Cunningham has majority for Briggs’ dismissal

By CHARLIE BUTERBAUGH

MONTICELLO, NY — The votes have yet to be cast, but Legislature Chairman Chris Cunningham said a majority of lawmakers think Sullivan County Manager Dan Briggs should be replaced.

“It’s clear now that a majority of the board is willing to make that decision,” Cunningham said following a Friday afternoon meeting with Briggs and Legislator Ron Hiatt. “I told him a resolution regarding his employment would be submitted for consideration this Thursday,” August 18. Cunningham, the Democratic majority leader, said conversations with the four other legislators in his party convinced him to sponsor the resolution.

Cunningham said he expressed his opinions on Briggs’ performance to legislators during two executive sessions early this month, adding, “That’s where they should have stayed.”

But the information was leaked to a reporter after the first private discussion.

Minutes after his meeting with Cunningham, Briggs said he still wasn’t sure why he has come under fire. “I have no idea. That has not been communicated. I have ideas, but who knows,” he said.

Briggs, a Republican, said that prior to reading about the initiative to replace him, critics had not communicated their dissatisfaction with his work as the county’s chief executive officer.

“I’ve unfortunately picked up the information I have from the papers,” he said.

“That’s not true,” Cunningham said on Tuesday. “I’ve kept a continuous dialogue with Mr. Briggs on a host of issues.” He said legislators were holding and planning conversations on several management issues, and that Briggs’ comments in the news story incorrectly portrayed the situation as politically motivated.

“The county manager portrayed it in a way that was not true. He brought it to a new level alleging political motivations that were just not there,” Cunningham said, adding that he would present a full explanation of the termination on Thursday.

Until then it won’t be known if the move is based on Department of Public Works (DPW) employees’ misuse of resources or a 2004 audit that reported “significant deficiencies” in the county’s internal accounting.

“We are exercising our rights under charter to terminate the county manager’s employment,” Cunningham said. He would not say whether additional top-level managers of county departments would lose their jobs in the wake of the investigation into DPW.

“I don’t want to speculate on that now,” Cunningham said.

Questioned about his supervision of DPW management, Briggs said, “I don’t believe I’ve made mistakes. If they [legislators] had felt so, it should have been communicated.” He said he wonders why the dismissal is coming after he recommended a new commissioner for DPW.

Cunningham said legislators would continue moving forward with the corrective action plan that Briggs presented last week in response to the 2004 audit. “The government will continue to function as it has with change throughout its history,” he said, adding that legislators would commence a comprehensive job search to fill the vacancy.

Prior to his appointment as manager, which provides a $101,411 annual salary, Briggs was the county treasurer for 17 years. Before that he was a councilman in the Town of Thompson and an acting village justice for Monticello.

He said of his contribution to county management, “I think it’s been a stabilizing force.” He said he helped the county place more emphasis on emergency management following the September 11, 2001 attacks and helped Sullivan through three states of emergency (floods) over the past year as well as a fire at the government center.