128- Empire State Law

Here, below, is some New York State Law.  It says that if an entity like RUPCO wants the town to extend the water district (since RUPCO property is not in the water district, and DEC declared RUPCO property OUT of the water district according to state law,) the entity (RUPCO) has to petition the Town Board, and then the Town Board has to vote yes or no. This is not part of SEQRA.  This is not under DEC, except that DEC declared the property out of the district.  This is just plain state law. Woodstock Town Attorney does not seem to understand that DEC's jurisdiction over this water system extension is not the ONLY state jurisdiction in existence.  There are many different jurisdictions, and they coexist and overlap.  Federal, state, local.  Water, historic preservation, health, etc.  All of these have different standards and their own processes.Town Attorney Futerfas was mistaken in writing that RUPCO's land was in the water district.  He retracted the citation of non-existent law that supported the "in the district" opinion he held.  Now, he has no reason to claim the property is in the district, yet he refuses to contend with this reality.  The property is outside the district, and that means the water district must be extended. (DEC wrote that in a letter to Town of Woodstock on March 9, 2011.)  And the following New York State law, requiring RUPCO to petition the Town Board for inclusion in/extension of the district, and a Town Board vote, is the required process.  This means that Woodstock Town Board has discretion in the decision to hook up RUPCO to town water. 

Now, isn't that rather simple?  I think it is, but Futerfas would have to admit a really big mistake if he agreed with me, in fact that "little" error he made and has since corrected is so central to his entire argument that the town's role is ministerial, that if you follow it to its logical conclusion, his whole position unravels.  Rather than have that happen, Futerfas made a motion to dismiss our second Article 78 petition, claiming that everything the Town Board does with regard to RUPCO and water is to be ministerial.  Well, that would be true, maybe, if the property were in the water district, but since it's not, the (below) state law applies.

Remember at the Oct. 5, 2010 Town Board meeting, (the one with the banjo and the singing,) RUPCO's attorney Mike Moriello stood there and said that RUPCO did not need to petition the town board for inclusion in/extension of the water district because, he claimed, the land was IN already.  Well, DEC says the land is OUTSIDE the water district. Therefore, let RUPCO petition the Town Board for inclusion in and extension of the water district, and then let the Town Board vote on it.  In Futerfas’ motion to dismiss, he never touches the in versus out of the district conflict.  He is pretending there isn’t one!

 I suggest Town of Woodstock look over this law and get some legal advice on it.  But don't use Futerfas, for he is busy covering his own backside, not the town's.

2010 New York Code
TWN - Town
Article 12 - (190 - 208-B) DISTRICT AND SPECIAL IMPROVEMENTS 

§ 190. Establishment or extension of improvement 

districts. Upon a petition as hereinafter  provided,  

the  town  board  of  any  town  may
  establish or extend in said town a sewer, drainage, water, water quality
  treatment,  park,  public parking, lighting, snow removal, water supply,
  sidewalk, a fallout shelter district or  refuse  and  garbage  district,
  aquatic  plant  growth  control district, ambulance district, and in any
  town bordering upon or containing within its  boundaries  any  navigable
  waters  of  this  state,  a  harbor  improvement district, a public dock
  district, or beach erosion control district, and provide improvements or
  services, or both, in any such district, wholly at the  expense  of  the
  district;  but no water supply district shall be established or extended
  to include lands situate within the boundaries of a water  district.  No
  such  district  shall  be  established  or  extended  in a city 

[Woodstock is not a city] or in an incorporated village 

[Woodstock is not an incorporated village] 

provided, however, that  such  a  district  may  be
  established  or extended wholly or partly within an incorporated village
  on consent of the  village  expressed  in  a  local  law,  ordinance  or
  resolution,   subject   to   a  referendum  on  petition  under  section
  twenty-four of the municipal home rule law or  a  permissive  referendum
  under  article  nine of the village law, as the case may be, and except,
  in the case of a water quality  treatment  district,  on  consent  of  a
  village  expressed  in  a  local  law  or  by resolution of the board of
  trustees and not subject to any referendum.

§  191.  Petition. Except as otherwise provided in the case of a water
  storage and distribution district, water quality treatment  district  or
  sewage  disposal  district,  a  petition  for  the  establishment or the
  extension of an improvement district shall be signed by  the  owners  of
  taxable  real  property  situate  in  the proposed district or extension
  thereof, owning in the aggregate  at  least  one-half  of  the  assessed
  valuation  of  all the taxable real property of the proposed district or
  extension thereof, as shown upon the latest completed assessment-roll of
  said town; provided, however, that if there be any resident owners,  the
  petition  shall include the signatures of resident owners owning taxable
  real property aggregating at least one-half of the assessed valuation of
  all the taxable real property of  the  proposed  district  or  extension
  owned   by   resident   owners,   according   to  the  latest  completed
  assessment-roll. If a portion only of  a  parcel  of  such  real  estate
  appearing  upon  the  assessment-roll  is  situate  within  the proposed
  district or extension thereof, then the town  board  may  determine  the
  relative  value  of  the  part  thereof  within the proposed district or
  extension thereof, based upon the valuation of the entire parcel as  the
  same  appears upon the assessment-roll. Such petition shall describe the
  boundaries of the proposed district or extension in a manner  sufficient
  to  identify  the lands included therein as in a deed of conveyance, and
  shall be signed by the petitioners, and acknowledged or  proved  in  the
  same  manner  as  a  deed to be recorded, or authenticated in the manner
  provided by the  election  law  for  the  authentication  of  nominating
  petitions.     If  such  petition  shall  request  the  construction  or
  acquisition of  an  improvement,  it  shall  state  the  maximum  amount
  proposed  to be expended therefor. If the petition shall not request the
  construction or acquisition of an  improvement  but  shall  propose  the
  performance  or  supplying of certain services, it may state the maximum
  amount to be  expended  annually  for  such  services.  In  addition,  a
  petition  for the establishment or extension of a park or public parking
  district shall describe the property proposed to  be  acquired  for  the
  purposes thereof.