By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Democrat and Republican officials from the St. Lawrence County Legislature at Thursday’s Massena Central school board meeting blamed each other for why the district was cut out of the St. Regis Mohawk land claim settlement.

The school board had asked county board Chairman Joseph Lightfoot, a Republican, to come in and tell the board why things played out as they did.

He said the district was cut out because former chair Jonathan Putney, a Democrat, acted on his own and went against the original memorandum of understanding and later added the district to the deal.

“Who authorized the board chair to act on his own … that he would give around $2 million, or 60 percent of that money” to the towns and school districts,” Lightfoot said. “It was an afterthought. It was an afterthought by one person.”

Massena Central School District was supposed to receive $500,000 of the county’s annual $4 million from the settlement, but the legislature took that provision out at the last minute because of a conflict of interest with legislators Jonathan Putney and Greg Paquin, who work for the school district. The half-million was not included in the original MOU that the tribe, state, county and New York Power Authority signed in May.

Lightfoot said Putney briefed the county finance committee about a month after the MOU was signed and told them about the plan to give part of the settlement to the Massena and Brasher towns and school districts. Lightfoot said Putney did not give the committee copies of the MOU, so they all thought it was part of the deal. Once they learned it was added in after the fact, the GOP bloc opposed it.

Lightfoot said the county has no obligation to give money to a school district.

“There is no precedent anywhere in New York state for the county to fund a school district,” Lightfoot said.

Trustee Loren Fountain, who is also the school board finance committee chair, wasn’t happy with Lightfoot’s explanation.

“You must take us to be a little ignorant here if you think you can come in here and tell us this isn’t political,” he said. “You have a problem with Mr. Putney and we were used to get back at him and you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

Spectators, many of whom were district employees, applauded the comment.

After moving on to discuss with Trustee Kevin Peretta the prospect of getting the state to make up lost tax revenue due to lands going back to the tribe, Lightfoot quickly left.

Almost immediately, Legislator Greg Paquin took to the podium.

“The idea that nobody knew about any of this is a totally false statement,” he said. “Technically, the ethical claim is true, but make no mistake. That was a political ploy.”

“It was political?” Fountain asked.

“Yes, whole-heartedly,” Paquin said.

Although he didn’t say which one, Paquin, referring to Lightfoot and Legislator Kevin Acres, said one of them violated the county ethics laws by voting on the NYPA license review agreement. He said part of the deal gives benefits to farmers, and one of them is in that line of work.

According to a memorandum of understanding ratified by St. Lawrence County, the state and the tribe, the deal would force the tribe to pay the balance of gaming revenues they withheld in prior years. This would result in an immediate payment of $1.87 million for St. Lawrence County and $937,500 each to the towns of Brasher and Massena.

Once the final settlement has been negotiated, the tribe would be required to make a one-time payment of $1.5 million to St. Lawrence County.

It also includes a one-time payment of an additional $2 million and as well as an annual payment of $4 million, each going to St. Lawrence County. Combined, St. Lawrence County will receive approximately $5.45 million each year.

An amendment passed recently by the county cuts half of the county’s annual $4 million payment, splitting $1.5 million between the towns of Massena and Brasher and gives the remaining $500,000 to Brasher Central School District.