To the Editor:

In 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt traveled to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota for a dedication of the massive stone sculpture that would soon bear the image of his cousin Theodore along with those of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln and he said the following:

“I think that we can perhaps meditate a little on those Americans ten thousand years from now, when the weathering on the faces of Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln shall have proceeded to perhaps the depth of a tenth of an inch, and wonder what our descendants — and I think they will still be here — will think about us.

Let us hope that at least they will give us the benefit of the doubt, that they will believe we have honestly striven every day and generation to preserve for our descendants a decent land to live in and a decent form of government to operate under.”

In a recent editorial from The Altamont Enterprise, Ken Runion, who recently retired as Guilderland’s town supervisor, was accused of violating the public trust, because after 16 years of service, he chose to retire — 38 days before his term ended.

For a public servant, the public trust is first and foremost about serving honestly and sincerely. There was and has never been any scandal to my knowledge in Mr. Runion’s 30-year career as a public servant, and, as The Enterprise points out, he was an outstanding public steward in all that time.

So I find it very strange that this is the one area The Enterprise chose to be critical of Mr. Runion and his service to the community. It is especially odd when you consider the events that have recently been concluded in Manhattan, where the former Assembly speaker and the Senate majority leader of the state of New York stood trial.

After 15 years, 10 months and 23 days as town supervisor, a job the paper rightly points out, is not a 9-to-5, five-day-a-week occupation, but a 24/7-365-days-of-the-year job, he had simply had enough. He felt the time was right to go and be with his family and live a private life.

However, he did not leave in August when he wanted to, as he realized, if he did leave then, the election would have been thrown into turmoil. He waited because he knew it was the right thing to do, until after the election. He also chose not to simply ride out the last month and one week of his term, do nothing and simply collect his check, which he could have done and no one would have known or complained, but that would have truly been a violation of the public trust and his ethical standards.

So let’s make this simple and look at it by the numbers. By my count, Mr. Runion, served for 5,802 consecutive days as town supervisor. But he did not serve for the last 38 days of his term, however.

By my count, Mr. Runion, presided over 352 consecutive town board meetings, and this does not include any special town board meetings that were called or meetings at town hall that are too numerous to mention, and to my knowledge, Mr. Runion did not miss any meetings during his nearly 16 years in office.

But he will miss one meeting for the remainder of his term however.

The Enterprise is right, public officials have an obligation to serve the public and not violate their trust but newspapers and other organizations that ultimately write the history of our time, also have a duty, not to violate the public trust as well, so just for the record, concerning the Thomas Jefferson quote that The Enterprise used concerning the public trust, Mr. Jefferson resigned from his position as secretary of state in 1793, by and large to run for the presidency against John Adams in 1796. So, I think it would be only proper and right to give Mr. Runion the benefit of the doubt in this case.

Bruce Sherwin,  McKownville

Editor’s note: Bruce Sherwin is a member of the Guilderland Planning Board.