ROTHBURY — Village of Rothbury president Vern Talmadge was again absent from Tuesday's council meeting. Talmadge was censured by the rest of the council for misconduct and misuse of council member privileges regarding Electric Forest passes during the Oct. 21 meeting.
The council did not address Talmadge's absence, and the meeting was led by trustee Mike Harris.
The council approved the implementation of special event pay for the village's three-person police staff during Electric Forest. It was said that the officers work an average of 100 hours over the 10-day period that includes the festival, addressing incidents that are less than routine, all to ensure the event’s smooth running.
While the village is not legally required to provide overtime pay, the council believed it was deserved and necessary to provide compensation for their officers. For future Electric Forests, as well as any other events that may require mass gathering permits, officers will be awarded time and a half pay.
The council also agreed to make that change retroactive to the 2025 Electric Forest, offering $900 of "back pay" for two police officers and $962 for police chief Ethan Walker.
Walker requested his retroactive compensation not be awarded, saying, “I want to put my officers first. I want to have some sort of retention with my officers, so I do appreciate the gesture there and the approval of time and a half.”
Trustee Dylan Zuniga added, “I think we’re all on board for making sure they get taken care of.”
The police department has also restructured its paid time off system. It now allows 40 hours of PTO per year, to roll over at the end of each fiscal year, with a cap of 80 hours accrued.
At the October meeting, trustee Denise Kurdziel introduced the idea of restructuring the Village’s committees and invited council members to consider the committees on which they served and for which they may be a better fit. Tuesday saw the council review and reassign current sitting members, as well as streamline and consolidate redundant committees. Due to his absence, Talmadge was assigned a “floater” role between committees. In that same vein, the idea of an ethics committee was discussed, with the council deciding such matters could be handled by the council as a whole should any issues arise, seeing as it would have final say in the end.
