Agreement may be near in West’s salary dispute

The 2-year-old dispute involving Mayor Jason West’s salary could end with an agreement soon.

NEW PALTZ >> The 2-year-old dispute involving salary for Mayor Jason West’s salary could be resolved soon, but officials are not sure whether it will happen before Village Board members meet Wednesday.

The session is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Village Hall, 25 Plattekill Ave.

Trustee Thomas Rocco said in a telephone interview he has been updated on figures that are expected to be included in a settlement package that will need a board vote for final approval.

“I was familiar with the probability of a settlement during the past week,” Rocco said. “Lawyers were talking to each other ... (and) people would say we believe we have a resolution in the works.”

Rocco is not named in a lawsuit involving the mayor’s salary, because the board action happened before he was elected as a trustee.

West was elected in 2011 at a salary of $22,500. He submitted a 2012-13 budget with the salary at $35,000 and received 4-1 approval from the board, with then-Trustee Stewart Glenn in opposition.

Court papers contend West requested the salary be put at $45,000 in the 2013-14 budget. Instead his salary was returned to the $22,500 in a spending plan that passed 4-0 with the mayor absent from voting.

Village trustees in 2013 hired attorney David Wise at $225 per hour in response to a lawsuit filed by West.

Rocco said the settlement apparently proposes to pay West $12,000, but was not sure whether the amount was a one-time payment or restoration of the $35,000 salar y.

West was not immediately available Friday for comment.

Rocco noted that West last year requested the salary be set at $50,000, but board members again set the figure at $22,500.

“I did research and I looked all around the state of New York, at villages of our size and approximately our size that also had SUNY institutions,” he said. “Nobody in New York state in a village ... as being paid anywhere near that amount.”