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OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford
Pictured is the Fredonia Village Board at last week’s meeting. From left are Trustees Michelle Twichell, Paul Wandel, Nicole Siracuse, Ben Brauchler and Jon Espersen.
Trustee Michelle Twichell objected to some of Mayor Michael Ferguson’s committee assignments at last week’s Board of Trustees meeting. Ferguson also announced a new downtown business development committee.
Twichell noted the personnel committee had three names on it, one of which was Ferguson’s. She worried that constituted a quorum, which would require advance public notice for any meeting.
However, Ferguson is not on the Board of Trustees, as Trustee Jon Espersen pointed out. Trustees Paul Wandel and Nicole Siracuse are also on the personnel committee.
Ferguson said he wanted to be on that committee because “I’ve agreed to come to some of these meetings to learn more about the departments… I’ve met most, if not all, of the department heads and some of their teams, but that third name is there not as a consistent attendee — I’m not here to overmanage our department heads, they’re very good at what they do — it’s merely here to observe and learn more about the individual departments.”
Ferguson continued to detail his committee assignments. Zoning and code enforcement will have Twichell and Wandel; finance and insurance, Wandel and Ben Brauchler; and public works will include Espersen and Wandel.
Fredonia’s mayor then described his new downtown business development committee.
“The key to success in any community is to have a strong business community. We’re very proud of the fact that we don’t have very many empty storefronts in our downtown. So it would be absolutely wonderful not only to fill those but also support the current businesses that are in the community and let them know we do support them. There’s some grants available for them that will not only help them continue to grow, but sustain themselves.”
Espersen and Brauchler will constitute that committee.
The mayor’s public safety committee, a combination of previous police and fire committees, is Ferguson and Espersen; the parks and recreation panel is Siracuse and Ferguson; and sewer and water, Siracuse and Espersen.
Ferguson said he plans to renew a citizens advisory committee. “I welcome community committees,” he said. The mayor also wants trustees to regularly visit with civic and veterans’ groups.
Twichell said to him, “I did note that I am on only one committee out of all of these committees. When you gave me this information last week, I was on parks and recreation and I was also on public safety and I’ve been removed from both of those. So I was on three of these committees and now I’m only on one. So I’d like to ask, why was that?”
Ferguson replied, “We had just made changes on where we are going with what people we were going to put in there. It wasn’t anything intentional.” He added that is why she is on several special and liaison committees.
“I just think it’s unfair… I see you have yourself on parks and recreation, can I not only be on that too?” Twichell said. Ferguson said she could be on that committee.
Twichell also asked to be on the public safety committee but Ferguson appeared less open to that. “Let’s take a review of that after we’ve had a chance to get some of these underway,” he said. “I’d be happy to talk to you about that after the meeting.”
Twichell, a Democrat like Ferguson, reportedly switched her support to Athanasia Landis when the former mayor started a write-in campaign to regain her post in last year’s election. Ferguson was the only candidate endorsed by either the Democratic or Republican parties.
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