By ANDY GARDNER

North Country Now

MASSENA -- Massena residents during Thursday night's Town Council meeting called on the town supervisor and councilors to resign in the wake of the supervisor's upheaval of the Massena Memorial Hospital board.

The comments came during a hearing on Town Supervisor Steve O'Shaughnessy's removal of MMH board chair Carol Fenton.

Joe Gray, former Massena town supervisor, spoke in defense of Fenton and called on the board to resign their posts. Town Supervisor Steve O'Shaughnessy in the termination letter he sent to Fenton cited poor financial performance at MMH and failure to install an adequate management team.

"All Town Council members should resign because they haven't improved things at the hospital," Gray said to loud applause. "It would seem the only right and just action for you to take would be to resign as supervisor."

David Romigh, who spoke during public comment and referred to the MMH-town ordeal as a "dumpster fire," also called on the elected officials to quit.'

"Do the right thing. Step aside," he said. Romigh also criticized the board for not answering questions from North Country Now in a Feb. 2 story. A reporter had polled all four town board members and asked if they agreed with O'Shaughnessy's recent handling of the MMH board, including firing their previous chair, Sue Bellor, and not re-appointing the chairman before her, Scott Wilson. Two of them sidestepped the question, and two did not return requests for comment. The story can be read here.

"Your answers, or lack thereof, brings shame upon the community and yourselves," Romigh said.

Bob Elsner, a frequent critic of the town board during the recent turmoil, echoed Gray's call for the board to follow O'Shaughnessy's criteria and quit.

"You need to step down using your own rules and criteria," said Elsner, who is MMH's director of diagnostic imaging and cardiac services.

Clyde Leffler, an MMH endoscopy clerk, called for the supervisor's resignation after O'Shaughnessy said he didn't believe he needed the MMH chief financial officer present at a recent joint meeting of the town and hospital boards.

"I personally messaged you about including Mr. Facteau and your comment was 'I don't need him,'" Leffler said.

"That's true," O'Shaughnessy said.

"That's disgusting. You need to step down," Leffler said.

Dave Fenton, who is Carol Fenton's brother-in-law, urged those in attendance to contact the state Attorney General's Office about O'Shaughnessy.

"You have to contact the attorney of New York state and get a form and ask for hearings to remove Mr. O'Shaughnessy," Dave Fenton said.

No members of the public spoke in favor of the supervisor's recent handling of the MMH board.