By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – The appointed administrator of the Village of Potsdam said Tuesday the date of his departure from the post has not been decided.

Everett Basford is resigning over his dismay with what he believes are mistakes by members of the Board of Trustees in procedure that can put village government in a bad light.

Basford says there has been no agreement yet on talks for him to stay on the job until July, beyond his original plan to leave at the end of April.

He said that despite reports that an agreement on a July date had been reached, there are still “a couple of conditions” that have yet to be satisfactorily negotiated.

Basford said that Mayor Ron Tischler had been quoted in another media outlet’s story that there was an agreement on his departure from the position, “but I have not had the opportunity to discuss it with the board.”

Basford said that “I assumed that when I came here I was permanent,” in terms of his employment status, but that that was now under challenge.

Basford contends that his decision to resign was prompted when a member of the Board of Trustees gave village staff instructions in the absence of official policy debated and adopted by the board in an open meeting.

“If board members have a discussion and make a decision on a policy or an item” outside of the regular open meeting process, such as when members talk on the phone or through email without an official meeting and a vote on the record, “and that employee is notified of the decision, that is a violation of the Open Meetings Law,” Basford said, without going into specifics.

The mayor, he said, derives authority to direct the administrator through the votes on policies and programs of the board as a whole.

“I take my direction from the mayor, and the staff takes direction from the mayor. The mayor is the executive in the day-to-day operations of the village,” Basford said.

“A trustee’s position is as one of a board. A trustee does not have the power to direct staff,” he said.

“Directions were given to staff that probably should not have been done. And there is a fine line between what should be discussed in a board meeting and what should not be discussed outside.”

Basford was appointed to the Potsdam post in late 2014.

He has been mayor of Heuvelton, and was village administrator in Massena from 2002 to 2011.

Basford holds degrees in accounting and management from SUNY Canton and Clarkson University, and a master’s of business administration from Clarkson.