Board of Trustees Work Session
Okay. Are we we ready? Yep. Mhmm. Fantastic. Alright. Welcome to our Wednesday, September 17 work session for the Village board of trustees. I'm mayor Brian Pugh, and our first item of business is a resolution authorizing an agreement with Omnia Partners for the cooperative purchasing of supplies and equipment. Manager, would you like to give us some background? Sure. So
this is a cooperative purchasing agreement that allows the village to basically buy off of contracts that have previously been negotiated with other state and local governments. We're part of a couple of these groups. The Houston, Galveston council of governments has a large cooperative purchasing group. There's also Source Well, and Omnia is another one of these groups. And so Piggybacking. Piggybacking. Yes. In more colloquial terms. So Omnia is the group that has the contract for the Doves Park playground equipment. So we're looking to use them for that specific project, and then we'll be able to use them going forward. Alright. Fantastic. I have the resolution to read. Okay. Yeah. Well, we'll cover the discussion. Okay. Whereas the village desires to contract with Omnia Partners Public Sector Inc. To participate in cooperative purchasing for various items, whereas general municipal law section one zero three allows for local governments to participate in such cooperative purchasing, And whereas there is no cost to the village to enter into this agreement, now therefore be it resolved that the village board hereby authorizes the village manager to execute the agreement with Omnia Partners Public Sector Inc. To enter into their cooperative purchasing program.
Do I have a motion? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Politi. Discussion? Well, manager, this this can
be rather large items. So I I know from other other instances, vehicles Yes. Are are purchased off this or or large DPW equipment and things of that nature. So, you know, the savings that accrue from this can be very significant. Yeah.
I'm all for finding savings through cooperative purchasing, but can you elaborate on how this diff is different from piggybacking more generally in our procurement, which I think we're allowed to do under state law? Yes. So we are we're allowed to
do piggybacking for certain goods and and equipment, And this just basically expands it nationwide. Okay. Right? So state law allows for it. Like, if the town of Ossining did a bid and we were able to use theirs. By being part of these groups, we can do that same
just nationwide. Okay. Fair enough. Usually, when you do something out of yeah. When you do something out of state, you just have to check to make sure they would meet your in state procedures, and there's usually a a reconciliation
that happens when you do that. Is that a service that Omni provides, or is that something that works? Yeah. Generally, they they make sure that if the bid is being offered to you, that they have met the standards that are required under state law for bidding. So but they also provide the actual original documentation so you can look at it yourself and make sure that it was a sealed a sealed bid, that it was competitively advertised, those those sort of things. Okay. Yep.
Correct. More broadly? No. We have we have other And that's just an option. It's just another option. Yep. Okay. Yep. Yeah. Some some places, they even have little fee memberships, and you have annual things. Like, there's all sorts of these types of things. Yeah. But this is just Yep. This is just yeah. We're just we're just becoming a member. There's no charge. Obviously, if you buy something, you have to pay for that, but there's no charge to join. Okay.
Alright. Great. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. Alright. Next item is a review of proposed legislation to create a rental unit registry. Would the attorney wanna present this?
Sure. Let me open it up.
Alright. So The intent of this law is to kind of have an inventory of what is going on in the village that it could be so that there's health and safety monitoring going on. You know, this is not supplanting any of the existing code like the state code in terms of property maintenance or anything along those lines. This is just another layer that helps ensure that rental properties meet certain standards and that they're being met. You know, what we there's a regulation when you're talking about short term versus long term units. In terms of trying to think. If you're going to occupy this, you have to have had certain inspections and had met certain standards to have an occupiable rental unit within the village. And this just identifies where those are so that we can track them and make sure that they're, I guess, meeting those standards. I mean, I'm kind of repeating myself myself a a little little bit. Bit.
Let's see. You know, there's a presumptive rebuttal I'm just starting ignore myself. There's a rebuttal presumption when it comes to something being put online or leased so that you would know that it is a for lease or for rent. You know, if you listed something with a realtor, you know, we can go and check it and make sure that it's been registered and it's on our lease. It requires that you register your units within ninety days, though I did put a section in there that allows for some flexibility on initial rollout so that if you need some time, you can do that. You know, it requires a local agent who, you know, if you have a problem with a property and there's a safety hazard or something along those lines, you wanna make sure someone local would have responsibility, could let the public safety people in. That's another requirement. You know, obviously, you have to there's an application involved with all of this.
You're gonna get a certificate if you once you register a unit. So that's that's something you that's kind of, like, the right the the owner would get. You know, there's some interaction with the housing code. I don't wanna go into it because it's kind of a long, long I'm trying to pick the parts that I think people would be interested in. We transfer your registration, you know, the dental unit registration. A lot of this was was built off of Nikon sample law. So, you know, we modified it as we thought appropriate in consultation with both the village manager and the board.
Oh, what Yeah. I think that Are there specific regular or specific rules for short term rentals versus long term ones?
Yes. There is. So here. Just so you know, like, Lee in my office drafted this, so she was better at this than I am. But I'm not being able to search. So a short term rental is with, you know, a duration of thirty days. Long term is is more than that. Mhmm. So if you are under the short term rental, you know, there's different regulations that apply. I don't know why, but there's notes coming up on mine that I can't see very well. This is only for long term rentals, though. Right?
So that that's a separate conversation if we wanted to talk about it. I mean, this what
what the law does, it governs the basic health and safety for short terms. Right? So, like, they would still need to register, and they would still need to ensure their smoke detectors and ensure that there's a proper means of egress and that that's what is covered under this law. Yeah. If there was if the board wanted to take more substantive action on Airbnb's,
this is mostly to find apartments we don't know about and get them up to code to keep people safe.
And even and even apartments even apartments we know about. Right? Because right now right now, any building that had a two family. Right? It could be a two family building. There's no inspections required of those. So we don't Even though you have a tenant, you're not getting it. Yeah. Or you it could be a total rental property. You could have two tenants. Tenants. Right? And you're you're not living there, but there's still no inspections required under the state law. Yeah. If you're not under the what's it? If
you're under four units or or No. Three or three or more. Four and above above. Three or three or more. And it's also the Yeah. Three family or more have to be inspected on a regular
Now it's a balance database of Right. That's right. What our units are. And this was actually, I think, the first or second recommendation of our housing task force and just one of the things that we haven't haven't done yet that they proposed. And so you've you've gotta know how much of your housing stock is rental, who owns it, you know, who's what's what's its condition. So I think it's it's good. And just just handily quoting the managers in a memorandum, we're surrounded by other rental registries in our in our neighboring communities, both Cortlandt and and, let's see, Mount Kisco, Peekscale, Bedford, Port Chester, and Tuckahoe have gone in that And Ossining. And Ossining. Ossining in 2024. Yep. Yep. I I think it's it's a it's a good thing to do. And I think the way the way that it's been drafted is hopefully, you know, fits into our expanding and capable engineering department, you know, to be able to gather the information. And and it is it is certainly not onerous, you know, to the
to those that have rental units. So they'll have to do certain things, but they should be doing those anyway. So Yeah. We know just based off of our inspections that we have to do, we know we have about 60 buildings that are three or more Yep. Units. So those those 60 would have to register. And then it's to be determined how many more are in that two family category. Right? Because if it's owner occupied two family, so if you live there and then you have a tenant, that's exempt under this law. That's because if you live there, it's assumed that you have a vested interest in making sure that the property is maintained and kept safe. Mhmm. But if you if it's a And if your tenant doesn't think that's the case, they can come to us. Of course. Yeah. Absolutely. Right. Yeah. You know, anyone who thinks that there's an unsafe condition can report that. But that's as the law is written, owner occupied two families are exempt.
Yeah. Okay. Alright. Any comments or changes that we wanna make, or should we put it on an agenda to begin referrals?
Sorry. I wasn't as up to speed on this as I should have been, but Lori Lee did most of the drafting and was kind of trying to remember certain parts that I No problem. Didn't draft.
Alright. The next is a Oh, yeah. I mean so I think we've covered it unless Yeah. No. No. That Yeah. By all means. Yeah. So next is a discussion of the addition of the or the possible addition of alternate members to the planning and zoning board of appeals.
I mean, this one's pretty straightforward. It's, based off of a a law I wrote in another jurisdiction. We just really modified it to fit into this code. Alternate members help with quorum issues. The way we wrote it, they participate as if they were just normal members of that board. They can ask questions. They can sit on the dais if you have room. But if there if there is an absence, the chair basically notes it in the record and calls them up, and they can participate and act just like a fully functioning member. They have a member. They have all the same training requirements that is required under law. They have to stay up to date on that. They have to do the certain amount of hours of of training. And
it's I've seen and work in other places, and I think it's a good good law. Yeah. Okay. So Well, most communities, I would say, in Westchester have adopted this over the I don't know exactly when this was added to state law. But Yeah. In most communities at this point have this provision just because and, you know, an important thing to remember is just because you have the provision doesn't mean you have to act on it. Right? This just gives you oh. Oh, are we good? Are you alright? This just gives you the ability to do so.
So Yes. And it but I I've seen in other communities I've seen in other communities, it also acts as kind of a a good bench. When you have vacancies, you've you've now had somebody who knows exactly how to jump into that role right away. Yeah. That is a very good that's a very good point. You
know, what I was impressed by as I read it, know, because we we've been discussing this, but until you sit down and read it, was impressed and liked the aspect aspect of of the the the alternate essentially being indistinguishable from the other members, except for the fact that he or she doesn't vote unless there's somebody else's absence. So they're conversation. They're part of the learning process. Particularly on some of our larger projects, the planning board, as an example, can be dealing with one particular project for three, four, five meetings. And so having them physically there, I think, helps as opposed to being home and saying, Fred or Mary, we need you to come in this week. You know? Yeah. Go watch old videos and try and get up to speed. It's tough. Yeah. So, you know, I I'd be interested in just really as both both as a courtesy and and also getting their their professional opinions. The
just sending this out to the to both boards, you know, for for for their thoughts on Well, mean that's part of the I was gonna say you're you're gonna refer to the planning board anyway because it's amending the zoning code. Yeah. But you can send it to the zoning board Yeah. Do that as well. As well. Yeah. So and just one other thing to note in this law. You know, normal members have a five year term, and the alternate members have a one year term. So, you know, it is a little bit less of a commitment. So it might be especially as the attorney was saying, you know, if you're somebody wanted to see what it would might be like to serve on one of these boards, only committing to one year as an alternate is a good introduction.
So Well, and it it gives you that bench strength. It gives you that every every vote unless two people are gone. But, you know, theoretically, every vote is a is a is a a vote of five Yeah. The vote is. And I I think it's helpful. And also, you know, you know, frankly, it it brings some new folks into the Yeah. Into the participation of, you know, our two of our other statutory boards, you know, in addition to this one. Yeah.
And, you know, as you were saying with the like, if there were two people that are absent from the zoning board, you need a unanimous vote to get a variance. Right? And so a lot of people will say, I'll wait. I'll wait till the next meeting because they don't want to chance it that one of the three people will vote their application down. And I mean, I know it's a majority to reopen at that point too. Yeah. Yeah. Trustee Trustee Simon served on the zoning board, so I know he knows this. Yes. But for for the benefit of everybody else listening. You know? Yeah.
And, of course, it's, you know, not not a direct comparison, but it's a it's a regular part of juries as well. So
yep. And and it all it also helps when you're in a a village of this size because, you know, if if you happen to come across conflicts, it makes it a lot easier for the person to sit out for that entire hearing. So it's like the I'm I'm I'm off on this matter. You know? John Smith or Jane Doe is gonna step in for me, and and every time, they're they've got my spot because there's a conflict. That's the rule of necessity doesn't have to apply then. Alright.
Okay. The next is Move right along. Yep. The next item is a discussion of a potential farmer's in Curtin On Hudson. Some people may have fond memories of when we once did, but the then organizer made some other requests of the village that we couldn't satisfy
at the time. Yeah. Yeah. So the farmer's market has a little bit of a history as the mayor was just alluding to. The last time we seriously looked at this issue was 2020. We made some decent progress with a different market coordinator at that time, but there were some disagreement as to how the vendors would be compensated and whether or not we would the village would actually spend funds to operate the market. And so the proposal didn't move forward at that time. That was, like, March 2020, and then we all know what happened after that. So it had we never really moved forward with it. So my assistant reached out to down to earth markets who was the the last operator of the market that we had here about a decade ago and got some details about potentially restarting. And as I put in the memo here, farmers market season goes from June to November. They do have the bandwidth to get a market up and running by this by June 2026 for next season. Location is somewhat flexible, but they just need bathrooms and that we would need to provide them some storage space for tables or signage, that that sort of thing. You know, what is good is they would handle all the vendor information, all the the hiring, the selection, and they would just charge you know, we would basically have a lease agreement with Down to Earth for whatever space we selected, and then they would have the ability to charge a fee to those vendors that they would keep. Right? So,
you know, as in 2020, the obstacle here is where would a market go. Right? The location is the issue. And so the recreation advisory committee gave some thought to that back in 2020, and that memo was also attached to the backup here. And, you know, they looked at a lot of different locations. Right? They suggested Croton Landing. They suggested Senasqua. No. They they didn't suggest those. Said they didn't think that would be a good idea. I'm sorry. Well, yeah. I don't I suggested They mentioned I was gonna say suggested was the wrong word. They mentioned that. Yes. If we are forced Yeah. Yes. We would choose Senasqua, they're under arrest. Yeah. So, yeah, sorry. Go ahead. No. I I was gonna I was just echoing,
you know, the the the the the now almost six year old RAC, you know, memo. I, you know, I think that well, I I think that the the parks are not not not viable for Yeah. This kind of thing. Because only I mean, in addition for reasons that that the the memo suggests, but also in the farmers markets that I've seen, we we had a terrific one where he's I'm like, if there's gonna be side
in the farmers market, in our old neighborhood, and others that I've seen, it's much more of a downtown Yeah. You know, kind of kind of experience. We we were lucky to have in you know, sort of close to the downtown area was an elementary school that was essentially with a nice parking lot that was unused on on Sundays, and it thrived. It's I helped I helped start it as head of our neighborhood association in, I think, 9098 or '99. It's still it's still going on. Oh, nice. And, actually, they, for whatever reason, I and I it just amazed me, but they do 52 Sundays a week in in 20 degree weather. So so I think we you know? I think the model that that these folks are are describing is perfect. So to me, I think it's really just a location. Clarification,
the restrooms are for the vendors. Right? Or for the Yeah. And they're staff. Yeah. Right? Public. Right? No. Correct. Yeah. So the
I think a big part of what didn't what ended up happening last time is the location. Down to Earth runs all the pretty much all the successful farmers market. So I think if we're doing it, this is the way to do it. I do think, as I think, as Len was saying, I do think it needs to be somewhere that people are walking by. I mean, it the first thought is, like, Bullpost or Grand Street. Even if even, like, down Grand Street near Dobbs. So you use that bathroom and eventually a better one. But I think that we would do ourselves a disservice if we didn't have it at least either on a street or at least very, very close to Yeah. Hope so. Well, no. And I've there may I just think Harmon with the parking is is not gonna work. And I I think I think that anything by the station didn't work because people aren't going down there as much on a Saturday or Sunday. So I think it really has to be something that you walk by. That's the the most.
You know, not not not really knowing the scale, like how many event you know, how many tables and and all that. But I've always you know, I I've at least sort of entertained in my own mind. No. No. Don't don't don't get worried. The the the municipal building parking lot, you know, because we've done, you know, a little food distribution there with Croton carrying. This is, of course, different, but, you know, you've got you've got the size. Size. I I mean, mean, you've you've got got the the the space. You know? It's Sunday morning. You've got access to to restrooms and and it's, you know, as as close to sort of the heart of the the downtown without having to close off any streets or things like that. But I just don't know if that, you know, if that works. Depending on it would it would really depend on how many vendors. Right? Because the the thing is
you could do the front of the building here. Yeah. Right? And we've done that in the past. You could block off the two Yeah. Pathways here. You know, we we need access around the building for the police. Police. Right. That you can't compete that. Yeah. So if you were going to have a market with, I don't know, a dozen vendors, let's say, you could probably fit that in the front here. I don't know what I don't really know based I I don't shop at farmer's markets, so I don't really know how many sorry.
I don't know how many vendors. Option. And I don't know if anyone remembers a couple couple years ago, they did a big pop up at. I do. Yeah. And that was very successful. I mean, it was a one off. Yeah. So it was a little bit easier to get people out. I think, you know, if we were to do that, like, if we were gonna do the parking lot, I'd say I would do over the parking lot. I think you're, like, the same distance from the road type situation. Vassalo Vassalo Parking Lot or Vassalo Park? Well, I think it'd have to be in the park because The parking. Yeah. I
among the parks, to me, that's the best one if you were gonna Yeah. The challenge would be making sure that we You're you're not had signage and ads and to get people The part the thing is the park is used also. Right? I mean, literally uses it on Sunday. Yeah. Right? They that's their, like, prime time for youth sports. So, I mean, I think we've looked at potentially using, like, the Asbury lot. I was just gonna But, again, if it's that that would have to be a Saturday, not a Sunday. Right. Right? And, again, you could probably fit a dozen vendors in there, but not much more than that just based off of its
Well, I think, you know, we can make that decision too. And I think you you think of a farmer's market as having a lot of vendors. But even if you think of, like, Ossining, which is a pretty big one, it's it's not that many more than 12. Yeah. It's maybe it's 15. Usually usually, this will put my environmental science. This is my my first ever environmental science job was running a farmer's market. Oh. You think about what you have at a farmer's market. Usually have one long produce table. That's like your main farm. And then you're going to have a couple other like specialty fruit, whatever. And then you'll have a bread. And so, you know, we're talking about you really need like eight for it to be. So not to say that I don't know what down to earth would say, like, if down to earth is is only willing to do it if we have x amount of vendors.
But I don't think we because, you know, we have Ossining and Peak Skills. So we don't need to become, like, one of the biggest markets. And we don't need to be bringing in tourism for the market. Like, the market should just be And, kind supporting our you know, starting off modest and maybe growing it over time. But if are are they located nearby? You know? Could they come out? To Earth. I think they're in Austin. Yeah. So maybe if they could come over at some point and take a look at at the parking lot Sure. You know, here and just give us a sense of scale, you know, that would be at least a a logical next step. But I think I think their business model with respect to us, you know, is is a workable one.
Alright. So are we are we thinking that maybe Asbury would be our I think we'd wanna give them a few site. I mean, they'll they'll
they can think of as many sites as we can, but a a few kind of priority sites. And I would say Asbury. I would say this this building. Yeah. What's the third? And I would say Vesala Park. I mean but the I mean, the idea caveat being that Vesala Yeah. Is the competition for space. That is what killed the old one is because they said, we really need Vassalo. And we said, every everyone
wants Vassalo. Yeah. It can't happen every weekend. And maybe maybe our recreation director could just give us a give us a hint on what what what formal things occur in in on Sunday morning, say, from you know, I think we used we used to start at eight. You know? Eight to eight to eleven or something like that. Twelve. Mean, I I'm pretty sure it's t ball. That's what uses.
I you know, I don't know if soccer or anything else uses it, but I'm I know that t ball does. But I can I can find out for sure?
We don't I mean, it should be said the ideal location is the old post Road in front of Black Cow or Grand Street in front of the Grand soon to be. But I don't know if that's even a conversation we wanna have with parking. But I mean, if yeah. If we're doing have to take four to six spots, but it would probably do very well. And we'd be able to keep in. I mean, that's
Yeah. But, I mean, then you'd also you have traffic, right, people wandering into the street. And
Yeah. I mean, when you do a sidewalk farmer's market, people aren't gonna want wander into the street because you put the the tent is by the road. So they're not, like it's one side of the road. Except that the property owners have the right to have tables on their own. On the sidewalk? Yeah. On the sidewalk. So yeah. Well okay. Yeah. I mean, it's just it's just you know? Yeah. No. I mean, as Asbury is a pretty would be good, I think. Yeah. Well and just just just for the heck of it, we should you know, as you
sometime before they come over, you know, we should maybe and I have no answer to this, but maybe think of one Riverside option,
Yeah. I mean, the what the RAC suggested at the time was basically closing the street on a Sunday morning. But other than that I I mean, listen. That that is more feasible, I think, than closing down a portion of Grand Street. Right? I mean, because there's a because you got Yeah. So the those those neighbors, I don't think are gonna be street. Yeah. At the present moment, it doesn't work because of the construction. But, you know, next year when the construction is done Yeah. It's pretty easy to reroute people Yeah. From thankfully, way the grid in Harmon was set up, it was built in a way that it's very easy to get around areas.
Right. So Well, and there's another option on Riverside, which we can talk about at some point. So Oh. Okay. So
What about the library? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you could The lawn, like, lawn at the library. Yeah. We could talk to the library about that and see. It's like a just I'm I was thinking I'm trying to think of, like, up five corners, like, if, like, somewhere because that's
very central to the people. People are at the library on the weekend. But Yeah. I mean, if you did it if the, you know, the library doesn't open till the afternoon. So if they did it in the morning, you wouldn't On Sunday. Yeah. Yeah. You wouldn't be people would have a place to park, and they wouldn't have to be competing with library patrons. So it's a possibility too. Yeah.
And then, yeah, that's I I love the library pharmacist that, you know, bring in the community aspect of it. It makes it easier to advertise.
Yeah. And the the school parking lot, I think that would be probably a bridge too far. Which school?
High school. High school. Because it just because, you know, it's separate government. We're do it in the parking lot just because of the stairs and, like, where it is. But if you can do it, like, in the lawn. Mhmm. Yeah. Well, the library, I think, at least according to the Internet, still has a CSA, consumer supported agriculture. I don't know if that's Yeah. But that's just one farm, and it's it'll have a subscription. It's not No. Yeah. No. Look. There I recognize that they're different things. Right. But that that I mean, they could they could have people they could do pick up at the farmer's market. The point is that it it it is doing
Semi mark farmer market activities I feel like they would probably really like to have a farmer's market at the library. They could have a little story time outside. They could you know? I think that's it's a it's a very easy
Okay. Two community groups to combine. So we have them for a site visit and kind of walk them ideas to talk about. Walk them around.
Okay. So am I am I correct that that trustees Nicholson and Slippen are the authors of the committee's memo? So do we as a courtesy, do we wanna defer that until
Until they're they can be present? Yeah. That up to that Yeah. Mayor if it's mean, do you wanna have a conversation on it? Or Yeah.
I feel like we should wait until they're here. Yeah. Or at least Or just Let's take a brief pause and see what the what people's ETAs are. Okay. Good.
Just for informational purposes. Work session is, are we gonna do that switch? No, we said we didn't need to do the switch. Okay, so it's the fifteenth. Okay. That's right. I remember that.
Okay. So I don't know. Do you wanna Well, you know what? Let's go into the executive session.
Very good. I'm not gonna bring my kid to the executive session. So Oh, okay. I talked to Oh, okay. I mean, well, they you you don't have to have an executive session then. Yeah. I feel like this stuff we have to talk about probably they need to be here for that too. I talked to Brian this Brian earlier. You know? Okay. Fair enough. So We we that one, can do.
You could do that next week. You could do that next week even. Right. After your board meeting. Yes. Of course.
Okay. Alright. Then maybe we just go to the guidelines. And, manager, do you wanna present their memo?
So myself, trustee Slippen, and trustee Nicholson have been discussing the committee, how we can help committees improve their processes so that everybody is more in line with each other, more communicative, and just basically, you know, help people understand their roles and responsibilities. You know, we have some new committees that have formed in recent years and new people who have gotten involved, and so this was designed to be a helpful guide for them. So, you know, the first the first section explains their relationship to the local government that the advisory committees are accountable to the board, to the village manager. They have to function as part of the village government. Right? So they are, subject to the same rules and requirements that we are. They can't fundraise. They can't take, political positions. They can't, you know, speak out on things that, you know, other nonprofits might be able to do. Right? They are a part of the government, and so they need to remain as such. You know, two of the things that are listed here as new, right, is that residents should only serve up on one committee at any given time and that each committee at a minimum should have a chair, a vice chair, or a cochair, and a secretary. You know, the feeling was that, we are a very well sized community of residents. And, you know, whenever we have, put out a call for volunteers, we always receive a good response. So in order to be fair and let the maximum amount of residents participate in their government, the idea was that, there should you know, there's no reason to have a resident on more than one committee at any one time. And then regarding the leadership, most committees have a chair that's you know, they've all been set up that way. But as we've seen with some recent cases, it's very beneficial to have a vice chair or a co chair because you never know what may happen. Somebody may have, you know, a medical episode that they have to step away. You know, as these are volunteers, things in their personal life or their professional life may come up that takes them away from this volunteer position. So having somebody that can step into that chair role when that person may not be available is important.
And then having a secretary who can basically take minutes at the meetings. You know, a lot of our committees have started taking minutes, which is great. We have those all posted on our website. And it allows not only members of the board to find out what is going on at those committee meetings, but members of the public can find out as well. So having a a secretary was also seen as essential. Okay. Let's see. So then down to the administrative requirements. So we wanted to have committees provide the agendas to my office. At least We hadn't picked an exact number of days, but at least a certain number of days before the meeting. And, you know, the agenda should have, you know, the normal date, time, location, the topics that are gonna be discussed, if there's any action items that they want to take at the meetings, and then any materials that they have. And then those could be shared with the liaisons to the committee. If the committee decides that they wanna have agendas published, we can do that. You know, we've started doing that for some of our advisory committees. And then having the minutes as well submitted within a certain number of days following each meeting. You know? And then what minutes should include. Right? You know? Who was there? The summary of the discussion, what votes were taken, any action items, and then any recommendations that need to be given to the board.
mainly for edification. There's always just to remember, there's always a difference between purely advisory boards
We're and statutory or delegated authority boards, which have to comply with open meetings. Just informational background stuff.
Thank you. So onto communication with the board of trustees. You know, we felt strongly that there should be, written memos that come from the committees so that it's a formal document that can be, you know, either provided to the board directly or put on an agenda. And what those memos should include. Right? How, whatever the recommendation may be, how they got there, what its impact would be, and what, if anything, the committee is asking the board to do. So, some committees have already started this process. We're hoping that, you know, by, you know, including this in the guidelines, the other committees will, follow suit. And then the next section deals with collaboration. Right? We've seen in recent months that there are some topics that one committee may start with and then, you know, determine that it actually interacts with the domain of another committee. And so, we wanted to provide some guidance to how committees can, collaborate. So, you know, there's some examples that are provided here. Right? So, like, the recreation advisory committee would talk to the sustainability committee on sustainability initiatives. Our idea would coordinate with the RAC on accessibility improvements to parks. Arts and humanities would coordinate with RAC if they were thinking about proposing an art installation in the parks. Right? Those sorts of things.
Reporting and documentation, some committees right now are required either through their enabling resolution or the enabling code to submit annual report to the board, but not all are. So the ones that do, I think, are helpful. So we thought it would be good if every every committee submitted an annual report. And then record keeping, we would obviously keep whatever records we needed to under state law. And, committees should try to maintain organized files of their own so that if there was a need to access those, we would be able to do so. You know? And then these last two sections are kind of just, you know, formalities, right, saying that all the committees need you know, these are not optional. All the committees need to follow these. You know, they'll be reviewed annually. Would assume at the organizational meeting, we would review these. And, you know, then what support and resources are provided to the committees as well as the training that the members have to undertake every year. So that is the guideline document document in a nutshell.
You know, it's it's a it's a lot, but I think if we met with the committees, at least met with the chairs and went over all this and, you know, obviously, we would be here to assist them with any questions that they had. We could implement it pretty smoothly.
I would say good job on this. I think a lot good stuff here. The only the only thing I would wanna add to the only thing I wanna add to this is that, just very specifically, every committee in effect has a page on our website. Yes. And some I I would say across the board, the potential is a bit underused. And so I I think, you know, without creating any undue burden on them, when we get together with them, we can either put in the document or just talk to them about it, see if there's ways in which we can we can get them to to be a little more dynamic with their web pages. Basically, web pages are like the project page for their for their committee's actions. And I think people should residents ought to be able to go to any committee and and have a pretty good sense of what what what they're doing on a on a current basis, whether it's minutes or or documents that they've put out or, you know, the annual report. Just have them all up there. Yeah.
This is the like, the Conservation Advisory Council has a pretty good page, and so does sustainability. Sustainability does. Yeah. You know? But that's mainly because those chairs are able to provide us information. And if we can get
more information from the other committees, we'd be happy to Right. Because I I think, generally speaking, we're not asking them to do the do the actual work with with the with the website. No. No. We just get it get it to your office Yep. And you'll get it up there. So Yep.
Great. Yeah. I mean, my big concern in his concern is creating an undue administrative burden for a volunteer committee. I mean, these are all good ideas, good practices.
I wonder as on as far as, like, the communications notes, etcetera, if it would make sense. Like, if do we have a, like, a village server that it would make sense to? Because then it's also, like, keeping the files Mhmm. That we could upload. I'm not trying to put more work on village staff either, but these things in their folder. So it's a little bit less on them. So then it's like, okay. Let's open up the
I mean, we could we could put, like, a template. Like, here's a template to create meeting minutes, or here's a template to create a memo. Right? I mean, we could upload that onto the website, but we like, we wouldn't be able to provide them access to our server, like, to store documents.
Yeah. I mean, there's the and and that's another challenge is I I think that's something we need to look at. I mean, even if it's not on our server, if it's through an official Dropbox account or something like that because, otherwise, what happens is that you have these home brewed solutions, and, you know, they just get lost to time. Yeah. You know, different committees have used Google documents, Dropbox, as I mentioned. At one point, I think someone was using Base Camp.
It they're yeah. It's all over the place, and and we don't have access to them. Yeah. So so so if we do start really implementing this and I know a lot of committees do a similar thing. But if if you wanna if I wanna see the meeting notes from arts and humanity and I have access to the server or the whatever drive, I can just go get it versus having to go back to chairs to find you know, it's it's Well, that's mean, right, that's why that we should really do it. Yeah. And, I mean, the you know, the most important thing documentation wise, right, are minutes and
memos, right, if they're if they're making recommendation to you. So that's why we need those things sent into us in a formal you know, formalized so that, you know, the like I said, the minutes are stored on the website. Those, you know, very easily for somebody to just go and get them. You wouldn't have to try to locate those. You know, if you were trying to say, like, you know, oh, what did the chair of the arts and humanities write in this email, you know, two years ago? Right? I mean, like, that's gonna be difficult to Right. Yeah.
But Well, I'm also thinking about not just minutes, which, you know, can just be kind of emailed in Yeah. To the village staff and published online, but things that might not be, you know, let's just say for necessarily for immediate consumption, like a template, like a Earth Day flyer template or something like that. Yeah.
Yeah. No. I mean, I think stuff like that, if the committees could share that with us, then we can save it on our on our side.
Mhmm. You know? Yeah. I mean, it would just be if we're I mean, I'm thinking about, like, we're making flyers. We're doing that. Like, all of these things
live wherever wherever they they live. Live. I I mean, I think part of, you know, part of the issue also, like, dealing with flyers. Right? Like, you know, should each committee be making their flyers, or can we have our communications person make the flyers? Right? Maybe that's
Well, we have I mean, we kinda have that capacity now. Right? I mean, we have a communications person. Yep. And to the mayor's point, if we're concerned about administratively burdening the volunteers, you know, take the
take some of that work off like making flyers. That could be done. Right. Regardless, though, I think they should live in one place. So then if it's a communications person making them, then we Yeah. You know? Or, again, just like with the you know? And, again, it can be different platforms and agnostic
about that. But and, you know, you might guess that I'm the c a ACAC liaison with some of these things, but, like, the vendor list for Earth days. Yeah. And, like, also the Earth days past. Because even if someone in the immediate past year wasn't available, maybe they were on the list from two years ago. And if you reach out, you can get them. And it would be better to have one locate you know, you basically reassign the account with the access from the old chair to the new chair versus, you know, asking an outgoing chair to be like, hey. Can you look at every email you've ever sent and see if there's anything important that you wanna give to the new chair. Because that's more or less the system in a lot of committees right now.
I'm I'm not sure exactly how that would Look. That and that's my apologies. I've actually kind of derailed this conversation to some degree. But now that we have, you know, one of the, you know, coauthors, yeah, coauthors of this. How
how did everything else go? We breezed through everything. We're on committees now. Yeah. Were on committees.
And and, also, of course, you you do have things you wanna revisit in terms of well, we passed the resolution, so we're not doing that. But the you had any specific comments on the rental registry registry or the alternate members?
I mean, I think everyone knows that I've been in favor of doing a rental registry for a long time. I think it's, you know, something that is needed for us to kinda understand kind of what's out there. So but what are the next steps in that
process? So because no one had any suggestion at this time, I should say, no suggested changes, it would be bringing it back at a meeting and beginning this referral process.
And, like, in thinking about sort of what the process would be to kind of find find these rental units in the community, we're we're just relying on the landowners,
the building owners to sort of Well, we have the we have the 60 we have the the 60 buildings that have three or more Three or more. Because those have to be inspected on a regular basis. So we have all those. We have the contact information for them. You know, we can look at the land records that we have for the two family buildings. And, you know, some will be owned by an LLC or otherwise, you know, have an ownership status that, you know, probably signifies that the owner is not residing there. Mhmm. And, you know, we can reach out to those as well. And then, you know, the remainder will just have to be through outreach to the to the community. And are we talking about having any payment as part of that registry? Or There would be a registration fee, right, that the board would set as part of this process that would cover whatever administrative work was needed by the by the staff. Got it. So the the inspections the fire inspections right now, which is what we do for the multifamily buildings. Right? It's a $100 for up to five units. So, you know, you could have it be the same fee Mhmm. If you wanted to for the for the lesser ones. So
Okay. I'll I'll watch the Yeah. But the the fee the fees you know, we'll take care of the fees as after we adopt the law. So that's Correct. Yeah. You don't do the fees. You would do the fee after the law was adopted. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Alright. We return to our discussion of the advisory boards and committees.
Proceed. Okay. It's unfortunate because she really did take a lot of time in terms of talking about these committee guidelines and kind of what they are. She's kind of a key key person. So, I mean, I think, you know, overall, like, where this is coming from is that, you know, our advisory committees are you know, we have several, and, you know, I don't think we have quite a process for each and every one of those advisory committees. So we'd like to see more of a consistent process so that an advisory committee understands kind of how they communicate with the board of trustees, who they should go to, how they should communicate. You know? So this is what this guidelines Maria created, and I think it's really, really very thorough. But, you know, it kinda gives the advisory communities an opportunity to kind of understand what their role is, how to communicate best with with the board and with the manager and village staff. Yeah.
So as you know, my primary concern, as I was alluding to earlier, is the creating, you know, an undue administrative burden for volunteers. Now it's been highlighted the fact that we do have the option to farm out some of that work to staff, and that I think is very important. And excuse me. The other piece, think, that just some of it's a question of framing is for these guidelines and all. I would say that I would kind of bundle everything all of this whole packet together and call it a handbook. Right? Because that's really what a handbook for village boards and committees. Because as we've seen this year, you know, we've had unfortunate you know, an unplanned transition in one committee. And I know of at least two committee chairs that have indicated that they will not be returning for another term. And, you know, so there's turnover, which, you know, is is great, but we don't want yeah. It it it it would I think a handbook would be very helpful for new chairs in particular and new committee members in general Yeah. In terms of adapting. And so I think it's a great concept. And it is too bad that Maria is not here because I would very much let there is one point where I think she and I don't see eye to the eye, and we'll be talking about it again at another time, but which is the limit of one person per committee. I understand that, and I'm even open to the idea. I just I wouldn't want to do that at the start of this coming term for the committees. I think that would be a rather sudden adjustment. I think if we're gonna be going down that road, we should give it one year to take effect. And this way, people can take stock
and decide what they want.
Yeah. I I think that's fair. I think giving people an opportunity to think about kind of what their committee is. I guess I my question to you is what you know, with our committees, how how many volunteers are we getting? Like, do we have too many volunteers and we need to turn people away? Or are we really is it very difficult to find committee members and there's a need for more people, you know, some people to serve on multiple committees?
Yeah. So, I mean, I think that, you know, the intention here is to give everyone an opportunity. Opportunity. If people want to serve on a committee, fantastic. There are people that are serving on multiple committees. So I think giving them a year to sort of pick their favorite or when their term's up on a committee. Yeah.
I mean, obviously, the you know, we thank them for their dedication. Right? Because being on more than one committee is, you know, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. But, you know, as trustee Nicholson was just saying, you know, there is room for
you know, we wanna give the maximum amount of people the ability to participate in local government. Yes. Yeah. And I think that, you know, the intention of this committee guidelines is it's not put more burden on our volunteers. It really is to put less because Because there there are are so so many many times times where where Kara or I or Maria are fielding questions from our chairs about a variety of things. Right? Like, I mean, programming is a whole whole sort of Yeah. Lots of questions around programming, lots of questions around budgeting, lots of questions about DPW and what facilities can be used, and can we borrow a microphone for this event and all this stuff that, like, we just need to, like, have it in one place. Yep.
So Yeah. I mean, we do we get a little bit inundated by some of the committees. And, you know, being able to you know, we have in in the backup as well, like, an event request form, right, that just, like, put all your stuff here. Yep. You know, just you know, this form is to help you. Put all your stuff here. And, you know, hopefully, that will you know, we won't get 10 emails instead. We'll just get one form. Yeah. And
Yeah. And I I do think that you know, I I I think you all kind of know how I feel about the fact that we do need more support in the recreation department for programming. The the committees are doing a phenomenal job job in putting together programming, but at the end of the day, it would be a whole lot easier if if it was a staff responsibility. Right? So if, you know, along with the summer concert series, the recreation programming has a music series. Right right now, the arts and humanities committee has taken that on in an incredible way. I mean, they're doing a phenomenal job of organizing those concerts, getting getting such talented musicians really on on the cheap, which is amazing. But at the same time, they're volunteers. And to the mayor's point, people transition, you know, we'll lose some, you know, we'll lose someone on that committee that's not, you know, that that doesn't wanna do that anymore. And then we'll kinda lose that resource for the village that's been successful. So I, you know, I I do think that we need to continue to, you know, push resources when we have them to, you know, more dedicated programming for that that that's run by the village.
And I we talked a little bit about, you know, this being kind of a PowerPoint presentation.
Oh, I agree with that. Yeah. And so I think it you know, in terms of next steps, I think it makes sense for a future work session on the cusp of reorganizing in the, you know, appointment to fresh committee members that we look at a semifinal draft developed by the manager. Does that make sense? Sure. Okay. Alright. And I would just going back to the one member and all that, I would just put the asterisk of to take effect in January 2 or January 27 or December 20 Yeah.
And with that, we covered our public agenda. Do I have a motion into entering well, unless there's further comment or discussion. Okay. I think so. With that Oh, I did have a question about the Omnia partners. What are the Omnia partners? Yes. Who are
they? No. This is so We we we signed a contract with them. They are a cooperative purchasing agree agency. We have a couple of these. I was explaining earlier, one is Source Well, and another is the Houston Galveston Council of of Governments. And, basically, they allow us to, use bids that other governments throughout the country have put out. And, you know, if these bids meet our specifications and they have what's known as, like, a piggybacking clause in it, you're able to tap into, the pricing that they have gotten. So, the playground equipment for Dobbs is on this Omnia program, and so, that's why we're signing up to join this. And, you know, we'll be able to purchase off of that without having to go through our own bid process for the for the playground equipment. Right. Yep. So piggybacking is available for goods and equipment Mhmm. For, like, public work, like actual, like, you know, building. Right? Like, you know, digging digging up the field. Right? That that you can't piggyback. You have to go out to bid for that no matter what. Yeah. You can't do design build on a piggyback. Yeah. That's the big one that the controller won't let you do. So great. Okay. Sounds good.