by Kristina Gabalski
Brockport Mayor Connie Castaneda says the village will remove Fire Department expenses from the 2013-2014 budget.
“Taxpayers will be taxed through the Brockport Fire District and not the Village of Brockport,” Mayor Castaneda said during her report at the regular Village Board meeting February 12.
She noted that some village residents had expressed concern that the new budget might not be reduced by the amount previously allocated for fire protection.
In last year’s budget, $89,115 was allocated for fire service because the fire district was still in the process of being formed, the mayor said. “This year the fire budget is gone – it has been taken out.”
The board held a preliminary budget workshop February 5 and Mayor Castaneda said the current fund balance is good and that expenses will “easily fall within the two percent tax cap.”
She noted that the village needs to continue to manage both revenues and expenses in order to keep moving forward financially.
The mayor also discussed the Local Government Citizens Reorganization Empowerment grant application that trustees refused to consider at the January 22 meeting of the Village Board calling it a “back door to dissolution.”
The grant would fund a study that would “help the board achieve savings … reduce government cost and save taxpayers money,” the mayor said.
She said the board should reconsider applying for the grant and added the village would not need to determine what services it would like to consolidate before applying for the grant.
“CGR (Center for Governmental Research) would do that as part of the study,” she said.
The mayor said she asked Village Clerk Leslie Morelli to contact Gary Rouleau, Director of Grant Operations at J. O’Connell & Associates, to answer questions regarding the need for the village to determine what services would be consolidated before a study took place and if the village would be obligated to follow through on findings of the study.
Rouleau also responded that as part of the study process, CGR would form a committee consisting of members appointed by the Village and Town Boards to gather information and data, the mayor explained.
The village would be obligated to share study findings with the public, but would “not be obligated to follow-through on findings of the study,” she said, even if those findings recommended consolidation.
The mayor emphasized that in order to move forward with any grant application, the Village Board must first approve a resolution.
A Letter to the Editor from Trustee Margay Blackman on page 4 of this issue discusses the topic further.
Mayor Castaneda also commented on an article published in the February 10 edition of the Suburban News West Edition regarding the Brockport Police Department and Chief Daniel Varrenti’s report of reductions in the cost of running the department.
The mayor said she is not against the Brockport Police Department. “My job is to represent the best interests of all village residents … I’m against the cost of the Police Department,” she said.
Budget numbers she cited can be “verified by current and past village treasurers,” the mayor explained.
“It’s not up to me or the Board to decide (if the Police Department should be eliminated). I have called for a referendum (so) residents can decide if it’s a service they want to continue,” the mayor said.
She also addressed the figure of an 18 percent tax increase which surfaced prior to the dissolution vote of 2010.
The figure was included in a report from Bernie Donegan’s office, she said, after the village treasurer at the time asked department heads what the cost would be if they were to complete all projects they would like to see accomplished.
“Of course that’s not going to happen,” Castaneda said, and added that the double-digit projected increase was drastically reduced shortly after.
