COURIER-POST REPORTS: Vision-impaired mayor, Winslow panel spar over aide's post

This article appeared in the Courier-Post newspaper on Monday June 6, 2005. The text reprinted below is from Courier-Post Online which has additional detail from the newpaper publication. UNofficially Winslow.


Vision-impaired mayor, Winslow panel spar over aide's post

Monday, June 6, 2005

By ERIK SCHWARTZ
Courier-Post Staff

WINSLOW
Sue Ann Metzner remembers the day her uncle took her for her driver's test as a 16-year-old in rural western New York.
She recalls the day in 1997 when she pulled into her eye doctor's office before being diagnosed with macular degeneration.

"And I also remember the day we sold my last car," said Metzner, the township's legally blind mayor. "That wasn't just my car leaving. That was my independence.

At the time, Metzner counted two saving graces that she said helped her surmount the vision problem and continue as mayor.

First, she was "in the position long enough to get the learning curve out of the way," having already served for nearly two years before the onset of her eye disease, which took away sight in the center of her field of vision.

And second, the mayor's office was staffed by a secretary, known as a confidential assistant, whose role would broaden to include driving Metzner on municipal business and serving as an extra set of eyes to file, type and manage the increasing paperwork in a growing town, now with more than 35,000 people.

But when the secretary found another job this year, the 5-4 Democratic majority on township committee reduced the position from full-time with benefits to part-time without benefits, no more than 20 hours a week.

Metzner, 58, a Republican, said the switch was a "nasty" tactic to weaken her politically and take advantage of her disability. She noted that the full-time position was funded in the current budget and approved at $35,772 annually in the current salary ordinance.

"It was a move, because I'm legally blind, to make it more difficult to do my job," she said. "I think it was mean-spirited and nasty.

Barry M. Wright, a Democrat on the township committee, said the mayor's job didn't warrant a full-time secretary.

"When you look at taxpayer dollars, why does a part-time mayor need a full-time assistant? Whether she's blind or not blind, it's a part-time position. I don't think the sight thing becomes an issue," he said.

Wright said the Democratic majority waited to shrink the job until its longtime occupant, Dina Smith, left.

"At that point, it seemed like the prudent thing," he said. "Nobody wanted to see that person get hurt."

Metzner acknowledged that her office is, by law, part-time. The mayor is elected at-large and paid $12,721 a year.

Still, Metzner said she treated her office as a full-time position and then some. For example, this weekend she planned to officiate at the wedding of a soldier who may soon ship off to Iraq, and speak at a ceremony honoring Girl Scouts.

"The mayor's job is not Monday-to-Friday to talk to residents. It's what the person makes of it," she said.

Wright said Winslow had staff beyond the mayor's secretary to help. "We have a full-time township administrator, a full-time township clerk and eight other committee members," he said.

A township committee with a GOP majority created the confidential assistant's position in 1993 during the administration of Mayor Albert K. Brown, a Republican.

Metzner, who became mayor in 1996, first battled with Democrats over the position in 1998, shortly after she was diagnosed with macular degeneration.

At the time, the Democratic majority proposed reducing the salary of the assistant by more than half, and she was having trouble getting the township to provide a magnification device for her office to aid her reading.

Metzner wrote the township that she considered the assistant's services "cardinal to the functions of my office" and that limiting the services "will be construed as discrimination based on my disability."

After the Winslow solicitor wrote in a legal opinion that her poor vision appeared to qualify as a disability under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, the committee left the assistant's post unchanged and approved the purchase of an Alladin Rainbow Magnification System for about $3,000.

But the solicitor, David C. Patterson, also found that "a full-time `confidential assistant' to the mayor is not necessary as part of the mayor's elected position," according to the opinion.

Wright said that before the resolution cutting the assistant's hours was passed April 12, "our solicitor advised us we were still fulfilling our requirements under ADA."

Metzner said the township had properly provided her with a new, portable magnification device, at a cost of about $2,250, in addition to the desktop model.

But reducing the assistant's hours was wrong, Metzner said.

"The mayor's position hasn't changed in 14 years, and to do this at this stage in a growing community is nothing more than a shot at me personally," she said. "I believe past practice has set a precedent, from a legal perspective."

Resident Christine Murray, 18, said she empathized with the mayor.

"If they know she has a problem, they should have someone to help her," said Murray, a Winslow High senior. "If she needs it to perform her job properly then it would be a good thing to have someone to help."

But Murray reserved judgment on the Democrats who made the move. "It all depends on their point of view," she said.



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Reach Erik Schwartz at (856) 486-2904 or eschwartz@courierpostonline.com