Supervisor signed petition

Supervisor Jim Dougherty signed Richard Kelly’s petition last summer asking the Town Board to let the voters decide to change council members’ terms from four to two years.

Mr. Dougherty was the sole dissenter when the Town Board voted 4-1 in August to put the issue on the ballot, saying he wasn’t in favor of reducing council terms. He criticized his challenger for re-election, Councilman Glenn Waddington, at Sunday’s candidate forum for voting to put the issue on the ballot even though Mr. Waddington and all the council members opposed the term reduction.

He previously criticized all the board members for voting in favor of the term change.

Mr. Dougherty said in a phone interview Wednesday that he was approached by Mr. Kelly at the IGA grocery store with three petitions on different subjects and he’d signed the one for reduced council terms because, at the time, he felt that it had merit.

“On the surface, it sounded very good,” he said, but when the topic came before the full board it “shifted my thinking.”

Mr. Dougherty was also the sole vote last year against a proposal to extend the supervisor’s term from two to four years suggested by board members Chris Lewis and Glenn Waddington. They said they wanted to let voters decide; Mr. Dougherty said it was a bad idea that shouldn’t be put on the ballot. It was soundly rejected at the polls.