To the Editor:

In last week’s Enterprise, Councilwoman Amy Pokorny of the Knox Town Board cited Supervisor Vasilios Lefkaditis’s alleged rages as the reason the other town board members had to have secret meetings to discuss town business without the town supervisor in attendance.  The alleged rages are just an excuse to justify their illegal secret meetings.

I have been to many town board meetings in the last several years where Mr. Lefkaditis contributed as part of the audience and I have been to all the town board meetings this year with him as supervisor.  I have never found him to burst into uncontrolled rages.

He is direct, engaged,and passionate and is working extremely hard at his job as town supervisor.  He is committed to making the town of Knox a great place to live.  The other board members knew that they were violating the spirit of the Open Meetings Law by holding secret meetings.

The supervisor is justifiably frustrated by the fact that the rest of the town board conducts illegal secret meetings.  He asked them at the April and May town board meetings to stop having conversations behind his back and to stop the secret meetings.  Due to extreme frustration with the situation, he is stern but not raging. They ignore his requests for open meetings.

In last week’s Enterprise, Councilwoman Amy Pokorny complained that they get the agendas late and there are sometimes changes at the last minute.  According to Supervisor Lefkaditis. they get the agendas three to five days ahead of time and he always says if you have any comments or questions to contact him.  They rarely give any response.

The agendas may change since he is constantly working and may add items. The agendas are two pages long. Ms. Pokorny never complained last year when the agendas were very short and put out just before the meeting.

The agendas contain items to be discussed at the meetings, not items for them to discuss ahead of time behind the supervisor’s back. If there is something they need to discuss before a regularly-scheduled town board meeting, they can ask for a special public meeting to be called.

I have noticed on the Knox website that, since the May meeting, two special public meetings were called by the town supervisor to discuss business between meetings.  The town board meetings are four hours long and are very well attended.  A lot is discussed and accomplished at each meeting.

The town board meetings are fast paced with the town supervisor trying to get a lot done at each meeting.  He could slow down a little and maybe wait one meeting before making decisions on major issues, giving the other board members more time to investigate the issues.

If they speak up, he has and will change his mind.  He wanted to change to the Bank of Greene County.  They wanted to solicit different banks and he agreed.

He will listen and change his mind.  He has saved the town a lot of money and has put some of the money into Youth Services and Senior Services.  At the last meeting, he gave $3,500 of his own salary to Youth Services.  

I encourage you all to attend a Knox Town Board meeting on the second Tuesday of the month.  You will see a dynamic, intelligent, passionate town supervisor committed to doing his best for the town of Knox.  There are no rages and there is no chest-thumping.

There is no justification for secret meetings. The people of  Knox deserve an open and transparent government.

Anna Wolfe

Knox