Uncle Larry Lied to Us...

According to a recent Observer Dispatch article regarding the revelation that The Hartford Insurance was not built within the business park:

Lawrence Adler, the man behind the business park, said he was unaware of the issue.

“I’m getting hit with this for the first time,” he said. “I would have thought that somebody would have raised that.”

REALLY, Mr. Adler? Then why did you approach the Oneida County Empire Zone Administration Board and ask for a change in the Empire Zone boundaries so that the area under the power lines where the proposed bridge was to be constructed is taken out of the Empire Zone and in its place the property where The Hartford Insurance and proposed hotel owned by Ryan Companies from Minneapolis, Minnesota is located could be included in the Empire Zone?

Questions were asked by Ralph Humphreys and Ed Wiatr at the town board meeting where Mr. Zawko, Oneida County Empire Zone Coordinator made a presentation to the town board. According to the adopted Board meeting minutes of October 1, 2008:

Ralph Reed* (amended Oct 22, 2008) and Edmund Wiatr Jr., inquired if the same person owned all the property, and who had approached the ZAB for this revision, respectively. Mr. Zawko responded that the New Hartford Business Park/Lawrence Adler had approached the County. (Amended: Ralph Humphrey)

So Uncle Larry did know that The Hartford Insurance building was not in the business park because if it was within the boundary of the park, there would have been no need for him to request the change of the boundaries of the Empire Zone!

According to documents we FOILed from Mohawk Valley EDGE, the Oneida County Empire Zone Administration Board passed a resolution [signed by Anthony Carvelli as Chairperson and dated September 17, 2008] allowing Oneida County to "submit to Empire State Development Corporation a Technical Boundary Correction...". The resolution itself was dated September 2, 2008, so that means that sometime in late spring or early summer and perhaps earlier than that, Mr. Adler and probably everyone else connected with this project was aware that The Hartford Insurance building was not in the business park and therefore the need to change the Empire Zone boundaries became necessary.

On September 22, 2008, Peter Zawko, Oneida County Empire Zone Coordinator sent a letter to Mr. Earle C. Reed, New Hartford Town Supervisor, requesting town board action on the Empire Zone change resolution. The justification for the empire zone boundary change was:

"...to facilitate the ongoing expansion of the New Hartford Business Park."

The letter from Peter Zawko to Supervisor Reed had a colored map attached. Looking at the map, it is easy to see that the purple area above Seneca Turnpike (identified as the "Existing Zone" area) looks eerily similar to the map of the business park [see Strikeslip's blog for a copy of the business park map] and the area shaded in light yellow with black lines (identified as "added zone areas") looks eerily similar to the 13.9 acres owned by Ryan Companies where The Hartford Insurance Company is now located and where the proposed hotel will be located.

Let's take another look at the Standard and Poor's Rationale letter. Within the first full paragraph on page 2 of the letter, it says "other leading employers...Hartford Insurance (600)..." Interesting! According to newspaper articles during the construction of The Hartford, we were told that New Hartford would have lost 689 jobs; however, with the move to the business park and the PILOT agreement in place, the number of employees could possibly increase the workforce to possibly 700 or more. Yet by February 2009, less than four (4) months after The Hartford moved to their new location, and a couple of weeks AFTER the bond vote to finance the infrastructure was held, town officials listed the number of employees at 600; exactly the number that needs to be employed for the first 5 years according to the Job Guaranty signed in conjunction with the PILOT?

Concerned Citizens has always found it difficult to understand how a PILOT that has a job guaranty of 600 employees for the first 5 years and 500 employees for the remaining 5 years could be determined to be economic development. Isn' that a decrease in employment numbers?

So why did The Hartford Insurance Company really move about a mile away from their original site? A safe bet would be because their Empire Zone Credits were about to expire on their Middlesettlement Road location and they didn't want to have to pay property taxes. That's right...they didn't want to pay New Hartford property taxes.

Under the Empire Zone, property taxes are reimbursed by the State for up to 10 years. But also under the Empire Zones, a company must be thinking about moving out of the state in order to qualify. The Hartford wasn't moving out of state; they were merely looking to move to another area in close proximity to the present location so they could keep the same workforce yet be in a new Empire Zone and be reimbursed for their taxes for another ten (10) years.

We did some research on the internet. We found minutes of a City of Schenectady Industrial Development Agency. Their May 31, 2006 meeting minutes state:

PILOT Increment Financing Program - Ray Gillen described this initiative, which is similar to tax increment financing programs. PILOT Increment Financing allows a developer to set up a PILOT paying taxes at full assessment, using a portion of the PILOT as a source of project financing and applying for reimbursement under the Empire Zone program.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? So not only are tax dollars generated by the development being used to build the infrastructure within the park rather than to offset increased budgets of the three (3) taxing entities; town, county and school, but our State tax dollars are being used to reimburse The Hartford for the property taxes they pay. Not a bad deal for The Hartford or for Ryan Companies, Inc., the owners of the property and building! No wonder they decided to stay!

Our guess is that if the Town of New Hartford officials are willing to list 600 current employees at The Hartford, there are far less and The Hartford Insurance may very well not be meeting the requirements of the Job Guaranty they signed.

Uncle Larry Wants YOU!!

Today's article in the Observer Dispatch says that construction of a Hampton Inn and Suites and Dr. Costello's new office building in the New Hartford Business Park are to be discussed at an open meeting of "the committee" on Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. in Butler Hall. Construction is expected to begin this summer and will be finished in about a year after ground is broken.

According to the article:

Adler said he was glad the process would be more open because the development of the business park is a positive for the community.

“I think that we are going to see some positive momentum and hopefully some positive results as a result of the public becoming more informed about what’s going on,” he said.

Timing is everything. Now that "Uncle Larry" has taxpayers in debt to the tune of $2.3 million plus for the infrastructure in his private development [costs that normally would be borne by the developer] , he thinks it's a good idea to open up the meetings to the public. Frankly, holding a meeting at 8:30 in the morning isn't exactly Concerned Citizens idea of an open meeting. So is this "open meeting" a ploy to take the attention away from the fact that by using a little known committee, the town board, town attorney and town staff aided Larry Adler in getting taxpayer funding for a piece of property that is located outside the boundary of the business park when the committee had no authority to do so?


At a March 9, 2009 Planning Board meeting it was learned that there are a few problems that need to be addressed before any more buildings can be built in the business park.

Page 2 of the minutes from the March 9, 2009 Planning Board Meeting state:

Mr. Meagher mentioned NYSDEC Consent Order with Oneida County sewer credits and how they may affect development in this area. The Hartford is the only building allowed at this time. There could be an issue with water pressure (water was put in by the developer). Pressure is below what is required for any future buildings. No water test has been done at this time. An option is to connect into Whitestown by the Water Board.

Chairman Donovan reiterated that this is preliminary – no site plans have been filed with the Town by any applicants. There are constraints with water and sewer credits.

So I guess the next question is...has the situation with the water pressure been addressed?

Speaking of sewer credits for the New Hartford Business Park...now we know why former Highway Superintendent Roger Cleveland was hired as a consultant back in May 2009. Who better to "devise" a plan for sewer credits? On page 5 of the March 9, 2009 Planning Board minutes there was mention of the sewer credits.

Mr. Meagher stated that according to the NYSDEC Order to the County, before you are allowed to hook up, you have to remove 5 gallons of water from the sewer system from every one gallon you put in. There is an application to be completed, given to the Town and then Mr. Meagher sends it to the County. Basically, anything prior to July 11, 2007 is allowed to connect to the sewer. Existing homes on a sewer system but are on septic are not allowed to hook in. They have to get credits. He said three (3) single family homes now affected that are waiting for credits located on Mallory Road, Mohawk Street and Arlington Road. Jewel Ridge Phase II is waiting for credits. The Town is going by application date to assign credits....For example, a single family home with 4 bedrooms would need approximately 475 credits.

There are also stormwater issues that need to be addressed according to what appears to be an incomplete Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) we obtained from the Dept. of Transportation through a FOIL request:

2.3 Storm water Runoff

The realignment of Woods Highway extending to Woods Park Drive and the Route 840 break-in access will increase storm water impacts in the study area. These impacts will include increase in impervious surface resulting from the construction of Woods Park Drive as well as of widening Route 840, adding acceleration and deceleration lanes and placement of the jug handle.

Storm water impacts should be anticipated both from the construction and post construction phases.

We also obtained an interesting letter from Town Supervisor Earle Reed dated October 31, 2008 to Mark Nordland, of Ryan Companies, Inc., the owner of the land and building where The Hartford is located. In his letter, Supervisor Reed says:

As previously represented to you and others, the Town intends to pursue approval for a full break-in-access to Route 840; investigate land acquisitions and condemnation proceedings as relate to the neighboring property; and explore funding options and alternatives for a bridge over 840.

Town Attorney Green's invoices indicate that on August 4, 2008, he billed the town to research eminent domain; in all probability eminent domain will be used to acquire the Yager property.

So what is the status of the break-in to Route 840? It was our understanding that the hotel would not be built unless there was access to 840. And what about that "temporary" traffic light on Route 5/Seneca Turnpike and Woods Highway...any plans to put in a permanent one?

One last thing, an email we received through the FOIL process states that while a public hearing is not mandatory as part of the SEQR process, it is recommended. The email further states:

...please note that a 2005 amendment to SEQR requires EIS documents to be posted on a publicly accessible internet website.

Wonder where we might find a copy on the internet...if indeed it has been completed. The process also calls for a 30 day public comment period.

How do you feel about a town board and staff that would have us believe they simply can't read a map and it was all an oversight? All those that think that everything will be discussed in an open meeting and nothing will be done behind closed doors, raise your hand.

Thursday's meeting should be interesting!

The Hartford Insurance Project Lines Town Attorney's Pockets with "Green"...

Today's article in today's Observer Dispatch:

The Hartford not in park’s boundaries Officials: Panel shouldn’t have had final say on building plan

With all the meetings and telephone conferences taking place and billed to the Town of New Hartford by Town Attorney Green one would think that someone would have realized that The Hartford Insurance building was being built outside the boundary of the business park as outlined in town law.

Strikeslip recently blogged about the discrepancy between the map in Town Code vs. the maps that were being distributed in regards to The Hartford Insurance PILOT and the business park. In his blog, he also links to a blog he previously wrote on the same topic. Concerned Citizens is not buying their "I didn't know until now" baloney.

In August 2005, just about the time of the Republican Primary for Town Supervisor, and two (2) town councilmen seats (Payne and Reynolds), Larry Adler purchased property from Lena McCubbin; property where The Hartford Insurance is now located. Toward the end of January 2006, after the election where Reed, Reynolds and Payne won their seats on the town board, Larry Adler presented his "plan" for the business park to the Planning Board. Adler's initial site review plan stated that he would not be needing any Federal, State or Local funding; however, somewhere along the line the plans changed.

How come no one realized that the Hartford was being built outside the boundary of the business park, or did they? Did Earle Reed, David Reynolds and Town Attorney Green have an agenda when they took over in 2006? Was Earle Reed possibly trying to help out a friend and Juniper, Florida neighbor (Larry Adler) in exchange for his election to office? What was Councilman Reynolds motive? Was Don Backman who was supported by the Republican Committee for the Ward 1 Council seat (currently held by Payne) in the Primary "pushed" out of office because they knew he would not allow all this secrecy to happen? And what could have possibly been the motive for Town Attorney Gerald Green who also happens to be Chairman of the New Hartford Republican Committee? If everyone truly believed that everything was on the "up and up" why all the secrecy on all levels of Town Government?

Who prepared the report titled "New Hartford Business Park" that was prepared on March 20, 2006 according to notes at the bottom of each of the pages in the report? The report was included in the New Hartford Business Park file that Concerned Citizens FOILed in early 2008.

According to the title page of the report, Larry Adler is named as the contact person. On page 4 of the report it mentions the Par Technology Feasibility Study report of September 1995 which said:

The Beckerman property (current application) is essential for the development of the Business Park and should be secured by the town as soon as possible.

That parcel was secured by the town...the town was paying for an option on the property.

The report continues:

Negotiations could also begin for the McCubbin property (controlled by the applicant) to allow access onto Middlesettlement Road.

The operative word is COULD...but the negotiations apparently never did take place because the property was never included in the map of the business park.

Concerned Citizens FOILed all of Town Attorney Green's invoices from January 2006 to February 2009. We were amazed at the level of involvement Attorney Green had with the development of the Business Park. He billed over $61,000 to the town for his part in the business park project between 2006 and early 2009 and we imagine that more charges have since been billed to the Town by Attorney Green.

We were equally amazed to see the number of meetings and telephone conferences between Town Attorney Green and Larry Adler. Looking at our spreadsheet, it looks like Larry Adler thought Attorney Green was his personal attorney; taxpayers paid for these meetings and telephone conferences. Did Attorney Green work outside the scope of his duties as Town Attorney when he spent so much time in dealings with Larry Adler? Current Attorney Green invoices also show billings for meetings with Larry Adler regarding the Cedarbrook Village; part of the Sitrin Complex that Larry Adler now owns.

Concerned Citizens did a spreadsheet of all the times that Town Attorney Green, Chairman of the New Hartford Republican Committee billed the town for work on the Business Park. There are 30 pages of charges billed to the town that have reference to the development of the New Hartford Business Park.

One of the descriptions in Town Attorney Green's billing was on March 3, 2008, "Legal Research re: NH Business Park (legal avoidance of bid process)". What possible motive could there be for not wanting to get the best price possible by opening a job up for bids? Doesn't it seem odd that in August 2008, there was only one (1) bid for Contract #1 and that the one (1) bid just happened to be from Burrows (see UPDATE at bottom of link)? Doesn't it seem odd that Burrows was actually awarded the contract for the work based on one (1) bid received particularly when you look at the fact that they were also the contractor hired [not by the town; at least not through a bid offering] to clear the land for the business park in October 2007? It would seem suspect that only one (1) bid was received...surely there must have been others who would have wanted that job.

A previous Observer Dispatch article says that the obscure town law allowing for the staff run committee meetings regarding the development of the New Hartford Business Park will now be open to the public. However, like the Stormwater Meetings, if they don't advertise the date and time of the meetings, are they really open? In fact, in light of today's Observer Dispatch article, we'd say they better be part of the regularly scheduled Planning Board meetings from here on out.

As a side note, after the Town Board meeting last week when Highway Superintendent Richard Sherman said there would be a Stormwater Committee meeting within the next week, Concerned Citizens sent two (2) emails to him asking for the date and time of the next Stormwater Meeting. We never even received the courtesy of a return email giving us the information.

The town website now lists the next meeting as Tuesday June 30th @ 05:30 p.m.held in Rodger C. Reynolds Room - Ground Floor of Butler Hall and THE MEETINGS ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

Standard & Poor's...what does a bond rating cost?

Before we comment on Standard & Poor's Rationale for the town's bond rating, we wanted to make some information known regarding the process for obtaining a bond rating and also let everyone know just what a bond rating costs.

1. Apparently no documents were provided to Standard & Poor's for their consideration in determining the bond rating of the Town of New Hartford; the rating was actually determined by a telephone conference call. According to the emails we received through the FOIL process, the conference call involved discussions between the Town Bookkeeper, Supervisor Reed, John Shehadi from Fiscal Advisors and Michael Taylor from Standard & Poor's. We confirmed with the Town Clerk today that there was no exchange of information/documentation between the town and Standard & Poor's except for the telephone conversation.

2. How much did that telephone conversation and bond rating cost taxpayers? The invoice we received through FOIL was for a total of $6,800.

We also FOILed the Purchase Order to see what account was used to pay the invoice. According to the Purchase Order, account AA1315.43 - Bond Rating Fees - was used.

Looking at the bottom part of the Purchase Order, we noticed that Councilwoman Krupa approved the expenditure and Supervisor Reed's secretary signed as authorized employee. The interesting part is that Councilwoman Krupa checked the box for "budgeted item" meaning there was money already appropriated to pay for the expense.

However, in looking over the 2009 Adopted Budget for line AA1315.43, we saw that there is no money allocated in the 2009 Adopted budget and there hasn't been any money appropriated in that particular budget line since at least 2007.

For Councilwoman Krupa to approve and sign a Purchase Order saying that this $6,800 was a budgeted item is unconscionable and as an attorney and CPA, she should know better. Was she derelict in her duties?

The only option the town has when there is a need to expend money that has not been appropriated as part of the Adopted Town Budget is to transfer money from other account(s) to cover the invoice. Only problem is that according to N.Y.S. Town Law, that has to be done by board resolution prior to the expenditure and we can find no adopted town board resolution for the transfer of monies to cover this expense. From Town Law:

§ 112. Supplemental appropriations; unappropriated unreserved fund balances. 1. The town board, during a fiscal year, by resolution [emphasis added], may make additional appropriations or increase existing appropriations and shall provide for the financing thereof. Moneys therefor may be provided from the unexpended balance of an appropriation, from the appropriation for contingencies, from unappropriated unreserved fund balance or unanticipated revenues within a fund or by borrowing pursuant to the local finance law. For the purposes of this subdivision, unappropriated unreserved fund balance or unanticipated revenues shall be utilized only to the extent that the total of all revenues of such fund recognized or reasonably expected to be recognized in the current fiscal year, together with unappropriated unreserved fund balance, exceeds the total of all revenues and appropriated fund balance as estimated in the budget.

While it is not unusual for a town to appropriate some of their fund balance as part of their adopted budget's anticipated revenues to offset expenses and keep the tax rate low, it is customary for them to keep unbudgeted expenses to a minimum and make adjustments or transfer funds from other budget lines as needed in an effort to keep within the constraints of the adopted budget.

The question is, how many times over the past 3 1/2 years has the town board approved the expenditure of "unbudgeted monies" and, in an effort to keep the expenditure out of the public eye, never adopted a board resolution to transfer monies from other accounts to cover the expense? The problem with that method of accounting besides the fact that it is against town law is...how do you know where you are budget-wise from month to month? Judging from the large sum of monies that were transferred at each year-end, one would have to guess that they had no clue and didn't worry about it until year-end when they were "forced" to use any money they could find to cover negative budget lines including using more fund balance than they anticipated they would need at the time the budget was prepared?

As if that were not enough, according to the Association of Towns Town Law Manual:

B. Transfers (Town Law § 113 and Highway Law § 285-a).

(1) The town board, by resolution, may transfer surplus monies, contingent appropriations and unexpended balances as follows:

(a) From General Fund, Town-Wide to any of the highway funds or accounts for which taxes are levied on the entire area of the town;

Concerned Citizens has noted and blogged about the fact that the town board has been inappropriately transferring monies or co-mingling funds at year-end ever since the end of 2006. Wonder if the newly hired Budget Director will right this wrong and where will they get [find] the money to make up for the misappropriated funds?

Budget time is just around the corner...should be interesting!

The New Hartford Business Park...

Yesterday's revelation in the Observer Dispatch answers a lot of questions and leaves many more unanswered. Who were the players, who knew what and when did they know it?

Back in 2005, 2006 and 2007, Joe Yagey was the Chairman of the Planning Board. Hans Arnold did not become Chairman until January 1, 2008.

According to town law relating to development of the Business Park, staff review includes the Superintendent of Highways (Roger Cleveland at the time), the Codes Enforcement Officer (Joe Booth), the Town Planner (Kurt Schwenzfeier) and/or Engineer (John Meagher) and the Planning Board Chairperson or their designee. The Fire and Police Departments and Counsel will be contacted for input as required...

In the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) signed by Larry Adler and dated January 15, 2005, it was noted that Larry Adler did not need any State, Federal or Local government support and he would be working with the Planning Board. That document also has a FAX timestamp of January 16, 2006 at 11:03 p.m. According to Planning Board minutes, Larry Adler stated he didn't purchase the property until late 2005, so did he make a mistake and the date he signed the SEQR was really January 15, 2006? Was it a coincidence that he purchased the property about the time that Earle Reed was elected as Town Supervisor?

According to Town Attorney Green's invoices, on January 18, 2006, Attorney Green billed the town for 2 hours @ $150 an hour (total of $300) for meetings with Roger Cleveland, Larry Adler, and Earle Reed regarding the proposed Business Park. Why was Attorney Green and Earle Reed meeting with Larry Adler prior to Mr. Adler's presentation to the Planning Board?

On January 26, 2006, Larry Adler appeared before the Planning Board for Conceptual Site Plan Review.

On February 6, 2006, Hans Arnold sent a memo to Planning Board Chairman Joe Yagey asking several questions that Mr. Arnold felt needed to be addressed as the Planning Board does their analysis. Mr. Yagey forwarded Mr. Arnold's email to the Town Planner. As of February 1, 2008 when Concerned Citizens FOILed all documents contained in the New Hartford Business Park Planning file, no response to the questions asked by Hans Arnold was found among the documents in the Planning Dept. file. Was this an oversight or were Hans Arnold's questions never addressed by the Town Planner?

Larry Adler appeared before the Planning Board on March 27, 2006 for a Preliminary Site Plan Review. The Planning Board agrees to send it out for SEQR and declares itself lead agency.

On September 11, 2006, Mr. Adler appeared before the Planning Board and received Preliminary Approval for Phase I of the project, and Final Approval for Phase I contingent on the developer providing an agreement for a future Town road.

On September 27, 2007, Town Planner Schwenzfeier sent a letter to Larry Adler informing him of the obscure town law whereby the staff has final approval authority within the Park.

At this point, Larry Adler is merely looking for a PILOT with no deviation; and at the November 7, 2007 OCIDA meeting, a Final Authorizing Resolution is approved for that PILOT.

The next time Mr. Adler is mentioned in the Planning Board minutes is at the January 14, 2008 Planning Board meeting. At this point, Hans Arnold is the chairman of the Planning Board and says that he will be meeting with the Town Planner, the Highway Superintendent and Larry Adler to discuss some matters. This is shortly before the town, school and OCIDA hold a public meeting regarding the PILOT/TIF agreement whereby school, county and town taxes paid by The Hartford will be used to finance the improvements in the Business Park rather than used to offset budget expenditures in each taxing jurisdiction.

So when did the town staff start meeting behind closed doors without taking minutes of the meeting? Was it after the letter was sent to Larry Adler by Town Planner Kurt Schwenzfeier? Did everyone feel at this point that they could use this Town Law to meet secretly to devise a plan for the taxpayers to foot the bill for Larry Adler's development? Who was at those meetings? Was former New Hartford Central School Superintendent Dan Gilligan involved in those meetings?

Was Town Attorney Green involved? According to FOILed copies of Attorney Green's invoices, on September 26 & 27, 2007, just before the Town Planner sent the letter to Larry Adler, Attorney Green billed the town for meetings and telephone conferences with Larry Adler, the Town Planner and former Highway Superintendent Roger Cleveland. Is that what precipitated the Town Planner's letter to Larry Adler on September 27, 2007? Did they find a way to keep ALL discussions out of the purview of the public by meeting behind closed doors and not holding their discussions at Planning Board meetings?

Where does the New Hartford Business Park plans stand at this point? Concerned Citizens recently FOILed several documents from the Dept. of Transportation. We will be blogging in a day or two.

It's YOUR turn...

An article in today's paper should be a wake-up call for all Town of New Hartford residents.

The New Hartford Business Park deal was developed by a select few individuals behind closed doors. According to Town Law:

In the Town of New Hartford Business Park District, staff review shall include the Superintendent of Highways, the Codes Enforcement Officer, the Town Planner and/or Engineer and the Planning Board Chairperson or their designee. The Fire and Police Departments and Counsel will be contacted for input as required...

For any of the town employees who took part in these closed door meetings to say that they felt the meetings should have been held in the public and yet for over 3 years they sat in these meetings and said nothing is incredible. Perhaps someone should remind them who they work for.

For Councilwoman Krupa to say "she believed the business park should be under the Planning Board's purview and the reviews should "occur wholly in the public view" and yet she sat through the board meetings and voted "aye" each time is hypocritical.

For Earle Reed to say he didn't know about the town law until Jerome Donovan brought it to his attention is unbelievable to say the least. Rumors have been circulating that Town Attorney Green has spent time in Larry Adler's condo in Jupiter, Florida and said condo just happens to be a few miles away from Town Supervisor Reed's vacation home in Jupiter, Florida. How many private discussions regarding plans for the New Hartford Business Park have taken place between Earle Reed, Attorney Green and Larry Adler in Jupiter, Florida?

In today's OD article, Larry Adler reportedly said "Between the staff and the Planning Board, I hope we can come to a happy medium." Apparently Mr. Adler just doesn't get it. Involve the people in any further discussions regarding the Business Park and show us the money instead of looking for ways to spend our tax dollars!

We have many FOILed documents from the Dept. of Transportation including the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and we also have the plans for the Shared Transportation Facility on the 17 acres that Larry Adler donated to the NHCS. We will be posting them shortly.

Here's a link to the story in the Observer Dispatch "Little-known panel OK'd Hartford building".

Finally, here's a link to the Guest Editorial by Jerome Donovan in today's Observer Dispatch "Key issues that require discussion in New Hartford". How much extra are you willing to pay in taxes to support Mr. Donovan's suggestions for a Town Supervisor and a town manager; more support staff in the Planning Dept.; a comptroller and a part-time Town Attorney; additional space for town offices and a new town court?

We've been outspoken for over 3 years...now we'd like to hear from you!

Councilman Payne's Energy Agenda trumped by Boilermaker Meeting???

Ward 1 Councilman Robert A. Payne, III seems to have diverted his energies to the Boilermaker race rather than Wednesday night's Special Town Board meeting called to approve the 2009-10 Town Insurance Policy Contract and the Project Development Agreement with Johnson Controls for an energy audit that would cost taxpayers $9,500 of unbudgeted funds.

This is the 12th town board meeting Councilman Payne has missed since taking office on January 1, 2006. Town Supervisor Earle Reed too, has missed a number of town board meetings and was absent at last night's town board meeting. Both Earle Reed and Councilman Payne III were in attendance at a Boilermaker Meeting. It appears that these two individuals have an agenda unto their own and it does not bode well for their inadequate representation of town residents and town business.

Since taking office Councilman Payne has been gung-ho about the need for energy savings in the Town of New Hartford.

REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING
March 15, 2006
Energy Management

Together with the Highway Superintendent and Parks and Recreation Director, Councilman Payne has been looking at energy management programs for the town.

...That was his reasoning behind closing the Kellogg Road Community Building..to save energy costs.

...That was the reasoning behind going ahead and bonding for lighting improvements in the New Hartford Recreation Center in 2008 even though the voters turned the bond resolution down when it was presented in the March 2007 bond vote.

Last night a representative from Johnson Controls made the trip from Syracuse to make a presentation to the town board for a third time in hopes of gaining town board approval for the signing of the Project Development Agreement. But, apparently, when Councilman Payne weighed his options, the Boilermaker race took precedence.

However, Councilwoman Krupa, to her credit, asked the questions that should have been asked by Councilman Payne in the first place.

Questions like...

$9,500, is this a budgeted item? Answer: No.

I thought your contract said the cost of the improvements would be $500,000, now you are sayng $300,000...

Given the fact that the payback will be over the next 20-25 years and the fact that the town is looking at a possible consolidation of town offices, is it smart to spend money for energy savings in buildings that the town may not own in 20 years?

The town board ended up tabling their decision. Kudos, Councilwoman Krupa! We are happy to see that you are finally asking questions instead of rubberstamping everything that the 3 Muskateers bring before the board.

By the way, Councilman Payne is 'running' for re-election in the September Republican Primary. Perhaps he should keep on running...right out of office!

Town Board Meeting Tonight...

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 in Butler Hall starting at 6:00 p.m.

Agenda is now online!

From the Standard & Poor's letter...you don't say....

Supervisor Reed's Guest Editorial in Sunday's Observer Dispatch - New Hartford has charted course for its financial recovery made reference to a February 2009 letter from Standard & Poor's:

...in February 2009 Standard and Poor’s, a bond rating agency, stated, “The stable outlook reflects our expectation that the town will maintain reserve levels that are commensurate with the rating category."

True, that sentence was part of the letter, but that's not all that Standard & Poor's had to say.

First some background. The terms and conditions of the rating:

Standard & Poor's issues public finance ratings for a fee upon request from an issuer, or from an underwriter, financial advisor, investor, insurance company, or other entity, provided that the obligor and issuer (if different fromt he obligor) each has knowledge of the request.

So Standard & Poor's makes their money by charging fees for those ratings upon request...Click here to read the rest of the Terms and Conditions.

We have also obtained a copy of the Standard & Poor's letter to Ms. Fairbrother, the Town Bookkeeper who, according to the letter, was the town contact person for the request sent to Standard & Poor's:

Pursuant to your request for a Standard & Poor's rating on the above-referenced obligations, we have reviewed the information submitted to us, and subject to the enclosed Terms and Conditions, have assigned a rating of "A".

So the rating is merely based on information provided to Standard & Poor's by the town.

However, most important is the Standard & Poor's Rationale for the rating.

For now, we are going to post the rationale without comment other than to say that this blog was supposed to be posted on Sunday. However, after looking at the document we received through our FOIL, we noticed that page 2 of the rationale letter was missing.

We visited the town clerk's office today to find out where the missing page was and Supervisor Reed's secretary said it must have been a mistake; she didn't realize that page 2 was on the back of page 1 of the original document.

Pay particular attention to page 2 of the rationale document and decide whether it was an oversight or perhaps there was information that Supervisor Reed would rather was not disclosed. Was Supervisor Reed's sentence that he used in his Guest Editorial selectively chosen?

We will be commenting further on the rationale letter in a couple of days.

Damage control.....

Interesting Guest Editorial by Earle Reed in tomorrow's Observer Dispatch - New Hartford has charted course for its financial recovery.

He starts by saying:

In 2005, I was elected town supervisor with a total budget of $12.6 million and a fund balance of $5.4 million. It was clear that having a fund balance that was almost 43 percent of our budget was unnecessary. Instead of raising property taxes like so many of our neighbors had done or were about to do, we opted over the next several years to manage an increasing budget by not punishing our residents with a tax increase simply to bank funds. We made a concerted decision not to accumulate funds at the expense of increased fiscal pressure upon our constituents.

Hmm! Supervisor Reed wants us to believe that this was all part of 'the plan'. They merely had the taxpayers in mind...they didn't want to 'punish' town residents with a tax increase. Isn't that nice of them.

Let's take a close look at the result of their 'plan' now that we know the actual 2008 ending fund balances. We'll compare the actual fund balances at year-end 2008 to the dollars that were projected to be used from the Fund Balances to offset 2009 expenditures.

There are four (4) major funds in the Town of New Hartford. Here are the funds with the dollars budgeted for 2009 to offset the expenditures as compared to the actual 2008 fund balances as reported to the State Comptroller's office (click on the graphic for larger print):

Assuming that the town would want to keep the $250,000 fund balance that was available at year-end and assuming that the fund balance hasn't been further depleted by now, it looks like by the end of 2009, we could have a possible shortfall of $1,234,321. The positive balances left in General Part-Town and Highway Whole-Town cannot be used to offset the shortfall...that would be called co-mingling funds...illegal.

Supervisor Reed goes on to say:

So what might be a “reasonable” fund balance for a town our size?

Good question, Supervisor Reed. We think it might be prudent to at least keep enough fund balance to cover the amount that the town board plans to use to offset budgeted expenses each year!

Looking at the adopted budgets and the year-end transfers, it is clear that there were no checks and balances to monitor all the "inflows and outflows." They didn't have a plan...they were 'flying by the seats of their pants' when it came to running the Town of New Hartford. Their only plan was to keep the taxpayers happy until the bonding was secured for the improvements to Larry Adler's private development. Remember the Town Crier ad that said VOTE YES means no tax increase. They lied! Unless they really curtail ALL unnecessary spending and the sales tax revenue spikes for the remainder of 2009, we predict there will most definitely be a tax increase for 2010.

We are providing a copy of the 2009 adopted town budget and a copy of the 2008 Annual Financial Report that the town filed with the State Comptroller's office in May 2009.

Tomorrow, we will share the February 2009 letter from Standard and Poor's that Supervisor Reed mentioned in his guest editorial. Supervisor Reed left out a few words that tell a slightly different story than the one he wrote.

Southern Area DGEIS

The Planning Board held a meeting Monday, June 8, 2009. One of the items discussed was the status of the Southern Area DGEIS.

Planning Board Chair, Jerome Donovan, said that peter j. smith & company, inc. will have the corrected copy to the Planning Board by July 6, 2009. We are told that the only changes will be minor, i.e. spelling, grammar, etc.

The Planning Board will then meet on July 13, 2009 to vote on whether to accept the final version.

A tentative date of August 10, 2009 was set for a public hearing on the final draft of the GEIS.

If you haven't already taken a look at the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement for the Southern area of the Town of New Hartford, here is a copy. The Planning Board has also provided a FAQ Sheet on the GEIS.

We will post the exact date, place and time of the public hearing as soon as plans have been finalized.

Separating the wheat from the chaff...

According to an article in today's Observer Dispatch, New Hartford Politics heating up as election approaches....

Payne, who has his party’s endorsement for the First Ward seat, said he will continue to be committed to the success of the community.

“This administration has worked hard to maintain minimal tax increases from year to year (but) the past several years have made this very challenging with increased costs and reduction in revenue,” he said, referring to less sales tax revenue because of the sluggish economy.

Before making such an asinine statement, Councilman Payne should have taken a look at the Insanity... blog we wrote a few weeks ago.

Excuse us, Councilman Payne, what reduction in sales tax revenue are you talking about? The ACTUAL sales tax revenue received has been pretty steady...about $5 million a year.

The problem is that in 2007 and 2008 the town board budgeted for more than they could have expected to receive in a good economy and even though they didn't receive the budgeted amounts for those years, the board still over-anticipated 2009 sales tax revenue. And Councilman Payne, the sluggish economy started to really hit in the fourth quarter of 2008...before the budget was adopted! Guess budgeting isn't your forte either Councilman Payne. Besides the fact that you didn't do a very good job of overseeing taxpayer dollars, we note that you have missed 10 board meetings over the past 3 1/2 years. Not a very good track record...

Earle Reed wasn't the only one to drop the ball! Everyone of them dropped the ball...Councilman Payne, Councilman Woodland, Councilwoman Krupa and most of all Councilman Reynolds, the Deputy Town Supervisor who, truth be known, has actually been running the show!