Who’s On First?
by Thaddeus Flint
The kerfuffle continues in New Lebanon as the Town Board found itself mired in ethics complaints at its September 10 meeting.
Readers might remember last month’s Board meeting went full kerfuffle after a seemingly innocuous report that noted the Town’s Fire Department (the LVPA) still had some homework to turn in when it came to stuff it owns. That surprised pretty much nobody, as the LVPA is understaffed and trying to figure out its future—or if it has a future—all the while saving property and people, and stuff like that. The Board, for the most part, had no problem with cutting the firefighters another check so they could continue doing what they do while they continued trying to get done what they hadn’t got done yet.
Councilman Norman Rasmussen, however, worried that letting some entities slide while holding other entities to their contracts wasn’t such a hot idea. Preferential treatment of “vendors,” said the Councilman, “is not in the best interest of the residents of this Town.”
That word “vendor” probably didn’t help things all that much. Some residents seemed taken aback with having the volunteers that save property and people, and stuff like that, referred to as “vendors.” Life savers, yes. Vendors, no.
One resident, Planning Board member Robert Smith, however found himself so taken aback he ended up affronted. Perhaps unable to sit idly by with so much back and front, he made the snap decision to openly wish that Councilman Rasmussen’s home might perish in a fire. Probably, this wasn’t the best of decisions.
It seems that some residents were even of the opinion that this was one of the worst decisions a member of the local government could make at a public meeting. So, affronted themselves by it, they then filed complaints with the Town’s Ethics Board. Probably.
The Ethics Board can’t publicly say who it has complaints filed against. However, at least one person in the room confirmed it was against Smith, and pretty much everyone else in the room knew exactly what was happening without anyone really saying what was happening. It’s that small town thing.
Now, New Lebanon is a small town, but here’s just how small a town it is: Planning Board member Robert Smith is also on the Ethics Board.
“The Ethics Board is like a little private island in an ocean of chaos,” said Interim Town Supervisor Meg Robertson. However, that island seems to have some of its own chaos as well. First of all, who’s in charge? The Chair is Jeannine Tonetti. Or is the Chair Jeannine Tonetti? Is there a Chair at all? Some members of the Ethics Board don’t seem to know. Tonetti said that she asked at one meeting “who wants to be Chair?” and nobody said anything. “Fine, I will be Chair,” she said and since nobody disagreed, she was Chair. The problem is that not everyone there seems to remember that happening. Or even remember if they were there while it was happening. That would easily be solved by reading the minutes from that meeting, but there seem to be no minutes from that meeting.
Nonetheless, a bunch of complaints showed up in the Ethic Board’s mailbox, and Tonetti took a look at them and determined she couldn’t take a look at them. The reason for this was Ethics Board member Robert Smith was (probably) the subject of the complaints. As such, Tonetti said, “it wasn’t in our jurisdiction” anymore, and forwarded them to the Town Board. “It’s the law,” she added.
Not everyone agreed with that. Some Ethics Board members felt that they should have reviewed the complaint first to determine if they could review the complaint. Councilman Kevin Smith concurred. “Where do you have the written authority that gives you sole right to make that determination?” he asked.
Whether the Chair could or couldn’t, and if in fact the Chair was the Chair, either way the complaints are now being handled by the Town Board. And this just adds to the chaos. Because it is very possible that Councilman Rasmussen was not only the victim of the action that led to the complaint, he might have even filed a complaint himself. Such confusion is magical because it caused an attorney to appear just like that!
But confusion often begets confusion, and when a lawyer is added that’s almost a guarantee. The Town’s attorney, John Tingley, wanted to brief the Board in a private recess on the legal aspects of the case, but also wanted Rasmussen to first recuse himself because he’s (probably) involved. Rasmussen didn’t see the point to that so early in the game, but said his personal policy was to go with what legal counsel advises. So he went with that, but might now be rethinking his personal policies. This is because when the Board came back Rasmussen had a hard time getting the attorney to make any sense of what was going to happen next. Not only Rasmussen, but plenty of other residents in the building were shaking their heads and saying “what?” every time Tingley rephrased his answers in such a legalised way that nobody really knew what he was saying. After a lengthy back and forth, with Tingley and Rasmussen both becoming obviously irritated, it finally came down to this: The Town Board will look at the complaints to see if they should be investigated further. Then, if they should, the appropriate body—be it the Town Board, the Ethics Board, the Recreation Commission, who knows?—will be tasked with doing that. In the meantime, the Ethics Board held a meeting September 16, presumably to determine if the Chair is the Chair and stuff like that.
In easier-to-process news, the Halloween happenings that appeared last year along Route 20 called “Scream Creek” will return again this October, billed as “The Haunt,” after the Board gave the event its approval. The only requirement will be that Town Zoning and Code Enforcement Officer Cissy Hernandez and safety officials do a walk-through of the haunted trail to make sure attendees will be safe as they are scared to death. Promoter Steve Clark said the event will be safe and fun. “Everyone gets the cheapest flashlight I can find,” he said. The Haunt will happen on October 4-5, 11-12, 18-19, 25-26, and the 31st, of course. Clark says he hopes the event will grow and continue to return. “I think at these times in our lives a little bit more celebration is good for everyone,” he added.