If at first you don’t succeed, in wasting hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars, intimidating employees to join your kabal, experience multiple sudden resignations by elected officials and numerous false narratives being directed toward colleagues in Town Hall, try, try again.
The 2025 local elections across Counties and municipalities in New York were very disappointing for Republican backed candidates. The same was true for Saratoga County as Democrat backed candidates boasted successes in many areas, including Clifton Park. Democrat backed candidates won two town board races by a close margin and the makeup of the town board is now three Democrat backed candidates to two Republicans. This dynamic hasn’t occurred for a while. Democrats have had board majorities and held the Supervisor position in the past.
Following the election, the Democrat majority has expressed a lot of pride in the election results and has set about creating a “transition team” with their slim majority, who will be in place January 2026. The transition team has released two press releases offering to town hall employees the opportunity to reapply for their jobs. The second release listed the transition team members. Obviously, this has created a great deal of consternation with employees who do not have permanent protection through the civil service system. These seasoned employees are apolitical professionals who possess licenses, certifications, experience and academic degrees pertaining to their given career. Wholesale changes of employees in these very important jobs would place the town in a precarious position from an operations and service standpoint and completely disrupt town operations. Disrupting operations in this fashion, is likely part of the plan as I continue as Town Supervisor, responsible for day-to-day operations.
The effort to intimidate town employees became clear when the Highway Superintendent, one of the leaders of the transition team (although you won’t see his name listed anywhere), emailed the personnel office in town hall immediately after the election requesting a list of employees who were members of the union and those who had civil service status protection. Most employees have civil service protection. Typically, its the department leadership positions as I described above, who may not be protected through civil service nor are they eligible to join the union. At a Town Board Meeting in December, the Town Board voted affirmatively on a Memorandum of Agreement with CSEA to add several positions to the list of job titles eligible to join the union. Therefore, people who previously were not eligible to join the union and lacked civil service protection can now join the union.
The current Revenge Tour led by the Highway Superintendent and former Town Board Member Amy Standaert (listed as a member of the transition team), will continue in 2026. They are following the same game plan as in the past in what The Daily Gazette labelled ‘The Coup’. During The Coup, they attacked colleagues and town employees with false narratives and attempted to recruit employees to their effort to “take over” town government. The result was a disruption of town hall, hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money wasted and ultimately the sudden resignation of Ms. Standaert and another town board member. A few years have passed since that dark time for the town and now the clouds are rolling in again.
Now you may ask yourself- Why would revenge come into play? They took their shot and failed due to their own hateful actions, horrible strategy and incompetence. Why would they need revenge. It’s very simple. The past outcome is their need for revenge, as sad as that is.
When The Coup went bad, the Highway Superintendent claimed no knowledge or involvement and of course you didn’t find any evidence of that publicly. It was the town board members involved who had to carry the water for the The Coup as the public facing individuals voting at public meetings and making their vacuous statements that were only intended to attack colleagues and town employees, not move the town forward in a positive direction. Now there are a couple of new town board members. Under the unserious guise of “transparency”, they will make some insignificant changes around the edges. And based on the rumors that have been circulating the changes will be fine with me although the changes do not make any meaningful difference other than inconveniencing the operations of some of our volunteer led boards and costing money. But, what’s a little inconvenience and money when you’re trying to act like your making major alterations.
I assume many changes will occur in 2026. Hold on to your wallets and I am hopeful more people in our community will watch the proceedings more closely. All meetings of the town board and volunteer led boards are publicized, public attendance is encouraged, and the minutes are also available online. For many years, you have been able to watch the town board meetings online from the comfort of your home as well as view past meetings.
Following the fallout of The Coup as it ended with a thud, a synopsis of the ordeal and overview of the results of the muti-month workplace investigation has been available online. The document provides a summation of the events leading up to, during and following The Coup. Press accounts are also available online. The workplace investigation performed by a law firm selected by members of The Coup, backfired badly for them.
Now we are on to 2026. Much more information will be forthcoming as the ghosts of Coups past will revisit town hall. The Town of Clifton Park is in an incredible position. Almost the lowest taxed town in the state, a strong economy resulting from a years long redevelopment of empty buildings, first class services for people of all ages, unparalleled recreation resources and the list goes on.
The Town Board has approved a number of very important projects for 2026 and we are eager to bringing the projects to fruition. I will keep everyone updated on efforts to dismantle the foundations of our town in 2026 and beyond. While remaining hopeful, the slim margins of victory in the elections in 2025 can be reversed in 2026. I am also hopeful the braggadocios, heavy handed actions by the transition team will not disrupt town hall operations and services to residents of our town. But, based on history, the players involved and actions since the recent elections stay tuned for Coup 2- The Revenge Tour.
Clifton Park and Beyond 