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CORTLAND COUNTY 60 Central Avenue Cortland NY 13045 Charles Sudbrink Eric Mulvihill Chair, Cortland County Legislature Clerk of the Legislature June 28, 2018 Fellow Legislators, Employees, and Residents of Cortland County as your Chairman it is my honor to present the 2018 State of the County message. I am pleased to report that while our County faces challenges, the State of our County is strong and despite those challenges our County is moving forward to meet those challenges head-on. In January the Legislature saw some major changes as eight new members were sworn into office. Our new Legislators have not wasted any time and have worked quickly to get up to speed on the issues facing our County. Some of my colleagues outlined their goals for this term; I was pleased to see that many of those goals are the same goals that the Legislature has been working on since 2016. The Legislature has committed to finding solutions to the problems that have plagued us for years. For the first time in over a decade the County Landfill is finally paying for itself including covering the costs of previous borrowing for the landfills expansion as well as funding reserve accounts for equipment and closure expenses. While many of us were reluctant to look at Flow Control, myself included, it has become apparent that enacting the Flow Control Legislation was in the County’s best interest. Moving forward we will be proposing revisions to strengthen our existing Flow Control law and look for ways to solve the continued financial losses in our Recycling program. I would like to thank Solid Waste Chairman Don Boyden and the Solid Waste Committee for their continued efforts to make our solid waste programs run more efficiently. For too many years the County has taken on large amounts of debt. At the time the borrowing was necessary to address critical needs such as our failing infrastructure; the practice of borrowing has left the County with significant debt. This has put the County in a difficult position of having too much unfunded debt and few ways to raise necessary revenue. The new sales tax agreement approved recently will begin the set aside 1 million dollars a year to help addresses the overcrowding issues in our jail as well as cover previous debt associated with the emergency communications project with the balance going to help reduce our debt. As we look to address the overcrowding in our jail, I would like to thank the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee Chairman Kevin Whitney and the rest of the Judiciary Committee for taking a fresh look at the jail and for reaching out to other members in our criminal justice system to look at all aspects of the overcrowding issue as we work toward making a final decision on whether to build new jail or renovate our current facility. The County has also made improving the safety in our county office building a priority. Over the past year Legislator Whitney working with Sherriff Helms and the Crisis Management Team have put countless hours in making the County office building a safer place to work and do business in. Most recently we conducted our first lockdown drill and I’m pleased to report the drill was a success. ---PAGE BREAK--- CORTLAND COUNTY 60 Central Avenue Cortland NY 13045 Charles Sudbrink Eric Mulvihill Chair, Cortland County Legislature Clerk of the Legislature In order to get a better understanding of what Cortland County is doing correctly and to identify areas where we can improve, we established the County Comparative Services Committee. I would like to thank Committee Chair Linda Jones as well as Legislator Kelly Preston for their work on this committee, they have done a great deal of work already and have traveled many miles visiting other counties and speaking with their administration. I expect the committee will have recommendations that if approved will help the County become more efficient to meet the challenges ahead. Speaking of challenges, unfortunately the Legislature is currently down two committee chairs due to illness. Not only has this left us short-handed but these two Legislators possess a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the county government. Fortunately Legislators Harbin and Van Dee have stepped up to lead the committees during this time, we pray for a speedy recovery for our colleagues and wish them well. As we continue through this year and beyond the County will be facing new challenges including new un- funded or in some cases under-funded mandates. Among those mandates is Counsel at first arraignment and the impact of the New York State Raise the Age Legislation. These two mandates alone are expected to have a significant impact on our 2019 budget. Along with rising operational and insurance costs, this will force the Legislature to work together if we hope to stay within the property tax cap. Despite these challenging times I believe for the most part, we have a group of hard working legislators and competent department heads and if we work as a team we will get through this budget season without raising taxes above the tax cap. I appreciate your continued support and as your Chairman I look forward to the second half of 2018 and beyond. Sincerely, Charles Sudbrink, Chair Cortland County Legislature