Fredonia resident Bill Burns slammed village officials Monday over their handling of finances.

Bill Burns got heated with Fredonia officials this week, slamming their handling of village finances and drawing a defensive response.

Initially misintroduced as “Mr. Barnes” by Mayor Michael Ferguson, Fredonia resident Burns said he was speaking at a village Board of Trustees meeting “to address the forecasts for next year’s budget.”

Referring to “this last calamity that happened” — evidently the 60% tax increase enacted this year — Burns called for more openness about finances from village officials. He said “the general public, or I should say the resident homeowners of Fredonia, (should) have some idea what’s going to happen. As opposed to just having it sprung on us six weeks before a vote on a tax increase, like last time.”

Burns paused. Ferguson said, “This is your chance to speak, it’s not give and take.”

“I think the public has to be apprised of this,” Burns said.

Ferguson replied, “Our finances are online every month on our website, so there’s a running track record of what’s going on.”

“OK, well, that’s accounting — but there has to be more discourse with the public over this,” Burns shot back. “You think the public is going to sustain another 60% tax increase?”

“That’s not the goal, sir,” said Ferguson. Burns laughed. “That’s not the goal?”

“Well, let’s look at the last 20 years. If you want to have discourse, let’s have discourse,” Ferguson said. Trustees talked over the mayor, reminding him that public comment sessions at board meetings are not intended as “back-and-forths” with officials. Trustee Jon Espersen suggested Burns and Ferguson have a conversation outside the meeting.

“All’s fair in love and war, and I’ll do whatever I have to do to make the public aware of what’s going on,” Burns said. “To me, it’s an abomination what happened a few months ago. It’s just totally irresponsible that there’s no hard decisions being made to curtail this spending.”

He continued, “You could train circus animals to sit on this board, just to look at an accounting sheet and say, ‘Oh, well, we’re short — we just have to raise the taxes.’ Come on! There’s no hard choices being made here.”

Burns went on a bit longer, stating that decisions on parking and water pale in comparison to the village’s overspending. A buzzer went off — marking that Burns hit his allotted three minutes of speaking time.

“We made you the offer to come and talk to us at any time,” Ferguson said seconds later. “I’ll make sure we get your phone number — and it’s been over three minutes.”