Village of Ravena

Those of you who still read the Ravena News Herald will have learned that the Village of Ravena Board has not included funding for the Ravena Health and Fitness Center for the 2015-16 budget year. We’d like to congratulate the Village of Ravena Board for that decision but we’d rather ask Why did it take them so long? The scandalous conspiracy hatched by village board member Nancy Warner and now three-time-fitness-failure Cathy Deluca should have been defunded as soon as the Misuraca administration moved in. Why wasn’t it? Months ago Misuraca admitted that the makeshift fitness center was hemorrhaging taxpayer dollars to the tune of more than $6,000 a month! Why the delay? The board could have resolved to close it almost immediately!

For nearly two years now we’ve been demanding that the money-pit Ravena Health and Fitness Center be closed. We’ve published our reasons for that demand, including the fact that it was an insider job from the start, the fact that the decisions were made behind closed doors without public input, the fact that $40,000 of taxpayer money was paid to a “friend of village hall” for used fitness junk. Worse still, the scandalous and fraudulent paperwork that went in to get Cathy Deluca her non-competitive civil service title as fitness center manager led to the resignation of the then director of Albany County Civil Service, but it didn’t stop Cathy Deluca from faking her way into pocketing more than $30,000 a year plus full benefits for the past two years.

So now what? Well, we’d like to see Cathy Deluca and Nancy Warner prosecuted for the huge fraud they perpetrated on the taxpayers in the village of Ravena. We’d like to see the culprits pay back every cent they practically stole from village of Ravena residents.

But now that we’re at least $240, 000 in the hole thanks to Nancy Warner and Cathy Deluca, what’s the village gonna do with the equipment Warner and Deluca purchased from Bob Fisk? Certainly won’t bring $40,000 or even half that amount in a garage sale. Maybe Cathy Deluca will put in a bid for her next health and fitness center she’ll run into the ground. That’ll be the fourth one. Before she ran the Ravena Health and Fitness Center into oblivion at taxpayer expense, she had managed two previous ones into failure. But she was the pick to manage the Ravena Health and Fitness Center! How in hell did that happen? Ask Nancy Warner.

So now what’s Cathy Deluca, 3x-failure going to do. Let’s hope that Mr Misuraca and his village board don’t make the mistake of giving her a job with the village or something as stupid as that.

In our last article we discussed among other things, fire hydrants in Ravena-Coeymans, and Mr Henry Traver. You need to read that article.

But you’ll have to show that the double and triple dipping has stopped, Misuraca.

We are informed, however, that the Village of Ravena provisional budget, while eliminating funding for the Ravena Health and Fitness Center, apparently gives Mr Traver a pay raise from his current $52,000+ salary to what appears to be $63,000+!!! Is that how Mr Misuraca intends to streamline his village spending? No, dear readers, that’s how he’s steamrolling Ravena taxpayers with a Halfway House bar-room smoke and mirrors act!  If that’s true, we really need to get on Misuraca’s back and start beating up the Ravena Village Board to justify such an outrageous increase for such a dolt.

Henry Traver’s 2010 Mugshot
After his arrest by Coeymans Police for allegedly torching his own house.
Misuraca’s board is now upping this dunce’s salary in the 2015-16 Ravena budget from $52,000 to $63,000 plus benes! WTF?!?!?!

Finally, we had to chuckle when we read that one of Misurac’s plans was to ‘consolidate some services within and across departments.’ We hate to burst Mayor Mouse’s bubble or steal his thunder but that’s what the corrupt Ravena administrations of the past had been doing all along. Everybody worked everywhere and got paid by everybody. No big news in Ravena! But you’ll have to show that the double and triple dipping has stopped, Misuraca, and you’ll have to hold your employees’ feet to the fire to explain why some of them, while employed by the village of Ravena, hold several other jobs, as well (right Sandy Debacco?). Can you explain that rationale, Mr Mayor?

What good are “flat rates” when you have no way of knowing what you’re paying for????

We didn’t chuckle when we read about Misuraca’s attempt to “keep water and sewer rates flat” so that “residents should not expect a rate increase under the current proposal.” That’s nice, Mr Mayor but we do want to ask that when you keep the rates “flat”, in your terms, when will the Village of Ravena be able to start billing equitably and fairly, when will the Village of Ravena have uniform and transparent billing policies, procedures, and documentation for water and sewerage. “Flat rates” sounds real pretty but what good are “flat rates” when residents still have no way of knowing what they’re paying for???? Kinda stupid, if you ask us! So, Mr Mayor and Ravena village boardmembers, perhaps you should start looking at how you’ve been billing and perhaps you should stop bullshitting Ravena residents and provide clear, transparent documentation on what they’re being billed for. Think were kidding? This is no joke, Misuraca, and we’ll be publishing some documents soon to show just how idiotic and unlawful village of Ravena billing practices are and have been for decades. Get real, Misuraca, and get to work, real work!

Town of Coeymans

For years now, we’ve been demanding that the Town of Coeymans eliminate the Coeymans Police Department. Why? Because it was a nest of perverts, corrupt dirty so-called law enforcement officers, and had the reputation for fairness and community spirit that made Attila the Hun look like a pussy cat. Totally corrupt, totally bully, totally bad! But then Gerald “Dirty-Hands Jerry” Deluca jumped ship as did his darling Gregory “Dumplin'” Darlington and their very own blond bimbo, Danielle “Humpy” Crosier and a couple of others either were terminated or chose to resign. All of a sudden citizen complaints stopped. We didn’t hear much more about police bullying, retaliation, intimidation, harassment.

Let’s support Chief McKenna and let’s hope that he and his staff can become more visible now that temperatures rather than tempers are getting warmer.

Then the town board appointed Peter J. McKenna to be interim police chief. Things really started to look rosy. They have a decent guy in the driver’s seat now who knows how to navigate the rough waters of professional law enforcement under the supervision of amateur politicians (the Coeymans town board). McKenna seems to be doing a great job. But we do feel he and his staff need to get more into the community and make themselves visible as real public servants. They need to get out there and topple the image of the Coeymans Police Department as a nest of thugs, and realize the picture of the CPD as friends of the community, as partners in improving the community’s life. Let’s support Chief McKenna and let’s hope that he and his staff can become more visible now that temperatures rather than tempers are getting warmer. Can you accept the challenge, Chief McKenna!

We’ve always advocated that the Coeymans Police Department be downsized to a contingent of liaison and education staff. As liaison, an experienced chief like McKenna could foster and promote positive collaborative relations with the Albany County Sheriff’s Department and the New York State Police; as an education force in the community, McKenna and a small handful of ethical, community-spirited law enforcement officers could do wonders in this community. We have also urged very strongly that the flotsam and jetsam in the department be terminated; this means that the unnecessary dispatchers need to be pink-slipped.

Well, after all of our ranting and writing, the town of Coeymans appears to be waking up and taking some positive action in this regard. It looks like the dispatch operations will be taken over by the Albany County Sheriff’s Department, where they should have been all along. By our reckoning that means a savings of more than $100,000 of Coeymans taxpayer dollars. Maybe now the Coeymans town board can pay Chief McKenna a decent salary.

New Baltimore

There’s a storm brewing in New Baltimore and it’s centering on none other than it’s elected town Highway Supervisor, Mr Denis Jordan. Readers will recall our recent article on Jordan’s record-keeping or lack thereof — but former town supervisor Susan O’Rorke and her board (which included the widgets Lisa “Giggles” Benway and Chris “Whacko” Norris) felt Jordan needed a laptop to do his job (porn surfing?), and the fact that few if any records are kept regarding the operations of the New Baltimore Highway Department. Jordan allegedly does a lot of favors for locals and that ensures his job. But he allegedly does it at taxpayer expense, too. That’s illegal and the allegations must be investigated. The New Baltimore town board may have been unaware of Jordan’s alleged indirect vote-buying — But how could they be? — but now we are putting the New Baltimore Town Board on public notice of the allegations circulating that Denis Jordan has misused his office and misappropriated public property. Furthermore, Denis Jordan has allegedly attempted to cover up his and his department’s involvement in an incident that has remained covered up until recently, in which a Greene County employee was injured and rendered incapable of working by the action of a Town of New Baltimore Highway Department employee who, reports say, has a reputation for careless operation of town vehicles. This accident occurred during Susan O’Rorke’s watch but she managed to conceal it from the public. Now the town of New Baltimore is having trouble finding an insurance company willing to cover the town. Thanks Ms O’Rorke! Thanks Mr Jordan!

We’ve also reported on Jordan’s questionable employee relations and how he demoted his deputy once Jordan found out he was thinking of running against Jordan. We think that elected officials who feel so secure in their jobs that they can openly retaliate against the democratic process should get the brown boot treatment; voters or a prosecutor should kick their asses right out of office.

The two democrap administrations, under Louis and O’Rorke, that preceded the present Dellisanti Republican board were absolutely corrupt and inept.

There comes a time when we have to admit he has to go!

But when a former supervisor, the likes of David Louis, partner of the notorious New Baltimore chairman of the now scandalized democrap party, Diane Louis, has the gall to stand up in Jordan’s defense, we really want to start up-chucking. The fact is that the two democrap administrations that preceded the present Republican team were absolutely corrupt and inept. While David Louis‘ name was on the supervisor’s office door, it was obvious that Diane Louis, then David Louis’ “confidential secretary” — now wasn’t that cozy, his wife as his confidential secretary, protecting him from any possible harmful testimony —, was pulling an awful lot of strings. Back then we figured she was pushing for David to go into state level politics; making her a local democrap power dealer. Let’s hope that’s been trashed!

While we have some very serious reservations about the current New Baltimore Town Board, we think that David Lewis has no place calling the kettle black. The only worst hypocrisy would be for Susan O’Rorke to start criticizing the current board.

To be very honest, we’d encourage readers to decide for themselves what’s going on on the streets and roads of New Baltimore. From where we’re sitting it’s just pitiful. Snow removal isn’t the major criterion that we use. We’re looking at the condition of the infrastructure, the quality of the roadwork done and how long it lasts, whether the work done accomplishes the fundamental purpose for which it was done. How much waste in terms of materials and human resource hours?

You can actually watch the water running into the foundations of the properties, where it then freezes, heaves, and destroys the foundations

We’ve already published numerous calls for action citing the waste that we’ve observed just in terms of filling potholes improperly. Tens of thousands of New Baltimore tax dollars have been misspent on storm drains that simply don’t work. On several Hamlet streets there are no storm drains and at least two properties in the National Historic District have been rendered unusable because of the lack of drains or even culverts; during a rain, storm or during a thaw you can actually watch the water running into the foundations of the properties, where it then freezes, heaves, and destroys the foundations. That’s what we look at, Mr Dellisanti, and that’s where Mr Jordan has failed us.  But you offer peanuts you get monkeys. And if those monkeys make too many friends with their antics, you get Denis Jordans re-elected and we’re stuck literally in the mud.

Mr David Louis, you had your chance to make a positive mark on this community and, well, you failed. Your successor was no better and if it could be worse, it was under Susan O’Rorke. Dellisanti and Ruso are no prizes but they don’t need your backstabbing but could use some collaboration from past elected officials. As for your relationship with Denis Jordan, Mr Louis, perhaps if you had some vision and some balls when you were supervisor, we wouldn’t be facing these problems now.

We mentioned the concealment of a motor vehicle accident that occurred in 2013 during Susan O’Rorke’s administration, and involving an employee of the New Baltimore Highway Department. The report is that an employee of the New Baltimore Highway Department, who allegedly has a reputation for careless operation of town vehicles, was involved in an accident in which a Greene County employee was injured so severely that he still has not been able to return to work. That GC employee is now suing the town of New Baltimore. It further appears that O’Rorke and Denis Jordan were somewhat successful at covering up the seriousness of this situation until recently. At a recent public meeting of the Town of New Baltimore town board, S. vanEtten was reporting on the problems in getting insurance coverage for the town of New Baltimore, and she mentioned the accident. Of course, Lisa Benway and Chris Norris were boardmembers at the time and were/are privy to the facts but didn’t see fit to do their duty and keep the present board informed; Benway and Norris preferred to be speed bumps. While vanEtten was reporting, Lisa Benway sat there giggling like a retard, as if she knew something but wasn’t saying. When Dellisanti/vanEtten asked her about it, Benway refused to share anything. Norris sat there grinning like a moron. When supervisor Dellisanti asked Benway about the facts, Benway stated that she is in the business and cannot disclose confidential information.

What Ms “Giggles” Benway and “Grimace” Norris seem to have forgotten is that they are elected boardmembers sworn to serve this community; they don’t have the option of telling or not telling when this community is at risk. We have a beef with supervisor Dellisanti, too. What he should have done at that meeting was adjourn the public session, retire to a back office for an “executive session,” ask Benway, Norris and Jordan about the situation, and if Benway, Norris and/or Jordan insisted on confidentiality, fine, it doesn’t go public at this time, but they have to share their information. But if Benway or Norris or Jordan refused to share that information with supervisor Dellisanti, then Dellisanti upon resuming the public session, should have announced publicly either that Benway and/or Norris and/or Jordan shared the facts but because of the litigation the facts must remain confidential OR announced publicly that Benway and/or Norris and/or Jordan refused to share the facts with the chief executive of the town of New Baltimore, and that they chose to deprive the town board of the necessary opportunity to be as informed as possible of an imminent and serious threat to the town of New Baltimore and its residents. Lisa “Giggles” Benway, Christopher “Grimace” Norris, and Denis Jordan have a duty and an obligation to safeguard the interests of this community, placing any other interests on a lower shelf, including whatever business they’re in. Mr Dellisanti, Ms vanEtten: You’ve been had. Benway and Norris embarrassed you in public session. You had the chance, Mr Dellisanti, to show leadership and take control, even to embarrass Benway, Norris, and Jordan, showing the public what dildos they really are — but you fell short and missed a gem of an opportunity. While it seems Benway, Norris and Jordan have their priorities terribly confused, Dellisanti has to learn how to use his authority and his majority (before it’s too late).

In the meantime, while we’re pumping the water that flows past the storm drains out of our basements or watching our buildings collapse, and while we’re watching the streets crumble and the stone get washed into our garages, we need to start looking at efficiency, competency, and professionalism in our town departments. Cuts can be made, waste must be cut, but we also need staff who know how to do the work or its all lost.

Now that New Baltimore town boardmember and sidekick to supervisor Dellisanti, Jeff Ruso, has visited this blog several times to read what we have to say, we’d like to know what Ruso or Dellisanti or the board has to say for themselves. How about it, Jeff? Or do you prefer lurking to responding?

The Editor