Mamaroneck board, faced with lawsuit, sets public vote on village manager contract

A Mamaroneck whistleblower filed suit in June to invalidate a $1 million contract extension for Village Manager Jerry Barberio, arguing that the village board's approval in private of the four-year deal violated the state Open Meetings Law.

Citing a Tax Watch investigation into the backroom deal, Suzanne McCrory asked state Supreme Court to annul the contract, which set Barberio’s annual pay at $243,700 in 2023, making him Westchester's highest paid village administrator. By 2026, Barberio's pay would rise to $273,000.

On Friday, less than two hours after Tax Watch called Mayor Tom Murphy for comment on the lawsuit, the contract was put on the agenda for reauthorization in a public vote on Monday.

“We want to remove any doubt, now that a lawsuit has been filed,” said Village Attorney Robert Spolzino, the former state appeals court justice, who maintained the village had acted properly when it voted for Barberio's contract behind closed doors in March.

The resolution before the Village Board would authorize the mayor − both on March 3 and now − to execute the Village Manager’s Executive Retention Agreement as discussed and voted upon in private on March 3, 2023.

McCrory said the Friday morning phone call from Tax Watch appeared to have turned the tide.

“I think you played quite a strong hand in this,” she said. “They know you are on to them.”

Last Tuesday, a Tax Watch column found that the Mamaroneck Board of Education had recently violated the Open Meetings Law. It occurred when a quorum of the board met privately on June 29 with Mayor Murphy in his office to discuss the school district’s consideration of a gift of land at Hommocks Middle School by the Hampshire Country Club developer.

The Open Meetings Law requires open meetings if a quorum of a public board meets to discuss public business. The school board president acknowledged that four of seven board members attended the meeting with Murphy. She said that the board did not intend to violate the law.

Mamaroneck whistleblower files suit

McCrory filed the lawsuit in June, four months after the Village Board ratified Barbario’s four-year contract extension behind closed doors on March 3.

“It’s hard to get things to change in Mamaroneck,” said McCrory, a retired auditor with the U.S. Government Accountability Office. “Village officials are more comfortable in the back room than in the public eye. It’s expensive to challenge them, but there’s no personal cost for them to do it wrong.”

More: Mamaroneck doubles down on backroom vote for manager's $1M contract package. Here's why

McCrory also filed a case in February, challenging the village building department’s approval of two dwellings in a single family residential zone in the posh Orienta neighborhood.

In 2021, she and Mamaroneck resident Stuart Tiekert prevailed in the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in a landmark ruling, which found that members of the public have standing to challenge Open Meetings Law violations, which have been a problem in the village for many years. The appeals panel found in their favor, then awarded them $2,728 in costs they incurred to bring the appeal.

Into the backroom on March 3

This Barberio contract case involves a March 3 “emergency” meeting of the village board, which was called to address recent outbursts by the village manager, who at the time was involved in negotiations over a contract extension.

Days earlier, Barberio had dashed off an intemperate late-night email to many town officials and volunteers, complaining about the negotiating tactics of the village board, and withdrawing himself from consideration for a contract extension.

At the meeting, the village board went into an executive session, which excludes the public. Under the state Open Meetings Law, executive sessions can be used to discuss the employment history of an individual and matters leading to the appointment, employment, dismissal or suspension of someone in the village manager’s office.

More: Mamaroneck schools enter fray over Hampshire Country Club housing plan opposed by village

McCrory was among a throng that waited until the private meeting was concluded. They were stunned to learn in an announcement from Murphy that the board had approved Barbario’s $1 million extension behind closed doors.

Both Spolzino and Murphy maintain that approving employment contracts behind closed doors is allowed under New York’s Open Meetings Law. Spolzino argues that authorizing a contract is not the kind of "appropriation" that requires a public vote.

But Kristin O’Neill, assistant director of New York Committee on Open Government, said the state’s Open Meetings Law requires that public boards approve the expenditure of public funds at public meetings.

“If you are going to vote to expend public monies, the vote has to occur in public,” she said.

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David McKay Wilson writes about tax issues and government accountability. Follow him on Twitter @davidmckay415 or email him at dwilson3@lohud.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Mamaroneck board to hold public vote on $1M village manager contract