Vote
Paul Palumbo
For Richfield Town Supervisor
Q & A:
Q: What is the main reason you are entering this race?
A: "When I ran for Councilman two years ago, one of my main objectives was to bring together a Board that had been deeply divided. After I was elected, within short order I began that task. Although the other Board members and some other elected officials were initially apprehensive, within about 2-3 months we were working as a team. That was quite a feat, as I was on the “opposite side” in a bitter election just a few months prior. Actually I was not surprised, as in my work I often manage many workers in various companies on a single project. There is almost always reluctance when an “outsider comes in”, but I’ve had many years of practice now, so to me it is second nature. But try as I might, was still not able to bring the 5th member together in our working unit. After trying numerous times over the next year, it became apparent the only way to reach my goal was to run for supervisor this fall. Sometimes you need a personnel change when all other methods have been exhausted. We are now at that point.”
Q: What are some of the things you would like to see change at the Town Board level in the next 2 years?
A: "The first thing that absolutely must happen is we need to have a Town Board that acts as a single unit, not two, not three. If you’ve been to a Board meeting in the last two years, you will notice it looks more like a three ring circus most of the time. That is because there is a breakdown of communication between the Board and the supervisor’s office. You may find this hard to believe….but there is virtually NO communication between the supervisor and councilmen…ever….no phone calls, no emails, nothing. What you see in the meeting is the extent of it. In contrast, the councilmen talk on a regular basis (one on one, to keep in compliance with Open Meetings Law). This policy will be extended to the supervisor’s office. Imagine how it would be at your place of work if everyone wore a muzzle, and it was taken off only one day per month…pandemonium on that one day, right? That is what we have, and that I assure you is going to stop. Open government, efficient government? Absolutely cannot occur if you don’t communicate on a regular basis.”
Q: As the main role of a supervisor is to be in charge of the Town finances, what will you change?
A: “As a businessman, my companies’ finances are a key part of my daily activities. I have no one else to rely on…I need to be on top of them every minute. The policy in Richfield the last 4 years is to basically delegate the task of financial oversight (the supervisors main task) to our bookkeeper. I’m not sure that is really allowed, it is certainly not encouraged. I think a supervisor needs to be the one on top of the finances, and use the bookkeeper for assistance doing the work. We are now doing it backwards…it is the bookkeeper that is on top of the finances… I’m quite sure of that because the supervisor defers all financial questions to the bookkeeper. That actually is quite a bit of responsibility to delegate to a non-elected official….an elected official should be at the helm…. that is what the State says.”
Q: Your opponent has a lot of campaign signs up, does that worry you or your supporters?
A: “Not at all…. when I ran for Councilman two years ago, I deployed 50 signs. After about 2 weeks, I was actually sick of seeing my own name, so I could just imagine how the voters felt. I made a conscious decision for this campaign to limit to 25 signs. I have tried to put those in the best locations I can get….to do more with less, inflicting less “voter fatigue”. I assure you if wanted to have 100 signs, you’d be seeing 100 signs. I don’t want to see them, neither do you. In the last primary for supervisor, the “sign race” was 50 to 0…..the actual vote was a dead heat. I do not put much credence in sign count…..I prefer newspaper, websites, and direct door to door to send my message. I don’t even have a sign in my own yard, and I’m for me J ”
Q: One word on the street is that you travel a lot…how will that affect your ability to do the job?
A: “The other day I heard there is a rumor floating around that I spend 6 or more weeks in Mexico every year. That is false, I only have spent 3 days in Mexico in my life! I do travel on occasion for business, but it is rare that I would ever be away from Richfield more than 3 days at a time. In contrast, my opponent has spent about 6 weeks solid away from Richfield in each year of his current term. I’m glad that someone gets to take extended vacations J. I do not see my limited travel as an issue “.
Q: What is your opinion on the proposed business park and comprehensive plan?
A: “As you may have heard, I was not a popular guy at the IDA earlier this year. I had flagged a concern back in March that it seemed like we were being told that we could determine what we wanted for Richfield in a comprehensive plan, however at the same time we were being told you are going to have a business park and here is where it is going to be. This seemed a bit contradictory to me (and my fellow board members, and many residents), and I made it known. I felt the people needed say in this matter, but to that point in time they had not had any. The IDA did later agree, and it was determined to go through the comprehensive plan process first, and then entertain a business park…..if and where the comprehensive plan allows for it. I think a business park could be a positive for the community, but it is certainly not all roses. Pros and cons should be weighed carefully before any steps are taken. I personally struggle with the concept of competing with other local empty business parks. For example, we could benefit by working with the Frankfort Business Park instead of against it. Most residents have cars, and driving 15-20 minutes to work is not a major issue. The comprehensive plan effort is gaining traction after a slow start, but it is now moving forward”.
Q: Besides bringing together a divided board, what other accomplishments can you point to in your 20 months on the Town Board?
A: “ One of the first things on my agenda was to get the Town of Richfield a website. In 2015, a message board on the front of the Town Hall is just not enough. It was a little slow to get going….our original choice as a provider backed out after we waited months for his availability, and then , no surprise, there was disagreement on who we would use as a new provider. Once the roadblocks were cleared, our site took shape. The public needs to realize that this is “website 1.0” …. our first attempt at doing this. We selected to go with a low priced solution, a minimal website which costs us about $5 per week. At that rate, our provider has requested that we kindly limit the number of “change submittals” to as little as possible. Currently, we provide site updates once per month. If we as a Town feel we need weekly or even sometimes daily updates, it will require some additional taxpayer funds. We will keep our eye on that and see what the consensus is.”
“Also, when I first took office, I noticed that we did not really have a standard method for backing up the Town computers. You may have read that the Village of Ilion was “hacked” twice last year, and it cost their taxpayers almost $1000 to recover their data, as they had no backup… so this is a very real concern. I researched various methods of “cloud backup”. The Board voted on a provider and the backup system was implemented. This system meets all the Federal standards for data security. Files are “silently” uploaded to other computers across the country for storage. The data sent for storage is actually gibberish…..the files are completely useless to a would-be hacker. Only the computer account that sent the information out can decrypt the files if they are needed at a later time. However, I am sad to say, a computer user must allow the system to operate on their machine, and not all Town computer users have agreed to use the cloud backup, even though it is a Town of Richfield policy.”
“At my initial training in Albany, I learned that a very large part of a Councilman’s job is financial oversight of the various departments…the supervisor’s office, the Town clerk, and the court. By law, we are required to have audited the books of these departments. We can either choose to do it ourselves, or pay an outside accounting firm. What I found is that we hadn’t really been doing that in earnest for quite a few years. So with the help of my fellow board members, we instituted a basic schedule for doing these audits. We did hire an accounting firm to do part of the auditing, we have been doing a large part of it ourselves.”
“I also worked on the committee that updated the Town of Richfield Cell Tower law, along with the supervisor, some planning board members, and some interested residents. The law was nearly 20 years old, and badly in need of an update.”
Q: The Republican Primary on September 10th is of big concern right now, but do you have the backing of any other major parties?
A: “ Yes, the Conservative, Independence, and Reform parties have each officially nominated me to be their Supervisor candidate on the November ballot. So at this point, I will have at least 3 major lines in the November election, but I would really like to make it four on September 10th.”
Q: I see the 9/2 Pennysaver had a cryptic looking ad attacking your 2013 platform, care to comment?
A: “ I did see the ad, and as most people have figured out by now, it was written not by a local who is knowledgeable in Richfield Town Board operation, but by the son-in-law and daughter-in-law of my opponent, who live in another part of the country. I’d be careful, their opinions and views might be a little biased. They obviously did not know the full background of the issues mentioned, just what they heard 3rd, 4th, and 5th hand. And also, even though the writers and I happen to have the same last name, we are not related. Click here for my response to that ad.”
Q: Were you surprised at all by the primary result?
A: “ Yes and No -- based on the feedback we were getting from residents in our door to door campaign, we were quite sure that we would end up on top Thursday night – but the margin was bigger than we expected. I think the number of signs around town gave voters a skewed indication of how things would turn out. In some towns the number of signs may be a good indicator, but in Richfield it is not. Most people will allow a candidate to put up a sign if they ask, regardless of whether or not they plan on voting for them, so sign count to me is just a false sense of security. The number of opponent signs around made us that much more determined to work hard, and it paid off. I do think the primary result sends a clear message that Richfield is ready to move on from the last 4 years, it certainly did not indicate satisfaction.”
Q: What’s next?
A: “ We have a few weeks to fine tune our October/November strategy, and within a few short weeks we will be back on the road, this time visiting the Democrat, Conservative, Independence, and independent voters. We did visit a good sample of the Republican voters for the primary, but we could not hit every household due to time constraints. Always willing to visit anyone from any party -- if you would like a personal visit and have not heard from us by 10/25, please contact me and I will be sure to visit.
Q: A Pennysaver ad on October 1st was saying that when you referred to a $1 tax increase, you in fact meant $1 per thousand of assessed valuation…true?
A: “ No it isn’t. I said $1 in my response, and I did mean $1. It was absurd for the writer to even think I meant it as $1 per thousand, as that would be about a 16% tax increase. It was a $1 annual impact to a home assessed around $100,000 ---- an increase of 1 CENT per thousand. Yes, in the writer’s case it would have hit harder --- about $3.30 for the year.
Q: That same ad again makes reference to the fact that you did not attend another recent comprehensive plan meeting…comments?
A: “ The ad seemed to imply that the supervisor is heading up the committee, along with the writer and Mr. Sullivan. That is not the case, the writer and the supervisor have no official involvement in the comprehensive plan committee whatsoever…they are spectators at the meetings, as anyone else can be. Mr. Sullivan is the chairman of the committee and the only one of the three that has any official authority or involvement.
Q: The supervisor has stated many times now that taxes have not gone up during his terms, however the village residents did see a Town tax increase of 1.5% in their 2015 tax bills – what’s up with that ?
A: “ The village residents did experience a 1.5% Town tax increase in 2015 due to some minor expense/income differences in the two highway accounts. While that may be a slight cause for concern, what should be of much more concern is that the supervisor is apparently not aware of it. That only reinforces my stance that as the Town’s CFO, a supervisor needs to be much more involved with the finances --- that is the law.
Q: Several recent opposition editorials have mentioned you in negative light in the last week , care to comment?
A: “ Yes, you can tell the opposition is getting nervous as the spin machine seems to have been kicked into high gear this week. I would like to address each of those issues:
New Town Hall? “My only public comments regarding a new Town Hall were in reference to the fact that if we don’t do something soon in regards to repairs, we WILL need a new Town Hall, as many years of neglect are starting to take their toll. Take a ride by 18 East James Street, and see if you don’t come to the same conclusion”. No real upkeep has been performed in the last 4 years under the current administration, even though it has been budgeted by the Board.”
Dumpster? “Must be more interest in a dumpster day than we on the Board realize, as some people seem very upset about not getting one. Rather than express these desires in an editorial, coming to a Town board meeting or writing us a letter might be more effective. We would certainly address it if it were brought up.”
Bookkeeper? “A recent article in the Star(which I did not provide input to) mentioned that I would handle the Town finances myself. Some people interpreted this as that the bookkeeper position would be eliminated, even though it did not specifically say that. New York Town Law does give the supervisor the option of either having a bookkeeper or not, and also the right to choose the person to fill the position. There are no job guarantees at all with a bookkeeper or confidential secretary position. The position can be eliminated or re-hired at any time, be it at the end of a supervisor’s term or anytime during.”
Last Revised: 10/24/15
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