Citizens interested in Rotterdam’s Town Board will now have to visit Town Hall half as often.
The Rotterdam Town Board at its Wednesday, April 25, meeting approved holding agenda meetings at 5:30 p.m. prior to regularly scheduled board meetings. The board has previously held agenda meetings at 5:30 p.m. the Monday before the regular Wednesday meeting.
Councilman Robert Godlewski cast the sole vote against the switch, with the other four board members voicing no qualms against it.
Godlewski motioned to table the resolution to further discuss the switch, but nobody seconded that.
“In essence what we are doing it doubling up on a meeting,” Godlewski said. “The reason … we have had these meetings is if there is any changes to be made or any request by board members they are made at that agenda meeting.”
Godlewski said there have been numerous changes to agendas during the Monday meeting. He said this will not allow the public to know about any changes or updates to the draft of the agenda.
“I find it very hard to understand or even follow it logically to expect the public to come to an agenda meeting at 5:30 and then stick around to seven o’clock for the regular Town Board meeting,” Godlewski said. “I don’t think it is reasonable.”
Supervisor Harry Buffardi said after the meeting he does not think it unreasonable to hold the agenda meeting prior to the regular meeting. He noted the time of the agenda meeting is remaining unchanged.
Also, there are traditionally very few residents at the agenda meetings, he said.
“The public routinely does not attend agenda meetings,” he said.
Since the beginning of this year, Buffardi said he has only seen two to three different residents attend the meeting, outside of department heads, town employees or invited guests.
Godlewski said discussions at agenda meetings take on a different form from the regular meeting where the board is addressing a larger audience and being recorded on video.
“The discussions we have at agenda are not quite the same that the public sees here tonight,” Godlewski said.
Godlewski made claims the change would make town government less open, but Buffardi balked at the notion.
“We are not clouding the issue at all here. It is still the same transparent form of government,” Buffardi said.
Buffardi said board members approaching him about making the changed spurred the resolution.
New York State Town Law requires town boards to meet once a month.
Buffardi said the change would create efficiencies in the town and town employees could better use their time instead of spending Monday sitting in the meeting. He said to review the agenda at the meeting only “takes minutes.”
He also wasn’t concerned the switch would make it difficult to make changes to the agenda before the regular meeting.
“We will try it and if it doesn’t work we can change it,” Buffardi said. “We can certainly modify it in the future. If it doesn’t work we can go back to what we had before.”
