Council investigates for the third time in 36 years and some questions to ask

WILTSHIRE

The last time the Troy Council used subpoena power was in 1978. Steve Dworsky was mayor under a city manager form of government and the legislative body was looking into a concept of team policing.

A host of people were compelled to testify including Dorothy Guiot of New Jersey. I won’t go into what it was all about because I was 12 at the time and dare say the only Troy I knew of at that time had to do with a horse. The Council also exercised its investigatory powers in about 2001 when, under President Frank LaPosta, it hired attorney Richard Hanft to look into a questionable federal grant funneled through the office of then Deputy Mayor Jim Conroy to his brother to buy a house part owned by the deputy mayor.

REEVES

Now the Council, under President Rodney Wiltshire, issued subpoenas to soon to be former City Engineer Russ Reeves and his assistant Barbara Tozzi, to find out what went down on King Street and King Fuels other than the buildings.

I’m not sure how the subpoenas were actually issued since I don’t think the Council voted to issue them at a properly called meeting as is required, but odds are Reeves and Tozzi just agreed to testify and the subpoenas were a formality.

While Reeves and Tozzi are more than likely willing participants, you can bet Planning Commissioner Bill Dunne, Deputy Mayor Pete Ryan, Fire Chief Tom Garrett and even Mayor Lou Rosamilia – should any or all of them get called – won’t come without a properly issued subpoena. And even then they could fight it in court, which won’t look good, or they could plead the fifth on some of the more poignant questions the Council will, or should, ask. That won’t look good either. Or they could get up on the stand and tell the truth whatever it may be.

DUNNE

Either way, just by kicking off the investigation, Wiltshire comes out on top politically speaking.

Anyway, Reeves and Tozzi probably won’t tell the Council anything new. Here is a rundown of what they will say and here’s what should be asked about each property:

King Street

What they will say:

-Reeves denied an emergency demolition permit, went on vacation and the building was declared a threat to public safety and ordered taken down by Fire Chief Tom Garrett when Reeves was on vacation.

KING STREET

-Despite knowing there was asbestos in the building, people were allowed to stay in Bomber’s located next door.

Questions to ask:

-Did the building’s owner, Don Boyajian, pay the demolition company, M. Cristo Inc. of East Greenbush?

-Why was the emergency demolition permit denied?

-Who directed Garrett to take the building down?

-Why was it taken down in front of other derelict, vacant buildings in the city?

KING FUELS

-Did someone make a 911 call regarding the building and its condition just prior to the demolition?

King Fuels

This project is a little lessstraight forward in that it was run through the Local Development Corporation, a quasi-governmental body headed up by Dunne.

Here are some questions:

-Why was the initial June, 2013 request for bids withdrawn?

-Why and how, after the initial RFB was withdrawn, were two buildings condemned and taken down under an emergency declaration?

-Why was such short notice given for the submission of a second round of bids – RFB issued on March 1, a Saturday, and bids were due on March 6.

ROSAMILIA

-According to the LDC minutes, Reeves knew of the demolition and the gas line. Did the demolition company, J.R. Casale, just screw up by putting debris on top of the main line that could have caused some serious damage if it was compromised?

-When did Reeves know of the demolition and how involved was he in carrying it out? If not Reeves, did another engineer consult on the demolition as indicated in the minutes and if so let’s see the reports?

-The relationship between Code Enforcement, the Engineering Department, and the Fire Department is a question that has only one answer … there really isn’t one - or not a good one anyway. Everyone is just doing their own thing and it seems that includes stabbing each other in the back. There is only one person to blame for that and it’s Rosamilia. He is the mayor after all, and a strong mayor keeps the troops in line and makes them play nice ... at least in the public eye.

An obligatory missive on the King Street demolition

King Street demo

I’ve been around this town for a while now, and never have I seen anything come close to the debacle that is the demolition on King Street. State law was blatantly skirted, city code ignored, protocol brushed aside and I have never seen anyone, under any circumstance, act with such a complete sense of impunity.

Then Mayor Harry Tutunjian knocking down the old City Hall on New Year’s Eve came close, but at least the city owned the building. It wasn’t a privately held, long-vacant row of buildings that just happened to be standing in the perfect spot for a parking lot.

It’s really no surprise that weeks later plans were submitted to actually build a parking lot on the site. I was at the scene the day the wrecking ball swung and I asked Fire Chief Tom Garrett how many free meals he was getting for clearing the way for a parking lot for Bombers. I asked in jest, but he didn’t respond. He did say something about being glad I wasn’t writing anymore because I did have some fun after he unceremoniously had the old Cinema Art marquis on River Street torn down a few years back.

Garrett, as we all know, was front and center and took full responsibility for the demolition. Of course, he basically said the building was deteriorating at such a rapid rate, and presented such an imminent threat to public health and welfare that it had to be knocked down before the city engineer, Russ Reeves, came back from vacation to give a professional assessment of the situation.

Anyway, three months later, there is all sorts of finger pointing going on. Who is going to pay for it? The city or the building’s owner, Don Boyajian? Did Garrett act on his own or on behalf of someone in City Hall? Will someone get fined or sanctioned for not properly removing the asbestos before the building was knocked down and why were patrons allowed to go in and out of the next door Bombers while the wrecking ball was swinging?

(As an aside, I find it remarkable asbestos abatement was done some three months after the building was actually knocked down.)

Someone should be taken to task because this is an extraordinary debacle, even by Troy standards, and the logical person is Garrett. But, the chief has been around a long time, knows how to play the game and more importantly knows where the skeletons are buried.

Also, he is civil service, like Police Chief John Tedesco, but unlike Tedesco, Garrett is still in a union so he has that layer of protection too. And, by being part of a union, he gets overtime … lots of it. In 2012 he made $35,012 in OT and when coupled with his base pay of $111,650 makes him the highest paid employee in the city. Overtime in the Fire Department has recently become a hot button issue.

As of August, the department had already used up 90 percent of the 2013 allocation of just over $1 million in overtime and asked for another $250,000 be added for overtime in next year’s budget; a request that was denied. Also, there is an undercurrent of grumbling by members of the United Firefighters Association – Garrett is in the Command Officers Association – about how the majority of the OT is going to those with a higher rank rather than the rank and file.

Also, thanks to civil service, it will be impossible to unilaterally get rid of Garrett and thanks to a solid union contract, it will be impossible to get him out of the union even though that is the right thing to do – department heads and managers should not be in a union and should not make OT. Plus, as I said, he knows how to play the game. He did hire Deputy Mayor Pete Ryan’s son as a firefighter even though Ryan Jr. scored an 80 on the Civil Service exam and wasn’t within reach without pulling an archaic clause out of the closet.

Garrett has been quiet as of late, and maybe under some fire but that doesn’t mean he is going anywhere soon. My guess is he outlasts the current administration, and probably the following one too.