ELLENVILLE – The ongoing saga of the village's troubled financial situation took another twist at Monday's board meeting, as Mayor Jeff Kaplan said that the board would likely vote to rescind last week's resolution to hold a public vote on using $1.1 million in savings to pay off its deficit.

The reasoning for the reversal, he explained, was that the $1.1 million figure discussed at previous meetings did not account for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, which doesn't end until May 31.

"I made a representation last week that the $1.1 million amount that we're looking to draw down from the mountain fund will put us in a position to be at a zero deficit and we can then look to try to balance the budget based upon revenues in and expenses out," said Kaplan, the "mountain fund" referring to the $4.5 million the village holds from the 1997 sale of Sam's Point to the Open Space Institute.

"I can't say that with any certainty because we haven't seen the end of the 2008-2009 budgetary year… I have asked our independent auditor to come down and address us at our next meeting in two weeks, and he will be here to answer any questions the public has," he said.

"In an effort to be totally transparent so that you guys know everything that we know, I'm going to ask the board to rescind the mandatory referendum until those numbers are known, and we will then be able to have an open discussion as to what the expenses are, what the revenues are, and what we need to do to get our arms around the budget."

Kaplan also explained that, because the village has a manager-style of government, the village board had traditionally focused more on policy-making rather than managing the day-to-day operations of the village. The village's revenues and expenses were calculated by the manager, but about the revenues over the last few years, Kaplan said, "They were liberally construed."

"I'm not going to claim that there was any impropriety other than an effort to try to show a revenue source that could keep the tax base down as low as possible," he said. "But at the end of the day, by overestimating revenues, what we ended up doing is running into this deficit."

Many more members of the public were present at the meeting as opposed to last week's public hearing, with about 20 or 30 filling the chairs. The largest portion of those in attendance was comprised of members of the Ellenville Police Department, with between 10 to 15 full- and part-time officers in attendance.

The questions asked echoed many that were asked at the public hearing last week, including how the village sought to avoid another deficit in the future. Kaplan answered that reducing the village's budget would be essential to such an effort.

"We are still at ground zero with our expenses. It's very clear to me that the expenses the village has in its budget are more than we should have in that budget. And that's why the cuts that I proposed last week are still going to stay on the table, subject to considering any other potential proposals from the board, from any of our officials, or from the public. But at the end of the day, we must slash the budget." Towards the end of the meeting, Kaplan said that the village must cut $300,000 from the operating budget to realistically tackle the problem.

Officers in the audience asked about how the proposed reduction of officers assigned to each shift (from three to two per shift) would fit in with the department's policy that the shift-commander be a full-time employee. Should someone call out, they said, there might not be a full-time available to pick up shift-commander duties. Deputy Mayor Ray Younger asked Police Chief Phil Mattracion about the origins of the policy, and whether it was included as a part of the officers' contracts. The chief answered that it wasn't, but that the policy had always been in place as a matter of course. Younger said that in some instances the part-time officers had more on-the-job experience than the full-time officers, and that perhaps the policy need not continue in the face of the shift-reduction. It was also estimated by Village Treasurer Linda Polkoski that the proposed reduction would save the village $37,000 for the year.

The treasurer also offered some estimates regarding Kaplan's 10-point spending reduction plan; the change from a full-time to part-time manager saves $45,000. Reducing an hour's worth of work per day to each non-police, non-union village employee also offered a wide-range of potential savings: $6,200 from the water department, $5,200 from the sewer department, and $1,900 from the street department.

However, when Kaplan asked that union-employees take the one-hour cuts as well, he was told that their contracts stipulated a 40-hour workweek. Furthermore, both Polkoski and Manager Mary Sheeley were under the impression that there was a DEC law requiring union-employees to work 40 hours a week. Kaplan urged clarification in this regard, saying that unless the hours could be cut, people would have to start losing their jobs.

"It's not my intention to cut people's jobs and livelihood," he said of the situation.

Asked what the village would do if they didn't draw down funds from the mountain money, Kaplan said that they would seek financing on a loan, and would have to receive state-approval to do so, a lengthy process that can't begin until the state completes work on their own budget.

Tentatively planning to rescind the referendum resolution at the next village board meeting on Monday, March 23, the referendum to withdraw $1.1 million from the mountain fund is still scheduled for May 1.

COMMENTS about this article (91)