Highlights From The Glen Cove City Council Meeting

While the final council meeting of the year traditionally includes the formalities of starting a new year–setting meeting dates, renewing ongoing agreements, and addressing annual appointments–several topics were discussed during Tuesday night's meeting.

Here are the highlights from Tuesday night's City Council Meeting:

Building Department Fees

A slightly modified version of the –which apply to residential zones of Glen Cove and add new fees or increase fees for permits on several home improvement projects–was released; the public hearing on the fees has been extended.

The proposed, amended fees can be seen on the City of Glen Cove Website here: 2011 Proposed Building Department Fee Changes.

Department of Public Works

While the city discussed hiring employees, several residents questioned the transparency of the appointments regarding new hires, citing that the information was not made public before the appointment.

Mayor Ralph Suozzi said that in the future appointments will be made public in a timely matter.

Glen Cove resident Gail Waller said that, as a tax payer, she was offended by the high salaries of city workers: "It used to be that you'd work in the public sector for a little less money but more in benefits," she said. "Though now we're seeing pay rates the same as the private sector and more benefits, and we're just giving more and more money to public workers."

Resident and Glen Cove Republican party leader Paul Meli questioned the confirmation of extension of the City's self-insurance program to members, officers, and employees of the CDA and IDA.

Suozzi said that in the past, this extension has been in place: "this resolution makes it explicit. The IDA controls the waterfront property, and the IDA, along with the CDA, does a lot of heavy lifting, and this protects the city from potential lawsuits, and potentially saves the city tons of money in legal fees," Suozzi said. "After all, for example, the waterfront redevelopment is a billion dollar project."

Snow Removal

City resident Glenn Howard expressed concern over Nassau County's capacity to handle .

Howard said that he had gotten stuck on the road on the intersection of Landing Road and Cottage Row, a County-owned road which at the time of the meeting had not yet been plowed.

Suozzi said that the County yard in Glen Cove, which was on Morris Avenue, was recently moved to Hicksville.

"The truck drivers now have to drive 10-12 miles in the same snow we all can't get through, and have to get back to Glen Cove," Suozzi said. "It's at the point where I'd like to take back most of the roads from the county."

Public Appreciation

Executive director of the Glen Cove Senior Center Carol Waldman publicly thanked Suozzi and the council–especially Delia Deriggi-Whitton–who "has served as a perfect liaison with the Senior Center," Waldman said.