by Kristina Gabalski
“The people have spoken,” Brockport Mayor Connie Castaneda said following the rejection June 19 by village voters of a referendum which would have switched the supervision of the village’s code enforcement officer from the mayor to the police chief.
Unofficial results announced by the Monroe County Board of Elections – including timely absentee ballots – were 560 no to 481 yes. Elections officials said they would tabulate affidavit and absentee ballots Wednesday, June 20, but did not know when the official results would be available.
“Regardless of the referendum results, I found it refreshing the number of voters who came out to vote,” Mayor Castaneda said. “I hope they will come to village board meetings and watch the proceedings more closely.”
The mayor had been against the referendum and said she was “very happy” with the vote results.
“I am hopeful the village board received a message from this,” she said. “This has been very trying on village residents.”
Two trustee seats were also up for election. Incumbent Margaret Blackman and Bill Andrews were both elected. Unofficial results from the Monroe County Board of Elections have Blackman receiving 571 votes and Andrews 575 votes.
Margaret Weber and Kristina Telles – two last minute write-in candidates – received 253 and 231 votes, respectively, elections officials said.
“I’m very happy to have two individuals say they were willing to throw their hats in to give the community a choice,” Castaneda said.
Trustee Margaret Blackman, who had supported the code enforcement referendum, said she was “disappointed” that the proposition failed. She said she knew the vote would be close but was surprised by the number of no votes.
“Not everybody who voted for me (and Andrews) voted for the referendum,” Trustee Blackman said. “It may be multiple things going on. People were concerned about the police, but supportive of us.”
She noted that code enforcement in the village, “will continue to improve.”
Trustee Kent Blair had also supported the referendum. “This will not change the way things are enforced by the police,” he said. “Code enforcement is already at the police station.”
The office of code enforcement has been moved from the village hall to the police department.
Blair called the election of Bill Andrews to the board, “a blessing. Bill is a class act,” he said.
