Are you hungry? If the answer is yes – take advantage of a new program started by Xposure Greenburgh (the group that runs our after school program at the Theodore Young Community Center). Children who are not in camp are participating in the Greenburgh Tropical Fantasy Italian Ice/Ice Cream Student Entrepreneurial training program. They are learning important business skills and will be selling ice cream at the Greenburgh library on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays from noon to 4:30 PM. The dates and times may change depending on customer traffic patterns. The program starts on Wednesday, July 1st at the Theodore Young Community Center and will begin operations at the Greenburgh Library on Monday, July 6th.
The students are receiving training which includes finance, business and customer service skills. Students will contribute a portion of the training programs net monthly profit to the town of Greenburgh as rent for use of the space at the library and the Theodore Young Community Center. Besides learning valuable entrepreneurial skills participating students must apply for library cards and enroll in the Young Adults Reading program. They also will participate in a weekly finance class designed to help them save and invest their money. In addition, they must set aside 33% of their weekly stipend/wage to be deposited into a savings account.
Some of the flavors: Mango (w/real mango), Cherry, coconut, Snickers, Cake Batter, Cotton Candy, Rainbow.
The xposure program received national attention earlier this year when it was featured on the cover of Scholastic Magazine. Raymond Thomas is the founder of Xposure. Jessica Lugo and Frank Critton will be supervising the summer program which runs from 11 am to 5 pm.
The Lanza Family Foundation donates about $170,000 a year to the town for this innovative program –which provides students with real life learning skills.
Starting a student run business has been a goal of mine for many years. The Xposure ice cream initiative hopefully will lead to additional job training initiatives that can help prepare our youth for the real world.
Bill Gates-----------watch out! You will soon have competition. If you reside in unincorporated Greenburgh and would like your child to take advantage of this program – please email me at pfeiner@greenburghny.com and I will forward to the Raymond Thomas at Xposure.
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Week of June 28th: Miscellaneous
The purpose of this Miscellaneous topic is to discuss any town related issues you feel are important that are not addressed in other topics. Please post any issues you wish to discuss in the comments section of this post. Thanks!
If you have any suggestions or comments regarding the blog, please contact me at 'mherman.gny@gmail.com'. Thank you for your input.
-Marc Herman
This week's discourse closed. Please use the newer weekly post for new comments; discussion for this week can still be viewed. Thanks for your comments!
REGENERON JOBS OPENINGS
Regeneron is a bio tech company located in the town of Greenburgh. I looked at their careers page on the internet and found the following job opportunities.
PAUL FEINER
| My Career Center | Back to Search Page |
Listed below are the career opportunities in the category or categories you chose. To learn more about a job, click the job title. If you are interested in applying for a position, add the position to your Job Cart to apply. Note that you can sort by clicking the column headers or the arrows.
This star indicates positions posted within the last 7 days.
Your search matched 50 job(s). Now displaying jobs 1 - 10.
Results List Navigation: [ Next ]
Req # Job Title Division Location
1540 Animal Research Associate I Velocigene Tarrytown, N.Y.
1539 Animal Care Technician Velocigene Tarrytown, N.Y.
1550 Associate Director - Toxicology Development Tarrytown, N.Y.
1546 Associate Director - Sample Analysis & Sample Management Development Tarrytown, N.Y.
1186 Associate Director/Director Alliance Management Admin & Fin Tarrytown, N.Y.
1515 Biospace Career Fair - June 2009 College Recruitment Tarrytown, N.Y.
1555 Director/Senior Director, Medical Affairs Clin Sci & Reg Dev Tarrytown, N.Y.
1536 Laboratory Assistant Development Tarrytown, N.Y.
1439 Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) Analyst Site Serv./IS Tarrytown, N.Y.
1538 Materials Management Tech or Animal Caretaker Velocigene Tarrytown, N.Y.
PAUL FEINER
| My Career Center | Back to Search Page |
Listed below are the career opportunities in the category or categories you chose. To learn more about a job, click the job title. If you are interested in applying for a position, add the position to your Job Cart to apply. Note that you can sort by clicking the column headers or the arrows.
This star indicates positions posted within the last 7 days.
Your search matched 50 job(s). Now displaying jobs 1 - 10.
Results List Navigation: [ Next ]
Req # Job Title Division Location
1540 Animal Research Associate I Velocigene Tarrytown, N.Y.
1539 Animal Care Technician Velocigene Tarrytown, N.Y.
1550 Associate Director - Toxicology Development Tarrytown, N.Y.
1546 Associate Director - Sample Analysis & Sample Management Development Tarrytown, N.Y.
1186 Associate Director/Director Alliance Management Admin & Fin Tarrytown, N.Y.
1515 Biospace Career Fair - June 2009 College Recruitment Tarrytown, N.Y.
1555 Director/Senior Director, Medical Affairs Clin Sci & Reg Dev Tarrytown, N.Y.
1536 Laboratory Assistant Development Tarrytown, N.Y.
1439 Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) Analyst Site Serv./IS Tarrytown, N.Y.
1538 Materials Management Tech or Animal Caretaker Velocigene Tarrytown, N.Y.
SUNDAY'S LOHUD.COM HAS DATA BASE OF ALL TOWN/FIRE DISTRICT SALARIES
If you are curious...today's www.lohud.com has a data base listing all the top salaries of town employees and the three paid fire district employees. There is also a report on Police Chief Kapica's report listing the finances of the fire districts.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Week of June 21st: Miscellaneous
The purpose of this Miscellaneous topic is to discuss any town related issues you feel are important that are not addressed in other topics. Please post any issues you wish to discuss in the comments section of this post. Thanks!
If you have any suggestions or comments regarding the blog, please contact me at 'mherman.gny@gmail.com'. Thank you for your input.
-Marc Herman
This week's discourse closed. Please use the newer weekly post for new comments; discussion for this week can still be viewed. Thanks for your comments!
Friday, June 26, 2009
CLARIFICATION: comparison greenburgh police vs 3 paid fire districts...town bd work session agenda
Clarification:
The cost of funding our Greenburgh police dept which serves the entire unincorporated section of Greenburgh is $22,568,898.
The cost of funding the three paid fire districts (Hartsdale, Fairview, Greenville) which serves about 73% of unincorporated Greenburgh is $28,035,331.
The town has contracts with seven fire protection districts (volunteer departments) to serve the remaining sections of unincorporated Greenburgh. That cost is $1,913,981.
The comparison: $22,568,898 for the police/ $29,949,012 for fire protection in unincorporated Greenburgh
The police chiefs report on the financing of the fire districts is on the town web site or I can send you a copy.
Town of Greenburgh
Work Session Agenda of the Greenburgh Town Board
Tuesday – June 30, 2009 – 9:15AM
(This meeting will be held at the Multi-Purpose Center / Anthony Veteran Park. It will not be televised live.)
Work Sessions and Town Board Meetings will be aired each Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting at 7:02am and 4:45pm. Each segment will run for approximately 6 to 7 hours, depending upon the length of the two meetings.)
9:15AM Executive Session – Legal
9:45AM Water Wheel Property
10:30AM Board Members will attend the Ground Breaking Ceremony
For Affordable Housing SHORE– Ardsley . Following
the ceremony, the Board may reconvene their Work Session
at the Multi-Purpose Center.
There are many fun activities for the family that you can take advantage of this weekend. For more information on the farmer's markets, musical events, entertainment, happenings please visit: http://www.rivertownsguide.com/.
Have a great weekend. The town pool is open for your enjoyment!
PAUL FEINER
The cost of funding our Greenburgh police dept which serves the entire unincorporated section of Greenburgh is $22,568,898.
The cost of funding the three paid fire districts (Hartsdale, Fairview, Greenville) which serves about 73% of unincorporated Greenburgh is $28,035,331.
The town has contracts with seven fire protection districts (volunteer departments) to serve the remaining sections of unincorporated Greenburgh. That cost is $1,913,981.
The comparison: $22,568,898 for the police/ $29,949,012 for fire protection in unincorporated Greenburgh
The police chiefs report on the financing of the fire districts is on the town web site or I can send you a copy.
Town of Greenburgh
Work Session Agenda of the Greenburgh Town Board
Tuesday – June 30, 2009 – 9:15AM
(This meeting will be held at the Multi-Purpose Center / Anthony Veteran Park. It will not be televised live.)
Work Sessions and Town Board Meetings will be aired each Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting at 7:02am and 4:45pm. Each segment will run for approximately 6 to 7 hours, depending upon the length of the two meetings.)
9:15AM Executive Session – Legal
9:45AM Water Wheel Property
10:30AM Board Members will attend the Ground Breaking Ceremony
For Affordable Housing SHORE– Ardsley . Following
the ceremony, the Board may reconvene their Work Session
at the Multi-Purpose Center.
There are many fun activities for the family that you can take advantage of this weekend. For more information on the farmer's markets, musical events, entertainment, happenings please visit: http://www.rivertownsguide.com/.
Have a great weekend. The town pool is open for your enjoyment!
PAUL FEINER
NEW LAW SIGNED COULD LEAD TO TAXPAYER SAVINGS
Gov. David Paterson has signed legislation that would make it easier for citizens and local officials to consolidate or dissolve local governments. Residents and local governing bodies could petition for abolishing or combining special taxing districts, towns, villages or other government entities. Our State Legislators, Senator Andrea Stewart Cousins and Assemblyman Richard Brodsky voted for the legislation. The legislation was proposed by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
NOW THE VOTERS CAN DECIDE IF THE THREE PAID FIRE DISTRICTS IN GREENBURGH SHOULD BE CONSOLIDATED…
COST OF GREENBURGH POLICE (entire unicorporated Greenburgh) $22,568,898…COST OF 3 PAID FIRE DISTRICTS (NOT ENTIRE UNINCORPORATED GREENBURGH: $29,949,012)
New York has more than 10,500 taxing districts statewide, 6,900 of which are town special districts for water, fire and other services. For example… The town of Greenburgh has three paid fire districts –each costing more than the Greenburgh police dept. In 2009 the cost of running the Greenburgh police department was $22, 568, 898. The combined costs of running the three paid fire districts (Greenville, Fairview, Hartsdale) was $29,949,012. The three paid fire districts do not serve the entire unincorporated section of town. The police dept does serve the entire unincorporated section of Greenburgh. Parts of the unincorporated section of Greenburgh (North Elmsford, Donald Park, parts of unincorporated Greenburgh, E Irvington) are served by volunteer fire departments. The police chief recently issued a report (which is on the town web site—www.greenburghny.com) reviewing the finances of the fire departments. A suggestion was made to study the impact consolidation would have on the operations of the departments. This new law will make it easier for voters to successfully push for measures that could result in taxpayer savings. Petitions for consolidation would have to be sgined by at least 10 percent of the voters or 5,000 voters-whichever is less.
SHOULD VOTERS HAVE THE ABILITY TO PETITION TO ELIMINATE/CONSOLIDATE COUNTY GOV…..ELIMINATE THE STATE SENATE?
I hope that this law will be the beginning of the effort to rethink the way government in New York State runs. We need to restructure government if we are going to be able to make living in Westchester more affordable. I hope that this new law will be followed by additional actions that could lead to the smarter government. Among the suggestions:
***the NY State Legislature should approve legislation creating a New York State Constitutional Convention to rewrite the state constitution.
***the NY State Legislature should amend the new consolidation law to provide voters with the ability to petition for the elimination/consolidation of county governments.
***The NY State Legislature should amend the new law to grant voters the right to petition for the elimination of state agencies, authorities and even one house of the NY State Legislature. Our dysfunctional State Senate could be abolished and replaced with a unicameral legislature. Nebraska currently has a single legislative body. In the federal government the House reflects the population and the Senate reflects the geographic regions. However, the State Senate legislative districts are based on the principle of one man one vote. The current bi cameral legislature makes advocates for new legislation jump through two hoops in one session for no valid reason.
Paul Feiner
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
NOW THE VOTERS CAN DECIDE IF THE THREE PAID FIRE DISTRICTS IN GREENBURGH SHOULD BE CONSOLIDATED…
COST OF GREENBURGH POLICE (entire unicorporated Greenburgh) $22,568,898…COST OF 3 PAID FIRE DISTRICTS (NOT ENTIRE UNINCORPORATED GREENBURGH: $29,949,012)
New York has more than 10,500 taxing districts statewide, 6,900 of which are town special districts for water, fire and other services. For example… The town of Greenburgh has three paid fire districts –each costing more than the Greenburgh police dept. In 2009 the cost of running the Greenburgh police department was $22, 568, 898. The combined costs of running the three paid fire districts (Greenville, Fairview, Hartsdale) was $29,949,012. The three paid fire districts do not serve the entire unincorporated section of town. The police dept does serve the entire unincorporated section of Greenburgh. Parts of the unincorporated section of Greenburgh (North Elmsford, Donald Park, parts of unincorporated Greenburgh, E Irvington) are served by volunteer fire departments. The police chief recently issued a report (which is on the town web site—www.greenburghny.com) reviewing the finances of the fire departments. A suggestion was made to study the impact consolidation would have on the operations of the departments. This new law will make it easier for voters to successfully push for measures that could result in taxpayer savings. Petitions for consolidation would have to be sgined by at least 10 percent of the voters or 5,000 voters-whichever is less.
SHOULD VOTERS HAVE THE ABILITY TO PETITION TO ELIMINATE/CONSOLIDATE COUNTY GOV…..ELIMINATE THE STATE SENATE?
I hope that this law will be the beginning of the effort to rethink the way government in New York State runs. We need to restructure government if we are going to be able to make living in Westchester more affordable. I hope that this new law will be followed by additional actions that could lead to the smarter government. Among the suggestions:
***the NY State Legislature should approve legislation creating a New York State Constitutional Convention to rewrite the state constitution.
***the NY State Legislature should amend the new consolidation law to provide voters with the ability to petition for the elimination/consolidation of county governments.
***The NY State Legislature should amend the new law to grant voters the right to petition for the elimination of state agencies, authorities and even one house of the NY State Legislature. Our dysfunctional State Senate could be abolished and replaced with a unicameral legislature. Nebraska currently has a single legislative body. In the federal government the House reflects the population and the Senate reflects the geographic regions. However, the State Senate legislative districts are based on the principle of one man one vote. The current bi cameral legislature makes advocates for new legislation jump through two hoops in one session for no valid reason.
Paul Feiner
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY JOB
Position: 302801 Date: June 17, 2009
ADMINISTRATIVE POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT
TITLE OF POSITION: Westchester Executive MBA Program Associate
DEPARTMENT: Graduate School of Business, Westchester Campus
RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Handles all student inquiries and plays a major role in the year-round off-site student recruitment.
• Develops and manages a comprehensive process to coordinate and verify faculty compensation for the EMBA program.
• Assists with all aspects of student registration.
• Coordinates with faculty and vendor/bookstore with acquisition of instruction materials.
• Serve as the key facilitator in the resolution of scheduling conflicts and assist in the reconciliation of grade disputes.
• Monitors and reports on income and expense issues.
• Develops external events such as procuring speakers at very high levels (CEO’s) to speak and work with the EMBA students.
• Serves as the key coordinator of the EMBA information sessions by initiating the organization and conduct of each session.
• Serves as first contact for prospective students.
• Tracks application submission progress.
• Prepares and produces yield reports for each cohort.
• Coordinate with the Director of Development alumni initiatives including identifying alumni who can serve as advisory board members.
QUALIFICATIONS:
• Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s degree preferred.
• Prior experience working with older students.
• Marketing skills desirable.
• Ability to work in a team environment.
• Available to work evenings and weekends.
• Ability to create and foster a customer service environment for the GBA students.
SALARY: Commensurate with experience
STARTING DATE: As soon as possible
SEND LETTER & RESUME: Francis Petit, Ph.D
Assistant Dean of MBA Westchester
Director, EMBA Program
Fordham University
400 Westchester Avenue
Westchester, NY 10604
petit@fordham.edu
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY IS AN
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION INSTITUTION.
ADMINISTRATIVE POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT
TITLE OF POSITION: Westchester Executive MBA Program Associate
DEPARTMENT: Graduate School of Business, Westchester Campus
RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Handles all student inquiries and plays a major role in the year-round off-site student recruitment.
• Develops and manages a comprehensive process to coordinate and verify faculty compensation for the EMBA program.
• Assists with all aspects of student registration.
• Coordinates with faculty and vendor/bookstore with acquisition of instruction materials.
• Serve as the key facilitator in the resolution of scheduling conflicts and assist in the reconciliation of grade disputes.
• Monitors and reports on income and expense issues.
• Develops external events such as procuring speakers at very high levels (CEO’s) to speak and work with the EMBA students.
• Serves as the key coordinator of the EMBA information sessions by initiating the organization and conduct of each session.
• Serves as first contact for prospective students.
• Tracks application submission progress.
• Prepares and produces yield reports for each cohort.
• Coordinate with the Director of Development alumni initiatives including identifying alumni who can serve as advisory board members.
QUALIFICATIONS:
• Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s degree preferred.
• Prior experience working with older students.
• Marketing skills desirable.
• Ability to work in a team environment.
• Available to work evenings and weekends.
• Ability to create and foster a customer service environment for the GBA students.
SALARY: Commensurate with experience
STARTING DATE: As soon as possible
SEND LETTER & RESUME: Francis Petit, Ph.D
Assistant Dean of MBA Westchester
Director, EMBA Program
Fordham University
400 Westchester Avenue
Westchester, NY 10604
petit@fordham.edu
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY IS AN
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION INSTITUTION.
Monday, June 22, 2009
CENSUS JOBS
From: rosemarie.fogarty@census.gov [mailto:rosemarie.fogarty@census.gov]
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 7:44 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: 2010 Census - New JOB postings
Dear Partners,
Please check out these links to 2010 Census job openings and Regional Office positions.
Open each link to see the geographic area of consideration (where applicants must reside).
1. http://www.census.gov/ronyc/www/emply.html
2. http://www.census.gov/ronyc/www/newyork2010jobs.html
3. http://www.census.gov/ronyc/www/newjersey2010jobs.html
4. http://www.census.gov/ronyc/www/Jobs/How-to-apply-to-NY-LCO-v4.pdf
Rosemarie
rosemarie.fogarty@census.gov
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 7:44 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: 2010 Census - New JOB postings
Dear Partners,
Please check out these links to 2010 Census job openings and Regional Office positions.
Open each link to see the geographic area of consideration (where applicants must reside).
1. http://www.census.gov/ronyc/www/emply.html
2. http://www.census.gov/ronyc/www/newyork2010jobs.html
3. http://www.census.gov/ronyc/www/newjersey2010jobs.html
4. http://www.census.gov/ronyc/www/Jobs/How-to-apply-to-NY-LCO-v4.pdf
Rosemarie
rosemarie.fogarty@census.gov
OPEN DOOR JOBS
Open Door’s priority is to recruit and retain a motivated workforce, one that supports our mission and achieves our vision. It is our people that help keep our doors open. Open Door is dedicated to supporting employees in their work while also striving to create an environment where employees are enthusiastic about their work.
Join our team and experience what sets us apart:
• Career development opportunities
• Pride in our comprehensive and coordinated system of health service
• Compassion and commitment to our communities
• Our efforts to eliminate disparities for the medically underserved
• Our commitment to our workforce
• Opportunities to develop new services/programs for our patients
See our website for informational video and more information about the Open Door. (www.opendoormedical.org)The following positions are available:
OSSINING
PATIENT SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE (FT) for front-end operations at Open Door. Knowledge of eClinical Works software and/or Microsoft office preferred. Must possess excellent customer service skills. High energy and multi-tasking. English/Spanish language skills required.
PORT CHESTER
DENTIST (PEDIATRIC) (PT) & DENTIST (GENERAL DENTISTRY) (PT) Join a busy and dedicated dental team in providing quality care to residents of mid-Westchester County. A dynamic, exciting and challenging community-based dental practice awaits talented candidate. Dental public health background, cross-cultural experience and bilingual English/Spanish abilities a plus.
HOUSEKEEPER
Port Chester Open Door has an opening for a part-time housekeeper. This person will be responsible for cleaning, stripping and waxing floors as well as other general housekeeping duties in a health care setting. (Evening shift) Previous healthcare housekeeping experience preferred.
Open Door Family Medical Centers offers a competitive, comprehensive benefits package for our employees and their families. Our benefits include medical and dental insurance, 401k, long-term disability insurance, short-term disability insurance, life insurance, paid time-off, employee assistance/work life programs and tuition reimbursement. Benefits depending on schedule. EEO Interested individuals should forward resume with salary requirements to: Open Door - Attn: Human Resources Fax# 914-941-0769 or e-mail NRodriguez@ood.org
06/17/2009-06/22/2009
Join our team and experience what sets us apart:
• Career development opportunities
• Pride in our comprehensive and coordinated system of health service
• Compassion and commitment to our communities
• Our efforts to eliminate disparities for the medically underserved
• Our commitment to our workforce
• Opportunities to develop new services/programs for our patients
See our website for informational video and more information about the Open Door. (www.opendoormedical.org)The following positions are available:
OSSINING
PATIENT SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE (FT) for front-end operations at Open Door. Knowledge of eClinical Works software and/or Microsoft office preferred. Must possess excellent customer service skills. High energy and multi-tasking. English/Spanish language skills required.
PORT CHESTER
DENTIST (PEDIATRIC) (PT) & DENTIST (GENERAL DENTISTRY) (PT) Join a busy and dedicated dental team in providing quality care to residents of mid-Westchester County. A dynamic, exciting and challenging community-based dental practice awaits talented candidate. Dental public health background, cross-cultural experience and bilingual English/Spanish abilities a plus.
HOUSEKEEPER
Port Chester Open Door has an opening for a part-time housekeeper. This person will be responsible for cleaning, stripping and waxing floors as well as other general housekeeping duties in a health care setting. (Evening shift) Previous healthcare housekeeping experience preferred.
Open Door Family Medical Centers offers a competitive, comprehensive benefits package for our employees and their families. Our benefits include medical and dental insurance, 401k, long-term disability insurance, short-term disability insurance, life insurance, paid time-off, employee assistance/work life programs and tuition reimbursement. Benefits depending on schedule. EEO Interested individuals should forward resume with salary requirements to: Open Door - Attn: Human Resources Fax# 914-941-0769 or e-mail NRodriguez@ood.org
06/17/2009-06/22/2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
TRAGEDY AVOIDED AT ILLEGAL BASEMENT APT...THANK YOU BUILDING DEPT, FAIRVIEW FIRE DEPT, GREENBURGH POLICE--LIVES SAVED!
TRAGEDY AVOIDED BECAUSE OF BUILDING DEPT ACTION AGAINST ILLEGAL BASEMENT APARTMENT
Last night the Building dept took action that probably saved lives. I would like to express my thanks to the Building dept, Fairview Fire Dept and Greenburgh police dept for their efforts. This highlights the importance of our code enforcement initiatives.
The address is 45 Gibson Avenue. It’s a one-family house that also contained an illegal basement apartment. There were small children in the house which totaled 13 people. There was a gas hot water heater that had its flue exhaust and gasses vented directly into a space where people were living. Additionally, there were wires in the electric service panel that were melted from overheating. The Police Department assisted Building Department staff in gaining entry to the house. After the inspector’s observed how dangerous this situation was, the Fairview Fire Department was called. They conducted heat tests at the roof level and found the temperature to be approximately, intimating that a fire was imminent. Con Edison was called and upon viewing the danger cut the gas and electric services. The Red Cross was called and came to the scene and assisted the occupants to be relocated. This surely would have ended in death(s) if the Town did not act.
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
Last night the Building dept took action that probably saved lives. I would like to express my thanks to the Building dept, Fairview Fire Dept and Greenburgh police dept for their efforts. This highlights the importance of our code enforcement initiatives.
The address is 45 Gibson Avenue. It’s a one-family house that also contained an illegal basement apartment. There were small children in the house which totaled 13 people. There was a gas hot water heater that had its flue exhaust and gasses vented directly into a space where people were living. Additionally, there were wires in the electric service panel that were melted from overheating. The Police Department assisted Building Department staff in gaining entry to the house. After the inspector’s observed how dangerous this situation was, the Fairview Fire Department was called. They conducted heat tests at the roof level and found the temperature to be approximately, intimating that a fire was imminent. Con Edison was called and upon viewing the danger cut the gas and electric services. The Red Cross was called and came to the scene and assisted the occupants to be relocated. This surely would have ended in death(s) if the Town did not act.
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
Friday, June 19, 2009
WORK SESSION... FUN THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR FAMILY THIS WEEKEND
Town of Greenburgh
Work Session Agenda of the Greenburgh Town Board
Tuesday – June 23, 2009 – 2:00PM
(All Work Sessions are Televised Live on Cablevision Channel 76, Verizon 35 and are streamed live. Work Sessions and Town Board Meetings will be aired each Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting at 7:02am and 4:45pm. Each segment will run for approximately 6 to 7 hours, depending upon the length of the two meetings.)
2:00p.m. Agenda Review
2:15p.m. Scheduling Department Meetings – 2010 Budget
2:30p.m. Invitation to Neighboring Communities to Enter into Inter-Municipal
Agreement of Voting Representation on Planning Boards
2:45p.m. Preparation for Discussion on Metz Reservoir
4:00p.m. Executive Session – Interviews – Boards and Commissions
Citizens Budget Committee – Luis Polit (see 6/16/09 email)
4:30p.m. Executive Session – Legal/Personnel
LOTS OF FUN THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND-- check rivertownsguide.com for information about the Hastings on Hudson Farmer's market (Saturday 8:30 to 2 PM--with music)...family to family.org shopping fundraiser (they help needy families)...the E Hartsdale Ave farmer's market and music (9-2)...Ossining Bark in the park for dog lovers...Clearwater Hudson River revival (Saturday and Sunday)...jazz at Tarrytown Music Hall, Hastings Spring Thing this Sunday.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
PAUL FEINER
Work Session Agenda of the Greenburgh Town Board
Tuesday – June 23, 2009 – 2:00PM
(All Work Sessions are Televised Live on Cablevision Channel 76, Verizon 35 and are streamed live. Work Sessions and Town Board Meetings will be aired each Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting at 7:02am and 4:45pm. Each segment will run for approximately 6 to 7 hours, depending upon the length of the two meetings.)
2:00p.m. Agenda Review
2:15p.m. Scheduling Department Meetings – 2010 Budget
2:30p.m. Invitation to Neighboring Communities to Enter into Inter-Municipal
Agreement of Voting Representation on Planning Boards
2:45p.m. Preparation for Discussion on Metz Reservoir
4:00p.m. Executive Session – Interviews – Boards and Commissions
Citizens Budget Committee – Luis Polit (see 6/16/09 email)
4:30p.m. Executive Session – Legal/Personnel
LOTS OF FUN THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND-- check rivertownsguide.com for information about the Hastings on Hudson Farmer's market (Saturday 8:30 to 2 PM--with music)...family to family.org shopping fundraiser (they help needy families)...the E Hartsdale Ave farmer's market and music (9-2)...Ossining Bark in the park for dog lovers...Clearwater Hudson River revival (Saturday and Sunday)...jazz at Tarrytown Music Hall, Hastings Spring Thing this Sunday.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
PAUL FEINER
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Pepsi Co internships
Global Internal Communications Intern, PepsiCo (student or recent graduate)
(based in Purchase, New York)
* Communications/journalism, background preferred; other backgrounds will be considered;
* Excellent written and spoken English. Knowledge of AP style. Fluency in other languages desirable;
* Able to perform well independently and as part of a team;
* Available for at least 6 weeks beginning July 2009.
Responsibilities:
The Global Internal Communications Internship has responsibilities that include, but are not limited to, writing articles and preparing information for presentation in print and electronic communications vehicles including newsletters, posters, the Web and videos. Gather information quickly and accurately and write compelling copy. Help coordinate Internal Communication projects, including corporate events, publications and translations. Support Global Internal Communications team. Other projects as requested.
Salary:
We will offer interns an hourly wage.
There is a free shuttle available for interns traveling in from New York City on the Metro-North train.
How to apply:
Please apply ASAP by sending a covering letter and your resume to:
corpcomm@pepsi.com
We will contact applicants selected for an interview.
Writing samples will be required
About PepsiCo:
PepsiCo is one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies, with 2008 annual revenues of more than $43 billion. The company employs approximately 198,000 people worldwide, and its products are sold in approximately 200 countries. Its principal businesses include: Frito-Lay snacks, Pepsi-Cola beverages, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices and Quaker foods. The PepsiCo portfolio includes 18 brands that generate $1 billion or more each in annual retail sales.
PepsiCo’s commitment to sustainable growth, defined as Performance with Purpose, is focused on generating healthy financial returns while giving back to communities the company serves. This includes meeting consumer needs for a spectrum of convenient foods and beverages, reducing the company’s impact on the environment through water, energy and packaging initiatives, and supporting its employees through a diverse and inclusive culture that recruits and retains world-class talent. PepsiCo is listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com.
(based in Purchase, New York)
* Communications/journalism, background preferred; other backgrounds will be considered;
* Excellent written and spoken English. Knowledge of AP style. Fluency in other languages desirable;
* Able to perform well independently and as part of a team;
* Available for at least 6 weeks beginning July 2009.
Responsibilities:
The Global Internal Communications Internship has responsibilities that include, but are not limited to, writing articles and preparing information for presentation in print and electronic communications vehicles including newsletters, posters, the Web and videos. Gather information quickly and accurately and write compelling copy. Help coordinate Internal Communication projects, including corporate events, publications and translations. Support Global Internal Communications team. Other projects as requested.
Salary:
We will offer interns an hourly wage.
There is a free shuttle available for interns traveling in from New York City on the Metro-North train.
How to apply:
Please apply ASAP by sending a covering letter and your resume to:
corpcomm@pepsi.com
We will contact applicants selected for an interview.
Writing samples will be required
About PepsiCo:
PepsiCo is one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies, with 2008 annual revenues of more than $43 billion. The company employs approximately 198,000 people worldwide, and its products are sold in approximately 200 countries. Its principal businesses include: Frito-Lay snacks, Pepsi-Cola beverages, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices and Quaker foods. The PepsiCo portfolio includes 18 brands that generate $1 billion or more each in annual retail sales.
PepsiCo’s commitment to sustainable growth, defined as Performance with Purpose, is focused on generating healthy financial returns while giving back to communities the company serves. This includes meeting consumer needs for a spectrum of convenient foods and beverages, reducing the company’s impact on the environment through water, energy and packaging initiatives, and supporting its employees through a diverse and inclusive culture that recruits and retains world-class talent. PepsiCo is listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com.
FREE CONCERT SATURDAY ON E HARTSDALE AVE...POST OFFICE ANNEX SHOULD CONTINUE
Bryan Gordon will be performing at the E. Hartsdale Farmers Market Outdoor Music Series Saturday, June 20th from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM at the E. Hartsdale Train Station.
Bryan Gordon has been an integral member of the Hudson Valley rock music scene since the early 1990's. Bryan's lyrics are both autobiographical and vicarious, but I challenge you to figure out which is which. Unlike most singer/songwriters, Bryan is adept at the triumvirate of performance skills: singing, playing guitar, and songwriting. He isn't afraid to use all the notes in his range, and even some that you didn't think he should be going for! As a songwriter, Bryan's greatest strength is his ability to create a chorus hook that stays in your brain long after you'll left the corner of the bar you discovered him in. Check him out at www.bryangordon.net
Julie Corbalis will be performing at the E. Hartsdale Farmers Market Outdoor Music Series Saturday, June 20th from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM at the E. Hartsdale Train Station.
Julie Corbalis’s most recent CD Old Flames & New Names, released in November 2008, continues to receive positive media and fan attention. This CD has been featured in local NY newspapers, and the tracks “Johnny & June” and “Broadway” have been played on NYC radio stations WHUD (100.7), THE PEAK (107.1), as well as college radio. She was also recently featured in two prominent singer/songwriter showcases at the national venues The Bitter End, NYC, and The Towne Crier in Pawling, NY. Julie has also released two successful indie rock albums with the quartet Jules & the Family. They have toured the North East US and Ontario, Canada, and shared concert bills with global music stars including Colin Hay of Men at Work. Their tracks have been played on public, private, and internet radio throughout the US, Europe and Japan. Check her out at www.juliecorbalis.com
Bryan Gordon has been an integral member of the Hudson Valley rock music scene since the early 1990's. Bryan's lyrics are both autobiographical and vicarious, but I challenge you to figure out which is which. Unlike most singer/songwriters, Bryan is adept at the triumvirate of performance skills: singing, playing guitar, and songwriting. He isn't afraid to use all the notes in his range, and even some that you didn't think he should be going for! As a songwriter, Bryan's greatest strength is his ability to create a chorus hook that stays in your brain long after you'll left the corner of the bar you discovered him in. Check him out at www.bryangordon.net
Julie Corbalis will be performing at the E. Hartsdale Farmers Market Outdoor Music Series Saturday, June 20th from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM at the E. Hartsdale Train Station.
Julie Corbalis’s most recent CD Old Flames & New Names, released in November 2008, continues to receive positive media and fan attention. This CD has been featured in local NY newspapers, and the tracks “Johnny & June” and “Broadway” have been played on NYC radio stations WHUD (100.7), THE PEAK (107.1), as well as college radio. She was also recently featured in two prominent singer/songwriter showcases at the national venues The Bitter End, NYC, and The Towne Crier in Pawling, NY. Julie has also released two successful indie rock albums with the quartet Jules & the Family. They have toured the North East US and Ontario, Canada, and shared concert bills with global music stars including Colin Hay of Men at Work. Their tracks have been played on public, private, and internet radio throughout the US, Europe and Japan. Check her out at www.juliecorbalis.com
Monday, June 15, 2009
Manhattanville jobs
Work @ Mville
Manhattanville is currently seeking a new
Vice President for College Advancement and Alumni Relations
Careers at Manhattanville
The following career opportunities are currently available at Manhattanville.
Most-recently added positions are at the top of each list.
Full-Time Faculty
Assistant Professor - Communication Studies
Director/Professor, M.S. in Finance Degree program
Assistant Professor - Management
Assistant or Associate Professor - Finance
Adjunct & Part-Time Faculty
Visiting Lecturer - Italian Language and Literature
Artist/Teachers in Voice and Brass
Adjunct Faculty – English Composition
Adjunct Professor - Entrepreneurial Finance
Adjunct Professor - Entrepreneurship: Entering Markets
Adjunct Professor - Financial Aspects of Human Resource Management
Adjunct Professors - Economics and Finance
Adjunct Faculty - Sport Business Management
Adjunct Faculty - Various Subjects
Field Supervisors - Childhood Education, TESOL
Mentors - Elementary, Special and Secondary Education
Administrative & Staff
Administrative Assistant - Summer School and Special Programs
Office Manager
Assistant Director of the Manhattanville Advancement Program (MAP)
Handyperson
Please direct all applications and inquiries to:
Human Resources
Manhattanville College
2900 Purchase Street
Purchase, NY 10577
Telephone: (914) 323-5270
FAX: (914) 323-5322
E-mail: humanresources@mville.edu
Manhattanville College is an equal opportunity employer actively encouraging applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manhattanville is currently seeking a new
Vice President for College Advancement and Alumni Relations
Careers at Manhattanville
The following career opportunities are currently available at Manhattanville.
Most-recently added positions are at the top of each list.
Full-Time Faculty
Assistant Professor - Communication Studies
Director/Professor, M.S. in Finance Degree program
Assistant Professor - Management
Assistant or Associate Professor - Finance
Adjunct & Part-Time Faculty
Visiting Lecturer - Italian Language and Literature
Artist/Teachers in Voice and Brass
Adjunct Faculty – English Composition
Adjunct Professor - Entrepreneurial Finance
Adjunct Professor - Entrepreneurship: Entering Markets
Adjunct Professor - Financial Aspects of Human Resource Management
Adjunct Professors - Economics and Finance
Adjunct Faculty - Sport Business Management
Adjunct Faculty - Various Subjects
Field Supervisors - Childhood Education, TESOL
Mentors - Elementary, Special and Secondary Education
Administrative & Staff
Administrative Assistant - Summer School and Special Programs
Office Manager
Assistant Director of the Manhattanville Advancement Program (MAP)
Handyperson
Please direct all applications and inquiries to:
Human Resources
Manhattanville College
2900 Purchase Street
Purchase, NY 10577
Telephone: (914) 323-5270
FAX: (914) 323-5322
E-mail: humanresources@mville.edu
Manhattanville College is an equal opportunity employer actively encouraging applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, June 12, 2009
HARTSDALE FARMERS MARKET CONCERT SERIES TOMORROW. NATURE CENTER CONCERT SUNDAY..TOWN BD WORK SESSION TUESDAY
Have a great weekend. Enjoy the music at our farmer’s market tomorrow. Take your family to the Greenburgh Nature Center on Sunday to listen to the great music of the Yonkers Philharmoic. Enjoy great jazz at some of the jazz and blue concerts in our community…take a house and garden tour And—on Tuesday sit in at a Town Board work session if you’re interested in the topics being discussed.
PAUL FEINER
Jonathan Flaks will be performing at the E. Hartsdale Farmers Market Outdoor Music Series Saturday, June 13th from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM at the E. Hartsdale Train Station.
Jonathan Flaks will be playing these and other favorites from Neil Young, Elton John, James Taylor, Billy Joel, America, The Eagles, Van Morrison and even some interesting choices from Bruce Springsteen and Pink .
Jonathan Flaks is a Dobbs Ferry resident and veteran of the music industry. He is a business success and team leadership who guides entrepreneurs, consultants and professionals to make twice the income with half the trouble (that’s the title of his book coming out at the end of the summer). He is also the keyboardist for the popular Westchester based Grateful Dead tribute band, “Not Dead Yet”. Come sing along.
Julie Corbalis will be performing at the E. Hartsdale Farmers Market Outdoor Music Series Saturday, June 13th from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM at the E. Hartsdale Train Station.
Julie’s most recent CD Old Flames & New Names, released in November 2008, continues to receive positive media and fan attention. This CD has been featured in local NY newspapers, and the tracks “Johnny & June” and “Broadway” have been played on NYC radio stations WHUD (100.7), THE PEAK (107.1), as well as college radio. She was also recently featured in two prominent singer/songwriter showcases at the national venues The Bitter End, NYC, and The Towne Crier in Pawling, NY. Julie has also released two successful indie rock albums with the quartet Jules & the Family. They have toured the North East US and Ontario, Canada, and shared concert bills with global music stars including Colin Hay of Men at Work. Their tracks have been played on public, private, and internet radio throughout the US, Europe and Japan.
Sunday, June 14 from 5 - 7pm
Yonkers Philharmonic at
the Nature Center
Greenburgh Nature Center [link]
The Yonkers Philharmonic will present an outdoor program of music from nature, featuring Prokofieff's Peter and the Wolf and Spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons with special guest narrator Robert Sherman. A concert delight for children and adults alike. Members-$6, Non-members-$12; children under the age of twelve-$2. (Rain date Sunday, June 21.)
MORE FUN THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND. CHECK OUT RIVERTOWNSGUIDE.COM. JAZZ…TARRYTOWN HOUSE AND GARDEN TOUR ON SATURDAY..LECTURE ON SOCIAL NETWORKING (FACEBOOK, LINKEDIN.COM TWITTER—IRVINGTON LIBRARY…ANTIQUE SHOWS, JAZZ AND BLUES
Town of Greenburgh
Revised Work Session Agenda of the Greenburgh Town Board
Tuesday – June 16, 2009 – 2:00PM
(All Work Sessions are Televised Live on Cablevision Channel 76, Verizon 35 and are streamed live. Work Sessions and Town Board Meetings will be aired each Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting at 7:02am and 4:45pm. Each segment will run for approximately 6 to 7 hours, depending upon the length of the two meetings.)
2:00p.m. FOIL Appeal – TDYCC Investigation
2:30p.m. Capital Budget Review – Greenburgh Nature Center
Tentative discussion 2010 budget process
3:00p.m. Water Fund as Enterprise Fund-- Comptroller
3:30p.m. Affordable Housing Presentation – Councilwoman Brown
4:15p.m. Executive Session – Interviews – Boards & Commissions
(Greenburgh Affordable Housing Committee
PAUL FEINER
Jonathan Flaks will be performing at the E. Hartsdale Farmers Market Outdoor Music Series Saturday, June 13th from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM at the E. Hartsdale Train Station.
Jonathan Flaks will be playing these and other favorites from Neil Young, Elton John, James Taylor, Billy Joel, America, The Eagles, Van Morrison and even some interesting choices from Bruce Springsteen and Pink .
Jonathan Flaks is a Dobbs Ferry resident and veteran of the music industry. He is a business success and team leadership who guides entrepreneurs, consultants and professionals to make twice the income with half the trouble (that’s the title of his book coming out at the end of the summer). He is also the keyboardist for the popular Westchester based Grateful Dead tribute band, “Not Dead Yet”. Come sing along.
Julie Corbalis will be performing at the E. Hartsdale Farmers Market Outdoor Music Series Saturday, June 13th from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM at the E. Hartsdale Train Station.
Julie’s most recent CD Old Flames & New Names, released in November 2008, continues to receive positive media and fan attention. This CD has been featured in local NY newspapers, and the tracks “Johnny & June” and “Broadway” have been played on NYC radio stations WHUD (100.7), THE PEAK (107.1), as well as college radio. She was also recently featured in two prominent singer/songwriter showcases at the national venues The Bitter End, NYC, and The Towne Crier in Pawling, NY. Julie has also released two successful indie rock albums with the quartet Jules & the Family. They have toured the North East US and Ontario, Canada, and shared concert bills with global music stars including Colin Hay of Men at Work. Their tracks have been played on public, private, and internet radio throughout the US, Europe and Japan.
Sunday, June 14 from 5 - 7pm
Yonkers Philharmonic at
the Nature Center
Greenburgh Nature Center [link]
The Yonkers Philharmonic will present an outdoor program of music from nature, featuring Prokofieff's Peter and the Wolf and Spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons with special guest narrator Robert Sherman. A concert delight for children and adults alike. Members-$6, Non-members-$12; children under the age of twelve-$2. (Rain date Sunday, June 21.)
MORE FUN THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND. CHECK OUT RIVERTOWNSGUIDE.COM. JAZZ…TARRYTOWN HOUSE AND GARDEN TOUR ON SATURDAY..LECTURE ON SOCIAL NETWORKING (FACEBOOK, LINKEDIN.COM TWITTER—IRVINGTON LIBRARY…ANTIQUE SHOWS, JAZZ AND BLUES
Town of Greenburgh
Revised Work Session Agenda of the Greenburgh Town Board
Tuesday – June 16, 2009 – 2:00PM
(All Work Sessions are Televised Live on Cablevision Channel 76, Verizon 35 and are streamed live. Work Sessions and Town Board Meetings will be aired each Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting at 7:02am and 4:45pm. Each segment will run for approximately 6 to 7 hours, depending upon the length of the two meetings.)
2:00p.m. FOIL Appeal – TDYCC Investigation
2:30p.m. Capital Budget Review – Greenburgh Nature Center
Tentative discussion 2010 budget process
3:00p.m. Water Fund as Enterprise Fund-- Comptroller
3:30p.m. Affordable Housing Presentation – Councilwoman Brown
4:15p.m. Executive Session – Interviews – Boards & Commissions
(Greenburgh Affordable Housing Committee
Thursday, June 11, 2009
NEW YORK STATE SUPREME COURT JUDGE CACACE ISSUES RULING IN BERNSTEIN Vs FEINER
In a decision dated June 9, 2009 Judge Susan Cacace of the New York State Supreme Court issued a ruling “Bernstein V Feiner II”. The decision, in its entirety, will be posted on the town web site in the near future. I would be happy to e mail copies of the decision to anyone requesting it (e mail me at pfeiner@greenburghny.com).
The Supreme Court made a decision in the Bernstein case. It ruled that the Theodore Young Community Center and Yosemite Park are recreational facilities, and that this is what the town had maintained. It also ruled that the town has discretion to allow reasonable access by non-residents to use the town’s park and recreational facilities, and that clears up an ambiguity in favor of the Town Board. The town has allowed village residents who are volunteer firefighters and ambulance corp members and disabled individuals to use the park. The court indicated that this does not violate the intent of the Finneran Law. The Town Board will exercise the discretion re: non non resident use very carefully, and always in the best interest and for the benefit of the unincorporated area.
The court also ruled that under the Finneran Law the tennis bubble was an unreasonable use of the town’s discretion because it permits anyone to have access to the bubble. That is unfortunate, because it robs the town of a very valuable and profitable sports facility. Sporttime had entered into an agreement with the town in December, 2007 to lease the tennis courts from the town. Sporttime had proposed to place a bubble over the tennis courts. Sporttime would have built, at their expense, a clubhouse for the town. They would have spent over a million dollars on infrastructure improvements at the courts and the town would have received significant annual income. I will urge the Finneran Amendment Committee to continue its work and to pursue an amendment to the state law so that we can hopefully have this great facility available for us during winter months in the near future. The decision by the Supreme Court provides the town with an opportunity to push for an amendment to New York State Law.
A special thanks to Town Attorney Tim Lewis, Deputy town Attorneys Richard Marasse and David Fried as wll as the legal department support staff who all contributed to and were responsible for the town’s briefs before the court.
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
The Supreme Court made a decision in the Bernstein case. It ruled that the Theodore Young Community Center and Yosemite Park are recreational facilities, and that this is what the town had maintained. It also ruled that the town has discretion to allow reasonable access by non-residents to use the town’s park and recreational facilities, and that clears up an ambiguity in favor of the Town Board. The town has allowed village residents who are volunteer firefighters and ambulance corp members and disabled individuals to use the park. The court indicated that this does not violate the intent of the Finneran Law. The Town Board will exercise the discretion re: non non resident use very carefully, and always in the best interest and for the benefit of the unincorporated area.
The court also ruled that under the Finneran Law the tennis bubble was an unreasonable use of the town’s discretion because it permits anyone to have access to the bubble. That is unfortunate, because it robs the town of a very valuable and profitable sports facility. Sporttime had entered into an agreement with the town in December, 2007 to lease the tennis courts from the town. Sporttime had proposed to place a bubble over the tennis courts. Sporttime would have built, at their expense, a clubhouse for the town. They would have spent over a million dollars on infrastructure improvements at the courts and the town would have received significant annual income. I will urge the Finneran Amendment Committee to continue its work and to pursue an amendment to the state law so that we can hopefully have this great facility available for us during winter months in the near future. The decision by the Supreme Court provides the town with an opportunity to push for an amendment to New York State Law.
A special thanks to Town Attorney Tim Lewis, Deputy town Attorneys Richard Marasse and David Fried as wll as the legal department support staff who all contributed to and were responsible for the town’s briefs before the court.
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
PROJECT MANAGER JOB
Restoration Services-Project Manager/Marketing Representative –
The job is based out of our Port Chester, NY office. Great opportunity for a talented and energetic individual who is motivated and seeks a long-term career. Travel will be required – car and driver’s license are necessary. The ideal candidate needs to possess excellent leadership, organizational skills and communication skills. The ability to direct, organize and negotiate is a must. The candidate must have the ability to promote new business, establish and maintain relationships with clients. Disaster Restoration Project Management experience or Insurance Adjusting experience is required. Duties include emergency response, heavy client/vendor interaction, projection inspection, estimating, reporting and collections. Candidate must manage new and existing accounts. Knowledge of Xactimate or other estimating software and of restoration remediation, cleaning and construction are required. College degree preferred. Please send resume with minimum salary requirement to: rosemary@crystalrestoration.com.
The job is based out of our Port Chester, NY office. Great opportunity for a talented and energetic individual who is motivated and seeks a long-term career. Travel will be required – car and driver’s license are necessary. The ideal candidate needs to possess excellent leadership, organizational skills and communication skills. The ability to direct, organize and negotiate is a must. The candidate must have the ability to promote new business, establish and maintain relationships with clients. Disaster Restoration Project Management experience or Insurance Adjusting experience is required. Duties include emergency response, heavy client/vendor interaction, projection inspection, estimating, reporting and collections. Candidate must manage new and existing accounts. Knowledge of Xactimate or other estimating software and of restoration remediation, cleaning and construction are required. College degree preferred. Please send resume with minimum salary requirement to: rosemary@crystalrestoration.com.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
CHIEF KAPICA'S REPORT ON FIRE DISTRICT COSTS
CHIEF OF POLICE SUPERVISOR
To: Paul J. Feiner, Supervisor
From: John A. Kapica, Chief of Police
Subject: Career Fire Districts in Greenburgh
Date: June 5th, 2009
You have requested that I provide you with information that might tend to support a consolidation of Greenburgh’s three career fire departments that could result in a savings to taxpayers residing within the three fire districts. Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with specific information on this topic since I lack sufficient knowledge about firefighting operations to render an informed decision on the subject. However, in an attempt to be somewhat responsive, the Assessor, Edye McCarthy, and I have prepared a number of charts which compare expenditures for fire services under the control of the three career fire departments with services provided by the Town under the Town Outside1 (“B”) and Town Wide2 (“A”) budgets. As explained more fully below, in total, six comparisons were performed. One set of charts compares the expenditures for fire protection services in each career district with the cost of all other services provided residents of that district by the Town under the Town Outside and Town Wide budgets. Included in these other services are Police, Community Center, Public Works, Recreation, Library, Town Council, Supervisor, Town Clerk Assessor, Town Court, etc. Additional charts compare the combined cost of fire protection services in the three career districts with the combined cost associated with all other services provided by the Town under the Town Outside (“B”) and Town Wide (“A”) budgets in those districts.
Since fire protection services are analogous to police services in that both directly affect the public safety, we have also attempted to illustrate the comparable cost of fire and police services both within the career fire districts and throughout the unincorporated area of the Town. However, because of the manner in which the Town Budget is prepared, that is the expense for operating a department is found in one section of the budget while fringe benefits and debt service are in others, it is extremely time consuming to calculate the actual total cost associated with a specific department, especially one as large as the police. In contrast, the budgets of the three career fire departments reported in the Town Budget depict the total projected expense of running that department for the fiscal year. In order to better compare the cost of providing fire protection services with police services without going through the compilations and calculations that would be required to provide a meaningful comparison, on these charts we have increased the expense of the Personal Services portion of the Police Operating budget by fifty percent (50%) to account for items such as employee benefits and debt service. Although somewhat inflating the cost of police services, this will provide a more meaningful comparison of the cost of providing fire protection and police services in Greenburgh.
Additionally, since unincorporated Greenburgh residents also pay a portion of the $15,146,832 Town Wide budget, on Charts 1 – 8, we have compared the cost of what taxpayers pay for fire protection under the
1 That area outside the six incorporated villages within the Town.
1
2 The area comprised of the six incorporated villages and the unincorporated area of the Town.
2
control of the three career fire departments with the services provided by the Town under both the “A” Town Wide and “B” Town Outside budgets. Included under the services supported under the Town Wide budget are the Town Council, Supervisor, Justices, Comptroller, Assessor, Clerk, Attorney, Engineering Judgment and Claims, Advanced Life Support, Animal Control and a number of others.
The final comparison, Charts 9-10, depicts the cost of fire services throughout unincorporated Greenburgh (including the seven fire protection districts3) with the cost of providing police services to the unincorporated Town. Although the fire protection district contracts are with volunteer services that are considerably less expensive than similar services provided by paid firefighters, this comparison is also informative. Each comparison shows the various expenses as a percentage while the other depicts the expense in dollars.
Some additional assessments were also made with other communities in Westchester and New York State who have paid fire and police services. These can be found in Table 1 on page 6. Since Greenburgh is one of only a handful of communities in Westchester in which fire protection services is primarily provided by career officers, it is difficult to draw accurate comparisons between what the Town and other communities pay for fire protection services. Comparison of individual budgets is also difficult because some jurisdictions prepare their department budgets similarly to Greenburgh in that the Operating Budgets for each department are listed separately from employee benefits while others, such as the City of New Rochelle, include the cost of benefits under each department and debt service separately. Additionally, the career fire departments in cities within the county serve the entire population of those communities while the career departments in Greenburgh serve only a portion of the population. These disparities make it difficult to draw meaningful comparisons although we have noted several that we believe relevant.
BASIS OF COMPARISON
All calculations involving comparisons of fire protection services with other Town departments were based on information found in “The Town of Greenburgh Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2009.” That document indicates the assessed valuation of the entire Town and the Town Outside to be $578,922,513 and $313,273,346 respectively, while the assessed valuation of properties in the Fairview, Hartsdale and Greenville Fire Districts are $87,043,364, $70,468,142 and $72,176,395 in that order. Therefore what is necessary to determine the percentage of total appropriations paid by taxpayers within each of the three career fire districts is to simply divide the assessed valuation of that district by the total assessed valuation of the Town Wide and Town Outside. These calculations indicate that taxpayers in the Fairview Fire District pay 27.79% of the total appropriations in the Town Outside Budget, while those in Hartsdale contribute 22.49% and Greenville 23.04%. Since the total Appropriations for the Town Outside in 2009 are $62,454,980, Fairview fire district property owners/taxpayers will pay $17,356,239 of that amount while property owners/taxpayers within the Hartsdale fire district will be responsible for $14,046,125 and those in Greenville for $14,389,627. Collectively, the assessed value of the properties within the three career fire districts is $229,687,901 or 73.32% of the total assessed value of the Town Outside. Therefore, the people residing within the area serviced by Greenburgh’s three career fire departments will contribute $45,791,991 towards the total Town Outside budget of $62,454,980. Dividing the $229,687,901 assessed value of property in the three career fire districts by the total assessed value of the entire Town realizes the figure .3968. Consequently, the taxable properties within the area served by the three career fire districts represent 39.68% of the total assessed value of the entire Town. Using this figure we can calculate that property owners/taxpayers within the career districts will pay $6,010,263 of the $15,146,832 Town Wide (“A”) Budget.
Note: These calculations are based on the overall budget number, not the amount to be collected in property taxes.
3 The Town of Greenburgh contracts with the Villages of Ardsley, Elmsford, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington and Tarrytown to use their volunteer fire departments to provide fire protection services to those sections of the unincorporated Town not covered by the three career fire districts.
3
Using these same percentages we can also determine the amount that each district will pay of the operating budget of each Town department (i.e., Police, Community Center, Public Works, Recreation, Library, etc.). For example, as depicted on one of the enclosed charts, property owners/taxpayers in the Fairview Fire District will pay $11,098,500 for fire services in 2009 but only $6,270,897 for police services. As previously mentioned, to make the comparison between the cost of police and fire more valid, we have adjusted4 the Personal Services portion of the Police Department Operating Budget by fifty percent (50%) to account for Employee Benefits and debt service. As an offset to this increase, the Employee Benefits expense on each of these charts has been reduced by a commensurate amount.
FINDINGS
Cost of Fire Protection Services - The major finding in this comparison was that the expense associated with providing fire protection services within the area of unincorporated Greenburgh served by the three career fire districts is significantly higher than in other communities within Westchester in which this service is also afforded utilizing career employees. Aside from Education, it is the single most expensive service provided taxpayers residing within the areas served by the three career services.
Comparison between the cost of Fire and Police Services - While there are substantial differences in the services each department delivers, fire protection (under the control of the career fire districts) and police services (under the control of the Town) are analogous in that both are first responders to occurrences that directly endanger life and property, which often places these employees in harm’s way. Both services are also proactively involved in public education and inspection programs to reduce the incidence of conflagration and criminal activity which fall under their respective responsibilities.
With one notable exception, within the larger5 municipalities in Westchester County that support both paid fire and police departments, the budgets of police departments are notably larger than that of the fire departments in their respective municipalities. The most significant reason for this is that in these jurisdictions the operation of the police department generally requires more employees to administer, thereby greatly inflating the personal service cost of that budget. This disparity holds true for all large municipalities throughout the state which fund both these services. The exception to this lies within the Town of Greenburgh where the combined budgets of the three career fire departments, which protect 73.32% of the Town Outside ratables, greatly eclipse that of the police department, which safeguards the entire unincorporated area of the Town. Because of the nature of the services provided by police and fire and this blatant funding anomaly between career fire districts and policing in Greenburgh, our comparisons also include the fire and police budgets of surrounding departments as well as some other cities statewide. This information is contained in Table 2 on page 6.
STATISTICAL INFORMATION
Information for the Fairview (www.fairviewfire.org) and Hartsdale (www.hartsdalefire.com) Fire Districts was obtained from their Internet Web sites. Although the Greenville Fire Department does not maintain its own Web site, information about it was obtained from the Fire Department Network Web site, which is a nationwide resource for fire department information. That Web site address is
4 Unadjusted Personal Services expense is $13,801,928 for all of unincorporated Greenburgh. The property owners/taxpayers in the three career districts pay 73.32% of this amount or $10,119,573. Increased by 50%, this number becomes $15,179,360, which is then added to the $1,368,156 that represents the balance of the Police Operating budget for a total of $16,547,516.
5 The cities of Rye and Peekskill also are combination departments staffed with career and volunteer members. Peekskill has 24 career officers and 200 volunteers while Rye has 17 career officers and 113 volunteers. Although both are funded through municipal budgets, because a great deal of the service provided is conducted by volunteers, their budgets are comparatively small.
4
www.firedepartments/newyork/scarsdale/greenvillefiredistrict.html. The three career districts contribute to the New York State Police and Fire Retirement System out of which pensions for firefighter employees are paid.
Fairview Fire Department – The Fairview Fire Department Web site indicates that the department employs forty-four (44) career and eight (8) volunteer firefighters working out of two fire stations. Although the site does not mention civilian employees, there is at least one employed by the district. The 2009 Budget for the department is $11,098,500. Of this amount, $6,092,737 is listed as salaries.
Hartsdale Fire Department – The Hartsdale Fire Department Web site indicates that the department employs thirty-seven (37) career and twelve (12) volunteer firefighters working out of two stations. The Web site does not mention any civilian employees. The 2009 Budget for the department is $9,669,091. Of this amount, $5,336,679 is listed as salaries.
Greenville Fire Department – The information obtained from the Fire Department Network Web site indicates that the department employs thirty-two (32) career and fifteen (15) volunteer firefighters and one (1) non firefighter employee. The 2009 Budget for the department is $7,267,740. Of this amount, $4,062,500 is listed as salaries.
According to the information obtained from the Web sites, the combined number of career firefighters employed by the three districts is one hundred thirteen (113). As indicated in the Adopted 2009 Town Budget document, the combined budgets of the three career fire districts for 2009 is $28,035,331. Of this amount, $15,491,916 is listed as salaries.
Combined, the property owners/taxpayers within the three career districts will pay $45,791,991 of the $62,454,980 Town Outside Budget in addition to $28,035,0+
31 to support the three career fire districts, and $6,010,263 of the Town Wide budget of $15,146,832 for a grand total of $79,837,585. The total cost of services provided exclusively to property owners/taxpayers living within the area of the three career fire districts that are funded under the Town Outside budget is $78,827,322. Fire protection services consume thirty-eight percent (38%) of this amount while the adjusted6 police budget accounts for $16,547,516 or twenty-two percent (22%), some $11,487,815 less than that expended for fire protection services within the three career districts. To provide some insight into the magnitude of this disparity, the $11,487,815 difference in the cost of operating the three career fire districts and providing police services within this same area could fund the salaries and benefits of an additional eighty-five (85) police officers assuming all are at the top grade pay rate and have family medical insurance plans.
Greenburgh Police Department - For the sake of comparison we are providing statistical information on the Police department. The Police department has funding in its budget for 116 police officers and 17 fulltime and 14 civilian part time employees. Also appropriated under the Police department’s salary (Personal Services) lines is about $29,000 for per diem civilian EMTs. The total cost of the Police department’s Personal Services (salary) expense is $13,801,928. While the Police department services all of unincorporated Greenburgh, its expense for salaries is $1,689,988 less than that of the three career fire districts combined. The Police department’s total 2009 Operating Budget is $15,667,934. When we increase the $13,801,928 expense for Personal Services by 50% to account for fringe benefits and other expenses, the total cost of $22,568,898 for maintaining Police department operations is realized. Again, although this cost represents the expense associated with providing service to all of unincorporated Greenburgh, it is $5,466,133 less than that needed to provide fire protection services within the three career fire departments. To arrive at the total cost of fire protection services for the entire unincorporated portion of Greenburgh, we need to add the $1,913,981 expended to fund the seven fire protection districts to that of the three career fire
6 With the Personal Services expense increased by fifty percent (50%).
departments. This realizes a total cost for fire protection in unincorporated Greenburgh of $29,949,012. See charts 9-12.
The Town of Greenburgh contributes to the New York State Police and Fire Retirement System for its police officers and to the New York State Employees Retirement System for civilian employees. Pensions for police officers are paid by the Police and Fire Retirement System while those of clerical employees are paid by the Employees Retirement System. Contributions differ for both systems with Police and Fire being the higher of the two.
Combined Appropriations
Total appropriations under the Town Wide, Town Outside and career fire district budgets for which property owners/taxpayers in unincorporated Greenburgh are responsible amount to $100,599,943.7 Of this amount, $62,454,980 ($39,886,082 without police) is attributable to the Town Outside budget, $8,195,951 is unincorporated Greenburgh’s share of the Town Wide (“A”) budget and $29,949,012 is for fire protection services ($28,035,031 Career departments and $1,913,981 Fire Protection contracts). Police department expenses approximate $22,568,898.8 Therefore, as a percentage of the overall expense, all services, except police, provided under the Town Outside budget account for 39.65%; unincorporated Greenburgh’s share of the Town Wide (“A”) budget expense is 8.15%; Career Fire protection services 27.87%; Fire Protection contracts 1.9%; Police services 22.43%. COMPARISONS
As previously mentioned, with the exception of Greenburgh, in communities which support both career fire and police departments, the expense for fire protection services is always considerably less than that of police services. Table 1 lists the total budget of six city departments, four of which are in Westchester, that provide fire protection and police services utilizing paid employees as well as their appropriations for fire and police services and contrasts them with the cost of fire and police protection in Greenburgh. The fiscal years in these communities somewhat vary. Some cities have a July 1st through June 30th fiscal year, while others along with Greenburgh are January 1st through December 31st. In those cities whose fiscal years are July 1st through June 30th, the budget reflected is their 2008/2009 Adopted Budget.
7 Does not include County, School, Special District taxes or account for offsetting revenues.
5
8 Includes fringe benefits and a significant allowance for debt service which undoubtedly results in an overstatement of the actual cost of police operations.
6
TABLE 1 – COMPARISON OF POLICE AND FIRE BUDGETS
NAME OF CITY
2009 BUDGET
2009 POLICE BUDGET
2009 FIRE BUDGET
New Rochelle
$146,828,490
$28,775,446
$24,085,125
Mt. Vernon
91,900,000
19,224,820
13,496,467
White Plains
150,603,063
30,596,181
22,011,288
Yonkers
246,285,645
81,994,817
53,442,966
Buffalo
423,373,937
77,325,549
54,781,896
Rochester
478,107,100
78,734,000
41,304,400
Greenburgh
(within the career districts)9
79,837,585
16,547,516
28,035,331
Greenburgh
(unincorporated Greenburgh)10
100,599,4337
22,568,8988
29,949,012
NOTE: The fire and police budgets of the cities of New Rochelle and White Plains include the cost of fringe benefits, while the others only reflect their Operating Budgets. None contain any provision for debt service. Appropriations for both fringe benefits and debt service were included in the Greenburgh Police Department’s $22,568,898 cost projection.
Cost Comparisons in Individual Career Districts – Following is a table that depicts the cost to property owners/taxpayers in each fire district of various budgeted services. The total budget number for each district reflects its pro-rated share of the Town Outside, Town Wide and career fire department budgets. The Police department expense contains an increase of 50% in the Personal Services portion of its apportioned budget to account for fringe benefits and debt service. Amounts that calculated to less than one percent (1%) of the overall department budget (i.e., Fairview/Greenburgh Pool, AF Veteran Park, etc.) were included under “All Others.”
TABLE 2 – COST COMPARISONS IN INDIVIDUAL CAREER DISTRICTS
SERVICE
PROVIDED
FAIRVIEW FIRE
DISTRICT
Budgeted Amount
HARTSDALE FIRE
DISTRICT
Budgeted Amount
GREENVILLE FIRE
DISTRICT
Budgeted Amount
Fire Protection
$11,098,500 (36.11%)
$9,669,091 (37.83%)
$7,267,740 (30.87%)
Police Protection
6,270,897 (20.40%)
5,075,745 (19.86%)
5,199,874 (22.08%)
“A” Fund Services
2,278,084 ( 7.42%)
1,843,369 ( 7.21%)
1,888,810 ( 8.02%)
Transfers to Other
1,883,833 ( 6.13%)
1,524,555 ( 5.96%)
1,561,839 ( 6.63%)
Sanitation
1,342,466 ( 4.37%)
1,086,436 ( 4.25%)
1,113,005 ( 4.73%)
Highway
1,227,490 ( 3.99%)
993,388 ( 3.89%)
1,017,681 ( 4.32%)
Employee Benefits
1,220,064 ( 3.97%)
986,569 ( 3.86%)
1,010,696 ( 4.29%)
Library
894,282 ( 2.91%)
723,728 ( 2.83%)
741,247 ( 3.15%)
Community Center
843,206 ( 2.74%)
682,393 ( 2.67%)
699,081 ( 2.97%)
Judgment/Claims
694,750 ( 2.26%)
562,250 ( 2.20%)
576,000 ( 2.45%)
Rec/Park Mtce.
486,012 ( 1.58%)
393,322 ( 1.54%)
402,941 ( 1.71%)
Recreation Admin.
471,664 ( 1.53%)
381,710 ( 1.49%)
391,045 ( 1.66%)
Contingent Acct.
318,196 ( 1.03%)
257,511 ( 1.00%)
263,808 ( 1.01%)
All Others
1,703,444 ( 5.54%)
1,378,576 ( 5.39%)
1,412,287 ( 6.00%)
TOTAL COST
OF SERVICES
$30,732,888
$25,558,643
$23,546,054
9 Within the three career fire districts, includes apportioned Town Outside, Town Wide and Police expense.
10 All of unincorporated Greenburgh, includes the Town Outside expense, apportioned Town Wide expense, the budgets of both the career fire districts and the fire protection districts.
7
Salary and Pension Costs
When comparing the cumulative budgets of the career fire districts with that of the Police department, two major disparities become apparent that cannot be explained simply by looking at the expense information for the fire districts contained in the Town’s budget document. The first of these involves salaries. Although the Police department has significantly more employees, 116 police officers, 17 fulltime and 14 civilian part time employees, than the three districts employ, 113 firefighters and perhaps 3 civilian employees, the combined expense for salaries of the three districts exceeds that of the police by $1,689,988 ($15,491,916 as compared with $13,801,928). Without obtaining specific salary information from the individual fire districts, which admittedly was not done for this report, one can only speculate as to why this significant disparity exists. There are a number of possibilities which include higher salaries than those earned by police officers, a disproportionate number of ranking officers, payments made under § 207-a of the GML, contractual requirements, and overtime usage to name a few.
Perhaps an even more significant anomaly is the amount collectively paid by the districts into the New York State Police and Fire Retirement System as compared to that paid by the Town for police services. New York State offers a number of pension plan options that governments/districts may opt into. For example, police officers and firefighters who joined their departments prior to July 1st, 1973 were designated as Tier 1 members of the system entitled to have their pensions calculated on their final 12 months of service, which is usually the period in which the officer’s earning are the highest.11 Referred to as Final Year Average Salary or FAS, this benefit was only available to Tier 1 members unless the individual government or district opted to provide this additional benefit to their police officers or firefighters. Of course, this benefit is significantly more expensive than the basic best three consecutive year plan. There are also other optional plans that pay additional premiums to police officers and firefighters. One such plan, referred to as 384-e, provides an additional 1/60th of an officer or firefighter’s FAS for each year worked after twenty years are completed to a maximum of 70% of salary. Pension benefits are the subject of collective bargaining and a government or district can opt to provide one or more special plans to its members through this medium. The percentage of salary contributed by a district or municipality into the pension system is therefore a function of the type of plan or plans the district/municipality provides for its employees. Since the contribution for Tier 1 members is also higher than the basic plan, having a large number of Tier 1 members employed could also increase contributions. Since Tier 1 members had to join the system prior to July 1st, 1973, it is unlikely that this is responsible for a significant portion of the disparity. The Police department has one remaining Tier 1 member. Since the majority of firefighters within the career districts are covered by special plans, this is the likely reason. Civilian employees are covered by the New York State Employees Retirement System and pension contributions for them are considerably less than that for police and fire.
For 2009, $2,569,462 has been appropriated for pension contributions under the collective budgets of the three career fire districts. Although the specific amount the Town has appropriated as payment to the pension system for its police officers for 2009 is not immediately available, the total funding for pensions appropriated by the Town for all of its employees for the current year is $2,443,665. This covers 116 police officers and the 424 civilian Town employees in a state pension system. For most of 2008, the Town employed 122 police officers and expended $1,753,850 in payments to the pension system for these employees. The budgets of the three career fire departments indicate that $2,458,247 was expended to fund firefighter and perhaps several civilian employee pensions during this same year. This means that in 2008, the three career fire districts paid $704,397 more in contributions to the NYS Pension System for 113 firefighters than the Town paid for 122 police officers.
11 The Pension System must also calculate the officer’s pension benefits based on the best three consecutive years of his last five of employment and provide him/her with the higher of the two.
8
CONSOLIDATION
As stated early on in this document, I am not sufficiently versed in fire protection operations to render any opinion as to whether efficiencies could be realized through the consolidation of Greenburgh’s three career fire districts. Issues such as this should properly be the subject of an in-depth study by an independent organization that is knowledgeable in these matters and has a proven record of experience. Although the economic crisis faced by municipal governments throughout the state and nation has provided renewed impetus to exploring the consolidation of comparable services as a means of saving taxpayer dollars, it is not the panacea for our economic woes. In fact, occasionally, it is counterproductive and results in a less efficient and more costly system. Where public safety is concerned, the implications of any such initiative must be closely studied before action is taken as an ill-conceived plan could have a catastrophic impact on the safety of our residents.
Notwithstanding these cautionary comments, some general discussion on the potential pros and cons of consolidation is warranted.
When consolidation works, savings are realized through the elimination of duplicitous resources thereby streamlining the operation of the entity and creating an economy of scale. Resources could be personnel, a class of personnel such as management, infrastructure, vehicles, etc. However, each situation is unique and the lesson learned is that consolidation does not always result in lower costs. Studies in the United States seem to suggest that the most successful consolidations have been between smaller communities. In a report published in 1987, The Federal Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) concluded that per capita costs generally fall when consolidating municipalities of up to 25,000; remain fairly constant for those up to 250,000, but then rise significantly. Opponents of consolidation argue even if money could be saved, consolidation undermines the political identity of the community and reduces political accessibility and accountability by further removing elected representatives from their constituents (Municipal Research News – Summer 2003).
Police/Fire Relationship – Generally, because of the inherent danger and liability associated with police work, police departments must have an appropriate number of supervisory personnel on each tour of duty. For example, the Greenburgh Patrol Schedule calls for three supervisory positions to oversee each uniformed tour of up to 11 officers as well as a number of Community Policing, traffic enforcement and civilian paramedic personnel. Each village department must also have a supervisor(s) on each shift but because their numbers are smaller, the span of control of each supervisor is much less. Looking at this one aspect alone, theoretically, a consolidation of police departments in Greenburgh would result in a reduction in the number of supervisory personnel needed. However, this does not necessarily translate into a reduction in the overall number of personnel. Positions that were once supervisors could be maintained as patrol officer positions actually increasing the number of officers available for routine patrol while reducing Personal Service costs. Presumably, this would also be the case for fire departments.
Within the Town of Greenburgh there are seven separate municipal entities, each providing similar services to a resident population of about 90,000 persons. There are seven police departments each with its own headquarters building and dispatch center that require staffing on a constant basis. In contrast, the City of Yonkers Police Department serves a resident population of about 200,000 utilizing four precincts. Taking into consideration time off, to fill a single position requires 6 people, which means that staffing all seven dispatch centers around the clock with a single person requires a minimum of 42 employees, more if the call volume of a particular jurisdiction, such as the Town, requires additional staff. In a number of village departments this duty is performed by a police officer, which takes him or her away from street duty. The consolidation of dispatch services alone could reduce the number of employees required to perform these duties considerably as well as reduce infrastructure costs while consistently providing residents town wide (including the six incorporated villages) with additional services such as emergency medical dispatch. While the number of positions required to provide dispatch services would be greatly reduced, many of the police officer positions saved could be diverted to street patrol, actually increasing patrol efficiency. This is only a
9
single example of the impact a partial consolidation could have on policing services. This particular aspect may not be completely applicable to the fire services as they have the opportunity, should they choose to do so, to utilize the County’s 60 Control Center for this purpose.
As far as the Greenburgh fire services are concerned it should be noted that the unions representing firefighters from the three career districts have already merged and that firefighting operations, especially where structure fires are concerned, are seldom undertaken by a single department. In two recent structure fires in Fairview and Greenville, units from all three career services as well as some outside departments responded. So practically, at least from the perspective of a potentially serious fire, the departments already routinely work together.
CONCLUSION
Fire services provided by the Fairview, Hartsdale and Greenville Fire Districts appear to be disproportionately more costly than similar services provided in other municipalities that utilize career personnel to provide these services. In the examples cited in this report and in every instance studied in preparation of this document, when fire and police services are provided under a single governmental entity, the cost of delivering fire services is always significantly less than that of providing policing services. This is obviously not the case in Greenburgh where fire protection in the unincorporated area is provided using a combination of career services in three separate fire districts as well as volunteer services contracted with neighboring villages to cover seven fire protection districts that collectively service an area policed by a single police department at a significantly lesser cost. While the impact a consolidation of the career fire districts in Greenburgh would have on their efficiency or cost or even the feasibility of such a merger, is presently unknown, in light of the present economic situation, the reasons for this blatant anomaly in fire service costs in Greenburgh should be explored. It seems that a practical means of doing so would be to commission an independent and competent firm to conduct such a study.
Respectfully submitted,
John A. Kapica
Chief of Police
To: Paul J. Feiner, Supervisor
From: John A. Kapica, Chief of Police
Subject: Career Fire Districts in Greenburgh
Date: June 5th, 2009
You have requested that I provide you with information that might tend to support a consolidation of Greenburgh’s three career fire departments that could result in a savings to taxpayers residing within the three fire districts. Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with specific information on this topic since I lack sufficient knowledge about firefighting operations to render an informed decision on the subject. However, in an attempt to be somewhat responsive, the Assessor, Edye McCarthy, and I have prepared a number of charts which compare expenditures for fire services under the control of the three career fire departments with services provided by the Town under the Town Outside1 (“B”) and Town Wide2 (“A”) budgets. As explained more fully below, in total, six comparisons were performed. One set of charts compares the expenditures for fire protection services in each career district with the cost of all other services provided residents of that district by the Town under the Town Outside and Town Wide budgets. Included in these other services are Police, Community Center, Public Works, Recreation, Library, Town Council, Supervisor, Town Clerk Assessor, Town Court, etc. Additional charts compare the combined cost of fire protection services in the three career districts with the combined cost associated with all other services provided by the Town under the Town Outside (“B”) and Town Wide (“A”) budgets in those districts.
Since fire protection services are analogous to police services in that both directly affect the public safety, we have also attempted to illustrate the comparable cost of fire and police services both within the career fire districts and throughout the unincorporated area of the Town. However, because of the manner in which the Town Budget is prepared, that is the expense for operating a department is found in one section of the budget while fringe benefits and debt service are in others, it is extremely time consuming to calculate the actual total cost associated with a specific department, especially one as large as the police. In contrast, the budgets of the three career fire departments reported in the Town Budget depict the total projected expense of running that department for the fiscal year. In order to better compare the cost of providing fire protection services with police services without going through the compilations and calculations that would be required to provide a meaningful comparison, on these charts we have increased the expense of the Personal Services portion of the Police Operating budget by fifty percent (50%) to account for items such as employee benefits and debt service. Although somewhat inflating the cost of police services, this will provide a more meaningful comparison of the cost of providing fire protection and police services in Greenburgh.
Additionally, since unincorporated Greenburgh residents also pay a portion of the $15,146,832 Town Wide budget, on Charts 1 – 8, we have compared the cost of what taxpayers pay for fire protection under the
1 That area outside the six incorporated villages within the Town.
1
2 The area comprised of the six incorporated villages and the unincorporated area of the Town.
2
control of the three career fire departments with the services provided by the Town under both the “A” Town Wide and “B” Town Outside budgets. Included under the services supported under the Town Wide budget are the Town Council, Supervisor, Justices, Comptroller, Assessor, Clerk, Attorney, Engineering Judgment and Claims, Advanced Life Support, Animal Control and a number of others.
The final comparison, Charts 9-10, depicts the cost of fire services throughout unincorporated Greenburgh (including the seven fire protection districts3) with the cost of providing police services to the unincorporated Town. Although the fire protection district contracts are with volunteer services that are considerably less expensive than similar services provided by paid firefighters, this comparison is also informative. Each comparison shows the various expenses as a percentage while the other depicts the expense in dollars.
Some additional assessments were also made with other communities in Westchester and New York State who have paid fire and police services. These can be found in Table 1 on page 6. Since Greenburgh is one of only a handful of communities in Westchester in which fire protection services is primarily provided by career officers, it is difficult to draw accurate comparisons between what the Town and other communities pay for fire protection services. Comparison of individual budgets is also difficult because some jurisdictions prepare their department budgets similarly to Greenburgh in that the Operating Budgets for each department are listed separately from employee benefits while others, such as the City of New Rochelle, include the cost of benefits under each department and debt service separately. Additionally, the career fire departments in cities within the county serve the entire population of those communities while the career departments in Greenburgh serve only a portion of the population. These disparities make it difficult to draw meaningful comparisons although we have noted several that we believe relevant.
BASIS OF COMPARISON
All calculations involving comparisons of fire protection services with other Town departments were based on information found in “The Town of Greenburgh Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2009.” That document indicates the assessed valuation of the entire Town and the Town Outside to be $578,922,513 and $313,273,346 respectively, while the assessed valuation of properties in the Fairview, Hartsdale and Greenville Fire Districts are $87,043,364, $70,468,142 and $72,176,395 in that order. Therefore what is necessary to determine the percentage of total appropriations paid by taxpayers within each of the three career fire districts is to simply divide the assessed valuation of that district by the total assessed valuation of the Town Wide and Town Outside. These calculations indicate that taxpayers in the Fairview Fire District pay 27.79% of the total appropriations in the Town Outside Budget, while those in Hartsdale contribute 22.49% and Greenville 23.04%. Since the total Appropriations for the Town Outside in 2009 are $62,454,980, Fairview fire district property owners/taxpayers will pay $17,356,239 of that amount while property owners/taxpayers within the Hartsdale fire district will be responsible for $14,046,125 and those in Greenville for $14,389,627. Collectively, the assessed value of the properties within the three career fire districts is $229,687,901 or 73.32% of the total assessed value of the Town Outside. Therefore, the people residing within the area serviced by Greenburgh’s three career fire departments will contribute $45,791,991 towards the total Town Outside budget of $62,454,980. Dividing the $229,687,901 assessed value of property in the three career fire districts by the total assessed value of the entire Town realizes the figure .3968. Consequently, the taxable properties within the area served by the three career fire districts represent 39.68% of the total assessed value of the entire Town. Using this figure we can calculate that property owners/taxpayers within the career districts will pay $6,010,263 of the $15,146,832 Town Wide (“A”) Budget.
Note: These calculations are based on the overall budget number, not the amount to be collected in property taxes.
3 The Town of Greenburgh contracts with the Villages of Ardsley, Elmsford, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington and Tarrytown to use their volunteer fire departments to provide fire protection services to those sections of the unincorporated Town not covered by the three career fire districts.
3
Using these same percentages we can also determine the amount that each district will pay of the operating budget of each Town department (i.e., Police, Community Center, Public Works, Recreation, Library, etc.). For example, as depicted on one of the enclosed charts, property owners/taxpayers in the Fairview Fire District will pay $11,098,500 for fire services in 2009 but only $6,270,897 for police services. As previously mentioned, to make the comparison between the cost of police and fire more valid, we have adjusted4 the Personal Services portion of the Police Department Operating Budget by fifty percent (50%) to account for Employee Benefits and debt service. As an offset to this increase, the Employee Benefits expense on each of these charts has been reduced by a commensurate amount.
FINDINGS
Cost of Fire Protection Services - The major finding in this comparison was that the expense associated with providing fire protection services within the area of unincorporated Greenburgh served by the three career fire districts is significantly higher than in other communities within Westchester in which this service is also afforded utilizing career employees. Aside from Education, it is the single most expensive service provided taxpayers residing within the areas served by the three career services.
Comparison between the cost of Fire and Police Services - While there are substantial differences in the services each department delivers, fire protection (under the control of the career fire districts) and police services (under the control of the Town) are analogous in that both are first responders to occurrences that directly endanger life and property, which often places these employees in harm’s way. Both services are also proactively involved in public education and inspection programs to reduce the incidence of conflagration and criminal activity which fall under their respective responsibilities.
With one notable exception, within the larger5 municipalities in Westchester County that support both paid fire and police departments, the budgets of police departments are notably larger than that of the fire departments in their respective municipalities. The most significant reason for this is that in these jurisdictions the operation of the police department generally requires more employees to administer, thereby greatly inflating the personal service cost of that budget. This disparity holds true for all large municipalities throughout the state which fund both these services. The exception to this lies within the Town of Greenburgh where the combined budgets of the three career fire departments, which protect 73.32% of the Town Outside ratables, greatly eclipse that of the police department, which safeguards the entire unincorporated area of the Town. Because of the nature of the services provided by police and fire and this blatant funding anomaly between career fire districts and policing in Greenburgh, our comparisons also include the fire and police budgets of surrounding departments as well as some other cities statewide. This information is contained in Table 2 on page 6.
STATISTICAL INFORMATION
Information for the Fairview (www.fairviewfire.org) and Hartsdale (www.hartsdalefire.com) Fire Districts was obtained from their Internet Web sites. Although the Greenville Fire Department does not maintain its own Web site, information about it was obtained from the Fire Department Network Web site, which is a nationwide resource for fire department information. That Web site address is
4 Unadjusted Personal Services expense is $13,801,928 for all of unincorporated Greenburgh. The property owners/taxpayers in the three career districts pay 73.32% of this amount or $10,119,573. Increased by 50%, this number becomes $15,179,360, which is then added to the $1,368,156 that represents the balance of the Police Operating budget for a total of $16,547,516.
5 The cities of Rye and Peekskill also are combination departments staffed with career and volunteer members. Peekskill has 24 career officers and 200 volunteers while Rye has 17 career officers and 113 volunteers. Although both are funded through municipal budgets, because a great deal of the service provided is conducted by volunteers, their budgets are comparatively small.
4
www.firedepartments/newyork/scarsdale/greenvillefiredistrict.html. The three career districts contribute to the New York State Police and Fire Retirement System out of which pensions for firefighter employees are paid.
Fairview Fire Department – The Fairview Fire Department Web site indicates that the department employs forty-four (44) career and eight (8) volunteer firefighters working out of two fire stations. Although the site does not mention civilian employees, there is at least one employed by the district. The 2009 Budget for the department is $11,098,500. Of this amount, $6,092,737 is listed as salaries.
Hartsdale Fire Department – The Hartsdale Fire Department Web site indicates that the department employs thirty-seven (37) career and twelve (12) volunteer firefighters working out of two stations. The Web site does not mention any civilian employees. The 2009 Budget for the department is $9,669,091. Of this amount, $5,336,679 is listed as salaries.
Greenville Fire Department – The information obtained from the Fire Department Network Web site indicates that the department employs thirty-two (32) career and fifteen (15) volunteer firefighters and one (1) non firefighter employee. The 2009 Budget for the department is $7,267,740. Of this amount, $4,062,500 is listed as salaries.
According to the information obtained from the Web sites, the combined number of career firefighters employed by the three districts is one hundred thirteen (113). As indicated in the Adopted 2009 Town Budget document, the combined budgets of the three career fire districts for 2009 is $28,035,331. Of this amount, $15,491,916 is listed as salaries.
Combined, the property owners/taxpayers within the three career districts will pay $45,791,991 of the $62,454,980 Town Outside Budget in addition to $28,035,0+
31 to support the three career fire districts, and $6,010,263 of the Town Wide budget of $15,146,832 for a grand total of $79,837,585. The total cost of services provided exclusively to property owners/taxpayers living within the area of the three career fire districts that are funded under the Town Outside budget is $78,827,322. Fire protection services consume thirty-eight percent (38%) of this amount while the adjusted6 police budget accounts for $16,547,516 or twenty-two percent (22%), some $11,487,815 less than that expended for fire protection services within the three career districts. To provide some insight into the magnitude of this disparity, the $11,487,815 difference in the cost of operating the three career fire districts and providing police services within this same area could fund the salaries and benefits of an additional eighty-five (85) police officers assuming all are at the top grade pay rate and have family medical insurance plans.
Greenburgh Police Department - For the sake of comparison we are providing statistical information on the Police department. The Police department has funding in its budget for 116 police officers and 17 fulltime and 14 civilian part time employees. Also appropriated under the Police department’s salary (Personal Services) lines is about $29,000 for per diem civilian EMTs. The total cost of the Police department’s Personal Services (salary) expense is $13,801,928. While the Police department services all of unincorporated Greenburgh, its expense for salaries is $1,689,988 less than that of the three career fire districts combined. The Police department’s total 2009 Operating Budget is $15,667,934. When we increase the $13,801,928 expense for Personal Services by 50% to account for fringe benefits and other expenses, the total cost of $22,568,898 for maintaining Police department operations is realized. Again, although this cost represents the expense associated with providing service to all of unincorporated Greenburgh, it is $5,466,133 less than that needed to provide fire protection services within the three career fire departments. To arrive at the total cost of fire protection services for the entire unincorporated portion of Greenburgh, we need to add the $1,913,981 expended to fund the seven fire protection districts to that of the three career fire
6 With the Personal Services expense increased by fifty percent (50%).
departments. This realizes a total cost for fire protection in unincorporated Greenburgh of $29,949,012. See charts 9-12.
The Town of Greenburgh contributes to the New York State Police and Fire Retirement System for its police officers and to the New York State Employees Retirement System for civilian employees. Pensions for police officers are paid by the Police and Fire Retirement System while those of clerical employees are paid by the Employees Retirement System. Contributions differ for both systems with Police and Fire being the higher of the two.
Combined Appropriations
Total appropriations under the Town Wide, Town Outside and career fire district budgets for which property owners/taxpayers in unincorporated Greenburgh are responsible amount to $100,599,943.7 Of this amount, $62,454,980 ($39,886,082 without police) is attributable to the Town Outside budget, $8,195,951 is unincorporated Greenburgh’s share of the Town Wide (“A”) budget and $29,949,012 is for fire protection services ($28,035,031 Career departments and $1,913,981 Fire Protection contracts). Police department expenses approximate $22,568,898.8 Therefore, as a percentage of the overall expense, all services, except police, provided under the Town Outside budget account for 39.65%; unincorporated Greenburgh’s share of the Town Wide (“A”) budget expense is 8.15%; Career Fire protection services 27.87%; Fire Protection contracts 1.9%; Police services 22.43%. COMPARISONS
As previously mentioned, with the exception of Greenburgh, in communities which support both career fire and police departments, the expense for fire protection services is always considerably less than that of police services. Table 1 lists the total budget of six city departments, four of which are in Westchester, that provide fire protection and police services utilizing paid employees as well as their appropriations for fire and police services and contrasts them with the cost of fire and police protection in Greenburgh. The fiscal years in these communities somewhat vary. Some cities have a July 1st through June 30th fiscal year, while others along with Greenburgh are January 1st through December 31st. In those cities whose fiscal years are July 1st through June 30th, the budget reflected is their 2008/2009 Adopted Budget.
7 Does not include County, School, Special District taxes or account for offsetting revenues.
5
8 Includes fringe benefits and a significant allowance for debt service which undoubtedly results in an overstatement of the actual cost of police operations.
6
TABLE 1 – COMPARISON OF POLICE AND FIRE BUDGETS
NAME OF CITY
2009 BUDGET
2009 POLICE BUDGET
2009 FIRE BUDGET
New Rochelle
$146,828,490
$28,775,446
$24,085,125
Mt. Vernon
91,900,000
19,224,820
13,496,467
White Plains
150,603,063
30,596,181
22,011,288
Yonkers
246,285,645
81,994,817
53,442,966
Buffalo
423,373,937
77,325,549
54,781,896
Rochester
478,107,100
78,734,000
41,304,400
Greenburgh
(within the career districts)9
79,837,585
16,547,516
28,035,331
Greenburgh
(unincorporated Greenburgh)10
100,599,4337
22,568,8988
29,949,012
NOTE: The fire and police budgets of the cities of New Rochelle and White Plains include the cost of fringe benefits, while the others only reflect their Operating Budgets. None contain any provision for debt service. Appropriations for both fringe benefits and debt service were included in the Greenburgh Police Department’s $22,568,898 cost projection.
Cost Comparisons in Individual Career Districts – Following is a table that depicts the cost to property owners/taxpayers in each fire district of various budgeted services. The total budget number for each district reflects its pro-rated share of the Town Outside, Town Wide and career fire department budgets. The Police department expense contains an increase of 50% in the Personal Services portion of its apportioned budget to account for fringe benefits and debt service. Amounts that calculated to less than one percent (1%) of the overall department budget (i.e., Fairview/Greenburgh Pool, AF Veteran Park, etc.) were included under “All Others.”
TABLE 2 – COST COMPARISONS IN INDIVIDUAL CAREER DISTRICTS
SERVICE
PROVIDED
FAIRVIEW FIRE
DISTRICT
Budgeted Amount
HARTSDALE FIRE
DISTRICT
Budgeted Amount
GREENVILLE FIRE
DISTRICT
Budgeted Amount
Fire Protection
$11,098,500 (36.11%)
$9,669,091 (37.83%)
$7,267,740 (30.87%)
Police Protection
6,270,897 (20.40%)
5,075,745 (19.86%)
5,199,874 (22.08%)
“A” Fund Services
2,278,084 ( 7.42%)
1,843,369 ( 7.21%)
1,888,810 ( 8.02%)
Transfers to Other
1,883,833 ( 6.13%)
1,524,555 ( 5.96%)
1,561,839 ( 6.63%)
Sanitation
1,342,466 ( 4.37%)
1,086,436 ( 4.25%)
1,113,005 ( 4.73%)
Highway
1,227,490 ( 3.99%)
993,388 ( 3.89%)
1,017,681 ( 4.32%)
Employee Benefits
1,220,064 ( 3.97%)
986,569 ( 3.86%)
1,010,696 ( 4.29%)
Library
894,282 ( 2.91%)
723,728 ( 2.83%)
741,247 ( 3.15%)
Community Center
843,206 ( 2.74%)
682,393 ( 2.67%)
699,081 ( 2.97%)
Judgment/Claims
694,750 ( 2.26%)
562,250 ( 2.20%)
576,000 ( 2.45%)
Rec/Park Mtce.
486,012 ( 1.58%)
393,322 ( 1.54%)
402,941 ( 1.71%)
Recreation Admin.
471,664 ( 1.53%)
381,710 ( 1.49%)
391,045 ( 1.66%)
Contingent Acct.
318,196 ( 1.03%)
257,511 ( 1.00%)
263,808 ( 1.01%)
All Others
1,703,444 ( 5.54%)
1,378,576 ( 5.39%)
1,412,287 ( 6.00%)
TOTAL COST
OF SERVICES
$30,732,888
$25,558,643
$23,546,054
9 Within the three career fire districts, includes apportioned Town Outside, Town Wide and Police expense.
10 All of unincorporated Greenburgh, includes the Town Outside expense, apportioned Town Wide expense, the budgets of both the career fire districts and the fire protection districts.
7
Salary and Pension Costs
When comparing the cumulative budgets of the career fire districts with that of the Police department, two major disparities become apparent that cannot be explained simply by looking at the expense information for the fire districts contained in the Town’s budget document. The first of these involves salaries. Although the Police department has significantly more employees, 116 police officers, 17 fulltime and 14 civilian part time employees, than the three districts employ, 113 firefighters and perhaps 3 civilian employees, the combined expense for salaries of the three districts exceeds that of the police by $1,689,988 ($15,491,916 as compared with $13,801,928). Without obtaining specific salary information from the individual fire districts, which admittedly was not done for this report, one can only speculate as to why this significant disparity exists. There are a number of possibilities which include higher salaries than those earned by police officers, a disproportionate number of ranking officers, payments made under § 207-a of the GML, contractual requirements, and overtime usage to name a few.
Perhaps an even more significant anomaly is the amount collectively paid by the districts into the New York State Police and Fire Retirement System as compared to that paid by the Town for police services. New York State offers a number of pension plan options that governments/districts may opt into. For example, police officers and firefighters who joined their departments prior to July 1st, 1973 were designated as Tier 1 members of the system entitled to have their pensions calculated on their final 12 months of service, which is usually the period in which the officer’s earning are the highest.11 Referred to as Final Year Average Salary or FAS, this benefit was only available to Tier 1 members unless the individual government or district opted to provide this additional benefit to their police officers or firefighters. Of course, this benefit is significantly more expensive than the basic best three consecutive year plan. There are also other optional plans that pay additional premiums to police officers and firefighters. One such plan, referred to as 384-e, provides an additional 1/60th of an officer or firefighter’s FAS for each year worked after twenty years are completed to a maximum of 70% of salary. Pension benefits are the subject of collective bargaining and a government or district can opt to provide one or more special plans to its members through this medium. The percentage of salary contributed by a district or municipality into the pension system is therefore a function of the type of plan or plans the district/municipality provides for its employees. Since the contribution for Tier 1 members is also higher than the basic plan, having a large number of Tier 1 members employed could also increase contributions. Since Tier 1 members had to join the system prior to July 1st, 1973, it is unlikely that this is responsible for a significant portion of the disparity. The Police department has one remaining Tier 1 member. Since the majority of firefighters within the career districts are covered by special plans, this is the likely reason. Civilian employees are covered by the New York State Employees Retirement System and pension contributions for them are considerably less than that for police and fire.
For 2009, $2,569,462 has been appropriated for pension contributions under the collective budgets of the three career fire districts. Although the specific amount the Town has appropriated as payment to the pension system for its police officers for 2009 is not immediately available, the total funding for pensions appropriated by the Town for all of its employees for the current year is $2,443,665. This covers 116 police officers and the 424 civilian Town employees in a state pension system. For most of 2008, the Town employed 122 police officers and expended $1,753,850 in payments to the pension system for these employees. The budgets of the three career fire departments indicate that $2,458,247 was expended to fund firefighter and perhaps several civilian employee pensions during this same year. This means that in 2008, the three career fire districts paid $704,397 more in contributions to the NYS Pension System for 113 firefighters than the Town paid for 122 police officers.
11 The Pension System must also calculate the officer’s pension benefits based on the best three consecutive years of his last five of employment and provide him/her with the higher of the two.
8
CONSOLIDATION
As stated early on in this document, I am not sufficiently versed in fire protection operations to render any opinion as to whether efficiencies could be realized through the consolidation of Greenburgh’s three career fire districts. Issues such as this should properly be the subject of an in-depth study by an independent organization that is knowledgeable in these matters and has a proven record of experience. Although the economic crisis faced by municipal governments throughout the state and nation has provided renewed impetus to exploring the consolidation of comparable services as a means of saving taxpayer dollars, it is not the panacea for our economic woes. In fact, occasionally, it is counterproductive and results in a less efficient and more costly system. Where public safety is concerned, the implications of any such initiative must be closely studied before action is taken as an ill-conceived plan could have a catastrophic impact on the safety of our residents.
Notwithstanding these cautionary comments, some general discussion on the potential pros and cons of consolidation is warranted.
When consolidation works, savings are realized through the elimination of duplicitous resources thereby streamlining the operation of the entity and creating an economy of scale. Resources could be personnel, a class of personnel such as management, infrastructure, vehicles, etc. However, each situation is unique and the lesson learned is that consolidation does not always result in lower costs. Studies in the United States seem to suggest that the most successful consolidations have been between smaller communities. In a report published in 1987, The Federal Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) concluded that per capita costs generally fall when consolidating municipalities of up to 25,000; remain fairly constant for those up to 250,000, but then rise significantly. Opponents of consolidation argue even if money could be saved, consolidation undermines the political identity of the community and reduces political accessibility and accountability by further removing elected representatives from their constituents (Municipal Research News – Summer 2003).
Police/Fire Relationship – Generally, because of the inherent danger and liability associated with police work, police departments must have an appropriate number of supervisory personnel on each tour of duty. For example, the Greenburgh Patrol Schedule calls for three supervisory positions to oversee each uniformed tour of up to 11 officers as well as a number of Community Policing, traffic enforcement and civilian paramedic personnel. Each village department must also have a supervisor(s) on each shift but because their numbers are smaller, the span of control of each supervisor is much less. Looking at this one aspect alone, theoretically, a consolidation of police departments in Greenburgh would result in a reduction in the number of supervisory personnel needed. However, this does not necessarily translate into a reduction in the overall number of personnel. Positions that were once supervisors could be maintained as patrol officer positions actually increasing the number of officers available for routine patrol while reducing Personal Service costs. Presumably, this would also be the case for fire departments.
Within the Town of Greenburgh there are seven separate municipal entities, each providing similar services to a resident population of about 90,000 persons. There are seven police departments each with its own headquarters building and dispatch center that require staffing on a constant basis. In contrast, the City of Yonkers Police Department serves a resident population of about 200,000 utilizing four precincts. Taking into consideration time off, to fill a single position requires 6 people, which means that staffing all seven dispatch centers around the clock with a single person requires a minimum of 42 employees, more if the call volume of a particular jurisdiction, such as the Town, requires additional staff. In a number of village departments this duty is performed by a police officer, which takes him or her away from street duty. The consolidation of dispatch services alone could reduce the number of employees required to perform these duties considerably as well as reduce infrastructure costs while consistently providing residents town wide (including the six incorporated villages) with additional services such as emergency medical dispatch. While the number of positions required to provide dispatch services would be greatly reduced, many of the police officer positions saved could be diverted to street patrol, actually increasing patrol efficiency. This is only a
9
single example of the impact a partial consolidation could have on policing services. This particular aspect may not be completely applicable to the fire services as they have the opportunity, should they choose to do so, to utilize the County’s 60 Control Center for this purpose.
As far as the Greenburgh fire services are concerned it should be noted that the unions representing firefighters from the three career districts have already merged and that firefighting operations, especially where structure fires are concerned, are seldom undertaken by a single department. In two recent structure fires in Fairview and Greenville, units from all three career services as well as some outside departments responded. So practically, at least from the perspective of a potentially serious fire, the departments already routinely work together.
CONCLUSION
Fire services provided by the Fairview, Hartsdale and Greenville Fire Districts appear to be disproportionately more costly than similar services provided in other municipalities that utilize career personnel to provide these services. In the examples cited in this report and in every instance studied in preparation of this document, when fire and police services are provided under a single governmental entity, the cost of delivering fire services is always significantly less than that of providing policing services. This is obviously not the case in Greenburgh where fire protection in the unincorporated area is provided using a combination of career services in three separate fire districts as well as volunteer services contracted with neighboring villages to cover seven fire protection districts that collectively service an area policed by a single police department at a significantly lesser cost. While the impact a consolidation of the career fire districts in Greenburgh would have on their efficiency or cost or even the feasibility of such a merger, is presently unknown, in light of the present economic situation, the reasons for this blatant anomaly in fire service costs in Greenburgh should be explored. It seems that a practical means of doing so would be to commission an independent and competent firm to conduct such a study.
Respectfully submitted,
John A. Kapica
Chief of Police
Sunday, June 07, 2009
SUNY PURCHASE HAS INTERESTING JOB OPPORTUNITIES CHECK THEIR WEB SITE
Senior Programmer/Analyst
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Administrative Assistant
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0800030 06-10-2009 University Police
Police Inspector
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0800030 06-10-2009 University Police
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Friday, June 05, 2009
TOWN BD GREEN HEARING, MEETING WITH OPEN GOV DIRECTOR...FUN THINGS TO DO & KAYAK THE HUDSON
The Greenburgh Town Board will be participating in a meeting with Robert Freeman, executive director of the NYS Department of State Committee on Open Government this Wednesday, May 13th from 6:30 to 8 PM to answer questions from the Town Board, Town Clerk Judith Beville and members of the community re: open meetings & freedom of information laws. If you have a question and could submit it in writing in advance of the meeting – that would be helpful. Townclerk@greenburghny.com.
The Town Board will be holding a public hearing on a green building initiative on legislation to adopt, in principle, the US Green Building Council’s leadership in energy and environmental design for new construction (Leed NC) rating system which will provide owners and occupants of new commercial and multi family buildings with the economic benefits of energy and water savings. The hearing begins after 8 PM.
THIS WEEKEND WILL BE LOTS OF FUN…
THE HIGHLIGHT: Quadricentennial Celebration at the river villages waterfront. Visit www.rivertownsguide.com for complete information about the historic river day, flotilla parade. The boats will be floating down the Hudson River between 2-5 PM.
According to www.rivertownsguide.com the Irvington Education Foundation is hosting a spring thing evening of fun for the family tonight…the Friends of the Dobbs Ferry library hold their annual meeting tonight…farmer’s markets: opening days on Saturday in Hastings & Hartsdale…a tag sale at the Dobbs Ferry Community Hospital on Saturday…Sleepy Hollow Arts Festival on Saturday…and MUCH, MUCH MORE!
Read an ad in the Enterprise recently. The village of Hastings Recreation Department is sponsoring KAYAK THE HUDSON at Kinnally Cove. For reservations call 478-2380. They are partnering with Mountain Valley guides. The fee for tours/lessons: $60.
HAVE A FUN STAY-VACATION IN GREENBURGH THIS WEEKEND.
PAUL FEINER
The Town Board will be holding a public hearing on a green building initiative on legislation to adopt, in principle, the US Green Building Council’s leadership in energy and environmental design for new construction (Leed NC) rating system which will provide owners and occupants of new commercial and multi family buildings with the economic benefits of energy and water savings. The hearing begins after 8 PM.
THIS WEEKEND WILL BE LOTS OF FUN…
THE HIGHLIGHT: Quadricentennial Celebration at the river villages waterfront. Visit www.rivertownsguide.com for complete information about the historic river day, flotilla parade. The boats will be floating down the Hudson River between 2-5 PM.
According to www.rivertownsguide.com the Irvington Education Foundation is hosting a spring thing evening of fun for the family tonight…the Friends of the Dobbs Ferry library hold their annual meeting tonight…farmer’s markets: opening days on Saturday in Hastings & Hartsdale…a tag sale at the Dobbs Ferry Community Hospital on Saturday…Sleepy Hollow Arts Festival on Saturday…and MUCH, MUCH MORE!
Read an ad in the Enterprise recently. The village of Hastings Recreation Department is sponsoring KAYAK THE HUDSON at Kinnally Cove. For reservations call 478-2380. They are partnering with Mountain Valley guides. The fee for tours/lessons: $60.
HAVE A FUN STAY-VACATION IN GREENBURGH THIS WEEKEND.
PAUL FEINER
p/t job at lehman
JOBS WORKING
TO EMPOWER YOUTH
· Lehman College's CareerVisions Institute, preparing youth to be career-minded, community leaders during afterschool time.
· Numerous positions at $15 per hour.
· 15 hours weekly Mondays – Fridays
· Hours between 2 – 6 p.m.
· Learn community organizing.
· Ideal job for college students majoring in education, art, health and sociology.
· Positions start August 2009.
Award-winning program design seeking candidates for numerous positions in middle and high schools throughout the Bronx. Must be community orientated, progressive, ambitious, and excellent at working with middle and high school youth. Experience and interest working with youth and community organizing required. Responsible for research, creating/teaching fun and artistic lessons, and the engagement of youth. Candidates must be professional and have excellent academic (writing and math), organizational and communication skills.
Apply now by e-mailing your resume to kenyatta.funderburk@lehman.cuny.edu
“Making Our Community A Better Place To Live!”
TO EMPOWER YOUTH
· Lehman College's CareerVisions Institute, preparing youth to be career-minded, community leaders during afterschool time.
· Numerous positions at $15 per hour.
· 15 hours weekly Mondays – Fridays
· Hours between 2 – 6 p.m.
· Learn community organizing.
· Ideal job for college students majoring in education, art, health and sociology.
· Positions start August 2009.
Award-winning program design seeking candidates for numerous positions in middle and high schools throughout the Bronx. Must be community orientated, progressive, ambitious, and excellent at working with middle and high school youth. Experience and interest working with youth and community organizing required. Responsible for research, creating/teaching fun and artistic lessons, and the engagement of youth. Candidates must be professional and have excellent academic (writing and math), organizational and communication skills.
Apply now by e-mailing your resume to kenyatta.funderburk@lehman.cuny.edu
“Making Our Community A Better Place To Live!”
Thursday, June 04, 2009
COCA COLA JOBS
Subject: Job Oppertunities
Dear Paul
I work for Coca Cola in Elmsford NY and we are always in need of drivers who hold a clean class A New
York state drivers license. Please contact Kevin Wanamaker, Driver Manager at 914- 798- 1431. Also thank
you very much for your help with the sanitation complaint I had on June 2nd.
Dear Paul
I work for Coca Cola in Elmsford NY and we are always in need of drivers who hold a clean class A New
York state drivers license. Please contact Kevin Wanamaker, Driver Manager at 914- 798- 1431. Also thank
you very much for your help with the sanitation complaint I had on June 2nd.
WORK SESSION AGENDA..NEW BUSINESS WEB SITE...VOLUNTEER WANTED TO HELP RESIDENT WITH ALS (LOU GEHRIGS DISEASE)
Town of Greenburgh
Revised Work Session Agenda of the Greenburgh Town Board
Tuesday – June 09, 2009 – 2:00PM
(All Work Sessions are Televised Live on Cablevision Channel 76, Verizon 35 and are streamed live. Work Sessions and Town Board Meetings will be aired each Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting at 7:02am and 4:45pm. Each segment will run for approximately 6 to 7 hours, depending upon the length of the two meetings.)
2:00p.m. Agenda Review
2:30p.m. Capital Budget Review – TDYCC
3:15p.m. Status of Stimulus Funding Applications – Philanthropy, DPW, Parks & Recreation, TDYCC
4:30p.m. Executive Session – Interviews – Boards & Commissions
Anthony Schepis, a senior at Scarsdale High School (he will be attending Fordham in the fall) and John Ringel, a senior at Hastings High School (will be attending the University at Albany) have created a new website as part of their senior internship program in my office. Think globally, shop locally. They have been visiting local businesses and interviewing the businesses. The goal: to help promote local businesses and inform not only local merchants of the campaign but to encourage Greenburgh residents to shop locally.
If you have a business in Greenburgh and want to be interviewed for the new site (and for you tube) please e mail pfeiner@greenburghny.com. The website: GREENBURGHBUSINESS.BLOGSPOT.COM. Let’s work hard to help our businesses survive.
A senior citizen with ALS (Lou Gehrigs disease) needs help cutting her grass. If you have a lawn mower and would be willing to volunteer your time – please e mail me and I will give you her phone number.
PAUL FEINER
Revised Work Session Agenda of the Greenburgh Town Board
Tuesday – June 09, 2009 – 2:00PM
(All Work Sessions are Televised Live on Cablevision Channel 76, Verizon 35 and are streamed live. Work Sessions and Town Board Meetings will be aired each Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting at 7:02am and 4:45pm. Each segment will run for approximately 6 to 7 hours, depending upon the length of the two meetings.)
2:00p.m. Agenda Review
2:30p.m. Capital Budget Review – TDYCC
3:15p.m. Status of Stimulus Funding Applications – Philanthropy, DPW, Parks & Recreation, TDYCC
4:30p.m. Executive Session – Interviews – Boards & Commissions
Anthony Schepis, a senior at Scarsdale High School (he will be attending Fordham in the fall) and John Ringel, a senior at Hastings High School (will be attending the University at Albany) have created a new website as part of their senior internship program in my office. Think globally, shop locally. They have been visiting local businesses and interviewing the businesses. The goal: to help promote local businesses and inform not only local merchants of the campaign but to encourage Greenburgh residents to shop locally.
If you have a business in Greenburgh and want to be interviewed for the new site (and for you tube) please e mail pfeiner@greenburghny.com. The website: GREENBURGHBUSINESS.BLOGSPOT.COM. Let’s work hard to help our businesses survive.
A senior citizen with ALS (Lou Gehrigs disease) needs help cutting her grass. If you have a lawn mower and would be willing to volunteer your time – please e mail me and I will give you her phone number.
PAUL FEINER
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
HISTORIC LAW PASSES ALBANY--VOTERS CAN FORCE VOTE ON CONSOLIDATION OF LOCALITIES, FIRE DISTRICTS, SPECIAL TAXING DISTRICTS
The New York State Senate joined the New York State Assembly in approving a historic new law that will enable voters to collect petition signatures to consolidate local governments, fire and special taxing districts. After petition signatures are collected - consolidation initiatives would be voted on by the people impacted. New York State has more than 10,500 governments that impose taxes and fees. This law makes it easier for the public to decide what level of government they want. It provides the voters with a mechanism to reduce the costs of government and local property taxes by making government more efficient.
The bill was initiated by the Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo. School districts are exempt from the bill. I am disappointed that county governments are also exempt--I have suggested that a study be completed to determine whether county government should be eliminated or merged with other counties (Connecticut, much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island have no county governments, This new law should provide the public with the ability to eliminate waste, inefficiency and duplication.
PAUL FEINER
The bill was initiated by the Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo. School districts are exempt from the bill. I am disappointed that county governments are also exempt--I have suggested that a study be completed to determine whether county government should be eliminated or merged with other counties (Connecticut, much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island have no county governments, This new law should provide the public with the ability to eliminate waste, inefficiency and duplication.
PAUL FEINER
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
SOUTH BROADWAY BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (BID)
The “BID” – WHO WE ARE/WHAT WE DO:
The South Broadway Business Improvement District (the “BID”) is located in Yonkers, New York. Our neighborhood is unique; we have a tremendous diversity of businesses and residents; we come from all parts of the world; the experience of our merchants and business people ranges from novice to highly skilled entrepreneur.
The BID was established in 2002; some of our goals are: enhanced promotion of the area, greater advocacy on key issues affecting the business community, cleaning and environmental improvement, and extra safety and security.
We have great potential to create a highly sought after retail and commercial neighborhood, including a strong dining and entertainment segment; around us are significant residential and commercial projects which will bring more people to and through our neighborhood. We are seeking an Executive Director who has the skills, experience, and motivation necessary to make this potential become a reality.
QUALIFICATIONS:
· A minimum of five years of relevant experience in an executive capacity with a not-for-profit business related organization or similar entity.
· A minimum of three years of relevant experience working in business development, community planning or a related field.
· A Bachelor’s degree in business management or a related field; Master’s degree preferred.
· Knowledge of accounting and sound business practices; ability to prepare and administer budgets and maintain accurate records. Familiarity with Quickbooks.
· Excellent writing (including grant writing) and oral communication skills; fluency in Spanish is important.
· Understanding and ease in dealing with private industry and the public sector.
RESPONSIBILITIES
· Developing and implementing programs that support the organization’s mission to: a) provide assistance to its member businesses/retailers;
b) promote the commercial corridor of South Broadway; and c) implement beautification and security programs.
· General and financial management of the BID including AP/AR, annual budget, employee supervision and office procedures.
· Maintaining a good working relationship with members of the BID, community stakeholders, institutions and public officials.
· Reporting to the executive committee and Board of Directors on all matters related to the organizations’ operations and programs. Reporting directly to the Board Chairman as required daily.
· Serving as spokesperson for the BID and representing the BID publicly. Assessing the ‘political/government landscape’ to determine how to properly and effectively guide programs through to completion. Effectively interface with government leaders and agencies regarding BID’s projects.
This full-time position is available immediately. The BID will run a complete background check on applicants prior to final hiring. Compensation is competitive and commensurate with qualification. Please submit cover letter with resume, no later than June 8th, via email to:
edsearch@southbroadwaybid.org
Attn: Dennis Monasebian, Chair
NOTE: Resumes submitted without cover letters will not be considered.
No phone calls or faxes please!
BID.ExecDirAd.5.09
BID.ExecDirAdv.4.1.02
SOUTH BROADWAY BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (BID)
The “BID” – WHO WE ARE/WHAT WE DO:
The South Broadway Business Improvement District (the “BID”) is located in Yonkers, New York. Our neighborhood is unique; we have a tremendous diversity of businesses and residents; we come from all parts of the world; the experience of our merchants and business people ranges from novice to highly skilled entrepreneur.
The BID was established in 2002; some of our goals are: enhanced promotion of the area, greater advocacy on key issues affecting the business community, cleaning and environmental improvement, and extra safety and security.
We have great potential to create a highly sought after retail and commercial neighborhood, including a strong dining and entertainment segment; around us are significant residential and commercial projects which will bring more people to and through our neighborhood. We are seeking an Executive Director who has the skills, experience, and motivation necessary to make this potential become a reality.
QUALIFICATIONS:
· A minimum of five years of relevant experience in an executive capacity with a not-for-profit business related organization or similar entity.
· A minimum of three years of relevant experience working in business development, community planning or a related field.
· A Bachelor’s degree in business management or a related field; Master’s degree preferred.
· Knowledge of accounting and sound business practices; ability to prepare and administer budgets and maintain accurate records. Familiarity with Quickbooks.
· Excellent writing (including grant writing) and oral communication skills; fluency in Spanish is important.
· Understanding and ease in dealing with private industry and the public sector.
RESPONSIBILITIES
· Developing and implementing programs that support the organization’s mission to: a) provide assistance to its member businesses/retailers;
b) promote the commercial corridor of South Broadway; and c) implement beautification and security programs.
· General and financial management of the BID including AP/AR, annual budget, employee supervision and office procedures.
· Maintaining a good working relationship with members of the BID, community stakeholders, institutions and public officials.
· Reporting to the executive committee and Board of Directors on all matters related to the organizations’ operations and programs. Reporting directly to the Board Chairman as required daily.
· Serving as spokesperson for the BID and representing the BID publicly. Assessing the ‘political/government landscape’ to determine how to properly and effectively guide programs through to completion. Effectively interface with government leaders and agencies regarding BID’s projects.
This full-time position is available immediately. The BID will run a complete background check on applicants prior to final hiring. Compensation is competitive and commensurate with qualification. Please submit cover letter with resume, no later than June 8th, via email to:
edsearch@southbroadwaybid.org
Attn: Dennis Monasebian, Chair
NOTE: Resumes submitted without cover letters will not be considered.
No phone calls or faxes please!
BID.ExecDirAd.5.09
BID.ExecDirAdv.4.1.02
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Monday, June 01, 2009
greening greenburgh
Greening Greenburgh: Workshops is a new series beginning June 23rd at the Greenburgh Public Library.
This is a monthly opportunity for folks to learn how they can save $$ and energy as well as network and join others in Greenburgh creating a more sustainable lifestyle.
June’s topic is a NYSERDA (NY state energy research and development authority) workshop for Building Trade Professionals.
Please click on the ‘Greening Greenburgh’ link at www.greenburghny.com for more info.
There are other exciting topics lined up such as: Funding options for home energy efficiency projects, Film Nights, Intro to Low Carbon Diet, Solar Punch, etc…
What do YOU want to learn about….any Green/Eco/Sustainable interests, topics, concerns that you wish to know more about??!!
Your input is crucial for the planning of further Greening Greenburgh Workshops.
Please email Deann Cartwright at conservationoutreach@greenburghny.com with any ideas or comments.
I look very forward to hearing from you.
THANK YOU!!
Deann Cartwright
Conservation Outreach Coordinator
Town of Greenburgh
177 Hillside Ave
Greenburgh, NY 10607
914-993-1649
www.greenburghny.com
Be a part of the action, be a part of GREENING GREENBURGH. Greenburgh was One of 10 communities chosen nationwide as a Spotlight Conversation on Climate Action on Earth Day! Click here to read the recap: http://www.icleiusa.org/blog/archive/2009/04/24/in-the-wake-of-earth-day-conversation-collaboration
This is a monthly opportunity for folks to learn how they can save $$ and energy as well as network and join others in Greenburgh creating a more sustainable lifestyle.
June’s topic is a NYSERDA (NY state energy research and development authority) workshop for Building Trade Professionals.
Please click on the ‘Greening Greenburgh’ link at www.greenburghny.com for more info.
There are other exciting topics lined up such as: Funding options for home energy efficiency projects, Film Nights, Intro to Low Carbon Diet, Solar Punch, etc…
What do YOU want to learn about….any Green/Eco/Sustainable interests, topics, concerns that you wish to know more about??!!
Your input is crucial for the planning of further Greening Greenburgh Workshops.
Please email Deann Cartwright at conservationoutreach@greenburghny.com with any ideas or comments.
I look very forward to hearing from you.
THANK YOU!!
Deann Cartwright
Conservation Outreach Coordinator
Town of Greenburgh
177 Hillside Ave
Greenburgh, NY 10607
914-993-1649
www.greenburghny.com
Be a part of the action, be a part of GREENING GREENBURGH. Greenburgh was One of 10 communities chosen nationwide as a Spotlight Conversation on Climate Action on Earth Day! Click here to read the recap: http://www.icleiusa.org/blog/archive/2009/04/24/in-the-wake-of-earth-day-conversation-collaboration
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