She asked Booth how available he would be to trouble-shoot Adirondack issues from Ithaca and was reassured he would make it a point to be available.

But, later in the conversation, he told Sayward and Enck how difficult it was to get away even once a year to the Booth family camp on Cumberland Head in Plattsburgh.

Sayward, eyebrows raised, told the supervisors she highlighted that statement to Enck.

At a breakfast meeting the Tuesday before session closed, Sayward said, Spitzer told a group of North Country legislators he had decided not to appoint Booth as APA chairman.

"He (Spitzer) said he would be appointing someone from the park, but he didn't say who.

"We considered it a success," Sayward said, "in keeping the chairmanship in the Adirondacks."

Sayward expects the nomination will be made "if we are back (in session) in July."

TAX REFORM

In addition to appointments, Sayward said, Albany has not made progress in looking for property-tax-reform measures.

"STAR got extended instead of doing any reform," she told the county supervisors.

The New York State United Teachers refuted property-tax cap options and successfully stalled the process.

"The proposal has been changed," Sayward said. "They took out any language that said the commission would look at all aspects of property-tax reform."

After the meeting, Sayward said California's property-tax cap, known as Proposition 13, works to keep existing property assessments at about cost-of-living increases every three years by revaluing property when it is sold.

Undervaluing is monitored in that state by auditors who visit when a property goes on the market.

As a ranking member of the Environmental Conservation Committee, Sayward said there has been successful discussion toward creating a Adirondacks land bank, a pool of property-purchase options for towns to use if they need to expand for public infrastructure.