New Lebanon Town Board Deletes Expletives

by Thaddeus Flint
The Town Board of New Lebanon didn’t conclude the year 2011 on the best of notes. The end of year meeting on December 27 fell apart like a family holiday party where the family members had already seen far too much of each other over the holidays. Council Member Bruce Baldwin even started swearing out loud when a discussion on Ethics Board appointments turned to a resident’s blog comments. “We’re not here to read [expletive] blogs,” he said.
[private]Some people just can’t stand blogs. But most likely Baldwin was largely irritated with the Ethics Board who had investigated him last Fall without even making an effort to first get his side of an argument. The Town Supervisor at the time, Margaret Robertson, spent a good deal of time at her last official meeting pounding a gavel to little effect. She later said she regretted bringing her mother and other family members to see her last day at work. She thought it might be a nice way to end her term. Now, however, she recollects, “My administration began with anger and cursing, and it ended with anger and cursing.”
For the Board, 2012 is off to a calmer start under the new Town Supervisor, Mike Benson. There was no shouting or swearing at the year’s first monthly Board meeting last Tuesday. Of course a Sheriff’s Deputy was sitting in the corner most of the night so that might have had something to do with the good behavior. Baldwin was much quieter and apologized to Robertson for his outburst.
Benson is already hard at work in the Town’s dilapidated Town Hall. “The only thing I can say after a week in the Town Hall is we need a New Town Hall,” said Benson. But he did not let the working conditions distract him. On January 6 he sent a detailed email to Robertson in response to concerns she had noted at the Town’s organizational meeting on January 4.
Benson first addressed recent New York State Comptroller Audits which purport to show serious errors in the Town’s and Town Court’s financial records.
“As you are aware, there have been two very troubling reports issued to the Town of New Lebanon in recent months by the NY State Controller’s office. One to your office [the Office of Supervisor] and one to our courts. Given the level of seriousness with some of the issues brought about by these reports as well as the fiscal responsibility placed with the Office of Supervisor it was my instinct and the Board’s agreement with such that we should move very swiftly to address some very troubling concerns,” wrote Benson.
To address these concerns, Benson is moving the accounting for the Town to the firm of Pattison, Koskey, Howe and Bucci, CPAs. In regard to “multiple complaints of incorrectly issued paychecks as well as incorrectly issued and even over paid Town vendors,” the payroll will now be done by the new accountants. The payment of vendors will be done “in house rather than paying an accounting firm to complete this work.”
Benson was also “troubled” by the bookkeeping functions of the Town’s bookkeeper, Anita Crosby. To Benson, Crosby “wasn’t really performing any bookkeeping functions at all. In my eyes, this is only one step away from a no-show job.” As such, “The position of bookkeeper has been eliminated,” wrote Benson. “She is no longer employed by the Town of New Lebanon.” Robertson was perplexed by this. “It’s just mind blowing,” she said. Robertson listed many tasks Crosby was responsible for in her 10 hour a week position. “This was very much a show-up job,” she said. Benson disagrees. “An employee has a job, a job title and a job description. Importantly, they also perform and are paid for those duties. In this case, that was not happening, and it was allowed to continue for many, many years at a great expense to our taxpayers,” he wrote.
Several days later, at the Board Meeting on Tuesday, no mention was made of Crosby losing her job. The Ethics Board, though, was put back into the spotlight by several residents in attendance. Both Kevin Smith, who is a member of that Board, and Joanna Johnson Smith pointed out that the Town’s Ethic Board is unable to function for about five months out of the year because one of the Board members, Kathy Murnane, is wintering in Florida. This leaves only two sitting members who can’t form a quorum. “Right now that Board is broken!” voiced Kevin Smith. Johnson-Smith pointed out that a complaint is supposed to be acted on in thirty days, not five months. “This is not due process,” she said. Both advocated quickly filling the empty positions and doing something about Murnane. Benson calmly responded that he is aware of the problem and that the Board is taking applications. Once the applications are reviewed an appointment will be made in March. “We will not have knee-jerk reactions as a Town,” said Benson.
A Bridge From Somewhere
Not having knee-jerk reactions might also improve communications. The Town found this out when it was noticed that a new bridge appeared in Shatford Park last week. Did somebody order a bridge? Apparently the request had been made at a previous meeting to do something about a walkway over a gully that used to be an old plank of wood which had disappeared. That request had been tabled in order to get more information on costs. Someone contacted the Shed Man, a local merchant who not only builds sheds but small wooden bridges. Somewhere along the line the Shed Man got the idea that the Town was ordering a bridge. So the Shed Man found a bridge and went and put it up with nobody noticing a bridge being built in a public park. How he knew what spot to put it in, nobody knew. At any rate it was the wrong spot. It was also unordered. The cost to the Town will be around $2,500 if the Town decides to keep it. “It doesn’t look bad,” admitted Council Member Doug Clark. The consensus was that the bridge did indeed look pretty good, but government can’t tolerate things just happening over night. Council Member K.B. Chittenden was tasked with explaining this to the Shed Man and to see if the Shed Man could make the Town a better offer.
In Economic and Development, Clark announced that a Discussion Meeting will take place at the Town Library on February 1 at 6:30 pm on what steps the Town might take to make the Route 20-22 corridor more attractive to businesses. J. Lord from Hannaford will be present to give the perspective of what it’s like for a large company to plan a project in New Lebanon and what its like to fail at one as well. “So no throwing of tomatoes!” warned Clark.
The next monthly Board Meeting will be held at 7 pm at the Town Fire Hall on Valentine’s Day, February 14. “Well, there goes my marriage,” sighed Benson.
Please note the change in the meeting dates – the New Lebanon Town Board now meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 7 pm.[/private]