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It was encouraging to watch the Monday, Aug. 24 Village Board workshop on YouTube. Kudos to Trustees Tim Mulholland, Christine Cruz-Keefe and LeeAnn Lazarony for voicing their support to reinstate the public comment sessions at Fredonia village board meetings.
Mayor Michael Ferguson and Trustees Paul Wandel and Ben Brauchler continue to push their tired old chestnut that public comment should remain suspended for "safety reasons" while masking their real reason for suspending public comment from meetings in the first place. Whether it be downtown parking, parking on Forest Place, the village's plan to join the North County Water District and/or vendor laws for the Farmers' Market and other Barker Commons events, this portion of the village board wants to push their agendas and they do not want to hear what the public whom they supposedly represent has to say about it.
It's their way or the highway while facts and the questions and concerns of the public be damned. In the case of the village's plan to join the NCWD, Ferguson and friends want to continue the suspension of public comment until they can get so far into their ill advised plan that there's no turning back. The backers of the NCWD plan want the public to forget about all the unanswered questions and the misinformation that continues to be spread about this project. Fredonia cannot afford this water project which is unnecessary and has been shown to be much more expensive than simply upgrading the village's dam, water treatment plant and reservoir. These triplets continue to underestimate the resolve, the determination and the tenacity of concerned citizens who recognize how disastrous moving forward with this project will be for the village.
This trio's attempts to silence the public recently became even more obvious. After suspending public comment two months ago, Ferguson, Wandel and Brauchler encouraged members of the public who wanted their voices heard to write letters to the board to be read as correspondences at trustee meetings.
This practice was also encouraged before the suspension of public comment when individuals would sometimes exceed the arbitrary three-minute time limit placed on speakers during the public comment session. When the public did exactly as the board asked, Wandel attempted to cut short letters from the public by introducing a resolution to limit each public letter to three minutes. Brauchler backed the resolution. To their credit, Lazarony, Cruz-Keefe and Mulholland stood firm in recognizing their responsibility to hear from the public. This trio did the right thing and voted down Wandel's attempt to further silence the public.
In statements made at the Aug. 24 workshop Ferguson and Wandel reminded members of the board of the false narrative that board meetings had gotten out of control and that members of the public were using public comment to "discredit, and degrade, and shout down the board"
Watch village board meetings and decide for yourself who has done the shouting at public meetings. It is usually the mayor who loses his cool when individuals disagree with him, fact check him and/or correct his exaggerated and inaccurate statements. Ferguson gave a glimpse of his temper at the Aug. 24 meeting when he attempted to shut down discussion of reinstating public comment when he declared, "It is over, we move on." Apparently Ferguson doesn't want to hear from the public or the trustees who disagree with him. Much respect to Mulholland who refused to let Ferguson end the discussion while pointing out that hearing from the public is a necessary form of information gathering.
Ferguson and his two board supporters want the public to believe that the fact checking and the continued asking of unanswered questions are verbal assaults on the mayor and the board. They make this claim while assaulting the truth and assaulting villagers' right to address their local government. The citizens' of Fredonia have a right to be heard. It is time to reinstate public comment at Fredonia village board meetings. The public comment session of these meetings should never have been suspended in the first place.
Andrew Ludwig is a retired math teacher and a retired public school and Catholic school administrator. He currently works as a substitute teacher in Chautauqua County.