Petersburgh Town Board Action – Planning Board Attacked

by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Planning Board came under attack from several citizens during the public comment period of the Town Board meeting.
Planning Board Chairman David Miller, who was attending the meeting to speak to the Town Board about a proposed moratorium on subdivisions, left the meeting just before the statements critical of him and the Planning Board began, so he did not hear any of the complaints.
The first to speak was Duane Nealon, who served on the Planning Board some years ago when Frank Sheldon was the Chairman. Nealon described the lack of records he had come across last month when in response to a FOIL request for Planning Board records he was told that most of the records are missing. He then said that determinations of the Planning Board’s jurisdiction are apparently being made verbally by the Chairman rather than being part of the documented deliberations of the Board. He asked if any of the members of the Board have any professional background in planning and said the State requires Planning Board members to get four hours of training per year. He said the Planning Board should at least have some written principles and standards as a basis for their decisions, if not a comprehensive plan for the Town. He said the lack of training or professional planning background among the members of the Board, the lack of written planning documents on which to base their decisions, and the lack of record keeping, all suggest a Board whose decisions can easily be seen as arbitrary and capricious and vulnerable to legal challenges.  He said these deficiencies show a problem with the leadership of the Board and concluded that “this Chairman is ill-managing the Board.”
Marian Wise then spoke, saying that she and Nealon are still waiting for some response to the information they presented the previous month about the Planning Board’s lack of record-keeping. She said any attorney who wanted to challenge a Planning Board determination “could have a field day” with the Planning Board’s lack of “appropriate procedures,” records and underlying planning documents.
The next to speak were Joan and Michael Buzerak, who were outraged by what they termed as the Planning Board’s “aggressive action against us…on charges that were arbitrarily arrived at and quite possibly malicious.” The Buzeraks asked the Town Board to take a careful look at the actions of the Planning Board, which they said acted with “poor or no research regarding the facts.” Michael Buzerak said, “The taxpayers had their money wasted, and we were wrongly accused, financially damaged and publicly scorned.” The Planning Board’s charges against the Buzeraks concerning the road at Star Ridge development were all dismissed by Town Justice Paul Montgomery, and their side was also upheld by County Supreme Court Justice McGrath in their quest to get the homeowners of that development to take title to the road which serves their properties.
The last of the Planning Board critics to speak was Margaret Weinland, a business partner of the Buzeraks. She asked pointed questions about the role of Planning Board Member Brandon deWaal in the action against the Buzeraks. Although deWaal recused himself from voting on decisions involving the Buzerak matter because as a homeowner in the Star Ridge subdivision, he was involved in a legal dispute with them, Weinland wondered if he had some influence on the Planning Board’s decision to take action against the Buzeraks.
Weinland said she and the Buzeraks are pursuing a subdivision of their property on Fred Moon Road, and, given her perception that the Planning Board is prejudiced against the Buzeraks, she thought it unlikely that they could get a fair and impartial hearing on the matter from this Planning Board.
She also asked that Planning Board records be kept in the Town Hall and be freely available through the Town Clerk, as, she said, they are in all other towns in the County. And more generally, she asked the Town Board for more oversight of the Planning Board’s policies and procedures.
Regular Business
The Board voted to buy a new Dump Truck for the Highway Department at a cost of $143,000 complete with all plowing and sanding equipment, to replace their 1991 truck. Supervisor Schaaphok had researched financing alternatives and said the two options would cost the Town about the same. A bond had a lower interest rate but cost more money to produce. Financing on State contract from Navistar Financial has a higher interest rate but no other costs. The Board opted for Navistar financing because it was the same cost and less trouble to set up.
New Pickup Truck
The Board then considered the Highway Department’s request for a new pickup truck. The black 2000 Chevy needs $5,000 worth of work, and Highway Superintendent Ray Harrison said he thought it would be more cost-effective to buy a new truck. The one he had in mind is a 2010 Ford F-250, available on State contract for $21,000.  Bill Seel said he was not in favor of buying this truck, but Schaaphok, Snyder and Manchester went along with Harrison’s thinking, and the purchase was approved by a 3-1 vote.
The Town of Petersburgh has plowed and sanded some of the County Roads in Town for many years. It generates revenue for the Town and the County also supplies the Town with salt without charge, which helps with the highway budget. This has generally been approved unanimously, but this year Bill Seel said that he was not in favor of the contract because of the problems with dust that have been an issue every spring for the past few years. Schaaphok said if the County did those roads the dust problem would be the same, but Seel replied that then it would not be our problem. For others on the Board, though the revenue from the contract was more important, and the contract was approved by a 3-1 vote.
Budget Changes
Schaaphok reported that since the preliminary budget was presented the Town has learned that the State retirement assessment will be going up by $13,000 and receipts from the mortgage tax are expected to be down by $10,000, so the budget picture looks worse than it did. Schaaphok proposed using more of the fund balance left over from the current year rather than increasing  the tax levy. After allocating an additional $30,000 of fund balance to the 2011 budget, the tax levy increase stands at about $9,000, which would be an increase of about 1.5%. A Meeting to discuss the budget was scheduled for Monday, October 25, at 7 pm.
Proposed Subdivision Moratorium
Planning Board Chairman David Miller was there to tell the Board why he felt a moratorium on subdivisions is needed. He said it will be close to a year before the Planning Board can get the subdivision regulations rewritten, and, in the mean time, he feels that the Town is “100% exposed to any commercial development.” He said the current subdivision regulations were assembled by cutting and pasting language from the Association of Towns, which were never reviewed by a lawyer or engineer and are outdated now anyway 37 years down the road. He said the moratorium would exempt small family related actions and would have a provision for exceptions in case of hardship.
The Board said they would need a proposed resolution spelling out the details of such a moratorium before they could consider taking action, and they authorized the Town Attorney to research the matter and make recommendations.