By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- When questioned by a Massena resident, the town supervisor refused to say if the interim Massena Memorial Hospital CEO is being paid out of the town budget or the hospital budget.

The question came from Gary Edwards, a former town supervisor, during public comment at Wednesday's Town Council meeting.

"That's something that's under contractual guidelines, so we can't comment on that," Town Supervisor Steve O'Shaughnessy said in response to Edward's question.

When asked by North Country Now to cite the specific contractual restriction, the supervisor would not comment.

Later in the meeting, when Massena resident Tom Seguin asked the supervisor why he couldn't simply state the source of the salary, O'Shaughnessy said he tries in advance of the meeting to anticipate such questions from the public and ask town attorney Eric Gustafson, who was not present, if he can comment.

"I try to find out from our town attorney, nobody ever called me a rocket scientist ... I didn't anticipate that (question), so I don't know if it's something I should answer or not," the supervisor said.

At the June Town Council meeting, O'Shaughnessy said Gilpin is being paid $40,000 per month for two months with no contribution from the town to the state retirement system on her behalf. However, he did not specifically say if the town or hospital are paying the salary. Although MMH is town owned and their money is the town's, they write their own budget and self-fund through revenues as well as money from New York state and the federal government.

All municipal expenditures, including employee salaries and the fund from which it is paid, are generally public information.

When a North Country Now reporter asked if the source of Gilpin's salary could be released in response to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, O'Shaughnessy said he didn't know.

"I'm not sure, I would have to run that by the town attorney and find out," the supervisor said.

A reporter from Johnson Newspapers asked O'Shaughnessy if he was aware of reports of an impending "exodus of (MMH) board members" who are unhappy with the direction the hospital is headed. The supervisor said he was not.

The interim MMH CEO, Ann Gilpin, was hired at the MMH board's June meeting after former CEO Bob Wolleben abruptly resigned for unclear reasons.

North Country Now's attempts to get an in-person interview with Gilpin have been unsuccessful.

Gilpin was the president and CEO of Oswego Health System in Oswego from 2007 until 2015. Prior to that, she was the president and CEO of Jones Memorial Hospital in Wellsville.

Her retirement from Oswego Heath System was announced "effective immediately," according to a June 30, 2015 news article in Oswego County Today.

"Gilpin made this decision, in consultation with the board, so that she may pursue personal and family matters that have been postponed by her commitment to leading the changes at Oswego Health over the last eight years," according to the story posted at https://bit.ly/2NrJd5Z.