Lawrence needs to fill jobs

Lawrence Village Board trustees say they aren’t receiving information on a timely basis in order to approve the payment of bills, and they have not gotten the minutes of the last several months of meetings to review and approve. They blame a lack of board staffing.

Trustees Edward Klar and Michael Fragin expressed frustration at not receiving a description of the bills the village needs to pay until a day before the board’s meeting on Oct. 6. Klar and Fragin review bills in the current triple-checking system that Mayor Martin Oliner instituted last year.

Trustees have not seen a draft of a meeting’s minutes since July, when Klar said he received a draft, returned it with corrections but has yet to receive a revised version. Board minutes have not been posted on the village’s website since a meeting on March 3.

“There is certainly a lack of timely communication with the trustees by the administration,” Klar said. “There is a failure to get us adequate information so we can review it in our capacities as fiduciaries. It is very frustrating.”

Fragin pointed out that it is not only frustrating not to have the minutes of previous meetings, but it also puts the village in the position of not complying with the state’s open meeting law, which requires public bodies to make minutes available to the public within two weeks after a meeting. “It is not only bad government, but it’s illegal,” Fragin said.

The village has been operating for several months with fewer employees, and without a deputy village administrator, who would normally assist Village Administrator Dave Smollett. Oliner said that while he believes Smollett is overworked, he does not think that is causing a serious problem. “I think people are getting the information fine,” he said. “In some instances the village administrator is not as timely, but a lot is being made of nothing.”

The village recently hired Abe Farber as deputy treasurer, but Oliner said that as far as the deputy village administrator’s position is concerned, “Unfortunately, we have not found the right candidate for Mr. Smollett to recommend.” The village uses the Civil Service list provided by Nassau County to find candidates.

Lawrence is also looking to fill a secretary/clerk’s position and a job in the Highway Department. “We will hire as soon as candidates meeting our requirements are found,” the mayor said. He added that the village will also need to hire employees to replace six it will lose when members of its sewage treatment plant staff become county employees on Jan. 1. Those employees not only operate the treatment facility, but also have other responsibilities during emergencies such as snowstorms.

Oliner disagrees with the view that nothing seems to get accomplished at the village’s board meetings. “I don’t think that is a fair assessment — things are getting done,” he said. “Sometimes there is a rehash, and we allow minutiae to take time from the board’s business.”

He pointed to the decision to widen Williams Street and other items that, he said, show that the board is accomplishing things. “I’m glad people take things seriously, and there is ordinarily a lot of stuff,” Oliner said of the lengthy discussions of agenda items and old business. “People ask to put things on the agenda and I accommodate them. A lot of those don’t require discussion.”

The trustees discussed adding one work session meeting per month to the schedule in an attempt to alleviate the problems until more employees are hired. And Oliner said that it is likely that within the next two months there could be an extra meeting.

Trustee C. Simon Felder, Oliner’s predecessor as mayor, said that more employees should create a more effective village government. “It is a function of hiring more people to our office,” Felder said, “and we are working toward that goal.”