6/29/-07 - Legislators oppose Howe’s reappointment

(As Published by the Cortland Standard, Corey Preston Reporting)

CORTLAND — The Cortland County Legislature Thursday night voted against reappointing Republican Election Commissioner Bob Howe.

Those opposed to the appointment voiced concerns over the fact that each party’s election commissioner is also chairman of his respective party’s political committee.

Howe still could be appointed by the Legislature’s Republican caucus, county officials said after the meeting. However, three of the seven Republicans on hand voted against the reappointment Thursday.

Newell Willcox (R-Homer), who was absent due to illness, potentially could split the vote 4-4.
Should the caucus vote not to reappoint, the Republican Committee would be asked for another recommendation, Minority Leader Danny Ross (R-Cortlandville) said after the meeting.

Howe declined when asked to comment after the meeting.

A motion to reappoint was not on the regular legislative agenda Thursday, but Ross asked for and received a two-thirds vote to suspend the rules to allow for a vote.

“I wanted the full Legislature to vote on this,” he said afterward.

However, legislators from both parties, Ross included, immediately made it clear that they were concerned with reappointing Howe both because of a perceived conflict of interest with his position as Republican Committee chair and because of a pending lawsuit that Howe and his Democratic counterpart, Bill Wood, recently brought against the county.

Wood also serves as both the Democratic election commissioner and the Democratic Committee chair, and was appointed to a two-year term as commissioner in January 2006.

“I firmly believe that the chair of the political party should not also be the commissioner of elections,” said Legislature Chairman Marilyn Brown (D-8th Ward).

Legislator Kay Breed (R-Cortlandville) agreed, saying she had heard concerns from constituents and that there is a “fundamental perception” that the positions present a conflict of interest for one another.

Breed also noted that party chairmen ultimately control the flow of funding to various candidates, and that her voting the chairman of her party into another position would in itself represent a conflict of interest.

“And they’ve already cost us money through the lawsuit, which just left me with a basic distaste because I think that’s an issue that could have been settled through personnel,” she said. Breed was referring to the lawsuit Howe and Wood brought against the county regarding their salaries as commissioners.

The suit was argued in court March 16 and is awaiting a decision from state Supreme Court Judge Kevin Dowd.

Ross said his “no” vote was not prompted by the lawsuit but solely by the potential conflict of interest. “It may be legal, but I still think holding both has got to be a conflict,” he said.

Ross and Breed were joined by fellow Republican Merwin Armstrong (Cuyler, Solon and Truxton) in voting ‘no’.

Legislators Brown, John Troy (D-1st Ward), Sean Clark (D-2nd Ward), Tom Hartnett (D-4th Ward), Don Spaulding (D-6th Ward) and Dan Tagliente (D-7th Ward) also voted against the appointment, resulting in a 9-8 vote, with Willcox and Steve Dafoe (D-Homer) absent.

Legislator Ron Van Dee (D-5th Ward), who voted in favor of the appointment, noted that numerous other counties have election commissioners serving both roles.

The state Board of Elections has said in the past that there are no restrictions on election commissioners also acting as party chairs.

Howe has served as election commissioner for 10 years, however, he was only appointed Republican Committee chairman last summer; this is the first time his reappointment has come up when he’s held both positions.

Van Dee also said the Legislature should confirm the Republican Committee’s recommendation for Republican election commissioner, a position that handful of Democrats who voted for the reappointment agreed with.

“The committee appoints who they want and I just don’t see where we have the power to say otherwise,” Van Dee said. Van Dee said that Wood’s appointment in January 2006 was the first time in recent memory that the Legislature had openly questioned either party committee’s recommendation.

It was also the first time the Legislature was faced with appointing someone who would be holding both positions.

Wood was appointed by a 15-3 vote, with Breed, Willcox and Tom Williams (R-Homer) voting against the appointment and the rest of the current Legislature voting for it.

However a handful of legislators, most vocally Breed, questioned his past practices during campaigns as Democratic Committee chairman.

Williams brought up the issue of Wood wearing “two hats,” according to minutes of the Jan. 19, 2006, meeting, but Brown at the time said she did not feel the question was appropriate.

Since then, Brown said, her opinion has changed, partially due to the lawsuit brought by the two commissioners. “One major factor is obviously the lawsuit — we certainly didn’t anticipate that when Mr. Wood became election commissioner,” Brown said. “Really though, that was the first time we’d seen that, with a chairman of the party as commissioner, and I don’t like how it’s progressed — I don’t think that’s the way it should be.”