ELDRED, NY – Highland’s new town board is struggling to find its footing after some controversial changes to personnel and appointments.

Two code enforcement clerks, Monica McGill and Alice Foster, resigned this week, after the board announced its intention to increase Foster’s hours and move her to the town clerk’s office. The board said the town clerk, Susan Hoffman, needs help in getting meeting minutes and other reports out in a timely way.

In addition, the board decided against re-appointing Norm Sutherland planning board chair, saying that he refuses to communicate with them. The board instead appointed Jeff Spitz, with David Pietkiewicz as the alternate.

Board member Jim Akt was incensed.

“This lady we have for code is quitting, and if Norm is off the list, we ain’t going to have a clerk for the planning board or the zoning,” he said at a special meeting held Friday morning to decide whether to rehire the town’s engineering consultant. “So we just keep snowballing and snowballing. We don’t have to have public comment. I’ll tell you how it is. Because you people are paying us. I’m so sick of the politics in this town. $6,300 is not worth it.”

Akt then turned to BJ Gettel, an employee of the engineering consultant, Fusco Engineering & Land Surveying PC.8, who worked in the building department as a code enforcement officer.

“I’ve worked with BJ in that office, and then she gets fired,” Akt said.

“She didn’t get fired,” said Johnny Pizzolato, the town supervisor.

“She got fired,” Akt said. “You took her off this because of political bullshit. I’m through fighting against people I like because the town’s split in half. You people better know it. BJ was taken off. She was doing her job.”

'A very bad surprise'

Foster learned about the change to her employment a week earlier, at the regular town board meeting on February 15. 

“Maybe I should have known that, apparently, I’m not working in the code office anymore,” she told the board after hearing the news, which she called “a very bad surprise.”

To that, Pizzolato and board member Laura Burrell said “Fair” and “Very true.” Pizzolato apologized to Foster that she was “blindsided.”

Akt said, “I’m fighting for you, Alice.”

Pizzolato interjected: “There’s no fight against Alice, and I’m not going to allow it to be characterized as that. We’re talking about hours that are determined for this office that are being underutilized right now, so we want to extend services so people have some level of expertise, streamline, and create extra coverage.”

Burrell chairs the personnel committee. She told the River Reporter that she could not discuss McGill’s resignation because it’s “still being discussed.” Pizzolato said he doesn’t know if McGill has officially resigned. 

At Friday’s special meeting, the board agreed to advertise for a new code enforcement clerk at $25 per hour.

Rebuilding the code office

The board decided to contract with Fusco Engineering on a month-by-month basis after a member objected to its work on two controversial projects.

At the February 15 meeting, Kaitlin Haas said the old board never intended to renew because of Fusco’s failures on both the Camp FIMFO and 211 Mail Road projects.

“Those projects were not successfully executed on behalf of the town,” she said.

Haas is the only current board member who also sat on the previous board.  Pizzolato, Burrell, and Tom Migliorino were elected in November, and Akt was appointed by the old board late last year, after he ran unsuccessfully for highway superintendent.

Haas said, “We were not interested in continuing a relationship with Fusco, so we definitely did not enter into a contract."

“Well, that would be news to me,” said Pizzolato. “Upon being elected I received a welcome letter from Fusco, who was under the assumption that we moved to continue.”

Burrell said Fusco should continue because it works on much more than Camp FIMFO and 211 Mail Road. Besides serving as the town’s engineering consultant, Fusco provides code enforcement services and building inspections.

At Friday’s special meeting, the board agreed to advertise for a new code enforcement clerk to work 25 hours a week at $18 per hour. Pizzolato said the board intends to rebuild the office.

Self-inflicted wound, or personal vendetta?

Planning board member Tim McKenna objected to Sutherland not being re-appointed. Before the town attorney cut him off, he said, “Wait, wait, before you all vote, have you told him…” 

Migliorino said he voted for Spitz over Sutherland because Sutherland “wouldn’t communicate with me, Kaitlin, and Johnny, and some members of the planning board. I consider him a friend of mine, but if you’re not going to be willing to work with the rest of us, I can’t support you.”

The board moved Frank Monteleone from planning board alternate to vice chair. 

“It seems like it’s a personal vendetta,” said McKenna. “Norm is a good guy, he has the town’s interest. Norm has put in hundreds and hundreds of hours into this volunteer project” – referring to Camp FIMFO – “and now he’s being f---ed out of it. It’s insanity.”

Pizzolato said he’s attempted to contact Sutherland 18 times, unsuccessfully.

“We’ve had numerous attempts to establish a working relationship with Norm, but you have to understand we are legally responsible,” Pizzolato said. 

Migliorino called Sutherland’s non-reappointment “self-inflicted.”

“I’m sorry to say that, and it hurts me as much,” he said. “And I took him aside and spoke to him, ‘You don’t have to like this guy’” – meaning Pizzolato – “’but we have to work together for the betterment of this town.’ That’s why I made my decision, and I don’t want to hear any other BS around town.”

On Monday, Sutherland told the River Reporter that he told Migliorino back in December he didn’t feel “ethically comfortable” talking to Pizzolato. That's one of Pizzolato’s businesses, The Oasis in Barryville, has been in violation for almost a year for not having site plan approval and failing to make escrow payments to the town. This is the only time in eight years that someone has failed to make an escrow payment, he said. While he has discussed the matter with Migliorino, he has not spoken directly to Pizzolato. Pizzolato did not return calls before press time, but has said in the past he did not believe he is in violation.

“I had no idea that I was going to be terminated for whatever reason,” Sutherland said. “I still don’t know or have received any kind of formal communication from the supervisor or the town board.”

He said that with all the big projects currently in front of the planning board, “terminating one of the two veteran members with eight years experience with no notice or even a thank you for your service speaks volumes for the three people that voted for my termination. Taxpayers of the community should feel outraged.”

Sutherland said Spitz will do a great job. “He is very organized and provides the community a great service,” he said. “The newer members have large boots to fill....I wish them well with their continued commitment to the town.”

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct an error about the code enforcement clerk's salary and to add information from Norm Sutherland.