Full Transcript

Go. Good morning, everybody. Today is Thursday, August 27th. We're here for a work session. Before we go any further, if we'd stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Does anyone have any announcements this morning as we go? I quickly do. This Saturday is the Blues on the River. which is sponsored by the Cutchog Lions Club. I was saying that it started at noon. It actually starts at 11 o'clock. At 11.30, we have our very own Chloe Halpin, the supervisor's daughter, is going to be performing. We have many performances ready for everyone. It's $20 admission. Children under 12 are free. And these donations benefit the Guide Dog Foundation and America's Vet Dogs. So hope to see you on Saturday. Okay, and this Friday night at the Wading River Beach we have the Summer is Not Over Yet concert. It's an 80s band that's going to be playing terrific music and we can't wait for everybody to come on down to the Wading River Beach and have the last bit of summer together. Which is hosted by the Beach Committee. Yes, hosted by the Beach Committee and sponsored by Jim Wooten, our town clerk. He did a wonderful job in this. Thank you. Thanks, Kim. I mentioned that this Saturday at the ice rinks, Picard-Kaisaki's having an open skate for everybody to come down if you catch a skate, it's free. You can come for a free skate. Skate rentals are $7, I believe, and it's on the 29th at 1215. So come on down and skate. You can cool off. Yeah, so I just wanna make an announcement on behalf of our Highway Department and Superintendent Mike Zaleski. People have been calling up about the road conditions on Elton, Elton Avenue. That is the responsibility of National Grid and our highway superintendent assures me that he is on them on a weekly basis and expects that the paving will be done sometime in September and wants me to note that not at the taxpayer's expense. And just one last announcement. September 11th at 11.30 a.m. Town Hall will be opening because we'll be delayed due to the 25th anniversary memorial ceremony that's happening at the town memorial in Calverton at 10 a.m. on September 11th. So mark your calendars and we'd like for you to join us as we remember that. I will move right into our open sessions, matters surrounding the Pecanic Bay Medical Center, Northwell Health, maternity expansion and facade improvements with Matt Charters, and I believe the rest of us. There's a lot of team too. You guys can come up. Yep.

Thank you.

medical centers in the process of doing, I would say, a substantial amount of work site-wide. What we're looking at today is the maternity ward is coming downstairs to the first floor. I believe that's where the skilled nursing facility used to be. As part of that, they're redoing the entrance on the east side of the building. There's going to be a nice entrance, sort of a pavilion and planted area, new drainage. They're reconfiguring some parking, which you can see up on the screen. I know it's small. Doug does have a plan if anyone wants to see it a little bit closer up. It won't be on the screen, the graphics are not working. For you guys to see it on the screen. Also, as part of this, they're going to be doing some facade improvements on what I like to call the old brick portion of the building. So that's the side that faces 58 right of the circle. It's sort of an innovative solution to kind of clean this up. And I think we're going to get a nice, clean, modern looking hospital, which I think everyone will be happy about. And I'm also happy to report that the grapes will remain. so the great general community and if you could just take us through how this works and how it looks and uh if the board has any questions once we're done sure um so um as you mentioned that we are moving the maternity down to the entire first floor of that three-story building that faces the well we'll just say the traffic circle on the side here so this is the elevation that you're looking at through the traffic circle we're looking to re-skin the building entirely on the three sides the fourth side is facing the existing hospital. The first floor is gonna be one material along the back. It's gonna be like, as you can imagine, a reskin of a complementary material that matches the existing facade. And the upper floors is another seven-dishes panel. All new windows throughout to help manage the efficiency for the patient rooms on upper floors. And like I mentioned before, all the systems are currently gonna be on the first floor. The entrance to the maternity as mentioned is going to be something else. The entrance is going to be within the back and we're going to put some type of curvature type clear glass overhang that will be the entrance to this new Women's Health Center. We can just scroll through some of the pictures in here if you have any questions. Obviously, we're just looking out. But we anticipate starting construction soon. So, just if you have any questions, obviously, just something to look out for. Looks great. It does look really good. It really does. I'd also like to clarify, is it moving close to the road? Because I remember there was a pre-existing hospital where you're like, you're refacing. We did reface. Refacing. We still have the same distance from the roadway. Yeah, we may have to remove some brick and things like that behind it. Waterproofing. I'm happy to report that some of the, I would say, unsightly mechanicals that we see now, especially on the road roadside, as part of this project, will be covered. So if you notice any air conditioning or ventilation system, that was a big request. I know that the county has been asking that for a while. And also in the front of, on the roadside here, there is a one-story building here that we're planning on putting some louvers around to hide the mechanical equipment in here. So now in front of the hospital, the hospital mechanics will be covered. And there'll be no mechanical units on top of the roof of this. That'll be, it'll be safe in the street. Everything will be covered, either through parapets or some type of screen. There's a small portion of the hospital, This wing where on the east side is only actually a one story building and all the mechanicals are on top of that. So they're not going to be higher than a three story building, is that it? I know we're talking about building, but just to get an idea from the public, is this replacing the skilled nursing area? Well, that skilled nursing has left. For a few years now, yes. But I don't know if they will revamp it. We are looking to extend and refresh. Okay.

So I have a draft administrative approval. If the board is comfortable, we can come up to the packet for Tuesday. If you have any questions, go free to ask. I'm just working with Eric to pick up some language, but it's a great moment. That's great. I'll rewind a minute. Thank you guys. Thank you for coming in. thank you so our next uh item on our work session is matters surrounding potential agreement with herrad school district uh myself counselor howard uh and superintendent hagen i believe you have representation from the school here i've also asked chief frost to come and sit with us this. We need one more chair. Oh no, we're not. We might have one more. You need that one? Yeah. Take your team with you. Feel free to speak freely. Thank you.

Yeah. Exactly. Sorry, do you want to get the request that was sent to us? You guys, we're here to discuss the contract or the potential of what you guys had asked. You had resent speaking of your SROs. We believe in this program completely. I think we might need to talk about how that's being funded and what your request has been and look at that. So if you guys want to. Sure. So for two years now we've had an agreement in place to provide two SROs to the school district. The first year of the agreement the district paid 50% of the cost of one of the SROs and the second year it increased to 50% of the cost of both of the two SROs. Just to clarify, the town river had paid 75% of the program in the first year. Okay. And 50% of the, so it wasn't split because we paid for the second. That's all right. That's correct. We paid for 50% of one. You guys paid for the full cost of the other. And then the second year, it went to 50% of both of them. Excuse me. The reason that that was done was because the school district did not budget for SRs. Yeah. We didn't budget for SROs originally because in my experience, no school district that I'm aware of pays for SROs anymore. Suffolk County School Districts under the Suffolk County Jurisdiction have been an SRO provided by the county free of cost. To my knowledge, the other towns on the east end that have municipal police forces all have SROs provided as a courtesy. Riverhead is the only place that requires a school district paid for. Can I just add to what you're saying about the other east end towns? Again, I know we're all for safety, but their school budgets are a lot less than ours. I mean, when you look at them individually. So, I mean, for us, safety is absolutely important. But again, when we first did this, we absolutely knew the school budget at the time. school budget did not address sros and there was a commitment made to us that in the future they would do that that's correct that was the agreement that was initially brought to us that this is a one-time event and it was also correcting uh councilman current from correct but they were also telling us this was a dire situation they had flipped over superintendents many many times they had huge issues with their budgets and they were basically pleading with us to help the analysis one time i mean and not you know currently i mean nobody here i think was part of that meeting but you're absolutely right um so here we are here we are but my understanding is that you guys budget for these positions as well under budget and the taxpayers paid for that and now you're asking us to also budget so in my view the taxpayers are being hit almost twice or not fully twice but sort of a double building of the taxpayers right now look uh My request right now is not to tear up the agreement. And I don't want to take that position. There is no agreement. Correct. When you say tear up the agreement, the agreement expired. Correct. So there's no agreement to tear it up. But the request wasn't to radically change it or say we're expecting free SROs from you. Not what I just said about what the industry is among school districts and policing powers. The request was simply that we can't afford to pay for 50% of the full salary and benefits for both of the SROs. The request was to pay for just the base salaries of the SROs in this. And if the town wasn't willing to do that, then we would go to paying 50% of the full benefits for just one SRO. And we'd have one SRO less than the school district. I just don't understand how you're willing to compromise safety over that. You're doing your budgets year after year, and so I know this doesn't pertain, but the last superintendent stated that we were between budget periods, and so that was a last-minute request. And so that's why we did two years as opposed to one year, and the commitment was that safety and priority are the top component of any school district's policy and their budget and the forthright. So before they even consider anything else, solar projects and expansions of the goal, safety is number one priority. And that was a commitment and a promise from everyone that sat in that room that said, we will put safety first. We always do. We don't have the funding now and we will absolutely make it available. We will take this over. You're not paying for a police officer for the entire year. You're paying for the police officer for the duration of the time that it is spent in the school district. And it's also why we expanded up to 100 officers so that we can do and implement programs like this. So don't, be clear on what you're saying because now it's after the fact that you come to the table and you say, well, I'm not sure because I'm not hearing yet what your commitment is and whether it is to in fact, as promised, pay for the full cost of two SROs in the school or are you coming here today saying that you don't wanna do that? I spoke with Chief Agamelo the other night after I asked him about this. I said you were part of this. He was on your way out. He doesn't recall ever saying that the school district would ever take over. I don't think he was part of the meeting. He was part of it. He was on his way out. He was not. I'm sorry. Is there any more? I don't want to litigate the past. What I'm going to tell you right now is our finances don't allow us to pay the full cost that we've done under the old contract. We are 100% committed to the safety of the students. Excuse me. If I may. We paid last time because you forced us to pay. You did. Because if we didn't pay, I'm sorry. If we didn't pay, would you have provided us the SROs? No.

as the SROs? That would be a poor decision, but I'm a four month. My kids went to the school district. I mean, today's time and time and time and time again, school is the fourth one. I want the SROs in the school district, but let's be realistic, okay? Either way, it goes to the taxpayers of the town of Riverhead. So whether it's in your budget or it's in our budget, it's a service that must be provided. What I'm asking, and this board, I think, my fellow board members want clarification that it's not a typical town expense. It should fall under the expense. It should fall in your budget. It's going to the same tax people. But the other side that we have to be fair about is that part of the residents in Wading River do not live in Riverhead Town. They live in Shoreham-Wading River School District. So when we pick up the cost of your SROs, they're paying for a service that they're not getting. So we don't have the ability to say, okay, now we're going to break it out and we're only going to put it in certain taxpayer lines and for certain tax payers but why should residents of the shore and waiting river school district be paying for sros in the riverhead school district you are the border lines of the school district and so you make the process very simple and going yeah it fits in our budget fits in our school lines and it's provided i just want to answer that monday that we have a fiscal responsibility to all the residents of the town and your school district does not encompass all of our residents as councilman rockwell was saying many of our residents in riverhead attend the shore and wedding river school district those residents are already paying school taxes to that district you're asking them to now pay additional taxes through their town taxes to a school district that they're not part of that none of their children's get a benefit for additionally the same thing is occurring to children that live in Calvertown that are in the Eastport South Manor School District. They already are paying taxes to their school district. You're asking them to have that now included, your school district issue, included in their town taxes. We have a responsibility to all of the residents, all the taxpaying residents in our town, not just the Riverhead School District residents. And that would require them to pay additional taxes. You started off a few minutes ago saying this is going to make our residents have to pay double taxes. You're talking about the Riverhead School District. No, you're actually making the residents in this entire town pay for a school district that they're not part of, that they're already paying taxes to other school districts. That's not fair to our residents. We've pierced our tax cap twice already. You pierced your tax cap, I believe, with this budget. Is that correct? That's absolutely not correct. All right. Well, then that's it. All right. I'm going to finish then. and you could have put it in your budget. You could have put it in your budget, and you didn't. So we have an issue with our taxes in the town. You made sure that your budget didn't go over, but you don't care whether ours does or not. Let me ask you a question. If I said to you we couldn't afford the SROs, and SROs are in the school, and I call 911, are you going to send police officers to the school when we need them, correct? I'm going to put a question to you. You could have put it in your budget. It was so important. It was so necessary for your children's safety. When you called 911, why didn't you put it in your budget? We put what we could afford in our budget. We don't pierce our tax cap because we budget what we can afford to pay. And we're cognizant of what it costs the taxpayers to do that. Oh, we're supposed to do that for you, right? I don't want to turn this into an aggressive fact. Not if you want to talk about it. So far, I haven't really been allowed to speak. I've spoken over a couple times. I think it's shameful that we are talking about paying for SRO services. If the school district had the authority to employ its own SRO officers, it would do that. It can't do that. It's at your mercy. We can sit here and we can squabble about the fact that the geographic boundaries of the school district believe in to other towns and residents have responsibilities to expenses for services and they don't receive it. It's just the way of the world right now. Okay. We did budget for what we could afford without having to pierce the tax cap. The school district has gone through incredible financial stress and they've come through that without having to further burden the tax credit. Okay. This is unheard of in any school district I know. Okay. Because the policing municipality and the school district are on lockstep that they We agree that the safety of the students is paramount. Only here are we getting into this issue of having to pay for SRO services. And I am not saying we're not going to pay for anything. I'm just telling you what I can afford to pay, and I'm asking for this town's help. I think all children in Riverhead, regardless of whether the fact that they come from Wading River and there are other students who don't go to Riverhead, should all have the protection. If you would give the town the right to have Suffolk County take jurisdiction over schools, I'll get something counted in the MSNS, all right? I can't do that because Riverhead Town Police has the jurisdiction here. All right, can I ask you a question? Yes, sir. Okay, so, and I'm gonna give you the sense that I have. I feel like you're litigating this situation, which I'm not happy about, that's number one. There's a problem, let's look for a solution. You wanna have a legal battle, it's useless. And what you did say was when the meeting happened, two years ago that the school was forced to pay. Complete, who, where were you in the meeting? If you go back to the people that were in the meeting, nobody was forced to pay. We were trying to, you know, get help out, right? And I understand what you're saying. Summit County has a large police force, but that's- But it was Supervisor Hubbard that asked for the meeting at the time because he was persistent that he wanted S.L. Rose in the school as well as the support. So you guys didn't come to us and say we need help, we can't do it. We came to you and said we really want this and you said no can do, not enough budget. So we decided that we would pick up 75% for the first year and then they would take over. They said, it's really in the middle of budgets, we can't do it. We're gonna need help for the second year as well. All right, we'll go 50-50 the second year. Just a clarification to the public, you're coming here, basically you're telling us that you didn't budget the program and you are ending the program. That's what the school is- That's absolutely not what I said. That was the gross miscarriage. Then put it in your budget, reinstate it, and put the kids' safety first and foremost above everything that you do with the school district. What I'm gonna jump in and say is just that, irrespective of whatever the district standard is, going back to at least 2019, the school district entered into an agreement with the town, wherein they would pay 50% of the full cost of the SRO, and that includes salary and benefits, etc. And moreover, there are other municipalities on the east end that cost share. We have the school district. Which one was the last? East End and Village. I don't want to litigate this. I'm angry. Let's solve the problem. Which is solution? My solution would be if you could help us with allowing us to pay 50% base salaries to SO officers, we can afford that. That was my proposal. I still haven't heard a response to that. Part of my issue with that is, you know, the school board has already adopted their budget, and I'm not sure that they can afford to pay what we're having this conversation now, months after the fact. To my knowledge, this meeting has been adjourned several times. It's not before your budget meeting. Who? We've never even been waiting for this one. Who adjourned the meeting? I never even heard about the meeting. You reached out. So it came through our attorney's office that there was a letter. This happened in the summer. This is well after the school board budget is adopted. I assume they are preparing the school board budget in February or March at the very least. And this did not come up until well after. Over the last couple weeks, we may have had a move. As you can see, we're having a meeting this morning because the air conditioning is out and our courts can stop. So we've had to make calculations and changes. Well, that had nothing to do with what I'm saying. Right, but not over the summer. Not over the summer. We've not had any. Eric brought this to the board immediately in the summer when it was brought. Actually, and we all spoke about it. He said, no, we weren't doing it. It was after your budget meetings. We need to come to a resolution here. We need to work forward. We need you guys to step forward. As everyone has said, safety is a priority. I asked the chief to check into it about who pays for what, so he has those understanding. He gave you the ones that do meet some of the municipalities that have a different tax set, and we do. We are, we have pierced the tax cap. Each one of us sitting here today is trying our best to help the taxpayer at home, just like you are. And you can proudly say you've not pierced the tax cap. We would proudly say that as well. I sat with supervisors yesterday, and they talked about these specific things, policing in our area, working with the SROs and the burdensome cost of that. So meet us. But what I'm hearing is it's taken a little bit. We may have a police force. So we come to you, oh, hold on, may I, please finish. We made a proposal. You said we're having an issue, okay? The budget does get made in February, right? And at the time, there wasn't time for negotiations. We put in what we could afford without having to pay the tax gap. Now I'm here saying to you that we need to modify the agreement. I'm not saying that you tear it up and go back to, you know, we're asking if you'd pay for 100% of it. We're asking for some relief. If you're telling me the answer's no, it's the old agreement or nothing, then I'm going to take that back to the board, I'm gonna make one other suggestion. We have roughly over 1400 students coming from Riverside and Philanders. On their tax bills, they're paying the same what Riverhead residents pay to go to school. What they're not paying for is for Riverhead police, right? And somehow, and this is a strategy I would look at, to get more tax money out of Southampton to help in situations like this. Because what's happening is the burden is falling on our taxpayers not only to pay the school tax, but also to supplement the taxes not being paid by Southampton residents at Riverside and Flanders that are using our school system. You follow what I'm saying? Southampton provides an SRO to the Phillips Avenue Elementary School. So the Southampton residents of the Riverhead School District are paying taxes to Southampton and are receiving the benefit of a police officer from the Southampton Police Department. I just want to say one thing. Contractually in this past contract that just expired, it is very stringent guidelines where we need to have an SRO in the middle school and the high school daily. and even if they're on vacation we have to cover them all the other municipalities they do not have that um they do not have such an agreement and the sros bounce around through many different school districts where there's not a mandatory uh presence at the facility so there's a big difference and that's also the same thing obviously with the with suffolk county um They're not locked into one school district as as in East Hampton village and in West Hampton village that is the case that they are required to have the office of there so there's a bigger difference so South Hampton has two SROs but they probably go through four probably four school districts you know they go to ESM they go to riverhead they go to Hampton bay they go to South Hampton so there's many different school districts that they go through because it's not contract locking you know and then obviously they're not in the schools so that's an interesting point I appreciate that because that's something created that perhaps you can look at as a contractual modification for you know that periods of time where you don't have to backfill and ask your own schools and that's something we can talk about in terms of negotiation so I do appreciate that I'm curious you know who provides wading river school districts SRO? Is it a South County SRO? And they have, again, they probably have, the numbers have went up, I'm going to say probably, I'm guessing, 2,200 offices. They have 15 in precincts and six county-wide SROs. So they have only 21 people that are SROs for the whole entire, you know, South County Police jurisdiction. So, again, they bounce around different school districts that are contained within the precincts. Shoreham also has a new security company in which they have an armed guard outside the parking lot. It doesn't have to be a building unless there's an active shooter situation. Unfortunately, yes, it's a great comparison, but Shoreham has a great entranceway where your district has multiple entrances entrances where it's that doesn't make it feasible for that to station one person you know your buildings have multiple entry and exit ways so i'm sorry but i just have to say i feel just so the public is aware i feel that the riverhead school district is shifting their financial burden onto the residents the taxpaying residents of the entire town of riverhead and i don't think that's fair i don't think that's fair that people are paying school district taxes and in Shoreham-Wading River and also in Eastport-South Manor that they're being asked to pay additional monies towards the school district that they are not getting any services from, that no, that their children go to. It is not fair. And I represent not just residents from Riverhead that attend the Riverhead School District, I represent residents that also go to those two different school districts. It's not fair to those residents to pay additional house through their town. So then don't bill us for the SFO, and we wouldn't bill them. and then the relief's right there. You made the argument for me. No, I didn't make the argument. If we like, if we don't have to pay for the S.R.O. No, I'm asking you. If we don't have to, we don't have to bill the residents for it. You're billing the residents for it. And we're billing the residents. No. I'm speaking. Without police officers.

I don't want to do that. Yeah, but we can do budget. We can do budget. Yes, you budgeted so you didn't have to pierce your tax cap. When the budget was created, you looked it over and you said, what's important? There's a lot of programs we want to do for the town, but we can't do it all because they're not affordable. So you looked at what you want to keep in your budget and what you want to cut, and you guys chose to cut the SRO program. That's what you did. And you chose not to keep it. You chose to do less for the services. It's very clear. It's the only fair way to do it. The service is rendered. It's okay. You can disagree. Can I ask the chief? I mean, again, to me, it seems like we're fighting, and even we come up with a solution, right, because I'm not saying that maybe we need to go back and figure it out, but give us some solutions, which I'm not hearing. We can use those two offices out on the street. I'm sure the chief would love them on the street. Gene, I have a question for you. If Southampton is paying for an SRO in Phillips Avenue, okay, so why, and I'm going to put this out there to my earlier point about Southampton taxpayers are not, are not paying anything into SROs for Riverhead. Zip zero. Riverhead residents are. Can we agree on that? Because that's the reality. I don't understand that. Okay. Okay, so the police officers that we hire are paid for by Riverhead residents. And they're in Riverhead schools only. Riverhead school, like Riverhead Town School District schools. They're in the middle school and the high school. The Southampton police officers in Phillips, which is in Southampton Town. It's a middle school. Okay, but it's still a school that's in Southampton. It's serving Southampton residents. You're making my point. Right? So if I am going back to the 1400 plus students that are coming out of Riverside and Flanders and populating the middle school, the high school and the elementary school. If you amortize what our taxpayers are paying, and I'm going to ask the chief, why can't you go to Southampton and ask them for some more SROs? Because the jurisdictions clash. They don't have jurisdictions. How do they in Phillips? And that's why I'm asking the chief. Southampton, Southampton. I think they can contribute financially to cover this. Yeah, that's my point. Why aren't they contributing financially? That's why it should be in your budget. They have, look, the median income here is $75,000. The median income over there is about $1.5 million, maybe $10.5 million. So I'm just asking you, you know, maybe, you know, to go over there and ask them, hey, we need help because Riverhead is educating your Southampton students from Flanders and Riverside. They're providing a free SRO already. They're already helping, sir. A free SRO already. That's a big help from compared to the median income in the two different towns. I'm not here on behalf of the town of Southampton. I'm talking to all of you. either of mine so i made a proposal you've asked me several times you said several times you don't want to litigate this i'm trying my hardest not to litigate this and be pulled back into back and forth over you know our perspectives on whether we should pay for this at all okay as a reminder to our residents can you tell us exactly how much budget was approved for if that was just voted on it within the budget it was 200 000. i'm sorry within the budget we have $200,000 set aside because we assume no i'm asking what the full budget was that was passed in may the full budget was over 200 million 200 million out of 200 million dollars you cannot find any money you can't get the money together to pay for your sros 200 million dollars So you allocate $200,000 to SROs? I'm trying to understand, is that what the allocation is? Yes, sir. Okay, $200,000. So, and what's your, just so I understand, because I don't think, I mean, I need time to think about all this. So what is your offer so that we can go back and think about this? Our offer has been since the beginning of the summer to pay 50% of the salaries to SRO two SRO officers. The town board will not accept that. Then what we can afford to pay for is 50% of the full benefits of one SRO officer. We would have to take one SRO officer from the guys. That's a loss of one SRO officer. But you still have your assistant to the assistant of an assistant working within the school district. That's more important than the safety of your students. That's a gross mischaracterization. I know, but it's not. Ma'am, if I may, there's been an incredible amount of turnover in the Central School District. And part of the reason we didn't pierce the financial cap is because interim administrators with the confidence and the know-how to put out the financial fires came in and did a herculean task in getting our finances in order and fixing the financial house. And we did spend money on experts to come in and do that. And as a result of that, we avoided having to pierce the tax cap. And part of that is the financial prudence to look at the budget and make hard decisions and say what we can afford and what we can't going forward. I don't want to litigate the point, but at the bottom line, we looked at what we could afford and we put $200,000 in the budget. And now I'm telling you that that cannot pay for both of the full-time costs of these SRO officers. We are trying to work with the town of Riverhead to continue the program. I'm not looking to turn it up and tear it up. I didn't come in here asking to get into a match about whether it's appropriate in the first place to pay for SRO officers. My personal opinion is it's not. I find it shocking that we're even having this conversation, but it's the situation we find ourselves in. We are 100% committed to the safety and security of the school district, all resident students, regardless of where they come from and regardless of who their parents pay taxes to. Okay? I have made the proposal two times. You're asking to be creative, but I haven't heard a response back. So I would say we've heard that, and we will go and speak about that. The contract that you offer again, we'll give you our reply, but I would ask, and if the board disagrees with me, they can, but I would ask you to go back and to reconsider and to reply. You're asking us to reconsider. We're asking you to re-look at this. We all look at our budgets throughout time. We're asking you to reconsider what your offer has been, and you're saying we're in a position, I'm saying you're in a position, because school starts, and we can decide if together, if we want to move with the old contract so that the children are safe, that our SRO officers, who are beyond just safety. I mean, what they bring to those schools and what we've all witnessed this board and what we know they do is invaluable. And again, I think we're somewhat on the same position. I think we're trying to decide where it comes from. And so as indignant as the board is being right now, I believe that we're asking you to also to re-look at what you're doing. That's what I'm asking. I'm asking you to reconsider. I would just say, sir, I disagree. I do not think the board is being indignant. I think the board is being indignant. And I just like to clarify that I go back to the position that if the school, the Riverhead School District felt this was so vital and so important, it should have been in your budget. And if it wasn't in your budget, you certainly should have come to the town board way before now to come speak to us about it a week before school starts. I have one question. I could say the same thing though. When did our program end so we covered the cost of last year? When does the finances run out in June? So it's not in our budget either. We're pushing it towards us. Not in our budget. But here you sit and claim safety priority number one. But that's the first thing you cut in the budget. You already employed both of your officers so it's already in your budget. So regardless of whether you cut them on the school districts, you just said you're going to keep them and cut them on the streets. a large budget for both of these i think we're going to put better safety of that town because we put safety first that's what you need to do safety first try to have a question originally when we had this first discussion two and a half years ago we met with the superintendent or the acting superintendent at the time and the board why now are we meeting with council where did that change come from that they the school district feels that they had to bring representation on their behalf to come to see the board instead of having a friendly conversation as we did two and a half years ago that's correct it was it was uh interim superintendent and i believe there were about seven people from the board correct so school board and then where no attorneys correct i have the superintendent of schools on my right hand side who said nothing i have board trustee on my left hand side council's here because we've been trying to negotiate the contract okay there is no contract to negotiate there's nothing you're starting from the beginning we paid for the majority of it you said you're going to pick it up there's no contract we're not in contract negotiations i really would like to hear from i'd like to hear from math to discuss How the school board felt and why they eliminated this program from the- We didn't eliminate it. We put the money that we had set for it last year because we were just thinking the program was going to continue as it was. Nowhere in writing was it that we were taking over 100%, and I addressed that earlier. Whether it came from Hagerville or not, I said there's nothing in writing saying that this Riverhead School District was going to fully fund the SROs. We went by past presidents of you guys paying the 50% and us paying the 50%. So that's what we went on. So that's what we budgeted. You said we didn't prepare our budget. So we prepared our budget as we did in the years past. The same way. We continued it the same. So hold on, Bob. Let me finish. So you're saying that, all right, we didn't know, you didn't know June, the contract expired. You're saying there's no contract, but yet you're saying the contract expired in June. just like any other contract when you have a business and the contract doesn't get renewed you usually go on the existing contract that's not continuing hold on now in different unions that's what they do say so is it totally off the record that i mean totally off like be it like it doesn't happen like you continue with an existing contract or you just rip it up and throw it away the agreement though you weren't there the agreement where it It was the same writing. Where is it in writing? I'm gonna let Eric speak just for a second. That's not the request. The request is to reduce the contribution, to eliminate contribution to the benefits just to pay, the offer was just to pay 50% of base salary, rather than 50% of the full cost. Okay, so that's the request. So that's a request now, because we're trying to work something out. So if you guys say no, we want 50% of everything, then that's what you guys decide as a board, and you come back to us, and maybe we can get this resolved before school starts. Maybe we don't. And Matt, I'll tell you, we had, you know, back to two and a half years ago, we had great meetings with the school board. We really did, right? You know, I wish this would have happened, whatever, four months ago, five months ago. Okay, because in the same forum, you know, that we had, I would ask, I would ask that, I would request that you go to Southampton, and it doesn't hurt, and ask them for some financial help as well. You know, just for the fact that we are carrying over 1,400 students into our school district. So, what I'm going to say is this. I was in the area at the very beginning of all these conversations, relatively new, second year running. What I can tell you is that the SROs are amazing people. They work tremendously well with our kids, with our community, with our faculty. They are part of what we do. They've called me all the time as well. when they need help and assistance or they want pass-throughs through Pulaski or the Fulch Festival, things of that nature. So it's yes, we work and depend. What I want to make sure that everybody realizes, and I know you do, is they're coming next Thursday. We did allocate $200,000 in the budget to be able to help and assist with the SROs, to work with that looks we are willing to work with you in any way to make sure that this happened i know you have constituents to answer to and so do we and the thing is what we want to do is we want to work together and we want to make sure that this goes forward going forward we will have these conversations prior to the budget and things of that nature um the odds of it was a lot coming out of all of us and we get that but the reality is that we want to make sure that there's a presence in the buildings um to chief's point i don't love the way that all the buildings around the road um there isn't you know a charm you know they have that long entranceway there's a It's a stock gap. A lot of buildings have fences around the grounds. It's just the way that design schools work. That's what we inherited. So presence is everything. We hired a wonderful director of security with these backgrounds, anxious to work with the SROs, work with the chief here, and certainly do everything that's possible for our community. I don't want to continue the back of the work of these pieces. It's not going to serve any of us well. Great. I agree. Totally agree. Why don't we do what we did last time and sit down and see what we can come to. Thanks, Dr. Ely. Can I just ask you, you just said you wanted to have these discussions. Were you denied the ability to come here and talk to us? I was told that after they made the request in the early summer, there were a couple meetings that were adjourned or canceled. There was one last Thursday we were supposed to attend. Was there a request to? Right. Last Thursday would have been ideal because it would have allowed us to go back to the school board last night and have a substantive conversation and respond to the call. I like to know that I have no idea of that. We have never been informed that you have, just for the record, we've never been informed that you've sent any requests. and we have been anxiously looking for this for a long time. So if anybody told you and whether they did it through, honestly, supervisor, through your office, and you denied them the ability to come here today, I would posit we'll meet with you anytime. This is utmost importance. I understand what's trying to be happening, but that's not true. Last Thursday did not happen, and we didn't need to move it. And so other than that, Eric got the letter. June was presented to our board back then, and so... We talked about it again in July. I am. We just talked about this at the same time. We sent the request in June, and you guys have met since. No. Can we just make it happen instead of like he said? No, bring it. I'm bringing it. I mean, this is like childish stuff. Why don't we just agree to meet as soon as possible and see where we can go? I mean, let's try to solve the problem. Let's not talk about it. Right. We want to follow our schedules and figure out what we can sit down and do. The school's starting next Thursday. We'll do that. Absolutely. Well, right now, I'm glad you're here. So we do a request that you'd like the full school board there as well, or is it okay? I think I'd like to do it the way we did it get the school board Have the superintendent there and let's let's see where we are and what let's see what we can go Yeah, I think you just said it right now I think we would like for you to go back and discuss what we presented and have an answer and talk about We know where if you can find money within your budget if not we come back and sit down But yeah, I think that anybody that wants to be part of it from your side, I'm welcome for that. So have them the whole time. And if we can't do that before the start of school? Well, I think that if we work with Eric, we'll have to speak in executive session if we want to continue. So you budgeted $200,000, right? So you have $200,000 you can start spending in the first of the year and you can see how far it goes. Without a contract in place to find a good representative. We're trying to get there. I'm trying to be practical in terms of what this practically looks like going forward. And school's starting next Thursday, so I'm just trying to practically understand. Work it out with them. Yeah, I would be happy to do an intro to the agreement. Yeah. But, you know, I think something more comprehensive than addressing the full school. Yeah, that would be better. Yeah.

I'm not in agreement. and I'll meet with the school board and listen to the school board. Okay. Thank you. So if you'd like to schedule it with Eric, he'll step out with you now. We need to move our meeting a little, so I'm quick and I'll schedule it with you. Thank you. Thank you, members. All right, great. So with that, we're just gonna move as expeditiously as possible to resolutions. So that again, once again, we have had to move this meeting so that our justice court can function since they're HVAC unit is unoperational. Deputy Superintendent, if you'd go. Good morning, everybody. We're going to go? Okay. The supervisor. What did I say? Oh, I had school district on the mind. I've been called worse. It's okay. Deputy Supervisor, thank you. Okay, resolution number one. Ratifies budget adjustment for air conditioning units replacement at Justice Court and for this department. Resolution number two, authorization for appraisal. Missed that appraisal. Yeah. So this is for the Delalio South Park. Oh, right. Okay. Yes. 50 something. I'm sorry. Are we also looking at that corner piece? If you look at the map, it shows what's included. Yeah. Mm-hm. The court of pieces . That's right here. It's included. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay, resolution number three, police department vehicle transfer to code enforcement. Number four, accept donation of t-shirts for annual San Antonio. Number five, remove fixed assets. Number 6, ratifies the authorization for police department employees to attend training at Stats Mat certification class. Number 7, accepts the retirement of a police detective, Anderson. Number 8, accepts the retirement of a police officer, Trojan. Number 9, accepts the retirement of a senior justice court clerk. Number 10 ratifies the resignation of a wastewater treatment plant operator trainee. Number 11 approves request for military leave of absence. Number 12 authorizes attendance at seminar by fire marshals. Number 15 ratifies the authorization for the supervisor to execute in agreement with town employee. Number 14, authorizes the supervisor to execute a professional services agreement for engineering services for installation of water mains and occurrences for boundary extensions number 95, 96, and 97, River and Water District. And we have our infamous Water District Superintendent in the room with us. If any of the board members have any questions about sort of the technical side of what Frank has in store, we should direct our queries directly to him. Number 15, authorizes the supervisor to execute a license agreement with Darbside Productions in 2026. This is an agreement we do, I think, just about every year where our farm marshals go in and use the facility there in the haunted house for training. Number 16, adopts bond resolution for ambulance building project. Number 17, acceptance of 2025 audited financial statements. This is a bond resolution. Can you read this, please? Number 18 authorizes 2026 for deer on town property at Enterprise Park at Calverton, Southern County Tax Bank number 600-135-1-7.33 at all 1751 Sound Avenue Calverton, Southern County Tax Bank number 600-60-1-2 and Middle Road, Riverhead, Southern County Tax Bank number 600-80-2-10. Number 19, authorizes town clerk to publish and post notice to consider local law to amend Chapter 115 of the Riverhead Town Code titled Procurement Policy. Number 20, authorizes town clerk to publish and post notice to bidders for installation of water mains and pertinences, extension number 97, Forge Road, Riverhead Water District. Number 21, authorizes the town clerk to publish and post notice to bidders for installation of water mains in Appertances, Summerwind, Riverhead Water District. Number 22, approves special event chapter 255 application for Riverhead Athletic Club, Riverhead Athletic Club Run the Wave 5K. And number 23, pays the bills. Any questions? Any comments? All right, with that, we'll ask for a first and a second to go into executive session. We'll be doing matters surrounding potential hiring of an employee with our chief engineer, Contesta. I have a first and second. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you, everybody, for your patience as we get our Justice Court back up and running. See you.