To: Monticello Village Manager, Mayor, Trustees, Attorney, Clerk, and Others Whom It May Concern:
Following is an historical summary of residency requirements placed on past appointed Village Managers. Historically, the last person prior to one recent brief occupant of the office who was fired at the end of December, to be “permanently” appointed by the Board of Trustees as Village Manager who lived inside Village limits at the time of his hiring as Manager was Robert Norris of Lake Street, some 21 years ago in 1998.
NYS Village Law § 3-300(2)(a) permits the Board of Trustees to exempt any appointed Village officer who might otherwise be required to live within municipal limits from a residency requirement, provided the person lives within the county “in which the village is wholly or partially situated.” The Monticello Village Board has always complied with this law. Manager Zachary Kelson in 2008, Manager Raymond Nargizian in 2006, and Manager Richard Sush in 2001, were all specifically and lawfully authorized by resolution of the Board of Trustees to live outside the limits of the Village of Monticello. All three men were indeed and remain Sullivan County residents.
Then DPW Commissioner George Panchyshysn of Southwoods, appointed by the Board of Trustees in 1996 as “interim” Village Manager, was designated at the time as not permanent. Village Clerk Edith Schop was also named to act briefly as a temporary “acting” and “interim” Manager during 1994 and again in 1995. Ms. Schop, we know, lives in the Village, but the Board was clear on each occasion that her appointment was not permanent.
Middletown City Alderman Joseph Dwyer was hired permanently in 1999 as Monticello Village Manager, but resigned after 15 days citing “personal reasons”. Teaneck, New Jersey resident Manager Sheryl Shiber was permanently hired in 1997; Medford, Long Island resident Manager David Berner in 1995; Wallkill resident (former Wallkill Town Supervisor) Manager William Cummings in 1994; and Alamosa County, Colorado resident (and County Manager) James Malloy in 1992. Many of these people physically relocated to Monticello within a period specified by the Board of Trustees at the time they were hired. Whether or not to require residency at all, how much time to allow, and how strictly to monitor, has always been a Board decision.
In recent years, the Village of Monticello Board of Trustees has not made residency mandatory for the Village Manager, in part because it drastically reduces the pool of qualified applicants who are willing to accept the job.
In the future, the Board of Trustees may rest assured that historical precedent is definitely on your side on this issue. History confirms that under State law it is within the Village Board’s discretion to either require local residency for the Manager or not, provided that the individual lives within the boundaries of Sullivan County. You may have an excellent Manager candidate, for example, who prefers to live in the Town of Thompson or elsewhere. You as a Board have been empowered by the State Legislature to make this choice based on your collective wisdom and your good sense of what best serves the interests of the Village of Monticello.
This informational report is confined to the recent history of appointed Managers. Village Mayors who filled in for various interim periods when the Board may have preferred to leave the Manager post temporarily vacant, were obviously required to reside in the municipality in order to run and qualify for the office of Mayor. But once again, historically the decision of whether to appoint a Manager, or to let the Mayor fill in temporarily, has fallen under the lawful purview of the full Board of Trustees.
It is not and never has been an entitlement of the Mayor.
For further details and documentation, see tomrue.net/history/managers/.
Respectfully submitted,
Tom Rue, Monticello Village Historian
dated April 9, 2009