BERNE — A town board formerly made up of all Democrats now has two Republicans and, at its first regular meeting, on Jan. 10, had some skirmishes.

One was over a new social-media policy prepared by Deputy Supervisor Karen Schimmer, a Democrat, to designate official town sites. During the hotly contested fall elections, “The Happenings in the Town of Berne” Facebook page, run by William Keal, carried strident political comments. Keal ran unsuccessfully for town clerk on the GOP line along with Dennis Palow, who was elected councilman; Sean Lyons, who was elected supervisor; and Randy Bashwinger, who was re-elected highway superintendent.

Meanwhile Bashwinger, the town’s GOP chairman, continued to run a highway department Facebook page on which he announced he was seeking re-election as well as hosting a discussion on shared services with the county, which he opposed.

A second area of contention was over a truck for the newly appointed building inspector, Chance Townsend. The former building inspector, Timothy Lippert, raised objections from the gallery, as did Republican Councilman Palow.

An election issue had been the firing of Lippert’s partner, Scott Green, which the town reported was due to gross insubordination, while Green maintains he was fired over a disagreement over insurance.

For both cases, the board ultimately voted unanimously.

New building inspector

The town board ultimately approved Townsend’s use of a town truck to drive while working and during his commute. Townsend was appointed as building inspector with a salary of $15,450 at the town’s reorganizational meeting on New Year’s Day, replacing Lippert.

Palow said that in the town policy it says that town vehicles should not be used for personal use or unauthorized purposes.

“Going back and forth to home is not town business,” he said.

Schimmer said that Townsend, who previously had been appointed as a town maintenance worker, was combining his two jobs and may do work along the way from his home to the town hall, such as snow-plowing the senior center.

Palow and Lyons both suggested allowing either a seasonal use of the truck or use of the truck under special circumstances like a snowstorm.

Both Lippert and Green spoke out at the meeting about the use of the truck. Green formerly held the position as a maintenance worker in the town. He said he had never heard of someone in that position being allowed to use a town vehicle. Schimmer said no one else had asked.

“Oh, I asked,” said Green. Schimmer said she had never seen his request.

She said that Bashwinger also uses a town vehicle. Green said that Bashwinger is much closer than Townsend to the town hall or highway garage.

“There are lots of municipalities where they take their vehicles home … ,” said Townsend.

“Not in the Hilltowns … Not one town out here has a part-time person who gets a full-time truck,” said Lippert.

Bashwinger suggested using another vehicle for Townsend to use that could be more economical and not take a snowplow off the road.

Townsend said that having a town truck to drive prevents him having to use town time and mileage to switch out vehicles when going from doing a building inspection to doing maintenance work elsewhere. He said he uses his personal tools and can’t keep switching those out from one vehicle to another either.

“It’s one’s responsibility to get themselves to work,” said Green.

The town board unanimously approved Townsend’s use of the truck as a vehicle he could commute with from Dec. 1 to April 1.

Townsend told The Enterprise on Wednesday that he had been employed by the town since June as a maintenance worker and still works in that position as well as part-time as the building inspector.

Green was a town employee until September 2016, after which he was fired. The town has stated Green was fired for gross insubordination after refusing to take a letter from the supervisor at the time, Kevin Crosier. Green has said that he believes the dismissal came because he was told the town could no longer provide domestic-partner insurance for Lippert and he had pursued legal action. A legal battle ensued, ending only last month.

“This is the last shot Mr. Crosier can take at my family,” said Lippert this week, of losing the position as building inspector. He said that Crosier, a Democrat, “continues to pull the strings of the Democrats.” Lippert, himself a Democrat, has said he sought the party nomination for supervisor and received 40-percent of the caucus votes last year. When asked about this in November, the party chairman, Gerald O’Malley, had said he was not sure what the vote count was.  “As long as you were a Democrat, you could run for the position,” O’Malley said.

Lippert said that he was surprised to find out at the reorganizational meeting that he was not in the consent agenda to be reappointed, and that he was disappointed when all but one member of the board, made up of Democrats and a Republican, voted in favor of appointing Townsend. Palow had been absent at the reorganizational meeting. All of the votes were 4 to 0 and there was no discussion on any of the appointments.

None of the town board members responded to calls this week before press time.

“Cleary it’s a retaliation,” Lippert said.

When asked if he had any intention to try for a post in town government, elected or appointed, he said that he and Green would “continue to be active in the community.”

“I’m not the town supervisor anymore,” said Crosier, in response to Lippert’s statement. “I didn’t handle those appointments.”

Crosier called Lippert’s allegations “ridiculous” and “a wild accusation,” and noted that he, as supervisor, had voted in favor of appointing Lippert both to the town’s planning board and as building inspector.

“He has no proof … ,” Crosier said. “What’s next? When property taxes go up in September is he going to blame me for that?”

Crosier said that, while he served as supervisor, Lippert was appointed to the planning board for four years, and served as the building inspector for three years after that.

When asked about Lippert putting his name in for the Democratic nominee for supervisor, Crosier said that other town employees before him have run for office.

“He still worked for me … ,” he said. “It’s America, he can run for any office he wants.

Social media policy

Schimmer said she had worked on developing the social-media policy with the town attorney, William Conboy III. Schimmer said that any town social-media sites that say they are town pages would have to be official pages, and could not publish anything offensive.

The policy states that town social-media sites must be approved by the town board and be run by the town clerk, called the “Administrator.” It also states that these sites must make clear that these are town-run. Facebook postings, the policy states, may be written only by town employees with approval from the clerk.

The policy also states that comments from the public on these cannot be considered a written correspondence to the town government. The town sites are also subject to the state’s records-retention rules.

The policy states that the town may remove any content in violation of this policy or law, and that town employees on these town sites must “express themselves using language and content that reflects the highest standards of decorum and in accordance with all Town policies.”

Forbidden comments may include unrelated or unintelligible comments; profanity, and violent, sexual, or obscene language; discriminatory language; defamation, threats, or personal attacks; comments supporting political campaigns; solicitations or advertisements; language encouraging illegal activities; information that could compromise public safety; or copyright infringement.

Palow, who was at his first board meeting after being elected alongside Lyons, a fellow Republican, and Joel Willsey, a Democrat, said that, while at a training class for new government officials, he was told that public social-media sites did not have to be under any control.

He also asked about the Facebook group “Town of Berne Highway Department,” which is run by Bashwinger. Schimmer said that the group could stay up so long as nothing offensive is published. Palow said that he had been told that the town could do nothing about the page, even if something offensive were published.

Bashwinger said at the meeting that he had done his research ahead of the meeting and said he could maintain the page without changes “as long as I’m not bashing anybody or anything like that.”

“But the highway department [Facebook page] is not an official page of the town of Berne,” said Palow. “Is it?”

“It certainly seemed to me to be,” said Schimmer.

“There’s only one highway page,” said Bashwinger.

Schimmer emphasized that the policy focuses on things like offensive language and “personal ad hominem attacks” that are not allowed.

The question then turned to who was to keep track of offenses.

“It hasn’t been determined yet,” said Willsey. “Wouldn’t it be Anita?” he asked, referring to the town clerk, Anita Clayton.

“Anita can’t be the administrator for the highway Facebook page,” said Palow.

“Someone has to ensure that the content is not offensive,” said Schimmer.

“What’s offensive to somebody might not be offensive to another,” said someone in the gallery.

Schimmer said that the town would have to figure out what to do if a social media site sounded like an official site for the town.

“We simply ask that, if you use an official town page, you write with decorum and don’t misrepresent,” she said.

Councilwoman Dawn Jordan said that some have even created unofficial town pages by “checking in” on Facebook, causing further confusion. She said that the town can acquire these pages as their own in a “lengthy process.”

Conboy warned against treading on First Amendment rights by taking down a comment on a town page without having some kind of policy about comments on a page.

The town board approved the policy unanimously.