Below is the recap of what took place during the Public Service Committee meeting.
On February 6, 2013, The Public Service Committee of the Livingston County Board of Supervisors had their monthly meeting. The Public Service Committee oversees the following departments within the county: Board of Elections, Central Services, County Clerk, County Historian, District Attorney, Economic Development, Emergency Management Services, Highway Department, Industrial Development, Planning, Probation, Public Defender, Records Management, Sheriff’s Department, Water & Sewer Authority. The committee is comprised of the following Town Supervisors: Gerald Deming, Chair – Town of York; Dennis Mahus, Vice Chair – Town of N. Dansville; Charles DiPasquale – Town of Mt.Morris; Domenick Martello – Town of Ossian; Deborah J. Babbitt Henry – Town of Springwater; James Merrick – Chair, Board of Supervisors – Town of Groveland; Will Wadsworth – Vice Chair, Board of Supervisors – Town of Geneseo.
The meeting convened at 1:30 PM. The Committee heard from a number of Department Heads as detailed below:
County Clerk: Mr. Culbertson reported on the impact of the new gun legislation on the County Clerk’s office. The county has 11,000 gun permits and rapidly growing. Pistol permit applications have grown from 526 in 2010 to over 908 in 2012. His office processed 69 permit applications in January 2012, which increased to 233 in January 2013. Amendments to permits have grown from 1300 in 2010 to 1972 in 2012. He indicated that the new law requires that you have to opt out of having your name being eligible for release to the public. The forms will be available to opt out in the near future and he will be advertising in the local media the time lines and process for opting out.
He characterized the new law as another “unfunded mandate” from the state and indicated that there was a possibility of needing to add an additional staff member to address the requirements of the new law.
Mr. Culbertson also reported that his department was the first in the region to have e-recorded all land documents.
Sheriff’s Dept: Sheriff York requested to add three full time positions to the Jail staffing. One position has been approved, one is budgeted and the third position is a non-budgeted position. The County administrator indicated that these positions will reduce overtime and other events may offset some or all the costs of this non-budgeted position. These moves are in response to meeting the required staffing for a jail facility which is currently being addressed with overtime. Motion to recommend the hiring to the full Board passed unanimously.
The Sheriff also requested that 5 new vehicles be ordered over the next few months. There was a great deal of discussion regarding the mileage on the vehicles to be replaced. The Sheriff and his staff stressed that the fleet has been reduced over the past few years and the vehicles to be replaced will stay in service until they have exhausted their usefulness. Motion to recommend the purchase passed unanimously.
Emergency Medical Services: The Committee voted unanimously to authorize the purchase of a1999 E450 Lifeline ambulance from the Nunda Fire Department.
There was also considerable discussion regarding a request from Noyes Hospital for the Livingston County EMS to provide ALS/BLS Interfacility transfer coverage for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Prior to approving this further discussion will need to occur with Noyes Hospital as well as other local agencies and volunteer fire departments. This would be a significant expansion of the Department’s responsibility. However, currently the wait time for some of these transfers to occur can be up to 5 plus hours, which is a significant problem. More information will be gathered and this will be further discussed at March’s Meeting.
Other Issues:
The Economic Development Department is in the process of conducting interviews for the Deputy Economic Developer position. A first round has been completed. The Finger Lakes Regional Development Council Director has met with Julie Marshall to receive recommendations for a private sector representative to replace the Livingston County seat recently vacated by the departure of Cynthia Oswald.
The committee recommended the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors sign a contract with the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services covering the GTSC Ignition Interlock Device Monitoring Program. This amount was slightly higher than budgeted due to Livingston County’s higher than expected DUI convictions. This requirement stems from Leandra’s Law which stipulates the following: “Courts must order all drivers convicted of misdemeanor and felony drunk driving charges – even first-time offenders and regardless of whether a child under 16 was in the vehicle at the time – to install and maintain ignition interlock devices on any vehicles they own or operate for at least six months at their own expense, in addition to any other terms of sentence.”
The Committee also recommended a couple of contracts be signed to support the Public Defender’s office ongoing work.
Central Services recommended that the county sign a three year contract with Integrys Energy Services of New York to provide electric energy to all county facilities. They also requested that two full time Grade 7 Building Maintenance positions be created and filled. Both requests were passed by the committee unanimously.
Other departments overseen by the Committee provided written reports. The meeting was adjourned at 3:55 PM.