Ë®¹ûÅÉAV

Batman said the reason for his haste in appointing someone to the seat stems around the county's budget discussions, and wanting someone from Brutus represented. He said the Legislature was "lucky" to have Kyle ready to take on the post.

"This is a critical period, so it's important to move forward as rapidly as we can before we get full into the budget process," he said.

The vote for Kyle's appointment was 13-1, with Legislator Paul Pinckney absent and Legislator Tucker Whitman opposed. 

Kyle walked up to the podium with his parents and girlfriend, taking his oath of office. Legislators welcomed him to his new desk in the front row.

Kyle is not new to public life. Serving on boards for Auburn Public Theater, HomSite and the Cayuga Museum, in addition to running KyleCroft Development, the 30-year-old said he's looking forward to working as a legislator. Though serving as an interim until the November 2017 election, he said he plans to run for the seat and stay on for the remaining two years if elected.

"I'm happy to do it," he said about his new position. "I'm looking forward to putting my input in and helping out Brutus. Hopefully, they'll want me back."

In other news:

• Legislators passed a resolution to , though the daily parking fee was not included. The resolution generated lengthy and heated discussions as some legislators felt an increase in the parking fee was warranted, especially since it would bring nearly $20,000 to the park's capital improvements fund.

Legislator Frank Reginelli said he believed people who went to the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse and Little League games would not mind paying an extra dollar for parking. He thought the increased fee would be "very, very effective, and would help Mr. (Gary) Duckett with his improvements to the park."

But Legislator Aileen McNabb-Coleman said that it was wrong for legislators to increase the fees without having a new attraction or improvements to draw more people.

Legislator Patrick Mahunik suggested taking $20,000 out of the county's fund balance and moving it to Emerson Park's capital improvements account. That had Whitman ask for the same to be done at Sterling Nature Center, a park in his district. 

A new resolution was brought forth to give $20,000 each to the two parks. Whitman and Mahunik were surprised to agree with each other, both stating that they felt capital improvement projects like the Emerson Park Master Plan and the Sterling Nature Center Master Plan were one-time investments for which the county's fund balance should be used. 

Legislator Ryan Foley said taking from the fund balance so quickly for two projects seemed like a dangerous precedent. Batman suggested tabling the resolution to committee, and legislators agreed. 

The new fee increases for Emerson Park passed 10-4 with Legislators Reginelli, Timothy Lattimore, Michael Didio and Foley voting against.

• County Administrator Suzanne Sinclair gave a draft county budget presentation to legislators. She said a tentative budget will be worked out in October. Sinclair said there is an expected .7 percent increase in the property tax levy. The levy is projected to be about $38,907,491, though Sinclair said that number could still change. 

With current numbers, Sinclair said the expected fund balance draw to balance the budget would be about $792,000 in 2017, though she did not think the following years' draws would be as low. She said a few things have kept the fund balance draw down this year including a typo that brought an unexpected $73,500 when it was remedied, decreased contributions to the county highway department's fund and a collective effort by department heads to find grant funding and make cuts.