CHENANGO COUNTY – On Monday the Chenango County Board of Supervisors voted to change leadership as it faces several crises in 2021, including the pandemic, a recent cyber attack, a lack of reliable cell phone or internet access for residents and the depletion of emergency ambulance services.

The board voted Guilford Town Supervisor George Seneck as new chairman.

City of Norwich Supervisor Robert Jeffrey nominated Seneck and Greene Town Supervisor Joseph Henninge seconded the move.

Pitcher Town Supervisor Jeffrey Blanchard was also nominated. The former chairman of the board for the last nine years, Oxford Town Supervisor Lawrence Wilcox was not nominated.
“If we don't receive those federal dollars it is going to be a significant challenge to this board to decide how can we move forward,” said Seneck of the pending fiscal challenges.

“Maintaining the fiscal integrity of Chenango County amidst a pandemic is going to be an on going challenge, that I am sure we will be able to meet.”

“I am reaching out to the residents of Chenango County to ask themselves what they can do to build a better 2021 for us.”

“The first priority, and it may be for a while, is dealing with COVID-19,” said Seneck.

“I think the county did a pretty good job, I compliment our Health Director Marcus Flindt, he was on the ball with this in trying to put some plans together and so forth, I really think the county health department has done a tremendous job. I do think as a county we need to do a better job of getting information out to the public. Which is tough.”

“Internet is huge concern, we have people in Chenango County that don't even have internet in areas. A lot of school kids are remote and unless you have internet, how can you work remotely? It places a portion of our population, especially young people are at a severe disadvantage.”

“I ask you, 'What can you do as a member of the county board of supervisors for the resident and businesses of Chenango County?' I would ask you be as informed as possible, that you read your committee minutes before coming to the board sessions. That you continue to ask questions and invest some of your time in understanding where technology is taking us in 2021.”

“We have to ask, 'What has the pandemic taught us? Looking at renovation plans for the county office building, we need to reflect on what the pandemic has done and perhaps reassess our plans for those renovations, to better serve the county,” said Seneck.

“With EMS we have known for a long time the system was in crisis. I think at the county level we need to start saying 'Hey, what can we do about this?'”

“The city and towns providing service are getting stretched very very thin.” he said “ This is something the board needs to move forward with this year,” said Seneck.

“My position on that, I don't see the county itself providing emergency medical and ambulance service, that it becomes a function of county government.”

Seneck said there are other options. “Whether or not we can expand the paid services in Greene and Sherburne and the City of Norwich. Whether or not we are able, which I think maybe to provide some county financial assistance. We have to find out where the dollars come from.”

The appointment of Seneck to head the board was seen by most members as a step forward in dealing with the pending issues. Jeffrey said concerns related to internet coverage, EMS, COVID and the cyber attack had been relayed to board members by many in the community in recent months.
Seneck thanked Wilcox for his years of service after accepting the nomination.

“I really do think Lawrence planned to step down and that's why I moved forward on this,” said Seneck.

The move to change leadership was chiefly decided at a Republican Party meeting prior to Monday's vote.

“I kind of know the way county politics work is that months prior to January you need to start putting things in motion, and seeing whether or not if you have enough supervisors to support you.”

“There was dissatisfaction regarding communication regarding COVID,” said Seneck. “I talked to people and they want more updates on what's going on with COVID. The health department has done an outstanding job, but people look to the supervisors in the town as if we know what's going on,” said Seneck.

“As we move beyond the horizon of 2021, the COVID pandemic will continue to test our reserve, for rural counties such as ours the distribution of vaccine to eligible and willing participants is going to be a challenge,” he said.

Another issue raised was how the county shared information about an October cyber attack. The attack crippled the county's services and infrastructure. It took emails and databases offline. County election officials blamed the cyber attack for complications that caused 55 votes to be forgotten and not counted as they should have been.

“The October attack on the county's computer network disrupted the county's ability to deliver services,” said Seneck.

He said a number of federal agencies were also hacked and realistically there was only so much a rural county could do.

“On our end we have to look at it as a learning curve. I don't want to say too much, I was not in charge at the time. I think at least the people involved needed to be shared more information. I'll talk about the board of supervisors: We really, first of all, we didn't even know it happened,” he said.

Seneck said he found out about the hack indirectly and only drips of information were released about it.

“I made calls, and I continued to call. I was pretty frustrated that over a week had passed and I was getting limited information from the department heads I was going through, and they had limited information.”

“Personally I think the hack was worse than what was initially thought,” said Seneck. He said so far no private information about residents was compromised, saying, “I tend to think a lot of archival information was lost.”

A key part of Seneck's plans involved improving communication and transparency with the public.

Wilcox did not return calls for comment.