Democracy In Albany

Things to do: New mayor, new council.  

As the police union apparently hates her shouldn't she go out the door with Tuffy?

And yes, it bothers me to know that he is taking illegal exemptions.  Again, it's the character and fitness.

So, in the end I, guess that character and personal conduct matters. I wonder how many of the people who are rightly disgusted by Scavo's reported conduct defended William Jefferson Clinton after it came out that he was getting blown by a horse?  

The election of Brian Scavo is a good example of what is really the matter with Albany being a one party town.  No offense to the Green Party, but they are not really capable capturing the center during the election and now we have County Legislator Scavo.    

You got me. I'm a Troll trying to keep everyone from discussing the state of the city budget.

DIA recently said that he was bringing in help and I think its great that he has brought you in to make a determination of what is relevant on a thread.  You really are truly a credit to the traditional Albany Democratic process.  DIA, good job bringing in muscle to police our democratic discussion.  Corning would be so proud.  

Here I thought you were going to bring back a firebrand like Mike Stark to keep up the discussion and instead here is Albany Layman, the blogging equivalent on a hall monitor to make sure we all stick to the relevant discussion.  

You did, DIA, bring this guy on board, right? Or is Mr Hall Monitor one of those new know it alls who think they have the right to make everyone conform to their way of thinking and doing things?

As its been a long time since I crossed a hall monitor whats the punishment.  Do I have to delete computer files now that cleaning chalk board is so obsolete?

So Mr Layman Hall Monitor, lets discuss the budget.   Um. Its big.  Its bloated. There are 75 slots open and no one noticed that the jobs were empty.  Maybe the Common Coun....

Screw it.

Why bother?

The Common Council doesn't have any power because they don't want any.  That's what the whole charter reform garbage was about.  So why bother talking about a budget when the people who are supposed to be reviewing it determined that they shouldn't have a say?  

If the council was at all concerned with the budget problem they could force the issue.  And because they won't its safe for the members to posture.  Sounds great. Means nothing. Yea!

So, Mr Hall Monitor, answer me this, was the last two paragraphs above relevant to the thread because they show the futility of discussing the budget or are they just another attempt to provoke you into making more trolling comments?  

Once again, I publicly admit that I was wrong on charter reform.  I also publicly stated that it is time to revisit the issue.  I believe that I also credited you for opening my eyes on the issue.  I live. I learn.  

I don't think I have said anything about Smith.  I don't know enough about her to have an opinion.  As for Ellis, I think that he is ineffective.  He may have been a successful New York attorney but his jumping on the abandoned building band wagon AFTER his relatives house was demolished hit me as political opportunism.

He didn't produce anything that indicated that he gave a damn before the cameras were set up. Didn't produce a shred of evidence that he tried to intercede on behalf of those poor folks. No letters were produced. No indication that he made any phone calls.  Nothing from the council member that represented them that Ellis tried to do a damn thing.  If my uncle told me that they had problems with an adjacent house I would have been all over codes and made a big public stink.  Any letters to the editor that I missed? And stories in the Metroland? Any phone calls to code enforcement?  So did Ellis care before the problem made the press?  

His publicity stunt about the vacant property list also shows that he isn't very well informed. I also read a copy of the vacant property report and had someone clarify what the definitions meant after I had the same questions.  Clearly he either didn't understand the report or didn't bother to ask what criteria was used.  I made a phone call. He apparently did not.

Maybe he is just getting his feet wet politically. Lets see what he does in the future. In this post, and earlier, I have admitted that my opinion has changed with regards to charter reform.  Maybe in a few months I will be posting that I have changed my opinion regarding him. Lets hope so.  An effective common council member is good for all of us.  

As for Calsolaro, I am not sure what to think. I do appreciate that he is open to dialog and will take the time to respond to questions.  I hope that he develops into a true community leader and will lead the charge in protecting the citizens of our fair city from the scourge of bad government.  But words do not necessarily equal action.  As the anti-Jennings faction is supposed to be in charge of the Common Council I have to wonder why there hasn't been a more aggressive attempt to reign in expenses and to AUDIT the city departments and authorities to see if the money is being spent wisely or if the tax dollars are being wasted or, frankly, stolen.  

As for Layman.  I welcome discussion, although if someone is going to say I am off topic on this board it should be you, my friend, not him.   Your blog and you are not exactly shy about telling people to stick on topic, are you?

I when I was typing my response to Layman I was actually thinking about one of the school board candidates calling Jennings a glorified hall monitor and was going to say that maybe Layman had a good future. But then I recalled that the candidate who called Jennings that had a city owned dump truck "accidentally" back up onto the hood of his Saturn the night of the debate.  

My post today was a poor attempt at humor. Its been a long week so far. Again, you tell me that I should stick to the threat then I will listen.  I do look forward to Layman calling me out.  Again, any discussion in this town is a good thing.  

I hadn't really noticed that the clown was gone.  I will have to go back and see what I missed. I do miss Mike. No question. I do not agree with his tactics but I do admire his energy.  

As for the budget, now that I am on task, I have to wonder why the Common Council has not demanded that the city departments and authorities, like the IDA, be audited.

We have witnessed city employees scrapping city owned property for cash. Has any of our elected officials demanded to know what these people were scrapping? Did they simply go into a store room and grab stuff off the shelf and convert it into cash? Did they strip out the copper from the city owned properties?  

In the private sector everything has to be accounted for. If there is a budget gap then the belt gets tightened and ways of making the company run more efficiently are found.   Has, anyone other than Calsolaro, questioned why the city of Albany has more municipal employees per capita then any other city in Upstate New York???  

So here are three more questions.  

1. Has anyone bothered to calculate what the property tax gifts that the IDA has given to the rich developers has cost the tax payers?

2. Can anyone explain why the per unit cost of redeveloping Park South is so damned expensive?

3. If the gold course is costing us 1.1 million dollars (or more appropriately loosing 1.1 million dollars) then why the hell is it still open?  It seems to me that the property would be a larger benefit to the tax payers of Albany if the damn thing was sold to developers so they could build those cheesy tract houses. Albany could then rake in the money from the sale, rake in taxes from the houses built, and stop loosing a million bucks in the process.  

When these incidents are coupled with the ever-increasing pig wallow that the Proposed Convention Center ruse has become, the landfill caper, the Water Department caper, the Park South caper, and now the 2008 budget caper, it is clear that the thugs and thieves are back in full control.  

The old days are fully here again.

There could not be a more sorry display of political irresponsibility, civic irresponsibility, and theft of the public purse under color of law, in a small city, anywhere.  As each theft is concluded, and the swine retire to a manicured public golf course to revel with the rest of the swells, magically, a new, even bolder scam is conjured, sent to the compliant chatterers and scribes in the press, murmured about by the courtiers and jokesters at City Hall, and viola! -- even more of the public purse ends up in private pockets, for no real work, in a city in final and tragic financial implosion.  

And as the swells frolic, and send forth their goon to chide the righteous in support of a fool,  all of the energy which could go toward helping the people of the city, the children of the city, is wasted on greed, backstabbing and scheming.

and, Johnny D. needs justification for his $80K annual salary

Not to get too distracted but I also feel the union was wrong to interpret Ms. Morris's comment as 'threatening' is laughable. The Common Council president, whether she's a mother of a child has who Scavo's hassled or not, she had every right to be concerned about the city's police union endorsing a candidate for a county election especially one as unfit for holding public office as Scavo is, Tax Cheater of Veterans' Real Property Benefits and botherer of inappropriately young and other women.

The union should be embarrassed to support such a candidate and should have understood Ms. Casey's comment, about their endorsing such a poor choice of candidate as Scavo would come back to bite them in the ass, was nothing more than educational in context and was based upon pure common sense.

Well, at least I know now a little better than before that some of those who willed this endorsement into being are acting no less the bullies than has been the chief they so admire,  Tuffey.

Al, in #14 you had some contradictory statements and also some that play the revisionist's role in skewing history to your liking.

Sadly you've underestimated and undervalue Correy Ellis' work and impact. Sometimes a tragedy opens many peoples eyes to the surroundings they've become all too comfortable with seeing it unchanged perpetually, except for the worse.

Just because people are related, it doesn't mean that communicate often and even if they did how many uncles do you know that would discuss their fiscal and other hardships with their nephews?

He did ask for a better understanding of the vacant building report, but his FOIL request was at first denied. He reformatted his request and I believe it has since been granted, but I cannot confirm this to be so.

Ellis has gotten his feet wet, Al. He's jumped in with both feet and trying his best to help not only his constituents, but the city in general.

Your comment about Calsolaro is one of your contradictory statements.

"I hope that he develops into a true community leader and will lead the charge in protecting the citizens of our fair city from the scourge of bad government.  But words do not necessarily equal action."

Al, you'd be run over by the band wagon because you didn't recognize it's leader marching ahead.

Name one council member who has been more out front about the many unpleasant problems facing the city than Dominick Calsolaro. Just one, Al.

Mr. Calsolaro and Mr. Ellis are the faces of our city's leaders who know doing the right thing is essential to the city's survival. There are others who are with them and also deserve credit: Ms. Smith, Ms. Morris and Ms. Fahey are a few who immediately come to mind. More will need to join in or risk being put out of office come election time.

You should offer to help Ellis, rather than stand by and criticize from the sidelines. He's serious and so should you be.

"As the anti-Jennings faction is supposed to be in charge of the Common Council I have to wonder..." Well Al, I have to wonder too, where'd you get this bit of Newman insight from, the Common Council's voting record?

The Golf Course is within stumbling distance to Hiz Onerous one's suburban dwelling.

On another note, financial in nature, If Jennings puts forth a plan to privatize the Rapp Road Landfill, to sell it off to the highest bidder,
remember this:

"Former Mayor and Chief Financial Officer for the City of Albany Jerry Jennings has been sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison after admitting to securities and bank fraud charges. Jennings was accused of artificially inflating earnings in 1998, 1999, 2000 and each year since
to meet Wall Street analysts' expectations and to meet earnings targets that were set when the limit was raised on the Dump's annual intake of garbage."

"Albany filed for bankruptcy in 2010."

The above scenario is obviously fiction, set far off in the future, and has no truth to it at all, does it?

Beware of any plan that Jennings puts forth because it seems all he has has cost you  more than you can afford.