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Less
than two months after the former executive director of the Adirondack
Park Agency resigned following the revelation that he had images of
nude women on his office computer, similar accusations have been
leveled against the new APA chief.
Richard
Lefebvre was named executive director of the state agency in August
after Daniel Fitts of Lake Placid resigned after the findings of a
report by the Office of the Inspector General was released. OIG had
seized the computers of Fitts and four other unidentified employees.
Henry
Hess, former chief fiscal officer for the Town of Queensbury and the
Hudson River/Black River Regulating District, a state authority which
Lefebvre formerly headed, says that Lefebvre allegedly transmitted a
photo of partially nude women over a state computer while at the state
office.
However,
one APA official says that Hess’s complaint is just
unsubstantiated allegations from a disgruntled employee. Hess made the
allegations because he didn’t get a $10,000 raise and a
shortened work week that he wanted, Lefebvre says. But Hess counters
that he’s retired and has nothing to gain.
An
investigation has been opened into the matter by district officials.
Hess says that Lefebvre’s telling of dirty jokes with other
staffers contributed to a “culture of
insensitivity”. He says that Lefebvre sent a picture of
bare-breasted women washing a car to a co-worker. Lefebvre
doesn’t deny the incident but says the photo had been
digitally created and he had sent it to a district technician to find
out how it had been done because he didn’t understand the
technology. He says it was a one-time happening.
Hess
says he’s making his allegations public now because
board members failed to act on his complaint when he filed it privately
several months ago. 9-22-05
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