KNOX — After two years as town supervisor, Vasilios Lefkaditis has seen the resignation of several town officials or workers, including a planning board member and the dog control officer, who complained about his treatment as an employee. Lefkaditis has a vastly different management style than his predecessor, and is hoping to change the rest of the town government as well.

Lefkaditis describes himself as a “results oriented” person and said he does not have problems getting things done so long as others communicate and are willing to work with him. He said that he has been “blindsided” in the past when board members have brought up issues without giving him notice before meetings, causing dissonance.

Lefkaditis headed a Republican slate in November which swept town elections; two of the four council members who had opposed many important Lefkaditis changes remain.

Lefkaditis said that board members need to alert him and others ahead of time to an issue that needs to be discussed at a meeting. He said that he has never brought up issues at meetings to an uninformed board.

In April of 2017, Lefkaditis introduced the idea of granting existing businesses “amnesty” from zoning regulations, which former Councilman Daniel Hanley said was not on the agenda and would need to be reviewed further.

Lefkaditis told The Enterprise, when asked about the program, that it was discussed and then put on the agenda.

He said board members could not complain about having items sprung on them when the board’s agenda is given to its members roughly a week before the meeting.

Lefkaditis mentioned a meeting in which the rest of the town board rejected new policies he had proposed for health insurance and workers’ compensation after former councilman Eric Kuck and former town attorney John Dorfman questioned the accuracy of the cost Lefkaditis had provided for the policies.

About a month later, the rest of the town board met in a private caucus without Lefkaditis, who described the board to have “organized a coup behind my back,” and said that this occurred more than once.

“But this is ancient history,” he said this week, adding that, with new people on the board and other positions in the town government open for new people, there have been few issues within the town board. The last two meetings, with two newly elected board members, he said, ran much more smoothly than they had in the last two years he has been supervisor.

He gave an example of communication being used effectively in the town. After a period of very cold weather, senior residents told him they were concerned for their own wellbeing, which Lefkaditis brought up at a town board meeting, during which a sheriff’s deputy there said that these seniors could be put on the 9-1-1 registry — a list of people who are contacted by police following an emergency or bad weather.

Lefkaditis has tried to appoint new people to town government positions in the past, but couldn't get the board to replace those currently holding the posts. In January of this year, Tom Wolfe was appointed the planning board chairman, something Lefkaditis had pushed for unsuccessfully the past two years but was resolved with his and the votes from his former running mates Karl Pritchard and Kenneth Saddlemire. However, a number of appointments have not been made yet; the board intends to make these appointments at its February meeting.

Lefkaditis said that he differs from his predecessors in his appointments because he has been advertising for them, something he says no previous supervisor of Knox has done before.

He said he is also seeking applicants outside the Democratic party. Lefkaditis, a Democrat who has run on the Conservative and Republican lines, said that for decades only Democrats were hired to town positions, something he said is not unique to Knox. Actually, during Michael Hammond’s long tenure as supervisor, appointments were made from a variety of parties.

Lefkaditis said that such a monopoly meant that the town board would be “missing out on 60 percent of the population.” About 40 percent of registered voters in Knox are Democrats, about 22 percent are Republicans, and about 27 percent are not affiliated with a party; the rest belong to small parties.

Lefkaditis said he would like to foster “responsible growth” and bring in new businesses, and so he would like to appoint applicants who are interested in creating new business districts in town. Over the past few decades, board members were not appointed with a specific agenda in mind. Lefkaditis such districts prevent “scattering [businesses] around haphazardly.” He said he would also like the applicants to be effective communicators and researchers.

The supervisor said he is “very hands on” in his management style and likes to be involved in some way with community activities.

Lou Saddlemire, the former dog control officer, park laborer, and maintenance manager for the town of Knox, resigned at the end of last year. His reasons were not the work he was doing, he said, but because of the way he was treated by Lefkaditis.

Saddlemire said Lefkaditis threatened to fire him many times. He said it began in 2016, during the same time that the then-supervisor of Berne, Kevin Crosier, had laid off two highway workers.

Lefkaditis said he had “no idea” what he said to Saddlemire in 2016 and whether or not it was in jest. He declined to comment on any further questions about Saddlemire.

“He was a good employee and I hope he enjoys his retirement,” he concluded.

Saddlemire said he started working for the town in 1974 when he served as a town councilman until 1977, after which he worked as a park laborer. A few years ago, he was appointed to be the town’s dog control officer, he said.

“Both those jobs I thoroughly enjoyed … ,” said Saddlemire. “I’ve worked for Democratic board members; I’ve worked for Republican board members; I’ve never had any issue,” he remarked earlier.

Saddlemire also said he had once come to the town hall to find the former town clerk, Tara Murphy, frightened and in tears. When asked if she had had an altercation with Lefkaditis that left her visibly upset, Murphy told The Enterprise that Saddlemire was likely referring to an incident at a town board meeting in which Lefkaditis accused Murphy of not accurately recording meeting minutes. Murphy said she was treated disrespectfully by Lefkaditis and was upset by the incident, but that it was an isolated one.