Wellsville Mayor supports agenda release

Sunday evening, I posted a somewhat 'salty'  opinion piece on local governments that don't share meeting agendas with the public...in advance of the public meeting. The article targeted the Wellsville Village Board, but it was intended for the town and numerous nearby local governments.
In less than 12 hours from the post, village officials sent the agenda. A short time later, I received an email response from Mayor Randy Shayler. Classy. This was his edited response:

As Mayor of the Village of Wellsville, I can assure you the Village Trustees and I believe it’s vital to hear from the public, we have taken steps to make communication simple and easy, and we intend to keep the public informed.  Consider this:

(1)Every trustee and I, as Mayor, now have Village email with a simple address to encourage communication from the public: <position><last name>@wellsvilleny.com. Mine is mayorshayler@wellsvilleny.com.

 

(2) Anyone who phones the Village office and requests to speak to me will receive my home telephone number. 

 

(3) We have instituted a practice of including an insert with every utility bill (twelve times per year with greater distribution than print media) to provide relevant Village information to the public.   

 

Your specific point regarding making meeting agendas available is quite relevant.  Thank you for the suggestion regarding the media.  Beginning immediately, we will distribute the agenda to the media, at the same time it is sent for publishing on our website.

 

Timely publishing of information we provide, well in advance of NYS requirements, to our website service provider has been a challenge we continue to address.  We’re not passing the buck.  It’s our responsibility, and we will resolve the issue.    

 

Again, we encourage communication (input) from the public and from the media.  Our intent is to make well-informed decisions with transparency and accountability.

Did this site cause a reaction? Who knows...but the Mayor responded, within hours...as did village officials. The story is never about this site...it is, however, about generating results. Attend the meetings or not...at least you know what will be discussed.

This message wasn't intended just for Wellsville government...it's meant for all area governments....share your agendas and tell the people you represent what the plan is. I'll 'bump' government when required.