Conesville Abolishes its Planning Board During Heated Meeting

CONESVILLE — Conesville's Town Board voted 4-0 to abolish the town's Planning Board after a spirited and at times heated public hearing at the Town Board's Tuesday, June 9 meeting.

Following the hearing that lasted a little more than an hour, Town Supervisor Bill Federice and Councilmen Bill Amend, Frank Losito and Carl Fancher all voted to adopt a new local law that abolishes the Planning Board and hands all its former powers and responsibilities over to the Town Board. Councilman Robert Proudman was unable to attend the meeting.

In taking the action, Federice said and the three Councilmen agreed with their yes votes that the Planning Board had become dysfunctional and ineffective and it made a lot more sense to just have the Town Board do what the Planning Board was doing.

"It is the intent of this Local Law to abolish the Town Planning Board and to reserve all the powers and duties of the former Town Planning Board to the Town Board of the Town of Conesville," the document states. "The purpose of this Local Law is to consolidate the powers and duties contained in the Local Laws of the Town of Conesville with one governing board, in the interest of improving efficiency and economy of government operations."

Copies of the new Local Law abolishing the Planning Board were made available to everyone at the June 9 meeting. Now that it's been approved, it will take effect immediately upon filing with the New York State Secretary of State, it states.

Federice wrote out a detailed rationale for abolishing the Planning Board and read it at the June 9 meeting.

"This measure is necessary to ensure transparency, accountability and administrative competence in our town's land-use oversight," he said. "The primary reasons for this transition are as follows:

"Administrative failure: The current Planning Board has failed to adopt meeting minutes, leading to ineffectual public records. Furthermore, no members have completed the state-mandated annual four-hour training in several years, leaving the Town vulnerable to legal claims of harassment or weaponization of authority.

"Jurisdictional misalignment: In Conesville, the only enforceable land-use regulation is the subdivision law. The Planning Board has on occasion exceeded this scope by questioning land uses not currently under consideration, which does not trigger discretionary review under our current local laws.

"Small town practicality: Over 105 towns in New York operate without a Planning Board, including neighbors such as Blenheim and Durham. In a town like our's with fewer than 700 people with no zoning laws and limited recruitment for appointed positions, a dedicated board that seldom meets is unnecessary." 

Federice continued that the new Local Law "will not alter our mission of land-use oversight but will provide residents with an oversight responsibility that was elected by our residents and which is directly answerable to the people."

Before the vote, the Town Board answered questions and listened to comments from several residents and other town officials, several of whom had concerns with abolishing the Planning Board.

"I'm worried Democracy might be taken away when you take away boards," Town Historian Kim Young said.

She conceded the planning board might be "dysfunctional but things were said about people that were unfair and wrong."

On the difficulty of getting people to serve on the Planning and other appointed boards, Young and others at the meeting suggested that more public notices and calls for help might aid in that effort.

"We have to ask why are people unwilling to serve?" Young said. "There might be ways to garner more participation."

Some at the meeting expressed concern not enough was done to try to solve problems with the Planning Board before taking the step to abolish it. No one from the Planning Board attended the June 9 meeting.

"It's a shambles and dysfunctional but it seems a shame to abolish it without trying to fix it," one man in the audience said.

"Removing people that were involved leaves me sad," resident Mary Rouleau added.

Federice's comments at different points in the meeting indicated he felt the Planning Board was beyond repair.

"The Planning Board has been a disaster and an embarrassment to the Town of Conesville," he said. "It's been a train wreck for the last two or three years."

The meeting got heated at several points when Federice and other board members got very aggravated with a man in the audience they felt was being overbearing and rude, and trying to interrupt other residents trying to speak, identified as Kennedy Mcdonnell.

"Now, you're just being friggin' obnoxious," Federice told the man at one point.

"You're off topic! Shut your mouth!" Amend yelled at the man a little later in the meeting.

Federice agreed he was off topic and threatened to adjourn the meeting and have Schoharie County Sheriff's Deputies come and remove the man from the room. That did not end up happening.

Town Attorney Mike West has attended the last two Town Board meetings to guide members through the process of abolishing the PB and answer questions. He said during the June 9 meeting that if circumstances change and it reaches the point that it appears the Planning Board could function much better, the Town Board can always move to re-establish the PB if it wishes.

Federice said he feels it will be important for all Town Board members to take the annual four-hour Planning Board training. He added that he believes the Town Board can incorporate any business formerly handled by the PB into the Town Board's regular monthly meetings.

"Unless it's something really big, and then we can hold a special meeting," Federice said. "The Town Board is a better organized group of people in that we're here every month."