Well the votes are finally in and the big showdown at the Comprehensive Plan meeting of April 11th featured Supervisor Evers announcing he had appointed a barrel full of his hand picked political hacks and a couple of innocent bystanders to the Town Board appointed and created Comprehensive Plan Committee.
You may recall from our previous expose that the Committee was created by the Town Board to help develop a master plan for the town and that membership was to come from all eight election districts. No election district got left out and no one was over represented.
The Supervisor has apparently been working with the same developers he ran against for their excessive influence in town affairs and over the prior town board majority. We’re told he has a particularly interesting relationship with a fellow named Nigro who tried to annex town lands in order to bully his way to building a shopping mall in DeFreestville. Hence Mr. Evers soon showed that he had no intention of keeping his key campaign pledge for the creation of a master plan committee. First he tried to sabotage the funding from the county, then once approved, he delayed signing the contract until a special meeting was called to force him. Finally, after signing it, he delayed delivery of the contract until another special meeting was called to force that.
Now he is trying to hijack and politicize the committee with the officers from his “Reformed” Democrats, two Vice Chairman and the sister of the party chairman, several Conservative Committee people who are aligned with the reform Dems and of course his favorite contractor from Water District 14, ($740,00 over the bid and counting!) Mr. Evers is skilled at saying he supports something and then working feverishly to make it fail by putting a monkey wrench in the machinery.
There was no confrontation at the meeting apparently because Councilman Fennelly the Chairman of the Committee did not force one in front of the consultants from Clark Patterson who were hired to write the plan. But make no mistake, Mr. Evers is trying to stack the committee with his political hacks and put two election districts in charge with a large majority only because that’s where his hacks happen to reside.
So the final chapter is not yet written. It’s clear however that unless the Town Board gives in, his “appointees” will not be recognized as members of the Comprehensive Plan Committee. Mr. Evers will have to go to court, suing the Town Board if he doesn’t like the cards. Sure, anyone can come to a meeting, they are all public, and if the “Reformed” Democrats and their allies on the Conservative Committee run by the contractor in Water District 14 decide to attend meetings after 15 months of being oblivious to the Committee, that’s their business.
Some footnotes:
Councilman Ernest Kern voted against receiving $80,000 from the County IDA to fund the Comprehensive Plan. Smart move Mr. Kern. You sure keep your word to the voters to whom you pledged support for the master plan. Voters who want to thank him personally can call him at 283-1774.It's in the phone book and he loves to hear from constituents as part of his other campaign pledge of open accountable government.
Also, yesterday, the North Greenbush Pipeline reported that Mr. Evers attempted to appoint Ernest Kern as his deputy supervisor and the we’re told that move came upon advice from an attorney who warned Mr. Evers he might just get removed from office in a lawsuit seeking same for illegally dispersing $83,000 to his Conservative contractor in Water District 14. Hey, wake up Town Board or you may be taking orders from the contractor just to get on the ballot! The illegal check sure shows that the Town Supervisor knows where his political bread is buttered.
"Arch" Conservative: He’s back! F. James Germano is back from his Southeast Whitehouse and again having coffee with his allies on the “Reformed” Democrats at the Wynantskill McDonalds. The Democrat, turned Conservative, turned Democrat has the credentials of a political chameleon. Welcome back Jim, we think.
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3 comments:
If the folks that recruited him to run had asked around more,they would have learned about his personality and not be in this mess.
The guy is very deceptive. He will stab people in the back to get his way. Too bad its the entire town that is falling victim to him.
You have to stand up to him for the next 8 months.
The problem was people were running so hard and fast from Tazbir they didn't know what they were getting into.
Unless you attend town board meetings and pay very close attention to the NG drama, the average voter has no idea what's going on. Everyone reading here must tell their neighbors, friends and family in NG to start reading here and start understanding just how the taxpayers are being railroaded day in and day out.
A long time neighbor of mine did tell me at election time that "Evers could be bought and sold..." Looks like my neighbor was very wise.
I agree with the person who says you have to go to meetings to really get to know whats going on. I was at my first meeting in years on Thursday and it was interesting to see all the players I have been reading about.
More interesting is what goes on in the hall. Buzz, buzz, buzz. All about the evil Cb Smith. Why are all these people so afraid of him? I never paid much attention to him before. He sure was right about the water vote. Because I ignored him then I'll be paying for it for the rest of my life!
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