To the Editor:

The Berne town clerk engaged in a calculated and inappropriate political stunt last week submitting a letter [“Enough is enough,” The Altamont Enterprise, April 8, 2021] that, based on my understanding, falsely accuses The Enterprise and me of violating HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] regulations.

Isn’t she a human resources officer? This nasty, inaccurate accusation is another event that illustrates a very limited understanding of human-resources issues in my opinion ….  

As I understand, the superintendent of highways offered his wife’s health information to a newspaper himself. I had nothing to do with that. Prior to that I had no knowledge of her condition and had no information with which to violate HIPAA.

The town clerk’s accusation regarding any violation of the law appears totally inaccurate to me and this should concern residents. A town clerk who publishes false accusations of violations of the law has lost all credibility in my opinion. She needs to talk to a lawyer and then apologize to the paper and those she falsely convicted in the paper as appropriate.

When I hear any rumors from multiple sources I often contact The Enterprise or sometimes the newspaper may contact me about rumors. I strongly believe in complete transparency and I dig for documentation before I make public comments.

When I heard the rumor from multiple sources that the highway superintendent was declaring bankruptcy based on just $15,000 in debt and he was moving to a new house in Tennessee, I suspected there was something fishy about the story and questioned its newsworthiness.

In my discussion with The Enterprise, I said that I had no personal knowledge that any of the rumors were true and said I had no public comment. I was immediately informed by The Enterprise that the newspaper had already investigated the bankruptcy filing. Clearly I was not the source of that story or the source of false rumors.

I suggested it could all be some April fools stunt. The paper attributed no comments to me and I provided no comments yet the town clerk publicly convicts me of a HIPAA violation? I think the town clerk is simply wrong and her publication is very close to libel.

I think it turned out to be a newsworthy story as the bankruptcy part and the debt size was true. It has been documented that the highway superintendent has been uncooperative in the budget process and has gone as far as deliberately ignoring his deadline and providing no estimates at all.

He has not been significantly engaged in his responsibilities regarding a budget of tax dollars exceeding a million dollars annually. That bankruptcy is very newsworthy as he is a public official and his documented performance in financial matters at the town is questionable.

The highway superintendent apparently informed The Enterprise of his wife’s health problems and indicated that was the cause of his bankruptcy? If so, that is very newsworthy.

Is he on the town health plan? Is the health insurance provided by the town inadequate? Should the taxpayer know if we are providing inadequate health care to town employees?

All the details are newsworthy, and the paper gave him the opportunity to comment on these matters. I see no HIPAA violation by the paper either. I think the town clerk is simply wrong.

It is ironic that the town clerk has received statewide recognition for a lack of transparency and she says this in her letter: “I hope the residents of our community are ready to make their voices be heard because now ‘enough is enough.’”

Where will they make their voices heard? Certainly not at town board meetings! This is pure politics. The town clerk is falsely convicting people of violating the law and she is doing it for political purposes if she is talking about “voices” as votes.

Worse yet, she is the one exploiting the hardships of a family for political purposes in that case.

The town clerk deserves her recognition for a lack of transparency. She seldom documents any significant correspondence so things like lawsuits and comptrollers’ audits go unnoticed. She argues that the law doesn’t force her to, so she doesn’t do it.  

She would not record the series of inappropriate and illegal “executive sessions” where I was regularly attacked, threatened, and harassed  by her friend, the deputy supervisor. Then she claimed I shouted her down in these unrecorded meetings. I never shouted her down in any meeting.

I wanted the budget workshop meetings recorded. She refused. Then, she and the GOP chairman live-streamed her hour-long tirade during a budget workshop where she complained about how hard her job is and I was accused of abusing the senior accountant in a budget workshop. That was absolute nonsense too. I would ask that live-stream recording be made public by the records officer.

She said a number of people who were at the meeting filed a complaint. Only highway department employees were at that meeting. They were mostly there to badger the Democrats on the board and that is what some did. The deputy supervisor used these unrecorded meetings as an opportunity to harass and attack the Democrats with disparaging comments while the supervisor smiled knowing there was no recording.  

I made a motion that executive sessions and workshops are to be recorded. That makes it a little harder for unethical people to use these meetings as opportunities to harass, intimidate, and attack people and then deny it. Transparency is a huge problem at the town hall and the town clerk is a big part of the problem.

Joel Willsey

Berne Town Board