{"id":77213,"date":"2026-07-16T22:30:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T02:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/?p=77213"},"modified":"2026-07-16T22:30:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T02:30:06","slug":"genesee-county-consultant-to-study-potential-le-roy-unification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/16\/genesee-county-consultant-to-study-potential-le-roy-unification\/","title":{"rendered":"GENESEE COUNTY\/Consultant to study potential Le Roy unification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Board members Daniel Vanderhoof, left, and Raymond Yacuzzo discuss the proposal for a consolidation or village dissolution study.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story and photo by Brian Quinn <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The village of Le Roy is having a consultant study potential unification – consolidation with the town or village dissolution – before village leaders make any decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The town of Le Roy, on the other hand, does not want to look into consolidation, its supervisor said Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Wednesday’s Village Board meeting, Mayor Greg “Porp” Rogers said the village received two proposals to do a study on potential unification of the village and town. One was from Laberge Group and the other from CGR of Rochester. The Village Board voted to choose CGR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trustee Daniel Vanderhoof, elected in March, said he wasn’t part of all the conversations other board members had on unification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I read through all the case studies and tried to understand it, took a step back and said, ‘OK, why are we doing this? What are we we doing?'” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vanderhoof said he had questions other board members may have gone over already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My first question is, ‘What’s driving the need for the study?’ My understanding is, if there’s a committee or a group that goes out there and they get signatures on a petition, they would submit it to us and say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to bring it up for a vote … to see if the community wants to do a study. At that point, if it passes, we would be driven to do a study to understand what the plan would look like to do either consolidation or dissolution.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the New York State Department of State, if reorganization is voter-initiated, Article 17-A of General Municipal Law says only voters registered in the local government entity may sign consolidation petitions, or serve as the contact person for the petition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a voter-initiated process, the consolidation agreement or dissolution plan will not be developed until after the referendum on whether to consolidate or dissolve passes. The plan must contain the same information as one prepared in a board-initiated process. Once the governing bodies propose a plan, voters have the opportunity to conduct another petition drive to require a second referendum, this time on the plan itself. If that drive is successful and another referendum is held, it too must pass in order for the reorganization to take effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the governing bodies are unable or unwilling to prepare and approve a reorganization plan, five voters who signed the original petition may bring an Article 78 action in state Supreme Court. The state court system says an Article 78 proceeding is generally used to challenge an action, or inaction, or decision made by an officer or agency of New York State or local governments. This proceeding must begin within four months after receipt of a final determination letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depending on its findings, the court may refer the matter to mediation or issue an injunction compelling the governing bodies to act. If the governing bodies still fail to act, the court may appoint a judicial hearing officer to develop and approve a plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police Chief Greg Kellogg, who had been looking up information while the meeting was going on, read what he found in Article 17-A concerning the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If you’re presented with signatures, the village clerk has 10 days after the petition to determine whether or not it’s valid,” he read. “If the petition is certified as sufficient, the Village Board has 30 days to accept a resolution to call for a referendum (for consolidation or dissolution). The referendum must be held no sooner than 60 days and no later than 90 days after the adoption of the resolution.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law says a petition must contain, for each government to be consolidated or dissolved, the signatures of 10% of the registered voters in that entity or 5,000 signatures, whichever is less. However, if a government to be reorganized has 500 or fewer registered voters, signatures of at least 20% of the voters are required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rogers said this would most likely be driven by the people going door-to-door and doing everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You don’t have this third party (the consultant) like we’re going to have. We’re going to have this third party that’s going to gather the information, but they’re not strong-arming anybody. They want to know what you think,” he said. “I, personally, whatever the people want and they’re willing to pay for, I’m going to give them. It’s just as simple as that, for me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kellogg said he has read case studies also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think the big difference between us and some of the other municipalities is, we already got rid of our village court, where these other … village of Attica, town of Attica, they have their own separate courts right now. We don’t,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of State says that under a board-initiated reorganization, the process begins with a resolution by the governing bodies endorsing a proposed joint consolidation agreement or dissolution plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, reorganization may start many months before the statutory process begins. With board-initiated reorganization, the board(s) may conduct a study to determine the possible impacts associated with reorganization. By taking the time to study the impacts, both the governing body and the public will be able to evaluate the impacts of reorganization before deciding to reorganize<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed joint agreement or dissolution plan must be displayed within five business days after it’s adopted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within 35-90 days of adoption of a proposed agreement or plan, one or more public hearings on the proposed agreement or plan must take place. These hearing(s) may be held jointly or separately and public notice must appear in a newspaper of general circulation within each entity, and on any entity\u2019s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a board initiates reorganization or dissolution, after the final hearing on the proposed joint consolidation agreement or proposed dissolution, the board may amend the proposed agreement or it may choose not to proceed further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rogers said there could be a point when the consultant finds people want to have a separate town and village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The time could come when they get in this study and realize, ‘You know what? We like to have a village and like the separation. At that point in time, you just don’t do it (reorganization or dissolution),” Rogers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trustee James Bonacquisti asked if the decision on hiring a firm to do a study could wait until after the town of Le Roy finishes its next budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think there’s some factors in there that determine whether we really want to move forward with this,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rogers said the village already passed a resolution for the intent to do this, which means the village can do it anytime it wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m prepared to go forward with it right now,” Trustee William Kettle said. “Get the answers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“At the end of the study, we could determine not to move forward,” Kettle said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to what’s driving the need for a study, Rogers said he’s the catalyst for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’ve always thought there’s one too many levels of government. I see where there could be savings to the municipality,” he said. “I think there’s efficiencies. I like the idea.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vanderhoof said he doesn’t have an opinion either way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m just looking at … reading through the case studies, the first thing they say is, most of the economies of scale from combining the two (municipalities) is not there,” he said. “You’re still going to have an expectation of services. You might be able to reduce some redundant equipment if you combine the DPWs. You’re probably not going to reduce labor.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vanderhoof mentioned the possibility of selling assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kettle said there are three members of the board looking to move on and noted what would be coming down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You’re going to have increased costs with the Police Department. You’ve got increased costs that are going around. Who’s going to be filling the gaps with this board as you see it?” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, Town Supervisor Jim Farnholz said the Town Board is not in favor of reorganization or consolidation of the town and village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If the village chooses to dissolve, we have no voice in the matter,” Farnholz said. If the village dissolves on its own, the town would have to absorb village according to law, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Really for the town to absorb the village, it would be a significant tax increase for town taxpayers outside the village – in the neighborhood of over 100%,” Farnholz said. “It’s just not financially beneficial for the town, at this point, to move forward with consolidation. The incentives from the state that were there several years ago are no longer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The town has had discussions with those who do its annual audits and financial consulting on what it would do if the village dissolves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’ve had some initial discussions on it. If you merge all of the financing you absorb all of their (the village’s) fund balance along with their debts. They would literally cease to exist and would have no voice in the reconstruction of government that would occur,” Farnholz said. “If this happens, will you take on this additional workload of straightening out the finances to reorganize. We do have people on board should this happen.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Board members Daniel Vanderhoof, left, and Raymond Yacuzzo discuss the proposal for a consolidation or village dissolution study. Story and photo by Brian Quinn The village of Le Roy is having a consultant study potential unification – consolidation with the town or village dissolution – before village leaders make any \u2026<\/p>\n

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