Archive: News

	As Republicans and Democrats vie for a majority on the Lansing Town Board, the Supervisor race is clearly the most politically charged.  Incumbent Kathy Miller and challenger Ed LaVigne clearly have very different visions of the future of Lansing.  The Star asked the same questions of both candidates, publishing transcriptions of their answers.

Kathy Miller is running for a second term as Lansing Town Supervisor.  She and her husband Bill have lived in Lansing for 30 years.  They have two grown sons and one daughter.  Miller worked at Cornell University in Clinical Sciences at the Vet School in the field of molecular genetics, studying genetic disease in animals.

Miller was a Town Board member for two years before being elected Supervisor four years ago.  She has served as liaison to the Cayuga Lake Watershed Management Plans Intermunicipal Organization and Lansing's Zoning Board of Appeals.  Miller is a former Lansing Board Of Education member, and chaired the Lansing Town Center Committee.  After being elected Supervisor she decided not to pursue another job, because she views her work in the Supervisor's office as a full time commitment.

The Lansing Star met with her in her home this week to talk about why she is running again, and what she hopes to accomplish in a second term.

Lansing Star: What prompted you to run for Supervisor now, in this year’s election?

Kathy Miller: I decided to run again because there are some things that I would like to see to completion.  And there are some other things I would like to see happen.  They haven't happened yet, but they're in the thought and planning stage.  And I'd like to see them happen.

What have you accomplished in this past term?

When I came on board as Supervisor I wanted to learn as much as I could about the budget process.  Being on the Town Board for two years I realized that this is probably one of the most important things that the Supervisor and Town Board does, their fiscal responsibility.

While I was on the Board I saw that the objective seemed to be reaching the lowest possible tax rate.  And that was resulting in a bare bones budget.  I saw that right away.  And no planning for the future.  Bare bones today, and not looking to the future.

This would result in deficit spending, which it has, because we use so much of the fund balance.  You can't keep that up.

I saw this as a town board member and I thought 'I don't think this is the way things should be'.  I wasn't sure how to fix it, but I thought 'let me run and then let me see if I can find out how to do this'.  And that's what I did, by taking training courses offered by the (New York State) Comptroller and the GFOA (New York State Government Finance Officers' Association).

The other thing that I wanted to do when I was first elected, and I still want to do, was to improve the morale of the people that work for the Town.  I knew, after two years, that the morale wasn't good.  I thought that I had the type of personality and expertise that could help change that.  I felt that all of the employees of the Town did a very good job.  They were hard workers.  They knew what they were doing.  I felt they needed a really good place to work in.  You should want to come to work every day, especially if you're doing a good job.  And I think that has happened.

Another major accomplishment is that the Planning Board is now taking courses and going to the Planning Federation meetings.  I think they always wanted to do that, but money had been taken away from them.  Now they're doing it.  What that does is show the Planning Board that we realize how important their job is.  And we know they need tools to do it.  So I gave them those tools.  They have availed themselves of those meetings.  You hear them talk about it at Planning Board meetings and quote the Federation meetings.  That was a big plus.

The other thing was getting the comprehensive plan revision started.  That's a long process.  The comp plan is from 2005.  I think we'll get it done, probably in early 2016.  We'll have our revised comp plan.  So that was a big deal, and we need that going forward.  When we want to plan for what the Town's future is, we need to have that comp plan.

The comp plan is a dynamic document.  It's something that changes all the time, if you will.  But you should revise it every five years.  And we haven't since 2005.

Another thing was getting the Bone Plain Road water tank project started.  When I was on the Board we talked about it, and it got tabled.  It seemed to get a start, and then it got tabled.  When I took office as Supervisor, I read an agreement we have with the Tompkins County Health Department that said that we would increase the water pressure to these areas including Whispering Pines.  The agreement was signed in 2010.  So we were already past the date.  So we started to put the mechanism in place to do this.

It's a little later than I wished it was.  It could have been done by now.  But one of the problems we had was getting the easements.  It ended up that (Town Engineer) Dave Herrick and (Deputy Supervisor) Sharon Bowman and I got all of these easements.  It took a while to do. We went to every house owner.  We had to get the easement agreements signed and notarized.  That took longer than we anticipated.  Quite frankly I didn't think I was going to have to do that, but in the end we did.

With that done, now we've got the Bone Plain project started. 

What did you want to accomplish that you were not able to?  Why, and what will you do in the next four years to make it happen?

One of the things I haven't accomplished yet is a five year plan on the budget.  I think that's something you really have to have.   It's like a homeowner: you have things that you have to do all the time.  Taking care of maintenance and buying highway equipment.  You can see into the future that these are what our needs are going to be.  So you need to plan for that.  That's one of the things I think we need to put in place -- at least a five year plan, which again is a dynamic plan.  It doesn't mean it won't change over the years.  A little tweak here, a tweak there, because things do change.  That's one of the things I would like to do.

Let me ask you something, because I have heard differing approaches to this.  I have heard you talk about creating reserves so the money will be there when you need to make a purchase.  Your opponent has advocated making every equipment request accountable.  Does your approach take the accountability out of the process?

Oh, no.  There's always accountability in the process.  There's always accountability.

One of the things you have to do is -- the Comptroller suggests, and really does more than suggest -- that you have anywhere from a 15%  to a 25% fund balance in case something happens.  You want that kind of money in your coffers all the time.  Think of it as a savings account for unexpected things.  It happens.  It happens at home, it happens in business, and it also happens in municipalities.  So we need that buffer in case something happens.

But going out, if you know you need to buy a car, are you just going to wait until then?  Or are you going to put some money aside so you can either pay for that car, or you have a good down payment on that car?

So that's what it's about.  It's knowing what your expenses are going to be going out, and planning for those expenses so that all of a sudden you don't have this expense land on you.  it happens anyway.  Those are the emergency kinds of things.  If the boiler blows up and you haven't saved for it, well hopefully you have money in savings.  And that's what the fund balance does.

Were there any other things that you haven't been able to do that you want to accomplish in a second term?

There are two other things.  One of them is some plan going forward for the town center.  I was the chairman of the Town Center Committee back when I was on the Town Board before I was Supervisor.  If you look at all of the information that was generated there, the majority of people in town would like to see something happen there.

I would like to see a community center.  I would like to see other things happen over there.  I'd love to see sidewalks.  I'd love to see lights there, so it really feels like we have a place that says 'This is Lansing' instead of having people drive by and ask 'Where's Lansing?  I saw the sign, I don't know where it is.'

The other thing is I would love to have a full time planner.  I think it would help Lansing in so many ways to have someone sitting in that office as a full time planner and dealing with developers, dealing with residents who are concerned about development and where it's going.

Having a part time planner, I see what his expertise is.  I can't do it.  The Code Office can't do it.  And we only have him part time.  It would be so much better if we had him for more hours.

Would that be a savings, or would it cost more for the Town?

It might be a wash money-wise, but we'd have him more hours.  Because right now we pay him as a consultant.  We pay him an hourly fee and we pay transportation back and forth.  And he's only there so many hours.  We could get a full time planner at almost the same amount and he'd bee there during all regular work hours.

What's happening (with a part time planner) is we're using our lawyer more for resolutions.  We're probably using our engineer more that we would have to if we had a full time planner.  I think there are savings if we have a planner.

What is your overall vision for Lansing for the next four years?  How do you plan to make it happen?

When we moved here, because Lansing is a mix of farms and residential homes, obviously that's what we wanted.

You have a residential home on a farm.

On a farm, yes, exactly.  Which, to me, is perfect.  What can I say?

So I would like to see Lansing develop in such a way that something like the town center can keep that circle that's part of the Town Center Plan... I would like to see development stay there to protect our farmland.

I would really like to see affordable housing.  And by 'affordable' I mean just not the $600,000 or $700,000 homes... I think there are a lot of empty-nesters that would like to be here in smaller homes, patio homes, that type of thing.  I think there are a lot of young people that would like to buy those types of homes.

We were at a party with one of my husband's young colleagues.  They had just bought a house for around $175,000.  We really need that kind of housing for young people starting out.  Absolutely.  And we don't have much of that.  They had a hard time, because as soon as a house would come on the market, by the time they'd (get ready to make an offer) it was gone.  They fly.

So I think we need that type of housing here.  I'd like to provide that.

I want to be sure that whatever development we do, that we're cognizant of the fact that people want green space.  They want walkability.  They don't just want build, build, build.  That's not what we want.  And a good planner could guide us in this, too.

Do you think that's happening right now?  Build, build, build?

Well, to an extent, yes.  When I think of what we have underway -- and the Planning Board has been very cautious about making sure that there is green space, that there's walkability and they're trying to get pathways associated with developments -- I think there's the potential for that to happen for sure.  So I think we have to be very, very, very careful about what we do.

The other thing is that when people have a piece of land, and as long as they do everything they should according to the codes and the rules and regulations and zoning, you can't deny them what they want to do in their subdivisions.  So we have to be very careful about how we do this.

Over the past few years there has been some dissatisfaction from the departments with the way budgeting and capital planning is handled.  You've touched on this.  What do you see as the best way to handle equipment and capital project planning and funding?

It's knowing what you need going out, how much you need to put aside with that as a goal.  It needs to be in the budget, and it needs to be in reserve funds.  You need to do both.  And that's how you can achieve that.

One of the things that both the Highway Department and the Recreation Department do is that they want to turn equipment over before it starts costing so much money to maintain it that it's a lose situation.  A lose-lose.  When I see some of the vouchers coming through and see what some of our repair bills are, I feel like saying there's a time to get rid of this and get a new one, because now it's costing us so much money.  This is what you want to avoid, because why spend it for repairs and then have something that isn't totally dependable?

We can't not have snow plows.  All of our snow plows need to be ready for the first snow.  We can't have two of them in pieces on Bob Bogardus's floor (in the Highway Department repair shop).  We can't do that.  And we can't say to people, 'We realize we're not out as much with the snow plow, but it's broken.  We'll be there when we get it fixed.'  We're a service industry, if you will, and this is the service.  We have to have good roads.  These are things people appreciate.  They travel them all the time.  As far as snow plowing is concerned, they're out all night long because we know we're gong to be putting school kids on the road at 6am in the morning.  These roads have to be kept up.  We're putting your precious children on those buses.

There's no option here.  There's no saying we can't do it.  We have to do this.

Where do you stand on repowering Cayuga Power Plant?

Where I stand is totally confused.  My main concern, even more than repowering, is where is the endergy going to come from?  Now I hear that Dunkirk is going to be mothballed.  And National Grid backed changing Dunkirk from coal to gas because they said it would supplement the grid.  Now are they going to shut down the FitzPatrick nuclear power plant?  We'll know at the end of October.

So my concern is, where are going to get the electricity?  How can we say to businesses, yes, come here but we don't know how we're going to provide power.  You have to provide them with infrastructure.  Water, electricity, in some instances, sewer.

Maybe the answer is the Cayuga Power Plant should be repowered.  Never mind jobs, never mind our tax structure... maybe we just need the power.  I am fine with repowering if they do it.  A company is buying two coal power plants (one being the Cayuga plant).  Does that mean they would stay as coal?  I know they have one unit that's a very good unit.  If they want to run it that way, then hopefully unit 2 will come up to the RGGI standards and also become a good unit.

To tell you I'm really confused -- I don't know how else to put it.  My first thought is power.  We have to have power.  Without that we have nothing.  If we repower Cayuga and it fits the bill and our tax base is right where it is now -- I don't know if it will go up if they keep the plant open -- and they keep the jobs, I'm fine with that.  I can't just base it on jobs and our tax base.  There's so much more to it than that.

It seems to me with all these other plants being mothballed or potentially closed --- they're going to close this one?  It's very disconcerting, especially when you're a growing community.

Which leads me to my next question: where do you stand on the gas pipeline through Dryden to the Warren Road area?

A lot of people are not in favor of the gas pipeline.  They only want renewable energy sources.  Solar and wind and geothermal.  Although I am absolutely, positively, 100% in favor of all three of those things, I do know that there are people who live in town who -- it's not new builds -- that have homes and have been here.  There's gas that passes their property and they have been denied their hookup.

They want to switch to gas because it is cheaper than other fuels at this point.  These people can't afford to put in geothermal or solar.  Not everyone has the financial wherewithal to do that.  So do we say to these people, no you can't have gas and you're going to have to stick to oil or whatever you're using?  I just don't think that's fair.

Different people have different needs.  Do I want to see an increase in renewables?  Absolutely.  And I think we need to get to a balance.  Bring our carbon footprint down, and we do that with renewables, absolutely.  But I don't think we're at the point right now where renewables are the total answer.  I think (natural gas) is a transition fuel.

And I'm not sure that we'll see things change entirely to renewables in my lifetime.  I don't know that the technology is there.

Arguably that area, around Warren Road, is the most active development area in town right now.  You talked about 'not new builds', but there are new builds going in there.  Do you think they should be getting gas service as well?

The new builds should be encouraged to use sustainables.  I don't think we can demand that they do that.  If we would have a business that wanted to come in and use gas, and would add to the tax base and also bring in a number of good jobs, are we going to turn that down just because they're not using renewables?  That's the question.

There has been a lot of talk about new development and traffic in the Town.  It doesn’t seem to me that the comprehensive plan has really been followed.  Now a revision to that plan is being crafted, but we can't talk about that yet because the one from ten years ago is the one in place.  Do you agree with the comprehensive plan?  If not, would you follow it anyway as representative of what the Town as a whole wants?  Do you have an action plan as to how the comprehensive plan should be implemented or not implemented?

My feeling was that the old plan didn't say a whole lot about what to do.  It gave a kind of broad overall idea.  I don't think it gave as much guidance as the new plan will.  And don't forget, that's exactly what the comp plan is -- it's guidance.  It does support your zoning laws.  I'm not really sure how to answer this because I keep thinking about the new plan.

OK, let's take the old plan and the new plan out of the question and just say towns have comprehensive plans.  If you agree with it or disagree with it, would you still try to make those things happen because the plan is supposedly a representation of what the Town wants?

Yes, absolutely.  It is a representation of what the majority of the Town wants.  It will have to go through reviews.  It will go through another Planning Board review when it's done.  When I say it will be done at the beginning of the year, I mean it will then be reviewed by all these entities that would have input.

Yes, because I think it is a good committee.  They looked at what was in the old plan and they embellished it.  Certainly they talk more about green space and that type of thing.

Do you think they got good feedback from all the stakeholders in the Town?

I do.  I think they did.  The problem with that is the really interested people come out to the meeting.  When you think of how many people there are in town, that's a fraction of the people.  And then they did the survey.  They really tried to go at it and get as much information from townspeople as they could.  Still there will be people who say 'my ideas aren't in there'.  That's the way it is.

I think they did a very good job.

We made some zoning changes earlier.  What people didn't realize at that point was that these were things we really needed to function.  They were small -- we didn't change everything.  After the comp plan is approved we do need to go back and look at our zoning, just an overall look, and see where we are.  We also need to do that with respect to the Agriculture Protection Plan.  Using both of those things we need to go back and look at zoning and see where and if we need to make changes.

All of this takes so long, too.  It's not done in a month or even a year.  But both of these things were needed.  The Ag Protection Plan was needed and the Comp Plan revision is needed.

After years of political split on the board, people are saying the election this year is an important one.  Why would you say this election in particular is important for Lansing?

I think it's important for a number of reasons.  Number one we are developing.  That could very well pick up.  I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

It's important because the Board has to work together.  Even though you have Democrats and Republicans the answer is in the middle.  The answer is in getting a compromise and doind what's best for the Town going forward.  I might want to do one thing and somebody else wants to do something .  But the answer is to get together and see what we can achieve going forward, with what's best for the whole town in mind.  It's the whole town that we have to think about.  With the things that are going on in town, whether the plant gets repowered, the  development that's going on, the fact that if we want to help the taxpayer we've really got to encourage some business in town.

I think that's possible.  We can do that.  We have a beautiful town.  We have people show interest in things that are going on, and we have businesses that are interested.  SO we have to work together to try and achieve this.

That is it: the board has to work together with a goal.

That brings me to the leadership question.  It has seemed like it has been very difficult for you to get consensus on the board.  I would say there's been a lot of gridlock.  Is that fair?

I might use another term instead of gridlock. 

If the outcome is still split, do you have a strategy for bringing the board together on initiatives you feel are important?

When I first came on as Supervisor I instituted the second meeting, which is the working meeting at the beginning of each month.  We all get together and talk about things so we all get the same information, and then we can talk about things and make a decision.  I think that is still something that is really good to do.  But each board member has to be committed to not an ideology, but doing what's right for the Town as right for the Town as we can do it.

What would you like people to know about your candidacy that we haven't talked about?

The biggest thing is I enjoy helping residents.  There's not a week that goes by that I don't have one, two, three residents call me or come into the office about something.  When I can help them I am just so tickled.  And sometimes it's something small.  It's not that Ive done something huge.  And they're so appreciative.

Or if I talk to them on the phone and they happen to be in the Town Hall to get a fishing license or something they'll come into the office and say, 'it was so good to talk to you.  It was so nice to know that somebody was there to listen.'  This really makes me want to work harder.  That's what it's all about.

And I love learning.  I think I know so much more now about the budget than I did even when I started as Supervisor.  I will continue to learn.  I've gone to Planning Federation meetings and I've learned so much going to those. I'm not on the Planning Board, but it helps me understand what they are doing and how I might be able to help them do their job.

I think that's the biggest thing.  I would call myself a life-long learner and that's part of the job.  You have to put the time in to do this.  This is a big job.  We're a town of 11,000 people.  We're not a little 500-resident town way out in the boonies where we collect your taxes and license your dog and that's pretty much it.  there are bigger issues here and I don't see that changing.

v11i40
elections2015