By now, everyone has read about the copper being taken from the King's Inn. I have already received numerous e-mails, Facebook messages, and proposed comments to this site. All have asked me my opinion.
I am limited in what I can say. The law firm I work for once represented the man being accused in a completely different matter. That matter is technically still open which means I am ethically restrained in what I may say. I cannot comment about his guilt or innocence, or the details of the charges against him.
What I can say is this.
First, a second city owned property was stripped of all copper pipes, i.e. the house next to Stewarts on Albany Avenue. The Freeman is investigating this as well. It has not been made public yet as to what party or person removed that copper.
Second, now is not the time for political grandstanding. You can expect at least one of the candidates for Mayor will jump on this and demand an investigation by the city as opposed to by the District Attorney's Office. Such a release would be nothing more than grandstanding and an attempt to boost a sagging campaign. Unfortunately, when an election (in this case a Primary) is 2 weeks away or less, candidates get desperate and try anything.
Moreover, the city is a party to this investigation. An entity that is part of the subject investigation should not be doing the investigating. That would like allowing the fox to guard the hen house.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
28 comments:
Why wasnt this put out to bid?
So...a question: If you become Mayor, will you be resigning your position at that same law firm? Will you have to recuse yourself at times from city business or just making any public statements as Mayor, due to your past employment at the law firm?
If elected, I would resign from the firm. I would not be limited in any way.
4:41,
It was a job costing less than $15,000, which is the amount requiring a bid process.
Our city administration is completely dysfunctional and corrupt. I have never seen a more inept and ineffectual group of leaders. Republican, Democrat, Independent--they are all equally worthless.
This may sound harsh, but copper thefts, 1 million dollar welfare scam, Hodge Center, public broadcasting raffle scam, Matthews scandal, Gretzinger scandal...when do we say enough is enough? This entire administration needs to be purged!
Time for a new set of leaders without ties to the parties. People who will serve in the best interests of the city.
Naaah, I live in a fairy tale world. It will never happen in Kingston or Ulster County for that matter.
Rich, who cares if one of the candidates are runnig for office and call for an investigation, the point is that a call is put forth to investigate this behavior. Current and former employees of the city have access to these sites, especially higher ranking employees. i.e. assistant superintendents and so forth. One assistant superintendent Ed Boyle was on the kings inn site along with McGowan and retired police officer Gerry Schatzel. Bottom line is that Joe McGowan needs to pony up the money from the copper that belongs to us taxpayers! The Mayor claims he didnt weant the copper touched, sooo....
The McGowan family has close ties to the Sottile administration and you can bet he cashed in our taxpayer money with our copper. City employees had thier roll off dumpsters over there and Schatzel is involved as well. Gorsline works for him now and everybody knows he is a thief. A seperate entity needs to investigate, the good old boys are in play and the only hero is the guy Augustine that told the truth and broke the story. This city needs to be cleaned up and fast with all of this crazy activity going on.
Lets take a look at the people involved in this fiasco at Kings Inn: Joe mcGowan-close ties to Sottile family or the other way around. Gerry Shatzel-retired kingston cop doing construction removal at kings inn, Steve Gorsline is employed by him who is former DPW superintendent who left city employment in disgrace. It was reported that current city employee and assistant superintendent of DPW Ed Boyle was at the site several times during demolition. he works on the side with schatzel and Gorsline doing contractor work after hours. Starting to get the picture? Alot of copper that is worth alot of money is now missing and Sottile claims he didnt authorize the coper to be removed. Furthemore, Chief Kellar is saying that the cops know how much the copper was sold for but is not saying which is wrong in my opinion. Ethics at its worse? You bet and we need to expose this matter and it needs to be done right.
I want something done about the nonsense going on at the Kings inn. It is out of control with the lying and stealing that goes on in this city. It is bad enough coming from drugdealers and criminals let alone the contractors and city employees enabling and getting in on the action.
Just my opinion, but it appears to me that the leaders and thier friends and some employees, are worse criminals than the bloods and crips that are here these days.
Take away the gun play and dope, and the gangs seem like small time chumps next to the crimes that so called good citizens have committed in the last few months...
Rich, don't look past Fire Chief Rick Salzman he's in bed with McGowen ,Schatzal, Gorsline and the Jorden's from Herzog's all scratching each others backs. Remember Salzman is the head of the committee that looked into the future use of the Kings Inn.
I have to agree with the other posters about what went on here. And guess what, this has been going on for years. And, not just the city. The county as well. A former head of the UC Highway Dept, getting paid thousands of dollars in OT he did not work, but also, working on side jobs for his own personal pocketbook during those regular hours he was being paid by the county. Not to mention billing for OT too. And...he had another good friend on UC's time working with him. A friend who was fired from the city for stealing, got this job with the county because of his buddy. BTW, his wife is running for alderman. The taxpayers are being robbed blind, and most involved with readily admit that this business as usual. On top of all of this other BS, the work is not getting done either. What a sham!
733PM our city administration has been disfunctional since the T>R> Gallo administration and the Democrats have been the culprits. It's time for a complete change.Time to throw out all the incumbents.This includes every alderman and the mayor.Wards 1,5,6 and 9 are through at the end of their of their terms as is our woeful mayor,now it is time to remove the rest of the turkeys and elect Rich Cahill as mayor. This will elimenate all the failures.
$ 15,000? - Sottile spent $ 100k and asked for another $ 135K. Shouldn't the inspector General get involved - let's face it - Carnright is not independent with this and the Matthews case.
The city paid for the tippng fees at the Kings inn site and hauled away all the debris. However, the metal doors and copper were taken to junkyards and McGowan and others were collecting and keeping our money for the metal and copper, virtually thousands of dollars of taxpayer money. City employees witnessed some of this activity. We need to hold McGowan and any other individuals accountable for what occurred. Rich, you are an attorney and i know you cant say much about the matter due to legal constraints regarding your firm representing Mr. McGowan on another matter. But the common council and the police need to do thier jobs and get to the bottom of this in a meaningful way. This kind of activity needs to be prosected in an aggressive way regardless as to who is involved.
Rich--another problem with the situation at Kings inn was the fact that mcGowan did not follow the law regarding prevailing rate and also safety for his workers. When a municipality is doing project that benefits the public it triggers prevailing rate for the laborers and drivers on site. That is state law and cannot and should not be denied. It was reprted in the freeman that McGowan was paying his workers ten dollars per hour which, prevailing rate is more like 25 dollars per hour in ulster county for laborers. That is THE LAW, and McGowan broke it and owes these workers that money, not to mention the fact that he had them exposed to asbestos and other toxins without giving them proper safety gear.
It seems to be everyday another report of theft is in the Daily Freeman. I don't know about the rest of the citizens but I am sick and tired with the taxpayer being the sucker or patsy. These people seem to be coming out of the walls. Perhaps these democrats can see the writing on the wall and intend to "rape" the citizens before they leave along with their well endowed pensions. What is wrong with them?. The biggest honcho is Sottile. Are they getting their cues from him?
And by the way has anybody seen the Mayor around Kingston since Irene? I read quotes from the head of DPW, KPD and KFD and County Executive Hein. Now would be a good time for him to use his jeep and make appearances around the neighborhoods. Show some concern? or at least pretend to care?
This would be a good time for Sottile to use his taxpayer funded boots as well. Take a hike.
Sottile can be found riding around with his old high school buddy Mike Murphy. Both should be looking for new employment the first of the year.
With the Hooley coming up this weekend it brings to mind a political promise. Jim Noble promised a new bandstand for the event at last years opening ceremonies. What will he promise this year?
Isn't O'Connor the guy that represented the City/Mayor in Employee Harrassment and Uptown Parking Garage Bid Rigging Blogger lawsuit?
Is it true that the Mayor's gift at his retirement party is a copper bracelet?
The bottle gang from Twaalfskill at work again - including Woltman, Murphy, Noble, Sottile and Mills?
Three of the current candidates are on the council. They all had oversight responsibility and failed miserably. They can speak all they want about ethics committees and auditing other branches of government. They can put up billboards speaking about politics as usual. When all is said and done, the gang of three is politics as usual and they all need to look in the mirror, accept responsibility for failing to exercise necessary oversight, and go home.
Resist the urge to blame Gallo, he can only answer the questions posed to him and provide advise regarding the issues that he is consulted about. When the client does not seek the lawyers advise, and goes off half cocked, the lawyer has no say. Besides, the city has made the brillant decision to contract with outside counsel to provide legal advise regarding issues that corporation counsel is already being paid to address. How does that make any sense?
Eliminate the three common council members from consideration and all that is left is Jean Jacobs and two attorneys.
Ask yourself what type of professional is best able to address the legal land mines that we face. Dare we admit that when you face a legal crisis, it is time to turn matters over to a lawyer.
The two attorneys in the race have different beliefs about the role of government and many other critical issues and these are questions that must be addressed and the public must decide what approach they believe is best at this time.
The choice should clearly be between Cahill and Gallo.
Lets hope the public gets the chance to make that decision rather than having to choose between the rest of the representatives of politics as usual.
8:57. LOL!! when I go to the Mayor's retirement dinner will have to check his wrist. NOT!!!!
WTF!! A retirement dinner??? He should slink out of town.
8:47: Aren't we glad the bandstand wasn't built? I had express a concern of having it built in the first place(cost) especially in an area where there is water and a potential to flood.
Assistant superintendent Eddie Boyle is always in the middle of some shady activity when it comes to money and ways to get it by any means neccesary. If he was at the site at kings inn, you can bet he was sniffing around to see if the getting was good... apparently it was!
Maybe we should just let the bloods and crips run the City. They only kill each other.
Cops, elected officials, school superintendents, business leaders, DPW bosses are robbing us blind. AND THEY DO IT LEGALLY.
Nothing will come of this. Except the taxpayers will be stuck with another legal bill.
6:47 God and the Devil were having an arguement. Seems the Devil overstepped his bounds and was infringing on Gods rights. God threatened to sue the Devil.
The Devil smiled and calmly asked "Where are you going to find a lawyer."
Also 6:47 a person who represents themselves has a fool for an attorney. You're arguemant is stupid.
Rich I know you attend church regularly and have morals, something the rest of the canidates don't have.
I agree with Rich regarding the legal aspect but I am questioning the Business Operations and Governance. As a finance director there are checks and balances required when a sub contractor is hired for services. There must be a pre-requisite purchase order estimate that outlines the job to be performed, the cost and the time line for completion. This protects the City and the taxpayer if questions arise. I have investigated this and to date was advised that curently this was not available. What concerns me is the fact that we have a 300 thousand dollar expense as it relates to the demolition of the Kings Inn that currently the city has to BOND for. The City has already bonded for 100 thousand and additional funds will be required to complete the process at the cost of the taxpayer which could be in excess of the 300 thousand.
Am I the only one who thinks all current and future works at the Kings Inn should be put on hold as this is basically a crime scene? Any evidence needs to be preserved until any investigation is completed. Of course I am sure some parties involved would love to have the building demolished to hide any evidence.
Post a Comment