The Clarkstown Town Board added a special meeting to start after its workshop session tonight. The workshop begins at 7:30 p.m. and the special meeting is scheduled for 8 p.m. Topics to be covered include a police report, housing regulations and deputy supervisor position.
At the workshop, Police Chief Michael Sullivan will present the monthly crime statistics and report. The board will discuss the Multi-Family Affordable Set-Aside, the deputy supervisor position, which is currently held by Councilmember Shirley Lasker, and American Disabilities Act, Title 2 (public sector).
The special meeting’s agenda includes numerous personnel related resolutions include approving the:
- Resignation of Police , who retired at the end of June after serving 40 years with the Clarkstown Police Department,
- Resignation of Police Records Department Principal Clerk Typist Patricia McGrogan, who is retiring,
- Reappointment of Scott W. Milich as a member of the Parks Board and Recreation Commission and
- Reappointment of as a member of the Board of Ethics.
The board will vote on “establishing the Base Percentages, Current Percentages and Current Base Proportions for Certification to New York State Office of Real Property Taxes” and “establishing the Adjusted Base Proportions for Certification to the State Board of Real Property Services.”
Town Assessor Cathy Conklin explained these processes will establish the percentage of the tax levy that will be paid by the homestead class and non-homestead class of properties. Homestead class properties include one-, two- and three-family residential properties, farmsteads and residentially zoned vacant land of less than10 acres. Non-homestead class properties include commercial, industrial, utility and recreational properties, land in excess of 10 acres and “everything else.”
Conklin said the processes occur every year by which the town plugs in numbers according to a formula issued by the state.
“This is a rather complicated series of calculations,” she said.
Another resolution calls for authorizing Supervisor Alex Gromack to enter into an agreement with the Nanuet Board of Education for the School Resource Officer Program for the 2012 to 2013 school year. A tentative resolution deals with filling
Christopher Carey’s position on the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Special Board. Carey began serving as a Rockland County legislator in January.
Both meetings will take place in Room 301 of town hall.
The Ethics Committee is not listed on the Town's website for meeting notices (http://town.clarkstown.ny.us/cgi-bin/public_notices_new.pl) and does not appear to publish the dates nor agendas for meetings, nor does it appear to publish minutes. According to Robert Freeman, Executive Director of the NYS Committee on Open Government (http://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/f9522.htm) if a committee consists solely of members of a public body as in the case of an ethics committee, a planning board or a zoning board of appeals, those kinds of entities constitute public bodies required to comply with the OML. When a committee is subject to the OML, it has obligations regarding notice and openness as well as the authority to conduct executive sessions. As a public body an ethics committee can not "meet" in executive session. Section 102(3) of the OML defines the phrase "executive session" to mean a portion of an OPEN meeting during which the public may be excluded. Moreover, a procedure must be accomplished during an OPEN meeting before an EXECUTIVE session may be held. Specifically, §105(1) states that: "Upon a majority vote of its total membership, taken in an OPEN meeting pursuant to a motion identifying the areas of the subjects to be considered, a public body may conduct an EXECUTIVE session only for enumerated purposes which are defined by the OML.