Roger Britz speaks at the Fredonia Village Board meeting.

Fredonia Trustee Roger Britz offered a strident defense of himself this week amid criticism about his treatment of village employees.

He began his report time during a Board of Trustees meeting by decrying the use of such time for “a soapbox or a political agenda,” saying it were designed for trustees to report on their committee work.

“We have a lone trustee who wants to muddy the waters, so to speak, to make things personal. I’m going to set things straight and I want the truth to be known and I want to put an end to the gossip, the hearsay, the rumors and the lies, “ Britz said, referring to Trustee Jim Lynden’s effort to have him censured or removed from the board’s personnel committee.

“Private text messages, not emails, between myself and the Department of Public Works clerk who I thought was a friend for over four years, were seen by another employee of the DPW,” Britz continued. “Now, (the clerk) either willingly gave her phone to that employee or may have done unwillingly.

If it’s the latter, there are grounds for harassment, theft of property in addition to invasion of privacy. Only she knows how that information got in the hands of someone else. I never threatened anyone’s job, I never harassed a village employee.

“The truth is, that they were personal, bits and pieces were made public. … The First Amendment doesn’t protect anyone from being slanderous, including news publications and public officials. This breach of privacy is ripe for a lawsuit and I am currently seeking that information.

“I am not anti-union and I have no issues with the union. I have no issues with employees, other than the ones that publicly harass, willfully damage public property or even threaten public officials. Yeah, those people don’t like me and find me a threat.”

Britz went on to compare the situation to one he was in two years ago, when he was similarly threatened with punishment over comments he made to village employees. He said the prior threats were in retaliation for blowing the whistle on the improper purchase of a truck.

“This is nothing more than political mudslinging to discourage me and force me to not rerun for trustee. I am not endorsed by any major party, seen by a threat by both sides. Party politics should not play a role in our small town government,” he said.

Britz predicted that mudslinging and lies would continue ahead of the election, and that “transparency” and “working together” would be the battle cry of his opponents. He denied that the board is “chaos,” as critics have recently claimed.

“More resolutions have been passed by a majority vote in this board than in the previous two years,” Britz said. “This is the first time in four years that a unanimously passed budget by all five trustees was present. I call that working together.”

He then bashed the local media. “Sometimes they like to bite the hand that feeds them,” he said. “I caution them also before they start taking bits and pieces of stories and not finding out the truth behind what they’re reporting.”

Finally, Britz accused Lynden of not fighting for a union member who was suspended for two weeks under the previous mayoral administration of his political ally, Athanasia Landis. He then moved on to examples of “working together”: the village’s water contract with SUNY Fredonia is ready for review, the college’s outstanding and sewer bills are about to get paid off, and the engineers working on the issues at the water plant contacted Fredonia’s attorney to seek a solution with the village on their disagreements.

Britz concluded, “I’m very, very disappointed that slanderous remarks made in open public not only threaten — and the threats that come to me and my family — for the careless words of certain individuals. I’m not a quitter, and I’m not going anywhere. And I’ll be on the ballot next year, maybe not as a Republican or a Democrat, but I have been endorsed by people that believe in me and believe that I’m willing to work for the people of this village and not a party.”

Right before Britz’s statement, Lynden pressed Mayor Doug Essek on whether he’d ensure that the trustee would get censured or removed from the personnel committee. Essek read an opinion he received from village attorney Charlie Roberts, stating he could not do either move. He advised Lynden to drop the matter.

“The village has had a longstanding relationship with our labor management and I believe everybody needs to be treated with respect and professionalism,” Essek stated.

Earlier in Monday’s meeting, during the public comments portion, two representatives from the Civil Service Employees Union, joined by a former village employee, made more criticism of Fredonia officials.

The former employee, Josh Cybart, was a dog catcher until he resigned July 6. “It was really in poor taste of you guys how you portrayed how I did or did not do things … you guys made a lot of people mad. And I don’t appreciate it, so, that’s about it,” he told the board.

Matt DeAngelo said he is a SUNY Fredonia alum and CSEA’s chief negotiator on the contract they are attempting to negotiate with the village. “We take great offense at, ‘we’re only here for negotiations.’ I read the media just like everybody else does and I saw the comments. It is not only false but very offensive. … I don’t negotiate in public or through the media and I never will, nor does CSEA. That’s not how we do our business. Simply, I’m here to convey on behalf of my membership and CSEA, we take great issue with the implication of how CSEA feels or cares about its members.”

Jill Ackerman, a CSEA labor relations specialist who already slammed the board for its relations with workers at the June 28 meeting, then offered fresh criticism.

“Last time we were here we addressed the unprofessionalism of some board members, and unfortunately we are continuing to deal with this unprofessionalism,” she said.

“Point of order, mayor, what does this have to do with tonight’s agenda,” Britz interrupted.

“I will happily explain,” Ackerman said. Essek told her to continue.

She said an employee that resigned Friday was not only rudely treated, but received a visit at home from a police-escorted village personnel specialist, who delivered him a letter to let him know his time was being denied.

“That constitutes a public police escort? Not only is that embarrassing for our members but it is a waste of taxpayer resources,” she said.

Ackerman added that if trustees had personal feelings about CSEA members, they should talk about them in executive session and not in public. She addressed the social media outcry about the issue and said she printed out “the text messages that are in question so you can see they are not cherry picked.”

Finally, after relinquishing the microphone, she handed printouts of the messages to each village official.