Supervisor’s Update April 11, 2014

The Town Board, Administration, and Staff send warm wishes during Passover.

Town Hall Meeting

April 15, 2014

and/or

April 29, 2014

7:30 PM

Ossining Public Library

Agenda:  “Kickoff” Meeting for the Town Wide Revaluation

Proposed Annexation of Election Districts 17/20 from the Unincorporated Area to the Village of Briarcliff Manor

It was with great disappointment that we share that, this past Wednesday evening at their Village Board Meeting, the Village of Briarcliff Manor passed a resolution authorizing their attorneys to proceed with an appeal to the New York State Appellate Division, asking the Court to determine whether the annexation of Election Districts 17 and 20 by Briarcliff Manor would be in the overall public interest. This move is truly unfortunate for the taxpayers of the entire Town of Ossining and, particularly, of the Village of Briarcliff Manor, who will effectively pay twice for this upcoming trial.  In choosing this path, the Village, in its current rendition of its justification for annexation, is promoting that "the people should be allowed to decide".  Once again, the Village refuses to publicly acknowledge that this is about more than the will of the people, but rather that its main impetus for actively promoting annexation is to gain the additional tax parcels that hang in the balance, mostly from the commercially developed (and revenue producing) North State Road business district.

There has been, and continues to be, a significant divergence between the perceived responsibilities of the two Boards as to their function in respect to a proposed annexation. We believe that the clear, and legally mandated, responsibility of both Boards was to determine whether annexation would be in the best interest of the ENTIRE community, and that the focus of the subsequent analyses should be on the provision of services and whether annexation would facilitate the improvement of those services, without harming any other part of the community. The fundamental difference between our position and that portrayed by the Village stems from what we believe to be our obligation, under the state laws governing annexation, to consider the interests of all constituents- not just those who would vote in a referendum and not just those who signed the petition (some under what we believe were false pretenses), and who constitute less than one percent of the total Town population

We stand by our findings that conclusively demonstrate that annexation would provide no real and practical benefit to the community, certainly none that would outweigh the harm that would be done to the other parts of the community that are, by law, deprived of the opportunity to vote in this matter. New York State law mandates that we perform the analysis that led to our findings and, having drawn those conclusions, we were legally obligated to state our objections to annexation. We are extremely confident that the Appellate Court, applying the recognized standards and established precedents, will deny the appeal and uphold our determination that this annexation proposal should fail.

In light of those standards and precedents that will be applied to the appeal, we are forced to conclude that the Village’s decision to appeal has demonstrated their willingness to behave in a reckless fashion with respect to its fiduciary obligations to Village taxpayers. In addition, the allocation of a mere $25,000 (as stated by the Village Manager at the aforementioned meeting) for anticipated legal costs represents either a lack of understanding of the appeal process in the context of annexation laws and procedures, or an attempt to mislead the public as to real costs that will likely be incurred by both parties. The appeal reopens the process to a complete new review and will require extensive court supervised discovery, experts, and a full exchange of documents and testimony during a protracted hearing. Even though it will result in the same conclusions, the process cannot be streamlined.

The costs to both the entire Town of Ossining and the people of Briarcliff will reflect the necessary steps in the process, certainly significantly exceeding the initial allocation by the Village."

Sue