Brian V. Burmeister
Village Trustee Candidate
Brian V. Burmeister answers questions in the March 14, 2024 edition of the Baldwinsville Messenger.
1. What background and accomplishments make you the ideal candidate?
As a Baldwinsville resident and small landlord for more than 11 years, I offer both a personal and professional perspective that will help Baldwinsville prosper while keeping the things that make it so great and so livable.
My daughter and son both graduated from Baker High School, so I understand how connected the schools are to the Village and community in general.
Currently working one-on-one with developmentally disabled individuals, I am also a podcaster ("Human Sense," free on Spotify) with a diverse background. I worked about 30 years in corporate America negotiating vendor and health insurance contracts, in marketing, sales, communications, public relations, media relations, product management and as a corporate spokesperson.
I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Illinois Wesleyan University with minors in both History and German; I also studied Urban Planning and Architecture at Harvard University's Gund Graduate School of Design.
All of these experiences will give me insight into and passion for new and existing Village initiatives – whether they need business guidance, an empathetic approach and/or an eye for design.
For my recommendations as a Village Trustee, I will draw from personally striving to be a better steward of earth’s resources or understanding what incentives are needed to motivate key stakeholders.
2.Why are you running for this position?
I’ve always been interested in helping people and leaving things better than I find them. This is true of the five houses I have owned in my lifetime, relationships I have built and the volunteering I have done over the years including for the Baldwinsville Rotary Club, the Baldwinsville Center for the Arts, Habitat for Humanity, Syracuse Vocal Ensemble, my churches and many other organizations.
After some research and partnering with my running mates Donna Freyleue and James Miller and other supporters, I’m now convinced that we can improve upon the wonderful things already going on in the Village of Baldwinsville. A thriving, up-to-date Village will be great for my neighbors, friends, children, tenants and all concerned.
3. What are the most important issues the community is facing and what would you do about them?
There are four main issues I see that I hope to help accomplish if elected as a Village Trustee:
I. We need to increase voter turnout by changing election of Village officers from March to November. I was dumbfounded when I saw that just 271 residents voted in the March 2022 election, with only 160 electing the Mayor; in a village with nearly 5300 registered voters, that’s turnout of about 5% and there are years in the past when turnout was much lower. Most of the nearly 300 residents who signed our petition to get a referendum to move the vote to November did NOT even know that Village officials were elected in March. According to the Onondaga County Board of Elections, other villages like Camillus, E. Syracuse and Tully who have changed their elections to November have increased the number of voters by 900% or more.
II. We need to bring more federal, state and county grant money for improvements and repairs back to the Village of Baldwinsville. We are the largest Village in the county yet have very little in grant money compared to other villages. Let’s put some of our tax dollars back to work for us!
III. We need a comprehensive community plan for tomorrow and years from now. We need buy-in from all stakeholders to complete and improve sidewalks, street scapes, re-light the bridge, line our streets with more trees, encourage businesses to fill vacant store fronts, replace aging water and sewer lines, bury utility lines and many other endeavors.
IV. We need to more consistently enforce and update our codes and laws. By doing so, we will increase revenue, limit absentee and/or violating landlords and manage business development in the Village, just to name a few.
James Miller
Village Trustee Candidate
James Miller answers questions in the March 14, 2024 edition of the Baldwinsville Messenger.
1. What background and accomplishments make you the ideal candidate?
I have 30+ years of experience in the supply chain and logistics industry, which has honed my ability to identify redundancies and issues, improve efficiencies, and continuously improve operations. Working as a cross-functional team leader in my job, I bring together diverse groups of people focused on a common goal.
My family and I lived in communities in other states, and have seen the mistakes those communities have made. That perspective helps me understand how good we have it here and how we can avoid making similar mistakes.
2. Why are you running for this position?
I want to:
• Lend my skills to the village I love and give back to this wonderful, welcoming community
• Provide input into planned community growth that will improve village life and vibrancy
• Showcase Baldwinsville as a desirable home for families, and a desirable destination for visitors
3. What are the most important issues the community is facing and what would you do about them?
• Lack of communication between village groups and the residents:
o Change the village elections to November to increase awareness and voter turnout
o Publish village infrastructure issues and plans for resolution
o Create events between the village board, businesses, and village organizations to work together on problem solving
• Failing infrastructure and lack of funds to remedy.
o Hire a grant writer to obtain grants to not only fix what is failing but assist in building our community
o We as taxpayers have already paid into these federal, state, and county programs and need to focus on returning that investment to improve our village at no additional cost to residents. These funds are there for the asking; we just need to file the requests.
• No long-term community plan:
o Fill the long vacant position of village engineer
o Invite businesses and residents to be part of the planning process
Donna Freyleue
Village Trustee Candidate
Donna Freyleue answers questions in the March 14, 2024 edition of the Baldwinsville Messenger.
1. What background and accomplishments make you the ideal candidate?
The “ideal” candidate doesn’t exist, but I am happy to discuss what makes me a good and worthy candidate to serve as Village Trustee. I was born and raised in Baldwinsville, graduating from Baker High in 1974. I am currently serving as chairperson of the planning committee for our upcoming 50 th reunion celebration in July, which we expect to be one of the best ever. Go, Bees! I studied theatre at Harpur College of Binghamton University, and went on get my JD at the Boston University School of Law. I practiced criminal appeals in state and federal courts in Boston for over 25 years. I lived in the city for a while, and then bought a home in Ipswich, a small town north of Boston, not unlike Baldwinsville, where I raised my two sons. While there I served as a member of the vestry of Ascension Memorial Church (Episcopal) and was a longtime singer in the Ascension choir. I learned a great deal about the value of an engaged citizenry by attending town meeting on a regular basis. In 2016, my wife, Vickie Freyleue, and I bought my family home from my sisters and we moved here. Since then, I have rediscovered what a wonderful community we have here. We have made many friends and enjoy an active community life. Village life, with its beauty, walkability, and nearby amenities, has been delightful for us. We love the restaurants, the parades and festivals, the concerts, and, of course, the beautiful Seneca River. We are so lucky to have a kayak launch just a half block from our home, and on warm days I love to ride my 1960 Schwinn Debutante around the village and along the river. I could go on for hours about how good life can be here. I am currently serving as a member of the Village Planning Board, which has been a rewarding and educational experience for me. I understand far more about how the village actually works than I did when I joined the board two years ago. Serving on a municipal board is the best training you can get for the job of trustee. I have been a volunteer for the Visitor Center and Taste of B’ville, and I am a longtime volunteer for the American Cancer Society. I have a sharp, inquisitive, and incisive mind, and I learn quickly. My training and experience as an appellate advocate helped me hone and refine these abilities. I am energetic, enthusiastic, creative, collaborative, and I have vision. I will bring these qualities to my service on the board, and my fellow Brighter Baldwinsville candidates will bring exceptional qualities of their own. Village government needs new perspectives, new voices. It’s time to move beyond the same old, same old and lead Baldwinsville into the 21st century.
2. Why are you running for this position?
I had contemplated running in the past, but my decision did not become final until I observed the current board’s response to a citizen initiative to move village elections from mid-March to Election Day in November, when everyone knows it’s time to vote. In November of 2023, a multipartisan group of village residents presented a letter to the board requesting that they put a referendum on the upcoming ballot so that the voters could decide whether village elections should be moved to November. They responded not by discussing the merits of having this question decided by the citizenry, but by simply offering their own personal reasons why they don’t want November elections. Some of them insultingly argued that the shockingly low turnout in March elections over the last decade means that only “quality” voters are showing up to vote, while November elections would elevate “quantity” over “quality,” essentially dismissing the majority of the village electorate as some kind of ignorant rabble, unworthy of making decisions about village governance. They also argued, without any factual basis, that “national politics” would somehow rush in and corrupt our little village. Five villages in Onondaga County have already moved to November elections and the sky has not fallen in any of them. Three of the five still run on local, independent lines, including Camillus, which has had November elections for 20 some years. Villages that have switched to November elections have seen increases in turnout of up to 900%. Because the current trustees refused to act on our request, repeatedly tabling the matter, we were forced to pass petitions in order to get our measure on the ballot. We collected 297 signatures from registered voters in the village, considerably more individuals than typically turn out to vote in March. In the meantime, the trustees unanimously decided to place their own competing measure on the ballot to move elections instead to June, something no one asked for and which only serves to confuse the issue. June elections are even worse than March. People are distracted by Regents exams, graduations, and vacations. Also, state law places village elections, which take place exclusively at the Village Hall, on the third Tuesday of the month, while primary elections take place a week later on the fourth Tuesday, at voters’ regular polling places. Two elections a week apart at two different polling places is too much. We need a village board that listens and responds to the interests and concerns of the voters, not one that makes decisions like this based on their own personal political interests. I will be a trustee that listens. In the answer below I will address some of the other salient issues that have prompted me to run.
3. What are the most important issues the community is facing and what would you do about them?
Baldwinsville is a beautiful, charming, historic village with so much going for it now, but also has a great deal of untapped potential, along with many pressing issues. We have an antiquated water and sewer system, prone to water main breaks and sewage backups. My house has experienced one of those backups, and it is a dirty and expensive job for homeowners to deal with. Downtown businesses have been forced to close and lose business several times in recent years due to water main breaks at the Four Corners. Business owners with whom I have spoken are also getting fed up with the heavy truck traffic constantly rumbling though the Four Corners, sometimes driving right over sidewalks, posing a hazard to pedestrians and property alike. I recently conferred with Liverpool Mayor Stacy Finney, who has already taken steps to address her community’s problems with heavy trucks. To fully address this problem will take state-level legislative action. To that end, I am contacting officials in Saratoga Springs and Skaneateles, two Upstate NY communities that are currently working on the truck problem, as a beginning step in creating a coalition of villages and smaller cities across the state that are feeling overwhelmed by heavy trucks in their business districts. I will also be working with state Senators Rachel May and John Mannion on this matter. We have a lovely downtown with many fine restaurants, but we have precious few retail shops and several empty storefronts. We need to develop a strategy to attract new and varied retail businesses to fill these empty storefronts and continue the revitalization of our downtown, a great but underused asset. Walkability and pedestrian safety, including making it easier, safer, and faster for pedestrians to navigate the Four Corners so that patrons of our local business, as well as people just passing through, have a consistently pleasurable downtown experience, will be a priority for me. Baldwinsville needs stricter and more consistent code enforcement, particularly against the negligent and/or absentee landlords who own much of the substandard properties we see in many parts of the village. I would also like to see lower speed limits posted on side streets. 30 mph is too fast for a quiet, one-block street, especially if there are children present. Some of these issues will require obtaining state and federal grant money, and I will do all I can to aggressively pursue these monies for the needs of our community. Other villages have done much more to go after these funds. For example, the Village of Phoenix, less than a third the size of Baldwinsville, has had a grant writer on retainer for 15 years, and that village currently has more than five million dollars in grant money on hand to be allocated toward village improvements. We have nothing close to that. We can and will do better. This is just a sampling of the issues we face as a vital, growing community. I am looking forward to do ng my part to create a better, Brighter Baldwinsville!
