The Sullivan County Board of Supervisors had many issues to deal with in December of 1969, and the hotly debated topic of reforming the County Charter to transfer power to a County Executive and a Legislature serving on a district basis was among the most contentious.

Although that November’s election had given county Republicans control of the Board of Supervisors, that change had not actually become official until well after election day, when a close race in the Town of Bethel was finally decided in favor of George Neuhaus, a Republican who reclaimed the Supervisor’s office he had relinquished two years before. His slim victory over incumbent Daniel Amatucci was largely due to a backlash against the Woodstock festival, and it put the GOP in the majority for 1970. Nonetheless, it was nearly impossible to calculate the votes for or against revising the Charter.

In fact, that the division over whether or not to amend the Charter was not strictly along party lines, so the assumption of power by the Republicans did not necessarily promise to move this controversial issue along, and as the new Board organized in January of 1970, it continued to languish in committee as it had since the Charter Review Commission had submitted its findings the previous March.

Local newspapers—and there were still a number of them in the County at the time—kept the issue on the public’s mind, and civic groups and service organizations sponsored debates that were often spirited and typically well attended.

Among the most vocal proponents of abandoning the Board of Supervisors in favor of a Legislature was Hortonville farmer and realtor Kurt Shilbury, the man who a few years earlier had sued the Board of Supervisors over their voting system and whose victory in court had brought weighted voting to the County.

Shilbury traveled the County throughout 1969 and ’70 speaking out about the need for a modern Charter that would do away with the Board of Supervisors, the form of government that had been in place since the formation of the County in 1809.

Another vocal proponent of Charter reform was Livingston Manor businesswoman Evelyn Haas, who had served on the Charter Review Commission chaired by Tri-Valley High School principal Edward T. Condon. She spoke to numerous groups about the wisdom of adopting a new Charter, and engaged in several debates on the topic, as well.

Among those most actively opposing the change in government was Liberty High School science teacher Sondra Bauernfeind of Mongaup Valley, who was a leader in the Sullivan County Conservative Party and of the Bethel Taxpayers Association.  She was often joined in debates by Lumberland Supervisor Edward Bisland, who once described the proposed changes to County government as like “taking a Mack Truck to go grocery shopping in a super market.”

“Bisland, a defender of the status quo, has repeatedly indicated his satisfaction with things as they are and has indicated that a little tinkering by adding perhaps an administrative assistant, auditor, and purchasing agent, will do the trick of bringing Sullivan into the space age,” the Liberty Register newspaper reported in its February 5, 1970 edition. The article went on to describe a recent debate conducted before a small audience at the Monticello Jewish Community Center, in which Bisland squared off against Woodridge attorney Seymour Krieger, the Executive Director of the Catskill Resort Association, “an avowed and vigorous supporter of charter reform and the creation of a small full-time county legislature, serving only the county.”

The Register reported that Krieger had “characterized the present system as ‘disorganized, disjointed, and confused’ with town supervisors also serving at the county level giving their first loyalty to their particular towns and sections, unable to look at the county as a whole, lacking professional training or competence to run a $15 million business, trying to do it part-time, with no executive head to give direction.”

As the public was getting educated in the pros and cons of the issue, Supervisors continued to avoid voting on the recommendations of the Charter Review Commission, and local papers speculated on just where each Board member stood on the issue, and how many weighted votes either side could likely  muster when the showdown eventually occurred.

Fallsburg Supervisor Mortimer Michaels, Liberty Supervisor Francis “Stretch” Hanofee and Neversink Supervisor Joe Raffa were known to support change. Rockland’s Cecil Stewart was also believed to be in favor. Bisland, Tusten’s Carl Behling, and most of the Supervisors of the smaller towns, were opposed. Two of the largest weighted voting blocks—those wielded by Neuhaus and Thompson Supervisor Ralph Meyer—were the wild cards, as no one seemed quite sure where they stood.

In the end, despite the tireless efforts of charter review proponents throughout the county, the measure failed, and the Board of Supervisors, with some minor tweaking, continued to govern the County until 1995, when a new nine member Legislature was elected to take office in January of 1996.

John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian. Email him at jconway52@hotmail.com.