Certain political subdivisions of the State continue of experience fiscal stress

Certain political subdivisions of the State continue of experience fiscal stress

Source: Office of the State Comptroller

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s Fiscal Stress Monitoring System has designated 44 municipalities across the state as fiscally stressed -- 12 counties, 11 cities and 21 towns. For the third consecutive year DiNapoli’s office has evaluated the financial stability of local governments and has identified 70 municipalities in fiscal stress at least once during this period. The report is posted on the Internet at: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/pdf/munis_stressed2014.pdf

“The financial trends in some local governments have not improved over the past three years, and it is looking tougher for New York’s cities,” said DiNapoli. “While it is clear that our municipalities continue to struggle with balancing revenues against increasing costs, we also know that sensible budgeting and developing comprehensive multiyear financial plans are crucial to overcoming both current and future fiscal challenges.”

The latest round of scores is based on 2014 financial information provided to DiNapoli’s office by local governments as of Aug. 31, 2015 and includes only municipalities with fiscal years ending on Dec. 31, 2014. In New York, all counties and towns, 44 cities and 10 villages have a calendar-based fiscal year – a total of 1,043 communities.

Based on their 2014 financial statements, 15 entities have received the highest designation of “significant fiscal stress.” This includes the counties of Monroe, Broome, Nassau, St. Lawrence, Franklin and Rockland; the cities of Glen Cove and Albany; and the towns of East Fishkill, Jasper, Ramapo, Pierrepont, Coeymans, Cherry Valley and Parish.

Eleven communities have been listed in the second highest category of “moderate fiscal stress.” This includes Suffolk County, the cities of Poughkeepsie, Little Falls, Fulton and Glens Falls; and the towns of Hempstead, Colonie, Napoli, Saugerties, Rochester and German Flatts.

Another 18 municipalities have been listed in the third category as “susceptible to fiscal stress.”

DiNapoli’s monitoring system evaluates local governments on nine financial indicators and creates a fiscal condition score. Indicators include fund balance, cash-on-hand and patterns of operating deficits. The system also evaluates environmental information such as population trends, poverty and unemployment. Each municipality receives a separate environmental score.

When examining the scoring results, DiNapoli noted 14 municipalities were designated in stress for each of the three years since he implemented the system, 21 were in stress in two out of three years and 35 for only one of three years. Most notably, four counties have been in significant stress for all three years (Franklin, Monroe, Rockland and St. Lawrence).

Other findings include:

* Last year 35 calendar year entities were designated as fiscally stressed;

* Twenty calendar year entities moved into a fiscal stress category in 2014;

* Eleven calendar year entities moved out of fiscal stress category in 2014;

* In 2014, more than 21 percent of counties and 25 percent of calendar year cities were in a fiscal stress category, while just over 2 percent of towns were stressed;

* Downstate had a larger percentage of calendar year entities in stress, with 25 percent of those on Long Island (4 of 16) and 8 percent of those in the Mid-Hudson region (10 of 123) listed; and

* More than two dozen municipalities failed to file their financial data in time to receive a fiscal stress score in all three reporting years. This includes the city of Ithaca and 25 towns.

The fiscally stressed governments identified today join the previously announced 115 municipalities and school districts that have been classified in some level of fiscal stress as of their 2014 fiscal year end date.

Last year, DiNapoli’s legislative proposal to help local governments across New York improve their long-term budget planning was signed into law. The law allows counties, cities, towns and villages identified as fiscally stressed to be reimbursed by the state’s Financial Restructuring Board for Local Governments for all or part of the costs associated with long-term budget planning, including hiring financial advisors to assist in the development of multi-year budget plans.

Multiyear financial planning is a tool that will enable these entities to develop revenue and expenditure trends, establish long-term priorities and goals, and take into consideration the impact of near-term budgeting decisions on future fiscal years. It also allows officials to assess alternative approaches to financing operations.

In addition, DiNapoli's Division of Local Government and School Accountability conducts ongoing outreach with local government officials throughout the fiscal monitoring process and has created a number of tools to help municipal officials better understand their financial data, the impact it has on their score and their financial condition. The Comptroller’s office has also launched a new training academy for local government officials that will increase training efforts related to financial oversight and budgeting activities.

For a copy of DiNapoli’s report Three Years of the Fiscal Stress Monitoring System, visit:
http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/pdf/threeyearsfsms_0915.pdf

To view the complete, sortable list of fiscal scores for municipalities, visit:
http://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/fsms.cfm

For more detailed information about the Comptroller’s fiscal stress monitoring system and to view reports related to local government fiscal stress visit:
www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/index.htm

For access to state and local government spending, public authority financial data and information on 50,000 state contracts, visit Open Book New York. The easy-to-use website was created by DiNapoli to promote openness in government and provide taxpayers with better access to the financial workings of government.

The Jurisprudence of Yogi Berra

The Jurisprudence of Yogi Berra

Source: Brian Costello, Esq., Loyola Law School, Los Angeles 

The late Yankee baseball player Yogi Berra’s way with words reached all the way to legal academia.

In 1997, a group of Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, professors contributed to a law review article The Jurisprudence of Yogi Berra which promised to "examine Yogi's wisdom and demonstrate the parallels between judges' and legislators' comments and what Yogi said - only Yogi said it better." 

The authors included Professors Jan Costello, Bryan Hull, Laurie Levenson, Samuel Pillsbury, Katie Pratt, Ted Seto, Georgene Vairo and Gary Williams.

The law review article is available on the Internet at:

http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1707&context=facpubs

Court reviews the law of an employer’s liability for the negligent in hiring, training, supervising and retaining an employee alleged to have violent propensities

Court reviews the law of an employer’s liability for the negligent in hiring, training, supervising and retaining an employee alleged to have violent propensities

Gonzalez v City of the New York, 2015 NY Slip Op 06869, Appellate Division, First Department

This action arose from the shooting death of Shirley Fontanez by her boyfriend, a New York City Police Officer, Frederick Maselli, at his home, on July 23, 2007. After the shooting, Maselli killed himself. Plaintiff Keyla Virginia Gonzalez, as administrator of the Estate of Fontanez, alleged that numerous complaints were made to the City of New York concerning Maselli's abusive conduct toward Fontanez and her daughter, that the City was negligent in hiring, training, supervising and retaining Maselli, and in failing to take action to remove his firearm, and thereby caused Fontanez's wrongful death.

Although Supreme Court granted the City’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the action on the ground that any negligence on City's part for failing to discharge a police officer with violent propensities could not have been the proximate cause of Fontanez's death, since at the time of the fatal shooting, Maselli was off-duty and was acting outside the scope of his employment, the Appellate Division disagreed and said that the dispositive issue that to be resolved was whether the fact that the police officer was off duty when he committed the fatal shooting breaks any connection, as a matter of law, between the fatal injuries and the employer's alleged negligence regarding an employee with violent propensities.

The Appellate Division found that under the circumstances, this case presented genuine issues of material fact as to whether the City negligently supervised and retained an officer with violent propensities, and whether the intervening intentional tort of the off-duty officer was itself a foreseeable harm that shaped the duty imposed upon the City when it failed to guard against a police officer with violent propensities. When such questions of breach of duty and proximate cause exist, summary judgment is not proper. These questions of fact, said the court, must be reserved for the jury.

In its analysis of the relevant law involved, the Appellate Division noted, in part, the following:

1. Citing Haddock v City of New York, 75 NY2d 478, the court said that in this case the alleged duty owed to plaintiff stems from New York's long recognized tort of negligent hiring and retention and this tort applies equally to municipalities and private employers.

2. Under the theory of negligent hiring and retention, an employer may be liable for the acts of an employee acting outside the scope of his or her employment in contrast to employer liability under legal doctrine of "respondeat superior," where an employer is held liable for the wrongs or negligence of an employee acting within the scope of the employee's duties or in furtherance of the employer's interests.

Here, said the court, the alleged breach of duty stems from the claim that during the Maselli’s employment with the City, the City became aware or should have become aware of problems with the police officer that indicated he was unfit (i.e. possessed violent propensities), that the City failed to take further action such as an investigation, discharge, or reassignment, and that Fontanez's damages were caused by the City's negligent retention, or supervision of Maselli. The duty not to entrust a gun to a dangerous or incompetent police officer thus extends to any person injured as a result of the negligent entrustment.

3. New Yorkcourts have held governmental employers liable for placing employees, like police officers who are known to be violent, in positions in which they can harm others.

4. The torts of negligent retention and supervision of governmental employees with dangerous propensities do not specifically require allegations that the employees' misconduct occur within the course and scope of the employment. Rather, what the plaintiff must demonstrate is a connection or nexus between the plaintiff's injuries and the defendant's malfeasance.

The Appellate Division said that in its view, both the type of harm that occurred and the person upon whom the injury was inflicted were foreseeable within a degree of acceptability recognized by New York law and it was reasonably foreseeable that such an officer would injure a member of his own family, including his girlfriend.

Finally, the Appellate Division said it was aware of the fact that all police personnel involved in this case have adamantly denied ever receiving even a single complaint about Maselli’s alleged violent propensities. In contrast, said the court, Plaintiff Gonzalezhas presented evidence that the City was informed on numerous occasions, prior to the fatal shooting, about Maselli’s abusive conduct toward Fontanez and her daughter.

Under the circumstances, the Appellate Division ruled that this case presented genuine issues of material fact as to whether the City negligently supervised and retained an officer with violent propensities, and whether the intervening intentional tort of the off-duty officer was itself a foreseeable harm that shaped the duty imposed upon the City when it failed to guard against a police officer with violent propensities.

When such questions of breach of duty and proximate cause exist, summary judgment is not proper. Reversing the ruling of the Supreme Court, the Appellate Division held that “[T]hese questions of fact must be reserved for the jury and Supreme Court should not have granted the City's motion for summary judgment on the issue of proximate cause.”

The decision is posted on the Internet at:

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http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2015/2015_06869.htm

Employee deferred compensation plan proposals requested

Employee deferred compensation plan proposals  requested

Source: New York State Register dated September 23, 2015

The Town of Lyons is requesting proposals from qualified administrative services agencies and, or, financial organizations relating to administration, trustee services and, or, funding of a deferred compensation plan for employees of The Town of Lyons meeting the requirements of Section 457 of the Internal Revenue Code and Section 5 of the State Finance Law, including all rules and regulations issued pursuant thereto.

A copy of the proposal questionnaire may be obtained from the Town of Lyons Town Clerk,  Sal Colatarci, 43 Phelps St., Lyons, NY 14489. Telephone: (315) 946-6252 (ext. 10) or e-mail the Town at  e-mail: townofly@rochester.rr.com

All proposals must be submitted no later 30 days from the date of publication in the New York State Register no later than 4:30 p.m.