Town Board - public_hearing

Once again. And if we go back to . Okay, Janet, we appreciate that.

I want to make sure it gets out to the people that are on YouTube, because I know there's quite a few. We didn't pick you up, but you transmitted us to the YouTube crowd, so would you repeat, please?

All right, John Reed Murphy? Okay. Yep. All right. What I said was that I'm not for or against anything that you're doing. What I do think, this is a solution to the problem, so we still need to vote on who's going to be the counselor. And you still get to make sure you're somebody that's got the qualifications to do the job. So instead of, because I worry about the acquittal boys, or not even putting somebody in the office just because it's their friend, or aunt, or uncle, or aunt Susie's sister, or whatever. And by the same token, by doing the elective and not getting some kind of resume, you are able to get a person that's not qualified for the job. So my suggestion was to let them still go to the Republican committee to be endorsed, but make any part of the interview that they have to bring a resume, which shows why they're capable of the job, so that the Republican party can then

Okay, my name is Katie Wheatner. I actually live in the town of Bridgeway currently, former resident of Shelby. So I'm here tonight not only as Darlene Rich's governor, but as I stated, a former Shelby resident who cares about this town and how it's covered. Tonight isn't just about my mother. She's already announced her future retirement. This is about whether the town, the people of Shelby will continue to have the right to choose who serves them. For nearly 20 years, I watched my mother dedicate her life to this town. I watched her work late nights, weekends, and holidays. I watched her answer phone calls after hours and put this town before herself more times than I can count. She earned her Master Municipal Clerk designation, the only clerk in Orleans County to do so. Not because anyone required it, but because she believed the people of Shelby deserved the very best. I've heard the argument that appointed officials guarantee better qualifications. But qualifications don't come from an appointment. They come from character, work ethic, experience, and commitment. My mother wasn't defined by how she entered this office. She was defined by how she served in it. For nearly 20 years, she earned the confidence of this community through hard work, integrity, and unwavering commitment. to the people of Shelby, along with Argie, augmenting her skill set by pursuing appropriate education for the position of counselor. I've also heard that anyone can run for office. That's true, but not everyone gets elected. The voters decide who they trust. If they believe someone isn't qualified, they don't have to elect them. And if an elected official fails to serve the people well, the voters have the opportunity to hold that person accountable at the next election. That's how democracy works. When you appoint someone, that decision moves from the hands of every voter to the hands of a few people. I ask you to think about what you're giving up. Once an elected office becomes appointed, it's no longer the people choosing their public servant. It's government choosing for the people. The elected official, including the supervisor, the board, the highway superintendent, and the town clerk should be accountable to the taxpayers who elected them. If any elected official isn't doing the job the public expects, the voters have the power to replace them. That accountability is one of the greatest strengths of local government. My mother's legacy shouldn't be measured only by nearly 20 years of service. It should be measured by preserving the public's right to continue choosing who serves the community long after she's retired. Please don't take that right away. Town of Shelby, you know better. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Anyone else?

Wendy Pencil, Town of Shelby resident. I understand you have some problems that you want to address by making the town clerks and highway supervisors positions appointed as opposed to being elected. Taking the choice away from the voters is not the answer. Find another way. My mother was the town clerk for the town of Pendleton for many years. Watching how she managed her office, I saw firsthand the potential for abuse by unscrupulous and undisciplined town board members who thought their positions as board members were above the town clerk's. This is not the case when the board and the clerk are elected. The town clerk's office is supposed to operate independently of the town board and for good reason. Without this separation, you are removing an important measure of board oversight. The town clerk's office is responsible for record keeping, records management, retention, licensure, collection of fees for the licenses, daily banking, recording public meetings, notification of public meetings and legal notices, and addressing FOIL requests. It requires an extremely organized person, and in this town, with this town board, one with a very strong backbone. Any new town clerk elected can be trained by the outgoing town clerk before they take office. I understand you would not have a deputy to step into the position this time around. Two months of training from the November election to January when they assume the position should be plenty of time to learn the job. But if not, there are still areas where the new clerk meets training. New York State offers classes in person and online in the duties of the town clerk. The town clerk's office duties and procedures should never be dictated by the town board. New York State town law, not the town board, dictates all of the rules of the clerk's office, including records management, retention, legal notices, and licensing. No board member should ever be going into the town records and pulling documents themselves under those circumstances. This is where past boards have far overstepped their bounds. It needs to stop. Your proposed solution will make this situation worse, not better. If you want to prevent the political conflict of interest you perceive with the highway supervisor's job, your changes should apply to all positions, including the town board, not just the highway supervisor or the town clerk. You don't make a new law to address a single person on issue. Over the past 35 years, there have only been two times that I know of where parties other than Republican have been represented in the town board and the town office. 33 years ago, It was a female board member who ran as an independent and won. The other is the current town clerk, a Democrat, because Republicans have never been able to beat her in an election. If you take the choice for highway supervisor and town clerk from the public and make it an appointed position, then you will then all but ensure that we'll never see another time when that will happen in this town. I'm guessing a few of you have already thought of that and it's wrong. Most of you ran for town board under the promises of integrity, transparency, accountability, and your business acumen. It's time to put your words into action. What you are proposing are fast solutions, easy solutions for you, but they're not the right solutions. Taking the choice away from the voting residents of this town is wrong. I respectfully ask you,

ANYONE ELSE LIKE TO SPEAK ON THIS SUBJECT? YES. I DON'T NEED TO VOTE. I HAVE A LONG QUESTION. OKAY. PLEASE. I SPEAK MY MIND. PEOPLE VOTED, SPOKE THEIR MIND, ELECTED WHO THEY WANTED TO HAVE OFFICE. to go ahead and take our right of voting away from us. If you do, everybody in this room remembers these talented people here and vote them out of the office. You are not here to take our voting rights away from us. And furthermore, you got your names up here. How many people know what these people are, their positions? This is the first one Meaning I've been here. I've been in the village. I know Carolina Ridge because I gave my home license offer and paid my taxes here. Other than that, I don't know who the hell you are. Instead of having to meet your name, your position you have. How much more can I cost you to put that out? But don't forget, we are voters. And if you pass this thing for clerk and superintendent, Remember, people, vote them out. Vote them out. There are always better people than what you've got in here.

We just voted them out.

We just voted them out. We just got there. Well, this reform we just had on that tonight. It has our right to vote who we want under the Constitution in the United States. And if you guys don't like it, give up your position. It's our right. And I'm a veteran. I earned that right. Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else?

My name is John. I've been a lifelong resident of Thomas County. I live on Ryan Road with my wife and I. period of time. There's a lot of things that I know, and there's a lot of things that I don't know. But one of the things I do know, this isn't about the person, it's about the physician. And the physician has become more complex over time. I also know, when I came on board, this place was in physical disarray. And it was in a downward spiral. And thanks to the hard work of Jim, Linda, and Eddie, putting in a lot of hours, they turned things around, excuse me, and did away with a lot of waste. To run a complex organization like this, you need a hierarchy with one manager team. You can't have three different people running an organization that aren't accountable for day-to-day activities. This isn't taking anybody's right and way to vote. It's centralizing how the organization is going to be run and operated in the future. If you don't like the way it's run, that's certainly your prerogative to vote people out. The position should be based on experience and talent, not party affiliation. As this position continues to become more complex over time, With the financial limitations that we have here, technology is gonna be the only way that we can streamline the work. And I'll give you an example. Last year, the two major expenses were legal fees, which I'm not gonna get into that, and the other was accounting services. And the accounting services were costly because there really wasn't a process in place to do it effectively. And we were paying, I don't know, over $100,000. So that needs to be brought in-house. One of the many things that need to be brought in-house to reduce costs. Knowledge and historical perspective necessitates that physicians be immune from political affiliation. I understand the objections about having the board put in their friends or not their tism. And if that happens, we have every right to get rid of them. The safety net, one of the safety nets is the board had the foresight to hire outside human resource group. Make sure that everybody, first of all, there's no possible work environment here, and that everything is done right. And they will be involved in looking at I worked with Darlene for four months. She did a great job. She had a passion for this position. Again, it's not about her. It's about streamlining things and getting into the 21st century. Just because we've done everything the same way since the 1940s, 50s, and 60s doesn't mean that we don't have to adapt to the times. We don't adapt we're gonna end up being like Kodak. And that's something that's avoidable. And I also think that the board has to be more explicit about how they can protect this position to make sure that it's not a short-term position. Also, if this doesn't preclude the current work from applying .

Anyone else?

14% are represented. I understand if these things go to an appointed position, it has to go to a public referendum. It has to be voted on. It's going to get voted on by maybe 14% of the people. But then that responsibility Some of the issues that she faced are, in fact, breaking the law. You attend a conference when you're told not to as an elected official. You pay for it. With town funds, I don't know. That's either embezzlement or misappropriation of public funds or something called unlawful conversion. So, I think that needs to be looked at.

Morning Beach, Town of Barrie, to the Shelby Town Board and all Town of Shelby residents. I am Morning Beach and I have proudly served as the elected Town Clerk of the Town of Barrie for more than 30 years. When I learned that the Town Board of the Town of Shelby recently passed a resolution seeking a public referendum on changing the positions of Town Clerk and town highway superintendent from elected to appointed, I was deeply concerned. This proposal, if passed, will drastically change how your town government operates. To the town board of the town, Shelby, I respectfully ask that you clearly explain why you believe this change is necessary. Residents deserve to understand the reasons behind such a significant proposal and how it will impact the government's ability to preserve accountability and public trust. To the residents of Shelby, I encourage you to consider what this change could mean. The elected system provides important checks and balances by ensuring that the officials are directly accountable to the voters, not to the town board. Each elected official has an independent responsibility to uphold state laws, ethical standards, and the interests of the public. If these positions become appointed, those officials would serve at the will of the town board. Future boards would have the authority to hire, replace, or dismiss those officials without formal approval. Perhaps most importantly, this decision affects your right to choose who serves in those crucial roles. Your vote is your choice. Before making a permanent change to the structure of your local government, I encourage every resident to become informed, ask questions in public meetings, and carefully consider the long-term impact. trying to be patient.

I agree. So, I'm actually from the town of Carlton, but I am on your ballot in the fall for the Orleans County Legislature at large on the Democratic line. So, just a reminder to some of you in the room, because I've heard Republican committee like about a half a million times, there's Democrats in Orleans County too. Good evening. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Marlene Stiles. As a Democrat, I will be on the ballot as the Orleans County Legislature at large. So although I do not reside in Shelby, I have a great interest in the decisions made here and every other town and village within the county. Your decisions can, in fact, have an effect on each of us. It seems that this proposition is very much so oversimplified. It is not just about hiring people for two management positions within the town. It is about taking away the rights of your residents. As we're celebrating 250 years of freedom this year and everything that goes along with it, the right to vote and be heard is arguably the most important. Research indicates that this does not stem from the need to replace incompetent people Your very tenured clerk, with more accolades than most in New York State, is quite capable of training the next elected clerk. She came in with little knowledge of the job, which I might add will also be true of any appointment, but pulled herself up by her bootstraps and figured it out. The town is better for it. I am amazed at the condescending level of the letter to the editor written by Mr. Hemingway, and I quote, understand. It is highly unlikely that any future supervisor will spend as much time in the town hall office as I have, or likely at the quality board we have today. The inference that five other residents of the town of Shelby could never be this dedicated is appalling. But that said, you all run those inferior folks employed to appoint a clerk at a highway superintendent. is only good for as long as the will of the board. You probably won't be the board forever. Folks, this is a slippery slope. Agreeing to this is putting the town in the hands of only five people. And honestly, only three, if that is the majority required to carry a vote. Imagine that, three people. to make the decisions for nearly 5,000. Where are the checks and balances? Nadine Hamlin, our currently elected county clerk, recently commented, and I quote, as a previous town clerk, this is a horrible decision and Shelby residents should not be in on this idea. The elected town clerk holds a very important Elected position in the town. A town clerk should not be under the town board's control. A town clerk should answer to the people. The position holds a check and balance responsibility. Learn all about the town clerk position before you cast your vote. These positions are created to hold every office accountable. It is a huge mistake to take any one of them away. And let's really talk about the elephant in the room. Everyone's talking about it in the letters from the editor and on social media, and it seems pretty accurate even in the recordings of the recent board meetings. The real issue of this ridiculous suggestion is that it's the only way you can think of to get rid of your current highway superintendent. He has been backed by the Republican committee for years. He is an active member of the committee, and you want him gone. Can I suggest that you direct your frustration to facing the structure of your county Republican committee? Clean house there, and leave the town shall be alone. There's no good ending to taking away the rights of your voting public. You think the turnout is low now? Give them less to vote on. So many are willing to say that members of parties don't or can't agree on anything. Well, we agree on this. Don't continue on this path.

I'd like to speak on the Tom Lurk proposition.

An elected town clerk is directly accountable to the people of the community and serves at the will of the people, not at the discretion of a five-person ward. The decisions of electing a town clerk involves voting for the residents in the town, not at the discretion of a board of five individuals. You may get rid of the political party by appointing a town clerk, but really, will it? When I was elected town clerk 18 and a half years ago, I made history. There had never been a Democrat town clerk before me. I can almost guarantee if the position would have been appointed by the board, I would not have been chosen. The board was all Republican and a couple of the council people were committee members on the Republican board. In fact, for a few years following the election, I would be approached by a couple of councilmen with a voter registration card in their hand, and they would ask me if I would like to fill it out, or when was I going to change to a Republican. I always left it off, as I was thinking they were kidding me. Maybe they weren't, I really don't know. It would only take one board to choose someone they know. Things could change through the years, and we would have to live with the choices that were made. with only a little over 5,000 people in the town of Shelby. Everyone knows everyone. We need to keep this as an elected position. I believe the residents want to see a familiar face when coming into the town to do business instead of someone who they might not live in township because they were appointed. The residents do not lose their voice when the accountable to the residents. Something to think about. There are 932 towns in New York State. 889 are elected town clerks and 43 are appointed. Just so you know, the residents are my boss. You voted for me. If I am not doing a good job, then in the next election, I probably won't win. Don't take away the voting rights by making this an appointed position. An elected town clerk answers to her title. You owe it to the residents. Thank you. All right, darling, thank you.

Any other comments about the town clerk? Yes, please.

Hi, I'm Nadine Hanlon, Orleans County Clerk. I was the past town clerk elected in Kendall, and I also was an elected town board, I'm sorry, school board member, so I've been elected three times. Every time I've been elected, I've had opposition. I worked my tail off. My first election, I was nine months pregnant going door to door. I support every elected official, the highway superintendents, town supervisors. My dad served town and capital supervisor for 32 years. There is an importance to elected officials. There is an importance for checking back checks and balances. That's been spoken a lot about here. And I serve the public. I serve the public, no matter if they're Republican, Democrat, and independent of land. It's our duty to serve everybody. And I feel as your town clerk, it's the responsibility of the town clerk to serve independently away from the board. I have been put in positions where I've had a supervisor come to me and ask to change minutes. And I had the right to say no because this is how you said it. But when you come back to me and say I didn't mean to say it that way, It's not my duty to change it because I have to answer the people, and that's what you said. So the town clerk is responsible to do her own work and responsible to the people. And the supervisor, you're responsible to the people as well. So I am here to support the elected officials.

Thank you. Anyone else? Lee. At this point, we're going to open the second part of the public speaking, discussing the proposed local law to change the highway superintendent position from elected to appointed. We'll follow the same process. If you wish to speak, please raise your hand. We'll bring in the microphone. Please stay on stage. State your name, your town residence, and if you are a representative of the police, let us know that also. So at this point, anyone wish to speak on the highway superintendent position?

Good evening, everybody. My name is James Dussing, and I'm the elected highway superintendent in the town of Clarence, New York. I also represent the New York State Association of Town Superintendents of Highlands. I currently sit as the president of the association. I represent over 930 towns across New York State, of which over 90% of the towns have elected Highlands superintendents or superintendents of Highlands. and the town shall be an elected position. People ask me every day when I see them on the street when the next time I'm running for office. I tell them every day when I get to work, every day when I stop for coffee, go to the grocery store, go to church, go to the fire hall, or go out to get my mail. Our job is never done. We are accountable 24 hours a day, Saturdays a week, to the people that elect us. And when we are not doing our jobs, they let us know, regardless of where or when it is, believe me. There is no chain of command, no call to town hall. They talk directly to us, and we have to act accordingly and responsibly to our residents, or simply they vote us out of office. I don't know the politics in the town of Shelby. But I can't tell you the history of politics. It seems based on an attempt to settle a score. There are very few towns in the state that are appointed. Why waste all this time, I ask? Effort, money, for a referendum that will likely fail. Very few of these referendums pass across New York State. Although we just try to handful times a year, very few of them pass. An appointed Superintendent highways would not be any cheaper, probably the opposite if you want to get a good one. They will require a long-term deployment contract, benefits, and pay time off. If it doesn't work out, good luck getting rid of them because they will be a government employee and protected as such. I think we all know how hard it is to terminate the government employee, even a bad employee. In closing, I ask you that the more that you come to your senses and stop pushing this referendum, this is precious time that you will never get back. And we're putting this out on a beautiful night tonight. Leave the choice of superintendent of highways to the residents of the town of Shelby.

Hi, I'm Tracy trucker. I'm from the town of Clarendon. Um, I'm also president of the Orleans County superintendent's association. Um, basically a couple of things. Jamie gave a good speech. He mentioned a lot of stuff, um, removing the choice from people. That's just crazy. I have a couple other questions. Will this be a civil service to make sure that people are qualified to prevent it from being a club of friends and so forth? So will it be a civil service? With appointed over election, over being elected, you lose a lot of accountability. So that keeps you on your toes even more. If, let's say on my road somebody has an accident, they can prove me grossly negligent, they come after me personally. With somebody that's appointed, they don't have that looming over their heads to make sure they do a good job. And they worked their butts off, St. James, every day. Every time you're out in public, you've got people coming up and talking to you, asking you about different things. I can't go to a grocery store. You can't go to a function anywhere in the town or in the county, pretty much, without getting asked questions. And that's good. That's all part of accountability. My next question, I guess, is as far as I'm not sure what you guys have done for a living, but superintendent. There's a lot to road work and there's a lot to plowing snow. It's not just going out and scraping. There's a lot that goes into that. A lot more than what people really think. That's all I really have. We've got some members from the association as well in support of this. That's about all I have I guess.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak?

Yes, I just want to make sure that the comments that came earlier when you were talking about that talk that pertain to.

I think people have to realize that we don't live near the county. We live in one of these counties. We have ten towns, four villages. Each one of them has a department of public work. Each one of them has their own for $400,000 trucks that we just bought two of. It becomes a point where you can't continue down the same path. You have to look at different ways to solve the problem. And you have to look at economies of scale. You have to look at technology to get to some of the overhead type things that we do around here. And change for the sake of change is not good. Purposeful change is important. When you're living in a town where the expenses are growing at an accelerated rate and the revenue is not keeping up, the only way to keep up with it is to raise taxes. Something needs to be done. Thinking you can go down the same path and fix the problem without changing the case isn't possible. Again, this isn't about the person. It's about the physician. It's about making things more efficient, having one team. If they don't do their job, don't vote for them. That's all I have to say, thank you.

Thank you.

Before I close this session, is there anyone else?

Hi, I'm . Thank you. Thank you. to vote. They choose who you will vote for, qualified or not. And if no one steps forward, the buddy system seems to build positions. I have nothing against my fellow Shelby residents. I've been one for seven years. But when they put people in who really don't show the commitment to the residents to get the most qualified candidates on the ballot, that's where the system fails. I am on the Republican committee, and I have seen it twice now. A better person is not endorsed, but a buddy is. Just recently, one man wanted to endorse our last supervisor for a spot. I said, seriously? After all the problems and costs of the presence he caused? I was told by the chairperson, I thought he did a great job. So again, what was taking place here tonight was not taking your right to vote away, but to give you a fair chance to get the right Thank you Anyone else

I don't think all these people are here. Right. Okay, thanks.

I don't know what's going on here that you want to take away our vote or whatever but I just like to say our current town highway superintendent there when he came into office the employees from clocking in and going to the restaurant in Middleport to have breakfast before they started to work. And I don't know if anybody knows where that restaurant was, but it's been closed down since then. So I was wondering if they were supporting them. And as for Blowing snow and stuff. When you're in town, the wind doesn't blow between the houses half good, so it doesn't blow over. But when you get out into the country, it blows over. So there's no reason for anybody to complain that the job wasn't getting done. Because years ago, we used to put up snow fence. So it didn't blow that bad over the road. We should keep the hope for the people.

Thank you.

Well, number one, I want to make sure that the letter I read earlier is coming toward the position of highway superintendent also. So I'll just say ditto. But also, as you can see, spoke well recently about the services that each town and village has. And to that point, I would add that we have something called shared services. And I'm not about to speak for the highway superintendents over there. But we have a great example. Town of Barry. Town of Barry, the town of Clarendon, just a shared service with a piece of equipment. And that's what we need more of. Because I think a lot of people, I'm hearing, that will cut expenses. Appointed versus elected will not cut costs.

YES.

GOOD EVENING. I HAVE BEEN WITH THE TOWN FOR 30 YEARS. I AGREE WITH BRIAN'S NUMBERS HERE. I know it's a very small number, but it's still a lot larger than five or three people if they get away with the elective position. I'm a Republican. I've run three terms. I've been cross-endorsed all three times by both the Democrats and the conservatives. My position, I work for the people. I'm not working for a party. The other parties have decided to endorse me because they know who I am. And I think when you give away the right for people to vote for who they want, you're taking a lot away from the people. And like the gentleman here said, the same goes for the board members and everything like that. As Janie mentioned, there's politics going on here in Shelby. I don't get involved with what's going on. I got to go on and tell everyone for my job. You know, I don't think it's a good idea to take a risk. the people, if you're a Republican and you're in the Republican area, you're probably going to get re-elected. I got re-elected twice now in the original election, not by the Republicans, but by the people, which are Democrats and conservatives, along with my party of Republicans. So I think it's important to keep the vote

I've listened to both sides. I really wanna learn and decide which way I'm gonna go. And I wonder, when I'm looking at this list that was listed, if it isn't more of a question of how much oversight is allowed by the board for these positions. And I look particularly at the last two items under the elected position. there would never happen any place else. And I'm not saying anyone's ever abused that, but it leaves the potential for abuse open. And the other, at the bottom, the highway superintendent carrying wide-length events, spending for equipment, paving, and road maintenance. Where's the oversight for that? Because this is about cost. And going forward, as John said, the CDE, WE HAVE TO CUT COSTS, WE HAVE TO BE CONSERVATIVE. AND I'M NOT SURE HOW MUCH OVERSIGHT IS ALLOWED BY THE BOARD FOR THESE TWO POSITIONS. MAYBE THAT'S THE REAL QUESTION.

THANK YOU.

I have a quick question for the gallery. Of all the elected folks that are here, when was the last time you worked a 40-hour week?

Last week.

When was the last time you worked a 45-hour week? About nine hours a week. Yeah. When was the last time you took four weeks off? Never. So your elected officials take far less time off and work far more hours for you for

Thank you.

My name is Joe Sidonio. I'm a past supervisor of the town of Murley. I'm a veteran. I vote. And I am also a numbers guy. And what I really want to say, though, is not about me. It's I want to commend the board for having the courage to take on a difficult topic. I want to commend everyone in the room. who's involved here and speaking, what we're watching here, what we're experiencing here is democracy. And I commend everyone. The board has fought hard to be elected, to serve you, you elected them to cut costs, to better manage the town, and things like that. And I say, give them a chance, and this is their chance to put forth an idea. And it is the voters' opportunity, if it goes forward, to either go forward or not. And I hope everyone in the room leaves the room as they came in friendly and warm and not divisive over an issue. I have one perplexing thought and that is Um, I personally admire darling rich. And I personally appreciate. I have no interactions with them because I'm not here. Uh, uh, on a business level or political level. Um, so this isn't anything against them. But I have to ask the question, um. I'd like to make one more statement. That is, when I go to vote and I take my voting seriously, I am so saddened and I refuse to vote for an unopposed candidate. And it seems like we see that more often than not. When you go to vote, it's about choice. And more often than not, in our county, there's very few times where there's a choice. Having said that, I want to ask or throw the thought out there, why is the top highway public works job in the position in the county, and that is the county highway department of public works, why is that position appointed and no one's complaining about that? I'm just curious. And with that, I'll thank you for your time and I wish everyone good luck here.

Just real quick, something on cost. Trucks have gone up $100,000 since 22, at least that much. Fuel tax, you know, your gas. So everything is going up. So our hands are tied as far as expenses go. So when you talk about cutting costs, Our hands are tied. We operate under state contracts, OGS. If that's the cheapest way you can go, that's all I can say. Thank you.

I just wanted to make sure everybody knew, I need no way to apply. MATTERS. AND IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH AN EMPLOYEE OR AN ELECTED PERSON, SAY SUPERVISOR HAS AN ISSUE, HOW MUCH LAND, I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH LAND THEY HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING OR TO TRY AND BRING THAT UNDER CONTROL.

I mean, I've been screwed over personally, money-wise, by the town of Shelby. Don't worry about it. It's not his problem. It's his brother-in-law's problem. All you want to do is tell him, if this thing works, your town is fine. Come to our town meeting and see what we're up against, okay? See our numbers. When are we going to get to the town of Shelby?

The highway actually...

Anyone else before I close the session and move to a

But what you're seeing

for a motion to close the speech. So I'm going to open up for board comments, and I'm going to start. And I really want to thank you all for coming. I hope this isn't the only time you come to a meeting and express your opinion. This is not about taking your right away to vote. It's about putting a proposal on the ballot for you, the voters, to make a decision about how it works. unless somebody's ready to run a primary self-fund, and if you don't get an endorsement, it's a tough road. And quite often, independents are left out of the mix because there is no independent party, there is no endorsement. When we came in here, we were elected on the basis that we were looking to change, to bring costs under control, and make suggestions and look for ways that the government might work better What we're putting on board here tonight is something that we've seen from inside, and I didn't mean to imply that I'm the only person that works harder than the next person up. The last three supervisors quit. I often never come in here for more than an hour or so a week. Spending a lot of time here, I've seen areas that need improvement. And the board has seen the same thing. This is not a decision that the board makes. The board is making a decision to put something on the ballot that we think might work. If the people of Shelby don't think it's a good idea to come back, first of all, after this meeting, we will accept written comments for two more weeks. We will meet, we will evaluate, and a vote will be taken as to whether we move it to the ballot or not. The voters then will have that on ballot in November. Nobody's vote is being taken away. You either want it or you don't want it. Quite frankly, I don't have anybody that I want to appoint to these positions. What I'm very concerned about is we've made great headway in improving things here, cutting costs, and we've had good people here working hard. But the two positions that we're talking about both come up for election next year. The next person in line for the clerk's position. And I've seen one of the races that has to be done, and it's a lot to learn. There's a lot to know. It's difficult. And Darlene will tell you, when she came in here, she had people that knew. She worked hard. But she had people, two and a half people, one and a half, essentially two people, I think one full-time, two part-time, that had experience. And she told me, don't mind me quoting you, If I come here and they're going to know me, I'm going to quit. I am concerned that next November that Darlene leaves, retires, we don't have somebody in line. And there's no guarantee if we bring somebody in line and train them during the election process that they will get elected. I come in here every day, except Saturday and Sunday. I try to take those off. And I see what it takes to run for a job. I do not want to come in here that many days and work that hard for a position that really is only supposed to be oversight. And by the way, that's all the board is, is oversight. We control the money, but we have no direct command and control over the clerk, over the highway superintendent. We can suggest At the end of the day, they make their decisions. In any appointed position, I would think that the board would consider making it steady when they follow the standing town laws, and even consider making it civil service. I don't know whether that'll happen, but there's a lot to be done afterwards. If this gets passed, I'd like to see somebody go and get in those positions that's required. It's needed. And I know there was a letter written by someone that said, because we're a small town, it isn't as important. We have less people. And I really will tell you, when she first came in the office, how many people are in the office, how many are in there today, and the same amount of work, plus more, because the rules, regulations, and requirements expand, seems like daily. I don't know if that's an exaggeration, but it seems like every time I open my email, there's something else that the state, the county, the feds, somebody wants more information. They want another report. We've got to change this. So the idea here was if the people shall be going to allow the board to do it, and that's what it would be, if you would allow it, we would have to come up with rules to protect those positions. Things like a super majority to remove possible civil service. A lot of things to be discussed yet, if that is the direction that the people shall be I don't want to tell the clerk what to do. I think she'll tell you. I don't tell her what to do. I don't try to. We need strong people in those positions. My years in industry, you've got resumes, you've interviewed, and then when you get a process by which more people get involved in the interview process, I don't know how that might work. Anything's open. But as a board, we were charged, look for ways. made a lot of progress, how do we keep that going? And we can't keep it going if we don't have good people in those positions. And if Darlene was staying, probably wouldn't have this kind of position. But she's not. No, I don't know whether he's going to run or not. And if he didn't run and it was an appointment, he could apply like anybody else and he got a lot of experience. I can't say that it would or wouldn't work. But that's what we're trying. We're putting it forward. I really appreciate you all coming out tonight. And by the way, We have.

Well, what Jim's talking about is what we're looking to do. And people don't realize that the supervisor and the councilman, their jobs are up for election. So there's two councilmen and one supervisor up for election at the same time. So say people come out and vote and say, okay, let's turn this over to the board and let them pick the candidates. Well, if we do that, people that aren't performing, or people that the public doesn't feel is performing. Those people are up for election. That's three people. Count the number of people here. Five. With five people, you need a three-person majority to vote on anybody. So with that said, Every two years, you could change. You could change. We'll plop it back and forth. Everybody has a chance to vote. It's just changing where you're voting. We're not taking anybody's right to vote away. Contrary to popular opinion, we're not doing that. You just vote at a different time, a different place. And by doing that, I think somebody said the checks and balances. Would be a lot better where the board interview.

Uh, for me, as a short time, you're here on the board. Uh, rooms, time for you have to do most of the Lord agency. And that to me is a good sign. People want to change. They elected these board members to affect that change. And then let us go. And that's why we need that sort of feedback. Well, I think for a minute, I spent several years on that side doing the exact same thing because I didn't like what To move to an appointment opens that up for anybody, anybody in this room. You don't automatically exclude yourself because you're an independent, you're a Democrat, or you don't get endorsement from the Republican Party, even though you deserve it. There are a lot of people that have passion but feel I'm going to have to monitor you. put protections in place so that in several years, you decide, myself or anybody else here on board is doing their job, get rid of us. If the next board comes in, they don't like the guy they hired, they're not just going to simply dismiss them and replace them with somebody they'd rather prefer being there. So the key here is all the cities and villages in New York State had a DPW for the village, that's an assigned position. Why aren't all the people in the village making the board meetings up in arms that it should be changed to be a voting decision? Because that's the way it's always been. So I'm just asking you to open up your mind and think in the best interest of the town and know that we're out here making decisions for that very reason. We're trying to make things better.

John C. said, this is a process, not about the people. It's about looking at something that you elected us to come here and come together and talk about things and decide the best thing that we feel for the town. This is not political. This has nothing to do with trying to control Republican or Democrat. It's about seeing the way things run on the inside and realize Maybe before it was a good idea, but at this point, I truly believe the best thing is to have an appointed position. First of all, even if we appoint, even if it were to pass and we appointed these positions, those positions still have a statutory responsibility to do certain things which come directly from the state. The board doesn't have the ability to start telling them to mop floors do all kinds of crazy stuff. That's not what this is about. But right now you have three separate islands. You have a highway department, you have a clerks department, and you have a board. And nobody has control over the other one. Now, we recently, somebody mentioned a situation where we had an elected official spend some money that they were not, it was not budgeted for. We can't do anything about it. You can. You people, I mean, you elect, I wished you would all come. I'm glad to see everybody here. I wished you would come and hold those people that you elect and the people that work for this town and are elected for us too. I wished you would hold them accountable. I've heard several times that people have talked about the Republican committee and, you know, they should interview the kind of process we should interview and that's where it should happen. Yes, they do that. They take your resume and they look at it, and then they ignore it and vote for who they want. So, you know, but I think that for me, I wish people would try to understand, and however you decide in November, that is your choice, and that's the end of it. But this board did not make this proposal lightly. And we had to do what Larry said. You know, somebody mentioned something about high turnover. The village has had a town clerk, Peggy Crowley, 100 years? How long was Peggy there? I mean, forever. The current mayor was there 42 years in the job. The current town village clerk is there got to be close to 20 years. I mean, I'm not saying there aren't high turnovers in other areas, but it's all about if you get the right person and you make the right work environment where people are civil with each other and can get along and work together, you may or may not have to turn over. But just know that there was some question about the board was elected and we promised certain things. And I'm not going to say for anybody else because I don't know what they promised, but I can tell you what I promised. I am doing the best that I believe for the taxpayers of Shelby. So I know there's a lot of chatter on Facebook and a lot of commenting that we were trying to take away constitutional rights. We're trying to give you that. Come to the polls in November and tell us what you think. We think it's a good idea. And one last comment. Somebody mentioned that years ago that the... The highway department was coming in and going out to breakfast, but that stopped. How do you know that?

I used to see him over there.

How do you know it stopped? Because I didn't see him after he came in. I'm just saying that when you're not here every day in the midst of what goes on, you don't necessarily see that kind of stuff. Yes, the roads get plowed. Yes, the dog licenses get... And I'm not even trying to... comment about the current people in the jobs. I'm just saying that as time goes on, you might not have that better person the next time.

So that's it. I was trying to point out, you know, if I'm here to, let me. Okay.

Everybody had their time to speak. She had her time. Is there one question to answer? I think that's it. Yeah, I guess so. people say that we're making this decision. We're not. We're putting it in front of the taxpayers and the voters. It's your decision.

And when it comes to Democrat, independent, socialist, whatever, whoever can do the job the best is what I'm looking for.

And I thank everybody for coming out tonight. So that's it. Again, I want to thank you. I do appreciate the So moved. Second.

Yes.