Annexation Update from Ossining Town Supervisor

17/20 Proposed Annexation

As many of you are aware, the Boards of the Town of Ossining and the Village of Briarcliff Manor are in the process of determining if it is in the best interest of the entire Town of Ossining (meaning the majority of Briarcliff, the entire Village of Ossining, and the Unincorporated Area) for election districts 17 & 20 to be annexed out of the Unincorporated area and onto the Village of Briarcliff Manor.

During our review of the process, the Town has determined a set of criteria that should be examined in order to determine which outcome is in the best interest of our community:

·         "Benefit" and "detriment" to the community, in the context of an annexation, are defined in terms of municipal services, such as police and fire protection, health regulations, sewer and water services, public utilities and public education. Therefore, our primary focus will be on availability of necessary services, as well as the quality of those services provided to the unincorporated Town, and whether those services would be improved in Districts 17 and 20 as a result of the proposed annexation.

·         The Board must also gauge community support for the annexation, including residents of the affected area, residents who live in the other election districts of the Unincorporated Area, and residents living in the Villages of Briarcliff Manor and Ossining, who would also be affected by this decision. Proving unity of purpose is an often cited reason for approving an annexation.

·         Special Districts, such as water, sewer, fire, ambulance, solid waste, lighting, and refuse and recycling would not be impacted in an annexation, leading to double taxation for some services.

·         The Town will consider verifiable estimates regarding the tax implications to the areas not being annexed, and, if possible, to the balance of Briarcliff Manor. There must be clear, verifiable, not just perceived benefits to all affected parties to provide a basis to approve annexation.

·         Shifting tax revenue from one municipality to another is not considered an increase in overall tax revenue.  This would be the case of Mortgage Tax which is a Town General Revenue, which benefits all the residents of the Town of Ossining.

·         The remaining governmental unit could also be said to include the Village of Ossining, as part of the Town. Our analysis will focus on the cooperative existing relationship between the Town and Village of Ossining through a myriad of intermunicipal agreements. Those agreements, including such expenses as finance, clerk, rent of facilities, engineering, etc. may indicate that carefully calibrated budgets of both municipal entities and staffing levels in various departments might be impacted by the proposed annexation.

At this point, Briarcliff has suggested that finances are the leading reason that this would be the best for the two election districts in question. We don’t agree that this is the proper focus of our inquiry. In addition, we have some concerns with the information that was presented at the public hearing on December 12th, particularly concerning the numerous assumptions made to justify their conclusions. We have advised Briarcliff of these concerns and forwarded them new information.  We wanted to make sure you received the correct information concerning several of the slides from the Briarcliff presentation which is available on both of our web pages.

The questions we have asked Briarcliff Manor via email are as follows:

·         Where have you included the anticipated new employees in the calculation for the taxation of the residents of 17/20 (page 33, 60% of new Police and DPW)?  Where does your presentation reflect the 40% (page 33 added Police and DPW) added to the current of Village of Briarcliff Manor residents tax bill?

·         If you have not, are you planning on using the fiscal years that you used with the adjusted payrolls for the Police and DPW Departments to show the correct taxes? 

·         Can you give us more details on what you mean concerning OVAC, Fire District 20 and Administration (page 33)?  How did you calculate the costs of the three sections and how does this affect the tax bill of both 17/20 residents and Briarcliff Manor residents?

·         What Capital Projects (ex: the expanded Community Center) are you planning during the next 5 years and how will that increase your debt?

·         What is your anticipated Bond payments for the next 5 years (both interest and principal) for both existing projects and new ones?

·         The page concerning salaries (page 32) is misleading.  Please supply us with your administration costs .  You are aware that I am the CFO, COO for the Town.  “Apples to Apples” is our goal.

We will continue to review the presentations from both communities to ensure that we have clear and accurate information for the residents and commercial tax payers in the Unincorporated Area of the Town of Ossining, as well as those in the Villages of Briarcliff Manor and Ossining.

Take a look at our Powerpoint clarifying some points made by the Village of Briarcliff Manor during their slide presentation at the public hearing last week.