By JOE LOGAN  (1/5/2010 4:32:53 AM)

The last meeting in 2009 for the East Aurora Village Board was a marathon session lasting over 2 hours.  Click here to see the entire meeting.

Dissolution was a big topic of discussion and several members of the audience spoke out against the proposal.  Newly elected town board member and village resident Sue Freiss said that the board should move forward with the proposal so that more information could be gathered.  Freiss has already said she is in favor of dissolving village government.

The focus of the discussion seemed to be around the benefits for having the board initiate the dissolution process.  According to Mayor Clark Crook who is in favor of dissolution, the village should lead the process so that they could have enough time to do all of the research needed to analyze the potential benefits and how best to proceed.

Trustee Al Kasprzak (Kasprzak recently announced his candidacy for Mayor) disagreed saying that by voting to start the process it is putting the cart before the horse.  Trustee Pete Mercurio also said that by starting the process it would be indicating that the board is in favor of dissolution.  Others noted that dissolving the village gives more power to fewer people.

Some audience members noted that village elections are not party directed and that those not in a party would not be able to run for office in the town.  The town has a much higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats as compared to the village where the difference is much less.

Both the board and the audience noted that they did not trust the town board to handle issues related to the village based on recent town decisions.

In the end the board voted to table the discussion because board members Pat McDonnel and Kevin Biggs were not in attendance.

In other news the motion to approve a new mechanic in the village DPW was denied.  Although the vote had a 3-2 margin for, all votes must have 4 votes for approval so it failed.  However it appears that Pat McDonnel is prepared to vote in favor of it at the next board meeting.

Mayor Crook also voiced his displeasure of the board's approval for a new police officer and used that as a reason for dissolving village government as he noted that the town had no voice in that decision.  He also said that the new officer would cost several million dollars over that person's career.

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