Briarcliff-Ossining Annexation Debate

Talk about the possible annexation of Ossining election districts 17 and 20 by the Village of Briarcliff Manor continued last night with a presentation by Briarcliff Manor Village Manager Philip Zegarelli at the .

The presentation entitled, Annexation Analysis Briarcliff Manor’s Response to Town of Ossining Resident Questions, took meeting attendees through the process of annexation, the facts and figures, the cost and benefits and asked the question “where do we go from here?”

 “No one has a copy of this report,” Mr. Zegarelli said, opening the presentation and indicating the printed copies of the power point presentation being sent around the room. “It was unpublished until tonight.”

The report he referred to was an 11 page printout of Briarcliff Manor’s analysis of both the process and the cost of a possible annexation of districts 17 and 20 or D1720 as the area was notated in the report. Contained in the report were the population stats, tax information including the assessed taxable value of the area, services, “special districts” (like sewers), cost differences between what each district pays now and what each would pay once annexed, tax reductions and finally the parking rates at both the Ossining and Scarborough railroad station in response to a question from Monday night’s special meeting held in the Briarcliff Manor library.

According to the presentation, residents of the Ossining D1720 district could face a tax reduction of 14.39% while Briarcliff residents could face a tax reduction of 6.96% if the annexation is successful. In addition, The Village of Briarcliff Manor would also like to add four additional police officers to the Briarcliff Police Department and six more CSEA’s to the Department of Public Works. Under the proposed annexation, D1720 residents would still pay Ossining school taxes as the school districts would not change, nor would the post office.

While residents of the D1720 would no longer have to pay the unincorporated tax, they would still have to pay on their debt to the Town of Ossining DPW and Police Department debt, lighting district cost, and ambulance service (OVAC).

Despite this, members of the D1720 area would receive Village of Briarcliff Police and Fire Department coverage, parks and recreation, access to the Briarcliff public library, and Village Hall services.    

Zegarelli did acknowledge that the numbers used to figure out population were based on the 2009 census and due to timing differences of the Town and Village budget years, the budget wasn’t completely comparable.  The figures used were based on the 2010 Town of Ossining budget and the 2010-2011 Village of Briarcliff Manor budget that ends on May 31st. 

This discrepancy caused some members of the community to claim that the numbers analyzed were old and called for another analysis to be done with the current numbers. One resident said that this was only half the story and that he wanted to see the numbers on how this would affect the tax rates of the residents of the Village of Ossining and the Town of Ossining who don’t reside in the D1720 district.

 Zegarelli called for Ossining to do its own analysis of the numbers and said that, “Briarcliff was going to redo the numbers for 2011.”

Community response to Briarcliff Manor’s Annexation presentation were mixed and charged with emotion, with strong opinions being expressed on both sides of the issue.

“We have excellent services,” a man from District 20 said. “We run the risk of being the forced stepchild of Briarcliff.”

To which another district 20 member retorted.

“You’re services are going to change anyway. The is talking about combining services with the Town of Ossining. So we are either going to be the stepchild of Ossining or the stepchild of Briarcliff. Your choice.”

Ossining Mayor William Hanauer replied to this exchange saying, “We are in talks with the Town outside of a combination of our DPW. We just made a large and detailed proposal — we are not in negotiations.”

“It’s not that anyone would be anyone’s stepchild, the services would be the same,” Mayor Hanauer continued, “There is no such thing as a stepchild. We are all in this together, so let’s figure out how to do this right.”

Catherine Borgia expected this issue would be emotionally charged. “I understand there is a lot of emotion on both sides,” She said. “But we should work together. We are all part of a larger community.”

To some community members like Mindy Lamarre the big problem wasn’t the services but the two governments in Ossining.

“I am for it. The problem in Ossining is there are two governments. People in the Village can vote for Town representatives,” Lamarre said. “For people in Town, we can not vote for Village representatives. Therefore the Town Board has Village residents on it.”

“That is just one issue,” Lamarre continued. “I don’t want to say it’s ‘taxation without representation.’ We have to pay more for parking at the train station. The Village allots three spots for village residents to one for Town residents…Town residents have to pay more for the recreation center. This annexation may not even been happening if there was just one Ossining government.”  

Ellen Kahan, a D1720 resident echoes the sentiment.

“It’s fine [annexation]. It comes down to the money,” she said. “They [Ossining government] don’t care about us. We’re on our own. But at the end of the day I won’t spend more money…but I will petition it to go to vote. I feel the people’s voices should be heard and I will support this going to vote. But I want to see the numbers.”

Alice Merin, a District 20 member who was at the meeting getting members to sign the annex petition is in full support of it. She said, “We are trying to be the master of our own fate.”

However, this is not the end of the annexation debate as there are many more public hearings being planned and each town needs to go back and evaluate what move is in the public’s best interest.

“There will be a great deal of public input,” Borgia said. “Many, many more hearings.”

“This is just a preliminary of a preliminary.” Zegarelli of last night’s meeting.