Kevin P. Gaughan is filing petitions today that will require village boards in Farnham, Sloan and Williamsville to schedule public votes in September to dissolve their village governments.

“No matter how folks feel about this,” he said, “they want to decide for themselves.”

They will be the first in Erie County to decide under a new state law that makes it easier to dissolve villages by requiring just 10 percent of residents’ signatures on petitions calling for a referendum.

Gaughan said he also plans to start the petition process tonight in the towns of Grand Island and, in Wheatfield in Niagara County, to downsize the town boards in September and November.

Gaughan has led successful votes to eliminate two council positions each from Alden, Evans, Hamburg, Orchard Park and West Seneca.

He said the area is living under an antiquated system that is costing money and, more important, jobs.

“If ever a time was to come to change that system, it’s now,” he said.

Gaughan said he and volunteers collected 106 signatures in Farnham, 420 in Sloan and 625 in Williamsville. That’s more than double what was required in Farnham and Sloan, and more than 250 more than required in Williamsville.

Once the petitions are deemed valid by the village clerk, a referendum must be scheduled.

If dissolving the village is approved, the village has 180 days to create a plan that determines how dissolution would take place. After the plan is adopted, a second vote could be scheduled if petitions signed by 25 percent of the residents objecting to the plan are filed.

Gaughan said he expects a healthy debate this summer.

Local residents have been “frightened half to death” by the general counsel of the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials that they would lose services and pay higher taxes, he said. He is challenging the attorney, Wade Beltramo, to debate him in an open forum.

Gaughan also is challenging the mayors and the trustees of the three villages to similar debates.

Sloan Mayor Leonard C. Szymanski is opposed to dissolution efforts.

“We don’t want it,” he said. “They’re telling the people they’re going to save a ton of money, I guess, and we can’t see it.”

Szymanski said he believes that Sloan residents will vote to keep their village.

Farnham Mayor Terry L. Caber Sr. said he believes that village government is most efficient. “The bottom line is, I just want to make sure the residents really understand the full picture, the full impact, and let them make the decision,” Caber said.

Christopher J. Duquin of the Village of Williamsville Citizen Study Group has a similar view.

“What we don’t want is all sorts of lies and the typical political conversation that goes on around these issues, where no one really knows where the truth lies,” Duquin said.

Gaughan said he wants the same. “I’m going to challenge Western New Yorkers to not be as angry about their future, but be hopeful,” Gaughan said.