Some readers asked us to give the public officials newly elected last November a chance; not to judge them prematurely. So we decided to let them do the talking and tell us about what they think they’ve done. Here’s how we did it: About two weeks ago we contacted the supervisor of the town of Coeymans, Mr Stephen Flach, the supervisor of the town of New Baltimore, Mr Nick Dellisanti, and the mayor of the village of Ravena, Mr William “Moose” Misuraca, and asked them to tell us about their milestones, their achievements over the past six months. Read on to see their responses…

Milestones are Achievements, not Routine

Milestone: : an important point in the progress or development of something : a very important event or advance; a landmark, turning point, climax.

Needless to say we were not surprised when we got laundry lists or absolutely nothing when the local politicos finally responded. You’d think they’d know what a milestone is but of course they have no clue.

Village of Ravena = “0”

We’ll start with the shortest list first: the Village of Ravena, Mayor William “Moose” Misuraca’s response: ZERO! No milestones, no achievements, no accomplishments.

At least Mayor Bruno would have made something up or delegated the task to Bill Bailey who would have talked up some crapola, or Nancy Warner who would have concocted some lies. But Ravena mayor Misuraca can’t think of anything he’s done or his village board has done in the past six months.

Maybe Mr Misuraca’s idea of a milestone is to continue Ravena’s corrupt and unlawful billing practices for sewer and water. Or maybe a milestone for Misuraca is to condemn more Ravena property so that cronies can pick it up for a penny. Or maybe a major accomplishment for Misuraca is to discourage responsible property ownership, drive out residents, and keep the building department busy taping “Do Not Occupy” signs on the  distressed buildings collecting in Ravena. What do you think?

It’s enough to drive you to drink! Maybe that’s the plan. Misuraca is drumming up business for his Halfway House Tavern! He’s a genius (Not!).

Maybe we should have asked how’s business at the other Halfway House, the tavern that is. Maybe business has been booming since its bartender was elected to be mayor of the Village of Ravena. Or maybe getting doused with ice water during a village board meeting did something to his head. Or maybe Jena’s not talking to him and he didn’t know what to say. Do ya think?

Actually, we really have to ask why he was so hot-to-trot and why he begged Republican Chairwoman Barbara Cumm to endorse him for Republican mayoral candidate? Were the rumors true that Carver Laraway and his bunch backed Misuraca as a backlash, retaliation to get rid of former mayor Bruno because he was playing hardball on the water issue?  It certainly wasn’t because he is such a hot-shot administrator or that he had some sort of vision for Ravena; if he knew what he was doing he’d have done something by now.

Town of Coeymans = The Great Sellout

The Judas Administration

Whatever we can say about the Town of Coeymans, supervisor Stephen Flach does respond. The problem is does he respond too quickly, without thinking about that he shares? We do know that things do happen overly quickly in the town of Coeymans town hall; they make decisions too quickly without all the facts and without doing the required homework, without asking the right questions or any questions at all. For the town of Coeymans it’s business, not quality of life. Don’t fool yourselves, business does not equal quality of life — Just look what they’ve done to Riverview Drive and to Route 144! (Well, you may not be able to see much with Carver Company’s dust clouds.)

Here’s Mr Flach’s prompt response to our question:

“A few of the major accomplishments that have taken place this year:

• We signed a Major Pilot agreement with LaFarge, ensuring that they will continue production for at least 20 years. They are building a 400 million dollar plant, and there taxes will increase each year by 2% regardless of the percentage raised, lowered, or staying the same for everyone else. Also their tax assessment will go from 100 million to 150 million over the course of 20 years, and the 2 % will be based on that increase as well!  We also have a separate host benefit package which gives the Town $350,000. Per year for the next 20 years and the school gets $150,000. As well.
• I have worked to bring businesses in to town, such as TCI, and The Tappan Zee bridge project by working on the zoning in Coeymans to what it has always been used for.
• I have fought hard for Carvers Bridge project (from the Port to the Trickey Property Industrial Park)
• We have updated some of our laws in our Town Code book, by abolishing some and updating others, and I will continue to do that to make our Town more business friendly.
• I am working on a Limited Recycling Center to be put out at the Highway Garage, as well as some amenities at Joralemon Park such as a Bathroom facility and some Primitive camp sites.
• I Feel like the Train Art Project around Town has been uplifting for our community and a great fundraiser for our youth programs!
• The Relationship with the Village has improved greatly, and we continue to move forward together.
• I have worked with the Highway dept. to revamp some things, as well as some other departments.
• There are a lot of other small things, working with and for residents that I have been keeping busy with.

We are working to make our Town a better place to live, bring in business, as well as look more attractive, by cleaning up and/or working on the vacant home issues that we have in the Hamlet.

We need Business to broaden our tax base, and give people jobs.  We do not need people fighting us every time we try to bring something Positive into Town. There are other issues that we have, and many of those can’t happen overnight. We are trying.”

WELCOME TO COEYMANS
We’re Business Friendly!

As for the majority of what Mr Flach provided, it’s all very immaterial. He’s naming accomplishments that can vaporize at the next corporate board meeting. LaFarge can close down tonite. As for the TCI, the Tappan Zee bridge project and the Carver Companies bridge project, we’re not clear what that has to do with the town of Coeymans and its residents, except for the fact that all of the above has so far only inconvenienced residents and has created an environmental and air quality disaster. The only one benefiting from those “milestones” is Carver Laraway. And as for changing the zoning in the town of Coeymans to benefit Laraway’s Companies, we don’t consider that much of an accomplishment, more of a sell-out! Hence: the Judas Administration.

The fact that Mr Flach’s administration is updating the town Code Book to be more business-friendly goes back to what we just wrote about the Judas Administration and does not count in our view as an accomplishment.

Mr Flach and his people “are working on a Limited Recycling Center” — it’s the “working on” part that bothers us. If you’re working on something it’s not done yet. Right? So if it’s in the planning stages or unfinished, it’s not an accomplishment. What doesn’t Mr Flach understand about the word “milestone”?

By the time we got to the “Train Project” we had all but lost our sense of humor and the responses just started to get more and more retarded. Are you kidding? We put the “Train Project” at the same level as the “Reubenville Project”. At least with the Reubenville Project the town could dole out 5000 sandwich coupons to their friends and cronies (without accounting for a single coupon. Right Tom Dolan?)

We had to laugh when Mr Flach lists the improvement of relations with the village of Ravena. They couldn’t have gotten worse; they could only have gotten better. But if Mr Flach wants to list that as a milestone, he can have it with our compliments.

Coeymans Mascot
Town Bird

As for the other “some things” and “small things” Mr Flach mentions your guess is as good as ours for figuring out what in hell those are. We’ve asked for clarification of most of Mr Flach’s accomplishments but that was almost two weeks ago and we’ve gotten nothing.

“Vacant home issues in the hamlet” is a joke. Does Mr Flach think that increased truck traffic and dust clouds is going to attract new residents who can inject some life into the hamlet? And jobs? Jobs come from service and retail businesses, not highly automated junk plants. Jobs come for the unskilled who fill our unemployment ranks and for the working poor and for those on social services! Carver Companies, TCI and EMR or the Tappan Zee bridge project are not going to provide those jobs. Let’s be real, Mr Flach.

Speaking of Carver Companies, TCI and EMR and the Tappan Zee bridge project. You mentioned we need businesses to create a taxbase but didn’t you sell out to Laraway and the rest of them on the taxation issue? Or are they being taxed 100% like the rest of Coeymans?

And as for all those jobs — What jobs? —  you know the 11 jobs TCI says it’s creating and the 30 or so jobs (all menial low-paying or temporary construction) that Carver Laraway’s “creating”? Well we contacted the New York State Department of Labor contact, Brian Suedkamp, whose e-mail and telephone number appeared on the so-called Job Fair flyer but we haven’t heard a peep out of him. So much for jobs! Peter Masti reported in a News Herald letter-to-the-editor that 70 people showed up at the “job fair”. How many do you think got hired? The Carver Companies website has an employment page at Career Opportunities but lists only 4 positions (Experienced Class A or B driver, Hauler Driver, Construction Laborer, Individual with 5+ Years Parts Experience (to do what?), Experienced Mechanic). So where are all these jobs, Mr Flach? Mr Laraway?

The Port of Coeymans website Employment doesn’t even list any jobs! Check it out at Port of Coeymans Employment. In fact, you can read this on the PoC Employment page:

While there are no specific positions available at this time, we are constantly looking for exceptional individuals to add to our team.  Please feel free to complete our general employment application and we will keep the information on file for six months. 

Well, that certainly answers our jobs question, doesn’t it? So, Mr Flach, what’s the story on all these jobs? (See our recent articles: Shame on You! Laraway, Flach, Masti, Dolan, Langdon, Burns! and Smoke Screens, Illusions, Delusions and Propaganda for more on the sell-out!)

Overall Mr Flach’s response only confirmed what we have to say about the Great Sellout and the Judas Administration. All the rest was too vague to really understand what Mr Flach was counting as accomplishments.

Town of New Baltimore = Routine Confused with Milestone

When we asked New Baltimore town supervisor Mr Nick Dellisanti to tell us about his board’s milestone accomplishments over the past six months, Mr Delisanti first promised a response for the next day. When we followed up, we got an excuse that his town computer or email or something was down and the response would have to wait until the following week. (But Mr Dellisanti was able to respond with a glowing assessment of Barbara Finke who is seeking election to be New Baltimore town clerk, and Mr Gregory Seeley, seeking re-election to be Greene County Sheriff. We have our reservations about both Finke and Seeley but we’ll publish those in an upcoming exposé and commentary). As it turns out, Mr Dellisanti didn’t provide the information as promised (neither the next day nor the next week). That didn’t bode well for Dellisanti or for his minions on the New Baltimore Town Board.

We just received Mr Dellisanti’s response and we’d like to share it with you here:

New Procurement Policy;
New Foil Policy;
We crafted & adopted a correction action plan ( CAP) in response to the State Comptrollers audit of 2013 criticizing the purchasing practices of the Highway Dept;
Negotiated free recording equipment with MH Cable to broadcast Town Board Meetings on MH Cable TV;
Worked with the New Town Clerk to open the Clerk’s office five (5) days per week from 9-4;
We now advertise for ALL vacant positions in the Town;
We applied for grants for our parks youth program & received two (2);
We hired a temporary employee at a reduced hourly rate to paint all recreation equipment in all four (4) parks;
The Town Supervisor does weekly park inspections on Sunday mornings at no additional cost to our tax payers;
Presently, the comprehensive plan committee has met six (6) times to revise the conservation subdivision so the 50% set aside is not mandated, and looking into our zoning requirements to make the 9W corridor more business friendly;
Since January 2014 I have met monthly with five (5) supervisors & one (1) mayor on sharing services & ideas to make our towns & villages more cost efficient;
We have changed the voucher policy so that all vouchers will be paid twice a month instead of once. This process will make sure that all bills are reviewed by all board members for accuracy & paid in a timely fashion;
Our Town Justices are giving us people required to do community service (painting, minor repairs, etc) at no cost to our taxpayers;
Opened lines of communication with the Cargill Co for emergency salt delivers for our roads;
Established a Veterans committee to honor our veterans with a monument at Town Hall;
Opened lines of communication with both Fire Departments in our town; also have been negotiating with CXS for emergency equipment for the New Baltimore Fire Co for when the second rail goes in through our Town;
We are presently finalizing the New Baltimore Employee Handbook so All employees are aware of not only their benefits but also Town procedures.
If you should require any additional information, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

To be very honest, we don’t have the time to ask these so-called professionals to answer the question. They should have learned that in the third grade. But they have danced around a simple question: “Tell us what you have accomplished in the past six months.” without responding. (And we also don’t have the time to correct the illiterate composition and grammar/spelling errors!)

Most of what Mr Dellisanti lists as “milestones” or his board’s accomplishments have to be called routine business; it’s what you’d expect any functioning administration to be doing on an ongoing basis and can’t possibly be chalked up as “accomplishments.” Revamping a purchasing policy (in response to a devastating audit report (see also Ravena)) is not an accomplishment. A “new foil [sic] policy”, in other words, complying with the New York State Freedom of Information Law, is not an accomplishment, it’s complying with the law!

The New Baltimore Highway Department should be relocated to the Coxsackie maximum security corrections facility. That’s the only way that we can be convinced that the New Baltimore Highway Department collection of parasites can be improved. Clean out the town garage, sent the parasites to jail, and start anew (Ravena and Coeymans might want to follow that advice, too!) That would be a milestone, Mr Dellisanti!

Now isn’t that special: New Baltimore now advertises all vacant positions in the town administration. Does that mean that it’s no longer the family business it’s been in the past? Is that a milestone or just good government?

What bothers us is the fact that Mr Delisanti, in the executive branch of the town government, is praising the two village idiots calling themselves town justices, for providing slave labor for the town. New Baltimore town justice Joseph Farrell is a loser from the word go, but a real winner at playing hide the sausage; Lee Davis is another piece of jerky-boy BS-art. Doesn’t surprise us that they’d get involved with such Judge Judy perversions of the justice system. Maybe the New York State Unified Court System should investigate this practice or the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Farrell should have been removed from the bench years ago! That somehow seems like a very slippery slope when you have your judges providing a labor force for the town. We’ll have to take a closer look at that practice and do some legal research but it sounds like something Stalin would have been encouraging for populating his Gulags or concentration camps. Careful, Mr Dellisanti, your judges may get you into a heap or legal and ethical doo doo!

We’re also concerned about Mr Dellisanti’s priorities in the town of New Baltimore. Our roads are a mess; we have stone age utilities that fail on a regular basis, we have a primitive cable service provider, and the list could go on. But Mr Dellisanti and his brood are sitting there telling us they’re planning to create a veteran’s memorial! At what cost? We already are being bled anemic with some of the highest taxes in the most taxed state and our homes are collapsing because we have no storm drains! WTF are you thinking Mr Dellisanti? We don’t need another monument. If you want to do something for the veterans, Mr Delisanti, and New Baltimore town board, lobby and get active to get them proper healthcare!!!!

We won’t even waste any more of our readers’ time or words to point out the silliness of these elected officials’ so-called responses and their so-called milestones. The responses are purely jokes. We asked for clarification and got none (Flach). Yes, we have questions but we simply don’t want to beat a dead horse.

Bottom line is this: Generally speaking, just because you are doing basically what you have to do you can’t call that a milestone or an accomplishment, even if your predecessors were dregs and left you with a mess. Working on something or planning something is not an accomplishment; you have to do something to call it an accomplishment. So far, you’ve done nothing.

Selling out to business is not the same as promoting a local economy. Nor is it creating jobs. That’s imbecilic, stupid. Selling out to millionaires while walking all over your residents is not creating new business, it’s abusing your community. Making a mess out of your real estate and destroying the environment doesn’t attract new residents nor does it create an environment uplifting to community.

And Mr Misuraca, not responding, even if the obvious is that you have no accomplishments, just doesn’t work. The fact is you still have a nest of cronies and crooks in Ravena town hall. You still have a parasite in the Ravena Health and Fitness Center, a relic of the previous corrupt administration and a money pit. Why is Cathy Deluca still collecting a salary for her failures? Why is the money pit still there, Mr Misuraca?

And Mr Flach, we’ll be exposing the glaring hypocrisy of Coeymans town hall when we publish our essay looking at Mr Peter Masti. It’s hard for us to comprehend how a bunch of Bible thumpers could be such Judases and how you and your administration could be such abysmal stewards of creation. It’s beyond our comprehension that a bunch of so-called Christians could populate a town board and yet be oblivious to the rampant hypocrisy and corruption around themselves and not take decisive action to combat it. The Coeymans police department is still gobbling up more than $1,000,000 a year plus the hefty pensions. Where are the police when the heavy trucks are putting our lives in jeopardy in the Hamlet or on the streets of Ravena? What is the Coeymans police department still doing in your basement, in other words?

And Mr Dellisanti, you don’t have half the problems that Ravena and Coeymans are facing so it’s unpardonable that you haven’t been able to give an account of a single real milestone, and have resorted to a laundry list of crapola. Look! Even one or two real accomplishments would be great but you can’t throw up a smoke screen and expect to walk away unscathed! Honesty and integrity go ahead of accountability and transparency. Even though Mr Misuraca may not have responded, his silence said it all: He has accomplished nothing in Ravena. Fine. But to try to bamboozled us with a list of routine activities that we expect would be done in any office is pushing our buttons. What’s really insulting and scary is that you thought you could feed us that junk and get away with it!

So we gave them a chance. Now what?

While we should expect that politicians will try to magnify mites to make hippos out of them; they’ll take the least thing and blow it out of proportion. But we think our problem is far more disastrous; we think our elected officials actually think that these are milestones, accomplishments. If that’s the case, we’re in for a really bumpy ride until the next elections!

We asked for milestones and they gave us gravestones!
The Editor