A principal and former confidential secretary are going head-to-head for a full term as Niskayuna Town Supervisor in November.
The Schenectady County town has been without an elected town supervisor since Democrat Jamie Puccioni resigned in 2024. The Democrat left office during her second term to return to a full-time teaching position at the University at Albany.
Erin Cassady-Dorion, a 43 -year-old who was appointed to fill the remainder of Puccioni's term by the town board in September, has been endorsed by the town's Democratic committee as she runs for a full term.
Cassady-Dorion, a former confidential secretary to Puccioni, says she was lucky to have some experience in the towns' operations before becoming supervisor.
“I had established relationships, I had kind of walked through things with her, I had sat through meetings, I had shadowed her on a lot of different projects, so I had some level of understanding for a lot of what she was doing and I think that was really helpful in taking over,” she said.
Challenging Cassady-Dorion is Niskayuna High School Principal John Rickert. The 54-year-old has been endorsed by the town Republican committee.
Rickert is retiring at the end of this school year.
He says he is running to represent the town of roughly 22,000 because he wants to stay involved and connected even after his school career ends.
“I thought it was a good opportunity for me to maybe utilize my leadership in a different way, I’ve been on the school side for a long time, the municipal side is new to me but yet there is some carryover and some things I have certainly learned in my years of working in school. I just want to help and bring some stability back to our town,” he said.
Both candidates, running for a two-year term, plan to tackle the town’s water utility price hikes from last year.
In May 2023, the Town Board voted to shift away from flat fees to use-based billing. The going rate for water is $4.40 per 1,000 gallons used over the minimum of 9,490 gallons.
The rate for sewer use in District 1 is $4.53 per 1,000 gallons over the 14,235-gallon minimum and $3.55 for District 6.
The change resulted in some residents reporting substantial increases in their bills.
Rickert says he wants to understand the problem and bring experts together to come up with a solution.
“So, I want to meet with a team of advisors to really bring me up to speed on what the issues are, then meet with the financial team and say OK, we know from a technical side what the issues are, is it affordable, can we do it, if we can’t do it what can we do with what we have to work with resource wise, again maybe this is being done maybe it isn’t, I don’t know but we got to communicate that out there to the people,” he said.
Meantime, the town has hired Latham-based consulting company Raftelis to conduct a study on the utility hikes.
Cassady-Dorion says the company will help set rate fees and ensure the town’s long-term planning is realistic.
“We need that revenue in order to maintain services, what we need to figure out is are we allocating it correctly and how do we make sure that we’re going to smooth the rate over the next 10, 20 years because we know the projects are just going to increase, the costs are going to increase, so how can we make sure that we’re making a utility rate that is much more palatable for our residents,” she said.
If elected, Cassady-Dorion has other priorities she says she’s already begun working on, including improving the town's internal communications.
“Departments and functions inside of here can get pretty siloed, the minute we start to break down some of those barriers between departments, things start working a lot better, so the more that we can improve communication internally and externally is good for everybody,” she said.
Rickert says Niskayuna's current spending pace is not sustainable. He wants to evaluate the town's finances.
“There’s a breakpoint where you can protect and provide the resources at a sustainable level, I’m just not sure the current tax rates are sustainable going forward, we’re just going to continue to lose people, we don’t have businesses looking to come here. That’s a concern of mine,” he said.
But, most importantly, Rickert says he wants to give residents a way to be part of "everything" in town government.
“And I know that sounds vague and sort of nebulous but I feel like our residents are losing touch with the decisions being made in the community,” he said.
Joining Rickert on the Republican ticket are town board candidates Rob Curto and Mike Randall, as well as Chris Rust for Town Justice.
Across the aisle, other endorsed Democrats include incumbent Diane Percy for Receiver of Taxes, Sarah Bilofsky and Ashok Ramasubramanian for Town Board and incumbent Peter Scagnelli for Town Justice.
Election day is November 4th.
