With the effort apparently stymied to break the $1/year, 99-year lease at the Waterford Town Hall, the town’s Sanitary District (WSD) board took a new tack Aug. 8, voting 2-1 to break a long-standing snow removal agreement.
But whether breaking that agreement is legal depends on whose lawyer is talking – with Town Attorney Michael Dubis opining that the agreement is valid and in force, and WSD attorney John Macy and WSD commissioner and attorney Jeff Santaga opining that it is not.
Fortunately, there are a few months to figure things out before the first snowfall hits the Town Hall.
At their Aug. 8 meeting, Santaga and Commissioner Bill Gerard (who lost his seat on the WSD board Aug. 14 to Dan Dickinson in a recall election) voted to immediately dissolve the 10-year-old Town Hall snow removal agreement.
Commissioner Rick McNeiley voted against. He was appointed to the WSD board a day earlier to replace Donna Block, who resigned July 31.
“I don’t think we need to vote on snow removal in the first week of August,” McNeiley said, adding that he thought it reasonable to take 30-60 days to research the issue.
Gerard disagreed, but added: “The positions on this board may change (after the Aug. 14 election) and you can do whatever you want.” Santaga noted before voting Aug. 8 that WSD commissioners had been “hammered” to cut expenses, and this was one way of saving money.
He said having an agreement means that the parties can also disagree about keeping it.
But Town Chairman Robert Langmesser said the Town Hall snow removal agreement is legal and binding and continues to be in force, an opinion that he said has been confirmed by Dubis.
Ken Hinz, the town’s Public Works director, was at the Aug. 8 meeting.
Before the vote, he raised his hand and asked: “Can I say something?”
“No,” Gerard replied.
After the meeting, Hinz said that he and the WSD workers have long cooperated on providing outdoor maintenance at the Town Hall.
“We have always worked together, and I’d like that to continue,” Hinz said.
The town’s big trucks take care of plowing the entire Town Hall parking lot, while the WSD workers use a small snowplow to do the sidewalks, he said.
It’s the kind of cooperation that he and other DPW heads have developed all around the area, Hinz explained, since not every municipality has purchased every piece of equipment that is occasionally needed.
Five-member WSD board?
In other business Aug. 8, the WSD board expressed interest in having the Town Board begin proceedings to change WSD from a three-member to a five-member board.
State law currently requires that a sanitary district board consist of only three members, Macy explained.
But the Town Board does have the authority to request local legislators like state Rep. David Craig and state Sen. Mary Lazich to amend the current law and allow for five members, said Macy.
“I think the request has to come from the Town Board,” said Macy. If not, the state Legislature would probably not be interested in taking up the issue, he said.
By having five board members, WSD commissioners can better communicate with each other in-between meetings, Macy noted.
Currently, if two of the three WSD commissioners talk or email outside of a meeting, that constitutes a quorum for conducting business and is a likely violation of state open meetings laws.
Langmesser said Aug. 9 that the five-member Sanitary District issue will likely be taken up by the Town Board in September.
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