Full Transcript

Thank you. [transcription gap] Thank you, Brittany. Okay. [transcription gap]

3rd. Halleckville this weekend, they have the Long Island Antique Power Association. They have their truck pull. The gates open at 6 p.m. and the pull starts around 7 p.m. Racetrack Knott Street, Fall Classic, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. up at Grumman Memorial Park. And since today is Thursday and we won't be live on TV tomorrow, we have two birthday announcements to make. We have Jim Wooten, who's not here right now, but his birthday is coming up. And we have Bob Kern's birthday tomorrow. No, we do not. No, we do not. Right, you got the wrong date. Is it the big 8-0? No, we got the wrong date. I'll be 127 tomorrow. Anybody interested to look like me? Mr. Kern is denying that his birthday is tomorrow. Oh, I see. Even we got bad intel on him. I think he's just afraid of the influx of flowers that are going to come into town, Paul. There's no good, bad intel. It gets back in the day when Bob was born. Can we cancel the balloon march? Please do. So, Bob, we owe a happy birthday to you, okay? Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Bob. Happy birthday to you. Have a great day, Bob. Thanks.

I want my attorney to look into who leaked personal information. Thank you. Yep. As Eric said, Danielle's out today. That's right. There you go. Or you won. Or you didn't. That would put us three hours into our session. Yes. Okay. We won't count up. Jo, did you have any? I do. Next Saturday, November 2nd, is the Town Riverhead Anti-Litter Committee's fall cleanup here at Town Hall from 9 till 11. So everybody is encouraged to come out and do your part and help keep Riverhead clean. Thank you. Bob, do you have anything? Yes. Thank you. This Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Suffolk Theatre is going to be a show, live music, and it's all donate, everything will be donated to veterans. This Saturday night at 7 p.m. The other thing I have, and it's a little early, but I want to put people on notice, November 9th at Stotchke Park is going to be an event that the direct department is doing with the Anti-Bias Committee, etc. It's called Huddle for Hunger, and it's with the Riverhead Rotary. And that is the 9th, and its registration begins at 10 a.m. It's a flag football tournament. So the PAL will be involved. PALs from other towns will be involved. All you need to do is bring a can of food to, and that's it. Huddle for Hunger. Thank you. Are you playing? No. I'm playing. [transcription gap] I challenged Eric Howard to be the quarterback on the opposing team. Bob, I heard you were quite the quarterback. Yeah, when I was this big, everybody got really big, and I couldn't do that anymore.

Very interesting Kern tidbits, I must say. Kern tidbits. Football, soccer, wrestling. That was great. Anyway. Ken, do you have any announcements? Yes. Just to the continued work from the Veterans Advisory Committee. They've done a great job. So those that are not aware, we do have Garfield Langhorne's Congressional Medal of Honor. It has been given to us on loan on behalf of the Langhorne family, and it is here on display in Town Hall. And we did just receive, and we'll be adding to the display, we received in addition to his Congressional Medal of Honor, his Purple Heart. And so that will be put into the flag case as well. And I believe the ROTC is coming over here from Rivette High School. So they're going to bring the students over here to have an opportunity to gather by the medal. And it takes a nice reflect on his story and what is his ultimate sacrifice. In addition to the work of the Veterans Advisory Committee, we are gladly thrilled to announce that the trees have been planted up at Veterans Memorial Park. So our first batch of orders. The monuments will be going in. There's the placard for which. There's the placard for which. Each tree, each individual family members, loved ones, friends have graciously purchased trees. And so there's no cost to the town. And we expect to put those monuments in over the next few days. And we will be looking to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony or something to have it already on display for Veterans Day. Awesome. I was up at Veterans Park yesterday, and it really looks good. The trees look great. It totally makes the whole park look beautiful. Yeah, it really does. It's a nice border around the parking lot area, and then it continues up through the bike trail. So it's a really great project, and I'm certain that once the word gets out and people see it and they see those plaques, I'm certain that there's going to be more orders selected by family members. It's a great way to honor a loved one and beautifies our parks. How nice it's going to look in April when they bloom, too. That's going to be amazing. That's on our agenda is hopefully that we get towards Memorial Day weekend. These are cherry blossom trees, and we're hoping that they bloom during the Memorial Day weekend. That's why they were selected. So that we can have some cherry blossom festival potentially in the years to come. Yeah, sounds great. Thank you very much for that. Denise. Yes, I just wanted to let everyone know that tonight at the Senior Center, the Environmental Advisory Committee has a movie. It starts at 7 p.m. and goes to 9 p.m. It's about the environment. They had one portion of it last week. The other portion is tonight. We ask everyone in the community just come on out, watch the movie. It's all free. Mark Hubner is running this with the Environmental Advisory Committee, and it's nice to learn about our environment. So that's my information. I wanted to ask Ken. What's going on on Veterans Day? You said they're having a ceremony. Do you have any time and dates yet on that? I will have everything ready for you. We can post it and confirm all the times and so forth. But that's what we're going to see when we want to do a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the trees and as well as other events as well. So we're going to have a meeting on Monday at 5.30. That's the Veterans Advisory Committee, and we're going to kind of put together and formulate the day's events. Okay. I just want to make sure I put it on the calendar. Yes. Okay. Save that Veterans Day. Yes. Speaking of EpCal, I also understand that yesterday we got approval from the Board of Health for the bathrooms up there. Yes, we did. So that's excellent. That was good news. Ann Marie was harping on them about it. Yep. Yep. We got that through. So now as soon as they're produced, which should be soon, we'll have bathrooms up there for everybody to use. And then immediately begin work on the septic system and the permanent bathrooms, the concrete structure, will be arriving any day now. Good. So it will all fall in place. Perfect. [transcription gap] Okay. For open session today, we have matters surrounding discussion of the 2025 preliminary budget. And I would ask John and Brittany to come on up and join us at the table.

We presented or I presented the tentative budget a couple weeks back. And now everybody's had a little bit of time to digest it. And if we, anybody has any questions or discussions, this is really now the time to do it. And hopefully we can get through this and figure out what's going on. So, Board, anybody want to take the lead and have any discussions? I'll say one of the concerns and maybe the legal department could direct us in the proper forum in which to discuss, but I'm, in terms of, you know, I'm not a legal expert. [transcription gap] Everybody here certainly puts more than, as town board members, we're more than part-time workers. We're dedicated and we're all doing full-time and more than full-time work. But I would certainly be open to have a discussion that in terms of finances, that I would be willing to waive any type of raise as elected officials. And I know that, and I don't want to seem like, I think others have had side discussions about that as well. So I don't know the proper form, whether it's here or is that contractual because it specifically involves raises for individuals. But I would like to just simply have a discussion at some point to see whether or not other board members, how they feel. But it's a great budget that you put together, Supervisor. It's a necessity, especially with the police component of it. And we've raised a number of men and women in blue and they're doing a phenomenal job. And it's just, it's a great opportunity to see how that goes. And so, and as well as the standard contract with the CSEA and our union workers. And we're catching up in terms of creating equality life here in Riverhead that we can keep good workers. So that comes with a rise in budget. So you put together a great budget. Just personally in terms of, you know, I just wanted to have a discussion and I'd like to know the proper form to do that. Okay. Well, that's kind of here today. What I would suggest is, well, we'll hear from all the board members. I mean, I think we've got a lot of questions about the CSEA and the union workers. And I think that's a great opportunity. And I think that's a great opportunity to get some of the best answers on this and what they feel about it. I just want to reiterate the reason that I did what I did is our elected officials, many of them are sort of department heads. And their subordinates are catching up with them salary-wise because they being in a union get raises every year. Elected officials do not unless the town board agrees to present raises to them. So it's starting to get out of whack. And I think that's a great opportunity to get some of the best answers out there. Thank you. [transcription gap]

And so what I did was I got a comparison of all the towns around us. And we are kind of woefully low on our salaries for our positions. So in going through each individual position and looking at when they last got a raise and this whole budget is somewhat based on the fact that if you got a raise last year, you weren't going to get a raise this year. Whether it be in person. If you got a contractual raise or a bump up due to a promotion in your job, we wouldn't give you a raise again this year. Even though you might be an exemplary employee and we'd love to do it, that was just the basis that I used for doing this budget. And I went through every position with the same idea. And, you know, department heads have put people in for merit raises. And rightfully so. We have some family members. We have some fantastic workers in the town, without a doubt. But if they got a merit raise last year, I didn't grant them a merit raise this year. And that's how I went through everybody, including elected officials. Now, I've said this before. In terms of the supervisor spot, the last raise in the supervisor spot was 2009. And, you know, that's, what, 15, 16 years. That's a long time for that salary to be out there and be stagnant. And in comparison to other towns around us, we are the lowest. Absolutely the lowest. So that's why I put in what I put in for. I believe it was an 8.7% increase in the supervisor's salary, just to try to catch up a little bit. And if you break that down over the 16 years, it's basically a half percent raise each year, which probably might be the easier way to do it in the future, maybe even in the future. Maybe base elected officials' raises off of what the unions get, and this way you keep kind of an even flow going on. But as elected officials, we're often hesitant to vote for raises because we're voting for raises for ourselves. And we all feel funny about that. The public hates that, and we understand that, but it is a necessity. And I also speak to the fact that you want to get quality people to run for offices. And I know last election time, there was a struggle on both parties to get qualified people to run for offices. And for the amount of time, and town board in particular, you guys are considered part-time and your salary is woefully low, you know the amount of hours you put in to do this job. And in all fairness, you know, you should be compensated for that. So that's why I think we're going to have to do that. Thank you. So that's why I came up. And then same with the town board members. You guys haven't had raises since I believe 2015. That's nine years. And again, nine years, if you got a half percent, you know, you'd be getting a four and a half or five percent increase, and that's what you got. So that's where those numbers came from, and that's why it was what it was. And I understand we're breaking, we're piercing the tax cap, and I got to be, I'm going to be perfectly upfront with you. Next year, we're going to have to pierce it also. All indications right now are pointing towards that's going to have to be done. And this was conversations we also had, or I had, with the Suffolk County Supervisors Association. Everybody's in the same boat. And if you look at everybody's town-wide budgets, everybody had to pierce the cap with maybe one or two exceptions. Everybody's in the same boat. We have the health insurance up 10 percent. We have regular insurance rates have gone up. We have contractual raises that have gone up. We have pension and retirement systems that have gone up. And they've all gone up exponentially, way above the cost of living or the CPI. So that's the reason I did what I did. I am open to suggestions on the salaries. And if you think we went too far in this first round, I'd be willing to back down some, or back down even if you wanted to go, say, back down to what the unions got and consider the cost of living. And I'd be willing to consider that. But then next year we'll be doing the same thing again because we have to then try to play catch up still some more. So that's my thoughts and my feelings on it. I'd love to hear from the rest of the board how everybody else feels. Well, I'm just going to, you know, say something that you had brought up. And I know I was, we all were in meetings with our various departments that we liaisons with. And you said right from the get-go, hey, listen, this is going to be a tough year. I think it's important, and you brought it up in the public to know, that the police are 50% of our budget. And what's really important about that is people for the last, what, 10, 15 years, all they talk about is crime and safety and blah, blah, blah. Well, thanks to our great governor and bail reform, this has put us in a position where we have police out there every day arresting people, sometimes the same person. The same person? Three times, five times, 10 times, and we're not going to let them in. And so, I think it's important. Three times, five times, 10 times a week. And guess what, they're still out on the street. If we don't have the police to get, at least get them off the street temporarily so that people feel secure, we're going to be continuing to get those complaints. And to your point, I mean, look, we have police cars that have over 100,000 miles on it. We have to get new vehicles. We're putting their lives in jeopardy, period. And we can't do that. At any rate, that's... 100,000 is a very low number. Yeah, it's probably closer to 200,000 miles. I don't know how many people have 200,000 miles on their car and it's still going. And in a car that you potentially have to pursue somebody in and at a high-speed rate, you want to have a car that is fit to do that. I just want to excuse myself for a second. I want to just talk to one of the lawyers. Supervisor, I appreciate your explanation because this is something that I have been personally struggling with because I did not seek this position because of the salary that was attached with it. If I'm being honest, it probably cost me more for everything that I need to attend and keep paying for out of my own pocket to go to all the fundraisers that we're invited to. There is a cost to this position. And I understand... I understand that there is never going to be the right time for a town board to vote for a raise for themselves. And I almost feel guilty being in this position to have to vote on this. And personally, I would like to say I don't want the raise, but at the same time, I'm hurting some of the other elected officials by doing that. So I'm really struggling. I'm really struggling with what to do in this situation. Well, there are options also. I mean, in the past, and I can reference to Jody Giglio, she voted for the raises for the board, but she denied her personal raise. Her individual raise, she gave back to the town. So that's an option that's available too. Just something to think about. Supervisor, I'd like to state my opinion on it. I support the raises that you're seeking because I want the public to be aware that while you have a raise, you have a chance to get it back. I do recognize that public service is important when it comes to police officers and firefighters. It's also important for your public officials. I know that people don't necessarily think of us as public servants, as politicians, but we are. And I don't think that public service means that you should not be compensated in some way. I know that the police get raises annually, and we don't, to point out, as you said, sir, we don't get an annual raise with the way the contracts go. And it isn't just a raise for me as an individual. It's like you said. It's for the position. And you do want qualified people to come and take the position. And this is a great deal of service that maybe the town doesn't recognize by all the committees we're involved in, by all the meetings we have with individuals. And I'm gladly happy to do that. But I want everybody to be aware that it is an awful lot of time and energy, and it is an expense many times. We're driving to different events on our own time and on our own money. It's not like we have a designated time period. We have full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full full $20,000 lower than any other part-time town council person in any of the other townships other than South Hold. And I don't think that we're asking for, and the highest position is $91,000 to the highest town. So we're certainly nowhere near any of those positions. Town council, I believe it's in Islip. They received $91,000 for their position. $91,000. East Hampton, it's $86,000. Brookhaven, it's $79,000. Babylon, it's $69,000 and change. South Hampton, it's $77,000 and change. I can go on. The only one lower than us is South Hold, and they have a lower population than us. So I don't think that this is unreasonable what you're asking. And I'm not even quoting the supervisor salaries. The salary that you have currently is $115,000. Whereas... Huntington, the supervisor makes $162,000. This, this, I don't think these are unreasonable and I don't think that this is something that the public should turn away from because public service is important. It isn't just for fire and safety. It's also for your elected officials and therefore I support it. Thank you. Emery, do you want to address something? Sure. So, Jeanette is unable to be here today. She had something very important to come up. So that's why she's not here. To the supervisor's initial point, you'll see the town of Babylon is proposing a 9.9%. Second year in a row. Second year in a row. But what I really wanted to point out, as the supervisor stated, there are departments, department heads that are also public officials. I have participated, albeit a limited way, in some of the budget discussions. And those, in part, relate to merit, number of people they supervise, the different tasks that they've recently taken on. And I would just ask the board to treat that as a personnel matter and if we can add it to the agenda. And speak about them in executive session. I think that would be appropriate. Rather than here. I appreciate the town board for the benefit of the public speaking about yourselves. But for those other officials who act as true department heads, and it's really merit based. I think it's more appropriate if you do it in executive session. Okay. I have no problem with that. Anybody? No, I think. Anybody agree? Okay. All right. In terms of the budget in other areas, does anybody have any concerns or questions? I do think that last thing anybody wants to do is add to the budget. I do struggle with, it has been my long term goal to really refurbish and to make police officers memorial park in waiting river, which is commonly called Bayberry Park. It substantially needs upgrades. It needs a new parking lot and that's something that each year I try to advocate for it. I think the last figures came in, it was about $150,000 to repave the parking lot. It is slowly becoming one of the most dilapidated parks in the town. And I think that if we can, in handicap accessibility, moving around wheelchairs and so forth around that park, as all of our parks are struggling. But I just, I would hope that at some point we can kind of get that done. I think that's a big part of the budget. [transcription gap] But at some point we can kind of, when we get parking rec fees so that the general public knows when that money comes in, that's for capital projects, new projects. It never helps us with maintenance. As much as we advocate to the state to try to change the laws and the regulations to use that money for maintenance, it's not allowed. And so we struggle with that. So even as new projects are being built, it's still not going to help the maintenance of our parks. You know, and I would hope that at some point we can consider to put something in the budget to somehow begin to restore that particular park. It's our police officer memorial park, and I think then we can ask the PBA along with the police department to step up and to maybe do some events there. Maybe we can raise money for a nice monument to be in place for the police officers that serve the town, for those that have fallen. And so it's a long-term goal, but the parking lot has to be addressed at some point. It would be another year that we would put it off. It does, and I originally had $70,000 in the budget for redoing the Reeves Beach boat ramp. That's a project, like what you're saying, I've been year after year trying to put money away for this. And instead we just throw money every year at it to band-aid it. And for what we've thrown money at since I've been on the board, we could have done the $70,000 already and done it right, and it would be fixed. But I think the possibility, and in my mind, and Ann Marie, I'm glad you're up here, is with the future solar project that may be coming in, I think the community benefit money from that could probably be used to fix both these items. So that's where my mindset is, where we can get the money to do that. I agree with you 100% about the shape of Bayberry Park. It is awful. So the supervisor is correct. Solar 2. That is... That project is not, quote, dead yet. They've applied through NYSERDA. If they win that award, they will be moving forward, which I did even speak to Councilwoman Merrifield on this. It would be substantial. In addition, the Councilwoman has agreed that she and I will work together to amend state law to allow us to utilize... ...parking recreation fees for maintenance, which it doesn't currently provide. For towns like the town of Riverhead, who are not wealthy, it's the maintenance money that's perhaps more significant than the capital project monies. I also need to point out to the town board, you, quote, are already on a budget schedule. schedule. If you are going to amend the tentative budget, which is the preliminary at this point, you will have to have either on Friday the 25th or Monday the 28th a special town board meeting to amend the budget, to publish it in the newspaper and post it on the board because that all must be done before the hearing, which is November 7th. So we would cancel the original, replace it with this, but you're under a very tight deadline to get that done, just so you're aware. So, and it's my understanding, all right, because I'm glad we're bringing some matters to exec session, that if we surpass November 7th, then it becomes the town board budget, Right. [transcription gap] Yes, but... And so if there are any kind of changes, which we would deliberate as a whole board, and then, so we do have that as well, correct? We have some, if we deliberate after the 7th, we have to what date? I think it's the 28th? The 20th. The 20th is the final. Yeah. The 20th. So we're going to do it on the 19th, I believe. Correct. Okay. All right. So, we're currently scheduled for November 19th. Mm-hmm. You know, I never recommend we go to the very last day. No, I... You know, and don't forget, you're addressing the tax cap plus the preliminary. Mm-hmm. So, you know, it's all kind of laid out. Mm-hmm. There's a schedule even online, so... Also, it should be noted that the Suffolk County... The Suffolk County Supervisors Association, we have generated letters off to Governor Hochul and asking for a different setup for the tax cap. We feel that there are capital projects and things that should not be included in the tax cap to hold it against town's budgets, and it would make it much easier because at this point in time, with everybody piercing the tax cap, the tax cap almost doesn't serve a purpose. So, the idea is to get some capital projects, get some relief from the state on what is required and what isn't required to be considered in breaking the tax cap. So, we're waiting to hear back, but everybody is in the same boat, and many people are sending this letter in, so we hope it gets some open ears up in Albany to hear about it and maybe some movement there. So, that's something to keep in mind also. I think that's really smart since Long Island gets $14 billion. That's what it was, I believe, last year or the year before in state taxes. So, I know with projects like Nisera, I think that's, we've all, I mean, with the Solar 2 that we've all held our hopes on in terms of obtaining that money. It has been going on for a long time. I thought the decision would have been made in the end of September, but we're still waiting. Well, that was the schedule given by NYSERDA, but I check it almost. Staley. They haven't rendered the awards yet. The second approach is that, and I'm only discussing it not to change the topic of the budget, but then perhaps whether the town could ever look into it in terms of legality and addressing our laws towards sponsorships and other things if other companies and things want to start sponsoring some like projects for, you know, repaving surfaces, parking, doing improvements, landscaping improvements, and things like that. Where we can begin to allow others to help us refurbish our parks. Well, those provisions. Because then that alleviates, and I discussed, I just mentioned that briefly now, because it alleviates the budget issue. But, you know, but each year we put off certain things with the hopes of expectations of projects coming to fruition that are simply not. So, but. I don't foresee state law, Attorney General, state controller opinions changing, which would allow us to, you know, Yeah. [transcription gap] Yeah. [transcription gap] To solicit. Yeah. Projects. Instead, what I think you should consider is for park and recreation fees to be expanded to include industrial subdivisions, large-scale industrial projects. And for the part. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no. It's the same provision of law where we would include. a maintenance provision and we could potentially ask the state lobby our state representatives to include the ability to use those funds for even large-scale capital projects that have a benefit that is far-reaching for the Riverhead residents so I think we should really kind of take a dynamic approach to that because we do need the funds I mean we're a small town but yet a much more dynamic town in my opinion that a lot of the East End towns you don't have a route 58 you don't have a main street like we have plus we have the open space in the agriculture so it's really and we have two shores so it's really unique plus we have two three crown jewels police water district sewer district that other towns do not have all of that is a heavy burden it's a benefit but it's a heavy burden at the same time and I think we have to approach it more dynamically and come up with state legislation that really benefits the town of Riverhead I know what we're a little bit off topic but I have it I have a zoom call today with a group of people from leaders for all over Long Island and we're gonna go up to Albany I think in January and February if you could write something up on that Tim if you give me what you have I can bring it up on the call today because these are going to be the topics that and these are to me these are affect every single town so I want to get that on the we meet with you know both sides both parties all day long and we present the agenda and blah blah blah so let me know okay thank you very much. Thanks. Tad off topic also yesterday I had a meeting with the East End mayors and supervisors and we're putting together legislation to ask the state to consider how the CPF fund is distributed among the five eastern towns we've often said that Riverhead has we've preserved more land than the other towns combined but we have the smallest amount of money in our coffers to do that. Whereas a Southampton has so much money it's they can't spend it fast enough we want the state to look at that and see if it can equally be equally proportioned out to the five towns that are preserving land you know that the goal isn't town lines here the goal is preserving land whether it's in Riverhead South hold Southampton East Hampton wherever it wherever it is the goal is to preserve the land so a fair equity of distribution of those funds would make sense. To us obviously South hold is onboard with this also so so we'll be requesting so so some relief from the state on that. We'll see. We'll keep you posted with that. Right. To your point. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I was going to say, to your point, Supervisor, in Southampton, if they sell a home for $15 million, which is not out of the realm of reality, 2% on that for the CPF fund gives them a great deal of money. Correct. And they also, Divvy, because they have passed that other legislation for first-time homebuyers and such, that gives them the ability to free up that money for infrastructure, which we currently don't have. So that's the advantage they have, and that's why they keep their taxes so low, because their home values are so much higher. Absolutely. And they send 1,400 students a year over to Riverhead. True, too. I was just going to say to keep in mind that we are the only town out of the five towns that do not offer the first-time homebuyer exemption. And we also don't participate in the affordable housing. That's it. Because when we did, if the town board remembers, we did the calculations based upon our average home price. If we had participated, we would have lost CPF revenue year after year after year. Well, I'm glad to hear that you're doing that. Yeah, that was a very good conversation yesterday. We've gotten a little bit off topic. Going back to the budget itself, does anybody have anything else at this point in time? Just to remind the general public, too, because I think you've done great work over the last few years, and to remind the public that we were put in a difficult situation during COVID where we did not increase our budget for two years, but what we were really doing was putting off the necessities that we needed, putting off replacing equipment, replacing cars, upgrades across the board. We basically just pushed it down the road as far as we can, and now here they are in front of you. And so you had a difficult... position, you know, to do that, to resolve it, but you have to. Dozens of times we've kicked the can down the road. I'm guilty of that. I was on the board at the time, too, and it was like, you know, it's always nice to say, hey, let's give a zero percent tax increase, but everybody knows that's going to catch up to you somewhere down the road, just simply because the CPI goes up every year. There's never a zero percent of that, so there's no way you can play that every year and not get caught up in it down the road, and that's where we're finding out. So, you know, we're going to have to do that. Yeah, I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. And I think that's where we're finding ourselves now. And the reality of it is, taking the zero rather than the 1.9 under the two percent cap, the town board regrettably set itself up for the following year where you put yourself in a deficit. Unintentionally wanting to deliver that to the public in a difficult time, but at the same time putting yourself Yeah. in a very difficult position. Yeah. And as I've said before, this is not only a town of riverhead problem, this is a nationwide problem. There is such a thing as inflation. We're living through it right now. Everything is more expensive. You go to the grocery store, it's more expensive. It's everywhere. Health insurance. And eventually, you just, you can't keep doing the zeros. You have to pierce the cap, unfortunately. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Anything else, anybody? No. Okay. Well, that's what we have for open session today. We're going to, in a moment, I'll make a motion to close open and go into executive. And we're going to discuss personnel matters, matters surrounding the change in status of an employee with Chief Frost, matters surrounding change in status of an employee with myself, matters surrounding contractual agreement with the PBA, myself, Yes. and matters surrounding possible lease of town property, Kern, Hurley, and Thomas, matters surrounding possible sale of real property, Hubbard, matters surrounding update on town of riverhead versus DEC and CMA Mines versus town of riverhead and DEC. That'll be with Councilor Howard. And matters surrounding litigation between the town of riverhead against Scotts Point. That will be with Howard and Hurley. So, could I have a motion to close open session and go into executive session? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay. We are closing open session and we will retire to executive session. Town board, Mike, I'm sorry. Go ahead. ROTC is here, so we just take a moment. Oh, yes, absolutely. We'd love you to be able to greet them outside. Do we want to have them come in first while we're on the air? Why don't we do that? Have them come in. I don't know if you want to handle. Will they all fit? I don't know. I don't know how many they brought. I'd like to get them on camera here and then go out and do. Sure. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, John. Thank you, Brittany. Thank you for all your work. Not a problem. Not a problem. Oh, okay, great. People at home, the NJROTC from Rivette High School is here. They're here to visit the display we have set up in the lobby of Town Hall regarding Garfield Langhorne Purple Heart and Medal of Honor, Congressional Medal of Honor. We're just waiting on them. We want to bring them in just to put them on camera and say hello to everybody at home. And if you're not familiar with them, they've been an organization tied into Rivette School. I was a student in 19... When I graduated in 19... 1978, and it had started before that. But the men and... The young men and young ladies of the ROTC are incredible in the work that they do in the town of Riverhead, all of the volunteerism that they do. Folks, don't sit. Come on up here. Come on. Come on. Surround us. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Understood. Understood. Just because they're the... They're under the age. [transcription gap] Everybody calls you out, whether it's the Rotary Club, whether it's the town of Riverhead, whatever the case may be, and you guys always show up, full and in force. And we really appreciate that, and we appreciate that you came down today to see the display case of Garfield Langhorns with the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart. I think it's important for everybody to realize that we had a true hero amongst our residency here in town. And I thank you for coming in. I really appreciate it. Thank you. And just to add, at the beginning of the school year, we started with a little over 100 cadets. As of today, we're up to 141. Unbelievable. And we're pushing even towards 150. And what that does is it spans our military unit from a company to a battalion, and we've gotten a tremendous amount of interest, and each day we get three or four cadets coming down from the high school and saying, I wanna join, I wanna join, I wanna join. So we're really growing in leaps and bounds. That is awesome. That's awesome. A little background on you? Well, I started here at Riverhead High School October of 22, coming in, and the program- We were in limbo there for a little bit without a true leader, and you came in and kind of rescued the day for us. You certainly were. And to put it in perspective, I believe I worked in, and it was like 70 some odd cadets. Now, that puts this program in peril, because once you go under 100, then you go on probation. So-so. And then you're in the Navy, you know, the Navy regs. We were able to bring it up and over, so we overcame that hurdle of being put on probation, and since that time we've grown, and as I said, in leaps and bounds, this year it's incredibly, it's incredibly grown. That's fantastic. And the kids are actively involved in all of the community service events, even during the summertime. During the summertime with the Yelks, with the VFW. Sure. With Alive on 25. All the parades. So I mean, we've really got our hands full. But the kids love it. My son Cameron went through ROTC and over at River Hatties. It was one of the most awesome experiences ever, and I was so happy to be selected, you know, to be a parent guardian on some of the trips. So going over to Rhode Island to the Navy Center, and actually I did my calisthenics. I did my workout in front of the Lieutenant Michael Murphy Center over there. And so like the, and then we went down into Boston to the USS Constitution. Like the, the history of the Navy, you know, the history of the Navy. Yeah. Yeah. The history that was learned on that day, that I learned as an adult was fascinating and what takes place, especially at the Navy Center over there. But I will say more importantly, what it instilled on my son, you know, carries with him his whole life, you know. And it has made him strive higher in everything he's done and he's successful because of the ROTC program. And I firmly believe that that's what, it's just, it's an amazing program. I wish all the students, you know, the best of luck. I'm so glad that you came down here because you understand, you know, when you're in the high school and as you go through, you'll see that Garfield Langhorne can, you know, Wall of Honor. And you understand that when you sign up in the military outside of high school that you're committing that, you know, to protect and to serve. But sometimes it is the ultimate sacrifice that takes place. And I commend every one of you and some of you may choose to at some point add your name to that wall, you know, if it's for serving your country and the armed forces. And I think that's a great thing. Thank you. And so I thank you and thank you for being part of this program. And for what you do for the kids in our community, it's just astounding. You do an amazing job and thank you so much. Thank you. Well said. I appreciate it. Thank you. Commander, have we hit you up yet for Huddle for Hunger? Tunnels to Towers? No, Huddle for Hunger. Huddle for Hunger. I'm not aware of that one. We will. It's going to be at Stotsky. I'll talk to you about it. Okay. I have you know. It's a football tournament. They're collecting food. Yeah, collecting food. Yeah. So you may need some help up there with that? May need some help and your students may want to participate. Oh, put a flag football team together. Yeah, put a flag football team together. November 2nd, we're taking the whole unit and we're doing the town Riverhead litter cleanup. Yes. At Stotsky Park and a couple other places. Already spoken for, Bob. Well, it's November 9th. Oh, okay. So it's the week later. We knew about that so we made it the 9th. All right. I'll check my calendar first. Yeah. Very good. Well, thank you for coming. Thank you. We appreciate it and certainly go out and enjoy the display and thank you, Ken, for working with the Veterans Association and getting that display up. It's awesome. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you guys. We'll break between here and executive session for a moment. Yes. Just to take the last out there. Yep. Stop out there and thank you. Thank you everybody. Have a great weekend.

Thank you.