Fredonia Village Board members reached their boiling point and yelling ensued during a meeting earlier this week.

Mayor Athanasia Landis and some of the trustees continued their quarrel over the village’s hiring process and a previously tabled resolution that would essentially give board members the option to participate in interviews with applicants. The board ultimately passed the resolution by a 3-2 vote, but not without a scathing condemnation from the mayor.

“You can sue me, really; I don’t see anything wrong with what I’m doing,” Landis stated. “I know that the moment we put something in writing, we can be in violation of the law, and we have to amend the charter before. Before you put anything in writing, amend the charter. We’ve not amended the charter; I don’t want to be in trouble.”

Trustees Marc Ruckman, Phyllis Jones and Douglas Essek voted in favor of the resolution, with Trustees James Lynden and Kara Christina opposed.

“The last time it got tabled, I said I was going to find legal advice and I did and there’s nothing wrong with (how we want to be included in the interviews),” Ruckman told Landis when she asked why the resolution was on the agenda again.

“You can (be part of interviews), but you won’t because it’s up to me to make the committee,” Landis replied. “Actually, the charter is very clear about it: the mayor makes the committees and puts no more than two trustees and I already did that. I don’t even have to put any of the trustees there; if I do make it a requirement, we’re breaking village law.”

Landis shook up the interview process last year by forming a personnel committee consisting of the department head, the village administrator and herself, and justifying it by saying no one on the committee has ultimate voting power to hire someone. After Jones and Ruckman decried the exclusion of the people actually voting on the hires, Landis invited Jones and Lynden to be part of the interviews.

Jones suggested Landis name an alternate trustee who could take the place of either herself or Lynden when one of them cannot make an interview, but Landis shut that idea down, citing a discussion she had with a lawyer from the New York Conference of Mayors.

“I’m not going to have an open meeting for interviews (if three or more trustees want to be in on an interview),” Landis remarked. “I won’t do that.”

Ruckman shot back by saying a special meeting could be called to hold an interview in executive session. Landis then argued that just because something is legal does not make it ethical or practical. Ruckman disagreed, saying it is more ethical to allow trustees to be part of the interviews.

“I’m going to be there,” he told Landis flatly.

“You’re not going to be inside (the interviews),” Landis snapped back.

“We’ll see about that,” Ruckman retorted. “You talk about transparency; I don’t know what the big deal is.”

Landis then accused Ruckman of believing his opinion is more valuable than others.’ She said he showed up to an interview and was the only person out of four to prefer a particular candidate out of two total candidates. After Landis broke her arm and was unable to attend a village board meeting, Ruckman introduced his candidate into a resolution, which ended up passing, according to her.

“That’s why I don’t want you there (at interviews), because you came there, you thought you had more (of an opinion) than everybody else,” Landis asserted. “You want to be there specifically; you don’t trust anybody else, you want to be there and you want to make the hirings. That’s the way I understand it.”

“It’s a matter of opinion,” Ruckman fired back. “Every trustee could object into it — object with the person you wanted or the one I wanted. I had my opinion, just like you did … and it wasn’t anything underhanded; you’re making it sound like I did something underhanded, and you know what? I resent it.”

While voting on the resolution, Lynden said opening interviews up to the trustees undermines the respect for the mayor’s and the department heads’ authority, while Christina noted the resolution describes a protocol that is already in place. Essek backed up his “yes” vote by saying it is more of a transparency issue for him rather than a trust issue.

“I think as a village here, we need to be as transparent as we can,” Essek said. “The hiring process, I think it could be a little more transparent.”

Landis pointed out the personnel committee interviews for entrance-level positions, including laborers and clerks; interviews for department heads are held in executive session with all of the trustees present.