James J. “Jimmy” Dolan Jr. is no longer working at the Columbia County Board of Elections, where he had served as the Democratic Election Specialist.
On Monday night, multiple sources in both the Democratic and Republican party establishment claimed that Dolan had been fired by Democratic Commissioner Virginia Martin, who had hired him several years ago.
However, during a visit to the Board’s temporary offices at 401 State, a visibly tense Martin insisted on Tuesday that Dolan had chosen to resign.
When asked about one source’s claim that Dolan had been fired initially, but then offered an opportunity to quit instead, Martin repeatedly intoned, “I’m not going to comment on personnel.”
Two requests for comment from Dolan, a current Greenport Committeeman and until 1991 the highly controversial Hudson Police Chief, were not returned.
Columbia County Democratic Chair Keith Kanaga said in email that it would be “inappropriate” for him to address the matter.
Local Republicans and Democrats have long had a tacit agreement to not interfere with each other’s BOE appointments. As a general rule, it would be out of character for such moves to be made without an intense discussion happening first among party leadership.
The split between Martin and Dolan doesn’t come as much of a surprise to longtime observers of the County political scene. It seemed less a question of if but when the two would come to loggerheads.
His appointment to the BOE, raised many eyebrows, given the former Chief’s past legal problems.
Dolan’s case in The New York Times in 1991
Dolan was sentenced in 1991 “to five years' probation and fined $8,000 for obstructing justice by interfering with drug investigations by other law-enforcement agencies,” according to reports in The New York Times and many other papers.
At the time of sentencing, State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Harris “criticized Mr. Dolan for trying to consolidate all police power in the city in his own hands and setting himself above the law,” according to the Times report.
“He is not psychologically suited for this line of work,” Judge Harris stated at the time.
His prosecution was led by District Attorney Paul Czajka, who per the Times brought charges that Dolan “tried to keep law-enforcement agencies out of Hudson, a city of 8,000, to protect ‘friends, relatives, subordinates and himself,’”.
In 1992, Dolan was briefly remanded to the Columbia County jail by Harris “for failure to pay his fine [and] to perform his mandated community service,” according to a report in the Albany Times-Union.
Along with Dolan’s prosecution, 1991 featured a flurry of other legal action against past and present members of the Hudson Police. An HPD detective was charged in Federal court “with soliciting cocaine and crack for his own use,” and another officer was “accused of lying to a grand jury about drug use.”
A close friend of the then-Chief was also “accused of setting fire to the car of Jill Hazelton, a reporter for a local newspaper who wrote articles containing criticism of Mr. Dolan,” according to the Times.
Asked whether she now regretted hiring Dolan, considering his history, Martin exclaimed “Oh for God’s sake!” before resuming her mantra about not commenting on personnel decisions. Martin absolutely refused to address how much or even whether she knew about Dolan’s past when he was hired.
The most recent episode at the Board of Elections was not Dolan’s first attempt to make a comeback on the area political scene.
In 1998, then-Mayor Richard Scalera appointed Dolan to head up the Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency. His appointment immediately ignited a firestorm of protest, with then-activist Daniel Region pointing out that during his first election campaign Scalera had promised “never” to include Dolan in his administration.
Dolan’s brief tenure at HCDPA was marked by more controversy over inaccurate grant applications and disastrous proposals such as a toxic waste processing plant to be sited in what is now Basilica Hudson.
When later appointed Commissioner of Grants for the City, this reporter was charged with attempting to make sense of HCDPA’s files. Those files were found in almost complete disarray—apart from one neatly-kept file in Dolan’s desk drawer, which contained highlighted articles about public critics at the time, such as Time & Space Limited’s Linda Mussmann.
After resigning from the Hudson Police force, Dolan ran into problems as he sought employment with New York State.
An Appellate Division decision from 2003 found that he twice misrepresented his record on employment forms. In applying for a State job in 1996, the Court found that he “failed to mention that he violated the terms of his probation, which resulted in his incarceration and the imposition of additional community service.”
Finally securing an appointment February 2000, Dolan was dismissed less than 8 months later after his full record came to light. He sued the State for wrongful termination; but according to the court ruling denying his claim, “[T]he Director of Human Resources Management for Taxation and Finance discovered that petitioner had violated probation and had been sentenced to jail. Doubting petitioner's credibility and honesty, the Director contacted Civil Service and requested that petitioner's appointment be revoked.”
Dolan eventually moved to the Carolinas, and was seldom seen in Hudson until his return several years ago (when he actually bought this reporter a beer while we were both watching football at Melino’s).
Dolan appeared to have become much milder and more agreeable, and eager to start anew.
At the time, Martin privately justified Dolan’s appointment to some who questioned it with the notion that “everyone deserves a second chance.” (Some might argue that this was actually his third or fourth chance.)
Democratic Commissioner Virginia Martin
There have been only a few known complaints about Dolan’s tenure at the Board, although Dolan reportedly blew up at Czajka earlier this year when the D.A. visited the Board of Elections and greeted him with a sunny “Good morning, Chief!”
Dolan was still on the job as of late morning Monday, if not later, according to one Democratic official.
But during a Tuesday morning visit, his desk chair was conspicuously empty in the Board’s temporary quarters at 401 State. (The BOE has had to move from its usual offices due to a persistent infestation of fleas.)
Democratic Committee Vice Chair Erin Stamper was working at the office on Tuesday, but declined to address Dolan’s situation or his replacement. When asked what her position at the Board is, Stamper replied “part-time Election assistant.”
However, Martin separately affirmed that Stamper is replacing Dolan in his capacity of Election Specialist, the third-ranking position for each party under the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner.
It’s unclear whether Stamper will retain her role as the second-ranking CCDC officer given the promotion, which puts her in the dual role of both being the #2 County Democratic party decision-maker, and also processing essential documents related to the outcome of local elections. Kanaga also did not respond to a query about whether such a dual role was proper.
Asked whether Dolan’s disappearance from the Board would leave it in a difficult position with barely six weeks left before Election Day, a tight-lipped Martin said “There is no good time for a transition here.”
