The "Early Bird" Registration Deadline for the Local Government Conference is March 7th. Please call the Commission  1-888-785-2380 for a registration form or visit our website at www.tughill.org to download a copy.

The 28th Annual Meeting of NOCCOG was held on Thursday, October 27, 2011, at the Delta Lake Inn in Rome, NY, with approximately 103 people in attendance.  Following the social hour, dinner was served, preceded by welcoming remarks from NOCCOG Municipal Management Consultant / Circuit Rider, Geraldine Ritter.  Ritter recognized Tug Hill Commission Executive Director John Bartow, Tug Hill Commission Associate Director of Natural Resources Katie Malinowski, GIS Specialist Mickey Dietrich, Tug Hill Commissioners Ken Vigus, (Boonville), Arnie Talgo (Steuben) and Thomas Boxberger (Watertown). Also recognized were Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney, and Oneida County Legislators, Norman Leach and Michael Waterman. Assemblywoman Tenney made a few brief remarks to the local officials present.

At 8:15 pm, Vice-Chairman Arnie Talgo, in the absence of Chairman Robert Sauer, called the annual business meeting to order. Talgo expressed appreciation for the support shown by the NOCCOG communities for the Tug Hill Commission when it faced a very serious threat of elimination in the Governor's Cuomo's 2011 Executive Budget when he proposed "dissolving the Tug Hill Commission". It was also noted that NOCCOG itself suffered a set back when it was not funded in the 2011 Oneida County budget. Talgo gave the chairman's report that outlined various projects in which NOCCOG is currently involved as well as recent accomplishments.  This includes but not limited to producing official road maps for NOCCOG towns with assistance from the Tug Hill Commission, bi-annual salary survey, numerous training opportunities for appointed and elected officials, several New York State Archives Grants, Local Government Efficiency Grant projects, Staying Connected- Wildlife Connectivity Project, strategic planning grants, Regional Economic Development Council meetings and planning process and the development or revision of comprehensive and land use plans for NOCCOG communities.  Talgo also thanked the NOCCOG municipalities for their support and thanked the circuit riders for their hard work and efforts.   

Minutes:  Municipal Management Consultant Ritter asked for the review and acceptance of the minutes of the 2010 Annual Meeting.  Motion made by William Hasenauer, Supervisor of the Town of Forestport, to accept the minutes.  Seconded by David Townsend, Trustee, Village of Sylvan Beach.

All in favor.  Motion carried.

Financial Report:   NOCCOG Fiscal Officer Mark Scheidelman gave the financial report.  It was noted that expenses for 2011 were staying within budget projections.  Staff has been very conservative with expenditures. For the 20^th consecutive year, every one of our 19 municipal members paid their membership dues in full. Dues remained the same in 2011 at $550 and the continued support is appreciated. NOCCOG requested $10,000 from Oneida County in support of programs for 2011. This was the amount in the budget adopted in October 2010 at the Annual Meeting. Unfortunately, Oneida County has not been able to provide any funding for NOCCOG for 2011. NOCCOG was also not included in County Executive Picente's budget for 2012. We asked our municipal members to pass resolutions support for funding for NOCCOG by Oneida County for 2012.  Even with this support, the possibility of funding at this time does not look hopeful. It was noted during the month of September shown on the fund account balance sheet are a one time grant from the Tug Hill Commission for $5,000 and a small amount of interest. This is for the work NOCCOG has done on the Staying Connected - Wildlife Connectivity project.

A motion was made by John Buczek, Supervisor of the Town of Floyd to accept the 2011 financial report.  Seconded by William Hasenauer, Supervisor Town of Forestport 

All in favor.  Motion carried

Scheidelman stated that the NOCCOG Executive Board carefully reviewed the Proposed Budget for 2012. Six expense lines have changed - all seeing a decrease. Total decreases are $1,530. Within the individual revenue lines-the anticipated fund balance has decreased $80 to $6,600 and Tug Hill's contribution for the full time circuit rider/municipal management consultant's salary and benefit has decreased in accordance with the state bargaining agreement.

The Executive Board is proposing a 2012 Budget in the amount of $104,817 for all programs.  It is proposed that municipal dues will increase to $1,000 level. The mayor/supervisor or their representative will be voting on this tonight. County support is not anticipated at this time.

A motion was made by John Buczek, Supervisor, Town of Floyd to approve the dues increase to $1,000 and the 2012 NOCCOG Annual Budget as proposed. Seconded by Mike Bennison, Mayor of the Village of Holland Patent.

David Townsend Trustee, Village of Sylvan Beach called for a roll call vote for the proposed dues increase.  The roll call vote was conducted with fifteen towns and villages represented at the meeting. The vote was unanimous.

All in favor.  Motion carried.

Election of Officers:  Nominating Committee member, John Buczek, Supervisor, Town of Floyd, presented the slate of officers for 2012: 

John Doiron of Ava - Chairman; 

Arnold Talgo of Steuben - Vice Chairman; 

Mark Scheidelman of Trenton - Fiscal Officer;

Robert Sauer of Camden - Director

Mark Trnchik - Director 

Buczek asked for further nominations from the floor. There being none, the nominating process was closed.  Fran Stacy, Mayor, Village of Remsen and Nominating Committee member, requested that a single ballot be cast for the slate.  Motion was made by Fran Stacy to cast a single ballot for the slate and accept the nominations.  Seconded by Councilman Rick Leos, Vienna.

All in favor.  Motion carried.

The new terms will commence January 1, 2012.

Ritter recognized Robert Sauer for the seven years he served as NOCCOG Chairman.

Renewal and Approval of Inter Municipal Agreement: Ritter stated that the IMA between NOCCOG and the member Towns and Villages in NOCCOG needs to be renewed every five years in accordance with NYS law.  The original IMA had been approved in 2004. Ritter reviewed the purpose and primary objectives in the IMA.

Ritter asked the supervisors and mayors present to sign and date the IMA tonight. Towns and Villages not present will be contacted to sign the IMA before 12/31/2011.

Program: John Bartow, Executive Director of the Tug Hill Commission and Mickey Dietrich GIS Specialist, did a presentation on asset management and the NOCCOG official road map project.  Dietrich shared how important this information is and how it can be used in the future.  The official road maps can be the first step of a multiyear asset management project, similar to the Joint Infrastructure Management Initiative project being completed in Lewis, Jefferson and St Lawrence Counties with assistance from the THC.

Completed official laminated road maps were presented to the Town of Camden, Town of Floyd and Town of Steuben.

There being no further business, the meeting concluded and was adjourned at 9:25pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Geraldine Ritter

The Commission has just released a report titled Property Taxes on Tug Hill. It is available on the web at http://www.tughill.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Taxes-Report-Final.pdf. The focus of the report is the costs of local services and their impacts on the tax burden of Tug Hill residents. In particular, the study summarizes the issues surrounding increasing real property tax levies and pro-vides preliminary expenditure trend analysis among various units of government and taxing jurisdictions in the Tug Hill Region. Several case studies are used to demonstrate how rural communities differ from urban and suburban communi-ties, and from each other, in their funding and expenditure practices. Rising property tax levies are of particular concern to local governments given New York State's new real property tax levy cap regulations.

Property tax levies were studied for the years between 1998 and 2008 for all Tug Hill Counties, school districts, Towns and Villages. Levies increased for each of these taxing jurisdictions during this period, but did not necessarily increase each year and did not increase at a steady rate. Counties have, by far, the highest property tax levies followed by school districts, Towns and Villages. During this period, the average Tug Hill County tax levy increased 1.6% annually, the average Tug Hill school district tax levy increased 2.3% annually, the average Tug Hill Town tax levy increased 4.7%, and the average Tug Hill Village tax levy increased 3.6%.

The NYS Tug Hill Commis-sion is pleased to announce the launch of its newly revamped website at www.tughill.org!

Please visit our site to experi-ence our new look and feel. Minor tweaks and reorganization will be ongoing, but we are excited about this new venture that that will allow us to better stay in touch with our communities and to provide information about projects, programs, events and training in a more modern and efficient way.

Over 100 local, county and state officials at-tended NOCCOG's 29th Annual Meeting and Dinner at the Delta Lake Inn on Thursday, October 27th. Vice-Chairman Arnie Talgo, in the absence of Chair-man Bob Sauer, deliv-ered the annual report. The renewal of the in-ter-municipal agree-ment (IMA) between NOCCOG and the 19 towns and villages was voted on and accepted.

NOCCOG Executive Board members were elected for 2012: John Doiron (Ava), Chairman; Arnie Talgo (Steuben), Vice Chair; Mark Scheidelman (Trenton), Fiscal Officer; and, Bob Sauer (Camden) and Mark Trnchik (Annsville) as Directors.

The 2012 annual budget was explained in detail by Mr. Scheidelman and was adopted. Annual dues were increased from $550 to $1,000 for 2012 by a unanimous roll call vote of the chief elected official from each municipality or their designee.

Tug Hill Com-mission GIS Spe-cialist Mickey Dietrich gave a presentation on asset manage-ment and the im-portant role GIS plays in the process of collecting highway-related information. Laminated and mounted copies of official road maps for the towns of Camden, Floyd and Steuben were presented to local officials from those communities. The NOC-COG Executive Board and staff greatly appreciate the continued support from its municipal partners.

NOCCOG circuit rider Gerry Ritter will be visiting supervisors and mayors in the next few weeks that were not able to attend the meeting to ask them to sign the renewal of the IMA.