WESTERLO — While this year’s Hilltown elections are made up primarily of one-off contests — or no-contests — despite multiple town board seats available in each, Westerlo has bucked the trend with seven candidates going after just three seats.

For supervisor, incumbent Matt Kryzak, endorsed by the Republican and Conservative parties, is defending his seat from the Democrat-backed Don Morin, of Morin’s Body Works, and planning board member Angela Carkner, who is running on the independent Spend Less Party line. 

For town board, incumbent Peter Mahan, who was elected in 2022 to fill a vacancy, is running for a full four-year term, on the Democratic and Spend Less Party lines. Incumbent Amie Burnside is seeking her third term, on the Republican and Conservative lines. Republicans also backed planning board member Bill Hall for a town board seat, with planning board Chairman Beau Loendorf running for a seat on the Democratic side. 

The Enterprise spoke with each of the candidates — except Hall, who declined to do a phone interview — about:

— Whether they would replace town attorney George McHugh, whose appointment, compensation, and performance have been criticized by residents and board members alike;

— How they would promote transparency in the town; and

— Whether they think there should be a town-wide revaluation of property values. Westerlo has a state-set equalization rate of 0.64, by far the lowest in Albany County — the goal is to be as close to 100 as possible, meaning a town’s assessed values equal full-market values.

Westerlo has 2,425 enrolled voters: 909 are Democrats, 625 are Republicans, 89 are Conservatives, 12 are registered with the Working Families Party, and 5 with the Green Party — meaning 775 are not registered with any party.

 

Angela Carkner 

Angela Carkner is a small-business owner who runs the wedding venue Hydrangea Farms in Westerlo, and the restaurant Belt Line 3 in the city of Albany. She formerly owned the restaurant Roux, in Slingerlands, but sold it this year. 

In the mornings, she manages retirement plans for business owners, making sure they’re “compliant with IRS regulations and Department of Labor standards,” she told The Enterprise. 

“I like to stay busy,” she said of her workload, to which being a member of the Westerlo Planning Board was added in January of this year. 

Carkner is running for supervisor because she’s unhappy with the current administration, saying that it doesn’t properly adhere to rules and regulations, or allow for proper review of the town’s finances (which Kryzak denies). 

“We don’t talk about our financials the way that we should,” she said. “We’re not reporting financial numbers to our town board, we’re not talking about where our investments are at or how much money we have. Everything’s a secret.”

Carkner would also like to bring more small businesses to town, which she notes is a component of the town’s revamped comprehensive plan. 

“I would put that side-by-side with supporting our local farmers,” she said, adding that she would continue the current board’s efforts to improve public spaces and increase community programming. 

When asked about revaluation, Carkner said she has “mixed feelings,” since the process would inevitably increase tax payments for some people, who may be farmers already selling off land “because of increasing costs and overhead,” she said. 

However, she acknowledged that she’s not an expert on the process and would need to consult with people more knowledgeable to determine whether it would be a benefit for the town overall. 

“My biggest concern would be to make sure that farmers are OK,” Carkner said. 

As for the town attorney, Carkner not only said that she would like a replacement for McHugh, but that she’s already started getting quotes. According to her, the figures she’s gotten back have been about half of the $28,000 McHugh receives annually, not counting benefits. 

One attorney quoted her $10,000 to $12,000, she said, while another firm would charge either $200 or $400 per hour, depending on the “level of attorney,” she said.

“He is very overpaid in the position that he holds,” Carkner said of McHugh, highlighting the fact that he is often absent at meetings, including planning board meetings where she says his attendance has been requested. 

“He leaves us open to liability at every turn,” she said. “I think the best choice for Westerlo would be to get a new attorney in immediately, and it’ll be a huge, immediate cost savings to the town.”

As supervisor, Carkner said, communication would be a key component of her administration; calling it one of the most important factors of all aspects of her life, she would make sure that information is communicated to residents, department heads, and all other people involved in a decision or action.

“Whether it’s my marriage, whether it’s the way I talk to my 4-year-old son, the more you communicate the better, whether people agree or disagree with you,” she said. “If they agree with you, that’s great. You’ve got support. If they disagree with you, that’s great too — it should be a moment for you to educate yourself further on a topic.” 

 

Donald Morin

Donald Morin says he’s “not a big talker — I’m more of a get-things-done kind of guy.” He said he decided to run for office at the behest of residents who were unhappy with the current direction of the town. 

If you had asked him if he’d ever run in the past, he said, “I’d say you were crazy. But so many people have come up to me and asked me to do this that I felt obligated to help everybody out here and put things on the right track.” 

He said he would like to “bring a lot of the spending under control,” and make sure that money is being used for the future, and not one-off purchases.  

With regard to the need for town-wiode property revaluation, Morin said that, although Westerlo is behind the other Hilltowns in terms of its assessments, “I would have to see how that would affect” older residents who may have fixed incomes and would be more likely to struggle with increased expenses.

“You don’t want to push them out, you know?” he said. 

Criticisms of McHugh were a “big incentive” for Morin to run, he said, explaining that he recalled a public hearing about a residency law the town had passed to allow itself to hire non-residents like McHugh for certain positions, including attorney. 

“Pretty much everybody in that room that night was against having George there …,” he said. “I would do mainly what the townspeople want. I wouldn’t force George on the town if that’s not who they want. I’m here for the townspeople.” 

Morin said that he personally has concerns about conflict of interest, since McHugh holds positions with other governments, such as Coeymans, where he’s supervisor, and Albany County, where he’s an attorney for the sheriff’s office. 

As for transparency, Morin said that he felt the town board should have been more open about the transfer of its own land to the fire department so it can build a new station, although he noted that he’s not necessarily against that decision.

“They do need a new building up there, but maybe it would be better if we had EMS,” he said. 

Ultimately, though, he thinks the issue should have been put up for a referendum, “and let the whole town vote for it.” 

 

Matthew Kryzak

Matthew Kryzak was first elected to the town board in 2019 as part of a larger red wave in town, but found himself in the supervisor’s chair after former supervisor Bill Bichteman resigned in 2021, as the town was finishing up its comprehensive plan, redoing its renewable energy laws, and waiting to hear whether the town would receive $1.7 million from the federal government for broadband expansion, which it will. 

Kryzak works full-time as business manager for his family’s contracting business, Multi-Phase Construction Corp.

He said the issues facing Westerlo over the next four years are cost increases, employee retention, and rural decay. 

The town is overall in good financial shape, said Kryzak, pointing to the $2.4 million fund balance, which according to the Office of the State Comptroller OpenBookNY tool is up from around $736,000 in 2019. 

Kryzak said he’s spent a lot of time over the past two years trying to find ways to make sure the town doesn’t need to go over its tax cap or cut services. 

The formula for healthy finances, he said, is “very simple.”

“You have to increase taxes very slightly,” he said, “but you have to control your spending more importantly, and then you’ll start to generate savings.”

The key, Kryzak said, is getting accurate projections of expenses, which some towns don’t do. 

Those expenses include employee salaries, which he said should be going up to beat inflation and match the caliber of service residents want, which can include performing some services in-house that normally might be contracted out at a premium. 

To combat rural decay, Kryzak said that initiatives like the broadband expansion help keep people in the area, and that he’s been working on a four-year capital improvement plan that outlines the use of $1.2 million on facility and infrastructure improvements, making sure that town property is “an asset, not a liability.”

A town-wide property revaluation, he said, should be done gradually so that people aren’t surprised by sudden cost increases, particularly the elderly. The current assessor, Melanie Bunzey, has been reviewing properties and finding some that were “being taxed as vacant land that actually had homes on them.” 

“Over time, adjusting things where they need to be adjusted is the best measure,” he said.

Kryzak stands firmly behind McHugh as the best option for Westerlo’s attorney. 

“Geroge McHugh is a fantastic, fantastic attorney [with] lots of experience, and we get him for a bargain-basement price,” he said.

Because McHugh is paid a salary and not an hourly rate, the town can control the price, Kryzak said, again comparing this benefit to the added value of McHugh’s experience.

“I can go out and get a cheaper attorney, probably,” Kryzak said. “It’d be very hard to find, but I can go get a cheap attorney that lacks experience and that doesn’t get us anywhere.”

As for McHugh’s presence at meetings, Kryzak said it’s not a requirement of the job, and that he tries not to “abuse the relationship” the town has with McHugh for the amount it pays him. 

“When you call George, George is available … ,” he said. “If you’ve consulted him, he’s done his job. There’s no need for him to sit there.”

Regarding transparency, Kryzak said any criticism that he’s less than transparent “is unfounded,” comparing himself against the famously taciturn Richard Rapp, who was supervisor for decades before Bichteman took over. 

When it comes to finances, Kryzak gives account summaries as part of his supervisor’s report at monthly town board meetings, including investment figures. 

“To think that I keep Westerlo’s gold under my mattress … is kind of ludicrous,” he said. “The people that actually reach out for information always get the information they’ve requested. The people that don’t — how do I know what they’re looking for?”

Meetings themselves, Kryzak noted, were moved up an hour so that people would be more able to come, without worrying about staying until late at night as topics get slowly worked through.

“Our meetings are pretty relaxed,” he said. “They’re really more like a town hall than a board meeting.”

 

Beau Loendorf

Beau Loendorf said he “immediately” got involved with the town government after moving to South Westerlo with his husband, attending town meetings, joining the broadband committee, and later joining the planning board — serving as a member for one year before becoming its chairman in November of 2021 — in addition to serving on other various committees. 

“I started the parks citizen committee, where we’re revitalizing both our town parks and trying to find a way to increase opportunities for those with special needs and those from the older community to find a place in the parks as well, where they can use them just like anyone else,” he said. 

Outside of town government, Loendorf is the co-founder of Big and Little Events and is the national events director and VIP coordinator for the band Chicago, in addition to being involved in Rotary Club and the Special Olympics, as a fitness coach.

Loendorf said he hopes to join the town board to represent the needs of South Westerlo and “get some new, younger leadership for the town.”

One primary focus he would have, he said, is to improve EMS in Westerlo. One resident he spoke with, he said, had a mother who fell and had to wait 36 minutes for ambulance service, which in Westerlo is provided by the Albany County Sheriff’s Office. 

Loendorf said that there’s a joke in South Westerlo that people should drive over to Tops in Greenville when they need an ambulance because the Greene County paramedics would get there faster than the Albany ones. 

He also said he wants to see quicker progress made on the broadband grant, which was awarded in 2021, with a subsequent bid for service installation awarded last month to Mid-Hudson Cable. 

 “We’re slowly moving forward, but our committee hasn’t met in almost nine months,” Loendorf said. 

Although he acknowledged that progress on the issue would always be slow because of the nature of government, he said, “There’s no leadership on this.”

He also said he wants to see more financial transparency, since there are “a lot of questions regarding our budget, how we’re using our money.”

Loendorf expects that the town will soon need to deal with the issue of short-term rentals, so it should “start talking about how Airbnbs are going to potentially impact our community” along with a continued focus on solar. 

Revaluation, he said, is something that “we have to do at some point,” but that, with many people struggling financially, finding the right time may be difficult. 

“Do I support it right away? I don’t think so,” Loendorf said, adding that he would need to do more research on the topic. 

Regarding McHugh, Loendorf said he’s had a “very good relationship” with the attorney, but that he was “very upset” that McHugh was absent at a recent planning board meeting.

“He’s choosing not to come to meetings,” he said. “He’s choosing not to communicate. These are all choices, and I don’t think we’re getting adequate and healthy representation from a lawyer anymore.” 

Loendorf said he would like to find a new attorney, but that he wouldn’t be against searching outside the town, which has been a point of contention among some. 

But, he said, “I always want to support opening up to town residents first. I think that’s huge.”

And, while he respects the need for someone with experience, McHugh being actively involved in other municipalities “is just too many hands in the pot,” he said.

On transparency, Loendorf said that it starts “when questions are asked and answers are given.” 

He said that getting answers may sometimes “take a few weeks, but you can’t just forget about it.”

“I would help answer those questions, instead of just saying I don’t know, or not even acknowledging the question, or telling residents as [the board members] have before that it’s not their job to answer questions, it’s just their job to listen,” Loendorf said. 

“That’s not how we run a town,” he said. “Especially a small town. You’re not there just to listen. You’re there to answer questions and represent.” 

 

Peter Mahan

Peter Mahan is the former chief of police of New Baltimore and an Albany Fire Department lieutenant who joined the Westerlo Town Board in 2022 to fill a vacancy. 

He said that he would like Westerlo to start a paid ambulance service to improve ambulance response times. 

The county sheriff, he said, “is not dedicated to just this town. They go wherever they may be needed.” The result is slow service, he said, at an ever-increasing cost. 

A paid service would likely not save money, but response times would be much better, he said — “minutes, instead of 20 or 30 minutes.” 

 A town-wide property revaluation, Mahan said, is probably not necessary right now. 

“I think we should look into it more …,” he said. “If we can leave the assessments the way it is now, I’d like to see that work, if it can work.” 

Ideally, he said, the public would be able to decide, as he’d like them to on the ambulance issue. 

Mahan said he believes that bids should go out for a new town attorney, with residents getting priority. 

“I’d like to see it going to a bid, and not Matt Kryzak giving them the salary,” he said. Mahan, along with Councilman Josh Beers, voted against the current budget last year in part because of the attorney’s salary. 

Regarding transparency, Mahan said that he was not included in the process of the fire company land transfer, and said that “public input is a big thing.” 

He thinks the town should have a hotline, he said, where residents can call and have their concerns recorded and get a message saying that the board will get back to them.

“People say, ‘Well, I called last week.’ I never got it, because the clerk’s office called the supervisor’s office, they talked to the secretary,” Mahan said, adding that he thinks the town employees are overpaid. 

Mahan also said he’d like to “keep taxes as low as they are now.” 

 

Amie Burnside

Amie Burnside was the first Republican elected to the board in decades, after winning an election in 2015 as a political newcomer. 

Now an incumbent, Burnside said that “nothing has really changed” in terms of her outlook. 

“I love serving the town, both in my full-time job as a dispatcher and at the town [board],” she said. 

Burnside, who chairs the town’s Hometown Heroes committee, has always been a supporter of the military, she said, but has become even more so after her son, Trevor, became a second lieutenant in the Air Force. 

She said she’s been helping to improve the two parks in town, and is eager to see Kryzak’s four-year capital improvement plan through. 

On revaluation, Burnside was in line with Kryzak, saying that the town’s assessor has been successful in making certain updates to the tax roll, but that she doesn’t think a full revelation will be done anytime soon. 

She said she’s “happy with the work” McHugh has done as town attorney, and that he’s a significant improvement over the town’s past attorneys. 

Burnside said that she was the one who interviewed the town’s last attorney, Javid Afzali, with then-Councilman Richard Filkins, and voted with the rest to pay him hourly. Ultimately, the cost went “way beyond our budget for him.” 

She said that McHugh is very available to the board, and said that people who find him inaccessible aren’t reaching out. 

On transparency, Burnside said she doesn’t know how the town “could be more transparent.”

One of the problems that she believes results in the accusations otherwise is that officials don’t get the mail out of their mailboxes until just before meetings, even though it had been in there for “a couple of weeks, in some cases.”

“I’m very open to suggestions for transparency, but I feel confident that what we share is transparent,” she said. 

Before Kryzak was supervisor, she said, “we didn’t read all the reports, or verbalize them during the meeting, like the town clerk report and the investment report,” and the comparison between budgeted and actual expenses and revenues. 

“All of this information is also published on the website so residents can review it as well,” Burnside said, referring to the meeting minutes. 

Bank reconciliations, she said, are always available to board members if they want them, and she looks at the Hometown Heroes accounts “on a regular basis.” 

“We don’t physically get a paper copy, but they’re there,” she said. 

Burnside said she arrives up to an hour early to meetings to go over any material she thinks she might have questions on during the meeting. 

Sometimes, she said, questions can’t be answered because the answer simply isn’t there.

“Most of the time, when there’s accusations of us not being transparent, it’s because either Matt or myself haven’t gotten the full picture yet,” she said. 

 

William Hall

William Hall declined to do a phone interview with The Enterprise for this election, explaining that he “prefers to leave a paper trail” when dealing with media and felt that “short-form media rarely leaves room for thoughtful and nuanced policy discussion.”

 The Enterprise conducts interviews for contested elections over the phone, through the internet, or in person to level the field for candidates.

In an email, Hall — who in addition to serving on the planning board has been on the museum board, local law committee, and served as a farmers’ market manager — said that he has “had an interest in public policy and governmental philosophy for a long time.” 

“I often think about how we manage this system of self-government that we are fortunate to have,” he said. “Each of us owes it to our community to serve in some form or another and I feel that running for Town Council is how I can best do that. I am not running against anyone, but rather for the things that I feel I can accomplish and the skills I bring to the table.”

On his website, Hall lists four focus areas: protecting agricultural heritage, law review, “clear and open communication,” and fiscal responsibility.