Tammy McMillen Treasurer
Tammy Morse Village Clerk
Mayor Marty Petrovic
Trustee John Hrubos
Trustee Debbie Nottke
Trustee Chris Thomas
Trustee Rordan Hart
Friday, May 2, 2008
Trumansburg Village Board Members
Tammy McMillen Treasurer
Tammy Morse Village Clerk
Mayor Marty Petrovic
Trustee John Hrubos
Trustee Debbie Nottke
Trustee Chris Thomas
Trustee Rordan Hart
Village Board Meeting 4/29/08
You will see a link to an mp3 file of the meeting on the morning of Tuesday April 29th below. If you click on the link, you can listen from within your browser, but there is usually a way to move this mp3 file to your desktop. In Firefox, you wait for the whole file to move to the browser, (a minute or two) then you go - File - Save Page As..... and you can put it anywhere you want. The advantage is that you can then listen with other programs (Real Player, Itunes etc.) which allow you to adjust equalizer settings and they give you a time counter. With the time counter and my notes below, you can jump to the part that interests you. You can also put the file on an Ipod, and listen while taking a walk, or driving or doing the dishes!
AUDIO
AUDIO
At this meeting,
Tom Ferritti - Police Cheif
Jason Fuller - Fire
Ed Hetherington - Building Inspector
Bruce Vann - DPW, Water, and Sewer
Sarah Adams
Don Schlather
John and Martha Ullberg
Alan Vogel
Geoffrey Hart
Amy Drake - Free Press
Allen Carstensen - author of this blog
All Trustees, Clerk, Treasurer and Mayor present.
beginning - chatter until,
0-hrs-3-min-15-sec- Marty calls the meeting to order and opens the first public comment period. This is when I lobby the Board for passage of the resolution which would state that the Board would like to encourage Congress to open an inquiry into the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. I pass out copies of the names of the 171 residents of the Village that have signed a petition asking that the Board to pass the resolution. Since the last meeting I met with Tammy Morse, the Village Clerk, and we found that some twenty names had been omitted. I’ve been going to these meetings since last September, and informing the Board of the most recent, and most egregious crimes, of the Bush administration. My little speeches are always followed by no response whatsoever. So, this time, I mentioned that I intend to e-mail the board on this issue, and that I will post this e-mail and the responses of the members of the board at my Trumansburg Impeachment Blog When I tell them this, Mayor Marty Petrovic says “You can send it to us, it is the Village’s prerogative not to respond, however.”
The Village government is the level of government closest to the people. These representatives are our neighbors. When they run for office, they invariably state that they are accessible, and want to hear from us. To think that they would refuse to respond to my e-mail, asking for an explanation of why they feel that it would be wrong to pass this resolution, after I collected the majority of the 171 signatures from their constituents, is shocking.
John Hrubos says “The thing that’s going to change this for me is 400 more signatures on the petition.” I think this is a cop out. They pass many resolutions without empirical evidence of majority support. This is the essence of representative democracy. We elected him to make these decisions. He is dodging his responsibility. None of the many villages, towns, cities, and counties that have passed similar resolutions have required the signatures of a majority of the municipality. When I went door to door collecting the signatures, most people were not home. It is simply very difficult to get to talk to every potential signatory. Some, that I did talk to, were understandably worried about putting their names on such a list. If there is a legitimate reason for them to worry, and perhaps there is, then this argues in favor of doing everything in our power to seek justice for the criminals in the Bush administration.
I suggested to John, that perhaps we should give those who oppose passage of the resolution, a period of time to collect signatures on a counter petition. He said “No, this is your argument to make” Perhaps he hasn’t read all that I have written at my Trumansburg Impeachment Blog. I have certainly made the argument.
More on this soon, over at trumansburgimpeachment.blogspot.com
0-11-07- Alan Vogel, John Ullberg, and Don Schlather (left to right below) make a proposal to convince the Board to purchase the old Trumansburg Telephone Company Building. Alan made a similar proposal at the last Town Board meeting. Overall, the idea was received much more favorably here.
1-00-24- reports from Department Heads. Ed Hetherington reported on building inspections.
Tom Ferriti reported on police business. He mentioned that he was out of town when the bomb threat was recieved in the middle school, so the State Police became the lead agency. He said that Trumansburg now has the dubious distinction of being one of only two schools in NY that have received a bomb threat, with an actual explosion following the threat. Read more about this over at Finding Ulysses
1-14-30- Clerk’s report, including discussion of the Youth Bureau. Durand Van Doren has asked for permission to use the Village Office parking lot to show movies outside this summer.
1-17-30- Treasurer’s report - there’s been a rash of bad checks lately. There’s a discussion here about the village taking credit cards.
1-27-10- Bruce Vann - DPW, Water, and Sewer. Again, they discuss how water is infiltrating the sewer system and overwhelming the plant. Bruce thinks it’s mainly down spouts improperly dumping into the sewer. He discusses smoke testing.
1-42-0- Chris Thomas says the EMS Task Force will present it’s report at the May 12th meeting. (more on this at the second public comment period) Main Street Project - they pass a resolution to purchase 16 street lights. Some of the blue stones will be engraved this month. There is also some discussion of the brick fields here.
1-58-30- John Hrubos DPW etc. Debbie Nottke - Commissioner of Agencies, Committees and Groups. She’s getting in touch.
2-0-30- Correspondence - The Planning Board request to be the lead agency for the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) . Board passes resolution to that effect.
2-04-28 More discussion about Village use of credit cards
2-07-45 Zoning revision discussion. The Tompkins County Planning Department will probably charge us 5-10 thousand, and work with who? This doesn’t seem to get resolved here.
2-14-10 More discussion of movie nights in the parking lot. The movies will have to have a “G” rating.
2-18-20 Searsburg, and Curry Rd. property sale. Resolved - to survey the properties
2-30-40 Agreement with TCSD for motor vehicle fuel facility sharing discussed
2-33-50 Water infrastructure projects bid opening May 22
2-35-20 Bills
2-41-35 public comment period #2. Martha Ullberg asks about the handling of the Byrne Dairy affair. John clarifies the role of the Zoning Board. Tammy points out that it is in the Planning Board's court until completion of the Site Plan Review. If the Planning Board finds an issue that they feel needs to be considered by the Zoning Board, that’s when they come in. If a special use permit is required, that would be up to the Zoning Board of Appeals. There will be two public hearings. One for the SEQR and one for the Site Plan Review. John says he thinks that petitions are premature because we haven’t given the planning board time to do it’s job. It seems to me that once the board makes a decision, it’s going to be rather late for petitions and citizen action. John says, “If there’s a problem when it’s done deal with it then.” Seems bas akwards to me.
2-53-50 I ask Chris Thomas about the Task Force Report that he mentioned earlier. This is a report that he and some people from the EMS service put together after visiting some neighboring communities that have experience with this privatization of the commons. Apparently these other communities are quite pleased with themselves, after engaging this third party private billing company to send recipients of ambulatory care, large bills which (if the recipients are lucky) will be paid by their private for profit health insurance companies. If the recipients are among the less lucky 47 million Americans, that don’t have health insurance, then the money can come out of their private accounts. Chris Thomas repeatedly denies that this can properly be called privatization. I asked him for a timeline - what will happen after this report? Might he make a resolution to go forward with the privatization? He said “ I’m going to make my report on May 12th, and things will grow organically from there.” He points out that the report will include recommendations. I say, “It’s disturbing to me to think that you might listen to this report, and then move forward without a referendum” Chris says, “I appreciate your concern, my response would be that the Village owns the Fire Department. While a referendum is certainly on the table, it is not required, it is not something that we have to do.” I think Chris is right about this and that is why I’m worried. The Board certainly could move forward with this plan, without undue concern for the will of the majority. I voted for Chris, thinking that he was a progressive Democrat. Perhaps we should have known that he was actually a Libertarian. I reiterate my opposition to this scheme, then Chris tells me “Right now you’re basically operating on no information. Truthfully, you’re operating on no information because you haven’t seen word one of the report.” Apparently, Chris thinks that all information about the privatization of EMS Services, is contained within his report, and that I am ignorant on this subject, because I haven’t seen it. hmm....
2-59-10 Debbie says she has a volunteer that’s willing to be our Village Historian. Karen Dickson, who is also the Town Historian.
3-00-33 motion to adjourn.
beginning - chatter until,
0-hrs-3-min-15-sec- Marty calls the meeting to order and opens the first public comment period. This is when I lobby the Board for passage of the resolution which would state that the Board would like to encourage Congress to open an inquiry into the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. I pass out copies of the names of the 171 residents of the Village that have signed a petition asking that the Board to pass the resolution. Since the last meeting I met with Tammy Morse, the Village Clerk, and we found that some twenty names had been omitted. I’ve been going to these meetings since last September, and informing the Board of the most recent, and most egregious crimes, of the Bush administration. My little speeches are always followed by no response whatsoever. So, this time, I mentioned that I intend to e-mail the board on this issue, and that I will post this e-mail and the responses of the members of the board at my Trumansburg Impeachment Blog When I tell them this, Mayor Marty Petrovic says “You can send it to us, it is the Village’s prerogative not to respond, however.”
The Village government is the level of government closest to the people. These representatives are our neighbors. When they run for office, they invariably state that they are accessible, and want to hear from us. To think that they would refuse to respond to my e-mail, asking for an explanation of why they feel that it would be wrong to pass this resolution, after I collected the majority of the 171 signatures from their constituents, is shocking.
John Hrubos says “The thing that’s going to change this for me is 400 more signatures on the petition.” I think this is a cop out. They pass many resolutions without empirical evidence of majority support. This is the essence of representative democracy. We elected him to make these decisions. He is dodging his responsibility. None of the many villages, towns, cities, and counties that have passed similar resolutions have required the signatures of a majority of the municipality. When I went door to door collecting the signatures, most people were not home. It is simply very difficult to get to talk to every potential signatory. Some, that I did talk to, were understandably worried about putting their names on such a list. If there is a legitimate reason for them to worry, and perhaps there is, then this argues in favor of doing everything in our power to seek justice for the criminals in the Bush administration.
I suggested to John, that perhaps we should give those who oppose passage of the resolution, a period of time to collect signatures on a counter petition. He said “No, this is your argument to make” Perhaps he hasn’t read all that I have written at my Trumansburg Impeachment Blog. I have certainly made the argument.
More on this soon, over at trumansburgimpeachment.blogspot.com
0-11-07- Alan Vogel, John Ullberg, and Don Schlather (left to right below) make a proposal to convince the Board to purchase the old Trumansburg Telephone Company Building. Alan made a similar proposal at the last Town Board meeting. Overall, the idea was received much more favorably here.
1-00-24- reports from Department Heads. Ed Hetherington reported on building inspections.
Tom Ferriti reported on police business. He mentioned that he was out of town when the bomb threat was recieved in the middle school, so the State Police became the lead agency. He said that Trumansburg now has the dubious distinction of being one of only two schools in NY that have received a bomb threat, with an actual explosion following the threat. Read more about this over at Finding Ulysses
1-14-30- Clerk’s report, including discussion of the Youth Bureau. Durand Van Doren has asked for permission to use the Village Office parking lot to show movies outside this summer.
1-17-30- Treasurer’s report - there’s been a rash of bad checks lately. There’s a discussion here about the village taking credit cards.
1-27-10- Bruce Vann - DPW, Water, and Sewer. Again, they discuss how water is infiltrating the sewer system and overwhelming the plant. Bruce thinks it’s mainly down spouts improperly dumping into the sewer. He discusses smoke testing.
1-42-0- Chris Thomas says the EMS Task Force will present it’s report at the May 12th meeting. (more on this at the second public comment period) Main Street Project - they pass a resolution to purchase 16 street lights. Some of the blue stones will be engraved this month. There is also some discussion of the brick fields here.
1-58-30- John Hrubos DPW etc. Debbie Nottke - Commissioner of Agencies, Committees and Groups. She’s getting in touch.
2-0-30- Correspondence - The Planning Board request to be the lead agency for the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) . Board passes resolution to that effect.
2-04-28 More discussion about Village use of credit cards
2-07-45 Zoning revision discussion. The Tompkins County Planning Department will probably charge us 5-10 thousand, and work with who? This doesn’t seem to get resolved here.
2-14-10 More discussion of movie nights in the parking lot. The movies will have to have a “G” rating.
2-18-20 Searsburg, and Curry Rd. property sale. Resolved - to survey the properties
2-30-40 Agreement with TCSD for motor vehicle fuel facility sharing discussed
2-33-50 Water infrastructure projects bid opening May 22
2-35-20 Bills
2-41-35 public comment period #2. Martha Ullberg asks about the handling of the Byrne Dairy affair. John clarifies the role of the Zoning Board. Tammy points out that it is in the Planning Board's court until completion of the Site Plan Review. If the Planning Board finds an issue that they feel needs to be considered by the Zoning Board, that’s when they come in. If a special use permit is required, that would be up to the Zoning Board of Appeals. There will be two public hearings. One for the SEQR and one for the Site Plan Review. John says he thinks that petitions are premature because we haven’t given the planning board time to do it’s job. It seems to me that once the board makes a decision, it’s going to be rather late for petitions and citizen action. John says, “If there’s a problem when it’s done deal with it then.” Seems bas akwards to me.
2-53-50 I ask Chris Thomas about the Task Force Report that he mentioned earlier. This is a report that he and some people from the EMS service put together after visiting some neighboring communities that have experience with this privatization of the commons. Apparently these other communities are quite pleased with themselves, after engaging this third party private billing company to send recipients of ambulatory care, large bills which (if the recipients are lucky) will be paid by their private for profit health insurance companies. If the recipients are among the less lucky 47 million Americans, that don’t have health insurance, then the money can come out of their private accounts. Chris Thomas repeatedly denies that this can properly be called privatization. I asked him for a timeline - what will happen after this report? Might he make a resolution to go forward with the privatization? He said “ I’m going to make my report on May 12th, and things will grow organically from there.” He points out that the report will include recommendations. I say, “It’s disturbing to me to think that you might listen to this report, and then move forward without a referendum” Chris says, “I appreciate your concern, my response would be that the Village owns the Fire Department. While a referendum is certainly on the table, it is not required, it is not something that we have to do.” I think Chris is right about this and that is why I’m worried. The Board certainly could move forward with this plan, without undue concern for the will of the majority. I voted for Chris, thinking that he was a progressive Democrat. Perhaps we should have known that he was actually a Libertarian. I reiterate my opposition to this scheme, then Chris tells me “Right now you’re basically operating on no information. Truthfully, you’re operating on no information because you haven’t seen word one of the report.” Apparently, Chris thinks that all information about the privatization of EMS Services, is contained within his report, and that I am ignorant on this subject, because I haven’t seen it. hmm....
2-59-10 Debbie says she has a volunteer that’s willing to be our Village Historian. Karen Dickson, who is also the Town Historian.
3-00-33 motion to adjourn.
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