Oswego County legislature opts to stick with insurance carrier
<span class="body">"Impropriety is like beauty, its in the eye of the beholder."</span>
<span class="body">These were the words poetically spoken by County Legislator Fred Beardsley, addressing the suggestion that there may have been some questionable ethics used in the legislature's process of selecting a liability insurance carrier. Regardless, after several days of questions being raised regarding the ethics in the selection process, the Oswego County Legislature passed a resolution awarding the professional services contract to the insurance broker of record, Eastern Shores Associates. After one motion to bring the resolution to a vote and end discussions failed and then another motion to table the resolution and bring it back to the committee failed, the votes were finally cast and the resolution passed by a margin of 17-8</span>
<span class="body">As was expected, the final verdict was not reached without a lengthy debate. Michael Kunzwiler, D-18, has been very vocal in his disagreement of the contract being awarded to Eastern Shores since he discovered through his own research that they had contributed a considerable amount of money to the Oswego County Republican Committee in recent times. He again addressed this issue in front of the entire legislative body. "Anyone here can say that this does not factor into their decision, but the fact is that truthfully, we'll never really know if this factored in anyone's decision or not. I am not specifically accusing anybody of doing anything illegal here, but the appearance of impropriety is certainly there. It all boils down to the fact that the days of the good ol' boys in this county need to come to an end. That is what got us into a bad financial state in the county before and we can't let it happen again."</span>
<span class="body">Majority Leader Barry Leeman, who supported the resolution, disagreed with the sentiments expressed by Kunzwiler, stating, " we are excepting the low bidder here. I really think we are just spinning our wheels here talking about the integrity of this. I'm sure that none of us here got a single penny of any of the money contributed."</span>
<span class="body">Legislator Kimberly Seager also showed her approval of the resolution, rebutting Kunzwiler's earlier comment by saying, "I am confident that this will give us the lowest price and exactly what we need here in Oswego County. If doing business locally means that we are hiring good ol' boys, then I'm proud to be doing just that."</span>
<span class="body">Regardless of the final tally, Kunzwiler remained set in his ways, feeling that the awarding of this contract to a political contributor sends the wrong message. "I would really have like to seen this tabled and have a chance to go back to the committee. I just have to go back to how this appears and this kind of stuff just has to stop."</span>