George Cooke Should Keep His Head up High

by: Bill Liblick

George Cooke is one of the most respected, likable, and hardworking elected officials Sullivan County has ever seen. For the past 16 years he has been our County Clerk. He was so popular with the electorate, he would run unopposed.

To see him being forced to step down from public service due to charges of harassment is very upsetting.

No form of harassment should ever be tolerated.

Unfortunately, these days the term harassment is used very loosely.  It has become routine if not too easy for an employee to bring their boss up on charges whether sexual in nature or not.

Very often these allegations are brought to the surface because of other underlying factors, or due to the fact that a joke in poor taste had gone sour.

There is always that fine line, and sometimes we all unintentionally cross that line.

When a joke is no longer a joke and innocent flirting is no longer innocent, a big mess usually arises - such is in the case of County Clerk George Cooke.

It a tragic embarrassment to see a public servant who has accomplished so much forced out of office for these reasons.

Under the terms of the settlement reached with Sullivan County, Nora Manzolillo, Cooke’s former deputy clerk, will be reinstated in her job, and he will resign.

Manzolillo, who was hired and then fired by Cooke, claimed that he discriminated against her.

It has been reported that Manzolillo had an argument with Cooke over her desire to purchase a county-leased vehicle. Cooke maintained that such a purchase would be unethical and damage the integrity of the office.

Manzolillo then alleged that she was let go without cause and suddenly accused Cooke with making inappropriate sexual remarks to female employees in the office.

Apparently County Attorney Sam Yasgur and members of the Legislature felt that there was some merit to incriminate Cooke in the matter. There are reports that taxpayers had to shell out a huge sum of money in a settlement.

Cooke will stay on until the beginning of the year for several reasons. One of them being that the appointment of his successor will be made by a Democratic Governor and not a Republican. Our legislature is controlled by the Democrats, and they want to see a member of their party run the County Clerk’s office.

I have privately been told that Cooke is out of town for the next two weeks, and will mostly likely announce that he has accepted a new position when he returns.

Although Manzolillo says she was not the recipient of sexual comments, she claims others in the office were.

Sexual allegations involving public officials is nothing new, they seem to go hand and hand. We read and hear stories about it everyday.  Look we are all human, and we all make mistakes.

I remember when highly respected Bronx Surrogate Judge Bertram Gelfand was forced to leave office because he was obsessed with his secretary, and kept leaving her sexual messages on her answering machine.

In New Jersey, former Governor Jim McGreevy recently resigned and removed himself from politics, not because he did something illegal, but because of sexual humiliation.

In Cooke’s case it doesn’t even go that far.

All that has been implied is that he made some “inappropriate sexual comments.” That is all. In all probability if Cooke did say something sexual, he almost certainly must have felt it was just harmless fun.

Maybe in the private sector these things would go unnoticed, and no one would care. When you are a public official I guess we expect and deserve more. Every ounce of the lives of a municipal servant is under unrestricted scrutiny. 

That is why it is so hard to find qualified people to run for political office these days. They are afraid that any form of imprudence would ruin their lives.

Let me make it very clear, I am in no way condoning what Cooke has been accused of.  We do not know the entire story and probably never will.

Most certainly, Sullivan County residents cannot erase all the good George Cooke has done for us because of all of this. We are all adults here.

People in political circles both Democrat and Republican have nothing but praise for Cooke.  They say he is regarded statewide as a fun loving person who is highly respected for the job he does.  Perhaps it is his elevated sense of humor which got him in trouble in the first place?

Town of Thompson Supervisor Tony Cellini who is a close friend of Cooke’s discussed his forthcoming resignation with me. He as everyone else whom I spoke with expressed shocked that Cooke was resigning.

Cellini who has known Cooke since the early 60’s said he has never found him to be out of line.  He called Cooke Sullivan County’s number one elected Official.

And - I know many people will agree with Cellini. 

Speaking of his resignation, the noble Town of Thompson Supervisor in a raised voice exclaimed “If Cooke were such a criminal he should have immediately been removed from office.  Why do they still want him there?”

Cellini, who is never lost for words, said he felt Sullivan County officials sold Cooke “Down the river and over the water falls.” Right on Mr. Cellini!

George Cooke has served Sullivan County over the years in a commendable and exemplary fashion. Let us take that into account - he deserves that from all of us.

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