Evers Majority Prefers Criminal Records

Mind-boggling is an inadequate description of the vote to appoint Josh Ehrlich to prosecute cases in town court. It was 4-1 with Michaels in the new Minority. Mr. Ehrlich plain and simple has a criminal record and has no credibility in any court as a prosecutor. Part of that record is here on this blog and one cannot escape the irony of Lou Desso, himself a convicted felon, voting to approve the appointment. The face of justice in North Greenbush, Day 1. A Latham resident with a criminal record replaces deputy town attorneys with unblemished reputations.

Evers allowed no comment at this meeting. Funny, he couldn’t wait to invite comment at all of the other two organizational meetings he chaired. What was different this time was that Evers would have opened the door to public outrage as he played politics with the criminal justice system and the courts. We can only imagine how the two town judges really feel.

It was humorous as well to find Al Spain defending Ehrlich. Aside from experience as a criminal defendant, his only known claim to fame has been election law cases defending the Evers – Spain coalitions in court and trying his best to deny ballot access in a competitive election. Hey it’s the only way to get appointed!
So welcome to North Greenbush and especially its town courts. What a joke and what a disgrace.

Part II

Jimmy's Influence
It was an evening in which the Supervisor refused to allow public comment, so unlike his past two organizational meetings when he opened the floor to planted questions which he knew would be used by a developer to attempt to sue the town board. This time he wanted no criticism of his deals and dirty laundry which included the predicted appointment of Jim Germano's son to the Planning Board and a surprise slap in the face to Bill Madsen who all thought would be rewarded as a loyal Jimmy soldier with the Chairmanship of the Planning Board. Nope, Germano's son got the Chairmanship too.

Now we have said in the past that Anthony Germano is an intelligent and competent person who did a good job when he was on that board during Jimmy's near two decade reign and control of town government. The problem of course is Jimmy himself and the long insistence by now Democratic Chairman Jeff Spain that he was not dealing with Jimmy Germano when in fact the evidence was that Jimmy was all over this party takeover effort by the so called reformed dems. So we suppose that the elder Germano never talked to any of these Board members or power brokers to insure this appointment. Right. It is painfully clear that Jim is back in charge with Jeff Spain as his front man. Remember how Jimmy ran things? Getting his relatives in jobs was priority one. Remember the civil service favors he tried to negotiate with Henry Zwack. Hold on to your hats North Greenbush.

A Good Man for Town Attorney
There were a couple of bright spots in the appointments, one of which was Fred Kirwin's appointment as Town Attorney. Fred held the job in the past and was highly competant and did not play politics with the law. Evers may not like that as time goes on but good lawyers tell you what you need to hear and not what you want to hear. Fred is a good lawyer.

We'll have more on the appointments and their impact on North Greenbush.