Nassau official apologizes for remark 
Town councilman calls "part Jewish" comment a jest, questions airing of meeting tape  
  
By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer 
First published: Saturday, February 5, 2005 
 
NASSAU -- A Republican town councilman apologized for an anti-Semitic remark he made at a board meeting in December.
"I can assure everyone that my comments were not intended to be controversial or hurtful," William F. Lobdell said in the letter released Friday.

It was the first response from Lobdell to the controversy that arose last month when a tape of a Dec. 30 board meeting surfaced on which he can be heard making a comment about Jewish people.

According to a tape of the public meeting of the board, Supervisor Carol Sanford was discussing a turn in the negotiations with the labor union for the town Highway Department that would save the town money. Lobdell then said of Sanford: "I think she's part Jewish, 'cause we came out cheaper than we went in. I'll tell you what, we don't have any of them here, do we?"

The comment was struck from the written minutes of the board by Town Clerk Rita Labrum, who has said she commonly omits such comments by Lobdell and others when they are not pertinent to Town Board business or to the particular matter under discussion.

Associates have said that Lobdell, 72, often speaks jokingly and off-the-cuff at meetings, but means no harm. However, the comment caused a backlash of protest and calls for his removal.

"It's commendable he recognizes he should not have said what he said," said Michael Roland, the town Democratic Party chairman, who has asked the majority Republican board to oust Lobdell for the remark. "Regardless, I don't think we will back down from our request that he be removed."

In his letter, Lobdell said it was curious that his comment was even made public.

"I was somewhat surprised my comments were made public, since no residents were in attendance at the meeting in which the comments were made," Lobdell wrote. "That being said, I do apologize to anyone who took offense at these comments and also apologize to my fellow Town Board members."

No one was in the audience at the Dec. 30 meeting, which was public. Only Town Board members, the supervisor, clerk, highway superintendent and the town's lawyer attended.

The next Town Board meeting is Thursday.

The town is amid a controversy over two proposals for hard-rock mining operations in the Dunham Hollow and Hoags Corners areas, which several residents oppose. A group called Residents Against Mining has formed, and another, the Dunham Hollow Civic Association, is in the process of organizing.

Sanford, the supervisor, has said that political opponents of Lobdell, who is up for re-election this year, released the tape and caused the controversy to be aired in public.

Lobdell has voiced support of mining and the economic benefits it could bring to the town.

The mining debate turned nasty earlier this week when an elected official and a mining protester got into a wrestling match after a meeting at Town Hall.

On Tuesday night, Republican Councilman Ian Hart, 54, and Dean Collamer, 63, a critic of the mining proposals, got into a physical confrontation and wrestled across the meeting room floor and out the front door into a snowbank, where they had to be separated by others attending the meeting.

Neither was injured, and no charges were filed.

Bob Gardinier can be reached at 454-5696 or by e-mail at bgardinier@timesunion.com. 
 
   
 

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