BERNE — A town highway worker is questioning the purchase of a truck he says is too small and also alleging the town supervisor slandered him in an illegal secret meeting.
"Since day one, I have done nothing but praise these guys," Supervisor Kevin Crosier responded. "Why would I want to besmirch someone’s name""
On the fourth Wednesday of May, officials met and discussed insurance; they had originally scheduled the meeting for May 30, but met on the 23rd instead. Berne officials frequently meet a second time each month for what they call a "working" meeting after holding their regular meeting.

All town board members attended the May 23 session.
"Virtually nobody [from the public] showed up," Councilman James Hamilton said this week.

After the meeting, Kevin Kemmet, Berne’s solid-waste coordinator and a town highway worker, criticized town practices and questioned whether slanderous comments were made during the meeting regarding his conduct.

Crosier denied saying anything derogatory about Kemmet and said he has repeatedly praised highway workers in public and in the town’s newsletter since he took office in 2002.
"I think they do a great job. I’ve consistently said that since day one," he said.

Kemmet, who did not attend the meeting, questions whether the May meeting was legal. No minutes have been compiled, and a tape-recording he purchased from Town Hall is missing portions of the meeting.

Kemmet has been outspoken about the town’s new highway truck and a proposed merger between the town’s highway department and the county’s department of public works. He and other Berne highway workers have also been critical of Crosier and the highway superintendent, Ray Storm, who backed a plan to merge the two departments.

Crosier has continued to encourage consolidation though the concept was rejected by the town board, the highway workers, and many residents.

Storm could not be reached for comment this week.

Berne’s new truck, purchased earlier this year, is used to transfer garbage, recyclables, and paper from the town’s transfer station to Rotterdam and the Rapp Road landfill in Guilderland. Kemmet, the sole driver of the truck, also transports garbage for the nearby town of Westerlo with Berne’s new truck as a shared service, he said.

The new truck is adequate for Berne’s smallest bin, Kemmet said, but Berne and Westerlo have large garbage and recycling bins, which are difficult to unload from the truck. Berne has one small bin, which works well with the new truck, Kemmet said. However, because the bin is smaller, it is filled with garbage quickly, often before the transfer station closes, he said.

The larger bins stick out of the rear of the truck, and he doesn’t know whether he is street-legal, Kemmet said.

Any truck over 40 feet long that travels on a state road is required to have a permit issued by the state, according to Carol Brain, spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Transportation. If only traveling local roads, a permit is needed from a local agency, such as a county, she said. An object hanging over the rear of the vehicle must not exceed one-third the entire length of the vehicle, she said, and a flag is needed for anything extending three feet beyond a vehicle’s rear.
Berne saved $10,000 by buying a smaller truck, Kemmet said, but the department needs a truck with a longer wheel base to transport the larger bins. Kemmet claims officials bought the truck "without doing any homework."
Crosier said, when considering the purchase of the truck, board members did their "due diligence" and Storm helped develop the specifications for the truck.
"The town board did a good job, and I commend them for their hard work," Crosier said.
Kemmet said the only answer is to sell it and "get the right truck." He recommended selling the truck to the nearby town of Knox, the town from which the specifications for purchasing a new truck were derived, he said.

Chain of command

The day officials met, May 23, Kemmet drove the new truck to CEJJ, a company in Hudson.

Kemmet said a board member had told him Crosier made statements about him at the meeting, which could lead Kemmet to press charges. Hamilton and Councilman Joseph Golden did not recall Crosier saying anything derogatory about Kemmet. Portions of the discussion are missing from a taped recording and, as of Monday, no minutes had been compiled.

Kemmet said he was initially to take the truck to CEJJ on Thursday, May 24, but Storm had told him he could take the truck earlier.
"I know Mr. Crosier was not happy with what Mr. Kemmet had done," said Hamilton. "He made it clear he was not too happy with the way the events occurred."

Kemmet has been critical of Crosier’s and Storm’s relationship. Storm, Kemmet said, is married to Crosier’s sister, Karen, the head purchasing agent for Albany County.
"We are elected. How is that nepotism"" Crosier responded through The Enterprise. "We are elected by the public."

Neither the town’s long-time clerk, Patricia Favreau, nor the deputy clerk, Anita Clayton, attended the meeting.

The Enterprise obtained a tape-recording of portions of the May 23 meeting, which contains no derogatory or inflammatory statements about Kemmet.

At the May meeting, no action was taken, said Favreau. During the meeting, the tape malfunctioned, she said. Favreau did not attend because she was out of town.
"No business occurred," she said. "It was merely a discussion."

Favreau said this week she was compiling minutes for the meeting, reflecting that no action had been made by the board.
Illegal meeting"

The town board meets the second Wednesday of each month and occasionally on the fourth Wednesday.
At the town’s annual re-organizational meeting, officials designate the second Thursday as one of the town board’s meeting times and meet on the date "as needed." The town’s website lists both days as town-board meeting dates.

When meeting on the fourth Wednesday, Favreau does not post legal notices in the town’s official newspaper, The Altamont Enterprise.
"They are required to do so," said Robert Freeman, the state’s director of the Committee on Open Government.
A town is required to publish legal notices in its official newspaper to inform the public and the news media, said Freeman. Designating a day of the month on an "as needed" basis, he said, is "not at all unusual."

Freeman described why not notifying the news media and the public poses problems with a town’s meetings.
"Nobody knows when they’re going to be held," Freeman said.

Minutes must include a record or summary of all motions, proposals, and resolutions voted on, Freeman said.
"They can include more, but they don’t have to," he said. A town clerk’s absence does not preclude a board from conducting a meeting, he said.
Freeman said it is "appropriate" for a board to notify the public when canceling meetings, using the same methods it uses when notifying the public of a meeting.
"We’re talking about common courtesy, not law," he said.