With Hurricane Sandy I was frustrated. I worked for a week to get DEP to turn off the water releases from the reservoir prior to the hurricane, and they promised they would do it by the Sunday before the hurricane, which was predicted for Monday afternoon. They didn’t turn it off Sunday, and I was on the phone until Sunday night at 9:30 – Senator Bonacic’s office, Pete Lopez, DEP, DEC, all those people. I really worked to get it shut down Sunday. What came out of it was that we made enough noise to get the attention of DEC, and when they are going to do releases again, or when something happens, DEC calls me and says, “Kelly, how is this going to impact Saugerties?” We’ve never had that before.
During your campaign you criticized the prior administration for its executive sessions. Have you changed your views since taking office?
I was criticized earlier in the year about some executive sessions, and some of them had to do with personnel. There were some people who tested positive for drugs and we had to deal with it. My criticism of the former administration was not the number of executive sessions, but that the public was not properly notified.
One frustration I have is that in other places I’ve worked, a supervisor gets to supervise people.
I can own up to a certain amount of naiveté; that’s real. The way the village is structured, the mayor is able to supervise his employees. That’s the background I’m coming from [a former Village Board trustee]. Here I run the board meetings, but that’s it. That was part of my learning curve. When you supervise people by committee – first of all, I don’t like that because it becomes a popularity contest. And you can’t share all the reasons with the public. It is frustrating when you have board members who agree before the meeting that something needs to be done, and then at the meeting they back down because of a crowd opposing the action.
Sometimes there are genuine, legitimate concerns that can’t be shared with the public, and they have to be dealt with. That’s one of the most difficult things I have had to do. These are people’s jobs, this is their livelihood, and it is very hard. I think long and hard about those things – is it merited, is it warranted, do we have to do this?
The Comprehensive Plan is coming up this year. How has the planning process gone?
We have not had public hearings on it this year; we will have to do that. It’s a little bit controversial; it’s not finished yet. There was an informational meeting, but we have to finish it up.
There has to be something in it to help people retain single-family homes. Something I’m working on, which we may see coming this year, is a medical exemption for people. They have income exemptions for people to lower their taxes based on income, and the state also allows a medical exemption, so if you have medical bills that significantly impact your finances, that can be counted as an income reduction, but we have to pass a local law to do that. I will be bringing that to the board this year. We have to look at the impact on the budget, but to find ways to help people stay in their own homes is really important. I’m hoping the Comprehensive Plan will become something the majority of people in town can sign on to and agree with.
When I was on the Village Board, we voted to work with the town to do a joint town-village comprehensive plan, and one of the things I was very clear about was that I really wanted it to be public-driven. That’s a disappointment I have with the process. It should be generated by the public for the public. It has been so long [since the last plan was adopted] and the town has changed so much we really need a new plan, not just an update.
The supervisor’s job is partly a job, but partly a public service. Should the pay be comparable to a full-time executive?
The job has really evolved; my job is budgeted for 30 hours a week. There’s no way I can do this job in 30 hours a week. I have become the CEO of a big corporation. We have a lot of employees. I understand that it is public service, but I have a kid in college and I have to be able to pay my own bills, too. You shouldn’t have to be retired or be a millionaire to be a town supervisor. This job should be enough to support your family. I understand it [proposed salary increase from $35,000 to $50,000] wasn’t going to fly. It wasn’t what the community wanted, but to keep harrowing me over it? Give me a break.
What was the problem with budgeting for the social Safety Net?
I’m excited that the county will be taking over the Safety Net [social services, administered by the county but funded through town taxes]. But I was disappointed that we got notice so late that we had to pay it. I talked to Burt Gulnick in the finance office, and he said we got notice in October. I asked about it and he said the county executive said he had announced it at the supervisors’ meeting in October. I don’t remember that at all. I called other supervisors who were there, and they said, “No, Kelly, you’re right.” I looked at the minutes and it wasn’t mentioned; I thought, somebody’s covering their tracks. But if the county is going to require us to send in a preliminary budget in September, they should give us projections of what they need from us a month before it’s due. We should have that in August.
Some people have suggested that we could have held a meeting to revise the budget, but there wasn’t time to give the proper notification; we got the notice on Thursday and voted on Monday.
What are some of the ongoing budget problems?
They have $100,000 outstanding for the Kings Highway GEIS (Generic Environmental Impact Statement), and revenue will be less this year than expected; the transfer station lost $100,000. We have uncollected grants, particularly from Senator Bonacic; they left money sitting in Albany. I discovered this in the summer. When I got a notice that they were going to cancel the grants I talked to people in Albany, and it turned out there were grants back to 2005 that weren’t collected. Vernon [Benjamin] and I worked with the Senator’s office to get an extension on the grant money that wasn’t collected. It was $138,000. We applied to have that reworked so we can apply it to fix Tissal Road. We will be on a solid financial footing this year.
With the big change in the budget this year, wouldn’t you have had to hold another public hearing?
That’s a good question. I don’t know, but in order to pass our budget, and get the amended figures in, and not have them take our sales tax, that’s what we had to do. I didn’t have time to hold another public hearing, and we had to amend the budget. Our attorney said this was legal. I lost some friends in county government because I called attention to the problem.
With all the hassles, is the job worth doing?
There’s some meanness here, but there’s also a tremendous – I want to call it wonderfulness, too. There’s a community character here that even in the scuffle of things, never seems to get lost. If I just sit here all day, the impression I get is from people coming in with complaints. But when I get out, the real character of Saugerties comes out. That’s when you learn what people need, what they want, what their hopes are, how their families are doing. That’s the best part of my job.
What have you enjoyed about the job?
One of my favorite things I did this year was going to the Saugerties Junior High School assembly about anti-violence and bullying. Reverend Arnold was there [Johann Christoph Arnold]; he’s a leader of the Hutterans, and he is a wonderful speaker.
I signed off on an Eagle Scout project this year, and Fourth of July was wonderful. The Lifespring annual meeting was really great – the music was terrific, it was Jay Unger and Molly Mason. I was a speaker at Wreaths Across America at the American Legion, we got to do youth awards this year, Christmas in the Village was a lot of fun. Bob Siracusano did the toy giveaway with the Chamber of Commerce; he really made Christmas for so many families. And the installation of lights at Christmas; I got to ride in the bucket truck, and it was amazing looking down at the village from up high.
There are so many wonderful people in town that really add to the community character. They step up to the plate to build things up; those are the people I admire most.
