By HEATHER NELLIS

For the C-S-E

FONDA — The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday delayed adopting a district map for the legislature set to start next year, instead opting to wait for the Amsterdam Common Council’s adoption of new city ward boundaries.

The city has yet to complete the mandatory redistricting process since the release of the 2010 U.S. Census, but Amsterdam officials plan to meet next week in a special meeting to vote on the changes.

“The city has to do its work before we can do ours,” said Board Chairman and Root Supervisor John Thayer.

Thayer and county Senior Planner Doug Greene presented six revisions to the nine-district map crafted and endorsed by the Charter Commission.

Those six changes propose moving roughly 200 residents to different districts, mostly city residents, while a change at Fort Plain moves three residents, and the last at Palatine Bridge moves another three.

The revisions are part of what Thayer described as a concerted effort to eliminate unnecessarily small election districts, because each has to be staffed with inspectors, and provided with specific ballots.

Thayer said if the maps were adopted by the county before the new ward boundaries are adopted in the city, situations could arise that the county was trying to avoid in the first place.

“If they move things in the city, it may or may not overlap the boundaries,” he said.

“If you decide you want to make the changes tonight, I believe we have the authority to do so, but each election district gets charged back to the municipality, because of inspectors and separate ballots that drives the cost up,” Thayer said later. “So we’re realistically preventing the election from being more costly than it already is.”

The same reasons were cited by county Republican election Commissioner Terrance Smith in revisions he recently recommended that would have moved about 1,900 residents, most of them in the city.

But Thayer pointed to comments fielded by the board during a January public hearing on the map.

“What we heard was people were not happy about large-scale changes, so we did small changes that make sense,” he said.

Smith, who was present at Tuesday’s meeting, was asked if the revisions reviewed Tuesday would reduce the number of election districts.

“We’re taking a position we won’t make any possible changes until the map is adopted,” Smith said. He said he hadn’t reviewed the changes yet because Democratic election Commissioner Jamie Duchessi is out on vacation.

“After the district boundaries are settled, we will sit down and try to decide what is best for the voters,” Smith said. “Why do the work when there is no solid number?”

Amsterdam 2nd Ward Supervisor Jeff Stark questioned the change in tune.

“One day it depends on saving money, the next day it’s something else, and it’s another week,” he said.

County Attorney Douglas Landon told the board he recommended waiting to adopt the district map until the city finishes its review.

“If the city is imminently going to be adjusting these boundaries, it would seem premature for county to formally adopt the districts until that occurs.”

Thayer pointed out the county has to adopt the map by the end of March.

• In related news, the county board’s Education & Government Committee moved a resolution Tuesday that sets the salaries of the legislators, chairman and county executive.

The committee agreed in 5-2 votes that the legislators will be paid the same salaries supervisors currently receive — $10,000, and the chairman at $15,000.

The executive’s salary was set at $85,000, an amendment sponsored by Amsterdam town Supervisor Thomas DiMezza. He originally sponsored an amendment that would have set the salary at $90,000, but it didn’t have enough support.

Committee Chairman and Glen Supervisor Lawrence Coddington said the $85,000 figure reflects the average salaries of other executives around the state, based on research he conducted.

Stark proposed setting the salary at $77,000, and reducing the salary for the legislators, but that didn’t garner support, either.

Though a majority of the committee agreed on figures, Coddington predicted they’ll change when voted on by the full board Feb. 26.