A tour, talking taxes and more: November at the Onondaga County Legislature

November was a fairly quiet month at the Onondaga County Legislature. Ways & Means Committee members advanced a laundry list of routine items to the December Session, and members of the Health & Human Services Committee had the chance to see firsthand the work being done inside one of the county’s busiest buildings.

Legislators Colleen Gunnip, Debra Cody and Ken Bush, Jr. were among those touring The Wallie Howard Jr. Center for Forensic Sciences. It is home to the county’s Medical Examiner Office where staffers determine the cause and manner of death for all unnatural, unattended, and unexpected deaths occurring within the county. It’s also home to three divisions which help in that determination as well as analyze evidence for criminal investigations. 

The tour was led by Director of Laboratories, Ranee Ho. She was joined by Onondaga County’s new Commissioner of Health, Dr. Kathryn Anderson, and Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Carolyn Revercomb. 

Legislators visited all of the Center’s laboratories, including the Firearms lab where they saw what appeared to be a bullet being examined under a microscope, a large image of it on a nearby screen. They learned about the role technology plays in solving crimes at the Digital Evidence lab. At the Latent Prints lab, they learned how fingerprints can also help with that. Inside the Forensic Chemistry lab, they saw hand drawn graphs on whiteboards showing which illicit drugs have caused the most deaths in recent years.

Legislators learned how DNA is used and how evidence from potential crimes is stored prior to processing. They also saw shower and sink stations throughout the Center allowing staff members to quickly wash up after possibly being exposed to something dangerous.

At no time were specific cases discussed.

The Legislature regularly decides on funding and personnel requests for the Center in addition to approving its annual budget. Legislators will also be asked to approve replacements of expensive but vital equipment in the coming years, all of which they saw and learned about on the tour.

The Center is located on Elizabeth Blackwell Street in Syracuse, near Upstate Medical University. Learn more by clicking here.

Legislators Cody, Gunnip and Bush were joined by some of their colleagues and Commissioner Anderson for the tour.

The November Ways & Means Committee had a full agenda of important but routine county business. Members pushed all the agenda items forward to December’s first Session on December 6.

One item allows for Onondaga County to accept $100,000 in grant funds from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for the mitigation and eradication of the water chestnuts in the Seneca River and Cross Lake. An invasive species, the plants grow in slow moving bodies of water and in water depths of up to 16’ and return year after year and quickly multiply into a large infestation. They cause serious problems for boaters, swimmers, and the ecosystem in general.

Legislator Julie Abbott (6th District) welcomes the state funding but at the committee meeting said it’s “not a total solution.”

“The Canal Corporation and other state entities like the DEC need to continue to get involved because the water as we know flows up and down stream” she added. “It’s going to continue to be a problem and throwing money here and there is not going to solve it and so on the record much more needs to be done.”

The Republican Caucus ensured continued county funding towards the fight against water chestnuts. During the 2023 budget negotiations, the Caucus added $100,000 to allow the county to double the resources to address the problem. Currently, staffers are working to remove more than 60 acres of water chestnuts on waterways across the county.

Another item on the agenda would authorize the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA) to purchase property in the Town of Salina. It’s adjacent to the Ley Creek Transfer Station, which OCRRA hopes to expand into a full-service transfer station.

“We’re required to make this authorization” Legislator Brian May, who chairs Ways & Means, said on the floor. “The purchase is for 11 ½ acres of land. It’s in a pretty benign area that is otherwise not being used so this allows them (OCRRA) to kind of pursue their plans to make that station a little more viable for county taxpayers.”

Legislature Chairman James Rowley added that the Town of Salina is supporting this land purchase. In a letter to Chairman Rowley, Salina Supervisor Nick Paro wrote, “Cooperation from OCRRA and meaningful conversations have already been had regarding this development and we are excited about the positive impact it will have within our community as well as the area at large.”

Members of the Legislature had an opportunity to review a New York State Environmental Quality Review Act Short Environmental Assessment Form, which determined that the proposed actions will not have a significant adverse impact on the environment.

Another property was also discussed, but this time, it’s one being sold by Onondaga County. The property on East Wells Avenue in North Syracuse is tax delinquent, and instead of auctioning it, the county will sell it to the Village of North Syracuse, which has expressed an interest in acquiring the parcel for its use. The cost will be $4,282.08, representing the amount of delinquent real property taxes due the county on this property.

Committee members also talked taxes, giving a thumbs up to mortgage tax apportionments for villages, towns and the City. Onondaga County Clerk Lisa Dell told Legislators the new numbers represent a 12% decrease from the same time period last year.

Here's how it works: a 1% mortgage tax is collected by the Onondaga County Clerk whenever a mortgage is filed, based on the mortgaged amount.  The money is then apportioned out with half of it going to towns, villages and the City (in proportion to the amount of tax those locales generated). The other half is split evenly between CENTRO and the State of New York Mortgage Association.

Here's a look at the numbers:

The reappointment of several Republican Legislators to county committees were also discussed and met with no opposition.

• Debra J. Cody - Cornell Cooperative Extension Association of Onondaga County Board of Directors

• Ken Bush, Jr. and Julie Abbott - Onondaga County Soil and Water Conservation Board

• Timothy Burtis and Brian May - Onondaga County Tobacco Asset Securitization Corporation

Committee members also approved amending an Intermunicipal Agreement with the City of Syracuse regarding Information Technology systems, and the calling of several public hearings in December.

Most of the other items on the agenda came from Onondaga County’s Finance Department. Among them, annual apportionments for the Bloody Brook Drainage District (Towns of Clay and Salina), the Bear Trap – Ley Creek Drainage District Tax (Towns of Clay, DeWitt and Salina), the Harbor Brook Drainage District Tax (Town of Geddes) and the Meadowbrook Drainage District Tax (Town of DeWitt). 

There are two Session meetings scheduled in December, the 6th and the 20th. Both start at 1 p.m.