Rachel Seeber, who says she is resigning as an at-large Warren County Supervisor from Queensbury because “it was time to take a dream of becoming Dr. Seeber Conine to the next level and make it happen” expects to resign on or before Jan. 23, 2023. Her current term ends on Dec. 31, 2023.
“I am very proud to have been the first woman to chair the Board of Supervisors in Warren County,” she told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com. “Everything I did as Chairwoman was an attempt to move Warren County forward in a positive way. Institutional change is always hard. My decision to resign was influenced by many factors, but first and foremost a desire to focus on my professional career now that I have earned my doctorate in Education and to spend more time with my family.”
She said she is most proud of her efforts to improve transparency and communication.
“Since I first ran for office in 2013 and went to work for the people of Queensbury, I have prioritized sharing as much information as possible with our public, as it should be. They are in fact paying the bills. It's important that they can see how they are being represented … Establishing streaming to YouTube in 2014 then incorporating a YouTube channel into our official website and minutes along with YouTube live and for a brief time Zoom capabilities, are all examples of initiatives that should have been much easier to implement than they were, but government has never been known for being user-friendly.”
Doug Beaty, a fellow Republican at-large supervisor from Queensbury, said her legacy is one of accomplishment.
“She was the first female chair of the Warren County Board of Supervisors,” Beaty said. “That alone is a huge accomplishment. And she’s probably the hardest worker of any supervisor I’ve ever seen up there.”
Beaty said Seeber not only increased transparency, but led the fight for new ethics laws, pushed for personnel evaluations and changed the occupancy tax application process.
“She increased transparency ten fold,” he said. “The communication with the board while she was chair was consistent. It was full openness. She made everything available to everyone.”
Now, Beaty said, “we have to fight for basic information like the documents that came with Al Snow’s resignation as tourism director. I just sent out another email asking for those. It’s a farce. But Rachel was about total openness. She should be very proud of making the county more transparent.”
She also clashed with some long-time board members.
“She turned off the good-old boys,” Beaty said, laughing. “Some people started to have to work and they didn’t like it.”
As chair of the board Seeber created minority and majority leadership positions that Queensbury Supervisor John Strough fought vigorously to change.
Arguments surrounding sexism and mysogyny plagued the board as they worked to find consensus about the positions, the Post-Star reported in early 2021, after Seeber ascended to the chair.
The positions were removed by Geraghty when he became board chair earlier this year. After Geraghty’s changes, the Post-Star reported that women on the board, Seeber among them, saw sexism in Geraghty’s choices in committee leadership positions.
Asked for comment on Seeber’s time on the board, Strough declined, as did current County Board chair Kevin Geraghty.
Democrat Claudia Braymer, county supervisor from Glens Falls’ Ward 3, said, “She and I obviously disagree on national politics, but we were able to find common ground when it came to serving the residents of Warren County on local issues. As chair, I really appreciated her dedication to informing the members of the board about what was happening and things that were coming up on the agendas. That was something that didn’t always happen with prior chairs.”
Does Seeber wish things had gone differently?
“Naturally everyone looks back on their work with a critical eye but overall, no,” she said. “I know that I did the best job that I could under very difficult circumstances.”
When she resigns, the Queensbury Town Board will begin seeking information from interested candidates seeking to fill the vacancy, Supervisor John Strough said.
The Town Board will interview candidates and any Town Board member may submit a nomination. If the candidate nominated receives three votes (out of five), then will be appointed the interim replacement, he said.
“It would be my opinion that whoever gets put forward for Town Board consideration, is an individual who is seeking to run for that office, Town of Queensbury Supervisor-at-large, in the 2023 election,” Strough said.
Correction: We removed a line about the reaction to Seeber's retirement that depicted a reaction from leadership that was not quite accurate.