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With barely a day and a half under his belt as Town Supervisor, Scott Pinney laid out an agenda Tuesday that addresses some of the major points he made while campaigning for Supervisor.  Pinney brought a five point agenda to the Town Board's annual organizational meeting.  The meeting is generally a pro-forma approval of current officers, assigning who is approved to sign checks, committee assignments and things of that nature.  But Pinney asked the Board to consider five items that will impact Town employees, restructure a department, and that could begin to clear the way for a Lansing town center.

During the campaign Pinney took issue with the way a petition against Lansing's Town Constable was handled.  He has had ongoing run-ins with the Planning and Zoning department over the years, and spoke of how the Town could be more friendly to business development.  He pledged to apply his businessman's perspective to running the Town, reducind spending, and talked about his vision for a town center in the area near the Town Hall.  The agenda he brought Tuesday addresses all these issues.

Pinney said that it is time to make changes in the Constable position and the way it is handled.  The constable is not a Town employee, but rather a person who has three or four contracts to provide constable services to the Town in the court, the parks, and in the past, on the lake.  When Constable Scott Ferris is not available the Town draws from a list of qualified law enforcement officers , all of whom are paid at a rate fixed by the agreement.  Pinney advocated bidding the position and keeping a list from which the Town can call on the lowest bidder, or in some cases the 'best' bidder to act as constable.

The second item was to install time clocks and an 'in-out' board for all Town Hall employees.  Pinney spent hours last month talking to every employee, gathering their viewpoints on what is working and what is not.  After listening to a lot of concerns here over the last month, some of the policies in the employees handbook have fallen by the wayside," he said.  "A time clock and an in and out board would resolve a lot of those issues."

Town Attorney Guy Krogh noted that putting an in and out board in the main lobby where the public might see it could violate some privacy issues.  For example a code enforcement officer might write that he was gone to serve a warrant on a particular citizen.  Alternative placement and a shared computer solution were discussed.  Some board members balked at instituting a time clock, but Pinney noted that the Highway Department already uses them, and putting them in the Town Hall would help enforce the same rules for all employees.  "It would resolve these problems," Pinney said.  "We'd make everybody follow the same rules, and enforce the rules just like we would in a business."

Third, Pinney recommended the creation of a small personnel committee that could deal with issues across departments with no conflict of interest.  He recommended that he, Deputy Supervisor Connie Wilcox, and Town Personnel Officer Sharon Bowman comprise the core committee, and they would consult others as needed for particular issues.  He said that the first priority of the committee would be to look at the Town Constable situation.

"I give Scott a lot of credit," Wilcox said.  "He came down and talked to every single employee here.  he had meetings with them one on one, and I think he got an earful from them on a lot of things.  I think it is perfectly valid that he took a look at the employee handbook, and some of those things they were complaining about are right there -- they just haven't been enforced."

Fourth, Pinney asked for money to have preliminary drawings made of ball fields across the street from the the current town ball fields.  (See related story)  By moving the fields to the town land across the street, which can only be used for recreation due to State restrictions, it would free unrestricted land currently occupied by ball fields to be developed for local business, creating a town center.

"I would like to restructure the Planning and Zoning Department and try to come up with some improvements," he concluded.  "I've been looking at some of the issues with the Planning Board.  I think we need to start at the bottom and work up."

Pinney said he would like to consolidate the environmental planner and code enforcement officer positions, and fill them with someone who has some background in engineering as well.  But Councilman Bud Shattuck noted that the two current positions are Civil Service jobs, and the only way to consolidate them would be to create a new position and eliminate the two existing ones.

Wilcox noted that the Board had come up with a sketch plan for restructuring the Planning/Zoning and Highway Departments last year, but had not filled most of the positions.  She suggested starting with that to determine how best to restructure the Planning and Zoning Department.

Pinney noted that existing job descriptions don't accurately reflect what employees actually do.  For example Environmental Planner Darby Kiley's job description states that there are no supervisory responsibilities attached to her position, yet she supervises the department and its personnel.

"If you take what we have in that department, what you really have is a planner, but it's divided up into multiple positions," said Town Attorney Guy Krogh.  "Whether it's a planner that has engineering background, or a planner with environmental background -- whatever it is... I've worked with towns that do have planners, and towns that don't have planners and the difference is startling.  It's a question of money and what you think the best rate of return and the best protection of the quality and character of life in Lansing it will bring."

Krogh said that the Board should consider the possibility of replacing the Town Engineering consultant contract with a full time engineer who is employed directly by the Town, as well as considering the same for Town Attorney.  "I look at the number of subdivisions and water districts and everything else that's flown through here in five years," he said.  "This town is growing at a very rapid pace, and you are fast approaching the time when that decision will have to be made."

All agreed that there is some dysfunction in the department, that job descriptions need to be updated, and the department's and the Town Board's interaction with the Planning Board.  They resolved that the Personnel Committee should look at alternative solutions and bring the best ideas back to the Town Board at a later time.

Pinney promised action from the Personnel Committee on the constable issue by the January Town Board meeting on the 16th.  Krogh recommended getting planning job descriptions from similar towns in New York State, and Shattuck noted that when Pinney attend the Association of Towns training events this month he should talk to other officials there.

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