Chamber Questionnaire: Paul Allen
Personal info
Name: Paul W. Allen
Address: 3999 Crestwood Court, PO Box 323, Cortland, NY 13045
Day Time Phone: 607-543-0336
Office Held: Cortland County Legislator, Cortlandville - 14th District
Biographical Data: I am 34 years old, married to Betsy with two children Abby (13) and Blake (7).
Occupation and personal information including civic involvement:
I work as an Account Executive for Eastern Copy Products. For the last 13 years I have been working with businessmen and women in the Cortland / Ithaca area as a sales consultant, helping to fill the needs of businesses for office equipment. I am also a businessman. My wife Betsy and I own and operate Carbon Copies and Cortland Press, located on Main Street in Cortland. We do commercial printing, full service copying and packaging and shipping.
I attended college at TC3 where I studied Business Administration.
I serve on the CAPCO and Salvation Army Board of Directors, and I have done so since taking office over three years ago.
I have served on the Tioughnioga River Trail Commission for four years.
I am Cortland County’s representative on the New York State Region 7 Open Spaces Commission. This commission works with NYS Parks and Recreation and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to preserve natural resources and promote access to natural wonders.
I’m a former member of the YMCA Board of Directors.
What is your primary motivation for seeking public office?
My main motivation for running is to improve the quality of life in Cortland County. I believe that this is accomplished through a low cost of living and good employment opportunities, coupled with a long term commitment for investment in the future of our community.
My wife Betsy and I have a huge stake in the future of Cortland County. We both had grandparents who made their homes in Cortland County, and both of our families have stayed here for the most part ever since. I want to continue to work as part of a TEAM in the legislature to make Cortland a place where our children can one day choose to raise their families.
What experiences and perspectives do you bring to the legislative body?
I believe that the function of local government is to ensure our limited resources are efficiently and effectively utilized. I consider myself a fiscal conservative, and it is my conservative nature that I believe is beneficial to the “group discussion” when we are deliberating on how best to use the limited resources to meet the specific needs of Cortland County.
Having the right team is critical to attaining long term goals. We have a great team working together in the legislature which is effective, and we are accomplishing what we said we would. Being a part of that team is very exciting and it is important to me to continue what we have started.
We told voters that if we were given a chance to lead that we would instill greater accountability and address areas of deficiency. We have done exactly what we said we would do. I believe that the toughest part was introducing change. People are usually reluctant to change; even if the change will make things better. Whether it is business or government, people do not want to leave their “comfort zone”.
I ran in 2003 on a platform of open and honest government which operated with greater public accountability. I promised to work to help make fundamental changes that were greatly needed. We have strived to increase accountability and better balance it with responsibility and authority.
Although there is still a long way to go I think it is clear to anyone watching the situation that a great deal of progress has been made. We are serious people with a serious mission of improving the County’s situation.
What is your Assessment of the county’s economic health? In what areas are we doing well and in what areas must we improve if the community is to move forward positively?
In 2003 the legislature passed a 9.5% tax increase. This brought the cumulative tax increase dangerously close to our constitutional tax limit. Voters sent a clear message to elected officials, either reign in massive tax increases, or over-burdened taxpayers would vote them out. Voters said that they wanted leadership that would put an end to fiscally irresponsible decision making and we listened. This legislature made considerable cost cutting measures a top priority and passed a 2.9% tax increase last year.
This year, for the first time in history, the legislature will have a budget on the table before the election. I believe that voters should have the right to know the tax rate for the following year before they are asked to decide who to vote for. If re-elected, I will advocate that we make this change a permanent requirement of legislators.
The previous legislature spent down the available cash reserve from over 4 million dollars down to about zero. Consequently, the county had to borrow to pay its operating expenses. This legislature passed a law that the county must maintain a 10% cash reserve. Two years ago Cortland County residents made a decision to change the leadership of their county government, since then, we have put over $8 million into reserve.
We promised responsibly administrated social service programs, where people in need could find help, and people who are able, are helped with the transition towards self sufficiency. We won an award from New York State for helping people who get off welfare to successfully stay off welfare. We increased our efforts in welfare fraud investigation and subsequently increased arrests for welfare fraud from 1 in 2002 to 15 in 2005.
We took the results of the NYS Comptroller's audit very seriously. We have satisfied all but one of the six areas of deficiency.
Are there current initiatives with which you are involved, and are there any new ones you might bring to the table?
As Chairman of the Highway Committee there are a number of initiatives that our committee is working on, since January of 2004 we have made considerable progress and given two more years we will complete the work that we have started.
Cortland County Highway Department Administration
Complete 2005 proposed capital projects
South Main Street/Page Green project
Authorize design and development of pre-cast structures in-house so that we can begin replacement of the deteriorating concrete culverts cost effectively
Develop a long-range equipment replacement schedule in order to replace aging equipment in a well planned manner.
Cortland County Recycling Center
Authorize study for Leachate treatment and/or disposal cost savings
Educate legislature and general public on the need for a capping project to possibly include funding for a pipe line or on-site leachate treatment
Cortland County Airport
As an elected representative, what will you do to promote commerce growth in Cortland County?
As a business owner in Cortland County, I am well aware of the challenges faced daily by those in the business world. I know first-hand that high utility costs and high state and federal taxes take their toll. I will continue to work towards initiatives that help all businesses, big and small, in Cortland County.
I am a strong supporter of the IDA/BDC and the Cortland County Chamber of Commerce. I believe that the county funding expended on by these agencies is essential to the long-term growth and health of the local economy.
I believe that there are three very important prerequisites of good, strong, successful business development. First, we must keep property tax increases to a bare minimum. By keeping taxes down, we are not only helping homeowners, but business owners, and landlords, including commercial property owners as well. I believe that business growth happens in part as a result of profitable businesses. If the county tax bill is less, that leaves more money for things like: increased capital investment, adding new employees, employing new technologies, additional training; more operating capital allows businesses to take advantage of greater buying power, expand marketing efforts, and ultimately increases the needs for other service providers. Lower taxes equate to business growth and a higher profit margin for business owners.
Second, we must offer a quality of life that will make our county an attractive place where entrepreneurs will want to live and raise their families while they build their businesses. If re-elected, I will continue my efforts to get a NYS Park located in Cortland County and help complete the first leg of the Tioughnioga River Trail. Cortland County was recently recognized as one of the “Best Small Towns in America”; we need to get the word out and continue to make improvements in the quality of life in order to attract future employers.
Third, we must have a healthy transportation network for movement of goods and employees. Currently, we are in the process of working on a twenty-year plan to improve and maintain county infrastructure. Our infrastructure is essential to both attracting new businesses to our area and attracting existing businesses to stay and grow. If re-elected, I will continue to work diligently to find the funding to address the transportation needs in Cortland County. I am in frequent in contact with our local representatives in Albany and Washington, DC, lobbying for funding.
Name: Paul W. Allen
Address: 3999 Crestwood Court, PO Box 323, Cortland, NY 13045
Day Time Phone: 607-543-0336
Office Held: Cortland County Legislator, Cortlandville - 14th District
Biographical Data: I am 34 years old, married to Betsy with two children Abby (13) and Blake (7).
Occupation and personal information including civic involvement:
I work as an Account Executive for Eastern Copy Products. For the last 13 years I have been working with businessmen and women in the Cortland / Ithaca area as a sales consultant, helping to fill the needs of businesses for office equipment. I am also a businessman. My wife Betsy and I own and operate Carbon Copies and Cortland Press, located on Main Street in Cortland. We do commercial printing, full service copying and packaging and shipping.
I attended college at TC3 where I studied Business Administration.
I serve on the CAPCO and Salvation Army Board of Directors, and I have done so since taking office over three years ago.
I have served on the Tioughnioga River Trail Commission for four years.
I am Cortland County’s representative on the New York State Region 7 Open Spaces Commission. This commission works with NYS Parks and Recreation and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to preserve natural resources and promote access to natural wonders.
I’m a former member of the YMCA Board of Directors.
What is your primary motivation for seeking public office?
My main motivation for running is to improve the quality of life in Cortland County. I believe that this is accomplished through a low cost of living and good employment opportunities, coupled with a long term commitment for investment in the future of our community.
My wife Betsy and I have a huge stake in the future of Cortland County. We both had grandparents who made their homes in Cortland County, and both of our families have stayed here for the most part ever since. I want to continue to work as part of a TEAM in the legislature to make Cortland a place where our children can one day choose to raise their families.
What experiences and perspectives do you bring to the legislative body?
I believe that the function of local government is to ensure our limited resources are efficiently and effectively utilized. I consider myself a fiscal conservative, and it is my conservative nature that I believe is beneficial to the “group discussion” when we are deliberating on how best to use the limited resources to meet the specific needs of Cortland County.
Having the right team is critical to attaining long term goals. We have a great team working together in the legislature which is effective, and we are accomplishing what we said we would. Being a part of that team is very exciting and it is important to me to continue what we have started.
We told voters that if we were given a chance to lead that we would instill greater accountability and address areas of deficiency. We have done exactly what we said we would do. I believe that the toughest part was introducing change. People are usually reluctant to change; even if the change will make things better. Whether it is business or government, people do not want to leave their “comfort zone”.
I ran in 2003 on a platform of open and honest government which operated with greater public accountability. I promised to work to help make fundamental changes that were greatly needed. We have strived to increase accountability and better balance it with responsibility and authority.
Although there is still a long way to go I think it is clear to anyone watching the situation that a great deal of progress has been made. We are serious people with a serious mission of improving the County’s situation.
What is your Assessment of the county’s economic health? In what areas are we doing well and in what areas must we improve if the community is to move forward positively?
In 2003 the legislature passed a 9.5% tax increase. This brought the cumulative tax increase dangerously close to our constitutional tax limit. Voters sent a clear message to elected officials, either reign in massive tax increases, or over-burdened taxpayers would vote them out. Voters said that they wanted leadership that would put an end to fiscally irresponsible decision making and we listened. This legislature made considerable cost cutting measures a top priority and passed a 2.9% tax increase last year.
This year, for the first time in history, the legislature will have a budget on the table before the election. I believe that voters should have the right to know the tax rate for the following year before they are asked to decide who to vote for. If re-elected, I will advocate that we make this change a permanent requirement of legislators.
The previous legislature spent down the available cash reserve from over 4 million dollars down to about zero. Consequently, the county had to borrow to pay its operating expenses. This legislature passed a law that the county must maintain a 10% cash reserve. Two years ago Cortland County residents made a decision to change the leadership of their county government, since then, we have put over $8 million into reserve.
We promised responsibly administrated social service programs, where people in need could find help, and people who are able, are helped with the transition towards self sufficiency. We won an award from New York State for helping people who get off welfare to successfully stay off welfare. We increased our efforts in welfare fraud investigation and subsequently increased arrests for welfare fraud from 1 in 2002 to 15 in 2005.
We took the results of the NYS Comptroller's audit very seriously. We have satisfied all but one of the six areas of deficiency.
Are there current initiatives with which you are involved, and are there any new ones you might bring to the table?
As Chairman of the Highway Committee there are a number of initiatives that our committee is working on, since January of 2004 we have made considerable progress and given two more years we will complete the work that we have started.
Cortland County Highway Department Administration
- We hired from within the Cortland County Highway Department to fill the position of Highway Superintendent; elevating Don Chambers to this very important position.
- We promoted from within to fill the newly created position of Deputy Highway Superintendent; Bob Buerkle is number two and acting Superintendent in Don’s absence.
- We eliminated the Supervisor of Solid Waste position. In doing so, we were able to create a cost savings overall for the department.
- We improved scheduling of our employees and improved coverage on nights and weekends for snow plow routes in Cortland County. We worked with the Union and came up with better scheduling, and we have achieved this while reducing overtime expense.
- Continue to pursue Highway Department efficiencies by further reducing duplication of services between County Departments and continuing to pursue shared services and inter-municipal cooperation
- Address staffing levels to meet the workload demands of the life cycle capital replacement program
- Cortland County Infrastructure
- Cortland County has 1400 culverts, 248 miles of roads, 60 bridges and 1 dam. Our county has gone without sufficient funding for maintenance or replacement since 1962. Most of Cortland County’s box culvert structures were built in the 1930’s. We have developed a life cycle replacement plan to address the needs of the county’s ageing infrastructure. Our plan will fix culverts, and bridges, as well as replace and maintain county roads to ensure that our vital infrastructure is protected.
- Develop and approve a lifecycle replacement plan for county bridges, highways and culverts
- Develop and approve a long-term funding commitment for lifecycle replacement
- Needed increases in CHIPs money as well as Marchiselli funding for improvements to local highways and bridges.
- Lobbied successfully to increase CHIP funding for highway improvements. Cortland County has been active pursuing highway funding from New York State. We have worked with organizations like NYSAC and NYSHSA to lobby for funding as well as by making regular office visits to our elected leaders in Albany.
- Lobbied federal representatives successfully to increase the size of the Federal transportation bill known as TEA21.
- Increased federally aided project requests
- Cortland County has worked with NACo to lobby for increased funding as well as by making annual office visits to our elected leaders in Washington DC. One visit with Congressman Boehlert, resulted in a request for help with the completion of Page Green (Phase III) being funded directly in the reauthorization of TEA21.
Complete 2005 proposed capital projects
South Main Street/Page Green project
- This project had been plagued with politics and delayed to the point where not only did the previous legislature jeopardize loosing our Federal funding on this project, but we were in jeopardy of not getting future Federal Aid projects as well if we could not get it done.
- We made getting this project on the ground as soon as possible a top priority. We worked with the new county attorney who obtained the necessary easements and executed the needed legal documents to allow the project to go forward.
- We preserved access to state and federal funds, which was threatened due to the inactivity on this project by the previous legislature; and we have worked to create relationships at the state and local level to increase our share of federal aid projects.
- Project to rebuild the bridge has been completed, and the bridge was re-opened to traffic on September 2, 2005.
Authorize design and development of pre-cast structures in-house so that we can begin replacement of the deteriorating concrete culverts cost effectively
Develop a long-range equipment replacement schedule in order to replace aging equipment in a well planned manner.
Cortland County Recycling Center
- In May 2004, the county legislature authorized the expenditure of up to $2.985 million toward construction and equipping of a new recycling center, to replace the one that had been lost to a fire in 2002.
- In November 2004, the legislature approved the design for a new Cortland County Recycling Center and construction was completed on the new Recycling Center by May 2005, a 7 month period.
- During the design phase of our new center, we applied to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for a grant in the amount of $900,000 to help reduce local taxpayer’s cost of constructing the new facility.
- Through diligence, our County Attorney John Bardsley was able to negotiate a larger than anticipated insurance recovery from the 2002 fire, about $2 million dollars.
- We initially anticipated that local tax dollars to pay for this project would be about $800,000. Ultimately we hope that very little local taxpayer money (~$60,000) will be spent to finance this project when the NYSDEC grant is received.
- We contracted with a third party commodity broker to maximize the return on our recyclables in the marketplace while saving money over the previous method.
- Operating our own Recycling Center has saved Cortland County Taxpayers $50,000 to date over what the county had been spending prior to opening the new Center. As more business is generated, more dollars are added to revenue, saving taxpayers even more money.
- Complete the center under budget and open on time with trained personnel
- Create a successful recycling operation and work to increase volume and revenue over time
- Develop and execute an educational campaign designed to promote recycling
- Work to establish municipal agreements for recycling
- Investigate feasibility of recycling electronic appliances and/or household hazardous waste
- Remarkably, the Cortland County's landfill permit had lapsed more than 10 years ago. We made this deficiency a priority. We took the necessary action to renew the permit, shielding us from noncompliance penalties and potential liability costs.
- Cortland County spends an inordinate amount of money to haul leachate (the rain water that filters through the landfill) to the City of Cortland’s Waste Water Treatment Plant. We have hired an engineering firm to design an on-site leachate treatment system or a leachate pipeline in conjunction with a needed capping project of cell 1A of the West Side Extension Landfill. In combining these two projects together, we can get money from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to help fund a more economical approach to the disposal of leachate.
Authorize study for Leachate treatment and/or disposal cost savings
Educate legislature and general public on the need for a capping project to possibly include funding for a pipe line or on-site leachate treatment
Cortland County Airport
- The current airport master plan was created in 1970’s and was in need of an update.
- A revised master plan is currently in development and will be completed by December, 2005.
- We conducted a Bid advertisement for lease of Main Hanger #1 resulting in an additional Fixed Base Operator who is running both a flight school and a repair operation at Cortland County Airport. This activity results in increased fuel sales and revenues at the airport.
- We replaced the asphalt apron around the hangers and made other needed improvements to the hangers.
- We are receiving higher lease payments from the T-hangers and the Main Hanger #1.
- Through lobbying efforts, we received $419,400 in federal funds and $23,300 in state funds for the update to the master plan and the T-hangar renovations.
- Through lobbying efforts, we received another $201,400 in federal funds and $5,300 in state funds for the replacement of the automated weather observation system (AWOS) and upgrade of fuel sales metering and accounting computer system.
- Develop airport master plan and airport business plan
- Develop long-range space utilization plan and bid long term contracts on hangers
- Assess level of need and ROI for MH-1 repairs
- Authorize Fuel System grant application and implement replacement
- Implement airport master plan projects
- Oversee installation of AWAS III
- We added an elevator to Little York Pavilion in order to make the second floor handicapped-accessible and a new sprinkler system for greater safety.
- We renovated the restrooms and added a handicap-accessible bathroom.
- We gave Cortland Repratory Theatre a long term lease so that they could plan for the future and invest in improvements and upgrades.
- Attract NYS Dept. of Parks and Rec. to locate a NYS park in Cortland
- Work cooperatively with the Tioughnioga River Trail Commission to construct Phase I of the trail from Yamen to Derkey Parks
- RFP food and beverage vendors and explore external structure for cooking
As an elected representative, what will you do to promote commerce growth in Cortland County?
As a business owner in Cortland County, I am well aware of the challenges faced daily by those in the business world. I know first-hand that high utility costs and high state and federal taxes take their toll. I will continue to work towards initiatives that help all businesses, big and small, in Cortland County.
I am a strong supporter of the IDA/BDC and the Cortland County Chamber of Commerce. I believe that the county funding expended on by these agencies is essential to the long-term growth and health of the local economy.
I believe that there are three very important prerequisites of good, strong, successful business development. First, we must keep property tax increases to a bare minimum. By keeping taxes down, we are not only helping homeowners, but business owners, and landlords, including commercial property owners as well. I believe that business growth happens in part as a result of profitable businesses. If the county tax bill is less, that leaves more money for things like: increased capital investment, adding new employees, employing new technologies, additional training; more operating capital allows businesses to take advantage of greater buying power, expand marketing efforts, and ultimately increases the needs for other service providers. Lower taxes equate to business growth and a higher profit margin for business owners.
Second, we must offer a quality of life that will make our county an attractive place where entrepreneurs will want to live and raise their families while they build their businesses. If re-elected, I will continue my efforts to get a NYS Park located in Cortland County and help complete the first leg of the Tioughnioga River Trail. Cortland County was recently recognized as one of the “Best Small Towns in America”; we need to get the word out and continue to make improvements in the quality of life in order to attract future employers.
Third, we must have a healthy transportation network for movement of goods and employees. Currently, we are in the process of working on a twenty-year plan to improve and maintain county infrastructure. Our infrastructure is essential to both attracting new businesses to our area and attracting existing businesses to stay and grow. If re-elected, I will continue to work diligently to find the funding to address the transportation needs in Cortland County. I am in frequent in contact with our local representatives in Albany and Washington, DC, lobbying for funding.
posted by Doc Paul @ 12:31 AM
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