Council Members Are Abandoning Responsibilities, Mayor Says

The following was submitted by Bloomingdale Mayor Jonathan Dunleavy. If you have a Letter to the Editor you would like to submit, send it to ariana.cohn-sheehan@patch.com

Dear Editor,

On Oct. 10, I called a meeting for Oct. 15 to deal with the borough business that I was unable resolve at Tuesday’s council meeting due to the walk out and lack of quorum by the council majority.

The reason I called the meeting for Monday is that Oct. 15 is the deadline for our Municipal Alliance Drug and Alcohol Education grant. If we do not date a resolution by Oct. 15, we will lose this funding. As of the business day Friday  (Oct. 12) 5 p.m., the only council person to respond, besides Yazdi and D'Amato, was Pituch who stated she will not attend the meeting if the PILOT is on the agenda. Yazdi and D’Amato appropriately responded that they would be attending the meeting. Conklin, Shortman and Schiffman did not respond to our clerk. The borough clerk had sent multiple emails and personal phone calls to each member.

I will be authorizing our attorney to seek a court order on Monday to force the council people to attend the meeting, as we have critical business that must be dealt with immediately. I will also seek a court order to allow myself, and Councilmen Yazdi and D'Amato, to govern the borough in lieu of their abandonment of their responsibilities.

The majority has created a pattern with their attendance. They have threatened to avoid meetings and have deliberately missed meetings in the past so we would have to cancel due to a lack of quorum. This was done when they didn’t want to deal with specific issues.  To date, the majority has missed a combined total of 12 out of 21 meetings. They are abdicating their elected responsibilities.

This meeting cannot be postponed due to the following issues:

1. $17,000 Municipal Alliance Grant deadline (Oct. 15)

2. Jeopardizing $460,000 of state aid for our Best Practice report, deadline was Sept. 30 and our business administrator had to seek an extension from the state.

3. Major water main break on Lakeside Avenue that has been temporarily patched and can break again at any time. This terrible condition has been sitting without repair since the last meeting was canceled by the majority walk out.

4. Probably too late, but the majority has postponed discussion on "Nightmare on Bailey Ave." since Sept. 18.

5. We need to accept a $78,000 county grant for restrooms at our recreation facility at the Walter T. Bergen Field. We are jeopardizing these funds by not responding to the county.

6. We must vote on a change order for the water tank painting project which has been halted due to meeting cancelations.

7. We had two part-time employees resign from the animal shelter as they took  full-time positions elsewhere, so we need to appoint the two new part-time replacements. The shelter employees and Animal Control officers are working tirelessly because the majority has postponed these appointments.

There are many more items on the agenda, but the items mentioned above are the most important due to deadlines and needs. I am saddened, as a result of the council majority's inaction, that I must seek a court order to ensure I can properly execute the business of our borough.

Mayor Jon Dunleavy