The Village Board appointed Mayor Craig Miller and Deputy Mayor Bryan Woleben to serve as the representatives on the Oversight Committee. The vote was deadlocked at 2-2, with Woleben and Trustee Kari Doino voting in favor, while Trustees Ed Bellando and Drew Ransom voting in opposition. Miller broke the tie by voting in favor of appointing himself and his Deputy Mayor to the Committee. Appointments will be staggered, beginning with a 12-month term.

Ransom asked if it was always the village’s plan to appoint Miller and Woleben to the Oversight Committee dating back to the initial discussions of the shared services agreement.

Miller responded, “Seeing how we’ve been involved with it since day one, we will be the starting committee. Then in 12 months … maybe I could resign from it and you’ll have another person take it over, but you’d still have an experienced person on it.”

Bellando, as he did a month prior, criticized the lack of notice, stating he learned of the plans the day of the meeting. “I’m all for getting rid of CBI, but I don’t like the way that this stuff is presented to us at the absolute last minute,” Bellando said. “… There was terrible, horrible communication, and you still have the same people that are probably going to give this horrible communication.”

Shown is Trustee Kari Doino (left) who voted in favor of appointing Mayor Craig Miller and Deputy Mayor Bryan Woleben to the Oversight Committee, while Trustee Ed Bellando, right, opposed the appointments.

Doino, who made the motion to appoint Miller and Woleben to the Oversight Committee, responded to Bellando’s comments. “I think, going forward, Craig and Bryan will communicate better with us because they know how upset we were all when it was rolled out. I think it was a learning curve, unfortunately it was a bad hiccup, but I think going forward, I trust them to communicate fully,” Doino said.

Bellando claimed nothing has changed in the time since the plans were revealed. Doino pushed back on that by stating she had already assumed Miller and Woleben would be appointed to the Oversight Committee because of their involvement from the start of the discussions. Doino also stated the Oversight Committee meetings will be open to the public for the sake of transparency, which Ransom stated was his concern.

Miller looked to Village Attorney Peter Clark for confirmation that he, as Mayor, could be the tie-breaking vote to appoint himself and Woleben to the Oversight Committee. Clark did not object, so Miller cast his vote in favor of the appointments.

The Town of Portland representatives on the Oversight Committee are Town Supervisor Rich Lewis and Council Member Tammy Thompson. Lewis also serves as the Wastewater Treatment Supervisor for the Village of Brocton, while Thompson is a prominent business owner in Brocton.

The Village also agreed to the duties of the position of water maintenance worker, which will be hired in the coming weeks. Compensation will be determined by experience, but no official rate of pay was set by the Board. Applications are now being received by the Village.

Also related to water issues in the Village, the Central Avenue capital project is nearing completion. The Village Board offered thanks to Lewis and Highway Superintendent Ken Becker for their efforts in assisting S. St. George Enterprises with the project.

The Village also approved a one-year fire protection agreement with the Town of Portland District 1 in the amount of $62,000 for the year 2025.