Hartwick town supervisor, attorney positions are vacant

Nov. 12—The town of Hartwick was still without a town supervisor after a Town Board meeting Tuesday, Nov. 12.

Town Clerk Andrea Vazquez announced at a budget public hearing Thursday, Nov. 7 that Town Supervisor Robert O'Brien had resigned effective Friday, Nov. 8. Attempts to reach O'Brien Friday were unsuccessful.

O'Brien won re-election as town supervisor last year. He was first elected in 2015.

Vazquez also announced that Town Attorney William Green changed his resignation to be effective immediately instead of waiting until the new year.

In order to conduct any town business, the board needs to appoint a chairperson for each meeting until a new supervisor is appointed. The board is free to select the chair and the chair can be different each meeting. The board appointed Vazquez meeting chairperson Tuesday.

It came to light last week that the deputy town supervisor, board member Chris Briggs, had not signed an oath of office withing the designated time period and therefore was not the deputy supervisor legally.

Briggs said during Tuesday's meeting that while he had signed an oath for his board seat, he had not signed an oath for the deputy supervisor position.

Vazquez said Tuesday that the oath must be signed within 30 days of the appointment. After 30 days, the seat becomes vacant. The board appointed Briggs deputy supervisor on Jan. 8, and had appointed Briggs to the deputy supervisor every year since 2018, according to town meeting minutes.

Vazquez said that O'Brien alerted her to Briggs' unsigned oath. Without signing the deputy oath, Briggs cannot assume the supervisor role unless the board nominates him to become supervisor and he receives three out of four votes.

"This board has the responsibility to come together and find someone else who can do the job," she said. "I have actually emailed the governor about a special election, because the governor is the only one who can call a special election, and in my research, it is very difficult to obtain one."

Vazquez said she accepted "half of the responsibility" for the oversight because she didn't remind Briggs to sign the oath for deputy supervisor.

"Most of the time, people come to me and they're like, Andrea, I need to sign my book," Vazquez said. "So could I have reminded him? Sure, but it's not fully on me. I don't take full responsibility for it not being signed."

Board member Bryan LoRusso said that since Briggs serves as the town's water supply administrator, there may be a conflict of interest if Briggs also is the town supervisor.

"How can you be the supervisor and your own boss signing your own checks?" he said. "I had already resolved myself to he was going to be our deputy, but we had a conflict with the water."

During the meeting the board tried three times to appoint a supervisor. Board member Bruce Markusen motioned to appoint Janice Gage and LoRusso motioned to appoint Phillip Sell. Both motions failed.

Board member Tom Murphy motioned for Vazquez to be appointed interim supervisor, but withdrew the motion after some discussion.

The board also discussed the need to appoint a town attorney, who could advise the board on appointing a supervisor.

Vazquez said that instead of facing problems, the town "face(s) solutions."

"If we sit around here with our problems all day, (and) we've got a lot of them, but we have to move forward. There is a great divide at this table, and hopefully at some point we can give. We have to think about what, what we're really passionate about and what we can live with, in order to make things move forward."