GUILDERLAND — Five months after a contentious reappointment, Donald Csaposs stepped down from his post as chairman of the Economic Development Advisory Council.

After eight years as the head of the council, Csaposs resigned with a brief, two-sentence letter addressed to Supervisor Kenneth Runion on April 29.

He made the decision for “a variety of reasons,” Csaposs said on Tuesday.  “Most things are done for a variety of reasons,” he added.  “Eight-and-a-half years is a long time for anyone to do anything.”  Csaposs works at Town Hall as Guilderland’s grant writer.

In January, following the reappointment vote, which was split along party lines, Republican Mark Grimm became the town board’s liaison to the council.  Grimm and fellow Republican Warren Redlich ousted two incumbents on the formerly all-Democratic board in the fall elections.  Csaposs was criticized during the campaign and launched criticisms of the GOP as well.  Grimm filled former Democratic Councilman David Bosworth’s role as liaison.

“My opinion is,” Csaposs said, Grimm was hoping to use the council as a “launch pad” for criticism of the town. 

“I think there’s a lot of things to be done with economic development,” Grimm said yesterday, but he added that the council hasn’t been able to be effective because of “the will — the will from this administration.” 

Members of the committee want to get things done, he said, and it needs an active chairman to get things moving.

“I guess I’m waiting for a signal that Ken Runion wants this committee to do something,” Grimm said, explaining that he is hesitant to submit names for the now empty post.  “Let’s face it,” he said of the Democratic majority, “they control the appointments.”

Runion plans to solicit résumés in July, he said, and expects that the board will make an appointment in August.

The post pays roughly $3,600, Runion said, but, according to Grimm, who provided a memo dated June 3 from Guilderland’s personnel administrator, Stacia Brigadier, Csaposs had made $55,149 per year when he served as chair of the council and he will now make $50,992 — a difference of $4,157.

He is concerned about secrecy in Town Hall, Grimm said, and then listed a chronology of events starting on April 15, when, he says, Csaposs’s job description was revised to be just the grant-writer for the town.  Then, on April 23, Csaposs was provisionally appointed to that post, and, according to records provided by Grimm from the county’s Civil Service department, the job that Csaposs was appointed to on April 23 pays $55,149.  Csaposs resigned from the chairmanship on April 29.

“I never hear Mr. Grimm say anything positive about anything except Mr. Grimm,” Csaposs said.  “It’s not like I lost interest in economic development in Guilderland.” he said.  “Maybe it’s someone else’s turn in the barrel.”