Ken Runion: Supervisor?

As Guilderland Town Supervisor, perhaps the most important role for Ken Runion is to supervise town employees.

How's he doing at supervising?

The strongest evidence comes from the problems with the town's police chief. This is perhaps the most

important employee, heading up the town's most important department.

The chief retired back in 2007, but the details have been slow to trickle out. It turns out that he had taken over fifty

trips to a casino while he was supposed to be working. In 2009 the chief pled guilty to a misdemeanor.

An April 2009 article in the Times Union sheds more light.

The latest details are even more disturbing. While the chief was AWOL, his 2nd in command knew he was gone

and actually had a code name to reach him at the casino in case of emergencies. Worse, he promoted her and

her husband while this was going on, and her husband was giving or loaning money to the chief.

Runion had been hiding this information for at least two years. See this Times Union article, showing that he

refused to provide information back in March of 2007.

The misconduct, from casino trips to improper transactions, occurred from 2001 through 2006, all during Runion's watch.

So did he fail to notice, or did he look the other way? What other explanation is there?

But it doesn't stop with the police chief. Runion's right-hand man, Donald Csaposs, was caught posting politicial blog

comments on the Times Union during work hours. Three of the comments were on this Times Union blog post.

A further article in the Times Union discusses this briefly, with Runion admitted that he signed Csaposs' time cards.

So, was Ken Runion unaware that Csaposs was doing all this during work hours? Or did he know about it?

The Csaposs time sheet incident was whitewashed in an "investigation" conducted by Town Attorney

Richard Sherwood. But Sherwood is the subject of yet another problem with Runion's supervision.

Sherwood negotiated a deal with Walgreens to reduce their tax assessment down to $2.7 million. This is on a

property that has a $4.58 million mortgage. Following the loose commercial financing of the time, this implies

an actual value of $6 million.

It turned out that Sherwood is connected with the property owner. Sherwood works with the law firm Segel Goldman and Mazzotta.

Ken Segel, of that firm, also heads the company that owns the Walgreens property. In essence, Sherwood gave a 50% tax

break to his boss. Read more about it in this Times Union article from October 2008.

Here Ken Runion failed to adequately supervise the man he appointed as town attorney.

It's time Guilderland had a Supervisor who actually supervises.