By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- The village trustees were split on a resolution to remove the board’s personnel committee from deciding what applicants for village jobs get interviews.

The change passed after Mayor Tim Currier passed a tie-breaking vote in favor. Trustees Albert Deshaies and Francis Carvel, who make up the personnel committee, voted against the measure. Trustee Tim Ahlfeld and Deputy Mayor Matt Lebire voted in favor.

Despite the split vote, all village board members who argued their cases prior to the decision essentially made the same argument. They felt their method would produce the most unbiased slate of candidates.

The change only affects non-competitive positions, meaning the Civil Service process does not govern who gets the job. Under the old system, the personnel committee would review all applications and give five candidates back to the department heads for interviews.

The new law has the department heads and “chosen management personnel” picking the five candidates. They give the names to the board’s personnel committee, who approve the choices. The Board of Trustees will resolve any disagreements, the resolution says. The personnel committee will still sit in on interviews.

Carvel said he believes that all village hires are inherently political, so elected officials should play a significant role in the process.

“There’s only going to be politics in it, so let the politicians do it,” he said, later adding that the best way to keep politics would be to “take everything and give it to some guy in Canton and let them decide.”

Deshaies started his argument agreeing with Carvel, but later changed his stance and said he backed the new law, despite voting against it.

“I agree with Francis,” he said, pointing to an incident in the past where a former mayor controversially hired a relative for a village job. He said that led to the creation of the personnel committee, with a Democrat member and a Republican member.

“I was appointed as a Democrat and Tricia Wilson was appointed as a Republican,” Deshaies said. Wilson was voted off the board and replaced by Lebire in 2014.

“I have no problem with it. You people want to do it, go ahead,” Deshaies said.

Lebire and Currier both said they felt the need to pull politicians back a bit from the hiring process.

“I don’t think elected officials should be selecting applicants. They should be more of an oversight,” Lebire said. “I would be very much in favor of this change.”

Currier said he supports the trustees staying involved with actual interviews.

“I think it’s a great idea that trustees sit in on interviews to make sure they’re fair … to make sure we’re treating everybody he same so when name comes forward we can say ‘it was done the same way,’” he said. “It’s not a reflection of the job the personnel committee is doing.”

Currier also said he hopes for the new law to make the interview process more consistent, which Carvel said has not been the case.

“The hiring process seems to be inconsistent with departments,” Currier said.

“Herb and I sit in on these interviews and some of the things that go on, some of the questions that are asked, I scratch my head … nothing’s consistent,” Carvel said.

Currier said the discussion was prompted by a previous executive session where they were discussing the employment of a specific employee. The conversation started to turn to the hiring process itself, and the mayor said he wanted to bring that into an open discussion to stay within the bounds of the state Open Meetings Law. It allows a board to discuss employment of specific people behind closed doors, but discussions of specific hiring policies must be discussed in open session.

“I know we kicked it around, talked about it in executive session,” Currier said. "That's what led to the discussion last night."