Good afternoon all, and uh thank you for joining us for this special meeting of January 31st, 2024.

We please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr.

Copstein, could you lead us?

And through the Republic, we could stand one nation on the God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And if we could remain standing for a moment of silence, is remember uh all of those that serve us, uh first responders, military, and those that uh fight for our freedoms, and we remember that freedom is not free, and there is a price to pay for democracy.

Amen.

Thank you.

Good evening, Diana Quas, Town Clerk.

Acting supervisor Ed Lacterman.

Sergio Esposito, Councilman.

Councilwoman Luciana Howitt.

Patrick Murphy, Councilman.

David Chen from Law Firm Bleak we played in Schmidt.

I'm sitting in for Adam Rodriguez as the town attorney tonight.

Thank you.

Uh so there are some uh resolutions that we wanted to discuss.

Uh David, could you uh lead us off on the first resolution?

Yes, thank you very much.

Good evening.

Um the first resolution that's going to be addressed is a resolution to all it's item five in the agenda, it's to authorize a special election to be held on April 16th, 2024 to fill the vacancy for the unexpired term of town supervisor.

Uh I won't read the uh all the words of the uh resolution, it's there in the agenda, but I just wanted to uh give a little bit of background on the resolution and and and the particularly the timing.

Um as many will remember, about 10 years ago, this town passed a local law via referendum setting forth the procedure for filling vacancies uh in elected offices.

Uh this uh this law, which is uh codified as section 65-9 method of filling filling vacancy allows for the appointment uh of a replacement or either a special election or uh filling via general election, whichever of those two latter uh methods will fill the vacancy uh faster, the specific languages will be filled in the shortest space of time reasonably possible.

My understanding is that uh an appointment is not fit forthcoming, and that is why uh there has been a resolution to call uh this special election that fulfills the intent of the referendum in town law to fill this vacancy in the shortest possible time.

Uh I should note uh also by way of background this this uh law predated the relatively new New York state law uh which uh mandates a certain period of early voting.

Um so if to extend there's questions about some of the the the exact timing why we why we've landed on April this the 16th, uh that law is also at play.

We have to have it.

I believe it's nine days of of early voting uh per state law.

So it's those two uh the confluence of those two laws are local uh town law and then the state law uh are are why we've uh arrived on the particular date that we have thank you, David.

Any uh questions from the board?

No.

Okay.

Um for this uh uh I will open for any uh public comment if anyone would like to talk about it.

Hi Mark Lieberman, Wall Street.

Uh so there's a uh presidential primary on April 2nd, uh, which people will be voting in the primary.

And so my question is why are you not doing it to uh coincide with that event?

And since you're not doing it to coincide with that event, is the town paying extra for that?

And is the town managing the election, or is the board of elections managing the election?

Thank you.

We'll give this over to our town clerk who is our elections officer.

The um Westchester County Board of Elections will be running the election, the special election for the town on April 16th, and under state law, we're not allowed to combine that with a presidential primary.

Thanks, Diane.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else?

I don't know if these are gonna give me feedback.

Um just a quick comment.

Um one I I wish there was a better time that you guys could have held this that would have encouraged more um town people to be here.

Um but I'm really want to just make a real modest proposal that I'll hope that we at least consider.

I think that one of the biggest complaints that we have in any election season is the silliness of it.

We've heard it called silly by everybody, and I do think um a lot of people complain about the number of signs and banners.

Um, and there have been towns um who have restricted and controlled that number.

Um I think it's kind of a modest proposal for me to just bring to your consideration by all parties, and this is completely nonpartisan because I've not discussed it with anybody else in that we can not prohibit signs.

However, we can limit the number on any particular property and make the size of them under certain um parameters.

So I I just I don't think most um people appreciate having all the signs, and I also don't think it really deals with the issues, people's competencies to run town government and also what they stand for.

Um I would much rather see those monies that are spent on the signs um being spent on having open community town forums and debates, real open debates.

So that's my respectful suggestion.

Um you can do it, uh, you cannot do it.

You can have a discussion between the candidates.

Um, but I I would personally like this to see that.