The
following were adopted unanimously except where noted.
206-2016 Adopt Preliminary
Budget for 2017 Mary Ann Matters voted
“No”, based on numerous issues she identified with the 2017 Preliminary Budget.
207-2016 Award Outfall Upgrade
Contract No. 1 and Reject Bids for Paving and Landscaping Contract No. 2 for Town
of East Greenbush Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvement Project
208-2016 Authorizing Supervisor
to Execute a Memorandum of Agreement Between Town of East Greenbush and Council
82 AFSCME/AFL-CIO/Local 1571 – East Greenbush eliminating EGPD residency requirement
209-2016 Authorizing Purchase
of FP PostBase85 Postage Meter
210-2016 Approving and Ratifying
a Settlement Agreement Among Town of East Greenbush, Civil Service Employees
Association, Inc., Local 1000/AFSCME/AFL-CIO, and a Town Employee
* * * * *
I
have problems concerning 206-2016
Adopt Preliminary Budget for 2017 when viewed in conjunction with the 6:00PM 11/3/16
Budget Hearing. The Budget Hearing is
the earliest in my recollection, a full week before the 11/10/16 statutory
deadline!, yielding a scant 10 days for public review.
EG1ST’s
(Conway/Grant/Tierney) website states “A
lack of transparency has plagued our Town government. Officials have failed to share the
information that has shaped their decisions.
Public input has not been properly solicited and often ignored.” and
“Seek and respect input from residents.”
To
quote Bob Dylan, “the times they are a
changin”.
I
requested a spreadsheet version of the published 2017 Tentative Budget via
email to Supervisor Conway (10/19/16) to no avail or reply. I also requested a spreadsheet version of the
published 2017 Preliminary Budget at the 10/24/16 Meeting and via email to
Supervisor Conway (10/26/16) to no avail or reply. I FOILed same on 10/26/16.
Even
if my requests were granted, there’d be precious little time to evaluate the
2017 Preliminary Budget.
Pete
Stenson
East
Grenbush
Typical MAM . Just like her husband , she has no idea how a municipality is actually run and operated on a daily basis.
ReplyDeletePete, he FOIL law does not require the governmental body to re format or create new records for the applicant. My guess is that the reason Jack has not sent your spread sheet is that he is short on time and the records do not exist in the format you requested. My suggestion is that you might want to consider taking the data provided and create your own spread sheet.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that Jack should have answered you but I do not agree that this small error suppors the leap to guessing Jack has something to hide. On the contrary, I believe he should be given the benefit of the doubt, especially during this busy time.
if you go down to the bottom of the pages in the 2017 Preliminary Budget you'll see "2017 Preliminary Budget.xlsx". The "xlsx" means that it is an Excel spreadsheet. The document I requested exists. I was Town Comptroller for a brief period in 2013 and know what's there. You can find the source pdf at:
ReplyDeletehttp://eastgreenbush.org/downloads/cat_view/43-comptroller
Pete Stenson
PS No where do I "leap to guessing Jack has something to hide".