Saturday, November 2, 2013
Rebuttal letter from T.E.M.S members
Here you will find the rebuttal letter mailed to citizens of Thurman and received on or about 31 October, 2013.
We apologize for the link, we will work on this so it may be viewable without it.
We apologize for the link, we will work on this so it may be viewable without it.
Friday, November 1, 2013
Chronicle Article
Here you will find The Chronicle Article.
Copyright 2013 The Chronicle, Glens Falls, New
York • Published October 24, 2013
Lone
Oak Publishing Co., Inc., P.O. Box 153, Glens Falls, NY 12801 • 518.792.1126 •
chronicle@loneoak.com
Thurman:
Wood
vs.
Haskell for
Supervisor
in a
legal
tangle
By
Gordon Woodworth
Chronicle News Editor
There
are only 799 active registered voters
in
the Warren County Town of Thurman,
but
its race for Supervisor is drawing
intense
interest because of its unique
circumstance.
Former
Supervisor John Haskell is
trying
to win his job back despite having
been
forced from office in 2008 after being
convicted
of felony fraud and serving two
months
in Warren County jail.
In
the Republican primary he swamped
the
one-term incumbent Evelyn Wood, 159-
78.
But Ms. Wood is continuing her bid for
re-election,
on the Democrat, Conservative
and
Independence Party lines.
Mr.
Haskell has the Republican and selfdesignated
Voice
of the People lines.
Thurman
is overwhelmingly Republican.
As
of April 1, it had 449 registered
Republicans,
154 Democrats, 46 Independence
Party
and 16 Conservative registrants.
There
are also 130 independents
—
“blanks” with no listed party affiliation.
Ms.
Wood said “in past years, you needed
right
around 220 votes to win. That’s
been
the number in previous years, but I’m
not
sure what will happen this year. I do
think
it will be a very high voter turnout.”
Beyond
Mr. Haskell’s criminal conviction,
two
hot local issues — trash removal
and
emergency medical services — figure
in
the contest.
Ms.
Wood, 36, was appointed supervisor
in
2010 after Red Pitkin resigned. She was
elected
to a full two-year term in 2011.
Mr.
Haskell, 59, was supervisor from
1997
to 2008. His criminal case involved
some
landlocked property that Mr. Haskell
purchased
behind the Thurman Town
Hall.
The
criminal case
New
York State’s Appellate Division has
upheld
Mr. Haskell’s criminal conviction.
It
said that Mr. Haskell first met privately
with
Town Board members asking “that he
be
granted a right-of-way” on the property,
but
then at the subsequent public meeting,
“instead
requested only a utility easement
[related]
to a right-of-way which he repeatedly
indicated
he already owned.”
The
Appellate Division continued, “Following
the
Town Board’s approval of the
conveyance
of a utility easement, [Mr.
Haskell]
successfully sought to have the
December
Town Board meeting minutes
amended
to reflect that he had been granted
a
right-of-way.
“[He]
then obtained and filed a deed conveying
the
right-of-way and subsequently
used
the right-of-way to log the property.”
Mr.
Haskell insists he did not commit a
crime.
“No, definitely not,” he says. “If you
want
to read the transcript, I bet you $100
that
you would not find me guilty.”
Mr.
Haskell says he could have accepted
a
plea bargain with no jail time, but “I am
a
man of principle. I flatly refused to do
that.”
So
why was he found guilty?
“Somebody
perjured themselves during
this,”
Mr. Haskell contends.
He
says, “I guess they said I abused my
power
because I got a right-of-way through
town
property, and as a supervisor, you
couldn’t
do that.
“But
when we got into court, we found
out
that three people applied before me,
two
that year, and we found out that all
three
were actually illegal because it had to
go
up as a permissive referendum.
“And
that’s what nailed me — because
it
wasn’t a permissive referendum, but
neither
was theirs, and they still got their
rights-of-ways,
and I went to jail. So how
do
you figure it?”
Ms.
Wood, Mr. Haskell’s opponent, was
asked
by The Chronicle if she believes Mr.
Haskell
committed a crime.
“I
do believe he did, yes,” she said. “We
have
documents on file here that show that
the
Town Attorney had advised him multiple
times
about the correct procedure. He
had
to know what the correct procedure
was
and that he wasn’t following it.”
If
elected, can he serve?
An
unresolved issue is whether Mr.
Haskell
can actually serve in office if he
wins.
He said state officials have told him
that
he can serve, but he said he didn’t
have
the names of those officials.
Ms.
Wood said, “I have been told that
it’s
unlikely that he would be able to serve.
That’s
something that I imagine would
have
to be tested, if he should win.”
Would
she test it? Ms. Wood replied,
“I
would definitely consider testing it, although
I
have heard there are a number
of
other people in town who are also prepared
to
test it.”
The
Thurman supervisor position pays
$27,257
— $10,800 from the town and
$16,457
for serving on the Warren County
Board
of Supervisors.
Garbage
pickup eliminated
As
for the garbage pick-up issue, Ms.
Wood
said the Town Board eliminated free
garbage
pick-up so it could stay below the
2%
tax cap after state retirement expenses
rose
“astronomically.”
She
added that “because we had free
garbage
pickup, many other people were
bringing
garbage into town to get rid of it.
We
were seeing huge tipping fees, and that
was
going on even before I took office. It was
an
ongoing problem, and the board had to
cut
something in order to stay under the tax
cap,
and still be able to provide services like
elderly
transport and Meals on Wheels.”
Mr.
Haskell says, “I think it could have
been
resolved differently, personally.” He
said
Thurman had provided curbside garbage
pick-up
for 30 years.
“If
we had to stay within this 2% cap,
I
believe if we sell the bags... for a dollar
to
the individuals, it will cover the cost...
and
the people will have the convenience of
curbside
garbage pickup.”
But
Ms. Wood said that if projected revenues
fell
short, “then the taxpayers would
be
paying for the difference” and it “could
have
a significant impact on the budget
and/or
the fund balance.”
The
EMS switch
On
EMS Mr. Haskell and his supporters
fault
Ms. Wood for ending the town’s contract
with
Thurman EMS and contracting
instead
with Warrensburg EMS.
Mr.
Haskell says that Ms. Wood signed a
contract
in April 2011 with Thurman EMS
“for
$25,000 a quarter, and she broke that
contract
half the way through the year.”
“This
is a very needed thing in our community,”
Mr.
Haskell said. “They are volunteers.
They
spend a lot of time....It just upsets
me,
and it upsets a lot of townspeople.
“There
were 118 people at February’s
meeting
who were for Thurman EMS.
There
were four people that wanted Warrensburg
EMS.
And the board, three out of
five,
voted for Warrensburg EMS. They are
not
listening to the people.”
Ms.
Wood said the town’s contract with
Thurman
EMS was for 2012, and ended on
Dec.
31 of that year.
“The
Town was then without a contract
with
any squad until April of 2013 when the
Town
Board voted to contract with Warrensburg
EMS.
No contracts were broken.”
Ms.
Wood said in 2011, “Thurman EMS
had
entered a contract with the Town
which
required them to meet a percentage
of
calls...The Thurman EMS was unable to
meet
the percentage of calls in the contract
and
subsequently lost their contract with
the
Town.”
Another
part of the issue is that Thurman
EMS
offers BLS -- Basic Life Services
—
while Warrensburg’s offers ALS — Advanced
Life
Services.
Ms.
Wood says that “the Town Board
has
been monitoring not only the frequency
of
calls but also the types of calls...over
the
last few years.
“For
instance, from June of 2013 to August
of
2013, Warrensburg responded to
11
calls in the Town, and the only BLS call
was
on June 26, the other 10 were all ALS
calls.”
Mr.
Haskell says, “The thing is to get
people
started to the hospital, not to sit
around
and wait for somebody to arrive.”
Asked
why someone should vote for her,
Ms.
Wood said, “We’ve kept our taxes underneath
the
tax cap, despite having significant
challenges,
like the floods in 2011,
which
devastated the town like we’ve never
seen
before…
“I
have brought in more than a quartermillion
dollars
in grant funding to help replace
roads
and to expand services.
“I
certainly have a mind to the future.
I’m
looking at what our community is going
to
need going forward, such as broadband
access…
“I’m
a full-time supervisor, and the people
here
in town know they can call me
nights,
days, weekends, whenever.”
Ms.
Wood says, “We have worked very
hard
over the last few years to bring the
community
together and to unite us. We
were
really making progress, and had a
good
interaction as a community. This has
been
very divisive and I think it’s very unfortunate.”
Mr.
Haskell likewise cites recent divisiveness
in
the town.
“I
know I can mend that split,” he said.
“All
you have to do is listen to people and
be
friendly and available. I did it before, I’ll
do
it again.”
Evelyn
Wood John Haskell
Post Star Endorsement
Due to the fact that many people do not have subscriptions to the Post Star, we have chosen to copy and paste the Post Star's Political Endorsement, in addition to putting up a link;
ENDORSEMENT: Evelyn Wood is right choice for Thurman supervisor
The decision that the residents of Thurman have on Tuesday
in choosing a town supervisor is unlike any we can remember. On one
hand, the town has a proven leader in Evelyn Wood who has accomplished
much in just three years. Her opponent is a former supervisor who
defrauded the people of Thurman, was removed from office and sent to
jail. The editorial board felt so strongly that the two candidates were
on such different paths, it decided to break the endorsement into two
parts that address. ...
The worst thing that Evelyn Wood is guilty of as supervisor of the town of Thurman is changing things.
We remind residents that her opponent is guilty of far worse.
Thurman residents have a strong sense of community and are determined to keep the same way of life in which they and their parents were raised. We can’t think of another community in which the residents are so involved and their convictions so strong.
We believe that Wood, the 36-year-old Thurman-born-and-raised supervisor, shares those values, and she has been instrumental in protecting that way of life by being fiscally responsible and keeping taxes stable.
“I tend to be more by the book than previous supervisors,” Wood told us.
That’s a good thing.
Wood has been met with opposition at almost every turn with Thurman facing difficult decisions regarding EMS service, trash pickup and Internet service, yet despite that opposition she has moved the town forward on many fronts.
She has consolidated positions to save money, including eliminating a maintenance position at the Town Hall. She often shovels the walk herself or changes a light bulb when the DPW folks are occupied with more important things like plowing snow.
She hired an experienced bookkeeper to keep the town’s financial records in order and in compliance with mandatory state reports. Her sin was not hiring someone from Thurman. Instead, she chose the most qualified person for the job.
The Harris House was closed and the assessor’s office moved into the town so residents could have one-stop shopping to do their business, while the town saved money.
When flooding occurred three times in six months in 2011, Wood led the way in securing funding that fixed the Sky High Bridge by using a culvert design that solved the problem once and for all.
But perhaps her greatest accomplishment is the white space project that will get residents and schoolkids off dial-up Internet service and into the 21st century.
Our editorial board interviewed and endorsed Wood when she first ran for office in 2010. Back then, we found an intelligent woman with enormous potential for the future. What we discovered when we interviewed her again last week was a seasoned professional, who despite so much animosity from so many in her community, remains devoted and committed to all things Thurman. The community is lucky to have her.
If you removed her opponent’s abuse of power from the equation, we believe Evelyn Wood’s record far exceeds what John Haskell was able to accomplish when he was in office.
On that point alone, Thurman residents should return Evelyn Wood to office.
Like the voters of Thurman, we have not heard John Haskell’s plans for the town. We left nearly a dozen messages at his home with an invitation to meet with our editorial board. We never heard from him.
We suspect he is angry at how we covered his trial on corruption charges and his sentencing to time in the county jail. Or perhaps he is upset that we believe he will be unable to take office if he wins the election. Or maybe it is our stand that the acts he perpetrated against the people of Thurman while in office were such a betrayal of trust, he should never be forgiven.
It appeared voters would finally get a chance to hear where Haskell stood on the issues, but he was a no-show at a candidates’ forum.
He cited an unspecified injury that led to a stay in the hospital and surgery. At the time, he sent a letter to be read to the 100 residents in attendance:
“Come January, I will hopefully again be serving the people of Thurman. My record stands on its own if you choose to look at the facts and figures.”
We agree and believe everyone should start by looking at Haskell’s arrest and conviction for defrauding the government.
We were shocked to hear some Thurman voters are under the impression that Haskell was not convicted and that he had done nothing wrong.
We cannot emphasize enough that Haskell was convicted of defrauding the government after altering town documents to gain access to a landlocked property that he bought on the cheap. Haskell was sentenced to two months in Warren County Jail, five years on probation and fined $2,500.
He had used his position of power for his own personal gain.
When he was convicted, he also lost his right to hold office, but not his right to run.
If you look further at Mr. Haskell’s slipshod record in office, it is not much better. The state Comptroller’s last report before Haskell left office found several problems with the town’s operation, including:
— Poor budgeting practices that resulted in the town running up an excessive fund balance. Essentially, the town was overbilling citizens.
— Highway employees were using the time clock less than a third of the time and manual records were missing. The state found that highway employees were not charged for 684.25 hours of leave time. Taxpayers were paying workers for time they did not work.
— The town was giving its scrap metal for free when other towns were getting up to $165 a ton. The town also did not seek competitive bids for insurance coverage in 2007 and 2008.
Mr. Haskell is correct. The record speaks for itself, and we believe no reasonable person could endorse his return to office.
Local editorials represent the opinion of the Post-Star editorial board, which consists of Publisher Rick Emanuel, Editor Ken Tingley, Projects Editor Will Doolittle, Controller Brian Corcoran and citizen representative Vincent Palacino.
http://poststar.com/news/opinion/editorial/endorsement-evelyn-wood-is-right-choice-for-thurman-supervisor/article_e0fa074e-42a2-11e3-9a62-001a4bcf887a.html
The worst thing that Evelyn Wood is guilty of as supervisor of the town of Thurman is changing things.
We remind residents that her opponent is guilty of far worse.
Thurman residents have a strong sense of community and are determined to keep the same way of life in which they and their parents were raised. We can’t think of another community in which the residents are so involved and their convictions so strong.
We believe that Wood, the 36-year-old Thurman-born-and-raised supervisor, shares those values, and she has been instrumental in protecting that way of life by being fiscally responsible and keeping taxes stable.
“I tend to be more by the book than previous supervisors,” Wood told us.
That’s a good thing.
Wood has been met with opposition at almost every turn with Thurman facing difficult decisions regarding EMS service, trash pickup and Internet service, yet despite that opposition she has moved the town forward on many fronts.
She has consolidated positions to save money, including eliminating a maintenance position at the Town Hall. She often shovels the walk herself or changes a light bulb when the DPW folks are occupied with more important things like plowing snow.
She hired an experienced bookkeeper to keep the town’s financial records in order and in compliance with mandatory state reports. Her sin was not hiring someone from Thurman. Instead, she chose the most qualified person for the job.
The Harris House was closed and the assessor’s office moved into the town so residents could have one-stop shopping to do their business, while the town saved money.
When flooding occurred three times in six months in 2011, Wood led the way in securing funding that fixed the Sky High Bridge by using a culvert design that solved the problem once and for all.
But perhaps her greatest accomplishment is the white space project that will get residents and schoolkids off dial-up Internet service and into the 21st century.
Our editorial board interviewed and endorsed Wood when she first ran for office in 2010. Back then, we found an intelligent woman with enormous potential for the future. What we discovered when we interviewed her again last week was a seasoned professional, who despite so much animosity from so many in her community, remains devoted and committed to all things Thurman. The community is lucky to have her.
If you removed her opponent’s abuse of power from the equation, we believe Evelyn Wood’s record far exceeds what John Haskell was able to accomplish when he was in office.
On that point alone, Thurman residents should return Evelyn Wood to office.
Like the voters of Thurman, we have not heard John Haskell’s plans for the town. We left nearly a dozen messages at his home with an invitation to meet with our editorial board. We never heard from him.
We suspect he is angry at how we covered his trial on corruption charges and his sentencing to time in the county jail. Or perhaps he is upset that we believe he will be unable to take office if he wins the election. Or maybe it is our stand that the acts he perpetrated against the people of Thurman while in office were such a betrayal of trust, he should never be forgiven.
It appeared voters would finally get a chance to hear where Haskell stood on the issues, but he was a no-show at a candidates’ forum.
He cited an unspecified injury that led to a stay in the hospital and surgery. At the time, he sent a letter to be read to the 100 residents in attendance:
“Come January, I will hopefully again be serving the people of Thurman. My record stands on its own if you choose to look at the facts and figures.”
We agree and believe everyone should start by looking at Haskell’s arrest and conviction for defrauding the government.
We were shocked to hear some Thurman voters are under the impression that Haskell was not convicted and that he had done nothing wrong.
We cannot emphasize enough that Haskell was convicted of defrauding the government after altering town documents to gain access to a landlocked property that he bought on the cheap. Haskell was sentenced to two months in Warren County Jail, five years on probation and fined $2,500.
He had used his position of power for his own personal gain.
When he was convicted, he also lost his right to hold office, but not his right to run.
If you look further at Mr. Haskell’s slipshod record in office, it is not much better. The state Comptroller’s last report before Haskell left office found several problems with the town’s operation, including:
— Poor budgeting practices that resulted in the town running up an excessive fund balance. Essentially, the town was overbilling citizens.
— Highway employees were using the time clock less than a third of the time and manual records were missing. The state found that highway employees were not charged for 684.25 hours of leave time. Taxpayers were paying workers for time they did not work.
— The town was giving its scrap metal for free when other towns were getting up to $165 a ton. The town also did not seek competitive bids for insurance coverage in 2007 and 2008.
Mr. Haskell is correct. The record speaks for itself, and we believe no reasonable person could endorse his return to office.
Local editorials represent the opinion of the Post-Star editorial board, which consists of Publisher Rick Emanuel, Editor Ken Tingley, Projects Editor Will Doolittle, Controller Brian Corcoran and citizen representative Vincent Palacino.
http://poststar.com/news/opinion/editorial/endorsement-evelyn-wood-is-right-choice-for-thurman-supervisor/article_e0fa074e-42a2-11e3-9a62-001a4bcf887a.html
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