News Briefs:
John Mannion’s “June Surprise”
(June 21): A last-minute allegation, lodged little more than a week before the Democratic Primary, has placed State Senator and U.S. Congressional candidate John Mannion on the defensive.
Mannion, who seeks his party’s Congressional nomination in the Syracuse-centered district adjacent to Tompkins County, has been accused anonymously by a group of former Senate office staffers of creating a “hostile work environment.”
Senator Mannion denies the allegations. A Syracuse newspaper has verified three of the accusers’ identities, yet withheld the names at their request.
“To start, we have been subjected to out of control yelling by Senator Mannion, often with cursing, and always with the intention of intimidating us,” the accusers stated in a more than 650-word statement shared June 17th on the online platform, “Medium.” The accusers also alleged “direct retaliation” by the Senator, and they alleged “transphobic” remarks by Mannion’s wife.
“This is clearly a coordinated effort to use smear tactics just a few days before the election to hurt me and my family,” Senator Mannion told a Utica television station (WKTV), defending himself against the charges.
John Mannion faces DeWitt Town Councilperson Sarah Klee Hood in the June 25th Democratic Primary. Its winner will face incumbent Republican Brandon Williams this fall.
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Budget Job Done!
(June 20): Had the budget failed, the session, no doubt, would have been much longer. But it took only about two minutes Thursday for the Ithaca Board of Education to certify the results of Tuesday’s re-vote election, one in which a pared-down, next year’s $163 Million Ithaca Schools’ budget sailed to approval.
A similar re-vote budget certification meeting was held a little later that evening in Newfield.
“Thank you for the re-vote,” was about the only comment Board President Dr. Sean Eversley Bradwell made before he called for ratification. Nobody else spoke to the decision. And with Jill Tripp excused, all others on the Board approved the Tuesday results.
No surprise. Many Ithaca School Board members regretted voters’ rejection of a nearly $169 Million budget back in May. But with the budget’s tax levy increase cut substantially, Tuesday’s re-vote saw the revised budget pass, 4,979 votes to 1,736. A bus purchase proposition also passed.
Had voters not approved the revised budget, a state-mandated “Contingency Budget” would have fallen upon the Ithaca District, and with it $3 Million in additional spending cuts, reductions now avoided.
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Revised Newfield Budget Passes
(June 18): With a larger voter turnout this time than last and with a smaller bite on the taxpayer’s wallet, voters in the Newfield School District Tuesday overwhelming ratified their revised $25.4 Million school budget.
District results, released about an hour after the polls closed, showed the budget passing 387 votes (59.7%) to 261 (40.3%), a margin of 126 votes.
The first time Newfield presented a proposed school budget, May 21st, the spending plan lost by a mere 18 votes. 514 district residents participated that time; 648 persons did in the revote Tuesday.
Newfield’s Board of Education declined to submit for a revote a bus purchase option, one that had included the potential purchase of an electric school bus. The budget stood as the only item on the Re-vote ballot.
In the weeks since the initial budget’s defeat, Newfield’s educators trimmed a little more than $71,000 in spending, mainly by eliminating a currently vacant instructional position and proposing minor administrative economies. Those reductions cut the proposed tax levy increase from 3.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
Tuesday’s approval precludes the possibility of Newfield imposing a Contingency Budget next year, an austerity plan that would likely have required additional personnel reductions.
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Death Threats alleged after ICSD “Summit”
(June 13): Buried within a five-hour, budget-centered Ithaca City School District (ICSD) Board of Education meeting June 11th, Board President Sean Eversley Bradwell alleged that he and School Superintendent Dr. Luvelle Brown had received “death threats” following the school district’s May 31st “Students of Color Summit,” an event that gained national attention in conservative media after critics accused its organizers of racial exclusion.
“Some of those stories were picked up by various organizations, which resulted in significant amounts of threats to the Superintendent, as well as myself,” Eversley Bradwell disclosed. Both Eversley Bradwell and Dr. Brown are African-American.
The Board President described what was hurled at them: “Death threats, vulgar language, voicemails; things that would make one wonder why you would volunteer for a position if you were going to have your family or your lives threatened.”
Eversley Bradwell said little more about what he and Dr. Brown had sustained, yet implied the messages had contained “significant forms of racist vitriol and a promise to terminate folks.”
Tuesday’s was the first known revelation of the harassment following the “Students of Color Summit.” According to Ithaca.com, right-wing groups associated with Cornell Law School Professor William Jacobson had criticized the event for allegedly “segregating” students based on race.
Eversley Bradwell’s remark came during discussion of a revised District Safety Plan, one that the School Board subsequently adopted.
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Maybe a “Heart;” maybe not
(June 13): Dan Woodring, the visionary behind Enfield’s “SkateGarden” project, made clear Wednesday night that his is a dream still under construction.
In a late-May email, Woodring had shared with Enfield Town Board members his retooled skateboard park design. It would recess a heart-shaped concrete bowl on Town-owned land next to the Park-and-Ride lot.
But in a Wednesday night presentation to the Town Board, a new design emerged, one with a curved contraption defying definition. (Imagine a half-opened toilet lid.)
And Woodring qualified that the design could change further still. ”If a heart-shaped bowl doesn’t fit everybody’s needs, then we’ll redesign it,” Woodring advised the Town Board. He indicated his is a collaborative process with other skateboarders.
Town officials must sign-off on a final design before concrete gets poured.
Meanwhile, Town Government will dance on the head of a pin to enable private donations for SkateGarden.
After first admonishing Town Board members to keep hands-off the process, Supervisor Stephanie Redmond Wednesday updated her legal guidance to state that Enfield can, indeed, accept cash donations toward the park’s construction. But Town employees, including elected officials, cannot solicit contributions, even on their personal social media.
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Budget Backers Claim Hearing’s High-Ground
(June 11): In sharp contrast to an earlier session last month involving a fatter budget, supporters of a leaner, tax cap-compliant, revised Ithaca City School District budget voiced the majority of comments at an hour-long Public Hearing Tuesday night.
Nine of the 15 persons who brought their comments to the Board of Education urged voters adopt the $163 Million retooled spending plan when it goes to the polls June 18th. Only four speakers urged rejection.
The so-called “Re-vote Budget” replaces a more costly package soundly rejected in a late-May referendum. The revision would cut the proposed tax levy’s increase from 8.4 to 2.9 per cent.
“Voters have made a statement,” Heather Beasley said of the earlier budget. “And now it’s our turn to make a statement in favor of our programs, and our teachers, and our community.”
Speakers like Beasley warned of the more severe “Contingency Budget” that law would impose should this second budget also fail.
But opponents remain. “This is not just a community of children,” Leigh Rogers said, prompting muted heckling. “Others will suffer. Single parents will suffer; grandparents will suffer.”
Long after most commenters had filed out, Eldred Harris, voted off the school board after 15 years’ service, launched into a 10-minute monologue chiding those who would sell minority students short. “Equity costs money,” Harris, who’s African-American, said. “My voice is no longer needed,” he acknowledged, “but I will still be watching.”
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No-Drama Newfield Hearing
(June 10): Newfield School District administrators fielded questions, but faced no sharp criticism during a Public Hearing Monday called to review a tax-trimmed $25.4 Million District Budget set for a re-vote June 18th.
About 20 residents, including Tompkins County legislator Randy Brown, seated themselves about the Newfield High School Library and for more than an hour accorded School Superintendent Eric Hartz and Business Manager Perry Gorgen polite deference as each explained how the School Board had cut expenses since an earlier budget defeat in late-May, and how the Board would need to cut even more if a second defeat forced a “Contingency Budget.”
“We’ve heard people say a contingency budget is meant to scare you into voting for the submitted budget,” Gorgen told attendees. He discounted the strategy. “This is just what we must do,” the manager said of a contingency alternative.
The Newfield Board of Education has already eliminated an unfilled “technology” instructor’s position at the high school to make the revised figures work. Attendees were told a contingency budget would force another $150,000 in instructional cuts. Most likely, additional teaching vacancies would go unfilled, Gorgen confirmed after the meeting.
“Our objective is to get as many people out as we can,” the manager proclaimed regarding the revote.
Newfield’s school budget lost May 21st by only 18 votes. Most School Board members were absent from Monday’s hearing.
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Tax Talk at ECC
(June 8): Gathered in a circle at the Enfield Community Center Friday afternoon, about 20 residents joined leaders of the Ithaca City School District to talk school finances at a “Community Conversation” in preparation for a June 18th re-vote on a trimmed-down $163 Million 2024-25 school district budget.
Tax burdens became the prime focus as Board of Education members Jill Tripp and Garrick Blalock, School Superintendent Dr. Luvelle Brown, and fellow administrators Amanda Verba and Lily Talcott fielded questions.
What challenged district officials most was explaining how the tax levy imposed by any budget would impact individual homeowners’ bills amid skyrocketing residential assessments.
“Your tax burden is based on your assessment,” Blalock told attendees. “Homeowners are paying more and office building owners are paying less,” the school board member explained. Thus, the burdens shift, he said.
Administrators cautioned that should the revised budget fail at the polls and a more austere “Contingency Budget” then be imposed, household taxes could still rise because of this imbalance, even though the schools’ tax levy would remain the same next year as now.
The Ithaca District’s first budget proposal lost in May in a seven-to-three landslide defeat. Since then, the School Board has cut $5.9 Million in proposed spending.
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“Enfield’s Law” clears NY Legislature
(June 7): In the flurry of action during the closing days of the New York Legislative session, the State Assembly gave final passage Wednesday to what we, locally, refer to as “Enfield’s Law,” an amendment of New York Town Law that would avoid the confusion that confronted voters in last December’s first-ever Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners’ election.
The State Senate provided the measure earlier passage May 30th. The bill will next be sent to Governor Hochul for her signature.
Last December, when Enfield voters were asked to elect five new members to their first-ever Board of Fire Commissioners, an attorney’s (perhaps strained) interpretation of an ambiguous state law allowed each voter to choose only one candidate for office, not five. Since as many as ten people had run for the positions, many in Enfield believed they’d been denied their franchise.
Earlier this year, the Enfield Town Board urged state legislators to clarify the controlling law, even though Enfield, itself, might never again face its December dilemma. State Senator Lea Webb served as point-person to shepherd the legislation to passage.
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But Please, don’t call it Zoning
(June 5): During a more than hour-long quick review of Enfield’s 73-page Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 2020, the Town Planning Board touched briefly Wednesday on how far existing subdivision regulations could go in limiting property dimensions and lot sizes. It’s an issue that’s arisen recently before the Town Board as size affects water rights and density.
“You should not regulate lot size through subdivision regulations,” Board alternate and Deputy Town Supervisor Greg Hutnik, a planner familiar with state law, counseled.
“I think you can put frontage (requirements) into subdivision regulations,” Planning Board Chair Dan Walker replied.
“I don’t think so,” Hutnik countered.
But while a zoning law could provide the remedy, Enfield doesn’t have zoning. And no one’s seriously considering zoning the Town.
“But you could have a separate ‘Lot Size Limit Law’,” Hutnik suggested.
Though some on the Town Board may favor a major rewrite of the existing Comprehensive Plan, most on the Planning Board continue to prefer a lighter touch.
“There’s no need to fully rewrite it,” Walker said of the current Plan. “Just update it and take credit for what we have done.”
Walker will prepare what he called a “talking point memo” for the Town Board’s June 12th meeting.
[Note: The Planning Board postponed its scheduled review of Enfield’s Site Plan Review Law until August. It canceled its July meeting.]
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Sigler secures Indie line
(June 7): Like his Democratic opponent, incumbent Lea Webb, Republican State Senate Candidate Mike Sigler will face voters on two ballot lines this fall.
Friday, Sigler and his campaign announced the formation of what they call the “Local 607”Party—named, no doubt, after the district’s area code—and that it’s filed sufficient petition signatures to qualify for a November ballot line.
The campaign says nearly 5,000 qualifying signatures were filed with the New York State Board of Elections last week, and that the time for filing objections has passed.
“The Local 607 Party isn’t about me or any other candidate,” Sigler said in his campaign’s announcement. “It’s about the people of our communities, who’ve been suffering from skyrocketing prices, job losses, population outflow, and dangerous laws like Bail Reform that make our streets less safe.”
The Tompkins County legislator from Lansing turned Senate candidate, wore off shoe leather securing the ballot line. He claims to have personally collected more than 1,300 of the names himself from people who had not previously signed for any other candidate.
Candidates often secure Independent lines to broaden their support, and in Sigler’s case, to encourage non-Republicans to vote for him.
Democrat Webb will appear on the Working Families line in addition to that of her own party.
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School Zone of a different stripe
(June 4): You could call it “The Crosswalk to Nowhere.” On one side there’s Enfield Elementary School. On the other, there’s… well, a hayfield.
Legend has it that the rarely-used crosswalk was painted so that the state would then lower the speed limit in front of the school. But last fall, our alert resident, Gretchen Kirchgessner, noticed that the Department of Transportation had retained a dashed-line passing zone south of the crosswalk. From a safety standpoint, she said, it made no sense. It didn’t.
Last October, honoring Kirchgessner’s appeal, the Enfield Town Board requested NYSDOT revisit the issue and make the entire stretch of NY 327 in front of the school a “No-Passing Zone.” By its letter of May 22, Scott Bates, the agency’s regional traffic engineer, agreed with us:
“NYSDOT safety staff determined that given the crosswalk and the school zone, the closing of the passing zone by the school zone is justified at this time,” Bates wrote the Town. “The centerline will be restriped as a double-yellow, no-passing zone by our regional pavement marking (contractor) this coming construction season.”
Thank you, DOT. Thank you, Gretchen. / RL
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T.C. Legislature nixes tax override
(June 4): In case anyone hasn’t noticed, in this year of skyrocketing home assessments, tax increases are not popular.
That fact was proven again Tuesday when a normally-routine action to override the state’s so-called “2% Tax Cap” failed to secure the supermajority support in the Tompkins County Legislature needed to pass.
“I vote against this every year, and I would like to note that the public is 100 per cent against this,” Republican legislator Mike Sigler, a candidate for State Senate, told colleagues. Chuckles of acknowledgement from within the room followed. The measure’s passage, Sigler maintained, “does send a signal that we are open to… raising taxes.”
Democrat Greg Mezey agreed. Mezey argued the treasury of County Government is strong enough to weather “whatever storm may come our way.” And he said good evidence supports the belief that Tompkins County sits on a fund balance “in excess of $30 Million.”
A family issue called Sigler away before the final vote. But with another member also excused, the tax override fell one short of the nine votes needed for adoption.
That second absent member, Deborah Dawson—a likely override supporter—could seek reconsideration later. But she’d have to do so at the next meeting.
Among those representing Enfield, Anne Koreman favored the override; Randy Brown opposed it.
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T.C. Admin’s Salary to kiss $200k
(June 4): [Update: In its meeting that followed the committee session, the Tompkins County Legislature, by a vote of 12-0, approved the committee’s salary recommendation for the next County Administrator.]
Earlier: In a quickly-concluded decision and by a unanimous vote, a committee of the Tompkins County Legislature Tuesday recommended that the next-hired County Administrator receive a starting salary of $180,000, a level that would climb to $189,000 after just nine months.
The recommended starting pay would be $20,000 a year higher than that of the current Administrator, Lisa Holmes, assigned when Holmes was elevated to her position two years ago.
The Budget, Capital and Personnel Committee’s recommendation is likely to be acted upon by the full Legislature tonight.
“It would give us a competitive edge, and it would also allow us to put our best foot forward,” Ruby Pulliam, the County’s Commissioner of Human Resources, advised the committee. With Holmes retiring at year’s end, Tompkins County plans a nationwide search for Holmes’ successor.
The $180,000 high-end starting pay recommended by Pulliam nudged the salary $5,000 above what the committee’s initial resolution had stated. The committee also doubled to $10,000 its earlier-proposed relocation package the new hire would be provided.
“I think this is a little too rich for our blood,” committee Chair Mike Lane remarked of the higher salary set. Nonetheless, Lane joined in the resolution’s support.
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“Tax Cap” Budget gets Ithaca BOE nod
(June 3): By the unanimous vote of its then-attending members, the Ithaca Board of Education Monday evening endorsed and sent to the voters for a June 18th referendum a $163 Million proposed 2024-25 school budget, one that would raise the Ithaca District’s tax levy no higher than the New York State tax cap.
The Board’s so-called “Re-vote Budget” was the option strongly favored at a marathon Board budget session the prior Tuesday. Its tax levy increase (2.92%) falls far below the 8.4 per cent increase earlier proposed, but rejected decisively by Ithaca voters in May; lower still than the 12.1 per cent tax increase first advanced by administrators.
“It’s not a perfect budget. It doesn’t have everything I want, but I will support this budget,” Jill Tripp, the School Board’s leading advocate of financial frugality,” said prior to her vote.
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