Odell: New Employee Not Campaigning on County Dime
Two Putnam County legislators last week questioned whether a new employee has engaged in campaign work for County Executive MaryEllen Odell on taxpayer time. During a June 17 Personnel Committee meeting, the employment of Faith Ann Butcher, the former publisher of the now defunct Hudson Valley Reporter, was challenged by Legislators Dini LoBue and Sam Oliverio.
Butcher, a Mahopac resident, is currently being paid through a temporary, part-time line from the Information Technology department. So far, she’s earned roughly $6,000; however, her salary won’t exceed $20,000 for the rest of the year, said IT Director Tom Lannon. She started her job in early April.
Butcher started working for the county as a fill-in communications director for the county executive’s office, while the permanent director was on a leave of absence, Lannon said, but was getting paid through the IT line. Now, she’s working within the IT department since the regular communications director has returned.
Oliverio, who is running for county executive against Odell, said Butcher has been at numerous events taking photos or shooting videos of Odell. He said he’s a “little perplexed,” wondering “if we’re dispensing news for our county residents or are we campaigning.”
Oliverio noted he’s seen Butcher at as many as three events: the D-Day ceremony, a spring senior citizen luncheon and a June 7 business expo in which she was either shooting photos or videos of Odell. Lannon said Butcher was not working on county time during the business expo, but did say she was on county time for the D-Day ceremony and senior luncheon because she was there to set up equipment and shoot content to put on the website to better inform county citizens. Her official position is administrative assistant, Lannon said.
“The disturbing thing, though, is at the height of a heated election season and taxpayer dollars are paying for this publicity,” said Oliverio, who noted there are photos from the county website that are also on Odell’s campaign website. “We’ve never had a individual do this before.”
LoBue added she has a “real problem” if Butcher is working for the county and also working privately for Odell’s campaign. If Butcher is working privately for Odell, LoBue said it has to be made public. Legislator Ginny Nacerino agreed with LoBue about disclosing whether she was working for Odell privately.
When reached, Odell said Butcher was not working for her campaign.
“If I’m out in the daytime and she’s covering events for the county she puts them on our website, some of them get carried to my Facebook (page). She doesn’t do my Facebook, she doesn’t do any of that,” Odell said. “She basically covers any activity of the legislature or myself as the county executive.”
Past new releases from at least a month ago on Odell’s re-election campaign website showed they were posted by Butcher. When asked why Butcher would be posting for the website if she wasn’t part of the campaign, Odell replied, “I don’t know, maybe it was a cut and paste, maybe somebody picked up something from the county website and moved it over.”
Now, as of last week, all the news releases have been changed to show they were posted by the “Committee to Elect MaryEllen Odell,” including ones that were previously posted by Butcher.
Nacerino and Legislature Chairman Carl Albano both defended Butcher’s hiring, noting it was a necessity to get information out and improve the website and it’s normal for elected officials to have their photos taken. Nacerino, the chairman of the Personnel Committee, said because Odell is in a high profile position she is responsible for attending certain public events, which often include getting her photo taken. She also pointed out that neighboring counties (including Westchester) have communication teams.
Albano said the hire is appropriate if her function is necessary for the IT department.
Butcher, a former Examiner Media employee, left the company last year to start the Hudson Valley Reporter. Shortly after the publication’s launch, Examiner Media sued Butcher for tampering with the company’s distribution and for gaining access to Examiner Media’s password-protected file sharing system, lifting ads published in Examiner newspapers and then publishing the ads in early editions of her newspaper.
One of Butcher’s employees was ultimately arrested by Mount Kisco police for tampering with an Examiner distribution box. The lawsuit ended in a settlement but the terms were not disclosed.
Near the end of the meeting, Nacerino suggested the conversation isn’t over.
“I don’t know if we really got that clarified the way we wanted to, but we did start the discussion,” she concluded.
