BERNE — Republican Supervisor Dennis Palow used his last town board meeting to skewer longtime critic Joel Willsey, a Democrat who had served on the board.

Willsey, a former town board member, had raised concerns about this year’s budget process since, by law, a town board member is not supposed to draft a town budget, and about the suspension and firing of Shawn Duncan, who had worked at the town’s transfer station for six years.

The Enterprise learned this week that Berne had never entered Duncan into the Civil Service system as it should have; the county has no record of his employment.

Palow, who did not seek re-election, said at the end of the Nov. 12 meeting that he planned to cancel the board’s December meeting.

“There’s really nothing going on,” he said.

Two emails that Willsey had sent to board members Melanie laCour and Joseph Giebelhaus were printed out for the public to read and then read out loud at the meeting.

“We’re really tired of it and getting attacked by him,” said Palow. He called Willsey’s emails “totally disrespectful” and said, “It needs to stop.”

The board is in transition as all seats were open after three members abruptly resigned last year. Giebelhaus, a Democrat, who ran unopposed on the Republican and Conservative lines as well, is the supervisor-elect.

Giebelhaus gave a lengthy budget overview on Oct. 22 and later sent out a press release about the 2026 preliminary budget. The $4.24 million spending plan, he said, “rights the ship by aligning revenues with actual costs,” increasing town taxes by 38 percent.

After a contentious public hearing on Nov. 12, the four board members voted, without discussion, to adopt the preliminary budget.

LaCour, a Democrat who was appointed by the governor to restore a quorum to the Berne board after a seven-month hiatus, ran for a two-year council post but the race is still too close to call.

Scott Duncan, is the clear winner in the three-way race for two seats with 47 percent of the vote, while laCour, as of Nov. 13, is just 18 votes ahead of Chance Townsend, who had 600 as of Tuesday.

The Albany County Board of Elections said final vote counts should be posted by next week, probably on Tuesday. LaCour had been ahead of Townsend by 37 votes on Election Night.

The race for tax collector is also too close to call, with Republican Stephanie Audino, as of Nov.13, leading Democrat James Kaufman, 656 to 644. Kaufman had led by 10 votes on Election Night.

Deputy Supervisor Thomas Doolin, who did not seek re-election, was the first to read out loud an email from Willsey. Although the Nov. 5 email was addressed to Giebelhaus and laCour, Willsley had also copied Kaufman, the Democratic Committee chairman, and Joe Martin, who chairs the Republican Committee, on the email.

Willsey urged the board members to use him as a resource, citing prior years of “incredibly contentious budgets.” He wrote, “I filed 21 complaints and 11 were actionable.”

He also wrote that he had been “under constant attack and investigation by this town government for years now … so I don’t trust anyone, and right now I don’t trust you. Let’s change that.”

Willsey wrote that he gets daily texts and calls from Berne residents with concerns about the current budget. “It looks like you Joe are illegally in charge of the budget making unilateral decisions, some say Palow ceded the budget process to you illegally or you just took the budget over yourself, also illegally.”

According to New York Town Law, a supervisor is the town’s chief financial officer, but may appoint someone else to serve as budget officer.

However, a local government management guide put out by the state comptroller says this on who can prepare a town budget, “The supervisor, or eligible person appointed by the supervisor to serve at his/her pleasure; cannot be a member of the town board.” The town board’s power lies in reviewing and adopting the final budget.

Mark E. Johnson, spokesman for the Office of the State Comptroller, said this guidance of not allowing a town board member to draft a town budget “is consistent with Town Law § 103(2), which defines ‘budget officer’ as the supervisor, or a person appointed by the supervisor, including a town officer or employee other than a member of the town board.”

“I don’t see an attack here,” called out a man sitting in the gallery on Nov. 12.

Palow then read out loud an Oct. 30 email, which Willsey had sent to Giebelhaus and laCour, stating it was a copy of his correspondence to the Democratic Committee.

The email started with concerns that Palow was not allowing the tentative budget to be posted. “I believe the board could vote to request publication at any time,” Willsey wrote.

Willsey then quotes Giebelhaus as saying, “I am aware that the town supervisor has directed the town clerk to only make the budget available for in person review at town hall; which is a decision that is unfortunately in compliance with NY Town Law.”

Willsey’s Oct. 30 email continues, “I question how anyone could sit through the town board training I did 8 years ago and have so little respect for transparency and the budget process.”

“Political retribution”

Willsey wrote in his Oct. 30 email about responses to his Freedom of Information Law requests, claiming they are “full of intentionally false, inaccurate and misleading statements when I am trying to get to the bottom of a clearly illegal act of political retribution.”

Willsey goes on in his email to scold Giebelhaus, Palow, and Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger for the way transfer-station worker Shawn Duncan was suspended from his job, without pay, on July 23. The town board then fired Duncan on Aug. 13.

Duncan had spoken to The Enterprise in July about various concerns he had with Bashwinger’s leadership of the highway department and also alleged that Bashwinger had the highway department workers pose for a photo that he then posted on Facebook, where Bashwinger claimed — falsely, Duncan said — that he had the endorsements of all the employees as he sought re-election.

Bashwinger was ousted in November’s election by Republican Allen Stempel who ran on the Democratic line since Bashwinger, who formerly chaired the town’s and county’s GOP committees, had the Republican line.

Duncan said that Bashwinger referenced his allegations and the Enterprise’s attempts to reach the involved parties as he was suspending Duncan on July 23.

Willsey’s email went on to allege that Bashwinger, Giebelhaus, and Palow had known Duncan has “past emotional and impulse control issues” and so Duncan was “very deliberately intimidated to the point of breakdown,” which was recorded on a video “they could hold over his head so he would shut up.

“That’s my theory based on very limited information this town board allows me,” Willsey wrote. “I think that kind of treatment is as serious as rape.”

Palow stopped reading the email at that point to say, “Rape — are you serious?”

“Very serious,” Willsey responded from the gallery.

Palow resumed reading the email: “It is totally disgusting. I am absolutely astounded and I intend to get to the bottom of it … Anyone can have a past they had to work to overcome. Mr. Duncan’s past was apparently used in this attack on him. This guy was a productive, enthusiastic and popular employee. I wake up and can’t get back to sleep thinking about what we have done to this kid.”

When Palow finished reading, a man sitting next to Willsey asked Palow, “Why is this an agenda item?” He also noted, “You have disclosed personnel items.”

Albany County spokeswoman Mary Rozak told The Enterprise this week that the town of Berne had never entered Shawn Duncan into the Civil Service system as is required for town and village workers in the county.

“If someone had been employed for five years continuously, for five years or more, they would have been entitled to a process,” Rozak said, before being fired.

Duncan was afforded no such process.

Policy change

Later in the meeting, Town Clerk Kristin De Oliveira said she wanted to rescind a procedure that the town board had adopted in 2020, requiring the board to record all of its workshops and meetings, including those in executive sessions, which are closed to the public, and to keep those recordings for 10 years.

Palow had voted against the policy at the time while the other board members voted in favor.

De Oliveira told Willsey, who had made Freedom of Information Law requests for some of those recordings, “I did not know this existed.”

“It does contradict town law and state law,” De Olivera said.

Kristin O’Neil, assistant director of the state’s Committee on Open Government, said of a town board recording its executive sessions, “There’s nothing in the law that either prohibits it or permits it.”

Once a board records an executive session, she said, “It becomes a record subject to rights of access under FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] and then they need to deal with what happens if someone makes a FOIA request for a copy of that  recording …. Any record that’s maintained by a government agency is subject to rights of access under FOIL [Freedom of Information Law].”

O’Neil went on, “I’m not saying that they would need to necessarily disclose it in its entirety, but it becomes a record … The FOIL officer would then have to go through and redact whatever was considered private and release [the rest].”

When Willsey objected, De Oliveira told him, “We need to stop looking backwards.”

When Willsey suggested keeping meeting recordings for longer than the six months that De Oliveira had said was required, she said, “It’s so much memory and time.”

The current local government retention and disposition schedule, LGS-1, allows destruction of recordings of meetings subject to the Open Meetings Law four months after the meeting.

LaCour said she ran her recent campaign on transparency. “Executive sessions are an important tool for boards to use judiciously ….,” she said. “We should adhere to the law.”

LaCour said that discussing matters in private is not unique to Berne and said of an executive session, “I don’t think it should be used maliciously.”

“What’s unique in Berne,” said Willsey, is that the closed sessions are being used for attack. He said that, when he was on the town board, Palow attacked him in closed sessions.

The state’s Open Meetings Law lists eight reasons that allow a public board, with a majority vote, to go into an executive session.

De Oliveira said that having a recording of an executive session “would undermine confidentiality.”

Palow then made a motion that “there be no more recordings during executive sessions and that it’s only being kept for six months.”

All four board members voted in favor.

Other business

In other business at its Nov. 12 meeting, the Berne Town Board:

— Heard from the director of the Berne Library, Kathy Stempel, that on Nov. 19, from 6 to 8 p.m., ACCORD [Albany County Crisis Officials Responding and Diverting] staff will be on hand to discuss mental-health issues and crisis intervention.

The board also approved the appointment of two new library trustees: Amy White and Susan Gardner.

— Heard from Claire Ansboro, who chairs the town’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, that the park’s toilets are now closed for winter but she urged residents to use the free exercise equipment;

— Heard from the Berne Planning Board chairman, Stephen Khoury, that it was “a busy year” with lots of site visits. Khoury also said his board had submitted a solar law proposal to the town board that focuses on “protecting the town’s needs and desires.” He stressed that his board is not anti-solar. Rather, he said, “We are trying to be pro-people.”

Palow said the solar bill has been sent to the town’s attorney;

— Heard from Palow that the driver for the senior bus had retired.

“I’ll do it,” said Councilman-Elect Brian Bunzey from the back of the gallery. “I’m retired. I’ll make the time”;

— Heard from De Oliveira that she didn’t think the town should pay $90 to an engineer for work the planning board had required for a town resident.

“Any time there is a professional review … the taxpayers should not be responsible,” she said.

LaCour said there needs to be guardrails on what is for the benefit of the taxpayer and the town.

The board took no action on the matter and De Oliveira said it would be up to the next administration “and we’ll just pay the bill”; and

— Discussed at length buying software from Edmunds GovTech. “I sort of took the lead on this,” said Giebelhaus.

“This will help us be more transparent with town spending,” said laCour.

“You won’t be able to spend over our line,” said Senior Account Clerk Andrea Borst.

The annual subscription rate, “if we go all in with every bell and whistle,” Giebelhaus said, would be $15,500.

The board agreed to spend $10,000 as a one-time investment — $4,000 to start and then $6,000 in 2026, Borst said.

“It’s in the budget,” said Palow.