By Stephanie Mariel Petrellese

The Garden City Board of Trustees held a series of work sessions this past week with Village department heads in a concerted effort to lower the projected 19.76 percent tax levy increase. The increase is currently at 11.49 percent.

As the April budget deadline quickly approaches, trustees and staff are determined to find ways to bring the increase down into the single digits without laying off employees and making drastic cuts in services. Trustees have asked Village administrators to continue to work on their budgets in an attempt to reduce the tax increase to six or eight percent.

"The overall objective that we have is finding how we run these operations more efficiently," said Deputy Mayor John Mauk, who is chairperson of the Board's finance committee. "Our task here is to try and find how we come up with a budget that provides a level of services that people expect and that is appropriate but to do so in a manner that is most efficient."

Department heads have provided three budget scenarios for the Board's consideration: the first contains the normal budgetary requests; the second contains an appropriation request with no increase over this year's budget; and the third scenario asks staff to come up with ways to provide the same level of service with a 10 percent reduction in their budget.

The usual requests would increase the budget by 3.07 percent. "In normal times, that would be pretty much a good starting point for what we would have dealt with in the past," explained Village Auditor James Olivo. "As I said a month ago, this is not a normal time." This year revenues are falling below projected targets due to significant decreases in mortgage taxes and minimal returns on Village investments.

At the Feb. 26th work session, Olivo reported that the current budget is now 4.53 percent lower than what staff originally submitted. "We cut as much as we possibly could within reason to something that we felt was recommendable to the Board."

Trustees will have to make several policy decisions if they want a single-digit tax increase. This year the Village will tap into the retirement reserve as a way to increase surplus. Olivo asked the Board to consider implementing a future policy change whereby the Village will continue to hold one percent instead of two percent of surplus.

Department heads have already proposed deferring more than half of their recommended capital projects as they cut the budget from $6.1 million to $1.5 million. It will be up to the trustees to now decide if the list can be cut further and if any projects should actually be reinstated. Olivo said that reducing the number of capital projects this year will obviously cause the number of projects to increase in subsequent years and will require the Village to finance some of the projects through bonds.

The next budget work session will be held on March 12 at 7 p.m. in the Village Hall boardroom. Residents are invited to attend, although since it is technically a meeting being held in public and not a public meeting, there will not be time allotted to hear public questions or comments.

During this past week's work sessions, department heads sat down with the Board of Trustees to discuss their budgets in greater detail. At times, questions from trustees and the Citizens' Budget Review Committee initiated noteworthy discussions. Here are some of the highlights:

Village Justice Court

Village Justice Allen S. Mathers told the Board not to count on the usual $1 million in revenue that the Village Justice Court system usually generates annually from tickets. Business has slowed considerably, forcing the cancellation of several court sessions. The Garden City Police Dept. is currently understaffed so there are not as many officers available on a routine basis who are assigned to traffic enforcement.

Mathers recommended revising the Village code to allow the court more flexibility when issuing fines. For example, he said the maximum penalty he is allowed to issue under the current code for an illegal pool is $250. Mathers said most Villages have instituted a $1,500 cap. Their fines are also successive, meaning a homeowner is charged every day until he corrects the violation.

Mathers also recommended codifying the state's truck weight violations law so that the money generated from violators will go to the Village, not the state. He said the fines for overweight trucks can be very high since they are issued for every pound over the required weight. He said the average fine for an overweight truck is $5,000. In 2008, 114 trucks were issued violations in the Village.

Mathers also discussed his concern with the lack of courtroom security. In other courts, magnetometers are used and everyone is searched. He is applying for a grant to help cover the cost of the magnetometers. He asked that a police officer be assigned to the courtroom, which is located on the second floor of Village Hall, even if it means paying overtime. He said he didn't mind if trustees include it in his budget. "I'm going to insist as strongly as I can-that the trustees take some actions to protect the court personnel on court night," he said.

Building Department

Superintendent of Buildings Michael Filippon recommended that the Board increase the fees the various Village boards and commissions can collect on code violations. He has eliminated a vacant position in his department and reduced overtime requests.

For the first time in 20 years, Filippon has seen a downturn in residential construction. His current staff will now be able to follow up on open permits and code enforcement as construction slows. He explained that while the rest of the country has been experiencing the downturn for a while, it is now only affecting Garden City due to high confidence in the Village's real estate. It has only been very recently that members of the Zoning Board of Appeals and Architectural Design Review Board have seen a slight decline in the number of building permit applications.

Library

J. Randolph Colahan, chair of the Garden City Public Library's Board of Trustees, explained that the library would be represented at the meeting by himself and library trustee John H. Pascal because the library board recently terminated library director Margaret Cincotta "for not performing in accordance with their expectations." She began working at the library in October, and was still in the CSEA probationary period.

The director position will likely remain vacant due to budgetary constraints, which will save $158,0000. Assistant Library Director Thomas B. Witt will handle daily operations.

Nationwide, library usage is increasing considerably due to the recession. The Garden City Public Library is no exception. Pascal said he has seen a steady increase in the number of patrons. In January, the library logged more than 17,000 visits, or an average of 65 people per hour. More than 22,000 books were withdrawn, which averages 84 an hour, or 1.4 books every minute. The library currently has a collection of 155,000 books, and Pascal recommends that 7,500 be replaced.

Pascal said the library board is disappointed that only eight percent of library users rent DVDs. To encourage usage, the library board recommends ordering 1,000 DVDs to add to the library's collection and eliminating the $1 fee. Last year, the library collected $20,000 from DVD rental fees.

The library board also asked the Board of Trustees to consider closing the library on Sundays, which would save approximately $70,000. The library is currently open on Sundays from mid-September through mid-June from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Library employees earn a salary differential on Sundays, which adds to the expense.

Trustee Thomas Lamberti said it would be a "travesty" and a "disrespect to the community" to close the library on Sundays, and he said he would vote against any such recommendation.

The Board of Trustees will have to decide whether or not to begin charging fees for library programs. The library offered a total of 690 programs last year. Trustee Nicholas Episcopia said there should be a fee charged. Pascal argued that many of the programs are for senior citizens, who are on limited budgets and will not attend if there is a fee involved.

Mayor Peter Bee said it is important to keep in mind that the family that may have to pay $10 or $15 more to use the library is likely cutting back by $100 or $150 the money they spend on purchasing new DVDs and books. "This is one of those circumstances where the public service is the shared service."

The Board is expected to defer the library's original $20,000 request for a telephone system update and the $2,000 needed to complete the galley on the library's lower level. The library returned $18,000 to the Village from the $20,000 requested last year for replacement of the galley since the majority of the project was able to be accomplished thanks to the Village's recreation department and the group Friends of the Garden City Public Library, Inc.

Police Department

The police department is a 24 hour, seven-day-a-week operation, and officers are needed to fill that entire time. The department is currently experiencing a problem because there are nine vacant officer positions and one dispatcher position. Three officers are out due to line of duty injuries and one is serving overseas in the military. Police Commissioner Ernest Cipullo has requested that the dispatcher and one officer position be deferred. The department has been unable to hire since the Nassau County Civil Service Commission has not issued a new list, which is needed to begin the hiring process.

The department's biggest expense is overtime. Trustee Lamberti asked about reducing the number of posts from five to four, but Cipullo said he would not be comfortable with that move. Response time, which is currently at two minutes or less, would suffer if the number of posts were reduced.

The CBRC recommends that the department not fill four vacant officer positions. They further advise eliminating two supervisor positions since the department has 18 supervisors for 36 officers. The CBRC also calls for the elimination of all seven parking meter attendants. The committee would like to see them replaced with part-time employees who would get paid per diem

Fire Department

The issue of whether or not Garden City needs both a paid and volunteer fire department has been debated for several years, and this year was no different, especially given the economic climate.

Roy Ryniker, chairman of the Citizens' Budget Review Committee, questioned why Garden City needs a paid fire department when most other villages exist with a volunteer department. Fire Captain Gil Frank, commanding officer, Headquarters Company, said that a paid department offers Garden City residents a quicker response time of two to two-and-a-half minutes.

The CBRC would like the Board to explore the possibility of utilizing the volunteer department at two firehouses on weekends and evenings since they are more readily available at those times. Capt. Frank said volunteer fire service has been suffering for several years because young people do not have the time to make the commitment to training and serving.

Mayor Peter A. Bee told the Garden City News via e-mail that contrary to rumors, there is currently no plan to eliminate or scale back the paid fire department. "While it is true that several trustees have said - as I have said - that 'everything is on the table,' I know of no sitting trustee (or incoming trustee) who has proposed eliminating the paid fire department." The degree of funding for the fire department, as with all other departments, will be further discussed on March 12."

The possibility of closing a firehouse, which brings about a host of very complicated service issues, was also discussed. There are currently three strategically located firehouses. If one is closed, where happens to the equipment? How would response times be affected?

Last year there were six structural fires in the Village. Trustee Donald Brudie questioned whether that warrants keeping three firehouses open. Capt. Frank responded that if a firehouse is closed there will be longer response times, which equates to an increased possibility of losing a life and more structural damage.

Village Counsel

The Board briefly discussed whether it would be more economical to hire an in-house Village attorney instead of employing an outside firm. Trustees ultimately agreed that one attorney could not handle all legal matters. In Rockville Centre, for example, the Village employs an in-house attorney but hires outside firms to handle several other legal issues including tax certiorari claims, labor work and insurance-related cases.

Dept. of Public Works

Robert Mangan, Public Works director, has come up with several recommendations that were discussed by the Board.

Trustees will have to decide whether or not to eliminate sanitation pick-up on six holidays. They generally were in agreement that those residents who utilize special pick-up sanitation removal should be charged a fee. Last year, 6,600 homes utilized this service, which is available five days a week.

"People do not have a constitutional right to have special pick-up," said Trustee Nicholas Episcopia.

It is possible that a one-time $1,000 Dumpster fee will be charged to businesses for commercial rubbish removal. The Village would generate $191,000. The CBRC recommends charging businesses fees for sanitation removal, as well as snow removal and parking lot paving.

Trustees also agreed that a fee of between $50 to $100 should be charged to residents who request shade trees be planted on the property along the street in front of their house. Mangan said an average of 100 people request trees every year.

A discussion ensued over charging a fee for residents who utilize the Village's leaf collection service. Village Auditor James Olivo said that it would be very difficult to determine how to collect payment from those utilizing the service.

As for the water department, Olivo announced that the rate will increase five percent due to low revenues.

Recreation Department

At Monday evening's budget work session, the Board decided to defer the proposed synthetic turf infield and Community Park study. Kevin E. Ocker, chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Cultural and Recreational Affairs, had requested $30,000 for the study to be done by a professional firm to look at the possibility of relocating the roller hockey rink and fields within Community Park, and to study the feasibility of installing synthetic turf and lighting on the soccer field. Ocker said he included the $125,000 for synthetic turf on the infield of the little league field to "offer something positive in these times." The original plan included $340,000 to install the turf on the entire field, but Ocker had scaled back his request to provide enough funds to cover the infield.

Ocker has been actively seeking corporate sponsorships and sent 80 letters to local businesses. Flushing Savings Bank responded and will sponsor the annual Village Easter Egg Hunt.

If no corporate sponsor steps up, this summer there will be two less concerts at the gazebo, saving the Village $4,000. The four summer noontime concerts on Seventh Street will be eliminated, saving $5,000. Family movie night and shows will be reduced from 10 to six.

Next winter, Ocker proposes eliminating the natural ice skating at the pond next to the Garden City Golf Club, which will save $11,000.

Ocker is recommending that a $30 per game fee be charged for field usage. He estimates this would generate $50,000 to $60,000. Other communities, such as North Hempstead, have been charging field user fees for years.

St. Paul's

Trustee Thomas Lamberti recommended ending maintenance on the Historic Main Building at St. Paul's, which would save $171,785. Trustee Robert Rothschild said he visited the building two weeks ago and was concerned at the deterioration that has occurred. Turning off the heat, as Lamberti proposed, would cause the building to deteriorate at a more rapid rate. The Board has hired a consultant to study the possible affect demolition will have on the environment.