Highlights of the board meeting, which ended at 1:10 a.m. (wasn’t there a rule passed that required meetings to end at 11:30?)

These are the major highlights:

1.  The Town voted to bond 1.7 million as ’seed money’ to start up our badly needed drainage program.  One of our top engineers, Brain Armstrong, said the entire project for the town would roughly take over 10 years to complete, but at least it’s finally started.

2.  The Engineering Department personnel spent over two hours explaining the Capital Improvement Plans for Amherst.  The time was wasted on the audience because it was far too technical and very hard to grasp.  Most of the audience left which meant they were missing out on very important town matters but you can’t blame them, it was getting late.

3.  Suspension of rules had two people accusing Council member Shelly Schratz of working with the developers, the Rubino Bros., beyond acceptable bounds.  This matter was sent to the Board of Ethics for an investigation. 

4.  The Town Board voted down the resizing of theBoard from 7 to 5.  The only two members in favor of the resizing were Shelly Schratz and Dr. Weinstein.

5. The Rubino brothers project was voted down 0-7.  Every member of the Council voted against it including Dr. Mohan and Council member Schratz!

Our Town Clerk, Susan Jaros, decided to resign effective July 26, 2008.  This past July 7^th at the Monday night Town Board meeting the Board chose Marjory H. Jaeger to be our new Amherst Town Clerk.  The vote was four to three.  The four Council members who voted for Miss Jaeger were Dr. Weinstein, Guy Marlette, Shelly Schratz and Supervisor Mohan.

The selection of Miss Jaeger was a surprise considering Dr. Mohan had already put forth Mary Wik’s name for this position.  Mary is the Deputy Clerk and has worked in the Town Clerk’s office for over ten years.  Mohan couldn’t get the votes to support Mrs. Wik because the Republicans on the Board had already decided on Miss Jaeger knowing full well that Dr. Mohan was going to vote with them.  Mohan asked the Board if they could amend his resolution and change the name from Mary Wik to Marjory Jaeger.  This is not amending his resolution, this is changing the resolution.  The Board went ahead and voted for this changed resolution, which is illegal, therefore the vote was also illegal.

It was a done deal even before the meeting began.  I was told by two Republican board members, that Miss Jaeger had the four votes needed to be selected because Mohan had already agreed to vote with the three Republicans on the Board. The public “support” he showed for Mary Wik was just that.  It was for show. 

Miss Jaeger is on our Planning Board as well as the Vice President of the Amherst Republican party and is the Republican representative at the Board of Election office downtown.  This is a full time job, as is our Town Clerk position.  Since she was appointed to the Town Clerk position, not elected, she will have to work the required 40 hour week.  She will also have to give up her seat on the Amherst Planning Board.

Miss Jaeger, freeing yourself to devote your time and energy to your new full time Town Clerk’s position, would be a smart move.  (Would she even CONSIDER maintaining her Board of Election job while also working as our Town Clerk?) 

The appointment of Miss Jaeger angered Board Democrats. They accused Dr. Mohan of political patronage because there was no posting of the job; none of the Board members had the opportunity to read Miss Jaeger’s resume or qualifications; and no paperwork was submitted to any Board members prior to the meeting.

Miss Jaeger is a personal friend of Guy Marlette, Shelly Schratz and Dr. Weinstein.  These three plus Mohan voted for Miss Jaeger with none of them knowing her work history or qualifications.  The only reason she was given the job was that she is an influential officer of the Republican Party.  

Mark Manna made it clear that Dr. Mohan was not a man of honor; that he lies about almost everything.  The other Democrats, Dan Ward and Debbie Bucki, also voiced strong opposition to Dr. Mohan’s method of selecting Miss Jaeger without knowing anything about her, as he stated.

Mohan did write in a memo on July 8^th, after Miss Jaeger was already voted in as our new Town Clerk at $70,000 a year, that he had a telephone conversation with her on July 8^th.  It was during that conversation that she informed him of her biographical data. 

So, for once Mohan didn’t lie.  At the Monday night  meeting he said he never met with her or had any conversation with her.  At that time he was telling the truth.  He knew nothing about her when he voted with the three Republicans to make her our new Town Clerk.  Brilliant.  The Town Clerk is privy to very private information about the Town and the people who work, or worked, in town. A background check on Miss Jaeger is essential before she takes this position. 

This whole affair must be turned over the State Comptroller for a full investigation of possible corruption by the four members of the Town Board who acted on selecting someone they knew little about; her work history; or her qualifications to serve as our Town Clerk. There should be a background check on this “candidate.”  Shelly Schratz is the strongest advocate of checking the criminal past of new employees but in this case she ignored one of her strongest positions.  Why?

Now the public knows that none of the four Board members who voted for Miss Jaeger knew anything about her past employment record, did not review any background check, nor did they know her qualifications for the job, they should demand another vote.  This time it would have to be without Miss Jaeger’s name involved because the four members who voted for her have made her damaged goods.

Supervisor Mohan feared someone might become upset with him so he requested our former Police Chief, John Moslow to have a fully dressed police officer on the stage during Town Board meetings plus another policeman in the audience. The Chief refused to have a policeman on stage.

We all feel fear; it’s how we manage that fear which shows our metal. Mohan’s metal? He is made of tin; a coward who attacks people verbally and then hides behind the “rules” of the Town or our police.  I wonder how he would handle himself if he were a solider in IRAQ like so many of our youngsters are doing facing fear every second. 

Mohan can’t handle anything negative said about him. He started to build a fence around himself about a year ago. He outlawed the word “foolish.”  No one is allowed to use this word at own Board meting.  If you do you are scolded and if you persist you are to be escorted out of the building by an armed guard.

Mohan’s most recent and outrageous rule is, speakers can not say the name of a Council person, even if it is to praise or honor them.  e.g. If you want to thank Dr. Weinstein for some help he gave you, if you mention his name you could end up being removed from the meeting by a police officer with a large gun at his side!

Mohan needed some written rules to protect his neurotic behavior against the public.  He choose Debbie Bucki to amend the Rules of Orders.  The following is the rule he is using to act like GOD on stage and abuse public speakers:

Rule 2) Speakers shall address the board as a whole, in an orderly manner. All speakers shall refrain from partisan political commentary, personal, impertinent, slanderous or profane remarks directed to any member of the board, staff or general public that disrupt the meeting. Any person who make such remarks or otherwise disrupts the meeting with loud outbursts, shouting, threats or other disruptive behavior shall, at the discretion of the Supervisor or after a motion and majority consensus of the Board, be ruled out of order.  If after receiving a warning, any person persists in disrupting the meeting, the Supervisor shall order that person to leave and may utilize law enforcement to enforce that order.    

If you read the rule very carefully you’ll see there is no portion which says, or even remotely suggests, that you can’t speak the name of a council member in a friendly, normal way. This newest interpretation of this rule makes it clear that only he will decide what/who is out of order. This kind of power in the hands of one man is dangerous, especially one who demonstrates such neurotic behavior.

If you read the entire rule; if you’re a person of strength who stands up for what you believe is wrong, you may end up in jail.  You would be in good company with the likes of Jesus Christ, Joan of Arc, Gandhi, Thomas Jefferson, Nathan Hale, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Tutu, and Sir Thomas Becket.  This list of brave women and men were people with conviction who stood alone with unbelievable courage knowing what would  most likely be the outcome of their test of courage.  

Just a side note ~ Some residents feel a psychologist rather than a police officer, would be a good choice to sit next to the Supervisor to give him the balance he badly needs.  

The most notable part of Monday’s Town Board meeting was the restraint of the members of the Fairways group, who are fighting to stop Benderson from building on the lead contaminated Gun Club property on Maple Rd.

The Fairways group contacted several people and groups who wanted to speak on this subject and asked them not to because history has shown long lines of people saying the same thing become destructive to a cause, not helpful.

One of Amherst’s most respected citizens, Peter Warm, said he hasn’t seen our town so united in one cause in years, working to protect a neighborhood from being turned into another Niagara Falls Boulevard.

There was a discussion on cutting the Town Board down from six to four members. This was defeated six to one.  The most profound statement made during this particular debate came from freshman Council member Mark Manna who said, “What the public wants is fewer bad decisions by their politicians, not fewer politicians”.  Most of the other remarks were what you always hear when one’s own job is in jeopardy. 

The preferred ice fees at our Pepsi Center was raised by $10.00 per hour and non-preferred ice time was increased by $5.00 per hour.  These prices will be effective beginning September 1^st.

The Highway Department is in the process of purchasing equipment which will be able to plow the sidewalks along Sheridan Drive and other troublesome areas of the town.

The Board continues to work on the Rules of Order for Town Board meetings.

The first Amherst Town Board meeting of 2008 will be held Monday night, January 7th at 7:00 pm in the Amherst Town Hall.  Hope to see many of you there.