Cutting time, cutting pay. These were two resolutions approved by the Fredonia Board of Trustees during Monday evening's regular meeting.
The proposal to reduce trustee salaries that was brought to the board by Trustee Susan Mackay, most recently in March, was put before a public hearing Monday and approved by a 4-1 vote.
Trustee Jacqueline Penfold-Williams, who did not support the resolution during the workshop discussions in which it was discussed, voted against the $500 reduction in trustees' salaries.
Following the regular meeting, Penfold-Williams said the board had a chance to make a true cut to save taxpayers money, and still can in the long run.
"We set aside an 11 percent in our capital reserve. The state-recommended amount is five percent. Our mayor asked us to give $1.33 back per thousand to each taxpayer and we didn't do that because we knew we had two buildings in disrepair and we were going to have to take out loans and that made sense at the time," she said referring to the trustees' adopted 2009-2010 budget. "But truthfully, if we wanted to give our taxpayers a break we could have done it right then. This is just posturing and in fact I have asked repeatedly to downsize the amount of trustees, and that would make a lot more sense; have the mayor be an active participant in voting and in our meetings. It just doesn't make sense that we have five trustees voting and our mayor doing nothing."
The adopted change to the local law will be reducing trustee salaries from $5,500 to $5,000, as well as reducing the mayor's salary from $13,000 to $12,000.
Mayor Michael Sullivan had no objections to the idea when it was first presented by Mackay, and he hopes this may be a turning point for the board to consider continued consolidation efforts.
"There is a trend in government for people to give back their salary in some way or reduce it to try and show a sign of wanting to make a difference on the cost of government. Personally, I feel this is really the first step and we really need to now change the size of the governments that we're operating here, or, the number of boards in existence," he said following the meeting. "A bigger action would be to have one board taking care of the village and the town, maybe two separate budgets, but whatever. Reducing the number of people that it takes to do that is where I want to see us go. And I'm hoping in the next few months, the coming year, we'll start to look at that seriously. It's nice to take a cut, but that doesn't change the problem with the number of elected officials we have with a shrinking population.
According to Sullivan, because the $3,500 was already budgeted for the current budget year it will remain in its designated account and if need be, be used in any future budget transfers.
"For example, let's say we have to transfer $1,000 into a certain fund, the money that will be here will sit in the account until it's needed and then pulled out to maybe purchase something in another department. If that doesn't happen and $1,000 is sitting in the account it becomes part of the fund balance," he said.
During the workshop, the board hashed out its plans for the next six months and approved the changes during the regular meeting. When last discussed, the board was short two members, but one of the meeting schedules that remained on the table at that time was approved unanimously.
The meeting schedule changes are as follows: During July and August the board will meet twice a month, with workshops beginning at 6 p.m. and regular meetings beginning at 7:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Monday of each month.
From September to December, the board agreed to meet three times a month, versus the four times they have been meeting. The board will hold a workshop beginning at 6 p.m. on the second, third and fourth Monday, and will follow with a regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Monday of each month.
The only change that was not approved was where the board will be meeting. During his campaign and since he's become a board member trustee Adam Brown has urged the board to consider moving the board workshop to a larger venue to allow for more residents to comfortably witness the discussions taking place. The board was in full agreement that a larger venue is needed, with the first location being the second floor where regular meetings take place. What needs to be worked out however is how the board will sit in the room.
Trustee Susan Mackay, since the discussions first began, has said that she would miss the genuine discussion that comes from the boards current sitting arrangement with trustees Adam Brown, Mackay and attorney Sam Drayo on one side of the table and trustees Tommy Brown, Joseph Cerrie and Jacqueline Penfold-Williams on the other, and mayor Sullivan and administrator Richard St. George on opposite ends.
Prior to the board moving upstairs to begin the regular meeting, Sullivan asked that each board member examine the second floor room and bring back ideas of how the seating arrangement could be made to, one, maintain some type of order to alleviate multiple discussions from occurring, and two, to arrange it in a way where trustees still feel like they can really talk to one another without feeling distant. The board will be looking to make final changes to the venue changes during a future meeting.
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