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mike parwana's avatar

Here is the crux of the problem: “ Sadly, the bigger problem is that in recent years no one else wants to even run for a Town Board seat.”

technically it should say “almost nobody,” but once in a while someone new decides or is convinced to give it a go. And then they find out how disgusting the process and the institution is.

The root of the problem is much deeper. The supervisor system of government is flawed - purposely. First, Queensbury, where the Supervisor is too big of a job to be an elected position as it is currently structured. Many years ago there was a town comptroller who held the Supervisor in check. I believe the last one was Henry Hesse, and I think he was booted by Dan Stec. It was a long time ago so I may be misremembering the details, but the problem is that running Queensbury is too big a job for any old citizen to run for the office without having a professional manager in place to follow up on details.

But then one more step of complexity, the county supervisors system is an inherent conflict of interest.

Being Queensbury supervisor is a full time job, but then the supervisor election also comes with a second job, a part time job as county supervisor. 2 jobs, 2 paychecks, 1 election, 1 person. There are conflicts between the interests of the county and the individual towns ALL THE TIME. Then toss in the reality that the Republican Party does much of the decision making behind closed doors, adding another level of conflict. The residents of the county are not well served by this form of government, but it still exists because unlike Queensbury (and GF) the rest of the county is (with the exception of Horicon) losing population, and all are small or even smaller towns.

So a town like Stony Creek or Hague, each with less than 800 residents, has a paid supervisor. Those towns are really too small to pay a reasonable salary for the responsiblitity of the position BUT the election comes with an additional salary from a job as county supervisor. Interestingly, before the last election some of those supervisors touted the fact that their town supervisor salary remained low — but then they voted themselves a pay-raise at the county. And where does most of the local funding for county government come from? The bulk of it comes from sales and property tax in Queensbury and Glens Falls.

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Sara Idleman's avatar

The Queensbury Town Board - "Whack a Mole!"

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