NYSAC News NEW
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STATE
ASSOCIATION
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WINTER 2021
Legislative Guide 38609 NYSAC New.indd 1
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Committed to your Community.
AT PERMA, WE DON’T THINK OF OURSELVES AS JUST A WORKERS’ COMPENSATION PROVIDER. We’re tightly woven into the very fabric of your community. Just as you look out for your family, friends and neighbors, we’ll always be there for you. Doing more than what’s expected to help you and your loved ones so you can keep your community safe and strong. ~ That’s why we created New York State’s first and only crossing guard training program. ~ Why we subsidized a family’s lengthy hotel stay when one of our injured members was hospitalized out of town. ~ Why we brought food and clothing relief to a county member after catastrophic flooding during a hurricane. We go well beyond workers’ compensation to offer you everything from comprehensive risk management training, a personalized claims team, and patient advocates, to fraud detection, wellness programs and transitional duty services. To find out more contact: Leah Demo, Sales Executive 518-220-0342 • ldemo@perma.org Tony Cassaro, Sales Executive 518-220-0324 • acassaro@perma.org P O B O X 1 2 2 5 0 , A L B A N Y, N Y 1 2 2 1 2 • 8 8 8 - 7 3 7 - 6 2 6 9 • W W W . P E R M A . O R G
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INSPIRING DESIGN. ENRICHING COMMUNITIES.
At Nationwide®, participant priorities are our priorities. From enrollment through retirement, our people, tools and education support participants so they can confidently make smart decisions.
To find out more, contact: Brendan Morrison - Program Director 617-686-8990 morrib16@nationwide.com www.nrsforu.com
Nationwide, through its affiliated retirement plan service and product providers, has endorsement relationships with the National Association of Counties and the International Association of Fire Fighters-Financial Corporation. More information about the endorsement relationships may be found online at www.nrsforu.com. Nationwide and its agents, representatives and employees are prohibited by law from offering investment, legal or tax advice and do not do so. Please consult with your tax or legal advisor before making any decisions about plan matters. Retirement Specialists are registered representatives of Nationwide Investment Services Corporation, member FINRA, Columbus, Ohio. Nationwide and the Nationwide N and Eagle are service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. © 2020 Nationwide
NRM-12870AO.5 (11/20)
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President's Page NYSAC OFFICERS Hon. John F. Marren Ontario County President Hon. Martha Sauerbrey Tioga C. County President-Elect Hon. Marcus Molinaro Dutchess County First Vice President Michael E. Zurlo Clinton County Second Vice President Hon. MaryEllen Odell Putnam County Immediate Past President
BOARD MEMBERS Hon. Steven Bellone, Suffolk County Hon. Benjamin Boykin II Westchester County Mr. Philip R. Church, Oswego County Hon. Bill de Blasio, New York City Mr. Rick House, Wayne County Hon. Beth A. Hunt, Hamilton County Hon. Margaret M. Kennedy, Otsego County Hon. Daniel P. McCoy, Albany County Hon. Mark C. Poloncarz, Erie County Dr. Kevin Watkins, Cattaraugus County Michael E. Zurlo, Clinton County
B
efore you turn the pages of this latest NYSAC News magazine, I want to take this opportunity to pause and reflect on the events that have taken place in our nation's capital last month. Certainly, speaking for myself, and I think many of us around the state, we were in shock as we learned about the events that transpired in our sacred, beating heart of democracy—the historic U.S. Capitol. I addressed divisiveness in our country during the last conference and at recent NYSAC Board of Directors meetings. This divisiveness has now boiled over to new and dangerous levels in Washington, Albany and in many communities across the state. We need to do our part to de-escalate this dangerous level of divisiveness. That is our responsibility. It's up to all of us to foster an atmosphere of respect and common purpose in our board rooms and county court houses. Last month, Capitol occupation presented us with a pivotal moment for our nation and our counties here in NY as well.
Dutchess County extended a helpful hand to help distribute vital PPE to county partners that were running short. Onondaga County sent nurses to Suffolk County at the peak of the first wave. Erie County Executive Poloncarz and Commissioner of Health Burstein have endured horrific death threats, and yet in the face of this hostility, they have continued to provide daily briefings to the residents of Erie County. This is why we all work for counties, and more importantly the collective county voice. We must stay committed to our shared values, our shared interests, to protect the services that are so critical to so many New Yorkers. As we continue through 2021, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything that you do for your community, for your county, for the State of New York, and for this Association. And I extend that thanks on behalf of the entire NYSAC team and family as well.
I am proud of this association. I am proud of the work that we all do on behalf of our counties. I am proud of the collective, bi-partisan work that all of you have shown. This past year alone, our efforts to help each other have demonstrated what we can do when we work together.
Jack Marren NYSAC President
We have had special briefings from the NYC COVID-19 response team, and updates from Lewis County on their efforts to stand-up a North Country testing apparatus in Lowville.
PARLIAMENTARIANS Hon. Herman Geist, Esq., Westchester County Hon. A. Douglas Berwanger, Wyoming County NYSAC News | www.nysac.org
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Director's Note
W
e live in unprecedented times.
NYSAC STAFF (partial listing) Stephen J. Acquario, Esq. Executive Director Karen Catalfamo Office/Financial Manager Patrick Cummings, Esq. Counsel Jackie Dederick Records Manager Patricia Gettings Assistant to the Director Ryan Gregoire Legislative Director Alexandra LaMonte Legislative/Policy Coordinator Mark LaVigne Deputy Director Dave Lucas Director of Finance & Intergovernmental Affairs Juanita Munguia Marketing Specialist Tom Oldfather Communications Manager Kate Pierce Multimedia Specialist Jeanette Stanziano Director of Education & Training
During the time that it took us to put this magazine together, a rogue group of citizens stormed our nation’s Capital, President Trump was impeached for a second time, a new president – Joe Biden – was sworn into office facing a monumental task of vaccinating enough Americans to create herd immunity, and we are facing an uncertain economic and social postCOVID future. At the state level, counties continue to offer our public health expertise to help the state meet its vaccine distribution goals, a new State Legislature began the 2021 Legislative Session virtually and will continue to do the people’s business in a way that has never been done before, state leaders are grappling with a budget gap that has schools, colleges and universities, and every local government across the state facing cuts. This was the first presidential election that my sons voted in. I have had to explain to them that this is not the way the world is. But to them, this is the way the world is. My youngest son was born right after 9/11. Our country has been in a War on Terror for his entire lifetime. He spent the second half of his high school senior year attending school online. He spent most of the start of his freshman in zoom classrooms. And in between it was a most unconventional graduation. It makes me wonder about life after COVID. The babies born this year will be raised in a changed world. And our world will adapt to these changes to protect the health and safety of all New Yorkers in ways we have never considered before.
Never have our local health departments (LHDs) been more important in our communities, and NYSAC has worked closely with their association—the New York State Association of County Health Officials (NYSACHO) throughout this past year. County public health officials were among the most unsung heroes of this COVID-19 pandemic. In almost every community across the State of New York, they were the ones rolling up their sleeves, donning PPE, and going headto-head against the largest and most aggressive global public health crisis in a century. LHDs led each county’s contact tracing, isolation, and quarantining efforts throughout the pandemic. Many stood up, coordinated, supported, and tracked testing efforts. They inspected gyms and fitness centers, they helped businesses put protection measures in place so they could reopen, and they worked with school districts at the start of the school year and through the second wave. And then, they were there to support the state’s effort to vaccine New Yorkers, even when their help was not requested. We will make it through this pandemic. Of this I am confident. How soon? What will the new world look like? What role will counties play? These are questions only the future can answer. But in the meantime, I can promise you that your Association will be here to help navigate our collective way through this world.
Stephen J. Acquario, Esq. NYSAC Executive Director
NYSAC News | www.nysac.org
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NYSAC News NEW
YORK
NYSAC News NEW
YORK
STATE
ASSOCIATION
OF
COUNTIES
NYSAC’s mission is to represent, educate, advocate for, and serve member counties at the federal and state levels. President Hon. John F. Marren Publisher Stephen J. Acquario Managing Editor Mark F. LaVigne Editor Tom Oldfather Designer Kate Pierce Advertising Staff Juanita Munguia 8
STATE
ASSOCIATION
OF
COUNTIES
Advertise with NYSAC Contact NYSAC Marketing Specialist Juanita Munguia at 518-465-1473 or jmunguia@nysac.org Published 3 times a year by the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC), the NYSAC News is the official publication of NYSAC, a non-profit, municipal association serving the 57 counties of New York State and the City of New York with its five boroughs for over 90 years. NYSAC’s mission is to represent, educate, advocate for, and serve member counties at the federal and state levels.
NYSAC NEWS MAGAZINE
515 Broadway, Suite 402, Albany, New York 12207 Phone • (518) 465-1473 Fax • (518) 465-0506 Send submissions to toldfather@nysac.org. Submissions should be 750 to 1,000 words and include a high resolution photo of the author. All submissionsare subject to editing for clarity, content and/or length. The advertisements and articles in NYSAC News in no way imply support or endorsementby NYSAC for any of the products, services or messages conveyed herein. ©2020 New York State Association of Counties
NYSAC News | Winter 2021
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Table of Contents Volume 43, Issue 1 Winter 2021
LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
LESSONS LEARNED FROM 2020
10
NYSAC's Advocacy Roadmap
36
Administering Democracy During a Pandemic
15
2021 Legislative Program
40
Recapping an Unprecedented 2020 Election
18
Weathering the Storm
43
2020 By the Numbers
21
Legislative Session Calendar
44
First Look: The Local Public Health Department Response
22
Local Government Aid Headlines 2021 Legislative Outlook
48
Last Look at Local Laws of 2020
47
Advertiser Index
CHALLENGES AHEAD FOR COUNTIES
24
Top Challenges Facing Local Governments in the Digital Age
29
Maintaining County Roads and Bridges in the Age of COVID-19
33
About the County Government Institute
34
Recycling at a Crossroads
Cover Photo New York State Capitol in snow Photo by Tom Oldfather
NYSAC News | www.nysac.org
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LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
NYSAC’s Advocacy Roadmap By Ryan Gregoire, NYSAC Legislative Director
N
YSAC’s mission is to represent, educate, advocate for, and serve member counties and the thousands of elected and appointed county officials of New York State. To accomplish that mission, the NYSAC Legislative Team works to advocate for counties in Albany with a unified voice by analyzing legislation, developing lobbying action plans, and coordinating NYSAC’s Legislative Agenda. Each year, the NYSAC Legislative Team follows a timeline of budget and legislative work to be accomplished on behalf of our members. While the timeline typically aligns with the NYS budget process and legislative calendar, this year has been, and will continue to be, a little bit different. The following is a summary and timeline of NYSAC’s advocacy efforts during this most extraordinary time. NOVEMBER-DECEMBER Following the virtual convening of the 2020 Fall Seminar, the 12 NYSAC standing committees developed, discussed, and adopted a series of resolutions that became the basis of NYSAC’s 2021 legislative program, including our legislative agenda and policy briefs for the coming year. NYSAC expands on both budget and legislative priorities and provides supporting material and data for each item. We then schedule meetings with representatives from the New York State Division of Budget (DOB) to share our members’ budgetrelated requests as well as meet with senior leadership in both chambers of the State Legislature.
JANUARY January marks the beginning of the New York State Legislative Session. The Session begins the first Wednesday after the first Monday of the New Year. The opening is usually marked by the Governor's delivery of the "State of the State Message" in Albany, although this year, that event was held virtually in mid-January. This message generally outlines the priorities and programs the Governor wants the Legislature to address during the year ahead. The Governor must submit his Executive Budget Proposal to the Legislature, along with the related appropriation, revenue, and budget bills, by the third week in January (or by February 1st in a gubernatorial election year), which he also did virtually this year. Once the Governor’s Executive Budget Proposal is released, NYSAC’s Legislative Team identifies key issues for counties within, or excluded from, the Executive Budget Proposal. The Legislative Team then develops a lobbying plan for each issue. This involves analyzing the bills, obtaining county feedback and data, and organizing strategic meetings with the Legislature, staff, DOB, and the Governor’s Office. If there are any major county-involved items within (or excluded from) the Executive Budget Proposal but not part of our Legislative Platform, the Legislative Team drafts resolutions to be presented to the proper standing committee during the virtual Legislative Conference in February. While the budget process continues, new bills are introduced daily by members of the Legislature. The Legislative Team reviews daily introductions, reviews committee reports, and responds accordingly with memos in support or opposition. FEBRUARY – MARCH At the conclusion of the NYSAC Legislative Conference, the Legislative Team sends the adopted resolutions to the Governor, Senate and Assembly leadership, each member of the Legislature, agency heads, congressional membership and any/all appropriate staff. In February, the Legislature creates Legislative Budget Standing Committees and commences Joint Legislative Budget Hearings. The NYSAC Legislative Team prepares testimony to be presented at the Local Government Hearing and coordinates meeting with the Senate and Assembly leadership and staff.
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The Governor generally releases 21-Day Amendments and 30-Day Amendments to the Executive Budget Proposal bills by the end of February, depending on when initial bills are introduced. Once the 30-Day Amendments are released, the Senate and Assembly release their own budget proposals. The Legislative Team identifies key issues for counties within or excluded from the Legislature’s budget proposals and revises the lobbying plan for each issue as needed. APRIL – JUNE The Executive State Budget must be passed by April 1. Upon adoption of the final State Budget, the Legislative Team immediately prepares a full analysis of the final State Budget to provide to NYSAC members. Budget priorities that were not completed in the final State Budget are transitioned into non-budget legislative priority items. The Legislative Team continues their lobbying efforts for the Legislature on counties’ key non-budget priorities. As the session concludes during the month of June, the Legislative Team assembles an analysis of all legislation that has passed both houses and measures each bill’s impact on individual member counties. Once the analysis is complete, the Legislative Team compiles the “Passed Both Houses” report, which is sent to NYSAC members. This report explains all the key items from the final State Budget along with a description of all the bills that have
an impact on counties. Our team continues to update the report through the end of the calendar year. Once bills are transmitted to the Governor’s office, NYSAC drafts letters to the Governor’s Counsel to report counties’ support or opposition to the pending legislation. While the pandemic has opened the door to a new, virtual way of governing, the NYSAC team continues to engage with staff, state elected officials, and policy leadership. This year will present new budgeting challenges for the State, compounded by the COVID-19 crisis. Inevitably, there will be greater pressure than ever to shift budget pressures to counties. NYSAC will continue to remain your organization representing the county voice in Albany and Washington, D.C.
County Conversations Podcast Tackles Timely and Pressing Issues Impacting Counties To listen to the podcast, visit www.nysac.org/podcast. Each episode features discussions with leaders from across the state that are focused on providing innovative solutions to local issues. NYSAC has expanded its County Conversations weekly podcast, with new episodes released each Monday morning. Listeners can contact NYSAC Multimedia Specialist Kate Pierce via email (kpierce@nysac.org) to provide feedback and ideas for the podcast, or to become a guest on the show.
Also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify NYSAC News | www.nysac.org
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Thank you, New York election officials! You are the unsung heroes of 2020. Dominion is grateful for the continued support of our county partners following a difficult election cycle during the global pandemic. Nothing can shake our commitment to delivering best-in-class technology for efficient, transparent & secure elections.
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NYS Association of Counties
2021 Legislative Program KEY COUNTY PRIORITIES Create a blue ribbon commission to redesign state-local service delivery
Grant counties the flexibility to reduce program costs
End the diversion of county sales tax for state programs and purposes
Children with Special Needs
Environment
(Health, Children and Families Committees)
(Environment Committee)
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Expand Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) to include children with special needs.
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Require school districts to transport preschool special education children.
Create a more stable and comprehensive e-waste recycling infrastructure and renew the $3 million appropriation for collection and disposal programs.
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Require providers to bill insurance before billing counties and the state.
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Support remediation of PFAS and other water contaminants.
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Cap county fiscal liability for preschool special education.
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Expand the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) rebate for municipalities.
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Allow telehealth services to continue for the Early Intervention Program (EIP).
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Expand the Bottle Bill to include liquor, wine, and iced tea bottles.
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Increase rates for services in high poverty areas.
Gaming
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Enact a covered lives assessment on third party commercial insurance that matches the Medicaid rate of reimbursement (75%).
Community Colleges (Higher Education Committee)
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Set the base state aid formula allocation for each community college to 100% of the prior year or increase $100 per FTE, whichever is greater.
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Classify the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) as a university that provides 4- and 6-year degrees.
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Provide funding for workforce training to ensure community colleges are positioned to provide a skilled, local workforce for business and industry growth.
Economic Development
(Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee)
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Resolve the gaming compact dispute between NYS and the Seneca Nation. Allow the Seneca nation to share revenues directly with localities until the dispute is resolved.
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Share sports gaming revenue with all New York counties in conjunction with OTBs in contract with the casinos.
Human Services (Social Services Committee)
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Reform the use of “handicapping conditions with disabilities” to eliminate outdated use of terms for peoples with disabilities.
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The State should fully fund the cost of any services the State continues to provide when the federal government ends their financial support.
(Energy and Telecommunications Committees)
Judiciary
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Expand broadband and cellular coverage to unserved and under-served areas.
(Judiciary Committee)
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Release the Upstate Cellular Coverage Task Force Report.
NEW YORK STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES
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Lower court judgement interest rates.
•
Fully fund parental representation in child welfare proceedings.
518.465.1473
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Since
2021 Legislative Program ®
Local Finance & Tax Relief (Finance Committee, Budget & Revenue Committee)
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Grant permanent sales tax authority for all counties.
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Public Infrastructure & Transportation (Transportation, Local Government Committees)
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Authorize gig economy industries to collect sales tax.
Authorize the use of design-build contracts for localities.
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End the mandatory diversion of county sales tax for state purposes.
Provide financial support to county-owned airports.
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Increase county retention of DMV revenues.
Increase funding for CHIPS, PAVE NY and BRIDGE NY.
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Enact statutory changes to allow counties to lower local government costs.
Support local maintenance costs of the Empire State Trail.
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Enact “No New Unfunded Mandates” legislation.
Public Safety
Medicaid
(Codes, Crime Victims, Crimes and Corrections Committees)
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Reform Part 730 of the Mental Hygiene Law to help counties support the mental health condition of those in state custody.
(Social Services Committee)
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Lower local Medicaid caps to reflect current payments and savings.
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Complete the State statutory requirement to takeover local Medicaid administrative functions.
Raise the minimum age of juvenile delinquency from seven to twelve years old.
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Allow and incentivize shared county jails and grant counties the flexibility to establish minimum staffing ratios.
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Grant counties the ability to create county-wide emergency medical services (EMS) taxing districts.
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Reform 9-1-1 surcharge laws to more accurately collect fees from all devices that can access 9-1-1 service delivery.
Public Employee Relations (Investigations, Government Operations, Codes, Civil Service and Pensions, and Labor Committees)
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Reform the NYS Scafford Law.
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Raise the threshold for Wicks Law (GML § 101) to at least $10 million.
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Allow counties to set employee residency rules.
Public Health & Mental Health (Health, Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Committee)
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If adult-use cannabis is legalized, apply county sales tax and share the cultivation tax with counties.
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Reform individual grants for public health work to a block grant while maintaining funding levels from the consolidated programs into the new block grant, similar to social services program areas, to allow for county flexibility and eliminate costly administrative work.
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Expand supportive housing beds to with developmental disabilities. NYSACindividuals News | Winter 2021
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Shared Services (Insurance, Local Government Committees)
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Make it easier for local governments to create Article 47 health insurance consortia.
•
Allow shared service matching funds to be used for plan and implementation costs.
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Weathering the Storm Counties Continue to Lead Through the Pandemic By Dave Lucas, NYSAC Director of Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs
T
he COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed everything in 2020. jobs and primary source of income and many were having Even with the approval of vaccines, much of 2021 will be trouble putting food on the table, struggling to maintain their dominated by the pandemic household, in need of mental health and the damage it wrought. services due to stress and addiction Beyond this, the economic and pressures, and facing difficulties social impacts will be felt in finding childcare, paying heating Counties continue to work 2022 and beyond. No corner of and cooling bills among myriad closely with our congressional the state will escape the human other direct services that counties delegation to provide direct tragedy, fiscal stress, diversion provide for residents. of resources and economic chaos federal assistance to local County officials also stepped up that has consumed our lives. to help ensure the state and local governments to help restore County officials have played a public health and safety rules some of our lost revenues and lead role in responding to the were followed and adjusted along ensure that all counties have pandemic every step of the way. the way as circumstances around The pandemic has been relentless the pandemic changed. Over the enough resources to rebuild and in its assault, not unlike an summer months, the pandemic grow their economies when the approaching hurricane, except seemed to loosen its grip on the this storm made landfall and then state as people became more pandemic ends. roamed around the country for comfortable with the public health months on end. We heard reports protocols, social distancing and that it was coming, it was going to avoiding crowded indoor spaces. At be a Category 5, and to be safe we this stage counties were called upon should plan accordingly. While many took precautions, others to help local economies safely reopen as the rate of infection waited for the storm to change course or hoped it would not declined and to prepare for the coming fall and winter months make landfall. It started slow, but quickly overwhelmed nearly when we knew another round of the virus could return. every system in place designed to protect the public. As much as we had prepared and hoped against it, the virus Public health and safety officials, and elected leaders, were reappeared stronger than ever in New York and across the called upon as the storm first country as the months grew broke to assist those infected colder. In addition to winter by the virus and to provide months forcing people indoors, guidance to residents in many people suffered from our communities on how COVID fatigue and became lax to stay safe and ensure in following proper protocols. people followed best public Fortunately, our medical health practices. The storm professionals and scientists continued for months and had learned a lot about treating as federal aid eventually the virus and had been able expired, counties and New to reduce the severity and York City were again called length of the illness, the need upon to provide aid and for hospitalization, while most services to hundreds of importantly reducing mortality. thousands of New Yorkers. During the second wave, the The needs were broad and state and counties were required deep. More than two million to utilize and actively manage New Yorkers lost their new approaches to buffer the
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As the pandemic wore on, more items were continually thrown in the mix for counties to juggle. The biggest challenge was enacting county budgets for 2021 without knowing how long the second wave will last, when the pandemic will end, how big state aid cuts will eventually be and how long will they last, whether any federal aid will come and when, and whether additional cuts or new costs will come down from the state when they adopt their budget in April. The only thing keeping counties afloat up to this point was years of prudent budgeting that allowed them to save for a rainy day. While county public health officials practiced, planned, and prepared their emergency health protocols; county budget officials and elected leaders simultaneously planned and prepared for the fiscal storm they knew would sooner or later make landfall. need for the deepest density reduction measures which crushed economic activity, while keeping the virus’ spread to a minimum. Even with these intensified efforts, for many parts of the state, the second wave was worse. After nearly 10 months, two vaccines were approved for emergency use and both were shown to be safe and highly effective in preventing infection. By the end of 2020, rays of sunshine were seen on the horizon and again county officials were called on to not only maintain everything they were already doing, but to also help facilitate an unwieldly and everchanging vaccination rollout. As of this writing, vaccine doses remain in short supply, adding to the confusion and anger for many people who just want to get vaccinated as soon as possible to help end this terrible pandemic. Even with these headwinds, counties continued to set up their vaccination PODs, and sought to expanding capacity further. County officials juggled all these activities with limited financial resources as local revenues dried up, the state withheld 20% of all state aid to counties and unbudgeted costs climbed ever higher. Combined, counties were staring down more than $1.3 billion in revenue losses expected by the end of state fiscal year 2021. To put this in perspective, the entire county property tax levy for all 57 counties is about $5.5 billion. The lost revenue represents 24% of the current county levy.
County officials have played a lead role in responding to the pandemic every step of the way.
Beyond saving for a rainy day, counties also began preparing for the adoption of their 2021 budgets as soon as the pandemic clouds started forming on the horizon. More than nine months before 2021 budgets needed to be adopted and the economy was placed in a medically induced coma, counties immediately began cutting expenses. All measures were put on the table including eliminating staff, implementing hiring freezes, encouraging early retirement or separation incentives, canceling service contracts that could not be completed during a public health emergency, freezing capital plans, and bolstering local revenues. All these possibilities were considered as every expenditure was placed under a microscope. Through the end of 2021, counties will have effectively cut their budgets for 22 straight months to stay afloat and prepare for the eventual recovery. As a result of these actions, most counties were able to maintain essential services for 2021, stay under the property tax cap and allow for a better starting point for 2022 and beyond. Now counties look toward our partners in state and federal government to help lay the groundwork for continued recovery. Counties continue to work closely with our congressional delegation to provide direct federal assistance to local governments to help restore some of our lost revenues and ensure that all counties have enough resources to rebuild and grow their economies when the pandemic ends. We also continue to work with our state legislative partners to end harmful fiscal practices that shift costs from the state to county taxpayers, divert local revenues for state purposes, and work to reform programs so they are more efficient and less costly for taxpayers. We cannot achieve success if we do not work together and remember that we are all one neighborhood. When bad weather is approaching the last thing anybody wants is our neighbor tearing our roof off, or blocking the storm drain – “help, don’t harm” should be the motto.
NYSAC News | www.nysac.org
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New York State Legislative Session Calendar January — June 2021 The New York State legislative session calendar establishes a schedule for the 2021 legislative session and provides dates important to the legislative process. The session calendar is intended to afford Members flexibility in conducting legislative business in Albany and planning activities within their home districts. The session calendar will foster orderly and timely consideration of legislation. Unforeseen events may require modification of the session calendar.
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2021 Legislative Session convenes
February 15 Presidents’ Day
January 18
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
April 1
Beginning of new Fiscal Year
January 19
Final Day for Submission of Executive Budget
May 31
Memorial Day
January 6
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Indicates session day
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Local Government Aid Headlines 2021 Legislative Outlook By Nicolette Gerald, NACo Legislative Assistant
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trong, precise leadership is never more important than during times of crisis. Leaders typically lean on their experience, their smarts, and sometimes their gut instincts. President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, designed to get the country back on its feet after a yearlong battle with the pandemic, focuses on rescue and recovery that includes $350 billion in aid to state, local and territorial governments. “The federal resources proposed would enable county leaders to make strategic investments in the immediate task of vaccinating our residents and mitigating the spread of this deadly, destructive virus,” said NACo Executive Director Matt Chase. As Biden begins to tackle many issues important to counties, he will be working with a Democratic-controlled Congress, a scenario Washington has not experienced since 2009. In addition to COVID-19 relief, other top issues for counties during the 117th Congress will include health care, infrastructure, Payment in Lieu of Taxes, Secure Rural Schools and rebuilding the economy.
Health care As counties continue to grapple with the stresses of COVID-19, they can expect to see a health care agenda from the Biden administration that aims to alleviate the pressures and maintain the safety of residents. This strategy will include the goal of distributing 100 million doses of the vaccine within the Biden administration’s first 100 days, expansion of testing efforts for schools and safely reopening businesses. Biden has expressed a desire to consult with state and local officials as his administration develops a vaccine distribution strategy, provides economic relief, tackles racial and ethnic disparities and reopens schools and businesses. Counties will be critical in these efforts and will play an integral role in continuing to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Infrastructure This year will hopefully be a banner year for infrastructure investment. Biden has repeatedly voiced support for a major infrastructure package and Congress is likely to advance legislation that funds a variety of transportation and infrastructure priorities. 22
Biden’s pick for Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, has spoken at length about creating a robust infrastructure system. The former mayor of South Bend, Ind., has also stressed the importance of bringing local governments into the national conversation on infrastructure and transportation during his conversation with NACo members during the transition. Additionally, Congress is likely to include a long-term surface transportation reauthorization bill in any larger infrastructure package that it puts forward. Lawmakers had hoped to pass a long-term surface transportation bill before the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act expired on Sept. 30, 2020. However, disagreement over funding mechanisms and differences over policy issues including clean energy led Congress to approve just a one year extension of the FAST Act. While these arguments have not gone away and are likely to carry over into 2021, lawmakers in both parties appear committed to investing in the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. It is likely that we will see a long-term surface transportation bill signed into law this year.
PILT, SRS The Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILT) and Secure Rural Schools (SRS) programs are longstanding NACo priorities. In a win for Public Lands counties, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 allocates one year of full mandatory funding for PILT. Unfortunately, the legislation does not contain language for the SRS program. We hope to see a reintroduction of SRS funding in the upcoming year as counties across the United States experience budgetary shortfalls. There is currently bipartisan support in Congress for reauthorization of SRS, but no concrete action has been taken.
Legislative Conference The start of NACo’s Legislative Conference is March 8. During the December Board of Directors Meeting, the NACo Board voted to hold the 2021 Legislative Conference virtually due
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to the ongoing pandemic, a local law limiting gatherings in Washington D.C. and the closure of the host hotel. The conference brings together more than 2,000 county officials to explore solutions to the nation’s greatest problems and share best practices among peers at the county level. This year, we are offering a robust month of virtual engagements including networking events, workshops and opportunities to connect with federal stakeholders. NACo’s Legislative Conference will begin with meetings of the ten Policy Steering Committees. Members will have the opportunity to vote on any interim policy resolutions that the NACo Board of Directors may subsequently adopt. For more information on the interim policy resolutions process, visit www.naco.org/2021Resolutions. Following the convening of NACo’s Policy Steering Committees and Board of Directors meeting, we will host a series of workshops, presentations from representatives of federal agencies and virtual Capitol Hill briefings. Registration is currently open for the 2021 Legislative Conference. For more information, visit www. naco.org/events/conferences.
Did You Know?
Nicolette Gerald is a Legislative Assistant on NACo’s Government Affairs team. Legislative Assistants Aaliyah Nedd and Sarah Gimont contributed to this article.
• NYSHIP is available to virtually all public employers across New York State • Over 800 counties, cities, towns, villages, school districts and special districts participate in NYSHIP • More than 1.2 million public employees, retirees and their families have health insurance through NYSHIP
A unique health insurance plan developed for New York’s public employees For additional information regarding The Empire Plan or the Excelsior Plan, public employers may visit our website at www.cs.ny.gov or email the Public Employer Liaison Unit (PELU) for the New York State Health Insurance Program at PELU@cs.ny.gov. Employee Benefits Division of the New York State Department of Civil Service NYSAC News | www.nysac.org
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CHALLENGES AHEAD
Top Challenges Facing Local Governments in the Digital Age By Meghan Cook, Program Director, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany and Advisor, NYS Local Government IT Directors Association.
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hen CTG UAlbany brought together a global network of local government practitioners and academic scholars all focused on advancing digital innovation in rural and urban communities, the results were “grand.” This gathering was designed to identify the Grand Challenges facing counties as they work to leverage technology in transforming government operations and services. The result of this effort was the identification of seven grand challenges that government leaders face as they serve in the digital age.
Working Across Boundaries Innovation in the digital age requires sustained engagement with a range of stakeholders in many sectors and for an extended period of time. It is not an easy feat. County leaders know that in order to achieve their vision, they must have support from public, nonprofit, and private stakeholders and this requires the ability to work across multiple boundaries, towards the same goal. Boundaries can span departments, organizations, governments, and sectors, and in each case their context is different. Leaders must coalesce missions and align resources all while keeping the enterprise moving towards the common goal. The skills needed to lead these efforts are typically honed over the course of many years and even then, can prove to be challenging. It is the leaders that create the human, policy, and organizational conditions necessary to work across boundaries who are the ones that realize the rewards.
Ensuring a Robust Data Environment Governments that see their data as their most critical asset usually pay careful attention to the collection, management, cost, use, value, and protection of their data. But a robust data
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environment is not always the norm and even when there is a dedicated team, it certainly does not happen overnight. It requires an empowered team with a range of skills, capabilities, and resources to identify how data can help make a real impact and then the authority to put all the necessary processes and infrastructure in place. Creating this type of environment is challenging for all communities, not just the small ones as dedicating resources to data is not always seen as the top investment. But for all those who have been able to secure their organization’s investment in building a data focused environment, they have endless stories of how it has informed their decision making and the goals they’ve finally achieved.
Engaging Citizens When It Makes Sense Counties know that citizen engagement can improve public services and provide greater transparency and accountability but few know when it is appropriate and how and when to actually do it. Figuring out what topic, when, through what channel, frequency, and the process for incorporating the input into policies and decisions-typically falls outside of everyone’s core skill capability. Unless a county can dedicate a leader, most are left to navigate this space alone. There are a number of experts and resources available and those who have been able to do this well, bring a range of folks together to discuss and agree on several points: the impetus for the engagement, the desired outcome, available and preferred methods of engagement, processes for incorporating input, and measures to ensure an equitable and valuable exchange.
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Agreeing On What Success Really Looks Like Success is a relative term. Some leaders see the larger metropolitan areas staking claim to big wins and they want the same. But success is different based on the context of each community. It comes down to how it is defined for the specific needs of the county. What is the desired impact? Sometimes leaders will take projects identified by other localities and use them as their own and this doesn’t always turn out for the best. It is the leaders who consistently bring together a range of stakeholders to identify and agree on what success means to them, specifically for their community, are far more likely to achieve it. And it is typically those same leaders that recognize that it takes a combined and concerted effort from all stakeholders to reach the vision. Getting all government and community leaders to agree on what success means to them, even if it is different or contrary to other cities, is the first step in advancing their own growth.
Making Trial and Error the Norm Most everyone has heard the phrase that “the way to success is by way of failure.” Leaders in both the public and private sectors are told that they must create an environment where individuals can engage in trial and error and in some cases, fail when innovating. But creating this environment in government is extremely difficult when resources are scarce, and the main focus is to deliver programs and services. More and more are turning to the plethora of universities and community innovation centers that look for practical problems for their living labs. Innovating is hard, it requires that most people lift the parameters around their thinking, but it’s been shown that the communities that create the conditions for innovation are the ones that find real value.
Building Capability of Political Leaders While political leaders are the face of their communities and are working tirelessly to secure resources for the future initiatives, they are not always equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and capabilities to engage in all discussions. They must have more than just an awareness of what it takes to make a community more intelligent; they need to understand how the
technical, organizational, policy, legal and economic factors weave together in an overall strategy. Some may claim that they do not need to have this understanding because they have teams for this work, but there is an emerging shift in thinking that suggests the leaders out in front need to have a certain level of expertise, regardless of if they have someone else doing the work. This means a continual knowledge transfer among resident experts with political leaders to build and solidify a collective understanding of the interconnected and range of factors that can lead to success.
Cultivating New Models of Funding Traditionally, cities and communities rely on either their capital investment plans or external grant funding to carry out their innovation initiatives. These may have worked in the past but in order to meet the challenges that lie ahead, new funding models need to be identified, tested, and evaluated. The traditional methods are proving not suitable for the emerging needs and new models of public/private partnerships. Data monetization is an example of a funding model that is new to many communities and a careful analysis of the economic, stewardship, and policy implications is highly recommended. A more holistic and enterprise approach to analyzing the viability, impact, and implications of new funding models is needed.
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“Several years ago, St. Lawrence County joined the P-Card program and committed to make it a success. That commitment has paid dividends. Now we have a steady and growing revenue stream just from changing the way we pay for things we were already buying.” Mike Cunningham, Director of Governmental Services
Start saving today NYSAC’s Payment Solutions (P-Card) Program, in partnership with PFM, provides counties with a tool to create an annual revenue stream, simply by paying your bills. The P-Card, which is a special type of credit card, streamlines the purchase of supplies, furniture, construction materials, utilities and much more, saving time and money for your county.
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Maintaining County Roads and Bridges in the Age of COVID-19 By Todd M. Gadd, P.E. President of the New York State County Highway Superintendents Association Wyoming County Highway Superintendent
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he COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone, and our county highway departments are no exception. We adhere to and keep current on all requirements to minimize the spread of the virus, including rigorous cleaning and sanitizing of vehicles and equipment, social distancing, and mask wearing as we go about the business of reconstructing, repairing, and maintaining our local transportation systems. What we do is critical to the traveling public. Keeping our employees healthy and on the job is vital to ensuring staffing levels needed to respond to perform essential transportation infrastructure maintenance and repair services. Our crews need to be ready for the inevitable emergencies, storm surges and snow/ice removal. Our county governments have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic response and essential to meeting community needs. As the state works to rebuild and recover, investment in our local roads and bridges is a key element of moving New York forward and supporting local and state economic growth. Our association appreciates the support of our state elected officials who partner with us to insure we all “get the job done” when it comes to providing the public with a safe and functional statewide transportation system; one that supports jobs and economic growth for our communities. Our county highway superintendents and public works commissioners are committed to working with our leaders at all levels of government during these difficult times to respond effectively to the challenges of the pandemic, advocate on behalf of funding for roads and bridges, and help rebuild New York’s economy. Local roads and bridges make up the bulk of the statewide system. Eighty-seven percent of the roads and over half of the bridges are owned by local governments. Our crews are out plowing county roads as well as many state-owned highways to assure safe winter travel for motorists who need to get to and from their jobs, homes, schools, hospitals, and other destinations through all kinds of Northeast winter weather events.
This year, we are responding as best we can as we face a 20 percent across the board cut in funding in most state-aided local transportation programs due to the fiscal impacts of COVID-19 on the state budget. Since the pandemic, county governments have seen a massive drop in sales tax collections and escalating demands for services. Few counties, if any, have discretionary funding available to make up the shortfall in state funding. Some counties, due to lack of cash flow, are finding it hard to commit to upfront spending for projects to qualify for reimbursement under CHIPS and other programs, putting remaining funding allocations in jeopardy. Infrastructure is a municipality’s greatest asset and vitally important to the public and the state’s economy. The repair, rehabilitation, efficient operations, and strategic replacement of existing transportation infrastructure are required for safety, mobility, and for the state to remain economically competitive. Today, funding shortages mean many local governments’ preventive pavement preservation strategies—to apply well-timed and targeted maintenance treatments—fall short of what is necessary to avoid more costly major rehabilitation or reconstruction down the road. The inability to stabilize pavement and bridge conditions in our state is a huge concern for the future viability of the economy. Local roads are essential. People use both state and local roads and bridges to take them to work, school, doctor’s offices, airports, restaurants, and recreational/tourism destinations. Truckers go where the goods need to be delivered: every corner of New York State. Tourists visit our cities and explore the wilderness. Agriculture depends on local roads and bridges to get products to market. A seamless, well-maintained transportation system is essential to keeping New York State moving. NYSCHSA looks to continue our constructive partnership with the New York State Association of Counties, Governor Andrew Cuomo and our state legislators to support levels of funding that meet the needs of our aging and ailing transportation infrastructure. As maintaining or increasing funding becomes more challenging, we also seek through collaboration to build on policies that help us to get more work done, at lower costs. NYSAC News | www.nysac.org
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Fertility Benefit Trends for New York State Employer Groups By Peter Nieves, Chief Commercial Officer with WINFertility
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mployee fertility benefit design and coverage inclusions are rapidly evolving to meet the growing needs of employees today and to manage cost for their employers. Many employers implemented or modified their family building program on January 1st, when most new plans take effect. Increasingly, some employers that delayed implementation of their fertility benefit programs are planning for mid-year program starts or have initiated early planning for their next open enrollment period. Fertility, including prescriptions, elective egg freezing, surrogacy and adoption benefits will continue rapid expansion for employees, driven by societal trends, employee demand and new mandates such as in New York State. There are 18 states, including New York State, that have some level of mandate for fertility coverage. However, state mandated benefits only cover employers that choose to purchase fully insured medical insurance and exclude larger employer groups that self-fund their medical programs. Most large employers, public and private, recognize the demand for family building benefits and have implemented programs in the past few years. Based on WINFertility’s large book of business and 21 years of experience, several emerging trends in family-building benefits offerings have been identified. As this trend continues, the following program enhancements are expected: LIFETIME MAXIMUM BENEFIT LIMITS Fertility benefit limits managed by WIN on behalf of employer clients increased 63% since 2015, with a $25k to $100K, or even unlimited lifetime maximum benefit expected to be common in 2021. Key factors driving benefit limits selection include a client’s cultural, financial and competitive objectives. DEFINITION OF INFERTILITY WAIVED Forty-eight percent of WIN’s new corporate clients are waiving the clinical definition of infertility, allowing same-sex couples access to employer-provided fertility benefits. WIN expects 60% of new and 25-30% of existing clients to waive the definition of infertility in 2021. PRESCRIPTION LIMIT LIKELY TO BE WAIVED WHEN MANAGED Twelve percent of WIN employer clients have waived any limit on fertility Rx, as long as clinically managed and tied to approved medical treatment plans. This fertility prescription waiver trend is likely to increase to 30%+ in 2021.
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S P O N S O R ED C ONYSAC N T ENews N T| Winter 2021
ELECTIVE EGG FREEZING Ten to 15 percent of employers across WIN’s book of business now offer elective egg freezing. WIN projects the proportion of clients offering elective egg freezing to exceed 50% in 2021. SURROGACY AND ADOPTION Since 2015, WIN has seen a 341% increase in clients adding adoption and surrogacy programs to the WIN-managed family-building benefit. In 2021, WIN’s expectation is that greater than 50% of the company’s employer clients will add adoption and surrogacy to their managed benefit program. INCLUSIVE FAMILY-BUILDING BENEFIT Employers are increasingly considering the use of a single inclusive benefit limit available to all employees to support their family-building journey, resulting in all employees having the same benefit available regardless of their starting point. This change in benefit design allows heterosexual couples, same-sex couples and individuals access to the same level of support for building their family regardless of need for fertility, adoption or surrogacy services. SPECIALIZED EMOTIONAL SUPPORT Employers increasingly recognize the need and opportunity to offer emotional support by reproductive behavioral specialists to employees. Thirty percent of WIN’s employer book of business have taken advantage of its on-staff behavioral health professionals and the company expects usage to double in 2021. MANAGED FERTILITY BENEFITS The number of employers offering managed family-building benefits continues to increase broadly across industries, geography, and company size. A managed benefit includes comprehensive clinical advocacy, available 24/7, provider matching and guidance for medically appropriate treatments. Managed fertility benefits lead to improved outcomes, higher patient satisfaction, efficient use of benefit dollars, which reduces cycle costs by 15%-30% as compared to an unmanaged cycle. These trends collectively mean more employers are offering richer, more inclusive benefits to a broader group of employees. A potential challenge an employer may face with an unmanaged program are costs from unnecessary fertility and genetic testing, additional fees, as well as higher costs related to NICU claims and loss of productivity. An unmanaged benefit leaves the employee to navigate their own path through a complicated fertility journey, leading to less informed decisions, less desirable outcomes along with higher levels of stress and costs.
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Recycling at a Crossroads New Legislative Proposal Will Improve Recovery System and Shift Costs to Producers By Andrew Radin, Chair, New York Product Stewardship Council
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ecycling is our state’s greatest team effort. Millions of residents across New York set out some three billion pounds of newspapers, magazines, cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, metal cans, and glass jars for curbside pick-up and recycling each year. The environmental benefits of this extraordinary civic effort include: significant waste reduction, the conservation of precious natural resources, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. From an economic standpoint, recycling supports thousands of green sector jobs across the state and preserves limited landfill space. But today, local recycling programs in New York are on the ropes. Municipal officials are painfully aware that the market value of the recovered materials is insufficient to cover the costs to process the recyclables at nearby public and private sector material recovery facilities (MRFs). Statewide, these net MRF processing costs for municipalities and recycling system rate payers are estimated to exceed $80 million in 2021.* Many municipalities are now facing net MRF processing costs that exceed the cost of waste disposal. The catalyst for this financial dilemma? Severely reduced material demand as China no longer accepts much of the world’s recyclables. On a local level, the challenge to municipal officials to maintain recycling programs and respond to global commodity fluctuations is made even more difficult in the wake of municipal budget challenges due to Covid-19, and tax cap limitations. Increased domestic capacity to manage and recycle these materials is on the horizon, along with improved material demand. However, it will take time to develop the necessary new infrastructure in the northeast and beyond to
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utilize millions of tons of paper, plastic, and other recyclables for remanufacturing into new products and product packaging. Clearly, local recycling is at a crossroads. Municipalities simply cannot sustain the increased costs to process recyclables caused by decreased market demand and an outdated recovery system in need of investment and modernization. To respond to this challenge, dozens of municipal and environmental leaders across the state, including NYSAC, the New York League of Conservation Voters, and the New York Product Stewardship Council, are supporting legislation proposed by NY State Senator Todd Kaminsky (D) 9th Senate District, and Steven Englebright, (D) Assembly District 4, respective chairs of the State Legislature’s Environmental Conservation Committees. Under Senator Kaminsky and Assemblymember Englebright’s bill S.1185, producers will be required to finance the recycling of their paper products and packaging materials, and invest in modernizing the operations at local recycling facilities. Producers can comply with the bill’s provisions individually or through joining a not-for-profit Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO). The program will also create a funding mechanism to cover its costs, and charges to producers will be adjusted based on the recyclability and post-consumer recycled content rate of the materials. Municipalities could still be engaged in material recovery much as they have been for the past 30 years. But the brand-owners of these consumer products, through the PRO, would be required to reimburse
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municipalities for the collection and processing of the product packaging and recyclable printed paper at area MRFs, as well as costs to educate the public about how to properly recycle.
Pressure is clearly growing on consumer brands to be more engaged in the recyclability and costs of their product packaging. Several other states, including California, Connecticut, Washington, and Massachusetts, are also pursuing this type of producer-funded system, known as Product Stewardship, or Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). New York State, with Senate Bill 1185, has an opportunity to lead the nation in establishing the recycling management system of the future. The alternative is to remain stuck at the crossroads marked by unsustainable municipal costs, stagnant material recovery rates, and aging recycling infrastructure.
The state passed similar legislation, also supported by NYSAC, in 2019 to recover and recycle unwanted paint. That program is scheduled to go into effect later this year. In a recent press announcement, Senator Kaminsky explained, “Localities are struggling with the burden of recycling costs, which inevitably get passed along to hardworking taxpayers. By requiring corporate producers to chip into the end-of-life costs for their products, not only are we holding the line on taxes, but we are also protecting our planet and its natural resources for generations to come.” Assemblyman Englebright added “The legislation encourages manufacturers to think of products’ recycling and disposal costs upfront rather than placing the cost on the backs of consumers or taxpayers.” The New York Product Stewardship Council is working closely with NYSAC to encourage our state legislative leaders and Governor Cuomo to implement the kind of producer-managed recycling improvement program as set forth in S.1185. Our mutual goal: modernize the current recycling system, reduce municipal costs, and ensure that the recycling efforts of millions of New Yorkers can continue to reduce waste, conserve natural resources and support green sector jobs.
* Source: Recent statewide survey conducted by the following professional recycling and solid waste associations: NY State Association for Reduce, Reuse, and Recycling; the NY Chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America, The NY State Association for Solid Waste Management, and the NY Product Stewardship Council.
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LESSONS LEARNED FROM 2020
Administering Democracy During a Pandemic By Kristen Zebrowski Stavisky and Patricia A. Giblin, Commissioners of Elections, The Board of Elections in the County of Rockland
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anuary is usually a quiet time in New York elections. The only month with any semblance of “downtime,” January is an opportunity to catch up and prepare for the coming year. January 2020 was no different, but we could not have foreseen what was to come. Most of us heard rumblings about a virus, but the upcoming Presidential Election occupied our attention. We could not imagine the many ways COVID-19 would upend our lives and the impact it would have on elections. It pierced the bubble we were happily existing in, the one that believed we were safe, strong, and in many ways, untouchable. Lockdown was a foreign concept. As election professionals, we take an oath of office to ensure that all eligible voters have unfettered access to the polls. That oath may be tested, but it can never be broken. COVID tested us every single day, but it never defeated us. Working in elections is never boring. Elections are run by human beings with varied personalities and skills. It is never business as usual, which is precisely why we were able to adapt, innovate, and navigate this pandemic. We work under pressure and have persevered during the most difficult of times, from 9/11 to natural disasters. Once lockdown commenced, it quickly became clear this would be an extended crisis. We faced three elections and unrelenting media scrutiny related to election integrity and cybersecurity. We did not have the option to close. With assistance from our Law and IT Departments, we shifted operations online, providing links to the DMV motor voter site and downloadable voter forms. We planned for in-person voting and worked to secure the necessary PPE. We faced an April Presidential Primary with trepidation. The lockdown suspended most operations. We did not have enough certified inspectors to open all polls. Elections are the show that must go on, but we breathed a sigh of relief when the Governor postponed the Presidential Primary. We would need numerous articles to explore NYS Election Law. Suffice it to say, it is strict and complex. The Governor’s
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Executive Orders sought to ease restrictions and enable safe and secure voting. The Legislature extended those orders to cover the General Election. Many of those orders expanded absentee voting. In essence, we moved to a vote by mail system in just under six weeks, a process that normally takes years. The resulting challenges were formidable. During a time of scarcity, 62 counties competed for resources. Absentee voting increased and we did not have the capacity to handle that volume in house. Only two printers in the state had the machinery necessary to undertake vote by mail and the postal system was flooded. In Rockland alone, we processed eight times our usual Primary requests and four times more than the 2016 General, requiring additional staff. During the Primary, voters overwhelmingly opted for absentee voting. The printers struggled to keep up and ballots were delayed. We personally delivered and picked up ballots. The barcodes on the returned ballots did not work, so we entered them by hand. We did what was necessary to fulfill the oath we took when we were sworn in as Commissioners. Vote by mail and the difficulties we faced were largely rectified by the time the General Election arrived. We could not rest; however, as voters came out in record numbers. Our attention shifted to easing lines and ensuring social distancing in busy poll sites. We promoted Early Voting to ease the strain on Election Day, but still struggled with lines. We learned and will use those lessons to inform future operations. 2020 was truly unprecedented. We worked harder than we thought possible. We also accepted every media request. Why did we spend time with the press when we barely had time to breath? People fear that which they do not understand. Claims of fraud and security worries were dispelled because we allowed voters “behind the curtain”. Things were not perfect, but we did well. We are proud of our staff and we so appreciate the support from our State Board and our Elected Leaders. Elections are always fluid and teach us to be flexible and open to change, qualities which served us well.
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Going Once, Going TwiceGoing Online Only Counties Turn to Online Only Platform for Real Estate Tax Foreclosure Auctions By Jill Pearsen Smith, Trade Show/Marketing Coordinator, Auctions International
T
he crisp smack of the gavel, the hypnotic chant of the auctioneer. That all changed in March 2020. New York State County offices across the state were closed due to COVID-19 and were forced to review their practices and protocols to adhere to stringent new Executive Orders. BID OF EXPLANATION Anyone who owns property must pay some sort of real estate tax to the government. If those taxes become delinquent, each county assumes all the risk and must pay off the respective tax levies of all other taxing entities. In New York State, Real Estate Tax Foreclosure auctions are the means to recoup those unpaid losses and provide essential services to their community. Up until the pandemic, this auction was conducted once a year, live and on-site. THE MIGRATION FROM LIVE TO ONLINE ONLY In the fall of 2020, RJ Klisiewicz, Operations Manager for Buffalobased Auctions International emailed the company’s real estate clients. “Being pro-active, I wanted them to know an online only option was available when they were ready to pull the trigger,” Klisiewicz said. Two counties who took advantage of the online option were Ontario County and Cayuga County. “The annual foreclosure and tax auction allows the county to recover funds needed to provide essential services to our residents,” stated Kelly Anderson, Cayuga County Real Property Tax Services Director. “The pandemic changed the priority of the auction process to safety first. A contact -free alternative seemed like a reasonable solution.” Ontario County Treasurer Gary Baxter had held an online property sale with Auctions International in 2016. “It was a two-story house in Canandaigua,” recalled Baxter. “I think the success of that sale planted the seed that the online platform was a good option for the future.” Once Klisiewicz and his team got the green light, they got to work, utilizing the same auction software that’s been the hallmark of their success for municipal auctions for close to 20 years. “The platform works the same regardless of the assets being sold,” claimed Klisiewicz. Some of the tools created to educate bidders and streamline the process included an online bidder registration packet, a customized “Contract of Sales” Excel spreadsheet to produce receipts for any
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deposit payments made directly to their offices, and Google or Bing Map links to each parcel and “walk-thru” videos. The most vital piece Auctions International retained from their municipal auctions and very similar to a live auction setting, was the dynamic sale ending. “This is where the excitement comes in,” explained Klisiewicz. “When a bid is placed within the last minute, it adds one minute to the auction, allowing bidding to continue until a winner emerges.” A CLEAR WINNER The Cayuga County 2020 online only Real Property Tax auction that ran from November 19th through December 3rd, resulted in gross property sales totaling $718,575.00. “The entire process was secure and seamless, and netted record proceeds to the County in what has been an unquestionably difficult year for all,” concluded Anderson. “I also think having a two-week online auction gave bidders more time to research property and secure the necessary funds to complete the purchase.” When asked about continuing the online only platform for future tax auctions, Anderson was optimistic, “The challenges we faced this year have forced us to reexamine the way we do things and why. Moving to an online auction is an excellent example of a process that was vastly improved by our need to adapt and I would like us to continue using it.” The Ontario County 2020 Real Estate Tax action took place from September 30th through October 14th and resulted in gross property sales of $550,915.00. “Online auctions opened up the playing field,” stated Ontario County Treasurer Gary Baxter. “Someone could bid from Canada against someone from Canandaigua. After seeing the results of our 2020 online only auction, how well it was attended, the safe and efficient way it was conducted, there is no reason to go back.” As for Klisiewicz and his team, they’ll continue to adapt to the changing needs of their clients and the times, “If there is even the smallest silver lining to this unprecedented year, it’s that counties have found an appreciation for the online only platform and its many advantages and capabilities to transform the Real Estate Tax Foreclosure auction process.”
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Recapping an Unprecedented 2020 Election By Ryan Gregoire, NYSAC Legislative Director
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fter an unusually long counting period, commensurate with the unprecedented nature of this year’s general election, we finally learned what the new class of state lawmakers will look like for 2021. More than half (55%) of the State Senate is comprised of new members in the past two elections (2018 and 2020). While in the State Assembly, 30 newly elected representatives will take their seats in that chamber in early January.
The State Senate In the Senate, there will be 14 new members representing 23% of the chamber's 63 members. The chamber contains many relatively new members beyond this year's freshman class. In fact, 55% of the members of the Senate were first elected less than four years ago. This is remarkable and provides NYSAC and counties with an opportunity to continue to educate and engage with new faces in Albany. Additionally, for the first time since the mid-1800s, Senate Democrats have captured a supermajority (at least 42 of the 62 seats). This means that the Majority in the Senate has the votes to partner with the Assembly's super majority of Democrats to override the Governor's veto without Republican support. On Long Island, Republicans flipped the 3rd district with the victory of Alexis Weik over Monica Martinez. Republicans also secured the 42nd district in the lower Hudson Valley defeating incumbent Jen Metzger. However, Democrats were victorious in flipping the 46th, 55th, 56th and 60th districts. The victory of Democrats in three Western New York districts will result in a stronger presence and influence in the Senate for this region of the state.
The State Assembly The power in the Assembly remains firmly under the control of Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat from New York City. In fact, not only will the Democrats continue to enjoy the majority they have maintained since the 1970s, but they will maintain a 107 to 43 supermajority in this chamber. While the Assembly will also be welcoming a large freshman class of 30 (representing 20% of the chamber), there were not many districts that flipped from one party to another, with the exception of Ellen Jaffee, a former Rockland County Legislator who has been replaced by Michael Lawler. Meanwhile, Democrats were successful in flipping the 135th district in Monroe County with the victory of Jen Lunsford over Mark Johns. This year, we welcome four new members of our county family to the Legislature – Matt Simpson (R- Warren County), Anna Kelles (D- Tompkins County), Gina Sillitti (D- Nassau County), and Jonathan Rivera (D- Erie County). Matt, Anna, Gina, and Jonathan will be joining the Assembly, and the NYSAC family looks forward to working with each of them to advance county legislative priorities.
The New York State Congressional Delegation Following the surprise result of the Georgia Senate runoff elections in early January, in which both Democratic candidates won their respective races and flipped control of the U.S. Senate, for the first time in modern political history, a New York Senator will be Senate Majority Leader. New York’s senior senator Charles Schumer assumes this role on January 20, following the seating of Senators Ossoff and Warnock and swearing-in of Kamala Harris as Vice President and President of the Senate. The New York Congressional Delegation will welcome at least four new members, with one outstanding race still yet to be determined in the 22nd Congressional district, which is currently represented by Anthony Brindisi (D). Andrew
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Garbarino (R) replaces Peter King on Long Island, while Ritchie Torres (D), Jamaal Bowman (D), and Mondaire Jones (D) replace retiring members in New York City. Until this election, Democrats held 21 Congressional seats and Republicans held six seats. In 2021, Republicans will control seven or eight seats. Republicans captured the 11th Congressional district on Staten Island with the victory of Nicole Malliotakis (R) over Max Rose (D). Republicans may also capture the 22nd district in the Mohawk Valley/Southern Tier if Claudia Tenney (R) retains her lead over Brindisi (D).
Welcome New County Members With elections in nearly a dozen counties this year, NYSAC will welcome 22 newly elected county officials in January. These new officials include 13 legislators in seven counties, four district attorneys, one new sheriff, three county clerks and one new coroner. These new members join the 157 new members from last year's election. NYSAC welcomes all our new elected officials and we thank you for your service to the people of this great State of New York. Our association looks forward to working with you to help make our communities, counties and regions of the state great places to live, work and raise a family.
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2,200+ Bills NYSAC reviewed, monitored and/or commented on
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By the Numbers As we continue our advocacy efforts on behalf of counties across New York State in 2021, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on 2020. From virtual trainings and meetings to reports and briefings, your Association continued to educate, advocate, and serve all 62 counties in the state - even when that meant adapting to a virtual environment. NYSAC is proud to represent county officials at the state and national level, while promoting the critical services counties provide.
New episodes of the County Conversations Podcast
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62 Counties represented and advocated for by NYSAC NYSAC News | www.nysac.org
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First Look: The Local Public Health Department Response By Cristina Dyer-Drobnack, NYSACHO Program Director
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n the coming months, NYSAC will be publishing a compendium of county leadership stories through the first wave of the pandemic. The work will compile first-hand accounts from county leaders, analysis from NYSAC staff and other accounts of the county response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following is an excerpt from the book, which recounts the pandemic response by county’s public health professionals. Both initially and throughout the pandemic, contact tracing was the key focus for local health departments. With several decades’ experience in contact tracing, LHDs set to work immediately identifying the contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases and organizing logistics to provide the basic necessities individuals needed under quarantine or isolation, such as housing and food. While LHDs relied on their own contact tracing staff and cross-trained employees from other county agencies during lockdown, on April 22nd, Governor Cuomo and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg launched a statewide contact tracing program in partnership with New Jersey and Connecticut. As part of the effort, Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health built an online curriculum and training program for candidates recruited by the NYSDOH and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Meanwhile, the global public health organization Vital Strategies would develop call center protocols and digital tools. Funding for the initiative was provided in part by Bloomberg’s foundation ($10.5 million) and the federal government ($1.3 billion). The program aspired to train at least 30 contact tracers per 100,000 New York State residents, adhering to CDC guidelines. As of July 15th, the NYS Contact Tracing Program (distinct from New York City’s Test & Trace Corps) touted an 86 percent success rate in reaching and interviewing COVID-19-postive New Yorkers since it launched in mid-May, according to a Cuomo advisor overseeing the effort. In addition to the contact tracing expansion, the governor continued the state’s public health response in the subsequent months through a series of executive orders, guidance, phased reopening, enforcement actions and deployment of state and local government resources, and that response was ongoing throughout the public health emergency.
While the state developed and issued state-level directives, it was the local health department (LHD) employees who worked on the front lines to protect their communities from exposure to COVID-19. In addition to contact tracing, LHD responsibilities included: activating and mobilizing emergency preparedness plans; serving as communicable disease experts by conducting investigations, monitoring suspected cases, enforcing isolation and quarantine protocols, and establishing mass testing clinics; connecting vulnerable or under-resourced individuals to essential resources like housing, nutritious meals, utilities and health or mental health services; supporting community partners (hospitals, health care providers, colleges, schools, businesses, and community-based organizations) and working hand-in-hand with the NYSDOH and the CDC. While serving as the front-line public health responders to the pandemic, LHDs also continued their core public health education work in community outreach and education, keeping community members informed by answering questions, providing up-to-date information about the outbreak and the local community impact, and offering recommendations for how best to protect one’s family from exposure. As New York moved to reopen through the summer months, outreach to businesses and the public on state social distancing measures designed to assure that reopening did not cause a resurgence of disease became the focus, along with any necessary enforcement to assure compliance with these Executive Orders. The magnitude of the state’s COVID-19 response required the re-deployment of public health staff from core public health
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Businesses also remained a focus, with enforcement activities needed for bars, restaurants, outdoor entertainment gatherings, summer camps and gyms. Full-service LHDs dedicated significant time and resources to investigating community member complaints about non-compliant businesses and initiating a dialogue with offenders. They took a partnership approach, only enforcing penalties when a business blatantly and repeatedly violated public health law.
services and additional support from employees from other county agencies to work solely on pandemic-related activities. Meanwhile, workforce capacity challenges compounded by little opportunity for time off, and the personal impact of COVID-19 on workers made staff morale challenging for LHD leaders.
The reopening of gym and fitness centers imposed a unique responsibility on LHDs, with state mandated inspection by LHDs needed prior to the business reopening. These facilities were not previously regulated by local health departments and required local partnerships with municipal codes enforcement, fire marshals and HVAC providers to assure that gyms and fitness centers met all the mandated physical plant changes.
In mid-May, as the disease curve flattened and positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths decreased, Governor Cuomo provided a process for a four-phase regional reopening, assigning businesses and services to each phase to allow for time to assess the impact of the return of various businesses and services on case numbers. Regions had to meet and monitor specific metrics to move through each phase. Diagnostic testing rates would factor into the state’s formula to time the regional reopening of economic and social activities. A region should aim for at least 30 tests conducted for every 1,000 residents, according to CDC standards. By May 5th, one million New Yorkers had been tested, and by May 22nd, more than 670 testing sites were operating statewide, allowing regions to monitor their status in meeting the reopening metrics. LHDs were intimately involved in the local details and guidelines of reopening. While they were not officially responsible for approving business reopening plans, they received many inquiries and spent countless hours helping businesses follow state guidance. Mid-summer brought a shift from the initial reopening efforts to planning for the reopening of both K-12 schools and higher education institutions. Both congregate settings posed unique challenges, each with specific state requirements designed to reduce the risk of disease transmission, and local health departments provided technical support and coordination with their educational partners in developing plans to address social distancing measures, cleaning and disinfection, and communication processes and action that would be taken in the event that COVID cases occurred in school and campus settings.
By mid-Fall a growing number of case clusters were popping up around the state. In response, Governor Cuomo announced a micro-cluster control strategy that focused on geographically limited closures and screening testing in schools designed to identify and quickly control disease hotspots. Local health departments engaged with schools and community health care partners to address testing capacity, resources, staffing and laboratory requirements that would be needed to address the state’s micro cluster response requirements. Vaccine development and deployment work also came to the forefront for both the state and local health departments, with aggressive influenza vaccination promotion and outreach activities, as well as planning for the eventual approval and availability of one or more COVID-19 vaccines. As of this writing, counties and LHDs are taking an everincreasing role in vaccine distribution, setting up POD sites to administer vaccine to groups of newly eligible recipients. While the last year has shown us that we can never truly predict the future, we can say with certainty that whatever the next phase of the coronavirus pandemic entails, counties and local health departments will be there to respond.
NYSAC News | www.nysac.org
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Advertiser Index Absolute Auctions & Realty, Inc......................................50 Alera Group......................................................................38 Auctions International, Inc................................................6 Auctions International, Inc Advertorial.........................37 Barton & Loguidice..........................................................14 Bonadio Group.................................................................20 C.T. Male Associates.........................................................41 Calcaterra Pollack LLP.....................................................14 Collar City Auctions Realty & Mgmt, Inc......................13 CPL......................................................................................4 Dominion Voting Systems...............................................12 Fiscal Advisors & Marketing, Inc....................................17 Gallagher Benefit Services...............................................41 Geospatial Analytics.........................................................52 Health Economics Group, Inc...........................................3 LaBella Associates............................................................46 Municipal Electric & Gas Alliance Inc............................39 N.K. Bhandari, Architecture & Engineering, P.C...........12 Nationwide Retirement Solutions.....................................4 Nationwide Retirement Solutions...................................46 New York State Health Insurance Program ...................23 NYCLASS..........................................................................49 NYMIR..............................................................................31 NYSTEC............................................................................17 Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP................................42 PERMA................................................................................2 PFM...................................................................................28 PKF O'Connor Davies, LLP.............................................47 ProAct, Inc........................................................................32 SAS Institute, Inc..............................................................23 SMRT Architects and Engineers......................................20 SWBR..................................................................................6 Systems East, Inc...............................................................51 Tectonic Engineering Consultants, Geologists & Land Surveyors, D.P.C...............................................................35 three+one..........................................................................26 Wendel...............................................................................49 WINFertility Advertorial.................................................30 WSP...................................................................................38 38609 NYSAC New.indd 47
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Last Look at Local Laws of 2020 By Patrick Cummings, NYSAC Counsel
N
YSAC tracks and makes available local laws that have been passed by our member counties. Understanding how New York counties are addressing their local issues and resident needs through local laws can provide ideas for you, our government leaders, to use in some variation in your county. Below is a description of unique and recently passed local laws by our members as well as a web address link to find the entire the local law.
Rockland County Passes Local Law to Allow for More Procurement Process Options On December 24, 2020, Rockland County passed a local law allowing for “best value” selection processes to their procurement options. The county local law stated this option would meet taxpayer needs by weighing the county’s performance requirements with a product/service’s “useful lifespan, quality and options and incentives for more timely performance” and not merely lowest initial price which may result in a better value and long-term investment of public funds. The law states that some public procurements that are in low unit costs at the outset can ultimately have cost escalations due to factors such as inferior quality, poor reliability, and difficulty of maintenance. When optioning for the best value procurement process, under the local law, the Director of Purchasing must document and make known to potential offerors, the determination of the evaluation criteria and the process to be used in the determination of the best value reword. This can include but is
not limited to: “reliability of a product, efficiency of operation, difficulty/ease of maintenance, useful lifespan, ability to meet needs regarding timeliness of performance, local economic impact, and experience of a service provider with similar contracts.” This authorization for the use of best value purchasing will last for three years and can be extended by the Legislature by resolution. The local law can be found here: https://on.ny. gov/3iz1KOI
Westchester County Passes Local Law Capping Third-Party Food Delivery Service Fees During Declared Emergencies On November 6, 2020, Westchester County passed a local law regarding service fees charged by third-party food delivery services during declared emergencies. This was in response to third-party food delivery companies charging sizeable fees in a time when residents are reliant on this service. A declared emergency is defined in this law as a period during which a State disaster emergency has been declared by the Governor of the State of New York or a state of emergency has been declared by the County Executive, such declaration is in effect in the county, and there are restrictions on on-premises dining at food service establishments in the county. Third-party food delivery service means any website, mobile application or other internet service that offers or arranges for the sale of food and beverages prepared by, and the same-day delivery or same-day pickup of food and beverages from food service establishments located in the county that are owned and operated by different persons. The law makes it illegal for a third-party food delivery service to charge a food service establishment a delivery fee that totals more than 15% of the purchase price of each online order and/or for a third-party food delivery service to charge a food service establishment any fee or fees other than a delivery fee for the use of their service greater than 5% of the purchase price of each online order and/or for a third-party food delivery platform to reduce the compensation rate paid to a delivery service driver or garnish gratuities in order to comply with this section. This law can be found here: https://on.ny.gov/3qHlZwh
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The County of Oneida Passes a Building Energy Benchmarking Local Law On December 10, 2020, in order to meet Oneida County’s goal of the reducing pollution and promoting sustainable energy use, the county signed into law “Building Energy Benchmarking.” The law recognizes that buildings are the single largest user of energy in the State of New York and therefore improving the poorest energy performing buildings is vital for public health, safety, and welfare improvements. Building Energy Benchmarking means the County will measure their buildings’ energy use, track that use over time, and compare performance to similar buildings nationwide. Equipping the county with this information will allow for smarter, more cost-effective operational and capital investment decisions and continuous improvement going forward. The law states each year the county will collect and make building energy use data public. This data will include the building address, primary use type, and gross floor area; and site EUI, Weather Normalized Source EUI, annual GMG emissions, and an Energy Performance Score where available. This local law can be found here: https://on.ny. gov/367hfIK
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