WESTERLO — The town board is backing its attorney, Aline Galgay, despite some residents calling for her dismissal.

Tuesday night, a handful of residents and the five board members discussed Galgay’s role within town government, and each board member supported Galgay, who has been the town attorney since 1997. The town board makes the appointment annually at its January re-organizational meeting. Galgay also serves as the zoning and planning attorney.

Galgay told The Enterprise yesterday that she will seek re-appointment. She also feels she has strong support from residents.

A small minority opposed her on Tuesday night, she said, but the remaining residents at Town Hall were in support of her.
"I would stay with the town attorney," Councilman R. Gregory Zeh, said after Supervisor Richard Rapp asked for the board’s input.
"She does an adequate job. She does a good job," said Zeh. "So I would keep the town attorney." Zeh later called for a show of people in the audience opposed to Galgay. Out of 40 to 50 residents, nine raised their hands.
The Citizens Against the Reappointment of the Town Attorney, led by Michael Sikule and Eugene McGrath, presented a proposition calling for the town to seek outside counsel at the town’s November meeting, citing conflict of interest. The group also sent a letter to the Enterprise editor, "Who elected the town attorney"," written by Sikule and McGrath, in October, which said, "It seems obvious from attending any meeting — town, planning, or zoning — that it is the town attorney who seems to be doing all the talking, interrupting elected and appointed officials at will, correcting them without any sense of protocol or respect to the board chairperson, making comments directly to the audience without having them evaluated by the chairperson, and addressing applicant attorneys without deference to the chairperson."

Tuesday night, McGrath distributed a list among board members of town attorney salaries in neighboring towns.

He told The Enterprise yesterday that the list was compiled of all the information he could obtain about nearby towns — whether their town attorneys live within the town or are hired on a consulting basis, how much each attorney for the towns are paid, and the population of each town.
"If there are twice as many people [in a town], the town attorney should be paid twice as much," McGrath said.
Tuesday night, Zeh didn’t agree with McGrath’s reasoning. Zeh said that population doesn’t dictate salary. "You have to look at population density," he said. Zeh added, "There are a lot of subjective figures here."

Galgay is earning $18,000 this year for her combined work for the zoning board of appeals, the planning board, and the town board.
The proposition, which does not have a signature page, states: "In a town the size of Westerlo, the chances for a resident who practices law in Westerlo to have legally represented individual residents who ultimately need to come before the various town boards are extremely high. In the instance of Westerlo, this has happened repeatedly"The same applies for board members, other elected or appointed officials or town employees who have received individual legal services from a resident attorney on, for instance, real estate matters, wills, etc. and who ultimately need to come before the various town boards."

McGrath said that there have been instances where Galgay should have recused herself.
A resident who identified herself as a friend of Galgay said that she needed legal counsel and, when she took up her case against a neighboring town, Galgay recused herself. "She couldn’t help me," she said.

Kim Slingerland, the supervisor’s clerk, spoke in favor of Galgay.
"I worked with her every day," said Slingerland, who prepared paperwork with Galgay for the town’s water district. Slingerland said that Galgay could have charged for her services, which would have amounted to at least $75,000, and Galgay "did it for nothing." Town Clerk Gertrude Smith also spoke in support of Galgay.
"We’re not talking about her abilities and qualifications," said Sikule.

Sikule said that Galgay’s practice within the town and involvement in real estate, puts her in a position to have a conflict of interest.
"You’re asking for someone to be dismissed," Councilman Ed Rash said to Sikule.
Rash later said the board asks for Galgay to describe legal matters to them in layman’s terms. "Some construe this as her running the meetings," he said.
"The decisions are the board’s decision," Zeh said. Zeh added that the townspeople elected the board members, and that board members ultimately make decisions. "Hold the other five people accountable. The town attorney does not vote," he said.
Westerlo resident Bill Bichteman said that Galgay’s personality is such that, when issues are brought before the board, Galgay "can’t help herself."
"I rely on the board to make a decision," Bichteman said. He also questioned whether Galgay was needed at town board meetings. "The perception," he said, "is that Aline is directing traffic."

The town will reappoint its officials at its reorganizational meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 2.

Other business

In other business, the town board:

— Approved a contract with the city of Albany, as a member of the Solid Waste Planning Unit that uses the Rapp Road landfill. The town will be paying $52 for each ton of garbage and $50 for each ton of recyclable materials;

— Resolved to have Central Hudson cut a pole down and cut limbs out at Schlegel Road and Route 411;

— Approved continuing its existing contract with the Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society in Menands for stray dogs; and

— Set its meeting to pay end-of-the-year bills for Dec. 28.