GUILDERLAND — The town Democratic party chairman was reappointed in January by a Democrat-dominated town board to a post for which he was a no-show last year.

David Bosworth Jr., member of Guilderland’s Environmental Conservation Advisory Council, attended no meetings and went on no site visits in 2016, although he was paid a stipend of $1,508 for the year.

Bosworth says that he was unable to attend meetings and site visits in 2016 because he is in a wheelchair, and that in 2017 he hopes to either get a van that can be driven with hand controls; take part in meetings by teleconferencing and in site visits by Skype; or at least see video or hear audio recorded by other members.

Council members advise zoning and planning boards about environmental issues.

“I’ve had to rely on verbal reports,” Bosworth said Tuesday. He said that the reports were being relayed to him by council chairman John Wemple and others.

Asked how the council had handled Bosworth’s absence last year and whether it had created any problems for other members, Wemple said, “I don’t know of any problems. You’d have to talk to [Town Supervisor] Peter Barber.”

Barber was away on vacation but responded by email, writing that, “For most of 2016, Dave was hospitalized and largely incapacitated, and focusing on his recovery and rehabilitation. John [Wemple] and other ECAC members visited him a lot at the hospital and Dave participated by reviewing materials and providing comments as much as his health allowed. Dave is very passionate about protecting the environment and greatly appreciated John’s efforts to keep him involved.”

In August 2015, some members of the Guilderland Democratic Committee — and a candidate who had hoped to get the nod for supervisor — complained because they hadn’t known that the caucus, which chose Barber as the supervisor candidate, was going to be held weeks earlier than originally scheduled.

Other members of the Democratic Committee, including candidates, said the real reason for the change in date was Committee Chairman Bosworth’s illness and subsequent hospitalization.

Peter said at the time that Bosworth had been in the hospital since the end of May.

“It is my understanding that he made it clear he wanted the caucus to be held while he was still around,” said Barber, who noted that Bosworth’s condition was “grave” when he was admitted to the hospital.

This week Bosworth told The Enterprise, “I’m  hoping to move to where I can be physically present, once I can arrange transportation. Some of our areas are not covered by CDTA,” he said of the Capital District Transit Authority.

He uses, Bosworth said, the STAR (Special Transit Available by Request) bus. “They have limits in terms of their scheduling,” he said; he asserted that there are very few of them after about 7 p.m.

The CDTA website says that STAR services are available on the same days and times that CDTA’s fixed-route bus system operates. “For example,” the website says, “if a CDTA bus operates from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday along a specific route, then STAR is available from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, within ¾ of a mile on either side of that route.”

Bosworth said car dealers don’t lease vans once they have been modified, so it will be necessary to purchase one outright. He said he has been saving money and looking for grants for this purpose.

Bosworth served two terms on the Guilderland Town Board. In 2007, Republican challenger Mark Grimm charged that Democratic incumbent Bosworth had a conflict of interest in his role as chairman of the town’s Democratic Party and co-chair of Albany County’s Democratic Party. At the time, Bosworth directed a not-for-profit, Project Strive, that received most of its funding from the Albany County Legislature; in 2004, the legislature awarded the group $1.4 million.

Both Bosworth and his wife received salaries for their work with Project Strive at the time. His wife, Eileen Bosworth, received $67,347 in 2005 for her work as the group’s program director, while Bosworth, then the executive director, got $74,251; each also received more than $20,000 in benefits that year.

Conservation Advisory Council members were paid $1,508 in 2016, according to the town’s personnel administrator, Stacia Brigadier. The stipend paid to members will go up, she said, to $1,546 in 2017.

The council’s chairman, John Wemple, she said, receives more. In 2016, Brigadier said, Wemple received $7,162, and will get $7,341 in 2017.

Barber also wrote, “The Town seeks to provide reasonable accommodations to all employees and visitors with disabilities. I believe that improvements in Dave’s condition should allow him to participate in future ECAC meetings.”