New county manager sees role for casino

Budget is top priority

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — David Fanslau, who will become the new Sullivan County manager in September, said that he thinks casinos will have a role in the future of Sullivan County if they are “planned right,” and if care is taken to mitigate negative consequences, such as increased traffic.

Fanslau spoke to reporters after legislators voted to hire him at a special meeting at the government center on Thursday, August 3.

Fanslau, who is joining the county at a time when lawmakers are looking at a very tight budget with possible tax increases, said among the top priorities he will have when he signs on in September will be “maximizing budgetary efficiency” and pursuing economic development, specifically development that is “desirable.”

Fanslau said that the county is in the early stages of building a new county jail, and he said he would be paying particular attention to make sure it doesn’t go over budget.

The man who will become the top non-elected official in the county said Sullivan County is very similar to the township of Winslow, in Camden County in southwestern New Jersey, where he is currently employed as administrator. That township has areas that are suburban and areas that are rural, and open space issues are important to many people.

The search for a new county manager started almost a year ago, after former county manager Danny Briggs was fired on a five-to-four party line vote.

At the time, legislator Ron Hiatt said Briggs had ignored legislative decisions by not including money in his budget for the legislature’s approved human rights commission and consumer protection program. Hiatt also criticized Briggs’ handling of the auditing staff after significant accounting mistakes were made in 2004 and 2005.

Briggs also took heat for the escalating problems with landfill odors in the fall of 2004, and a scandal in the Department of Public Works (DPW), which has so far led to two felony guilty pleas from former DPW staffers.

At the meeting where legislators approved Fanslau’s hiring, legislative chair Chris Cunningham said that the search was a “long process and difficult at times,” but that he was pleased with the end result.

The other eight legislators were also presumably pleased, as the vote to hire Fanslau at $120,000 per year was unanimous.