South Jefferson chooses school board member

ADAMS CENTER — The South Jefferson Central School District Board of Education will appoint Kenneth M. Bibbins its newest member at its Jan. 26 meeting, Superintendent Jamie A. Moesel said Tuesday. Mr. Bibbins's appointment will last until May, when the seat will come up for election.

While introducing himself to the Board of Education at its regular meeting Monday night, Mr. Bibbins said he has the ability "to disagree with people and still work with them," a skill he's exercised in service on other boards and in his job as a construction engineer for the state Department of Transportation.

Mr. Bibbins, Adams, was engineer-in-charge of the Route3/ Arsenal Street reconstruction project, which earned an award from the regional American Public Works Association. He is a member of the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce's Jefferson Leadership Institute class of 2009, serves on the board of directors of the New York State Employees Federal Credit Union and is chapter president of a professional association of state transportation engineers.

A 1987 graduate of South Jefferson Central School, Adams, Mr. Bibbins and his wife have two children, one who attends Mannsville Manor Elementary School, another not yet of school age, and are expecting a third.

"He has a wealth of service experience and that certainly would be an asset to being a board member," said Mrs. Moesel.

The board reached agreement on appointing Mr. Bibbins during an executive session at the Monday meeting, Mrs. Moesel said Tuesday. The board heard introductions during open session from five people interested in the seat.

The board may have been in violation of the state's Open Meetings Law in closing its discussion of the candidates to the public. Discussion of board appointments to elected seats should be conducted in open session, according to advisory opinions issued by the state Committee on Open Government.

New York's Open Meetings Law states, in relevant part, that a board can enter executive session to discuss "the medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person ... or matters leading to the appointment ... of a particular person."

But the Committee on Open Government has said this applies only to discussion of routine employment decisions, not appointments to fill vacant elected positions, citing a 1994 Supreme Court case in Sullivan County dealing with the matter. In that case, the court's opinion read, "Certainly, the matter of replacing elected officials should be subject to public input and scrutiny."

"I think there's room to argue," with that interpretation of the law, said South Jefferson Central School District attorney Marc H. Reitz. Mrs. Moesel said she consulted Mr. Reitz about the proper procedure for making the appointment in advance of the meeting, and he advised the board that some discussion of candidates could take place behind closed doors.

"I think it's a reasonable reading" of the law, Mr. Reitz argued, that allowable reasons for executive sessions could include an appointment to the board.

The other candidates for the board vacancy created by long-time member Brent E. Nichols's resignation Jan. 1 included Frank A. Empsall, Mannsville, owner of Lyng's Office Center in Watertown; SUNY Canton professor William T. Jones, Adams; military contractor Jason M. Landry, Mannsville; and former nurse and current stay-at-home mother Joanne M. Rhode, Watertown. The board has encouraged all of them to consider running for election to the school board in May. Mr. Bibbins, should he choose to run, would face election then to keep the post until the term ends in 2012.

Board member Chris Hyde-Hall's seat will also be up for election then. She hopes to keep her seat, Mrs. Moesel said.

Mr. Bibbins's letter of interest to the board was the longest and most detailed of the candidates'; he expressed particular concern about how the state's fiscal difficulties and the economic climate might affect education funding. He also cited a desire to give back to the school district from which graduated and which will serve his children.