SamPratt.com

Columbia County Board of Elections officials are authorizing back payments to several Hudson Democratic election custodians who were improperly paid less than their Republican counterparts in recent election cycles.

Members of the Hudson City Democratic Committee allege that former Board of Elections Deputy Commissioner (and current 1st Ward Alderman) Geeta Cheddie unilaterally lowered payments due to fellow Democrats in retribution for their challenges to former HCDC chair Linda Mussmann, with whom Cheddie has been closely allied. Cheddie, who narrowly defeated incumbent Democratic Alderman Carole Osterink in a bitter 2009 primary, has disputed the allegation.

The current City Democratic leadership also charges that Republican officials submitted vouchers for payments either without bipartisan approvals required as a matter of Board of Elections policy, or may have altered payment paperwork after the fact without notifying their Democratic colleagues.

After Democratic Commissioner Virginia Martin sought to work out a resolution of the matter with GOP Commissioner Jason Nastke, custodians Michael O’Hara (a former Mayoral candidate, who defeated Mussmann in the 2007 Democratic primary), Victor Mendolia (the current HCDC chair, who replaced Mussmann) and Donald Moore (the current Common Council President) are expected to recoup back payments ranging from $150 to $300 each for services rendered during six Hudson election contests in 2008 and 2009. Neither Martin nor Nastke was in office at the time the disputed practice began.

Election custodians are selected by party leaders in consultation with the BOE to ensure that voting machines are set up and operate properly on each Election Day; they are also supposed to be on call to respond to any polling site emergencies which may arise, and assist with the recanvassing of machines to verify reported outcomes. At times in the past, a few around the County have treated these positions as virtual “no show” jobs intended to reward party loyalty, though typically such roles involve extensive training and responsibilities.

In a message widely-circulated among City and County Democrats late this week, Mendolia writes that Hudson City Democratic Committee members have

“assembled documentations of a repeated pattern of underpayments to the Democratic Hudson Custodians who attend to the election machines on election days and the re-canvass. This past week the County BOE Commissioners (both Republican and Democrat) agreed that we had indeed been underpaid and they have now submitted payment vouchers to make whole those who were underpaid. [...] The commissioners are in the process of implementing new policies to be certain that this type of tampering and vindictiveness, never happens again.”

To support their case, City Democrats are citing Board of Elections fee schedules showing that equal payments have been slated consistently for both the GOP and the Democratic custodians in Hudson. (The pay rate is higher in Hudson than other towns, since City custodians have seven election districts to monitor.)

Board records appear to show that in prior 2007 cycles and also the February 2008 Presidential primary, longtime GOP custodian Brian McDonald had been paid the same amount as his Democratic counterpart, Michael Chameides. Chameides has been an employee of Time and Space Ltd., the arts organization co-directed by Mussmann, and was also employed by her unsuccessful 2003 campaign for Mayor.

But the HCDC found that once O’Hara and Mendolia replaced Chameides as custodians in 2008, payments authorized by Cheddie to the Democrats were cut in half to $150, while the Republican custodian was paid the usual $300 by another, unspecified method. (Note: Neither party has suggested that the payments to McDonald were anything but deserved.)

Not disputing that the payments were different, Cheddie has instead suggested that the Democratic custodians earned and deserved less pay (see below). In 2009 after Cheddie had lost her BOE post, the half-payments nevertheless continued, as new BOE staff were unaware that a discrepancy in custodial payments had quietly become standard practice, according to the current Hudson Dems leadership.

The Hudson Democrats further contend that the GOP made alterations to paperwork that had been presented to Martin after she had already signed them (and in one case may have made payments to a Republican party rep who did not appear for duty). A November 2009 voucher shows a payment co-signed by Martin and then-GOP Commissioner Donald Kline, with printed $150 amounts crossed out and changed in handwritten notes to $300. Democrats allege that these changes were made after Martin’s signature was obtained.

Prior to the Spring of 2009, it was possible (if not proper) for such payments to be requested by a single BOE official. Martin then convinced Kline to institute a long-overdue BOE policy consistent with New York State Election Law requiring that such payments be made solely with bipartisan approval. The County payroll, accounts payable, and other committees were alerted that vouchers should not be processed unless they bore both Democratic and Republican signatures. Yet an October 2009 voucher for a payment to former Deputy Commissioner Michael Nabozny shows a pre-printed amount of $50 has been changed by hand to $150; and that voucher bears a signature by Kline but none from Martin. Instead, the second signature looks to be that of then-Board of Supervisors Chairman Art Baer. Further alterations seem to have been made to the document, such as a whited-out portion of the duties listed for Nabozny,

Mendolia’s message also includes copies of a lengthy exchange of emails with Cheddie, in which the former Deputy makes a very different case.

Again while acknowledging that the Republican and Democratic fees were not the same, Cheddie contends that the “standard rate” for custodians was $150, not the $300 indicated in the BOE’s rate sheet—and that McDonald was owed more because he “performed work above his role as custodian which explains the difference in pay rate.” Without citing any specific authority from either of the Democratic Commissioners she served (Ken Dow and David Cohen), she complains that the issue was raised with reporters rather than handled privately, and lambastes Mendolia’s position:

“I take issue with this. You were not paid differently out of spite but rather because your duties were different. [...] I do not believe that back pay was warranted or deserved and to accept it is fraudulent.”

Mendolia counters that “any additional work that Brian does that is not related to the official duties of a political party custodian, he is paid for as the county employee he is. He is paid $300 for his duties as Republican custodian. By statute, there must be parity between the parties. You had no right to change the rate paid to the Democratic custodian which had been paid previously and is printed on official BOE documents.”

The Mendolia-Cheddie exchanges further indicate that members of the local press have been alerted to the situation; articles are said to be in the works at both the Columbia Paper and Register-Star.