Arrogance and Disrespect in Governing

Above are links to last evenings Town Board Meeting which will play in Window Media Player.

Those are the nicest terms which describe the conduct of the majority running the town board after watching the conduct displayed at last evenings meeting. Even one of the most moderate voices attending town board meetings, Ned Fitzgerald, expressed his disgust with the lack of respect demonstrated by board members forcing vote after vote on appointments without ever sharing the names or resumes with the Supervisor.

The Supervisor made a fool of them by simply being forced to ask over and over again, "who is ..." Name after name thrown on the agenda at the last minute and never shared with the Supervisor as one of the most common courtesies and civilities expected in the conduct of a public body. Al Spain and Lou Desso showed their colors and sadly the two new Board members did not have the backbone to stand up to the sad display of arrogance. You should also know that these appointments were added to the agenda after Board members saw a Resolution by the Supervisor to have a Special Meeting for all to discuss who to put on these boards and committees. Imagine that, a public, open discussion for appointments held in North Greenbush. My goodness, we can't have that happen, it would OPEN GOVERNMENT!

Perhaps the best moments from a stupidity standpoint came when the Board was asked who had contacted Reverend Braum to ask him to be on the Ethics Board. No one could answer until finally Lou Desso claimed to have made the contact, not having heard the question, and apparently forgetting that just minutes earlier , had admitted he had only met the the man once or twice and did not know anything about him. Bets are no one had bothered to call the Reverend and ask him to be on the Ethics Board.

And yes, Al Spain got a case of belated Ethics. He recused himself from voting to put his brother on the IDA. Trouble is Al forgot that just two years ago he voted to appoint his brother to the same board and his sister to the Comprehensive Plan Committee. Better late than never hey?

And yes, Al Spain did vote to appoint his brother's free attorney to a paid job as a town attorney. Ethics indeed. Other amazing highlights included the usual attempt to claim they are above politics in the appointment process. For example, they wanted to keep the two political buddies from out of town they appointed as town attorneys two years ago because they were doing a good job and there was therefore no reason to remove them. They forgot, however, that they removed the two attorneys who preceded them who were also doing a good job and they forgot they were about to contradict themselves by refusing to reappoint a woman who is on the Board of Assessment Review and by all accounts, also doing a good job. They didn't bother to even consult her before removing her, nor did they bother to tell the Supervisor or anyone else as they voted to simply replace her with someone else. Quality work only counts as a cover story when its convenient. Sometimes however, the convenience exposes one's pure stupidity as a lesson in contradictions.

So take a gander at your government at work in North Greenbush. See if they don't offend your most basic sense of civility and decency. They sure got to Ned Fitzgerald. He displayed a lot of guts in expressing his profound disgust and disappointment with the conduct of the new board majority.

A Cute Letter

Be sure to read today's Record and the arranged Pulse of the People Letter for Lou Desso. Be sure to read the comment below as well.