Round Two Has Begun

     For all who thought the Dissolution vote was decided back in November, let me warn you it is far from over. Our Mayor Dennis Hannon has re-kindled the spirit of  5 members of the Dissolution Study Team, including die hard William Klish.

      After first interrogating the Broome County Board of Elections personnel for weeks after the final re-count and absentee ballot count, Bill Klish put his tail between his legs and began camping out at village hall. Evidently, whether by chance, invitation or sheer force, Bill managed to find a way to continue his personal mission to see Johnson City dissolve.

     At last month’s village board meeting, Mayor Hannon, announced that he had chosen William Klish, Bob Carr, Jerry Putman, John Hussar and Fred Shaheen to serve on a Shared Services Committee. The purpose of this committee will be to further the Dissolution Plan findings by looking again at combining courts, DPW (streets, sewer, refuse, water), clerical, clerk/treasurer, etc.

     It was pointed out at the meeting that the Mayor had assembled and appointed a group of gentlemen who made it publically clear, after their dismissal from the dissolution Committee, they wanted dissolution, thereby making this a biased study, once again, from its inception. The mayor excused these claims based on the fact that the gentlemen had “experience”.

     The way in which the “Fab 5” were chosen also leaves one to doubt the ethics of this move. Both in the work session, prior to the July 20th board meeting, and in the regular session it was made publically known that the 4 board members had not been consulted or been made aware of the selections prior to the resolution being placed before them.

     It would seem that in order to earn public trust concerning an area that the MAJORITY of voters voted against-one should:

A- Present all information to the board about any resolution coming before them prior to a  meeting.
B-Study committees with a potential for bias should be overseen by at least two trustees.
C-Committee members should be selected in a fair and equitable manner from across the community and should consist of only Johnson City residents.

     This latest move bears keeping a watchful eye on. If it is upfront and beneficial to the village I will gladly rest my case. The potential for trouble has begun and all those who truly care about our village need to be asking questions and need to get involved and informed.

The final monthly newsletter written by Johnson City residents opposed to dissolving the Village of Johnson City.   Our goal has been to help Johnson City residents make a better-informed choice, when the Dissolution Plan goes to vote on November 3rd.

Dissolution Study: Article #14

Think About Long Term Implications of Dissolution

Written by Julie Deemie 

       I was asked to sign a petition to look into saving money on taxes. When the top of the petition was unfolded it revealed that it was a petition for dissolution. I did not sign.  Instead I became involved. 

      I attended the Dissolution Study Meetings, wrote monthly newsletters, and read the Dissolution Plan. After listening to facts presented and continuing to research dissolution, I feel that dissolution is the wrong solution for Johnson City.  Instead we must address the root cause of our demise. 

      Lower taxes for Johnson City lies in the revitalization of our downtown area. Urban decay increases public safety costs, drives out businesses, and decreases our home values.  49% of JC housing units are rentals. Crime has increased dramatically since last year. Business growth is stagnant. The Town of Union has not expressed interest in revitalizing downtown Johnson City nor have they earmarked any funds for such.  In order to increase our revenue, decrease tax burden, and attract businesses we must renew what has become an eyesore.  Johnson City has the potential it just needs advocates with vision. 

A monthly newsletter written by Johnson City residents opposed to dissolving the Village of Johnson City.   Our goal is to help Johnson City residents make a better-informed choice, when the Dissolution Plan goes to vote.

Dissolution Study Committee Meetings: Article #13

Dissolution Plan Savings are Misleading to the Public
Written by Julie Deemie

The Johnson City Dissolution Committee released its initial Dissolution Plan to the public on July 20th.  The plan is available on-line at www.cgr.org/johnsoncity and at both Town of Union Libraries (George F. Johnson & Your Home Library) and the Johnson City Village Hall.

Across New York State there are more than 10,500 governmental entities (units) imposing taxes and fees.  These governmental entities include towns, villages, districts, and special districts such as water, sewer, and lighting districts.  The concept of dissolution is intended to reduce the number of entities, creating more efficiency.

The Johnson City dissolution Plan creates at least 6 new taxing units and/or special districts which would be imposed as tax line levies to the village residents, post dissolution.
These taxing units/special districts include fire, police, highway, parks and levys for debt pay down and retirement benefits.  There could possibly be a special lighting district due to our urban demographic.

Our village would in fact have more tax levies, post dissolution than prior, making our government LESS efficient than it is now.

A monthly newsletter written by Johnson City residents opposed to dissolving the Village of Johnson City.   Our goal is to help Johnson City residents make a better-informed choice, when the Dissolution Plan goes to vote.

Dissolution Study Committee Meetings: Article #12

Sketchy Plans

Written by Julie Deemie

The Johnson City Dissolution Committee met for public meetings on May 11th & May 18th, 2009 after having cancelled the April meeting.  Dissolution Committee Chairman William Klish was absent from these meeting due to continued health problems. Committee member Gerry Putnam bravely led the meetings.  The consultant, Charles Zetteck Jr., did not attend either meeting.

The May meetings took on a new forum, as public comment was invited for the first time since the meetings began at the end of 2007.  Many residents were unsure of the purpose of public comment with no plan details presented to them to base questions on.  It was eluded that the committee would consider the public comments while developing the dissolution plan.  At the May 18th meeting Putnam stated that he felt that the residents questions were telling him we are “looking for lower taxes”.

A monthly newsletter written by Johnson City residents opposed to dissolving the Village of Johnson City.   Our goal is to help Johnson City residents make a better-informed choice, when the Dissolution Plan goes to vote.

Dissolution Study Committee Meetings: Article #11

Mums the Word

Written by Julie Deemie

The Johnson City Dissolution Committee met for its monthly public meeting on March 23, 2009.  The agenda was an exact duplicate of the February agenda, which never came to fruition.  Those in attendance had expected a long drawn out meeting due to the fact that the meeting agenda was to include sub-committee status reports for Department of Public Works/Public Services, Police, Fire, and Administrative. This meeting lasted roughly one hour.  One would have thought that by this stage of the study that these status reports would be well developed and articulate.  In actuality, very little was reported.

A monthly newsletter written by Johnson City residents opposed to dissolving the Village of Johnson City. Our goal is to help Johnson City residents make a better-informed choice, when the Dissolution Plan goes to vote.

Dissolution Study Committee Meetings: Article #10

Timelines & Logistics of the Dissolution Study

Written by Julie Deemie

The Johnson City Dissolution Committee met for a public meeting on February 23, 2009.

Dissolution Committee Chairman William Klish was absent from this meeting due to illness. Committee member Gerry Putnam stepped up to the helm and led the February meeting.

The committee members have been meeting with their individual sub-committees in an effort to pull together information and data. Several committee members stressed that the volume of information to be gathered is significant.

At this month’s meeting, Fred Shaheen was absent therefore the completed Public Works Plan was not presented. Instead Bob Carr, Chair of the Police sub-committee reported on his group’s progress. He admitted that his report would be brief, which it was. Bob reaffirmed that there was a significant amount of information that needed to be gathered in order “to give credibility” to the plan. He stated that giving residents the proper information is important.

A monthly newsletter written by Johnson City residents opposed to dissolving the Village of Johnson City.   Our goal is to help Johnson City residents make a better-informed choice, when the Dissolution Plan goes to vote.

Dissolution Study Committee Meetings: Article #9

Planning for “New Town-Day 1”
Written by Julie Deemie

The Johnson City Dissolution Committee met for a public meeting on January 26, 2009.  This was the first meeting of the New Year, a very decisive and important year for Village of Johnson City resident voters.The committee members have been busy in their individual sub-committees trying to pull together information and data.  Their end products will be tied together into a dissolution plan for our village and lead up to a referendum vote in November of this year.  Dissolution Committee Chairman William Klish is hopeful that the plan will be completed by June. Public hearings and comment will occur once the dissolution plan is completed, before the vote takes place in November.