UPDATED: Queensbury has a glaring conflict of interest
Strough to be honored by Warren County Historical Society
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The original post may not have included a workable link to the statement to the Town Board at the bottom of the first story. This corrects that.
Eight years ago, the chairman of the Warren County Republican Party left a voice mail for a Queensbury Town Board member, Tony Metivier, and demanded he vote for a change in the town's legal representation.
"You will vote for this or you will pay," Metivier quoted t4he chairman as saying at the time.
Metivier voted against the measure and he did pay.
For years afterward, Metivier was an outcast in the county Republican Party.
He was not endorsed and he did not get help gathering signatures to get on the ballot, but his reputation for doing the right thing kept winning him elections.
In many ways, small-town politics can be far worse than national and state politics.
When I learned this year that Tim McNulty, the Ward 4 representative on the Queensbury Town Board, was also the chairman of the Warren County Republican Committee, I was a surprised.
I thought Queensbury had learned its lesson.
After Election Day, I took a look at the Town of Queensbury's Code of Ethics. Over 11 pages it covers a lot of ground, including this important passage under Conflict of Interest: "Town officials, employees and consultants should avoid even the appearance of conflict."
That is a damn good policy.
Or is it just a suggestion?
That is unclear.
Both McNulty and another previous Town Board member, George Ferrone, served as chairman of the Warren County Republican Party.
Reading further in the Code of Ethics - Page 9 if you are following at home - it allows for political party participation as a private citizen, but it says nothing about holding a leadership position.
That is a critical oversight.
My point is that holding a leadership position of any political party is clearly an "appearance of conflict," especially for anyone belonging to another party.
Why is this allowed?
It bugged me so much I wrote a small item in the newsletter last week, but it was still gnawing at me over the weekend.
If people don't start standing up for what is right, then we are all doomed, I thought.
The schedule showed that the Town Board was meeting Monday and I knew I had to go and speak my mind.
As I addressed the board, I told them of my experience visiting the Southern Adirondack Independent Living Center and the inspirational work they do.
"It's a reminder of the great community we live in," I told them. "and how we all interact and have each other's back and help each other."
I reminded them of how divided the country and the community are by politics.
"I think there is an opportunity to get a fresh start," I continued. "and a reminder of (the work) an organization like SAIL does, and how important that is, the Town Board also has an opportunity in that spirit to do something."
I told them they had to avoid even the "appearance" of a conflict of interest and that by having a member on the Town Board who was also chairman of a political party, it was violating its Code of Ethics.
"I'm trying not to make this about politics and have this be about one party or another party," I implored the board. "I'm trying to get you guys to do the right thing. It does come back to the appearance of a conflict.
"What I get worried about is when someone on the Town Board is involved in the leadership of a political party and I think that's where the line needs to be drawn because that is the appearance of a conflict," I said. "You know that. You absolutely have to know that."
And I reminded them of the history of the town and how it had happened before.
"That should never happen again," I said.
When I was done, no one said anything. I knew it was a fool's errand to think politicians would address ethics in these times, but I had to look them in the eye and tell them they had a problem that makes them all look bad because no member of that board is going to vote against the chairman of the county committee.
That's the essence of the problem.
I waited three days.
I thought about the problem some more.
And on Thursday I mailed an official complaint to the Town of Queensbury's Ethics Board.
You might want to send your Town Board member regarding your opinion as well. Here is a direct link to their emails: https://www.queensbury.net/government/town-board-elected-officials/. I'm sure phone calls and letters are welcome as well.
Follow-up
After I spoke at the Town Board meeting, another man got up to speak and said he wanted to address what I said.
He went on to complain about not being able to access information on The Post-Star website on election night because he was not a subscriber. He seemed to be blaming me, despite the fact I had not worked at the newspaper in four years.
He said a bunch of nasty things about the newspaper quality. He should consider paying for a subscription. That is the first step in improving the product.
Strough to be honored
Queensbury Supervisor John Strough will be honored by the Warren County Historical Society with the John D. Austin Contribution to History Award in January.
The award is presented annually to a local person who has demonstrated a consistent dedication to Warren County and regional history and genealogy through volunteer service.
The award is given in memory of the late Judge John D. Austin of Queensbury, who was a founding member of the Society.
Strough was lauded for his dedication to Warren County through his involvement in community history education, his prolific writing about local history and his significant contribution to furthering the promotion of historical institutions and museums in this area.
As a retired history teacher, Strough has published articles and essays on Joseph Warren, Blind Rock and historical summations on Queensbury and Warren County history.
He will receive his award at the WCHS Annual Meeting on Saturday, January 25, 2025, at the Holiday Inn, Lake George. Tickets for the brunch and ceremony are $35. Please call 518-743-0734 or email secretary@wcnyhs.org to make a reservation.
JFK anniversary
November 22 will always be one of those dates that gets your attention. It was on another Friday on this date 61 years ago that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
Details of the assassination morphed into one of the first great conspiracy stories in our nation that continues in many circles today.
Press in danger
The Poynter Institute senior vice president and chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership believes that threats against the press are real during the Trump administration. He said during a Poynter podcast that the press could be attacked in three different ways:
“The first is he may try and influence federal regulation that will affect the owners of media; so licensing of broadcasting and then other owners who have other business interests,” McBride said. Think Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post and other businesses, including Amazon.
Two, McBride says, “He can order the Justice Department to go after anonymous sources of reporters. (The Justice Department) can subpoena reporters and threaten them with jail if they don't reveal their sources. That will both hurt those individual reporters and those organizations, and it will have a chilling effect, because it will make sources less likely to come forward, and it will make other journalists less likely to push hard on vigilant coverage.”
And, three, McBride says, “He can use the Sedition Act to go after leakers. He can persecute people who want to get information out to the public. So if you think about one of the biggest stories out of his first administration was the child separation, right? Stuff that was leaked initially about that, and then a lot of information was leaked — he could go after all of those people and threaten them with sedition charges for destabilizing government security. … That will intimidate the immediate people, and it will have a chilling effect on people down the road. So he can do a lot to intimidate or destabilize the environment in which reporting happens.”
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
I love in G.F. But you are 1000% right on this. Keep at it Ken never never give up!!
To all of you who read the comments section....how did we get so lucky as to have someone like Ken, AND Will, who not only write this substack but keep on TOP of so many things!!! Yes, their editorial experience certainly helped but Ken does SO many things besides that...just the Chapman Museum undertaking alone....and now, there he is, going right out there and SPEAKING his piece! (I could say the very same thing about Will and his separate efforts.) HOW do we get MORE Kens and Wills-------too bad it takes a while to produce them, LOL....because we need them NOW!!!!!