Thomas appointed to Village Board

MILLERTON — Jack Thomas is returning to the seat he once occupied as village trustee, after Millerton Mayor John Scutieri nominated him to fill the seat left vacant after board member Jay Reynolds moved from the area. Village Board members Yosh Schulman, Debbie Middlebrook and Marty Markonic unanimously agreed to the motion.Initially the Village Board had agreed it was going to leave the seat open until the March elections, but Scutieri said he changed his mind because the board is dealing with an audit by the state comptroller’s office, which focused on the village clerk and the deputy clerk, and he wanted Thomas’ personnel experience.“I figured Jack’s experience working with personnel policies is the exact thing we’re working on and for three months he would be of value to the board,” the mayor said. “And then that spot will have to be up for election in March.”Village elections take place on the third Tuesday in March, this year on March 19.Thomas has a background in human resources and personnel. He worked his way up while employed at Mid-Hudson Medical Group, one of the largest employers in Dutchess County, from an X-ray technician to becoming the administrative director of imaging services. Mid-Hudson Medical Group had more than 1,000 employees while Thomas worked there; he also graduated from Command Sergeant School while in the Marine Corps. He previously served on the Village Board from 2005 until 2008.The audit, Scutieri said, is basically complete.“We’ve put everything in place that the state comptroller’s office asked us to do. The only thing left is determining the hours, because the hours the clerks were using were based on full-time status and in the personnel policy we never had full-time hours,” he said. “According to the comptroller they should have been receiving part-time hours. But we’re sticking with our original claim that we hired them based on full-time hours and they deserve full-time benefits. What we didn’t know was that we needed to change the personnel policy when we did it. You can’t just move on an individual, so the motions we made and individuals we hired correctly, we just didn’t change the policy. So when the auditors came in it appeared to be a misuse of time.”The mayor stressed that all along the board knew how much time the clerks were being paid for and said the village budgeted for those salaries. But, he said, to help sort through things it will help to have Thomas’ past experience be part of the conversation with the comptroller’s office. That’s why, even though there were two other individuals who had expressed interest in the position, Rob Cooper and Christine Bates, Scutieri chose Thomas.“Jack will be stepping into our next meeting,” he said, adding the Millerton resident has also been attending Village Board meetings, and is up-to-date on the issue at hand. “And that experience and his previous employment policies help, so he’s quite familiar with this whole process. He’s a valuable, logical choice.”And Thomas said he’s looking forward to helping in any way he can.“I guess I hope to add a little bit of different circumspect and vision to the needs and the wants of the village while on the board,” he said. “I would like to see the business of the audit that was given to us come to a conclusion as the public has asked for at past meetings and I think that will happen very soon.”Other goals Thomas has while on the board stretch beyond the audit.“I would like to see surpluses in our budget, our sidewalks completely repaired, our water system the envy of the Hudson Valley. There are many things I would like to be done, but the reality is how do we do it in a balance?” he said. “And I’m sure I reflect the wishes, no matter how unrealistic, of all the board members.”