ALBANY COUNTY — Paul Miller decided to challenge incumbent Mary Lou Connolly to represent the 32nd District of the Albany County Legislature largely because he disagreed with the way she voted for privatizing the county’s nursing home.

Miller also believes Connolly has lost touch with the constituents in her district.

“She commented that I couldn’t run in her district because I didn’t live in it,” he told The Enterprise this week. “I do live in it; I even circulated petitions for one of her campaigns several years ago.”

Miller also has concerns about the transparency of Connolly’s campaign financing.

He wrote a letter, dated Aug. 18, to the New York State Board of Elections, requesting a formal review of financial disclosure reports.

He stated, in the letter, that Connolly had not filed her 32-day pre-primary report, which had been due on Aug. 10, and also that she did not report expenditures for two mailings on her July 15 periodic report.

Her reports did not reflect that Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy had contributed to her campaign, he said.

Miller also said Connolly had negative account balances from two previous campaigns, in 2008 and 2012. (See profile on Connolly for her responses to Miller’s accusations.)

“This is something I’m really on top of because my background is in accounting and I’ve worked as a treasurer on other campaigns,” he said. “The county has a large budget, and, if she can’t even handle her own money, how can you expect her to handle your tax dollars?”

Miller grew up in Guilderland and graduated from Guilderland High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree in public accounting from the state’s University at Albany and worked as an accountant auditor in the state’s Department of Labor for 34 years; he is retired from the state.

He has been a volunteer with the North Bethlehem Fire District for 46 years, and is an Eagle Scout and a Scout leader.

On the topic of heroin, Miller said he thinks all agencies with first responders should have a ready supply of Narcan, an opioid antagonist that can reverse the effects of a heroin overdose.

He and his wife are trained to use Narcan and both carry Narcan kits provided by the Albany County Sheriff’s Department.

“If just one person dies from a heroin overdose, that is one person too many,” said Miller.

The key, he said, would be getting people into treatment rather than incarcerating them, particularly if it were a first offense with no other crime in conjunction.

“It would be up to the judge’s discretion,” he said.

The other piece of the puzzle, according to Miller, is employment.

“If people don’t have jobs it can lead to drug abuse because they have a lot of time on their hands,” he said.

He believes the Department of Labor has a responsibility for getting people into jobs.

“I also think getting kids involved with sports and Scouts tends to keep them away from drugs,” said Miller.

In terms of consolidation, Miller said it was important for saving taxpayers money.

“It needs to be done in a way that doesn’t cause other problems, though,” he said. “There are reasons why certain facilities are located where they are.”

For instance, he said, in the Hilltowns, it would be hard to have county employees dispatched to do roadwork there in the winter, and people who don’t live in that area may not be able to navigate as well.

“It’s important to make sure there are no layoffs when consolidating,” he said.

Eliminating redundancies would be the most efficient way to handle it, said Miller.

“There are some places where state, county, and town vehicles travel the same roads, but if they don’t own it, they don’t plow it,” said Miller.

The three tiers of government could work out a system to define who covers which roads and there could be trade-offs, he said.

Children and seniors are the most critical members of society to provide for when it comes to suburban poverty, according to Miller.

“We may need more publicity on the services available for seniors because people might not be aware they are there,” he said.

For the youth, Miller would encourage early involvement in activities, including Scouts and sports.

“Feeding the kids is important, which is why schools have free breakfast and lunch programs,” he said. “We need to figure out how to remove the stigma from that.”

Mass transit in suburban areas could also stand to improve, he said.

Miller agreed that veterans “do have a problem” and said that, on a national basis, there have been scandals that “need to be taken care of.”

“The federal government needs to take care of them,” he said. “It is not really a county problem.”

His understanding of the Soldier On program, he said, is that there were environmental problems at the Ann Lee Home, the facility where it would be located, and he also believes the house might be too far away from other services.

“If we put all these soldiers out there and they need to get to the VA hospital, that might be hard,” said Miller. “They might want to re-look at housing in the city where it would be easier to access services.”

The county, said Miller, should provide as much help as it can for people to stay in their homes as they age.

“If they are going to keep people in their homes, they need to have support, both for the residents and for the people caring for them,” he said.

Miller said he had a “personal issue” with the Albany County Nursing Home, because he had a friend who had to be transported to a nursing home in Massachusetts due to a shortage of beds in Albany.

“That’s incredibly hard on the families,” he said.

He would not have supported privatization of the nursing home, he said, and he does believe that the new administrator of the home has been successful and the deficit has been brought down.

“We’re on the right track with that,” said Miller.

He said he supports to recommended increase of minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021.

“I don’t necessarily think having local governments set their own wages is a good idea,” he said. “I think it should be statewide, and set through legislation, not a wage board.”

Counties are intertwined, he said, so that it would be difficult to have different wages among them.

“It would be similar to when sales taxes are different and people drive from one county to shop in another,” he said.

Miller said he wants to see campaign finance reformed.

“Restrictions on campaign financing should be tightened,” he said.

For example, he said, money can be rolled over from campaign to campaign, giving incumbents a natural advantage.

“I think that needs to change,” he said.

Thus far in his campaign, Miller said he has raised $10,445, and spent $7.551.32.

“Let’s get back to the grassroots,” he said.

He said the voters are the bosses, and, if he is elected, that’s whom he will be reporting to.