Town hires lobbyist to push local interests in Albany

Kelly MacMillan SCREENSHOT FROM MEETING

By THANE GRAUEL

The Pound Ridge Town Board has hired a lobbying firm in hopes of obtaining more money and legislation it seeks from Albany.

The contract with Statewide Public Affairs starts Feb. 1 and runs until Jan. 31, 2027. The monthly cost is $2,000, or $24,000 a year. The contract can be terminated with 30 days notice, according to a document in the meeting materials.

Kelly MacMillan, a senior vice president of the Albany-based firm, discussed the matter with Town Board members at the Jan. 20 meeting. 

“I represent clients in the not-for-profit space, the municipal space, corporate space,” MacMillan said, noting that has lived in Pound Ridge about 15 years and has served on town bodies.

“I realize that there’s so much more work that we could be doing to try to bring in more funds to Pound Ridge,” she said. “Certainly, through the grant process, but with all the water infrastructure work that we’re looking to do, we’re just really hoping to be able to open some more doors, pull some more levers and bring some more money home here.”

“That’s the key thing right now,” Supervisor Kevin Hansan said. “We’re looking for your assistance on the water district, everything we can do for that in terms of formation of the water district, as well as additional funding to see if we can get above the 70 percent that we currently have.”

The town is seeking to form a water district for Scotts Corners, to pipe in fresh water from the Aquarion Water Company, a company that does business in Connecticut and has water lines in north Stamford and a reservoir in Pound Ridge town officials have said an old agreement gives them rights to tap into. The water district formation has been challenged in a lawsuit by a property owner that doesn’t want to be subjected to it.

“And obviously it’s going to involve the state of Connecticut, which I know is a little outside your domain, and more pressing for a lot of us right here in the short term, is that $35,000 cap for our part-time police officers,” he said. 

“We’ve got the Association of Towns behind this, we’ve got the New York Conference of Mayors behind this, we’ve got every municipality up in this area behind this,” the supervisor continued, “but we can’t seem to get that over the finish line. As you know, the governor has just punted it back to the Legislature, she didn’t pick it up, so you won’t find it in the budget, so it’s a little disappointing.”

“So we need significant help figuring out a strategy for that,” Hansan said. “We know we typically get on the Senate side some support for it, but we just don’t get it on the Legislative side, so that would be a big help.”

Also, the town has an entirely part-time police force, with many of its officers restricted by how much they can earn each year by state pension rules. Pound Ridge and similar small towns have long sought to have the rules changed so officers, who are hard to come by, can work more hours.

“Let’s fight the good fight,” MacMillan said.

“Exactly,” Hansan said. “I think Pound Ridge has gotten to the point where this is highly needed. We can’t do this alone.”

The vote to approve hiring Ms. MacMillan’s firm was unanimous.