Katie Strack, the former Schoharie County health director, won’t be getting any more money from the county right away.
And at the same time, the county isn’t likely to sue Bill Cherry for failing to pay Ms. Strack as supervisors instructed him to do in December.
The controversy surfaced late last year when county supervisors apparently reached a separation agreement with Ms. Strack. She was to resign in late November, and the county was to pay her about $100,000 through October, 2011.
Ms. Strack resigned, but Mr. Cherry refused to pay her. His refusal triggered an argument, with a mentioning that the county might sue Mr. Cherry to force him to make the payment.
The situation has cooled since then.
“There are no changes in the position I laid out before,” Mr. Cherry said Friday, adding that he hasn’t paid Ms. Strack.
County Attorney Mike West said Monday the wise course “is to give things a little distance, a little time.”
Without saying that he and supervisors have come around to Mr. Cherry’s point of view, Mr. West said there’s no push to force the payment in court.
“We can sit back and wait for Katie to sue us,” he said. “The Board of Supervisors agreed to be patient. It’s more logical.”
If the county sued Mr. Cherry, taxpayers would be paying court costs for both sides, Mr. Cherry pointed out.
There’s another plus for not forcing the issue, Mr. West said.
“The last thing we want to be doing is suing the county treasurer,” he said.
“We have a tough year coming up [financially], and we don’t want to battle with the treasurer. He has good ideas, and we want him on this team.”
Mr. Cherry wondered whether Ms. Strack would sue for the payment. She has a new job in Franklin County, “and would she really want to bring this up now, in court?”
Ms. Strack has given no indication of suing or filing an intent to sue, Mr. West said.
Initially, Mr. Cherry was hoping for guidance from the state Comptroller and Attorney General’s office but had little luck.
“Both agencies led me to believe they wouldn’t give me an advance opinion,” he said.
Instead, they would likely act after the county made the payment, if it did.
“And they gave no indication of whether they’d be critical or not,” Mr. Cherry added.