Emily Stoddard, the city’s clerk and records access officer, exited Wednesday’s Common Council meeting amid criticisms that the city does not comply with many aspects of the state’s Open Meetings Law and Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).
Heather Brent, who assisted her father, Ken Lewis of Hawley Street, with zoning concerns, had taken the microphone to detail how the city failed to provide meeting minutes and other documents within the law’s timeframes, and failed to conduct meetings in a public manner, when Stoddard left her seat at the hearing room’s bench and left.
Stoddard serves as the city’s records access officer, responsible for responding to requests within legal timeframes, announcing meetings, and updating the website.
Stoddard said Thursday that she left the council meeting because Mayor John Lombardi III had told her she was not required to stay for public comments.
After several questions on Thursday about her role in fulfilling public information requests, Stoddard said, “I’m done,” and walked away from the clerk’s window at city hall.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Brent said, “There’s been a lot of procedural and transparency issues that, unfortunately, over this past year, have become far more evident and honestly disappointing. The Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals routinely meet 30 minutes before their scheduled meetings, and those are not on the city calendar. If there is a quorum of individuals specifically on a board, that’s a public meeting and needs to be advertised, according to the New York State Open Meetings Law. Council of the Whole meetings, they’re held in the back room, which on several occasions, if I go back and look on the city’s calendar, they’re advertised as being held here, in this room, which can actually house enough public to sit and listen. … There’s nowhere really, honestly, for a group of individuals to meet in that tiny room. It’s not conducive. Again, if it’s a quorum of you guys going over, obviously, all of your agenda items and voting, it should be in this room so it can actually house enough people. That’s in the Open Meetings Law Section 103 that basically requires that it’s held in facilities that allow public attendance.”
Brent said a number of meeting minutes for the planning board and zoning board of appeals are missing from the city’s website when they are required to be posted, and some of her FOIL requests to the clerk were not acknowledged in accordance with the law’s timeframes. She said in several cases, she heard nothing for 14 days until she inquired again. In one case, Brent said that Stoddard said the reason for the delay was that the email had gone to her junk mail file, although the deputy clerk was also copied on the request.
“At the end of the day, mayor, you are the person overseeing those boards,” Brent said.
Concerning the missing meeting minutes, Stoddard said she was not responsible for the minutes for the planning and zoning board of appeals, and that a third-party contractor handles the city’s website. She said that the choice of rooms for Committee of the Whole meetings was up to Rowland O’Malley, council president.
Lombardi did not respond to an interview request on Thursday about Brent’s statements.
Aldermen have discussed the city’s outdated and inaccurate website with Lombardi several times in the past year.
Last June, John Craig, 1st Ward alderman, said, “The city really needs to have someone that is more proactive on the website. It’s certainly a bone of contention for myself. I’ve brought it up in the past.”
At that June work session, Lombardi said Stoddard performed some website updating and passed information on to the contractor, but he didn’t want to give her more work. Lombardi said the contractor “is not doing the job. I think we have to do it in-house. I have asked department heads to update their part, which hasn’t really happened.”
Town of Lockport Supervisor Mark Crocker said the website and digital sign in front of town hall are valuable communication tools.
“It reduces the work of the resident because it puts information at their fingertips,” Crocker said. “The whole purpose of why we established a website and why we established the digital sign out front that changes is that they can stay up to date with town activities without investing a lot of time. The website has zoning laws, activities, phone numbers, minutes so people don’t have to attend our meetings to know what’s going on. Once it’s up and running it only requires minor changes. It saves us work in the long run.”
Resident Virginia Ellis of Outwater Drive also spoke to the council about the vagueness of posted agendas. Ellis said agendas were not specific enough for residents to determine if they wanted to attend the meeting.
“It really feels like you don’t want people here,” she said.