The Schoharie County Board of Supervisors has elected Fulton supervisor Phil Skowfoe as county chairman, in a close vote taken Monday evening. Skowfoe is the first Democrat to lead the county board in 20 years, the Schoharie Times Journal reports:
Mr. Skowfoe, the first Democrat Chairman since David Handy of Sharon, succeeds Harold Vroman of Summit.
"I'd like to mend fences that haven't been mended," Mr. Skowfoe said after his election.
"I tried to do that as vice chairman and wasn't successful. Maybe I can do a better job from here."
He is entering his 16th year on the board.
For the last two years, Skowfoe has been at the forefront of a bitter battle over committee assignments on the county board. In January of 2011, shortly after former chairman Harold Vroman took over leadership of the board, Skowfoe aimed sharp criticism at Vroman's leadership, accusing the chairman of playing partisan politics:
On January 4, Mr. Vroman, a Republican, was elected chairman in a split vote and then named his committees. Unlike last year, no Democrats were chosen to head a committee.
“By removing all Democrats from chairmanship and key positions on committees, it appears that you want to make appointments as to show who’s in charge,” Mr. Skowfoe said. “You made your point.
“But you also drew a line in the sand. I feel that action is demeaning. It is almost like a slap in the face. How can you do that and say we all have to work together?”
Mr. Skowfoe said those supervisors “inside the circle” are members of the “coffee club” which met prior to meetings and in the past year were able to influence other members of the board to eliminate the county home healthcare agency.
“You have chosen to not ask yourselves what you can do for our county but you have chosen what you can do for yourselves and your own personal agenda, Mr. Skowfoe said, echoing the inaugural address of John F. Kennedy made almost exactly 50 years ago.
“I believe that you have set this county back 20 years,” he added.
Committee assignments continued to be a contentious issue on the board throughout 2012. In April of last year, Vroman made an unusual mid-year change of committee assigments, removing some supervisors from committees they had served on for many years. The move was interpreted by Skowfoe and other supervisors on the board as retaliation for a vote they had taken to disband the county Flood Relief Committee, effectively handing the county's flood recovery efforts back to the towns.
Two months later, Skowfoe and seven other town supervisors filed a lawsuit against their own county board over the committee issue. At the time, Skowfoe said that Vroman's committee appointments were intimidating to board members, the Daily Gazette reported:
"We’re not asking for monetary settlements or anything. If we don’t do this, they can change committees any time they wanted if they didn’t like the way you voted,” said Skowfoe, who his serving his 15th year as a supervisor.
“Nobody should be afraid of how they vote,” he said.
The lawsuit was later dismissed by state Supreme Court Justice Eugene Devine, who told supervisors that allowing the lawsuit to be heard would be an improper interference by the courts in the legislative process. After the lawsuit failed, the supervisors themselves voted narrowly to restore the old committee assignments that Vroman had changed in April.
In Monday's election, the Times-Journal reports, four Republicans and five Democrats voted for Skowfoe to chair the county board, most of them plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Skowfoe narrowly beat Bob Mann of Blenheim, a Republican, who got seven votes.
