In figuring out when a resident of the Great Neck Peninsula can get an agenda for a village board meeting, it all depends on where you live.
If Russell Gardens residents want to review board of trustees meeting agendas, they shouldn’t expect them until just hours before the proceedings begin, Village Clerk Christine Blumberg said.
With some area villages working to get meeting agendas out up to a week in advance through a number of resources, Russell Gardens chooses to do it the old fashioned way for residents.
“It’s up to them to find out,” Blumberg said. “If they want the agenda, they can call and ask me for it.”
Blumberg said residents may also stop by village hall and pick up an agenda in person on meeting days.
Asked if it is important for Russell Gardens administrators to produce agendas as far in advance as possible for residents to better decide if they should attend a meeting of interest, Blumberg said no discussion has been made regarding alternative agenda display options for more timely production of agendas, including advance website or bulletin board postings.
“It’s always been our procedure to get it out the day of the meeting,” Blumberg said.
“No matter what,” meeting agendas are available by noon on the day of the trustee meetings at village hall, according to Blumberg who declined a request by Blank Slate Media to have advanced meeting agendas e-mailed to the Great Neck News. She said agendas will be faxed to the newspaper if a request is received on the day of each individual meeting.
Notice is also short for Village of Kings Point residents.
Kings Point, which doesn’t have a village website, offers a limited amount of information to residents and media interested in knowing agenda items in advance.
“Honestly, the agenda isn’t prepared in advance and the material is decided within a day or two of the meeting,” – sometimes the day of the meeting, according to Kings Point Village Clerk Louis Di Domenico.
Di Domenico said residents rarely request advanced agendas, if at all.
“We don’t have people upset in King’s Point. If they were, they would come to the meeting,” Di Domenico said.
Di Domenico said the village posts required announcements in local newspapers, including the Great Neck News.
At meetings, Kings Point provides agendas to anyone who requests one.
According to business experts, meeting agendas are an important part of any meeting, but are often overlooked.
“Most people who skip writing an agenda have no idea what they want to accomplish during their meeting,” says Penelope Trunk, the founder of Brazen Careerist, a career management tool for next-generation professionals.
Unlike Kings Point and Russell Gardens, most villages in the Great Neck area use a variety of outlets to make agendas available in advance for interested residents.
In Great Neck Plaza, agendas are usually produced a week ahead of scheduled trustee meetings, which run twice a month on Wednesdays.
“If not, definitely by Monday,” said Plaza administrator Pat O’Byrne, who posts agendas and announcements to the village website, on signboards, by e-mail and in local newspapers.
“If you’re interested, we are here to tell you what’s going on,” O’Byrne said.
O’Byrne said she understands the importance of agendas to local residents.
“If there’s an item people want to see, they will make time to come to the meetings,” O’Byrne said.
“We want them to be informed,” says Kathleen Santelli, the village administrator in Great Neck Estates. “We do want people to know what is going on.
In Thomaston, which does not have a village website, proposed agendas are prepared at least a week in advance when possible and made available to anyone who requests one, according to Barbara Daniels, the village clerk.
In the Village of Great Neck, the agenda is posted both inside and outside village hall before scheduled meetings which generally fall on the first and third Tuesday of the month. Sometimes they are posted the week prior, sometimes on the week of the meeting, according to Dan Small, an assistant to Great Neck Village Mayor Ralph Kreitzman.
Small said Great Neck Village has a website, but has no plans to post meeting agendas to it.
“It’s another thing we have to do, time is limited,” said Small.
In Kensington, a mailer is sent to residents reminding them of meetings and agendas are done days ahead of trustees meetings.
“We try to get them out one week in advance,” said Arlene Giniger, the Kensington village clerk.
In Lake Success, agendas are ready four to five days before board meetings which usually run one Monday per month, says Village Clerk Carol Pogrell of Lake Success.
“We want time for our board to review what is going to be on it,” said Pogrell, who does not post agendas to the village website.
The Village of Saddle Rock posts meeting information on public access channel 18 through Cablevison and tries to get its agendas out least a week in advance, according to village administrator Donna Perrone.
Saddle Rock does not post agendas to its website.
E-mail comments to Rich Jacques at rjacques@theislandnow.com
