Among the Missing

Missing Minutes

For months now, the town’s web page has had a curious missing link to the minutes of the January meetings of the North Greenbush Town Board. The January meetings were filled with missteps and controversies from dueling agendas on the January Organizational Meeting to the formal vote not to approve an already paid bill to Casale Excavating for $83,000 thanks to the generosity of the Town Supervisor.

The minutes are of course public records subject to the Freedom of Information Act, but we wonder why the Town Clerk, Kathryn Connolly would with hold these minutes from required public posting.

With her “reform” Democrats getting ready to make endorsements for town board races this year, one can only speculate as to why these minutes for January meetings remain off line, out of public view?

Perhaps the Town Clerk would enlighten all of us by sending an email or better yet, we’d be happy to post the minutes here on the North Greenbush Pipeline if the town has run out of space.

Whatever the reasons for the omission, the January Minutes for all North Greenbush Town Board Meetings are :Missing in Action”. We invite the Town Clerk to take a minute to post them to the Town Web Page at this link: http://www.townofng.com/board/?page=minutes .



Missing Money

Speaking of things still missing, no effort has been made to recover the $83,000 check the Town Supervisor illegally ordered cut to his Conservative Party Contractor and Chief, Casale Excavating. The record clearly shows that Mr. Evers was fully aware that the town could not legally pay more money to the contractor until the town had legal authority to exceed the contract price. Nevertheless, Mr. Evers personally ordered a check cut the day after the December 14th Board meeting when the bills were approved, absent any request for a payment to Casale. You can't approve or disapprove what you don't put in the abstract, so Mr. Evers hand delivered the prize the next day gaining $83,000 brownie points towards the Conservative nomination. Even Lou Cotrona's not that bad!!!

We can’t help but chuckle at the dilemma this puts the “reformed” Democrats in as they consider whether to nominate Mr. Evers. The State Comptroller will shortly release an audit which is sure to include a juicy report on the check caper. In addition, a lawsuit will be decided shortly that seeks Evers removal from office for illegally giving away the money without Board approval or legal authority to expend more funds.

The effort to get those additional funds has also been stalled as a petition requiring a public vote on grabbing $830,000 more for Ever’s political pals at Casale Excavating has prevented legitimizing the over payments made to Casale, which is $740,000 over contract price to date. That includes the pocket change Mr. Evers gave them with the $83,000 check.

Just imagine the mess that would occur if the Court ousted Evers after the reform Democrats re-nominated him. Equally amusing would be a State Comptroller’s audit blasting his illegal conduct released in the wake of a re-nomination by his political benefactors.

Gosh, even Louis Cotrona would have less baggage to contend with than Mr. Evers and at least he’s a “Democrat” on paper.