NORWICH – A closed meeting of a small group of Republican supervisors held last week in the county office building raised the ire of at least two county leaders who weren’t invited, both of them also Republicans.

The meeting was convened in the morning on Thursday, May 5 to introduce Chenango County’s newly-contracted union negotiator and to discuss new labor contracts with the Law Enforcement Association and Chenango County Sheriff’s Employee’s Association. Wayne Outwater, R-Lincklaen, chairman of the county’s personnel committee, said Monday that he called the meeting, but he was not specific in a previous phone interview about that. He said it was a meeting of “mostly committee chairmen.”

City of Norwich Supervisor Linda E. Natoli brought the special meeting to the county board’s attention Monday, and complained that if all lawmakers are to vote on union contracts eventually, they should be able to know the particulars.

Town of Plymouth Supervisor Jerry Kreiner said the unannounced gathering was “a slap in the face to the rest of us.”

“As we go forward and begin to talk about the budget and any possible lay offs that might result from these discussions ... it shouldn’t be a select few who are involved,” he said.

Chenango County Board Chairman Richard B. Decker, R-N. Norwich, did not attend the meeting, nor was he invited. Decker has traditionally represented the county in negotiations with the support of the law firm, Hancock Estabrook, LLC of Syracuse. He said the firm recommended a new consultant, LeRoy Kotary of New Hartford, to handle the job this year because, as he said, “I’m not going to do it any more.”

Decker, who is in his 14th year in the top job, said he has become frustrated by government employees’ rising health insurance and retirement costs (some pensions are over 3 percent this year), and the lengthy push/pull between union reps protecting workers’ compensation packages and supervisors wanting to rein in both benefit costs and raises.