Callicoon Center

To the editor:

I’m disgusted that legislators Brooks, Conklin, Salamone and Sorenson voted to reinstate Rob Doherty, Chair of the county legislature for another two-year term. They know exactly what we can expect going forward.

When first elected Chair in 2020, freshman legislator Doherty quickly demonstrated how he intended to operate. One of his first moves was to engineer the appointment of Michael McGuire as County Attorney. At the time McGuire was a County Judge who was about to be removed from the bench because the NYS Commission of Judicial Conduct determined that he was guilty of “stunning” misconduct, including dozens of instances of unethical and abusive behavior. But before McGuire could be fired for misconduct, Doherty rewarded him with another high paying, taxpayer-funded job. This earned Doherty the slavish loyalty of a henchman with a long history of unscrupulous behavior.

Over the past two years McGuire has repaid Doherty by helping him execute a series of dubious deals while keeping other legislators and the public in the dark. We saw this in the way the ownership of the Adult Care Center was handled and again, more recently, in the way an apparent sweetheart lease of facilities at the county-owned airport was awarded without competitive bidding and without the knowledge and consent of the full legislature.

Apart from his murky ethics, Doherty also seems to take pride in the fact that he bullies his colleagues and treats members of the public with contempt. He calls himself a “catalyst for change.” Maybe he’s just being a jerk.