The letter posted to social media Tuesday calls on Chairman Matt Murell to resign and alleges that the Stockport supervisor “engaged in unethical and potentially unlawful conduct” to block a petition by Columbia County Forward, an initiative associated with the Columbia County Democratic Committee.
The six Democratic supervisors who signed the letter include: Minority Leader Tistrya Houghtling of New Lebanon, Hillsdale Supervisor Mike Dvorchak, Hudson 1st Ward Supervisor Randall Martin, Hudson 4th Ward Supervisor Linda Mussman, Gallatin Supervisor John Reilly, and Copake Supervisor Richard Wolf.
“I feel like public trust is important, and the trust of the board that you represent as chairman is important," says Houghtling. "And unfortunately, through this process over the past month and a half, the public trust has been eroded.”
In New York state, only 19 of 62 counties have a county executive. Columbia County Forward collected nearly 4,000 signatures this year in support of a ballot measure that would make Columbia County one of them — but voters won’t see it on the ballot in November, because hundreds of those signatures were thrown out by Board Clerk Kelly Baccaro.
Murell did not return a request for comment to WAMC, but he has previously described the petition as an attempt by the county Democratic Party to install veto power over the majority-Republican board, “without any real or accurate justification as to what needs to be changed or ‘fixed’ under current government conditions.” He’s also said the petition lacked statutorily required language and dates, and that many of the signatures didn’t pass a line-by-line review.
Sam Hodge, chair of the Columbia County Democratic Committee, filed a lawsuit challenging Baccaro’s decision to dismiss the petition in July.
“The clerk looked at signatures, and if you abbreviated the word ‘road’ to ‘rd’ she claimed that your signature was invalid and that they couldn’t verify your address," says Hodge. "Absolutely, 100 percent ridiculous.”
That lawsuit, according to Hodge, never reached the point of discussing the signatures. State Supreme Court Judge Richard Mott threw out the lawsuit last week for not explicitly naming the three people who set off Baccaro’s review and dismissal in the first place.
Those objectors did testify, however, and it’s partially that testimony that is prompting supervisors like Houghtling and Dvorchak to call for Murell’s removal. They say Murell used taxpayer dollars to hire a special counsel that helped challenge the petitions.
“He is a head Republican lawyer for the Republicans of New York state — so he is a partisan lawyer hired by the chairman, without consultation or approval of the board of supervisors," Houghtling explains. "And we found out in testimony that he and Matt Murell and Kelly Baccaro, the clerk, actually helped prepare the objections."
“Partisanship should have had no role in this whatsoever," Dvorchak adds. "Had the Republican Party itself helped those three objectors comb through those signatures and find 1,600 problems — OK, the Republican Party can do that. But for this to happen in 401 State Street, again, it rises to the level of calling for a resignation.”
At least one of the objectors testified in court that he had not written the objection himself, but that it was provided to him by the clerk’s office. In previous statements to WAMC, Murell has said that a section of New York’s Alternative County Government Law — under which the petition was filed — allows the county to hire special counsel in this case, and that “expenses incurred in connection with the submission of any question under this chapter shall be a charge against the county.”
Hodge says Supervisor Martin has already called on the state Comptroller’s Office to investigate the hiring of the special counsel. He says the county Democratic Committee will also be filing complaints with the bar association and Hatch Act violations against Murell and Baccaro. He says it’s too late, however, to appeal the lawsuit in any way that would get the petition on the ballot in November.
“Unfortunately we’re out of time," says Hodge. "And so we made the difficult decision to not appeal and instead focus on our local races here, but also build momentum for a future effort to create an elected, accountable, full-time county executive for Columbia County.”
The Board of Supervisors’ next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at 401 State Street in Hudson.
