Notes from the Week os 8/23

In the grand scheme of things this was a light week.

I spoke to the county finance department to obtain more information on consolidating services. I have a meeting set up for next month to address same.

The town board met in executive session from 6pm to 6:50pm on Tuesday 8/24 to address a legal matter. We then held our monthly meeting at 7pm where all the agenda items were approved. I voted against one item on the agenda pertaining to the postage machine in the clerk's office. We have a leased postage machine and the lease did not expire until February 2011. The quarterly cost to lease the machine is around $1260. I did get a little confused as to if this was a monthly or quarterly charge but have confirmed it is quarterly. I was sent an email August 5th and asked to approve a " no brainer" proposal from the salesperson at our vendor. As I understand it, this was not a negotiated offer by any town official, but instead a sales flyer from a vendor that came into town hall at some point. Essentially, the vendor agreed to lower the quarterly fee by about $162 dollars, upgrade the equipment, and continue what was represented to me as good service when needed. In return though the town would be entering into a 63 month lease. Of importance was the fact that the email to me came with the caveat we needed an answer within days or the offer would expire. A poll was taken from board members as to their positions so this answer could be given by the time deadline stated in the proposal. If any of you know me, you understand I hate to be rushed or feel rushed. At my business we use a different vendor for the postage machine. We have had great success with our machine and good customer service. The town apparently had this vendor in the past and did not like the service. Note there are really only a few companies in this line of work but competitive bidding is a good thing in my opinion even if the field is limited. I have had no first hand experience with the machine in the clerk's office nor could I personally tell you how often it is used. The machine at my office runs about $600 A QUARTER- roughly half of what the town pays under the existing lease. The town does save money with the resolution passed by the board 5-2 to accept the proposal. I did not vote in favor of the proposal because I thought the opportunity existed to save even more money if we leased a machine with maybe a few less options. DIck Griffo voted no too. I am not saying the machine at my office would do the trick but certainly when looking at a 5 years or so commitment we need time to evaluate and estimate our needs over those years. We need to see if we could do the work with less of a machine, or evaluate if technology or possible consolidation of departments will decrease the need for a particular machine 3 or 4 years from now. Others disagreed and felt worker productively would decrease if the machine did not self weigh mail for example. I assume tax bills or other town mailers represent the bulk of town postage expense. Therefore, with a cheaper machine, your weigh the first piece, set the machine to that dollar amount and run the rest through. That said, I respect the decision of others and clearly I was not in the majority on this matter.

Check out Mark Kolinski's web page for updates as to Wastebed 13 and the Council on the Conservation of the Environment selections. Here is the link:
http://camillus2ndward.com