Board Debates Policy Violations, Hears Update on New Property

By BILL BELLEN
OTSEGO COUNTY

The August meeting of the Otsego County Board of Representatives began with Representative Andrew Marietta’s recognition of the semiannual recipients of the county’s Outstanding Employee Award. According to Marietta, nominations were able to be submitted by any resident who wished to recognize a county employee who exhibited a “commitment to outstanding service [and] a high level of productivity.”

Kyle King, waste management and recycling coordinator for the Solid Waste Department, was the first of two recipients to be recognized. King has been with the county since March 2023. Marietta praised King’s work ethic and dedication to coordinating services that benefit the county at large.

Laura Bryant was next to be recognized. A licensed practical nurse for the Department of Health who has been with the county since April 1998, Bryant worked for many years until 2014, when she was laid off following the sale of the Otsego Manor Nursing Home. She was later rehired by the Department of Health in 2017, where she has worked under a number of titles. Marietta praised Bryant’s initiative to continue providing services to the residents of Otsego County and the strength of her communication skills.

Representatives Nora Mendez and Jill Basile were both noted as absent, and no members of the audience chose to speak during the privilege of the floor.

Director of Building Services Tim Donahue and Otsego County GIS Coordinator Levi Anderson were invited to give a presentation on the newly-acquired property purchased by Otsego County. The land totals roughly 387 acres, largely encircling the county’s Meadows Complex.

Donahue’s presentation included a detailed GIS map overlay of the property, which consists of 114 acres of open land, with an additional 162 acres of conservation easements and 194 acres of wetlands overlapping one another.

Donahue began with a brief history of the property, sharing that Otsego County originally bought the land 200 years ago in 1826 for the county courthouse. Upon the courthouse’s replacement, the property was sold in 1959, then repurchased earlier this year. Donahue ran through the structures on the property, including a house along County Highway 33 estimated to have been built in the 1820s. The grave of a Revolutionary War soldier was found nearby, though Donahue noted that it is unclear if there are other graves in the proximity. Closer to the Meadows Complex itself is the main farm, which has a number of older structures like the poor house slaughterhouse and newer ones like a machinery shed—many of which, Donahue shared, have already been appropriated by departments for additional storage space.

A proposal in the Public Works Committee had initially called for $400,000.00 to be allocated for further property assessment, with $100,000.00 to be used for the site survey and $300,000.00 to be used for site planning and analysis for the proposed Fire Training Center. However, McCarty noted that it was determined during the Administration Committee meeting that a request for proposal would be drafted instead in order to attract qualified bidders for the job.

During Rep. Keith McCarty’s Public Works Committee report, he notified the board that Emergency Services Coordinator Victor Jones had requested approval to use county grounds to coordinate a 9/11 memorial service to mark the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. McCarty said the service will likely be held on September 11 on the lawn at 197 Main Street in Cooperstown.

Following McCarty’s report, Rep. Leslie Berliant raised concerns brought to her by constituents affected by clearcutting work along Ottaway Road in Middlefield. She said residents had not been properly alerted to the intended activity there, given the significantly altered scenery and late-night noise caused by the long hours of the loggers. Berliant inquired as to whether any board members knew whose responsibility it was to send notices to surrounding residences, to which no one had an answer.

Berliant cautioned that, without proper notice, these issues could be provoked again during upcoming forestry work along Indian Run Road, also located in Middlefield. McCarty said additional logging was requested by the Town of Middlefield to remove trees that were potential power line hazards, meaning any work done in that regard would not have been on a previously organized schedule. The board concurred that figuring out the proper procedure for notification was important for moving ahead with future forestry endeavors.

After the Human Services Committee report was delivered by Rep. Adrienne Martini, McCarty inquired into whether the Department of Social Services had attempted to work with the homeless community along Route 23 in the Town of Oneonta. Martini said they have been providing services where they can, with both her and Rep. Eamonn Hinchey noting that the land these individuals are on is owned by the New York State Department of Transportation. Hinchey said DOT is assessing what can be done about the situation.

McCarty said he believed the county should have a bigger role, to which Chairman Edwin Frazier expressed that all relevant county teams have visited the site to offer assistance previously.

“They are offered all the assistance we can give them,” Frazier said. “Do they accept it? Not always. Therein lies…part of the issue.”

Berliant brought up the statewide ban on 287(g) agreements and that municipalities have until August 25 to cancel them, asking if Otsego County would be in compliance. Frazier said that he received an update from Sheriff Richard Devlin that ICE acknowledged a request for the termination of the agreement and that it is currently processing.

Berliant and Marietta discussed the potential violation of the county’s social media policy by the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, saying an official violation was yet to be determined and expressing an unclear path forward if repercussions were needed. The Sheriff’s Office received public backlash in June for hiding comments made on a post about the arrest of former sheriff’s office officials, which some—including Berliant—have called a policy violation.

Berliant emphasized the need to develop proper enforcement regarding policy violations and who will be the one to conduct that enforcement, speaking to the sheriff’s potential violations and those of an unnamed department head in an unrelated matter.

“I am concerned about the lack of adherence to the existing policies and what we are going to do now to try and resolve some of the outstanding issues that exist, like missing receipts for credit card purchases and who is going to—I want to say demand those, because they were supposed to be provided—with the appropriate documentation,” Berliant stated.

Berliant continued, saying she is glad the county is moving forward to address this in the future, but that she believed past violations need to properly face repercussions. Frazier said that holes in the policy would be amended to address the problem in the future. He added that he thought going back to find receipts for past purchases “might not be the best use of time,” to which Berliant disagreed.

“This is taxpayer money that’s being spent and we have no documentation to show what that taxpayer money is being spent on. I could not disagree more,” Berliant said.

Rep. Daniel Wilber agreed, adding the stipulation that a window of time should be provided to find the necessary receipts and information, which are stipulations laid out in the county’s existing credit card policy. Frazier agreed with the approach as such. Berliant said the unnamed department head should be given a 30-day window to find the receipts, after which the cards in their department would be cancelled. Frazier said it was the board’s responsibility to verify purchases during committee meetings, to which Berliant pointed out that the department head in question had not attended a committee meeting in two months.

County Administrator Steve Wilson explained that the county’s 2027 budget will likely face the same gap as this year, information he said was a stress on many departments, especially smaller ones. He said layoffs will likely be unnecessary, but that there will undoubtedly be difficult decisions to be made once “the rubber hits the road, so to speak, in the first part of October.” Wilson said sales tax revenue has continued to increase each year, but not as fast as it once did.

Rep. James Powers notified the board that Planning Department Director Tammie Harris’ presentation on data centers was now tentatively planned for the September or October board meeting. He also shared that Otsego County Household Hazardous Waste Days will be held on Friday, August 14 from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. in Unadilla and on Saturday, August 15, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Meadows. Small businesses must call the Solid Waste Department in advance to register for drop off.

With the consent agenda passing unanimously and no further business needed, the board adjourned. The next meeting of the Otsego County Board of Representatives will be held on Wednesday, September 2, at 10 a.m. The August 5 meeting can be viewed in its entirety on the Otsego County New York YouTube channel.