Friday, June 14, 2013

The Best Laid Plans

Two plans went thud yesterday.  In both cases, it was the law that forced the action.

First, the IDA realized that they were subject to a large potential lawsuit for breach of contract,  So, they change their prior action against the Accord rolling rink owned by the Bernardos.  As noted by the Daily Freeman, "Agency Chairman Michael Horodyski said the board on Wednesday voted to reverse a previous decision to cancel payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements with the businesses following a state Court of Appeals decision involving a similar action by the state Empire Zone.

In a 5-1 ruling, the Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that the Empire Zone couldn’t enact new rules then try to recover tax breaks from companies that had been receiving those benefits before the new rules were enacted."


Although this was a decision based upon law, look for those who live only to hate the Bernardos, ie. Robin and her feathers, to claim some grand conspiracy.  In their minds, it cannot be that the law favored the Bernardos.  Instead, it must be a conspiracy.

Second, Jeremy Blaber's plan to have a hearing before an independent arbitrator and to get his job back also crashed and burned.  It seems that Mr. Blaber lied on his original job application.  As such, he was stripped of his union status and will not get a hearing.  

Blaber admits the lie but says, "It was not an intentional lie".  For those wondering, he denied having any pending criminal charges when in fact he did.  Blaber claims the City knew about his record, though Corporation Counsel Zweben denies that.  In actuality, it does not matter if the City did know.  If one lies on their application, they suffer the legal consequences.

Blaber will not give up.  He made a huge tactical mistake releasing his recorded conversation to the media.  With no chance of getting a hearing, he will no doubt look to find something else to release to the media either for leverage or revenge.  At this point though, his bridges have been burned.

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UPDATE

I understand that Jeremy Blaber is telling anyone who will listen that he has a saved voicemail that he plans to release.  Looks like my prediction was on the money.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

addicts always lie and stretch the truth. They refuse to take blame for their actions and instead try to place it somewhere. Blaber is a classic case. He really needs to leave the limelight and heal himself. He is NO good to anyone at this point in his life.

Anonymous said...

Just to let you know Civil Service is a joke. Rumors abound about the the Civil Service Secretary and the Superintendent of Public Works.

Also, last budget season the CS Secretary took a pay raise because she was working alone and could get more done that way. Now all of a sudden she is getting a part time Clerk.

It still stinks in City Hll.

Richard T. Cahill Jr. said...

4:00 pm,

You seem to have an axe to grind. Also, why the need to post a salacious rumor? Have you any facts? Proof?

If not, then why state it?

Anonymous said...

Rich I agree with you about 4:00pm having an axe to grind. Maybe you should not have posted the rumor so quickly or maybe you have heard it befor and beleive it?

In any case it should be pretty simple to prove. Lets see if the new position in Civil Service is real or a hoax.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Rich for refusing to acknowledge the rumor mills without real facts. For some reason these crazy rumors are running about accusing people at City Hall having affairs with each other. Too much time on some individuals hands. Every time I hear the rumors it seems to be embellished from the original story.

Richard T. Cahill Jr. said...

8:21,

Sometimes, if you allow a posting with wild rants, it allows people to understand the depth of depravity involved in city politics.

Anonymous said...

What the city civil service commission did, in Blaber's case, was to revoke his certified eligibility as a Parking Enforcement Officer based upon the pretense that he omitted a 'material fact' on his application for employment/examination.A material fact is an event, usually a poor public service or private employment terminations and/or criminal convictions that would normally disqualify an applicant from that particular employment. Generally, recommendations for decertification and termination [after the fact,if employed] comes from the appointing authority/ departmental head.Nevertheless, New York courts have ruled that civil service permanent status employees who completed a probationary period have 'property rights' to their held positions and must be accorded due process. This means the state supreme court could vacate the commission's determination on decertification and reinstate blaber to his former position. The City of Kingston would then have to initiate disciplinary charges of 'falsifying records' and present this in front of an arbitrator. Either way Blaber loses his job.

Richard T. Cahill Jr. said...

11:53,

What you say is basically correct. Blaber loses either way. By releasing his tape, he hurt Gallo's popularity, but he destroyed his own credibility. It is unlikely that any politician worth his or her salt will have anything to do with him.
It's sad really. He shot himself in both feet.

Anonymous said...

Knew it was just a matter of time before politicians would keep or get away from him. Toxic individual. Couldn't get past the "wannabe" label that he placed on himself. I don't have a problem with the taped conversation that Blaber covertly recorded. Still like Gallo. Knew he had a temper but he has done a lot to clean up city in the short time he has been in office. More so than the last administration of Sottile.

Anonymous said...

4 PM has it right too:Civil Service is a JOKE. It WAS a joke when my mother was first employed under it in a position at city hall in 1966(the dinner conversation was always could she hire someone of another political party if they scored the same on the exam or higher, which is not something she wanted to do and in fact did not do--so yes, the underlying reasons the Civil Service System was established in the country has been routinely and habitually undermined in the city of Kingston for upteen numbers of years and I can testify affirmatively to this. Thus, when you sir, raise the issue of Civil Service taking an action based on this supposedly intentional lie on the application, what you also raise by extension is the issue of "moral, ethical, and legal purity within the Civil Service System"--which in the city of Kingston at least--has NEVER BEEN.
So my conclusion on this is that all these points are VALID and that at the end of the day, you also never had anything approaching the level of MERIT SYSTEM the Civil Service System was from its outset CONCEIVED TO BE. EVER. And that condition has NEVER improved in the City of Kingston---EVER.
It remains, in the grand words of the old saying...."Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwlllllll POLITICAL."

Richard T. Cahill Jr. said...

9:49,

Certainly, politics infect everything including the Civil Service system. I cannot debate that.

My point is that if an applicant lies on the application, he or she may lose their civil service protections.

Anonymous said...

Besides which, "Civil service protections" means something like having an old umbrella in which at least HALF of it is SHOT!!

Anonymous said...

I think Jeremy's releasing of the tape only hurt him. I listened to it. I felt that Gallo was right. He tried to be quiet and understanding in his termination of Jeremy, but Jeremy kept pushing Gallo, knowing the tape could be damning. I think Gallo gave Jeremy far more chances than he deserved. There are people in Kingston that really need jobs, that have strong work ethics, that are the "wrong" party and thus aren't even considered. It's all a joke. It's time we start some new parties & see what happens. If people are unfamiliar with a party label, they might actually take the time to listen to what the candidates are saying for a change.