Nicols To Retire, But Clancy Stays

New Bloc Adds Cut Jobs Back


By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN

If Mayor Joe Booan’s budget looked to take the Village of Cooperstown in a new direction, things are back to normal.
At the final budget meeting before the spring break, the new bloc on the Village Board, vote by vote, dismantled the Booan budget, adding back the $56,360 public-works superintendent position, held by Brian Clancy, and all other proposed personnel reductions except seasonal ones.
By the end of the evening Wednesday, April 13, the stable tax-rate Booan proposed had risen to a 4.28 percent increase, although Trustee Jeff Katz, a member of that new bloc, said it’s his intention to reduce the increase to zero again before the May 1 deadline for adoption.
Booan’s budget, presented to the outgoing Village Board Monday, March 21, sought to repair and rebuild  the city’s streets and sidewalks in two budget cycles.  To accomplish that, the Booan plan eliminated four fulltime equivalent (FTE) positions, three seasonal jobs, and sought to shift $300,000 from the water-fund surplus.
The new trustees – in the March 15 election, four candidates allied with Booan were defeated – took office April 1, and they now reset the priorities.  In each case, either Trustee Lynne Mebust or Katz made the motion, and the other seconded it. 

Except in one case – Trustee Willis Monie voted to add the street-department laborer job back in – the new bloc (Mebust, Katz and newly elected Jim Dean and Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch; Walter Franck was absent) enacted the changes.
The more than $130,000 in added-back personnel costs included:
• Restoring the police chief position to fulltime ($97,147) from the 3/10th time, adding $60,000 to Booan’s proposal. (See related story, Page A1.)
• A deputy treasurer, $20,512 (from the general fund; the water and sewer funds contributed additional amounts).
• Restoring parking officer from half- to fulltime, adding in $17,143.

At evening’s end, Katz proposed eliminating the 2 percent raise for village employees in the mayor’s budget, saving $22,000, and reduced $140,000 proposed for temporary road repairs to $100,000.
In an interview, Katz said it’s his intention to keep the tax rate stable with enhancements and cuts he’ll detail at the next – and perhaps final – budget session Tuesday, April 26.
On the Clancy position, Mebust said it was created as an information conduit between the water, sewer and streets departments and the trustees, without having to pay overtime, and to coordinate the three workforces.
In particular, she said, Clancy’s oversight role on village jobs that are abidded out is particularly important and cost-effective.  “Paying someone $50,000 to save $500” – Clancy’s supplemental pay for overseeing the Irish Hill project – “is not a good strategy,” added Katz.
But Booan said the Irish Hill project had significant problems – too-narrow streets, a lack of curbs, poor drainage – but because the village’s public-works superintendent signed off on them, “we own the problem now.”
He also pointed out that the water, sewer and streets superintendents all said their departments would function unchanged if the position were eliminated.
Katz argued Booan’s budget is little different from what past boards have tried to do, but the mayor disagreed:  “The street condition we have today is the direct evidence that what we’ve done in the past 10 years doesn’t work.”
He added, “If we stay disciplined, we can really make a difference in the quality of life in this village.”
On the part-time parking enforcement officer, which Booan had proposed limiting to six months, the tourist season, Mebust replied, “This is something that matters to residents.”  Her block of Pioneer, she said, would be lined with parked cars if not for year-’round enforcement of the parking law. 
Plus, she said, the revenues are needed.  And fines collected in the off season – $10,920 – cover the cost of the position.
Off-season fines, the mayor replied, fall on local drivers.  He also expressed worry at the level of complaints.
On the deputy treasurer, Booan asked what technological options had been explored to streamline the workflow in that three-person office.  None, was the reply.