Saturday, May 17, 2014

Council should remember to KISS

WIlTSHIRE

The Council is making this a whole lot more complicated than it has to be.
According to the Times Union, Mayor Lou Rosamilia vetoed an ordinance authorizing the Council to issue subpoenas in its ongoing investigation into two controversial demolition projects and other things.
For starters, I don’t get why the Council sent the legislation to Rosamilia for his approval. The Charter clearly gives the Council the authority to conduct an investigation into any city activity and/or department. The mayor has no say in the matter because the Council is a separate and distinct branch of government with rights and duties exclusive to that branch.
It would be similar to the mayor vetoing the Council’s pick for City Clerk. He can’t. It’s a Council appointment.
That said, if he did have the authority to veto, it’s pretty apparent he has a valid reason. The process the Council approved to issue individuals subpoenas is either do it at a public meeting by majority vote or by five member signing a document.
ROSAMILA
The first makes perfect sense and is the process that should be followed. I’ve never heard of the second and nobody I talked to has either.  
It’s unclear why Wiltshire doesn’t just ask each member of the Council who they want to question, put it all on a big list and then pass the entire list. It doesn’t mean everyone on the list has to get called to testify but that is by far the simplest way to go about it and one that has the best chance of withstanding any legal challenge.
Then again, Rosamilia said subpoenas are not necessary should the Council want to question anyone in his administration. If that’s the case, why issue the veto? Obvious employees include Bill Dunne, commissioner of planning, his assistant, Andrew Kreshick, Fire Chief Tom Garrett and Deputy Mayor Pete Ryan.
I’m a big fan of the acronym KISS, or Keep It Simple Stupid. And that’s from a guy who can complicate tying a shoe – even if it comes with Velcro. Wiltshire and some of his colleagues on the Council have thus far done an admirable job in trying to find out what happened at demolitions on King Street and at the King Fuels site.
The first two hearings went off without a hitch and some good information was gathered. Now, though, it's getting down to the bottom of things and while the Council conducts its investigation there are no less than three federal agencies and a state agency looking into things too.
There might not be any easy answers to the questions, but it doesn’t mean the process has to get bogged down.
Just remember: KISS.

66 comments:

  1. Jim, Good points. First, I and others as well, are researching the legality of his veto for exactly the reasons you've pointed out. This is a legislative action, and it should not have come to him. So there is a process issue that we are looking at.

    Second, we are not trying to complicate things. It has gotten to this point due to a couple of co-councilmembers who have insisted on having the ordinance in the first place. Our charter is not specific on how it needs to be done, so we have liberties until someone complains. Of course this happened on the floor by two members and we took steps to address this. The ordinance also gives us the parameters and boundaries for an investigation and recommendations should we have any findings.

    The 5 person signed document option, simply gives us flexibility and efficiency. I explained this at the meeting. In the most extreme case, an ordinance to subpoena someone could take 1 month to go through the meeting agenda. That is not speedy or in the best interest of Troy.

    Also, in the event that we have NEW information that comes to our attention between hearings, we can move to subpoena someone quickly in order to get them on our next hearing agenda.

    The subpoenas aren't just for the administration, but are also for members of the public who will need them to be present.

    The signature page is used in one other instance that I can recall, which is when we wish to change the location and or time of a Council meeting, at least 5 councilmembers can sign a document to do so.

    OK, enough for now.

    Rodney

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  2. Jim, go back and tell Dworsky and the bologna man that they're wrong. The first line says it all. An "ordinance" has to be approved by the mayor. A resolution does not. Hence it's a resolution that the council appoints the clerk so it's out of the mayor's jurisdiction. Rodney, Kenny and their to legal analyst Retardi passed an ordinance. Tell Lopasta to keep his thumbs off the bologna scale.

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  3. Rodney, perhaps you can explain to the citizens reading this blog why you feel the need to subpoena anyone, since thus far everyone has voluntarily appeared and the Mayor has indicated he and anyone from the administration will appear voluntarily. We know why Jim Gordon wants to do it-- to embarrass the administration. Is that your agenda as well?

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    1. Jim Gordon embarrassing the administration? Then what the F^€K do you call what Bill Dunne has done to the administration? You are all trying to catch lightning in a bottle again like you did with voter fraud. This time the FBI is involved and Bill that shoe will drop and you can feal it coming. Can't you.

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    2. Act like a true Dem and help cover for these guys. Team sport, bro! The stupid voting shhep public dosent know any better & will vote for the dems in troy no matter what!

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    3. Jim Gordon is the embarrassment. How are those crime stats up in Lansingburgh? He's a phony and an empty suit

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    4. I see Rodamis hasn't been back to answer this taxpayer's questions. What a shocker.

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    5. No shocker. This isn't about shedding light on how the administration put citizens in danger. This is about Rodney trying to put Wade and the democrats in a no win situation. You can't blame him for showing how bad Lou is as a mayor and will give the voters and dems a choice. The problem with Rodney is he's another "there's no manual" to show me how. He could win, and with the people he surrounds himself with (WFP), his lack of skills running a municipality with budgets, snow removal, paving, garbage pickups and public safety...well he's dangerous to the future of Troy. Just sayin.

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    6. @ 4:31 Rodney's dangerous to the future of Troy? You've got to be kidding. The current Mayor is dangerous to the future of Troy. Let's see a $300,000 overpayment to Troy Library, caught by the library not the accounting professor. Troy has been a city in the Northeast for oh a couple hundred years and the streets looked like Armageddon this past winter, you'd think we'd have a snow removal plan by after a few centuries. Have you seen the size of the potholes and poorly done patch jobs on the streets? Garbage pick-ups, have you looked in the alley's? You should. As for public safety, wasted $30,000 on a Commissioner and can't even hold a press conference when an incident happens. I'd say Troy could do better, just sayin.

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    7. @ 4:31 I agree whole heartedly that "Troy could do better". But as with Lou, Rodney has no experience at running an administration. Solar panels, composting and eliminating the sex trade are admirable but do not equate to the day to day grind. He's already alienated the TPD to which he doesn't have a clue as to what they deal with daily. And in fairness neither does Lou. Neither has any of the tools needed to lead and make hard decisions. And that's the key, sometimes pissing off the very people who are your supporters when it negatively effects the populace. When Rodney's WFP and the groups that do not pay taxes but beat the loudest drums will he hold them responsible? He's already shown that he loves the flavor of defending the phonies. You know, the ones that are sucking the life and financial stability out of this once great city. I know you're a huge supporter but I will go out on a limb and state that if Rodney becomes mayor there will be more for sale signs, forecloses and the city will fold. Just sayin. Peace

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    8. Troy is in the middle of a huge revival. Do you live under a rock? Sonny Bonacio investing in Troy. Luxury apartments going up everywhere, rented at full capacity at market rate. Poor Republicans, you can't take it. It just hurts too much... I know. Don't worry, Kathy Jimino will wipe your tears and give you a no-work patronage job commissioning a study on Jamaican hair braids.

      Rodney is a loser through and through. All you have to do is walk into one of his fundraisers. Bums and felons as far as the eye can see. Not a respectable soul in sight.

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    9. @ 6:47 your rant is exactly what people mean when they say "you drank the Kool-Aid". Luxury apartments in downtown hopefully will bolster an area that has seen improvement. The problem being between the tax breaks offered to Mr. Bonacio and the FACT the neighborhoods are crumbling will bring a shortfall in tax revenue. The neighborhoods, roads and infrastructure are at an place of almost no return right now. Look at the Spring Avenue bridge for instance. Closed for a year? The city of Troy was the King jewel between Albany and Schenectady. Where are we now? Huge revival my ass.

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    10. And before you trash Rodney and his fundraisers you better look at the vacant Lou room at the Franklin last week. That didn't send a good sign.

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    11. The difference between Lou and Rodney's fundraisers was that Lou wasn't out on Campbell Avenue offering free admission to the homeless to pack the house. And everyone who went to Lou's fundraiser was employed, connected, and free of felony convictions.

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    12. All 30 attendees where employed, by the city. And I'd go easy on that felon issue. Lou's two top guys are staring down the barrel of being one.

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    13. Dream on, Rodamis. Maybe at your next fundraiser you could take off your shirt, roll out the Frankentongue and do a couple keg stands. In addition to the freaks and felons, that might attract the out of town voters from RPI, a few strippers, and maybe a disgraced ex-congressman or two.

      Rock on.

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  4. It's Sunday, a day of rest. Let's all just sit back and wait for Kevin McCashion to say something stupid again.

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    1. Kevin is HUGE, the left leaning Times Union loves him and he is a burr under Lou-Pete's saddle. Get em cowboy!

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    2. Obviously it's a Sunday brewfest for billy boy trolling the blogs looking at who's gonna be shut down next. Your obsessed with mcashion buddy

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  5. Remember, Mayor Lou is NOT a politician, and his #1 promise is to stop the BICKERING!
    Stop trying to create problems, this administration gets along great with their Counsil! Everyone is always on the same page under Lou leadership.

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    1. the BICKERING stems solely from Wiltshire and Zalewski. you'll notice it didn't exist before under Council Prez Kopka.
      the baseless controversy thus far is purely for the enrichment of an egomaniac's image. Yeah, that's Wiltshire.

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  6. The fact that the above commentators are missing is that a resolution is what should have been passed thus not having mayoral approval.

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  7. Remember this. The mayor is getting advice from Silverman. The same guy who wants to be a judge.
    He is covering up all of the misdeeds of the members of this administration. Nice guys.

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  8. Silverman will never be a Judge in this town there are about 3000 people who are informed about who the real problems in Troy are generated from
    Also the same 3000 also know who the bad actors in city hall are and is all going to come out in the wash
    Speaking of washing when a politician or city hall employee is dirty they stay dirty
    When a sex trade worker takes a shower there clean

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    1. Jim Gordon works for the county...can't get dirtier than that...someone needs to investigate all the made-up political jobs being handed out in the county while county taxes keep going up and up ...

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    2. Is it also dirty that Gary Galuski works for the county? Or maybe it's because Gordon is a Republican.

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    3. When Rodney gets the cross-endorsement Gordon will probably be your Deputy Mayor. Gary will never get the job he's always coveted, Commish of Parks and Rec. What a slap to Gary when his buddy Pete and Lou were too afraid to can republican George Rodgers and put Galumpski in his life long dream job. Surely there were issues of not passing a' how to cut a lawn exam' but this is politics and Gary has been loyal to the point of looking foolish. If I was Galumpski I'd stop treating Rodney as the "house N.....!"

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    4. You have a lower IQ than a soil sample. "Cross-endorsement" means the candidate gets the endorsement of both major party lines. Rodney WILL NOT get the Democratic endorsement. If the Republicans are, in fact, stupid enough to endorse him (a definite possibility) then he is still NOT cross-endorsed, because he doesn't have the D line endorsement. Why is this so hard for Republicans to understand? I guess it's a rhetorical question, but still... get a clue!

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    5. Now that I see how Silverman is running his campaign I have to agree that he won't be judge.

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    6. Galumpski is a self proclaimed ass kisser to Wild Bill Chamberlain
      Gary is digging his own grave especially after he tried to tell me if a person was on the troy council another family member could not do business as a contractor give it up Gary your days are numbered

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    7. @ 6:58 I find it ironic you insult the poster as having a " lower IQ than a soil sample" and then guarantee Rodney will not get the democratic endorsement. The old democratic guard is slowly but surely biting the dust. Rabbit is popular with the new breed and Rodney is like a rock star. I don't believe Tom Wade is a stupid man which leads me to believe he will ultimately back Rodney, he won't allow a cross- endorsement but will succumb to the new dem power.

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    8. Exactly what "new breed" is Rabbit popular with? (I'm sure that pun wasn't intended but I'll give you credit for it anyway.)

      Seriously, please enlighten us on who these new Rabbit Riley supporters are. Do they shower? Are they employed? How many felony convictions?

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    9. A lot of them don't shower, don't work and are felons. Your current Dep. Mayor had lunch with one less than two weeks ago. Funny how when this crew was backing Lou they were just a little different, now that they're on the Rodney bandwagon they're shitbags. The bottom line is, they're all yours. Enjoy the smell. Peace

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    10. Lou didn't want or need any of them. They've been low life shitbags all along, embarrassing the party with their stupidity, bad judgment, criminal behavior, and delusions of grandeur. Consider the idiocy of these fools piling in their clown car trying to overthrow Tom Wade with a jackass like Rabbit Riley. How do they expect to have any credibility? But now that Rodney's ostracized himself, they're glomming onto him in the desperate hope that he's their ticket to respectability and influence. Ain't gonna happen, but it's pretty funny to watch. The funniest part is that Rodney doesn't want these losers either.

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    11. @7:45 Who paid for the lunch? Yeah I thought so.

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    12. I don't know, you sound like you do though. Is the food good at Browns?

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    13. How did the conversation go? Do you go to them (Johnson & Johnson no relation) for a cooperation agreement or do they (Johnson & Johnson no relation) offer it to you before they arrest you. Honest people would love to know how that works.

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  9. As a tax paying resident I want to know who signed what and the paper trail of these jobs published.NOW.Dan Bazile where are you? It's tax payers money.We paid for it.

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  10. All around the Mulberry bush the monkeys chase the weasels.

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  11. jim there is no more bickering. Lou stopped that awhile ago. Why you try to make like there is a problem with coins coinsle

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  12. Question is who will be at Gary's twerk a thon to erect a statue???

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  13. Notice the meeting tonight in EGB about the casinos. All white women in attendance. EGB is a predominant white affluent community with house wife's with husbands that make a good living why would they want minority's coming to there oasis to make a living with good paying jobs. This is really sad.

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    1. What's really sad is your lack of knowledge and race baiting. Go to any casino and the majority of players are ....white women. As far as your inference of class discrimination, if you were raising children would you rather raise them in EGB or Troy? Dam those women for attempting to properly raising their children. The nerve of them.

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    2. Was kreshik there ? It's where he lives

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    3. Maybe these families just don't want all the car traffic. They moved to the suburbs for a reason.

      Who says the employees would be minorities anyway? Plenty of white people need jobs too. Thanks for the race baiting though. Are you Rodney Wiltshire?

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    4. Another meetin in EGB lat night and yet another room full of white women bitching about blacks working in there town at a casino. Jim Cow comes to EGB. Shame on you all.

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    5. Jim Cow?

      Rodney, enough with the race crap. Funny how you live on the lily white East Side, so called Mr. Diversity

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    6. East side is quite diverse

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    7. I really hope that EGB and there anti black people don't get the casino. Troy should get the casino along with there first black mayor in 2016.

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    8. LOL just it case it wasn't obvious before (although it was) that the race baiting casino trolls were RODNEY supporters, thanks for clarifying.

      That's right, folks. Everyone get the picture now? Rodney and his merry band of rejects are the BIGGEST RACISTS of all. They're anti-white, anti-job, and anti-freedom. EBG folks have the audacity to try and preserve their neighborhoods from commercial traffic? Let's call them racist. Any whites on the council dare challenge Rodney on anything at all? They must be racist! Never mind that no one knew or cared what Rodney's race was until he decided to make a political issue out of it and threw the "n" word around. Why is it ok for Rodney to use that word, and yet accuse white people of being racist??

      Wake up, people. Rodney is a phony, a race baiter and a racist himself. He won't be the first big-ego council Democrat to make a fool of himself and get his ass handed to him.

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    9. WOW!!! That's a racial attack if I ever read one. Rodney Troys first black Mayor January 1, 2016.

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    10. Amen to that.

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    11. Daniel Carver "wake up white people" a blast from the past on Howard Stern. Such racism. Must be hard hitting the key board with the klan gear on.

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  14. When will dunnes frohawk sidekick testify???

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  15. When will dunnes sidekick from north greenbush with the big words testify?

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  16. Will dunnes nemosis hightops Sheeran testify?

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  17. What will Monica say? She wants dunnes job

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  18. Two of the closest mayoralty elections in the city's history occurred within a year of the two major changes in form of government. Neil Kelleher-R defeated John J. Purcell-D in November 1959 by a plurality of 185 votes. Thirty six years later, in the November 1995 election, Troy returned to the "strong mayor" form of government when Mark Pattison-D narrowly defeated Kathy Jimino-R by 119 votes.

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  19. In November 1959 Trojans approved a new city charter which would become effective on January 1, 1964. Proposition Two, the council-manager from of government, placed the administrative responsibility of the city in the hands of a professional manager and policy issues in the hands of the city council. The mayor would no longer be elected a general election. The Proposition received a plurality of 3,121 votes. Thirty five years later, in the November 1994 election, Trojans voted 5,385 to 5,059 against Proposition Two which would have continued the council-manager form of government. In the same election, Proposition One, limiting the city council to four consecutive two year terms and the mayor to two consecutive four year terms was approved 7,908 to 2,100.

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  20. Who will look the best in a skirt?

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    Replies
    1. Bill Dunne is looking svelte lately

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  21. Billy Dunne getting an IMPLICATED Tattoo at Eddies Tattoo Parlor

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  22. the fbi has every absentee ballot from 2000 don't any one know whats going on

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