To the Editor:

I would like to clarify some of the misinformation that was in Anita Clayton’s letter last week.  Ms. Clayton clearly doth protest too much. She knows that she and the Berne Republican-backed town officials clearly treated the COVID-19 vaccination, to use her words, as a “political stunt.”

Berne’s distribution of the allotted vaccine was poorly handled. Information about the vaccination clinic should have been made available to every eligible Berne resident, whatever their political party affiliation or who they knew.

Unfortunately, Ms. Clayton and the Berne GOP-backed town board managed Sheriff Craig Apple’s vaccine initiative as they have everything since they took control of the Berne Town Board. Time and time again, they have failed to treat all Berne residents, not just their cronies and supporters, with the respect they deserve.

I was truly sad to read the misrepresentations and attack on Democrats in Ms. Clayton’s letter. For her to plea for people to “… stand up and defend your town from the people who are truly trying to hurt it and spreading lies” is laughable given the fact that she just recently asked for the Democrats, the very individuals she now disparages, to nominate and endorse her for town clerk in the upcoming November election.

Ms. Clayton and the GOP-backed board are the only ones who are hurting our town with their lack of transparency, refusal to allow public participation, failure to recognize a duly elected town board member, misrepresentations, and politicization.

Some of the facts that Ms. Clayton either ignored or obfuscated include:

— There were many Berne residents who are seniors and eligible individuals who never received a phone call including my 92-year-old mother, my 90-year-old neighbors, my father-in-law, and numerous other eligible individuals who I cannot begin to list here. Additionally, I was told that an employee and her husband, both Schoharie County residents, received the vaccine while other employees, who live in Berne, were denied the vaccine;

—Why was it that other towns managed to get the word out yet Berne had to rely on the Berne Republican Facebook page? I heard of someone who called and asked if they had to show their voter registration to be eligible to attend the clinic. This was an initiative of Sheriff Craig Apple, not an initiative of any political party. Sheriff Apple simply asked the Albany County towns to assist with the vaccine’s distribution. The only reason to announce it on a political page, to quote Ms. Clayton again, was to make it “political” and that's exactly what they did;

— Why was it that only the lone Democratic board member, Joel Willsey, knew nothing about the vaccination clinic?  Mr. Willsey qualified to receive the vaccine. How did Ms. Clayton know whether or not he had already received it? She didn’t, yet he did not receive a call. Additionally, Mr. Willsey could have provided her with the names of residents he knew were qualified. As has become common practice with this administration, Ms. Clayton and the GOP-backed board cut the lone Democrat out of an important town activity. They provided him with no information at all, about Sheriff Apple’s initiative, once again depriving the town’s people of the representation and support for which he was elected. If that isn’t “political,” I don’t know what is;

— Ms. Clayton states that she sat in her dining room Thursday afternoon and Friday until 5 p.m., making calls, from the “… lists of our eligible seniors from Karen Stark and Alyce Gibbs …” and that she spent 22 hours making calls. This raises several questions. Why would Ms. Clayton ask Karen Stark, who lives in Westerlo, and Alyce Gibbs who lives in Knox, for eligible seniors when Westerlo and Knox had their own vaccine clinics and the majority of the seniors involved live in those towns? Even if you add a few hours on Saturday morning, how did Ms. Clayton spend 22 hours making calls? Why didn’t Ms. Clayton reach out to Mr. Willsey for the names of Berne residents who wanted a vaccine? If she had included Mr. Willsey and asked all of the board members to make phone calls, the task could have been done in a few hours, considerably less than the 22 hours she contends it took;

— Ms. Clayton misquoted me as having said that she called only Republicans. My Facebook quote expressed concern that it was on the Republican Facebook page and that she was calling Republicans and supporters which, she must understand, is how it appeared. Again, I was extremely concerned that she and the Berne GOP-backed members had politicized the COVID-19 vaccination that so many were and are desperate to receive;

— Ms. Clayton knows full well that it is a HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] violation to say that I received my vaccine, but she clearly alludes to it. I have four comorbidities that qualify me for the vaccine, including being a cancer survivor, and I was desperate to get the vaccine. I learned about the Berne-Knox-Westerlo clinic from a neighbor who texted me the Rensselaerville Facebook posting, which included the Albany County sheriff’s contact number. The sheriff’s office put me on a waiting list, and as a result, I got the vaccine. I never would have known about it from my own town and I can’t help but feel that this was by design and, in Ms. Clayton’s words, “political”;

— Ms. Clayton says, “This is a time of new beginnings and our chance to make our town healthy and whole again but it will take all of us working together.” I hope that Ms. Clayton genuinely means this. If so, she and the GOP-backed town board can begin by providing Mr. Willsey the necessary information to make informed decisions and participate in discussions that impact all Berne residents. Additionally: allowing public comment at town board meetings; providing transparency; stopping Mr. Randy Bashwinger’s constant bullying on Facebook, etc.; ending the use of the town clerk’s information to attempt to embarrass (as when Ms. Clayton told Mr. Dennis Palow that a planning board member had not licensed his dogs. Mr. Palow’s public accusation about that perceived failure backfired. The dogs had died.); and generally being civil toward all residents will all go a long way to making our town whole again. If not, Ms. Clayton and the GOP-backed board will continue to prove that everything they do is purely political. Because, after all, actions speak louder than words. 

Barbara Crosier

Berne

Editor’s note: Barbara Crosier is married to Kevin Crosier, former Berne supervisor and current chairman of the Berne Democratic Committee. When reached for a response to Barbara Crosier’s letter, Anita Clayton told The Enterprise, “I made my statement and my statement speaks for itself.”

Alyce Gibbs is president of the Hilltown Seniors and Karen Stark works with the Helderberg Senior Services lunch program run by Albany County; both groups, when there is not a pandemic, run regular columns in The Enterprise. Last week, Berne Supervisor Sean Lyons told The Enterprise that the town, as it worked to spread word of the vaccines, referred to lists of eligible recipients from Gibbs and Stark, as well as from nurse practitioner Jill Martin, who operates Hilltown Healthcare, in Berne. Posts about the distribution were also made on various Facebook pages, including the Berne Republican Party Facebook page, as well as the town website. 

Lyons said at the March 10 town board meeting that neither he nor Clayton informed any town board member of the distribution efforts.