Riga dissolves recreation board

The Town of Riga board voted by a margin of three-to-two to dissolve its recreation board. Councilmen Robert Ottley and David Smith voted against the dissolution of the board; Supervisor Pamela Moore and Councilmen Ken Kuter and James Fodge cast the yes votes.

In e-mail correspondence with the editor, Ottley said, "I voted no on the resolution to dissolve the recreation board because I disagreed with the purpose in the resolution as to why we needed to make this move. The supervisor believes that in June of 2001, (with then-Councilwoman Moore voting yes), the town board changed the Rec Commission to a board and that was done improperly - meaning that we were not constituted to take this action. My research on this says it was done properly and hers says it wasn't. We are both listening to opinions of attorneys and those opinions differ."

Ottley wrote he agrees that after the board passed a local law on March 14, 2006 that allows them to form "advisory committees" that the rec board needs to be dissolved and renamed an advisory committee. "However all actions taken by the rec board prior to that were proper and legal," he said.

Resident Bill McCombs said the current Riga administration found themselves in the "unenviable" position of having to correct the illegal formation of the recreation board.

"This is a most unpleasant and awkward task to notify the current recreation members of the town's actions to conform with state mandated law," he said.

"The board was improperly established under New York Law," Moore said.

Resident Neal Palmer agreed that the Recreation Board issue "absolutely" needed to be resolved as it was an illegal entity per the laws that town governments have to abide by. "Both Supervisor Moore and the town attorney clearly demonstrated this has been illegal since 2001 when the Town of Riga changed the Recreation Committee to a Recreation Board. The members of these boards should never have been paid on a per meeting basis as the town has no right to spend taxpayer's money in that way."

Palmer commended Moore for taking the time and due diligence to correct issues like this to get the town government running in a "completely legal and ethical way, instead of running under the "good 'ol boy" system as past town leadership demonstrated.

Following the dissolution of the recreation board, the town board voted to create a Recreation Advisory Committee which would be made up of volunteers versus paid members. Ottley and Smith again voted no.

As for voting no on the formation of the advisory committee, Ottley wrote that he did so because the rec board members had been compensated and the resolution has no provision for continuing to pay these members for their service to the town. "We agreed to pay them in January and I don't see where their duties or responsibilities have changed, but we are now asking them to serve without pay. I believe there are other options available to us to compensate them, but these options were not fully explored. I believe we made a promise to these people and we are now reneging on that promise," he wrote.

"We discovered that payment is not allowed to the board members," Moore said.

The newly formed volunteer Advisory Committee will expand to nine members as seats were added for senior representation and for the inclusion of a youth over the age of 14, she said. Two of the existing seats were designated for a Churchville Youth Association representative and for a business owner.

"I don't believe that the former recreation board members were actually motivated by the compensation they received, but rather by their community spirit," McCombs said.

"With more diversity, the committee is in a better position to advise the town board regarding recreation and leisure activities for residents of all ages, backgrounds and interests," Moore said.

May 14, 2006