Highlights of the 01/21/2025 Meeting of the Tompkins Co. Legislature

Published on January 27, 2025

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Chair of the Legislature Dan Klein Delivers 2025 State of the County Address

Chair of the Legislature Dan Klein (D-Danby) delivered remarks reflecting the state of Tompkins County. The address focused on the County’s on-going work and vision for a variety of projects and initiatives to enhance the lives of Tompkins County residents, and thanked community partners for their valued support. Klein’s address has been published below:

I will start by repeating exactly what I said last year at this time: The state of the County is excellent, and at the same time there are plenty of areas that need a lot of attention and need a lot of help. We are doing a lot, and there is a lot more to do.

Last year, the County Legislature passed a resolution to allocate $50,000 to study the potential for a countywide living wage, including its potential benefits and negative impacts, and the legal issues involved. That study will likely be starting in 2025. 

In 2025, we will begin a process to look at re-organization of the Office of Human Rights. This process will include input from legislators, staff, members of the Human Rights Commission, and community members.

The issues surrounding homelessness took up much of our time, attention, and resources in 2024. This will likely continue into 2025. We will likely be starting the Code Blue cold-weather shelter process from scratch once again in 2025. Hopefully, we will have a not-for-profit agency to run it for us, and that will take a lot of the burden off the County. We should also expect significant progress on the “permanent” shelter development process, ideally in collaboration with a not-for-profit agency also. This work goes hand in hand with our imminent acquisition of a property on Cherry Street in the City of Ithaca. We have just hired a consultant to help guide us through the various steps of design, financing, permitting, and development of this property. The consultant, along with our not-for-profit agencies, community members, and those with lived experience with homelessness, will work to develop this property to meet the needs of our homeless population. 

We should also expect significant progress on the Center of Government Building this year. We won’t see any actual building yet, but we should get much further along in our planning and design process, and we may even see some clearing of the site. 

We also have an upcoming capital project with our Public Safety Building that we hope to see progress on this year. Again, we won’t see any actual building yet, but hopefully we come out of 2025 with a clearer picture of that project than we have coming into this year. 

The issue of enforcing cannabis sales laws will be coming to us soon as New York State is putting the enforcement requirement on counties. What do we want in our law? What resources are necessary for enforcement? What increased costs to the County should we expect? Stay tuned as we figure this out…

We applied for a New York State broadband internet grant last year. We were supposed to hear from the State in early summer of 2024. Then again in the early Fall we were told we would hear something soon. Assuming we do get the grant, the rollout of the program to reach every unserved address in Tompkins County will begin in 2025.

Some towns in Tompkins County pay a lot for municipal ambulance service, and those ambulances provide benefit even to the towns that don’t pay for it. The way to fix this inequity might be a countywide ambulance tax. The Tompkins County Council of Governments wants the County to begin exploring this idea. 

There are proposals afloat to expand the number of members of the Industrial Development Agency, and also to designate a seat for a school board member. 

Some of the more inward-facing initiatives that the County is likely to tackle in 2025 are less flashy but are central to how our County government operates. Some of these inward-facing initiatives include exploration of changes in our procurement policy, a further examination of the future of the airport, an exploration of how to initiate more reuse of materials within County government operations, department head retreats with legislators, initiating measurement of equity indicators in each County department,  evaluating our advisory board appointment process, considering alternate budget development processes, and further vigorous debate about understanding our fund balance, how it is calculated, and its role in our budget process.

Before I go on to talk about our committees, I want to take a moment to acknowledge that we work in partnership with other entities in Tompkins County as we do our work. We are blessed to have numerous not-for-profit organizations doing great work in our county. We magnify each other’s work. We’re all in this together.

We also have a strong partner in the City of Ithaca. We are a separate government from the City of Ithaca, but Tompkins County government literally lives within the City. I believe that our relationship with the City is the best it’s been in years. I can also say the same about the County’s relationship with our partners on East and South Hills – Cornell University and Ithaca College.... 

.... Here in local government, we focus a lot on process, procedures, and policies. This is necessary for the good functioning of government. However, we must never lose sight of the reason for all this: we are here to help provide a good quality of life for our residents and our staff. So here’s another reminder that we are all in this together, that with effort we can lift each other up, and that government has a strong role to play in this.

The 2025 Legislature Committee Chairs were announced by Klein during the address and are as follows:

  • Budget, Capital, and Personnel – Mike Lane (D-Dryden)
  • Facilities and Infrastructure – Lee Shurtleff (R-Groton)
  • Government Operations – Amanda Champion (D-Ithaca)
  • Housing and Economic Development – Greg Mezey (D-Dryden)
  • Health and Human Services – Travis Brooks (D-Ithaca)
  • Planning, Energy, and Environmental Quality – Anne Koreman (D-Ulysses)
  • Public Safety – Rich John (D-Ithaca)
  • Tompkins Intergovernmental Relations Committee – Shawna Black (D-Ithaca)
  • Downtown Facilities Special Committee (Special Comm) – Randy Brown (R-Newfield)
  • Community Recovery Fund Advisory Committee (Special Comm) – Dan Klein (D-Danby)
  • Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Committee (Advisory Comm) – Veronica Pillar (D-Ithaca)
  • Ethics Advisory Board – Rich John (D-Ithaca)
  • Industrial Development Agency – Rich John (D-Ithaca)

Klein also announced additional appointments for Tompkins County representation on partner organizations.

County Administration Shares 2024 County Department Achievements

Tompkins County Deputy Administrators Bridgette Nugent and Norma Jayne presented accomplishments from the organization’s departments and overviewed the County’s roles and responsibilities in the areas of: Administration; Health and Human Services; Public Safety; Facilities and Infrastructure; Housing and Economic Development; Budget, Capital, and Personnel; Government operations; and Planning, Energy, and Environmental Quality.

The presentation is available on the County’s YouTube channel, with the document accessible on the County website. A full press release detailing the presentation is also available.

Among other business

Chair of the Health & Human Services Committee, Shawna Black (D-Ithaca) read a Proclamation honoring Loaves & Fishes Director Rev. Christina Culver, thanking her for her service to the community upon the recent announcement of her planned retirement. Rev. Culver was instrumental in increasing access to nutritious meals and providing a safety net to vulnerable community members. January 21, 2025, was proclaimed as “Rev. Christian Culver Day” in Tompkins County in recognition of her exceptional leadership, service and commitment to the wellbeing of all residents.

Veronica Pillar (D-Ithaca) shared that the Tompkins County Soil and Conservation District is now hosting its annual tree and shrub sale, offering a selection of native hardwood and softwood plants. Orders are due by March 25, 2025.

A local law to allow for tax exemption on existing housing units to expand property for additional housing was passed unanimously. Rich John (D-Ithaca) shared that this local law will provide an incentive to property owners to expand, allowing for use of existing property and built infrastructure to meet housing need while reducing costs. This legislation encourages the development of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) by providing partial property tax exemptions for homeowners who enhance their properties through construction, reconstruction, or alteration to create additional housing units. The adoption follows the passage of L2024, ch 56, §2 (Part GG) by the New York State Legislature in April 2024. This state law permits local governments to offer partial tax exemptions to incentivize property improvements, specifically aimed at increasing the availability of affordable housing.

Veronica Pillar (D-Ithaca) moved forward a resolution to Oppose Cargill’s Renewal Permit Application for the Cayuga Salt Mine, urging the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to hold Cargill accountable in completing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) through a public process. The resolution raised concerns regarding flood zones and draining into the lake with possibilities of mine collapse causing salination of Cayuga Lake. Deborah Dawson (D-Lansing) stated that an open EIS would provide needed information on the mine’s impact on environmental stewardship of Cayuga Lake, requesting a need for increased transparency from Cargill. Shawna Black (D-Ithaca) added that Tompkins County appreciates the economic impact and workforce development Cargill provides to Tompkins County residents, but the on-going operations of the mine conflict with the County’s commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship and mitigating climate change impacts outlined in the County’s Comprehensive Plan. Mike Sigler (R-Lansing) stated that there is no evidence pointing towards any harmful environmental or sustainability impacts, opposing the resolution.   Upon removing a clause regarding the mine’s conflict with County Comprehensive Plan, the resolution was approved 8-3, (Mike Sigler (R-Lansing), Lee Shurtleff (R-Groton) and Mike Lane (D-Dryden) opposed).

Randy Brown (R-Newfield), Chair of the Downtown Facilities Special Committee, shared that the committee has finalized the contract with Holt Architects for the Center of Government project, and unanimously agreed that the Code Blue Emergency Shelter will not be housed in the former Key Bank building during the 2025-2026 Code Blue season.

Chair of the Budget, Capital, and Personnel Committee, Mike Lane (D-Dryden), shared that the committee recommends Shawna Black (D-Ithaca) to serve as legislative representative on the Municipal Healthcare Consortium Board, a role formerly filled by the former County Administrator Lisa Holmes.

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