LIBERTY — During their regular meeting in November, board members in the Town of Liberty expressed concern about what they called a lack of communication between the board and the Town Highway Department.

Supervisor Frank DeMayo said they've been trying to get members of the Highway Department to join the town's Employee Relations Committee. DeMayo said that he was told that no one was interested in joining.

“It would certainly be nice to have some sort of correspondence with such a big department within our town, which we currently don't have,” said Councilman Vince McPhillips.

When reached for comment, Liberty Highway Superintendent, Timothy Pellam, said he's been disappointed that the Town Board hasn't come through with raises for his department.

“I ask why other departments get raises and not us and I get no answer,” Pellam said, explaining that no one wanted to join the Employee Relations Committee because they felt their concerns weren't being met.

Liberty has been holding meetings for department heads on the first Monday of the month at 4 p.m. Pellam said that during the summer the Highway Dept. employees get off work around 2:30 p.m., so department representatives had to return back to work at 4 p.m. for these meetings which they don't get paid for.

“What's the sense of us having to go back to work when they [the board] are going to do what they want anyway?” Pellam asked.

In regards to pay raises in the budget, Councilman Vince McPhillips said they decided they couldn't raise taxes anymore on town residents.

“We can't keep giving everybody raises when we don't have any money coming in,” McPhillips said. “Would we like to give all the employees a raise? Yes, but we can't afford it.”

McPhillips said the board would do what they could to improve employee relations.

Supervisor DeMayo has begun to question the effectiveness of the monthly department heads meetings, in which each department reads their report that's also emailed to the town board.

“My thought was that we'd still have two meetings a month. They don't necessarily have to be department head meetings. Councilman Dean Farrand had recommended we just make them work session meetings,” DeMayo said. “I'd rather just see something a little more efficient in terms of getting work done.”

Highway

Superintendent

Supervisor DeMayo has proposed the idea of changing the highway superintendent from an elected to an appointed position.

“It's really just an exploratory thing,” DeMayo said. “I do get concerned because we could have someone elected who knows nothing about the highway department. That's not helpful for us. Elections can sometimes be a popularity contest driven by politics and not necessarily expertise.”

Changing from an elected office to an appointed position would require a town-wide referendum, which DeMayo said they would need to inform the County Board of Elections about.

Current Highway Superintendent Tim Pellam told the Democrat that he's not seeking reelection to another term, choosing instead to retire after 38 years with the department.

Nevertheless, Pellam wasn't in favor of changing the possition, saying that it, “takes power out of the people's hands.”

At least two board members are not in favor of such an idea. Councilman Vince McPhillips said, “I'd rather see both parties put a candidate up and let the people decide.”

Councilman Brian McPhillips expressed similar sentiment, saying, “I'm definitely not in favor of taking a position that requires hundreds of votes from the people of the town and allowing a board of five to appoint someone who potentially could cause accusations of nepotism.”