New Paltz Town Board members welcomed their newly elected colleague Daniel Torres to his first meeting during their Jan. 15 reorganizational meeting.
They also welcomed re-elected incumbents like Supervisor Susan Zimet and Councilman Jeff Logan back to the table for a new term.
As usual, the board went through its annual housekeeping items, such as setting fees, re-adopting policies, selecting their official bank and deciding in which newspaper their legal advertisements will run.
But not everything at Jan. 15’s meeting was rote procedure. Here are the highlights:
No deputy supervisor named in New Paltz
New Paltz still won’t have a deputy supervisor. Supervisor Zimet went without an official deputy for the last two years. While she still hasn’t made a decision, she appointed Jeff Logan to chair meetings if she’s absent. Zimet also made Jean Gallucci her point person on financial issues if she’s absent.
Zimet initially put off selecting a deputy supervisor in early 2012, saying she didn’t want to disenfranchise her constituents by making the wrong choice. In 2013, Councilwoman Gallucci’s name was floated as a possible deputy, but Zimet again delayed the pick.
By state law, a town supervisor can appoint someone as a deputy — even if that person isn’t an elected board member. For instance, former Marlborough Supervisor Al Lanzetta made his wife his deputy supervisor. However, New Paltz has traditionally selected a sitting Town Board member as the deputy.
A deputy supervisor would make $9,000 compared to the $6,851 the Town Board members earn per year.
Renting the Community Center on weekends gets more expensive
People looking to rent the town’s Community Center on the weekends for private events can expect to put down a larger deposit. Town Board members want to up the rental deposit on the building from $50 to $150. Higher costs for weekend rentals relate, in part, to overtime pay for employees — but that’s not all.
“Even if we’re not paying overtime, if someone trashes the place it’s going to cost a lot more than $50 to clean,” Zimet explained.
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