MONTICELLO — As the new legislature was sworn in on Tuesday last week, a few hours later the committee chairs, vice chairs and member assignments were made public.

As written in the county code, the chairman of the legislature makes the committee assignments within 20 days of being elected, meaning the new Chairman Robert Doherty doled out the lists.

On Thursday, Legislator Ira Steingart took issue with the assignments, saying he is the first legislator ever to not chair one of the committees. For his previous two terms, Steingart chaired the Economic Development Committee. But that will now be chaired by Alan Sorensen.

“As Minority Leader, I want to put my hand out to work with all the new legislators and everybody,” Steingart said. “But I think it's a two-way street. Some of the things that got me upset: I'm the first legislator in the history of the legislature form of government for the county to not chair one of the committees. Rob, I'm sure you were sending me a message. I'm not a slow learner, I get it.”

Doherty responded that he was not sending a message. He did not comment any further.

Steingart said he hopes they can work together. “I know every legislator here has the best interest of Sullivan County [in mind], we don't know each other yet, I think we need to work together,” he said.

After this exchange occurred, Doherty introduced a resolution to amend the rules of the Sullivan County Legislature to say, “In the discretion of the Chair, the Chair may appoint himself/herself to serve as a member of a standing committee or the Chair of a standing committee in an official capacity and not in an ex-officio capacity.”

Currently, the Chair may cast a vote in any committee, even if they are not on that committee. As it stands now, Doherty is Chair of the Human Resources Committee, and is a member of six committees (not including Executive Committee).

Steingart alleged that Doherty changed the rule to “justify” putting himself on so many committees.

“It justifies him putting himself on every committee,” he said.

Joe Perrello said he was upset he was no longer on the Planning Committee and Doherty offered to give up his spot to him. However, after the new committee assignments were sent out, Perrello was not on it.

Legislator Luis Alvarez, who was Chairman of the preceding legislature, was upset with the introduction of the resolution, saying, “I can't go along with this.”

He added, “You can't bring something like this to the meeting without discussing it. It doesn't let the public know what we're doing.”

Perrello agreed, saying it should be discussed and that they should send it to the state for their opinion on it.

“This should be discussed,” he said. “We should have every legislator here; it should be reviewed, and we should see if this is even practical and realistic to do this, and we should get an opinion.”

Outgoing County Attorney Cheryl McCausland explained that the resolution is a proposed change to the rules, not the county code or charter, which would require a public hearing and new law.

It ultimately passed with a vote of 5-3, with Alvarez, Perrello and Steingart voting “no.” Legislator Nadia Rajsz was absent. The resolution still has to go before the full board on Thursday.