• meeting? So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Okay.
• Very good. And now we are returning
• for the regular meeting of the Board of
• Trustees.
• Having
• fantastic pledge from our special guests earlier, we can dispense with that and proceed to the first item of business, the approval of vouchers.
• For the general fund, we have $2,208,000
• $8,723.11.
• The water fund, we have a $113,720.57.
• For the super fund, we have $5,081.36.
• The capital fund, we have a $175,681.37.
• The the trust fund has $2,621.06.
Okay. Do you have a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. Discussion?
• All in favor? Aye. Aye.
• Next is the continuation of the public hearing on local law number 16 of 2025
• to expand the residential parking system on Hastings And Young Avenues. Do I have a motion to reopen the public hearing? So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Alright.
• We are back on the record. Anyone wanting to speak on local law 16? This is your opportunity.
• Please come to the podium and state your name. I thought there would have been discussion.
Oh, no. But sure. That's fine. But this is just to let people speak, then we'll we you know, make it respond to that later. We can have a discussion on opening it if you want.
• Sure. Would you like to do sorry. Please have
• seat. Give
• us two seconds and we'll
• yeah. It'll be it will it will be in effect, but please have a seat and we'll go to the The clock hasn't started. The clock hasn't started.
• my understanding is that
• the issue
• is
• parking and parking, that folks are walking to the train station. And
• so having this
• parking permit is a good tool in the toolkit to address that problem.
• In looking at the survey responses,
• looks like
• there were certain streets where we got great responses of yes,
• like one to 40 young, 78%
• were yes.
• 73 to one twelve Hastings, 82%
• were yes.
• But four to 22
• Hastings
• didn't seem to have a majority. It was fifty fifty.
• So, you know, I question moving forward based on that. And then
• one twenty one to forty six Hastings
• had a 57%
• yes, but many writ ins were no. And I think
• manager
• Healy, you mentioned that. Was that off the table? Was was that eliminated?
Yeah. So what we've we've already decided, or the board has already decided that we were not gonna move forward with the southernmost block of Hastings, which is that four to 22
• because we did not get we didn't get a good response from that area.
• And then based off the feedback we received at the last meeting, the board decided not to move forward with the northernmost block of Hastings.
• So
• there's two blocks that have
• the permit already,
• and then those are the ones in green as shown on the map.
• And then
• there are the three remaining blocks that are shown in yellow are the ones that we would be considering this evening.
• the one that
• just so you can point pointed out the one where we had an overwhelming
• representation from the neighbors at our last meeting, which we then took off with this The northernmost block, correct, of Hastings. So that's between Oneida and Crest. That is correct, yes.
• That's good.
Thank you. Sure. And I think it's good that we have that recap before reopening the public hearing. So further discussion?
• Alright. All in favor of reopening the public hearing? Aye. Aye. Alright. Anyone wishing to comment? This is your opportunity. Please come to the podium, state your name and address.
• The five minute rule applies, and please use the microphone.
• The
• situation
• as
• it stands right now Can you just state your name and address, please? Michael Mamone, 19 Young Avenue. Thank you. The situation as it stands right now is
• Oneida Avenue is totally, totally cluttered from the corner of South North Riverside, whatever it is there, all the way up to Hastings every day. Young Avenue, we have cars
• all over the place you can't see. When you go to make a turn to come out on Benedict Boulevard, somebody's gonna get killed there.
• And I've mentioned it at this meeting to fix that intersection, and you guys refused to do it.
• Hastings Avenue,
• same thing,
• loaded with commercial cars, parking all day.
• It's a shame that we have to come here to beg for this relief.
• Our homes are supposed to be a place to come to enjoy in peace.
• This was an overwhelming response to the questionnaire
• that people want everyone I've spoken to wants to hates the cars parking there. They don't belong there.
• They want the residential parking permit system, and yet there is still a pushback
• by this board.
• This thing should have been settled at the last meeting,
• and it really should have never even come up. This should have been done years ago by you guys.
• I hate to say it.
• The commercial cars parking on our residential streets are doing that to make money,
• whether they be commuters
• for free parking or shoppers
• in the commercial area that you guys expanded a few years back or workers for the in those stores.
• But since you expanded the commercial
• area like you have and you're continuing to do like crazy,
• you want to provide parking for these people, and so you're letting them park on our streets.
• Okay?
• The speakers that spoke here at the last meeting have a financial interest in those particular cars that are parking on my street.
• They are the speakers that spoke here at the last meeting are making money,
• allowing those cars to park on Yonge Avenue.
• So you want to let them park on our residential streets because you want to expand your commercial area like crazy. The expansion that's going on in that beautiful little harm in the Riverside area where I grew up is terrible. Terrible.
• Sushi.
• What
• monstrous building.
• A big expansion an
• actual home was built behind
• the music store.
• Another house was built in the backyard.
• Where are these people gonna park? You're not providing park. You create a commercial area. You expand it like crazy, but you don't provide any parking for them.
• The home rule,
• and everyone I've spoken to, first thing they say to me is, what do we need four hour parking for? They think that they hope they get the residential parking permit system. But then on top of that, there's a four hour parking
• law going to come in alongside that thing. Again, this is another way for you guys to provide parking
• for the commercial zone.
• That's all it is.
• Okay?
• And also, the weekends are open free and clear. Anybody can park as long as they want, Saturday and Sunday.
• Why? Don't we get to enjoy our homes on Saturday and Sunday also?
• This is going to be for this is so you can provide parking for the commercial zone that you guys expanded
• like crazy,
• and you continue to expand. The home rule states
• that 20%
• of the spaces
• have to be allowed for the general public.
• Well, I understand that because it's state money that's paying for the road.
• You have to allow general public to sow 20%
• and don't use that as an excuse to allow the four hour or to create the four hour parking and the wide open on weekend parking. It's not true. It's totally false.
• Okay? I've spoken to people,
• and you're telling them that the four hour parking and the open weekends
• has to go has to be there to provide for what the law says. But if I read the law my own
• clear way, it says that 20% of the spaces have to be provided
• for the general public to use.
• So let's work on that. How does that formula work?
• If you've got a twelve hour day times seven days, right? Say a twelve hour day times seven days, that's eighty four hours in the whole week.
• 20% of that is sixteen hours.
• Four hours at free
• all day is much more than that.
• Time's guys,
• all we want to do is enjoy our homes when we come home. Get rid of these commercial cars, please. It's been talked about so long. Alright. Time's expired. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you.
• 23 Young Avenue.
• I've lived on the street for forty seven years on that very street that I just heard about commercial
• parking.
• The only commercial parking on
• from Benedict Boulevard
• to Devon Avenue is if someone has
• person doing work on their home.
• And they call the village to get permission to park there to if they're there before 10:00 in the morning.
• I was very adamant that I did not want the
• permits.
• And through much discussion with the board and with mister Healy,
• they explained that we would get two permits.
• And that's fine. So if I had to put my car in front of the house, I would not have to move it. And I respect that.
• I have walked up and down the street. I have talked to all the neighbors. We have four new neighbors this year and one last year. And I explained to them that there's no parking between eight and ten. And then I explained to them that now it's going to be four hour parking. So they should be aware and they should apply for the permit should that get voted on.
• We have
• not had
• trained people. We have people who work within walking distance.
• If if the church has something going on or if there's something, you know, kids are at the playground.
• I think that you've done a good job of trying to make people happy.
• We were at that last meeting when we heard the people on the lower, I call it the lower end, the part of pacing that went to Crest. And that and that made sense because every one of those people were there.
• I agree with you that you should enforce this. I guess you start in January
• or whatever time and you'll change the signs and I would only ask that you put it in the in the mayor's letter or in the
• mister Healing's letter to the people, you know, the or the brochures that go out. So, people are recognized
• and they know about the change and thank you for putting up with my times of saying I didn't want it.
• I don't live on Young Avenue. I don't live on Knight Avenue. I live on Truistdale,
• but I feel like I live on
• we've heard about Young Avenue
• and parking
• probably in 10 meetings over the last two or three years.
• The problem with Young Avenue, I believe, is gonna be
• how this board
• proceeds in the future with building
• or encouraging
• multifamily housing in the plateau of farming
• and other businesses. There's a shortage of parking there now
• in that commercial area, and that's why there are problems in overflow
• to the surrounding streets. The biggest street that's impacted
• is Young And Oneida at the other end.
• Oneida is a racetrack now, and it's a
• traffic hazard to get out of there.
• And then with the potential development
• of that right
• to
• to
• think you're in addition to traffic, you're gonna have to and parking and
• speed,
• you're gonna have to think about noise barriers. If states and federal government can put noise barriers
• along Superhigh
• because they interfere with the local neighborhood.
• The village of Croton may have to entertain a noise barrier
• between Young and a commercial district,
• and any of this multifamily
• housing
• and excesses in multifamily housing that this village board has proposed in the past.
• So I think
• although some people may not have experienced parking problems,
• many other people in the village have, whether it be
• tied into the weather, like Trousdale Drive or Croton Dam
• and access to water.
• It's
• tough when you're poor, and there's no facilities like in housing.
• So I I expect bigger problems in that.
• And right now, one of the biggest problems is I might have. Thank
• you.
• Seeing no one else wishing to comment, do I have a motion to close the public hearing? So moved.
• By Trustee Simon, second by Trustee Nicholson. Discussion?
• All in favor?
• Aye. Aye. This closing. Just closing. Just the hearing.
• the village of court of law enforcement board of trustees adopted local law number 15 of twenty twenty one to implement the residential parking permit system along portions of Hasting And Young Avenues.
• And whereas the village manager conducted a survey of the remaining blocks of Hasting And Young Avenues in September 2025 to determine if the parking permit system should be expanded. And whereas the village board of trustees reviewed the results of the survey at a work session held on 10/15/2025,
• and whereas the majority of residents on all blocks between Crest Street and Devon Avenue supported the expansion of the parking permit system,
• and whereas local law introductory number 16 of 2025 has been drafted to expand the residential parking permit system to include all of Hastings And Young Avenues between Crest Street and Devon Avenue, and whereas public hearing was opened on 11/19/2025
• and closed on 12/01/2025.
• Now, therefore, be it resolved that the village board of trustees hereby adopts local law introductory number 16 of 2025 to amend chapter two fifteen vehicle and traffic of the village code to expand the residential parking permit system along Hastings And Young Avenues, which upon adoption becomes local law number 18 of 2025.
Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simons, second by trustee Nicholson.
• Discussion on the resolution on local law.
• I I would just comment that,
• you know, I think we've we've seen evidence of this both in this hearing and and the one that we had previously.
• I think we do our best work when we take our time
• to to try to get things right as as right as we can.
• And if you chart this effort back from
• the original discussion of the need following the adoption of of the previous residential parking
• through the effort to get the home rule legislation
• from the state legislature
• through the survey,
• through the amendments
• to the original
• concept as we saw portrayed
• in the map earlier,
• we're well into two years on on this effort. And and I and I I think the the end result
• shows that I think we've been careful, and we've taken into consideration
• all the different parameters. It is it is interesting the way certain blocks that are so close yet are experiencing
• things differently, and I think we've
• we've we've tried to accommodate those. So I think this is a it's a good product on our part just like the other efforts that we've done with respect to
• residential parking, we have to see how it works in reality, and we'll be sensitive to that. But I I think we've done as as good as we can in trying to craft
• a solution for what, in in fact, is a diverse set of streets.
• just to comment kind of where we're at. So the lower left hand corner, the
• Young Avenue
• Oneida to Crest, that particular
• block that had a 67%
• yes vote
• for permit
• proposed parking. We had a few of residents come from that block the last meeting, and I think that we saw we sort of leave their concerns when we told them that
• it would not be
• upheld parking would not be up parking limits would not be upheld on holidays,
• and that was kind of their biggest concern. So I think we alleviated those concerns.
• On that middle block, we had 82%
• in favor
• on Hastings between Oneida and Benedict. So that sounds like the vast majority of residents there
• responded positively.
• And then the final block that we're considering is the block between Benedict
• and Devon,
• which, mister Ramon, I just wanna thank you for coming here. So, you know, you've been talking about this issue for a very long time. So I appreciate, you know, your comments tonight. You know, at the end of the day,
• we the majority of your neighbors on on that block agree,
• and they would like to have a permanent parking. So we will put that into effect. I also just wanna make a comment about
• you know, just for clarification purposes, manager, do we have any applications for the lot across the street from ShopRite at the moment? We do not. Thank you.
• And are we trying to
• find other solutions for parking in this area?
• Constantly.
• So, you know, just to let the general public know, we are working on some some creative solutions to come up with additional parking,
• one one of which, you know, there there's a lot that is not currently being used.
• So that potentially could be some parking. So we're kind of looking at creative ways where we can find parking. The other piece of
• development that we are still waiting on, and I'll ask for again for clarification,
• the Save More Drugs property at Oneida And Riverside, have we gotten any any any word from them?
• with them in October.
• And at that point, we were
• the that the village board had requested over a year ago at this point would be
• provided in short order.
• That it was not. And the my follow-up to them last month went unanswered. So Yep. And just to kinda catch,
• folks up on that project, you know, our concerns
• about that project were parking and were traffic on Oneida Avenue. So what we asked that developer to do is do a survey,
• a parking survey, looking at the volume of cars that they have currently at Save More customers
• and kinda translating that to their new location.
• So that's what we asked them for, and we have still not received that in a year. So I think, you know, we are really cognizant of the parking situation in that area of Harmon, and we're trying our best.
• But right now, you know, those two developments haven't emerged.
• I think the next question will be, do we wanna request home rule for any other streets in that neighborhood?
• But that remains to be seen. Yep.
• So, you know, one hypothesis if majority of folks are using it during the work week
• for train,
• then the assumption is weekend, there's really not a big problem.
• But it sounds like there may potentially be still a problem on the weekend.
• Have you has this office received any
• other feedback about the weekend?
• I I would have to go back and look at the individual surveys because I didn't I didn't mark that down.
• The the question that we asked was only about weekdays. So I you know, if if we had asked about implementing it on the weekends,
• I think you may have seen a more varied response because people are more likely to have family over or host parties,
• and, you know, they may people may stay longer than the four hours that would be provided
• as part of that as part of that permit system. The original intent, as you as you stated,
• was
• for commuters. Right? And that's why the system was set up to operate from seven to seven Monday through Friday.
• So and that and for the two blocks that have had that for the past couple of years, that seems to have been working. We haven't gotten
• any feedback that I'm aware of that has asked to be expanded to the weekends.
• Thank you. Yep.
• but I did just wanna say that I
• thought that the communication we did around this was very comprehensive.
• We,
• you know, we we did the survey. The results were very
• solid from that.
• We had a lot of people attend the meeting.
• Last week, we got even more emails. We held the public hearing open
• for a second meeting,
• which I'm grateful for. I think this was a great model of getting a lot of feedback from the neighbors to come up with a pretty creative solution that really solved the problem.
• So I would like to take note of that and think about it as we communicate regarding
• about you know, in going forward with other
• not necessarily similar, but with other projects in other neighborhoods. The the question that I have is
• just about how this is gonna be implemented,
• how we're going to ease people into
• you know, I don't want there to be a people who like, how are we gonna communicate about this going forward so that a lot of people who are not gonna be getting ticketed because of the change? Like, is there gonna be a grace period? How are we gonna I just wanna be thinking about how we make sure these neighbors
• who are making this pretty significant change in their front yards too are gonna be aware of that. I don't need an answer at this moment, but I just wanna be thinking that. Yeah. It's pretty it's pretty straightforward. I mean, you know, we have the permits.
The permit is already set up on our online portal because we already have it for two blocks. Right? So
• as
• luck would have it, the permits that exist are expiring at the end of the year. So we just started the renewals for the existing permits today.
• So we'll send out a letter to these areas advising,
• you know, if the board decides to adopt it, we'll we'll send out a letter saying that it's been adopted. We'll direct people to apply online. If they help doing so, they can contact us or come into the office, and we can assist them.
• And, you know, we we were planning to have it go into effect January 1,
• but we can certainly no. Normally, we would do it, like, a two week period anyway.
• You know, if we need to make it longer than that, we can we can do so just to get everybody comfortable with it. But that's that was the plan that I that I thought.
• All in favor? Aye. Aye.
• All right. Responses to
• ir
• the
• residential parking permit allowed to am I allowed to speak on that? Yes.
• Oh, thank you.
Would you mind introducing yourself? There's a lot of people questioning. Mister Mamone, you mind reintroducing Please
• reintroduce yourself.
• Please reintroduce yourself.
• State your name and address, please.
I don't wanna mention it, but since you brought it up, the hearing is still not good in this room. It's terrible.
• So please fix the sound so we can hear you back here. Michael Mamone, 19 Young Avenue. You charged me thirty seconds for that.
• Can you explain the 20%
• rule
• to us people so we understand it? Many people have come to me and say,
• this four hour law is gonna be terrible. We don't want it. So if we don't want it, explain to us why it has to be there in detail.
• Okay? I understand what the home rule says,
• but
• four hour parking and wide open weekends is not what the people want.
• And, also,
• in the law, it says
• required on streets or portions of streets where the adjacent properties are zoned for commercial
• retail use.
• Now that is a ball faced example of what I just got done talking about. You guys expanded the commercial zone so big,
• and you created this part of the law at the state level,
• mister Pugh,
• so that you can provide parking for the commercial parkers
• in your
• grandiose
• plan of expanded,
• beautiful as it used to be, South Riverside, ugly as it is now.
• But you want to provide parking for them, so you created
• this thing where he says, hey, the people on Oneida
• from
• South Riverside all the way up to Hastings,
• how do you think they feel?
• Go down there and take a ride someday and see what that place looks like. It's a parking lot in front of their homes every day,
• and they can't get any relief from this system because the state law says they can't have it.
• On any part of Oneida,
• all the way up to Cleveland Drive, according to what this says, they're not allowed to get park residential parking permits.
• And Benedict Boulevard, same thing.
• All those beautiful homes cannot even apply
• for a residential parking permit because you guys at the state level, mister Pugh,
• created this that says
• there can't be any restrictions on streets that are joint commercial areas.
• Well, thank you very much.
• Thank you very much.
• But fix the sound system in this room finally, guys, please.
• Anyway, explain that 20% rule,
• Brian, please, to the general public so we
• be
• able We're We're
• able to
• do four hour parking.
• It's too much. One hour.
• And weekends.
• Okay? So explain it to us. We're allowed to look. We can we're allowed to know
• what the details are.
• But,
• you know, honestly and then, you know, the other thing is to be Brian, you said it yourself. Once we restrict this parking on Young Avenue, where are those cars gonna go?
• To the next free spot.
• On the on the end of Hastings that you just excluded
• from this from from allowing
• them relief. That's where they're gonna go because it's free. There's actually, there's no restrictions down there at all. On the North End Of Hastings,
• between Benedict and Crest, there are no restrictions. Someone could park there free.
• Freight, f r e e,
• all day long. That's where these cars are gonna go. The cars we're chasing out of Yonge Avenue are gonna go there. Why not?
• And the commuters too, they love it.
• They don't have to pay for a fee down at the municipal parking lot. It's free on Hastings Avenue.
• Somebody's gonna put it in on Facebook.
• I hate to sound so
• sarcastic, but these are facts of life. I mean, our homes, as I said,
• are a place where we come home to enjoy
• peace
• and happiness,
• the little bit that we that we can have find.
• Okay?
• Please allow us that. And the corner of Young Avenue
• and Benedict
• is horrible.
• Somebody's gonna get killed there along with so many other intersections that are not being controlled
• properly.
• I can mention I can read you a whole list,
• but that one is the one I come out of every day. You can't see anybody coming up or down, and there's now you got bikes
• and pedestrians.
• What's it take away? Times expired. All you gotta to do is nudge one.
• God forbid.
• Let's not let that happen.
• Regulate the intersections properly.
• Thank you.
• Prospect Place.
• And I hope I understand correctly.
• I would just like to speak for moment or two on the subject of the Freedom of Information Act proposed changes
• that are before you tonight. I'm
• concerned,
• and I've tried to understand
• the statutory
• requirements in the state of New York
• as it relates to
• the village's commitment to
• expectations of information
• requests
• that
• I think are born under statute
• to be the responsibility
• of the village clerk.
• The issue at hand
• in in terms of the legislation that we're working within
• is what constitutes
• timeliness
• in responding to information requests.
• And more specifically before you tonight
• is the issue
• board
• responsibility
• is a problem.
• I also understand that under the law that's been created that you're trying to operate within,
• that a denial,
• once responded to
• in a timely way
• by
• applicant,
• the reasons for that denial have to be effectively communicated within ten days of receipt of the appeal.
• I would suggest
• that we rethink
• moving the responsibility
• for answering
• the
• the objection to the denial
• of
• to the village manager's office
• to a
• outside
• attorney
• who would
• give counsel
• to the village clerk
• when a denial
• was going to be made by the village clerk
• so that they would be prepared in the event of a appeal
• to be familiar with the matter
• and
• be empowered
• to do the necessary investigation
• and give a timely report to the board
• that could be polled
• telephonically or whatever method you want to use
• to ensure a proper response within the time and its provisions of the act,
• rather than
• transfer
• this very
• important,
• I think,
• responsibility
• of disclosure
• to
• another
• employee
• of the village.
• Thank you very much.
• Riley from Truesdale Drive.
• I think
• the sport itself has recognized a problem with the sound. I'm not saying there's a problem in that, but, you know, problem in sound. You also have a problem in here. We
• electronic screen.
• Now
• that you have a consent
• agenda,
• it would be appropriate to roll those
• basic documents supporting the items that do appear on the agenda, vie for the public to see.
• But we can't see virtually anything
• at this level. And I've asked people to have better eyesight than I have. So
• sound and sight.
• A little bit of follow-up on
• parking, etcetera.
• Parking in that commercial area of of Yonkers and traffic in general is a serious problem with
• the
• with the just the outstanding
• business that Capricio has.
• Even opening up two parking
• street in front of the Sonoco, which
• in the past did not allow parking there,
• reduces
• the amount of traffic. It's a becomes a choke point, and then you have all that traffic coming in from the railroad.
• And then you have people coming down at night and other places, then you're gonna save on top of that. And
• if the population increases from there in addition to business,
• you're gonna have much more serious problems and many more serious accidents with people being run over, especially
• in twilight and dark with the shadows.
• I don't think you want a person
• responsible to drive through there greater than 15 miles an hour at nighttime
• when when the businesses are open.
• So I think only gonna get worse.
• Maybe the manager will address the fact that in the past,
• with problems at the station,
• they opened up parking above ShopRite along the old Route 9 just prior to Manor.
• I noticed that hasn't been open for years, but
• whether he has plans for that, I'd be interested.
• In your
• in your first agenda on reorganization,
• I find
• insurance plan. And
• a person is worthy of their hire.
• This
• village board, I believe, does everything plus and more probably than the town board does.
• But I believe you're paid one tenth of what they are paid.
• And maybe the village manager can
• remind us of what the town board has paid because I would like to see this village be a town
• town government.
• Usually, the Democrats are going to raise the salaries, and and I don't think we've had a salary increase for forty years or something.
• In terms of reorganization of committees,
• due to some of the radicals on these committees,
• the idea committee and the Hansberry committee, I would like to know the status
• of the Hansberry committee, what exactly that status of that committee?
• In terms of public
• notification of what going on what's going on, I'd like to know whether the village owns the kiosk
• at Save More,
• which is in such a shambles right now. Is that a village item, or is that
• I didn't catch it. I'm not that far back.
• What you're talking about, I believe I know what committee you're talking about. But there was a committee
• where only three members or only a handful of members were required to be village residents.
• I was shocked by that. What kind of committee could that be?
• Where where
• only a minority is required to be village residents.
• Maybe by by abolishing that committees or
• putting it on the shelf. You've resolved that question, but I would like to know what committee that was and what the reasoning behind that was that you would not have a majority of probe residents on any committee.
• I would also like to
• commend the board for improving the quality of its committees and boards
• by requiring that have an agenda,
• which is a minimum,
• which is a great advancement, and to keep minutes. So it's to your credit that you have professionalized
• the people that operate in your name. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
• 23
• Young Avenue. I didn't move.
• When we talk about
• mayor early on in November,
• you know, that we need to
• put the word out there for people
• to join the committees.
• And unfortunately,
• when we have the election, election,
• you know, then we had day, you know, we had a couple of holidays and we had Thanksgiving.
• So people aren't around to, you know, really respond.
• And I really think that,
• you know, starting the
• the committees or reaffirming reaffirming the people who would be on them at the same time as the election.
• Such
• as Stacey Reckon.
• We
• need to extend that invitation again.
• And I think that even asking asking the committees that are there,
• you know, take a look at your neighbors. Take a look at, you know, people
• in your social
• circle or in your political or in your church circle. Is there someone out there whether it be from the rotary, the lions,
• the PTA,
• and see if we can get some blood into the committees
• because
• I I said it the the last time we had a meeting. It's really important that people volunteer volunteer and that we get other opinions and that we get that support.
• Our committees are not just stale pieces of bread sitting there. They're very
• active.
• I can say from the RAC,
• we are trying to do as much as we can and to move things in the parks and to look at the parks and to expand programs for our youth and for, you know, take a look at what our seniors do. So I think if if I could ask you to
• extend that invitation, I know it went out
• recently,
• but to have people think about it. This Thursday, you're having the lighting of the
• menorah, right, the Christmas tree. We're we're starting the holiday season.
• If you're at that event,
• please take a look at our neighbors who were there. I know last year, all of the, you know, trustees were, you know, were there and but maybe just circle around and take a look at some of the families that are there and see if we can get some people to join us.
• Does anyone else wish to comment on agenda items?
• Seeing no one else wishing to comment,
• we
• Yes. With the report from the manager. Perfect. Thank
• You're doing? Yes, sure. Thank you, Trustee Slipin. So
• when we discussed the rules of procedure at our last work session on November 12,
• the board thought that it would be a good idea for me to respond
• well, to give my report directly after public comment so that in part I could respond to questions that are raised in public comments so that people don't have to wait till the end of the meeting to get answers to their questions.
• So
• with that being said, I will start with the questions that were raised.
• With
• regards to the residential
• parking,
• the 20% rule
• is you have an option, right? So you can have either you can set 20%
• of the area aside
• for
• nonpermit
• parking,
• or you can just
• allow
• the entire area to be used but with a time limit. And that's the model that we have chosen to follow in all the all the residential permits that we have set up because of the fact that,
• you know, nobody wants to be that 20% of the street where the where
• nonresidents are allowed to park. Right? Because just like some
• of the speakers said this evening, you know, they don't want people parking in front of their house. Right? That same sentiment applies for those people that would be in that 20%
• where the
• where the nonresidents would be allowed to park. So we felt that it was fair. We the board felt that it was fair to have the rules just apply equally throughout the the permit parking area.
• You know, the four hour limit is not set
• in the the limit that's set in state law is ninety minutes.
• We felt that four hours was sufficient
• to
• prevent people from parking there and going to the city. Right? Because nobody's gonna park there, take the train, and come back within four hours unless they're, you know, moved very quickly.
• But and it would be sufficient to basically
• cover most
• visits to friends' house or having
• technician
• come or a
• housekeeper or, you know, anything like that. It would cover most of those situations.
• So that was the reason for the four hours.
• In regards to the comments that were raised about the policy, I'm sure we'll have a more robust discussion on that when we get to that item. But I will just say that whenever
• the Paula, the village clerk, is our records
• access officer.
• And at any time before she would ever
• deny a request in part or in whole, she confers with the attorneys before doing that. So, I mean, that con that discussion
• is is already going on.
• With regards to the elected and appointed officials
• for the standard workday,
• as I said when I was reading the resolution,
• that's a requirement of the state and local retirement system for
• elected officials are entitled to participate in the state retirement system. If they do choose to participate in the state retirement system, they have to provide a
• record of their activities
• in order to earn credit in the system because of the fact that they don't have a regular workday.
• Right? So
• what
• they're expected to do is they keep a record of their activities.
• You know, for example,
• on Tuesday from ten to eleven, I attended a meeting of such and such committee. On, you know, Wednesday from nine to ten, I met with constituents. Right? Whatever it might be. So they keep a record of all their activities for, I believe, it's a three month period.
• They submit that to the village clerk, and then that information is used to calculate what their
• service credit would be in the system.
• As I said, as of right now, only two elected officials participate, the mayor and judge Watkins,
• but other board members are able to do so if they wanted to do that.
• And elected officials are not eligible
• for health insurance benefits under our current policy.
• And then there was a question about parking on South Riverside.
• I'm not sure if that was referring to parking on South Riverside itself or use of the lot
• that that's owned by Historic Hudson Valley because I believe when the
• raising of the parking lot was done about fifteen years ago, the village did have an agreement with Historic Hudson Valley to use that lot, but that was that was being done because there was work in the parking lot. We don't have an arrangement to use that on a regular basis, but we do have the 50 spaces on South Riverside that are available for people to park at, and
• they pay a discounted rate to park there and then go to the station. And there is one person that does that every day, so good for them.
• And then lastly, on the questions,
• the village did recently take ownership of the kiosk at Proto Commons.
• That was just very recently. I think we only approved that in September,
• and the board allocated funds to do a rehab of that.
• You know, it the kiosk had been
• previously owned by the library,
• and we decided to take it. You know, the library decided that they no longer it didn't fit their communication
• needs anymore. So the board felt that it was it was important to keep, and so we took over, and we're rehabbing it. So pardon its experience
• its appearance while it gets gets rehabbed.
• Okay.
• Now what I had written down here, the food scrap program was relocated
• this past Saturday from Lot A To Lot G.
• I was told that sustainability committee did send an email out to everybody.
• So, hopefully, that that message did get out to everybody. But if not, that's where the new drop off location is. There is a larger shed that is gonna allow us to
• allow everyone that's on the waiting list now to participate
• and then
• do another call for
• participation.
• So I think the goal is to have the waiting list people
• participating by the end of the year, and then after they're set up, we can start advertising for additional
• families.
• Half Moon Bay Bridge is moving along, the rehab project of that.
• We're at the point in the project that there will be a public information meeting that's held. That's gonna be scheduled for January.
• So once I have a date confirmed on that, we will be sure to publicize that, and we'll have it in this room so that it can be
• recorded and put on the website.
• The
• walkway over the crossening, which is the walkway between
• on
• Route 9,
• The railings are almost done being replaced. I think that work is gonna be finished this week, weather permitting.
• But just, you know, there was there was a a report in the one of the recent police blotters. Somebody called in. They thought that the metal was being stolen from the from the bridge. But that is not those are our workers. So if you do see them out there while you're driving, please know that it is a it is a village project.
• But, hopefully, that will be done, like I said, by the end of this week.
• We are expecting
• going to get, but there will be there will be something falling from the sky.
• So we did brine the main roads
• this afternoon. So just for those who are not aware, brine is a saltwater mixture
• that is applied to the roadways,
• and that helps
• melt the initial initial burst of precipitation.
• So it just kinda lets
• DPW get
• a head start on whatever
• snow or ice comes from the sky
• and
• helps us keep up with the roadways.
• So we you know, I don't think we're gonna get enough
• to have the
• seasonal permits go into effect. Right? That starts when we have two or more inches that accumulate,
• but we did send out information about that. So if you
• don't have off street parking and you do need a permit, you can apply it to the website. We did prioritize
• getting anyone who approved approved anyone who applied approved today so that they would have it just in case something
• happened tomorrow.
• So hopefully, hopefully, everyone everyone who
• needed it was able to get that today.
• The tree lighting is scheduled for Thursday
• at the Salo. So that starts at five. Tree will be lit by six. That'll be a nice evening.
• And
• we also have Pearl Harbor Day scheduled for this Sunday at 01:00 here at the
• community room.
• And
• registration for the winter rec programs is starting tomorrow.
• So registration can all be done online. So if you don't wanna come out in the in the weather, you can do it online. So that will be hopefully, will be a a good resource for everybody.
• And then lastly,
• our two fireworks projects are wrapping up, which is very exciting.
• The work that's being done at Washington, I mentioned, which was to create some off street parking for our volunteers,
• that is wrapping up now for the winter.
• There's gonna be binder put down so that people can park, you know, like that's like gravel so people can park for the winter. It it's just it's too cold pave at this point, so the the paving will have to wait until the spring. But at least it will be usable
• space for them for the winter.
• And then very exciting.
• I believe EMS is scheduled to move into
• their new quarters
• a week from Saturday. So I that would be December 13.
• So we'll just firm up that date, and then we'll schedule a a ribbon cutting.
• And that'll be very, very exciting to have them in their new space and, you know, just,
• you know, once again recognize all the the great work that DPW on both projects since they did both projects. So just,
• you know, they continue to impress with their with their skills.
this stuff is? Because there is an update on that. Right? Yes. Yeah. So I was actually trying to schedule
• a meeting either for tomorrow or Wednesday with our AV guy and DPW
• to
• kind of map out how we're gonna run the new wires. All the equipment is here. It's just we have to find a couple days where this room is not being used because they need to obviously take the the ceiling panels down and run the wires and everything. So we've identified a a time frame between December 10 and December 15 where we don't have meetings scheduled.
• And so we're hoping that we're able to get everything installed
• at you know, during that time frame. So what's gonna be replaced is all four white cameras in the room.
• We have new cameras for those. And then
• the
• AV system is currently housed here in this in the dais. Right? And so that is gonna be moved to the back of the room
• and
• near the near the TV equipment.
• And,
• you know, that will just give less fail points in the system. Right? You know, the wiring that's
• the wiring goes from there and and runs under the under the floor and then up the wall and back to the room, and it's you know, it just gives way too many instances
• where it can fail like we saw during the candidate
• forum.
• So
• it will be much easier to have everything in that back room, and hopefully,
• that will
• resolve some of our some of our gremlins.
• But, you know, the speakers in this room do work
• well.
• So the speaker the speaker the sound system is not necessarily the issue in here. So we've we've replaced the mics. We've replaced the
• the
• I don't know what the exact technical term is, the mixers or whatever in that in that equipment in the dais.
• So the the AV, the sound system, is actually new in here. So
• but we'll have we'll have HD
• images now with our new cameras, and they'll be able to be controlled by the computer as opposed to the,
• you know, nineteen nineties appointment that we have in that room currently.
• So
• Great. Yes. Looking forward to that. Can't wait to see us all in HD. Yeah.
• Now on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion?
• Discussion?
• purposes of discussion later. Okay.
• members want to remove for further discussion?
I don't really want to for further discussion, but I do just want to express gratitude to PAC and Hart for
• the good work that they do and also the good work that went into providing these year end reports. We look forward to get getting year end reports from some of our other committees also.
• We appreciate the work that Caroline Whiting and those committees have done
• and the fact that it was written out to be presented to the public.
• I'd like to pull out the FOIL policy to have that as a discussion item.
• Do I have a motion on the agenda as subtracted?
• So moved.
• Motion by Trustee Simon, second by Trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye.
• Aye.
• Right.
• Someone refresh my memory.
• Do we do the additions first in the proposed resolutions? Yeah.
• Okay. Alright. So,
trustee Simon, you Yes. Thank you, mayor. I I did want to pull this out just for purposes of of discussion, really, just to thank
• Christine Wagner for her really outstanding
• service to the village
• in in the in the last eleven years as a member of the zoning board since 2014
• and as the chair since 2017.
• I say this as a former member
• of the zoning board for for two years and as a liaison to
• the zoning board for a number of years after after that. And
• I could
• I I could talk a little bit about
• how wonderful it's been to have Christine
• in that role for all all those years, but
• I I really think that
• the Westchester Municipal
• Planning Federation
• said it all when they gave her the distinguished
• award for community planning
• this this past spring.
• We we talked at that point about
• the stability and continuity
• that she's brought to the zoning board over the years, the complexity of of all of the issues that for come before the zoning board, not only in terms of our very
• detailed zoning laws, but the fact that in in each case, you're dealing with
• with things that are very, very specific and personal to homeowners,
• whether it be fences,
• setbacks,
• things things of that nature.
• In her time on the zoning board,
• those eleven years, there's also been a tremendous amount of change
• in in in Croton. Lots of folks coming, wanting to do renovations
• and and things like that. We've had COVID. We've had all sorts of all sorts of things, and I think she's she's been the chair that we that we needed during that period.
• Christine's also been terrific at forging consensus
• on on that board, although she's been the constant
• since 2014,
• there's there's probably been almost a dozen different members of the board over that time, and yet she's been able to bring each each set of members together into a consensus and always try to do what's best for the village. And she's been she's been, I I think,
• very understanding to the differences in some of our neighborhoods and and really always strive
• for the the best conclusion that that she could come come to and and has treated
• the the folks that have come before the board with
• with applications with fantastic
• respect and and consideration.
• So
• I wanted to thank Christine Christine for those eleven years.
• I I would hope and and like to think that
• this reflects a pause in her service to the village and that
• after the pause, it refreshes. There might be some some other service we can call upon her to to help us with, but I know she's she's very busy in both her her professional world and and with a growing family. So I wanted to thank her for her service
• to date and and and look forward to her being a great citizen.
• No no greater honor than being a citizen
• citizen of Croton, and I look forward to the opportunity
• to to work with her again in any capacity.
• Alright. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
• And on to the resolution that was pulled out, the Freedom of Information Policy.
• kinda talk about this. I know Brent, the village manager, presented a memo to the board in correspondence, but I'd just like him to come on the menu on the memo and kind of go through the the change and, you know, what
is the change and why the change. Sure. Thank you, trustee Nicosine. So as I put in my memo,
• the in 2022, the village board
• assigned the role of a foil appeals officer to the village manager,
• and we operated under that system for approximately two and a half years. And then in October
• 2024,
• we came to the realization
• that because of the staffing in our office,
• I was assisting the village clerk with a number of the foil
• responses that
• that's a
• board.
• Very
• anyone else
• in
• an administrative
• capacity to do that.
• Since that time, we've hired an additional staff person in the village clerk's office who Paula has been training on the the FOIL law and
• the FOIL software that we have.
• And that employee has reached a level where he's able to assist
• Paula with
• assigning out the request, following up on the request,
• compiling everything so that he's able to
• do the initial steps, and then Paula can review it and send it out. And then, like I said, if necessary, consult with the with the attorneys of the committee on open government or whoever it might be that she needs to talk to. So
• the two of them are have it down very now. I'm not involved in it. And so
• after talking to Paula about it,
• I brought it to the board as
• a recommendation
• to go back to our initial
• arrangement
• because I felt that that would streamline the process. Right?
• As it was noted, we have a tight turnaround of ten days.
• As the board
• serving in this role, it's a quasi judicial
• review that needs to be undertaken.
• So we can't really do that by email or by telephone. We need to be able to get everybody here
• in person. We need to have the attorneys available. We you know, it's it's a little bit of an effort to do, and everyone is busy and trying to do that in a ten day window
• when this is not the board's full time job is a little bit difficult to do.
• You know, we have we the
• appeals that we receive are extremely
• few and far between.
• Last year, I I looked today. We received over 300 FOIA requests, basically, like, one day,
• and there was one appeal. Right? So, I mean, the
• it's it's extremely small.
• You know, I just I I felt that this would like I said, it would streamline the process.
• And, you know, I when I was writing this memo, I went back and watched the video from the discussion that we had in October
• 2024.
• And, you know, at that time, it was,
• you know, it was stated that this was a temporary measure and that we were hoping to be able to return it to a staff
• position
• in, again, the interest of streamlining things and being able to
• respond in a more expeditious manner.
Thank you. You're welcome. I'd also like to add, in my legal opinion, I think it's
• a procedure that's best handled
• by nonpartisan
• staff.
• I elected boards. Nothing wrong with elected boards. This is a great elected board. But elected boards,
• being the appeals officer, always
• could be a messier situation situation in a general sense than
• a nonpartisan
• staff member whose job is really just to administer the government. So I think this is a smart move
• and legally advised.
• service the appeals,
• the foil appeals. I was wondering.
• Was that considered and?
• Why?
• Maybe why not? You know? I
• did consider it. It was felt at that point that, you know, the and it was different. To be fair, was in a different
• attorney at that point.
• But
• whenever like I was saying earlier,
• whenever a denial in part or in full is done, the attorneys are already involved in that process. Right? So they they have
• conflicted themselves. Right? Because they've already given their
• guidance on how to
• interpret the statute, how to you know, what needs redaction,
• what doesn't need redaction. So that was
• the thought process
• on that. You get my advice at both levels, or you can get my advice
or our firm's advice at one level. So I think it's better to be able to have multiple points of contact.
• village manager is the foil appeals officer.
• What happens in a case where,
• you know, if if the manager is the subject of the foil appeal
• or the manager's staff,
• people who report to the manager,
• are involved in the
• foil appeal matter?
• Wouldn't it be in the best interest of
• the manager,
• you know, to delegate
• this for us to have, you know,
• a second person that this goes to.
• thought on that is the
• appeal process is
• not, in my opinion, is not subjective. Subjective. Right? I mean, it's pretty clear in the law what is to be redacted and what is not to be redacted.
• You know, for example, factual information, that is of a non subjective nature, right? That doesn't
• that's not supposed to be redacted.
• And so there were two when I served in the appeals officer role for the two and a half years, there were two appeals that were brought to me, right?
• One was
• upheld.
• I upheld one of them. And then one I
• upheld in part and
• agreed with
• person making the appeal in part. And the decision that I made to agree with them was that there was factual information
• that had been redacted that I felt did not need to be redacted, right? So
• I don't think that it's
• necessary to
• necessarily say, well, what if it's a staff member or what if it's subject to me? Because Paula, the village clerk, as the records access officer,
• has to file has to fulfill FOIL requests for things that she does in her course of business as well. Right? Because people can
• FOIL her emails or FOIL her records, and she has to fulfill those just like any other request that would come in.
• So it's just it's it's part of doing business.
• Everyone you know, I mean, we're a small government here, and, you know, eventually,
• everyone had could have some level of conflict of interest. Right? And so that's why we have a code of ethics that kind of actually deals with that subject a little bit where it says, like, if everyone is conflicted, no one is conflicted. Conflicted. Right? So
Yeah. I'll I'll also add, and I have a different set of ethics in terms of being an attorney. My responsibility is to the client, which the client is the village.
• It's not the village manager. It's not Paula. It's not the treasurer. It's not any one individual constituent part. It's to the village as a whole. So if I saw something inappropriate,
• I would have an obligation in return to circumstances
• to say something.
• Yeah. Can
• you explain what
• after
• what is the person who's
• requested the information?
• What is their next course of action?
• Or is that is that the end? No. So
• decision is, we have to forward that information to the committee on open government so that they have a record of it.
• And then I it hasn't happened, but I guess in theory, the committee on open government could come back to us and say, hey. You made a really bad decision there. Right?
• But if
• somebody wants to take it further, like, they don't agree with the appeal decision, they can file an article 78, which is basically, you know, a suit against the village.
• have an interest in making sure that that that doesn't go to an article 78 Of course. For obvious for financial reasons for the village. Also, for attorney's fees sometimes are granted in those article 70 eights. So we're we're trying to keep things running as smoothly as possible. Yeah. And just sorry. If I I just mentioned
• provide
• the
• denial either in whole or in part, right, when Paula provides that information,
• we have to cite the exact
• section of the law that we're using
• to
• withhold those records. Right? So it's not like it's not like we just write to somebody and say, yeah. We're not giving that to you. Right? I mean, we detail it very specifically so that they know this is the exact reason why this particular bit of information is being withheld. You know, a lot of the time it has to do with personal privacy information. It could be somebody's telephone number, email address, that sort of stuff,
• date of birth, whatever. If it's a police report, right, there's a lot of information that's contained in a police report. Children.
• Right. Yeah. Like, you know, information on youth.
• So there we have to detail that in every denial
• that we provide to somebody. So they they know the exact reason why
• we're not granting them that information. And that's that's why I believe there's very, very few appeals because of the fact that we give them so much information
• to understand the decision how how the village came to the decision that it did.
• So
• you said that there's a staff member that is currently
• manager
or what's what's the title? And Foil appeals officer. Foil appeals officer without any sort of involvement in any foil request? Or would it start
• or just to clean this process up, could it start at the beginning of this year in January?
Yeah. I I don't there's no reason why you couldn't start it at a later at a later date if you wanted to.
• I would I I don't know the exact I'd have to go back and see. I mean, it's I would say
• I'm trying to think maybe, like, three months. Okay. Yeah. I'm I'm trying to think. It it was when we
• yeah. I would I think it was about three months ago. Was, like, September. Yeah. I mean, I think from a,
• or a I don't want any doubt cast on you.
• As village manager, I want to be as clean as possible
• with the your position as a foil the foil pallet manager. Sorry.
• Appeals officer. Appeals officer.
• It it's just a clean break. Yes. Right? So we're stating because I I remember. I was on the board when we sort of made this move,
• and we talked about this being a temporary measure. And we talked about how rare appeals were. And we have only handled, I think, two appeals over the past
• couple of years. Yeah. Right? So it it really has not been very much activity
• in my in my experience.
• Right? So I I do agree that that was a temporary measure, and I agree that we should go back to kind of the way it was.
• But I do think that there just for all of our
• everyone's involvement, I think it would be fair if we just had a clean break and started it January.
• starting starting with any
• foil request
• received after January 1? Yes. Okay.
• you know, it it
• would only be
• the
• problem.
• System. So
existing It's Right. Now Would go to the board. Would still go to the board. And then anything
• I mean, do you still wanna start at January 1, or do you wanna say whichever you yeah. I mean, it doesn't really matter. I think there's both of those things
• I I I would like to do it going forward. I don't wanna make it, though, you know, any any existing foils, I think, should Yeah. That that makes a lot of sense. Remain with the court. I
• don't see any reason. If if if we're going to do that, I don't see any reason to wait until January
• 1.
• You know, this is it it seems appropriate to maybe be doing this at the organization, you know, the same time that we're doing all the other organizational
• things, but I'm I don't feel I could go either way. And
• decision,
• say, starting January in the new job,
• how do the board of trustees,
• you know, learn
• the decision?
What's the process for that? I would I would just share the information with the board as part of my normal
• communication with them. It's not information that we would necessarily
• like, we don't publicize every FOIL request that comes in.
• You know, it would just be information
• that would be shared with board members.
So an appeal decision, it could be a discussion during a one on one meeting with you? Yes. Yep.
• Okay. And
• I just I'm curious what the attorney's
• perspective is or opinion is that do you feel it's necessary to have a a debt you know, delegate
• if there is
• any conflict?
• Conflict being the subject is
• the manager
• or
• it the subject is the staff that the manager manages.
• You know? And I we wanna protect the manager
• and not put him in a, you know, awkward
• situation.
• And as trustee Nicholson said, it's also a public relations or optics
• concern.
• so
• FOIL is for records.
• Right? It's not for information even though the the name of the law is the freedom of information law. Right?
• Like, people can't FOIL and say, I wanna know
• I wanna know everything about x y z. Right? That's not that's not how the foil law works.
• You have to request
• document emails,
• notes,
• recordings of telephone calls,
• social media posts, text messages, messages, whatever it might be. But it has to be a physical document.
• So and that's I and I probably should have started with that at the very beginning because
• that's why I was saying that it's not really it's really black or white. It's not it's not like,
• you know, there would be a conflict of interest because it's somebody that I manage or somebody that
• somebody that's requesting records about me because, I mean, people request records that I hold all the time. I mean, anytime a FOIA request comes in, usually it's something that I have to give you know, Paula will send a note saying I need all records related to x y z, and I have to provide those to her. Right? So, I mean, that that happens on a weekly
• basis
• as it is.
• I I don't think of this as a conflict of interest
• type analysis. I think of this as what does Foyle's
• type what is foils
• loss sorry. What does the law say in regards to these foils? And
• as I said, if I if I saw that someone was not having a justified reason
• to withhold the document,
• that would become
• for me.
• I you know, there's things when you're talking about privilege or if you're having, like, different privilege where you have, say, indemnification
• agreements with third parties where you can get into a little bit
• everyday
• this is how things run,
• they're usually pretty black and white ones.
Yeah. I would say that the question of who watches the watchman is goes back to ancient Rome, but it's probably as old as civil government itself.
• And I don't know if anyone's come up with a perfect solution, but I I don't think the need for the perfect to be in the enemy of the good, especially here
• in the context of, you know,
• what is the end of the administrative
• process, but there are remedies as the attorney has alluded to outside of the village government. But this is just the final step within the village. It's not the final step for the free of information law itself.
• And,
• you know, as the manager indicated, the number of times that a foil
• actually proceeds to the appeal
• you know, the final internal appeal
• is very rare. And, I mean, we can come up with
• a bunch of,
• you know, in-depth
• contingency plans
• for different scenarios.
• But at the end of the day, I mean, even then, I think that the it it's inevitably inevitably gonna gonna be the scenario that we don't anticipate that, you know, we're gonna be confronted with if we do that. And
• having the manager deal with the the freedom of information law requests and the rare occasions that they do happen is gonna be work,
• know, without issue, I 90 think, 9% of the time.
• you know, making this decision right now,
• we're having this amount of conversation about it because
• in the media recently,
• village foils have been a topic. So, of course, there's, you know,
• extra conversation and consideration being made to this topic at the moment.
• In doing just some very
• not deep dive research on how other municipalities
• in Westchester do this, it looks to me in my
• very
• top line research that it is either the village manager or administrator,
• the mayor or
• town
• Supervisor.
• Supervisor. Thank you. Or the attorney.
• But the vast majority of municipalities,
• I think that the appeals officer is
• like without emailing all of the municipalities, I couldn't even find out who it was. But the ones that I could find, it was one of those three people. So I think it's a combination of you know, there's sort of, like, a little spotlight on foils at the moment,
• and, you know, and we're making this change in how we're administering it. But I I do think that I
• would be okay with any of those people. I think the the the way it is set up right now is
• not optimal. So I think that moving it to an individual,
• you know, be it the manager or the mayor or the one of the trustees or the attorney is better than the situation we have right now. And
• if we find that this does not work, we can change it. So I think but I do think that taking it off the plate of the entire board is
• I would like to do that now with but, you know, manager, maybe you can keep us updated on how this is going. And if you see a problem Of course. We would like to really not let it go too far.
• like like we identified last October, as soon as we determined that, hey. You know, this is this is not working. We need to we need to change it. And I I brought it to the board's attention, and that's then that's what we did. So, obviously, if that happened again, we would do that. It's not it's not here, but I've seen some bad stories when it comes to boards being the the appeals officer controls.
• client, but
• another place that had done a similar thing. It's
individual. So Yeah. Well, I think that the issues that have been identified exist just as much with the board
• potentially or or with the attorney or anyone else as they would with the manager. The advantage of the manage having the manager as the appeals officers is it allows for a faster response.
• Further discussion?
All in favor? Can I just say one more thing? I'm sorry. I apologize. But I do think that when the board was we we were very aware of what the appeals were even though they were very infrequent because we were the appeals board. So I just I would ask that if appeal if an appeal is made, could that be definitely part of whatever the regular communication you're having with us, updating us this happening. Yep. So that we we know that something was denied and then Yep. That's no that's no problem. Thank you. And just to just to clarify, any
• foils going forward? Yeah. So,
• this would be effective with any with any foils filed on or after 12/02/2025.
• I'll second that.
• Do
• So moved.
• Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicklson. Further discussion?
• All in favor? Aye.
• Right. The proposed resolutions.
Whereas the village contracts with the cleaning services company to assist the Department of Public Works with maintaining village owned buildings and facilities,
• whereas the contract for the current cleaning company has expired, and whereas the village of Cortlandt Hudson recently solicited sealed bids for this work under bid number 17 of 2025, and whereas six bids were submitted by the deadline of 11/10/2025,
• and whereas the responsible bid received was from cleaning services of Hudson Valley of Gardnerville, New York in the amount of $4,150
• per month, and whereas Frank Balby, superintendent of public works, has reviewed the bids and recommends moving forward with the low bidder. Now therefore be it resolved that village managers hereby authorize to award bid number 17Of2025
• to cleaning service of the Hudson Valley of Gardner, New York Gardnerville, New York in the amount of $4,150
• per month and be it further resolved that funding for these services has been allocated in account a 1620A1620.4040.
Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by Trustee Simon, second by Trustee Nicholson. Discussion?
• Aye. Or sorry, rather, all in favor? Aye.
• More ayes. Too excited for that one. You
The village of Cortlandt Hudson has used laser fish as a repository for village documents for a number of years, whereas the village has used SeamlessDocs to accept online forms and payments for a number of years, and whereas Laserfiche has submitted a proposal to upgrade its existing platform to a cloud based system and adding a module to accept forms and payments, and whereas this unified solution will storing forms easier for record retention purposes and allow the village to discontinue the use of seamless docks, now therefore be it resolved that the village board of trustees authorizes the village manager to accept the proposal from Laserfiche
• in the amount of 9,946
• and be a further resolve from the village treasurer is authorized to make the following budget transfer in the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six general fund budget. General expenses increase a $64.10 dot 4,000, publicity contractual $9,946,
• decrease a $1,980,400.0,
• MTA payroll tax,
• and I'm sorry, dollars 9,946.
Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson.
• We've used seamless stocks for a number of years, but the platform has not advanced with the times,
• but the costs have continued to increase.
• 've used we leisure features have been around forever,
• and
• we currently use them to store all our contracts.
• It has all our vital records,
• meeting minutes, right? It's our repository for all sorts of scanned documents.
• And so when they
• announced that they were having that they had the ability to do these forms, it was something. I said, oh, this is great. And then they said, oh,
• by the way, our whole pricing scheme is changing December 15. So if you want want to save a significant amount of money, you need to do it by then. So because I had planned to potentially incorporate
• this into the next budget.
• So
• a number of municipalities throughout the county are all scrambling now to try to get this implemented by December 15.
• So does this mean all the rec like, recreation, all of that is Not recreation. Recreation is done through their software. But, like, this would be the dog license form and the treasurer's office forms for, like, change of address and new owner forms.
• What else?
• Any any sort of documentation,
• like, the vendors in the parks, any like, any documentation for the clerk's office, alarm permit forms,
• you know, any sort of forms that are on seamless docks right now would transition over to laser fusion. So this cost the initial initial cost cost is is almost $10,000,
• and then
• our total cost starting in year two is going to be $5,500
• a year. And right now between seamless docs and laser fees, we're paying about $8,000
• a year. So we're gonna end up saving
• money for a little while until those costs increase. Right. But
• it it it will be it will be a better service for less money, which is always a good thing.
• Yeah.
• Yep.
• you say the recreation department has its own software
• I don't remember if we did it as part of the budget
• in 2425
• or if we did it after the budget,
• but we approved
• purchasing
• web
• track, I think it's called, which is the web version of rec track,
• right, which is what they use. So
• Recreation used to use seamless docs, and it was a very manual process because
• the forms would come in, right, and then Valerie would have to print out the forms and then
• register the people people in in the the rec track program.
• And so it's like, okay. That you would mail out Well, we we stopped that. That was, yeah, that was silly.
• But
• we email the receipts now.
• So
• I was like, okay. Once I found out about this WebTrack program, like, this is gonna save a significant amount of staff time because
• web
• WebTrack,
• all you have to do is just import the data in, and it automatically registers everybody in the program. So, you know, all Valor had to do is press a button every morning instead of having to manually register people.
• So yeah. So, I mean, that I think that ended up costing like an additional $3,000
• a year, but it's well worth it with what we're saving in the staff time.
• Okay.
And is it possible for that to integrate with Laserfiche one day, or does it already? I
don't know if it does or not. We'd have to find out about it. Okay. I know we were looking to have it integrate with Munis. I don't know if that ever happened.
• No, not yet. That's something that we still are working on because that way, again, Jeanette has to our treasurer has to enter
• the financial reports into MUNIS manually, but there was a plan to
• get the module to have that done
• in a more efficient way. Yeah, to have them talk to each other, yes.
• So
• to be continued on that. Okay. Very good. Yeah. All
• Alright. Public comment on non agenda items. Anyone wishing to comment on anything? This is your opportunity.
• Five minutes per speaker. Please state your name and address.
• To bring attention
• to the trustees and to the
• village manor. Couple couple of unanswered questions I addressed before.
• One is the pay, current pay for mayor and trustee of the village program
• as compared to the pay for
• town supervisor
• and the town trustees.
• Item two,
• what is the status of the Hansberry committee, which is to be part of the idea committee?
• Item three, which I didn't ask before.
• This village used to belong to an organization called International Council for Local
• Environmental
• Initiatives.
• Own.
• And, then unfortunately, some very bad ideas came out of this organization.
• And the village was a member. I'd like to know if they still are a member. They still pay dues.
• Item four.
• Proton is supposed to schedule to get a huge electric cable,
• supposedly from
• clean energy to come down the Hudson River,
• cross over the land, parallel the railroad tracks, and then cross over to
• I wonder whether that has been delayed or now it's out sitting in the middle of the river as opposed to on land
• and crossing.
• What
• happened to that cable?
• You brought up the subject of foil requests.
• For some reason, the village has a bad reputation of answering foil requests.
• Me, personally, I ask the whenever a question, I ask somebody.
• In most cases, it's the village manager, and he gets right back to me. I would recommend that
• formula to other people as long as it's not a complicated question. I can email you the responses.
• Perhaps you can also enlighten us. Many times, foil requests are garbage commercial requests
• from businesses seeking information
• to either promote contracts or otherwise, perhaps
• the Village Match can break down that 300 foil request.
• Lastly, lastly, I'd I'd like like to to
• remind remind citizens of Croton there is an ongoing boycott of CVS.
• CVS is a corporation. It's one of the biggest promoters of a dangerous abortion drug called forty six.
• The government, which has
• times and many false alarms
• because of the
• the the way government bureaucracies and medical establishment organized
• has always turned a blind eye to any type of abortion medication.
• And then usually after
• women are ravished by that
• device or that
• pill,
• then they, oh, man. We we'll get a new one that'll fix that. But usually, there is, like, ten or twenty years of destruction.
• With r u forty six, there's been twenty five years of destruction
• starting back when they hit death experience and near death experience way back when
• administration
• rammed through the approval
• of r u forty six by putting a stooge at the FDA
• just before he retired from office as president of The United States.
• And as I brought to your attention before,
• within the last twelve months,
• a major study based upon
• 865,727
• women,
• contrary to the government that says there's an injury rate of a half a percent,
• has found out that there is an injure a serious injury rate, serious injury rate,
• 22
• times as high as the government has announced
• to include
• you all know what sepsis is. Right?
• Eight hundred twenty four cases of sepsis,
• major infection, eleven thousand seven hundred, transfusions,
• thirteen hundred,
• severe hemorrhage, twenty eight thousand six hundred and fifty eight,
• Hospitalizations,
• six thousand.
• ER visits,
• forty thousand nine hundred and sixty. Ectopic pregnancy was a particular problem with this pill. That's why they abandoned it in Canada and Australia till the Liberals took over.
• Three hundred and sixty sixty two
• three thousand sixty two.
• Other life threatening events, including cardiac,
• pulmonary thrombosis,
• nineteen hundred.
• Repeated surgical abortion, twenty five thousand. And lastly Times expired. Thank you. Abortion specific
• complications, 49,000.
• This is a dangerous drug.
• Emergency services be aware of it, especially our schools. Thank you. Thank you.
• Same house. Been there a year now.
• I have a question.
• When you say
• to get up, if we have a question and to speak,
• do I understand it correctly that it's non agenda items, but it's in reference to the village or village
• business or
• play grounds or parks or recreation or DPW
• or buildings or whatever.
• Is that what this open piece of
• five minutes is about?
• Because I am
• offended
• and I have been offended
• every time
• mister Riley
• gets up and speaks
• about CVS
• because you don't control control CVS. CVS.
• I I don't don't control control CVS. CVS.
• And if somebody wants to do that, they could
• go on their own platform to CVS.
• So I just want a clarification of
• week after week or every two weeks or once a month why this
• conversation has to take place. I am offended.
• case
• the
• village business at public meetings. I don't think we regulate that in terms of what the content of that speech is. So I think mister Riley is
• able to talk about those issues that he wishes to talk about, and we are not going to engage in content moderation
• in regards to what he is talking about in
• that forum that's coming up.
• There is, you know, the question of
• what you can do and
• whether you should do that thing. Is it the best use of everyone's time to discuss an issue that the board can't address at a board meeting?
• But
• it's an open forum, so people are free to do that.
• All right. Seeing no one else wishing to comment,
• we proceed to reports.
• Trustee Slipin.
• veterans and and thank them for the work that they are already doing with the leaves. There are so many piles of leaves that are in the middle of the street, which is exactly
• like, you, the village posts something it says
• on Facebook or on social media and says, do the leaves this way. Don't do them that way. And the vast majority of people in the village are doing them the way they're not supposed to be doing them,
• which makes it dangerous, hard to park. Especially if it snows, it's gonna be a big old nightmare.
• So I don't know. I want to believe that people don't know.
• So I don't know what are some other ways that we can get the word out maybe,
• but the way people are putting their leaves on the streets right now is problematic.
• So I just wanted to
• and I think the DPW is picking them up on schedule and pretty quickly. We can. Yeah.
• There are a couple streets I drove up in town, and I was really hoping when the list of what was getting picked up of those were gonna be it. Not this week. But
• I just so maybe I don't know how we can better remind people, but I think maybe I wanna believe that people just need a refresher on that.
• I'm really looking forward to Thursday.
• The it's always it's a really good event, the kickoff of the holiday season. I don't I know it's not the hot it's not the menorah lighting yet. It's just the tree lighting. Whatever it is, it's a great The menorah will be there. It's the menorah presence. Right.
• But whatever the kickoff to the holiday season is, that's gonna be great.
• This time of year is very busy, so
• program.
• So
• this is basically
• it's provides assistance to households that have trouble covering their heating bills. Can we get some information about that and get that out to our folks? Maybe, you know, to our residents. Maybe even figure out a way to put that on the website
through all of them. Okay. So I just think that I randomly came across it today. So I
• I'll I'll I'll find some information. Yeah. That would be really just because people who were
• and maybe we could tie it into the what's on the website on SnapChat. Cortland has some program too, don't they? That that's that's different. That's, like, that's a separate thing. Yeah. That's, like, kind of buying thing. Saw that today. And then the other thing I saw that I wanted to just share, and I have a feeling Tristan will also be sharing something about this. But about the there's a lot of really good recreation programs both in the village, which came out in rec brochure tonight, but the town has some really good recreation programs for high school aged kids during the winter break.
• So if we could I won't belabor my report by going through what that is. But if there's some way we could share what the town posted on their social media and in their newsletter in hours,
• you know, so that the nine six through 12 graders in pro would be aware of what we have in the area. In the town also.
• I think that's it. Okay.
• And you are going to send out this is going back to the last meeting, a list of all our new assignments. Yes.
• Just a quick thank you again and congratulations
• to mayor Pugh, trustee Nicholson, myself, and thank you
• for
• spending time with me and helping me get up to speed.
• And I look forward to collaborating and
• working
• hard, you know, for village residents and and
• doing
• great things for the village.
• I would like to say,
• I know you're gonna talk about the ABC,
• but I I love the directory,
• Glenn, that that the ABC developed and it and the importance the doing it.
• doing
• Just to keep that, you know, in in mind and and spread the way word.
• And I look forward to
• the holiday events where I could get to know the staff, you know, and
• appreciate
• all the work behind the scenes by the village of police to make all that happen. So
• thank you.
• And
• agree with trustee slip in on advertising the town of Portland recreation events. I do have a question for the manager just as
• Thanksgiving was sort of coming and going. Thought about the Barry Manor residents that have been displaced,
• and any updates on Barry Manor that you could share?
• okay, I would like to
• formulate a a more of, like, thorough response, and I can give that at the next meeting. That would be great. Thank you. Yeah. But, yes, there are things are progressing there.
• Work is has begun on on
• one of the
• one of the fire damage departments,
• and, you know, the inspectors are continuing
• addressing the the violations that that existed at the property. So Thank you. Yeah. I I I think it was eye opening
• understand
• when a fire happens, how long
• it takes, and seeing sort of the fire that happened in Mount Vernon over the past week.
• You know, they've got a 100 residents,
• 100 residents,
• you know, out of their homes and, you know, what what that will take. So, you know, just just thinking of all of those folks that have been displaced from Barry Manor. It's been six months. So it's been a been a been a long time.
• And I think that is it for me. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. Trustee Nicholson. So on
let's see. On November 20, we had our bicycle and pedestrian committee meeting. The mayor and I were there.
• We talked about the project mover third quarter in October results, which were just excellent. We also talked
• regarding Project Mover December
• 19,
• all of the six communities in Project
• Mover Croton,
• Ostling Town And Village,
• Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow, and Don's Ferry will go into hibernation for the winter months. That's target date is December 19.
• Mayor actually had an excellent idea, which we're
• pursuing, which is to make sure that on the racks and the
• signs
• that are there, it says, we'll be back. And so the project
• mover is working on that right now. But the target date for them coming back is
• the first week
• in April.
• And so we look forward to them coming back. When they do come back, we're hoping and planning on it being an expanded system
• with
• additional
• hubs probably at
• Sunasqua,
• which is very popular
• among folks who are commenting on this, as well as something in North Riverside and
• possibly a third place. But I think we'll want to have a good public
• discussion on where the expansion should occur between now and April.
• And of course, we want to continue to push the vouchers where folks can get $1,000
• voucher
• for the purchase of an e bike
• in either Croton or Ostner if their if their
• average median income is
• under
• the Westchester average or if they're involved in some other income support program like Section eight or SNAP. So we'll talk about that as well. Relative or related to that, I should say, on the twenty second, two days later, we had our second bike skills training class
• right
• here building focusing on bike familiarization
• and operation,
• battery safety. We lost a few folks due to inclement weather, and we weren't able to do the outside training because of the of the rain. But I think it was a very good session. And I'm gonna give everyone a souvenir of one of our one of our handouts courtesy of the League of American Bicyclists who were were the actual trainers at the at the session. And I did wanna thank
• both Karim and Karim Leon and Jose for doing a great job during the training on Saturday.
• As Stacy mentioned, ABC,
• we're they're really, you know, firing on all cylinders, doing all the things you need to do to stand up
• organization,
• while at the same time planning some very exciting activities
• for the end of this year and next. More of that to come in future meeting, but great thanks and admiration
• to the ABC
• officers and board who who spent a lot of time on this. We had our fire council meeting
• on the twenty fifth. The mayor and I were there in addition to committee reports
• and updates on specific
• projects going on in the houses, as the manager mentioned earlier,
• we briefed
• them on the
• our adoption of
• of the EMS
• resolution in terms of LOSAP, putting it on the ballot
• this coming November. And we also briefed them. There was a lot of interest on the MTA letter that we sent on
• Metro North doing
• urging them to meet with us so that we could talk about doing a better job
• to
• do that.
• And And
• we had the amazing
• turkey trot at Spencer Field sponsored by the rotary
• with all of the proceeds going to the Marie Ferrari Children's Hospital.
• Last year, I think we had first year that we we had Rotary had done it since COVID,
• there were about 16 folks that participated
• based on my own informal estimate, but looking at the proceeds and all of that,
• we think we have about 300 people in the show out, which is incredible. Families.
• And and if you imagine Spencer Field with, you know, people essentially coming in from that hill
• from about twenty minutes before registration
• till way into the trot beginning,
• the
• the the folks coming down to November stopped. It just it was the most really a joyous thing. So
• very successful.
• Spencer Fields, just beautiful to to be on. And
• unlike last year also, the weather was fantastic. Last year, was just raining cats and dogs. This year, it was the sun was shining. Shining. Was just awfully, awfully nice and just a great way to start Thanksgiving
• Day. So rotary
• will be doing it again next year. And last but not least, welcome back, mayor Laura and Stacy.
• Welcome to you. And the good news is if
• if your your term is gonna be as good as you prepared to participate in this meeting, you're gonna be a great trustee.
• The bad news is, and I should tell you this now, we only get cookies
• to that. You're not
• it was a a good good evening for some of our local businesses. And, hopefully, we can capture that energy and sustain that momentum as we go through the holiday season
• that people took advantage of small business Saturday,
• recognize that, you know, that every day is an opportunity to support our local businesses. That's my report.
• Yes.
• wanna take just an opportunity to answer the question around Lorraine Hansberry committee. So Lorraine Hansberry
• coalition,
• I should say, is a subcommittee
• of our idea committee. So it's similar to our garden committee
• or trails committee. That is a subcommittee of our con conservation
• advisory council.
• That is where that particular
• coalition lives.
• I just there was a question about the board's
• compensation.
• So the mayor is paid $5,000 The trustees are paid $3,000
• annually.
• And those amounts have not changed since 2001.
• So,
• yeah, it's been the same.
• Since that time, I don't know the town salaries are. I think it's around 25.
• I I will I will five or to 28 and
• we we don't need to what we know what we pay. I'm responsible for the village. So I can tell you what the village's
• is. So
• Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Thank you.