Village of Fleischmanns

Workshop Meeting
May 29, 2014
The Village of Fleischmanns Board of Trstees held a Workshop meeting on Thrsday,
May 29, 2014 at the !kene Memorial "i#rary$ %resent &ere' Mayor Todd %ascarella,
(epty Mayor Ben)amin Fenton, and *arriet "$ +rossman$ (a,id -ates &as a#sent$
Marc .alcano &as present and .aptain /im !mall &as a#sent de to some #siness that
arose$
Marc .alcano came to speak to the Village Board a#ot ideas he has a#ot or la&
enforcement sitation or lack thereof 0 ho& it ties into Fleischmanns ha,ing a
pree1isting %olice (epartment and ha,ing some programs &orking in con)nction &ith
the (ela&are .onty !herriff$ Mr$ .alcano e1plained that .aptain !mall &as the person
&ho filed the docments and changed the Fleischmanns2 .onsta#lary to a %olice
(epartment$ .aptain !mall is one of the senior training officers in the .onty and in the
!tate of 3-$ *e is a master instrctor for la& enforcement for the (i,ision of .riminal
/stice !er,ices$ Marc .alcano 0 .aptain !mall ha,e #een meeting for t&o 425 years
discssing isses e1isting, crrent 0 past &ith small police departments6 mainly lack of
sper,ision, lack of training 0 acconta#ility$
Mr$ .alcano stated that he is a former 3-. %olice 7fficer$ *e &orks part time at the
3-! %ark %olice 0 has #een in the secrity indstry for o,er 20 years conslting 0
rnning se,eral non8profit programs for ,ocational training, some of it #eing secrity and
in other fields$ For the past 19 or 1: years he has #een doing secrity conslting #oth in
the pri,ate sector 0 the p#lic sector$ Mr$ .alcano indicated he had done conslting for
se,eral politicians he kno&s addressing commnity concerns in regard to their police
departments or precincts in 3-.$ Mr$ .alcano 0 .aptain /im !mall are crrently
&orking on a secrity training school at !;3- (elhi$ ;ni,ersity %olice attend state
certified police training$ Their training meets or e1ceeds mandated state re<irements for
police officers in 3e& -ork$ The goal and o#)ecti,e is to offer professional police
ser,ices to the camps commnity$
.aptain !mall is an ad)nct professor for criminal )stice at !;3- (elhi and they asked
s if &e cold pt together a crriclm$ We decided it &old #e fantastic if it &as set p
on camps 0 they ga,e s their #lessing$ They said these are yor classrooms, rn it ot
of here, a pls for the stdents and a pls for &hat &e are looking to do6 tying in some of
the la& enforcement and getting the stdents in and sing some of the local departments
to e1tend their training$
Mr$ .alcano 0 .aptain !mall decided a#ot a year ago to look at &hat departments
e1isted as %olice (epartments that &ere acti,e or inacti,e 0 decided to look at &hat
might #e a commnity concern and their method of police &ork$ =t &as really togh &ith
some To&ns not &anting any police force and feeling that they really didn2t ha,e a need$
=t is important to prse those that e1ist and try to reacti,ate those that &ere made
inacti,e$ The state is changing a lot of their gidelines$ > ,illage or a to&n has the right
to s#mit an application, #t then the state re<ires that the departments #e in good
standing$ =t2s okay if yo deacti,ate yor department, #t &hen the state decides to go in
0 e,alate the standing of the departments, to see ho& they are #eing managed and ho&
the #ooks 0 records are #eing kept, if they are not #eing kept &ell then the state is going
to psh to dis#and it$ 7nce that happens it2s really difficlt to reacti,ate it again$
.aptain !mall had mentioned that Fleischmanns %olice (epartment &as inacti,e$
Fleischmanns fits the model that they sort of created6 a distressed commnity that doesn2t
ha,e a #dget for a police department and its something that Mr$ .alcano is capa#le of
pro,iding for$
=n speaking &ith Mayor %ascarella, the .aptain 0 Mr$ .alcano #oth indicated that it
didn2t cost anything to reacti,ate the police department and Marc said he &as capa#le of
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pro,iding fnding for at least minimm manning as a part8time %olice (epartment to
address the immediate concerns of the commnity$ The Belleayre Mt$ resort &ill ha,e a
trickle do&n effect on the economy all arond$ What &e &old like to do is start ptting
together the infrastrctre for the %olice (epartment$ =f the Belleayre ?esort does take
rote and e1pands 0 helps the economy in the area de,elop, there2s a lot that comes &ith
that 0 it &old #e great to ha,e a department in place to anticipate the changes and to
address the concerns of the commnity$ 3o& one thing that &e are ,ery passionate a#ot
is the type of commnity or the type of policing that little ,illages and small to&ns need
and &hat Marc .alcano meant #y that &as their philosophy that they &old like to train
or edcate those that ha,e a police departments that are small and those that don2t ha,e a
police department 0 implement small commnity policing$ These ,illages and to&ns
don2t need a hea,y hand6 they don2t need storm troopers$ That2s not &hat &e are looking
to do$ Mr$ .alcano does not need the e1tra &ork 0 neither does .aptain !mall$ They are
trying to create a model precinct, or a model police department that other to&ns and
commnities can follo&$
Most to&ns don2t ha,e it$ They simply ha,e a police department that goes ot and
enforces, #t they don2t necessarily get to kno& the commnity$ They are )st there to
isse smmons 0 )st solely make arrests$ -o can2t ha,e a con,ersation or a dialoge
&ith them$ We &ant to change that #ecase it doesn2t really e1ist$ That is part of the
philosophy of their mission6 preser,e, re8train, 0 esta#lish a commnity policing model$
Fleischmanns &old #e their first step$ Fleischmanns is one of only three that is an
inacti,e department 0 that2s &hy it fits the model perfectly$ =t2s inacti,e and &e can
reacti,ate it at no cost to the to&n$ The fact that the #dget associated &ith the operation
is not an isse #ecase Marc .alcano can raise that capital as a charita#le contri#tion to
the Village itself$ The Village has no financial o#ligation &hatsoe,er$ Fnding &ill
come in part from Marc .alcano2s .ompany$ =n part a non8profit of Marc2s that has to
do &ith training$ Those are the t&o ,ehicles readily a,aila#le to Marc .alcano to raise
the capital$ *e has a non8profit resorce de,elopment grop &hich has #een arond
since 2002$ They do a ,ariety of different ,ocational training programs$ =t )st so
happens that Mark .alcano is &orking &ith a ,ery good friend that &orks for t&o
fondations6 one of the fondations that she is on the #oard of speciali@es in creating
training programs throgh police departments to #etter enhance the relationships #et&een
yong adlts in the commnities and the police department$ =t2s throgh her and a fe&
other fondations that she &orks &ith and that Mark has relationships &ith$ Mark is
capa#le of raising the capital as &ell as his secrity company$
Marc .alcano met &ith Margaret,ille ,ery recently 0 it &as a #it of a challenge #ecase
they &ere )st not interested and he thoght that &as actally the trth #ecase he
#elie,ed .aptain /im !mall had a cople of con,ersations &ith mem#ers of the
commnity$ They ha,e no interest$ They &ere nder the impression that they had
ade<ate co,erage from the !tate Troopers, &hich Marc said for a fact that no one has
ade<ate co,erage from the state troopers #ecase they don2t patrol$
Marc .alcano met &ith Mayor Martin of *ancock #ecase they had ma)or isses &ith
their sper,ision and Marc had met &ith (eposit regarding more fnding for additional
officers$ They really don2t ha,e a financial pro#lem$ Marc stated he &as capa#le of
raising the fnds #ecase the to&n or the ,illage cannot afford it$ =t is not their goal to
help spplement those commnities that can afford it$ *a,ing the department also assists
s in the programs that &e are &orking on$ =t is easy for s to raise it and )stify it
#ecase the commnity can2t afford it$
Marc .alcano stated that he cold pro,ide at least a fi,e 4A5 year commitment to
pro,iding fnding for &hat &e call a small department$ Most small departments are
mo,ing from fll8time employment to part time employment and &e highly recommend
it$ .aptain !mall &old tell yo there is no reason for these small commnities to pay
the costs associated &ith fll time employment$ =f yo look at the scale of prodcti,ity,
it2s almost non8e1istent, so &hy pay all of this money &hen the officers are not prodcing
&hat they need to offset that o,erhead$ Marc .alcano has #dgeted at least BA0,000$00 a
year for the costs associated &ith rnning a department as small as Fleischmanns &ith 2
part8time police officers$ =t2s mainly to address special e,ents or &hat &e call conditions6
&hate,er needs to #e paid most attention to and addressed to cre$ Then &e pro,ide the
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hors associated &ith that, #t as far as the (i,ision of .riminal !er,ices2 ,ision is
concerned, a part8time officer is only re<ired a ma1imm of hors$ *e is to &ork less
than t&enty 4205 hors a &eek, so that2s minimm manning$ Marc .alcano &old lo,e
to e1plore the different methods of the police department generating re,enes &ithot it
#eing sort of a ta1$ >nd yo don2t &ant to smmons the local poplation necessarily or
nnecessarily$ >ccording to Mayor %ascarella &e also do not &ant to smmons
cstomers throgh or torism #siness$
=t2s a matter &ithin the police department &hen yo ha,e t&o 425 people &orking in a
gi,en &eek &hen &e might schedle t&o 425 people to &ork and they do some type of
,ehicle traffic la& enforcement &here it2s sort of targeted to&ards speeders on the
high&ay ,erss the local high&ays$ >n officer is an officer in the !tate of 3e& -ork$ =t
all depends on &hat yor Village athori@es the officer to do and yo can go on the local
rote a#soltely$ Mayor %ascarella ad,ised that ?ote 2C is a state high&ay that cts
throgh the Village$ Then again it2s a <estion &eather &e &ant the face of that to #e
someone &aiting ot there to &rite tickets or not$ Mr$ .alcano ad,ised that happens in
e,ery police department$ =n ma)or conties like -onkers or 3-. yo enconter the same
thing$ -o2re an officer on the road issing smmonses$ -o are going to get to kno&
e,eryone after a&hile, especially in this small commnity$ =n precincts &here Marc
.alcano &orked he got to kno& e,eryone$ The officer issing the smmonses gets to
kno& e,eryone dri,ing #y$ =t2s al&ays a )dgment call6 it2s not something that2s
mandatory$ That is one thing .aptain !mall &old say if he &as here, #t the Village
needs to generate re,ene one &ay or another$ =t2s a matter of not #eing aggressi,e in
enforcing that all the time$
The BA0,000$00 is the total charita#le contri#tion each year$ *e is sing a fi,e 4A5 year
pro)ection #ecase they are hoping that the de,elopment that is happening is really going
to #e a positi,e for the commnity, and hopeflly help to ele,ate re,enes, ta1es and then
some, so hopeflly at some point the Village &ill #e a#le to sstain some sort of costs
associated &ith its police department$ Mr$ .alcano &old like to say he cold pro,ide a
fi,e 4A5 year commitment to it$
(epty Mayor Fenton didn2t think fi,e 4A5 years &as nreasona#le if they are talking
a#ot clearing land in the fall and starting constrction in the spring$ The constrction
&ork force alone is a lot6 )st the traffic on ?ote 2C$
Mayor %ascarella ad,ised it is )st #ecase of the flood and e,erything else that this is
something that has #een kicked to the cr# and pt on the #ack #rner, #t once
constrction starts &e are going to ha,e a lot of ne& strangers rnning throgh to&n on
the &eekends and &e )st can2t let it #ecome a free for all$
Marc .alcano ad,ised that he lo,ed the thoght of ha,ing someone to ans&er if there is
an emergency, or )st someone to address it in time$ =f it is something ot of that
person2s a#ility, that person has kno&ledge of &ho to call and ho& to #est handle the
sitation$ Mr$ .alcano ad,ised that &hen he &as a 3-. %olice 7fficer he lo,ed &orking
&ith concil mem#ers and the head of the commnity #oard$ *e lo,ed addressing their
concerns and meeting &ith them$ The politics for me &as perfectly fine$ Most police
officers don2t like it$ = en)oyed it$ = en)oy that intimate relationship #et&een myself and
the commnity$ >nd here, it2s e,en more intimate$ Becase it is so small e,entally
e,eryone is practically a friend$
Destion arose as to traffic pro#lems in the Village &hich cold pre,ent emergency
,ehicles getting throgh 0 also #ecomes a safety isse$
Mr$ .alcano ad,ised that he lo,ed commnication$ *e thinks dialoge is ,ery important$
(iplomacy is e1tremely important across the #oard$ *e &old ha,e no pro#lem speaking
&ith anyone and helping them see the light$ This is ho& a commnity &orks together$
We ha,e to address the concerns of the commnity$ Mr$ .alcano stated he had spent a
lot of time doing policing in a commnity that had thosands and thosands of residents$
This &as in the 3-. %olice (epartment in Manhattan at the 24
th
precinct &hich is the
model precinct for Manhattan north from A9
th
!t$ north$
E
(epty Mayor Fenton asked if in a commnity of EA0 people &ith A$C9 miles had enogh
&ork for 2 part8time officers$ Mr$ .alcano e1plained it is not so mch &ork to do as
mch as things to address for a presence to #e had$ =t is a mater of ha,ing a presence and
the le,el of secrity and peace of mind that sometimes pro,ides$ !ome like it, #t
Margaret,ille does not$ Mayor %ascarella stated that he thoght Margaret,ille &as close
to Fleischmanns years ago &hen &e &ere coming ot of or last police sitation$
Margaret,ille is ha,ing a hard time finding that #alance and finding the o,ersight le,el,
the proper #ack 0 forth &ith their officer, and so it #ecame ,ery stressfl &ith him$ =t
)st didn2t &ork ot$
Mayor %ascarella indicated that Fleischmanns has a lot of things like #arking and dogs
#iting people$ =f &e had a 911 dispatcher in this to&n, the calls are pt in a priority state6
emergency calls, ,iolent crimes, #rglaries and ro##eries$ =f it is a #arking noise
complaint, it goes to the #ottom of the list 0 yo &on2t get a response for 4 days later$
.aptain !mall 0 Marc .alcano ha,e a grop of officers that lo,e &orking$ Marc2s
former partner, (an !aint /acks, &ho &orks at the (elhi %olice (epartment and also
&orks at Walton, is a retired detecti,e at 3-%($ Work is &ork and not necessarily
#ecase of gainfl employment or needing the income, more than en)oying the )o#$ Mr$
.alcano stated he &as not here #ecase he needed employment$ *e &as not here #ecase
he needed to do this )o# and ha,e an income6 not at all$ =t2s a different reason altogether$
.aptain !mall has a lot of little departments$ =f yo look at their roster, they ha,e fi,e 4A5
gys &orking, #t they ha,e si1teen 4195 people in their roster$ !o if someone is going
on ,acation they &ill call someone in and that person may not ha,e had &ork in E years$
The person &ill hopeflly #e nder the chain of command of Marc .alcano$ The person
&ill #e an employee of the Village %olice (epartment$ Marc .alcano2s company &ill #e
making a charita#le contri#tion to the Village$ Marc &old #e the administrator$ *e
&old not feel comforta#le trying to start something like this or trying to resrrect the
Fleischmanns %olice (epartment &ithot #eing sre that he &old #e the one held
responsi#le for the start p of the department, nless it &old #e .aptain !mall that
&old #e here or (an !aint /ack6 officers that &e ha,e long term relationships &ith$ =
&old #e in charge and there &old #e t&o 425 other officers$ Mark does not factor into
that #dget at all$ *e &old e1pect that the people &ho are going to #e &orking are
going to #e a#solte professionals 0 seasoned officers that yo can call 0 con,ey any
concerns$ They are yor officers and &e ha,e a grop of officers that #elie,e in this$ =n
most instances it2s either the ,ery yong officers that ha,en2t #een taght or instrcted to
do this #ecase they don2t ha,e the appropriate sper,ision$ =t2s p to the Village$ The
state doesn2t care &hat yo do$ The state has no concern &hatsoe,er &ith &hat yo do,
&eather yo &ant yor department or not$ -o are yor o&n mnicipality6 yor o&n
go,erning #ody$ They interfere &ith it #ecase there is o,ersight &ith the police
department &hen it2s acti,e$ This needs to #e logged, things need to #e ,ochered, and
things need to #e acconted for$ The state has a manal$ F,ery .onty otside of 3-.
follo&s the state police gidelines6 the #i#le of the police department$ >t the end of the
day &hat yor police department does is &hat yor police department does$ =ts not like it
has to file or send a report at the end of the dayGnoGit2s yor police department$
Fleischmanns is a commnity that is in distress and it can2t afford to ha,e its o&n police
department$ For Marc .alcano it is something he can #enefit from and or commnity
can #enefit from$ *e can incorporate his training program and his credentials in training
and meet &ith other departments implementing these ne& strategies, and this ne&
training program for officers and departments on ho& to #etter deal &ith dysfnctional
children or delin<ents in the commnity$ >s far as making a charita#le contri#tion,
Mr$ .alcano2s secrity company &old do it and his non8profit &old do it$ =t certainly
ser,ices the mission of &hat Marc .alcano is going to do and &hat .aptain !mall is
trying to do$ We are hopefl that &e are sccessfl in doing it in other places$ =t2s a
challenge and Marc .alcano is not so sre ho& sccessfl it &ill #e$ =t2s a charity more
than anything else$
Friends of Marc .alcano are one of his greatest resorces #ecase they are ,ery afflent
indi,idals al&ays looking for the right charity$ *e can only )stify doing it in a sitation
&here a commnity is in distress$ The Village Board and Mayor are the ltimate
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go,erning #ody$ The police department has to report to the Board$ >n acti,ity report has
to #e generated$ -o ha,e to sho& ho& e,erything has #een addressed$
Mr$ .alcano ad,ised the Board to call him &ith any <estions$ This &ill not #e a
financial #rden on the Village$ This is not a complicated process$ =t is something that
Mr$ .alcano is e1tremely passionate a#ot 0 helps him in &hat he does e,ery day$
.aptain !mall is e<ally passionate a#ot this$ %tting together this #dget is not an
isse$ Mr$ .alcano &old like to say that he can commit more than fi,e 4A5 years, #t he
can2t say that right no&$ Bt, he lo,es the thoght of doing it$ =t #ecomes a great ,ehicle
for &hat he can do in his social life$ *is social missions in his life are &ith his non profit
and ,arios different training programs that he is crrently &orking on$ *e has a lot of
things that he is doing no& &ith secrity$ =t isn2t going to #e a financial pro#lem on the
Village in the least #it$ =f it &ere, he &old not #e here in the Village of Fleischmanns at
all especially no&, for at least the ne1t fi,e 4A5 years$ The process of reacti,ating the
police department doesn2t cost Fleischmanns anything$ .aptain !mall &ill do all the
paper&ork$ We &ere commnicating &ith >l#any today a#ot the possi#ility of doing
this$ We crrently ha,e a ,ehicle a,aila#le to s immediately$ There are do@ens of
fnding sorces6 federal and state for infrastrctre for the police department, #ilding,
e<ipment, etc$ >ll it takes is acti,ating the department and ha,ing it on the registry and
then &e are eligi#le for grants and a mltitde of things$ We &ill do all of it, once &e get
the paper&ork, then &e &ill present it to yo$ Transparency is ,ery important$ Marc has
the resorces and .aptain !mall$
The Village of Fleischmanns &ill #e a pilot program for Marc .alcano$ =t fits the model
perfectly$
(onny .at&ell of (eposit is the Htrickster$I *e kno&s &here e,erything is hidden$ *e
is the man &ho does the grant &riting and so on$
Marc .alcano in<ired as to the stats of the &arehose strctres located at Wagner
>,ene 0 (epot !treet$
Mayor %ascarella re<ested that Marc .alcano pro,ide him &ith a ,ision and a time line$
Adjourn
Motion made #y *arriet "$ +rossman to ad)orn$ Motion seconded #y Ben)amin Fenton$
*arriet "$ +rossman8>ye$ Ben)amin Fenton8>ye$ Todd %ascarella8>ye$ (a,id -ates8
>#sent$ Motion so carried$
A