LIBERTY — Town of Liberty Assessor Vanessa Kelder submitted her letter of resignation earlier this month.

She declined to comment as to the reason for her resignation, beyond saying that she was not happy.

“I’m happy to move forward with my life and hopefully start a new chapter somewhere else,” Kelder said.

She said that her resignation was “absolutely not” related to her complaints against County Legislature Chairman Rob Doherty and County Attorney Michael McGuire during their visit to a meeting of Liberty’s Board of Assessment Review last year.

Kelder had alleged Chairman Doherty referred to her using derogatory language and that McGuire engaged in bullying behavior. The county utilized a third-party investigator who eventually determined there was “insufficient evidence” that county policy had been violated. 

Citing personnel matters, Supervisor Frank DeMayo also declined to comment as to the reasons for Kelder’s resignation.

He said the town was “really under the gun” to get the tentative assessment roll, by which town taxes are calculated, signed and submitted.

“It was a real serious situation,” said DeMayo.

Councilman Brian Mc­Phillips made a motion at Liberty’s last board meeting on April 18 that he would call Kelder to see if she’d come back to sign the tentative assessment roll, but when reached on Sunday Supervisor DeMayo said that a majority of the board had agreed to appoint Sunsoree Young as the acting assessor.      

“We still have work to do, but at least now it’s manageable,” DeMayo said, thanking all those who assisted.

“I think we lost a good assessor for the Town of Liberty” said Councilman Vince McPhillips. “I think we’re at a loss.”

Councilman Brian McPhillips added, “Vanessa was very qualified to do her job and I stand by the work she did for the Town of Liberty.”

Resident Nancy Levine similarly described Kelder’s resignation as a loss to the town.

“I think it goes to the problems that we have with the building department,” Levine alleged in public comment. 

Town Audit

The Town of Liberty is in good financial shape according to Andrew Arias of Cooper Arias, LLP, who appeared before board members at their most recent meeting to  report on the town audit.

“You have very healthy fund balances in your general and highway funds,” Arias said.

Over the last few years, many municipalities have seen their fund balances increase during COVID. Arias explained that many municipalities had cut back on expenses and closed things down, especially during 2020, but they still levied the taxes and raised money.

“A lot of municipalities were able to see big increases in their fund balance during those couple of years. So really what happened here ... is not unusual for most municipalities,” Arias said.

The audit found no major internal control or compliance issues.

“Overall the records in town are in excellent condition,” Arias said, commending Director of Finance Cheryl Gerow and Senior Accountant Earl Bertsch.

“Overall the Town is in very good financial condition,” Arias said. “Don't underestimate how hard it is to get good people in government accounting positions.”

DeMayo commended past and present board members for maintaining healthy fund balances over the years.

“We have to be careful too, because with that came some cuts to job positions and things like that,” said DeMayo. “We have to reevaluate that this next budget season to make sure we’re not leaving ourselves short, but I think we’re in pretty good shape.”