batavia

City employees who are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union can expect annual raises over the next five years with the unanimous approval of a new contract by the City Council last night.

The three key components to the new contract, according to City Manager Jason Molino, are elimination of retiree health benefits for new hires, putting AFSCME members on the same wellness program as other city employees, and a reduction in the salary schedule for new hires going forward.

While those changes are expected to save the city money, the anticipated direct expense of the new contract is an additional $265,000 over the next five years. Annual raises are built in at 2.50 percent in three of the five years and 2.75 percent in the remaining two years.

This year, the council was asked to approve a shift of $63,100 from the contingency fund to cover the increased costs.

Molino is proud of the city's wellness program and glad to get the AFSCME members involved.

"It's a very good wellness plan and we're starting to see some results with it," Molino said.

Negotiations have been ongoing since March, 2012.

"It was a long and challenging process," Molino said.

Tishaun H. Conde, 19, of 16 Harvester Ave., Batavia, is charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, unlawful possession of marijuana, petit larceny and trespassing. Conde was arrested following a report at 10:06 a.m., Monday, of a car being broken into on Harvester Avenue. Conde was jailed on $2,500 bail. (Previously: Man suspected of rifling through cars on Harvester Avenue is subject of manhunt)

Sharon E. Herdtner, 51, of North Street, Batavia, is charged with criminal mischief. Herdtner allegedly punctured a tire of a vehicle on Tracy Avenue.

Tracy A. Hilton, 33, of Jackson Street, Batavia, is charged with menacing, 2nd, unlawful imprisonment, 1st, criminal possession of a weapon, 3rd, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal contempt, 1st. Hilton was allegedly involved in a domestic incident with his girlfriend at 5:50 p.m., Sunday, at their residence on Jackson Street. Hilton allegedly restrained his girlfriend and threatened her with a knife while in the presence of their two children. In the process, Hilton allegedly violated an order of protect. Hilton was held without bail.

Kimberly M. Douglas, 32, of Buell Street, Batavia, is charged with criminal tampering, 3rd. Douglas was arrested after police were dispatched at 7:40 a.m., Saturday, to a residence on Buell Street for a report of a disturbance. Douglas is accused of spitting on the screen door of a house on Buell, "causing a substantial inconvenience for the owner to clean."

Justin J. Caryl, 26, of Batavia, was arrested on a warrant. Caryl was arrested by a Wyoming County Sheriff's deputy at 5:30 a.m., Sunday, on Bank Road, Town of Middlebury, after he was located during an unrelated investgation. Caryl was turned over to the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.

Jeffrey Lewis Smith, 44, of Vinton Road, Rochester, is charged with petit larceny. Smith was arrested on a Town of Batavia warrant after being released from the Monroe County Jail. Smith was jailed in Genesee County on $2,500 bail.

Felicia Mae Downs, 20, of Broadway Road, Darien, is charged with identity theft, 3rd, and petit larceny. Downs allegedly used another person's credit card to make purchases without permission.

Randall W. McKeown, 52, of South Brooklyn Avenue, Wellsville, is charged with three counts of criminal contempt, 1st. In a violation of a stay away order of protection, McKeown allegedly sent text messages to the protected person on three separate dates. McKeown was released under supervision of Genesee Justice.

The unintended discharge of a police officer's weapon while at a residence on Grandview Terrace on April 22 was the subject of a closed door discussion by the Batavia City Council on Monday night, but officials emerged vowing to remain mum on the subject.

City Manager Jason Molino said he's not going to answer any more questions on the topic.

"We've given you all the reports," Molino said. "The chief made a statement. There are no injuries. I believe that to be the accurate statement. I'm not going to get into any more discussion about it."

About an hour before tonight's council meeting, City Clerk Heidi Parker e-mailed a PDF of the incident report from April 22 and said the redacted report constituted all of the publicly releasable information.

The incident report merely covers the alleged domestic call that prompted a police response. The narrative of the incident doesn't mention the weapon discharge at all.

On Friday, the city released the memos written by the five police officers on scene, but all of the narrative was redacted. Only the header information remained.

The city's position is that the weapon's discharge and possible minor injuries to a police officer are personnel matters and are not releasonable under Civil Service Law Section 50-a. 

There is no known prior incident of a Batavia police officer's weapon firing accidentally, so there's no precedent on what information the agency releases on the topic.

There have been police officers injured while on duty within the past few years, however, and the information has not been routinely kept from the public.

The domestic incident report had the names and other personal information redacted of the two people involved in the alleged domestic at Grandview Terrace.

The call began when a resident on Grandview Terrace reported that her ex-boyfriend was breaking items in the house. When police arrived, they found no evidence of a crime being committed and the ex-boyfriend was transported by a police officer to his mother's residence. The ex-girlfriend was advised to go to family court to get an order of protection. A shotgun owned by the ex-boyfriend was taken to a police storage locker for safe keeping.

City Councilman Eugene Jankowski, a former Batavia police officer and one-time acting chief of police, said he was directed not to comment on the personnel matter discussed in closed session, but that the issue was discussed fully.

"My questions were answered in the appropriate fashion and I have a full understanding of what happened," Jankowski said. 

Asked what the chief said about possible injuries, Jankowski answered, "The chief of police is claiming that there were no injuries. He's standing by that statement."

Previously: 

• Accidental weapon discharge leads to internal police investigation
• City denies request for public records related to unintended discharge of officer's firearm

A man who was allegedly rifling through vehicles near 16 Harvester Ave. is said to be hiding after running from officers. An area spanning three houses has been cordoned off.

Batavia police, Sheriff's deputies and a canine unit believe the suspect is contained within that area.

UPDATE 11:38 a.m.: Law enforcement is opening the area that had been cordoned off.

UPDATE 11:58 a.m.: The subject is in custody.

UPDATE 12:48 p.m.: Batavia Police Sgt. Dan Coffey recapped the incident for local media: "We received a 9-1-1 call of a larceny in progress from an unlocked motor vehicle. The witness was giving us detailed accounts of what was going on while our patrols were responding. Patrols arrived on scene, established a perimeter; the subject fled on foot. There was a brief foot chase. We believe the subject ran into a house here at 16 Harvester Avenue. We set up a perimeter there. We were eventually able to gain access to the residence and we located the subject hiding in a room who later was positively identified by our witness as the subject they saw breaking into the car. ... There was no physical confrontation or anything like that. He did become cooperative." Asked if there was any indication of illegal activity in the house, Coffey said drug paraphernalia was found inside the residence as a result of their investigation. ... "This is a rooming house, and through the process of elimination, (the suspect) was the only person that we couldn't account for. We started tracking him ... and from there we were able to positively identify him." Coffey could not confirm that anything was missing from the vehicle at this point. Possible charges could include attempted petit larceny, petit larceny and the drug parphernalia allegedly found in his room. The investigation is ongoing. Asked about the house being a problem in the neighborhood, Coffey conceded there have been "some issues there -- noise complaints and quality-of-life issues within the City of Batavia. So it's certainly been a house on our radar. ... It's a residence where some of our local college kids have been staying, so, again, it's a house that's been on our radar."

City fire is responding to 230 W. Main St., Batavia, for a report of the strong odor of natural gas in the kitchen of Burger King.

Town of Batavia Supervisor Greg Post was among several people attending the Fabulous Females awards dinner at Terry Hills tonight attired in hats that would put Kentucky Derby patrons to shame.

This year's honorees were Loren Penman, the Blossom Award, Elizabeth Myers, the Petal Award and Hannah Durham, the Seedling Award.

The dinner is sponsored by the YWCA and the Friends of the Batavia Peace Garden.

Beth Allen

Martha Bailey

Jeanne Walton, director of the YWCA, and Barb Toal, with the Peace Garden.

Joan and Greg Post

Betsy Grasso, Beth Grasso, Carol Grasso and Lorraine Nolan.

Late this afternoon, there was a robust game of basketball at Williams Park. The players were Greg Solomonidis, Dustin Pilc, David Burr, Coty Patrizi, Manny Delrosayrio, Mike Jamil.

This time of year when I drive down Jackson Street, I always enjoy the yellow magnolia tree with the Doty Mansion as a backdrop.

This is certainly a beautiful time of year for Centennial Park. The trees are budding and the dandelions and forget-me-nots are in bloom.

The Genesee County 4H Swine Club hosted its annual BBQ pulled pork lunch today at the Fairgrounds. The event is the largest fundraiser for the club.

Samantha Weber

Cole Carlson

Twins Kyle and Ryan Sage

Habitat for Humanity of Genesee County has made good progress on its latest project, a home on McKinley Avenue for Muriel Austin and her daughter Brooklyn, who were on the job today to help with the restoration.

Alicia Calcote, a student at RIT, with Sarah Harley and Brooklyn.

Batavia Players sponsored a Mother's Day Madness Shopping Spree & Flower Fundraiser outside their playhouse at 56 Harvester Avenue this afternoon.

While I was out and about this afternoon, I thought it would be fun to take in an inning of Little League baseball.

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This very nice photo came in this morning from Larry Trnka. It's of yesterday's storm. He said it's of outside John Riley's farm on Galloway Road, Batavia.

The Burke family were among the local residents who came out this morning for the community garden open house at the Batavia Youth Bureau. Master Gardener Bob Gray explained how the program worked. The Burkes are Scott, Jennifer, Lilyana and Noah. Denise Young also helped with the open house.

Following a student Mass at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church today, Bishop Richard Joseph Malone toured St. Joe's and Notre Dame, meeting with students and faculty along the way.

At St. Joe's, his tour guide was Principal Karen Green; at Notre Dame, it was Principal Joe Scanlan. His aide Rev. Ryazard Biernat accompanied the tour.

As near as anybody could remember, it's been more than 20 years since a bishop came to Batavia to celebrate Mass and tour a Catholic school. Malone said in Maine, there were 20 schools in his diocese and he made a point of visiting each one at least once a year, but in the Buffalo Diocese there are 40 schools. It would be hard to maintain that annual schedule with so many schools, he said, but when a student asked him if he would come back next year, he said, "if you invite me I will."

Before he left St. Joe's, Principal Green gave Bishop Malone a plate of chocolate from Oliver's.

Press release:

In a monitoring system that has evaluated 2,300 local governments fiscal condition statewide, the City of Batavia has been ranked better than most cities across Western New York. Last week New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced the completion of the initial scoring for all local governments and school districts in New York in the Fiscal Stress Monitoring System.

Last week the Comptroller issued Batavia a fiscal stress score of 0 percent for 2013, the lowest possible score. Other scores for fiscal years ending in 2013 that were released last week included Buffalo (15.8 percent), Corning (15.8 percent), Olean (11.7 percent), Rochester (20 percent), Syracuse (34.2 percent) and Watertown (9.6 percent). Other Western New York communities included the cities of Canandaigua (1.7 percent), Geneva (28.8 percent) and Oneonta (15.8 percent).

The system uses a 100-point scale to classify whether a municipality is in significant fiscal stress (65 to 100 percent), in moderate fiscal stress (55 to 65 percent), is susceptible to fiscal stress (45 to 55 percent), or no designation (below 45 percent).

“This confirms that the City has and continues to take the necessary steps to ensure the City is on solid financial footing,” said City Council President Brooks Hawley. “Building a solid financial foundation has been a priority in the City’s Strategic Plan and provides the City with the ability to accomplish more in the future, and build a stronger community long-term.”

The Fiscal Stress Monitoring System was created by the Office of the State Comptroller to identify local governments and school districts that are in fiscal stress as well as those showing susceptibility to fiscal stress. The Fiscal Stress Monitoring System is based on financial information provided to the Comptroller’s Office by local communities and uses financial indicators that include year-end fund balance, cash position and patterns of operating deficits, to create an overall fiscal stress score. To date the Comptroller’s monitoring system has identified a total of 142 municipalities in some level of fiscal stress. This includes 16 counties, 18 towns, five cities, 16 villages and 87 school districts.

The City of Batavia’s Strategic Planning process is the foundation from which the City’s Business Plan for services and annual budget are based. The intent of the Strategic Plan is to allocate City resources to best meet the needs of our residents, while balancing the environmental factors that may affect the City in the future. The City’s reassurance that they were on the path to financial recovery was seconded in July 2012 when Moody’s upgraded the City’s bond rating from “A2” to “A1."

Third Ward City Councilmember John Canale, and a member of the City’s Audit Advisory Committee, shared his thoughts on the City’s score, “Once again we have received confirmation that the City is headed in the right direction financially. I think accomplishments like this only contribute to the City’s efforts to improve services, strengthen our infrastructure and provide greater opportunities for Batavia.”

The Audit Advisory Committee was established to provide oversight to the financial and compliance reporting process and external audit process. The Committee will be responsible for meeting with the auditors prior to the audit, reviewing risk assessment, reviewing the draft financial statements and making a recommendation on acceptance of the external audit reports to the City Council.

Residents interested in applying for the Audit Advisory Committee can obtain an application from the City Clerk’s Office or can visit our Web site at www.batavianewyork.com/Files.

Bishop Richard Joseph Malone is visiting Batavia today. The bishop attended the student Mass at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church this morning, then went to St. Joe's School for lunch with students before a brief tour. He will tour Notre Dame High School this afternoon.