BERNE — Whether Governor Kathy Hochul will make appointments to fill the paralyzed Berne Town Board after three of its five members resigned three weeks ago is unclear, but precedent suggests she may. 

New York Association of Towns Executive Director Christopher Koetzle told The Enterprise this week that Hochul had just recently made town board appointments in Hermon, New York, in St. Lawrence County. 

“The Governor has authority to fill the vacancies in these circumstances by appointment pursuant to Public Officers Law §43,” he said, calling the situation “pretty unique.” 

The law states, “If a vacancy shall occur, otherwise than by expiration of term, with no provision of law for filling the same, if the office be elective, the governor shall appoint a person to execute the duties thereof until the vacancy shall be filled by an election.”

The Enterprise previously reported on another section of state law that says, if a vacancy is created in an elective office that can’t be filled by appointment, the governor can call for a special election. Albany County Board of Elections Republican Commissioner Rachel Bledi told The Enterprise this week that the county board has not yet received that directive from the governor. 

The governor’s office itself — after not responding to Enterprise inquiry for two weeks despite repeated attempts — declined to confirm on Friday which approach Hochul would take. 

“The Governor’s Office has received communication from the Town of Berne and we are reviewing,” the governor’s first deputy press secretary, Katy Zielinski, told The Enterprise. 

Berne has been without a functioning town board since Aug. 14, when board members Al Thiem, Joe Martin, and Leo Vane Jr. resigned suddenly, citing a “hostile work environment” created by Supervisor Dennis Palow, who has not responded to Enterprise inquiry about their specific allegations. 

All of the board members were elected on the Republican ticket.

No business was conducted in August, and the September meeting has been canceled.

Without a town board, there’s very little the government can get done, meaning time is of the essence in getting members in place, particularly since the town has already been struggling to meet its financial obligations, as The Enterprise has previously reported.

In the town of Hermon, bills went unpaid because funding couldn’t be approved after four board members — including the supervisor — resigned, according to an article published by WWNY on March 27, three weeks after the resignations. 

It wasn’t until April 4 that Hochul appointed two members to create a simple majority on the board, according to a follow-up report. 

The governor was quoted in the article as saying, “After significant engagement with local stakeholders, I am appointing Cathy Race and Victoria Day to the Town of Hermon Town Board to ensure the continuity of government.”

Race had formerly been the mayor of the village of Hermon, and Day had once been a town board candidate.

The story notes that the appointees would serve for the remainder of the year, with an election scheduled for the fall. 

Race shed some light on the appointment process for The Enterprise this week, explaining that she had volunteered herself through the Democratic commissioner at her local board of elections and “talked to a few other people that I was hoping to bring on board as well.”

“There was a huge vetting process that I had to go through … ,” she said. “We had to get fingerprints, background checks, we had to list character references. There were a lot of forms we filled out and notarized about personal financial information.” 

Race added that there wasn’t any competition over the positions in the town of about 500.

“For some crazy reason, there’s not a lot of people that jump up and want to take over when a mess like that’s created,” she said. “It’s been quite a digging out process.” 

It remains to be seen how and whether Hochul and her staff would factor all the turmoil that has defined Berne over the past five years into their appointment decisions. 

The town has been beset by a number of scandals and dramatic political battles since the GOP took control of the board in 2020, first under Supervisor Sean Lyons, and then Palow. 

Among other things, the Republican-backed boards since then have illegally removed a planning board member from her position; appointed an uncertified code-enforcement officer; let electricity bills go un- or underpaid; twice run afoul of the Office of the State Comptroller; and kicked former Democratic supervisor Kevin Crosier out of a public hearing without justification, an incident which is currently being litigated. 

Despite all this, the GOP has won re-election in 2021 handily and faced no challengers in 2023. 

The Democratic candidates in the last contested election, in 2021, were Peggy Christman, for supervisor; Patrick Martin, Tim Lippert, and Jennifer Merrill-Fuller, for town board; and Jean Guarino for town clerk. 

The last election was uncontested after Democrats opted not to run any candidates. The Republican candidates that year were Thiem and Joe Martin.