Boyke, Becallo to lead permissive referendum petition
By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
The town of Cicero plans to take out nearly $10 million in bonds to pay for the construction of a new highway garage. The town board voted 4-1 March 8 to approve the resolution, which is subject to permissive referendum.
Casting the only dissenting vote, Councilor Mike Becallo vowed to help with the effort to pass petitions for a permissive referendum. Becallo said he is not against the construction of the new building but he believes the residents of Cicero should have the opportunity to vote on such a large expenditure.
“It’s shocking and appalling to me that this argument was used that the citizens that were in the Cicero Fire District did not have the opportunity to vote on their building, the reason why this town board tried to stop that from happening,” Becallo said. “It’s funny because it’s actually the same thing going on here. The citizens do not have the ability to vote on this tonight.”
Becallo said the previous administration under former supervisor Jessica Zambrano “promised that there would be a true public referendum on the $10 million building.”
Former supervisor Judy Boyke is leading the petition. In order to force a referendum, Boyke said, 5 percent of the 9,868 Cicero residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election must sign the petition. That means Boyke and her fellow petition carriers must secure 494 signatures.
Supervisor Mark Venesky criticized Boyke and other opponents of the highway proposal for not attending the series of public meetings on the subject.
“I don’t think I saw you at one of the open houses, Judy,” Venesky said.
Boyke responded that she is well aware of the issues plaguing the highway garage and has toured the building many times.
Venesky also said the dissenters have not adequately voiced their questions, nor have they presented a plan for solving the highway garage issue.
“My question to you is the same question that I’ve posed to three people who, I believe, for political reasons are against this building,” Venesky said. “What is your plan, former Supervisor Boyke, to make sure that the health and safety of our employees and the health and safety of the people in this community who count on those roads being plowed before they go to work and the school buses before they run down the road? What is your plan? Because you haven’t voiced it to this point.”
“You have no backup plan,” Boyke responded. “My plan is I’m going to allow this to go before the public to vote on it.”
Boyke said she and her supporters do not oppose the building itself.
“We are against the fact that you have proceeded to vote forward without giving the public an opportunity to vote on it,” she said. “And if you’re so sure that this is such a perfect thing to happen, it’ll pass.”
Boyke said that should the referendum fail, the town could spend “a couple million dollars” to repair the current highway garage. Venesky said the building is not fixable.
“We’re arguing two different points,” Becallo said. “We’re not arguing the fact … whether we need a new building or not. What the argument is, is the last administration promised there was going to be a public referendum. This administration publicly admitted there was going to be a public referendum, not a permissive referendum.”
Don Snyder, a resident who was on the original committee to examine the need for a new highway garage in 2015, said the board likely voted the way it did because of residents’ lack of interest in the project.
“Six or ten people came to these meetings. … We put signs up. We put things on the website. The interest wasn’t there,” Snyder said. “We’re going to now pay money for this vote. That’s more money that we’re going to pay to solve this problem.”
Snyder said previous administrations have “kicked the can down the road” by not addressing the problems with the highway garage.
“We finally have an administration that has some guts, that doesn’t want to kick the can down the road anymore,” he said. “We’re going to stop borrowing money for our highway every year, we’re going to get a building where our highway [department] can be housed properly.”
Venesky said he has heard “overwhelming support” from residents for the highway garage proposal.
“This is not political. This is a safety issue for the residents of this town and for the team members who work in that highway department,” Venesky said.
Board members explain vote
Councilor Jon Karp said he voted for the resolution based on information from an engineering report by Hueber-Breuer, which is available on ciceronewyork.net. According to Hueber-Breuer, the current highway garage’s roof could cave in under heavy, wet snowfall, and has structural, mold and space issues.
“If it’s an optional expenditure of this magnitude, then it needs to go to mandatory referendum. An optional expenditure would be, ‘Hey, it would be nice to have a new highway garage; in about five years, it will need to be replaced,’” Karp said. “Fifteen to 18 inches of wet snow is a condition that could occur in any Syracuse winter. It’s a necessity to replace the building.”
Councilor Dick Cushman said time is of the essence in replacing the highway garage.
“If we wait for a public referendum, by the time all the paperwork is done and the date is set and the voting is done, we’ve lost another construction season,” Cushman said. “It scares the hell out of me to think that our employees are even going to be in that building next winter while they’re building a new garage, if we started tomorrow. And to think we’re going to put that off another year is just unacceptable to me.”
“If this building is truly that unsafe, we should take those employees out of that building tonight,” Becallo said.
Venesky said the building is “not in imminent danger of collapsing,” but Hueber-Breuer recommended moving equipment and employees out of the building if excessive snowfall is predicted.
Dudzinski defends his administration
Along with Boyke and Becallo, former supervisor Chet Dudzinski criticized the town board’s vote. Dudzinski took umbrage with Snyder’s and Venesky’s comments that previous administrations had put off repairing the highway garage.
“In my administration of six years, one of our biggest obstacles was our credit rating. Previous administrations to mine destroyed that credit rating,” Dudzinski said. “The comment of ‘kicking the can down the road’ is ridiculous, and the individual that made that comment was probably one of those that stood at this podium while I sat right where you are, Mr. Supervisor, and said, ‘Make sure my taxes are not going up.’”
Dudzinski said Cicero once had the third-worst credit rating of any municipality in the country; Detroit was the first. Dudzinski said taxes remained flat during his administration to improve the town’s credit rating.
Dudzinski said several residents had approached him about the current town board’s actions and said residents should be able to vote on the highway garage proposal.
“If you do not let them voice their opinion … they’ll force [the referendum] and probably you’ll lose,” Dudzinski said. “This could cost your political career.”
“I wasn’t elected for politics. I took the job because I felt I could get it done and this is what we were elected to do,” Venesky replied.
“So did I,” Dudzinski said.
Volunteers at the ready
Becallo told the Star-Review that there is already a group of 20 to 30 volunteers ready to pass petitions and he is among them.
“I have proven to be an independent voice for the town of Cicero on this town board,” he said. “I represent the community to make sure their ideas and concerns get brought in front of this town board.”
Boyke criticized the town board for questioning her lack of a plan for the highway garage when he does not have a backup plan if voters shoot down the proposal in a referendum.
“[They] expect it to pass, when in fact I know it’s going to fail,” she told the Star-Review.
Boyke said she does have an alternate idea, contrary to Venesky’s criticisms. She said he is prioritizing the needs of the highway department over the needs of the entire town.
“If they’re going to spend that kind of money, they could build a new town hall to incorporate the highway department, town offices, courts and police,” she said, estimating that type of project at $15 million. “They have the land.”
