Yorktown Supervisor Grace Criticized for Leaving Highway Discussion Item Off Town Agenda

Former Yorktown supervisor Susan Siegel, who has been an active participant in town government and a critic of the current administration, says there is a pattern of the town not letting the public know what is being discussed at meetings. 

"There is a pattern I've observed since the beginning of the year," Siegel said. 

In question is a last-minute agenda item to vote on approving an environmental study as part of a discussion to relocate the highway garage.

The discussion was held last month prior to town board members going into a closed session to interview candidates for the . According to the agenda, the closed session was scheduled for 5 p.m. and the open session, which is televised, was scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

But Siegel said the town did not inform the public that prior to going into closed session they'd be taking a vote that included spending taxpayers' money. There was no indication on the publicly posted agenda that such a discussion would be taking place. 

"There was nothing on the final agenda," Siegel said. "But the highway garage issue has to be pre-planned as department heads were there." 

She said she understands emergencies come up and the board needs to act right away or the supervisor needs to sign a contract by a deadline, but she did not think there was an emergency in this case. 

"There should be a public discussion because it involves the whole community and it involves significant dollars," Siegel said of why the meeting should have been held when the public was present. 

During that June 19 meeting, town board members unanimously voted to authorize the town engineer to send out a request for proposal (RFP) for a study at the highway garage site. The cost of that Phase I study was not to exceed $3,000.

In response to the criticism, Grace said the meeting was a work session and there was nothing that required a public hearing. Legally, town board members cannot go into a closed session without going into a public meeting first. 

He did not say when the department heads were told about the meeting, but he said the discussion of relocating the highway garage has been one of his initiatives since the beginning of the year. In addition, there are deadlines to apply for grants for similar projects he did not want to miss, he said. 

"To say that I need to invite the public to every town meeting is ridiculous," Grace said. 

Yorktown councilman Nick Bianco, who has been on the board for nearly 17 years, said the meeting was "perfectly legal," but he was surprised the discussion was going to be held. He said he did not know about it until he got to Town Hall and saw the three department heads (town engineer Sharon Robinson, director of planning John Tegeder and environmental consultant Bruce Barber) were there for the highway garage meeting. 

"If you're going to have a discussion, unless it's an emergency, you should let the public know," Bianco said. 

The vote took place before town board members went into executive session.

He said he now regrets he participated in the discussion, which lasted about 20 to 30 minutes. Bianco said he also regrets that he didn't wait until later on in the public session of the meeting to vote on the item. 

"It's not the first time," Bianco said. "Things are added late on the agenda."  

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