The Village of Manorhaven recently confirmed they hosted a meeting on Wednesday, July 31, that wasn’t publicized on its website.
According to state Open Meeting Laws, public bodies such as cities, counties, towns, villages and school districts must provide public notice of the time and place of a meeting scheduled at least one week prior or electronically transmitted to the news media and shall be conspicuously posted in one or more designated public locations at least seventy-two hours before such a meeting.
Village Mayor John Popeleski said the meeting held on July 31 because “we were doing interviews for the clerk.”
During the Village of Manorhaven’s Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 28, Popeleski introduced the village’s new clerk, John Hommel.
“When it comes to personnel, it’s always discussed in an executive session,” said Popeleski. “You have to post it as a public meeting, but the agenda goes into executive session, and we don’t give out the minutes to executive sessions.”
Popeleski said he can’t control the village’s current website to post notices for things such as the meeting on July 31.
He said a new, more user-friendly village website is currently in the planning stages.
Popeleski said that he has been looking at other government and organization websites for inspiration and is currently working with a website designer.
“There’ll be calendars on the bottom and it’ll have what all the meetings are for and when they are scheduled,” said Popeleski. “It will have drop-down menus, so it’ll be easier to find the agendas and minutes.”
During the Board of Trustees meeting, residents raised concerns about flooding issues and noise ordinances.
“Since we’re in the process of redesigning our website, I will talk to the designers, and we can include this information on the website,” said Popeleski. “I have a resident who’s spearheading boater safety. That means working with the Coast Guard and the town to do boater safety courses. And we’re incorporating that into our website, being that we are a village surrounded by water.”
Popeleski said he wants community resources, notices and events to be visible on the homepage.
“A lot of things that are actually buried in our website that you have to hunt for. The new website is going to be totally different,” he said.
Popeleski said he hopes the website will be up and running by November.
