Kayla Sullivan

Kayla Sullivan was hired from within as Fredonia’s new Recreation Department director at a recent Board of Trustees meeting, but not without some questions.

While stating they had no problem with hiring Sullivan, Mayor Doug Essek and Trustee James Lynden said they were not properly notified she was going to fill the job. Sullivan will take the place of Tom Battaglia, who resigned as of Sept. 12, and was called his “right hand person” by Trustee Roger Britz.

Essek opened the discussion by asking, “I’m not sure if I missed something here, board, but did we discuss this first resolution previous to this?”

“That was going to be my first question,” Lynden said. “We didn’t discuss the interviews or the person or anything to do with this, or the pay.” Sullivan will make $14,500 for what’s considered a part-time position.

Bashaw responded, “This was discussed when Tom was here, this is his recommendation, this was the applicant and this is the salary that he received. … When Tom came for his resignation he made a recommendation. I indicated that night at the (Aug. 23 trustees) meeting that we wanted to have the interviews while he was still here, prior to (Sept. 12), and that we would be interviewing that week any of the people we received an application for.

“It was in the paper a couple of days.”

Bashaw went on to say she, Britz, Battaglia and Personnel Supervisor Michele Kujawa interviewed Sullivan the first week of September. Sullivan was the only applicant, Britz said.

“I just felt we should maybe discuss it with the whole board before,” Essek said. He went on to call Sullivan “a great employee.”

Lynden tried to table the resolution hiring Sullivan, but that died for lack of a second, and he then voted to hire her, as did the other members of the board.

“She has been an asset to our community for many, many years … I’d just like to say I’m really kind of excited to have her on board, and I know our community will benefit from this,” Britz said.