To the Editor:
Jacob Crawford is up for “election” ... I do not even know how to feel about a physician candidate seeking to jump into the current Guilderland decision-making and conduct. From reading The Altamont Enterprise, there appears to be a candidate with a marketing background and that is precisely needed at this point in time.

What would it take for Guilderland voters to consider voting in new town board members — two residents not affiliated with Jacob Crawford? Your new vote opens us to badly needed sunshine.

Look at Jacob Crawford: one minute sitting on the zoning board of appeals and tax grievance committee (how many lawsuits did his decisions launch) and [former] chair of the Guilderland Democratic Party. 

While Guilderland Democratic Party chair, he slid onto the town board without resident votes by a sudden resignation of a former town board member, Laurel Bohl, nabbing an appointment that comes with a four-year $100,000-plus town payout ([Supervisor] Peter Barber calls it a “stipend”) and state benefits. 

And what happened next is worth your new vote: There was a swap of titles between Jacob Crawford and a fellow Guilderland resident, Dustin Reidy … pivoting into Jacob Crawford’s former position, now Chairing the Guilderland Democratic Party.

What and who made it a feasible path for J. Crawford as an “avoidance” of an appearance of a conflict of interest to be on the town board and chair the Albany County Democratic Party? Was it the same process and people that put James Melita onto the county ethics board?

Maybe by appointment is the path to ruling Guilderland. Peter Barber, like Jacob Crawford, was appointed to town supervisor after another sudden resignation and also ran unopposed ….

Who is the minion in Guilderland? Jacob Crawford or the family leadership on our town boards of Barber/Feeney?....

Christine Duffy

Guilderland

Editor’s note: Following Laurel Bohl’s resignation from the Guilderland Town Board on July 12, 2022, Jacob Crawford was appointed to the post on Aug. 16, 2022 after the July 28 deadline set by State Election Law to get a candidate on the November ballot had passed; no one besides Crawford was on the ballot. Crawford was then elected in November, unopposed, to fill out the term. 

Peter Barber was appointed as Guilderland’s supervisor on Dec. 1, 2015 after Kenneth Runion resigned on Nov. 25, 2015 before the end of his term; at that point, Barber was supervisor-elect. Barber, a Democrat, had beaten Brian Forte, running on the GOP line, in a close race in November 2015; on Dec. 1 of that year, Forte, a councilman, joined the unanimous vote to appoint Barber. Two years later, in 2017, in a rematch of the 2015 supervisor’s race, Barber handily beat Forte.