Cortlandville Town Board member Gregory Leach was appointed Wednesday to serve as the town’s next supervisor and a college administrator was chosen to complete Leach’s term on the council.
Board members voted, 3-0, to appoint Leach, who owns Leach’s Custom Trash Service on Route 13 in the town. He has served more than 11 years on the board in two tenures.
“Thank you fellow board members for your confidence in allowing me to serve the balance of the supervisor’s term,” Leach said, “and I hope to continue what endeavors have been started and maintained by the town board, our department heads and our dedicated employees. Also, I intend to deliver a practical budget for 2025 while providing as much transparency as possible.”
After Leach resigned his town board seat and was appointed supervisor, as his first official act, he asked Jeffrey Guido to continue on as deputy town supervisor, Guido was re-appointed, 2-0. Leach declined to vote.
The board voted, 3-0 — again, Leach declined to vote — to appoint Sunday Earle, the assistant director of human resources for Tompkins Cortland Community College, to serve the balance of Leach’s term.
Leach, Earle and Guido were administered the oath of office by Town Clerk Kristen Rocco-Petrella.
Both Leach and Earle were appointed through the end of 2025. If they wish to continue after then, they will have to seek election in November 2025.
Leach tenure on the board has had some legal entanglements.
In March 2020, the state comptroller’s office released an audit faulting the town of Cortlandville for improperly spending $22,600 in public funds in 2015 to create a boat launch on then-board member Leach’s private property in Blodgett Mills. Leach did not participate in discussions about the property at town board meetings at the time, and abstained from voting when the board approved the spending.
The state Constitution prohibits spending town money for the benefit of private parties, the comptroller said, and the town failed to put up signs indicating the boat launch was for public use, nor was it listed on the town website.
During the June 1, 2016, town board meeting, the board authorized then-Supervisor Dick Tupper to finalize a lease agreement between Leach and the town that would allow the public to use the Hiawatha Landing property he owns in Blodgett Mills as an access point to the Tioughnioga River.
Then-Town Attorney John Folmer had been working with Leach’s attorney to draft a five-year lease that would allow boaters and kayakers access to the river at Hiawatha Landing. The lease would cost $10 annually.
Town resident Pamela Jenkins won two Article 78 lawsuits in 2016 and 2017 against Cortlandville challenging approvals for expansions of Leach’s Custom Trash Service on Route 13.
Leach abstained from votes in the matter, but in May 2016, state Supreme Court Justice Donald Cerio ruled in favor of Jenkins’ appeal after Leach applied for expansion and additional access of his business.
In June 2017, an appeals court ruled in favor of Jenkins after her Article 78 proceeding argued the Zoning Board of Appeals did not follow the town’s zoning laws and the environmental review process before granting Leach permits to expand his business.
“Leach has left unchallenged multiple independent grounds for granting the petition, including Supreme Court’s determination that the ZBA (zoning board of appeals) failed to satisfy requirements of the Town of Cortlandville Zoning Law,” the judges stated in the 2017 ruling.
