GENERAL
SERVICES
SPECIAL
MEETING
APRIL
19, 2007 7:30 AM
DRAFT
MINUTES
Committee Present: Dan Tagliente, Vice Chairman; Kay Breed, John Daniels, Tom Hartnett, Newell Willcox – Absent: Steve Dafoe - John Steger: Excused
Others Present: Scott Schrader, Marilyn Brown, Angie Wyatt, Brian Parker, Tim Smith, Ric VanDonsel, Carol Tytler, Don Spaulding, Larry Cornell, Sandy Price, Danny Ross, Eric Mulvihill, Corey Preston, Ann Gebhart
The meeting was called to order at 7:30a.m. by Vice Chairman Dan Tagliente
No minutes to approve
Consider and vote for one resolution from the following options recommended by the Ad Hoc Committee:
Vice Chairman Dan Tagliente asked Ad Hoc Committee Chairperson, Carol Tytler for a brief summary of the Committee’s final recommendations for consideration.
Carol indicated that the Committee originally proposed 6 options and in a final vote of 5-2 the Committee voted favor of sending proposal # 1 and # 2 to the General Services Committee for their review and recommendation. Proposal # 1 is as follows:
**DO NOT PURCHASE ANY OF THE PROPERTIES AND HAVE THE COUNTY ATTORNEY NEGOTIATE WITH THE SELLERS TO GET OUT OF THE LAND DEAL.
Potential Outcomes: Minimal litigation and financial losses; Difficulty with future purchases; Won’t be holding property that we do not want to develop; A payment of services to Cinquanti Real Estate that did not lead to anything; and A payment to Barton & Loguidice that provided information for future work on these projects but included a payment for work that did not lead to a proposed Health Facility.
**PURCHASE SOME OF THE PROPERTIES AND
HAVE THE COUNTY ATTORNEY NEGOTIATE WITH THE SELLERS TO GET OUT OF THE DEAL FOR
THOSE PIECES WE DO NOT WANT.
Potential
Outcomes: Less
likely to have any lawsuits; Leave residential housing intact; develop the
property(ies) for our needs; Space collaboration with the City; Proposed a
project that would be a smaller scale; Sell property(ies) to someone else.
DISCUSSION/COMMENTS:
Ric VanDonsel:
Advised the Committee that the Moose Lodge is only one lawsuit.
Establishing our legal right is being pleaded.
The timeframe to settle the matter would probably be in July. Russ Ruthing, Attorney to the Moose Lodge would be likely
taken depositions from people involved to prepare for oral arguments before
Judge Rumsey.
Newell Willcox: Asked Ric VanDonsel if he had contacted the Attorney General’s
Office to research the matter.
Ric VanDonsel: Contacted the NYS
Association of County Attorneys and NYSAC (New York State Association of
Counties) by phone to confer with them. It
did not get anything in writing – he only spoke to them on the phone.
Carol Tytler: Had asked Ric
VanDonsel to contact each of the property owners.
Ric VanDonsel: Contacted Steve
Lissberger -
Mr. Lissberger will be working on some numbers and get back to Ric; The
Wood property owners have asked for a $120,000 settlement offer; Mr.
Abbietello’s attorney, Larry Knickerbocker is out of town and Ric will be
talking to him upon his return; The Maniaci property was sold to someone else.
Newell Willcox: At the last
Legislative Session the vote was to send it back to the Committee System.
Newell does not have a problem with the Ad Hoc Committee but this issue
should go back to the General Services Committee for them to deal with.
On proposal # 2 indicating that “Collaborative project with the City
for office space”, Newell indicated that he had talked to City Mayor Tom
Gallagher and asked if he had been contacted regarding the City sharing space
with the County. Mayor Gallagher said that they had not been contacted.
Newell further advised the Committee that the Noss property would be
cleaned up by the fall and wanted to know why we are not looking at anything
else.
Dan Tagliente:
The City was looking to develop the Noss property when he was on the
Common Council but the land underneath is brown.
Scott Schrader: According to the
EPA, all 18 acres of that land is contaminated and it has been capped.
If any construction was proposed on that site there would be a lot of
liability and there would be no money available for clean up.
Newell Willcox: Would like
documentation of this from Scott Schrader.
Marilyn Brown: Last week met with
Mayor Tom Gallagher, City Police Chief Jim Nichols, Sheriff Lee Price and Jail
Administrator Budd Rigg regarding consolidation of City/County services so
there has been dialog in that direction.
We need to make a decision, resolve this issue and get to the end of
this.
Newell Willcox: Just found out
about these 2 proposals yesterday – the General Services Committee should
have been charged with this, not the Ad Hoc Committee.
Marilyn Brown: This is not new
information – ALL the information is available from the Clerk of the
Legislature and no one has checked with the Clerk for the information.
MOTION BY KAY
BREED – 2ND BY NEWELL WILLCOX TO PREPARE RESOLUTION TO SUPPORT
PROPOSAL # 1 NOT TO BUY ANY OF THE PROPERTIES – VOTING YES:
KAY BREED & NEWELL WILLCOX – VOTING NO:
DAN TAGLIENTE, JOHN DANIELS, TOM HARTNETT – MOTION FAILS
MOTION BY TOM HARTNETT – 2ND BY JOHN DANIELS TO PREPARE
RESOLUTION TO SUPPORT PROPOSAL # 2 TO PURCHASE THE MOOSE PROPERTY AND THE WOOD
PROPERTY AND COUNTY ATTORNEY RIC VANDONSEL WILL NEGOTIATE FOR THE RESIDENTIAL
PROPERTIES – VOTING YES: DAN
TAGLIENTE, JOHN DANIELS, TOM HARTNETT – VOTING NO:
KAY BREED & NEWELL WILLCOX – MOTION PASSES
FURTHER
DISCUSSION/COMMENTS:
Kay
Breed: Will there be a buyer for
these properties?
Carol Tytler: We would have more
time and the properties would be in our inventory for better negotiations or
to be able to do something on a smaller scale.
John Daniels: Understands that
David and Dan McNeil, Sr. are interested in buying the Moose property.
Newell Willcox: Asked if we could
win the lawsuit.
Ric VanDonsel: Yes, we could win
Ron VanDee to Ric VanDonsel: You
haven’t researched it?
Ric VanDonsel: Yes, by contacting
NYSACA and NYSAC they will be getting the opinions.
The State Attorney General’s Office is not magic.
Sandy Price: After receiving a
phone call from former County Legislator, Ted Law Sandy indicated that when
they were in on purchasing land to build TC3 they wanted to buy extra land and
then if they didn’t need they could re-sell it.
At that time it was illegal to public entities to sell property.
Is it legal for the County to buy and sell property?
Ric indicated that it was.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:01a.m. by Vice Chairman, Dan Tagliente.
Minutes Taken and Prepared by Angie Wyatt, Confidential Secretary to Scott
Schrader - 4/19/2007 12:16 PM