Gaetana Ciarlante
Board relations and communication
Since entering office, Myers has found herself at odds with the board. She said there was “tension” from the beginning because the board majority—Fred Costello Jr., Bruce Leighton and Leeanne Thornton—had all been on Helsmoortel’s team for years.
“They’re obstructionist sometimes and it’s really frustrating,” said Myers. “I would love to have a board majority but if the public doesn’t want to give it to me then we’ll continue to duke it out.”
She added that despite their differences the board often finds common ground. Most votes aren’t contentious.
Myers believes the placid board meetings of the past were a sign there was “groupthink” going on, and that was a problem.
“You can’t have 1100 [unanimous] votes in a row,” she said.
She continued: “Maybe there is a level of comfort lacking, but they were too comfortable for too long and that’s how we got into this position. To have no disagreement means nobody is thinking.”
Myers is often accused by other board members of keeping them out of the loop on town business. She said “communication is a two-way street” and brought up her town supervisor email account, showing several pages of emails to Costello—Helsmoortel’s deputy supervisor and her fiercest critic—and a correlating page showing only a handful of emails from him over the last two years.
Helsmoortel says communication wasn’t a problem when he was in office; that he CC’d so often people would grumble, though often they’d later have a use for the emails.
Ciarlante said she’s noticed the board meetings have “almost been hostile” but “it’s healthy to have a real discussion.”
Open government
Myers has been criticized for adding items to the board’s biweekly meeting agenda late in the process– too late for board members to familiarize themselves with proposed resolutions.
Myers says often things come up in the days leading up to a meeting. “I certainly don’t do it on purpose,” she said. “We don’t have to vote on anything just because it’s on the agenda. In pre-board they can decide not to vote on it.”
“I’m certainly not doing it to manipulate anybody,” she added.
In one notable instance, a resolution opposing the state’s gun law was added to the agenda a short time before the meeting. Pro-gun members of the Saugerties Fish & Game Club saw it and turned up to support it, putting pressure on the board to support it. The board was caught off guard, wondering if Myers tipped someone off in order to increase the odds of a politically advantageous coup– being one of the first towns to oppose the controversial law. (Myers denies this.) The board chose not to vote on the resolution. According to Myers, she asked on the Monday before the following meeting if board members would like to add anything new to the agenda, and they said no. Then the day of the next meeting, they added a watered-down resolution opposing the SAFE act to the agenda.
