Freeport
Village News

On February 26th, in Mayor Glacken’s absence, Deputy Mayor Frierson rocketed through Monday’s village agenda in ten minutes, while as usual, the real business of the meeting happened after everyone went home. The meeting room in village hall continues to be the largest echo chamber in Freeport, making most speaker's remarks unintelligible. Glacken’s three year old unfulfilled promise to remedy the poor acoustics has many saying that he never intended to do it in the first place.

After spending forty-five minutes in the back room for a claimed discussion of seven personnel matters and 2 litigation matters, the board reentered the conference room for what Glacken has named the second session.

Frierson didn’t begin speaking until she got the nod from mob/village attorney Edwards. Most of what Frierson said was unintelligible, as she mumbled her way through what appeared to be five items. In an unsuccessful effort to report on the second session, your reporter spent time listening to the audio tape of that session. After thirty minutes of straining to make sense of Frierson's mumbles and whispers, your reporter gave up.

New York State's Director of Open Government, Robert Freeman, is regarded as the authority on the Open Meetings Law. On the subject of the public's ability to hear its officials transacting governmental business, he has stated, "It is clear in my view that public bodies must conduct meetings in a manner that guarantees the public the ability to "be fully aware of" and "listen to" the deliberative process." Frierson, who is also Nassau County's Commissioner of Human Rights, apparently doesn't agree.