View video of the entire debate. The meeting room of Bethlehem Town Hall was packed Thursday, Sept. 1, as the two candidates in the upcoming Democratic primary for the office of town supervisor met for a debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters and Spotlight Newspapers that featured some verbal sparring but also frank discussions about the town’s past, present and future. John Clarkson and Kyle Kotary made opening and closing statements and fielded 14 questions provided by the audience and relayed by Spotlight Newspapers Managing Editor William R. DeVoe. These covered a wide range of topics, and by the end, the differences between the candidates’ platforms — or perhaps more accurately, their opinion of the town’s position and path — were laid bare. Kotary pointed often to his more than five years on the Town Board as experience that makes him an ideal candidate for the office of supervisor. Clarkson countered that the current state of things in town is the very reason his opponent shouldn’t be given more responsibility. “We both agree on much of the issues that have to be addressed. The unfortunate thing is they have not been addressed,” Clarkson said. “We need change in Bethlehem’s town government.” Kotary described himself as a consensus builder.
“As a member of the Bethlehem Town Board I have fought to make our community a better place to live, work and raise a family,” he said. “I believe we can have local government that is innovative, progressive and fiscally responsible.” The primary race is of great importance to both candidates. If Kotary emerges on top he’ll be the presumptive incoming supervisor, as he would hold all party lines except the Working Families Party line and the Conservative Party line, the latter of which is open as an opportunity to ballot in the primary. Kotary is endorsed by the Democratic, Republican and Independence parties. He’s nearing the end of his sixth year on the Town Board, and is midway through his second term having first been elected in 2005. He owns an Albany-based communications firm, Empire Public Affairs, specializing in public relations work. Over the years, he’s worked at various levels of government, often in a communications role, including as communications director in the state Senate and as a special assistant in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “I know what it’s like to make a payroll, I know what it’s like to manage groups small and large,” Kotary said at Thursday’s debate. “We need a super who’s going to set the vision, who’s going to work with the board to get the majority if not the entire board to support that vision.” Kotary lives in Delmar with his wife and has three children.
Clarkson on Thursday said if he doesn’t win the Democratic line that would be the end of his bid for supervisor, even if he were to secure the Conservative line (which the party offered but was later invalidated on a challenge by Kotary on the procedural paperwork). He transitioned from this thought to discuss what has been the linchpin of his campaign from the start: the fact Kotary garnered endorsements from the two major parties. He said this was his chief reason for pursuing the office.
“I think we should honor our two-party system,” Clarkson said. “If our two-party system at the local level doesn’t provide competition and choice, it really fails us.” Kotary said he would continue his run even if he were not to hold the line of his own Democratic Party. “I’m not running for supervisor to simply be a choice, or to support one party or another. At the local level especially, it’s about people and not about politics,” he said. Clarkson returned to the subject of partisanship often, accusing Kotary of “a general pattern of obstruction” toward the agenda of now-Supervisor Sam Messina for political reasons, pointing to a failed proposal to broadcast town meetings on the Internet and to funding for the repair of Town Hall that wasn’t approved before the parapet wall collapsed. These assertions were at the heart of several spirited exchanges throughout the evening.
“I think you kind of lost your mantle of non-partisanship, if you want to talk about that,” Clarkson said early on. “What’s important is to speak up and to be accounted for, to stand up when you have a difference of opinion, and that’s what I have done,” Kotary retorted, also explaining the reasons for his decisions. The opinion of the state of affairs in town government and affairs was probably the point the candidates diverged on the most. In fact, they largely agreed on the way forward on a number of issues, including on moving ahead shared services initiatives, revisiting the town’s ethics law, focusing on commercial development and the need for a viable long-term plan to address the town’s crumbling infrastructure. Kotary brought up revisiting the town’s comprehensive plan and brought up his plan to utilize Youtube and other free online tools to expand the town’s cyber presence and get meetings on the Internet. He said the town’s planning and zoning boards should be more business friendly. Clarkson’s bid for supervisor is his first run at elected office. In the Town of Bethlehem, he’s been involved in the town’s 20/20 Advisory Committee for years, including being a co-chair on the group’s subcommittee on modernization and economy, efficiency and effectiveness of town government. He’s now retired and still serving as an adviser on government efficiency at Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress Group. He had a career in state government, including stints in the Division of the Budget and the comptroller’s office. He was the executive director of the Commission on Local Government Efficiency. “Management is a continuous job… you cannot lead a large group of people unless you have their trust,” Clarkson said at Thursday’s debate. “I’m very proud of my reputation in state government, and people have approved of what I’ve done.” Clarkson lives in Slingerlands with his wife and has two children.
Clarkson said he would take a pay cut if he were elected supervisor and said he’d like to see a committee look into government reform ideas. Proposals made by a 20/20 committee Clarkson served on to extend the supervisor’s term and make several elected positions appointed never gained traction on the Town Board. He also said the town should make sure it exercises control during the planning process for big projects. The town’s fiscal position was a recurring theme, and on that subject, the candidates had different thoughts. Kotary outlined the need for changes, including an end of “off budget” spending and a reassessment of the town’s revenue streams, but ultimately said this year’s budget is a shining example of the power of compromise and, as a result, one of the strongest fiscal plans the town’s put out in recent memory. “We have, I think, appropriately used fund balances,” Kotary said. “That’s money used for rainy days, and it’s raining, literally and figuratively. That is there for emergency spending, for capital projects, and that’s what we’ve used it for.” Clarkson, on the other, hand, asserted there are deep-seated issues in the town’s budget and its budgeting philosophy. He advocated that the town cut down on its borrowing and put a halt to the spending of the town’s reserve funds. “For the last four years, we have been balancing the budget by spending down reserves at a rapid rate. That is in essence like paying your mortgage using a savings account,” he said. When asked after the debate about the recently unveiled draft budget for the town (see related story), Kotary intimated that there’s a long road ahead. “It’s a late, but a good place and plan to start,” he said. “I’m not for the tax increase right now, but I think it’s a solid start and we have a lot to do.” Clarkson said the budget implements some of the things he’d like to see done, but also referred to it as a “tight budget.” “They’re moving away from spending reserves…that’s at least a start,” he said.
The primary is on Tuesday, Sept. 13.