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| WILTSHIRE |
Now that the dust is settling on
what was a pretty dusty deal to sell the Scolite property to RJ Valente one
thing is clear: Council President Rodney Wiltshire is setting himself up for a
mayoral run.
True, the dynamics changed a bit
since Wiltshire was one of six votes to move the deal out of committee two
weeks ago, but if he wanted to play nice with Mayor Lou Rosamilia and the rest
of the Democratic Party proper, he would have tabled it as the mayor wanted to
do Thursday morning.
The dynamics I’m referring to, of course, are
the FBI making inquiries and a strongly worded letter written by the attorney
representing one of the bidders - a conglomerate of companies including Don
Fane - not awarded the South Troy chunk of land which indicated a lawsuit was
coming should the Council approve the deal.
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| WADE |
But still, Wiltshire could have
tabled the ordinance. Instead, in an email to his Council colleagues Thursday,
he said he was pushing it to a vote and it ended up getting shot down by a 5-4
count. Wiltshire and Councilwoman Anastasia Robertson, D-District 2, changed
their votes and Councilman Dean Bodnar, R-District 3, who was absent from the
committee meeting also voted no.
Thursday morning saw a
flurry of activity. First Rosamilia wanted to amend the ordinance to remove the
licensing provision extended to Valente and convert it to a straight sale
pending state approval. But, that would have needed six votes that obviously
weren’t there. Then the mayor wanted it tabled, but since it was already on the
agenda it was Wiltshire’s call and he refused. He really couldn't orchestrate the administration's unorganized efforts but he certainly took advantage of them.
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| KOPKA |
It’s a pretty gutsy move by
Wiltshire because he did make Rosamlia look bad - and weak - and he further
alienated himself from the party and that includes Chairman Tom Wade.
If you remember, Wiltshire got the
Independence Party line thanks to the GOP and he used that along with Working Families
Party support to wrest the Council presidency away from Councilwoman Lynn
Kopka, D-At Large, a party loyalist. True, Kopka came in third behind Erin
Sullivan-Teta, but she too is loyal to the Dems. In other words he made no
friends by playing footsie with the GOP and lost even more by butting heads
with Rosamilia.
Wiltshire has said he wants to run
for mayor but won’t primary Rosamilia should the mayor opt to run again. I don’t
think he will, and I don’t think the Dems will support Wiltshire. That means
there could be a primary – the first for a major party line since the city
changed to this form of government nearly 20 years ago – if Wiltshire continues
down the path he’s started to clear.
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| ROSAMILIA |
In fact, I’m told the last time
there was a mayoral primary for a major party line was when Republican Neil
Kelleher Sr. defeated Frank Pop in 1959 before the city changed from an elected
strong mayor form of government to an appointed city manager. It changed back
for the election of 1995. Pop, by the way, was the party’s choice and Kelleher
went on to win the general election.
I’ve been trying to get in touch
with Vegas to get some odds on potential mayoral candidates and hopefully they
get back to me sometime over the weekend. When they do, I will post.
