New year, new legislative body — same old story in Oswego

The first meeting of the 2008 Oswego County Legislature started out smoothly and calmly enough to make one think that the finger pointing and inner quarreling of the past year was a thing of the past... and then came the fireworks. Not surprisingly, the most heated debate was sparked over a familiar topic: the appointment of a new highway superintendent. Despite the emotional exchange, Kurt Ospelt was finally named the superintendent, by an 18-5 majority vote.

After the new legislative body had seen almost all of the resolutions of the day voted through unanimously, including the appointments of Barry Leemann, R-Amboy, to the seat of Legislature chairman and Jack Proud, R-Mexico, to the position of vice chairman, questions were raised once again when the 14th resolution of the day suggested the body designate three official newspapers as opposed to two which has been commonplace in prior years.

Minority Leader Michael Kunzwiler, D-Oswego, noted that in the past year's budget, many tough decisions had to be made to cut costs and that traditionally each political party had brought forth the name of one publication. It was argued by both Majority Leader Kimberly Seager and Shawn Doyle, R-Pulaski, that adding a third paper would provide more complete coverage of the county, making the addition cost efficient.

Douglas Malone, D-Oswego Town, suggested the resolution be tabled until it was further reviewed by county attorney Richard Mitchell and possibly the State Attorney General's office, but the motion failed by a 19-5 margin that signaled a trend in for the rest of the meeting.

The resolution to name three official publications - The Oswego County Weeklies, The Palladium-Times and The Valley News - passed by the same count.

Following the day's 15th resolution, two additional resolutions were visited regarding the position of highway superintendent. Several legislators had previously made clear their intent to appoint 30-year highway employee Kurt Ospelt to the position; however, the minority legislators argued that proper procedure was not followed in naming Ospelt at Thursday's meeting.

Kunzwiler again began the questioning, arguing that although the minority group as a whole was not opposed to Ospelt filling the position, they felt that the proper channels had not been used to make the appointment. He suggested that the appointment should have first gone through the proper committee, before being brought to the legislature floor.

"I don't think this is any way to start off the year," Kunzwiler said. "You sit there and extend the olive branch, and then go into caucus and come out and say this is how its going to be. This is bringing us back six or seven years, when the attitude was we're bigger, we have more numbers, so we can force things down your throat. We should not do away with debate, it's what we are paid to do. We are not paid to make decisions behind closed doors."

Malone added to Kunzwiler's comments, noting, "I do feel that Kurt should be there, but the way its been done I can't support it. What's next? Somebody in Ponzi's seat with no vote? If you want it to, the olive branch can turn into poison ivy."

Clayton Brewer, R-Fulton, who has been a vocal supporter of the highway department in the past year, said, "I would have liked to go through committee, but we tried all that last year, and look what happened. So, this year, I support doing it this way."

Several other legislators agreed with Brewer, expressing the overall desire to fill the position, move on and restore morality in the department.

After the vote had passed to put Ospelt in office, it was stated by several of the minority legislators that they did support Ospelt as the man for the job; however, as Phil Vasho, D-Fulton, put it, "it was the way they went about it that was wrong."

In addition to the positions mentioned above being filled, 12 department head spots were also voted upon and passed, including the re-appointments of Phil Church to the position of county administrator and Richard Mitchell to county attorney, among others.

The meeting began with each of the five new incoming legislators individually sworn into office, followed by the remainder of the legislature swearing in as a whole. Then, Leemann, Proud, and Ted Jerrett, clerk of the Legislature, were each sworn into their newly appointed spots.