Deputy Supervisor Melinda Shimer kicked off town board member comments Sept. 14 by reading a lengthy prepared statement directed at Councilor Roman Diamond.
“For two years, you have become increasingly divisive,” Shimer said. “You have attacked me personally in the media and distributed misinformation about my statements to the community. You have publicly and falsely accused me, Councilor Reeves and Supervisor Salisbury of illegal meetings and you continue to vilify us on Facebook.”
Shimer added that she has “swallowed” her feelings about Diamond’s conduct up until the Sept. 10 Conservative primary held at Lysander Town Hall.
“As a sitting town board member, you stood on town property waving a sign and actively campaigned against fellow board members. You stopped voters in their cars and told them that Andy [Reeves] and I are Democrats, which is not true, [and] suggested that … the challenging candidates are more deserving of the position,” Shimer said. “Still you refer to us openly as your opposition as you sit on the board with us. Enough vitriol and hypocrisy, Roman. The community and your constituents deserve way better. They elect you to represent and work for them, not yourself and the LRC [Lysander Republican Committee].”
Diamond began to respond to Shimer’s comments, but Salisbury urged the board to move on with the rest of the agenda.
“No, I am responding to these accusations right now,” Diamond said. “There was a lot of attacks, there were a lot of myths, there were a lot of mistruths.”
“If they were attacks I would have stopped her,” Salisbury said.
“No, you wouldn’t, because you have voted with Councilor Shimer and Councilor Reeves for four years,” Diamond said. “You allowed Councilor Shimer to read a prepared statement that was very derogatory directed towards myself, and there were a lot of lies and slanderous misstatements.”
Diamond also objected to the absence of proposals he has submitted from the town board’s agenda, including a possible law against solicitors and a whistleblower policy.
Salisbury said the solicitor law would be discussed at a Sept. 21 work session and said Diamond’s proposed solicitor law was “thrown together.”
Diamond said Dan Boccardo had drafted the proposed law by compiling at six other towns’ solicitor laws. Boccardo, in addition to being the dog control officer and bookkeeper to the supervisor, is chair of the public safety committee.
Reeves said the board had promised the homeowners associations of Radisson and Seneca Estates that they would be consulted about the solicitor law. He said Diamond was trying to “force-feed” a resolution to the board.
“I find this offensive that you did this tonight,” Reeves said.
Salisbury said he gives board members ample opportunity to submit resolutions to the agenda between releasing the draft of the agenda on Thursday and the Monday meeting.
“Maybe when Roman Diamond introduces something it doesn’t get on the agenda,” Diamond said.
Salisbury said Diamond only suggests resolutions during the board’s public meetings, which are recorded by PAC-B.
“You never tell us in our work session when I say, ‘Is there anything on the agenda that is a problem?’” Salisbury said. “I never hear anything and when we get out here, we have the television camera there, and then I hear it. I would just ask for your full cooperation and some respect to how we put this together.”
