January 6 Council Meeting

In the first council meeting of the new year it didn't take long for the line in the sand to be drawn. The first order of business after the opening ceremonies was the election of Council Pro-tem. Joe Soldano was nominated by Don Brown and only garnered three votes in his favor with three in opposition. Refusing to break the tie the mayor opened the floor to any additional nominations and Tony Cataldo nominated John McMahon. McMahon got three yea votes and three nay. At this point the mayor got a rare opportunity to vote and stated it was nothing against Soldano. He stated he thought Joe did a great job as Pro-Tem in '08 but felt if someone else was interested they should get chance to serve in that position. He then gave his vote to McMahon.

Council Pro-Tem is a power position. Not only do they fill in for the mayor in any absence but they also appoint other council members to the various committee chairs along with the other members to the committees. It's a form of lining up your team for the year.

Soldano was noticeably upset about losing Pro-tem. The next order of business was the appointment of Council Committees and McMahon advised he was not prepared for that. After saying that Soldano accused McMahon of having his selections ready last week. He wasn't smiling when he made that accusation. Later on after the meeting Soldano was quoted as saying he was suspicious that the vote was a set up job. He was quoted in the ER as saying "this was not done right, believe me". He was quoted in the MJ as saying "he believed the decision was made to elect McMahon in the position before the 2008 year ended. People setting things up behind your back. It makes you mad." According to what Soldano told reporters the pro-tem position is talked about in the Council Caucus office before the first meeting of the new year but never before the new year begins. I guess Joe was talking about informal discussions among the council members and not in a meeting type forum. I'm sure he wouldn't violate the provisions of the Sunshine Law with closed door meetings about something that is to be decided by a public body in open chambers. Right Joe?

From what was quoted in the newspapers with his comments to the reporters after the meeting it sounds to me that is what Joe is accusing the mayor and three council members of doing. One former mayor told me it has always been policy with council to let anyone who wants to serve in the position to let the new guy do the job. It may be more of an informal understanding rather than it being set in stone. To me it's pure and simple politics. Instead of getting mad, upset and making accusations it would be nice to see our council members working together with any new arrangement. Animosity as was witnessed or reported does not give us hope that everyone will be trying to work together. The line was drawn but it wasn't necessary to kick up the sand.

Anybody seen Joe Scarabino lately? He hasn't attended any of the last three meetings. Fire Chief Bill Smith gave his statistical report for '08 saying that the WFD responded to 185 incidents with an average response time of 3.5 minutes. Out of those 185 call outs 31 was for fire calls. Nine were for false alarms or calls. The rest was for various categories.

Village Administrator Jim Saracco had nothing to report. Being a rainy evening with temperatures close to freezing I'm guessing he was preoccupied with thoughts of calling out the troops with the salt trucks.

Zoning Administrator Rick Williams reported that the ville took in just $2,896 in permits for '08. There's a very good indication of how much the economy has taken a down turn around here. There's not much remodeling or new construction going on around here.

In the Mayor's Report Joe Surace appointed Justine Monte and Jeff MacLean as new members to the Tree Board Committee. Here I thought they were already members. Both of them did a lot of work when they planted the new trees on Broadway.

The Mayor also reported that they will be advertising for a new Animal Control Officer. Newly selected Patty Boley had to resign because of family commitments. I'm sorry it didn't work out for Patty. You got to give her a hand for trying though. Applications for the position will accepted through January 16 at the Mayor's Office.

The mayor also reported that folks from the Census Bureau will be in town January 13 to give tests to anyone that would like to have a job doing the next census in 2010. They will be in town January 13 and will be conducting two testing sessions. The first will be at 10 A.M. and the second will be at 2 P.M. The jobs pay anywhere from $8/hour to $16 depending on the position. I didn't get an exact location but I'm thinking it will be at Village Hall. Will have to get a clarification on that.

Under new legislation it was voted to renew the lease for office space for Congressman Charlie Wilson's district office. The least runs concurrent with Wilson's term of office. The rent remains at $200/month and runs through December 2010. The vote was under suspension of rules and this time there was no opposition.

In New Business Tony Cataldo made a motion to take the Fiscal Officer's salary from three different funds instead of it all being taken out of the General Fund. The purpose of this move was to lessen the burden on the General Fund. With no one voting against it the salary will now be 40% out of the General Fund and 30% out each the Street Fund and the Sewage Fund.

Cataldo also reported that the Village got a letter from the State Auditor's office stating that we are formally out of fiscal emergency. It took a while but it was good news.

Since there were no Committee appointments there was no Committee reports. No mention was made about the tabled Cataldo Construction bill.

The next meeting should be January 20. It'll be interesting to see McMahon's line up and what new antics this will provoke.

Stay tuned...

ole nib