The First Years

It is hard to believe it is already time for another election. It seems like only yesterday I was meeting with the departmental directors for the first time, getting ready to take on the humbling task of trying to get our Town government back on track. I remember a number of people suggested I should clean house and bring in my own people. I thought that was a bad idea…the directors had a wealth of knowledge on how to run our Town government. I needed to learn from them.

What I could bring to them was a new leadership style. First and foremost that meant opening up the lines of communication – not just within the government but also outwards, to the residents. The first order of business was changing how the Town Board meetings were run. Gone was the 2:00 time limit on residents wishing to speak at the meetings. Gone was the restriction that they could only speak at the end of the meeting, after all of the business was concluded. Gone was the lack of response to resident’s questions. Now, residents are free to attend their Town Hall meetings and provide feedback, comments, and suggestions on any of the topics on the agenda as well as adding their own at the end of the agenda.

The next major task was to improve all of the financial procedures that were currently in place. One person could sign a check for a million dollars. One person could both initiate a wire transfer and then authorize the transfer. The checks and balances were minimal at best. My new Finance Director and I immediately changed that, making sure any significant transaction required two people in order to make it happen. We put in place new procedures to better track expenses versus the budget. And we looked at every contract, procedure, and purchase to see where we could make cost savings.

It worked. At the end of the first year of our administration, we were able to come in $457,304 under budget, according to the audited financials. And that’s even with some significant spending outside of the budget – things like adding air conditioning to the Rec Center, installing a new scoreboard at Memorial Park, and building a new pavilion for the Senior Center. We accomplished it by being smarter about how we did things – looking for places where we could do more with less cost.

A major promise I made two years ago was to change how the government responds to the needs of the residents. I constantly monitor emails, phone calls, and social media in order to answer people’s questions as thoroughly and as quickly as possible. Where I can I resolve those issues and where I can’t, generally for budgetary reasons, I try to find solutions that at least help and always explain why our solution might be limited.

I’ve also had help from our new Town Board members, Rob Barley and Mike Stafford. Together we worked with the members from across the aisle and transformed the Town Board to become much better at protecting the interests of the community. When developers wanted to build medium density apartments in a low density senior living apartment complex, we denied them as it would have changed the nature of the complex. We not only held the first ever Town Board vote to protect historic landmarks, we’ve held three of them. When Chick-fil-A wanted to open a restaurant on Jefferson, we made it very clear: without a left turn arrow to help alleviate congestion there, we would not allow the project to proceed.

I have worked closely with the departments within Town to be more responsive to the needs of the community, such as the creation of needed no parking areas, improved signage, adding a “wet mower” to next year’s budget so we can get into greenbelts sooner in the spring, and working with Code Enforcement to go after some of the problematic properties in Town. Unfortunately in this last effort we have been hampered by Town Justices who let repeat offenders off the hook too easily and by a County administration that moves very slowly when it comes to zombie houses. The good news is both these impediments can be solved by voters this November.

But I still have a lot of work to do. The construction of the new library used up the majority of the time from my first term and as such, some projects have taken longer to get implemented. We are currently working on a completely redesigned Town Web Site in order to get more information into the hands of the public. We are working on a new camera system that would allow us to stream our Town Board meetings live. And we are renovating the west wing of Town Hall to better serve the public, largely through the acquisition of a State grant through the offices of Assembly member Harry Bronson, who also teamed with State Senator Patrick Gallivan to obtain $1.25-million in State assistance to build a new multi-modal bike and walking path on East River Road – work is waiting on the completion of the new County water main as it makes no sense to install a new sidewalk only to have it ripped up. We have started the land acquisition, to date all through donations from developers, in order to build a new Riverwalk Trail from the new East River Road path down along the river all the way to Breese Park and possibly beyond – the main construction would not begin until we have acquired all the land and have been awarded a Local Riverfront Revitalization Program grant from the State.

We are also in discussion on some interesting projects with regards to our Town parks, whether it is an expansion of Veterans Memorial Park through land donations from developers, the possibility of a new nature park on Castle Road through work with the Genesee Land Trust, or the possibility of a new water spray park in Veterans Memorial Park. In all cases, we are obtaining grants, donations, or other funding so that taxes will not need to be raised in order to make them a reality.

Because ultimately, that is my goal. To continue to increase the benefits offered to the community, but to do so in a fiscally responsible way such that we will not need to see the tax increase that was caused by the way the Rec Center and Library were funded by my predecessor. With more work on the front end obtaining grants and with better fiscal management all year long to help build fund balances, I believe the majority of the bond would have been unnecessary and thus, the majority of the tax increase could have been avoided.

It has been an honor and privilege serving the community and I look forward to continuing to do so in the future. I thank you for your past and future support.