By Phil Blackwell
A long-time area certified public accountant will soon step into the role of comptroller for the town of Cicero.
Elke Johanns was approved as comptroller by a 4-1 vote at a special meeting of the Cicero Town Board held July 8, taking over for the retiring Shirlie Stuart.
Johanns’ annual salary of $95,000 was, said Councilor Jonathan Karp, more than the town would like to expend, but that her credentials, plus the fact that only two people applied for the job, factored in.
“I’m extremely impressed by her,” said Karp. “She has experience in the public sector. That is not a trivial thing.”
Councilor Judy Boyke agreed. “With her extensive knowledge and education, it is an excellent choice,” she said.
The lone dissenting vote came from Councilor Michael Becallo, who said that a more extensive search process could have taken place and that it didn’t require paying a salary nearly $20,000 higher than what Stuart earned.
At this same meeting, Supervisor Bill Meyer announced the formation of a committee, led by town engineer Kate Fiorello, to explore moving the Cicero Court facilities to a building outside the main town hall.
With the town not in compliance with regulations in regards to facilities needed by the town’s judges and attorneys, an upgrade is needed, said Meyer, but he didn’t want the town to pay more than $1 million for a new building, as some have proposed.
Regardless of cost, Boyke, Karp and Becallo each said that they wanted greater input by the town board into the process, along with a larger committee with more community input.
Though the town’s next contract for trash disposal is not up for bid until spring of 2021, the board heard a presentation from two representatives of Syracuse Haulers, who has contracts with other Central New York municipalities.
What Syracuse Haulers proposed is providing each residence with two 95-gallon capacity bins, one for trash and one for recycling, each of them roughly three times the size of an average trash bin. If more of these bins were needed, residents could purchase them for a fee.
Kevin Beverine, a sales manager at Syracuse Haulers, said that similar programs put in place in the village of North Syracuse in 2018 and the village of Homer in 2019 have proven successful.
This “automated cart service” carries several advantages, said Beverine, ranging from residential safety to increased recycling numbers to better protection against birds and rodents.
Board members had several questions about the proposal, ranging from the need to inform residents about the change to automated carts to increased costs for the town.
Beverine said that he could not put an exact number on how much it will cost. Still, he said that, despite larger up-front expenses, over the long term having fewer containers would save the town money.
By a 3-2 vote, the board narrowly approved a temporary agreement with National Grid (referred to as Niagara Mohawk in the official contract) to put in a temporary right of way in the property surrounding the old Cicero Highway Garage to allow the company’s trucks to work on power line construction.
Boyke and Becallo both voted against the measure. Boyke said that the town needs to know how much it would cost them to repair the property once National Grid’s work was done.
