LIDA operation questioned at Town Board work session

[Lee Chowaniec]

I thought only the LIDA board members could speak at LIDA meetings but Leary said he intends to speak at the meeting.

I question the village representation on the LIDA. The Village of Lancaster already has a trustee on that board.
Leary wants to add Schroeder. Why should that municipality have a larger representation than the town does?

My recollection of Fialkiewicz was that he was a member aligned with Fudoli's vision of a new direction for the board.

Unless something has changed, over the years I spoke numerous times at LIDA meetings.

This week's Lancaster Sun has an excellent article on Monday evening's work session LIDA debacle.

My observations

It was within Councilman Leary's jurisdiction to bring the LIDA matter before the town board as Supervisor Ruffino was misleading Leary (according to Leary) on considering changing the LIDA board makeup, not communicating to Leary on LIDA scheduled meetings, acting as LIDA Chair and making decisions before being sworn into office, and influencing town employee hiring’s to serve on the LIDA board. And, Mr. Leary campaigned on the promise of transparency and keeping the public informed.

That said, Mr. Leary’s circumstance is compromised considering that at the town board’s Organizational Meeting (Jan 6th), the council voted unanimously to appoint the individuals not making up the 2020 LIDA Board.

Leary’s charge of town employee patronage in the hiring of an Administrative Secretary and Records Management Officer and a Chief Financial Officer may appear as patronage hiring’s but it has been the custom of the LIDA to contract individuals like the Supervisor’s confidential secretary and town Director of Administration & Finance. And, the LIDA membership approved the appointments unanimously.

Was Mr. Leary misled? Indeed. Will anything come of it? Unlikely.

Learning curve

Supervisor Ruffino stated that ‘he is learning’. 18 year’s on the job and he is still learning? Sounds like a Buffalo Sabres cop-out line.

We did learn that the $30,000 line item Administrative/Secretarial Support - Town of Lancaster is for buildings and supplies.

We are able to see that the compensation for the secretary and financial officer remains at $7,500, broken up in two compensation components.

Examining the past budgets, it appears the LIDA’S expenses in the past several years are greater than the revenue taken in. I wonder what’s in the reserve fund.

[gorja]

Oops, I guess I thought it was only for public hearings that the public could speak. My bad.

Mark posted the article