To the Editor:

Many of you may not know me but my name is Cathy Bates and I am the long standing bookkeeper for the town of Knox. I enjoy doing my work quietly behind the scenes and until now never have felt the need to speak out publicly.

However, I feel the need to do so to address the unfortunate and unnecessary attacks and false narratives specifically related to the filing of the town’s annual reports and whether or not our supervisor lied about them.

When Vasilios Lefkaditis was elected in 2015, I did not know the man. I met him in January of 2016 and immediately told him that I enjoy doing my job behind the scenes, had respect for Supervisor [Michael] Hammond, and that I didn’t vote for him. I explained to him that he’s free to replace me and he laughed at my honesty about not voting for him and asked me to please stay.

We discussed the town’s budgets and it became apparent to me that he had an acute sense of finances. He learned from me as I learned from him.

Supervisor Lefkaditis hit the ground running. He relentlessly began negotiating everything and anything the town spent or received monies on.

At the same time, my disappointment in our elected officials began. At the request of some of the town board members and town attorney I was asked to produce several reports.

I did not know that the request came from only four board members and the attorney at that time without the supervisor’s knowledge and was to be used to publicly trip up the supervisor instead of working with him.

I was saddened because a board’s intent should be to work together for the benefit of the town and not a specific party. It wasn’t necessary then, and the division hasn’t subsided in the last four years. It has gotten better with the election of Mr. [Ken] Saddlemire and Mr. [Karl] Pritchard but the nastiness unfortunately continues.

I do not attend public board meetings and it is my understanding that Supervisor Lefkaditis may have lost his cool at a meeting or two but I also know he has been provoked, accused of lying, and publicly insulted by a small group of individuals.

Who wouldn’t react? I would think that the time spent on how to publicly provoke and for that matter provoke someone at all, would be better spent on how to work together to better this town.

He and I don’t always see eye to eye but at least he listens and respects my opinions, thoughts, and knowledge. He never insults or looks down upon my reasoning. From the start of working with Supervisor Lefkaditis, I have only seen him be respectful and open minded to others’ ideas and input on what might be best for the town.

Having firsthand knowledge of the annual report process, it was difficult for me to read week after week the many accusations of him having lied about the annual report. He did not!

In 2016, he inherited a violation of New York State finance law related to the building bond-anticipation note used to pay for our town hall. The 2016 annual report was deliberately not filed because a decision was made to delay the filing until such time the BAN issue had been cleared up, a process that took over a year and required the governor’s approval.

A review of the town board minutes will indicate that, when asked about the 2016 annual report, he shared the decision to delay the filing and the reasoning for doing so with the town board in September of 2017. He has been transparent and forthcoming with the public and the town board and it’s unfortunate that residents in the community choose to ignore the facts.

He had assumed he completed all of his work on the annual report as this was his first filing and the report had been filed. Again, being put on the spot at a public meeting, he did not stop to say, let me verify with our bookkeeper what he thought to be true, and an honest mistake, not a lie, was made.

When he discovered the report wasn’t filed, he apologized to the board for miscommunicating and not speaking to me first but not for lying. Sadly, the narrative that he lied, which he didn’t, keeps being spread absent of the facts. It’s an unfortunate and deliberate attack that serves no one and certainly not the town.

I have seen Supervisor Lefkaditis put his own needs aside to help the youth, the elderly, and residents with struggles; those he helped trust his discretion of their privacy. He has had people just drop in the office to ask for help or just give an opinion, and chat one-on-one, sometimes disagreeing with him or just wanting clarification. I have never seen him turn anyone away, even when we are working on a deadline.

The last thing I would like to add is that, after working with Vasilios Lefkaditis for almost four years, is: If you ask him a question or challenge his ideas, he is honest, and he listens to yours. We may not all like or agree with each other, but we should be teaching our children by example of how to treat and respect others and their opinions.

We should allow them to form their own opinion and respectfully convey that to others if the need arises, even if they don’t agree with us as parents and adults. Yes, guide them but teach them how to think for themselves. This is what Supervisor Lefkaditis does, and, again, I have seen this for myself.

My hope is that, if you have heard something second-hand or by just reading the paper and that is how you will form your decision to vote, please call him and talk with him. You may not change your mind, but you will make a better, informed decision when you cast your vote.

Cathy Bates

Knox

Editor’s note: In April, Supervisor Lefkaditis voted, along with the rest of the board, to censure himself. The resolution that Lefkaditis voted for said, in part, that Lefkaditis did not file the Annual Update Document (AUD) with the state comptroller for 2016 and 2017 as required by state law and that he “indicated multiple times between April and December 2018 Board Meetings that the AUD’s were up to date, when in fact he knew that they were not completed and had not been submitted” and further “Supervisor Lefkaditis was not truthful or forthright with the Town Board and residents of Knox with respect to the filing of the 2016 and 2017 AUD.”