KNOX — Even records of meetings — usually minutes get perfunctory, unanimous approval — are now contentious in Knox.

The town board struggled to approve two of three drafts of meeting minutes that were on the agenda Tuesday night, as board members argued back and forth over the issue of including quotes in the minutes.

Supervisor Vasilios Lefkaditis said that at a special town board meeting on June 1, Councilwoman Amy Pokorny recorded the minutes, as town clerk Tara Murphy was not present.

Pokorny is running against Lefkaditis for supervisor.

“There was extensive quotes from me only,” he said, adding that there was only one other from Councilman Earl Barcomb, who was not present at last week’s meeting.

Councilman Dan Hanley said he had reviewed previous minutes and had not found others with quotes unless it had been requested by someone to be directly quoted. He said he would prefer to be consistent, and that he was concerned quotes could be taken out of context should this practice continue.

Pokorny said she has acted as recording secretary at previous meetings and has found no reason to record quotes for the most part.

“But that one meeting on June 1 was contentious unnecessarily,” she said. “I thought it was unprofessionally conducted, and I thought it was important for the public to have a sense of how the exchanges went.”

“First off, it wasn’t contentious, I heard the audio, I was there, it wasn’t contentious” said Lefkaditis. “But, needless to say, the person running against me in November is quoting me. You don’t find that odd?”

Pokorny had announced her candidacy in early May.

Lefkaditis also said he agreed with Hanley that quotes could be used out of context.

June 1 meeting: Contentious or not?

The June 1 meeting, which The Enterprise attended, wrote about, and may be listened to below, had been called by Barcomb to discuss adding a list of allowed uses in Knox’s business district to the notices of the July 11 public hearing on adding second business district in town (which has failed to pass twice since then). Pokorny suggested to note uses not allowed as well. The attachments eventually totaled 10 pages, which included all uses allowed and not allowed in all types of zoning districts in the town. Pokorny had said on June 1 it could be compressed to three pages.

Although Lefkaditis said the original notice sent on May 24 informed people of where to obtain a copy of the town’s zoning ordinance, he eventually said he didn’t want to give cause for complaint and made a motion to send a notice with extensive sections of the zoning ordinance to all Knox parcels listed on the tax rolls. It would cost $2,000 to do it that way, he estimated, which could go up to $6,000 if the same process were used to send notices for hearings on two other proposed districts. By law, notices need to be sent only to affected areas.

No board member seconded the motion, and the board eventually voted to send the notice with its attachments to those living in the proposed district. With Councilman Dennis Barber absent, Lefkaditis was was the sole vote no; he said that he felt the information should be available to all Knox residents

Lefkaditis wants to add quotes from Pokorny

At Tuesday’s meeting, Pokorny said she found a “blanket policy” on not using quotations in meeting minutes to not make sense, as it could become restrictive.

Pokorny voted to approve the minutes, and Hanley and Lefkaditis voted against this. Barber, who was absent on June 1, abstained, and Barcomb was absent on Tuesday, so the motion failed to pass.

The board voted to table the decision until the next meeting, and Lefkaditis asked to table the meeting minutes for May 9 and July 11. He did not get a second to table the May 9 minutes.

“Are there quotes in those?” asked Hanley.

“There will be, if there’s quotes in 6/1,” said Lefkaditis.

Lefkaditis had added quotes in amendments from Pokorny to both meetings, which he projected on a large screen for both the board and the audience to see.

From the May 9 meeting, Lefkaditis quoted Pokorny and Lefkaditis speaking to one another about a survey of residents taken years ago to update the comprehensive land-use plan:

“This is a different survey; I did send out a draft a while ago that had questions that were loaded, I agree,” Pokorny is quoted saying.

“Do you admit it?” Lefkaditis is quoted asking.

“Yes, I do. They were biased,” Pokorny is quoted.

Pokorny responded on Tuesday that the survey she referenced had been a draft and had not been proposed for a vote to be sent out to the public. She and Hanley voted against amending the minutes. Lefkaditis and Barber voted yes. The board then voted to table those minutes.

“So you want my quotes in, but you don’t want your quotes in?” asked Lefkaditis. “That’s extremely interesting.”

“I think there’s a very different reason for putting the quotes in,” said Pokorny.

Lefkaditis also proposed an amendment in the July 11 minutes to quote Pokorny and Knox farmer Laura Martin, who was in the audience, discussing the Octagon Barn, a building where Pokorny and her husband rent out for events. Martin has repeatedly asked how this could be allowed outside of the business district. The Octagon Barn is classified as a cultural facility, which is an allowed use outside of the business district:

“I do have a business, it’s a DBA (doing business as), yes,” Pokorny is quoted saying.

“Do you charge people to rent it?” Martin is quoted asking.

“Sometimes, yes, yup,” Pokorny is quoted.

“I said ‘yup?’” Pokorny laughed, at Tuesday’s meeting. “All that is accurate.”

The board then voted to pass the July 11 minutes, leaving both the May 9 and June 1 minutes to be discussed in September.