Mt. Pleasant Voters to Decide if Highway Super Becomes Appointed Post
By Sean Browne
Mount Pleasant Town Board unanimously approved placing a referendum on the ballot later this year asking voters to make the highway superintendent’s position an appointed post rather than an elected one.
The referendum, which will require the town code to be amended, will be on November’s general election ballot. If approved, the change would be effective Jan. 1, 2020.
Town officials were prompted to schedule the referendum following the recent retirement of longtime highway superintendent Peter Sciliano. The position is now being filled on an interim basis by Richard Benkwitt, who the board appointed last year.
Board members said they saw this as an opportunity to follow a local trend by taking a position that requires a specific set of skills and expertise but can currently attract nearly any town resident if he or she can get on the ballot and making that position an appointed post.
“The only qualification of the elected highway superintendent is that the person (lives within) the town, nothing else,” said Councilman Nicholas J. DiPaolo. “With someone who is appointed, we can set parameters and qualifications and therefore increase accountability.”
He explained that as an appointed position the board would be able to do their due diligence in who they select for such an important post.
There are four or five neighboring communities that have already made the same decision and those communities are pleased with the results, DiPaolo mentioned.
“This is something that is going on throughout the county, where the elimination of the superintendent of highways (as an elected post) is becoming quite common,” added Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi.
Mount Pleasant resident Laura Centi said she was concerned about the process surrounding how this issue was raised. She said her key concern was moving ahead with the referendum in an election year rather than an off year. Town elections are held in years ending with an odd number.
“What bothers me is that whoever runs in November and this referendum passes that person is basically null and void,” Centi said. “I am concerned why this wasn’t done last year because it seems unfair that someone runs for an elected position and then the board overrides that come January 2020.”
Fulgenzi responded that due to Sciliano’s retirement, the board was forced to act now and could not wait for a year when there was no town election.
DiPaolo said he understood Centi’s concerns but if anyone was troubled by the referendum for any reason, then that person has the right to vote no in November, he said.
The highway superintendent’s job may not be the last position to go through this change. According to Fulgenzi, other officeholders in Mount Pleasant may be under consideration to be changed from an elected to appointed office.
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