Remove Warren County’s Surrogate Sheriff
Posted on Saturday, 24 of October , 2009 at 7:29 pm
COMMENTARY
By June Maxam
He’s a triple dipper into your pockets.
He embraces nepotism, cronyism and favoritism.
He’d rather impose a property tax hike on county homeowners than increase the sales tax one percent.
Queensbury voters, be sure to vote on Nov. 3.
He’s the only candidate for the position he’s seeking that’s endorsed by the Civil Service Employees Association but then he’s generously supported the unions in their pay hikes at the expense of Warren County voters, like voting for the 7.2% retroactive pay raise for the Warren County Police Benevolent Association at a time when people throughout the county were having trouble putting food on their tables and having gasoline in their vehicles to get to work, that is if they had a job.
You didn’t see him seeking any concessions from the county unions. You didn’t see him taking a cut in salary or reduction in benefits.
Queensbury voters, be sure to vote on Nov. 3.
His own household and family comes first. While he and his Republican counterparts on the Warren County Board of Supervisors are busy cutting jobs and services while saddling taxpayers with a train and a new Social Services building, he’s made sure that his brother got a posh political appointment and that his wife got a plush unadvertised county job without having to take any Civil Service exam.
This is the man who wanted to be sheriff but knew he couldn’t get elected, wouldn’t take on his ex-boss Larry Cleveland so he settled for a post he thought he could control and wield power as Queensbury GOP chairman and became the surrogate sheriff, chairing the county’s Public Safety Committee.
Queensbury voters, be sure to vote on Nov. 3.
The Open Meetings Law and the people’s right to know isn’t his forte either. He and his Republican counterparts, led by Chester supervisor Fred Monroe as chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, held a clandestine meeting at the Cool Insuring office of Michael Grasso, chairman of the county Republican Party and claimed it was a political caucus because they didn’t want the public and media to be privy to their budget negotiations.
Let’s not forget that Cool Insuring and Grasso does business with both the county and the Town of Queensbury and that Queensbury-at-large supervisor William VanNess, chairman of the Queensbury GOP Committee and chair of the county’s Public Safety Committee is also vice chairman of the Warren County GOP Committee.
A matter of ethics? Did you say ethics in a county that doesn’t even have Board of Ethics? While places like Monroe County have established a Whistleblower’s Hotline, Warren County does nothing. Although certain county officials file financial disclosure statements as required, they’re filed with the county attorney and when someone attempts to review one of the disclosure statements, the county redacts all the financial information including the salaries and pensions of the public officers and county employees, claiming disclosure would be an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy”.
Excuse me, that’s public money that they’re receiving. Just what is the purpose of a financial disclosure statement anyway?
Queensbury voters, be sure to vote on Nov. 3.
He’s finishing his third two-year term as an at-large supervisor for Queensbury. Six years is long enough. Time to go.
He’s the part of the problem, not part of the solution. He helped get the county into the $7 million deficit it’s facing. We need to vote out the incumbents, it’s the only way to effect needed change. He’s one who has a tax and spend mentality. He’s been on the public dole way too long. The taxpayers of Warren County do not owe this man a living. Being a county supervisor should not be a second career. Two terms is more than sufficient. He’s a poster child for term limits.
It’s time.
In fact, it’s way past time for William VanNess of Queensbury to not only be removed from his heavily conflicted role as chairman of the Public Safety Committee of the Warren County Board of Supervisors but from the board itself.
Queensbury voters, be sure to vote to remove William VanNess from the Warren County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 3.
VanNess and the Warren County Board of Supervisors have been fiscally irresponsible and yet these people like VanNess claim to be representing the people of Warren County. We can’t afford their kind of representation.
VanNess, the retired sheriff’s department investigator, just can’t seem to say no to anything in the sheriff’s department. He likes being the spokesman for the sheriff’s department, he thinks he’s the surrogate sheriff.
In essence, last year the board and VanNess as Public Safety chair covertly snuck an extravagant unwarranted and unmerited four year contract giving an 18% pay raise to the Warren County PBA up the nose of the taxpayers. They totally ignored the state of the economy, the feelings of the taxpayers to give these police officers what amounts to more than a 18% pay raise over four years at the same time that scores of people are being laid off.
VanNess, 53, rakes in $21,027 in retirement from the sheriff’s department for doing nothing along with $17,323 as a supervisor and oh yeah, let’s not forget his position with the Lake George Park Commission at $16.77 an hour as a marine patrol officer and any other “perks”. He’s a triple dipper and thinks he wants to be chairman of the board. What a disaster that would be.
VanNess has done himself and his family members quite well since leaving the sheriff’s department. Don’t forget, he’s also pulls the strings of the Queensbury Republican committee.
He got his wife a nice perk. Connie VanNess stepped into a $24,480 position in the mail room at the Warren County Municipal Center. According to the county personnel office, this position isn’t a competitive position so she didn’t even have to take an exam. Likely hubby’s political persuasion got her this plush job. The job had been vacant for two years from February 2005 to January 2007 and in stepped his wife. So much for merit selection. If it had been vacant for two years, then that job should have been one of the first one’s cut when the supervisors started eliminating positions…..but it wasn’t.
Then there’s the political appointment garnered by VanNess’s brother, Tom VanNess, appointed Queensbury deputy highway superintendent. Makes one wonder if Bill VanNess is working for the people or just using politics to further himself and his family but then guess that wouldn’t make him any different than any other politician. Nepotism, cronyism and favoritism.
We need new blood on the board of supervisors. For certain we need a new county attorney. We need someone who’s not a yes man, someone who hasn’t made a career leeching from the taxpayers. It’s time to clean the county house. Voters in Queensbury need to remove VanNess from the board.
While the tea party demonstrators can direct their anger at Washington, it really needs to be directed at the root of the problem—at the local government level.
Ethics are in short supply in Warren County government. The Lake George Park Commission’s marine patrol where VanNess is employed is dispatched through the Warren County Sheriff’s Office which VanNess thinks he controls as Public Safety chair. The patrol coordinates with Warren County Sheriff Patrols on the lake as well as other law enforcement agencies.
Can you say ethics? How can you serve two masters at the same time, especially when in you’re in the pocket of both?
When other members of the board of supervisors wanted to eliminate the sheriff’s marine patrol, VanNess came to the rescue in his dually conflicted role and led the public safety committee to save the Sheriff’s Marine Division from extinction.
In Monroe County, a hotline is now available for county employees to report suspected cases of unethical or illegal behavior on the part of any Monroe County official or employee.
“Rooting out unethical behavior and abuses of taxpayer resources remains a top priority for Monroe County,” said county executive Maggie Brooks. “Whistleblowers, who are protected by County law from retribution, are often the best way to stop corrupt behavior from falling between the cracks. This whistleblower hotline will empower our employees to report any suspected unethical or illegal behavior to our Independent Accountability Counsel, who will investigate the claims and report their findings directly to me. I am confident that this innovative program will protect taxpayer resources and ensure that Monroe County operates under the highest ethical standards.”
So when can we expect such a hotline and independent review to be initiated at the Warren County level? This is basically a no-cost item but yet it could save the county and its taxpayers thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars. Perhaps one of the first people who should be reviewed for potential ethics violations should be William VanNess, followed close behind by Frederick Monroe.
One definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and over and expect a different result and that includes electing the same people to public office over and over and over. The only way to achieve fiscal responsibility in Warren County government is with change, not to keep electing the same old tired, selfish ideas of people like William VanNess.
Queensbury voters, be sure to vote on Nov. 3.
Vote for much needed change in county government.
Vote out William VanNess. 10-24-09
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Category: Adirondacks, Government, Opinion, Police, Politics, Taxes, Warren County
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