SARANAC LAKE — The village board will vote today on resolutions that would shift the power of development code enforcement in the village from a code enforcement officer to the community development director.

One resolution on the agenda would eliminate Development Code Administrator Paul Blaine’s position, which the village created in 2017, and put the money from his salary toward salaries for other employees. The other resolution would shift Blaine’s duties — including administrative approval of project applications — to Community Development Director Jamie Konkoski.

“This is 100% a budgetary decision,” village Mayor Jimmy Williams said. “This is definitely not a firing.”

He said with salary and benefits, Blaine’s position costs $74,000 per year.

The resolution also calls for $15,000 in increased wages and licensing compensation for Department of Public Works staff.

Williams said the DPW is down six employees right now, an issue he said is caused by inadequate compensation.

Blaine said he believes there’s information the village board doesn’t have that shows his position is needed. He said he’s been looking forward to working with the housing task force — which the village board is set to vote on establishing today — and on the issue of short-term vacation rental regulation.

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Blaine: Resolution “disappointing”

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Blaine said he found out about the resolution on Thursday and he called it “disappointing.”

“It’s concerning,” he said. “I would have hoped that there would have been some discussion with me previous to this to give me some notice. It’s always hard to lose employment.”

In his campaign, Williams said there was a need for improvement in the code enforcement office.

He personally had conflicts with the code department before. He raised concerns about Code Enforcement Officer Patrick Giblin in 2019 while attempting to add a deck to Bitters and Bones, a bar he co-owns with his brother Johnny, who is now a Harrietstown town councilman. At the time, the Williams brothers had had to submit 18 redesigns of their plans to the office while applying for a building permit, almost doubling the expected cost of the deck.

Blaine feels village board members got information from other sources, made up their minds about the decision and didn’t hear his side.

“I think there’s a lot of misinformation that was put out during the campaign,” Blaine said. “Yes, there’s people that were very upset. When you’re doing enforcement, it becomes personal.”

But he sees this as misplaced animosity that should be directed at the code he was enforcing.

“I think it was very restrictive,” he said. “I thought it was not sized right for the village. That was my opinion.”

When he was was recruited to the position, he came in at the same time a brand-new code was approved by the village.

The issue with the code, he said, was a change in what “material change” meant. The previous code had left it vague — a 50% change would trigger development board review of a project. The new code got as restrictive as a 5% change triggering review, he said.

“People, I think, really resented having that level of review of their projects,” Blaine said.

It also created a lot of work for him. Blaine said he was never criticized for his job performance by the prior village administration and members of that administration had said his department needed more staff. He thinks if the new village leaders had issues with his job, they should have come to him to see if there could be changes.

Last summer, the village did make some changes, giving Blaine more discretion to approve projects through administrative review, avoiding a full public hearing process and review by the full Development Board.

Blaine said this change improved things. He said more amendments may come with more improvements, and he wants to be there to see it. If not, he said he wishes the village well and believes its code is “heading in the right direction.”

Williams said the village tried something new in 2017. It hasn’t worked like how they thought it would, he said, so he believes the village should try something new again.

Earlier this month, Jeremy Evans, who used to be the village community development director, wrote a guest commentary in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise in which he said he believed there are changes needed in the code and its administration.

“The entire arrangement is a misallocation of resources and has contributed to poor outcomes and countless negative interactions between the village and the public,” Evans wrote.

He chalked the problems up to the system more than the individuals, but said “we should never excuse poor performance or inappropriate behavior.”

He said the code “was not like typical zoning laws.”

In his commentary, Evans suggested keeping all positions, hiring a new planner and divvying up the duties more evenly.

While Williams is not proposing exactly what Evans suggested, he said the process of changing the code department will be an ongoing one.

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Union

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Blaine recently joined the Teamsters Local 687, the union representing village employees. This would not stop his position from being eliminated.

Members of the public who have had disagreements and complaints about Blaine’s decisions as a code officer opposed the board approving his joining of the union and asked the former village board to table the vote.

Williams asked the board to table this vote, too.

Former Mayor Clyde Rabideau said the village had to approve the request, because to not, would likely require an expensive legal process.

Blaine said he had heard rumors during the campaign that Williams might eliminate his position, but didn’t pay them much mind.

He said the timing of him joining the Teamsters was coincidental with the election results. He said he just found out he was able to join the union and wanted to join.

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What would happen if approved?

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Blaine was given more power this last summer to have more power to approve or deny projects before they arrived at the development board through administrative approval — this duty would fall to Konkoski now.

She would be responsible for conducting initial review of all applications, issuing certifications and enforcing code.

Williams said Konkoski is “motivated and energetic.”

Konkoski declined to comment for this article until the village takes a vote on the resolutions.

Village Administrative Assistant Cassandra Hopkins currently splits her time between Konkoski and Blaine. If these changes are passed, she would just work with Konkoski.

Stender said Konkoski and Hopkins would want more help and compensation to take on these extra duties.

He said there will likely be “growing pains” with this change, but believes it will be for the better.

The village board meets tonight at 5:30 p.m.