Mayor Michael Peragine surprised residents at the second public hearing about making four year terms for elected officials. He wanted the board to cancel the vote, as critics challenged his estimate of the cost of elections that prompted the issue.

He said initially, his board had made promises to be good stewards of the village tax dollars, and when they looked at the line item in the budget for cost of elections, they came up with one method of eliminating the "enormous cost." That was, he said, to change the term of office.

Keeping in line with their stated policy of open government, he said, they held public hearings on the issue. "We as a board thought we had a right to take a vote and create four year terms, make it a law and let the voters challenge it." He said they realized it was a hard job to do, collecting the signatures, and opted instead for the public hearing.

He said the result of the hearing and his talking to residents, "It is clear to me there is not a consensus. There is not a strong enough majority to act upon it." He said they see the merit of four year terms, but also have heard strong arguments on both sides of the issues.

"I would like to recommend that the motion to extend the term to four years be voted down." He asked the board to give their opinions.

Trustee George O'Neill commented that the information on the four year term had been "piecemeal and inadequate." He said he had been informed that the Mayor's contention that to create the four year term and a biannual election needed a five year term was wrong, that he had been informed it could be done with a three or four year term. He added that if there were to be four year terms, there had to be term limits.

Mr. O'Neill also called the cost of elections quoted by the mayor at the last meeting as inaccurate. Mr. Peragine had said it cost $50,000 for two elections and about $70,000 was also given as a total. Mr. O'Neill said he had requested the village clerk, Donna Harris, to do research and provide the figures. He read off the correct numbers.

Year	Total Cost	Legal Fees
1994	$1,326	$641
1995	1,997	1,376
1996	1,275	693
1997	24,750	21,000
1998	6,402	4,562

Mr. O'Neill said the last election cost was .003 of the annual village budget of $2,200,000. He said the cost of elections was not too high, nor onerous and he wasn't in favor of changing the length of office.

He explained that in 1997, there was a contested election with write-in candidates. It created "quite tricky" legal issues that had not risen before in the village.

Trustee Tom Fitzsimmons said he was a proponent of the four year term based on the cost of elections being tens and tens of thousands of dollars and said the figures showed that it did indeed take tens of thousands of dollars.

He said there were other fees to include such as renting the machines and the police overtime. (Later, Rosemary Bourne said the figures did include the extras.) The last few elections were a ten-fold increase, he said.

But, he agreed with the mayor, in that because of the outcry from the community, "I reverse my position and vote against this."

Trustee Richard Appell said his idea was never the cost but was efficiency. He said although he agreed not to push the four-year term, he thought it was a mistake, and mentioned that former board member David Clark agreed the longer term was a good idea. "But the people have spoken and I think we should go along with what the people want." He did so reluctantly, adding later, that the proper way was to put it on a referendum. "Most of the people who gave their opinions at the last meeting - I never saw at a meeting before. A lot of people didn't make the meeting."

Trustee Peter Schiff was not present to comment.

The mayor wanted to end the hearing and save the cost of the stenographer, but village attorney Larry Cregan said they had to open the meeting, then close it and then act on the proposed resolution.

Rosemary Bourne said she was delighted, "You have seen the light." She said the numbers Mr. O'Neill quoted included the police costs. She said, in line with the mayor's desire to cut costs, that they didn't need the village attorney at all the meetings.

The mayor said he thought his numbers were correct on the election, but said, "I stand corrected," and added the cost of $30,000 to $50,000 was enough to create the issue.

Resident Scott Greenfield suggested the cost and stress of an election could be lessened if the campaign rhetoric was kept at a palatable level. The mayor said, good naturedly, it would take an hour to respond to his comment.

With that the vote took place and the resolutions were defeated unanimously.