Committee members quit in protest
COTTEKILL, N.Y. » Three members of the Marbletown Planning and Zoning Committee subcommittee to review a draft Special Events Venues Local Law have resigned over confusion about goals for the panel and the need to have meetings outside of public view.
Tracey Dewart, Daisy Foote and Nancy Gagliardi filed a joint resignation letter Monday, saying they consider the subcommittee to not serve “any useful or legitimate purpose” after excluding an audience of 47 people from a session last week.
“Hours before the meeting ... the letter forwarded to members from the Marbletown Town Board clearly changed course of what we were led to believe would be an open discussion regarding the issues,” they wrote. “This communication prohibited the subcommittee from ‘investing time in determining the economic impact (of the law), nor should it attempt to conduct a survey of residents on the subject.’”
The letter noted that the subcommittee was told that “public, transparent discussion (it) would be di-
vided into small groups that would meet in a closed session from which the public would be barred” which “fundamentally changed the course that we originally agreed to follow.”
The resigning members said they agreed to participate on the subcommittee with the understanding it would “consider all aspects of (the) proposed legislation, including ... impacts
such as noise, public safety, size, frequency.”
In the Town Board letter, subcommittee members were told to “not invest time in determining the economic impact to Marbletown of allowing special event venues in or our community.”
Town attorney Tracey Kellogg at the meeting last week noted that subcommittee meetings are not required to be public under the state Open Meetings Law because it is an appointed panel designated to provide advice and recommendations.
Supervisor Richard Parete on Monday said the resignations were accepted but contends the subcommittee is still expected to make recommendations about a draft laws.
“There are some other friends of theirs on that committee that are concerned about events everywhere that did stick with it and do want to continue with it,” he said. “The people that resigned will still have another say. There’s going to be public hearings, the Planning and Zoning
Committee is open to the public, so there’s going to be plenty more opportunities for people to be heard.”
The subcommittee has not scheduled another meeting but is expected to conduct at least one more session.
The town Planning and Zoning Committee is scheduled to meet at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and does have the proposed law scheduled as an agenda item. The session will be in room M-1 of the Rondout Municipal Center at 1915-1925 Lucas Avenue.