Town Board presses police chief on school-officer contract language, sets Aug. 6 date for traffic-law hearing

The most substantive exchange at the Webster Town Board's July 16 meeting came after the board cleared four routine consent items with no dissent recorded: Councilman John Cahill's pointed questioning of contract language in the school resource officer agreement, the first non-routine item on the night's agenda. The board went on to clear its nine-item agenda with no noted opposition on any item.

The board also settled a date last week's preview article had to leave open. The public hearing on Local Law No. 3, the town's new vehicle and traffic regulations, will be held Aug. 6, 2026, not Aug. 3 as the previously posted agenda had listed. Supervisor Alex Scialdone, making the motion himself, said the board had to double-check the date because of an unusual three-week gap before the board's next meeting, rather than the normal two weeks. The hearing will be advertised in the July 22 Webster Herald.

Pressing on the police chief on contract language

Item 5 authorized the Supervisor to sign the 2026-2027 School Resource Officer contract with the Webster Central School District, the same item the board had tabled on July 2 after members said they could not locate the underlying agreement to review. This time, Councilman Nick Hunter, the board's police liaison, told the board the document had arrived, and Town Attorney Kyle Taylor said he had reviewed it and found no legal issues.

Before the vote, Councilman Cahill raised two questions. First, he asked whether the contract's cost-sharing language, a 75/25 split between the district and the town for the officer's salary and benefits, includes pension payments; the police chief confirmed it does, telling the board it covers "everything that's included for the officer."

Second, Cahill flagged language on page four of the contract stating the school resource officer may "stop, question, interview, and take police action without prior authorization of the principal or contacting the parents." He pressed the board on whether children should have parents contacted before being questioned, and an extended discussion followed. The police chief and Attorney Taylor said the clause addresses jurisdictional lines, meaning the school cannot block or direct an officer's police powers, and is separate from the police department's own policy governing when parents or guardians must be present, which the officials said includes recognized exceptions such as imminent threats or certain child-welfare investigations. That means the parental-notification safeguard Cahill raised is a matter of the department's own internal policy, not the contract language the board was voting to approve. Councilwoman Jennifer Wright said the contract language itself reads as "a little ambiguous" even as she accepted the chief's explanation of how it works in practice. Scialdone, who said he was casting his third annual vote on this contract, said there had been no history of problems with the arrangement in 12 years, and that he trusts Attorney Taylor's legal read.

Cahill separately raised a process point unrelated to the contract's substance: by his recollection, this was the first time in roughly five years that the board has actually seen the underlying memorandum of understanding alongside the contract before voting on it. Town Clerk Danene Marr and another staff member confirmed that past practice had been a genuine gap and said the document will be provided to the board going forward. No amendment to the contract language was proposed or made; the language Cahill flagged was not changed and takes effect for the 2026-2027 school year as written. The board approved the contract 5-0, with Cahill voting in favor alongside the rest of the board.

Traffic law hearing set for Aug. 6, substance previewed

The Local Law No. 3 hearing date had been the subject of some confusion: the town's posted agenda listed Aug. 3, while an attached draft resolution listed Aug. 6. Thursday night resolved it. Scialdone's motion, made on the record, set the hearing for Aug. 6, 2026, explaining that the board needed a date that accounted for the longer-than-usual gap until its next meeting.

Town Engineer Keith Mortimer previewed the substance of the law at the earlier workshop, the first detailed look at what had been missing from the posted meeting packet. The law adds three sets of provisions to town code:

• A no-parking and no-standing rule for the full length of Tebor Road, tied to the fairlife plant's truck traffic. Mortimer told the board that after what he called "a long, drawn-out conversation" with the company, fairlife's truck queuing will happen entirely on the company's own property rather than staging on the road itself.
• At least four new stop-sign-controlled intersections created by residential development, each placing a stop sign on the minor approach to a larger road; Mortimer cited Alyssa Way at Schlegel Road as one example.
• New protected left-turn lanes tied to the Bay Road Road Diet, a Monroe County-led project that will reduce Bay Road from four lanes to three and add a center turn lane. Mortimer said the new turn pockets, created through restriping, are intended to reduce rear-end, sideswipe, and head-on collisions, and will go into effect once the county's striping work is complete.

Mortimer said the code amendment is meant to make these already-planned physical changes enforceable under town law.

Other votes

The board also approved, all by 5-0 votes with no recorded opposition:

• The ORPTS memorandum of understanding for the state-supported 2027 town-wide property reassessment (Item 6). Town Assessor Donna Komor told the board no budget is attached to the agreement itself; the reassessment project is already funded separately, and the memorandum mainly formalizes coordination with New York State, including a state fee schedule that would apply only if the town's outside contractor were unable to complete the work. Komor confirmed two figures for the record: a target uniform percentage of value of 100 percent, and a valuation date of July 1, meaning Webster stays on the state's standard assessment cycle.
• A 30-day notice-period waiver for AMC Webster 12's liquor-license class change (Item 8), a routine item Town Clerk Danene Marr said comes up periodically for license changes at existing businesses; town staff confirmed no zoning issues.
• A Police Department surplus list for recycling and disposal (Item 9), introduced briefly by Councilman Hunter as "mostly file cabinets and such."
• Bills, a prepaid warrant, and purchase orders from the board's consent agenda.

The board also approved the July 2 minutes with no recorded opposition.

Workshop: a path toward disability warning signs

Also at the 6:30 p.m. workshop, Mortimer presented the town's proposed process for placing "child with disabilities" warning signs on residential streets, a discussion carried over from the July 2 workshop. Mortimer said the idea began with a resident request roughly a year ago for an autism warning sign, and that his research found no consistent town process for any kind of disability-related street signage, so his department built one, adapted from a City of Buffalo model, covering autism, deaf, and blind children.

Under state criteria, a sign requires a completed application, a doctor's note verifying the child's condition, and a road that carries fewer than 2,000 vehicles a day with a posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour or less. Signs would need annual re-verification and could be removed if a qualifying child moves or turns 18.

Board members focused mainly on outreach, how residents would learn the program exists. One idea that drew general enthusiasm: partnering with the Webster Central School District to distribute the application through the district's own communication channels, such as ParentSquare, without the district disclosing which students have disabilities. The board did not take a formal vote or issue a directive; Mortimer described the program as a process his department is developing, not a policy requiring board adoption.

Workshop: Tree City USA

Charlotte Cabili of the town's Conservation Board presented on Tree City USA, an Arbor Day Foundation recognition program open to municipalities that maintain a tree board, a tree-care ordinance, a minimum level of documented tree-care spending, and an annual observance event. The program applies only to town-owned property, not private land.

Cabili cited a minimum spending threshold of $2 per capita, translating to roughly $90,000 to $94,000 depending on the figure cited during the presentation, but clarified that qualifying does not require new spending, since existing staff time, contracted tree work, and even volunteer hours can count toward the total. Cabili said 11 Monroe County municipalities currently hold Tree City USA status, citing Irondequoit, Brighton, and Penfield as examples.

Board members raised questions about both cost and capacity. One member asked whether the $90,000-to-$94,000 figure represented mandatory new spending; Cabili said it does not, since staff time, contracted work, and volunteer hours already going toward tree care count toward the total. Another member asked whether the town's Highway Department, described in the discussion as short-staffed and "stretched thin," had been consulted, since the program calls for more proactive tree management than the town currently practices; Cabili said the department had not yet been looped in and agreed it should be. Members also asked about liability for volunteer labor on higher-risk tree removal work, a question flagged for the town's insurer and legal counsel. Establishing a tree board and ordinance would require a local law; the discussion suggested Attorney Taylor draft the ordinance language with the Conservation Board's input rather than the other way around, citing Fairport's existing tree ordinance as a possible model. No vote was taken. Cabili said she would offer individual conversations with board members ahead of bringing the program back for a second workshop; the Arbor Day Foundation's application deadline, if the town pursues it, is Dec. 2.

Public comment

A Webster resident and self-identified combat veteran, addressing the board during the open floor period, spoke about the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance and the responsibility of elected officials to represent all residents regardless of party. He said he was speaking "not as a Republican, not as a Democrat" but as a concerned veteran. Scialdone thanked him for his service.

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