Town Supervisor is an elective legislative position in New York towns. Supervisors sit on the town board, where they preside over town board meetings and vote on all matters with no more legal weight than that of any other board member (no tie-breaking or veto powers).
Towns may adopt local laws that allow them to provide for an executive branch, an action authorized by the New York State Legislature. As such, some supervisors have additional authority or executive powers, whereas some towns have town managers or chief executive officers who serve as the executive branch, leaving the supervisor to his or her traditional role in the legislative branch.
In most towns the supervisor is considered a full-time position, although many supervisors also have other jobs concurrently, while the service on the town board is considered part-time work.
Famous quotes containing the words town and/or supervisor:
“When, in some obscure country town, the farmers come together to a special town meeting, to express their opinion on some subject which is vexing to the land, that, I think, is the true Congress, and the most respectable one that is ever assembled in the United States.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We work harder than ever, and I cannot see the advantages in cooperative living.”
—Lydia Arnold, U.S. commune supervisor (of the North American Phalanx, Red Bank, New Jersey, 1843- 1855)