Schaffer Defends Trip To NYC

3/13/2013 (Updated 10:55:21 PM)

No, I'm not going to give back 14-hundred dollars in taxpayers money spent for a trip to an association of towns meeting in New York City.

That's what Vestal Town Supervisor John Schaffer told members of the anti-fracking group, Verse, on Wednesday at a town board meeting.

Members of Verse say Schaffer went to the meeting specifically to oppose any home rule resolutions that could interfere with gas drilling in New York State.

But Schaffer says it was an educational trip-- and he wasn't taking sides.

"One lady demanded I pay the money back for the trip, never asked me if I took a class down there, if I did anything. They are assuming that I went just for this issue; totally, totally false. The thing was down there to educate myself on issues that affect the towns in the state. We all meet as a group down there, and that's our annual training," said John Schaffer, Vestal Town Supervisor.

Verse member Philip Kraft calls Schaffer's explaination a charade, and insists that Schaffer is clearly not neutral in the debate over fracking.

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