Will the real appointees please stand up

It was supposed to be the fulfillment of a key Democratic Party Platform, the creation of a Comprehensive Plan Committee charged with gathering community input for the town’s future development. The town board, elected with Democratic Party support began the process of keeping that pledge with the quick creation and appointment of a committee of volunteer town residents, two from each election district in the town. It was conceived as a way to make sure every part of town had equal representation. Those selected brought business and governmental skills to the committee and were chosen without regard for political affiliation. Ironically there is only one person who holds a party office and he is a Republican Committee person who by all accounts is a stand up guy. To their credit, the Republican Committee and their new Chairman Vince Scolco, have not politicized the work of this committee in any way, a clear indication of support for the work that the group is doing. (You can find committee member names on the town web site at townofng.com.)
You may recall that the North Greenbush Pipeline reported earlier that Supervisor Evers has been dragging his feet supporting the Comprehensive Plan. He first delayed the signing of a contract and then its delivery after the Board majority called two embarrassing special meetings to force his hand. But Mr. Evers has acted to make matters even worse by illegally “appointing” without the Town Board’s vote of approval, eleven “new members”. Not only did he lack authority to appoint anyone absent the Board voting, but he packed the committee with political supporters from the “reformed” Democrats and his Conservative allies, including J.R. Casale, the controversial contractor of Water District 14.
While we do not have all the names, we are told the list of “appointees” includes the sister of the Reform Democratic Chairman, Nancy Spain, a resident of Election District 3,(ED), Reform Vice Chairs William O’Neil (ED 3) and Edward Cassino (ED 6 ) a son of John Harkin (ED 3), David Wos, an ally of the prior town board and a Conservative Committeeman (ED 6) and defeated GOP county legislature candidate Leon Fiacco (ED 6) who is also one of the Conservative Committee persons loyal to Mr. Casale.
Most of the list would pack the committee with people from two of the town’s eight elections districts, 3 and 6, which would upset the equal representation which now governs the committee.
It’s unlikely Mr. Evers gave any thought to the geographic balance of the committee, instead focusing on filling the committee with his allies and folks he hoped would support his bid for party nominations.
It’s also an indication that the leadership of both of these political committees oppose the adoption of a Comprehensive Plan for North Greenbush, preferring instead the blank check development polices which defeated the last town board majority in 2005.
But Mr. Evers act once again demonstrates a callous indifference to the laws of governance. He lacks the authority to unilaterally appoint anyone. It is the Town Board acting as a body in which such authority is invested. The same authority he ignored when he gave Casale Excavating an $83,000 without Town Board approval. The same authority he ignored when he informed Civil Service that someone had been “appointed” a Senior Clerk off a list when in fact, the Town Board had not, and to this date, has not, taken such an action.
We can only surmise what his real agenda is for the Comprehensive Plan and the committee of volunteers who have guided it for more than a year. But trying to stack the committee with political supporters is wrong, disruptive and a gross violation of the platform he ran on.
Finally, a footnote, the Town Attorney has sent a letter to those folks Mr. Evers “appointed” without legal authority informing them of the error of commission by the Town Supervisor. The committee has a meeting noticed on the town website for this Wednesday evening at 6:00PM. It should be an interesting meeting. Also posted is the agenda for the Town Board meeting the following night. That agenda includes yet another attempt by the Supervisor to mislead people into thinking that the grant from the county IDA to fund the comprehensive plan includes jobs and salaries for Evers adversaries. It does in fact fund peoples salaries, those at the firm retained to do the work. The agenda also has the Town Board appointing members to the committee, legally and affirms the makeup of the Committee as appointed by the Town Board.