To the Editor:

St. Lawrence County Government is broke. To reduce the cost of government County Clerk Regan made the decision to have one Deputy Clerk. This decision saved the taxpayers in excess of $50,000 annually.

In just one year that may not be a great sum but over several years it is more than one half million dollars.

Gavin Regan helped pick up some of the work load by doing what employees of the Clerk’s Office would normally do.

Doing this enabled Regan to quickly assimilate first hand the work done in the County Clerk’s Office.

Regan, a Democrat, chose to keep the most qualified as his Deputy. The usual custom for anyone in elected office is to pick their own staff. Ms. Streeter who has 21 years experience in the Clerk’s office was chosen over the other Deputy Clerk who only had two years experience as his one Deputy.

It should be noted that of the 28 employees in the County Clerk’s only two are Democrats.

Regan has assured everyone that those days are over. Your political affiliation will not be part of any litmus test for employment in the Clerk’s office.

Ms. Rupp knows that as Deputy you serve at the pleasure of the County Clerk.

Seems she should have kept herself on the Civil Service list.

Ms. Rupp would have her old job back in the DMV office. N.Y. State mandates hiring from the list. So he could not place her in another position.

Ms. Ritchie, the former County Clerk, replaced two Deputy Clerks when she took over for Orin Thomas.

Most people don’t know this because the newspapers never even mentioned this happening. There was no vindictiveness involved.

This was exactly the case with Mr. Regan.

Four Massena DMV employees, all Republicans, wrote a strong letter defending Mr. Regan’s actions. They asked that the public judge him on his job performance, not on the slander and misinformation being posted.

Since Regan took office on March 1, 2011, the revenue in the St. Lawrence County DMV has increased 16% in March, approximately 10% in April, and 10% in May 2011.

In addition to increasing revenues, Mr. Regan has made several innovations in the Clerk’s offrice to make services easier to deliver to the customers.

For example, if a group of people, such as a High School French Club, need passports, there is now an “Office On The Move” that will come to the group, do the paperwork, and take the photos for the passports. This will save citizens time, and be more convenient for them.

I would like to quote a letter from DMV women placed in the newspapers in early April 2011. “Let the gentleman do the job he was hired to do. Then in November 2011, if you don’t want to vote for him, don’t vote for him. Just base your decision, as we will on his job performance, not on misleading political backlash.”

Gavin Regan brings to the office excellent experience in the financial world and executive experience with the Olympic Teams. I support Gavin Regan for the position of County Clerk.

Daniel C. McNamara

Past Chair St. Lawrence County Democratic Committee