To the Editor:

I am writing this letter in support of St. Lawrence County Legislator David Forsythe’s bid for re-election to represent the town of Lisbon and a portion of the city of Ogdensburg, commencing with the Republican primary election to be held on Thursday, September 13, 2018.

I have had the good fortune of serving on the board of legislators with Dave for the past several years. I have found that he comes to our meetings well prepared to discuss the resolutions presented to the board for consideration and action. He is an active participant in those discussions and his years of experience and participation in the policy decisions this board has made have had many positive results.

Dave’s knowledge and expertise in the insurance field have been a major factor in the boards’ decisions regarding the manner and way that our Workers Comp. assessments to the towns, villages and the city of Ogdensburg and the county are computed and in the changeover in the county’s third party administrator for the health insurance benefits that the county provides for its employees and retirees. Dave’s understanding and experience were instrumental in shepherding these efforts to implementation and the resulting savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the taxpaying public. . His dedication to fiscal responsibility by the board has had provably positive results. In three years, 2015 to the end of 2017, the cash flow problems that have been the bane pf past boards, has literally disappeared.

The county will be removed from the State’s list of financially distressed counties and we will NOT borrow the millions of dollars that we have had to borrow the past several years. The fund balance, which was a negative $3 millions at the end of 2014, has been rescued and now has in excess of $11 million, as of the end of 2017. Dave Forsythe has been a major reason for the fiscal turnaround we have accomplished. Policies set and adhered to have had measurably positive results. Raising property taxes to get out of the fiscal hole the county was in, was never even considered and in fact the tax rate has decreased and the tax cap has not been exceeded.

Make no mistake, Dave Forsythe didn’t accomplish these things all by himself, but he was an integral part of the board that set the policy, stuck to the policy, made forward looking decisions that clearly set the direction that the board wanted the administration to adhere to. The proof is in the pudding. Dave Forsythe will continue to put the interests of the taxpaying public first and foremost. As a business owner and a property tax payer, he has a complete understanding of the consequences that go along with ill conceived and poorly thought out ideas and notions that often come to us for consideration.

His years of experience on this board and his dedication to working on behalf of the tax payer have paid dividends that will be realized not just today but for years to come. I urge the voters to keep Dave Forsythe as the legislator from District 2, by voting in favor of him to be the republican who will appear on the November ballot on the republican line.

Given all the successes that Dave has played such an active and crucial role in, why would anyone want to replace him?

Please exercise your right to vote on Thursday

Joe Lightfoot

SLC Legislator District 3