No. Castle Resident Charges Long Pond District Finance Plan Illegal
A longtime North Castle resident is charging that the town is proposing an illegal method of paying for much-needed repairs of Long Pond Dam and has asked the state comptroller’s office to step in.
An Aug. 13 letter written on behalf of North White Plains resident Anthony Futia by Albany-based attorney Louis Oliver, Jr. urged the comptroller to make sure the town assesses the more than $300,000 in repairs and debt strictly on an ad valorem basis. That would drastically reduce the financial responsibility of the town from $13,500 a year to about $270 annually, Oliver’s letter contended.
Oliver stated that the town owns less than 1 percent of the assessed valuation in the newly-formed Long Pond Park District, not the 47 percent officials have said the town would pay.
The town board approved a resolution creating the district at its Aug. 5 meeting, pending the comptroller’s approval.
“Under the circumstances, no public purpose will be served by the creation of the new Long Pond Park District in the Town of North Castle as proposed in the resolution passed by the Town Board on August 5, 2015,” Oliver’s letter stated. “To the extent that the town proposes to pay more than its ad valorem share of the cost of repair and maintenance, the Town is making an illegal gift of public monies in violation of the New York State Constitution…”
Oliver’s letter mentioned that there would be no public access to the pond for recreational purposes with the creation of the district for anyone other than the 18 homeowners, making taxpayers contribute toward something they would be prohibited to use.
North Castle plans to enter into a contract with the park district to spell out its annual contribution, since under state law a municipality cannot be a district member, Town Attorney Roland Baroni said.
Baroni said on Monday that the town owns the majority of the water and a portion of the dam, which gives the municipality the responsibility to contribute and protect its residents. The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has been after North Castle for several years to come up with a plan to repair and maintain the dam.
Baroni added that the state comptroller has previously allowed for contracts to be drawn up between a town and a district.
He compared it to upgrades that the town is considering to the community center in North White Plains that would allow that facility to be used as an emergency shelter. While it would most likely help only residents of that hamlet, public safety is at stake.
“Sometimes you have to act even though it benefits only one area of town and this is one of those cases, and I don’t think anything is wrong with that,” Baroni said.
Baroni said there is legitimate rationale to how officials arrived at the current payments. During discussions about how the project would be funded, the town had originally agreed to have each of the 18 private property owners pay $1,229 a year for 20 years and it would contribute the remainder of the estimated $27,000 estimated cost, about 22 percent. However, the town learned that levying district taxes must be on an ad valorem basis, Baroni said.
Now, the highest assessed district property owner would pay $1,229 annually, while other district members would have their payments calculated based on that.
Futia warned that if the comptroller approves the town’s arrangement, he would go to court to fight. He acknowledged that the impact on his property tax bill would be insignificant and that he has already far outspent in legal fees whatever he would recoup in lower taxes.
But Futia, a member of We The People of New York, Inc., a group of citizens whose mission is to hold government accountable, said the town board has agreed to this financial arrangement with the district to help curry political favor with not only the 18 homeowners but other residents in Windmill Farm, which he said is a powerful constituency in town.
“We’re a country of laws and let’s follow the law,” Futia said. “What they’re doing is not following the law.”
Baroni expects the comptroller’s office to take several months before it decides on whether to approve the district’s financial arrangement.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
