Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Local Governance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board agrees to place $45,000 annual historical-society appropriation on ballot after legal counsel's guidance
Summary
Trustees voted to include a separate proposition asking voters to authorize a recurring $45,000 annual appropriation for a local historical society after district counsel advised that the petition and appropriation amount met statutory conditions and must be placed on the ballot.
Trustees voted April 21 to place a separate proposition on the May ballot that would authorize an annual appropriation of $45,000 to a local historical society.
Visitor Allison (identified in the meeting as Miss Volgraf), who said she is the organization's president, asked the board to include the appropriation so the society can fund repairs and programing. Board members asked whether the appropriation would be levied only on Brookhaven residents where the society is located or across all three towns in the Sachem district. District legal counsel Ed advised that once a historical society that holds a valid charter petitions the district and identifies an appropriation amount, Education Law requires the district to place the proposition on the ballot. “Our advice is ... the historical society has complied with everything they’re supposed to do,” Ed said, and he confirmed the requested figure was $45,000 annually.
Ed told trustees the statute does not provide a mechanism to give different ballots or different propositions to different residents within the same school district and that the assessment and collection details — which assessor would levy the appropriation — would be a matter for the assessing jurisdictions to resolve. He also clarified that the appropriation is separate from the school district budget and would not come out of district operating funds.
Board members asked follow-up questions about whether the appropriation would recur automatically and how collection would work if a town assessor declined to levy it; Ed said once approved it would be an annual appropriation that would continue until changed by the society’s request. Trustees moved and approved a resolution to place the proposition on the ballot; the motion carried on a voice vote.
Next steps: the district will publish the proposition language and the appropriation will appear as a separate line item for voters to consider on the May ballot.
