January 8 - Town Board Reorganization Meeting

The first Town Board Meeting of 2024 was attended by the Supervisor and two Council Members -- the other two being felled by illness.

After an adjustment to the agenda, the Public Portion of the meeting was opened/closed with no public comments.

Following the example of the County Legislature and other Town Boards, the board will now split town board agendas into a "Consent Agenda" and a "Non-Consent Agenda", with the Consent agenda covering routine matters for which no discussion is required and the board is in agreement - and will then vote on all the items in a block. For a meeting like the Reorganization Meeting with a number of routine resolutions, this works well and speeds up the meeting. As a member of the public, who is still smarting the way some zoning code changes were rammed through, we can trust, but will need to verify, that the resolutions on the Consent Agenda are truly routine.

During the January 8 meeting the resolutions included designating banks, CPAs, requiring town employees to clock in their working hours, establishing 2024 holidays etc. The full list is available in the published agenda http://wappingertownny.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_Meeting.aspx?ID=1613

The Non-Consent Agenda included the following:

• Resolution for establishing wages for employees not covered under union contract - tabled for executive session (the purpose of this resolution is to drive consistency among department heads re: salary employees vs those paid overtime.

• Resolution Adopting the Rules of the Town Board - this was approved, with the comment that these need to be amended in the future as they aren't current with the current way communications (ie e-mails, texts, on-line meetings) are conducted in the mid-21st century.

• Resolution establishing renumeration for water meter readers - approved

• Resolution acknowledging appointment of Confidential Personal Secretary to the Town Supervisor - Kaitlyn Aboshanab.

• Resolution acknowledging the appointment of Deputy Town Supervisor to the Town of Wappinger - Lisa Paoloni

• Resolution appointing a member to the town of Wappinger Zoning Board of Appeals - Donald Denardo

• Resolution Appointing a Board of Assessment Review Member - Tabled to enable more advertisement for the position.

• Resolution Employing Stormwater Management. Consultant Services for 2024 - tabled while reviewing proposals - the current consultant has retired.

• Resolutions Appointing members to the Town of Wappinger Planning Board - James Glorioso, Robert Meahan, Richard Barth and Thomas Truss.

• Resolution appointing an indoor soccer instructor - Andres Benites.

Under new business - Council Member Beale reviewed the changes made in the Town Clerk's office requiring residents to show their Vehicle Registration to get/renew a Recycling Permit. This will help ensure that only residents and non-commercial users are using the Recycling Services.

The Board went into Executive session at 7:30 and returned at 8:06 and went ahead and approved the Resolution approving Wages for department heads/employees not covered by a union contract when they returned from executive session.