Dear Editor,
I ran for Village of Owego Trustee in 2014 because I was tired of being a taxpayer and resident of the Village of Owego on the sidelines watching the Rebuild Party members do what appeared to be nothing. Two and a half years after the flood and not a single residence has been elevated.
Other than mailing applications in for elevation funds, the Village has achieved little progress in protecting the Village from future flooding. Several homes have been demolished and taken off the tax base forever.
Our tax base continues to decline while expenses increase. Roughly 2/3 of the Village is in a flood zone. Approximately 50 percent of the Village properties are tax-exempt. Very few of the small businesses are generating substantial revenue. In fact most are struggling to be profitable. Flood victims are struggling to recover their financial losses from flood damage.
Economic Development within the Village boundaries has been minimal, largely due to the lack of non-flooding real estate. The majority of Lockheed employees are choosing not to live in the village and many are living out of County. Since the 2011 flood there has been heavy influx of drug dealers, addicts and criminals making the Village of Owego their home.
In February 2014, Phoebe Morris made motion for the Village to apply for a New York State funded financial review of the Village in hopes to identify ways the Village can sustain its existence into the future. That motion was passed unanimously by the Village Board.
The leader of the rebuild party and Mayor Kevin Millar failed to assure the application to the NMYS Financial Restructuring Board was submitted to the state. So after I questioned why the application was not submitted, the Village board again passed resolution to have the application submitted to the NYS Financial Restructuring Board. All of the Towns and Villages who have had their financial reviews completed, have concluded with NYS requiring the implementation of shared services in order to qualify for further assistance from the state.
Prior to the 2014-2015 budget being approved, I requested the Mayor to add personnel to the existing OPD budget due to the lack of budgeted manpower and supervision within the police department. Mayor Millar instantly stated increasing the police budget was not going to happen. I explained to Mayor Millar why the budget was inadequate and in turn making the police department dysfunctional.
The existing police budget provides the Village with six full time patrol officers, one Sergeant, several part time officers, a Chief and a full time police clerk, and one of the full time positions has been filled by a non-working injured Officer.
After a few failed attempts to get that Officer off the payroll years ago, the Village Board took the path of least resistance and continued paying the injured officer’s salary for several years, leaving OPD short on manpower. In the summer of 2014, we successfully put an end to that personnel issue.
Unfortunately two additional personnel issues developed. One has been resolved and another is pending. Thankfully we were able to work with the PBA to make it agreeable to temporarily employ three retired police officers full time until the Village is able to present to the residents/taxpayers feasible options for police services. Combined, the three retired officers temporarily working full time provide the Village over 60 years of experience.
Phoebe Morris and the Rebuild party suggest this is irresponsible and dangerous to the public. Not only is that disrespectful to the very experienced retired officers we employ, but a sure indication they have no knowledge as well.
Currently OPD is only one full time officer down due to being out on paid suspension and OPD had been operating at least one budgeted full time officer for several years due to a reported injury.
If Chief Vinti cannot fill the patrol schedule now, then she will never be able to with the existing budget. The three major issues with the existing OPD budget are lack of budgeted manpower, supervision, and having the lowest full time salaries in the County. Turnover will always be a problem to the Village’s inability to sustain a larger budget for competitive salaries and adequate manpower and supervision.
Do not forget the PBA contract mandates OPD is a 24 hour seven days per week department. The PBA is currently operating on an expired contract and the current OPD budget is about $940,000.
The only plan the “Rebuild Party” has is to run a trashy campaign filled with lies and propaganda in attempt to get on the Village Board and then do nothing for the quality of life in our community.
Sincerely,
Mike Phelps
Owego Village Trustee
