Baldwinsville — We have been asked why we are looking into changing the status of two long-standing elective town positions to appointive. Time and circumstances often bring a need for change.
After the elections in 2011, we, the supervisor-elect and the two councilors-elect, started discussing ways to streamline and reduce costs of the operations of the Town of Lysander. In this regard, we started discussions with the Town of Van Buren and the Village of Baldwinsville to look at means of cooperation through inter-municipal agreements.
We found some things that created difficulties as we moved forward in our discussions. We talked about the different unions, the number of elected positions and the various positions, which are duplicated between the three municipalities. Unionized positions are not up for discussion at this time. We talked about the need for changing some elective positions to appointive. The Town of Van Buren was already in discussion about making this change in the Highway. After many executive sessions, we decided to present a plan to our constituents for changing both the highway superintendent and the town clerk positions from elective to appointive. We did this in executive session because under the Open Meetings Law, personnel changes are discussed in executive session.
The overriding desire to make these changes is to more easily position the town to move forward in developing inter-municipal cooperative agreements between the two towns, the village and the school district. In the future, we feel that costs are going to be reduced through such agreements. Changing from elective to appointive is the first step in this process.
In addition, as the governing body to which the people have given the responsibility for overseeing the operation of the town, we are recognizing the need for close cooperation and coordination among all departments. Those in charge of departments need to be in daily communication with the town supervisor in order to help facilitate efficiency of operations.
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Comments
turgid 9 months, 2 weeks ago
Thank you, Mr. Salisbury for following through on your campaign issues. There are critics that say there is no openness. I haven't seen those same critics at a single working session prior to the board meetings and I have attended most of them. If any one attended any of the campaign functions, they would have learned of the interest in shared and consolidated services. This is also not a new and surprising thing that the Lysander Republican Committee is trying to make it out to be. I would also like to point out the previous regime never held an open working session for the public to attend or executive session. This makes one think about how they got town business done. I know how. They held illegal sessions before and after each town board meeting for hours at a time. When called out on it, they said anyone was welcome. When 2 citizens took them up on it, one was life was threatened by then Councilman Brian May and now our current County Legislator and Barry Bullis called the police. So again, thank you for the breath of fresh air coming from Town Hall except for the Clerk's Office. That place still stinks of partisanship and corruption.
ghostofbville 9 months, 2 weeks ago
Yes, thank you Mr. Supervisor violating the "open meeting laws". Thank you for showing the voting public your true colors. Thank you for being the arrogant, self-serving individuals we knew you to be and thank you for continually having those thugs in the audience prove how little they care about the Town and how much they care about revenge & political payback.
Yes, this all brought to you by JAM, the same group who threathned to sue the Planning Board over the Y issue. And the same group who have NO PLANS for shared services with the other muni's, NO PLAN to save the taxpayer any money. B/C this is about power & control, power to appoint a "shill" into that position(s) and they/he wants total control over Town Hall.
Where are the coopertive studies, where is the "work product" that would prove their position, where are the necessary details for the taxpaying public to read and understand. Truth is there is none b/c this is all about politics. period.
CaseyOstrander 9 months, 2 weeks ago
Would like to hear more detail on how the inter-municipal agreements would look like. I have read that Van Buren is interested in consolidating highway department responsibilities but have not read anything about their interest in a shared town clerk. I am interested to see what can be gained from consolidation of services, but hope this is not a cover for circumventing the current turbulence between Lysander clerk and supervisor.
As a recent transplant to Baldwinsville I am encouraged by the interest and participation at the local level. I am also disappointed to see how current officials are always compared to past leaders instead of the merit of current performance.
Raven 9 months, 2 weeks ago
It's funny how when the shoe is on the other foot how the trolls come out to balk exactly what they supported when Barry was in control.. You crack me up ghostofbville. Hypocrite is written across your forehead.
Thank you John. Keep working to clean things up and you will have my continued support.
turgid 9 months, 1 week ago
Thank you, Raven.
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