Took from Bruce Summas FB page: Greetings from Village Hall-----Good news fellow residents. The Mayor and I have finally agreed on something that will benefit the entire village and that is the hiring of a new clerk. Her name is Susan Alevas and she is a resident of Mastic Beach. Ms. Alevas is a principled Executive/Attorney with extensive experience in business solutions supported by technology in human resources, management and legal affairs, including employee and executive coaching; conflict resolution; negotiations; budgeting; labor/employee relations; training; staffing; employment/labor law; HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems which is a computer program she designed and integrated fully with existing financial management software at no cost to employer except minor hardware upgrades) design, development, testing and implementation; succession planning; policy development; and an organizational spokesperson, managing and guiding media, community and governing board relations. Ms. Alevas holds a Juris Doctorate from the Touro School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Stony Brook. She is also an adjunct instructor at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor relations, New York University and SUNY at Stony Brook teaching advanced labor relations/employment law, business ethics, conflict resolution/dispute management and employment law. Ms. Alevas was the board appointed district clerk for a community of 60,000 managing 70 million of a 100 million dollar budget (our village budget is 4 million), prepared board meeting minutes, board elections, budget votes and served as board liaison on several board appointed committees. She has seasoned management training and consulting experience for diverse private-and-public-sector organizations including the State of New York Dormitory Authority (DASNY) which will appear later in this article, NY/NJ Port Authority, Hypo-international Real Estate Capital Corporation and the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers. These are just SOME of her credentials that are too numerous to go on listing. All I can say is that the Village of Mastic Beach is indeed fortunate to find someone so talented and experienced in willing to offer their services for what is truly a “discounted” price, considering what she brings to the table, to help move our village forward. I truly look forward to working with this person in organizing the structural way in which the village and its employees serve our citizenry. Million Dollar Storm Water Disaster Funding for the Village In other news, Gov. Cuomo is releasing one million dollars to revitalize and repair our storm water and drainage systems. Considering how desperately we need the drainage problems in our village addressed, this is indeed welcome news and we thank the Governor, on behalf of all the residents, for his expedience in this matter. However, based on our village’s past performance in management of resources, the state will not let us “administrate” the million dollars on our own (smart choice) but rather has given us an option of having the Town of Brookhaven do the project or the State of New York Dormitory Authority (DASNY). Since our new clerk already has experience in doing capital projects with DASNY we are indeed lucky. We will also be receiving similar monies to “revitalize” our beaches. Comprehensive Plan is being “back-peddled” by Mayor The Board of Trustees has unanimously voted on hiring Wendell Associates to do our “Comprehensive Plan” for the future development of Mastic Beach. But now, the Mayor and the Attorney for the Village are starting to “whine” about the $70,000 in funding required and trying to “shelve” and “back-peddle” this idea. That is not going to happen as long as Trustee Spery and I are on the board. To paraphrase Churchill, “those who fail to plan are planning to fail!” Truer words were never spoken. Our village has been operating like a “rudderless” ship with no direction reacting to whatever crisis arises in any manner available. It is time to stop this type of “vacuous” leadership and hire professionals to solicit input from the citizens and come up with a “game-plan” for not only the present but the future which will survive and guide all elected officials to follow no matter who they are. But I will give you an idea as to how easy it is to find the monies needed. The Mayor just spent $7,900 on office furniture that was totally unnecessary at this time. He spent $1,900 on this conference table alone and $600 to have it put together. The chairs cost $250 each totaling another $2,000 and the rest was spent on filing cabinets @ $500 each. (see picture below) The Mayor did this on his own never soliciting advice from his Board members. If he did, we would have recommended to put it out for bid and see what prices we could get but that doesn’t happen with this Mayor. I refused to sign the purchase order and Maura Spery went down the next day to take her name off. Without one of our signatures the furniture will not be paid for and the Mayor can send this “follie” back. In fairness to Trustee Stiriz, he signed unwillingly and was livid over this purchase. I strongly advise him to contact the Deputy Treasurer and take his name off the purchase order as well. Next time ask us Mr. Mayor! Now that gives us app. $8,000 to put towards the plan. If the Mayor had cut Code patrols at 10pm, which my resolution directed him to do last August instead of “unilaterally” extending it through September, we would have saved another $2,000+. Now we are up to $10,000 or 14% of what is needed. Next, I would save $32,000 by immediately terminating the “patronage” position of Senior Code Enforcement Officer given to our former village administrator, Tim Brojer, who according to the Mayor is retained because of his “building” expertise. Really? Well take a look at this “anomaly” which was sent in by a resident who “foiled” for this information. The picture below shows a building permit AND a certificate of occupancy issued on the same day to the same home. This home was built without permits on mixed use property (commercial and residential) and never went in front of the ZBA (zoning board of appeals) for a hearing. You will noticed that the two documents are UNSIGNED! You will also notice two different addresses for the same location. 50 Mastic Road is the tax reference address and 127a Pineway is the mailing address but they are both the same parcel. When Trustee Spery and I asked the Mayor about this he boldly admitted that this file was LOCKED AWAY in his office and refused to let us examine and inspect the file. I can guarantee who’s signature is on the documents in his office and we want to see the electrical certificate and the Health Dept approval of the septic system. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! Well people now we are up to $42,000 or 60% of what is needed for the plan. Do you see how easy it is to cut “waste” and put it towards common sense projects for the benefit of our citizens. All it takes is the desire and willingness of the board to “prioritize” it’s spending which our current Mayor has exhibited that he has no clue of how to do it. Finally, we pay extremely high legal fees for a village our size. We budget $90,000 for a retainer and approximately another $60,000 for hours to be billed which is one of the highest if not the highest in Suffolk County for such a tiny “fledgling” village. I am not one to question the price and value that one contract provider places on the value of their service and in no way am I questioning the quality of service we receive. However, I am certainly in a position to question and determine if our village can afford or even needs such “high end” representation at this time in our development. I would submit to you that the other $28,000 needed for the plan could easily be gleaned from these fees or a host of other wastefulness in our village. So there you have it people. With a “modicum” of prudence you can have your cake and eat it too. Please come down to the next public village meeting held at 7pm on Tuesday Oct. 14th at Village Hall. God Bless
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 01:48:58 +0000
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