Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer
Former South Glens Falls Mayor Joe Orlow defeated current Mayor Nick Bodkin for the Republican nomination in the March 18 election.
Mr. Bodkin said he will run as an independent in the general election and said he planned all along to do that.
Mr. Orlow was mayor from 2013 to 2017 and has been a village trustee for four years. If elected, he says he will focus on “getting committees up and running, getting community involvement, going after grants, and becoming transparent.”
“And the water’s my biggest,” he added. “People should not have to experience not being able to use their water. They should be able to ask questions.
“The infrastructure, the water goes without saying, taking care of all the things that we need to take care of to provide the quality of life that our residents deserve,” he continued.
Mr. Bodkin, completing his first term was mayor was also previously a village trustee for four years. “I still have a tremendous amount of initiative that I want to see through,” he said.
“We have significant progress on repairing our infrastructure, our water and sewer lines, and I’m really a big advocate of walkability — trying to create safer streets for our community.”
He said he wants to see more “community enrichment programs” like farmers markets and food truck vendors.
“I want the community to become a community again,” he said. “With COVID and remote work now, so many people work from their home. They don’t leave their house unless they’re going to a grocery store. I want to give people a reason to come out and enjoy the community and be engaged with their neighbors. And I think we have to look at these community enrichment programs to do so.”
Candidates trade barbs
The candidates faulted each other when separately interviewed by The Chronicle.
Mr. Bodkin said minutes of the last four years of village board meetings reveal Mr. Orlow had a 60% attendance rate, “and that was being generous.”
Mr. Orlow retorted: “I can stay home and fight with my husband if I’m going to go to a meeting where we’re not going to accomplish anything and we’re going to lie to the people.”
Mr. Bodkin also claimed, “When we’d go into an executive session to talk about something of legal significance where we need the full board to weigh in on something, (Mr. Orlow) would leave most of the time.”
Mr. Orlow responded, “We do too many executive sessions…We shouldn’t have a lot of executive sessions. People should be able to ask us questions and get answers.
“I said to the mayor, if you need me to be there and we’re going to actually accomplish something, I’m there, but if we’re going to stand there and fight and spend three hours in executive session and not accomplish anything, I think that’s a waste of time.”
Mr. Bodkin also said Mr. Orlow had not completed required workplace training.
“If you can’t complete your state-mandated training for workplace violence and sexual harassment for three years, I think that’s a disqualifying factor,” he argued. “It’s a requirement. It’s not an option.”
Mr. Orlow responded, “The first day I was asked to take this was 35 days ago.”
A short time later, he called The Chronicle back with the update that “My training for the village has been completed.”
Mr. Orlow went after Mr. Bodkin by saying “He sent memos out that we shouldn’t be interacting with the employees. I don’t operate that way. We are a team. We work for the village, we work for the people.”
Mr. Bodkin responded, “There have been times in which we were short-staffed, and there were individuals of the board who were not allowing the new staff the time to learn their jobs, and I put a request out that our new employees be given a little space while they were learning how to do their jobs properly.”
Mr. Orlow said a deciding factor in his decison to run for mayor again was “realizing that our village and employees need to be part of a team, and the trustees and all of us need to work together. And in this administration, if you don’t have permission from the mayor, then you’re in deep ‘you know what.’”
Mr. Bodkin responded: “There are times in which (Mr. Orlow) had forgotten that he is not the mayor and not the official spokesperson of the village. There are times that I’ve had to remind the board that there are certain situations where the mayor is the official person to speak on behalf of the village, and that is just purely our basic structure of how it’s supposed to work with local government.”
Mr. Orlow also argues, “Committees should be working. And for the last eight years we have had no committees.”
Mr. Bodkin responded: “The committees have chosen to participate as much or as little as they’ve wanted to.”
The South Glens Falls vote is set for March 18 election noon to 9 p.m. at the Village Hall.
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