New GOP Commissioner nominated; current Commissioner says County Executive influenced decision

The Oneida County GOP Committee has nominated a new Commissioner for the Board of Elections.

But, the current Commissioner says that decision has been influenced by the County Executive.

County Executive Anthony Picente is saying it's all a part of the political process and there are no guarantees to be re-appointed.

However, Pamela Mandryck, the current Commissioner says that Mr. Picente is using his political power to get her out.

"She did a terrible job. She was unprofessional at times and incompetent in terms of her management and the committee chose to make a change," said County Executive Anthony Picente.

Wednesday night, the Oneida County GOP Committee nominated a new Commissioner for the Board of Elections.

Rose Grimaldi, the current Majority Analyst for the Board of Legislators received over 70 percent of the votes.

But, Commissioner Mandryck says the County Executive Anthony Picente has influenced people to vote her out.

"He has much more political clout than I do and can discuss things with people. Threaten people," said Commissioner Mandryck.

Pamela says most of the people that voted against her work for the county and she says they are probably afraid of losing their jobs.

But, Mr. Picente says it has to do with her performance. He says he's had a problem with the Board of Elections ever since the 2010 elections.

"The way the results were posted. The way the office was operated and the way candidates were treated. There is a list of issues of overall management that I had concerns with as did other Board of Legislators, as did other candidates," said Picente.

But, Mandryck says the 2010 elections was the first roll out with the new optical scan systems mandated by the state. She says there were going to be some glitches. But ever since then she says they have been consistently accurate.

"We have never been mandated to conduct an entire recount. We have never found machines with ballots them weeks later that will alter the results. And none of that has happened here but it has happened in other counties," said Mandryck.

Commissioner Mandryck's term ends at the end of the year. The County Executive's sister does work for the Board of Elections. But, he says that does not have anything to do with his issues regarding the Commissioner's performance.

Now that the GOP Committee has nominated Grimaldi, the full Board of Legislators have to now approve or deny the recommendation.