By Tom Grace
Karen Liddle, 60, Otsego County's STOP-DWI coordinator, lost her part-time job for next year when the Board of Representatives adopted the county's 2010 budget Wednesday.
As part of that budget, the STOP-DWI program will move from Liddle's office at 164 Main St. Oneonta to the Otsego County Sheriff's Office in Middlefeld.
``This may be illegal and it is unethical,'' Liddle said Friday, adding that she learned she will soon be unemployed when she read Thursday's edition of The Daily Star.
By transferring the program to the sheriff, the county hopes to save some of the $37,393 that had been earmarked for administering the program in 2010, according to county Rep. James Johnson, R-Otsego, chair of the county's Administration Committee.
``We did this to eliminate expenses, money that can be used to support some of the services we were trying not to cut, at the sheriff's department and other agencies,'' said Johnson, who also serves on the Public Safety and Legal Affairs Committee that oversees the STOP-DWI program.
Liddle, whose 2010 salary was set at $16,796 for a 20-hour work week, said that to avoid conflicts of interest, the STOP-DWI program should not be overseen by a law enforcement official such as Sheriff Richard Devlin Jr.
STOP-DWI programs in New York state are funded by court fines levied against those who have been convicted of alcohol-related traffic offenses. For next year, Liddle projected fines will total $230,000 _ money slated to go to police departments, the county district attorney and probation offices, and to educational efforts, including the annual Students Against Destructive Decisions run.
Liddle said it will create a conflict of interest to put the head of an agency such as the sheriff's department, which benefits from the program, in charge of deciding where funds go.
``What's going to happen now is the sheriff is going to take all the money and put it into his program and no one else is going to see it,'' she predicted.
``First, let me say what I told the board Wednesday,'' he said. ``I have not been pushing to take over this program, but we can operate it from the sheriff's office.''
Money will continue to be fairly distributed to various agencies that have been receiving it, he said.
``We're not going to change that,'' the sheriff said.
Devlin said a deputy will be assigned to oversee the program, and others on his staff will help with educational efforts in the county's schools and youth programs.
As for the alleged conflict of interest, Johnson and Devlin noted that the Otsego County Board of Representatives and the Public Safety & Legal Affairs committees must approve proposed STOP-DWI budgets before they are submitted to the state.
Liddle, a retired state Department of Environmental Conservation worker who lives in the town of Oneonta with her husband, retired state trooper Andy Liddle, said Friday the state Attorney General's office has advised against having police agencies oversee STOP-DWI funds.
She also noted that county attorney James Konstanty expressed the same opinion in a Nov. 13 memorandum.
"It could be very easy for the law officer's particular department to be subconsciously or consciously benefitted to the detriment of the remainder of the county in approving various municipal plans for highway safety," Konstanty wrote in the memo.
At Wednesday's county board meeting, Konstanty said he changed his mind after doing further research and learning that about 15 other counties in the state allow law enforcement agencies to oversee STOP-DWI programs.
As long as the county board and its committees have the power to approve or disapprove of proposed STOP-DWI budgets, he believes there is no conflict of interest, he said.
Liddle noted another potential pitfall in the county's plan.
About eight years ago, she succeeded Devlin's father, Richard Devlin Sr., as the county's STOP-DWI coordinator. Now, Devlin Sr. is a state highway safety program representative, in charge of reviewing STOP-DWI plans submitted by counties around the state.
In Otsego County's case, a plan drawn up by Sheriff Richard Devlin Jr. could be reviewed by his father, she said.
Friday, Devlin Sr. said this will never happen.
``I talked this over with my boss (Jeanette Maikels) yesterday and I can assure I will not be the one reviewing Otsego County's plan,'' he said.
Liddle said she has asked for legal counsel at the state STOP-DWI Coordinator's Association to contact county officials next week.
``I do want my job back,'' she said. ``I loved my job and I was good at it.''
