In New York state, only 19 of 62 counties have a county executive. The group Columbia County Forward, which is associated with the county Democratic Committee, wants to add Columbia County to that list. They even collected nearly 4,000 signatures to bring the idea to a vote in November.
Organizer Abbie Hodgson asserts it’s one of the largest “grassroots efforts” in county history, but voters won’t see it on the ballot. She says Republicans on the Board of Supervisors, including Chairman Matt Murell, objected to many of the signatures, and many were ultimately thrown out by Board Clerk Kelly Baccaro.
“I think that there are certain leaders in our county who like the way that things are currently being done, and do not want to see a modernization. Some might hypothesize that that’s because they hold a greater degree of power and control under the current model," Hodgson tells WAMC. "We’ll be exploring legal options to get a ruling from a more neutral party than the Board of Supervisors.”
Baccaro declined to comment to WAMC, citing the litigation. In written statements to WAMC, Murell says the petition was missing statutorily required language and information, and many of the signatures did not pass a strict line-by-line review. He describes the petition as an attempt by the county Democratic Party to install veto power on the board, “without any real or accurate justification as to what needs to be changed or ‘fixed’ under current government operations.”
Discussion around the petition has been largely split along partisan lines. The Board of Supervisors is majority Republican. The petition did not call for replacing the board with a county legislature, but a county executive would have veto power, which the board could override.
Columbia County Forward claims Murell hired a “special” attorney with ties to the Republican Party to help review the petition. Murell says a special attorney in this case was needed, and according to New York’s Alternative County Government Law, under which the petition was submitted, the county was required to pay for it. Columbia County Forward also claims Murell and Baccaro consulted Republican staff at the county Board of Elections during the review, but not Democrats. The BOE declined to comment to WAMC, saying the petition’s fate ultimately fell to Baccaro.
Hodgson says Baccaro told Columbia County Forward that it had used an invalid petition form. She says many of the signatures were also thrown out for “technical” reasons.
“They applied a rule saying that everyone has to list their town as well as their mailing address. So, for example, I live in the town of Taghkanic, but my mailing address is Ancram," says Hodgson. "And so oftentimes that is confusing for voters when they’re signing petitions, because they think they live in one place because that’s their mailing address, but really the petition is requesting the name of the town.”
Other reasons, Hodgson describes as “nit-picky.”
“For example, if I live on ‘Elm Street’ and I abbreviated it ‘St’ instead of writing out ‘Street,’ they said that was an invalid address," she adds.
The group claims Baccaro even threw out the signature of Copake Supervisor Richard Wolf, claiming he couldn’t be identified. Wolf, a Democrat, has been on the Board since 2024.
Hodgson maintains hiring a full-time county executive could save Columbia County money and provide more checks and balances in county government. Right now, she says all members of the Board work for the county part-time, in addition to leading their municipalities. Last year, she says the average monthly Board meeting ran less than 30 minutes.
“When you have a budget that’s almost $200 million, you don’t have the time to be applying for grants looking for federal and state dollars," says Hodgson. "Columbia County is getting left behind."
Even if it made it on the ballot, an election for a new county executive wouldn’t have occurred until 2026 at the earliest. This year, Election Day is November 4.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that litigation was pending. The lawsuit was filed July 2. An earlier version also incorrectly stated the number of counties in New York that have county executives.
