To the Editor:

Is Anita Clayton suffering from Stockholm syndrome? She worked with [Berne Highway Superintendent] Randy Bashwinger for two years and then texted a group of seven people saying: “I think it would be great if we could get Randy on some illegal activity. We all know he’s dirty.”

And she texted this to me: “I really think we should pursue this somehow. I think if anyone looked into his emails etc., they’d find many things that would be off.”

When I told her I had heard other Republicans said they were trying to keep Mr. Bashwinger’s sinister activities in check she said. “They must think we’re f—ing idiots.”

Now she says Mr. Bashwinger is the savior who brought the highway Department together and people in Berne are too political? [“Politics in Berne are destroying our community,” The Altamont Enterprise, letter to the editor, May 20, 2025].

In her letter, Anita makes two things clear: She has been part of the legendary dysfunction at Berne Town Hall, and that the three stooges would be a vast improvement over the public service she and her comrades have provided.

What she illustrates, by example, is that the name-calling, lies, and nonsense [Supervisor] Mr. [Dennis] Palow, [former Supervisor] Mr. [Sean] Lyons and Mr. Bashwinger have engaged in for years is the actual problem. So, Anita feels she is “on the same page” and out of the blue publicly calls three former board members the “three stooges” while viciously attacking them publicly.

Mr. Bashwinger calls me “ahole” or “asshat” and other inappropriate names in his official capacity as he is unable to defend his negligent and dangerous policies that put employees and the traveling public at risk. It’s much easier than reading and thinking about stuff to just call everyone you disagree with names, lie on Facebook, and block them from responding. 

And look at the results of Mr. Bashwinger’s handiwork. The highway department still operates in violation of Vehicle and Traffic law §1680 six years after failing to close the highway at the work site of a deep excavation on Bridge Road that someone drove into.

As a result of that incident, the Berne Town Board approved a request for proposals to have an independent, objective consultant, a licensed professional engineer, review the highway department operations and provide a report with recommendations.  

Mr. Palow lied and derailed that board-approved initiative with a motion in the January 2020 meeting (when the GOP had just taken the board majority). He blatantly lied about the cost of that report and lied when he claimed the Cornell Local Roads Program told him they saw no problem with Berne’s highway operations.

Then Anita advised everyone that her recorder didn’t work and there was no recording of that meeting (or Palow’s lies). What a coincidence. 

In the February 2020 meeting, Mr. Palow lied about his lies in his January motion thinking there was no recording. It’s not too hard to connect the dots. Deliberately lying about public and employee safety and the costs in a town board motion is criminal in my estimation. 

A concerned citizen had recorded the meeting in January. Mr. Palow’s very blatant lies in January and his February lies about his January lies are all on tape and have been provided to The Enterprise for your listening pleasure repeatedly.  

Connect the dots; we recognized another hazardous operation on the Bridge Road project in 2019, so we approved a request for proposals for a report to recommend improvements to the Berne highway operation that year. Mr. Palow lied in his official capacity in the first 2020 board meeting with the new GOP majority and derailed that initiative based on those blatant lies. Then Anita’s recording disappears (for the first time ever).

So, Mr. Palow, realizing it wasn’t easy to prove he was lying in January, lies to the board in February trying to deny, on that recording, what he had actually said in January. Looks like Anita chose the wrong three people to call stooges! 

Later that year, an employee died in the highway garage where, according to state investigators, seven safety protocols directly related to that incident were simply ignored by Mr. Bashwinger. Maybe things would have turned out differently if Palow hadn’t lied and lied about his lies.

It’s all very well documented but a majority of Berne voters didn’t care enough to connect the dots and re-elected these bad actors! 

So, in her letter, Anita says, “Supervisor Palow was an excellent supervisor to work with and we all felt we were on the same page.” She certainly was on the same page. 

Anita acted appalled that Mr. Bashwinger secretly recorded a conversation with me and my father-in-law in February 2017. I was not a board member at the time. He did this at my home, in his official capacity, without our knowledge, and then promised to make that audio available on his official “Berne Highway Department” page.   

Apparently, Anita doesn’t remember any of that now. Last week, she disparaged the former elected representative, Joe Martin, for legitimately recording the totally inappropriate angry rants of our out-of-control supervisor, at Town Hall, in his official capacity. The supervisor was refusing to cooperate with other board members!  

I want to thank Joe Martin, Al Thiem, and Leo Vane for recognizing the severity of the town’s situation and taking a bold, necessary step to bring attention to the absolute mess this town is in. I am encouraged that both the Democratic and Republican committees have now recognized the problems caused by years of maladministration and are trying to turn the page. I wish them luck. 

Joel Willsey

Berne

Editor’s note: When reached for a response, Anita Clayton told The Enterprise, “Joel Willsey is the exact example of the toxicity that I stated before.”