News from the County Board of Supervisors

We all recall last summer's suppressed initiative to get the issue of having a county executive on the ballot.

Photo: Columbia County Forward

Yesterday, Matt Murell, chair of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, who connived successfully to keep the question off the ballot, announced in a press release that a committee has been formed to explore the notion of having a county manager/administrator. The press release follows.

Columbia County Board of Supervisors Chairman Matt Murell today announced the members of the County Manager/Administrator Committee, to be tasked with getting answers to the question of the advisability of establishing a county administrator position in the county's governing structure.

"The last time this idea was looked at was back in 2011 by a county committee," said Chairman Murell in December, when announcing the planned committee formation. "It seems there's no better time than the present to re-visit this subject. Fifteen years later, I for one am keenly interested in seeing how such a position could work for us now."

Named committee members are as follows:

James Guzzi, Deputy Chairman and Livingston Town Supervisor; Robert Lagonia, Deputy Chairman and Austerlitz Town Supervisor; Craig Simmons, Ghent Town Supervisor; Tistrya Houghtling, Minority Leader and New Lebanon Town Supervisor; Brenda Adams, Canaan Town Supervisor; and Richard Wolf, Copake Town Supervisor.

Also, Art Bassin, private citizen, former Ancram Town Supervisor and member of the 2011 County Manager Initiative Subcommittee; Susan Sharpe, CPA, private citizen, former CFO Greater NY Insurance Companies and former CFO of the NYS Insurance Fund; Rick Cummings, private citizen, is currently vice president of Mulhern Gas Co., Inc., a position he has held since 1990--he is fourth generation of the 100-year-old family business based in Hudson, and prior to that, Cummings was a financial consultant with Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., for four years; and Robert Fitzsimmons, County Attorney and former member of the 2011 County Manager Initiative Subcommittee. 

Serving on the committee's Panel of Experts will be Chairman Murell, who also serves as Stockport Town Supervisor; County Treasurer P. J. Keeler; County Controller James Breig; County Human Resources Director Michaele Williams-Riordan; and representatives from the Columbia County Economic Development Corporation and the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce.

In a nutshell, a County Administrator differs greatly from a County Executive, in that a County Administrator would serve as the Chief Operating Officer, with the key distinction that the position would report to, and work under the direction of, the Board of Supervisors;

A County Executive, on the other hand, places political power and day-to-day county operations in the hands of a single elected official, rather than the current system of 23 elected town and city supervisors working together as a governing unit. A County Executive effectively strips the County Board of Supervisors of its authority.

A date has yet to be set for the committee's first meeting.