April 2023 Committee Update
April was a fairly quiet month at committee meetings, but still, several important issues were discussed by Legislators.
The Commissioner of the Onondaga County Health Department, Dr. Kathryn Anderson (seen above in pink), spoke to members of the Health & Human Services committee this month. One topic was the creation of two new positions within her department.
“Both are Community Health Counselor positions” she explained. “One is for opioid to support our reduction efforts in the community and the other is for lead to staff the mobile lead testing unit. Both of these will be using funds that are already existing within the county so they don’t have any budget impact.”
The request spurred a bigger discussion about the lead problem in Onondaga County. Dr. Anderson says they hope to have the testing van ready to go in a few months, and once operational, it will allow for lead testing right inside the van through a finger puncture to check for elevated lead levels.
Committee Member Ken Bush Jr, whose 13th District covers primarily rural areas of the county, shared that he’s worried households outside of the City of Syracuse will fall through the cracks simply because those homeowners are just not educated enough on the lead issue.
“My concern is that you reach out to the more sprawl area of the county to educate them to be aware of lead” he said to Dr. Anderson.
The Commissioner responded, “When you get down to numbers, the risk is higher within Syracuse but it’s not zero outside of Syracuse. You are absolutely right. I think you raise a great point about making sure we keep an eye on the outside of Syracuse areas of the county as well.”
Dr. Anderson says they do have some programs within the Health Department that help address the lead problem outside of the City of Syracuse, but that the new mobile van will be a great asset. Legislator Bush Jr. suggested it visit festivals throughout the county, and Committee Chairperson Colleen Gunnip (4th District) suggested they bring the van to local libraries.
“We are very eager to get out into the community because going out and meeting people where they’re at is not only more effective, it’s actually, we’re all kind of chomping at the bit to get back out there” Dr. Anderson added. “So, the vision for the lead vehicle is that it would be tied to testing and outreach but also tied to education.”
Chairperson Gunnip also raised a good point – since the positions currently have grant money behind them, it will be important to sustain them and possibly fund them in the 2024 county budget.
Dr. Anderson also spoke to the committee about establishing an intergovernmental agreement with the State Air National Guard 174th Attack Wing for the purpose of stockpiling strategic national supplies in a public health emergency.
“This is, I think, a mutually beneficial plan for us to establish a relationship with them so they would be a pod (point of distribution) for us if any emergency situations arose and we would also support them in terms of advancing training” she said, adding the 174th’s location adjacent to the Syracuse Hancock International Airport “could be a strategic site for us to collaborate with them and also because they are interested in engaging with us to benefit from developing emergency preparedness strategies and communicable disease support.”
Legislator Kelly added, “You’d rather have these things in place a day early than a day late.”
All the resolutions were advanced to May Session.
The Environmental Protection committee discussed two resolutions calling for public hearings in connection with proposed improvements for the Onondaga County Sanitary District. Specifically, the projects are at the Ley Creek facility in Liverpool and at the Metro Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Commissioner Shannon Harty from WEP - Water Environment Protection – shared details about both projects, which are considered ‘off-cycle’ (meaning they are coming outside of the normal county budget cycle held in the fall).
“These are off-cycle asks only because these are really big projects and we did not have the engineering done to lock in a construction cost estimate to keep them in the normal cycle” Commissioner Harty said. “We’re asking for these off-cycle because we don’t want to wait until October. We want to advance construction this year on them. So, this is simply the first step of the funding authorization process.”
The two projects are:
Committee Chairperson Julie Abbott (6th District) asked for an update on the Micron development project from WEP’s side of things. Commissioner Harty said WEP has been working with Micron since late last year. They’re currently working through initial utility services and establishing what their capacity needs are going to be and what the timing of that is going to be. She adds they are using a phased approach with a hope of having initial municipal service in place by the end of 2024.
A problem many employers are facing prompted a long discussion at the Public Safety committee. The Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office says they’re having a problem with recruitment of new employees and retention of current employees due to the low and non-competitive salaries they offer. The office lost over 20 Assistant District Attorneys (ADA’s) in 2022 alone.
“What we have found is that with the criminal justice reforms that were implemented for the most part in 2020, crime rates soared” said First Chief ADA Joseph T. Coolican, who addressed the committee. “Discovery reform crippled the ability of our office from the administrative standpoint. Cases backed up during the pandemic.”
The First Chief ADA says the starting salary in his office is $66,000 – whereas in many other counties, it tops $85,000. The State Attorney General’s Office and private law firms are also paying lawyers significantly more than the current pay scale in Onondaga County. Mr. Coolican says because of that, the DA’s office is losing very experienced people that the department has invested a lot of time and training on.
“We simply cannot compete and we cannot recruit and we cannot retain” he said.
The department is hoping to eliminate ten “ADA 0” positions (the lowest paid in the office), unfund those positions and use those cost-savings to increase the pay of current and new employees. It’s a simple redistribution of funds.
“I have to say I have experience working closely with you Joe, and a lot of the prosecutors there, and I agree with you 100%, it’s a talented group of people” Committee Member Richard McCarron (11th District) said at the meeting. “We’re one of the most respected District Attorney’s offices in the state and I agree 100% that we need to pay these people what they’re worth to recruit and retain the talented lawyers you have in your office.”
Mr. Coolican said currently, they have 35 employees in the DA’s Office. They would have 51 funded positions on their roster, meaning they still have room to hire more ADA’s to help manage the caseload.
“I think this is a good proposal” says Committee Chairman Mark Olson (10th District). “It will strengthen our existing workforce while making sure that we have the ability to take care of the additional workload brought on by bail reform and raise the age. Also, this will help retain good people that will do good work on behalf of the residents of Onondaga County.”
Mr. Coolican also appeared at this month’s Ways & Means committee, where he shared many of the same details before the resolution was advanced to May Session.
The County Comptroller also spoke to members of the committee. He discussed the needs his office has as they work to make payroll records digital. They have applied for a $75,000 grant from the New York State Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund and are asking the Legislature to amend the 2023 County Budget to appropriate funds from the general fund to provide matching funds for this grant. The committee also advanced this resolution to Session.