December 7, 2006

By Diane Chiddister

At the Dec. 18 meeting of Village Council, Council members will discuss their criteria for choosing a villager to fill the seat of former Council President Jocelyn Hardman, who resigned Dec. 3. At that meeting, Council will also announce which villagers have applied for the position, which has an application deadline of Dec. 15. Council will make a final decision at its meeting Jan. 2.

At their meeting Monday, Dec. 4, Council members discussed the process for choosing a successor for Hardman, who cited increased work and school obligations as the reason for her resignation. According to state law, Council must fill the vacancy within 30 days. Council members did not address how they would choose a successor for the role of president. Karen Wintrow, who is vice president, served as president for the meeting.

At the Dec. 4 meeting, two community members urged Council to pick as a replacement for Hardman someone who would help unite what they perceived as a community divided by the recent campaign around Issue 21, the Village property tax levy.

“It’s obvious there’s a split in the village,” said Stan Bernstein.”

The very close vote- -— the levy carried by a single vote after last week’s official count — indicated that “there’s a large number of villagers who don’t have confidence in Council,” Bernstein said. He said selecting a new Council member who represents a broader cross section of the community would be one way for Council to restore confidence from villagers.

Al Schueter read from a prepared statement in which he explained why he voted against the levy. He did so because the final weeks of the levy campaign seemed to reflect the divisive tone of earlier village controversies, he said.

“My vote was a reaction to the finger-pointing and blaming,” he said. He encouraged Council to choose “someone who will make Council more accurately reflect the diversity of the community” so that “we can work together as we used to, begin to work on community unity.”

In response to Council members’ questions about how Council has appointed new members in the past, Clerk of Court Deborah Benning said that there were no specific guidelines. In the most recent case, when Mary Alexander resigned shortly after the 2005 election, Council appointed Kathryn Chase, who received the next highest number of votes after the three Council members elected then. Wintrow said that “now it’s at a different time,” since the election took place a year ago.

Most often, according to Benning, Council members have sought applications from interested villagers, then made individual contact with the applicants to get additional information. Councils have most often met in executive session to make a final selection, she said.

Judith Hempfling stressed the importance of Council members receiving feedback from community members on potential applicants for the vacant seat. However, some Council members expressed discomfort about discussing personalities in a public forum, and Wintrow stated that doing so could be an embarrassment to the applicants.

“I think it’s useful to have some of the discussion public,” said Bruce Rickenbach, who said that because the appointment of a new Council member is a personnel decision, the decision should be made in executive session. Hempfling stated that she disagreed that the appointment is a personnel decision.

Council members are elected by the community and as such, they have every right to make the decision by themselves, without input from the community, according to villager Becky Campbell.

“The citizens don’t have any business” interviewing those interested in the seat, she said.

Council does not need to discuss the merits of individual applicants in public, but it should discuss the criteria they plan to use in their selection publically, according to Bernstein.

Council members agreed that they will discuss criteria, and disclose the names of applicants at their next meeting, on Dec. 18. Hempfling encouraged villagers to communicate their thoughts to Council members.

Other Council business from the Dec. 4 meeting will be reported in next week’s News.

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com