Gaines committee member says Town Supervisor trying to pick cronies for committee

Editor:

It looks like I’m in the line of fire because I am running for the Gaines Republican Committee. Let me clarify my position.

I did not support our Gaines Town Supervisor. I still don’t.  The reason? She was a registered voter for 40+ years, but not a Republican. I believe Republicans should support real Republicans.

My concerns:

• A lifetime Democrat, Independent turned Republican to use our party line.

• Fires the Town Attorney, with more than 20 years of the Town of Gaines legal history and expertise in Town Law, without so much as a thank you, and prior to taking office. Why?

• First meeting, illegally eliminates the Planning Board. Why?

• Purchased a costly accounting program, which is not being utilized. Why?

• From day one, employees start resigning/leaving. Not one, but every single one, at the Town Hall (Highway men are union protected). Why?

• It is called bullying, when an employee who made a mistake, and immediately corrects it, gets taken to the State Police for questioning (who find nothing to arrest her for), and the Supervisor writes a letter to the Editor to disgrace her publicly. Then, to makes matters worse, uses taxpayer money to put this same letter in our water bills.  It becomes bullying. The Supervisor didn’t appear to want the “draft” of the audit finalized, making sure the end results were unknown to the public. (Do I think the Clerk made a mistake? Absolutely.  But a letter in my water bill?  Bullying.)

The Supervisor publicly stated at a Board meeting that prior Supervisors didn’t know what they were doing. With all due respect, Mr. Vagg, Mr. Harding, Mr. DeCarlo, Mr. Lattin…none of these gentlemen knew what they were doing? She demeaned them without a second thought.

Our Chairman, Guy Smith, doesn’t call meetings without nudging or calls last minute meetings, doesn’t hand out tickets for committeemen to sell, doesn’t sell tickets himself, and waits until someone tells him what to do next.

I’m not sure why he was faulting me, I gave him a proxy to support Sharon Harding for Clerk. He fails to mention I was the Chairman of the Republican Ball with last minute things to do, and not just “going” to the ball. I find it hard to believe Guy had the initiative to write a letter to the editor, far less two.

Voters should know what is really happening: it is a power play to take over the Republican Committee to ensure the Committee is stacked with cronies and “posse” members.

In the Supervisor’s quest to take over the Republican Committee, she personally passed the petition for Allchin; Sue Smith (Guy’s wife and Town Council member) passed a petition for Burke.

Clearly, town officials want to control the Republican Committee.  The interesting thing is, Republican Committee business is limited to advertising for open seats; interview all candidates interested in a position; decide the best candidate; and pass petitions to get them on a ballot, there is no such thing as a committee “controlling town officials” as Guy Smith says. If Guy is being controlled, it may be because he’s married to a Councilperson, not anything the committee does or can do.

I should mention Mr. Burke holds a town position. The Gaines Code of Ethics doesn’t allow him to run for a political committee position, but he’s running. I guess rules only apply to some people.

This Primary will cost Gaines taxpayers approx. $2,000 to $2,500. Where in the budget is this money appropriated? It appears our Supervisor is using taxpayer money to further her own agenda.

I have no hidden agenda…I have made it known that I may be interested in running for Town Clerk in the future. No hidden agenda here!

Susan Heard

Gaines Committeeperson, District 1