Board members vote that Parma Deputy Highway Superintendent doesn’t meet residency requirements
by Kristina Gabalski
Leaders in Parma have taken the first step to prepare the Town Board in the event it is sued or pursues legal action on behalf of the town regarding a personnel issue in the Highway Department.
Town Board members voted unanimously during a special meeting July 23 on a resolution that their legal counsel James Holahan of Bond Schoeneck & King called a “functional step.”
He says no legal action has been taken yet by either side. “The town hasn’t been served and so far as we know nothing has been filed,” Holahan said.
Supervisor Carm Carmestro said the Town Board took the action in order to legally defend themselves against the possibility of a lawsuit by the Town Highway Superintendent.
Carmestro told the Suburban News that the board was threatened with a lawsuit following their action at a Town Board meeting July 17 when board members, “recognized … that the office of Deputy Highway Superintendent is vacant by operation of law, because the person appointed to that office is not a town resident.”
The town did not delete or abolish the Deputy Highway Superintendent position, Supervisor Carmestro explained.
The position of Deputy Highway Superintendent is a “public office,” he said and as such, any person appointed to that position must be a town resident.
“In fact, under New York Public Officer’s Law Section 30, the office is deemed vacant by operation law whenever the incumbent officer is not a resident of the Town of Parma,” Supervisor Carmestro said.
He explained that in April, he asked the Deputy Highway Superintendent to provide the Town Board with proof that he is a resident of the town.
“I extended the time to provide that information for several months,” Carmestro said. “The Town Board did not receive any evidence that the Deputy Highway Superintendent is a town resident and the information available to the town indicates that he resides in another suburban town.”
The Town Board is considering the possibility of establishing the position of Commissioner of Public Works – which would be an appointed position – Carmestro added, but there has been no action yet on the issue.
