Indifference Is Accomplice To Crime Of Corruption
Posted on Friday, 27 of November , 2009 at 10:56 am
COMMENTARY
A North Country Gazette Investigative Report
By June Maxam
WARREN COUNTY—A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51 percent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49.
So said Thomas Jefferson. He must have been talking about Warren County.
Jefferson also said that “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent”.
Tyranny has gained a stranglehold in Warren County with Frederick Monroe as the chairman of the board of supervisors and particularly in the Town of Chester where Monroe has been the supervisor for the past 18 years.
That’s inexcusable, no one should be able to remain in the same public office for 18 years or even 10 years. Career politicians lead to political corruption and political incompetence.
During the two years that Monroe has served as chairman of the county board, he’s taken the county down the toilet. That position should not be held by any one person for more than two years. At year’s end, it’s definitely time for him to step aside.
Term limits would help mitigate a stagnant political climate where individuals who have to face reelection every couple of years become afraid to make the right decisions or side with an unpopular faction, regardless of how right it is because they’re afraid that rocking the boat will lead to their ouster. Those politicians, such as Fred Monroe, are definitely the ones that need to be removed from office so that the needed and overdue changes can materialize.
Apathy and complacency have overtaken democracy in Warren County and the town of Chester and that’s dangerous. Look at the state of affairs in Warren County government where years of incompetency, irresponsibility, arrogance and just plain ignorance have resulted in a dire fiscal crisis.
Of course there might be more citizen involvement if the county board would hold its meetings during evening hours when people could attend but undoubtedly they like stifling public input and participation. Monroe and the Warren County board subscribe to the mushroom policy, keep them in the dark and feed them s–t.
The only way out of this mess is to change the thinking and direction that got us into it. Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
If you’re on the wrong road and hopelessly lost, you just don’t keep traveling that same path, hoping that somehow you’ll come to your desired destination.
That is applicable to the Warren County Board of Supervisors. That is applicable to the people of Warren County.
The people had a chance to make the necessary changes at the polls earlier this month but they didn’t. Unbelievably they reelected every incumbent supervisor that has squandered a $20 million surplus in eight years and led us into a $10 million deficit.
The county budget has nearly doubled from $75 million to $146 million in this same period of time, buying social services buildings, public safety buildings, railroads and amusement parks.
And the leader of this incompetent board is spineless Frederick Monroe.
Unfortunately, his term as supervisor doesn’t expire this year. Chester is stuck with him until at least Dec. 31, 2011. After he got in office, he changed the term of supervisor from two years to four years.
As budget officer for the Town of Chester, Monroe receives an extra stipend. He couldn’t even bother to attend the public hearing this year on the town’s preliminary budget.
The town tax rate for Chester for 2010 has increased 13.6%, up 14 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. So what people are unemployed, so what there’s a recession, so what there are foreclosures and people are struggling. Monroe gave all town employees, elected and appointed, including himself, a 3.5% pay increase. That’s insulting. That’s irresponsible and undeserved. Fiscal restraint? Monroe obviously isn’t familiar with the phrase.
It’s obvious by looking at the Town of Chester budget that absolutely no attempt was made to cut spending. Town board members voted to give themselves a 3.5% pay raise too, up from $5,382.25 per year to $5,570.75. Not bad for attending less than 15 meetings a year.
It was indicated at the last November meeting of the Chester Town Board that the NYS Retirement system has requested that all elected and appointed officials, who are members of the system, submit time sheets, so that they will receive appropriate service credit. A standard work day has been established for all employees. All elected and appointed officials is set at six hours.
Does Fred Monroe work six hours a day as Town of Chester supervisor? Where’s the oversight of his work day? He might be at the county doing county business but seriously, when is he even in the town hall and when is he performing the duties of Chester supervisor? When is he accessible to Town of Chester residents? How can he justify an annual salary of $29,474?
Just take a look at the empty stores on the Main Street in Chestertown. It’s sad. Monroe seems to have only the interest of Loon Lake in mind because that’s where he lives. He needs to be reminded there’s more to the town than Loon Lake and taxpayers in Pottersville and the hamlet of Chestertown shouldn’t have to pay to eradicate milfoil in front of Fred Monroe’s house.
Fred Monroe has been an absentee supervisor in the Town of Chester for 18 years. He has no backbone, that’s why Bruce Nolin is still the bookkeeper and “confidential secretary” to the supervisor. Nolin was supposed to have been canned in 1992 when Monroe took office but he didn’t have the balls to do so. The town and its people have suffered the consequences ever since. Just ask some of the highway employees whose payroll checks bounced because Nolin didn’t do his job. Ask the board about all the late fees and surcharges the taxpayers had to pay to vendors because Nolin didn’t handle the town money properly. Ask the other employees in the municipal center to whom Nolin is less than polite.
Nolin, slated for a salary increase up to $38,500 in 2010, should have been terminated a long time ago and would have been had anyone else been supervisor. His office is such a pig sty that earlier this year, the town board passed a resolution ordering him to clean it up and make it presentable to the public.
Monroe has a problem with both the Open Meetings Law and Freedom of Information Law. Earlier this year, he took county budget discussions that the public has a right to hear behind closed doors at the office of county Republican chair Mike Grasso, claiming it was a political caucus.
It might have been legal but it sure wasn’t good government. Transparency in government isn’t Monroe’s forte and neither are ethics in government. Actually, we’re not quite sure what is except hiring his family, collecting a state retirement and attempting to cover up wrongdoing in Chester town government.
As chairman of the county board, Monroe is also the appeals officer for FOIL requests at the county. The North Country Gazette submitted a FOIL request earlier this year to obtain copies of the financial disclosure statements filed by certain county officers such as Monroe, county attorney Paul Dusek and Queensbury supervisor at large William VanNess but learned that instead of the disclosures being filed with the state, they are filed with the county attorney’s office. When copies of the statements were finally provided. all the public salaries had been redacted, blacked out.
The purposes of the financial disclosure requirement are to remind public officials, and ethics agencies, of financial interests that may conflict with their duties and to assist citizens in monitoring the areas of potential conflict of interest of public officials. Public disclosure is supposed to serve as a deterrent to public officials considering activity that may result in a conflict.
But how can the public monitor finances if the county refuses to disclose them? Code of ethics? Warren County has no board of ethics and according to the clerk of the board, there has never been an ethics complaint filed in Warren County. That doesn’t mean that there haven’t been any ethics violations, just no complaints filed. The code of ethics is just an antiquated document, tucked away and unheeded.
Monroe denied the FOIL appeal, refusing to make the salaries of county officers and employees public. So tell us, just what purpose do the financial disclosure statements serve if the public information which should be freely accessible to the public is withheld?
Monroe’s disclosure statement is quite revealing indicating that he has several conflicts of interest which there seem to be no record of him disclosing as required. For instance, in the minutes of the county board of supervisors meeting for Jan. 16, it’s stated that “Chairman Monroe requested a roll call vote on Resolution No. 41, Authorizing Agreement with Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board for Funding of Operating Costs”.
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
Considering that Monroe is the executive director of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, this would seem to be an ethics violation. Who’s guarding the henhouse? http://www.co.warren.ny.us/gov/comm/finance/01-12-09.pdf
Prior to being elected to the supervisor’s post in November 1991, Monroe served as the town’s attorney, that is until he resigned in the late 80s in a snit over criticism by the chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals due to Monroe’s repeated failure to attend zoning board meetings.
It’s a zoning board issue that is currently a hot potato in the town of Chester where allegations have long existed that Walter Tennyson, town zoning officer, isn’t properly performing the duties of the job and in fact, in one provable case involving the highly controversial commercial property of retired state trooper Charles Redmond, has allegedly made false filings in the town’s business records.
In that Tennyson is an appointed officer and serves at the pleasure of the board, why is Monroe sidestepping the issue and in fact, giving Tennyson a 3.5% pay raise up to over $20,000 a year for a part-time job? Tennyson should have been canned a long time ago, and perhaps prosecuted too.
Monroe seems to have adopted the posture of an ostrich, burying his head in the sand and hoping the problem will go away. Monroe doesn’t like controversy. He has no backbone.
In December, 2008, after Redmond submitted an application for a sign, Tennyson issued a zoning certificate, claiming that he had inspected the proposed sign which Redmond had alleged was in place. The certificate in essence certified that Redmond’s proposal was in compliance and on that basis, Tennyson issued a zoning permit.
There was just one problem. No such sign existed. One can’t inspect a sign that does not exist and for certain, one is legally prohibited from issuing a permit for a non-existent sign.
How many other inspections has Tennyson failed to conduct but yet certified that he has?
And it didn’t end there. Caught red-handed with false documents and the fact that the sign that finally materialized nearly six months later wasn’t in compliance, the sign that Tennyson had certified as measuring 32 square feet since 2001 then mysteriously, mystically and magically shrunk by over nearly 3 and half square feet overnight according to Tennyson, so that it could meet what he claims are the requirements under the town zoning law that would allow Redmond’s sign.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/08/02/magic_sign/
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/11/07/mystical_sign/
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/documents/redmondchronology.pdf
The issue was brought to the attention of Monroe and the town board with a request for a criminal investigation. So far, Monroe and the Chester Town Board have refused to acknowledge the complaint.
According to the state Penal Law, a person is guilty of issuing a false certificate when, being a public servant authorized by law to make or issue official certificates (such as a zoning certificate) or other official written instruments (such as sign permits) and with intent to defraud, deceive or injure another person, he issues such an instrument, or makes the same with intent that it be issued, knowing that it contains a false statement of false information, is a class E felony.
When you issue a zoning certificate, certifying that you have inspected a sign that you KNOW you didn’t inspect because it doesn’t exist, and certify that the non-existent sign complies with the town’s zoning law, that would seem to be a criminal act.
A public servant is guilty of official misconduct, a misdemeanor, when, with intent to obtain a benefit or deprive another person of a benefit, he commits an act relating to his office but constituting an unauthorized exercise of his official functions, knowing that such act is unauthorized; or he knowingly refrains from performing a duty which is imposed upon by law or is clearly inherent in the nature of his office.
The matter was reported to county law enforcement agencies in May. So far, no one will talk about it and the complainant and witnesses haven’t been interviewed. The district attorney’s office initially acknowledged a FOIL request seeking the file in the matter, saying that a response would be forthcoming by Sept. 30.
But there was nothing. By law, the non-response constitutes a denial. And when an appeal was filed with the county to learn the status of the investigation, guess where the appeal had to be directed. Yep, to Frederick Monroe. Is that a conflict of interest or what? That fox is in the henhouse again. It seems to be just one big cover up, a typical governmental situation of one lying and the other one swearing to it.
Then there’s the issue of the alleged wrongdoing in the town justice court. Just when are the Chester Town Board and Monroe going to request that the state comptroller conduct an audit of the Chester Town Court and its judge, James McDermott or conduct an independent audit of the court themselves?
According to the town minutes, so far it hasn’t happened. Monroe and the Chester Town Board should have requested a state audit long ago of the Chester court, especially after the Office of Court Administration last December allegedly found unprocessed tickets and undeposited checks and money orders stuffed in filing cabinet drawers, dating back to the 1980s. No mention of THAT in the town board minutes!!!
But wait, OCA denies that it was ever in the Chester town court!
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/10/29/court_phantom/
Last December, after extensive absences of the court clerk, reliable sources including several employees of the town informed The North Country Gazette that “the state” had visited the court and found serious record and bookkeeping problems. The sources indicated that the state employee, a woman, had been shocked to find undeposited funds and unprocessed traffic tickets dating back to the 1980’s stuffed in file drawers.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/06/06/court_audit/
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/02/11/chester_fraud/
Court employees said that the state employee had stated that she’d “never seen anything like it” and that an audit was going to be conducted, one that has been long overdue.
The Office of the State Comptroller says it was OCA at the Chester court. The presence of OCA in the Chester town court is memorialized in the minutes of the Chester Town Board. The Chester town clerk confirms that OCA was there as do two court employees and several other persons knowledgeable of court operations.
But OCA continues to deny it. And just where is that audit? The Office of State Comptroller won’t address the issue. Maybe, just maybe there really is an audit ongoing but what’s the big secret?
There have long been issues involving the town justice court but Monroe has continually swept them under the rug.
Don’t forget, it was former town justice E. Wendell Ross who wanted to go to a sole justice and eliminate the two judge system because he wanted it all. Of course that was before the state censured him for 21 counts of misconduct in regard to him “taking care” of tickets for his friends and family. http://www.scjc.state.ny.us/Determinations/R/ross.htm
Prior to the late 80s, there were two town justices, two clerks and that’s the way it should have remained, considering that the Chester town court is supposedly the third busiest in the county.
The town board and their attorney, Fred Monroe, refused the petition submitted by town voters who wanted the sole justice issue placed on the ballot, decided by the people, and instead the town board in its infinite wisdom, guided by Monroe, voted to eliminate the second position and instead boosted Ross’s salary. Let’s see, let’s not forget that Monroe was Ross’s personal attorney at the time. Anyone see a conflict of interest there?
After Monroe resigned as town attorney, Ross’s new attorney, James Curry, became the town attorney and was illegally paid by the town to represent Ross before the state judicial commission. Town Law states that town taxpayers are not required to provide a defense for a town justice accused of judicial misconduct. Such costs are the personal liability of the judge.
When The North Country Gazette protested, its publisher was labeled a complainer. The town justice’s wife, Kathryn Ross who was also the court clerk, assaulted the publisher at a town board meeting and the Rosses began their reign of terror against the publisher and her family. “I’ll make your life a bloody hell”, Ross shouted from the bench. Nice demeanor for someone who claimed to be a judge. And then there were the gunshots at the publisher’s house, not just once, but twice and the incident where the back window of the publisher’s vehicle was shot out when it was parked in a driveway across from the Ross residence.
When the state commission opened another investigation into Ross, he “retired” at the end of 1991. When shots were fired at the publisher’s residence in early January, 1992 and Ross allegedly admitted the act, he wasn’t arrested. When he was caught and identified in a phone trap making threatening and harassing phone calls, the state police didn’t arrest him then either.
Don’t forget, Ross also owned the Chestertown State Police barracks at the time. Can you spell C-O-N-F-L-I-C-T? Or is it spelled C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N?
Karen Griffen of Pottersville has been the Chester court clerk since the late 80s after Rosses’ wife resigned when her husband’s misconduct was revealed.
As town justice, Ross took good care of his attorney, Fred Monroe. The state found that Ross and Monroe had acted improperly with Monroe appearing in the town court before Ross. Monroe had been Ross’s personal attorney since 1981. From 1981, until Ross’ censure, Monroe appeared in Ross’s court representing clients, and Ross disposed of seven of his cases, the state found. Ross didn’t bother to inform the parties opposing Monroe that Monroe was his personal attorney.
On Sept. 1, 1983, Monroe’s son, Shawn, was charged with failure To keep right, unlicensed operation and uninsured motor vehicle after a fatal automobile accident which resulted in the death of the brother of a current Warren County Sheriff’s Officer. The matter was returnable in Ross’s court. No charge of vehicular homicide or manslaughter was brought. Ross failed to disqualify himself and never docketed or disposed of the case even though Shawn Monroe expressed willingness in September 1985 to plead guilty to unregistered motor vehicle, a small price for a death.
And thereafter, in somewhat of a quid pro quo, Monroe as town attorney took care of Ross, allowing the illegal expenditure of town funds for his defense of judicial misconduct.
Griffen continued to be the court clerk for the next Chester town judge, Ronald Robert, who was removed from office by the judicial commission in 1996 for favoritism. http://www.scjc.state.ny.us/Determinations/R/robert.htm
Robert appealed the decision to the Court of Appeals who unanimously upheld his removal, finding him “unfit for judicial office”. Chester taxpayers were forced to pay him for doing nothing from the time he was removed in September, 1996 until the final ruling came down from the state’s highest court in May, 1997.
According to reliable sources and public records, irregularities were found in court records and deposits of the Chester town court by the Office of Court Administration last December when long time court clerk Karen Griffen took an extended sick leave. Following extensive leave time by Griffen, in December, the town board authorized McDermott, on his request, to hire a part-time temporary court clerk.
For some unknown reason, Griffen has long been part of the town’s CSEA unit of the highway department and as a union employee, gets all the same perks and benefits of the highway department. No other town outside of the highway department is a member of the unit.
Reliable sources indicate that when the OCA official visited the court in December, she was shocked to find undeposited funds and unprocessed traffic tickets dating back to the 1980s stuffed in file drawers.
By law, deposits of all court funds must be made within 72 hours of receipt.
Griffen’s pay records indicate that on several occasions last fall, the town paid her overtime time for improperly taking court records home after she had taken five days off of sick leave. One cannot receive overtime pay for a “work week” over 40 hours if they haven’t worked the first 40 hours.
And how ethical is it to take court records to a private residence?
And her time sheets were approved by McDermott.
During a pay period in November, 2008, McDermott signed Griffen’s time sheet, approving pay for 41 ½ hours over a seven day span including Saturday and Sunday although Griffen had only actually worked 9 ½ hours for the entire week. She submitted a claim for 8 hours of holiday day for Veterans Day and three days of sick leave and got paid overtime. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/06/06/court_audit/
Griffen was paid to take the entire month of December 2008 off, using up her sick leave and personal leave. If the court is the third busiest in the county. So how can it close down for an entire month while the court clerk is on vacation?
There are also allegations that Griffen has provided her sister access to the court office, allegedly allowing her to open mail and perform other court duties. So where’s the investigation of these allegations? Where’s the Commission on Judicial Conduct or are politics are play again?
Attempts were made to quash the judicial investigations of both Ross and Robert. Removing two justices back to back from the same town government is likely unprecedented. How about a triple play?
The law requires that every town and village justice submit his records and dockets to the town board for audit at least once a year and upon the last audit day of the town of village which in the Town of Chester falls in December. This means the board, by law, must examine the books twice annually and it must be recorded in the minutes of the proceedings, including that the fines collected by the court have been turned over to the proper officials.
The North Country Gazette has obtained the “audits” as prepared for the last three years by the “audit committee” of town councilwomen Karen DuRose and Edna Wells. The audits are a complete farce and the taxpayers paid for them.
Frederick Monroe is a common denominator in all three cases involving the Chester Court—Ross, Robert and now McDermott.
Monroe refused to initiate any action against Ross to recover the money the town had illegally spent to provide legal services for Ross.
Monroe was also the town supervisor at the time of Robert’s removal from office and led the town board in passing a resolution trying to stop the complainant in both the Ross and Robert misconduct cases from filing additional complaints with the commission. Obviously Monroe would have preferred to allow the misconduct to continue——just like it has been under McDermott.
Perhaps it’s Monroe and other politicos who are now running interference for McDermott with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. Considering the multitude of issues involving McDermott including the issue of court monies, one has to wonder why so far no action has been taken against McDermott. In fact, unbelievably he was just reelected for yet another four year term without opposition.
McDermott has been before the town board in recent weeks, trying to avoid paying his share of health insurance benefits.
This is the individual who failed to file his oath of office and Monroe and the town covered his ass. Although the law clearly states that as an elected official, McDermott is required to file both his oath and undertaking with the county clerk within 30 days of the commencement of his term. He did neither and by operation of law, vacated his office. But the town board failed to take the required action. They instead thumbed their noses at the law and sat like bumps on a log, hoping the issue would go away.
The law further states that in that situation, the town could compensate McDermott as he was not legally in office. That didn’t faze Monroe or McDermott. As an attorney, Monroe is an officer of the court and he and McDermott jointly turned their heads to the law. McDermott continued to perform the duties of the office without legal authority and the taxpayers were forced to illegally pay him to do so.
Neither did McDermott comply with the law in providing his books for audit. Again, instead of McDermott being prosecuted for a misdemeanor as provided by law, Monroe and the town board turned a blind eye to the law and covered his ass for him.
Of course one of the most interesting questions in the Town of Chester was if Pottersville residents Edna Wells and Barbara Repp weren’t elected as councilwomen until November 2001 and didn’t take office until January, 2002, then how could they sign a letter dated Jan. 15, 2001 as town board members, stating that they had audited the dockets and records of the Chester town court and McDermott in 2000?
Why wasn’t that matter investigated and prosecuted?
There was absolutely no reasonable doubt that not only had town justice McDermott failed to comply with state law in regard to the records, but that his court clerk, allegedly made a false statement in regard to the situation. Was Griffen ever prosecuted for what should have been a felony offense? No. For some reason and somehow, there appears to be a blanket of immunity for wrongdoing in the Town of Chester. Perhaps a federal agency should investigate who is pulling the strings in this repetitive obstruction of justice.
The law requires that every town and village justice submit his records and dockets to the town board for audit at least once a year and upon the last audit day of the town of village which in the Town of Chester falls in December. The board, by law, must examine the books and it must be recorded in the minutes of the proceedings, including that the fines collected by the court have been turned over to the proper officials.
A minor situation? Hardly. The law clearly states that any justice who fails to present his books for audit to the town board is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction, in addition to the punishment provided by law which is up to a year in jail and/or a $1,000 fine or both, forfeit his office. Once again, McDermott slid.
How can there be any respect for this court and this “judge” who apparently thinks he’s above the law and where there have been such blatant situations of alleged wrongdoing. Even signing falsified time slips which rip off the taxpayer is a crime.
The law says that any member of the public can inspect the court records at reasonable times but when the editor of The North Country Gazette visited the court during regular business hours and requested to see the court dockets, Griffen said they didn’t have dockets. She claimed that a person could not inspect the court files, despite what the law says, but rather had to specifically identify a particular file.
When asked how the court complied with the auditing law, Griffen said that all the files were on the computer and that the board members individually came into the office to view the records on her computer.
Just one problem though—the board members disputed her. Former Councilwoman Marjorie Swan, a board member for over 20 years, and mother of current Warren County Undersheriff Robert Swan, said she had never reviewed files on the court computer as Griffen had claimed and in fact, hadn’t reviewed the files at all.
Griffen maintained that the board members signed a “letter” each year rather than the dockets as required by law. When NCG asked to see those letters for past years, Griffen said she couldn’t find them but would have them by noon of the following day.
The next day she produced two letters, one purportedly for 1999 and one for 2000. None was provided for 2001.
She produced a letter signed by board members including Swan, but Swan said she had never reviewed the files. Did she sign the letter? That was never established.
Although the letter produced by Griffen for 2000 purporting to be a statement by the board was dated in one place for 2001 stating the books for 2000 had been reviewed, it was dated 2002 in another place. Had the letter been signed on Jan. 15, 2001, as Griffen represented, it would have been signed by board members and Swan and Anne S. Murphy rather than Repp and Wells who hadn’t even run for the board yet to say nothing about being elected.
In presenting the two letters amid questions from NCG, Griffen comment was “I did what I was told to do”. By whom?
Despite there being prima facie evidence of a false document, there were no charges brought.
Now all of sudden, McDermott claims he knows all about the law and appeared before the town board in November to tell them that a justice’s salary cannot be decreased or benefits decreased. McDermott is whining that in the middle of his term, all town employees were told they were required to contribute to the cost of their health insurance premium.
But McDermott doesn’t think he should have to contribute for the next four years. He wants the taxpayers to pick up his entire tab. Some balls, we’d say, after all that he and his clerk have cost the town taxpayers.
McDermott was told by the town’s legal counsel that while the general principle is true, neither his salary or health insurance benefits were reduced but that a contribution is required, even from pompous ass McDermott as the town’s cost has increased.
McDermott was reminded that he’s gotten a raise every year and from 2006 until present, an increase in his net salary has been shown, even with a deduction for his health insurance.
Speaking of time sheets for retirement benefits and the requirement that McDermott as an elected official work six hours a day, has anyone checked the veracity of HIS time sheet? Filing false time sheets would be a felony filing of false instrument with intent to defraud the government.
While on the topic of time sheets and hours, let’s return to Monroe’s “secretary Nolin.
Somehow the town of Chester has avoided a sexual harassment suit despite Nolin’s repeated derogatory, tasteless and intemperate comments towards women, especially town employees.
During business hours, Nolin can be seen wandering the street, back and forth from his residence, to the post office and visiting the deli at the Grand Union across the street from the municipal center, taking TV dinners, fried chicken and all kinds of eatables into his office, apparently susceptible to a chronic case of the munchies during work hours.
Nolin chronically inhabits the municipal center after hours and particularly on weekends although the board passed a resolution that holds him to only 40 hours a week. For a time, Nolin was wandering into other offices during the after hours, engaged in what some called snooping, that is until the locks were changed on many of the offices. During one of his after hour entries, Nolin allegedly dumped the entire database of the town assessor.
In most towns, that would have been enough for a termination but not in the Town of Chester. Of course at the time, his sister was a town board member.
Even when it was proven beyond all reasonable doubt a few years ago that Nolin was using the town computer in violation of the town’s employee policy, no disciplinary action was taken against Nolin and the complainant was in essence advised to sue the town.
Perhaps if Monroe spent more time in the town hall, he’d know what was going on in the town and address some of these issues, even prevent some of them.
Nolin has avoided arrest on several occasions although if someone outside of town government engaged in his course of conduct, they’d be criminally charged. Even when he intentionally struck the publisher of The North Country Gazette in the head, he was not criminally charged. Sheriff Larry Cleveland laughed, refused to allow a complaint to be filed and said “he’s a looney tune, that one”.
In 2005, when IP numbers and other data indicated that someone using a town computer was engaging in harassment during working hours to post libelous and defamatory messages against a certain individual and business on message boards and forums as well as posting comments regarding oral sex, according to Monroe, the sheriff’s department couldn’t determine for sure that it was Nolin. Curious, considering that the sheriff’s department doesn’t have a computer crimes unit and that the sheriff department’s own computer system was hacked by one of their own department members!
When pressured for information concerning the so-called “investigation” that Monroe says was conducted, the sheriff’s department disavowed any knowledge and said there was no existing file on any such investigation. Neither could Monroe or the town produce any records to back up Monroe’s claim.
The North Country Gazette determined through a Freedom of Information Law request that Nolin was on the time clock at the time the alleged defamatory postings were made using an IP registered to the town. It was also learned that Nolin was regularly using town computers on town time to send jokes and personal email messages to other town employees.
The newspaper obtained a copy of one of the email messages sent to another town employee indicating the Nolin was the sender and identifying his IP number. Town policy states that “use of the town’s computer equipment may occur only during Town office hours: and that “the Town’s computer equipment may be used for official Town business, personal use is prohibited”.
No criminal charges of aggravated harassment were brought against Nolin.
A formal written complaint against Nolin with documentation was filed with the Chester Town Board on August 2006 by the publisher of The North Country Gazette against whom Nolin has a long history of harassment. The complaint was presumably discussed in an executive session but neither Monroe nor other town officials ever contacted the publisher to discuss the matter. That’s the way Monroe handles most such situations in the town, ignore them and hope they go away.
Formal complaints of alleged wrongdoing have been filed with the Chester Town Board against zoning administrator Walter Tennyson. Once again, the complainant was not allowed to address the board and the board has never responded to the complaint. That too apparently got tabled and then swept away.
Monroe has a long history of cover-ups and well as nepotism and cronyism. When in the position of town attorney, his brother served as water superintendent, perhaps longer than he should have after it was disclosed that the required water testings weren’t being done.
That led to the appointment of Monroe’s cousin, Bunky Baker, being named to the post. In 2003, when Baker, was caught on videotape allegedly accepting an unlawful gratuity, that too was pooed-pooed and no action was taken although the Penal Law specifically states that acceptance of such gratuities are illegal.
Baker was kept on the town payroll even when he wasn’t capable of working, so that his health insurance would be paid and he would get his time in for retirement. When he did finally retire, Monroe snared the position for his nephew with a salary of $40,437 and a new pickup.
When one of the attendants at the town landfill was found to be taking salvage materials home with him at a loss to the town, including recyclable cans and bottles which he was redeeming for himself, no criminal charges were lodged. This is the same individual who was handling the money at the landfill but no audit was ever done and no criminal charges were ever lodged. He was simply reassigned until he finally resigned.
Such situations are prosecuted in other areas of the state—-but not in Warren County.
Consider the matter of STAR fraud.
In the Town of Chester, Warren County, when property owner Betsey Johnson used her 80-year-old mother, Violet to file a sworn statement with the assessor claiming a Chestertown home was their primary residence in order to get a STAR (School Tax Relief) exemption when she was already receiving a STAR exemption on her Schenectady residence, claiming that as a primary residence, she wasn’t prosecuted.
But in Suffolk County, following a six-month investigation of property owners who allegedly filed fraudulent applications in order to receive state property tax exemptions under STAR, 17 people were arrested, charged with felony filing of a false instrument and defrauding the state.
At the time, she was employed by the State of New York. Now, with Fred Monroe as chairman of the board, she’s been hired by Warren County.
Monroe’s practice of treating corruption like mushrooms isn’t an acceptable answer.
The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference.
As Thomas Jefferson said, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent”. 11-27-09
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2009 by June Maxam. This article may not be reprinted or republished without the express written permission of The North Country Gazette.
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Category: Adirondacks, Consumers, Courts, Crime, Government, New York State, Opinion, Police, Politics, Taxes, Warren County
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