The Town of Lloyd has neglected to post meeting minutes on their website for both the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals. In the case of the Planning Board, the last minutes listed on the website are for October 24, 2019 and the last Zoning Board minutes posted are May 9, 2019.

Planning Board Chairman Scott McCarthy said his board has received hard copies of the minutes from December 5, 2019 to May 28, 2020 that his board approved He said he could not explain why this is so far behind on the website.

Zoning Board Chairman J.O. Litts said his board has also received copies of the minutes for them to approve, saying, “that’s standard operating procedure.”

Chapter 100-55 F & K of the town code, states that the Planning and Zoning boards read and approve the minutes of their preceding meeting and afterward the minutes of all meetings are filed with the Town Clerk. Typically, they are then posted on the town’s website.

This past February and March, Planning Board Vice Chair Sal Cuciti spoke with Chairman McCarthy and Town Supervisor Fred Pizzuto on the importance of meeting minutes. He said having complete and up to date minutes readily available enables the Planning Board to keep track of the abundance of details concerning development projects that they are reviewing. He added that with no public access, the minutes are even more important for transparency and maintaining the public’s trust. He believes that a lack of minutes in the record will in the long run hurt the boards and the town.

The Southern Ulster Times submitted a Freedom Of Information Law [FOIL] request to Town Clerk Wendy Rosinski for these records on August 10, 2020, which presumably was sent to the Building Department that usually compiles the minutes. She responded on August 28 saying, “I know Dave [Barton] has been working on them; like I said, no secretary for almost a year.”

Supervisor Pizzuto acknowledged that he was informed of the lack of meeting minutes in February but thought that a member of the Planning Board was going to handle recording the minutes. He said past and present meeting minutes must be compiled and put on the town website, “so they are available.”

Pizzuto said he will reach out to Building Department Director Dave Barton, “and go have a sit down and say what’s your plan?” He said minutes must be transcribed and filed properly at town hall.

“You don’t have a choice here, you’ve got to get caught up,” he said. “It’s got to be done.”

At the August 27th Planning Board meeting Building Department Director Dave Barton apologized for the lack of available minutes. He said he has had a significant turnover of personnel in his office that has compounded the problem.

“I’ve been trying to get them done but I just haven’t gotten to July today,” he said. “I’ll do them as soon as I can.”

Barton said cost is preventing bringing someone on to handle the minutes, pointing out that, “It’s going to be a very interesting [upcoming] budget season for a whole bunch of reasons.”

Cuciti said it would be the Town’s responsibility to pay for having the minutes done. Barton said the Supervisor’s secretary has recently reached out to Civil Service for a list of individuals who would be eligible for a position to do this type of work.

“Hopefully we’ll have this this upcoming week and we’ll get someone in ASAP,” he said.