Bye Bye Bob

Alderman Bob Senor is leaving the Common Council and leaving the City of Kingston.  Apparently, Senor is getting married and moving to the Town of Ulster.  Do not be surprised if he tries to run for Councilman or Supervisor in the near future.  For the sake of the Town of Ulster, let's hope not.

Several people have put posts on this blog and others claiming that Senor has already moved and should be removed as an Alderman.  To be honest, I do not know whether this is true or not.  If it is, he should be removed. 

Bob leaves an interesting legacy from his tenure as an Alderman.  He started as a Republican.  His first 2 years on the Council were the last 2 years the Republicans had the majority.  They were unable to do much because Bob was the deciding vote.  He would announce his position before the meeting and then frequently vote the other way without warning.  He was eventually asked to not even show up to the Republican caucus.

He caused tremendous controversy when he foolishly called Alderman-at-Large Sottile "Hitler" during a Common Council meeting.

Perhaps his most famous moment came after he took some personal shots at Jay Hogan and Jay's mother, Alderwoman Rose Hogan, backed Bob against the wall by grabbing him by his skinny neck.  Some accounts have Rose slapping Bob, but she actually just grabbed him by the throat.  The look of terror in Bob's eyes was worth the price of admission.

Later, when I was elected to the Council, I defeated Bob for the position of Minority Leader.  This infuriated him.  He spent the next 2 years undermining anything I attempted.  Not many people know this, but Bob attempted a coup and almost got me removed as Minority Leader.  Ironically, the deciding vote changed his mind at the last minute and voted for me.

As an example of the type of things Bob would do, there was a resolution I wanted to speak about.  When I was given the floor, Bob asked if I would grant him the courtesy of speaking first.  When I agreed, he immediately made a motion to table the resolution which prevented anyone from speaking on the subject.  It was a very petty and nasty thing to do.  Bob thought it was funny and clever.

Later, Bob changed his enrollment and joined the Democrats.  He claimed the reason was because he did not like where the Republican committee was heading.  The real reason was that I had convinced one of the Democrat Alderman to join the Republicans and was close to getting a second which would have made me Majority Leader.  Once Bob left, that could not happen.  To be truthful, I know of no Republican who was sad to see Bob leave and no Democrat who was happy to see him join their party.

I hope Bob has a successful marriage, stays out of Kingston, and lives happily ever after with his new bride.  I also hope he never returns to politics again.