Legislator Responds To Accusations Of Racism And Sexism

[TTL News 313]

After recent statements made by Chemung County Executive Christopher Moss, 14th District legislator Mike Smith has publicly responded to Moss's accusations of alleged racist and sexist remarks. 

In a letter to Chemung County Legislative Chair Dave Manchester, Moss wrote the following:

Manchester responded:

To which Moss replied:

ElmiraTelegram recently reached out to Mr. Smith, who provided us with the following letter he'd recently released to the public:

Quote

 

The Politics of Personal Destruction 

During my tenure as county legislator, it has been my policy to ignore negative attacks and stay focused on representing the 14th district. However, I will no longer allow the relentless false and public attacks on my character, as well as false narratives about the legislature, by Chemung County Executive Chris Moss to go unchallenged. The time has come to lay out the facts, all of which are a matter of public record. They show a pattern by Chris Moss of smearing perceived political enemies, using allegations of racism as retaliation, and endless litigation.

It has been my privilege to work on a bipartisan basis with many dedicated public servants on the legislature. Unfortunately, our relationship with the county executive has been needlessly strained from the beginning. One of Chris Moss’ first actions was an attempt to dictate who the legislature’s attorney would be. When we appropriately hired our own attorney, the executive fired him (Ref: Star Gazette 2/28/19). The legislature was forced to seek a judge’s ruling in order to resolve this issue. In 2019 the executive filed two lawsuits against the legislature over this issue. The cost to taxpayers for the months of 2019 litigation was nearly $100,000. His third lawsuit is currently pending, and the legal costs are climbing. Additionally, in 2021 the legislature was forced to seek a judge’s ruling again in order to enforce its rights under the charter, after the executive blocked the legislature’s access to information
from county department heads. 

The attorney challenge was the first of several attempts by Mr. Moss to circumvent the democratic process, resulting in a frivolous waste of time and resources. It is unprecedented for the county executive to marginalize the legislature, or question the motives of the 15 women and men who were duly elected to represent you. Furthermore, in the decades since the county adopted the County Executive form of government, I am unaware of any executive suing the legislature once, let alone three times. Mr. Moss has shown a flagrant disregard for the checks and balances inherent in a democracy. To date, the legislature has prevailed in all these legal actions.

Early on in my tenure, Mr. Moss was present at a legislative committee meeting when I raised some questions about a matter brought to my attention by a constituent. I asked him if he was driving a vehicle from the Sheriff’s office and if so, by what authority the county executive is permitted to acquire a vehicle from the Sheriff’s fleet. These were valid questions, and voters have every right to expect truthful answers from their elected officials. His response, in the presence of the legislature, was to accuse me of racism. To this day, those questions have remained unanswered. This was not the only time he would use this tactic.

The personnel committee agenda on 2/22/21 included a proposal to hire a part time investigator for the county attorney’s office (Ref: county website-archives). I expressed my reservations about this further expansion of the legal department and made a motion to table it pending further review. Again Mr. Moss retaliated using race, this time adding gender discrimination. It is no coincidence that in a letter to Chairman David Manchester dated that very day (2/22/21), Executive Moss stated that I had “a past history of comments involving women and persons of color” (ref: county website- Podcasts). In an obvious attempt to deflect from the retaliatory nature of the allegation, he alleged that he had previously brought these concerns to the chairman in 2019. However, Mr. Manchester had no memory or record of that alleged conversation, and requested that the executive provide documentation. In his response, dated 3/4/21, Mr. Moss provided no documentation of the alleged 2019 meeting – ramped up the disgusting, false allegations – and stated that he was “personally familiar with Mr. Smith from his previous role as EMO director,” and “previously spoke with the former County Executive about Mr. Smith’s behavior.”(Ref: county website-Podcasts)

Research into Mr. Moss’ claims revealed that Chris Moss never brought any concerns about me regarding racial or gender bias to the former county executive. Furthermore, during my 23 year tenure as EMO director, having supervised many women, there were no investigations or lawsuits. It also revealed that there was an investigation by the county into Mr. Moss’ behavior (Ref: Democrat and Chronicle 6/8/14). During his tenure as Sheriff, following a presentation he made at the Sheriff’s Annual Award Banquet, “the union representing Chemung County Jail Correction Officers” filed a complaint of “workplace harassment,” on behalf of two women and a person of color. The latter was a man “who challenged Moss in the 2013 election.” Attendees of that event have confirmed that the presentation included a clip from the highly controversial movie “Blazing Saddles.” Bryan Maggs, the county attorney at the time, conducted the investigation into this incident. Perhaps this is why the executive spent your tax dollars to file a lawsuit in an attempt to prevent Attorney Maggs from serving as the legislature’s attorney. Public officials are generally protected from personal liability if they are named in a lawsuit while in office. That means that taxpayers foot the bill.

Also while Sheriff, Mr. Moss made accusations against then Deputy County Executive Mike Krusen, who was to be his opponent for county executive. This resulted in Mr. Krusen filing a defamation lawsuit against Sheriff Moss (Ref: Star Gazette 4/4/18). The Star Gazette covered the developments in this case as they unfolded. A judge later ruled that, in making these accusations, Mr. Moss was not acting in his official capacity as sheriff (Ref: Star Gazette 7/19/19). This means he was not protected from personal liability, and taxpayers should not be footing the bill. Recently, it was
discovered that Executive Moss dipped into county coffers and spent $20,000 of taxpayer funds to settle this lawsuit that was based on his personal, politically motivated defamation. He was able to get away
with this because it did not come before the legislature for approval.

To date, County Executive Moss has been named in two gender discrimination lawsuits. These stories were covered by local news outlets WENY (4/13/21) and WETM (1/7/22). It remains to be seen how much more the executive’s management style and slanderous attacks, as well as his appetite for retaliation and litigation will cost county taxpayers.

Executive Moss would invoke race yet again during the 2021 budget season, when on a local news outlet he, in effect, accused the legislature of racism –and now ageism- after he and the deputy executive were denied the substantial raises proposed in his budget (Ref: WETM 12/14/21). When the executive took office he touted salary reductions which would save the county over $91,000. The salaries of the executive and deputy executive were cut by 15%, and a few other salaried positions by 10% (Ref: Star Gazette 1/7/19). In the 2022 budget he was looking to restore some of those cuts. The legislature agreed to increases for the career employees who had no choice but to accept the 2019 reductions. Mr. Moss is an elected official, and his salary reduction at the time was voluntary. Given this administration’s repeated use of taxpayer funds for frivolous litigation, it was appropriate that the legislature denied any large increases in the executive and deputy executive’s salaries and held them to the same 4% COLA increase as all other salaried employees.

Legislators are elected by the voters in their respective districts, and are accountable to them for the dollars that are spent and the policy decisions that are made. We take that fiduciary role very seriously. It is our responsibility to carefully review the budget and make requisite changes in the best interests of county taxpayers. After legislative revisions Mr. Moss vetoed the budget, and the legislature voted to override the veto. Mr. Moss subsequently filed that third lawsuit, along with an injunction – which was denied by the court – in an effort to prevent the implementation of the revised budget. When the legislature passed the required local law that would allow payment of the 4% COLA increase to our hard-working salaried employees, the executive vetoed that. The legislature voted to override this veto as well.

Following the budget votes, with election season on the horizon, the county executive unveiled his shameful, self-serving podcasts “Behind the Politics with County Executive Chris Moss.” He resurrected his 2/22/21 and 3/4/21 correspondence and used these unsubstantiated claims as “supporting documents” for his slanderous attacks. On the very day that voters received my first primary mailer, both Executive Moss and Legislator Joe Brennan peddled these lies on social media. Using accusations of racial and gender bias is a familiar tactic used by politicians who are otherwise unable to defend their own positions, or who are attempting to gain power by marginalizing those who question. Sadly, the politics of personal destruction is common in Albany and Washington. Shame on Chris Moss and Joe Brennan for bringing that brand of “politics” into our community. A person’s record while in public office is fair game, but these tactics should have no place in our local elections, and voters should soundly reject them whenever they are employed.

It’s sad that Chris Moss views the role of the county executive and legislature through the lens of “politics” rather than public service. It’s a county embarrassment that people researching our area see this behavior by the county executive on our county website, including the use of the “n” word spelled out in its entirety. And it’s a misappropriation of county resources for the county executive to use the official county website to promote his personal political agenda.

Mr. Moss’ 2/22/21 letter to Chairman Manchester sheds light on the motivation behind his irrational interest in the work of the “Legislature Redistricting and Efficiency of County Government Operations Advisory Committee.” It is clear that he believed his own position would be threatened by the work of the committee when he stated, “the only two positions your committee is looking at replacing elected officials with legislative appointments are currently occupied by an African American and a female.” He has been obstructing the work of this committee and attacking its members ever since.

When I ran for office four years ago, I stated that I don’t have all the answers, but I have many questions. That is still true today. I will continue exercising due diligence in understanding critical issues that come before us for a vote. I’ve learned from experience that when you come under repeated attack, you are asking the right questions. In spite of the personal attacks, I will continue to ask those questions and make those phone calls in order to best represent the interests of Chemung County and my constituents in the Town of Southport. Our county executive needs to stop playing political games and focus on the critical issues facing Chemung County. In the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”

Michael S. Smith, Chemung County 14 th District Legislator

 

 

[Hal 343]

Not a big surprise that there are DC Politics going on in our Local Government! Washington ,it seems , has set the example of politics over Representation with their antics . But as stated before by another member here ;

“They Need an Adult in the Room”!

[Chris 2,213]

Smith raises a good point regarding the executives podcast though. I think it’d be more appropriate to have that on a personal website instead of the county’s.

[Hal 343]

As i have offered  in the past , having a FB site for the Gun Club I am not allowed to post any of my personal opinions or political preferences when posting in that capacity just facts and event information as a couple of the Legislators do  . I have to switch to my own name if offering up an opinion . So I do agree with you his Executive position should not be used in such a way !