ITHACA, N.Y. — The longtime chair of the commission that oversees the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility lost her seat this year after Ithaca Mayor Robert Cantelmo declined to reappoint her.Former Alderperson Cynthia Brock had served on the Special Joint Commission (SJC) for 12 years and had been chair since 2017. While she enjoys support from many of her former peers on the commission, Brock said she thinks disputes she’s had with city staff may have played a role in the decision.The switch up in leadership comes at a time when commission members are preparing to plan an estimated $40 million in infrastructure projects at the aging Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility. The facility has been managed by a private company since 2022 as the city has struggled to hire staff largely due to below-market wages.Brock said Cantelmo initially led her to believe that she would keep a seat on the commission, despite the fact that she had lost her re-election bid in November 2023.The City of Ithaca has a total of four seats on the seven-member intermunicipal commission, two of which are community-member appointments, and two of which are city council-member appointments. Brock, who was first appointed to the facility’s oversight commission in her capacity as an alderperson, once occupied one of two seats designated for elected officials from the City of Ithaca. Because Brock is no longer an elected official, one of the two community-member would have had to step down in order for her to remain on the commission.While there was a sitting board member willing to give up his seat for Brock to remain on the commission, Cantelmo said he ultimately opted not to go that route.“If a community member were to step down from their position on the board, I believe this vacancy should be advertised publicly and selected competitively from interested parties,” Cantelmo said in a statement. “My decision as mayor was not to support an arrangement that would have had one member step down in favor of another without such a process.”Cantelmo appointed himself and Alderperson Clyde Lederman as the city’s two council representatives on the commission. Cantelmo said that Brock had urged him to involve himself in the business of the wastewater treatment facility when they both served on the Common Council.Cynthia Brock at a meeting of the City of Ithaca’s Common Council (07/05/2023) Credit: Casey Martin / The Ithaca VoiceBrock said that she had inquired with both of the city’s community member appointments about the prospect of stepping down for her to take their place. One of them, David Warden, confirmed to The Ithaca Voice that he was willing to step aside for Brock to remain on the commission. “We have a member who has extensive travel plans coming up and may miss some meetings and had offered to create a vacancy so that I could continue to serve on the board,” Brock said, “The mayor chose not to utilize that option.”Warden confirmed in an email that he offered to step down in order to create an opening for Brock to remain on the commission. Warden said he believed that the mayor was “on board with this plan and he understood how important Cynthia is to running the plant.”“It was obvious to me that when she lost the election, her position on the board was in jeopardy,” Warden said. “Much as I feel that I contribute to the SJC, Cynthia is much more valuable.”Brock said that differences between her and City of Ithaca Superintendent of Public Works Mike Thorne have been “well documented,” and she felt that they may have contributed to why she was not reappointed. “My not being appointed to the SJC does not come as a surprise,” Brock said.They have butted heads over the reinstatement of the city’s Board of Public Works, which has oversight powers over the policies and procedures of the Department of Public Works, which Thorne heads. Brock supported reinstating the board while she was in office, but Thorne publicly opposed it. In response to a request for comment, Thorne said in an email, “I’m not sure what to comment on. My understanding is that the SJC’s slots are already occupied, so it’s an odd connection that Cynthia is trying to make.”Town of Ithaca Board member Rich DePaolo was voted into the chair position at the commission’s Feb. 14 meeting. DePaolo had been elected as a temporary chair of the commission at its Jan. 10 meeting while it waited for the city’s appointments to be finalized.DePaolo said that Brock was a “very dedicated and effective” commission chair and that he was “sorry to see her go.”“She did have the backing of the full commission, but this is a city appointment and we will respect that and move forward accordingly,” DePaolo said.The post Wastewater facility oversight board sees leadership change ahead of major investments appeared first on The Ithaca Voice.