State of New York
County of Fulton
Town of Caroga
Minutes of a Caroga Town Board emergency meeting held Wednesday October 23, 2019 at the municipal building located at 1840 State Highway #10 at 10:30 am with the following persons in attendance by roll call:
Supervisor James K. Selmser - Absent
Council Member John Glenn - Here
Council Member Jeremy Manning - Here
Council Member James Long - Here
Council Member Kent Kirch - Here
There were 16 members of the public in attendance along with the Town Attorney Greg Dunn.
Council Member Glenn stated the emergency meeting was for one topic and one topic only. He has patients waiting back at his office.
Deputy Supervisor Long stated there would not be any public comments section at the beginning. He stated we have been sued a second time, this time by John Livingston, and while he personally thinks that counsel is authorized to respond, he offered a resolution to explicitly authorize him to respond to the Livingston lawsuit.
RESOLUTION #2019-108 to ENGAGE DUNN AND DUNN PLLC, AS LEGAL COUNSEL IN THE MATTER OF LIVINGSTON V. TOWN OF CAROGA ET. AL. was offered by Deputy Supervisor Long at an emergency meeting of the Caroga Town Board held on Wednesday October 23, 2019 at 10:30 am at town hall.
WHEREAS, after due deliberation by the Town Board of the Town of Caroga on October 23, 2019 the Town Board has approved Dunn & Dunn, PLLC, as legal Counsel for the Town of Caroga in the matter of John J. Livingston, Petitioner, against Town of Caroga, Town of Caroga Town Board, James K. Selmser, Jeremy Manning, James Long, Kent Kirch, Linda Gilbert, and,
WHEREAS, the Board authorizes Dunn & Dunn, PLLC to respond to the Order to Show Cause to petitioners and to the Supreme Court of Fulton County, by October 23, 2019; and,
WHEREAS, the Board authorizes Dunn & Dunn, PLLC, to make an appearance on behalf of the Town of Caroga at the hearing for the above referenced matter on October 25, 2019 at 1:30 pm, to further respond to the Order to Show Cause; and,
WHEREAS, the Board authorizes Dunn & Dunn, PLLC, to represent the Town, it’s Board and Board Members in any and all ways in the above referenced litigation matter,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that Dunn & Dunn, PLLC, is hereby authorized by the Town Board of the Town of Caroga, to represent the Town and its interests in any and all ways in the above referenced litigation matter,
Amendments: Council Member Kirch noted his name was omitted from the resolution. The motion was amended to include Council Member Kent Kirch. Scott Horton noted that the Town is not representing the Fulton County Board of Elections. Deputy Supervisor Long looked to the Town Attorney who agreed that the Fulton County Board of Elections should not be included as being represented by the Town of Caroga Town Attorney.
Seconded by Council Member Manning
Explanation: Council Member Kirch wanted to quickly clarify in case anyone was confused about what was going on. “We are here for one reason today, one reason only and that is we received this lawsuit, we were served with lawsuit last Thursday afternoon. We had until today to respond to that lawsuit and that is why we had to have a meeting today to authorize Mr. Dunn to respond on our behalf. This vote is to simply authorize him to do that.”
A member of the public asked what the lawsuit was about. Deputy Supervisor Long stated, “I will try to keep expletives and opinions out of it. The law suit seeks to prevent an election by measure from appearing on the November 5th general election ballot. Now as a matter of law, the deadline for changing the ballot was 90 days before the election. If a candidate dies they are still on the ballot. So I don’t know why they sought that. It’s going to be on the ballot no matter what. Secondarily, the petitioner sought to nullify the results of said ballot. So they are essentially saying we don’t want democracy we don’t want the voters…..” Deputy Supervisor Long was interrupted.
Adopted by a roll Call vote:
Deputy Supervisor Long – Aye
Council Member Glenn – Aye
Council Member Manning – Aye
Council Member Kirch – Aye
The clerk just had one other thing – regarding the last budget meeting when the clerk informed the board of the correct terminology for the budget. Lori Mithen-DeMasi of the Association of Towns was contacted. She stated that the clerk is correct the budget has three phases or titles; tentative budget, preliminary budget, and final budget. The public hearing is on the preliminary rather than the tentative budget. That is per town law 108.
Deputy Supervisor Long asked if the clerk was seeking the board to amend the label for the last resolution to use the word preliminary. The clerk stated that would be correct.
Deputy Supervisor Long made a motion to amend the resolution from the last meeting adopting the preliminary budget so that the word preliminary is used.
RESOLUTION #2019-109 to hold a public hearing on the Preliminary Budget was offered by Deputy Supervisor Long at an emergency Town Board meeting held on Wednesday October 23, 2019 at 10:30 am at town hall.
WHEREAS, the clerk confirmed with the Association of Towns attorney via email that resolution #2019-107 was incorrectly worded, and
WHEREAS, Deputy Supervisor Long desire to correct the wording of the resolution, now therefore be it
RESOLVED, that a public hearing will be scheduled on the preliminary budget at the November 13th, 2019 Town Board meeting at 7 pm.
Seconded by Council Member Kirch
Adopted by a vote of 4 Ayes, Long, Glenn, Manning, Kirch
At 10:39 am Council Member Glenn made a motion to adjourn. The motion was seconded by Council Member Kirch. All board members were in favor of the motion.
Respectfully Submitted,
Linda M. Gilbert, RMC, CMC
Caroga Town Clerk
Copyright © James McMartin Long 2017–2024