CARMEL ? Alan Schneider, a 40-year accountant and former police investigator, wants to bring a corporate approach to Putnam County government.
The Legislature, he said, is like a board of directors and the county executive is like the chief executive officer.
"I believe the county on the economic side must be run as a business," he said.
The 61-year-old was introduced Friday as a candidate for Putnam County executive. He is an unaffiliated voter who will run as a Democrat.
A Kent resident, he will challenge Republican former county Legislator Mary Ellen Odell. It's a race Odell has been running since she challenged former state Sen. Vincent Leibell last May, who she came close to beating in the 2010 GOP primary.
She and Schneider are vying to finish the three years remaining on Leibell's term. He was elected in November but never took office after pleading guilty to two felony federal corruption charges.
Schneider said Odell's head start wasn't a concern.
"I plan (on) just getting out there on the issues. Let's hold our resum�s side by side and let's see who should be the chief executive of Putnam County," he said.
Odell works as an independent title closer and as the director of government and veterans affairs for state Sen. Greg Ball, R-Carmel. She said her time with the Senate will give her a direct line to Albany. For two of her five years in the Legislature, she served as deputy chairwoman.
"You want to talk about experience? I have county experience that he doesn't have," said Odell, 50.
Schneider was with the former Westchester County Sheriff's Office for about 11 years, leaving around 1980 to run his accounting practice full time. In 1981, he ran for the Putnam Legislature and lost to then-Legislator Robert Bondi, who went on to serve 20 years as county executive.
Other than that race, Schneider has been mostly a stranger to Putnam politics. Putnam Democratic Chairman Victor Grossman described him as a "choice between the same old politics and something new in Putnam County."
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Schneider's name appears in a 2002 state report that concluded former Putnam Sheriff Robert Thoubboron abused his power. State investigators criticized Thoubboron for having Schneider audit several jail and federal asset forfeiture accounts. Schneider had prepared tax returns for the sheriff's upstate farm for free and served as his campaign treasurer but received $25,850 for the audits.
Schneider on Friday said that matter was so minor he forgot about it. Thoubboron, he said, picked him because of his law enforcement background.
"He thought I was the best choice. It wasn't anything I did. There wasn't any finding. It wasn't even patronage because I wasn't affiliated with any party," he said.
At his news conference, Schneider did bring up a traffic accident he was part of in 2007. On a November evening, he struck and killed 79-year-old Ana Marin as she crossed John Simpson Road carrying campaign signs for Southeast town Supervisor Michael Rights, who was then a candidate. No tickets were issued and the state Department of Motor Vehicles cleared him.
He said he is running because he is headed toward semiretirement in his Mahopac accounting practice.
"The only reason I'm in the race now is because I don't think the office of county executive should be held by someone with no financial experience," he said.
Bondi was a former professor of finance at Western Connecticut State University. His predecessor , Peter Alexanderson, was a certified public accountant and the first Putnam County executive, David Bruen, was a longtime county treasurer.
"Ms. Odell may have been a fine legislator but this is a totally different job," Schneider added.
Source: http://www.lohud.com/article/20110612/NEWS04/106120391
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