The future of Bird scooters in Fredonia is in peril, in part because the new fleet manager is apparently breaking zoning codes by storing the vehicles at his residence.

With Trustee James Lynden continuing to express concerns that the scooters are an eyesore and a safety hazard, the village Board of Trustees again Monday tabled renewal of Fredonia’s contract with Bird. The trustees also tabled the matter at their previous meeting.

Code Enforcment Officer Charles LaBarbera said at Monday’s meeting that Bird should get a special use permit if it wants to continue doing what it’s doing for storage, but such permits are hard to get.

Trustee Nicole Siracuse wanted to know how the Bird operator storing strollers at home was any different than an Uber or Lyft driver storing their car at home. LaBarbera said that having one car was different than a “yard full of scooters.”

A Bird representative, who did not give her name, Zoomed into the meeting. She said she had a conversation with Lynden last week. “To be frank, this is the first time someone from the (village) had reached out. What I heard from him is the main complaints were that there was scooters on the sidewalk and scooters left in neighborhoods, and people were having issues getting in contact with our customer service.”

She said Bird told the fleet manager to “rebalance scooters in the downtown area,” and has also set up an email address for people with issues.

“We have a great business there, we’ve been in Fredonia since August 2022. Since then, we’ve had over 5,600 rides, almost 8,000 miles ridden in the town, and then 1,200 unique riders. And that’s with about 30 scooters in market. I think that shows there is a use case for scooters — people are taking them there. We just want to make sure we are complying and doing things the right way.”

Lynden told the Bird rep that some of the complaints were that it shouldn’t be up to residents, or the village, to police scooters put in dangerous areas such as right of ways.

“For the convenience of a few, it’s putting a hardship on many,” he said. “Of course there’s people enjoying them, but it’s an inconvenience to many others. I don’t know how to address that.”

Lynden added “that it is not consistent with village codes. Your type of business, I or the code enforcement officer (can’t) find anywhere in the village codes how your business actually complies with the village regulations. There is business models you may be able to change.”

He suggested that the model that needs changing is allowing people to drop off scooters virtually anywhere in public.

Trustee Jon Espersen said the storage site was an even larger issue. “If there’s no other place to store the scooters that’s not residential, then they’re not going to be allowed to be stored where they are now,” he said.

LaBarbera said he has sent out a violation notice. “This could potentially go to a court case so I’m really limited to what I can say. Perhaps it might be better off in executive session because I don’t want to taint the court case if I have to.”

Village Attorney Melanie Beardsley agreed that specific discussion of the violation notice ought to be in executive session. She added that the board should also talk about options for renewing the contract in executive session.

The board has time to take action before the current contract runs out. It is scheduled to meet one more time, on July 10, before the current deal runs out July 13. (It was incorrectly stated at the previous meeting that the contract is done on June 30.)

The Bird representative said the company can explore adding “nests” in Fredonia where people can drop off scooters, and can also add identification verification to discourage underage riders.

Trustee Dave Bird closed the discussion with a plea that drew snickers: He wanted it publicized that he has no connection, family or otherwise, to the Bird scooter company. “Someone please put that in the newspaper,” he said.