Odell is Wild Card in Putnam Politics

Mary Ellen Odell is an outsider deep in Putnam’s politics. Though she was recently named deputy chair of the County Legislature, Odell is still considered a newer player on the political scene. Her approach to politics is not particularly ideological. But her convictions against cronyism and the bilking of the county’s middle class by special interests make her a wild card in Putnam’s bewildering and cliquish political scene.

Last spring Odell was vocal in calling on Putnam County to disobey the MTA tax, while others like County Executive Bob Bondi said that such a move was irresponsible. Though the county considered refusing to pay the retroactive tax it was assessed, it was determined that penalties and increases would accrue if it did so. But Odell says she stills stands by the call for civil disobedience. “We were told on advice of counsel that elected officials couldn’t do that. But I think that’s meaningless,” Odell said. “If you’re going to be the voice of the people, and the people’s voice must prevail, we have to call for civil disobedience.”

Odell said the county has received correspondence from Rockland County on how to resist the MTA tax and reported that she is working with other officials to build consensus for a regional resistance. “One county won’t be as effective as a regional approach,” said Odell. She noted the turnout at Assemblyman Ball’s meeting with the Mahopac-Carmel Chamber of Commerce on January 28: “The Assemblyman is definitely willing to lead the rebel yell,” said Odell, “I’m positive we can engage in a regional effort.”

Odell’s family moved up to Putnam in the 1960s. Her father came as part of the large influx of firemen, policemen, and builders. She is a 1978 alumna Carmel High, from which her husband of 25 years, David, also graduated. He is a land surveyor and defensive coordinator at Kennedy High School. After a brief stint in Connecticut, the Odells settled in Carmel for good. Mary Ellen Odell has a titling business and two children. Her son David (“Boomer”) now 18, is headed to Holy Cross for college and her daughter, Hope, 21, is finishing nursing school.

Odell began her civic involvement in earnest in the mid 1990s. The first issue that caught her attention was a proposed $1.4 million gallon sewer plant in the hamlet of Carmel nearly three times the size that the area demanded. It was then that Odell began attending town meetings.

By 1995, Odell was leading an effort to organize the Carmel Sports Association. “I had the support of not only new parents, but also those that had built it before,” said Odell, “We kicked off with a basketball program, and a Little League the following spring. Now it’s a thriving organization that runs with no tax dollars, which was the mission.”

From there, Odell said, “I found some boards, and some boards found me.” Her posts included positions on the Carmel Industrial Development Agency and the Carmel Economic Development Committee, then later on the Executive Board of the Gold Star Mother’s statue. When Arne Nordstrom, then a county legislator, won the Kent Supervisor seat, Odell was appointed to fill his second year in 2006.

“I felt like the guppy dropped in the tank,” Odell said. Everyone was sizing up their new peer. “They wondered, would having a relationship with me put them in any better or worse position?”

New to elected politics, Odell had the unenviable task of running two consecutive elections—a special election in 2006 and a run for her first full term in 2007. “When I won my own term I felt like was confirmed,” said Odell, “like I finally owned the seat.”

Of her colleagues Odell said, “It was a very established ensemble of individuals. They had their own way of doing, or not doing, things.” She had strong relationships with Republican chairman Tony Scannapieco and state Senator Vincent Leibell, through her work on veteran’s issues. But her partnership with Leibell has been strained from time to time.

Odell’s politics are neither rigidly ideological nor aimlessly pragmatic. Her fiscal conservatism expresses itself in her desire to find new ways of performing county functions, whether it was electronic court appearances to save costs on police overtime, or her current explorations of ways to coordinate the functions of highway departments across Putnam.

Odell’s concern is not to slash government, but to make sure it runs fairly, equitably, and in the interests of the people, rather than special interests. “Government was put in place to work for us,” said Odell. “Now it seems like we are working for the government. The government is not doing well for the people who work hard every day. The people who get up every morning, do the right thing, and pay their fair freight are the real special interest government should be serving.”

On the MTA tax, and the cost of government in general, Odell framed the battle as between hardworking people and a class of loafers enabled by corrupt politicians. “How many of us have what we have, because we earned it?” asked Odell. “And now New York City and Albany want a free ride on us. Everything they have is built on someone else’s blood sweat and tears.”

Odell balances her instinct to call out political insiders with a reformer’s zeal for modest change. One the one hand she’ll assail what she sees as frivolous spending: “We can’t have Mr. Bondi’s one-hundred-thousand-dollar chief of staff, not when schools are putting on a spending freeze,” she said. On the other, she seeks state grants that would incentivize county government to conduct business more efficiently: “Grants can help us learn to do things better,” said Odell. “It’s changing a process and getting a cost savings, like electronic appearance.”

Odell’s star has been rising. Her experience in her titling business has given her insights into tax structures locally. And her first term in the legislature has her being talked about as a candidate for the open Assembly seat. Though Odell gave no hints on questions about higher office, she offered a glimpse of what would motivate her to run: “When was the last time a piece of legislation came out of Albany that actually made my business or my income better?” asked Odell. “It’s been a long time.”