The Lloyd Town Board’s Wednesday night meeting was called off after several members didn’t show up, leaving the board without the quorum it needed to conduct business. Councilman Mike Petty says he was among those who stayed home, and he’s pointing to a chilling comment posted on Facebook days earlier: “Execute em and pick new.”
Petty told the Times Union he notified fellow board members Wednesday morning that he would not attend that night’s meeting because he did not feel safe, a decision he says was separate from, and not coordinated with, whatever kept other members away. According to syracuse.com, Petty was not involved in the actual decision to cancel the meeting and said he does not know why his colleagues chose not to attend.
A Comment Buried Under a Facebook Post
The remark that rattled Petty appeared beneath a Facebook post criticizing him along with Town Supervisor Stuart Weiss and Mike Guerriero. Per the same account, that post was written by the wife of Lloyd Police Chief James Janso and accused the three men of talking over residents and disrespecting female town officials during their conduct at the Oct. 21 Town Board meeting. Someone commenting underneath it wrote, “Execute em and pick new,” a line that had apparently been deleted by the time it was reported on.
Petty said a constituent alerted him to the comment the Monday night before the meeting. He said he reported it to State Police and feared for his family’s safety, telling the outlet his absence came down to one thing: “The fact of the matter is, I didn’t feel safe.” A State Police spokesman, however, told the Times Union the agency had no record of a complaint or incident report involving threats against Lloyd Town Board members.
Budget Fight Simmers in the Background
The Oct. 21 meeting that preceded the online blowup wasn’t just about decorum. It also included criticism of a proposed raise for Weiss, who currently earns $42,000 annually and could see an increase of nearly $20,000, a bump of roughly 47 percent. Petty rejected any speculation that the budget controversy, rather than safety concerns, was behind the board losing its quorum.
The dispute over Janso’s conduct isn’t the town’s first brush with controversy involving the police chief. Back in May, the Daily Freeman reported on an anonymous complaint over Janso’s social-media photos, with Councilwoman Lacy Maffei saying the board had taken no official action in response at the time.
What the Town’s Rules Say About Meeting Changes
Lloyd’s own code sets out procedures for handling meetings like the one that got scrapped. Under the Town of Lloyd’s Open Meetings chapter, the Town Clerk is required to post notice at least 72 hours before a meeting scheduled a week or more out and to notify the official town newspaper. When a meeting’s time, date or location changes, the clerk or secretary must post a new notice reflecting that change and alert the media. The same chapter also allows town board members to participate remotely via videoconferencing, in line with state Public Officers Law and the town’s own videoconferencing policy.
Lloyd sits in eastern Ulster County along the Hudson River, across from Poughkeepsie. For now, the fallout from Wednesday’s canceled meeting leaves open questions about when the board will next convene and whether the tension among its members over both the Facebook comment and the supervisor’s pay will ease before then.
