Brightwaters board delays actions until January

The Brightwaters Village Board put off resolutions on landscaping fees, term limits, employee oversight and health care contributions until the Jan. 6 meeting.

Deputy Mayor Denise Gibson had proposed the landscaping fee in September to raise revenue and to identify workers in the village.

"We wanted to define it better," Gibson said at Monday's meeting. "Whether owners pay a one-time fee, a per-truck fee -- we're not going to rush this through."

Trustee John Riordan said he wanted to discuss his proposed resolution to clarify the benefits for non-union village employees, including time-off policies.

He has previously asked for a time clock in village hall for better oversight of employees, which Gibson and trustee John Lawlor have said insults village staff.

Gibson said, "it kind of gets back to the concerns some people have ... about how the office operates and how people are treated."

Mayor Joseph McNulty said he's awaiting "legal advice" on the matter.Riordan also introduced a resolution for full-time non-union employees to begin paying a portion of their health care costs.

"It's not an outrageous idea," trustee John Lawlor said, and added that the board should research how much to ask employees to contribute and to limit the policy to new hires.

Riordan also proposed a resolution to "place controls on the mayor and the trustees" on approving contracts, and holding public votes on any village contracts costing the village more than five percent of budgeted expenses.

Riordan pointed to a $75,000 loss in the village budget in the past year, while Gibson said reimbursements for superstorm Sandy damage from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will more than cover the difference.

Another of Riordan's proposed resolutions was to impose term limits on the mayor and trustees of three consecutive two-year terms. Resident David Gauntlett said, "as far as I'm concerned, term limits are already in effect, and it's called an election."Former mayor Charles Hughes also commented on the board's recent history of combative meetings, calling them "disgraceful."

"I'm observing so much contention on this board that I would find it difficult for the board to resolve some of these issues," Hughes said, and later added, "what I wanted to encourage is that there's a greater degree of coordination, cooperation and congeniality among the members of the board."