The Village of Medina, for the first time, has sent bills – totaling more than $30,000 – to the towns of Ridgeway and Shelby to help pay costs from the Niagara County Water District, the water provider for the community.

Medina has paid the full shot of the “ad valorum” costs since the two towns started hooking into the village water system more than two decades ago. That bill is currently $134,437 and is due Aug. 31.

An auditor, Bonadio & Co., went through Medina’s books and told village officials it shouldn’t bear that full NCWD charge. The firm tried to determine a fair share of the charge and calculated $24,171 for Shelby water users and $6,748 for Ridgeway water users.

The village would still pay about $100,000 of the charge. The village sent letters to the two towns in April, notifying them they would now be expected to pay towards the NCWD charge.

Shelby has refused to pay, and Ridgeway hasn’t responded.

The issue comes when Shelby is trying to renew contracts with the village to provide the water for town water districts. The village buys the water from the Niagara County Water District and then sells it to the towns. Before Medina signs off on a new contract, it wants Shelby to agree to help pay the charge to the NCWD.

Two village trustees, Marguerite Sherman and Mike Sidari, questioned the hardball stance, especially as Shelby pursues a new water district and needs Medina to formally approve an agreement, supplying the water.

“Are we going to hold people’s lives and health in the balance over this?” Sidari asked at Monday’s Village Board meeting.

He urged the board to sign off on the water supply agreement so the water districts could move forward. Trustee Marguerite Sherman also wants the village to sign off on the agreements so Shelby doesn’t miss out on a grant or have its water project delayed.

Mayor Andrew Meier said the village is obligated to pursue the funds from the two towns, especially after being put on notice from the auditors. The village shouldn’t have to subsidize the town water users, Meier said.

The water districts can move ahead if Shelby signs the agreement and agrees to help pay the NCWD charge, Meier said.

Town of Shelby Attorney David Schubel, in a June 20 letter to village attorney Matthew Brooks, said town officials don’t believe the NCWD fee applies to the town because the village is NCWD’s water customer. The “ad valorum charge” is applied to the village to ensure Medina receives the same water rates enjoyed by communities in Niagara County, Schubel said, citing a meeting with NCWD officials.

The village adds 1.6 times the village water rate or about another $1.50 per 1,000 gallons to the town rate. Schubel said that added cost should be enough to pay the NCWD charge and other village costs.

“It would seem that a premium rate of 1.6 should be adequate to cover the actual cost of water and the related costs incurred by the Village in supplying water to the Town and the ad valorum charge,” Schubel said in his letter.

He noted the town is working on two water districts that will need water supply agreements with the village. Schubel sent another letter on July 23 requesting the village approve the water supply agreements.

Shelby officials don’t see the “ad valorum charge” as a mandated or imposed charge from the NCWD, but a membership fee, Schubel said in his letter.

But Medina Attorney Matthew Brooks sees it differently. An August 1993 water supply agreement with the Town of Shelby obligates the village to seek a share of the ad valorum charge, Brooks said.

That agreement says, “Shelby further agrees to pay Medina the actual costs and charges which shall be, from time-to-time, mandated or imposed by the Niagara County Water District, concerning sales of water outside of Niagara County, in lieu of charges assessed from Niagara County Water District in Niagara County taxes, deficits and charges.”

Brooks said the issue could very well go to litigation.

“Right now the town only pays for the water it uses,” Brooks told the Village Board. “To say, ‘We don’t have to pay any additional water,’ doesn’t hold water, so to speak.”

Shelby, Ridgeway decline dissolution, will look at savings through highway

Photos by Tom Rivers – Shelby Town Supervisor Merle “Skip” Draper, center, said the town will look at assuming some of Medina’s non-emergency services to see how that would affect the tax rate for village residents and town residents outside the village. Town Board members William Bacon, left, and Steve Seitz were also at a joint session among Shelby, Ridgeway and Medina officials.

MEDINA – Before the Village of Medina makes a radical change and dissolves – a move that could shave $6 off the village’s tax rate – the towns of Shelby and Ridgeway believe they can find significant savings for the village with shared services.

Shelby Town Supervisor Skip Draper wants to see how much villagers could save if the two towns took over the village’s highway services. The village already pays twice for the service: to the village and then to either Ridgeway or Shelby.

Draper noted that the town of Yates plows the village of Lyndonville’s roads. He thinks a similar arrangement could work for the village of Medina, which sits about halfway in Shelby and halfway in Ridgeway.

Medina Mayor Andrew Meier reluctantly supported the shared service pursuit. Meier said the issue was brought up before during doomed shared services discussions about two years ago. Meier said a dissolution plan already gives village taxpayers the $6 savings and spells out how current village services would be provided by either the towns, or local development corporations.

About 50 residents attended the meeting at Shelby Town Hall to watch 15 elected officials talk about possibly sharing more services among two towns and the village of Medina.

But Ridgeway and Shelby officials say they won’t talk about dissolution. That angered Meier, who said a committee and consultants worked for nearly a year on the plan.
“There has been a concerted effort to ignore the plan,” Meier said at a joint meeting Monday evening among the three boards.

He asked the two towns to correct “false statements” they have made publicly about the plan.

“That’s your opinion,” Draper responded.

Napoli said the two towns weren’t asked to helped shape the plan.

“That is your plan,” Napoli told Meier. “We were not asked to be involved.”

Meier shared an email from July 2013 that Napoli sent to Scott Sittig, the lead consultant for the plan from the Center for Governmental Research in Rochester. Napoli told Sittig that Ridgeway would not cooperate with the study because “it was a waste of taxpayer money and a waste of Town of Ridgeway employees’ time.”

Meier told Napoli he “removed himself from this process.”

Meier was chided by a mediator, Richard Moffit, for pressing dissolution and Meier’s perceived slights from the towns.

“You can’t keep bringing up the past,” Moffit said.

The highway discussions represented a good start in potential tax savings, he said.

Medina Village Trustee Mike Sidari urged the three local boards to find some common ground. He is joined by Trustee Marguerite Sherman of Medina, Mayor Andrew Meier, left, and Richard Moffit, right, who served as mediator at Monday’s meeting.

Ridgeway and Shelby officials said they wanted to focus on shared services, which can provide immediate relief to taxpayers, rather than a drawn-out process with dissolution. That plan called for creating an LDC to manage some services, create an ambulance district, a debt district and pass other services, including police, to the towns. Draper said it could take years to establish the new taxing entities.

“We should look at everything rather than create LDCs and new layers of government,” he said.

Draper took command of the meeting at times, offering to crunch the numbers and work with Shelby Town Highway Superintendent Mike Fuller about how the town could take over some of the village highway costs.

Draper asked Meier to provide the village’s non-emergency budget for costs outside of police, fire and ambulance. Draper said emergency services account for about $10 of the village $16.45 tax rate. He expects the towns could bring down the other $6-plus of the village tax rate by assuming some of the non-emergency services.

Meier said he would have those budget figures, as well as the revenues for each service, to the two towns by the end of the week.

Draper said he would determine potential cost savings to the village and cost increase to Shelby by the next joint session, which was scheduled for 7 p.m. on Sept. 2.

Meier said the cost impacts have already been spelled out in the dissolution plan. He returned to that document several times during Monday’s hour-long meeting, but town officials wouldn’t discuss the plan in detail.

Mary Woodruff, a Ridgeway councilwoman, said the community isn’t ready for dissolution. The shared services discussions could better prepare the community and the boards for a dissolution and perhaps a merger of the two towns, she said.

One Medina, a group headed by local attorney Nathan Pace with support from Meier, favors dissolving the village and merging the two towns. But Woodruff said that is premature right now.

Town leaders also want to look at how water and sewer services are provided among the three governments and try to find ways to reduce administration and costs for that service.

A long-awaited joint session among the Medina, Ridgeway and Shelby boards occurred on Monday at the Shelby Town Hall.

Draper said the local government leaders will have their work cut out if they are to make a significant change in the tax burden for the village.

“That $6 won’t just disappear with a magic wand,” he said. “There’s work you have to do.”

Meier has pressed for dissolution because he said the current village government isn’t sustainable. The tax base tends to shrink every year as housing values fall. That puts pressure on the village to raise the tax rate. The $16.45 per $1,000 of assessed property is one of the highest in the region. Villagers then have the added burden of paying a $3.04 rate to Ridgeway and $3.35 to Shelby for a combined town-village rate of nearly $20.

“The elephant in the room is the $16.45,” Draper acknowledged.

Dissolution would shift some costs to the two towns. But even with dissolution residents outside the village would pay far less in taxes than the village property owners.

The Ridgeway residents outside the village currently pay a $6.71 rate for town, lighting and fire protection. That would rise 46 percent to $9.83 if the village dissolves and services are picked up according to the plan.

Shelby residents would see a 10 percent increase with dissolution with the current rate for outside-village residents going from $8.36 per $1,000 of assessed property to $9.17. That would raise taxes for a $70,000 home from $585 to $642.

Meier said he wants to compare the impact to outside-village residents with the shared service possibilities and the dissolution plan. The dissolution plan should receive support from the towns, Meier said, if it proves the best way to reduce village taxes while minimizing an increase to the towns, and still maintaining services in the community.

MEDINA – A joint session among the Medina Village Board and Town Boards for Shelby and Ridgeway will finally happen at 7 tonight at the Shelby Town Hall.

The meeting nearly didn’t happen after officials from the towns contested an agenda by Medina Mayor Andrew Meier. He wanted the village’s dissolution to be a topic but was rebuffed by Ridgeway Town Supervisor Brian Napoli and Shelby Town Supervisor Skip Draper.

The two town supervisors also insisted on an outside mediator and stenographer. The three governments will share the costs.

The bulk of the agenda will be geared to shared services among the three entities and perhaps some consolidation of functions. The meeting at 4062 Salt Works Rd. is open to public.

MEDINA – The public has pleaded with leaders of the towns of Shelby and Ridgeway, and the village of Medina to meet and have civil discussions and look for ways to reduce taxes.

The much-anticipated meeting is set for 7 p.m. on July 28 at the Shelby Town Hall. However, the town supervisors in Shelby and Ridgeway don’t like the agenda presented by Medina Mayor Andrew Meier.

He was told by the town leaders to prepare the agenda and listed village dissolution with discussion and feedback from the towns on the plan. Meier also put consolidation of Shelby and Ridgeway towns into one entity on the agenda, and a discussion of shared services among the three entities for water/sewer and street maintenance. Meier created the agenda following discussion with village trustees on Monday.

In emails today (Orleans Hub is included in the chain emails), Ridgeway Town Supervisor Brian Napoli said the joint meeting should only include shared services.

“Town consolidation is an issue for the two Towns, not the village,” Napoli wrote in response to Meier. “We were not included in your dissolution plan. Therefore, you are not included in a discussion of Town consolidation. The Towns will decide if, and when, that happens.”

Napoli chided Meier for setting the agenda.

“This is supposed to be a mutually cooperative effort, not dictated by you,” Napoli said.

Dissolution was supposed to be put on the “back burner,” Napoli said, referencing a transcript for last month’s Village Board meeting that included comments from officials from Shelby and Ridgeway.

If Meier insists on dissolution as a topic at the July 28 meeting, Napoli said Ridgeway town officials won’t attend the session.

Meier responded by email that the village wants “open dialogue on a range of matters.” He said he has sought clarification on the agenda the past two weeks from Ridgeway or Shelby.

Shelby Town Supervisor Skip Draper, in his response, said town consolidation should be struck from the agenda.

“If this discussion were to take place it would be appropriate for it to be held between the two towns,” he said.

As for dissolution, Draper said, “it may be appropriate for the towns to make some type of statement regarding the plan.” But Meier’s request for discussion about the plan was rebuffed.

“(Discussion) should have happened as the plan was prepared (not after the fact),” Draper said.

The Shelby town supervisor said shared services is a good starting point to work to bring down taxes in the community.

“If we focus on Shared Services with open minds and not allow the discussion to get bogged down, we may be able to do some good and produce favorable outcomes for all,” he said. “I believe this is what people in general want and we owe it to them to have that discussion. Further, I feel we should be willing to have a discussion regarding Shared Services in general and not limit it to street maintenance and water/sewer.”

He asked if Meier and the Village Board would be open to a shared services discussion.

MEDINA – After months of discord over a possible dissolution of the village of Medina, elected officials from two towns and the village are scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. on July 28.

Ridgeway Town Supervisor Brian Napoli and Shelby Town Supervisor Skip Draper wanted the meeting to be focused on shared services and cooperation among the three entities. They wanted dissolution off the table.

But Medina Mayor Andrew Meier has persisted, saying dissolution should be on the agenda.

The two town leaders told Meier to set an agenda for the meeting and they would respond.

During Monday’s Village Board meeting, village officials agreed to have dissolution and shared services on the agenda that would be sent to the towns.

The Village Board will have its regular meeting at 6 p.m. in the Shelby Town Hall with the joint meeting to follow at 7 p.m. The Town Hall is located on Salt Works Road.

MEDINA – The first email went out on Friday, an entreaty by Medina Mayor Andrew Meier. He sent several potential meeting dates to village officials and members of the Shelby and Ridgeway Town Boards.

Meier’s email came after a Village Board meeting on June 23 when town officials urged the Village Board to hold off on setting a date for a public referendum on dissolution of the village government. Shelby and Ridgeway officials wanted to first discuss more shared services or consolidation of functions among the entities.

Ridgeway Town Councilwoman Mary Woodruff responded to Meier’s email, saying the full board from the municipalities should all attend. (Members of the media have been copied in these emails.)

“I cannot support partial boards meeting to discuss these pertinent topics,” Woodruff said in an email on Monday. That was the format in past shared services and consolidation talks, she said.

Village Trustee Mike Sidari suggested at the June 23 meeting that two representatives from each board meet to discuss shared services and consolidation. He said the mayor and two town supervisors should be excluded because of a lack of trust and “butt-heading” among the three leaders.

Meier on Monday agreed with Woodruff, saying the full boards should attend the meeting.

“Given the time and resources spent by the village in developing the dissolution plan, and the resources consumed by the towns in discrediting it, we owe our residents an open, transparent, and unfiltered discussion,” Meier said.

That drew a response from Brian Napoli this morning, where he insisted dissolution won’t be part of the discussion, only shared services and consolidation of services.

“As for being discredited, the plan was discredited from the beginning,” Napoli wrote. “Manipulating the choice of committee members, along with placing yourself and Mark Irwin on the committee, was blatant disregard for openness, fairness, transparency, and unfiltered discussion. Then, narrowing the focus of the committee so they could only come to one conclusion…yours.”

Napoli also criticized the Center for Governmental Research, the village’s selection as a consultant for the plan.

“The last joke was hiring second rate consultants to justify your misguided idea,” Napoli said. “The taxpayers in Medina did not get fair value for their money.”

Napoli also alleges Meier used village taxpayer dollars for the “One Medina” campaign “after bragging that it is privately funded without taxpayer money.”

After Napoli’s email at 9:37 a.m., Sidari followed with one at 10:13 a.m. He told the officials to “drop the attitudes, roll up our sleeves and come to a working solution to the problems we are facing.”

He said residents have demanded officials from the village and two towns work together on the community’s problems.

“Wrong has been done on both sides of the lines,” Sidari said. “However both sides are showing a willingness to work on the same goal.”

He urged the elected officials to come to the upcoming meeting with an open mind “and leave the attitudes at the door.”

Sidari also requested the media be excluded from emails about planning for the upcoming meeting.

“I am sure they are thriving on this ongoing showing of remarks and accusations,” he said.

Mayor will seek joint session with town leaders

Photos by Tom Rivers – Ridgeway Town Supervisor Brian Napoli said promised state aid for a village dissolution shouldn’t be counted on. “A state guarantee means nothing,” he said.

MEDINA – A dissolution plan won’t be going to a vote by village residents until the Village Board can meet with town leaders in Shelby and Ridgeway.

“I don’t think at this point the public is ready for that,” said Village Trustee Mark Kruzynski at Monday’s board meeting.

Kruzynski and Michael Sidari pushed for a joint meeting with the towns, noting the dissolution discussions have been polarizing in the community and haven’t included the town officials.

Sidari first suggested the meeting among village, Shelby and Ridgeway officials exclude Mayor Andrew Meier, and town supervisors Brian Napoli of Ridgeway and Skip Draper of Shelby.

“There is a lot of butt-heading going on and a lack of trust,” Sidari said about the trio of leaders.

Meier said the mayor and town supervisors should be a part of the discussions because they are the chief executive officers with a big knowledge base of their respective governments.

“That would be a pretty big doughnut hole to have them be absent,” Meier said.

Village attorney Matt Brooks said it wouldn’t be legal to ban elected officials and residents from such meetings. The full Village Board authorized Meier to extend an invitation to the Town Boards to discuss the dissolution plan.

Village Mayor Andrew Meier said the current village government with high tax rates and a shrinking tax base is “unsustainable.” He is pictured next to Village Trustee Marguerite Sherman.

Meier welcomes the conversation, but he doesn’t want dissolution to be dragged out. He wants village residents to have a say on the issue in a public referendum.

Town leaders from Shelby and Ridgeway attended the Village Board meeting on Monday and urged the Village Board to look at ways for more shared services with the two towns, rather than just dissolving and having village functions passed to the towns, taxing districts or local development corporations.

The village tax rate is about $16 per $1,000 of assessed property. Dale Stalker, a Shelby town councilman, said about $10 of that rate is driven by emergency services – police, fire and ambulance – with the other $6 in services that are duplicative of the towns.

Stalker said there are ways to share those services and reduce costs to the community.

Ridgeway Town Councilman Jeff Toussaint also urged the Village Board to look closer at its budget and services to find ways to reduce costs.

Meier said the village has cut positions in DPW and police in an ongoing push the past 15 to 20 years to run a lean government. Meier said DPW has half the staff it did two decades ago.

The village faces an “unsustainable” model: its tax base is shrinking while its tax rate escalates, he told about 50 people during the board meeting.

Ridgeway Town Councilman Jeff Toussaint said the Village Board can reduce village taxes with better management of its budget and village staff, including making some hard choices about services already provided by the towns.

Medina’s combined village and town tax rates are about $20 per $1,000. With dissolution, it would fall to $14.30 in Ridgeway and $13.10 in Shelby.

Outside-village residents in Ridgeway currently pay a $6.71 rate for town, lighting and fire protection. That would rise 46 percent to $9.83 if the village dissolves and services are picked up according to the dissolution plan.

Shelby residents would see a 10 percent increase with dissolution with the current rate for outside-village residents going from $8.36 per $1,000 of assessed property to $9.17.

Toussaint said the towns shouldn’t have to subsidize the village, but Meier said the current system makes the village subsidize services to the towns with village residents double-taxed for many services. Dissolution would make the rates more equitable and fair, narrowing the gap between the village and outside village, Meier said.

Village Trustee Marguerite Sherman was elected in March. She doesn’t see dissolution as the answer. She sees more taxing districts if dissolution goes through, with less representation on the boards for the taxing districts and LDCs.

“I don’t want to give up on this village yet,” she said.

Meier said the dissolution plan shouldn’t be viewed as the village giving up. The plan brings balance to the tax rates, making Medina more affordable and attractive for residents and businesses, he said.

“I’m certainly heavily invested in the village,” he said. “I’m far from giving up on it.”

Toussaint also said the projected savings with dissolution aren’t very much. The plan identifies $277,000 in savings spread over three budgets that total about $11 million. That’s less than 3 percent. Toussaint said those savings would only be achieved if everything went according to the plan perfectly.

Toussaint and Brian Napoli, the Ridgeway town supervisor, questioned the $541,000 in additional state aid that has been identified for the dissolution. They doubt the money will be long-lasting. Napoli said the state has reduced promised funds for highway maintenance and assessing services.

“A state guarantee means nothing,” Napoli said about the additional aid with a dissolution.

About 50 people attended the Medina Village Board and many aired their views about a possible village dissolution.

Sherman said there is no certainty for residents that the dissolution plan, as proposed, would be followed by the two towns. She worries about service cuts for villagers.

“There’s no guarantee services will continue year to year,” Meier responded. “If we do nothing there is no way we can continue our level of services, unless we tax our residents into oblivion.”

Nathan Pace works as a local attorney. He was chairman of a previous committee that looked at shared services and consolidation among the village and two towns. The group favored dissolving the village and then merging the two towns.

He was critical of all the bickering among the village and towns, and their reluctance to sit down and discuss how to strengthen the overall community.

“It’s irresponsible,” Pace said. “Please come together. We have to sort this out. It is not that hard to sit down and come together.”

MEDINA – A committee studying the dissolution of the village of Medina is handing off its plan to the Village Board.

The Medina Dissolution Committee approved a plan last week that would cut taxes for village residents. Property owners outside the village in the towns of Shelby and Ridgeway would see an increase in their town taxes as the two towns pick up some of the services currently provided in the village, according to the plan.

The Village Board will discuss the plan during its 7 p.m. meeting on Monday at the Shelby Town Hall on Salt Works Road.

Village residents would see a drop in taxes ranging from 27 percent in Ridgeway to 34 percent in Shelby. The rate in Ridgeway would drop from $19.49 per $1,000 of assessed property to a projected $14.30, according to the plan. That $5.20 reduction would save a homeowner with a $70,000 house $363 a year in taxes.

Village residents in Shelby currently pay a combined $19.80 rate ($16.45 to the village and $3.35 to the town). That would drop 34 percent to $13.10 and would cut the tax bills from $1,386 for a $70,000 house to $917.

Dissolution Committee members say the ultimate goal is to dissolve the village and then merge the towns of Shelby and Ridgeway. That would bring additional state incentives and provide more efficiencies, committee members said.

If the two towns don’t merge, their residents outside the village would see their taxes go up if the dissolution plan is followed by the towns. Town officials from both Shelby and Ridgeway have said the towns don’t have to follow the plan. The two towns haven’t said how the towns would handle services if the village dissolves.

Ridgeway residents outside the village currently pay a $6.71 rate for town, lighting and fire protection. That would rise 46 percent to $9.83 if the village dissolves and services are picked up according to the plan.

Shelby residents would see a 10 percent increase with dissolution with the current rate for outside-village residents going from $8.36 per $1,000 of assessed property to $9.17. That would raise taxes for a $70,000 home from $585 to $642.

The plan sees $277,000 in cost savings and $541,000 in additional state aid for $818,000 in overall benefit.

Village residents will have the final say in dissolution in a public referendum if the Village Board decides to put it on the ballot or if residents force a public vote through a petition.