OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Former Fredonia Mayor Athanasia Landis speaks to the village Board of Trustees Monday night as another former mayor of the village, Frank Pagano, looks on at left. Deputy Clerk Marlene Orr is at right.

The Fredonia Board of Trustees scheduled a public hearing Monday on three changes to the charter, over the strenuous objections of both former and current village officials.

After longtime village attorney Sam Drayo, former Mayors Athanasia Landis and Frank Pagano and ex-trustee Michelle Twichell spoke out against the proposed changes, the board voted, 3-1, to get public input on them at an Aug. 17 hearing. Trustee James Lynden voted no, reiterating his stance that the proposed changes were illegally discussed at a private board retreat in April.

The proposed charter changes were supposed to be printed in full in a legal notice in Tuesday’s newspaper. Most notably, they would establish a village management team of the clerk, treasurer and a “personnel specialist” as a liasion between trustees and village employees.

Another change would codify that vacant village board positions can be filled with a majority vote of sitting trustees. The third change is to specify that trustees’ duties include “supervising and directing subordinate officers and employees of the village and retaining contractors and employees for all lawful purposes relating to the operation and administration of the village.”

Drayo, who began, “I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but over the years as village attorney I think I was involved in enacting at least 350 to 400 local laws for the village,” criticized the hearing resolution for not including the full text of the local laws.

He expressed concern over all three laws but particularly the village management team. The team’s function “is up to the mayor and trustees, it’s not up to an appointed committee of non-elected officials,” he said.

If established, the team “would establish another separate group or department if village government that’s un-needed and bureaucratic. … it will create confusion and diffuse responsibility,” he added.

Trustee Scott Johnston noted that the management team “simply takes up the duties that the administrator used to have.” Drayo responded, “you’re setting up three separate individuals and it’s almost as if you’re having three separate administrators.”

Landis then added to the criticism of the board’s manner of presenting the laws. “What was the complaint you received or the problem you observed, when did you discuss it and conclude that your only option was to amend the charter?” she wondered.

As Drayo did, she slammed the proposed changes. She also said to village officials, “We are still going through a pandemic and an economic crisis could be just around the corner. You have problems with the unions, lost more than a few employees including valuable department heads. There is definitely a water issue in the village, big enough to allow the college to give you ultimatums. You have unfinished contracted work that could affect the quality of life in this village. And yet, apparently, you have decided that the biggest issue you have right at this moment, the biggest issue you have to spend money on, is to amend the charter.”

After Landis finished, Pagano rose to speak, declaring, “I wasn’t planning on speaking tonight but it’s hard for me to keep my mouth shut.” He said the removal of an administrator position forced the board into its current predicament.

He added, “Sam Drayo knows more about village law than anybody in this state … I have no idea why before you do all this stuff willy-nilly, that you don’t consult with people who know what’s going on. Nobody comes forward to ask Sam his opinion or what he thinks of something.”

Twichell — who is seeking to return to a trustee seat in the November election — said, “I cannot believe the actions of this present board.” She bemoaned the way the board is doing business, contrasting it with its alleged openness during her terms as trustee. She said Pagano and his successor, Michael Sullivan, always made sure trustees conducted their business in a lawful, forthright manner.

The current mayor, Doug Essek, commented during his report that he felt the public hearing should be delayed, so as to provide as full a disclosure of the local laws as possible, giving village residents more time to inspect and mull over the proposed charter changes.

Later, during her own designated report time, Trustee EvaDawn Bashaw defended the proposed changes and the process that led to them.

“There’s been a cry for transparency, and as valuable as I think transparency is, its value is really based on whether or not it’s truthful,” she said. “It’s not always truthful and it’s not always fully truthful. I think some of the comments we heard this evening, some of statements that were made tonight, are based on part-truths… there’s a lot more to the story.”

Bashaw asserted that employee turnover is not unique to the current village government and expressed faith and trust in the village government’s law firm, Webster Szanyi LLP.

“The board inherited, so to speak, the mess, or the chaos which seems to be a returning word, that was created with the elimination of the administrator,'” she said. “I don’t know if anyone here realizes what condition the village was left in when the administrator was gone and the person who served as a full-time mayor (Landis) was also gone. We struggled.”

Bashaw added that the clerk, treasurer and personnel specialist positions were created by the previous board to take the place of the administrator. The current board’s moves just clarify their responsibilities and duties, she said.

When it came time to vote on the hearimg, Lynden proposed that it either get tabled or that the laws be set aside entirely. He was ignored.

“This whole problem could be solved if we just would go back to a village administrator,” said Essek, who voted against the removal of the position when he was a trustee.

“All of this should have been discussed in he proper order with the steps you apparently decided to bypass all along the way,” Lynden said.

Although Lynden and Essek find themselves on the same side on the charter issue, Lynden could not resist taking a shot at the mayor. The two served as trustees together for years and sparred over numerous issues before Essek beat Landis, a close Lynden ally, in the 2019 election to become mayor.

“Just because the mayor can’t functionally be here throughout the day or to deal with daily administration of this village, shouldn’t be the problem of the people, having to deal with a change in charter,” Lynden said. “It’s a shame that he can’t do it. The people didn’t realize what they had when they had this person who could function such as that.”

“Just for full disclosure, Jim, the mayor’s position is not a full time position,” Essek responded a little later.

“The mayor is our mayor 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” Lynden retorted.

“None of our positions are full time. That’s why you have an administrator position. He is the continuum between administrations and that’s the person you need to have,” Essek stated. “That’s not the mayor, the mayor is an elected position. Same as the trustees. We do not possess the qualities, the background and the education that an administrator, who administrates day-to-day operations, needs.”

“Well, we should have elected a different mayor then,” Lynden snapped. “That is totally uncalled for, a totally inappropriate comment,” said Essek amid groans and laughter from other board members.Trustee Roger Britz said that hre was ready to go home as he had “better things to do than to listen to this crap.”

Bashaw then asked Essek to call the vote, and he did, and the hearing was passed.