The Seneca County Board of Supervisors spent much of its August meeting wrestling with money — from how much it may take to recruit a manager for the Finger Lakes Regional Airport to whether elected supervisors should receive raises while the county prepares for a difficult 2027 budget.
The board ultimately rejected a proposal that could have allowed an airport manager salary as high as $125,000 before settling on a maximum of $100,199. Supervisors also stripped a proposed 3% raise for themselves from next year’s salary plan, advanced a local law allowing the county to exceed the state property tax cap if necessary and heard a warning that an eye-catching increase in sales tax revenue is largely the result of a one-time payment from prior years.
The Aug. 11 meeting also saw lawmakers approve $300,000 for septic system replacements, $130,146 in opioid settlement funding for United Way of Seneca County, a contract of up to $1.5 million for environmental assessment work, changes to the county’s Freedom of Information Law procedures and a resolution seeking relief from federal SNAP cost shifts that county officials estimate could cost Seneca County more than $570,000 annually.
Before getting to that business, supervisors honored longtime Seneca Falls barber Bob Caraccilo, who is retiring after 66 years in the profession, and heard from Waterloo residents who said persistent problems with water meters and estimated bills have left them questioning whether they have been overcharged. The meeting agenda specifically identified Gail Fridley as a petitioner on the water billing issue.
Airport salary debate exposes broader budget tension
The longest debate of the meeting centered on how much Seneca County should be willing to pay its next full-time Finger Lakes Regional Airport manager.
The original salary range was $67,485 to $89,499. A proposal developed through committee discussion would have expanded the maximum to $125,000.
Robert Shipley, who chairs the board’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, handled the airport manager resolution on the floor and requested a roll-call vote on the proposed higher range. The county’s current committee structure assigns oversight of the Finger Lakes Regional Airport to that committee. (Seneca County)
The county has struggled to fill the position, and supervisors said the airport needs dedicated leadership. During the discussion, Joseph Borst noted that the person currently doing the work is expected to be finished in October and that the airport is already down two employees, creating a narrow window to hire and train a replacement.
But the $125,000 ceiling caused immediate concern.
Board Chairman Michael Enslow said he supported filling the position but questioned the optics of advertising the job at one salary range and then substantially increasing it after the leading candidate sought considerably more money.
The candidate had applied when the advertised maximum was $89,499 and later countered at about $120,000, according to discussion at the meeting.
Elizabeth Partee also said she was having difficulty with the upper end of the proposed range and questioned whether a salary set within the approved range would come back before the full board for another vote. County officials indicated it would not.
Paul Kronenwetter questioned why a candidate who applied for a position topping out at about $89,500 would later seek approximately $120,000.
Jeffrey Trout argued that the airport has been a management burden for the Planning Department and needs dedicated leadership. He said his support for a broader range did not mean the county necessarily had to pay someone $125,000; instead, it would give those handling recruitment greater flexibility to attract qualified applicants.
County Manager Melissa Taylor added another benchmark to the debate, telling supervisors that more than 90% of county department heads do not make $125,000 per year. Taylor is Seneca County’s current county manager. (Seneca County)
The $125,000 proposal failed on a weighted roll-call vote, receiving 332 votes in favor and 294 against, with 124 absent. Under the county’s weighted voting system, 376 votes were needed for passage.
Supervisors then worked toward a compromise.
Borst suggested returning to a previously discussed maximum of $98,330. Taylor noted that the next step on the existing salary schedule was $100,199.
The board ultimately settled on that figure.
Taylor said $100,199 would place the Grade 5 position at Step 21 and, generally speaking, around the middle of the county’s department-head pay structure, though salaries vary depending on experience, tenure, staffing responsibilities and department budgets.
The amended resolution passed unanimously among supervisors present, authorizing the county to fill the airport manager position with a maximum salary of $100,199.
The debate came against a broader backdrop of fiscal uncertainty.
Partee, speaking during a Budget Task Force update, cautioned supervisors against reading too much into a recent report showing Seneca County sales tax revenue up 16.46% in the second quarter compared with the same period last year.
About $2.15 million of that increase, she said, came from a payment received in April for sales taxes owed from before 2022. Remove that one-time revenue, and the year-over-year increase is closer to 2.25%.
Taylor said departments have until Sept. 1 to submit their 2027 budget requests, with budget workshops expected in October and the tentative budget due in November.
Supervisors also introduced a proposed local law allowing the county to override New York’s property tax cap when adopting the 2027 budget. The measure does not itself raise taxes or guarantee the county will exceed the cap; it preserves the board’s ability to do so if necessary. A public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 8.
Supervisors reject their own raises
Those budget concerns spilled directly into another debate over compensation.
The proposed 2027 salary law initially included a 3% increase for members of the Board of Supervisors, which would have raised the chairman’s annual salary to $20,394 and supervisors’ pay to $16,071.
Trout objected.
He said he could support increases for department heads and other elected officials but not for supervisors while county government is discussing budget pressures and asking departments to control costs.
Trout said his own town board was not taking increases next year and that he could not, in good conscience, support a raise for county supervisors under the circumstances.
The board ultimately supported his amendment freezing supervisor compensation.
That leaves the chairman’s salary at $19,800 and supervisors’ salaries at $15,603.
The board separately approved amendments adding salary steps for the county clerk and county treasurer.
After those amendments, the proposed salary law passed by a weighted vote of 442-184, with 124 votes absent. The proposal still must proceed through the required local-law process, including a Sept. 8 public hearing.
Waterloo residents demand answers over water bills
Waterloo resident Gail Fridley told supervisors she discovered the village had been estimating her water usage since 2017.
Fridley said she began investigating after requesting a new meter. She told the board the village had been estimating her usage at 7,445 gallons, while her actual usage after the new meter was installed was about 5,400 gallons.
She also objected to being charged minimum usage for two apartments despite the property having a single meter and one water bill.
Fridley said village employees had told her other residents also have faulty meters and estimated bills, leading her to argue that the problem requires a broader review of Waterloo’s water operation.
Another Waterloo resident, who identified herself as Debbie, told supervisors that her household has had its meter replaced three times.
She said she and her husband began manually recording their water readings every day after repeatedly receiving bills they believed were inaccurate. She said the newest meter appeared to register usage even when no water was running in the house.
During the discussion with Fridley, Trout noted that the towns of Tyre, Fayette and Junius had previously contracted with the village of Waterloo for certain water-related services but that those arrangements ended earlier this year.
He said staffing limitations had been cited as one reason for ending those services and suggested the village should now have more capacity to focus on customers within Waterloo.
The Board of Supervisors did not take formal action on the complaints.
$300,000 will help homeowners replace failing septic systems
Supervisors accepted another $300,000 through the state Septic System Replacement Fund.
The funding can reimburse eligible property owners for 50% of qualifying septic repair, replacement or upgrade costs, up to $10,000 per project.
Eligible areas include designated properties near Cayuga Lake, Seneca Lake and the Seneca River or Cayuga-Seneca Canal.
The program is intended to address failing or inadequate septic systems that can contribute to groundwater contamination and water-quality problems.
The county also moved forward with weatherization-related contracts and bidding for electrical, HVAC and plumbing work.
Separately, supervisors approved spending up to $24,170 to replace 142 smoke detectors at the Seneca County Courthouse in Waterloo after the devices failed their most recent inspection.
A much larger facilities project was held back.
A proposed agreement with Barton & Loguidice for up to $900,000 in preconstruction services tied to renovations at the Health and Senior Services Building was returned for consideration at a future special board meeting.
County warns SNAP changes could carry $570,000 annual hit
Supervisors joined counties across New York in asking Congress to delay federal changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The county resolution says H.R. 1 reduces the federal share of SNAP administrative costs from 50% to 25% beginning Oct. 1.
Because New York requires counties to administer SNAP and share administrative expenses, Seneca County estimates the shift will create a recurring annual cost of $570,125.
Another change scheduled to begin in October 2027 establishes state cost-sharing for SNAP benefits based on payment error rates.
New York’s current error rate exceeds 10%, according to the resolution, which would place the state in the highest federal penalty tier and create an estimated $1.1 billion in additional annual exposure.
The county resolution emphasizes that payment errors do not necessarily indicate fraud. They can stem from paperwork mistakes, changes in earned income, payment calculations or delays in reporting information.
Supervisors called for a two-year delay of both cost shifts. If Congress does not act, the county wants New York state government to cover the added costs instead of passing them to counties and local property taxpayers.
Opioid money, brownfields work and firefighting foam approved
The board approved $130,146 in one-time opioid settlement funding for United Way of Seneca County.
The funding will support prevention and harm-reduction work directly related to opioid use and misuse. The proposal had previously been recommended by the county’s Opioid Settlement Fund Ad Hoc Committee and will be monitored through the Community Services Board.
Supervisors also approved a contract of up to $1.5 million with C&S Companies for environmental work funded through an Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Assessment Coalition Grant.
The work may include Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments, reviews of regulated building materials and cleanup planning at prospective sites across Seneca County, with a focus on the Cayuga-Seneca Canal corridor and former Willard Asylum property.
Six firms responded to the county’s request for proposals before C&S was selected.
Another $36,828 purchase will replenish firefighting material used for regional hazardous materials response.
The county approved purchasing four 250-gallon totes of F-500 Encapsulator Agent after state restrictions on firefighting foams containing PFAS left Seneca and Ontario counties with critically low inventories.
The purchase will be funded through a $110,600 state regional HAZMAT grant, with two totes going to Ontario County for its regional foam trailer.
County documents put the F-500 product at $31.15 per gallon, compared with $52.71 per gallon for another fluorine-free foam considered by the county.
Composting study points toward longer-term changes
The meeting opened with research that could influence how Seneca County approaches food waste and recycling in the years ahead.
Cornell University intern Remy Germain presented work completed through Cornell Cooperative Extension examining composting and recycling practices.
Germain highlighted Seneca Falls’ state-funded curbside composting pilot, launched in October 2024 for 100 households.
She estimated that if all 100 buckets were filled with about 15 pounds of food waste each week, the program could divert approximately 78,000 pounds, or 39 tons, annually. Germain repeatedly stressed that those are estimates based on capacity, not measured results from the program.
She contrasted that approach with Ithaca’s pay-as-you-throw system, where residents buy tags to dispose of trash, creating a financial incentive to reduce waste while recycling and composting are less expensive by comparison.
Germain recommended collecting and publishing actual participation and tonnage data from the Seneca Falls pilot, developing a plan for what happens when the grant funding ends and studying whether an incentive-based disposal model could work locally.
Longer term, she suggested exploring the feasibility of a Seneca County composting facility that could process organic material closer to where it is generated.
The board also approved changes intended to keep Freedom of Information Law requests and appeals moving when designated officials are unavailable, accepted a $2,205 grant to digitize Board of Supervisors minutes dating from 1869 through 1934 and approved floodplain management agreements involving Lodi, Seneca Falls and Covert.
By the end of the meeting, the county’s broader fiscal challenge was difficult to miss.
The 2027 budget is only beginning to take shape, but supervisors have already preserved the possibility of overriding the property tax cap, declined to give themselves raises and spent considerable time debating whether Seneca County should authorize a six-figure salary to solve a persistent staffing problem at the airport.
Those questions will become more consequential this fall as department requests arrive, budget workshops begin and supervisors determine how much of the county’s rising costs can be absorbed without increasing the burden on property taxpayers.
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