Melinda McKnight’s last hurrah as town supervisor of Hurley was her December 27 recommended appointment of Debra Dougherty, a member of the ZBA (Zoning Board of Appeals), to fill the town-board vacancy left by Jana Martin’s recent resignation. After a discussion in executive session, McKnight defended the rationale behind choosing Dougherty, citing her time on the ZBA and her parents’ involvement in the fire department.
The motion to appoint Dougherty carried 3-1, with supervisor-elect Mike Boms opposed.
The appointment makes even more complex the political situation in the beginning of the new year in bitterly divided Hurley politics. The board is expected to vote in January to fill the seat left vacant with the ascension of Boms to town supervisor.
Reelected incumbent Gregory Simpson and newly appointed Dougherty will be the holdovers from the McKnight/One Hurley administration, while Boms and Diana Cline will be the narrow Keep Hurley Hurley winners. Who will these political rivals choose as the fifth member and potentially deciding vote on the town board?
A lifetime resident
Hurley’s newest town-board member said she was ready to start learning her new position.
“I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve lived in Hurley all my life,” said Debra Dougherty, born and raised on Russell Road. If she wants to stay on the board after November, Dougherty will have to run for the remainder of Martin’s term, which expires December 2025.
Dougherty, 63, has served on the ZBA for two years. Complex issues are nothing new to her.
“We had one when I first started that was somebody had done a subdivision and there was a lot of controversy about that. We had to do a lot of research on it. I love doing research,” said Dougherty. She had to do a lot of “digging” as an analyst and programmer for IBM for 29 years.
Now retired from IBM, Dougherty works in a dental office two days a week to keep herself busy. She is also an election worker and volunteer.
Dougherty is up to speed on many issues, having watched meetings online.
“I know all the stuff that happened over this last year or so,” she said. “There’s a lot of passion on multiple things. So hopefully the best thing to try to do is to channel that passion in a positive way.”
Dougherty readily admits she will need to get up to speed on some major issues, such as the former landfill and the need to find a permanent site for the town highway garage.
“I knew when I put my name in that it was going to be a lot of work,” she said.
She went from knowing nothing about zoning to getting on the ZBA. “I learned a tremendous amount two years, so I realized it’d be the same here,” she said.
Her husband Gary is a software engineer for IBM.
Her son is deceased, but she has a granddaughter, 15, and a grandson, 23. Dougherty is a graduate of Kingston High School and has a bachelor of science degree from Marist College. She also has a certificate in project management from George Washington University.
The board is expected to vote in January to fill the seat left vacant with the ascension of Mike Boms to town supervisor.
An interest in land
“I would like to make the point that she’s the only one that came to talk to me out of anybody who put in for it,” said lame-duck councilmember Peter Humphries at the December 27 meeting.
Boms said one candidate, Karen Gill, was essentially punished for owning a lot of land in town. “To say to me, the fact that we’re going have issues of zoning and planning, and therefore a person with a lot of land in this town is going to get a benefit from that…. They could recuse themselves very easily,” Boms said.
Councilmember Gregory Simpson expressed concern about potential conflict. “I believe that anyone who has an interest in land has the wherewithal to represent the town on a number of committees,” Simpson said. “What I’m worried about is if we are going to be faced with any kind of ethical issue coming forward, any kind of legal issues when it comes to zoning, when it comes to land use, when it comes to issues around land. That’s my worry.”
Times have changed in regard to ethical issues. Less than a half-century ago, the two Hurley residents who owned the most land, Jack Gill and Henry Paul, Jr., served on the town board at the same time for decades.
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