Quoted Text

ROTTERDAM
Supervisor wants to schedule fewer meetings
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter


    Frank Del Gallo is hoping to spend less time getting more done when it comes to Town Board meetings.
    The supervisor is proposing to reduce the number of scheduled business meetings following the board’s organizational meeting on New Year’s Day. Frustrated with the Town Board’s propensity to change his agenda, Del Gallo is proposing to eliminate agenda meetings hosted every other Monday, and instead review town business items before the normal meeting on Wednesday.
    “Every time you have [an agenda], everything gets switched around,” he said Friday. “Why make an agenda if we have to make it over again?”
    And he’s also suggesting the board halve the number of regular board meetings for a schedule that includes only one per month. He believes the pared-down schedule will streamline the meetings better and force board members to investigate proposed agenda items on their own time.
    “Maybe it will make them do a little more homework,” he said.
    Board member Nicola DiLeva was aghast by the suggestion. She said she doesn’t support eliminating the agenda meetings, much less one of the business sessions.
    “That’s ridiculous,” she said. “That’s absolutely insane.”
    DiLeva said board members already face an uphill battle when it comes to getting information about the meetings. She said she seldom gets a response from Del Gallo or Deputy Supervisor Robert Godlewski when she sends questions via e-mail, and gets hardly any information after she makes a request during the agenda meetings.
    “I don’t understand how [Del Gallo is] going to run the town like this,” she said. “Our biggest gripe is that they don’t give us the information and then they expect us to vote.”
    As a result, DiLeva has increasingly resorted to making motions that table agenda items. In some cases, she said she’s voted against seemingly harmless resolutions because there’s no one that can answer any questions that she raises.
    For instance, DiLeva was among three board members who helped defeat a minor resolution Wednesday that would have allowed the town to forgo seeking review from the Schenectady County Department of Economic Development and Planning on minor planning or zoning decisions. She decided to vote against the resolution after her requests for more information went unanswered.
    “When you have more questions than answers, it’s a dangerous situation for everybody,” she said. ..........................>>>>..................>>>>............................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01303&AppName=1

With no agenda meeting and no second TB meeting each month...that equates to less than 50% of the number of meetings we have currently.  Might as well cut their salaries by 50% also.  Oh, that's right, this is Rotterdam where elected officials aren't required to come to work!

FDG works for free
And the town board job is part time

I don't think it is a  good idea to cut the number of Town Board meetings.   Agendas meetings should
be kept ... and moved to 7:00 PM so that ALL residents can attend.   In fact, the agenda meetings should
be run more like the County Legislature's "committee meetings" -- so that the forthcoming resolutions are
actually discussed in public and department heads and others can be publicly questioned about the
reasoning behind EVERY item that is put on the agenda.

It appears that one meeting a month is just about all this town board can handle! Just be ready rotterdamians for those long, 4 hour meeting again! Your gonna have to squeeze a lot into this one month meeting!

The idea of going to one meeting a month and dropping agenda meetings would have to be approved
by full board on January 1 ---  I think a snowball has a better chance of surviving in hell than this idea
has of getting approved.

Quoted Text

One meeting per month too little

    The town of Rotterdam is no metropolis, but with a population of some 28,000 it’s not exactly a sleepy podunk, either. And as far as government goes, it’s a hotbed of partisan politics — which may explain Supervisor Frank Del Gallo’s motive in wanting to reduce the number of meetings the Town Board holds each month from four to just one. That would be one way to reduce the amount of flak he has to take, not just from partisan citizens but from Town Board members. But it would be the wrong way, of course.
    Del Gallo is new to politics — he’s a businessman who got fed up and decided to run for supervisor as a Conservative last year. He’s aligned himself with Democratic Deputy Supervisor Robert Godlewski, while Conservative Nicola DiLeva and Democrat Matt Martin (at least sometimes) seem to have sided with the board’s lone Republican, Gerard Parisi, to provide the loyal opposition. That opposition seems to have grown increasingly hostile of late, and while Parisi will be replaced by Democrat Wayne Calder next month, there’s no telling how or whether this will affect the board’s balance of power.
    But it doesn’t matter. Del Gallo shouldn’t be trying to diminish the board’s role in government, no matter how much of a headache it gives him. Four meetings per month isn’t so great a time commitment, and while he accepted no salary for his efforts this year, it’s not like one wasn’t offered. The bottom line is, he asked for this job, and these meetings are a big part of it. ..................>>>>..................>>>>......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01103&AppName=1

Fewer full board meetings and the lack of an agenda meeting at least 48 hours before the full board
meeting means   LESS opportunity for public participation and transparency.  

Let me make my position perfectly clear - ANYTHING that reduces public participation and transparency
reduces the effectiveness of our democracy ... and I strongly oppose anything that will weaken our
democracy.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Fewer full board meetings and the lack of an agenda meeting at least 48 hours before the full board
meeting means   LESS opportunity for public participation and transparency.  

Let me make my position perfectly clear - ANYTHING that reduces public participation and transparency
reduces the effectiveness of our democracy ... and I strongly oppose anything that will weaken our
democracy.

Who cares about you Bub!!!  You are a NOBODY!!!!

Nobody cares about me either because I am a nobody too but I think they should meet twice a month.  It is a big commitment but that is what the job calls for.  Although admirable FDG does not take a salary, neither does Assemblyman Bob Reilley (D) in Colonie, the Town needs to conduct its business in a timely manner.  It is what they signed up for---

Just  a guess but the council members can call for special meetings at various times of the month.  Perhaps FDG would like to see the rest of the board become more transparant rather than the broadside Parisi antics.  Perhaps????

Quoted from 778

Who cares about you Bub!!!  You are a NOBODY!!!!

Fortunately, I was raised to believe that EVERYBODY is somebody.   And those who believe that
anybody else is a nobody ... is not worth my losing sleep over.

Quoted from 612

Nobody cares about me either because I am a nobody too but I think they should meet twice a month.  It is a big commitment but that is what the job calls for.  Although admirable FDG does not take a salary, neither does Assemblyman Bob Reilley (D) in Colonie, the Town needs to conduct its business in a timely manner.  It is what they signed up for---

Boomer, we may disagree on occasion ... but you are far from a nobody.   Your opinion matters.

Quoted from 778

Just  a guess but the council members can call for special meetings at various times of the month.  Perhaps FDG would like to see the rest of the board become more transparant rather than the broadside Parisi antics.  Perhaps????

I believe ALL of the council members bear the responsibility to become  more transparent.  Some of the
tactics employed during the past 11 1/2 months would NOT have been necessary if there had been
more openness and better communications from Day #1.

That goes BOTH ways DVR.  When you have a member of the "team" giving the opposition the playbook the owner of the team loses trust.  Can you blame em???