A local law in the city of Dunkirk requiring all walk-in resolutions to be approved or disapproved for discussion before being tabled was passed 3-2 at Tuesday’s Common Council meeting, with the two ‘nay’ votes belonging to Second Ward Councilman Marty Bamonto and Fourth Ward Councilman Mike Civiletto.

“It’s redundant and unnecessary,” Civiletto stated.

“I reached out to some past councilmen and they think that it’s ridiculous,” Bamonto added. “Things are happening in the city. We meet the first and third Tuesday of the month, things happen to come in sometimes for the good of the city. If we have a problem as a council we’ll discuss it and then we can table it or vote no to it.”

First Ward Councilman Don Williams shared his reasoning for sponsoring the resolution for the law change.

“I feel there is a need for this resolution,” he began. “When we get a walk-in, especially when they deal with money, I believe that it should be on the prefiled agenda that goes to the public; so that anyone that reads the agenda, they then know what is happening. I also believe that the burden of three votes shouldn’t be on us tabling it, the burden should be on whether the resolution is accepted into this meeting, and that’s what this resolution does. It’s not so much a layer to do the same thing, it’s more a layer to make sure that the burden of the votes needed, are on the side of bringing this in instead of putting it on the table.”

Councilman-at-large Andy Woloszyn was surprised at how decisive the proposed law change was.

“I didn’t realize it was going to be such a divided topic,” Woloszyn said. “I disagree in some respects that it’s an extra layer, or redundant, because when you have an option to vote to accept something, you have an option to discuss it.”

Woloszyn also took issue with the statement that the move was a political one.

“As far as it being political, I’m the least political guy up here,” he stated. “I’ve voted ‘yes’ and ‘no’ with every single person on this board. I thought this was a simple solution.”

For Woloszyn, if a walk-in resolution comes in and someone wants to turn it political, they could “easily just be the first person to raise their hand to table it immediately,” he shared that this shuts down any discussion, with this new added layer all five council members are able to discuss the walk-in resolution freely, without losing that fear of capability.

Mayor Wilfred Rosas shared his feelings on the law change saying that he won’t veto it despite his opinion on the matter.

“I’m not for this resolution,” Rosas said. “I believe it’ll hurt city government moving forward. All governments have a policy for walk-ins and there’s a reason for that, but this may cause more special meetings. I don’t think this is in the best interest of the city government moving forward. When we deal with the governing agency, they have deadlines imposed on us that we can’t control, so it’s for these type of issues that come up from time-to-time. As council members, you’re not here to know the day-to-day operations, so we explain to you, during the walk-in process, why it’s being walked-in. Again, we’re not the only local government experiencing this issue. What this may cause again in the future is more special meetings being called.”