Genesee County Manager Matt Landers this afternoon urged lawmakers to move swiftly on the financing piece connected to the construction of a new county jail.
Landers, speaking at the County Legislature’s Ways & Means Committee meeting at the Old County Courthouse, said it is important for the governing body to approve a bond resolution in early January – preferably by Jan. 5 or Jan. 6 – in order for him to meet the schedule he has mapped out to solicit construction bids by early March.
“Time is of the essence and to wait until the end of January is going to be difficult with a timeline -- the timeline that we're looking at,” he said.
He outlined several items that need to be done, including approval of the State Environmental Quality Review, drafting bid packages, awarding contracts and preparing for cash outlay until the bond proceeds are received in mid-April. He noted that County Manager Scott German has sent documentation to bond attorneys and expects to have the resolution “in our hands by the fifth of January.”
“If we can pass it then … it takes 60 to 90 days, and we expect it to get closer to the 90 days just because of the pure size (of the bond),” he said.
The county is looking at financing around $70 million via a 30-year bond. Landers estimated that annual payments would be $3 million to $3.5 million.
Landers suggested taking up the matter at the legislature’s 2022 organizational meeting on Jan. 5 but, after discussion, it was decided to conduct a special meeting immediately after the organizational meeting.
In other action, the committee:
- Approved a special counsel agreement with Napoli Shkolnik PLLC for the New York City law firm to represent the county in litigation pertaining to generic drug manufacturers' overcharging of self-insured county employees and dependents for medical care supplies and pharmaceuticals.
Napoli Shkolnik LLC previously worked on behalf of Genesee and other counties on the opioid settlement, and is doing the same in this matter.
County Attorney Kevin Earl said the latest litigation claims that manufacturers have illegally price fixed or violated antitrust laws. He noted that Genesee County will not be responsible to pay anything, unless there is a recovery, and only will have to pay based on the net amount recovered.
- Approved a resolution to contract with Direct Energy Business, LLC, of Iselin, N.J., to supply natural gas to 20 Genesee County accounts at a fixed rate instead of the current variable pricing policy in an effort keep utility costs in check.
The contract, if approved by the full legislature, would run for 16 months, beginning on Jan. 1, 2022. The change is expected to save the various county budgets around $9,000 during that time.
- Approved a memorandum of understanding with Cornell Cooperative Extension for the county to support the agency in the amount of $385,484 for 2022 – an increase of nearly $47,000 from this year – and a contract renewal with Genesee County Economic Development Center to provide $233,513 as its yearly contribution plus an additional $25,000 for workforce training program administration.
Landers pointed out that the increases are for 2022 only and the total amounts are subject to change in 2023.
