The Montgomery Town Board recently announced that they’re considering the discussion of increasing the town supervisor’s term from two years to four.

While they don’t have the authority to make this change on their own, they are considering putting up a new local law for referendum, meaning if the law is passed, voters would decide in the upcoming November election if they want the change. However, the change would begin in 2025 and the winner of the upcoming election would not be affected.

“Just so we’re clear, this local law, if it’s adopted by the town board, does not expand the term to four years. It places it on the November general election ballot for the entire township’s residents to vote yes or no on the question,” said Town Attorney William Frank.

This idea was originally announced a few weeks ago when Town Supervisor Ron Feller stated that they were going to hold a public hearing on it. The idea will also go into public hearing for the Town of Crawford this week.

Feller, who will not be running again in November, stated his thoughts on it at the last board meeting.

“I’ve heard comments on both sides. I personally have been in this position for six months and I personally feel it would be good to be a four year term because [after] whatever you’re doing one year, the next year you’re campaigning again if you’re a campaigner. It’s the way to go,” Feller said.

Feller was not present at the public hearing last Tuesday, but nonetheless, many members of the public confronted the board with many questions. Residents asked where this idea came from, provided thoughts about creating a supervisor job description, asked about creating a term limit, and more.

Don Berger, Co-Chair of Residents Protecting Montgomery, stated he was neither for or against a four-year term, but wanted to get a better grasp of the board’s intentions.

“It’s very hard to expect the public to vote on something when we don’t actually know, other than four years, what the whole thing will look like,” Berger said. “I’m wondering if the board has done any research on this. Within Orange County, there are only three townships with four year terms, all the rest are two year terms. I’d have to ask, ‘Why do you think that is?’”

Village of Walden Trustee Becky Pearson also participated in the public hearing, making it clear she wasn’t for a term extension.

“I am not for four-year terms, and I believe running should be a right of every two years for a supervisor. I think, as Don said, that you have people that come in and maybe they’re not right for the position [or] maybe they’re not doing a good job, and you’re gonna have them for four years. You can’t get rid of them. They’re here. The structure doesn’t give you any way to get them out besides voting them out,” said Pearson.

Many residents shared this concern, afraid that four years is too long for a supervisor that could potentially not be a good fit. Sylvie Rainaldi, a Montgomery resident and Town of Montgomery Ambulance Community Trustee/Executive Board member, piggybacked this, sharing a list of questions she thought should be answered before considering putting this on a ballot.

“Saying something like letting the voters decide doesn’t really absolve you of doing the homework to make sure that you and everyone else understand the impact that this would have on the town,” said Rainaldi, who then provided the board with a packet called the “Due diligence checklist.”

Some of the things that Rainaldi included in the list were encouraging the board to review other towns in the county who have changed the term to four years, as well as researching if any have completed this process recently. She also asked what the reasonable expectations would be of the supervisor, as well as the process if the supervisor stops showing up for work.

“These are questions that have to be answered prior to voting on whether this should go into a referendum, because I would like to know, as a voter, exactly whether this should even be voted on. I feel like in the last meeting, when I watched it, that discussion just absolutely did not happen on the town board,” Rainaldi mentioned.

There were more comments from others, including Co-Chair for the Montgomery Democratic Committee and resident Karina Tipton, who brought up the supervisor’s salary.

“The supervisor is a highly compensated individual, and if we elect a highly compensated yet underperforming individual, what is our recourse?” asked Tipton.

The town board opted to keep the public hearing open with written comments being accepted until August 1.

“There’ll be a special meeting. If the board’s gonna go forward with this measure, the public hearing will be continued,” said Frank.