To the Editor:
At Guilderland Town Board meetings, I have observed Town Supervisor Peter Barber unable to answer monetary questions about the budget, watching him tell the town board members they can get more information from other town staff.

On Feb. 6, Peter Barber brought to the agenda a request to approve additional monies for the town grant writer/Industrial Development Agency chief executive officer without any questioning from any board member about why the expense was incurred.

Also, moving monies from one budget line to another were approved without question. I wish the town board would question the supervisor on money matters.

I have questions about Guilderland’s money.

I do not forget that Dick Sherwood was once glowingly appointed to chair the town’s ethics committee or that Peter Barber has used … litigated against fellow residents standing alongside the Pyramid Corp and more.

I laughed during the Feb. 6 town board meeting when the board voted to approve the term extensions for the ethics board, alleging they could not find people willing to serve on the ethics board. Imagine submitting an ethics complaint about a member of the town board only to find that on Feb. 6, the board approved … Town Attorney James Melita to sit on the ethics committee?

Or, if you wanted to take the matter up the chain to Albany County, discovering that Mr. Melita has held a seat on the Albany County Ethics Commission? …. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to be on the ethics board. #StrongStomach

Would they say it’s not their responsibility if residents questioned the budget reporting or accountability? Have they tweaked the town code to narrowly define the ethics committee and the timely filing deadline?

I have a question about the town’s reporting of monies overall — specifically, the money to be generated from housing the transmission lines running through Guilderland to power New York City,

In your Feb. 7 article, “CHPE paying out millions for easements, filing lawsuits against uncooperative landowners,” you reported, “For the local IDA fee, the county determined the percentage of the project, in both miles and dollars, running through each municipality and multiplied that number by 0.25 percent.

“About 6.75 miles of cable will run through Guilderland.

“The mileage in Guilderland represents 27.85 percent of the overall Albany County portion of the project, or $63.7 million, which translates to an approximate fee of $159,000 for the Guilderland IDA” ….

Would The Altamont Enterprise please ask for additional information on revenue generation? Are there contracts in hand? How may we read the financials for the transmission project? How will we account for the money?

Christine Duffy

Guilderland

Editor’s note: The new law on Guilderland’s ethics board allows the town attorney to fill in if a quorum is needed; see related story.