Troy hires NG Politico Siblings

To call them an odd couple of political families sharing the newspaper announcement of their appointment to the Troy Police Department would be an understatement. Justin Ashe, son of controversial ex cop and ex Republican Councilman Bob Ashe and William O’Neil, son of Democratic Vice Chair and former Councilman William O’Neil, both appointed to the Troy PD on the same day.

How could such an unlikely coincidence occur? A Republican run city hiring both a Democratically connected applicant and a Republican connected applicant both hired by a Republican administration known for playing politics with its police hiring and promotions.

The man with the answers is not likely talking about who pulled his strings to get these two hired. He too is a North Greenbush resident, the personnel director of Troy, “Democrat” Al Spain Jr. He enforces the city’s residency law and has to certify that these two applicants were residents of the City of Troy at the moment of appointment. Spain, as we said, is a Democrat and he keeps his job by making things happen for Republicans who control his job. When the city administration wanted to keep promotions out of the hands of non residents, Spain wasn’t answering questions as to who told him to enforce the long ignored requirement.

We doubt he is answering questions about the residency of these two appointees, but it is his job to enforce the residency requirement. What’s equally fascinating are the behind the scenes strings which are often pulled to get such appointments. Bets are that one F. James Germano pulled them on the Democratic side using his GOP friends in the county and city, aka Bob Mirch and Richard Crist. On the GOP side bets are that Bob Ashe used his GOP friends in the county and city, aka Bob Mirch and Richard Crist.

In any event we wish these soon to be former North Greenbush residents well in their new positions on the Troy PD. In North Greenbush, our Supervisor says he strictly enforces civil service laws. He now claims he and not the town board is the appointing authority for the town. He enforces laws as he wants to. If you're on his team he appoints you to a job without the consent of the town board, aka, our senior clerk NEVER legally appointed to a job and the County Civil Service knows it and does nothing about it. If you're on the team other than the Supervisor, he tries to fire you without any consultation with the town board and even interviews replacements behind their backs. No special fixes for his adversaries. The Board might some day be surprised to learn that the Supervisor has actually hired replacements behind their backs. Nah, he wouldn’t do that? Gee, Al Spain would be a good fit with Mark Evers after all.