Co. Leg. To Make Decisions on Proposed Budget This Thursday

Following the presentation of the proposed 2013 Putnam County budget by County Executive MaryEllen Odell, county legislators met in committees last week to discuss elements that might be reinstated, eliminated or changed in the budget proposal.

While the committees each offered recommendations on what should be included in the county’s annual spending plan, the full legislature will decide to accept or reject each of the recommendations at the Budget and Finance Committee meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. this Thursday, Oct. 18. and a public hearing on the 2013 proposed budget will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23.

Last Tuesday, Oct. 9, the legislature’s personnel committee met with county Personnel Director Paul Eldridge to discuss different staff positions that had been moved, added or expanded from part time to full time positions for 2013.

Eldridge said Putnam County had remained very conservative on staffing levels.

“The number of positions today are the same number of positions going back to 1991,” Eldridge said.

The committee discussed a proposal by the administration to change the position of confidential advisor at the sheriff’s department to a deputy county attorney position and move it into the law department under the executive branch.

Putnam County District Attorney Adam Levy said that his office was able to handle all criminal matters, and Putnam County Attorney Jennifer Bumgarner could handle all civil matters in her office, and therefore the position at the sheriff’s department was unnecessary, in addition to being unmerited by New York State law.

The personnel committee ultimately recommended that the position be eliminated altogether, rather than moved to the county law department. Two nights later at the legislature’s protective services committee meeting, Putnam County Sheriff Donald B. Smith took issue with the loss of the position that he said was essential for the operation of the department and described the proposal to remove the position from the department as being “political” in nature.

The personnel committee also recommended that two positions for a regional grant coordinator in the planning department and for a receptionist in the information technology department be removed from the county’s spending plan.

A discussion that began Tuesday night at the legislature’s health committee and continued to Wednesday evening’s physical services committee involved a $650,000 cut to the county’s para transit system. The meeting room was filled with community members and bus drivers who came to voice their opposition to the cuts.

In order to make up for the loss of service for individuals who used the bus service, Deputy County Executive Bruce Walker said that $25,000 was budgeted for cab vouchers for certain individuals and another $25,000 was budgeted to partner with outside agencies to provide transportation for those who needed it.

Legislator Sam Oliverio said this was insufficient to deal with the need that existed for public transportation.

“We have individuals who don’t have cars who are working hard to pay their taxes,” Oliverio said. “This safety net of $50,000 – that is a spit in a bucket that is the size of the Atlantic Ocean.”

Walker defended the cuts, noting the challenge of remaining with the state-imposed two percent tax levy cap.

“We are having to make some really tough decisions,” Walker said. “At the end of the day, we have to propose a budget.”

Included in the proposed cuts were the elimination of the bus lines that service Mahopac and Patterson.

Although it was said that ridership on the lines fell to as low as less than 10 riders per day on these lines, three of the drivers who service those lines, and who attended the Wednesday meeting, said that was not the case.

Driver Bobby Palazzo said the statistics announced at the meeting came nowhere close to matching his daily experience. He said during his shift from early morning to early afternoon, he averaged 90 to 100 passengers daily.

“We transport the elderly, we transport the mentally and physically challenged, we transport students, and just ordinary people going to and from work,” he said. “I understand the budget needs to be cut, but there is a lot of waste in this county that can be done away with well before cutting the transit system.”

Many community members spoke during public comments and told the legislators that the spending cuts and the elimination of services would have a devastating impact on their daily lives.

An 83-year-old woman said she was legally blind and worked from home. She said she wasn’t eligible for any public assistance as she had chosen not to take any.

“I pay my taxes. I can’t express to you what it would mean to me if I didn’t [have the bus service],” she said. “I would be lost….please, please do not do this to us; we don’t deserve it.”

Another woman rose to speak and said she was legally blind, too, and worked at a local elementary school.

“I need to get to work by using [public transit]. I want to retiree when I want to, not because I can’t get there,” she said of how the spending cuts would impact her.

After listening to those who attended the meeting, the committee voted to recommend that the $650,000 be restored to the proposed 2013 budget.

“It needs to stay the way it is this year,” Legislator Anthony DiCarlo said. “Then our challenge is, where do we come up with $650,000?”

And on Thursday night, after hearing from representatives of the sheriff’s department, who said that deep cuts to the over time lines would hamper the department’s operations, including transporting prisoners to court appearances, the protective services committee voted to recommend that an estimated $200,000 more than originally proposed by the administration be held in a contingency line in the budget in order to pay for over time at the sheriff’s department.

Adam Stone

Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.