Social media spat in Lumberland

DAVID HULSE
Posted 1/18/17

GLEN SPEY, NY — Lumberland town clerk Virginia “Ginny” Horn isn’t a public speaker and usually limits her monthly meeting verbal report to a few words about hunting and …

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Social media spat in Lumberland

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GLEN SPEY, NY — Lumberland town clerk Virginia “Ginny” Horn isn’t a public speaker and usually limits her monthly meeting verbal report to a few words about hunting and fishing licenses or tax collections. That changed last week.

Called on at the usual place in the January 11 agenda, the 15-year incumbent explained that inaccurate and anonymous criticism about her and other town officials has repeatedly been appearing on social media, which had prompted her to make a written response. She read it aloud.

Reading from that two-page statement, ironically headlined, “Happy New Year – Lumberland Clarification,” she stated, “It has been a great concern and disappointment that in recent months these postings have been directed at those of us who have served our community with compassion and competence.”

She continued with clarifications of “a couple of facts,” the first involving criticism of the selection of her deputy, Michele Myslinski. “Two years ago, I selected my deputy with the full guidance from the New York State Association of Towns on the process of the appointment. I chose my deputy for her work ethics, job performance and proven longevity record in her previous employment. She was not my ‘friend,’ but we were ‘friendly’ and we worked together in retail and, in fact, she was my boss.

“She, however, knew one of our councilmen’s family for many years before I met her. I had the full unanimous support of my town board in my selection, and I think my deputy has proven she was the best choice for the position and in many instances, she has gone above and beyond her duties.”

At the time of the appointment Horn revealed all of the above information before a town board meeting audience.

Secondly, she corrected a social media comment that her job was part-time and rebutted apparent criticism of her work ethic and that of the highway superintendent. She wrote, “The only two elected positions within the town that are not considered part-time are the town clerk and the highway superintendent.

“Contrary to the recent postings I welcome anyone to walk in our shoes. We are salaried, which means we get paid the same amount regardless of how many hours we work. If you divide our hours spent in our jobs with our salary I am sure we make less hourly than most of the clerks working for the town.

“As town clerk, among the numerous duties of my position, I make afterhours appointments, on occasion work on weekends, attend many meetings outside office hours, and I am on call as registrar to receive paperwork that needs to be filed in my office.”

She went on to detail similar off-hours duties of the highway superintendent, noting the job’s many duties and irregular hours, concluding that, “The behind-the-scenes work speaks for itself, with tons of paperwork that need to be addressed on any given day.”

Lastly, she wrote, “A recent posting on this particular site [claimed] that the supervisor [Jenny Mellan] and deputy supervisor [Leigh Sherman] drove over to the Town of Highland just to congratulate our newly appointed court judge [Lorry King.]”

Horn explained that she was away at a doctor’s appointment on the morning in question and King needed to sign her oath of office as soon as possible to expedite registering for training. [Mellan and Sherman] had an appointment at the bank in Eldred and volunteered to take the oath over to [King]… so she could expedite signing up for judicial training as soon as possible.”

Lumberland’s Internet was down that day, so the paperwork was completed in Highland, Horn wrote.

She summarized, charging that these postings are purposely inaccurate. “Those that are posting or supporting this online social media site have made it their mission to try to have you believe that those of us working together in the municipal offices are not happy and do not get along. Anyone that stops by the offices will tell you otherwise…

“I struggled for quite some time to respond to all the inaccurate information being continuously posted. I am continually amazed that the person(s) behind this social media site and those that support the site have made it their mission to discredit those of us who have been elected or those that have been appointed by the same elected officials that have been voted in by the majority of the voters in our town.”

Horn ended by announcing that 2017 will be her last year in office and promised to “work diligently in the coming year to assure that my office will be left in very capable hands….”

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