New York State of Mind

Mitigating traffic speeding issues in Sackets Harbor

2020-08-30T10:05:00.004-04:00

Sackets Harbor is a quaint, residential community that attracts seasonal cottagers, tourists, and other visitors who travel here for dining, shopping, historical sightseeing and boating in addition to its 1400 permanent residents. There are four main arteries that bring traffic into the heart of the Village - Dodge Avenue to Broad Street, Adams Road to Broad Street, East Main Street, and Military Road to Dodge Avenue.

As in most villages, there is a Village speed limit of 30 miles per hour. Speed limits are put in place to ensure that vehicle speeds are reduced in residential areas for safety. Pedestrians and bicyclists are numerous, especially in the summer season when tourists are more numerous. Sackets Harbor Central School is also located in the middle of the Village and speed limits are reduced to 20 miles per hour during school hours.

According to numerous reports by residents in various locations of the Village, there is a noticeable uptick in vehicles appearing to exceed the speed limit. Several years ago, the Village purchased a radar speed sign and has used this sign at various ingress/egress points in an attempt to alert drivers to reduce speeds. In addition, the Village police have reportedly increased their traffic speed monitoring in various areas.

With regard to police efforts, it should be acknowledged that the police department is very small: it only employs a chief and a few officers, some of which are part-time. The police chief has reported that he has deployed officers to monitor speed in the trouble spots in the village at various times of the day. Additionally, the radar speed sign has had operational issues and has not always functioned properly.

The efforts by the Village thus far have been relatively ineffective - not due to a lack of effort but more to a reliance on traditional speed mitigation techniques. I propose that the Village institute a tactic known as traffic calming to encourage speed compliance.

Traffic calming is essentially the use of physical road design and/or other measures to slow vehicles traveling through residential neighborhoods. Traffic calming inverts thinking - humans instead become a priority over cars versus the traditional notion that streets are primarily for vehicles to travel on to get from point A to point B as rapidly as possible. When traffic calming is implemented, all forms of transportation - walking, bicycles, and motor vehicles are given more equal treatment. This results in drivers reducing their speeds, which helps decrease the likelihood of motor vehicle incidents and reduces the severity of injuries and fatalities if an incident does occur.

The Village's deployment of the radar speed sign is one example of a traffic calming technique, but that one sign alone is not enough to change the entire way of thinking for motorists traveling on Village streets. While the Village government acknowledges that a speeding problem exists, it has only employed an 'inside the box' approach to mitigate this problem.

If elected to serve as a Trustee, I will propose the following:

The adoption of traffic calming as the principle means to resolve Village traffic issues.
Examination of traffic calming techniques such as (but not limited to) the use of chicanes, roadside bike paths, speed tables, and other road designs that have more permanent results versus spot speed enforcement. (Learn more about traffic calming techniques at the Project for Public Spaces https://www.pps.org/article/livememtraffic)
Researching and budgeting for the implementation of some of the techniques mentioned above in a phased manner over a three-year period.

The Sackets Harbor Village government must act in a more proactive manner to solve issues. While forced to be reactive in this situation, the Village can take measures that not only curb speed issues, but also can create a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly atmosphere that helps reduce traffic noise and alters traffic patterns in a way that vehicles will more likely obey other traffic regulations such as: coming to a complete stop at intersections where there are stop signs, and obeying one-way street directives, to name a few. If elected, I'll insist that the Board take on this important safety issue as a priority.

Village Budgeting - A Vital Component of Municipal Governance

2020-08-15T08:53:00.002-04:00

Village Budgeting - A Vital Component of Municipal Governance

By Mark Pacilio, candidate for Sackets Harbor Village Trustee

Do Village residents have an expectation that the Village Board and Village Officials develop realistic budgets each year and establish long-term financial plans? The answer is obviously yes, however that is not what the State Comptroller’s Office found in a recent audit of the Village finances. The audit found that there was a nearly 40% variance between what the Village appropriated to its General, Water, and Sewer Funds and actual expenses. To put this in lay terms, the Village budgeted its income - your tax dollars - to be much more than it actually knew it would spend. That means our municipal taxes that were collected were excessive - 40% excessive - creating an excessive surplus, or fund balance. And the fund balance has been growing year over year.

Essentially, that is false budgeting. Now the Village Board and fiscal officers will argue that it needs to save funds for emergencies and unexpected expenditures. No one disagrees with reasonable saving and in fact, Municipal law provides for such savings in permitting the Village to carry a Fund Balance from excess income over expenditures. But it should be done in accordance with an established Fund Balance Policy, something the Village has not adopted. The absence of such policy has allowed the Fund Balance to grow without specific purpose or goal. In fact, even though the Village appropriated 40% more tax dollars than it had in expenditures during the period of the audit, it also appropriated $3.6 million dollars from its fund balance unnecessarily to fund operations.

One of the reasons the Village stated that it operates in this manner is so that it can alway show that it’s expenditures are under budget. That practice is embedded with a tinge of politics, not sound policy. Realistic budgeting, even zero-based budgeting, (where every budget line is created each year from zero and based on an analysis of previous year expenditures) ought to be the way a municipality plans its expenditures and is more accountable to the tax-paying public than simply putting a focus on showing that the municipality is in the black each year.

Here is an example of why realistic budgeting is important and fiscally more responsible: The Village has been appropriating dollars in one budget line to “keep track” of restricted funds (funds willed to the Village in which the donor specifies how the funds are to be used) to museum rehabilitation and maintenance. But the Village doesn’t spend the dollars in that line. But year over year, there is an appropriation in that budget line, no matter what plan there may or may not be to spend the dollars. Using a public budget to track these funds that aren’t used year over year is not the way to track restricted funds. That inaccurately inflates expenditures. The use of accounting records and protocols provides for more appropriate tracking.

Here are two other examples (there are many more) taken directly from the auditing report that demonstrate the lack of fiscal and project planning:

“-The 2018-19 budget (for the general, water and sewer funds) included $900,000 in appropriations and $675,000 of estimated federal aid for special projects related to recent years’ flood damage, but the Village only spent $18,496 and received $80,668 in aid. Officials explained that the timing of the work and aid payments was uncertain. We asked the Treasurer for documentation of the amounts anticipated and reviewed the files provided. However, there was nothing within the files provided documenting the Village’s planned work, including the expected costs and amounts spent so far, nor any documentation showing the total amount of funding Village officials could expect to receive.

-The general fund budget included $475,000 in estimated grant revenues and $200,000 in grant appropriations, but the Village did not receive any of the grant revenues and spent only $3,403 in 2018-19. The Treasurer does not keep track of grant revenues and expenditures to date. One project, already completed, included $48,500 in budgeted appropriations that had been spent in a prior fiscal year. Although the other projects may be forthcoming, the timing is unknown. Furthermore, officials told us that most grants provide matching funds that cover 50 percent of the project costs. Accordingly, grant appropriations should be higher than the estimated grant revenues, but the budget shows the opposite. We noticed similar budget variances in prior years.”

The audit report has further examples and explanations of its findings and I urge you to read the full report here: https://www.osc.state.ny.us/local-government/audits/village/2020/07/02/village-sackets-harbor-budgeting-and-financial-management-2020m-28

What I propose

If elected to the Village Board this November,

I will insist that Village accounting practices be upgraded immediately.

I will insist on realistic budgeting practices and urge the Mayor and Trustees to invest more time into the budget process than the current practice.

I will insist on long-range expense planning.

I will insist that a Fund Balance policy be established.

Budgeting is complex and municipal fiscal agents must provide realistic and accurate figures, offer long-range fiscal projections, and keep accurate accounting records in accordance with GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Practices). The Village Board has a tremendous responsibility to monitor the fiscal policies, create a yearly, realistic budget, and review and track expenditures month to month against the yearly budget. Trustees must ask questions regarding both revenue and expenditures at Board meetings, but often don’t because they don’t have a complete understanding of every budget line, no fiscal plan to compare to, and no sound fund balance policy. As elected officials, they have an obligation to have such an understanding.

I’ll work to offer our residents a better budget process. -Mark Pacilio