The Peru Gazette

Posted October 29 & 30, 2008 by John T. Ryan

The Peru Town Board assumed more responsibility for town operations and reduced the responsibilities of the Town Supervisor at its October 27th meeting. The counselors voted 3-1 with one abstention to abolish the position of confidential secretary to the Town Supervisor and to establish the position of confidential secretary to the Town Board with Counselor Peter Glushko supervising the new position. At the same meeting Supervisor Donald Covel advised the board that Randa Buompensiero, current confidential secretary, had accepted a position with the Clinton County Board of Elections and that her resignation would be submitted on Tuesday, October 28th.

The confidential secretary’s position has been a vital position in Peru government operations. The secretary maintains the town’s most vital accounting records and administers such important matters as health insurance. Shortly after taking office in January 2006 Supervisor Covel fired his secretary and since then several people have held the position. Explaining the reason for his resolution Counselor Forrence said, “I think it would help provide stability. It doesn’t seem to me that it serves the Town Board well to have one person in charge of that position.” He said the change would mean a majority of the Board would have to agree on who is hired and that turnover would be reduced. Citing the importance of the position to the Board and to the taxpayers Forrence said, “To be able to have a Supervisor come in and just remove that person just doesn’t make good sense to me.” Forrence said his proposal is no reflection on the current staff but would be a good future policy for the town.

Counselor McDonald voiced agreement with Forrence’s reasoning and seconded his motion while Counselor Powers voiced strong opposition. Powers called the action inappropriate and explained, “A lot of the issues the town has been faced with are related to ‘Covelisms’ and a lot of the issues we are reacting to are symptoms of the problem and not the problem.” Stating, “This too shall pass,” Powers expressed the view that the problem would disappear at the end of Covel’s term. He did not want to see a change in the long-standing operation of the town. When the vote was taken Counselors Cortland Forrence, Brandy McDonald and Peter Glushko voted for the resolution, Counselor Tom Powers voted against its passage and Supervisor Donald Covel abstained. The Board will meet on Wednesday, October 29th, to draw up a job description for the newly created position.

In other actions the Board:
Discussed modifying the Outdoor Wood Boiler law. Counselor Forrence favors allowing some of the existing boilers providing they utilize new technology boilers and have adequate set-back from property lines. Counselor McDonald believes that the law’s restrictions should be modified for areas zoned H-2 that are outside the Peru hamlet. The Supervisor asked the board to send any suggested changes to the town attorney by Friday, October 31st.

Agreed to accept a $10,000 settlement from its insurance carrier for payment of legal expenses incurred when Supervisor Covel initiated a defamation of character lawsuit against Counselors Forrence, Glushko, Powers and Bonner. The court dismissed the lawsuit and the town’s insurance carrier had denied payment of all town legal expenses. Today, the Board accepted the insurance carrier’s offer to pay $10,000 of the legal expenses.

Authorized the continued employment of receptionist Julie Burdo for up to four hours a day for the next two weeks.

Authorized Counselor Tom Powers to meet with employees to discuss certain health plan alternatives and benefits.

Received proposals from Cal Mitchell and Gary Bertrand to purchase small parcels of town property bordering their property. The Board requested written realtor appraisals or opinions from both Bertrand and Mitchell.

Authorized the Supervisor to set up a health benefits workshop to be conducted by Sandy Duquette of the Plattsburgh North Country Chamber of Commerce.

Responded to resident Craig Schmitt’s inquiry as to whether or not town employees have been trained on the town’s accounting system by the software provider KBS. Counselor Powers said training has been done and that he believes more training can be done under the terms of the existing KBS contract.

Resolved to reassign certain budget monies to the road salt account.

The Board’s next meeting will be held on Monday, November 10th at 7 p.m.