Highland chief changes

Council member removed from committees

By SANDY LONG

HIGHLAND, NY — Constable Robert Maas’s resignation was formally accepted at the October 12 meeting of the Highland town board, and Constable Michael Walton was approved as Highland’s new chief of patrol.

The change in personnel began at the town meeting on September 14, when Maas presented a letter of resignation from his position as chief of patrol and it was read into the minutes. In the letter, Maas cited a hostile work environment as the reason for his decision to leave the post.

Councilman Donald Rupp, who at that time was in charge of town-related personnel matters, said that he was both saddened and hurt by Maas’s decision. Rupp expressed his frustration with an ongoing history of related complaints, and continued speaking as supervisor Stephen Barnes rapped his gavel, urging Rupp to reserve his comments for discussion during the board’s executive session.

“We’ve addressed this at the past four executive committee meetings,” said Rupp, who accused Barnes of failing to resolve the issue and of “protecting” the constable accused of causing the hostile work environment. “I land this on the shoulders of the chairman for not getting this job done,” said Rupp.

At the town’s October meeting, Rupp announced that since the September meeting, he has been removed from two committees on which he served, and added that he has been asked to resign his position as councilman as a result of the comments he made at the September town meeting.

Rupp intends to fulfill his four-year term as councilman, which began in January 2006, and said, “Nothing will remove me from the council.”