Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin and county Legislature Chairwoman Kelly Hoffman, above, reached an agreement last week that settles a monthslong dispute over department heads attending committee meetings. Prior to the deal, the Legislature had been prepared to amend the county’s charter to force their attendance.
Tyler A. McNeil/Times Union
EAST GREENBUSH — Top leaders in Rensselaer County government intend to bury the hatchet with a new deal.
Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin has conditionally agreed to lift his three-month-old ban on administration officials fielding questions about legislation at county Legislature committee meetings.
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Under the terms of an agreement forged with Chairwoman Kelly Hoffman, McLaughlin’s department heads wouldn’t be required to attend Rules Committee and Budget & Finance Committee meetings. Additionally, department heads won’t be expected to attend meetings where questions aren’t asked — circumstances the eight-year executive has previously cited for instituting the ban.
“This new organizational plan will help keep that important work on track but avoid unnecessary delays for already-busy department heads,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing a productive and positive working relationship with the county Legislature.”
According to officials, talks about a compromise between McLaughlin’s administration and the Legislature had already begun before a planned public hearing on amending the county’s charter to require committee attendance. Though the hearing was held Thursday, no action was taken. By the next day, McLaughlin and Republican leaders announced they had reached a final agreement.
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In a statement, Hoffman described the result as a “renewed commitment to communication and transparency.” Democratic Minority Leader Mark Fleming was also pleased with the outcome.
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The agreement followed months of tension between the Legislature and McLaughlin over the administration ditching a decades-old system of inter-governmental communication at committee meetings and instead only accepting written queries regarding legislation. This has marked an unusual period of public feuding between the Legislature’s GOP and McLaughlin, who have historically aligned on messaging.
The move caused legislators, who were concerned they didn’t have enough information to make decisions, to table several proposals. Some even voted against those resolutions in protest of the absences. On Feb. 10, the Legislature passed a resolution calling on McLaughlin to bring his staffers back to committee meetings.
A day later, in an interview with the Times Union, McLaughlin referred to legislators as “little baby birds” who needed to be fed information in order to make decisions, and vowed that he wouldn’t bend to their demands. He argued that his written query system — which legislators have claimed they weren’t properly notified about from the get-go — would prevent miscommunication and free up staff, some of whom regularly perform work outside the county office building in East Greenbush.
Republican Legislator Robert Bayly, vice chairman of finance, said that, in the end, there was some room to negotiate.
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Department heads “drive down here (Tuesday), go to a committee meeting, where there may only be one resolution, and then they go back to Troy, and then Wednesday, when the budget hearing is, they have to drive back down here Wednesday night for one resolution,” Bayly said. “So it’s not necessary that they come to all the budget meetings.”
As tensions with the Legislature reached a high point in early March, Bayly was the only legislator to attend McLaughlin’s State of the County address, after the executive broke decades-old tradition by holding the speech outside the legislative chambers. He also played a role in efforts to reach a compromise.
“You know what? It was time to get it all out there and get it settled,” Bayly said. “We did get it taken care of, get everything back together.”
The new informal deal with department heads is expected to take effect this week when agenda packets are distributed. Committee meetings are held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the second week of each month.
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McLaughlin’s word has been met with skepticism by Legislator Wayne Gendron, a Sand Lake Republican. On Thursday, he told the Times Union he thinks legislative action is still necessary.
“I think by doing the charter change, it obviously puts us in the driver’s seat and it allows us to make sure that we have full transparency and they come down and answer questions,” Gendron said. “By allowing us to stop that now, (McLaughlin’s) back in the driver’s seat, and in the future, if we upset him again, this is all just going to come back to light.”
The charter amendment remains in the Legislature’s queue for now.
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In a statement, county spokesperson Richard Crist noted that both branches of government took on a number of projects together within the last year, including the $111.7 million overhaul of Van Rensselaer Manor nursing home, and the administration expects more “great work” in 2026.