The Stipend That Wasn't Earned: Wojehowski's MS4 Justification Doesn't Match the Plan He Signed

When Town Supervisor Josh Wojehowski sought a stipend for serving as Cornwall's MS4 Stormwater Management Operator, he circulated a justification document listing an impressive array of duties: preparing and filing the Annual Compliance Report, developing the Stormwater Management Program, overseeing construction runoff inspections, handling recordkeeping and mapping, and coordinating with NYSDEC and town consultants. The document concluded that these responsibilities "represent a substantial additional workload" beyond his statutory duties as Supervisor.

There's just one problem: Cornwall's own official Stormwater Management Program Plan, a 59 page document prepared in January 2026 and signed under Wojehowski's authority, tells a very different story.

The justification prominently lists "preparation, certification, and filing of the Annual MS4 Compliance Report" as a key responsibility driving the stipend. But the SWMP Plan states plainly:

MHE Engineering is a private firm paid separately for its services. Wojehowski's role is to be the named Operator, not to do the technical preparation. The heavy lifting is already on someone else's invoice.

The justification claims the Supervisor oversees "construction site stormwater runoff compliance, inspections, and enforcement." According to the SWMP's own responsible parties table, Minimum Control Measure #4, covering construction runoff, is assigned to Highway Superintendent Tom Gschwind and Building Inspector Gary Vinson. The Town Supervisor is not listed for MCM 4 at all.

The cover page of the SWMP Plan identifies MHE Engineering D.P.C. as the document's author. The Stormwater Program Coordinator, responsible for "overseeing the implementation and enforcement of this SWMP," is the Town Engineer, not the Town Supervisor. Wojehowski's role in "developing" the program amounts to accepting a plan prepared by outside engineers Cornwall taxpayers are already paying for.

Per the SWMP, the Supervisor's concrete assigned duties are limited to Minimum Control Measures 1 and 2, public education and public involvement. In practice, this means: ensuring a stormwater pamphlet is distributed, maintaining a webpage, serving as a point of contact for public concerns, and holding a public meeting if at least two residents request one.

That is the full scope of the work Wojehowski used to justify a stipend.

Which makes a recent development worth noting. At the March 17, 2026 Town Board meeting, Wojehowski moved to hire a private communications consultant at $30 per hour, for public outreach and community messaging. He tabled the vote when board members raised questions, but stated the hire is coming back. Public education and outreach are not only the primary duties the SWMP assigns to the MS4 Operator, they are also the primary description of what a municipal communications consultant does. If someone else is hired to handle that work, the rationale for the stipend becomes even harder to defend.

Cornwall is not the only Orange County town designated as an MS4. The Town of Montgomery, also a regulated MS4 under the same NYSDEC General Permit, operates under a nearly identical structure: the Town Engineer serves as Stormwater Program Coordinator and is responsible for filing annual reports, while the Town Supervisor is listed as MS4 Operator. There is no mention of a supervisor stipend for that role.

In the City of Newburgh, the MS4 Stormwater Management Officer is a staff position within the Department of Public Works, a role held by a designated employee, not an elected official collecting extra compensation on top of an elected salary.

The pattern across comparable municipalities is consistent: the MS4 Operator designation falls to the elected supervisor as a matter of organizational structure, while the substantive technical work is handled by engineers, department heads, and staff. No comparable municipality in Orange County appears to have converted that nominal designation into a personal stipend for the elected official holding the title.

Cornwall taxpayers paid for the plan. They can read it alongside the justification and decide for themselves whether the numbers add up.

CornwallTruth.com | Town of Cornwall, New York | March 2026
Published anonymously in the public interest. All source documents are publicly available municipal records.