Stormy Meeting Ends In Consensus
by Kieron Kramer
At a Special Meeting on Wednesday, October 20, the Berlin Town Board voted 4-1 to make an offer on the Berlin Lumber property on Route 22 in Center Berlin. The offer voted on was very different from the one that the Board refused to ratify at the Town Board meeting on the Thursday before. The new offer contains contingencies for voiding the sale agreement which answer a number of the concerns expressed by the people who attended the meeting Wednesday. The purchase price still stands at $499,500, but the purchase will be contingent on a feasibility study and the amount of expenditures it projects for developing the project. The total costs of the sale – the purchase price, feasibility study and renovations – are not to exceed the total amount in the Capital Fund. At present the Capital Fund has about $587,000 in it. The future costs of maintaining the municipal center will also be a topic of the feasibility study which will be performed by a professional engineering and consulting firm yet to be hired by the Town. If the offer is accepted by the seller, the property will become the municipal center for the Town of Berlin.
The Special Meeting was held in the Berlin Fire House on Community Avenue. It was crowded, and the atmosphere was tense.
Town Supervisor Jaeger did not want public comment, fearing the same kind of meltdown that occurred at the Town Board meeting on Thursday. Two Board members felt the public should be heard. So began a three hour meeting filled with reasonable observations, with shouting, with personal attacks and recriminations (none of which will appear in this paper) and with some suggestions that led the Board, finally, to vote on the issue. There were fierce advocates on both sides. At several points it seemed like the public comment was a bad idea and that the resentment over this project would leave permanent scars in the community. Mostly there was more heat than light, but the irony is that through all the sound and fury the suggestions were offered, and heard, that made reconciliation possible.
The feasibility study, suggested by Bruce Hake, may cost as much a $15,000, but Jaeger said the offer to Berlin Lumber will include some “creative financing” which he described as a “buy back.” Engineering studies are usually the buyer’s responsibility, but since everything is negotiable in a real estate purchase of this magnitude, it’s worth trying. The study will take several months so the contingency in the offer around the feasibility study contemplates the end of the year as the due date for the study. During a time when fear dominates the landscape, with people worried about jobs and the uncertainty of the future, many Berliners expressed profound worry about the future maintenance costs of the municipal center. This major sticking point was addressed at the Thursday Board meeting and raised again Wednesday but was not resolved because conflicting theories about the maintenance costs have not yet been resolved. Only the feasibility study by an objective outside source can answer these questions to everyone’s satisfaction, and the results of the study are several months off.
The roll call vote was 4-1 with Richard von Schilgen voting no because, he said, there are many legal questions left unanswered. He was disappointed that the Town Attorney did not attend this meeting. Sheila Hewitt and Jim Saunders changed their position from Thursday and voted yes. Hewitt said her vote was made with “reservations.” Carl Green, having his legal questions answered voted yes. Apparently he was worried that the Town would incur a huge expense meeting the DEC requirements after the SEQR process. Jaeger said that it was the SEQR review and the expense required to meet environmental standards that prompted Gallivan to pull out of the purchase. According to Jaeger, because of the proposed industrial use Gallivan would have to have a Type I SEQR review whereas the Town’s proposed use requires a Type II SEQR review which can be handled by the ZBA and the Code Enforcement Officer.
The pressure brought to bear on the Board at Thursday’s Board meeting and the conflict Wednesday between the partisans showing the clear need to resolve this issue and to move ahead finally resulted in some cooperation between Board members. It took them a little over an hour to shape an offer to purchase Berlin Lumber that safeguards the Town and fulfills the will of the people as expressed in the referendum voted on in July.
The Board Meeting Last Thursday
Cries of “Shame on you, shame on you” rang out in the Berlin Town Hall on Thursday, October 14, when the Town Board voted 4-1 to postpone the decision whether or not to purchase the Berlin Lumber property for use as a municipal center. And it didn’t stop there. One person stood up and, quoting NYS municipal law, declared the four Board members in dereliction of their duty, called for their censure and requested their resignation. Spicing her comments with excretory expletives, she sat down. Others attacked the Board members saying that they were hanging their heads and/or blushing because they knew what they were doing was wrong. Others said, “Don’t try to run again.”
Over forty-five people were in attendance during the meeting, the great majority being supporters of the project. It seemed that they fully expected the Board to vote for the purchase now that the way was cleared for the Town to do so when the purchase offer by SM Gallivan of Brunswick was withdrawn two weeks ago. They expected the Board to vote for the purchase because a referendum authorizing the Board to spend the money in the Capital Fund for the purchase passed 186 to 137 on July 19. They expected the Board to vote for the purchase in spite of the fact that three members of the Board have been unalterably opposed to the project from the beginning.
Some say that these Board members have a personal agenda, but during the discussions over the 12 months since this project was first proposed, these three Board members have expressed their positions in public. Board Member Jim Saunders, who has felt that the Highway Department has all the resources it needs and who has been highly critical of Highway expenses since he took office, is not persuaded that a new Town Highway Garage is necessary. Board Member Sheila Hewitt has been opposed because she feels the maintenance costs and removal of the property from the tax roll will result in higher taxes for Berliners. At this meeting she raised the bugaboo of higher taxes, asserting that you can count on taxes going up if the project goes forward. Before he was elected to the Board last November, Richard von Schilgen had expressed his opposition to the municipal center. He feels his election was based on his opposition, among other things, and that he stands for the people who do not show up to the Town Board meetings and who didn’t make it to the polls during the referendum vote – a kind of silent majority. At this meeting he said, “We work for every one of the people in this community who voted for us, not the people in this crowd.”
The fourth Board Member who voted to postpone, Carl Greene, did so because he had questions that he felt very strongly about having answered before voting. He described them as “honest legal concerns” some of which “have been generated very recently.” In fact, Greene presented a written list of concerns to Town Supervisor Rob Jaeger. The implication was that if these concerns could be answered, he might vote for the project. When he voted to postpone Greene said, “A motion to postpone cannot be a motion to kill.”
So what happened? When the topic of the Berlin Lumber purchase came up Supervisor Jaeger announced that he had made an offer on behalf of the Town for $499,500 contingent on ratification of the offer by the Town Board. He said he had the authority to make this offer based on information provided by the NY Association of Towns and that he had notified the other Board members that he wanted to get the Town’s offer in because he had heard that there is another party interested in the property. Almost immediately, Saunders made a motion to table the issue. Whatever his reason, his timing was unfortunate because everyone got the impression that he was cynically trying to stop the project without having to vote outright against it, the idea being that the other party interested in the property would make an offer before the Town could and buy the property. Before the motion to table could be seconded, Carl Greene suggested that the Board go into executive session before voting to table because his concerns “would impact any possibility of negotiations down the road.” This is a legitimate reason to go into executive session, and the Board did so.
The executive session lasted about 45 minutes, but after 35 minutes Town Clerk Anne Maxon came out of the session, slammed the door behind her and sat at her desk with a sour expression on her face. Someone asked jokingly, “Did they kick you out, Anne?” “I walked out,” she replied.
By this time the crowd was seething, and when the meeting resumed, Richard von Schilgen’s motion to postpone the vote until November resulted in the outburst which was inflamed when the Board and the Town Attorney, Don Tate, refused to answer any questions from the crowd. Only Greene tried to explain his motives. When Tate was asked for the “legal explanation” why the public could approve a referendum to purchase the property and the Board could vote not to purchase, he replied, “If you have specific questions you should consult your own attorney.” And he added, “I serve the Town Board; my advice is to the Town Board not to the general public.” This infuriated the crowd, many of whom thought that since their taxes pay Tate’s salary, he is answerable to them. Not to mention that in many meetings over many years, Tate was usually happy to answer questions from the crowd. Maybe Tate was just protecting the Board, but his answer just added fuel to the fire of discontent. Perhaps he was subtly advising the proponents of the project to get their own legal help in order to find legal reasons to reverse the vote. If the answer is so general and simple, why not say? Either the referendum to authorize an expenditure from the Capital Fund to purchase the property is binding on the Board or it’s not. Well, it’s debatable. In a telephone interview Tuesday night, Jaeger had determined through consultation that the referendum is binding. He contended, therefore, that the motion to table or postpone should not have been allowed. He would not say with whom he had consulted. But the real question, the deeper one, is that since the referendum expressed the will of the people why wouldn’t the Board members vote to purchase Berlin Lumber. It raises a question basic to the democratic system. Should an elected official act according to his or her constituents’ wishes or be true to his or her own principles? Some of the best decisions in American history have been made by politicians who ignored the voice of the people and so have some of the worst. History will always tell.
One thing we do know is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Greene’s desire for an executive session to answer his concerns contributed to the meltdown of the civility and mutual respect which is characteristic of Berlin’s meetings. Do the rage and derogatory comments serve any purpose? Only if it convinces the Board Members who think “I know I’m right” to think again.
During the public outcry, one brave soul said he had voted against the authorization to spend the Capital Fund. “Ten years down the line we might not be able to afford it. I like Jim [Winn, the Highway Superintendent] and I like the guys; they need something, but it might be better to have the property on the tax roll,” he said. But the assertion, championed by Sheila Hewitt, that both losing the property from the tax roll and the maintenance costs of the municipal center will raise property taxes is based on a political philosophy not on a factual basis. It is true that property taxes in NY State are too high and a tremendous burden to the State’s residents and must be controlled. People resent the spending by government, government that they don’t trust, in many cases with good reason. But the irony here is that most Berliners think that the Highway Department is worth paying taxes for.
According to Jaeger, the property taxes on Berlin Lumber are currently at $35,000. He said the lion’s share goes for school taxes and County property taxes with only $5,000 coming to Berlin’s coffers. The Berlin School District might have to raise its tax rate to make up the difference, but that would be spread over four towns. Considering how small the tax is, there would be virtually no impact on the County rate. If you agree that “Jim and the guys need something,” then the yearly loss of $5,000 to Berlin in property taxes needs to be compared to the increased costs of a new garage built from scratch, sometime in the future. The savings by utilizing the Berlin Lumber property for this purpose would offset decades of Berlin’s lost tax revenue from the Berlin Lumber property. And don’t forget the other pluses, like a salt shed, adequate Town Office space and storage, among others.
As for the maintenance costs, as Don Calman pointed out Thursday and Jaeger has maintained all along, there are revenue streams that can offset the expense that are not being considered by the critics. “People are looking at the potential for expense not at the potential for opportunity,” Calman said. One is the rental of the current Town Garage. Another is the rental of garage space at the new facility to the County Highway Department. Scott Gallery, County Superintendent of Highways, was at Thursday’s meeting and confirmed that the County wanted to rent space from Berlin.
The urgency that the crowd in the Town Hall felt on Thursday night was based on the information, unconfirmed at this point, that there is another party interested in the Berlin Lumber property. No one seems to know, or is willing to say, who the interested party may be. How serious their interest is or whether they could swing the deal is also conjectural. However, pressure from the crowd made the Board commit to a special meeting to vote on the purchase once Carl Green’s concerns are answered.
