A Corrupt Political Deal

Don't worry Jack, our crew of corrupt politicians have a way to go to match your exploits. But Mark Evers is obviously aware there is only one way he could be re-elected Town Supervisor. Get the endorsement of every political party, Democrat, Republican, Conservative and Independence Parties.

To do that, he needs corrupt political bosses and this year he managed to find one in each of the aforementioned parties. In case you don’t follow the history of these parties, here’s a summary. The two major parties have always vied for control of the minor parties. For years the only minor parties were Conservative and Liberal. Conservative was in the pocket of Rensselaer County Republicans and Liberal, usually with Democrats. At the height of Democratic power in the County, the party’s control shifted in the early 1990’s to the Democrats, then back with the GOP where it remains to this day. The Liberal Party no longer exists.

The Independence Party started out independent, then like the Conservatives, was infiltrated and taken over by the county GOP. Senator Bruno sent minions of Senate employed notaries into the county to get petitions for their operatives running for committee seats. It worked. They won the majority of seats and installed one of their tools, Tom Connolly, as its chairman. Why the desire for control? Party endorsements for the major party. And in our county both of these minor parties are the property of the county GOP which extends endorsements to their town candidates.

It was commonly expected that Mark Evers needed to have the Democratic Party leadership in North Greenbush dumped after he demonstrated his lack of truthfulness in gaining their endorsement largely on controlled development. Then Chairman Dan Ashley literally divorced Evers and washed his hands of him. The same development forces Ashley helped defeat began to regroup and funneled money into the takeover of Ashley’s Democratic Committee. Development interests, in particular Casale Excavating, also took charge of the town Conservative Committee. Evers now had apparent allies with one interest, making money through control of North Greenbush, its Building Department and Planning Board which were the financial prizes to be had. That’s a key reason Evers has fought a supervisor in the Building Department.

Naturally, Democrats under Ashley were preparing to oppose the development interests and Evers himself. But Evers found a new, unexpected adversary in the town Republican Committee. They had learned the lessons of their defeat in 2005 with developers in the driver’s seat of their party. They wanted nothing to do with Evers or folks like Desso who ran in 2005 for the GOP, producing their defeat. So Evers apparently reached out to the power brokers in the Republican Party, the big boys in Albany and none other than Senator Joe Bruno.

Senator Bruno does very well currying to big development interests. Campaign contributions he receives from these interests dwarf the imagination. So when a desperate local Supervisor in his county reached out as a willing partner to do his bidding, the Senator “ordered” his County Chairman Jack Casey to “get it done”. Casey made a last minute appointment to the town committee without Sculco's knowledge. He had an operative get proxies from several inactive committee members and then tried to manipulate the working committee’s vote to endorse Evers and Desso. And yes, one Richard Crist also managed the plot with his friend F. James Germano, a daily standby on the phone or in person with Crist.

Casey apparently informed the town Chairman, Mr. Sculco, that the Senator wanted Evers and his development ally, Lou Desso to be their candidates. Sculco was said to be appalled. Living in town, Sculco knows what most politicians know, that Evers is inherently corrupt. He has misused his office repeatedly to serve the interest of getting himself elected. He gave his pals in Casale Excavating an illegal payment of $83,000 without Town Board approval, adding to the already overspent 6.4 million dollar contract. He clearly did this to curry favor for their Conservative Party endorsement with Michael Casale as the Chairman. Evers also attempted a taxpayer funded bailout of the contract with a town wide bond worth $830,000. That giveaway was slowed when citizens filed a petition to force a referendum which thus far has stopped the money from getting into Casale’s pockets.

Evers has also manipulated Civil Service rules to remove two people the Town Board tried to put in charge of the employees in the Building Department who are also aligned with Casale and authorized his overpayments in Water District 14. The last person was a veteran and retired Naval Officer with impeccable credentials which the Board appointed Town Engineer. Evers fired him after a week of work on contrived and manipulated grounds which are heading to court shortly. That’s what he thinks of veterans.

The list of Evers corrupt acts also includes submitting false documents to Civil Service stating that a clerk was “appointed” by the Town Board from a Civil Service list. No vote ever took place. The conscientious folks at Civil Service were made aware of the act and have done absolutely noting to correct it or hold Evers accountable. Evers tried to stack the non partisan Comprehensive Plan Committee with political flunkies to impair its work. Anything to slow down progress that would put citizens in charge of development instead of the developers he represents. The list could go on, but we think you get the point.

As for Desso, you need only look back to the obvious voter fraud that took place in the 2005 primaries with Desso and company manipulating more than 140 absentee ballots apparently telling people who were in town it was alright to vote absentee so he could personally pick up their ballots. Of 140 impounded ballots personally handled by Desso and his fellow candidates that year, ALL, were for his slate. It included the ballot of F. James Germano, then a Conservative. (Yes this is the guy who wrote that three page letter calling Ashley and Smith "disloyal".) And isn’t ironic that Evers and Desso would be on the same party petition after Desso worked to defraud Evers of the minor party lines in that absentee scam in 2005. It was Evers that Desso screwed! Now GOP petitions have actually been handed out to the town committee with both their names on it for town office.

Now Evers has a powerful ally Senator Bruno, who himself is under a federal investigation. What did Evers promise Bruno for such support. We can all guess. But what finally needs to be said is that the local Republicans on the town committee who live here and have a stake in this community have learned a lesson that politics sometimes requires hard choices. Sometimes party loyalty asks too much and in this case, local GOP committee members have to choose between what’s best for Senator Bruno and what is best for their community and their future.

Chairman Sculco has at least one senior party leader whose been known to buck the party leadership when warranted. He’s Tom Cholakis whose family name and reputation has brought great credibility to the Republican Party at times when its bosses were corrupt and in need of corrective action. His brother, Judge Con Cholakis is remembered with affection by all who knew him. Their children have made an impact on politics in this county and brother Con taught a lesson that stands today. Call a spade a spade and treat everyone the same. He had the political and personal courage to indict his party chairman on corruption charges when he was the Rensselaer County District Attorney. His son Greg is the new GOP candidate for that office. The apple never falls far from the tree. And we at the North Greenbush Pipeline heard that Mr. Cholakis is a regular reader of this publication. In fact, we understand he brought a copy to grill Evers with at the town committee meeting!

Dark days have engulfed the town political process. But we can hope Evers, Desso and their political partners fail in their bid to eliminate a voter choice in November. That is what they are attempting to do because it is only way they could possibly win. After taking control of the Democratic Committee chair, they have co-opted the GOP which controls the Conservative and Independence Party nominations. All that now stands between total corruption of the political process is a GOP town Committee at odds with a corrupt sell out of their values and community by party bosses and a Democratic Caucus later this year when Democrats will judge Evers, Desso, Spain and their Developer Highway candidate Mike Carey.
This picture sums up what these folks are trying to do to voters. Courage.