To the Editor:

It saddens me to read the May 7, 2021 letter to the editor from D. Alexander “GPL, closed for a year, should not be hailed as ‘a great success’”] on the Altamont Enterprise article of April 29, 2021 on the Guilderland Public Library [“Guilderland library loses half its revenue but keeps budget on an even keel”].

Until that letter, I had not made the connection that the library director and the Guilderland school superintendent have the same last name. Are they related? For heaven’s sake, is this another family leading this town?

Are Tim Wiles, Guilderland’s library director, and Dr. Marie Wiles, Guilderland’s school superintendent, a married couple? If so, they would join families running this town

For example, town Supervisor Peter Barber’s spouse served on the school board ….

Town Supervisor Peter Barber, Esq. has two cousins in leadership roles: Stephen Feeney, serving as chair of the Guilderland Planning Board while Stephen Feeney’s brother, Dennis Feeney, Esq., also from Guilderland, is majority leader of the Albany County Legislature. Together, their footprint is on the former Governor’s Inn transition to a storage facility.

Supervisor Peter Barber, Esq. will be defending his cousin, Stephen Feeney, in a lawsuit to appeal the town’s scathing rebuke from a judge about the actions by the town’s planning board.

I question why Peter Barber is working as an attorney in this appeal. It stinks of self-serving interests — Mr. Barber has an active private law practice in town specializing in land use. I know for fact the town uses outside counsel on other legal matters. We also have a town attorney.

Why would Mr. Barber provide legal services for actions of his cousin? Why didn’t other attorneys handle this matter? Is Mr. Barber getting paid?  Is it a conflict of interest?

Mr. James Melita, Esq., town attorney, has a spouse seeking a leadership role in this next election ….

Why can’t we know who’s who in the zoo?

How did our town come to this family-run leadership model? ….

What is in it for these families? Do they get to enroll in New York State employee benefits or the State Retirement Fund? Why can’t other members of our town have a seat at the table? Our town is not a family business. We need diversity and inclusion of other residents that are not family members.

Christine Duffy

Guilderland

Editor’s note: The director of the Guilderland Public Library and the superintendent of the Guilderland Central School District are husband and wife.