The Jamestown City Council during it’s June 2018 voting session.
JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council will be holding its monthly voting session Monday night at City Hall.
Among the items on the agenda is assigning three school resource officers to work at Jamestown Public Schools during the 2018-19 school year, along with approving the sale of a piece of property owned by Jamestown Community College.
However, absent from the agenda is the appointment of a person to fill a long-vacant city constable position.
For the past several months a group of landlords in the city have asked the mayor to fill a vacancy in it three constable positions. The city charter says there shall be three constables appointed by the mayor but currently only two individuals are on the list.
“I would call upon the mayor to fill that position in accordance with the code, because currently the city is in violation of its own code, which says ‘there SHALL be three constables.’ It does not say ‘there may be’ or ‘should be’ three constables, but it says ‘shall.’ So I look to you to carry out that and provide us with a third constable so that we can continue to serve the city and keep properties up to par by getting rid of tenants who are creating problems,” local attorney Charles Hall said during the council’s June voting session.
Hall and some landlords within the city say the constables are needed because landlords in the city will often need to serve papers to tenants and the two current constables — Camille Krawczyk and Marie Hill — are unable to keep pace with the number of notices needed to be served.
Real Estate Investors Association of Jamestown president Harold Whitford during the city council’s June voting session. Whitford returned to the council in July to get an update on the constable situation.
Last month, after the call for a new constable was once again brought forward to the council, Mayor Sam Teresi explained that since the discussion about constables came forward, two other individuals had also submitted applications. Teresi said his plan was to review and vet all applications and come forward with an update on the process during the council’s August 20 work session. No public discussion on the matter took place during that meeting, although the city council did go into executive session to discuss personnel matters.
When the agenda for the August voting session was posted last week on the city website and also sent out to local media, there was no item that includes action involving the appointment of a new constable. However, that issue could be added under “new business” prior to the start of Monday’s meeting.
The city council will act on an agreement to assign three police officers to the Jamestown Public Schools as school resource officers. Under the agreement, which is similar to past years, the JPD would place an officer inside Jamestown High School, at the Tech Academy on Fourth Street, and also have one officer rotating between the three junior high schools. The salaries would be paid by the Jamestown Public Schools.
The Jamestown City Council will also be voting to approve the sale of 37.5 acres of land JCCC owns at 2835 Curtis St. Extension in the town of Ellicott. JCC officials are selling the property for no less than $285,000. As one of the college’s community partners, along with Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, city officials need to approve the sale.
The city council will meet at 7 p.m. Monday in the mayor’s conference room to finalize the voting session, with the actual voting session to begin at 7:30 p.m. both meetings are open to the public.
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