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Bethlehem Town Supervisor Theresa Egan

By Ray & Kimberly Feliciano

Q: After one year, how do you like the job of Town Supervisor so far? "I love it. As you may know, this election was my 3rd one in six years. I ran previously, twice, for Town Judge, and won both times. Even my worst day here has been better than some of the days at the law office. It's challenging and exciting." Q: What is the "Comp Plan"? "The Town of Bethlehem has never had a comprehensive master plan in regards to planning where the town is going and how it's going to get there. 10-12 years ago there was an effort made that resulted in what we call the Lomak Report, but it was never officially adopted by the Town Board. We extricated a lot of the information that was still relevant. We started around April 2004 and we've had over 20 public meetings and about 30-40 private meetings with residences and businesses-to talk about what they like, what the don't like, and where they'd like to see things go as we move into the future. Right on the tail of that is an update to our zoning code which is, like a lot of things, 40-50 years old. Once we get the master plan done, we will immediately be modifying the zoning code to reflect the changes and the concepts in the master plan."

Bethlehem Town Supervisor Theresa Egan (D)

Q: Is regulating the speed of growth within a town a typical job function of Town Supervisor?

“Absolutely. I think that’s probably one of our main concerns because it’s tied to so many things that we do. The tax base, not on the amount of the tax base, but it’s also the diversification of it. One of the things that became quite apparent when I started was that our three largest taxpayers in Town are all power-related. I always have flashbacks to what happened in California a few years ago when the power industry took a dive and what it did to the economy there. So, we are looking to diversify, we are looking to attract some different, clean economic development to help defray some of the tax costs and spread it out so it’s not just individual residences bearing that cost.”

Q: What factors go into that balancing act?

“Our budget process is driven by property assessment values, but our two major revenue sources are basically the sales tax from the county as well as mortgage taxes, real estate, recording fees, things like that. Our income streams are basically out of the Town’s control. That balance is about what can we do on our own to help increase the income stream and limit the expense. A lot of the expense is out of our control-payments for the health insurance for our employees, payments for the retirement system. It is difficult to try to balance those things that we have control over versus those that we don’t, and have it come out so that not everybody is bearing this huge tax burden every year.”

Q: Please explain your moratorium on residential development.

“With this particular campaign last Fall, it became very apparent early on that the main issue that everybody wanted to talk about was planning real estate development here in the Town and that it was out of control. So, when thinking about it, it was a fairly easy decision to say that I would be supportive of a moratorium (a halt or stop) on residential development. Not commercial because you have to remember we are trying to attract the economic development to help with tax base. So the moratorium seemed to make sense, to allow the planning process to move forward. It was about March 31st (2004) when we put that into effect.”

Q: How do you get residents to know about town meetings and get them there?

“The town board attendance is not bad, but certainly can be better. Our public meetings we’ve had about the comp plan have been phenomenal. At our last public meeting on November 18th, we had over 200 people attend, which was great. Having talked to Supervisors in Colonie and East Greenbush, who are also going through planning processes, they can’t seem to get more than 25-30 people. We started out being very open and inclusive. Our first public meeting we had was on zoning, and what we did very proactively was look at every project that was in the pipeline here at the planning department, and we sent personal letters to the builders, owners, and developers of those projects, advising them of the public meeting and inviting them. People said, ‘Are you crazy? You are inviting the wolf into the chicken’s nest.’ My thought process has always been up front, open disclosure, get it all on the table, and then flush it out, what ever way it’s going to come out. I think everybody’s opinion needs to be heard. So we’ve taken that approach with every public meeting we’ve had. When we were doing the public meeting on the Riverfront, we actually went down and dropped leaflets in people’s mailboxes. The Spotlight has been wonderful as far as publicizing. The News Herald has publicized...A couple of our town groups have emailed their particular participants list whenever there were meetings out there. It’s on our website. Anytime I have an opportunity to speak to a group I tell them when the next several meetings are happening. We’ve been very encouraged with the participation that we’ve had.”

Q: Would the website be the best method for a regular resident to find out when the next town hall meeting is?

“I think so. Just about all town business is timely posted. We’ve tried to get everything online, including minutes from meetings. I still do have complaints from residents who don’t have accessibility to computer or online services. As we’re finding, each year more and more people are becoming more hi-tech. Three times a year we do a Bethlehem report that goes to every resident in the town, but I am looking at maybe changing that and making it more frequent because obviously not everybody gets the Spotlight or New Herald, and it’s hard when people say they didn’t know because we seem to have exhausted every way that we can get things out there.”

Q: What about a marquee sign at the town hall?

“We just approved that, actually...As soon as we get the design criteria in place we will be ordering that. Hopefully it will be helpful as an information dissemination point.”

Q: What is the process for submitting request for a stop sign or a traffic signal?

“That’s probably one of our more frequent requests. It’s a procedure, like anything else. If anybody is interested in having a stop sign or intersection looked at, I ask them to send me a letter stating where they want it and why they want it. Our highway department will get a copy of it as well as a representative from the police department, the highway safety group. The police will send a detail to observe the intersection to see if there are any problems (running of lights, accidents). At some point it gets brought up and put on a public hearing, it gets noticed publicly, people can come and testify. It’s a full blown official hearing. We close the hearing and the board will either discuss it and make a determination that night or put it over for a determination for some other night.”

Q: You’re the executive branch. Is the Town Board the legislative branch?

“Yeah, as close as you can come to that. I sit on the Town Board, and I have one vote just like everyone else. It’s a 5-board membership. In essence, since I’m here 24/7, a lot of things get filtered through me. Obviously there’s things that I handle here that are not handled by the Town Board, but anything to do with policy, procedure, town-wide stuff certainly goes to the Town Board for consideration. I’m in fairly regular contact with most of them between town board meetings. I really look forward to working with our Town Board. I think it’s a very well-qualified, well-representative group. They’ve been great-very supportive, and their insights have been very helpful.”

Q: How much does party factor into local politics?

“That’s a good question. When I started here, it had been some 125 years since a Democrat was elected as Town Supervisor in this town. We’ve had a couple of Democratic town board members, but for the most part it’s been pretty much a Republican base for many, many years. Politics needs to stop at the town hall door. Unfortunately, it’s the system we have to use to get here, but my thought is that once you get here, that’s kind of got to go by the wayside.”

Q: Your website is up for your next campaign.

“Yeah, I looked at it, and saw that I started to run again the day I was sworn in. I do try to handle things in a way that I think is right and just. I’m running for this job because I really think I can do a good job, and I do think there are some serious issues facing the town that we need to address, and I think I have the experience and qualifications to do that. I don’t need this job. I love it and certainly hope to keep it. Any decision that is being made is not to keep me in this job. Any decision that we make here is really because after looking at it 20 different ways, it’s because we really think it’s the right decision for this town, not because it’s being motivated by any personal, political, or any other motives other than what we think is right.”

Q: How did the Porco murder effect you?

“Certainly having that happen here in town was upsetting. Complicating that, I’ve known Peter F. Porco for over 15 years. I’m very proud of how it’s being handled. Our police department is doing a phenomenal job being very thorough, working with the state police. It is disturbing that in a fairly quiet community we had something so brutal happen...I thought it was important for people to hear that the message here is that while we are a town of 33,000 people, stuff does happen. We need to exercise safety-keep your doors locked, keep outside lights on, and if you see anything suspicious, as a neighbor pick up the phone and call the police.

Q: What is a typical day?

“I can honestly say we really do not have a ‘typical’ day, which has really made the job challenging and fun at the same time. I’m here between 7:30 and 7:45 every morning. Often times, because of the comprehensive planning process, I’m not getting out of here until 10pm. Then there are other days that you are able to get outta here at 4:00. I’ve been in people’s kitchens, garages, auto body shops, barns, places of business. We’ve met anywhere and everywhere that anybody’s wanted to talk because I think it’s very important that people feel that they’ve had some input into this process.”

Q: What is your proudest accomplishment as Town Supervisor?

“It’s getting everyone enthused again about town government. One of the common themes we are starting to hear is that the residents are very appreciative and complimentary about the fact that they are being listened to. Town government is very much different from state and national government. Getting people enthused about living here and to feel they have a stake, and are free to come in and be involved, I think that’s our greatest accomplishment so far.”

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