We had planed to share with you the makeup of the new Comprehensive Plan Committee in today's edition. But after reading Councilman Al Spain's revisionist, self serving account of his actions to wipe out the Comprehensive Plan Committee and reform it with family, friends and political opponents, we thought we would also set his record straight.
Here is a link to Al's letter in today's Troy Record. And here are the facts Mr. Spain deliberately omits or distorts.
He says "political opponents have spinned" his selection of new members. The fact is, Spain and his majority wiped out all but two of the committee's long tenured members and replaced them with family members like his sister, political allies and friends. As our original report will show, no consideration was given to assuring equal representation from each of the town's election districts. The new group has 4 members from ED 2 allowing them to dominate the committee.
Contrary to his assertion, no one has suggested his choices were less qualified than the original choices. Rather, the question remains why a committee which has thoroughly completed its work with $52,000 in county funding delivering a completed Comprehensive Plan to the town for adoption after ALL community voices were heard during 37 meetings, needs to "complete its work"?
The answer likely rests in Spain giving in to the development interests which financed his campaign in order to tinker with the completed document which was greatly and superbly guided with input from a representative of the Rensselaer County Planning Department who attended the meetings.
Spain states in his letter "the previous Comprehensive Planning Committee was assembled without input from the elected town supervisor and legally appointed members who were found to differ with the views of then-prevailing political forces sometimes found themselves excluded from meetings and the comprehensive planning process". He deliberately ignores the fact that the Supervisor acted in violation of town law by trying to unilaterally appoint his politically connected buddies to this committee to thwart and stack it. Only the Town Board can appoint these members so the town board instructed the Committee Chairman, Mr. Fennelly, that these Evers appointees had no legal standing to serve on the committee. He also ignores the fact that any of these people who bothered to attend meetings were treated with respect and were allowed to speak at any time like any other person attending.
Spain also spins former Councilman and CPC Chair Richard Fennelly's refusal to continue to serve on the committee by neglecting to state his reason which is clearly printed in the Troy Record's article of February 19th , provided for you here. Fennelly stated “I do not understand why they are still working on this. We submitted a very complete document last year.” He concluded affirming the main reason for this resignation was that he felt the job was done. Al Spain and his blank check development allies on the town board do not agree.
Spain's final deception was to infer that the only reason the work is continuing on the plan was that the Town Board failed to adopt it in December. He states that a board member failed to attend a meeting and hence it was not adopted. That, however does not mean that the work was incomplete. Nor does it explain that both Evers and Kern voted against adoption despite their campaign pledges in 2005 and created a 2-2 tie that evening. Spain also fails to mention that the following day, two council members filed a demand for a Special Board Meeting which the Supervisor by law, had to convene withing 10 days. Evers ignored the law thereby preventing the meeting in which 3 board members would have voted to approve the plan.
Nice try Al. So much for your personal honesty.
By the way, here is the original post on the new geographic representation of the new Comprehensive Plan Committee. Draw your own conclusions.
Election District 2, with 4 members, takes home first prize as the area of town with the most representation on the previously balanced Comprehensive Plan Committee.
In all, 16 members were appointed to the new Comprehensive Plan Committee whose mission is apparently to stall adoption of the completed plan already delivered to the town at a cost of $52,000 after two years of work.
The rest of the membership shows three appointees from each of districts 4 and 5, two from district 3, both of whom are members of the Spain family, including the chairman, and one each from districts 1,6,7 and 8.
Only two of the 16 were reappointed from the prior committee wiping out nearly all of the institutional knowledge of the members who served during the two year creation period.
For some reason, the town has not bothered to post the names on the town website. They have also failed to even list the town IDA as an entity or list the new members which includes the Chairman of the Democratic Party, Spain's brother Jeff, who wants to turn RT 4 into another "Wolf Road". Perhaps a case of shame??
We'll keep you posted when the new committee finally meets. After two months, Comprehensive Plan Committee Chairman Al Spain, hasn't found anything important to meet about. While he waits, Congressman McNulty's term continues to expire and with him 20 years of Congressional seniority which could help get funding for the I-90 Connector.
We surmise that the Spains oppose the I-90 Connector, a critical recommendation of the completed plan because their developer friends would rather see traffic on RT 4 where they are building a couple of malls. Just a guess.
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Final Thoughts on Al Spain
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We thought the days of nepotism and cronyism were not a part of Al Spain's new vocabulary. Yet he used his position of trust to vote to appoint his sister to the Comprehensive Plan Committee and his brother, the Democratic Chairman, to the town IDA which controls funds for loans and grants. He did not recuse himself.
He also used his elected office to curry favor with his political bosses in the GOP who control Troy City Hall. He voted to appoint a Troy City Council member and disgraced former Judge to a paid town post as a Deputy Attorney. He voted to appoint another Tutunjian appointee, a Deputy Corporation Councel, to an attorney's post in North Greenbush. And he voted to appoint another non resident GOP operative with a criminal record to the town courts while dismissing a qualified woman and town resident who had held the post for two years. He also voted to hire a full time Troy employee as a grant writer. Surely this will not conflict with the full time job in Troy? All this at his very first Board meeting!
That's not the Al Spain many thought was an honest broker in the political process. He is a Democrat by registration who serves Republican political bosses who control his city job.
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