Lewiston Town Board amends residency requirement for town clerk's office

By Terry Duffy

Editor-in-Chief

The Lewiston Town Board held a lead-off public hearing to consider Local Law No. 3 of 2026 – “A local law to establish the residency requirements for the appointed office of Deputy Town Clerk and Deputy Tax Receiver for the Town of Lewiston” – at Monday’s meeting. According to the measure, it “grants to local governments the authority to enact local laws … expanding the residency requirements for various appointed public officers and officials in towns.”

At the Town Board’s Feb. 9 session, Supervisor Steve Broderick reported on the difficulties Lewiston has had in selecting qualified personnel to fill positions.

“A few years back, the Town of Lewiston realized how hard it was to get people. We would give people six months to move into the town and they couldn’t. I mean, almost impossible to find a home in the town. So, we changed our residency requirement that it could be the Town of Lewiston or any adjoining municipality,” he said.

However, that provision did not extend to the town clerk’s office.

Town Attorney Alfonso Marra Bax said, “There’s a certain number of duties (for those positions) that require (a candidate) to be an electorate in the Town of Lewiston.”

He said newly elected Town Clerk Tamara Burns had “found a number of candidates that qualify, but are not residents of the town.”

Bax sought input from the state Association of Towns on a compromise.

“They said so long as we could designate one of the clerks or deputy clerks as a resident … then the others can kind of differentiate (share duties) between the positions,” Bax said. “This law allows the clerk’s office to propose candidates, but the second and third deputy clerk’s positions for people who are either residents of either the town or a neighboring municipality … That will allow us to open up the … resources to that body of individuals and hopefully get a better qualified individual.”

The public hearing saw no comments from residents. The measure went on to be approved by a 4-0 vote. Councilman Rob Morreale was absent. The law includes an amendment suggested by Council member Sarah Waechter identifying the adjoining municipality of the candidate in parenthesis “so that it is written out what the surrounding municipalities are.”

Later in the session, Burns announced the hiring of Creek Road resident Michelle Briand as a full-time deputy clerk at the rate of $21.80 per hour. The appointment did not require board approval. Briand will begin her position Monday, March 2.

Other news

•The Town Board held a public hearing on the creation of a stormwater district for the Essex Homes planned unit development on Bronson and Upper Mountain roads. The session saw no comments, and the Town Board took no action on the matter.

In his remarks, Bax said the law’s purpose would allow the Essex developers “to create a homeowner’s association, and that all fees, etc., will be collected” from future residents. Bax said the town would not take any action at present, but would “regroup with the developer as to what extent their next steps are going to be. … This should allow them to move forward.”

•Lewiston Police Department Chief Michael Salada reported Amy Thomson, a retired detective from the Niagara Falls Police Department, will join LPD as a part-time officer. Thomson will begin her service Sunday, March 1.