When Logan e-mailed the chairman to clarify his position in light of Torres’ letter, Calimano responded, “I did not support the reappointment of Tim to the Planning Board, however, it was and always has been a Town Board decision. I think I was caught unaware that the Town Board was making appointments to the Planning Board in December. As you are aware, the last two members the Town Board appointed to the Planning Board were never discussed with me, nor did I ever see a resumé from either of them. But again, the appointment or reappointment is a Town Board decision and not mine.”
Logan took that opportunity to take Torres to task for releasing e-mails between board members without seeking advice from the town’s attorney. All such communication is subject to release via the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), which calls for certain confidential information to be redacted. Not running it through proper channels, as Torres apparently did not when sharing an e-mail with School Board member Steve Greenfield, is “harmful to myself and other board members,” opening the town up to liability, Logan said.
“You think I lie,” supervisor Susan Zimet said to Torres, “but we’ll deal with that going forward.” Zimet said that a number of related issues would be addressed on January 15, which she said “should be a very interesting meeting.”
In addition to the sewer questions, which sparked the debate about Rogers, Zimet declined to make liaison appointments among board members, setting the stage for some kind of retribution against Torres for speaking out publicly on these issues. However, several times during the course of the meeting, Zimet said she would not talk about those subjects during the reorganizational meeting.
Despite that intention, the “Sewergate” issue, as it’s been called, continued to be brought up by other board members. When it came time to designate an engineer for the town — one of a long series of largely boilerplate motions made during this first meeting of the year — Logan extolled the virtues of David Clouser, who has filled that role since 1996, and expressed how much it bothered him that Board of Education members felt they had been lied to by the engineer. While Logan did not mention it, Clouser’s impartiality has also been raised by town residents on Plains Road, where he is overseeing exploration for a possible water source for the village.
Supervisor Zimet turned again to Torres at this point, asking, “Do you think Dave Clouser would bring a plan forward that would put our children at risk?”
“How is this relevant?” Torres asked.
Zimet read from an e-mail exchange in which Torres had shared a message from Clouser with Greenfield, the School Board member, in which Greenfield apparently called Clouser a liar. “Would you like to comment?” she pressed Torres. “Do you agree with Steve Greenfield that Dave Clouser is a liar?”
Torres again asked about relevancy, and also called the supervisor’s line of questioning “inappropriate,” explaining that he could trust Clouser, but also have questions about the sewer feasibility study.
Throughout the exchange, Zimet continued to refer to the January 15 meeting as more appropriate for this discussion. “We’ll talk about this next week,” she said at one point while grilling Torres. Later on, she remarked, “We will bring this up later so people can really know what’s going on.”
After Clouser was reappointed unanimously, Zimet said to him, “We will continue to defend your honor.”
The board did find time to pass all of the requisite motions, and some changes to town procedures were indicated. The board may impose fees to provide electronic records in response to FOIL requests, although no such decision was made yet. Members of volunteers boards must now file their oath of office and financial disclosure form within 30 days or the appointment will be nullified. Some adjustments were made to Transfer Station and Planning Board fees, and there will be fees set for use of the new pavilion at the Field of Dreams, as well as Clearwater Park. The supervisor also advised that there is a social media use policy in the works, which could also have an impact on Torres, who has provided updates to the town’s Facebook page.
The New Paltz Town Board will hold its next meeting on Thursday, January 15, 7:30 p.m., at the New Paltz Community Center.
Considering that the NY Attorney General opinions contain many allowances for holding dual office as well as some prohibitions, Kevin Barry is misrepresenting the facts when he states “the New York state attorney general’s opinions are replete with cases finding that divided loyalties often occur from a person holding positions in more than one municipality.” See for yourself: http://www.ag.ny.gov/appeals-and-opinions/numerical-index
In fact, the AG opinion that is most similar to that of Tim Rogers in New Paltz, allows the following dual office holdings:
1996-29 There is no prohibition on a person serving as the president
of a school board and as the deputy supervisor of a town.
EDUCATION LAW §§ 2103(1), 2112(3); TOWN LAW §§ 23(1), 29, 42, 125
http://www.ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/opinion/I%2096-29%20pw.pdf
I think the Town and Village Boards do an atrocious job and they all need to step down. Infighting seems priority number one here. And that my friends is the wrong priority. We miss every single time!!! Beyond that, I’d merge the town and village as one entity, cut out all the fat, remove duplicate roles, remove duplicate services and start actually running this town like a visionary, growing, locally conscious community that ALSO understands you can’t block every proposal every single time and expect to survive and thrive. These folks are just amateur beyond pathetic.