Seneca County has been without a county manager for the past two weeks. The Seneca County Board of Supervisors held their year-end meeting Tuesday afternoon and met in excutive session for 30-minutes to discuss the future of County Manager Keith Ashby. Ashby has not been at work since December 14th according to board chaiman Robert Shipley.Ashby is under investigation by State Police and Wayne County District Attorney Richard Healy in to charges of bid rigging inconnection with a Seneca Falls auto repair shop owner over the maintenance of the county’s fleet of 80-vehicles. Shipley said yesteday he expects the matter to be settled in the next two weeks. Meanwhile, Ashby has is still being paid. He makes $92,630 dollars a year. Deputy County Manager – Sharon Secor – is overseeing the day-to-day business of the county.Ashby did not attend yesterday’s meeting. Ashby’s status with the county is unclear following yesterday’s meeting. Chairman Shipley first said Ashby was “on vacation”, then changed to the term “administrative leave”. A fax this morning form Seneca County Attorney Steven Getman says the term “administrative leave” is quote “inaccurate and resulted from a misunderstanding”. However Getman does not offer any explaination for Ashby’s absence.At their year-end meeting yesterday the Seneca County Board of Supervisors voted to increase salaries for all full and part-time management employees. The 2-and-half percent cost of living increase is half-a-percent more than what was included in the recently approved budget. The supervisors will have to come up with just over $12,000 more to pay for the raises.
