Meet Your New Village Trustees

On the surface, they couldn’t be much more different.

Stan Bond is a 61-year-old with his own advertising firm, and three grown daughters. Matt Brolley is a 29-year-old civil engineer, with a young family—his son is one year old, and he and his wife are expecting a second child this summer. Brolley has lived in Montgomery all his life, Bond and his wife moved to the village in 2004.

While Brolley has never held an elected office before, he has been active in village government, serving as the chair of the plan commission and board of zoning appeals, as well as assisting with various village activities, including Montgomery Fest.

And while Bond is a newcomer to Montgomery’s government, he has experience as an elected official, having served on the Batavia Public Library Board, and as a precinct committeeman in two communities.

Bond and Brolley are at different points in their lives, and bring vastly different experiences and points of view to the table. And starting in May, they will both take their seats on the Village Board—in addition to granting Pete Heinz a seventh term, voters on Tuesday selected both Bond and Brolley as the village’s new trustees.

In the process, they removed two long-serving trustees, Jeanne Felten and Rob Watermann, from the board. (Heinz, Felten and Watermann did not return calls for comment on this story.) There’s no doubt this new blood will change the direction of the board, but which direction is it now poised to go?

Brolley believes the key moving forward is teamwork. Despite how competitive the campaign was, he said, the six trustees will now have to find a way to work together—something he thinks will not be as difficult as some might assume.

“One thing that no one hit on often during the campaign is that the three (winners) generally have the same or similar ideas,” he said, touching on the shared issues of attracting and retaining businesses, and going through the village codes to make them more business-friendly.

Brolley suggested creating a commission, with village officials and members of the business community, to propose ways to streamline the code book.

“I’d like to hit the ground running and go through those ordinances,” he said. “Hopefully we can improve Montgomery’s image in the business community."

Brolley would also like to see the Montgomery Economic Development Corporation have a larger role in bringing businesses into the village. Manufacturing and industrial jobs are key, he said, and he wants to make sure the larger employers keep hiring Montgomery workers.

Bond said that while the public expects the six trustees to “sit down and work with each other on their behalf,” he is wary of the term “teamwork,” and plans to speak out when he believes the residents want him to.

“There are going to be legitimate differences of opinion, and that’s healthy,” he said. “Sometimes teamwork means going along to get along, and that’s not in me.”

The biggest problem Bond sees is a lack of communication between the village government and the residents. While campaigning in neighborhoods, he said, he would often ask people if they’d ever seen or spoken to one of their trustees before, and more often than not received a negative reply.

He believes village residents are looking for a way to get involved, and feel left out of the process. He wants to see better efforts made to bring agenda items to the public’s attention, and open comment periods at the board meetings. He also wants to see officials leave Village Hall and bring their meetings into the neighborhoods.

“There’s a lot of community pride in Montgomery, and my sense is there are not enough outlets, not enough ways for people to express it,” he said.

Bond and Brolley both agree that bringing the village’s west side more into the fold should be a priority. Brolley said the west side communities have their own events, separate from the rest of town, and he would like to see the village get involved with those.

The main area of disagreement between the three newly-elected trustees concerns the position of the village manager. While Heinz campaigned on returning to a trustee-led form of government, and either eliminating or reducing the village manager’s role, Bond has not taken such a hard-line stance.

But he does think administrative costs have skyrocketed, and something needs to be done. He suggested reaching out to residents and asking what they would like to see happen.

“I think the public wants us to revisit the issue,” Bond said. “It’s on the minds of voters, I can tell you that beyond a doubt.”

Brolley said he supports both the position and the person in it, Village Manager Anne Marie Gaura, and would not like to see a return to an older form of village government.

“I’m looking forward to working through that issue,” he said. “I hope the board can come together and do what’s right for the village.”

Bond sees the election of himself and Brolley as “a wake-up call to people who need bigger ears.” He said both of the new trustees went out into the neighborhoods and met as many people as they could, listening to their concerns. He also said campaigning in this way prepares you to be a better public official.

While there is division on the village board, Bond said, he sees that as healthy, as long as it stays productive, not personal.

“I think the public has asked us to take a fresh look at things, and I’m excited by the opportunity to do that,” he said.

Brolley, who has resigned from the chamber, plan commission and board of zoning appeals to take on his new role, said he expects disagreements and debate between the trustees.

“I can’t imagine we will all see eye to eye, and that’s probably good for the village of Montgomery,” he said. “I don’t see that being a problem. I believe all of us on the board want what’s best for the residents.”