Recorder News Staff
FONDA -- At a meeting of what some hoped would offer a clean slate and a moment of solidarity, tensions reared and lines were drawn in the sand at the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors organizational meeting Monday night.
Accusations about secret meetings, discord about who should be the chairman, and name-calling highlighted the board's first meeting of the year, which started with an altercation about seating when Amsterdam 3rd Ward Supervisor Ronald J. Barone Sr. assumed the seat held by former 5th Ward Supervisor Karl Baia.
Perhaps symbolically setting the tone for the evening, new 5th Ward Supervisor Michael Chiara refused to take Barone's seat, and opted to sit on the other side of the room, which is structurally divided by a wooden bar to separate the audience and the board.
The divide was obvious when it came time to vote; even the few full-board sponsored resolutions preceded by amendments were far from unanimous.
The divide started when it came time to name the chairman, for which 1st Ward Supervisor Vito "Butch" Greco had expressed hope would be a full-board sponsorship.
Charleston Supervisor Shayne Walters was first nominated for the post, but Amsterdam town Supervisor Thomas DiMezza countered with a nomination for Barone.
But the only ones to vote for Barone were DiMezza and 4th Ward Supervisor Barbara Wheeler, and that trio voted against Walters' nomination. But the majority spoke, and Walters' will head the board this year.
"Every year, we see the chairman end up acting like a referee to try to keep everyone in order," Walters said, noting later it's a role he would not assume. "The majority runs this board. It's not my place to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy, it's not to be a peacemaker, I'm not here to be friendly. We have a job to do."
Walters' first order of business was an amendment to the meeting's rules and procedures in regard to the appointment of the county auditor.
It was the first amendment offered by a supervisor to the usual order of business that also includes designation of a county purchasing agent and budget officer, which resulted in a majority vote in the abolition of the first position, a change to the name of the second position and the length of its appointment, and tabling the designation of the third.
DiMezza cried foul, as he believes the items should be discussed in the board's committees before the decisions were made, and accused the majority of conjuring the amendments and outcomes before the meeting.
"It stinks to high heaven. So far tonight, we've taken zero steps forward and 10 steps back. How can you not have an auditor position for a $93 million budget? It's a travesty, and all this was concocted behind closed doors. I'm hearing from the other side of the room that everything went out in emails. I must have missed these emails."
After the meeting, DiMezza alleged that some supervisors even gathered at the county office building to hold secret meetings.
The three positions were the topic of discussion during the board's closeout meeting, and Minden town Supervisor Thomas Quackenbush said he reached out to Attorney Douglas Landon about government law and whether the positions, including Landon's, were mandated.
"For the hundredth time, I've heard about this closed-door bull. I sent out an email to everyone, and [Landon] responded to everyone with opinions. ... Nothing was done secretly, I just ask questions. This has gone on for at least two weeks. I asked about any appointed position, and we found out we can't do anything about the county attorney."
Still, DiMezza wasn't convinced, and Greco said the meeting felt "too rehearsed."
Walters refuted allegations of secret meetings. The Recorder published a report in December 2010 about nine town supervisors and one city supervisor who met for an unpublished meeting about the county budget.
"When the majority makes a plan of how to move forward, it's called moving forward. We've never met here," he said of the county office, but admitted "sometimes we would see each other at Stewart's."
When asked, Walters said there was never a quorum. "There might have been five of us, in now way was it ever even close to a quorum."
As the new chairman, Walters said he found some of the antics at the organizational meeting "petty" and "pathetic."
As for the chair issue, Barone said he simply wanted to sit by DiMezza, and it wasn't meant to be an act of disrespect against Chiara. But he said Chiara could "sit in the bathroom" as far as he was concerned.
"It's sandbox 101," Chiara said, noting he would only sit in Baia's former seat because "I wasn't elected to the 3rd Ward. It's a matter of principal. They just can't stand that I was elected."
"You don't get elected to a desk," was Barone's response.