Danby Town Board Minutes of Regular Meeting November 17, 2014 Draft
Present:
Deputy Supervisor:	Gould Colman
Councilpersons:	Rebecca Brenner, Leslie Connors, Jim Holahan, Jack Miller
Others Present:
Town Clerk	Pamela Goddard
Code Officer	Matt Cooper
Bookkeeper	Laura Shawley
Public	Ronda Roaring, Julie Clougherty
The Public Hearing - West Danby Water District Improvement Grant - was opened at 7:00pm
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING REGARDING PROGRESS ON AN IMPROVEMENT PROJECT GRANT FOR THE WEST DANBY WATER DISTRICT:
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Town Board of the Town of Danby has set a Public Hearing related to the West Danby Water District Improvement Project for 7pm on November 17, 2014, to be held at the Danby Town Hall. This public hearing will furnish citizens with information including, but not limited to, the amount of CDBG funds that were made available, a listing of the activities undertaken with CDBG funds, and progress towards program goals and objectives as identified in the original application.
	Code Officer and Project Manager, Matt Cooper, made a report about the status of the Community Development Block Grant West Danby Water District Improvement Project grant. The grant award was for $404,800. Of this $300,790.26 has been spent. Roughly $50,000.00 is still outstanding in related invoices from project vendors. Some funds will come to the Town to compensate for time spent on the project by Matt Cooper and Susan McLellan. The project will come under budget, even with these outstanding expenses.
	Work on the project is complete. The new tank is constructed and installed, the old tank has been demolished and removed, the site around the tank has been graded and seeded as a conservation measure. The old flushing pipes have been replaced with new self-draining flushing hydrant assembly units at eight different locations. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on October 4th, 2014. The ceremony was well attended and provided information to residents.
	Roaring asked a whether the property needs to be logged, if the project is under budget. Cooper replied that there is no logging project related to the Water District Improvement Grant. Goddard shared information that trees were marked prior to the grant award, in the event that funds were needed to improve the access road. Once the grant was awarded, this income was not needed and there is no current plan to log the area.
	Cooper answered a few questions from the Board. The Water District is pleased with the outcome of the improvements. Cooper also commended Water Commissioner Tod Sukontarak and Project Assistant Susan McLellan for efforts above and beyond what was expected to move the project forward. Any surplus funds from the grant project remain with the Community Block Grant agency.
The Public Hearing was Closed at 7:08
The Regular Meeting of the Danby Town Board opened at 7:08
Privilege of the Floor
	Ronda Roaring requested an official letter stating the status of any proposed logging on the Town-owned property including the access road and water tank for the West Danby Water District.
Danby Community Council Contract
	Members of the Town Board had a discussion with Danby Community Council representative, Julie Clougherty, regarding the need to finalize and sign a new contract between the Town and the DCC. A draft was discussed during 2013 but never signed. The last signed contract was from 2009. Copies of recent drafts of the contract were given to Clougherty, and minor changes were noted. The largest change, in an updated draft devised by Connors, is the addition of guidelines for the Community Council message board. Connors stated that these guidelines came from previous Community Council member, Christel Trutmann, circa 2012. It is not known whether these guidelines are still current.
	Clougherty agreed that it would be good to have an up-to-date, signed contract between the Community Council and the Town. She informed the Board that this would be discussed at the next Community Council meeting, the first Thursday of December.
Approve Minutes
	Brenner made a request for some changes in the Oct. 20 minutes, in the section regarding negotiations with prior Town of Danby webmaster, Ted Crane. There was a brief discussion of the process for revising minutes.
Resolution No. 112 of 2013 - Approve Minutes
Resolved, that the Town Board of Town of Danby approves the minutes of October 13, 2014.
Moved by Connors, Second by Holahan. The motion passed. In Favor: Brenner, Connors, Holahan, Miller
	The discussion continued, regarding Brenner’s request to have Board members named in discussion items as part of record. Brenner noted that not all Board members always agree, and it would be helpful to know who made various comments. Goddard responded that she had no objection to revising the minutes as requested by Brenner.
Resolution No. 113 of 2013 - Approve Minutes
Resolved, that the Town Board of Town of Danby approves the minutes of October 20, 2014, as amended.
Moved by Brenner, Second by Connors. The motion passed. In Favor: Brenner, Connors, Holahan, Miller
Room Use Request
	Clerk Goddard presented a request from the staff of Congressman Tom Reed to hold a public town hall-style  meeting in the Danby Town Hall on Saturday, December 13, 2014. This will be held during regular operating hours for a Saturday morning.
Motion - Approve room use request
Resolved, that the Town Board of Town of Danby approves the use of the Town Hall meeting room, as requested, for a Public Town Hall Meeting held by Representative Tom Reed on Saturday, December 13, 2014 from 10:15 to Noon.
Moved by Connors, Second by Holahan. The motion passed. In Favor: Brenner, Connors, Holahan, Miller
Email Policy and Procedures Document
	There was a lengthy discussion of changes to the draft Email Policy and Procedures document, based on actual use of the new DigitalTowpath email system. These changes coordinate the document with the current practices of the Email system. Other changes related to aspects of the template policy which may have been specific to a different vendor or IT system. Goddard presented a recommendation from the Town Attorney that individual accounts have access to Emails for longer than 60 days. This may be needed in the case of long-term projects. After some discussion, it was agreed to strike a time limitation on individual “in-boxes” from the Email use policy. The item related to “Format Standard” was revised to reflect the Digital Towpath standard for ensuring accessibility for the full retention of records.
	There was a substantial discussion regarding a section of policies for classifying Email. As the Digital Towpath retention/archiving system does not include a feature for predetermined classification, Holahan suggested removal this section at this time for further review and consideration. There was agreement on this, and the document was renumbered accordingly.
	There was discussion about “Records Advisory Board.” Connors had suggested replacing the Town Historian with the Town Bookkeeper. Clerk Goddard recommended that the proposed membership of the advisory board, as written in the State Archives template document, was more appropriate in that a good Town Historian could make recommendations for records that should be retained for historical purposes. The Bookkeeper, however, has a financial rather than records management role in the system. Brenner suggested that, at some point, a member of the public be included as an interested but uninvolved party. This addition would come at a later date.
	The final document will be circulated to members of all Town Boards and departments, as part of training in the new Email system. The document will be reviewed in March 2015 for potential further changes/modifications.
Resolution No. 114 of 2013 - Adopt Email Policy and Procedures
Resolved, that the Town Board of Town of Danby adopts the Email Policy and Procedures document, as revised during its November 17, 2014 meeting.
Moved by Brenner, Second by Miller. The motion passed. In Favor: Brenner, Connors, Holahan, Miller
Web site Content
	Roaring asked whether it is permissible for Town Board members to attend meetings and vote via SKYPE? It is not, as per requirements of the Open Meetings Law. In addition, there are no provisions for recording and broadcasting meetings in this way. Ronda Roaring asked several questions about the content and setup of the new Town of Danby web site. She was concerned about search engine results for “Town of Danby” and the new web site. She asked how documents such as agenda will be posted and archived. Clerk Goddard provided information about the archiving capability of a public access portal to the Laserfiche electronic document archive. This will be linked on the new townofdanbyny web site.
	Roaring had questions about the accuracy and up-to-date content of department web pages if each department/board is responsible for their own content and updates. Holahan responded to these questions. Staff will be trained to maintain their pages, but will also have the option to have this done by the webmaster.
	There was further discussion of processes for adding content to the townofdanbyny.org web site. Additions, such as the Community Council, Town Historian, and the archive of the Danby Area News need to be made.
Highway Report
	Bookkeeper Shawley presented a report on behalf of the Highway Department. Adjustments have been made to the “Agreement to Spend Town Funds” for highway repairs through the CHIPS program. Repairs to Fisher Settlement and Durfee Hill Roads went over the estimated amounts. The bulk of extra expenditures were related to machinery rental use. Fisher Settlement road was $5,579.47 over estimate. Durfee Hill Road was $5,085.62 over estimate. Funds for the machinery rentals were received through CHIPS, and not out of local tax dollars.
Short Reports
	Reports from the Code Enforcement Office, Justices, and Town Clerk Office were distributed to the Board.
	Connors made a short report of a meeting attended related to Solar power installations and potential zoning changes.
Adjourn
	The meeting was adjourned at 8:31 pm

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Pamela Goddard, Town Clerk
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