Brockport discusses Development Corp.

It took more than four hours for the newly elected, and one appointed, Brockport village officials to make their way through the agenda at their first meeting following the June elections, Monday, June 18.

At the organizational board meeting, among other appointments, Trustee Carrie Maziarz was named vice mayor. Maziarz is the senior member on the board.

One of the first issues the board dealt with was one brought up by resident Joan Hamlin who said she was excited to have the new board in place and hoped it would do great things toward "helping the village heal."

"I'd like an explanation of the Greater Brockport Development Corporation (GBDC) - is it working on behalf of the village? What is its accountability? I've asked these questions before but never received answers," she said.

Mayor Mort Wexler said as far as he is concerned the village has no affiliation with the GBDC. "It's an outside entity and the village is not involved," he said.

R. Scott Winner, the village's economic development coordinator, said the purpose of the corporation had been to solicit grants and funds for the village.

"There are many problems available to 501C3 (not for profit) entities that aren't available to municipalities. The village couldn't apply for the grant funds but the corporation could," he said. "As for the legal relation between the village and the GBDC, that would have to be ascertained by legal counsel."

Questions of possible impropriety were raised because the former mayor, Josephine Matela, served as the president and trustee Jim Whipple served as a director on the board of the GBDC. "To my knowledge there was no legal conflict of interest with the former mayor and board member serving," Winner said. "I don't know how they viewed their roles. I do know the treasurer declined joining because of the appearance of impropriety."

Treasurer Ian Coyle said it was "out of his purview to have served on that board."

Wexler said no current board member was being assigned to serve on the Greater Brockport Development Corporation.

In other matters the board:

•Approved a request by the Merchants Street Smoke House to host outdoor concerts to run concurrent with the Brockport Arts Festival on August 13 and 14. Noise ordinances were discussed and the Smoke House agreed to adhere to requests from police.

•Gave approval for Cindy DeFelice, a teacher at NYSSSVA at SUNY Brockport, to display artistic banners made by the students in the class. The artwork relates to structures and natural forms the students found within the village. Approval was granted contingent on board member approval of the nature of the artwork.

•Septemberfest, an event hosted by three area churches, requested approval for closure of a section of Erie Street on September 10 to facilitate safe walking between the three churches and to allow for tents to be erected in the street for the one day event.