The following is a summary and a time line of what happened during and after the infamous “board retreat” based on emails exchanged shortly after.

Worth mentioning is that “retreats” can be held outside the Open Meetings Law only without intent to conduct public business, for the purpose of gaining education or training and can only cover general municipal issues. The discussion however, went far beyond that, where the Open Meetings Law would apply and decisions were made that would make amendments to the Village Charter.

On April 24, four trustees of the village of Fredonia, with the knowledge and approval of the mayor attended a “retreat” hosted by their attorney at taxpayers’ expense. It was $1,987.50 to be exact. The retreat was not open to the public, live streaming wasn’t available and it wasn’t recorded in any way except (presumably) in the notes of their attorney.

On Monday May 3, at 5:04 p.m. attorney Melanie Beardsley wrote an email to the board, copying the mayor, saying and I quote “The retreat provided a lot of insight on the board’s view and interpretation of the charter” and “My understanding is that the board is interested in a few amendments.” Then she named three amendments which, if adopted, will fundamentally change the way our village government operates. None of these amendments were openly discussed before or even after the retreat.

About 40 minutes later, at 5:43 p.m., trustee EvaDawn Bashaw replied to all. Quote: “This information is correct as decided at the board retreat.” There is also a clarification that “the village management team was to replace the administrator and should be referred to in the charter wherever the administrator is mentioned.” Worth mentioning here is that if the clerk did her job in 2019 when the charter was amended last, there will be no mention of the word administrator in the charter. Apparently, that’s a big “IF”.

At 6:22 p.m., the attorney sent another email: “It is my understanding from the retreat that the board wanted to move expeditiously”.

At 8:14 Trustee Roger Britz writes: “I would agree we should move expeditiously on this, as agreed in our retreat.”

On July 12, the village attorney sent a memorandum by email that began with: “This memorandum outlines the procedure to amend the village Charter. The three local laws I was asked to draft are:” and she proceeds to list three specific local laws, one of which actually will be an addition to the Charter. None of this was ever requested in any open public workshop or meeting.

On July 26, at the board meeting, Britz during his trustee report made a statement about what actually happened at the retreat. He claimed that at the retreat they (the four trustees) asked the attorney how to make changes to the charter and to draft these local laws to be presented to the full board at a future date.

It’s not difficult to see what’s going on here. Four trustees deliberately violated the open meetings law, when they organized a “retreat” closed to the public. The retreat was nothing less than a convenient secret meeting where the charter and possible amendments to it were discussed and requested, and decisions to “move expeditiously forward” were made. Those four knew that any discussion of the villagecharter had to be in public, yet they went ahead with it. They just didn’t care.

The charter, under “Duties of the Mayor,” says that the mayor has the duty to “take care that all laws, bylaws, rules and regulations shall be faithfully executed.” In fact, he/she is the only person in the charter charged with that responsibility. The mayor knew what was going on; if not before the retreat certainly after when he read those emails. In a complete dereliction of duty, he did nothing.

The attorney knew they were violating the sunshine law. She not only allowed it to happen, she attempted to cover it up under attorney-client privilege. That is, of course, a preposterous statement based on nothing, as there is no pending lawsuit against any of the trustees.

Note: the village attorneys are contracted for work on an hourly rate. Costs attached to the above requests are being incurred in addition to that of the retreat and as a result of decisions made by the trustees who attended it.

Clearly at the retreat discussions were held and decisions were made that will affect how the village is governed and how the Board operates.

The actions of the four trustees were clearly inconsistent with the Open Meetings Law and the Mayor has done nothing to address it. I’ve already shared parts of those emails openly in more than one meeting but to no avail. It has become obvious to me that the remaining three trustees have a pre-set agenda and are moving forward with it, no matter what.

This article is an effort to shine some light on the ways this current board and mayor have been operating.

James Lynden is a Fredonia village trustee.