While not surprising, yet completely disappointing and expected, St. Lawrence County Treasurer Renee Cole, St. Lawrence County Chairman of the Board of Legislators William Sheridan and County Attorney Steven Button will continue their two and half year quest to control the City of Ogdensburg by further wasting hard earned taxpayer dollars in appealing the City’s recent victory with the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division in the matter involving Property Tax Foreclosure.
The City has now twice prevailed in competent courts of law in this matter, however Renee Cole, William Sheridan and Steven Button remain committed to their quest for control of all local government in St. Lawrence County, including the City of Ogdensburg. Mayor Jeffrey M. Skelly has made clear since taking office in January 2020 that the City of Ogdensburg will no longer be controlled by the underhanded, manipulative and discriminatory treatment doled out by the St. Lawrence County Legislature and its independently elected County Treasurer, Renee Cole.
The City of Ogdensburg remains open to professional and respectful compromise and dialogue in this matter, however St. Lawrence County elected and appointed officials make no effort to remedy this matter collectively, but rather they continue to choose to have Ogdensburg residents pay for this matter twice, and all County residents pay once for their desire to have absolute financial control over all local government entities. County officials make all decisions in this matter in executive (secret) session so they can hide from individual responsibility and avoid transparency on their commitment to the destruction of the City of Ogdensburg and the obstruction of the Skelly Administration at all costs; which means significant financial costs to the taxpayers. St. Lawrence County is now spending thousands of hard earned taxpayer dollars lining the pockets of down state lawyers that continue to bungle the frivolous matter that was initially being handled by County Attorney Steven Button until his less than legally sufficient pleading was swiftly dismissed by New York State Supreme Court Justice Mary A. Farley. The County replaced Steven Button with the same law firm that continues to be a part of other failed county matters, including the Department of Social Services.
Mayor’s Quote: The City of Ogdensburg is working tirelessly to save itself from the financial ruin and the near bankrupt conditions that existed in January 2020, while working equally as hard to accelerate the revival of the City’s economy and financial strength. St. Lawrence County Legislators Dave Forsyth, James Reagan and Rita Curran are the only loyal and steadfast supports of the only city in St. Lawrence County – we thank them for their commitment. The City, once again, requests the entire County Board of Legislators join the proactive efforts of my administration and cease the unhinged efforts to obstruct, impede and ignore the City’s efforts to streamline local government, remove redundancy and allow all county and city residents to keep more of their hard earned money.
To view the appeal, please click here.