At the last North Hempstead Town Board meeting, the item on the calendar, reserved from the Jan. 27 meeting, was listed merely as Resolution No. 511-1997.

Supervisor May Newburger explained, "This resolution is purely semantic, I hope everyone understands that. It does not change the status of the job in question, that line was eliminated in the town budget. When the town voted for the budget last November that line in the town parks budget was eliminated."

The position in question is that of 12-year employee Urte Schaedle as horticulturist/beekeeper at Clark Botanic Garden, located on I. U. Willets Road, Albertson.

Newburger continued, "The original town board voted for the original resolution. The unfortunate part of that resolution is that there was an incorrect written title. The civil service commission asks that we correct the title and that is all this does. It neither creates, nor abolishes a job."

Sy Berman, of New Hyde Park, came to the microphone, "I am a volunteer at Clark Gardens. I have been agonizing over this ever since that first meeting and I come up here very angry and disgusted with the situation that is in place at Clark Botanical Gardens. I label myself a professional volunteer, because I volunteer in so many different places. I do it because it is very gratifying and also find it wonderful to work in a place that has a harmonious atmosphere between staff and volunteers."

Berman continued, "Suddenly, the situation has changed at Clark, which is very disturbing, not only to me, but to the other volunteers. It is because two what I consider Johnny Come Lately's who are what I consider not totally qualified and they have voiced a strong opinion on Urte Schaedle ."

Newburger broke in, "Mr. Berman if we ever voiced an opinion that is one thing, but that is not the reason for this line being eliminated. The reason was that we don't need a beekeeper. What we need is laborers outside. That is what was expressed to me by the department."

Berman said, "Madam supervisor, I understand, but that was influenced without a doubt by these two voices."

Newburger asked who were the two voices and Berman replied, "I don't want to mention names. I don't have to review Urte Schaedle's capabilities and what she has done for the gardens. In fact, that was why we are here. If there is a change, it can only be disastrous, because you have already brought in, unqualified people, who cannot take care of the bees and that is the highlight of Clark Botanical Garden when I give tours."

Newburger said, "I think it was unfortunate that this was tabled because it makes no difference one way or another in that situation of the job. There is a lot of strongly expressed interest in Mrs. Schaedle remaining with Clark Gardens. We have looked at a number of ways in which we could achieve that. We have not yet resolved that. But this resolution does not address that."

She continued, "Since last November this position has been eliminated."

Berman, "But there were two other people brought in for something and one is supposed to be a horticulturist."

Newburger said, "They are laborers."

The crowd yelled out, they are not laborers.

She asked for Commissioner Gerard Olsen, but he had left.

Newburger said, "Nobody was hired for Mrs. Schaedle's job as a beekeeper or horticulturist. Anybody hired was as a laborer. That is the situation. We are looking at Mrs. Schaedle and if there is another way to resolve this we will perhaps consider it. I have to stand by what a commissioner asks in terms of his needs for workers. When we designed our budget, this is what we were asked. We were asked to make it possible for the parks commissioner to have more laborers for outside. His feeling was that this position as beekeeper was not essential to the garden, whatever your view. So we said okay, we will eliminate this line and then you may be able to hire another laborer that you need for outside work."

Berman, "Let me make one final statement. I feel that Clark Botanic Gardens will just go to the dogs if Mrs. Schaedle's position is terminated, because she holds it together with all of her functions and that is what keeps the gardens going."

Newburger said, "What you are saying is that it is important to the gardens that Mrs. Schaedle be there in whatever capacity, because that position is gone."

Ed Valentine, president of North Hempstead CSEA said, "On behalf of Urte, I would like the board to take into consideration the reappointment of Urte to Clark Gardens. Obviously, since this came up, we may not have been aware of it before, we learned alot. I would like the board to seriously consider putting Urte back on the payroll."

Douglas Schlaefer then asked Councilwoman Doreen Banks, "Mrs. Banks on Dec. 16, when this resolution was first introduced, did you knowingly and willingly vote, at that time, to dismiss a union employee?"

Banks said, "Truthfully, I did not know it was. My staffer was told that it was an empty line."

Newburger said, "I don't think that was correct. What was told that nobody would be put into that line that we were eliminating that line."

Banks said, "Unfortunately, my staffer is not here tonight and that very well may be. I can't check."

Councilman Angelo Ferrara said, "I can tell you that I was told that nobody was in that position. All I was told that it was changing title."

Newburger said, "No, we did not say that."

Councilman James O'Connor said, "Well, everybody's statements are in the minutes and I have the minutes right here."

Newburger said, "That vote was made in December."

Banks said, "When it comes time to vote I will explain why."

Newburger said, "I can't promise, but we are looking at any other possibility to deal with the situation."

Another volunteer woman said, "I don't understand eliminating a position that Urte has in order to replace the salary of laborer. Look at us, what do you think we are? What do you think we do because Urte is there. We spend early December and late November spreading compost. We plant, we weed, we dead head. I don't understand. If you lose us as laborers to replace them with one individual's salary, again, this is a false economy. And, when we left, two weeks ago, the last thing you said was that knowing she was out of work there would be a very quick resolution of whether or not she could be returned. My understanding was that she would hear from somebody in a very brief period of time. All of these weeks have passed and she is still out of work and she has not heard from anybody."

Newburger said, "I understand. I don't believe in coming to somebody unless we have something and we have been exploring various alternate possibilities and we hope to do it as quickly as we can. I am fully aware of what you are saying. We have gone through this a number of times."

Councilman James O'Connor said, "I have received many letters and I offer them for the record."

Florence Horton, of New Hyde Park, "I wrote a letter as a personal letter and I hope you consider Urte for Clark Garden. She needs to be where she can accomplish something."

The labor representative of the Civil Service said, "Ms. Schaedle is a valued employee of Clark Gardens and it is my understanding that some of the members of this board were not aware that this line was not vacant, when they voted to eliminate it which is an unfortunate circumstance because as a result of that someone lost a job. She needs her job."

Newburger said, "I want to say we did our budget with concern for the commissioner and his needs for a laborer."

Newburger offered the resolution and called for the vote. Councilwoman Banks said, when called, "I'd like to say a couple of things. Obviously, Urte developed a great reputation as a volunteer coordinator. I applaud her for that. The town really appreciates volunteer efforts at Clark. We don't have a volunteer coordinator anywhere else in the town. I also feel she offers a valuable service to the town as a beekeeper. I have been to Clark Gardens and it is a very unusual feature of Clark Gardens. I think it is something we should hold on to. Having said that I have to respect Commissioner Olsen's opinion that it may not be a full time position. Therefore, I vote no, not to abolish this position."

Supervisor Newburger said, "The title has been abolished. It was abolished in the budget. This resolution merely corrects the words. If you want to make that statement it is incorrect."

Councilman Ferrara said, "First of all, I have to apologize to Urte because evidently people didn't take time to realize that when you abolish a line item, you abolish a body. I think if time had been taken, they could have spent that time to find a home and I think that is one of the reasons why we should not make rash decisions. We have a responsibility to the taxpayers and to our employees to make sure they are treated fairly. I apologize and I vote no."

Councilman O'Connor said, "I realize this is a technical resolution, but I don't think we should go forward until we have corrected the Urte situation, so I vote no."

Both Supervisor Newburger and Councilman Anthony D'Urso both voted yes on the semantics of the resolution.