Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Pleasantville Village Board of Trustees held its regular meeting on 2025-08-07, meeting at Village Hall (80 Wheeler Ave, 2nd Floor) and via Zoom, to swear in two new police officers, continue and close a public hearing on a stop-intersection local law, and act on fiscal, personnel, and administrative resolutions. All resolutions on the agenda were approved unanimously by voice vote. Note: The agenda and transcript identify this meeting as Monday, July 14, 2025; the date 2025-08-07 is from the meeting metadata supplied for this summary.
Somebody want to agree and the affiliate hall. All right. The clock is ticked 8 p.m. So we'll move from work session to our regular session. Welcome all. Welcome to the village board meeting of Monday, July 14. As is always the case, you're welcome here at Amy Wheeler Avenue, and you can also log on to these meetings, which are broadcast via Zoom. You can pick up that Zoom link for this meeting and others, other boards and commissions at Pleasantville-NY.gov within a relatively short period of time. The uh zoom video of our meetings uh are available online again through Pleasantville-NY.gov. Got that right? Got it right. All right. Listen says I have it right, and so I that means I have it right. Um bunch of things to talk about uh activities in the village, but we will hold that chatter uh for the first and I think most important activity uh we have tonight, which is the swearing in ceremony for uh two new police officers uh here in the village of Pleasantville. And so I invite our chief Eric Rutzner uh to uh set this stage thank you for that. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Shearer, village trustees, members, family, and friends of the Pleasantville Police Department and the Pleasantville community. I'm once again in front of the village board to add to the ranks of our department in the hiring of two new officers, Freddie Garanza and Leonard Balducci. The journey to becoming a police officer is a long one between civil service background investigations and physical and psychological examinations. The process takes months. However, each officer's journey begins long before anyone submits their name for consideration. It begins as they make career decisions and consider how to spend their free time. These two young men have come to us via different paths, but Lieutenant Wolman, Lieutenant Del Martin, and I believe they are exactly the right people at just the right time. Officer Freddie Garanza is a four-year veteran of a major metropolitan police department. During his time there, he worked in a culturally and ethnically diverse command where each interaction with the public was critical to foster understanding and build community trust. Prior to becoming a police officer, he served our country in the United States Army as a combat engineer, where he was recognized with numerous commendations, including the Army Achievement Medal. By the time he left the service, he had been promoted to the rank of sergeant. His fluency in Spanish means we will now have four Spanish speaking officers in the department. Officer Balducci has been employed by a police department in a small city in upstate New York for over a year. And while Officer Balducci enjoyed his former department and the work he did there, it was his passion to work for his hometown department. Lenny is very proud of his upbringing in Pleasantville and has already given back to the community by volunteering his time coaching youth and high school sports. Officer Baljucci has been diligent and thorough in his participation in the process to get to this point. And while the paths that they have traveled may have been different, the similarities between these two officers are noteworthy. Both came highly recommended by members of the Pleasantville community. Throughout the background investigation, many people describe them both as prepared, hardworking, and diligent. Both have an infectious energy and an overwhelmingly positive perspective, and they each possess the skills and personality to enhance our efforts for outreach to the community. Most importantly, they share a passion for service and both are very excited to continue their careers serving the people of Pleasantville. This is with a high degree of confidence that I recommend Officer Garanza and Officer Balducci to the board for their consideration.