The boards from both the town and the village met at Town Hall on Monday at 3:30pm for their fourth meeting of the year. The two boards were joined by Village Manager Elliott Auerbach, Town Clerk Jane Eck, and Town Highway Superintendant Gil Davis. Missing from the meeting were Village Trustee Efrain Lopez and Deputy Mayor Ray Younger, as well as Town Councilman Tom Geelan.

Consolidation of Courts
The first item on the agenda was the possible merger of town and village courts. Village Manager Auerbach presented information he'd gotten from a phone call with the state comptroller. The process to consolidate the courts, he said, is simple, and that the comptroller has a step-by-step process to help such a merger go smoothly. In response, Town Supervisor Ed Jennings said that, speaking for himself, he liked the current town court's location within town hall, and that he didn't think the town ought to pay rent if it didn't have to, referring to the proposed rent-fee the town would pay the village for holding town court in the Ellenville Government Center.

Village Mayor Jeff Kaplan responded, saying he was "at a loss" because the town would make significant additional revenue, would cut court costs to both municipalities, and that the town would not pay rent out of its general fund, but instead use a portion of the new revenues generated by handling violations from the village penal code.

Kaplan then informed the town board members that every time court is held in its current location, the second floor of Town Hall, they violate the building code by packing the room beyond capacity; Kaplan then reminded that the Government Center's first floor meeting room, the proposed site of the merged court, is spacious and could easily handle a hundred people without violating building code.

Last, Kaplan informed the group that he and Deputy Mayor Younger had joined together as a committee to come up with numbers regarding the savings and benefits a court merger would generate. When asked what town board members would join the committee, Supervisor Jennings replied that none had yet been appointed, as he had not thought the town board was interested in the merger idea. At this point, Councilwoman Theresa Hyatt requested that she be included in the committee, citing her status as town liaison to the village board of trustees.

"Reval" Revisited
Shortly afterward, Deputy Supervisor Terry Houck brought up the Op-Ed piece he wrote that was published in the March 27 edition of the Ellenville Journal, reiterating his article's point that until the town board can be furnished with details regarding the village's economic situation, it may not be prudent to start consolidating.

Kaplan responded to Houck, saying he thought the article was out of line, and the two began to discuss and dispute the different factors that brought the village its current economic problems. Houck brought up the unsold properties that were prematurely included as revenue sources in the village's previous budget, while Kaplan said that part of the reason the village ran out of money in its operating budget was because it was forced into funding town-wide programs that did not fall under the village's responsibilities, such as the youth program. Eventually, this line of discussion led Kaplan to bring up the necessity for a town-wide tax reassessment, also known as a "reval."

Kaplan brought a New York Statute book to the meeting, reading statute 305 of the Real Property Law, which states, "all real property in each assessing unit shall be assessed at a uniform percent of value." Kaplan explained the law, saying that town, county, state, and school taxes paid are supposed to be based on the property's sale-value, and that hypothetical properties selling for $200,000 in both Napanoch and in Ellenville — properties outside and inside the village — are required by state law to have the same tax rates. Kaplan then provided an example from property sales he'd brokered, where a house selling for $175,000 inside the village paid $3,300 in town taxes, whereas a house selling for $292,500 in Kerhonkson paid $2,800 in town taxes. Kaplan called the fact that tax-payers in Ellenville are paying more than their fair share of the town's taxes "close to stealing." By ignoring the reval, Kaplan said, the town was perpetuating inequality in taxes.

Town Councilman John Gavaris said that the town board wasn't simply ignoring the necessity of the reval, but that embarking on such a project would cost a lot of money. When pressed for how the town was supposed to do the reval without it hurting the town financially, Kaplan said he didn't know, but that other towns get it done. Village Manager Auerbach said that while the project would be expensive, the cost only goes up for every year that it isn't done, and that if faced with a class-action lawsuit, the town would be backed into a corner and would have to perform the reval. It was eventually decided between the two boards that Auerbach would call the state comptroller's office to find out more information regarding which municipality would pay for what.

In Summary
Gavaris brought the meeting back to focus, saying that it may be wise to wait on consolidating courts and other services until after May 1, when a commission put together by former Governor Spitzer to investigate the issue throughout the state will publish their report.

Auerbach asked that the town reconsider the new rate of $1,400 per quarter charged to the village for its use of the transfer station, and cited the years of in-kind service the village has provided in plowing town hall's parking lot. Town Clerk Eck responded with complaints about the quality of the plowings. The rest of the meeting teetered between bantering and bickering, with discussions of the village's mismanaged finances, it's upcoming budget, the Napanoch water district, but in the end, the members of both boards managed to leave things on a mutually respectful note: Houck asked to see an independent audit of the village's finances, and Kaplan responded that they had one, and that he would have an opportunity to see it at his convenience.

COMMENTS about this article (4)