MINUTES
COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Tuesday, February 1, 2000
3:30 P.M.
PRESENT: Chair: M. Kaplowitz. Members: V. Pinto, U. LaMotte,
STAFF: Rob Hoch
ALSO PRESENT: Dorothy Rinaldo, Gundrun LeLash, Ingrid Bert, Fedora DeLucia, Katherine McLoughlin, Hope Corbin, Marion Rose
The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m.
Chairman Kaplowitz welcomed the Committee members and guests to the first Environment Committee meeting of the year 2000. He noted that this meeting was the Committee’s reorganizational meeting and said that he wanted to discuss the Committee’s organization, quorum, then go on to address scheduling since there were a great many topics that the Committee has been asked to delve into.
Chairman Kaplowitz said that he was pleased to announce that the same five Legislators who were on the Committee during the last term had been reappointed.
On the issue of the Committee’s quorum, Chairman Kaplowitz asked for a motion to set the Committee’s quorum at 2. The motion was made by Legislator Pinto, seconded by Legislator LaMotte and carried unanimously.
In terms of the Committee’s organization, Chairman Kaplowitz announced that Rob Hoch would continue as the Committee’s Program Coordinator.
Chairman Kaplowitz noted that during the last term the Committee was very successful in two areas:
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(1) Getting out into the community: Chairman Kaplowitz noted that he thought the Committee did a good job in getting out to the local communities and dovetailing the Committee meetings with local issues of interest to area residents. In dividing up the local Committee meeting assessments, Chairman Kaplowitz said that he would pick the site for a local Committee meeting during the first quarter; Legislator LaMotte would be responsible for a local meeting during the second quarter; Legislator Pinto would take the third quarter and Legislator Maisano would do the fourth.
(2) Sub-committees: Chairman Kaplowitz noted that sub-committees was very successful during the first year of the previous term, but not terribly successful during the second year and thought the Committee might want to discuss the reasons.
Legislator LaMotte thought that her subject matter was too big and just didn’t jell. Legislator Pinto thought that his went well since he stayed with one subject – Parks and Recreation and noted that he was successful in getting additional part-time help. He also noted that he regretted that he didn’t ask for more full time help. He noted that as Chair of the Board’s new Special Committee on Parks and Recreation, he wanted to look very closely at Parks since it was such a large part of the County’s Budget. As part of his Parks Department study, a complete financial analysis was done of the manpower vs. cost ratio for the last 25 years. He presented the analysis at a meeting of the Parks Board meeting. He also listened to the concerns of the senior golfers, collected their petitions and, in general, acted as the lead agency.
On the subject of sub-Committees,
Legislator Pinto felt that some attention needed to be directed to the Hudson
River and its communities. Legislator
Pinto said that he had received some calls asking that the Hudson River
communities be given some attention
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by the Environment Committee. Legislator Pinto said that if no one else wanted to Chair the sub-Committee, he would be willing to do it.
Legislator LaMotte felt that the Hudson River received a great deal of attention from the Hudson River Keeper and the Hudson River Greenway and felt that it might be important to get these groups involved.
Legislator Pinto felt that while there were many groups overseeing the Hudson, he wasn’t sure that the County’s attention was being fully focused on the issue.
Chairman Kaplowitz asked that the Committee members identify areas that they would like for either a sub-Committee or the entire Committee to focus on. He said that the Hudson River sounded like an area that the Committee needed to focus on in general and suggested that the Planning Department be asked to meet with the Committee to discuss it. If need be, a sub-Committee could be formed to further study the Hudson.
Legislator LaMotte noted that, very often, the sub-Committees take up very important and interesting issues that the other members of the Environment Committee are not aware of until they read the final report. She wondered whether this approach resulted in too much fragmentation and that perhaps it would be a good idea for the Committee to take some of the more important matters up as general discussion topics. Chairman Kaplowitz said that perhaps he could use his community meeting in Croton as a kick-off by inviting the Administration and environmental groups and, in essence, turn the meeting into an Environmental Committee symposium on the Hudson.
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Chairman Kaplowitz urged the Committee members to give Rob Hoch their ideas on what would constitute good sub-Committees. Chairman Kaplowitz suggested that in the first year of this term the Committee concentrate on sub-Committees.
Chairman Kaplowitz then introduced Hope Corbin who had offered to serve as an Intern for the Committee. He noted that she had the ability to coordinate the doings of the Committee to the members of the environmental community. He hoped that, working with Rob Hoch, she would be able to interface with the environmental groups, the advocates and the issues that the Committee was working on.
Speaking about the Committees agenda, Chairman Kaplowitz noted that he would like to see the MTBE meeting scheduled as quickly as possible. He said would like to see an item included in the Board’s State Legislative Package which would outlaw MTBE use in the State of New York. He would also like to see a similar item included in the Board’s Federal package. Mrs. LaMotte noted that several weeks ago, the television program 60 Minutes did a report on MTBE which was very frightening and urged the Committee to take a look at it.
Chairman Kaplowitz asked Mr. Hoch if the MTBE meeting could be scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on February 15th. [He also noted that, from now on, the Committee would meet on Tuesdays at 3:00 p.m. instead of 3:30 p.m.] He asked if representatives from the Department of Health, the Governor’s office and the EPA be included in the meeting.
Chairman Kaplowitz noted that on
Friday, February 4th, he was visiting a homeowner on Route 129 in
Yorktown - less than 100 feet to the Amawalk Reservoir – whose well was tested
at 82 parts of MTBE per billion. He wondered how long it would take for the
MTBE
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to find its way into the Reservoir. Mrs. LaMotte noted that she had constituents in Pound Ridge who were also experiencing problems with MTBE contamination.
Chairman Kaplowitz then moved on to the referral items to see how to best prioritize them.
Item Number 1: Legislator Pinto, seconded by Mrs. LaMotte, moved to receive and file Item Number 1. The motion was carried unanimously.
Item Number 2: Legislator Pinto, seconded by Mrs. LaMotte, moved to receive and file Item Number 2. The motion was carried unanimously.
Item Number 3: Legislator Pinto, seconded by Mrs. LaMotte, moved to receive and file Item Number 3. The motion was carried unanimously.
Legislator Kaplowitz said that he wanted Item Number 5 to remain on the agenda.
Moving on to Item Number 6, Chairman Kaplowitz noted that the Tappan Zee issue was also before the Committee on Community Affairs. He said that he would contact Legislator Carsky, the Chair of the Committee on Community Affairs, to see if she wanted to do a joint meeting on the matter.
Regarding Item Number 7, Chairman
Kaplowitz asked Legislator Pinto if, since the IKEA proposal is such a
locally-sensitive issue, he thought it might be a good subject for a community
meeting. Legislator Pinto said that
Mayor Idoni is firm in his convictions that the project would not be
detrimental; some of the homeowners are still holding out and some members of
the City Council have come out in
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opposition to the proposal. Chairman Kaplowitz asked Legislator Pinto to contact Legislator Maisano (who represents the area) to get his input on the matter.
With respect to Item Number 8, Chairman Kaplowitz asked Rob Hoch to speak with the Chairman and Legislator Ryan about the matter.
Regarding Item Number 9, Chairman Kaplowitz asked what the Board’s role should be regarding the proposed widening of Route 120. Legislator LaMotte asked if someone from the County Planning Department could come up to discuss the matter. Chairman Kaplowitz asked Rob Hoch to contact Planning.
With respect to Number 10, Chairman Kaplowitz asked if it could be received and filed. Mrs. LaMotte asked if the homeowner could be brought in to discuss the helicopter problem. Chairman Kaplowitz asked Rob Hoch to get in touch with the NRDC and see if they could meet with the Committee sometime in March to discuss the recent helicopter report that they issued. He also noted that since Item Number 11 dealt with helicopters, it could be wrapped up in an omnibus helicopter meeting.
Regarding Item Number 12, 13 and 14, Chairman Kaplowitz said that he scheduled joint meetings with Budget and Appropriations to discuss them.
Chairman Kaplowitz said that the Committee had followed the Millennium Pipeline issue very closely and passed out an article re: same.
Mrs. LaMotte said that she would also like to have the Committee look into the dramatic rise in oil prices. Legislator Pinto noted that the price increases were especially hard on senior citizens.
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Chairman Kaplowitz asked if, when the Commissioner came in to discuss 120, she could give the Committee a general update of Planning Department items that would be of interest.
Chairman Kaplowitz also asked that a memo be sent over his signature to the Administration asking for an update on the Stokes-Greene property.
Chairman Kaplowitz also shared a letter from the Millennium Pipeline group dealing with different precedent agreements. He requested that it be noted in the minutes that the letter was received and that each of the Legislators be made aware that the Committee had received copies of some contracts in case anyone wanted to see it.
Chairman Kaplowitz said that at next week’s meeting the Committee would continue to deal with agenda items that were referred at the January 24th Board meeting.
Legislator LaMotte suggested that the Committee look back and see what was left on the agenda at the end of the last term to see if there are any items that should be resubmitted. The Committee agreed to do so at its next meeting.
On the matter of the Pesticide
Notification Bills pending in Albany, Rob Hoch noted that the Senate was being
urged to pass its version of its bill and then conference with the Assembly to
try to reach a compromise on the legislation.
Since this issue is so important and a proposed item on the Board’s
Legislative Package, Legislator Kaplowitz asked Rob Hoch to set up a meeting on
the matter for February 8th and to notify all of the interested
parties, including the Turf and Landscape Association and the Environmental
Advocates. He also asked Rob Hoch to
check with the Board’s
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lobbyists to make certain that the Committee has the most recent version of the bills before it.
On the issue of grass clippings, Chairman Kaplowitz asked Rob Hoch to check with Bill Randolph to check on its status.
On the issue of stormwater management at the County Airport, Chairman Kaplowitz said that the Administration had hired a consultant to study the proposal to update the Airport Master Plan and that stormwater management would be a part of that study.
The Committee then briefly discussed the Black and Veatch Report and its implementation.
The Committee then briefly discussed the subject of smokestack emissions.
Chairman Kaplowitz then recapped the schedule of upcoming Committee meetings:
February 8th: Pesticide Notification
February 15th: MTBE
February 22nd: No Meeting
February 29th: Short Meeting and then join LWV meeting
March 7th: Planning Department update; Route 120 discussion
Future meetings will also include helicopter presentation, Riverkeeper presentation, Airport stormwater, mosquito spraying.
On motion of Legislator Pinto, seconded by Mrs. LaMotte, the Committee adjourned.