That Time Again
It’s decision time in Shandaken, and once again choices about our town’s leadership are clearly defined. Like in most towns, day-to-day authority basically falls to one person, our elected supervisor. And the two candidates couldn’t be more different, temperamentally or in their approach to how government is supposed to work. Last election we said we didn’t know if Bob Cross Jr. was up to the job. But like, we think, Pete DiModica, he has proven he can handle it. In the one term each has had, they’ve both worked hard and have accomplishments to cite. But that’s, we think, where any similarity ends. Because in our view these are two capable guys with very different ideas of how government should be run.
Cross’s strengths are his people skills and his ability to sway others, one on one, to his point of view. By training and temperament, DiModica is a craftsman. Deliberate and methodical in his approach to problem solving, he’s cautious and conservative by nature. Cross is, well, the opposite of that, impulsive, controlling, and quick to anger. He has proven himself a skilled, some say a nonstop campaigner. DiModica by contrast is less comfortable with that role than he is with managing. Both skill sets are useful and the two candidates, each to varying degrees, possesses both.
Our view is that Cross has proven himself good at politics but bad, sometimes terrible, at actual governance. Elected two years ago promising to be “a uniter, not a divider,” that quickly proved hollow, beginning with his unprecedented purge of all non-GOP or non-Crossroads supporters from any role in town government. These loses have been serious ones for our town: Jay Braman Sr. from the ZBA, Beth Waterman as Planning Board chair, to name just two. Our town boards and committees are more clearly lopsided than ever, never has Shandaken’s government been so completely controlled by one party as it is today. Some, of course, are pleased with this, believing compromise is inherently impossible and it’s the only way to accomplish things. And perhaps if the metaphorical trains were running on time we might even concede the point but they’re not. In fact in most ways we think things are running worse than they ever have. And the reason, we think, is that Cross is a true believer in the absolute power of authority, and that election to public office confers the right to do anything one wants short of what’s actionably illegal, politically untenable, or both. Cross, with his threats, gavel, and 3-vote majority has managed to make public involvement in government a mostly-avoidable nuisance.
We’ve seen this play out any number of times these past two years, in what we’ve come to think of as the “collateral damage” of one-party rule and bad process. We’re spending our town tax dollars faster than we ever have. We’ve got an apparent settlement with the state that’s been arrived at by maybe violating many of our taxpayers’ rights, and that we may all end up paying for with a court-ordered reval. We’ve finally got a cell tower law a year and a half late, one that appears to provide less-than-good coverage with larger-than-needed towers, contractually bound to the taxpayers by less-than-favorable terms. Phoenicia’s got a sewer treatment plant coming with very high homeowner hookup costs, and costs that are still unacceptable for business owners. We’ve got the possible loss of zero percent financing to fix Pine Hill’s water system, and we’ve adopted a Comp Plan despite extended public protest over its content and its process. These are the successes of Cross’ administration and every one’s loaded with serious problems, the collateral damage from how each was handled.
What we all need to decide in the voting booth is whether or not this collateral damage is acceptable. For us it’s not. We think Shandaken would be best served by a change of leadership and a return to normal small-town democracy. And we’re frankly less scared of the next 2 years under DiModica than we are under Cross.
On the town board races, Doris Bartlett’s life has defined her as one of Shandaken’s clearest voices of sound judgment and ethical conduct. By contrast Jerry Setchko’s clear contempt for the annoyance of public process and the opinions of other people makes it hard for us to see his candidacy as anything beyond consolidating his party’s political power. Rob Stanley and Peter DiSclafani are both men whose intentions we respect, both appear to believe in our political process and their ability to make a positive difference. We had hoped Stanley might assert his independence from his exceedingly partisan running mates. But both these candidates would serve the town well: which one to vote for comes down to the hard choices the realities of party politics often present. If you like the way things are running, Stanley’s a good choice. If change is important to you, we think DiSclafani’s the better one.
In the Highway Superintendent’s race, we are as always respectful of third party candidacies. Just as we were supportive of Ken Berryann’s bid two years ago, we’re appreciative of Keith Johnson’s willingness to step forward in what at first looked like a lost cause. With Berryann holding both major party lines, it’s not a political choice anyway for a job that certainly isn’t political. Johnson seems to have the experience edge here.
Finally, we’re very disappointed the town’s entire GOP slate chose not to show up for the League of Women Voters’ candidates event. We were told they were so sure of winning Nov. 8th, they decided they didn’t need to. To us, that’s a sign of contempt for the voters and our whole public process; frankly it’s just a lousy thing to do. Every voter in Shandaken deserves more respect from our candidates than that. But what we find disturbing is the question they obviously asked themselves… “Can we get away with this?” instead of “what’s the right thing to do?” We expect that kind of ethically-challenged thinking from Cross and Setchko, how they got Tom Crucet and Rob Stanley to accept it, that’s a deeper mystery than we can fathom.
We wish everyone a peaceful pre-election week, with truthfulness and reason from all.