Archive: News

After postponing a vote for two months the Lansing Town Board reappointed Dean Shea for a new seven-year term on the Planning Board, and reappointed Thomas Butler and Dale Baker as Planning Board alternates.  The vote was postponed in December to give the Board time to consider an incident involving Shea and a member of the public, and again in January to give Shea and a Zoning Board of Appeals member a chance to catch up on mandatory sensitivity training that all Lansing board members must take.  They had missed a December session because it was cancelled due to weather and couldn't be rescheduled until this month.

At the end of November the Planning Board recommended that all three members be reappointed.  Before five fellow planning board members (with Shea and one other board member abstaining) made their recommendation board member Larry Sharpsteen argued for reappointing Shea.

"I think that the contribution that he's made to the Board on the time that he's been here can't be understated," Sharpsteen said. "I'm hoping that the moves that the Town has taken to improve communication, the movement of the town statement and seeing to it that all the boards have undergone conflict resolution and sensitivity training after this incident (will be effective)."

The Town Board voted 4-0 Wednesday to approve the reappointments without comment Wednesday.  They also set a date for a public hearing on a proposed local law that "training for municipal officers and boards for public meetings, including conflict management, and is placing such requirements within the existing local law to ensure they are a permanent part of annual training."  The public hearing was set for March 18th at 6:31pm.

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