Honest Jerry Doesn't Believe in Ghosts


By DIA, Section News
Posted on Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 03:46:46 AM EST

For 15 years there has been a widespread policy of cars that parked illegally around city hall not getting tickets. For 15 years the mayor has come to work at city hall and he never figured this out. Never once did he come into the office and say, "why the hell is someone parking on the sidewalk?! Every damn day?!" Not once. He claims he knew nothing of this whole scam. And you know what, I believe him. He is like the Sergent Schultz of Albany Politics.

I don't think he knows alot of what goes on in and around city hall. Cops getting overtime for hours they didn't work? He had no clue. Just watched that overtime budget go up and up and never asked questions. Whole departments taking scrap metal and trading it in for cash and pocketing the cash. He would never think to look at the budget and ask why we don't get the same revenue we used to for scrap metal. These things don't occur to Jerry Jennings. He is too honest. At his core he is just an honest and decent and trusting man. Water Authority projects going over budget by multiples of ten? I'm sure the audit of the water authority caught him by surprise.
“The Albany Water Board and Finance Authority are more examples of very poorly operated public authorities,” Hevesi said. “The result is huge deficits and fast growing costs for Albany water ratepayers.
I'm sure honest Jerry thought, "it is just water, how much money could they have spent?". With water rates going up 65% in 5 years it would never occur to this man to think that he should look into what was going on.

Or how about the one that would be unbelievable to most people? The mayor's dump filling up several years before it was supposed to and yet there aren't several extra year's worth of revenue in the city coffers. He never saw it coming.

Remember when Mr Jennings said he wasn't close to Local 190 or Sam Fresina? I believed him.

I believe the mayor. He had no clue about any of this. Take him at his word. And then ask yourself if you can afford another four years of a clueless mayor?

< Raises for City Employees | Mayor Jennings - Look Over There! >

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Honest Jerry Doesn't Believe in Ghosts | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
Are Ghost Tickets Important? (none / 0) (#1)
by Dan Van Riper on Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 06:26:05 AM EST

Len Morgenbesser (of the Albany Gun Violence Task Force) asked me in an email about my take on the ghost tickets.  I suspect that he didn't like my answer. This is what I wrote to him:

Um... you say the police are corrupt and awarding themselves special favors?  I'm, uh, shocked.  Yes, that's right.  Shocked.

Here's how I feel about that.  In January 2000, I gave a little speech at a public hearing at which then Chief Nielson and Asst. Chief Wolfgang were present, along with a crowd of public officials.  Among other unpleasant things, I said that I wasn't terribly concerned if police officers extort free sandwiches from delis or loot the evidence locker for their Friday night parties.  Yeah, I said, they shouldn't do that sort of stuff.  

But what really concerns me is that we call the police and they don't respond.  I said that because the police have a monopoly on law enforcement, in my book denial of service is a serious crime.  The perpetrators should be punished with stiff prison sentences because their deliberate neglect causes decent people to suffer and sometimes die.

There were two results to this speech.  One is that I put up with harassment by the police for about two years.  The other is that denial of service very suddenly ended in my neighborhood.  You see, I told the two top cops that I was so angry about this that I didn't care about the retaliation that I was bringing upon my head.  

Apparently, my attitude sufficiently unsettled them:  If I was that pissed, then soon there would be others behind me mouthing off in public.  [Although others had already spoken up before me, I was rather loud and direct.]  The cops started to respond to calls in my neighborhood, which is how things stand today.

This is pretty much my position.  As long as the police are doing their job properly, and showing up when we call them, I can yawn at stupid petty acts of criminality.  But when they practice denial of service, they all should be locked away and replaced with real cops.

So yeah, they shouldn't have secret decals.  You're absolutely right.  There oughta be a law.  And an investigation.

dan (none / 0) (#3)
by DIA on Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 08:28:16 AM EST
my neighbor recently called the cops.   Excellent and prompt response.   I would agree that is what is most important.  

I also believe the cops should be able to not get parking tickets while on the job.   But should bar owners and girlfriends?   That is a very slippery slope.   Pretty soon you're pawning illegal machine guns that you bought via the APD.   Driving drunk?  Why not when you know you won't be charged.   Showing up to work drunk?  High?   Pulling a gun on a coworker as a joke?   I see a pattern.   And that is how these things always go.   The stuff they were doing on Wall Street recently would've been unthinkable 10 years ago.   But there was no one to stop them so why not push the limits?  

My main issue is and has always been with the management.   Tuffey and Jennings have consistently allowed the people who work for them to rip off the citizens of the city and ignore the laws.    The problem is at the top.  

And while you may be of the mindset that as long as you get some services you are cool I believe we can not afford to continue running the city as a way to rip off the taxpayers for the chosen few.   You will be getting denied service in the near future because we won't be able to pay the cops, not because they don't come when called.   That is the real issue.  

[ Parent ]

OK, DIA (none / 0) (#6)
by Dan Van Riper on Thu Nov 20, 2008 at 06:34:16 AM EST
Sigh.  I admit it, I'm living in the past on this issue.  Police denial of service was the reality for so long (1985 - 2001) that I still can't believe that era is over.  I keep expecting the police to redline my neighborhood again without warning, and go back to supporting the criminals.

Upon reflection, I realize that the police got away with this disgusting behavior because people were obedient and afraid to speak up.  Perhaps that has changed.  The voters and taxpayers of Albany seem to have more courage these days.

So perhaps we've moved on.  Perhaps we can hold the Albany police to a higher standard than we did in the past.

[ Parent ]

Courtesy passes (none / 0) (#2)
by alfrednewman on Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 06:44:18 AM EST
I agree with Dan on most of what he said.

I must tell you all that I see this whole thing as nothing more than a distraction. Its an open secret that police unions throughout the known universe give out window stickers or "get out of jail free" cards to their family and friends.

B. F. D.

Maybe under the revised "no fee ticket" system (and there will always be a revised no fee ticket system- deal with it) the issuing parties will be smart enough to give Common Council members freebies. Afterall, no one really gave a crap about this until Mr Casey ended up looking like an idiot.
"What? Me worry? " "whatmeworry.alfred@gmail.com"

Prove A Crime (none / 0) (#4)
by A Muse on Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 04:03:01 PM EST
Can you prove that he has committed a crime or, failed in his fiduciary responsibility sufficient to have him removed from office or only prove that he is a dumb bunny with lipstick?  What are the standards of his contract with those that elected him.  Is there a smoking gun, a girl with a cigar, a Spitzer goof?  Just because he is the Mayor he can't be compared to Nixon and the Plumbers at Watergate.  It sounds like Jennings was getting a kickback or favors for looking the other way as they were stealing the feet off of his office desk.  If so maybe someone should take a peek at his accounts.  

Who's scared of ghosts? (none / 0) (#5)
by TerryONeillEsq on Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 04:28:50 PM EST
Whenever times are tough and all our revenues decline
City Hall gets nervous 'bout that pesky bottom line.
Where to find the money?  How to plug that hole?
How to keep us voted in instead of on the dole?
There must be some wrong-doing, some scapegoat we can out,
A herring red as red can be to make some noise about.
Well whaddaya know the PBA is doing something odd.
A practice that we newly think should really be outlawed.
So now some tickets do get paid that were not in the past.
I'd say we've hit the bullseye and our problem's solved that fast.

Honest Jerry Doesn't Believe in Ghosts | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
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