To the Editor:
Is this ethical, Mr. Crosier?

I am responding to Noah [Zweifel]’s article of Jan. 23, 2024, “Berne late on paying bills — again.” Noah failed to do his research and get the correct information.

Did you know that when Kevin Crosier left office at the end of 2017, he refused to turn over his supervisor email? After that, the town implemented secure emails that are owned by the town and, when employees or elected officials leave, those emails are controlled by the town.

Mr. Crosier has been using that email under false pretenses, letting vendors think that they were contacting the present supervisor. Is this ethical, Mr. Crosier?

Tyler Technologies was emailing this email address for years, unbeknown to the town, as we were also receiving paper copies. These last bills were not paid at that time due to the fact that they billed us for services that were not rendered and the billing was under dispute.

Again, Mr. Crosier immediately forwarded this to The Enterprise and has also been forwarding such emails to Peggy Christman and Jeffrey Marden for the last year. Is this ethical or maybe fraud is the correct term.

Mr. Crosier also kept the password to the cameras at the town hall and watched the 2018 organizational meeting and made fun of Mr. [Dennis] Palow when he was sworn in because he so proudly wore his medals from serving our country. How disgusting is that?

Mr. Crosier also was fueling the hatred against Mr. Palow by stating he was a retired serviceman and had PTSD and automatic weapons. This drove the frenzy at the town hall with other board members stating that he was hiding weapons at the town hall. Again, how disgusting is that?

Is this the type of person you want for your town? I know I don’t. Mr. Crosier should be held responsible for his lies to the town.

The present board is working very hard to better our town and move forward from all the lies and hatred being fueled by Mr. Crosier.

It was an honor to serve as town clerk and board member/deputy supervisor even though it was a constant battle to uphold the truth.

Anita Clayton

Berne

Editor’s note: Our Hilltown reporter, Noah Zweifel, learned from a Tyler Tech collection specialist that the town of Berne was late in paying $5,246.47 to the software company. He then asked Supervisor Dennis Palow and town Clerk Kristin de Oliveira about the overdue bills; they did not respond to his questions.

Kevin Crosier denies that he ever used the email account to pose illegitimately as the town’s  supervisor. 

“Anita is completely wrong,” Crosier told The Enterprise in an email this week. “I never used the town email after ending my term which occurred at the end of 2017- more than six years ago. I notified the Town of the need to change the contact information for vendors and they didn't do it.

“Anita Clayton was the Town Clerk, at the time, and it was her responsibility to make sure that changes were made to all accounts,” he went on. “I received inquiries from vendors and did not receive any bills except on one or two occasions which I forwarded to the town. Vendors continued to call me on my personal cell phone because they could not get ahold of anyone at Town Hall and I continued to remind them I was no longer the Supervisor.”

The Enterprise reported as early as October of 2022 that Crosier was receiving calls from National Grid about unpaid electric bills. 

Crosier also said in his email this week that he has “no idea what [Clayton’s] talking about regarding Supervisor Palow.”

In 2019, when Crosier was no longer on the town board, Joel Willsey, a Democratic councilman, ​had written to the Republican supervisor, Sean Lyons, after Willsey had been threatened by Republican Dennis Palow, then a councilman, that he was “very concerned about the potential for a PTSD situation.”

The three Democratic council members did not attend the Aug. 18, 2019 town board meeting, stating their “requests for adequate security” had not been met; the session became a rally in support of Palow and veterans, with out-of-town attendance fueled by social-media accounts.

Willsey told The Enterprise this week that he has “no recollection of Mr. Crosier being involved in that situation at all.”

Crosier went on to say in his email this week, “The fact remains that Anita was Deputy Supervisor when she and Mr. Palow conspired to deprive me of my First Amendment rights a year ago. She and the town board refused to apologize and recognize their error and now the town is being sued and she will be deposed.  This is a desperate attempt to defame me with baseless allegations and deflect attention from their unconstitutional actions and their gross incompetence administering town affairs.”