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Nancy A. Iversen |
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Campaign Issues- Vote on November 6, 2007 |
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The information on this page is updated from time to time. Please visit as often as you like. Below are some of the details concerning our most pressing County issues. I'm still working on some of them. If you'd like to comment, you can email me at niversen@localnet.com. 1- Professional management for Otsego County. Professional management for The Otsego County Board of Representatives is divided into committees which have oversight of various County departments and functions. Committees provide oversight by meeting with department heads on a monthly basis. Each department head comes before their committee to deliver a budget report and to request budget transfers and other budget amendments. Department heads typically discuss the monthly operation of the department and any special programs or problems that may be occuring within the department. Personnel issues, equipment needs, and progress in meeting department goals are usually part of the discussion, as well. Minutes of committee meetings are kept and sent out to each Board member, and the committee chairman provides a summary report to the Board and the public at one of the bi-monthly Board meetings. Board Chairman Don Lindberg and Vice-chairman Ron Feldstein very often attend monthly committee meetings.
The Administration Committee usually meets twice a month, more often if the need arises. One of these meetings is for the department heads that report directly to the Administration Committee to come before the committee to conduct regular department business. The second meeting typically concerns some special issue. Usually the County Attorney attends, as well as some special consultant, vendor, department head, State official, community interest group, or other persons involved with the discussion at hand. The Administration Committee also provides budget oversight by approving/denying all budget transfers and amendments that come from the other committees, as well as personnel oversight. Toward that end, the County Treasurer and the Director of Human Resources are requested to attend Administration Committee meetings.
Sounds pretty good. Why should we need professional management?
Otsego County needs professional management because we need day-to-day oversight, coordination, or management of operations, personnel and budget. A professional administrator would be on the job daily, not monthly, to provide these functions. With our committee system, the right hand may not know what the left hand is approving or spending until a month has gone by!
A professional administrator will provide consistent oversight of operations in each department. This administrator will be able to pick up on duplication of effort as well as important functions which may be falling through the cracks in any department, or functions that are lacking. The administrator will also be able to help departments heads with issues they may have concerning the operation of their department, and strategies for improving the department's effectiveness in serving the County and its residents.
A professional administrator will provide consistent oversight of all personnel. Our department heads are being drawn and quartered by having to answer to 14 board members, some on their oversight committee and some not! With a county administrator in place, each department head will answer to only that administrator, who will, together with the department head, share department concerns with the Board. The administrator will be able to identify the special strengths of each department head, as well as any inservice training that might help them to become even more effective. The administrator, together with the department heads and the personnel director, will be able to provide training to enhance the skills of staff members in the various departments. The administrator will have frequent conversations with the department heads about the personnel in their departments, and be available to assist with any personnel concerns. The administrator will be able to assess staffing needs in the various departments, including shared staffing.
Most importantly, a professional administrator may serve as the budget director, routinely keeping tabs on the income and spending in each department, including all budget amendments and transfers. A department budget, as well as the overall County budget, is an ever changing document. A committee that meets once a month gets a static, snap-shot view of a few department budgets, but not the ebb and flow or the trends of those department budgets, of other department budgets, or of the entire County budget. Many department budgets are inter-related; there are many contracts between departments. Snap shots of one or the other budget, or even both, make it difficult to assess how well the fiscal relationship actually works. What's more, the are a few big-ticket revenue or expense items-occupancy tax revenue or county liability insurance costs, for eaxmple- that fall outside of any one department budget. A budget director will not only track all department budgets on a routine basis, but also the overall County budget. Within specified limits, the administrator would have the authority to take corrective action when needed. Appropriate action would not be held up for two weeks to a month waiting for the next Administration Committee meeting.
The present County Board has done its homework. Dr. David Brenner, former Otsego County Board Chairman and adjunct professor of government at Hartwick College, was hired as a consultant to research the operations in counties similar to Otsego County, some having professional management, some not. Dr. Brenner's comprehensive report clearly compares and contrasts the economy and effectiveness of county government with and without professional administration. The conclusions drawn by the Brenner study are also clear: There could be many benefits for Otsego County if professional management was brought on board, efficiency of operations and quality of services included. What's more several Board members have visited with county administrators and board chairs in counties where the relationship between the administrator and the board have worked well, and in other counties where the arrangements have not worked well. The point, of course, is to get it right. The Administration Committee plans to move forward in writing a comprehensive job description for a county administrator to present to the full Board for consideration. This is likely to be a lengthy and arduous task, but well worth the effort.
I fully support the decision to investigate and move toward professional management for Otsego County. County government should be run as cleanly and efficiently as a business, separated from the political process. Legislative bodies such as the Otsego County Board of Representatives should determine policy. Professional county administrators should manage the business of the county according to the policy set by the County Board. 2- Distribution of Occupancy Tax revenues: The occupancy tax collected on overnight accommodations is essentially money that comes into the County from an outside source. It is not a tax paid by County residents, but instead, is revenue brought in through tourism. When first established, the price of an overnight accommodation was taxed at 2%. Of the revenue generated, up to $200, 000 was earmarked to support the County’s Tourism budget. 10% of the total occupancy tax collected was put into the budget of the Treasurer’s Office to cover the administrative costs to that office.
In the early years of the occupancy tax, those two budget lines pretty much used up the revenue. But as tourism grew, so did the occupancy tax revenue. The Shoulder Season Grants were established with occupancy tax money to encourage the development of shoulder season events that would attract tourists before or after the main summer season. Some of the additional money was used to help the County support offices and services that grew in support of tourism- most notably the Codes Enforcement Office, the Sheriff’s Department and the Departments of Public Safety and Emergency Services. Occasionally, some occupancy revenue was used to maintain infrastructure in areas of high tourist volume- most recently the Susquehanna Avenue Bridge. But as Tourism contued to grow, so did the pressure put on the communities that absorbed and supportd the visitors. In 2006, I developed the Tourism Compensation Grants to help local municipalities recover some of the cost of providing services to tourists and the additional costs of maintaining public facilities due to the pressures of additional use due to tourism. This grant program was to be administered through the Office of Tourism and funded with $25,000 of occupancy tax revenue. Occupancy tax revenue collected in 2006 was to be set asidein the general fund balance to fund the Tourism Compensation Grants in the 2007 budget. Unfortunately, it was removed from the 2007 budget in January, 2007, by the budget amendedment that became necessary to correct the tax levy. The Tourism Compensation Grants have been included in the 2008 budget, again funded at $25,000 from occupancy tax collected this year. It is reasonable to use occupancy tax money to pay for tourism promotion because tourism generates a tremendous amount of sales tax revenue- much more than would be generated by In 2006, the County Board amended the local law concerning occupancy tax to include the baseball camps among the various lodging industry businesses that must collect and remit occupancy tax to the County. The camps were to begin collecting occupancy tax in 2007. At least one camp is fighting the collection of occupancy tax in court, and at least one other is simply ignoring the law. Otsego County will pursue this issue with due diligence. It is unfair to expect some parts of the lodging industry to collect and remit occupancy tax, but not others. This year, the County Board amemnded the occupancy tax law to increase the rate of occupancy tax from 2% to 4%, which is more in line with what is charged in other tourism destinations throughout New York State. Remember, this is not a tax paid by Otsego County residents, but revenue generated by visitors. Although I supported this action, I was not able to vote since part of my income derives from the lodging industry- I rent two small camps on Otsego Lake. The tax increase to visitors will actually not begin until 2008, and the revenues will not be available until 2009. I’d like to see a good portion of this additional revenue returned to the communities supporting tourism by helping to maintain the infrastructure in those communities: roads, parks, public water supply, public sewage disposal systems and water treatment facilities. Without a doubt, the Village of Cooperstown feels the greatest amount of tourism pressure and expense! So much so, that I’d want to set aside a specific apportionment of the additional occupancy tax revenue to offset the costs to Cooperstown residents for providing the necessary services and repairing the obvious damages of tourism in the Village. My recommendation would be one half of one of the additional percents of the tax. This amounts to about $200,000. Mayor Waller has repeatedly asked the County Board to help the Village with these expenses and has been turned down for lack of funding. The funding will now be in place. I’d also like to see a specific portion of this additional revenue used to promote tourism activities and business along the route 7 corridor so that those visitors who come for more than one night have more than one tourism destination in which to spend their time and money. This will also encourage one-night visitors to stay for more than a single night, helping the smaller, independent lodging establishments. The hamlets, villages and city along Route 7 have many local specialty shops rather than could-be-anywhere chain stores. What's more all these small municipalities have attractive Main Streets and lovely, well-maintained older homes. Each has its own special character. As more and more of the villages and small cities that used be known for quaint specialty shopping have become over-developed with could-be-anywhere chain stores, they have lost their own special character. Freeport, Maine and Manchester, Vermont are two excellent examples of places that have lost their special charm due to over development. Otsego County could certainly continue to develop into a major rural specialty shopping destination. Marketing Route 7 more aggressively could provide a second destination. Because our environmental resources are so used by visitors to the county, and because we have no one person or office responsible for safeguarding these resources, I would like to see a portion of the additional occupancy tax revenue used to support a desk or an office of environmental protection. As Otsego County continues to develop economically, this desk or office will become even more needed. 3- Transparency in County Government:
4- Distribution of sales tax revenues. The present sales tax apportionment formula has been a local law for many years. Of the eight cents collected on every dollar spent in Unfortunately, the law did not include a sunset clause or any language requiring renegotiation of the apportionment on a regular basis. The City of Even though there is no sunset clause in our local sales tax law, renegotiation is past due! Two years ago, when the subject of reapportioning sales tax revenues was mentioned, other
5- Assessment, Protection and Management of Environmental Resources Otsego County does not have a committee or an office or a desk specifically charged with environmental oversight. A number of years ago, there was an Environmental Affairs Committee made of Board members and community members, but it was an advisory committee, and it no longer exists. We have several county departments and board committees that have some degree of impact on environmental protection and resource management. The Public Works Committee oversees the highway department, buildings and maintenance, County forests, County parks, County lands, purchase of real property, and rights of way. The Public Safety and Legal Affairs Committee oversees code enforcement and the Sheriff’s Department. The Intergovernmental Affairs Committee oversees economic development, the planning department, and tourism. The Solid Waste Committee oversees the fate of our solid wastes. The Administration Committee oversees geographic information services. And the HEA oversees the Soil and Conservation Water District, Cornell Cooperative Extension, ‘environmental matters’ and ‘agriculture’. In addition, there are many other village, town, state, federal, non-profit, and even for-profit groups existing in Otsego County that have an impact on our environmental resources: NRCS, the Farm Bureau, the Soil and Water Conservation District, Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Biological Field Station, the Water Quality Coordinating Committee, the Otsego County Conservation Association, the Watershed Supervisory Committee, the Audobon Society, the Otsego Land Trust, Hawk Circle, the Nature Learning Company, the Otsego County Fair, our Chambers of Commerce, our Lake Associations, local Sportsman’s and Rod and Gun Clubs, local Snowmobile Clubs, every public and private school in the county, every business and utility in the County, every village, city and town highway department...and I’m sure I’ve left out many other groups...all of these have an impact on our environmental resources. Our environmental resources are the most valuable commodities we have, but they are rarely part of the equation as we continue to promote economic development, residential construction and tourism.. It has become increasing important for our County to assess the diversity and value of our environmental resources, to coordinate the efforts to protect them and to develop protocols for best management practices. It is true that many of above mentioned groups interact with one and other and coordinate many of their efforts, and that our planning department does a very good job of getting many of these groups together on the same page. But no one person, desk, or office is specifically charged with assessing our resources, protecting our resources or managing our resources. Our County Board needs to be thinking about how best to assemble all the available information and how to best coordinate the efforts of many different groups. In our committee discussion, Representative Stayton said she would have a difficult time supporting yet another County position unless the duties were really very well defined and unless we had a really good idea of what benefits would be derived by the cost of a County position. And I agree with her. I don’t want to add another position or office, either. But assessment, protection and management of our resources is becoming more and more important. It may well be that we need to resurrect the Environmental Affairs Committee as a Board committee, or that one of the adjunct groups can assume this function with County guidance. Soil and Water, OCCA and our County planning department work well together. Together, they may be able to assist.in this endeavor. I don’t have a solution just yet, but I’d like the full Board to be thinking about the problem, and working toward a solution. There might well be grant money out there to develop and maintain an Office of Environmental Affairs. Many counties in New York State already operate such an office. Ulster County is getting ready to open its County Department of the Environment. I plan to attend their public hearing on October 10. Conservation of our environmental resources will continue to be one of my priorities.
6- Canadarago Lake
8- Comprehensive Plan for Otsego County:
9- Changing the length of term for County Representatives:
10- Selecting the most transparent, most easily recorded mechanism for voting IN PROGRESS: The County Board must continue to insist on the most transparent, most easily recorded method for balloting. Toward that end, the Board voted to support optical scan voting machines, and should continue working to convince both Election Commissioners to demand these for Otsego County. 11- Expansion of Empire Zones:
12- Health care benefits for Elected Officials Over the last few months, the Administration Committee and the full board have been discussing the health care benefits for county board members and other elected county officials, as well as M/C (management and confidential employees) benefits. The topic usually gets tabled because some board members feel that the health benefits make up for the low salary (about $10,200) of board members.
There are a few board members who do not accept county health benefits because they have their own health insurance from their regular employment or as part of their retirement package from a previous employer. A few more might be willing to accept a buy-out in which the county would not provide them with health benefits but instead pay them a lump sum in lieu of benefits- the lump sum being considerably lower than the cost of the benefits. Other representatives might be willing to take even less than a lump sum payment- just enough to cover their share of the cost of insurance they may have from another source. The county could save several thousands of dollars on each of these types of arrangements. The potential for allowing these arrangements will be on the Administration Committee agenda for 2008. Today, most employeed people do have to contribute to the cost of the health benefits provided through an employer, and this should be the case for county representatives, all other elected officials, and M/C employees. What’s more, some people lose their health care benefits at retirement. Others are not covered in full, but are instead have a portion of their benefits paid for based on the number of years the employee served the company. We should be considering this sort of system for our elected officials, as well. Five years of part-time employment with retirement at or after 62, is simply not enough service to have earned full healthcare coverage for life. Although there are some reps who don't want to see the health benefits arrangement change, there are more that do. The Administration Committee will be putting forth a resolution to change they way county representatives and other elected officials receive their health benefits. I'll be supporting a change from the present arrangement. At the October 17 Board meeting, a resolution was passed that all elected County officials will pay 5% of the cost of their health insurance beginning in January 2008.
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