RICK KEAVENEY

Brief Background

• BA - Economics - Boston College - 1978
• Retired - 24 years - financial services with JPMorgan Chase and Merrill Lynch
• Canaan Town Supervisor - 2 years
• Chairman of the Planning and Economic Development Committee for the Columbia County Board of Supervisors - which oversees the County’s strategic initiatives in business, agriculture, tourism, public transportation and the environment
• Board of Directors of the Columbia Economic Development Corporation
• Member on the following Columbia County Committees:  Finance, Real Property and Assessment, Buildings and Facilities, and Insurance

November 3rd Ballot Lines  Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Independence

Accomplishments as Town Supervisor

• A costly assessment lawsuit was settled within a few months. Legal fees resulting from this lawsuit had been a weight on the Town’s budget for four years. We are doing a full and independent property revaluation which will bring our assessments to 100% of market value and insure that property holders are comfortable with their assessments relative to each other. At the same time we are alleviating data discrepancies and updating our technology to provide more detailed information to the public on individual Town assessments.
• Protracted zoning violations have been dealt with and we enacted long overdue changes to our zoning laws
• We have made significant infrastructure improvements to our Town Hall, our park—Stoddard Field and our roads
• We restructured heath care benefits to our employees—adding better service and lower co-pays while reducing our overall healthcare costs
• We moved our bank accounts—eliminating service fees and increasing our interest rates
• Long overdue updates to our website were made and additional pages were added for assessment, zoning and Board of Ethics information and online forms
• We have met our capital reserve requirements for a proposed sand/salt storage facility and maintained of reserves for major highway equipment replacement
• My 2010 Preliminary Budget reduces the Town of Canaan property tax by approximately 15 percent. This would bring the total Town tax reduction during my two year administration to over 20 percent. My goal is to continue improving services and infrastructure while using less money

Why are you running for office (again)?

This is a question frequently asked by both the press and residents. In the case of residents the question is phased differently—“Why would any sane person want your job?”

I have had the pleasure of serving at the County level with many Supervisors I respect. We are on the front line. We certainly don’t do it for the money, or the stress of a 24/7 assortment of strategic town issues at one moment and individual resident issues the next. Most of us are not politicians, were just trying to be good administrators in our small rural communities. We have one innate quality in common—something I would refer to as “an overblown sense of responsibility.” That’s why most Supervisors do it and that’s why most Town Board’s do it. We truly want to leave our communities in much better shape than we found them.

As for Canaan, I am fortunate to have a knowledgeable, diverse Town Board that does their homework, works through issues, compromises and ultimately reaches consensus on behalf of 1,800 residents. We have resolved protracted issues and continue to be committed to increasing the financial strength and improving the infrastructure of our Town. We’re not finished yet. That’s why I’m running again.