Town Board Meeting
How did the lunch with waste management go?
I'm sorry, what was that?
Okay. Um, so last time I was here, my topic of discussion was around the businesses that had been popping up um on Hard Road over the last 5 years or so, mainly fast food restaurants. And I had brought up the fact that with Wegman's closing early, um, these people are taking on the majority of the people trying to eat food late at night. And they all make, uh, roughly$1,650 an hour. And we were talking about this town two weeks ago that Waste Management was here. We were talking about uh, lending them another $20 million that to finish a project. And um I was kind of con I was kind of happy that they were doing something real and not just another fast food restaurant popping in. Um anyways, I went to the state fair Saturday and I got home around 11:45 and I realized that there wasn't any food in my house. So, I wanted to get something to eat and I didn't want to get fast food or uh eat that poison as someone had said. Um, so
I went over to Wegman's and as I pulled in, I I literally saw people running inside. I got in and they were doing the announcements for 15 minutes to close and no purchases after midnight. And then they proceeded to shut off lights. And then um I had made an analogy last time I was here that we're all old enough to remember cable and how if you happen to work C shift at some place and you're paying for cable and you get home and the only thing that's on the television is infomercials. Well, like that's kind of happening with like the society. Like let's say you work C-shift, you get out of work. We is now closed. the only thing that's open is fast food. So, you're eating fast food or you're getting up extra early in the morning to go into the crowd of Wegman's and do your shopping, then you go home, then you fall asleep. Um um and then we were also talking about how a lot of I apologize some of this was said in the meeting, some of it was said in more of a off thereord general conversation outside and um it was said that a lot of the people that work those 16 15 hour jobs over at
the fast food restaurants right here uh don't live in this town. And I was trying to say waste manage waste management basically said if they didn't get their grant that it would take 90 years to pay off the 20 million or the 100 million or 110 million in total. And my opinion on that was who cares about 90 years. If everything goes correctly Webster will be around in 90 years. It won't be an issue. Forget the federal government. Just if you want your new toy, build the new toy. You're already in 90 million. Why not give them the other 20 and not be out 90 is the way it seemed to me. Anyways, um and then it was said to me that a lot of the people there don't work there. And then I'm thinking like is that kind of like importing in like migrant workers to work in your upper middle class town? Like if these are people that live in the city, they can make an extra dollar coming into Webster to work at the fast food restaurants here, but they don't live here. They're not incentivized to walk outside their building at 2 o'clock in the morning or 2:30 in the morning and say, "You know what? Maybe I like the cut of this town's jib a little bit better. Maybe I want to work hard and make enough money to live in this upper middle class town." It's kind of just like they come in, they work, they go back out, and it's not really benefiting
our town. Um, Patricia, I didn't mean to offend you if if I if you I made it seem like I thought because I was wondering like who's profiting off these businesses that pay just above minimum wage. And you said, I don't want you to think that we're making money, implying that you guys are getting it. And then in my head, I'm at home thinking, well, it would make me feel better if you were like, yeah, actually we're making a ton of money. Because as it stands right now, who is making the money when there's a line of cars around those all four of those fast food restaurants until 2:30 in the morning? Who is benefiting from that? Like, if it's not the employees and it's not you guys, then it's just like Popeyes and Taco Bell and Dairy Queen. And that doesn't help the town of Webster at all in my opinion. I don't know. I don't know. It just it I don't know. It's unfortunate and I'm trying to stick to that topic when I come here of, you know, taking the things that we put into this town seriously and not just having a bunch of poison as it was put to me floating around.
It's kind of like when I hear I wouldn't eat that poison. It reminds me of all the fentanyl dealers that I knew that didn't do any drugs but sold fentanyl. It's like, we'll allow it, but we won't do it. It's cool. You know, everything's business as usual. And that's um what I have to say on that today.
Well, thank you, Christopher. And you hit five minutes right on the button. Not bad. Our next speaker tonight is Bruce Winters. My name is Bruce Winters. I live at 20 Dunning Avenue across the street from Patty. Um, as a pharmacist, I used to sell fentinel legally, fentinel patches. Um, I'm here tonight just to tell you all that I think what you did down at the Sandbar is absolutely beautiful. I think it's a nice change. It's a nice improvement and uh I think in the long run it's a nice legacy that you the board members and the supervisor have left for uh us residents. Thank you. Thanks, Bruce.
Thank you, Bruce.
Okay, we did have some people that uh came in after I picked up the list. Does anybody else want to take the podium tonight for up to five minutes? Okay. Well, uh, we'll move on to the minutes to be considered for approval. And I'll bow out of this one because I was not
I would move that we approve the minutes of August the workshop of August 21st, 2025 as submitted by the town clerk.
Second.
Councilwoman Cataly
I.
Councilman Cahill,
I.
Supervisor Flity,
abstain.
Councilwoman Wyn,
I. Councilwoman Wright.
I make a motion to approve the minutes for the town board meeting minutes for August 21st, 2025 as submitted.
Second.
Councilwoman Wright.
I.
Councilwoman W.
I.
Supervisor Flareity.
Abstain.
Councilwoman Cataly
I.
Councilman Cahill.
I.
All right. I
and I would uh I
it was I reviewed the bills yesterday and they were in order
uh those submitted by the director of finance and I would make a motion that we pay the bills.
Second.
Councilwoman Cataldi
I.
Councilwoman Wright
I.
Supervisor Flity
I.
Councilman Cahill
I.
Councilwoman W
I.
And I reviewed uh the prepaid warrants as submitted by Paul Adams, Director of Finance. to make a motion we approve those.
Second.
Supervisor Flity.
I.
Councilwoman Cataly,
I.
Councilman Cahill,
I.
Councilwoman W.
I.
Councilwoman Wright.
I.
And I reviewed the purchase orders as submitted by Paul Adams, Director of Finance. And make a motion we approve those.
Second.
Supervisor Flity.
I.
Councilman Cahill.
I.
Councilwoman Katali.
I.
Councilwoman W.
I. Councilwoman Wright. I
All right. Well, Paul, um, do you want to give any
sure
explanation of the next one? I think it's self-explanatory, but
a lot of work gone into this.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So the next resolution uh is a resolution to approve of the uh 2026 tenative budget which makes it the preliminary budget which is subject to a public hearing uh which is scheduled for October 16th. Um it's in pretty good shape. Um if you look at it the tax rate plus the sewer rents the average household goes up about 2.4%. uh expenditures are up quite a bit uh but that's due to employee compensation benefits and our debt service costs are on the rise. Uh but if you look at the revenues are also up quite a bit. Um when you look at the sewer fund in particular that's taken on a lot of debt over the past three years. Principal and interest payments for the sewer fund have gone up about two and a half billion, but businessdriven revenue is
up five million. So they're actually 2 and a half million ahead in the sewer department. So it's one of the interesting trends and uh this budget uses quite a bit of fund balance. Uh but we've we have that money put away. Uh and it's supposed to be used to stabilize the tech tax rate and that that's what we're doing.
Um any questions or comments from the board members?
I have a question. I couple question, but I think Paul probably could answer these. Um, first of all, could you tell me that our town budget is it 51 million or 53 million? Uh, it's uh I got over here. Uh, the total budget is 53,272. Uh, that's somewhat deceptive because it includes $4.9 million of inter fund transfers. So, you really should net that out. So you're really looking at a budget of about 485.
Okay.
Yeah.
And also a big number.
Okay. Thank you so much, Paul. And also to how many how much is the total of our um reserve fund for the town and the sew, you know, the whole total, not just for one
overall.
Yes. Um, overall, well, I guess I don't have that in front of me, but I believe our total fund balances are around 30 $30 million. Yeah. When you include all the reserves and the um unappropriated money.
Thank you, Paul.
Yeah.
So, that's what we're pulling from when we say we're appropriating fund balance to balance the budget. That's the money we're pulling from.
Thank And that that's within our fund balance policy that we adopted. I think it was last year, correct?
We have a fund balance policy for the main operating funds. We try to keep the fund balance between 15% and 50% of annual expenditures. Uh some of the funds are over that substantially. Uh so over a period of four or five years, we're trying to bring that back into the range.
Correct. You don't want to do it all at once, but we've actually got like a five or six year plan to to pull it into place.
That's excess money. So, people at home know that
we are essentially keeping our rate low, but we're not it's taxpayer money that we're utilizing that was not spent. Correct.
So, it's responsible
what we're doing with the reserve money. Correct.
Right. or fund balance, I should say sorry.
And and I I got to apologize because at the um the two budget workshops uh July 31st and August 7th, uh we handed out to everybody in attendance and to the board members a one-page summary of the last seven years, 2020 through 2026 in XL, you know, XY grid. And it showed the bottom line that the unrestricted fund balance uh at the end of 2020 in total was $16.8 million.
At the end of 2024, our last completed year, it was $33.7 million. Our fund balance had essentially uh doubled
since the end of 2020. And in that time frame, Paul uh would, you know, coming from the association of towns meetings in New York City and with the comproller, he proposed to the town that we have a fund balance policy to kind of put guide rails on how much money we keep in savings. Um and this board went through that process back circa 2022 and adopted that fund balance p policy. And that is really why um we're able to keep the taxes uh relatively low uh as a percentage increase because we're um we're using our fund balance policy. Mhm.
Um but as Paul said, some of the reason why the fund balance policy or fund balance is is doubling is that yeah, we've got this debt and we've got expenses like on the sewer, but you know, there's, you know, we did that because we had Fairlife coming to town and oh gez, amazing enough, they got $5 million in revenue and we actually net out 2 million ahead on that one. Well, you know, it's that's going to affect what you have in your savings account to the positive. So, um I apologize. I should have printed that out and brought it to this meeting, too. Um but any other questions?
No questions. So, I just think it's important that we start to manage down that number because that's money we're taking from taxpayers and we are holding it on their behalf and I'm sure some taxpayers would prefer to have that money as opposed to us holding it on their behalf. So using it in a productive way to get it back to within the fund balance tolerances would be important, but it's also important to have those funds to manage some unexpected expenses and things that happen within the town that are beyond our control. So, it's a it's a it's a very delicate balancing act and Paul does a very good job at managing it.
And I I will say something that
you know the three union contracts in town and as he said so much of our spend is on personnel, retirees benefits. Um we have three unions, police, blue collar, white collar. All three of those contracts uh expire at the end of 26. So, this this preliminary budget reflects what those contracts, cost of living adjustments and all that are. The new supervisor will be tasked uh with negotiating three contracts in the middle of 2026. I I I feel bad about that um just the way the timing uh slotted. But you want to talk about an unknown um of what what are those contracts going to end up being on January 1st, 2027 as far as cost of living adjustments, how much is going toward health insurance and all that. So, um, got to be careful about totally getting rid of all your savings because that's a that's a short-term feel-good move and then all of a sudden you leave another board with with the realities of inflation and this and that and contracts that um, all of a sudden,
you know, you got to raise the taxes 30%.
Oh, yeah. No, no one here would ever No,
I don't believe anybody here would ever propose
using all of those funds. So, uh, I make a motion to approve the 2026 Town of Webster tenative budget as presented by the town clerk for purposes of making it the 2026 Town of Webster preliminary budget, which will be subject to a public hearing, which will be on October 16th, prior to the adoption and vote on a final 2026 budget. Second.
Supervisor Flity.
I.
Councilman Cahill.
I.
Councilwoman Pataldi.
I.
Councilwoman Wyn.
I.
Councilwoman Wright.
I um had uh lunch today with Maria Der and uh Gene O' Connell came in from Buffalo. Um, and uh, it's funny cuz and Jean's a character. Uh, we're two years in uh, as of October 1st to our our contract with her her firm of assisting us in finding grants, but also assisting us in applying for grants. And, uh, I got to give her credit. Right up to the last minute, she's like, "There's any way we can can get a two-year extension on this?" And I said, "No, don't look a gift horse in the mouth." I said, "Take the one-year extension because I would assume that the next administration, um, you know, they're going to want to look at this." Um, here to for the results, and Maria has been, uh, in workshops presenting three or four times over the last year and a half on the results of this relationship
and what kind of grant uh, awards the town has gotten. Um, and it's pretty positive. But um that in and of itself doesn't mean it's a fat compon plea that uh that Jean's firm is going to get uh the contract uh in October of 2026. Reality is that'll be three years into this. The the new board may think it might be timing wise time for a a request for proposal an RFP. Um but that's for another board to decide. But for continuity, the fact that Maria, who's not here tonight, um we're involved in uh with uh Gene O' Connell on a TAP grant. It's the third time we've gone for this. This is the sidewalks and infrastructure around the West Webster Hamlet, which is more known by people as 600 Ridge Road, and I'm sure people have driven by it lately. That building is down. a lot of activity in the last two weeks from the adjacent buildings and the old Jade Palace because we all knew that's the lynch pin. Once you get 600 Ridge gone, activity is going to sprout. Maybe some healthy restaurants, Christopher. Um, so
we certainly don't want to take the the foot off the pedal of applying for that TAP grant and the millions of dollars of potential sidewalks and street improvements which are foundational to redeveloping that neighborhood. And uh um so at the risk of TMI um that is why we have this resolution tonight. I know that uh the board members have seen this. It's at the exact same terms uh as the October 1st, 2023 through September um 30th, 2025 contract. Any questions uh before somebody makes this resolution?
No, I don't have any questions.
I do not.
All right. Well, I can't make it. I would move that we authorize the supervisor to sign an extended one-year contract from October 1st, 2025 through September 30th, 2026 with J. Oonnell and Associates, Inc. at the same financial terms of $3,900 $900 for that time period.
Second.
Councilwoman Katali,
I.
Councilman Cahill,
I.
Supervisor Flity,
I. Councilwoman Wyn
I.
Councilwoman Wright I is that's per month. I presume that
3,900 a month.
I think it ends up being 46,800.
Sorry for that correction. Thank you
Paul. Uh what has amazed me about the Webster today in Palado Entertainment is that really it is remained a flat budget item almost for four years now. Pretty close. We inched it up a little bit, but for 26, we put in an extra 2,000 to make it 48,000. You know, costs are going up. Yeah. Um they are just about done with the uh October or fourth quarter of 2025 Webster today which I think will be in people's mailboxes. Uh October 3rd is a Friday I think fourth Saturday 5th. They're they're very good when they tell us when it's going to be in the mailboxes. They hit the target. Exactly. And we wanted to make sure that one was in the mailboxes uh as early in October as possible because it promotes uh it's our budget edition. Uh it shows the preliminary budget that that we just voted in tonight, but it also promotes the public hearing that's on October 16th goes to every house and business in Webster. So, you know, um that's our way
of trying to maximize the citizens coming in to a public hearing about the budget. Um but the minute that goes out, the minute the October one is done and we put a ribbon on it and send it out, I'm telling you, by October 10th, we're starting production on the January one. So that's it gives a little explanation of why the timing of why we're doing this uh in September and not late in the year. It's not fair to them to be working on the January production uh when they're not under contract for it. So any questions on this one?
No.
No question. I will authorize the town supervisor to sign a one-year agreement ending December 31st, 2026 with Palato Entertainment, Marketing, and Media LLC for publication of the Town Magazine Webster today for an amount not to exceed $48,000 inclusive of postage.
Second.
Councilwoman Wright,
I.
Councilman Cahill,
I.
Supervisor Flity,
I. Councilwoman Cataldi.
Hi.
Councilwoman Wyn.
Hi.
All right. Well, uh, the next one, uh, actually a frequent flyer who emails me at least once a month in my six years as supervisor sent me a email about a half an hour ago, right before the meeting started that said, "How can you have a resolution passed for nothing when you haven't even gone to the board meeting yet?" Um, what we put up on the website, it was a it was a clerical error on this resolution.
I see it.
You see it?
I do.
And I got to say, I said to the guy, good catch. Um, no, I'm not an Nostradamus. We didn't put in and you know, there's going to be five of us tonight, so it wouldn't have been four nothing anyway. It must have been cut and paste to to create it. And it happens. Here is a little uh revelation for anybody who's in the audience tonight live or watching live or watching this a day, a week, a month from now. We make mistakes at the town government. Imagine that. One thing I've been proud of the last six years, we admit our mistakes and we move on. Um that one was pretty minor, but uh uh we'll see how it's voted. Um, I guess I almost want I would like somebody else to explain this rather than me because I bet you they can do this more succinct than me.
I'm going to look to attorney Taylor for that.
Always around you, Kyle.
You're on a roll, Kyle.
Thank you, Supervisor. So, the the petition uh the next petition on the agenda or excuse me, resolution on the agenda is regarding a petition from Xerox. Um, essentially what this comes down to is within the village of Webster and the town of Webster on the Xerox campus, there are two parcels that are essentially split by the town village boundaries, which for the redevelopment of the campus makes it quite difficult um to to redevelop those. Uh, an owner of that parcel would have to go before both village and town boards. So, it's it's quite cumbersome. So Xerox is petitioning the uh the town and the village to essentially do what amounts to a land swap to shift those boundaries in such a way that the parcels are situated entirely within the village or entirely within the town. The petition or excuse me resolution that's before the board tonight is to consent to the village moving their boundaries and giving up a portion of the land and to bring it into the town. Um if the board does consent to that, it will then go before the village board next week and and they'll continue the process there. Subsequently, there would be a petition
to uh from Xerox to enex a a portion of the town land to go into the village to complete that quote unquote land swap. So, it's really to make the the Xerox campus more desirable from a development standpoint uh considering everything all the positive uh development that's going on out there right now. So, this is the the first step in that process.
Yeah. And I think as time goes on, you know, um you're going to see if things go to plan, uh October 21st, there's a joint, uh village and village board of trustees, town board members, uh public hearing, I guess I would say. Uh correct, Kyle?
In October 21st, there be a joint public hearing.
Yeah. And that'll be at the village uh boardroom. Um, and it, you know, it'll be publicized. Um, and in fact, I think in two weeks we do a resolution to set that public hearing, as does the village. Um, so this is just the first of uh several items uh to support this land swap. Essentially the um village is going to get 25 acres approximately on in the west campus which is just to the south of our rec center. So that whole campus is in the village and the town is going to get an additional 25 acres on the east side of Phillips. So there's a 50 plus acre parcel that's all in the town instead of split in half. layman terms, when someone goes to buy a piece of property to develop, it's a nightmare to have that parcel split between two municipalities, two codes, two boards, two planning boards, two zoning boards. Yuck. Bring the value of that property way down. So, we've been working with Xerox on this for the last two or three years um to try to figure out how to make that campus modular and them able to sell off
uh 30, 40, 80 acre parcels um to other companies to develop. So, with that being said, any questions?
No.
All right.
No, it seems like it should be a very simple administrative change. Seems that way.
Hopefully it will be.
Fingers crossed.
I make a motion to consent to the demunition of village boundaries pursuant to village law 18-1804.
Second.
Supervisor flarity.
I.
Councilwoman Wright
I.
Councilwoman Cataly
I.
Councilman Cahill.
I.
Councilwoman W.
I. So, actually that got approved five nothing even though the misprint said four nothing. So, now we can put it in there. All right. Um, and then the last one tonight uh I know this was uh just thrown in in the last three days.
A new restaurant that's not a chain. Yeah, actually [Music]
can't say that it's going to be open 247.
Yeah.
Um
so um and Christopher, I'm not The problem is when you're not at the podium, when you watch the tape of this, no one's going to hear what you just said.
Okay. So anyway, um, does anybody have any questions about this?
No.
Okay. I make a motion to wave the New York State Liquor Authority on premises alcohol beverage license 30-day notification period requirement for Himalayan Kitchen Indian and Nepali Flavors LLC located at 1075 Ridge Road in Webster, New York.
Second.
Supervisor Flity. I,
Councilwoman Wyn.
I,
Councilwoman Cataly,
I,
Councilwoman Cahill,
I,
Councilwoman Wright,
I.
All right. Well, that concludes our meeting for the night. We'll get everybody out to see the opening of the NFL season, I guess, right? Doesn't that kick off, Kyle? Around 8:15 tonight.
I'm glad I didn't bet Councilman Cahill because it's 8:03, so I would have lost. Um, but not bad. So,
I still have room in my freezer for some more steaks. So, we can bet coming up
next.
This meeting is adjourned.
Okay.
Did you want to sign me to?
Sure. [Music]
Yeah, I think it's fine. I mean, unless you want to do blue. Oh, I don't have blue pen either. Um and today