OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Fredonia Trustee James Lynden takes the oath of office for his second term from Village Clerk Annemarie Johnston (center) at the Board of Trustees' Jan. 13 meeting. At left is Trustee Kara Christina, who was also sworn in by Johnston.

Fredonia Trustee James Lynden was in an aggressive mood at Monday’s board meeting, blasting political enemies and defending himself with gusto.

Some of it came out when he was backing fellow Democrat and ally Kara Christina in her bid to keep board workshops tied to regular meetings, with the board meeting every other week. Newly elected Republican Mayor Douglas Essek sought to meet every Monday, with workshops on days when there were not regular meetings.

Essek and board members Roger Britz and Dan Pacos said they saw the wisdom of Essek’s plan because there are a lot of village projects coming up that demand additional time for discussion. But Christina and Lynden said the extra time was not necessary.

“Many times we have a lot of projects, but we also have times where we sat around looking at each other because we had completed the workshop until 7:30 p.m. You’re proposing … going back to something that didn’t work so well,” Lynden said to Essek.

Essek denied that, saying workshops were being added to keep the regular meetings streamlined. “We’re not going backwards here, we’re going forward,” he said.

After Britz and Christina argued for a bit, Lynden revisited an accusation made by his ally and the person Essek defeated, former Mayor Athanasia Landis, during the election campaign.

“I think that part of the issue here is that the mayor here isn’t able to be here during the daytime and is looking to add more time in the evening to get together with everyone,” he said as Essek glared at him, “with more time than what we had before and he knew that going in. It’s unfortunate you can’t be here during the day, but you’re asking everyone to be here more time at night.

“It was working just fine, the every other Monday, and the amount of work that was getting done,” Lynden continued. “Like I said, sometimes we couldn’t fill a full workshop, so we had to wait for the meeting. We changed that, as a matter of fact you yourself voted to change that (while a trustee in 2019) because it made more sense to work together like that.”

Newest trustee EvaDawn Bashaw, appointed and sworn in just minutes earlier to fill Essek’s seat, said that based on her previous time as a trustee, she didn’t think it was necessary to have a workshop every Monday.

Christina suggested using her proposed schedule as it only goes through June, which should be enough time to see how it works out. The board decided to go along with her plan, with Britz dissenting — and Essek fired back at Lynden.

“Scheduling these meetings had nothing to do with me working full time during the day. Most of us do,” said the mayor. “This was a chance for us all to get together and discuss things in a workshop setting. It has absolutely nothing to do with me working full time … I don’t appreciate that comment.”

Lynden later attacked Essek over his proposals for filling the board’s standing committees.

“You broke down established committees that actually aren’t according to our village codes,” he said. Essek said he was only following previous village administrations’ lead.

“It seems that you have an agenda. You have Roger Britz on 26 committees and there are 13 other committees you expect split between the rest of the board. That seems highly irregular there,” Lynden said. He then listed the standing committees as seen in the village code and motioned to eliminate the personnel committee because the village now has a human resources department.

“Jim, these are my appointments. They’re not up for a resolution to change them at this point,” Essek said. “If you’d like to suggest changes, let’s look at that the next meeting.”

Ignoring the mayor’s suggestion, Lynden then brought up another old controversy: Britz’s behavior with village employees in the spring of 2019.

“I would also like to object to Roger Britz being on any committee associated with employees based on Trustees Britz’s history of workplace violence as recognized and voted by the Board of Trustees and his denial to accept responsibility and issue an apology to affected employees as was directed by the Board of Trustees,”Lynden said. “I make a motion to remove his name from any kind of committee in which he will have any kind of contact with current or prospective employees.”

“Trustee Britz was never formally charged with any of those charges. That whole situation was dropped as far as I’m concerned,” Essek replied, adding there were no workplace violence charges filed with police against Britz.

“Trustee Lynden, would you please find in the charter where trustees are self governing and have the power and the ability to prosecute another trustee on the board,” Britz then said. “Your recommendations and your so-called…” he trailed off as Lynden interjected to reiterate that the trustees did a board review.

Britz said the charges came out of the Democratic caucus and added, “I’ve never admitted any type of allegations. I was not formally charged with any kind of crime. This was something that was brought forth by the board. It was voted on by a Democratic board.”

Lynden had more to say — this time in self-defense, about his decision to miss a board workshop called for Jan. 6

“I’d like to clear something up,” he said during the time allotted for his trustee’s report. “It was commented or stated that I boycotted the first meeting … Not true. I did not boycott any meeting. I want people to understand, I’ve been on this board for four years prior, I worked a term on the planning board, and I attended every single meeting — never missed one. This special meeting as it was described to us … (had) no agenda but also with the idea that the agenda would be anything that would be coming before the board, which presents no urgency.

“I notified the clerk I wasn’t going to be able to attend because… we normally have meetings two weeks apart and I had plans for that Monday,” he continued. “There was no urgency. I decided not to change my plans and I notified the clerk plenty in advance.”

He added that Essek called the meeting Dec. 31 — when he wasn’t officially mayor yet — and improperly called a meeting that he knew would not have a quorum (Christina was also unable to attend). “No business could be conducted. It was nothing more than a coffee hour,” Lynden declared.

Britz’s report immediately followed. “I don’t know if I can follow that one,” he cracked. “Let’s throw some excitement into the room.” He then promoted the following morning’s “Small Business Revolution”rally.