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Town of Niagara adopts employee handbook

by jmaloni
Thu, Nov 20th 2014 11:55 am

by Autumn Evans

It was unusually quiet on the part of the public at the Town of Niagara's regular Town Board meeting, held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18.

No residents offered comments during the public hearing regarding a local law about administrative fees for unpaid bills against a property, which passed unanimously. Residents also had no comments during privilege of the floor.

The board, meanwhile, adopted the town's first employee handbook, drafted by Deputy Supervisor/Town Clerk Sylvia Virtuoso.

"We've never had any kind of rights, wrongs, rules or regulations," Virtuoso said. "Most people do. ... Whenever the office of the state comptroller, the attorney general's office came in, they always asked first thing where our employee handbook was."

She said the town has been denied three quotes from municipal insurance agencies because it didn't have a handbook.

"This has been something ongoing since I've been on the board, that I was looking and hoping that we could get finally in place to help protect the town and protect the employees," said Councilman Charles Teixeira, a board member for eight years. "It seems trivial to the people sitting out here, but it was a huge accomplishment to get done, and I think it's very fair to the employees and the town."

In other Town Board news:

•The board approved the appointment of Nickolas Cofield as a part-time police officer.

"He's a wonderful gentleman," Teixeira said. "I hope you all get to meet him - but not in the patrol car."

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