There was a full agenda at the Glen Cove City Council meeting of Tuesday, Aug. 26, from public hearings through public comments, including a slideshow presentation and discussion of the disasters that befall residents of Woolsey Avenue following severe rainfalls, most recently the two storms last week.

Mayor Ralph V. Suozzi opened a public hearing to discuss enactment of a law regarding an increase in the maximum tax exemption allowable to veterans under the alternative veterans' exemption program. The exemptions are for eligible wartime veterans, eligible veterans serving in a combat area and eligible veterans who are disabled. Following the public hearing, the vote was passed unanimously by the city council (with an abstention by veteran Tony Jimenez), with a thank you to the vets from each council member and the mayor. Vets in the audience responded with an "Oohrah," and were honored with a standing ovation.

The next public hearing was a continuation of the hearing from the last council meeting regarding a charter revision of the annual budget preparation and vote. According to Mayor Suozzi, the current charter requires that the budget be presented to the city council on Oct. 1 and voted on, on Oct. 10. The mayor noted that there has been no revision on the item since the charter was written in 1980. He is asking the council to consider moving the vote date to the last meeting in October in order to give the city time to hold a public hearing by Oct. 15 and more time for the public to study the proposed budget.

The crux of the matter concerns election years more than non-election years. As Glen Cove holds elections every two years, it is a significant consideration.

To that subject, Paul Meli took the microphone to question the timing, as he did at the prior hearing. Applauding the mayor for wanting to provide a public hearing, he stated, however, that a late October vote would not allow the public much time to know what any tax increase might be before voting in an election year. Also, any changes to the proposed budget would be made very close to Election Day.

Mayor Suozzi countered that what Mr. Meli was saying in regard to the public lacking information was not true, and that a late October vote would leave time for the papers to print the budget information, as well as allow time for political parties to make their opposition known, adding that no matter what the council does, the opposing political party has objections. Mr. Meli, the chair of the Glen Cove Republican Party, stated he was not speaking from a political position. He made a number of suggestions as to how the council could make changes, including presenting the proposed budget earlier, perhaps mid-September. Councilman Mike Famiglietti commented that it would be difficult to project budget numbers in September, to which Mr. Meli asked, "Would two weeks really make that much of a difference?" Councilman Famiglietti said it would, as the city would not have third-quarter actual figures in September.

Mr. Meli suggested the city might consider changing the timing of the fiscal year to run from June 30 through July 1, which would "take the political factor out completely." The City of Long Beach runs on that schedule, he added. Mayor Suozzi remarked that there are "a lot of variables to changing the fiscal calendar."

Mr. Meli also stated that he had called the mayor's office and was told that the council planned to vote on the revision at the meeting. He said he asked for a copy of the proposed change, but did not receive it. As it unfolded, the mayor and council had decided to table the vote, however, Mr. Meli said he was entitled to know what the proposed change entailed.

Mayor Suozzi said that the core of the idea is to give the public more time to study the annual budget and he made a motion to close the hearing. The hearing was closed and the vote was tabled.

A resolution was offered to hire John Venezia as city assessor at $68,000 per year. Mr. Meli again stood to speak, questioning the council as to why the public is not told "who is being hired and at what salary," something the city had included in the published proposed agendas during Mayor Suozzi's first term in office. The mayor answered that the city is "not required" to provide the information and said that when salaries were printed in the newspapers, people who were newly hired complained to him. He then asked Mr. Meli, "Don't you have anything else to do?" The tenor and volume of the conversation escalated heatedly as Mr. Meli referenced Mayor Suozzi's inauguration day, stating that "You hired your friends and cronies and the public knew nothing about it. I shouldn't have to come to a meeting to find out what is being done with my tax money." Obviously annoyed, and speaking over Mr. Meli, Mayor Suozzi told him to "Say what you want to and shut up and sit down. We stopped putting that information in the papers months ago and I am not required to tell you. I'm not going to make policies based on your statements when I have employees complaining and asking me not to publish their salaries. You can get any information you want. Nothing is hidden." He added that, "Every good thing we try to do, we get hit with negative comments. There are political comments every week."

At that point Mr. Meli left the podium and Glenn Howard took the microphone to say he was appalled at the conduct of the proceedings. "What you pay people comes after they are on the books," he said. "If someone applied for a job in this city and had to go through this, I would tell them to leave."

Upon the completion of general business, Mayor Suozzi opened the floor to public comments, but said that there were a number of people at the meeting to discuss the Woolsey Avenue flooding, and since they were there for just one issue, he would allow them to be the first to speak. A projector was set up and Warren Koedding, Jerry and Sue Ahern, Linda and Steven Melbinger and Norman Melbinger took turns showing slides from last week's storms and discussing the situation of flooding that has gone on for years on their street whenever hard rains fall. Water comes from "all sides," they said, including Chestnut, Poplar and Reynolds. Words and pictures illustrated rivulets of water, floating garbage cans and furniture, whirlpools mid-street and stalled cars up and down Woolsey Avenue and neighboring streets. The situation has been going on for decades, worsening each year, said Mr. Koedding. Mr. Ahern said he has brought the drainage problem to the attention of at least two previous mayors.

The residents all described the ruination of plantings, fences and basements and garages, as well as items kept in them. Water in some yards was 3 feet deep last week and took up to five days to recede. It was not clean rainwater. One woman remarked that as the water flowed, she saw garbage and dead animals floating down the street. Once the rain stopped, the worms and mosquitoes came, she said.

The residents all have pumps in their basements, and they estimated pumping more than 300,000 gallons of water from their homes last week. When winter storms occur, snow is pushed into drains, worsening the situation, they said. Power and heat often fail, and snow turns to ice.

Mayor Suozzi said he had been to the site after the storms, both to observe the situation and to retrieve his garbage can, as he lives in the neighborhood, and assured the residents that he was taking the situation very seriously. A representative of the Sidney Bowne engineering firm was in attendance and he spoke about the city's plan to retrofit some of the storm drains and other methods of containment and control of the water. The county will be involved, as all the rainwater from the local streets should flow to Dosoris Lane, which is a county road. The residents were concerned with the prediction of rain for this coming weekend, and Mayor Suozzi said the city would begin work today on Woolsey, Chestnut and Poplar. Complete remediation will be a long, expansive process, but the residents were pleased to know that attention was finally being paid to their longtime problem.

Following the deluge dissertation, the meeting was adjourned and the Woolsey Avenue residents headed for home on a clear night, hoping the clouds stay away.