County Board Hears Dam Update, Flood Recovery Report, Recognizes Bob Mann in Year-End Meeting

"Two years ahead of contract schedule," is what John Vickers of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection told the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors about New York City's efforts to build up the Gilboa Dam at Friday morning's December and year-end board meeting in Schoharie.

 

Vickers, who was assisted by regional engineer Mark Suttmeier in Friday's power-point presentation, stated that two of five phases were completed in dam reconstruction work thus far and that 165,000 tons of weight will be added to the dam at the project's conclusion, coming from the replacement of loose stone structure with concrete steps and 38 torsional anchors.

 

Town of Schoharie Supervisor Gene Milone questioned why "there was not a dredging project attached to this as well," pointing out that there was a build up of sedimentation behind the dam and that they were losing storage of water supply. Mr. Vickers conceded there has not been a study on sediment build up since the nineties, and that they were planning to do one in the near future, but that "as long as sediment builds up in the dead storage area it has no impact on water storage."

 

In other county business, the Board of Supervisors heard from an AECOM representative that while there are "four highly qualified contractors to work on the four creeks," included in local efforts to address stream restoration, that seventeen landowners have still not signed on. Board Chairman Phil Skowfoe commented that the landowners were potentially "jeopardizing the project."

 

Possible ways for the project to move forward if the landowners continue to hold out is for either AECOM to redraw their plans or for the county to consider using eminent domain. In a startling admission, the AECOM representative revealed that they have "overshot their numbers," and are $400,000 over design costs as of now, although the money is available through Natural Resources Conservation Service grants the project has been awarded.
 

Schoharie County Treasurer and Recovery Coordinator William Cherry followed up AECOM's report with news that FEMA has officially denied the county's request to relocate the jail and Public Safety Facility to higher ground. FEMA maintains that the construction costs of rebuilding and code-mandated mitigation efforts should not be added with a total rebuilding price tag of $13.2 million and that they would only use the construction cost when calculating their "50% rule."

 

However, as Mr. Cherry pointed out, FEMA has added construction and mitigation costs together to exceed the 50% threshold in other projects across the country, but have insisted that those cases do not set a precedent, which the county disagrees with. The Treasurer also stated that State DEC officials may write a letter to FEMA saying that they do not encourage rebuilding in the flood plain.

 

The Board of Supervisors voted 12-0 on Mr. Cherry's recommendation to further appeal FEMA's position that they repair the existing building by presenting their arguments directly to officials in Washington D.C., with full support of New York Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Chris Gibson, as permitted in the appeal process.

 

On the lighter side of things, Town of Esperance Supervisor Earl Van Wormer praised five departing members of the county board: Anne Batz of Broome, Donald Brandow of Conesville, Robert Mann of Blenheim, Thomas Murray of Cobleskill and Dan Singletary of Jefferson for their service, saying that "It's a good thing to have people you disagree with."

 

He followed up his praise by offering a motion of special recognition to Blenheim Town Supervisor Robert Mann, who he was elected to the Board of Supervisors with twenty years ago, that was agreed upon unanimously and with applause from all members of the county board. Mr. Mann wasn't present at Friday's meeting.

 

Members of the county board then approved a series of resolutions, committee motions and entered into a brief period of executive discussion, concluding the 2013 legislative session.

The Report's Layoff List Findings; Supervisor Bob Mann's Response

During the initiation of what would become Fitzmaurice's original report twenty months ago, Schoharie Supervisor Gene Milone argued previous to filing the motion that set this entire process into what was released last night that there were allegations of both harassment and misconduct within county government, including the creation of a so called list of potential layoffs that sent public employees into a panic in November 2011.

 

According to the original report that was released last night: after the completion of 2012's tentative budget by co-budget officer's Alicia Terry and Paul Brady, the compilation of an additional layoff list to that of the budget's recommendations was conducted by Personnel Director Cassandra Ethington at the behest of then Finance Committee Chairman Robert Mann, the Town Supervisor of Blenheim.

 

Personnel Director Ethington stated that the list was assembled based off her recollections of three years worth of Board and Committee meetings where various supervisors questioned the day-to-day activities of certain individuals and when seniority, "bump" and "retreat" rights were taking into consideration. It was never intended to be anything more then a potential layoff list and would be subject to Board of Supervisors approval.

 

Fitzmaurice concluded that "however well intentioned" the creation of Personnel Director Ethington's layoff list was that Supervisor Mann "may have violated procedures contained in county law." And that its creation "caused a great deal of panic through out county government," although "department heads were able to recover from the surprise... and successfully argue for the retention of their personnel."

 

Supervisor Mann chose not to participate during Fitzmaurice's interview process, but did agree to speak with the Schoharie News and offer his side of events leading up to and after the creation of an additional layoff list almost two years ago.

 

Following the devastating effects of Hurricane Irene the county's economic picture was bleak: initial projections by the budget officers showed a near 20% tax increase for taxpayers to cover millions of dollars worth of flood recovery costs and loss of revenue. However, the decision was made jointly between both of the budget officers and Supervisor Mann to take flood related expenses out of the budget, reducing the overall tax levy down from 20% but it still remained over the 2% property tax cap.

 

The budget officers and Supervisor Mann further discussed potential paths to reduce the budget without a significant tax levy on county taxpayers - including the elimination of the safety officer position, privatizing the EMS department, laying off jail guards and other items - but ultimately the tentative budget recommendations were left to Ms. Terry and Mr. Brady. Which after its release Supervisor Mann started to press for additional cuts.

 

According to Supervisor Mann he not only pressed Personnel Director Ethington but "other departments as well," and that they had "lengthy meetings with every department head. Many departments, in my opinion tried very hard to work with us and offered additional spending cuts or ideas to reduce costs. Some examples were EMO volunteered to accept the weights and measures responsibility in combination with the safety officer."

 

This was followed by the creation of the layoff list, which Supervisor Mann described as "a sort of worst case scenario" and after learning from Personnel Director Ethington that employees needed 30 days notice prior to lay off, "wanted a list that was larger than the actual cuts would be to make sure we had options while the full board considered the budget." Adding that they "of course could make changes to the finance committee recommendations."

 

As it turned out Supervisor Mann, who stated "the report has provided many examples of how the list negatively impacted many county employees," believed that his course of action was "a poor decision" and that he takes "responsibility for it." He also stated that "the list should have never been released to the public or even the full board at the November 18th meeting," and he been at that particular meeting that "things may have turned out differently."

 

 In summary the Finance Committee that the Blenheim supervisor chaired "never reached farther down the list than what we had originally discussed in committee," and that "we never even needed the list as it turned out." Supervisor Mann concluded his remarks by agreeing with the board's decision to release the first portion of the report and that with it "in the open everyone can see the recommendations and know that the board has done nothing in eight months" to act of them.