Approved Minutes: Organizational Meeting, January 4, 10:00 AM
Cortland County Legislature
The
Legislature convened pursuant to the Rules of the Legislature and Local Law No.
2 of year 1972, and the 2004 Rules of the Legislature, at the Legislative
Chambers, in Cortland County New York, called to order at 10:13 a. m. by
Carletta Edwards, Clerk of the 2004-2005 Legislature. Also present on the dais
were County Attorney John Bardsley and County Administrator Scott Schrader.
Roll
called and all members present as follows:
Legislative District 1
John R. Troy, 29
Summit Street, Cortland, NY
Legislative
District 2
Sean Clark,
10 Hamlin Street, Cortland, NY
Legislative
District 3
Carol Tytler,
9 Stevenson Street, Cortland, NY
Legislative
District 4
Thomas P. Hartnett, 19
Pearl Street, Cortland, NY
Legislative
District 5
Ronald VanDee, 7
Taylor Street, Cortland, NY
Legislative
District 6
Don Spaulding, 33
Charles Street, Cortland NY
Legislative
District 7
Daniel A. Tagliente, 70
Pomeroy Street, Cortland, NY
Legislative
District 8
Marilyn Brown, 41
East Court Street, Cortland, NY
Legislative
District 9
Newell Willcox, Jr., 2
Bedford Street, Homer, NY
Legislative
District 11
Steve Dafoe,
28 Clinton Street, Homer, NY
Legislative
District 12
Danny G. Ross, 8
Church Street, McGraw, NY
Legislative
District 13
Kay Breed,
3301 Gracie Road, Cortland NY
Legislative
District 14
John R. Daniels, 4084
Highland Road, Cortland, NY
Legislative
District 15 John M. Steger,
7506 Friendly Lane, Tully, NY
Legislative
District 16
Merwin Armstrong, 7029
Richmond Hill Road, DeRuyter, NY
Legislative
District 17
Michael M. McKee, 3111
Route 26, Cincinnatus, NY
Legislative
District 18
Larry Cornell, 3333
Zelsnack Road, Marathon, NY
Legislative
District 19
Sandra L. Price, 1189 Church Street, Cortland, NY
Ms.
Edwards announced the first order of business to come before the Legislature as
presented by the agenda was Resolution No. 1, 2006, selecting a Chairman of the
County Legislature for a term of two years, setting the official undertaking and
asked their pleasure.
RESOLUTIONS:
Mr. Tagliente nominated Marilyn Brown for the Office of Chairman of the
Legislature. There were no other nominations. Mr. Tagliente moved to adopt Resolution
No. 1-06: Selecting Chairman of the County Legislature and Setting Official
Undertaking with the insertions of the nominee, Ms. Marilyn Brown for Chairman.
Seconded by Mr. Hartnett. The Clerk called for a roll-call vote. Mr. Armstrong,
Ms. Breed, Ms. Brown, Mr. Clark, Mr. Cornell, Mr. Dafoe, Mr. Daniels, Mr.
Hartnett, Mr. McKee, Ms. Price, Mr. Ross, Mr. Spaulding, Mr. Steger, Mr.
Tagliente, Mr. Troy, Ms. Tytler, Mr. VanDee, Mr. Willcox, and Mr. Williams
voting aye. Vote was unanimous with a total of all weighted votes for Marilyn
Brown.
Ms. Brown was administered the required Oath of Office for Chairman of the
Legislature by Elizabeth Larkin, County Clerk, and took her place on the dais as
Chairman.
Ms. Brown addressed the Legislature and the public stating: "I would
like to thank everyone for their support. It is my commitment to work with all
the legislators to reach the priorities we will set as a group to move Cortland
forward."
Ms. Price moved to adopt Resolution No. 2-06: Appoint Clerk of the
Legislature, with the insertion of the name Sue Morgan. Seconded by Ms. Tytler.
Mr. Armstrong stated for the record: "I'm going to vote against
appointing this person, its not that I think she can't do the job, I think we
are going to lose a very valuable County employee, Carletta Edwards, and that
the whole reason is continuity. We are going to lose a very valuable
person."
Ms. Price stated: "Carletta has worked long and hard and she will
leave big shoes to fill and I want to thank her very much for her dedication and
hard work."
Chairman Brown added. "I personally thank her, and as a Legislator
thank her for all the hard work."
Applause from the entire Legislature.
Chairman Brown directed a roll call vote with Ms. Brown, Mr. Clark, Mr. Dafoe,
Mr. Daniels, Mr. Hartnett, Mr. McKee, Ms. Price, Mr. Ross, Mr. Spaulding, Mr.
Steger, Mr. Tagliente, Mr. Troy, Ms. Tytler, Mr. VanDee, Mr. Willcox, and Mr.
Williams voting aye and Mr. Armstrong, Ms. Breed and Mr. Cornell voting nay.
Resolution was adopted by more than a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.
Ms. Morgan was administered the required Oath of Office by Elizabeth Larkin,
County Clerk, and took her place on the dais as Clerk of the Legislature.
Ms. Price respectfully requested a ten-minute recess. Chairman Brown declared a
ten-minute recess at 10:25 a.m.
Upon return from recess Chairman Brown called the meeting to order and announced
a change in the agenda order moving item 07-Appointing County Attorney to become
item 03.
Mr. Williams raised a point of order, asking: "Does this item require a
special article by provisions of our rules and regulations?"
Before ruling on the point of order, Chairman Brown recognized County
Administrator Scott Schrader. Mr. Schrader stated his interpretation of the
rules calling for a two-thirds majority vote as a Special Article was when an
item came up that had not been put on the agenda.
Mr. VanDee pointed out that the prior County Attorney was appointed by
resolution and not by Special Article and questioned whether such an
interpretation would void all legal documents for the last two years.
Mr. Schrader pointed out that the agenda provides for these appointments by
resolution and required only a majority vote and not a two-thirds vote to pass.
Mr. Breed asked who makes the ruling.
Mr. Schrader stated that it was the responsibility for the Chairman to rule on
the point of order. Ms. Breed objected to this interpretation.
Chairman Brown ruled that the agenda resolutions were in order and would be
treated as resolutions requiring a simple majority vote. She did not declare
these items Special Articles requiring a two-thirds vote for adoption.
Ms. Tytler moved the adoption of Resolution No. 3-06: Appoint County
Attorney, with the name of Attorney Ric VanDonsel inserted. Seconded by Ms.
Price.
Ms. Breed stated that she would like to make a nomination from the floor. Ms.
Breed moved to insert the name Mark Suben in the resolution. Ms. Breeds' motion
was seconded by Mr. Wilcox.
Chairman Brown directed a roll call vote on the pending motion by Ms. Tytler to
adopt resolution No. 3, with the insertion of the name Richard VanDonsel. All
members voted aye except Ms. Breed, Mr. Tagliente and Mr. Willcox voting nay.
With the adoption of the resolution appointing Ric VanDonsel by more than
two-thirds majority, the Chair declared the vote on the nomination of Mark Suben
unnecessary.
Mr. Williams and Ms. Breed requested the record to show their objections
to the Chairman's ruling.
Mr. VanDee moved the adoption of Resolution No. 4-06: Appoint
County Auditor, Dennis Whitt. Seconded by Mr. Tagliente. Mr. Williams stated
that he couldn't discuss the office without discussing the person and made a
motion to go into executive session, Seconded by Mr. Willcox. All members voting
aye. Legislature went into executive session with only legislators to be present
at 11:05.
Meeting reconvened at 11:11 with Mr. VanDonsel, present and taking the place at
the dais reserved for County Attorney.
Mr. Williams addressed the Chairman of the Legislature and stated he
assumed that the ruling of the Chair on the Special Article would be the same on
the County Auditor as the County Attorney. The Chair indicated that was her
ruling on the appointment of the County Auditor.
Mrs. Breed stated: "I'm going to vote no on this because I do feel Mr.
Whitt has not provided us with reports that I have requested. I don't know what
his performance has been as a body he could have been doing a lot of things but
we are not aware of that. I believe that the job appointment calls for reports
to the body on a regular basis and he has done none of those."
Ms. Tytler stated she agreed with a number of statements made by Ms.
Breed.
There being no further discussion, the resolution appointing Mr. Whitt as County
Auditor proceeded to a roll call vote with all members voting aye except Ms.
Breed, Mr. Willcox and Mr. Williams voting nay. The resolution was adopted by
more than a two-thirds vote.
On motion of Ms. Price, seconded by Mr. Williams, Resolution No. 5-06:
Approve Appointment of Carl Bullock as County Director of Veterans Services, The
resolution appointing Carl Bullock was adopted with all members voting aye.
On motion of Mr. Armstrong, seconded by Mr. Cornell, Resolution No. 6-06:
Approve Appointment of Keith Dayton as Public Defender. The resolution
appointing Keith Dayton was adopted with all members voting aye.
On motion of Ms. Price, seconded by Ms. Breed, Resolution No. 7-06:
Approve Appointment of Cathy Barber as County Historian. The resolution
appointing Cathy Barber was adopted with all members voting aye.
On motion of Ms. Tytler, seconded by Mr. VanDee, Resolution No. 8-06:
Approve Appointment of Thomas O'Donnell as Director Capital District Regional
Off-Track Betting Corporation. The resolution appointing Thomas O'Donnell was
adopted with all members voting
aye.
On motion of Mr. Cornell, seconded by Mr. Tagliente, Resolution No.
9-06: Designate Cortland Standard Newspaper as Official Newspaper. The
resolution was adopted with all members voting aye.
On motion of Ms. Price, seconded by Mr. VanDee, Resolution No. 10-06:
Designation of
Depositories.
Ms. Price made a friendly amendment to the motion, second by Ms. Breed to
include the First National Bank of Dryden at maximum amount of $25,000,000.00.
Ms.
Price added her reason for making amendment was that the First National Bank of
Dryden is located in Cortlandville and is locally owned.
The
resolution, as amended, was adopted with all members voting aye.
RESOLUTION MOVED AS SPECIAL ARTICLE
On motion of Ms. Price, seconded by Ms. Tytler, Resolution No. 11:
Abolish one full-time Registered Nurse position and create four (4) Per-Diem
Registered Professional Nurses, Health Department was declared a Special
Article, requiring a two thirds vote for adoption under the rules.
Ms. Breed objected to the resolution as inappropriate for this meeting and
that the proposal had not gone through committee process.
County Administrator, Scott Schrader responded that the County presently has a
critical nursing shortage that impairs providing adequate care to patients. Ms.
Tytler stated her concern at the County's ability to attract per diem nurses at
the proposed rate. Mr. Schrader said the rate is contractual and that they have
eligible candidates who wish to work part time. The Chair accepted the motion
and called the vote on the Special Article. The Resolution was adopted as a
Special Article by more than a two-thirds vote with all members voting aye.
Clerks Note:
Resolution No. 11., was not referred to committees as originally contemplated by
paragraph two of the preamble. The Resolution was approved as a Special Article,
which voids paragraph two of the preamble. The clerk will delete that paragraph
from publication upon approval of the minutes.
RECEIVED & FILED
Designation
of Minority Leader by Republican Caucus as Danny G. Ross
Designation
of Majority Leader by Democratic Caucus as Ronald Van Dee
Prepared by Susan Morgan, Clerk of the Legislature