AFTON – Twenty-five year veteran Supervisor Robert Briggs of Afton thought twice about running for office again in ‘09, but the 80-year-old Republican said he had a couple of years left in him.
He may wish he hadn’t.
About half of a standing room only crowd attending a public hearing Thursday night in the village’s municipal offices and community room asked for Briggs’ resignation on conflict of interest grounds. Several accused him of conducting illegal meetings and appointing biased committees. One individual said he was “immoral.”
The other half of the room shamed Briggs’ attackers, calling them “out-of-towners” and “extremists” with an agenda that had nothing to do with Afton’s government nor constituency.
There hasn’t been a larger turnout for a Chenango County-level public hearing in nearly a decade, so it was most certainly a record for this sparsely populated town of 2,851. And it was another sure sign that New York’s three-year debate over hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale has hit home.
As has been the case at other meetings throughout the county concerning the environmental consequences, financial opportunities and municipal regulating authority surrounding the issue of natural gas development, security officials were on the premises.
Eleven people spoke from the podium during the 30-minute hearing of Local Law # 1 of 2011, a proposal that would effectively throw out town road use legislation that was passed in late December. The first road use ordinance, Local Law #3 of 2010, would have prohibited natural gas-related trucking from within 1,000 feet of schools, residential neighborhoods consisting of five or more houses, hospitals and health care centers. The board narrowly adopted that measure by a vote of 3 to 2.
However, last night the town board unanimously (with one absent) agreed to adopt the new legislation. Even the former law’s foremost supporter, councilwoman Mary Jo Long, a local attorney and a former Green Party candidate for New York attorney general, voted to amend it.
“We know that we need to do it right. ... I want to do it the right way, and I will make some recommendations,” Long said. Long and Town Attorney James Downey drafted the first law.
However, before agreeing to vote, Long made a motion to table the vote until an additional meeting of an ad hoc committee appointed by Briggs could convene again and “get it right.” She said she worried about a “legal challenge” to the town regarding the way a March 29 special meeting of the town board was publicized. Long was away on vacation when the board met to recommend Local Law #1, but said she was informed of it.
Long said she recognized “procedural errors” in the first road law. While she wasn’t more specific, her husband, Mike Bernhard, who is president of a grassroots organization that claims gas drilling is hazardous to your health, said the first law lacked an environmental statement.
According to a planner representing the Central New York Landowners Coalition, the first law lacked variance procedures for trucking related to fuel, septic, garbage, propane or other industries.
“You are handicapping yourself because it applies to other industries,” said Tom Shepston, of Shepstone Management Company of Homedale.
For his part, Briggs defended his authority as elected supervisor to create ad hoc committees to study certain issues and make recommendations. He said the special meeting of the board was publicized on the radio within four days of the gathering as called for by New York open meeting requirements. In a shaking voice, he said conflict of interest attacks “don’t hold much water.”
“I’ve consulted with the Chenango County ethics committee and they don’t think I have a conflict of interest. I sold my land.” Briggs sold his family’s farm to Norse Energy in 2008 and will not earn royalties.
Briggs said the town board put a road use agreement in place with Norse Energy in 2009. The agreement would have placed a minimum of $30,000 in an interest-bearing account to repair road damage that may result from trucking natural gas vehicles on town roads.
“The gist of the problem was that people didn’t think it was enough. It was my assumption that it would be $30,000 or $150,000. But they wanted a regulation,” he said.
April Legget of Afton said that the agreement the town had with Norse was “so full of loopholes that you could drive a frack truck through it.”
“There’s a difference between a law and an agreement. Bonding gives us no protections, an agreement gives us no protection. The supervisor has a conflict of interest and gives the appearance of such ... and he has held up this law for over a year.”
Kathy Colley of Afton called those proposing road use regulations “non-residents, out of towners.”
“You have the audacity to question the integrity of Mr. Briggs who has dedicated 25 years of his life to Afton. How dare you discredit his character? This is a pattern of anti-gas extremists. I ask for an apology.”
Susan Dorsey, a member of the Central New York Gas Coalition, said she represented 3,000 acres of land in Afton through the coalition. She recommended that the town wait for Chenango County to complete its road use law.
Kim Michels, a resident of nearby Coventry, accused Briggs of using “trickery” and holding “illegal” board meetings “without sufficient notice.”
“We need to regulate the gas industry before our water is ruined and... before our kids are getting nosebleeds and asthma and it’s too late,” she said.
Chris Barbish of Afton said he would prefer to “slow down gas companies.”
“We can’t trust them. I want an opportunity to question what they are doing here.”
Town Councilman John Lawrence, after the vote, said repealing the law “does not mean we will not entertain the idea of a road use law or an agreement” in the future.
“Every one of us on the board has the best interest in their hearts for the town. We have all worked very hard to be objective,” he said.