Dear Village Resident:
A happy and healthy New Year to all.
With the beginning of 2008, it is an appropriate time to communicate with all Village
residents on our past efforts, on-going issues, and future challenges that your Mayor and Board of
Trusteeswill be facing. Each year, the Trusteeswork hard to address numerous localmatters. There
are three principal issues shared by all residents which we wish to address in this communication:
Village taxes, accelerated development of our open space, and the Village’sBuilding Department.
Overseeing Village expenses and Village taxation is a challenge that the Board of Trustees
faces each year. We are not alone. Rising expenses are experienced by every North Shore village
and felt by all residents. We are all facing the same fiscal pressures. As a Village, we have limited
resources with numerous fixed expenses in providing essential municipal services. The Trustees
have little control over the majority of these costs. In establishing our Village tax base, it is
important to remind each resident that individual properties are assessed by the Nassau County
Department of Assessment (“NCDA”). Your property’s fair market value used for taxation is
established solely byNassau County. Because of the inordinate expense involved, our Village does
not independently assess properties. If you believe your property’s assessment is above market
value, contact the NCDA (516-571-2391) and seek review. If you are successful in receiving a
reduction from Nassau County, the Village will recognize that reduction in the following year’stax
bills.
Now, turning to Village taxes. For the 2007/08 Village fiscal year, our annual budget was
$1,598,534 of which $1,067,373 was raised by Village taxes paid by residents. The balance is
generated by State aid, miscellaneous income, building permit and application fees, and mortgage
recording tax allocation. The total Village expenditures for police protection in 2007/08 was
$921,274 or 57.6% of the total budget. (Police protection actually accounts for 86.3% of all Village
taxes paid by residents.) In 2007/08, garbage collection was $130,978 (8.2% of the total budget),
with fire protection and street maintenance accounting for a combined total of $154,000 (9.6% of
total budget). These essential services total $1,206,252.00, 75.4% of the total Village budget and,
in fact, 113% of the Village taxes paid by residents this year.
Police, fire and garbage collection are essential services that we provide for our Village
residents. Unfortunately, their costs will continue to rise in the future. The cost for garbage
collection is controlled by public bid. You may recall that by going to a private garbage carter the
Village saved thousands of dollars annually. The Locust ValleyVolunteer Fire Department and the
Old Brookville Police Department provide excellent protection. The total expense for police
protection is sharedwith six other surroundingVillages based upon assessed valuation. TheVillage
of Matinecock is responsible for only 9.3% of the total Old Brookville police budget, the second
smallest share of all of the protected Villages. Nevertheless, police costs are expensive, and they
will continue to increase, based upon current police employment contracts. If our police protection
was provided by Nassau County, the cost would be substantially higher, and the level of protection
would not be the same. The same applies for our fire protection by the Locust Valley Fire
Department, which is also costly, but substantially lower than the surrounding communities of
Syosset, Oyster Bay, and Jericho.
The Mayor, Trustees and all members of the Zoning Board and Planning Board are
volunteers and receive no remuneration or benefits. We assure you that we use our best efforts to
oversee and control spending and will continue to do so in the coming year. Please note that the
Village has never had to borrow funds to meet current fiscal needs.
With regard to local residential development, the Board of Trustees shares the residents’
concerns about the Village’sremaining open space. We can assure you that all applications for
development have been approved by our Planning Board after thorough review and in compliance
with provisions of the Zoning Code. No substandard lots have been approved by our Planning
Board. To this end, the Board of Trustees is concerned about future development of the remaining
open tracts. The Board has retained the services of a professional planner and adopted amoratorium
to allow the planner time to conduct a study. Recommendations addressing planning issues for
properties that contain steep slopes have been made, and we are now in the process of preparing
appropriate legislation. The Trustees recognize the importance of protecting steep slopes and other
sensitive areas in our Village, and will consider appropriate planning practices and procedures that
will maintain the natural beauty of our Village while respecting the rights of property owners.
There have been several communications circulated by a Village resident concerning a
pending Planning Board application. This application has been before the Planning Board for over
two years, and the Board has held numerous public hearings. The adjoining property owner raised
a restriction in a private covenant that was imposed in 1948 by the former property owner. The
Planning Board applicant submitted as part of his application to the Planning Board, a title policy
insuring that this covenant is unenforceable. The Village Planning Board did not ignore the issue,
but it is not legally authorized to rule on or enforce private covenants. The adjacent property owner
was advised that private covenantsmust be enforced by himin a court of lawand not by the Planning
Board or Board of Trustees. It is not only unfair to the residents of Matinecock, but legally
impermissible for a Village to bear the legal costs and burdens of either defending or enforcing the
private right of an individual property owner.
Mr.Karl Bicknese has been appointed as our Building Inspector. We encourage all property
owners to contact the Building Department at 516-801-6000 if they have any questions concerning
construction. This comes at a very opportune time as we are now working on computerizing our
Building Department records. Mr. Bicknese has an assistant, Roseann Lydon, who is available to
help residents reviewtheir building permit applications and certificates of occupancy and assist with
related matters.
There is more work to be done this coming year, but progress continues to be made. If you
have any questions or concerns, please come to our monthly Trustees meeting, which is generally
the third Tuesday of each month (please check website to confirm meeting date) at the Portledge
School Upper School Library. The nextmeeting is scheduled for February 19, 2008. We encourage
residents to periodically visit our Village website
http://www.matinecockvillage.org/ for current
information on Village matters.
