Relatively impressive turnout for election that puts two new trustees in office
By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
More than 500 residents of Liverpool voted in the June 21 village election, defeating a proposition to abolish the village court and electing two new trustees to the village board.
Nearly one-third of the village’s 1,525 registered voters cast ballots last week. Over the past dozen years, an average of about 60 or so voted in village elections in which most candidates ran unopposed.
This year voters overturned the village board’s April 14 resolution to abolish the village court, 370 to 138. Meanwhile, newcomers Matt Devendorf and Bradley Young won seats on the village board with 328 and 293 votes, respectively. Seven-term incumbent Jim Rosier, with 236 votes, failed to win re-election.
Trustee Nick Kochan, whose seat was also up for grabs last week, had been defeated by Devendorf at the May 2 village Republican caucus.
On the day before the election, at the June 20 meeting of the village board, Planning Board Chairman Joe Ostuni Jr. praised Kochan for his 27 years of service to the village. “As planning board chairman and now as a member of the village board, Nick Kochan has contributed greatly to the quality of life in this village,” Ostuni said. “This wouldn’t be the village it is without him.”
Mayor Gary White agreed, and Kochan thanked Ostuni for his comments. In a recent letter to the editor, White also praised Rosier.
“Jim’s experience as a skilled negotiator make him a valuable asset to the village, the mayor wrote. “He has negotiated many successful collective bargaining agreements on behalf of the village and his knowledge of employee relations and budget strategies have provided our board with the perspective of a business professional.”
Devendorf and Rosier are Republicans while Young ran on the Residents’ Party line, last used by Anthony LaValle when he first ran for village justice against George Alessio in 2008. LaValle was reelected as judge in 2012 and again on June 21, running as a Republican without opposition.
Judge cites ‘bad choices’
LaValle was encouraged by the voters’ decision to retain the village court.
“I believe that the record voter turnout and the removal of two longtime trustees, one at the GOP caucus and the other at the polls, was simply because certain individuals didn’t listen to the people, they acted on their own,” the judge said. “They acted without public input before they voted to abolish the village court and before they voted to change the law to allow for a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru. These are major decisions which require public intervention, examination and approval. Unilateral and hastily made decisions are too often bad choices.”
The trustees’ attempt to consolidate village court operations with Salina Town Court failed, LaValle said, because it had not been thoroughly studied and trustees neglected to assess public sentiment. The attempted abolition of the court followed soon after the trustees’ March 21 vote accommodating Dunkin’ Donuts’ request for permission to operate a drive-thru window at its proposed location at 105-113 Second St.
The trustees unanimously OK’d the drive-thru despite the fact that nearly a dozen residents, including former Mayor Jim Farrell and current Zoning Board Chairman Mike Romano, publicly spoke out against allowing drive-thru restaurants in the village which is already overwhelmed with traffic.
“Changing our village law to allow for a ‘drive-thru’ before a traffic study is complete is unilateral and careless, just as passing a resolution to abolish a court before the facts are known, LaValle said. “In the future, it is my hope that our elected officials will listen to the people of this village before they act and if they don’t then heavy voter turnout at the polls will be the norm and not the exception in our village.”
