Divided Majority May Prevent Restructuring of Employees

We knew it would not take long for the newly elected board members to find out what their predecessors learned before Day 1 in 2006, that Mark Evers cannot work with people and trusts no one in a world governed by paranoia.

The Board has quickly evolved into a 2-2-1 split. Evers and his sidekick Ernie Kern remain bound at the mouth, meaning they speak with the same vote. Desso and Spain tend to stay together with Desso looking to Spain for direction and Michaels remains outside looking in which is probably the best place to be right now.

There has been a behind the scenes move to take care of several loyalists in the majority's warring coalition of Casale Conservatives, Germano "Democrats" and the County GOP all of which are tugging on the 4 man majority for different paybacks. The hiring of controversial attorneys, Conservative stalwart Judy Wos, Germano Democrat's Vice Chair Ed Cassino, the appointment of Germano's son to the Planning Board are cases in point. But a new move is afoot to get Ed Cassino even more money and apparently at the expense of employee Larry Bonesteel.

Word is there is an effort to change Bonsteel's responsibilities and ultimately force him to take a civil service test to keep his job. That's how Evers, Connolly and their friends at Civil Service did it to put the screws to two former employees they had on their hit list and to the former town engineer, a US Navy veteran who was eminently qualified for the job. Evers fired the navy man 6 days after he was appointed and after he had given notice to his former employer. He was left without health insurance and a job. He also had to wait a year to get paid for the 6 days he worked. That check was issued just recently and only after it was made clear to Evers that steps would be taken to compel the payment if he did not order the check's release.

It should be interesting to watch this one unfold to see if Evers does Germano's bidding without the consent of the town board, just as he did so often to the prior majority by appointing people to jobs without the vote or consent of the town board as required by law. Of course with the help of his buddies in Civil Service, Evers got away with it and no enforcement action was taken by the county GOP crew that runs the Civil Service Commission. Of course, Evers does not like Cassino so maybe those behind the move will have to find the three votes otherwise needed to make the moves.

It's nice to remember what Evers and company did to Ranson Caola as we approach Memorial Day and pause to honor our veterans. Evers and Civil Service sure honored the service of Ranson Caola, Annapolis graduate and veteran. They really screwed him.