Some thoughts and questions to consider regarding the Fredonia Village Board.

1. The continuous picking on Trustee Roger Britz to destroy his reputation — even suggesting that he is not fit to be on a committee that deals with personnel — is totally inappropriate.

2. It is our understanding that it is the mayor’s right to appoint committees and assign trustees to those appointments.

3. All the points brought up by former village attorney for 48 years, Sam Drayo, were meant to educate, not criticize. Our present attorney maybe wasn’t aware of all these points Mr. Drayo outlined, and if not, it would be very helpful if he perhaps checked all these points out to be better informed.

4. Since we no longer have a full-time village administrator and that position was permanently abolished by the previous administration, how many people have been hired to replace him and now we need even more people hired? Just asking.

5. As for the informed woman who stood up and read a very informative letter last month, she was right on about everything she said. Did you notice how our new trustee, who was not elected by the people of the village, was just pushed through and she just happened to be there in the audience that evening? She never appeared before that. We are not implying that she is not qualified, just that she was not elected. I thought and I am sure other people thought so also, that the next highest vote-getter should have the position, Vicky Cunningham.

6. Also, it is not working out having an executive session on the same night as the regular board meeting. Those should be held on a separate night. It seems like there are a lot of issues now that almost demand a separate meeting or workshop to address them and after be brought before the board.

7. In a village our size, there is no room for politics and party affiliation.

8. It should be noted that there is a big difference in the duties of an hourly and a salaried employee.

9. The constant remarks about our current duly-elected mayor not being available all day smells of sour grapes, which this being a major grape-producing area, is not welcome. Don’t want sour grapes here.

10. All our previous mayors, with some exceptions, held full-time jobs, ran businesses and we almost never had the dissension we experience now.

11. I know and it was not successfully hidden that the main objective was to have a full-time salaried mayor and that is why the position of village administrator was permanently abolished, so that a full-time mayor would have more power.

12. This friction cannot go on and is causing long and tedious meetings. This could be eliminated in a few changes to benefit everyone involved.

Let’s all work together like we did on the Small Business Revolution and like we have for years and years under all the different mayors and trustees of both parties.

This can’t go on and is causing a lot friction, and frankly, I have lived here all my life and have never witnessed such dysfunction in a village our size.

There are a lot of good things for us coming up. Let’s keep it that way and be done with disruptive partisan politics.

Frank and Shirley DeJohn are Fredonia residents.