Next Tuesday’s annual village
election has a full slate
of candidates for mayor,
trustee and justice.
Our choice for mayor is
Jeff Katz, the senior member
of the village board and
the current Deputy Mayor.
Katz has demonstrated
his readiness to hold the
top elected office in the
village. We have been
impressed with the amount
of research he puts into
developing a well-rounded
understanding of the issues.
Through that research he
has come to understand
how things have been
done in the past, what has
worked and what has not.
Katz is
not afraid
to bring
new and
sometimes
unpopular
ideas to
the table
and look
for new
solutions
to longstanding
problems in
the village.
His
experience
in office
makes him
uniquely
qualified to
be mayor.
While others
may
have lived
in the village much longer,
no other candidate has the
knowledge of the issues or
mechanics of running the
village that he has garnered
from the countless hours
he has spent conducting
village business in the last
five years.
Being mayor requires
an enormous amount
of time. Cooperstown is
a small village, but not
the same place it was 20,
30, 40 or 50 years ago _
particularly since the arrival
of the Dreams Park in the
mid-1990s. Village government
provides not only for
its residents, but also puts
out the welcome mat and
cleans up after hundreds of
thousands of visitors each
year. Katz has shown that
he has the time and willingness
to give his attention to
the many day-to-day issues
involved in running village
government.
His opponent Joe Booan,
Jr. will complete his first
year on the board this
month. He brings skills as
an educational administrator
to the board, but in our
mind, lacks the experience
necessary to serve as
mayor.
We were bothered by his
statement in September
during a meeting when he
confessed that ``Maybe I
didn’t understand’’ in reference
to a vote he had made
a month earlier. Trustees
voting on issues they do
not fully understand are
not an example of good
leadership.
His stand on the private,
for profit, use of village
property by landlords for
their short-term tenant
parking put him at odds
with us again.
We were also disturbed
by an apparent disregard
for the requirements of the
NYS Open Meetings Law in
October when Booan made
a motion to go into executive
session to talk about a
specific village employee.
Almost immediately after
returning to open session,
and without discussion,
Booan made a motion to
restore $2,000 per month
to the police department
budget to
fund 24-hour
coverage until
the January
board
meeting. His
actions left
many with
the unshakeable
feeling
that while
in executive
session
and out of
the public
eye, Booan
improperly
engaged in
a discussion
regarding
the restoration
of police
department
funds.
Those are
the types of missteps that
experienced officials avoid.
Booan can make a
worthwhile contribution
to village government as
a trustee and, with experience,
perhaps someday as
mayor, but not now.
Katz is the clear choice.
For the two trustee positions,
there is also one clear
choice _ Lynne Mebust.
She is completing her
first three-year term on
the board and has repeatedly
impressed us. Mebust
has experience, does her
research, has an attention
to detail and follows things
through to completion.
With Katz as mayor, she
would become the senior
board member and likely
choice for Deputy Mayor
_ a task she is certainly
equipped for with the
leadership abilities she has
already demonstrated.
For the second trustee
position, any of the three
candidates _ Sally Eldred,
Doug Walker and Alton
Dunn III _ would be an asset
to the board.
And for village justice,
we endorse Leslie Friedman.
Her educational
background, experience as
a practicing attorney and
service as the current acting
village justice make her
the right choice.
But, no matter how you
intend to vote, please make
sure you do so Tuesday,
March 16, from noon to 9
p.m. in the village fire hall.
