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.

MEDINA – The committee looking at a possible dissolution of the village of Medina government will meet at 8 a.m. Thursday at City Hall. It will be the committee’s first meeting since a May 6 public meeting, when most speakers were strongly against dissolution.

The committee will weigh public comments as it works to craft a final document that will be presented to the Village Board. Don Colquhoun, the committee chairman, said he expects the committee will be able to complete its work with another meeting after Thursday.

The Medina Dissolution Committee accepted a draft of the plan in April. It faced its first public scrutiny on May 6 when about 300 people attended a forum at the middle school. Many of the speakers at the May 6 meeting lived outside the village in the towns of Ridgeway and Shelby. They don’t want to see their taxes go up as part of the dissolution.

Outside-village residents in Ridgeway would see a 46 percent increase in their town taxes while Shelby residents outside the village would see a 10 percent increase in town taxes, according to the plan.

Dissolution would reduce the current rate for village residents in Ridgeway from $19.49 per $1,000 of assessed property to $14.30. That $5.20 reduction would save a homeowner with a $70,000 house $363 a year in taxes.

In Shelby, village residents currently pay a $19.80 rate for village and town taxes. That would drop by $6.70 or 34 percent if the dissolution plan takes effect.

Medina Mayor Andrew Meier sees dissolution as the first step of a two-step process for a leaner government. The tax increase outside the village could be reduced if the towns of Ridgeway and Shelby merge into the town of Medina, Meier has said.

Meier and others in the community are pushing “One Medina” as the ultimate goal for town/village government in the community.

If the village dissolution goes to a public referendum, only village residents will be eligible to vote.