to draw warrants on the Treasurer for the various amounts.
Ayes: Waterhouse, Kossow, Davis, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
216. By Councilmember Davis seconded by Council President Zeisz Resolved, that the reading of the following resolution be waived.
Ayes: Waterhouse, Kossow, Davis, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
217. By the Council seconded by the Council Whereas, a Project, for the Rehabilitation of the Culvert carrying Niagara Street over Two Mile Creek, in the City of Tonawanda (City), Erie County, PIN 5757.57, (the Project) is eligible for funding under Title 23 U.S. Code, as amended, that calls for the apportionment of the costs such program to be borne at the ratio of 80% Federal funds and 20% Non-Federal funds; and Whereas, the City of Tonawanda desires to advance the Project by making a commitment of 100% of the Non-Federal share of the costs of the Preliminary Engineering (Design I-VI) phase of the project PIN 5757.57 Whereas, the City budgeted funding for Niagara Street design work in its approved fiscal year 2009 capital budget; now, therefore be it Resolved, that the City of Tonawanda Common Council (Council) hereby approves the above-subject project; and it is hereby further Resolved, that the Council hereby authorizes the City to pay the Non-Federal share of the cost of the Preliminary Engineering (Design I-VI) phase of the Project or portions thereof, with the Federal share of such costs to be applied directly by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) pursuant to Agreement; and it is further Resolved, up to $50,000 is hereby appropriated from the City’s 2009 Capital Budget and made available to cover the cost of participation in the above phase of the Project; and be it further Resolved, that in the event the Non-Federal share of the cost of the project’s Preliminary Engineering (Design I-VI) phase exceeds the amount appropriated above, the City of Tonawanda shall convene the Council as soon as possible to appropriate said excess amount immediately upon the notification by the New York State Department of Transportation thereof; and be it further Resolved, that the Mayor is hereby authorized to execute all necessary Agreements, certifications or reimbursement requests for Federal Aid on behalf of the City with the New York State Department of Transportation in connection with the advancement or approval of the Project and providing for the administration of the Project and the Municipality's funding of the local share of Federal-Aid Eligible Project costs and all Project costs within appropriations therefore that are not so eligible; and be it further Resolved, that a certified copy of this resolution be filed with the New York State Commissioner of Transportation by attaching it to any necessary Agreement in connection with the Project; and be it further Resolved, this resolution shall take effect immediately.
Ayes: Waterhouse, Kossow, Davis, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
218. By the Council seconded by the Council Whereas, a $25.00 Special Events application fee has been received by the City Clerk from the Downtown Merchants Association to hold their annual WinterWalk and Whereas, the application has been reviewed and commented on by all appropriate department heads to insure the safety of our residents, now, therefore be it Resolved, that permission be granted to the Downtown Merchants Association to hold their annual WinterWalk on Saturday, December 5, 2009, and be it further Resolved, that a Certificate of Insurance naming the City of Tonawanda as additional insured be presented to the City Clerk no later than November 30, 2009.
Ayes: Waterhouse, Kossow, Davis, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
219. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that permission be granted to Riverview Elementary School to use various streets surrounding the school to hold their annual “Turkey Walk” on Tuesday, November 24, 2009, beginning at approximately 1:30 P.M.
Ayes: Waterhouse, Kossow, Davis, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
220. By the Council seconded by the Council Whereas, a Special Events application fee has been received by the City Clerk from the Twin City Catholic Club, Inc., to hold a Chowder Sale on City property located behind 55 Main Street and Whereas, the application is being reviewed and commented on by all appropriate department heads to insure the safety of our residents, now, therefore be it Resolved, that after approval from the appropriate department heads, permission be granted to the Twin City Catholic Club, Inc., to hold a Chowder Sale on Saturday, December 5, 2009, from 6:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M., and be it further Resolved, that a Certificate of Insurance naming the City of Tonawanda as additional insured be presented to the City Clerk no later than November 30, 2009.
Ayes: Waterhouse, Kossow, Davis, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC AFTER RESOLUTIONS
Council President Zeisz – At this time, I’ll take comments from the public. I ask you to state your name and address, and please put your comments or questions into a three- minute time period please.
Robert Derner, 286 Niagara Shore Drive – I was thinking about what you said at the last meeting about that you didn’t want to have an outside entity telling us what to do. Right now, don’t we have a number of State mandates and County mandates that you have to do, that are telling me what to do?
Council President Zeisz – Well, we do have, for an example, Municipal Law governs some of the things in the City. For an example, cities have to have police and fire departments. Towns aren’t required to do that.
Robert Derner – Okay, but this is what I want to ask, okay? The State retirement fund for City workers amounts to $1,300,000 and the hospital insurance that the City pays is $3,000,000 so the total is $4,000,000 almost $4,700,000, roughly 49.6% of the total property tax that we charge the property owners in the City. That’s almost half of that money goes for those two items alone. If we were combined with say, the Town and Kenmore, together we’d have a population of 92,000 people, we’d have more of a voice than what we have right now. Right now we’ve got 14,000 people in the City of Tonawanda and we’re a City. Kenmore has 16,000 and they’re a Village. The Town has 62,000 people and they’re a Town and we’re just a pimple in the whole area here. Even the lawyer for the City in this reassessment thing doesn’t even know the difference between the City and the Town. I think he must know when he gets his check but he certainly doesn’t know when he sends his correspondence out. What I’m getting at is, why, what would be the harm in finding out if dissolving the City would be a benefit to the property tax, on the property taxes to the property owners. That’s all I’m asking, just to find out. I think the people deserve to have that knowledge, that’s all. Even myself, if it shows, if the figures show that it wouldn’t be feasible, I’d be against it myself, but I think we should all know what it is.
Dave McCormick, 613 Niagara Street in the great City of Tonawanda – I set up with Antoine Thompson’s Office, about a month ago, for a bus stop cover, shelter up on Hinds Street. A lot of seniors have been sitting on the curbs up there. I saw one of them almost get hit, so I found out now that I really should have went to you guys first to see if it was all right and where I should put it up there. A girl in his office called me the other day and said she’s moving on it so most of the time you wait years, but she’s moving ahead with this thing so maybe I should clear it with you guys, where I should put this. It’s going to be like a shelter, up on Hinds Street. I know you guys were talking with the director of the traffic and that in here just a little while ago, so I’d like to put that on, if you guys could talk about it because it’s probably gonna happen. Hinds, right where Colonial and Hinds, right there. There’s a bus stop already there but it’s gonna be like a shelter and that. And another thing, I just like the City of Tonawanda, I think there’s a great bunch of people that work hard in this City. The other day, I couldn’t believe when I watched one of the garbage men, back and forth slamming my garbage can, I mean, what’s he trying to break it? He gets done, he actually bends over and pulls the garbage that was stuck in the bottom of my garbage can. You can’t get that kind of service anywhere else. I don’t want to see our nice City join a bigger city and start losing little stuff like that. Sometimes you just gotta tell people to move on and I think Mr. Derner should finally move on. You made a nice buck in the City, now he wants to get rid of the City, I think he should grow up and say, hey my taxes doubled, everybody’s taxes went up, you pay for your services, you like your services, you move on. Thank you.
COMMENTS FROM THE COUNCILMEMBERS AFTER RESOLUTIONS
Councilmember Davis – I’d like to just take a second to comment on Mr. Derner. I don’t think anybody up here that’s staying isn’t for a study but you make it sound so easy that, you know a study will be the end-all, do-all, that it’s gonna to show that one way or another that there’s gonna to be a savings or not, but in order for us to merge with another community, another community has to want to take us, number one, number two, it has to be advantageous for them to take us. So all of this talk about merging with another municipality really is a moot point, number one, until the study’s done, and number two it has to be advantageous to those communities. So as of right now, I can’t see any positives, be it the Town or North Tonawanda, picking up the City of Tonawanda. Like Mr. McCormick said, you know I moved back here after the Air Force because this is where I grew up. It’s the City of Tonawanda; it’s not the Town of Tonawanda. People that don’t live here in the area, yes I’m sure they can get confused between the Town, the City, and North Tonawanda, but I do like the small town, home town feel of the City and I will continue to call this place home and hopefully the City of Tonawanda for many years to come. Election results are final, I’d like to, I thanked the Mayor earlier today, but I would just like to publicly congratulate him on winning another four years and Chuck, I congratulated you last Council meeting but I’d like to congratulate you again, and Blake for winning a really tough, close race. I mean, I got the scars from this past election, but looking forward to seeing some new faces on the Council in the upcoming weeks here and I’m gonna reserve the comments of all of us departing members for the last meeting and lastly, I’d like to with everybody a Happy Thanksgiving.
Councilmember Kossow – I’d also just like to offer my congratulation to Blake and welcome him back to the Council after a little hiatus, and also I’d like to wish all the residents of the City a very healthy and Happy Thanksgiving.
Councilmember Waterhouse – Well, we’ll go three for three. I’d like to congratulate Bill, Chuck, and Blake also and wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving.
Mayor Pilozzi – I’d obviously like to thank everybody that ran and took the time, the effort and the guts to run for public office, again, win or lose. We did it and it’s always tough when you lose. Believe me I know that. I lost three times before I won once for this particular job and it’s kind of gut wrenching. But the fact of the matter is, you had the guts to do it and there’re a lot of people sitting home that unfortunately, didn’t even go out to vote. You look at the election four years ago, there were 5100 voters. This year it was around 4,000. That’s kind of a sad commentary on our system if you ask me, but regardless again, my thanks and my respect for everybody that ran, win or lose. It’s a great experience and one you should be proud of. Just a comment on Mr. Derner. I don’t think we need to merge. I think we need to continue to find ways to reduce the cost of government. That’s really the bottom line. We have had ongoing discussion with our school board, had folks in from Buffalo, North Tonawanda, Town of Tonawanda, trying to look at if we can save some money on sewage, delivery and treatment of it. Those are the kinds of things I think that we can control ourselves, that we can go out and find ways to save money for the taxpayers. We did that this past year with health care insurance. It’s still high, there’s no question about that, but we reduced the cost by around $200,000, if not more. That’s the kind of thing we need to continue to do and it’s really, to me, the way to do business. I would never be in favor of a merge, at least not in this time. There was a Walkability Study done a few weeks ago and the report came out, I think it was a week ago Friday I went to this event in Buffalo, and I got a letter off to the folks that did this because I think they are wrong. I think if you look at our community and look at the curb cuts at all the intersections, I don’t think you’ll find a community that has more handicap access, especially at streets. There was a problem, there was no question about it, we took care of it, it was a State run light at the corner of Seymour and Niagara, but I think they also made a mistake on the way they counted the timing of it. Lastly, Thanksgiving is coming up. We all have so much to be thankful for. It’s hard times we’re living in today, there’s no question about it. I’m at the tail end of my American dream. My grandparents came right from Italy and they came for a reason and that was to give their kids and their kid’s kids, which is me, a better life. I feel sorry young people today that are looking for a job, and even some of the young folks that are married with children that are in their 20’s or early 30’s, it’s a tough, tough go out there. Regardless, it’s still American, we got a lot to be thankful for, and I wish everybody a very Happy Thanksgiving, enjoy your family.
Council President Zeisz – And to beat a dead horse, Chuck my congratulations, Bill, Blake, looking forward to Blake sitting next to me again at the Council meetings, congratulations Mayor Pilozzi. One comment I wanted to make, which probably, I’m sure the news isn’t that interested in or anyone else here except for the new Councilmembers. I think in the time I’ve been here, one of the things that I’ve been pretty good about, maybe not always, no one’s perfect, is when the election’s over, we work together. I consider Ron my friend. I think we’ve worked hard to work together for the benefit of the City, and I think that that’s one of the things that I try to do and I pride myself on, is the fact that I try to work for the benefit of the City. I don’t care if you’re Republican, you’re a Democrat, or what you are. When we get in the room on January 1st our job is to do what’s best for everyone that’s here. I believe that Ron knows that of me and I’m just kind of laying that out there so that everybody understands where I come from and what I expect. It’s not about trying to do anything special for any certain people. I did make that mistake once about fifteen years ago and that will never happen again. I’ve had a couple years to work myself into this job. As far as the issue with dissolving into another community, Rick touched on some important points, would anybody even want to take us into their community, but from the City standpoint, I think everybody knows after last meeting where I stand. I am not in favor of it. I think it would be a huge mistake for our community. People that have lived here and spent their entire life here did so for a reason. Yes, there was, I’ll be the first to admit, there was a price to pay for staying here. Our taxes are, you know, higher than we’d like them to be but there was price a lot of us were willing to pay. We wanted to know that if we called for help, the Police would be there in no time. In less than a minute the Fire Department would be there in less than a minute. That’s what I’ve been willing to pay for and a lot of other people that live in this City have been willing to pay for that. But that being said, New York State does put a lot of pressure on, not just us, but every community in this State and until New York State addresses some of the issues that are sitting right in front of them, right on a plate, nothing’s ever going to change. Mr. Derner brought up the pension and I said this before, we’re up to $1,300,000 in our pension contribution. Now, and I’m not sure of the exact timing, but about six years ago, that was $195,000 and we’re just getting crushed by some of these bills and you know, the tiering system in New York State has been a huge issue and there’s an opportunity there that they have not addressed, they have not even broached, you know it was brought up during the budget process and it was just left there. That’s just one example of how they could deal with employee cost. It doesn’t even affect existing employees. It would only affect new employees. But that’s just an example of the stuff that comes down that does hinder communities tremendously and you know, I said it when we went through the budget process. Our budget for next year is actually over $500,000 less than this year, but when you add in the extra health and the pension, it goes the other way. My point being, that $500,000 came from somewhere and that came from improvements we could have made, or changes we could have made, that’s what’s killing us. One of the people brought up the issue that, “well, it’s gonna be difficult for us to fix streets and sidewalks”. You gotta do something, you can’t just let them fall apart. As it is, we’ve got enough issues. From a City standpoint, I think we’ve got some good things in place but we’re gonna need some help and we’re not the only ones. A lot of places, they need help. I think the worse is yet to come and I’m not trying to be the bearer of bad news that everyone doesn’t know about, but when New York State runs out of that stimulus money, something’s gotta give and I don’t know where it’s coming from but something’s gotta give. But I’m sure this won’t be the last time this issue will get talked about. Have a great night, have a great Thanksgiving and we’ll see you next month. Drive home safely and God Bless you.
ADJOURNMENT
221. By Councilmember Kossow seconded by Councilmember Davis Resolved, that this Common Council adjourn until, December 1, 2009.
Ayes: Waterhouse, Kossow, Davis, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
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