Webster Town Board rejects Climate Smart bid and police chief pay fix in split votes

Two items on the Webster Town Board's May 7 agenda failed on split votes, and a third, an outside engagement to handle two union negotiations, never reached a vote at all.

The board, meeting Thursday, rejected a resolution to register Webster as a Climate Smart Community with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. It also turned down Supervisor Alexander B. Scialdone's substitute proposal to bridge a widening pay gap between the Police Chief and Police Captain with a one-year budget transfer. Both motions failed 2-3.

Climate Smart resolution fails after public push

The Climate Smart vote followed extended public comment in which five residents urged the board to register and none spoke against. Town staff also recommended approval. Community Development Director Joshua Artuso called registration "a no-brainer," and Town Grant Liaison Maria Duer told the board that "not pursuing this designation is a wasted opportunity." Conservation Board Chair Dennis Gorlick had previously briefed the board at an April 16 workshop. He said Webster already performs enough qualifying actions to reach bronze certification at registration.

Speakers framed the program as a low-cost path to more competitive grant scoring. Rebecca Collins, a member of the group Color Webster Green, cited Penfield as a Clean Energy Community that has drawn nearly $150,000 in clean-energy and sustainability grants over the past five years. Spencer Berner, a retired sustainability director, warned the board that "past performance is not a guarantee for future results" as pandemic-era grant programs wind down.

The roll call: Councilman Nicholas E. Hunter and Supervisor Scialdone voted aye. Councilmen John J. Cahill and Garrett J. Wagner and Councilwoman Jennifer S. Wright voted nay. None of the three no-voters explained the vote on the record before the board moved to the next item.

Police chief salary fix fails, original plan to return

Item 10, a base-salary adjustment for the Chief of Police, was rewritten on the floor. The original resolution, drawn from an April 23 memorandum by HR Director Kelsey Feeney, would have set the Chief's base salary at 10% above the Police Captain's and tied future increases to Article 3 of the 1000 Club collective bargaining agreement. The memo notes the gap between the two roles has compressed from 9.61% in 2023 to 5.96% in 2026, and is projected to fall to roughly 2% by 2030 if untouched.

Scialdone instead moved a substitute resolution: a one-year transfer of $5,900 from the Town Supervisor's salary line into the Chief's base-salary line for fiscal 2026, framed as a bridge while broader compression talks continue.

Addressing the chief, Councilman Cahill said, "The chief was treated badly with respect to this when you were first hired again as chief, and I want to do this by having discussions and do it properly." Cahill voted no, as did Wagner and Wright. Cahill said "we will make the chief whole." All three no-voters said on the record that they intend to bring the original 10%-above-Captain framework back at the next regular meeting after further conversations with the Chief and Captain.

Xerox boundary-line hearing set for June 2

The board scheduled a joint public hearing with the Village of Webster for Tuesday, June 2, at 7:00 p.m. on a proposed municipal boundary-line move at the Xerox campus. The current Town/Village line runs through buildings on the campus. Under the proposal, the entire west campus would sit inside the Village and the entire east campus inside the Town. Notice will run in the Webster Herald before May 13. The Village holds a referendum June 16; the Town vote follows two days later.

Connard HR engagement dies for lack of a second

A proposal to engage Connard HR for negotiations with both the 1000 Club and Blue-Collar units, not to exceed $35,000, drew no motion from the floor. Scialdone offered a motion to strike the item from the agenda; it failed for lack of a second. The engagement was not authorized.

Money matters

Councilman Wagner caught a math error in the Securitas Technologies renewal hours before the meeting; the not-to-exceed figure was amended on the floor from $13,000 to $13,500 annually and approved. The board also approved a $6,300 settlement with MRB Group, reduced from a disputed roughly $40,000 highway-project invoice after Town Engineer Pat Stevens scrubbed the line items.

Routine business

The board approved minutes from April 16, bills, the prepaid warrant and purchase orders. It accepted clean 2025 audits of the Justice Court and the Town Clerk/Receiver of Taxes office, both performed by Mengel, Metzger, Barr & Co. LLP and both with zero findings. Other approvals: a fill permit at 1628 Lake Road for lakefront erosion work, with a Negative Declaration under SEQR; a stormwater easement license at 1194 Scandia Drive; a service-fee credit-card processing agreement with CSG Forte Payments; a temporary part-time Office Clerk position to cover school-tax season; participation in the Empire Public Investment Cooperative Fund and a corresponding revision to the Town's Investment Policy; and routine asset surplus, transfer and destruction items.

The board entered executive session under Public Officers Law section 105(d). The subject was not stated on the record.

What comes back

The Police Chief compensation question is on the calendar for the next regular board meeting. The Climate Smart Community resolution has no announced return date. The June 2 Xerox boundary-line hearing is open to the public.

AI tools were used in drafting and research.