To The Editor:

I'm writing about your editorial in the March 24, 2016 edition of The Altamont Enterprise, letters to the editor, the march by protesters on Berne Town Hall, council members comments, and related issues.

I found the theme of  your editorial, the destructiveness of partisan politics and the silence of elected officials, to be an accurate description of what is happening not only on the national level but sadly, at the local level in Berne, right before our eyes.

Briefly, without rehashing all the details, The Enterprise article revealed that at a fall 2015 town highway budget meeting Town Supervisor Kevin Crosier; Joe Golden, the town council’s liaison to the highway department; and members of the town council, all Democrats, adopted a town highway budget that included a shift in funds and layoffs of two town highway employees.

The shift of funds and planned layoffs were not discussed with newly elected Republican Berne Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger who was attending his first-ever town highway budget meeting.

Apparently Supervisor Crosier; Joe Golden, a retired social studies teacher; and other elected town council members (despite the cooperation of Bashwinger and his town highway workers as you will read further on) were incapable of extending the smallest courtesy to newcomer Bashwinger about the budget changes they had made.

What kind of lesson in civics is this? Obviously, the worst kind. You needn't be a rocket scientist to figure this one out. No, there's no partisan politics practiced by this group, none whatsoever. Whatever happened to working together for the common good?

Since I mentioned working together for the common good, I should point out that Bashwinger and his  six full-time highway workers, I call them the Magnificent Seven, work as a team not only on maintaining town roads but also working on and repairing town-owned facilities. I'm not mentioning the part-time workers who fill in from time to time as they are paid but receive no benefits and their help is certainly appreciated when they are called in.

Now keep in mind that the full-time town highway workers, the Magnificent Seven, are heavy equipment operators. Besides driving those 20-plus ton snow plow behemoths to make sure our roads are clear, they operate a multitude of other types of equipment; they are very handy with saws, hammers, rulers, levels, roofing, siding, concrete; and they are blessed with a can-do spirit and tolerance.

If you have read the Town of Berne Courier, the town’s newsletter, you will see that Bashwinger and the town highway workers have received much praise for their work. In fact, The Altamont Enterprise has featured our Magnificent Seven working together on some town facilities with articles and pictures, such as the Berne town park playground and pavilion, library, sewage treatment plant, transfer station, senior citizen center, town hall, Game Farm Road property, and most recently the town highway garage.

I'm no cost expert, but, if you do some figuring, the town highway workers, the Magnificent Seven, have saved town of Berne residents thousands upon thousands of dollars. If the work these men have done, quietly, efficiently, without fanfare, was put out to private contractors, the cost easily would exceed $250,000.

Now, as I mentioned in a previous letter to the editor (March 24, 2016), during Bashwinger's first year on the job, 2015, he looked at the town garage operations with a new set of eyes. He made changes and incorporated a new work schedule for part of the year to address inefficiencies he observed in the town highway operations, and in doing so he locked horns with the dynamic duo, councilman Joe Golden and Town Supervisor Kevin Crosier, who were opposed to the four-day, 10-hour-a-day work schedule.

Bashwinger, pleased with the results of the four-day, 10-hour-a-day schedule for part of the year in 2015 planned on using a similar schedule in 2016.

The dynamic duo opposed the 2016 four-day, 10-hour-a-day, 40-hours-a-week schedule. Crosier asked how would a mom and dad who were working two jobs feel if they noticed the town garage was closed on on Friday. Say what? What are the feelings of those moms and dads holding two jobs about Town Hall being closed on Friday?

Crosier's argument is silly and weak. How would that mom and dad feel about Bashwinger and the town highway workers, the Magnificent Seven, saving them thousands of dollars in tax money? Pretty good I'd say.

Bashwinger put his 2016 schedule into motion and shortly afterward Crosier abruptly put two town highway workers on layoff. This caused an uproar and as a result information came to light that the shift in budget funds and layoffs had been planned by the town council members months before at the 2015 fall budget meeting. So much for working together.

Highway Superintendent Bashwinger, blindsided by the revelations, believed he was betrayed by members of the town council, and used impolite language to express his contempt for their actions.

News of all this soon became public, and, in an interview with The Enterprise, Crosier ignited  a  firestorm by making a comment that snow-plowing roads was not “rocket science” work.  Many people took offense at Crosier’s comment as their family members and friends, many of whom are equipment operators for town, county, and state municipalities, also perform snow-plowing duties when necessary.

These offended citizens and several local area highway superintendents, joined Berne residents in a protest march on Berne Town Hall in support of Bashwinger, the four-day, 10-hour-a-day, 40-hour work week schedule, and laid-off town highway employees.

When asked by The Enterprise for their reaction to the march on town hall, council members, with the exception of Councilman Wayne Emory, made statements criticizing Bashwinger’s impolite comments, conveniently ignoring their roles and silence at the fall 2015 budget meeting.

Per her March 24, 2016 letter to the editor, Maureen Abbott of East Berne said Crosier's opposition to the four-day, 10-hour work day didn't make sense, and she further cited information in the Enterprise article noting Crosier's coercive tactics; forcing (laid off) workers to agree to his plan to get their jobs back, may in fact, be illegal.

As we all know, there is a bit of give and take in any contract negotiations. Crosier’s “it's my way or the highway, my plan or nothing” attitude is a deplorable abusive bully tactic and precisely why the Public Employees Fair Employment Act commonly known as the Taylor Law exists.

At last week’s march on Town Hall, one of the issues voiced by town highway workers is Crosier’s forcing a health benefits plan selected by him upon them from only one source in a take-it-or-leave-it scenario.

I'm sure some eyebrows were or will be raised over this revelation.

Bashwinger and the town highway workers have shown their loyalty and dedication to town residents by their cooperative work shown in the Town of Berne Courier and The Altamont Enterprise. How is it possible that a four-day, 10-hour-a-day, 40-hour work week could elicit such shabby treatment of them by the town council? As Maureen Abbott noted in her letter to the editor, there must be something more.

Berne residents pay taxes to provide funds for town employee salaries, benefits, and equipment among other things. Why hasn't the best benefit plan at the least cost been offered to town highway employees and Bashwinger, instead of take-it-or-leave-it crumbs and insults?

Why weren't other insurance providers offered an opportunity to present their benefits plan? And why are budget funds denied the town highway superintendent for equipment when such funds have already been allocated in the budget and unavailable to him? This needs to be addressed and explained.

For Crosier to proclaim he saved Berne taxpayers money is fine. But to do so on the backs of town highway employees and the town highway department by depriving them better benefits and equipment is wrong.

Is this the kind of treatment we want for our town highway employees who work for all of us and have done so much? How can we remain silent and let this happen to our neighbors and friends?

For Crosier and the town council to shuffle or shift town highway budget funds around like a shell game — now you see it, now you don't — is wrong. No wonder a town council member resigned some time ago. Who could blame her? No wonder former town employees sought employment elsewhere and former elected officials have distanced themselves from town government. Who could blame them?

The Berne town highway superintendent and town of Berne highway workers should be treated with common decency, fairness, and respect! They shouldn't be abused, coerced, or insulted. There are laws in place to prevent this from happening.

Can you blame highway Superintendent Bashwinger or the town highway workers for being upset with Crosier's bully tactics and offensive remarks? Can you blame them for being upset with the town council? Can you blame them for not having a choice regarding their health benefits? Can you blame them for marching on Town Hall to demand better treatment? I can't and neither should you.

Perhaps the time has come for Supervisor Crosier and the town council members to look inward and do some soul searching. Perhaps an investigation is in order to determine whether or not town highway worker rights have been abused and if the town council’s shell game budget practices are legal.

Robert J. Motschmann III

Berne