South Glens Falls’ Planning Board chairman said that a man should be appointed to fill a board vacancy because of the biblical story about the fall of man, the Post Star reports.

Chairman David Linehan made the comments at a recent Planning Board meeting and repeated them to a Post Star reporter, insisting that it was reasonable to choose a man for the post.

“If you go back to the earliest years of Creation, God created man first. So it was man’s responsibility to make sure the woman didn’t eat from the Tree of Good and Evil,” Linehan said, according to the report. “So if I had a man who was sensitive to the idea that man didn’t do a good job of reminding the woman, we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in.”

The board has an opening for an alternate member.

At the end of the interview Linehan, who has chaired the board for 30 years, added that professional planning skills might also be a good qualification.

“It was probably not the right comment to make, as I reflect on it. But then again, if you go back to the story of Creation, men feel they need to be a little more considerate and mindful of what the rules are, and they could share that with the females,” he said to the Post Star.

Mayor Harry Gutheil told the paper he would not take gender in to consideration when he made the appointment.

Linehan also defended his view to the paper, arguing that appointing a man to the vacancy would create a gender balance on the board, which currently has three women and two men.

“If you only have two males, you’re less than 50 percent,” he said. “It was more of an affirmative action statement. We’re in the minority.”

The Post Star reports that in the past the board has typically only had one female member and that Linehan has never asked for a woman to be appointed to fill a vacant spot.