Need for More Staff Ignored, Lawrence Trustees Say

Editor's notes: The comments of Trustee Edward Klar have been clarified.

The mayor of the and its board of trustees have a “fundamental disagreement” over hiring additional staff, according to Trustee Joel Mael, which members of the board and administration say is sorely needed.

“Members of this board have been asking for more staff for months. You don’t seem to feel a need to supplement the staff of the village.” Mael told Mayor Martin Oliner at Thursday’s meeting. “This is the most dysfunctional this board has been in my nine years.”

At nearly every village board meeting for the past year, trustees have complained of receiving information too late to make decisions at that month’s meeting and say agenda items keep getting pushed back. Administrator David Smollet has been without a deputy for at least a year.

The mayor came to Smollet’s defense, and said Mael’s methods don’t “move the ball forward.” He added that he’s not willing to change administrator and stressed that village employees should be comfortable in their positions.

“We’re looking at all aspects of where the village can be supplemented,” said Oliner, who has the ultimate say in hiring staff. “We’ve made every effort to hire people on every level.”

Responding to trustees’ questions on why abstract materials arrive as late as the night before a meeting, Village Deputy Treasurer Abraham Farber pointed to the village’s “unwieldy” contract system.

“We have recognized for quite some time that we are short staffed in the office,” he said. “I came into a situation with a great deal of transition.”

He added that “there is an air of confrontationalism and hostility” from the board of trustees.

Under previous administrations, packets were delivered to the trustees a week before the meeting, Trustee C. Simon Felder said. While he expressed confidence in the village’s administration, he said that Smollet needs a deputy.

Trustee Ed Klar said he feels like he’s in “Alice in Wonderland” and living “in two different worlds” regarding the mayor's notion that the village is being administered smoothly. One of Klar's biggest points of contention was that, according to him, the administration has allowed four major contracts at the country club — the licenses for the kosher and non-kosher caterers and the golf and tennis professionals — to expire.

“It’s not fair to leave them hanging out there,” he said. “This is not how this village should be running. Things have to move, they can’t sit on the backburner forever.”

Other items of discussion:

• Lawrence Association President Ronald Goldman once again questioned the board on a that appeared on the Orthodox Union website for a CEO of the village.
  Oliner, in response, said, “I have been involved with conversations with the OU and they assured me it had a color of legitimacy to it. Based on their policy of confidentiality, they have not told me who the individual is.”
• The other big item for members of the Lawrence Association is term limits for the mayor and trustees, which Goldman addressed to the board.
  “I’m all for term limits. I think they’re appropriate and fair,” Oliner said. He added a caveat: “You have to understand government and its rules. It’d be a pity to leave government once you understand it.”