By Justin Leitgeb

There have been various threads and discussions regarding the Tuesday meeting and opportunities for input to municipal processes in the Town.

As I understand it, the Tuesday (October 1) meeting was not a public hearing for the Comp Plan, it was a regular public meeting. The public hearing was closed at a prior meeting. During the public hearing I assume (but did not verify) that written comments would have also been accepted by the board. That comments on the Comp Plan were allowed at all at the October 1 meeting was at the discretion of the Board and not required by law. To open another public hearing they would have to schedule that following scheduled and procedures for notification required by State law.

The board could have re-opened the public hearing, but they decided not to because there had been repeated and extensive efforts to obtain public input for the Comp Plan over the past 4+ years (including consideration of some of Councilman Beckford’s ideas, per Councilwoman Townsend’s statements at the October 1 meeting). I think it’s good to ask what more can be done to encourage public participation. Compared with last-minute calls to action, getting citizens involved at the right time can help us to be both more productive, and less divided against each other in the solutions that we ultimately adopt.

Finally keep in mind that you can always, at any time send your ideas to the Board, regardless of the status of a meeting or public hearing. The adoption of the Comp Plan is not the final say in the vision of the community for the next 10 years. Let’s stay engaged and continue to talk about productive ways to offer input to Town and Village processes.

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If you are interested in reading more about public meetings and public hearings, NYS has a guide in their James A. Coon technical series, titled, “Conducting Public Meetings and Public Hearings.”