Consolidation committee holds info meeting, offers update

By Jason Emerson

Editor

The possibility of consolidating the town and village of Cazenovia into one municipal entity — and thereby dissolving the village — is an extensive process that is only in its early stages and is in no way a “done deal.” It is also a process that will require much public opinion and feedback.

This was the message the members of the Cazenovia Consolidation Committee gave to the more than 60 residents who attended a public information meeting held Tuesday, Aug. 29, in the high school auditorium.

The meeting offered an overview of the consolidation process by a representative from the New York State Division of Local Government Services, as well as a public question and comment period during which committee members responded to audience concerns.

“I was reasonably pleased with the turnout, and I thought people had reasonable concerns and good questions,” said Kristi Andersen, committee chair and Cazenovia town councilor. “One of our goals was to make it clear that consolidation is not a ‘done deal,’ that voters have a say and there are a number of ways things could work out — including not moving forward with consolidation, and that the committee remains open to all those options. I think we accomplished that, at least for this group of people.”

Village and town officials began a conversation about possible government consolidation in 2016, while discussing how they could improve municipal shared services and government efficiencies. The conversation became more serious after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his intentions to urge consolidation of local governments throughout the state in order to increase government efficiencies — and offered up state grants and financial rewards to those municipalities that do so.

A consolidation committee was then created, comprised of town and village officials, to study the issue. Members of the Consolidation Committee include:

• Kristi Andersen, chair, Cazenovia town councilor.
• Bill Zupan, Cazenovia town supervisor.
• Tim Hunt, Cazenovia town highway superintendent.
• Kurt Wheeler, Cazenovia village mayor.
• Maureen Fellows, Cazenovia village trustee.
• Bill Carr, Cazenovia village public works administrator.
• Lauren Lines, CACDA executive director.
• Anne Redfern, Cazenovia League of Women Voters.

Town Attorney John Langey and Village Attorney Jim Stokes also are advising the committee as it does its work.

During the Aug. 29 meeting, Robert Roeckle, from the Division of Local Government Services in the state Department of State, said the state offers not only grants to help municipalities go through the consolidation process, but also offers a Citizen Empowerment Tax Credit to consolidated municipalities that equals 15 percent of all municipalities effected up to $1 million — money that must be used for tax relief.

In Cazenovia’s case, a successful consolidation of the village and town would equal a tax credit of $320,000 to the consolidated town every year moving forward (or until the state ends the tax credit program).

According to Roeckle, the process of combining local governments can be done through consolidation, dissolution of the village or enlarging the village to encompass the entire town (although the latter option is rarely used).

The process requires the effected municipal governments to conduct studies of how consolidation/dissolution would affect the municipalities in all aspects, create a plan to undertake the consolidation/dissolution and then have an official vote or endorsement of the plan.

After an endorsement, the official clock starts ticking under state law, and the municipalities have up to 12 months to complete the process steps. The steps include public hearings and a vote by residents of the municipalities involved. If the vote fails, the municipalities cannot undertake the process again for four years.

Cazenovia residents in the audience had numerous questions about the possibility of consolidation — which is what Cazenovia officials are considering rather than dissolution — including its effect on taxes, police and fire protection and the payoff of current municipal debts.

Roeckle said that while every consolidation is different, in general, village residents see their taxes reduced and town residents typically see a small increase. Both of these outcomes stem from the fact that the taxes previously paid only by village residents would, after consolidation, be spread throughout all the taxpayers in the entire town.

On the emergency services side, ambulance service would not change, since it is contracted through CAVAC, but fire and police services would have to be altered, said both Zupan and Wheeler.

Under state law, a town cannot run its own fire department, so the Cazenovia Volunteer Fire Department — currently run by the village — would have to be run by a newly created fire district overseen by elected commissioners. State Sen. David Valesky, who represents Cazenovia, is also looking into changing state law to allow towns to run fire departments.

For the police, the Cazenovia village police department would have to be dissolved and either re-created as a town police department or else police protection of the Cazenovia area would have to be left to the Madison County Sheriff’s Department.

“It was good to hear from members of the police department and people concerned about how fire protection would be organized and controlled; I think those are definitely some of the thornier issues we need to work on,” Andersen said.

Resident Shane Emerson also brought up the issue of how consolidation would affect the culture and history of Cazenovia. “The village was incorporated in 1810, and it is an entity that should be maintained,” he said. “It is something to give up a village that has been in existence 200 years.”

Kyle Leitenberger, a Cazenovia police officer who also works for the county sheriff’s office, not only opposed the idea of abandoning a Cazenovia police department, but also asked why consolidation was even being considered since both the village and town function effectively and well, already share many municipal services and are “not broke” financially.

“If it’s not broke, why fix it?” Laitenberger said.

Wheeler and Zupan both responded that this is a process by which to see if consolidation would be effective and beneficial to village and town residents — and that this is only the beginning.

“We are at the stage right now of simply figuring out what questions to ask — we’re not even up to the stage of answering them yet,” Wheeler said.

“We’re finding out how much we don’t know,” Zupan said. “This is not a done deal — it may not work financially or culturally; all of us on the committee are open minded.”

Andersen said that as the process moves forward, there will be more public informational meetings on the issue, and all the committee’s meetings are open to the public. She also urged any residents who would like to discuss consolidation to talk to any members of the committee at any time.

“We welcome your input to everyone on this committee,” she said.