The village of Fredonia’s government is apparently in the market for some new legal representation.

The village Board of Trustees resolved Tuesday to put out a Request for Proposals for legal counsel. The trustees voted, 4-0, to ask village Treasurer Erlyssa LeBeau to prepare the request. (Trustee Nicole Siracuse was absent.)

The village’s current attorneys of record are the Webster Szanyi law firm of Buffalo. However, Fredonia’s website showed a blank space Wednesday under the village attorney heading, on the page listing officials.

The OBSERVER asked Trustee Jon Espersen about the situation, while noting the website. “They are still village attorneys,” he said of Webster Szanyi.

That won’t stop Village Hall from shopping around. Trustees, including Espersen, have expressed frustration in the past that the village has been unable to find a local attorney. Its last Chautauqua County-based one was Daniel Gard in 2020. Webster Szanyi took over the following year.

The firm wound up charging in 2021 more than triple what Gard did for the previous year. Then-Mayor Douglas Essek defended it by saying Webster Szanyi had far more work in 2021 than Gard did in 2020.

The firm asked Fredonia for a pay hike in 2024. That apparently never came to fruition.