Middleburgh’s Board of Trustees has voted no confidence in Mayor Trish Began, a “polite way,” said Deputy Mayor Tim Knight, “to ask her to step down.”
If she doesn’t?
Mr. Knight “envisions…other resolutions or letters” to make the point.
Envision away, Mayor Bergan said; she’s not going anywhere.
“If I fold over something like this, then I don’t deserve to be mayor,” Mayor Bergan said Monday.
“What’s going to happen when things get really tough? I’m going to do my job to continue to move the village forward. With or without them.”
Trustees—Mr. Knight, Sheryl Adams, Bob Tinker, and Shane Foland—voted unanimously last Wednesday, in a meeting called by Mr. Knight and Ms. Adams, to adopt a resolution of no confidence in Mayor Bergan’s continued leadership.
Trustees also passed a resolution in support of Codes Officer Lloyd Stannard--the advertised reasons for the special meeting.
Mayor Bergan wasn’t at the meeting; she said it was called at the last-minute and she had other, family obligations.
Mr. Stannard’s record-keeping—but not the quality of his work—was criticized at village’s February 7 meeting after Dave Jeremenko submitted—and then withdrew--a FOIL request for Middleburgh Meadows paperwork.
Mr. Stannard’s record-keeping is a conversation the Mayor and trustees should have had in executive session, Mr. Knight said, one of three reasons he listed for the no-confidence vote.
Mayor Bergan also violated the village’s COVID-19 protocols by allowing Mr. Jeremenko and Tony Anderson to attend in-person, he said; allowing Mr. Jeremenko to speak during Mr. Stannard’s report violated the village’s meeting rules.
Mayor Bergan said Saturday she made a mistake in letting Mr. Jeremenko and Mr. Anderson attend.
But she also said trustees want to pick and chose who weighs in on issues--and that’s anyone who challenges the status quo.
Emails notifying trustees and Mayor Bergan of the special February 16 meeting went out at 1:56pm Tuesday the 15th.
At 2:42pm Tuesday, Mayor Bergan replied that she wouldn’t be able to attend--and that she’d asked the, State Comptroller’s Office to come in do “a risk assessment of our business operations”—essentially going through all of the village’s records, before they go missing, she said Saturday.
Both Mayor Bergan and Mr. Knight said this isn’t what they were elected to do.
“It’s not about being liked. It’s about doing the job I was voted in to do and holding people accountable. This is not a popularity contest,” Mayor Bergan said.
Mr. Knight’s words were harsher.
In a written statement he said “a line had been crossed” even before the 7th with Mayor Bergan’s “unilateral firing of former DPW Superintendent Steve Kowalski four days before Christmas, her continued ongoing mistreatment of village contractors and employees, and the contempt she has shown for the institutions and people who make up the Village of Middleburgh, she has earned this resolution.”
“My only wish is that we had acted sooner and tried not to go along.”
Ms. Adams, who offered the no-confidence resolution, echoed those words, criticizing Ms. Bergan for making “decisions unilaterally, which gives the appearance that she is no longer listening to the board.”
What happens if Mayor Bergan does step down?
A “caretaker, preferably someone on the board in the past as a trustee…” would be appointed to serve mayor until the next election, Mr. Knight said; deputy mayor since just January, he doesn’t feel that should be him.
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