The evening of 2026-02-09 was a meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
During the Communications portion of the Agenda I had the thought, Joe (Supervisor) is not the best at working through the Agenda. To be fair, he is relatively new in this role. While it was long enough back my memory has faded somewhat, I do recall the previous Supervisor having to improve his meeting management skills when he started in the role. Why would the current Supervisor be any different? And this does highlight how this role requires a number of skills. If running meetings is Joe’s worst skill, it could all work out fine. It it’s his best skill… Time will tell, it always does.
Pete (Highway) made a comment about employee health insurance making it challenging to hire/retain good employees. As in, the Town covering a higher portion and/or offering better coverage would be beneficial. He might be right, I offer no opinion on that. But the way it was presented reminded me of an article I had read recently. This article made the argument that the current health insurance mess traces it’s roots to wage freezes during World War 2 (for those of you who forgot history, that’s the one were America saved the world by defeating national socialism). To compensate, employers increased insurance coverage to their staff. One of those interesting theories that sounds plausible enough. And is consistent with government meddling making things worse.
The Community Engagement Advisory Committee (CEAC) authorizing resolution was amended. Which seemed straightforward enough, I have no issue with those amendments. What stood out to me was a comment made during the discussion. Which was the idea that the CEAC would take this ‘draft’ authorization and finalize it. In other words, the CEAC is expected to create their own establishing document. Recursion can be very useful, and powerful. But in bureaucracy? So long as the Town Board is required for approval, hopefully it will work out.
Sign regulations were tabled. Tom (Board Member) and Corey (CEO) are reviewing. Then sending to legal for another review. Then coming to this Board for discussion and, perhaps, approval. While Tom said he would be quick, I’d be surprised if this made it to next month’s meeting. Perhaps the one after it.
The process of reviewing the Employee Handbook was started. In particular, by looking at the Code of Ethics. As Joe said, start with something small. Which led to an interesting discussion that only highlights the need for this review. If I managed to follow, there are apparently three different Code of Ethics in effect, depending on what part of the Town you are associated with. And it was uncertain if any of those were the most recent one approved by the Town Board. So yes, reviewing is prudent. I’ve give the Board credit for getting this started. And hope they have the perseverance to see it through to the end.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the February 09, 2026 meeting of the Mendon Town Board.