Members of the town council, having had a month’s notice that Neil Bettez was leaving the supervisor’s office for another job, opted to schedule interviews for a replacement to begin after Bettez’s exodus. That meant that the full-time administration of the government fell to Alex Baer, whom Bettez had appointed to the post of deputy supervisor. Three weeks later Baer also left, citing among other reasons earning less than three dollars an hour for that work, and as a result the members of the town board picked a replacement just five days later.
In the interest of time the board members asked the four remaining candidates after Baer withdrew from consideration — Amanda Gotto, William Wheeler Murray, Dylan Moscoso and Jane Schanberg — to speak briefly about their experience and answer a handful of questions.
After a discussion in executive session on Tuesday night, they opted to pick Gotto, whose experience in government until this point was to serve a month of an unexpired term on the town council. Gotto does, however, have a great many hours of community volunteer work including the management of some complex projects and relevant management experience from a career in manufacturing.
Baer stepped down as acting supervisor on May 23, writing in a Facebook post that board members, “in particular Kitty Brown, have refused to vote to pay me, they have held up important police contracts, and the daily payroll,” and for that reason stepped down on May 23. Baer earned $2,148 a year as deputy supervisor, and wanted to get a salary that was commensurate with the amount of time being spent overseeing the mechanisms of town government — which Baer has suggested was at least 20 hours a week. Bettez had appointed Baer as deputy supervisor at the beginning of the year, openly expressing at the time that Baer would be named to fill in for Dan Torres until the next election. Baer had lost the 2023 election to Brown.
“The May 20 meeting was the first time my colleagues and I learned that Alex Baer had not been receiving the $10,127 in the deputy supervisor budget,” said Brown. “Board members don’t see payroll checks, so when Alex said she hadn’t been paid, I said, ‘We have to fix that’.”
According to Brown, Baer said she had been told she became interim when Supervisor Bettez left office. Town law states: During the absence or inability to act of the supervisor, or while the office of supervisor is vacant, the deputy supervisor shall […] be vested with all of the powers and may perform all of the duties of the supervisor.
The agenda item read: “approve paying Alex Baer for ‘interim supervisor’ duties.” Since no interim supervisor had been appointed, the board requested legal advice to determine if it was possible to pay the deputy supervisor the supervisor’s salary.
“If you can get us an opinion that it is okay to waive the deputy supervisor salary and pay you the supervisor salary, I would approve that,” said Brown.
Baer agreed to “look into it and talk to a lawyer.”
Baer resigned before a legal opinion was provided.
The May 20 meeting is available to view on New Paltz YouTube.
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