BERNE — Long-time hostility between Town Supervisor Kevin Crosier, a Democrat, and Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger, a Republican, has been further fueled by Crosier’s Sept. 14 firing of Scott Green, a town employee who performed several different functions for the town and worked with many of its departments.

Green began working part-time for the town two years ago and was hired as a full-time employee this summer. In a letter to the editor in last week’s Enterprise, Green said he served as recycling coordinator, supervisor of the Albany County Summer Youth Program, parks commissioner, building and grounds superintendent, and town cleaner. Crosier confirmed to The Enterprise that those were his responsibilities but said the titles were not accurate.

Green was made an “eligible full-time employee with benefits at $19 per hour” by unanimous vote of the town board, including Crosier, at its July 13 meeting. Green is an enrolled Democrat.

New York State Town Law is silent on whether a supervisor in a town the size of Berne has the power to single-handedly fire town employees. The New York State Comptroller Office told The Enterprise that towns set their own policy.

The Enterprise sought the viewpoint of Town Attorney William Conboy about the Greene dismissal but he said, “I don’t know anything about it.”

“There is more to the story,” Bashwinger said this week. He says that “insubordination” was the immediate reason for Green’s  dismissal.

Crosier has declined to state the reason for his — not the town board’s — dismissal of Greene.

Green also declined to comment last week, beyond his statement in his letter to the editor, in which  he said that “Kevin Crosier fired me through an Albany County Sheriff’s Deputy.”

Crosier has confirmed to The Enterprise that a sheriff’s deputy “was involved” but declined to elaborate.

Michael Monteleone, Chief Deputy of the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, said the deputy "was present at Mr. Crosier's request....to insure that the interaction between the parties involved remained civil."

Bashwinger says that when Green was promoted to full-time employee and his duties widened considerably, he began  to clock-in at the highway department’s automated time-clock system which has a hand-scanning feature.  The town hall has no time clock.

Bashwinger says Crosier told Green to report to him at the town hall at the start of the work day to get his assignments for the day and to keep a hand-written time sheet.

Crosier told The Enterprise that discussing work assignment with an employee is common practice and that it continues to be town practice to have all employees, except employees who work in the town hall, clock-in at the highway garage.

The “insubordination,” believes Bashwinger, occurred when Green declined to report to Crosier first thing in the morning because his [Green’s] work day started too early to do this. Crosier is not at Town Hall at 10 a.m., said Bashwinger.

Bashwinger says Green was “one of the most important people in the town”  when it comes to keeping it functioning well. “He did a lot of extra work without overtime pay, I can vouch for that.”

Bashwinger said, “Everything [Crosier does] is all about his control.”

Called to confirm Bashwinger’s statement about the reasons for his dismissal, Green refused to speak to The Enterprise.

Battle lines drawn before

Earlier this year, there was a pitched battle between Crosier and Bashwinger when the supervisor laid-off two highway department employees after Bashwinger changed the department’s  spring/summer workweek from five eight -hour days to four 10-hour days, with Fridays off.  The layoffs were made without telling Bashwinger when he was out of town. Bashwinger said it was understood at that time that  his crew would return to a five-day/eight-hour work schedule by about mid-September. As of Sept. 26, the switch back to five eight-hour days had been made, he told The Enterprise.

Crosier reinstated the two laid-off employees shortly after The Enterprise reported their dismissal — and after a major snowstorm, Bashwinger says. The department has a crew of six.

Highway department employees have yet to approve a new contract., with the 10-hour days as a sticking point. And no progress can be made until the matter of union representation is resolved. The highway-crew union members have voted  to change unions, from the International Union of Operating Engineers to the United Public Service Employees Union. But the change, Bashwinger says —and any renewed negotiations with the town — must await a court ruling in October. In the meantime, highway department workers continue to work under a three-year-old contract.

Bashwinger, the town’s most highly paid employee, is the only elected official who works full-time.

“It’s no secret,” Crosier told The Enterprise Monday, “that Bashwinger has a political axe to grind...He’s been dragging the town through the mud on social media, not to improve the town but for his own political ends.”

Bashwinger said of Crosier and unnamed allies on the town board, “They threaten people but I don’t take threats well.”

Green has retained the service of an attorney, Matthew Griesemer, at the Hudson firm of Freeman Howard. Griesemer declined to say what legal action might be contemplated  by Green.

Clarified on Oct. 3, 2016: A direct quotation from Randy Bashwinger saying, "There's nobody there before 10 a.m." was replaced with a paraphrase saying Kevin Crosier wasn't at Town Hall before 10 a.m. since that is what Bashwinger had meant.

Updated on Oct. 5, 2016: A statement from Chief Deputy Michael Montelone on the deputy's presence, which was sent before publication, was added when it was received later because of technical difficulties.