“Temporary” turned into a year and a half at Fredonia Village Hall for Jim Sedota. However, village trustees have finally made a move to find someone to eventually replace the treasurer, who came out of retirement to take the job.

The Board of Trustees narrowly voted last week to advertise an opening in the treasurer’s office, with an advertisement closing date of Feb. 28. The expected start date of the new hire is “April 1, 2020 or sooner, for the purpose of working with and being trained by the current treasurer,” according to the resolution.

Sedota was hired in November 2018 as Fredonia’s full-time treasurer after several months as a temporary worker with the title of deputy treasurer and a 30-hour work week. The village initially brought him in to keep an eye on village finances in the wake of the resignation of Village Administrator Richard St. George in July 2018.

Sedota was the Fredonia village administrator himself for many years, retiring from that job in 2006.

Last week’s decision by the trustees came with significant opposition. Trustees Roger Britz and Roger Pacos voted against the motion.

“I think this is rushed through,” Pacos said. “The most important person who should have been in on this discussion is our treasurer who is sitting right here and he was not involved with it. I frankly think you’re getting the cart before the horse on this.”

Trustees EvaDawn Bashaw, Kara Christina and James Lynden voted “yes.” However, Christina appeared somewhat hesitant in her vote. “One of many difficult decisions,” she said. “But I think if we’re going to look at moving forward, then I’m going to vote yes.”

Bashaw and Lynden made their support clear during the trustees’ workshop session earlier that day.

“We talked about the fact that we wanted to bring someone in to work with our treasurer during the budget process,” Bashaw said. “The budget process has begun. Now is the time, in order to train them with the person who is doing the job. Otherwise, they either lose the opportunity for that training or we back it up longer than I think we should.”

“When the opportunity to train a person presents itself, is when you have to take that opportunity,” Lynden said.

Meanwhile, Sedota is already moving ahead with planning the next budget. He told the board at last week’s meeting that he has already met with department heads and wants their budget requests by the end of the week.