Clifton Park Town Board member Sandy Roth lashed out at fellow Republican board members for not considering his request to table a resolution to appoint John Ryan to the Clifton Park Water Authority.
During the Clifton Park Town Board meeting Monday, April 28, Roth said he deserved a chance to speak about the matter as the most senior member serving on the board and as the liaison to the Clifton Park Water Authority.
Roth, who was recuperating from a heart attack the day of the Monday, April 21, vote to appoint Ryan, voiced his concerns that day by way of a letter to the Town Board read by Clifton Park Republican Committee member Steve Bulger.
At that time, I was in no way insisting that anyone be appointed to the board, Roth said, adding that he was simply asking the board to pull the resolution from the agenda. `It is not up to any single person to appoint someone to a board.`
Despite his request to pull the resolution from the agenda, the board approved the appointment in a 4-to-0 vote.
Roth expressed his disappointment with Supervisor Phil Barrett for voting in favor of the appointment in line with the other board members. Barrett defended his stance by saying his vote had no impact because the other three board members had already voted to adopt the resolution.
`There is nothing to say that you couldn’t vote ‘no’ on that resolution,` Roth said.
He said Barrett could have disagreed with the board publicly.
Although none of the board members, including Barrett, responded to Roth’s comments during the meeting, at last weeks’ meeting board members Tom Paloucci, Scott Hughes and Lynda Walowit said the absence of Roth was being used as a cover to shade the real issue, which, they said, is that the Republican Committee has tried to control the Town Board’s actions.
The board members charge that they have been intimidated over the past several weeks to vote in step with the Republican Committee.
Hughes said the committee requested the board members’ presence at a political caucus, which Hughes said is `illegal and unethical.`
According to Hughes, discussions with Bob Freeman, the state’s expert on open government, revealed to board members that the actions taken by the Clifton Park Republican Committee are illegal under the Open Meetings Law.
All of the Clifton Park Town Board members are part of the Republican Party, and majority attendance at these proposed caucuses violates the law.
In a Tuesday, April 15, e-mail sent to Town Board members and other Republican Committee members, Chairman of the Clifton Park Republican Committee Bob Wilcox states, `Reminder that I have scheduled a caucus for this Friday at 7:30 a.m. at Neil/Paul’s office to discuss the Maxwell and Lapp Road PUDs, zoning issues and follow up past issues.`
Hughes said he suspects all of this political outrage is linked to the Saratoga County water plan. The county is looking for Clifton Park to sign on to the $67 million county water system.
Roth did not speak to this in his hourlong comments addressed to the board on April 28.
He said there was no urgency to appoint an individual to the Water Authority board, and he refused to meet with Ryan to discuss the appointment.
`Meeting with you now means nothing to me at this point in time,` Roth said in regard to a request made by Ryan to meet with him.
Roth also expressed concern for Joseph Stracuzzi, vice chairman of the Water Authority, who would have to work with Ryan. He said Stracuzzi served on the Water Authority board during the time Ryan expressed his discontent with the board.
In several letters to the editor of newspapers in 1997, Ryan criticized the Water Authority for a change in rate structure.
`For anybody to degrade that group of people is sad,` Roth, said referring to the comments made by Ryan about the Water Authority to newspapers nearly a decade ago.
He assured residents and the board that he plans to serve the town for at least the next 20 months of his term. “
