On 18 July, 2019, NY State Supreme Court Judge Moriarty
issued a fair and reasonable ruling: Dan Ford is the Town of Alma Highway
Superintendent. As an attendee of the
proceedings, it was clearly evident that there hasn't been a legal interruption
of his term in office, there has only been illegal interference. The interference was due to scrap monies and
how it was handled. It was considered a
'theft' by the current town supervisor despite prior administrations, both town
and Highway, handling scrap monies in the same way. The town supervisor's vision of how things
should be now is what prompted him and, possibly other board members, to
interpret certain town laws to fit their agenda resulting in the creation of
Resolution 1-2019 which forced Mr. Ford to purchase his own bond.
The town supervisor claimed that Mr. Ford's bond had been
dropped due to inappropriate handling of scrap monies. It was determined that the bond the town
supervisor claimed had been dropped, in reality was never dropped and it isn't
a “bond”, it is a blanket insurance policy covering all town employees. This policy only has two (2) names on it, the
town supervisor's and the town clerk's.
Mr. Ford was forced to purchase a bond and the resolution clearly stated
that the town would reimburse him for the expense. Mr. Ford, purchased two (2) bonds and the
town refused to reimburse him for them.
Judge Moriarty ruled that the town, as per their own resolution, must
reimburse Mr. Ford in full. Remember,
Mr. Ford had never been dropped from the original blanket policy.
Mr. Ford hasn't received payment of his wages since March 7,
2019 and the town's attorney argued that as the town board was not recognizing
Mr. Ford as Highway Superintendent he was “donating his time” to the town. Judge Moriarty did not agree with that and
ruled that Mr. Ford was to be paid his back wages and current wages moving
forward.
Listening to Judge Moriarty go through each request, I
believed that he was fair. His most
important finding was that Mr. Ford is, and has been the Alma Highway
Superintendent. He did dismiss the
individual suits against each board member and the town clerk but the suit
against the board as a whole will be moving forward. He instructed the town to continue to maintain
the blanket policy and to continue Mr. Ford's benefits.
My take-away from watching this play out in the courtroom
was simple, all of this could have been avoided if there had been communication
between the town board and the Highway Superintendent as there had been for
decades prior to this. The town of Alma
used to have a governing body that would work together with the Highway
Department and the Taxpayers. Now it
seems that there is no communication and plans are made behind closed doors,
away from those who might ask “Why”.
Residents feel that hoops must now be jumped through and permissions
granted before being allowed to address the town board when previous boards
encouraged public participation. A
former town supervisor said many times that she “wished more people would get
involved and come to meetings”. Her wish
has been granted but not for the reasons she wanted. Residents now fill the town hall because they
are frustrated with what is going on and how the board has distanced themselves
from the people, they are supposed serve.
The board chooses to mimic other towns instead of answering
questions. The board feels that they're
being attacked. That is understandable
as there are times when frustrations boil over but this could be avoided if the
board were more accessible.
A representative for the board said “the town did the best
it could” but that isn't accurate. The
“town” is a collective of its residents and the residents weren't shy about
going to Mr. Ford and asking questions.
The board chose to close down all communication and act as judge and
jury, denying Mr. Ford due process and costing the town tens of thousands of
dollars. For a board that claims to be
doing this out of fiscal responsibility their actions speak louder than their
words.
It is time for all of this to come to a close, for elected
individuals to understand their rolls and for Alma to move forward.
Submitted by:
Heather Trask
Paula Clayson
