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The Lansing Town Board approved up to $20,000 to update all its town laws and convert them to digital form.  After a major update that brings all the Town's ordinances up to date and consistent with each other, the service continues to update laws, providing drafts of laws.  Town Attorney Guy Krogh recommended the Town contract for the service, saying it would help keep Lansing's ordinances in sync with new state or federal laws and with each other, and provide a tool for citizens to easily access the laws through the Town Web site.

"My experience in examining these things, and knowing other towns that have gone through the process is that I've pretty universally heard from towns like the Town of Ithaca that have gone through it that, 'gee, we should have done this years ago," he said.  "Nobody knows everything about New York State law, so getting another set of eyes on everything just helps me to do a better job and better protects the Town.  I'm all for it."

Planning Consultant Michael Long said the approved $20,000 amount would give him leeway to customize features of the contract, but the basic contract cost to the Town for the first year would be $17,200.  That initial cost includes a comprehensive review and updating of all Town laws and ordinances, as well as an online version that is searchable, sharable, printable, and allows viewers to receive notifications of updates.  An annual fee to keep the electronic version active and updated is $1,195.

"It's become a great tool, especially in the development world where people are trying to figure out where they want to invest and where they want to develop.  Probably one of the best features of what they do is an electronic version of your code.  So it now becomes a Web presence.  It is searchable by type or topic so that you can go on the Web site and put in the word 'zoning' and it present you with all the things in the Town law that are zoning related.  Or building codes or setbacks, or sale of property, or whatever you want to have.  Many municipalities have already gone to this.  Lansing is probably eight or 10 years behind most other communities in this electronic version of this."

Krogh wouldn't say the Town was a decade behind in implementing codification, but he said Lansing could have benefited from it if it had been adopted earlier.

"If you're very small like Summerhill, where they have very few local laws, they don't have a lot of these federal mandates like storm water -- they just don't have the density," he said.  "They don't have subdivision development.  They don't have commercial development.  It's a rural, simple town with not a lot of laws.  They don't need a code system.  It doesn't really affect them.  They don't save that much by doing it.  But Lansing's been at the point where it would have been efficient to be there for about nine or ten years."

Supervisor Ed LaVigne said the service would pay for itself in reduced attorney's fees.

"When Guy and Mike and I first discussed this we thought it was going to cost $30,000," said LaVigne.  "So this is a pleasant surprise.  Our job is to put Lansing into the 21st century.  We've done a great job with the new server, and now with communications (the board earlier approved the purchase of a narrow band radio system for the Highway Department).  This saves six hours of attorney time every year."

Krogh said it would save the Town more than that, because it will save time updating laws, and make it simple for the Town judges to find what they need in town law.

"It's proactive -- if an update is needed there are a lot of pieces of local laws that will have to be redrafted over and over again, because everything is going to be uniform.  So if you're changing one amendment, one paragraph local law, that's it.  It's part of a code system as opposed to a local law and ordinance system.  There are a lot of efficiencies that you gain that you don't see above and beyond saving legal fees.  It's now easier for your judges.  It's not easier for your constables, your code officers.  It's easier for your citizens.  They can see the rules right then and there and know that violating this law is the same as violating that law. It's very different.  It will save way more than that."

The Town plans to contract Rochester firm General Code to perform and maintain the codification of its local laws.  The company serves governments in 24 states and Canada, including Tompkins County, the Village of Groton, the Town of Ulysses, and the Town and City of Ithaca.

Long said there is no time limit on the original codification, which may be done in six months or three years, depending on how committed a municipality is to getting it done.  LaVigne noted that it may take the Town a year or two to complete the conversion.  Krogh explained the initial codification will require re-adopting the entire canon of Lansing law once updates and modernization are completed.  After that the company sends updates and drafts for town officials to consider adopting.

Krogh said the new codification system will functionally replace the current system of ordinances.

"You'll vote on all the changes to implement the code," he said.  "They will reformat and amend your local laws based on topical subject matter.  For instance you'll have general administrative laws, and then a section of specific laws -- dogs, zoning, things like that.  They'll recommend changes to each individual piece.  You'll still go through he local law process to make changes to your code.  You'll pretty much abandon ordinances."

The board voted unanimously to contract with General Code, subject to Krogh's approval of the contract.

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