Phil Barrett has spent more than a quarter-century as one of the most recognizable Republican officials in Saratoga County, first as Clifton Park’s town supervisor and, for most of the past two decades, as chairman of the county’s 23-member Board of Supervisors.
In January 2026, his colleagues elected him to a fourth consecutive term leading the county board, even as Democrats were making some of their biggest gains in county politics in a generation.
Quick Facts
- Party
- Republican
- Hometown
- Clifton Park, N.Y.
- Current Positions
- Town Supervisor, Clifton Park; Chairman, Saratoga County Board of Supervisors
- Background
- U.S. Army Reserve officer; former Vice President, KeyBank
- In Office Since
- 2000 (Clifton Park Supervisor)
- Leaving Office
- End of 2026 (not seeking reelection)
EARLY LIFE
Barrett started working young, picking tobacco in a field as a seventh-grader before moving on to a paper route and a job at a lumber yard. He attended Providence College, where he earned a business degree through the school’s ROTC program and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve.
BANKING CAREER AND MOVE TO CLIFTON PARK
After college, Barrett built a career in banking, eventually rising to vice president at KeyBank which he only left in 2011 when Town Supervisor of Clifton Park became a full-time job. His work eventually brought him to New York’s Capital Region, where he settled in Clifton Park, a fast-growing Saratoga County suburb just north of Albany.
CLIFTON PARK TOWN SUPERVISOR
Barrett has said his entry into politics was prompted by frustration over how much of his paycheck went to taxes. Looking at what he considered unfinished business in his adopted hometown, he ran for Clifton Park town supervisor in 1999 on a platform built around fiscal restraint, rehabilitating the town’s ice arena and revitalizing the commercial corridor around Exit 9 of the Adirondack Northway. He won the seat and took office in January 2000.
SARATOGA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS CHAIRMAN
COUNTY POPULATION GROWTH, 2020–2026
Saratoga ranks fifth among New York’s 62 counties for population growth since 2020, according to county-level Census Bureau estimates. Source: PagPol Economic Breakdown
First chairmanship
Barrett first won election to the chairmanship in 2007, his eighth year on the county board, since the seat comes with being Clifton Park’s town supervisor, a post he’d held since 2000. Saratoga County’s board chairman isn’t a separately elected office: it’s chosen annually by the sitting town supervisors (plus Saratoga Springs’s representatives) at the board’s organizational meeting, using the same weighted-vote system still in use today.
He didn’t hold onto it continuously, though. He later left the chairmanship, and Todd Kusnierz of Moreau held it for a stretch that included the COVID years. Kusnierz is the supervisor who drew criticism from Saratoga Springs Supervisor Tara Gaston in 2021 for refusing to enforce the state’s mask mandate. Barrett picked the chairmanship back up after Kusnierz lost his town supervisor seat in the November 2023 election, which cost him his spot on the county board entirely.
Return to the chair
Starting in his 2023 term, Barrett has been reelected every year since. Most recently, in January 2026, when his colleagues gave him a fourth consecutive term with a bipartisan vote representing 98% of the board’s weighted vote. “I am honored by the confidence my colleagues have placed in me by selecting me to serve a fourth term as Chair of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors,” Barrett said after the vote. Ian Murray, the Town of Saratoga’s supervisor, was elected vice chairman and will also lead the board’s Law & Finance Committee.
Priorities as chairman
During his recent terms as chairman, Barrett has repeatedly paired fiscal-discipline messaging with a defined slate of initiatives. When he was selected to a second consecutive term for 2025, presiding over a board of 23 supervisors and a $432 million county budget, Barrett said meeting “the challenges of the communities in the county is our responsibility,” and pointed to the county’s plan to spend roughly $3 million on a permanent home for its Code Blue homeless-shelter program on Route 50 in Saratoga Springs. He also cited a review of county buildings prompted by population growth and updated building codes, and said the board would examine new state short-term-rental rules together with the hospitality industry.
Phil Barrett speaks at podium after being named to top Saratoga County seat.
GOVERNING PHILOSOPHY
Barrett has described his approach to county government in consistently fiscal terms. After an earlier reelection as chairman, he said his priorities were “fiscally disciplined policies,” economic development, preserving open space and maintaining essential county services. On his personal blog, Clifton Park and Beyond, he has continued to press those themes, criticizing state green-energy financing and regulatory changes he argues will raise costs for taxpayers, and writing about infrastructure projects such as Route 146 corridor improvements and an expansion of the county’s water system.
CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISM
The "revenge tour" dispute
Barrett drew criticism in late 2025 after Clifton Park Democrats, who had just won a Town Board majority for the first time in more than 30 years, moved to review roughly 10 appointed town positions that lack civil service protection. Barrett called a Nov. 13, 2025, Democratic Committee press release inviting applicants for those jobs a “heavy-handed assault” on the employees who held them, and said the incoming highway superintendent nominee had asked for a personnel list distinguishing union members from those with civil service status. Barrett labeled the episode a “revenge tour” and a government “takeover,” drawing a comparison to 2022, when two Clifton Park board members resigned amid political turmoil. He defended the employees in question, saying they were hired solely because they had “the necessary qualifications to do the job,” including relevant licenses, certifications and academic background.
Ram Lalukota (left), an incoming Clifton Park Town Board member, pushed back on Barrett’s characterization of the transition as a “revenge tour.”
Incoming Democratic officials pushed back on Barrett’s characterization. Ram Lalukota, one of the incoming board members, dismissed talk of layoffs as “rumors” and said the transition’s focus was “transparency and accountability,” while Nancy Bellamy said early meetings with department heads were mostly “meet-and-greets” ahead of more substantive sessions planned for the new year. The outgoing Republican-controlled board voted Dec. 15, 2025, to expand collective-bargaining eligibility to some of the previously unprotected positions before the new board took office.
NOT SEEKING REELECTION
LOOKING AHEAD
Phil Barrett’s departure at the end of 2026 will close out more than a quarter-century of Republican leadership in two of Saratoga County’s most powerful local offices, at a moment when Democrats are showing new strength in county races.
Readers can follow the transition and the race to succeed him through the Saratoga County government’s own site and the Town of Clifton Park’s supervisor page. Additionally, PagPol will be including new information in our Saratoga newsletter (below).
