by Alex Brooks
The Grafton Town Board meeting began with a presentation check given to the Board by elementary school student Abby Buckley (as well as the real check in an envelope) for $156.15. These were the proceeds of a bottle-return fundraiser she had undertaken with her brother Zachary and the rest of her family to raise funds to give to the Grafton Youth program. The Board commended her for her initiative and generosity.
[private]Councilman Mike Crandall was not present, With only three members present, the Board had to vote unanimously to pass anything, but they approved minutes and amended the contract for LED lighting at the garage in an amicable manner.
But when it came time to audit the bills, things fell apart rapidly. Deputy Clerk Cathy Goyer had a stack of bills for Board members to review, but curiously, she said she would not let them out of her possession. Supervisor Higgins observed that once they are signed, they need to go to the Town Bookkeeper to be paid.
Councilwoman Barbara Messenger said she would like to review them, and asked if they had been signed by the Department heads. Goyer said some had and others hadn’t. Messenger said she would not sign vouchers until Department heads had signed off on them.
An Altercation
Being at a bit of an impasse, Goyer said to Higgins, “Why don’t you tell them what’s going on.”
Higgins said, “I have removed Mrs. Goyer from the voucher process because a lot of our bills are being paid late and she does not want to cooperate.”
Higgins has put his secretary, Joe Allain, in charge of preparing the vouchers. Allain did this for about a year before Goyer was appointed.
Councilman Rick Ungaro then said he had done some research about this. He had spoken to the State Comptroller’s Office and spoken to the Town’s attorney. He said he believes it is the Town Clerk’s responsibility to prepare the vouchers for Town Board approval.
Supervisor Higgins had prepared a list of deficiencies in the Town Clerk’s performance, which he then read. He said she had “confiscated” the November invoices and vouchers and would not make them available to the Town Bookkeeper, resulting in a nine day delay in payment; he said she failed to provide a Clerk’s Report and list of monies collected for October and November; he said she changed vouchers after they were signed and approved by the Town Board; he said the Deputy Clerk “physically and verbally assaulted Joe Allain by ripping money from his hands while cursing and swearing at him” and she threatened the Town Supervisor; he said she “filed a false police report,” reporting vouchers stolen when she knew they were in the Supervisor’s office, and he made several other charges about what he considered her failure to get the job done and her lack of cooperation.
The reading of this list apparently infuriated Rick Goyer, Cathy Goyer’s husband, and he stepped forward and warned Higgins not to ever threaten his wife again. Higgins responded belligerently to this, coming out from behind the bench to confront Goyer. The two of them stood nose to nose and belly to belly, and the shocked audience feared that the confrontation might come to blows at any moment. Young Abby Buckley burst into tears, and her father took her out of the room. Rick Ungaro came out from behind the bench and stood between Higgins and Goyer to separate them, and eventually everybody calmed down.
Supervisor Higgins left the room soon after this, and Barbara Messenger sat with Deputy Clerk Cathy Goyer and went over the vouchers in her stack. Whether they made progress getting these bills paid or not was not clear. But the newer bills that have been prepared by Joe Allain were not even in the room. Ungaro feels it is important for the Town to follow the laws and procedures established by the State Comptroller, and he does not want to sign those vouchers until he is satisfied that they were done legally. He consulted the Association of Towns and found that the Town Clerk is specifically mentioned as the Town official responsible for numbering the vouchers and preparing an abstract of them and that these duties can be transferred to another Town official only by a local law. Ungaro has asked the Town’s attorney to tell him if it is okay to sign these vouchers if the Clerk has been excluded from her duties in relation to them.
Cathy Goyer said that she had spoken to the Town’s attorney at great length about all of this. It appears that it is going to be up to the Town’s attorney Sal Ferlazzo to adjudicate this dispute and find some way to get everyone to work together to get the bills paid.
Ungaro said after the meeting that he thought this would all be worked out in a day or two and said he is willing to sign the vouchers as soon as Ferlazzo tells him they have been legitimately handled.
Visit From PESH
The NYS Public Employee Safety and Health Agency (the NY State equivalent of OSHA for public employee workplaces) visited the Town Hall and Town Garage this month and found some violations. The most serious of these was the lack of a workplace violence policy. Supervisor Higgins had provided a policy for the Board’s consideration, and they passed it by a vote of 3-0. There were a few other violations having to do with door hardware and such, and these were all corrected.
Highway Report
Highway Superintendent Herb Hasbrouck said the weather has been difficult lately, with “freeze-thaw cycles hammering the roads.” He said his Department has used 800 tons of materials on the roads already.
He said the new LED lighting in the garage is brighter and “works real well.” Hasbrouck said all the paperwork needed to get Grafton’s CHIPS money was filed some time ago and he expects to receive the check very soon.
Hasbrouck also said a resident had suggested to him that the trees that were planted on the west side of the Town Park need to be thinned out, and he said he would need Town Board permission to cut those trees. The Board asked Tom Withcuskey to look at them and make recommendations.
Code Enforcement Report
Tom Withcuskey said he has issued 72 building permits, year to date, and there have been “a lot of new housing starts” this year. He also said this is the time of year when there are a lot of house fires, and he urged everyone to keep their chimneys clean and smoke detectors in good working order.
Ambulance Report
In November the ambulance responded to 1 fire, 1 CO detector activation, 1 cardiac arrest, 2 chest pains, 2 motor vehicle accidents, and 3 sick persons. They traveled 281 miles and put in 31.7 volunteer hours, exclusive of training.
The ambulance had trouble locating residences three times this month and urges all residents to clearly mark their house, mailbox or driveway entrance with their 911 address.[/private]