An online magazine and opinion leader. No hype, just the reality behind the appearances in and around Albany, New York by a native of the place. Some of it pure opinion but all of it written in the spirit of Truth, good facts-based journalism and freedom of expression!
When we hear our politicians use words like “rule of law,” “integrity,” “accountability,” “transparency,” “trust,” do you ever find yourself getting nauseous? Many of us do because they somehow don’t get it: We’re on to them! We know what they’re doing, and we’ll give them the rope to hang themselves. It’s only a matter time and being patient. Eventually, they all drop their guard and then…Gotcha!
The Greene County District Attorney, Joseph Stanzione, MUST Take Action!
Well, that’s already happened in New Baltimore (Greene County, NY), where backstabbing Republicans have exposed their soft, tender, underbellies. Now it’s down to who is on the side of Truth and Justice and who is not. It’s now a question of who is the scandalous liar and who is the victim. It’s now down to who is innocent and who is the criminal.
We’ve done the research and now we’re handing the case over to the office that is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of the liars and cheats. We’ve handed the case over to the Greene County District Attorney, Joseph Stanzione, and have given him what he needs to initiate an investigation into the allegations made by New Baltimore Supervisor Jeffrey Ruso and members of the New Baltimore Republican Committee, on which there are at least six (6) Town officials, including Town Council members.
Serious Defamatory and Criminal Allegations
The allegations made by Ruso and the Committee were published on Facebook in posts on January 31 and June 25, 2023, on the New Baltimore Republicans page, a page administered by Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso. Those allegations were made against sitting New Baltimore Superintendent of Highways, Alan VanWormer, and included such allegations as disparate treatment of employees, favoritism and special favors,misuse of Department vehicles.
Allegations made specifically against VanWormer include: failure to properly manage employees, failure to discipline employees, nepotistic management preferences, in Taylor Law violations, falsified payroll documents, failure to complete work in District 3 park, failure to submit the application for NYS Chips funding for 2022. The post alleges that VanWormer’s failure to submit funding applications will potentially cost taxpayers over $130,000! The post also alleges that VanWormer refused to correct the deficiencies, despite multiple requests. Particulars of the allegations were not provided but the information upon which the allegations were made — if true — could only have come from privileged confidential sources in New Baltimore Town Hall.
Not a Political Move? OK. Pigs DO have wings.
The New Baltimore Republican Committee claimed that VanWormer’s deficiencies were the reason why VanWormer was not to be endorsed by the Committee for re-election to the position of Superintendent of Highways in November 2023, and claimed that the decision was the result of a vote by 11 of 15 Committee members present with 4 absent and one abstention.
Whereas the January 31, 2023, post explicitly states: “This was NOT a political decision; this is Republicans holding ourselves ethically accountable.” Yes, Mr. Ruso, and pigs do have wings!
In the June 25, 2023, post the Committee urged voters to “rescue our Highway Department,” but leaves the question of rescue it from whom, unanswered. The Committee endorsed Robert “Rob” VanEtten, a Town Hall insider — he’s member and chair of the Town Planning Board — and husband of sitting councilwoman Shelly VanEtten,as their choice for Highway Superintendent; VanEtten lost to VanWormer in the June 27 Republican primary. VanWormer will be running unopposed for the position of New Baltimore Highway Superintendent.
No Denials from VanWormer
The fact that VanWormer has not come forward with strong denials is troubling.
It should be noted that VanWormer has not denied any of the allegations made against him but in a July 8, 2023 Facebook post on the Whats Up in New Baltimore New York community page, he came out with inflammatory and scathing commentary on Town Hall, Supervisor Ruso,Deputy Supervisor Nick Dellisanti, and “the people running our town.”
The Truth Must be Revealed
Well, the New Baltimore Republican Committee, a committee dominated by people in Town Hall, chose to spew their venom on a pubic social media page available and accessible to millions of readers. Those allegations would be serious if they were made against a private business or businessman; they are more egregious when they concern allegations made by an elected public officer and supported by numerous other public officers against an elected officer in Town Government. The Truth must be revealed.
A Letter to Joseph Stanzione, Greene County District Attorney, Demanding an Investigation
Is Joe Stanzione Up to It?
The Greene County District Attorney is an elected public servant. The present Greene County DA is Republican Joseph Stanzione. The District Attorney and his office is responsible for prosecuting individuals charged with committing crimes within Greene County. Attorneys from the DA’s office regularly appear in each of our county’s 16 town and village courts, as well as in Greene County Court in Catskill where the most serious cases are handled. Upon special request the Greene County District Attorney and his office also serves as special prosecutor for Columbia and Ulster County cases. The Greene County DA’s office consists of six prosecuting attorneys, a crime victim’s advocate and a legal secretary and a paralegal. The DA and his staff are required to to serve the public to the best of their ability and should be dedicated to prosecuting criminals, assisting crime victims, and working to provide a fair and consistent system of justice within Greene County.
(Source: https://www.greenegovernment.com/departments/district-attorney)
Our question is: How sincere and how committed is our DA to enforcing the law, investigating criminal activity in our municipalities and our elected officials and public employees, and ensuring the best interests of Greene County and its residents? I guess we’ll soon see. Remember what you see on election day!
Given the seriousness of the allegations, this becomes a matter of public interest in assuring that our elected officials are fit for public office. If the allegations are substantially false, the liars must be exposed and punished; if the allegations are substantially true, then the abuses must be corrected and the perps prosecuted and punished. Either way, the law enforcement official responsible for doing this is the Greene County DA, Joseph Stanzione. A New Baltimore resident has written to Stanzione, and in his letter writes:
Dear Mr Stanzione:
I am writing to you with grave concerns about the situation in the Town of New Baltimore, the Town Council, the Highway Department, Highway Superintendent Alan VanWormer, and the New Baltimore Republican Committee.
In a public post on the Facebook platform, on the page administered by the New Baltimore Republican Committee, New Baltimore NY Republicans, certain serious allegations were published by the administrator and the committee, ostensibly by Mr Jeffrey Ruso, Supervisor, and others, said allegations lodged against Mr Alan VanWormer in his capacity as New Baltimore Superintendent of Highways. The allegations are serious and include allegations of criminal conduct.
Since the said allegations are made by a public elected official and are based on privileged information, which would be available only to certain individuals in New Baltimore Town Hall, and, since the allegations are of a serious nature made against an elected public official, it would seem reasonable that either the allegations be investigated by an independent body such as your office, and summarily dismissed as untrue or unfounded, or, if found to be true, that your office pursue prosecution of the unlawful conduct. Moreover, if the allegations made are untrue, then disciplinary action against the publishers would be expected; if true, legal action against the Superintendent of Highways for misconduct in public office. Regardless of the possible findings, an investigation is in order.
The original publications were made on January 31, 2023, and a follow-up post was made on June 25, 2023, shortly before the Republican primaries in New Baltimore, with similar allegations to those of the January 31, 2023, publication. Read together, those publications allege misconduct, in part criminal, by the incumbent Superintendent of Highways.
Since both the alleged publisher of the allegations, Supervisor Jeffrey Ruso, is an elected official, and the Highway superintendent Alan VanWormer is an elected official, both of whom are in office by default, since they ran unopposed in the last elections; furthermore, both Ruso and VanWormer are again running unopposed for their respective offices and, as such, are guaranteed to another therm in their respective offices, it is even more urgent that the allegations be either shown by investigation to be true or to be unfounded and untrue. The people of New Baltimore are entitled to the assuredness that their local officials are fit for office, particularly if the people do not have a voice in whether or not they will be in office, given the fact that they are running unopposed.
The situation has been made public together with other serious concerns about how New Baltimore Town Hall is being run. For your information, I would direct your attention to the Smalbany Magazine & Blog articles below, which provide considerable detail on the situation. I am also attaching screen shots of the January 31 and June 25, 2023, posts on NB Republicans and a July 8, 2023, post on Whats Up New Baltimore, a community information page on the Facebook platform.
Smalbany Magazine & Blog articles covering this matter can be accessed at: https://smalbanynewyork.wordpress.com/ or on the Whats Up in New Baltimore FB page. The articles have been reposted to Facebook pages and on the LinkedIn and Twitter platforms. A facsimile of this letter will be reposted on those platforms, as well as on the Smalbany Magazine & Blog site.
I reasonably expect that you will confirm receipt of this communication. I further reasonably expect that you will take appropriate action in the interests of the people of New Baltimore, that appropriate action being at the very least an investigation into the allegations made and prosecution of either the individuals publishing the false information or any individual involved in misconduct in public office or criminal conduct in public office.
Needless to say, until the matter is summarily disposed of in appropriate fashion the New Baltimore Highway Department, the Superintendent of Highways, the New Baltimore Town Council, the Supervisor, and your office will continue to be monitored and any action or progress duly noted.
Since this is a serious matter affecting local government and accountability of public officers, I intend to apprise the media of this situation and the fact that your office has been notified. No doubt they will be in touch.
To be clear, this is not a political matter and Smalbany Magazine & Blog does not get involved in party politics. This is a situation in which members of the same political party are backstabbing each other, playing stupid games, and putting the public at risk. We now face accusations against a sitting elected official who stands to be in office for another four years by default, since he is running unopposed. The principal accuser, Town Supervisor Jeffrey Ruso, will also be running unopposed and will remain in office by default. Either way, New Baltimore will be saddled with these two warring factions but will have no voice in the matter. This situation puts everyone at serious risk and must be corrected at once.
That’s just WRONG.
Mr. Stanzione will have to step up to the plate, toe the mark, and do what’s right: Stanzione must investigate the allegations and hold whomever is guilty, accountable.
In this report, we discuss the problem of dog control in the Town of New Baltimore. State law and New Baltimore local law set forth requirements that owners of dogs control their dogs. State law in Article 7 and Local law 42 make it the responsibility of the Animal Control Officer (ACO) or Dog Control Officer (DCO) to receive and investigate complaints related to nuisances or hazards connected with dogs, and to serve notice of complaint or violation on keepers of offending dogs. The duties and responsibilities of the ACO or DCO are set forth both in state law, Article 7, and New Baltimore Code Article 42. New Baltimore has appointed a DCO and has set aside taxpayer money to pay the DCO.
Our investigations show that neither New York State law under the provisions of Agriculture and Marketing (AGM) 69 Article 7 nor New Baltimore Code Article 42 are being enforced by the DCO. The New Baltimore Town Council appears to think the law is a joke and that documentation of complaints or investigation is unnecessary.
The laws are on the books, the complaints are real, the DCO is real but not doing the job, and the Town Council, if we are to accept Supervisor Jeffry “Pinnochio” Ruso’s and councilwoman Shelly VanEtten’s remarks, the DCO is some species of inferior official, and they (Ruso and VanEtten) do not have to document any investigation. Apparently the DCO doesn’t either, and she’s getting away with not doing the job and making a dash with the cash.
New Baltimore Refuses to Enforce State and Local Laws
It is frequently amazing to become aware of the fact that so many residents are so unaware of what’s going on in Town Hall. It’s even more uncanny to find in official documents that our elected officials are so ignorant, careless and gullible when they are making decisions on our behalf as our elected representatives, that is, if they are, in fact elected.
It’s also deeply disturbing and troubling to know that some people in our midst have no qualms about taking on positions at taxpayer expense knowing full well that it is well beyond their capabilities or even near impossible to do the job. It doesn’t stop them from accepting the taxpayer dollars, though.
Both sides, the Town Council and the dishonest employee, are at fault. The one for not doing due diligence before awarding the appointment and the other for not being up front. We all suffer from the effects of the incompetence and indifference in Town Hall and from the dishonesty of their hirelings.
The subject of this article, one of many such subjects, is the position in the Town of New Baltimore called the Dog Control Officer.
New Baltimore Dog Control Officer: Annual salary of $3250/year, part-time, generally no-show absentee. In New Baltimore the Dog Control Officer is one Sherry Vieta, a resident of the Town of Catskill. In addition to being DCO for New Baltimore, Vieta is also Dog Control Officer for Catskill, Athens, Cairo, Greenville, and apparently works as a home health aid.
Vieta was appointed to be Animal Control Officer (ACO) by Resolution 87-2021 on April 12, 2021 by unanimous vote of the New Baltimore Town Council (Ruso, Boehlke, Downs, Irving, VanEtten) but that appointment had to be corrected by Resolution 91-2021 of April 26, 2021, to the job title of Dog Control Officer (DCO), because the all-knowing members of the New Baltimore Town Council who were not aware that to be Animal Control Officer, the NYS Department Agriculture & Markets requires certain training, whereas the title of Dog Control Officer does not. So much for competence and job knowledge on the New Baltimore Town Council!
Superintendent Jeffry “Pinocchio” Ruso, again doing his Biden impression, incorrectly states in the Resolution that Vieta resides in Coxsakie but she in fact resides, according to her application, on Mountain Turnpike in Catskill. Ruso repeats his mistake when answering a resident’s question about her residence.
In her application, Vieta lists Athens, Coxsackie (Town and Village), as her employers, and her position as Dog Control Officer; she is also DCO for Catskill.
Now, the job description for the Dog Control Officer states that the DCO “Patrols the county in search of unlicensed dogs and impounds them and assists in taking a yearly census and responsible for impounding and disposing of stray and unlicensed dogs.” Qualifications for DCO are absolute minimum in terms of education, training, etc. New York state Agriculture and Marketing Law, Article 7 and New Baltimore Code Article 42 specify other requirements (see below).
After reviewing the documents provided in response to a recent F.O.I.L. demand served on the Town of New Baltimore and using that information as the basis for further research, it appears that quite a few questions are raised: First, we question the ability of the current DCO, Ms Sherry Vieta, to satisfy her duties and obligations to the residents of New Baltimore as Dog Control Officer in the Town of New Baltimore, given her many other commitments. Second, we question the extent to which the Town Council is ensuring that Ms Vieta is actually doing the work of DCO as described in the law and in her Job Description for the position provided by the Town of New Baltimore.
In a few words, we have found that Mr Vieta is very unlikely to be fulfilling reasonable expectations and that the Town of New Baltimore, particularly the Town Council (Ruso, Boehlke, Downes, Irving, VanEtten) are not properly supervising Vieta’s preformance as DCO nor are they keeping reasonable documentation of her performance or of responses to residents’ complaints.
Not only is Ms Vieta failing to respond to multiple requests for assistance, she does not appear to have a handle on licensing and other duties and responsibilities. This situation is made even more suspicious given the fact that she is DCO for at least four (4) municipalities in Greene County.
Naturally, one can reasonably expect that if the Town of New Baltimore appoints or hires a person to do a specific job, and the Town has a job description for that position, that there would be an officer in Town Hall or on the Town Council who would have supervisory authority over that individual, and would monitor the appointee/employee’s performance against the job responsibilities as described. Evidence indicates that this is not the case in New Baltimore.
The elected officers who are presumably responsible for the performances of the DCO would be Charles “Chuck” Irving and Supervisor Jeffry Ruso; Irving is also on the Agriculture committee with councilman William “Bill” Boehlke. At the very least, councilman Irving and supervisor Ruso, and, perhaps councilman Boehlke would be responsible for overseeing the performances of the DCO and her satisfaction of her duties and responsibilities. Evidence indicates that this is not the case, in fact, Supervisor Ruso and councilwoman VanEtten scoff at the idea that they should have to keep records or provide documentation.
Of course, oversight and supervision of an employee who is for the most part on her own and allegedly in at least 4 different townships at any given time — or at her usual employment ignoring calls — and who resides in a township a dozen miles away can get complicated. One way around this is to require written accounts of the DCO’s activities, but then New Baltimore Town Hall is not big on documentation and records, as history shows.
For example, one public exchange between a resident and the Town Council on April 10, 2023, the conversation went something like this:
Resident Vadney: …I sent out a couple of emails and I expect that you’re properly prepared to discuss these issues. The first one is, of course, the barking dog issue and the policies and procedures that you have in place for the Animal Control Officer since it is basically a forensic investigation when she’s investigating these things. I expect per my email of today, which I know was distributed to you, I won’t cover that from the podium at this time…I’d like a response on the ACO, on the Animal Control Officer, and the policies and procedures and I understand you drove by sometime on Thursday and didn’t hear any barking dogs. Well, that’s not my idea of an investigation my friend.
Councilmember VanEtten: Well, I do know Nick and I have driven by there several times and never heard a barking dog.
Resident Vadney: Okay, fine, I’m going to FOIL your documentation. I want to know the dates, times, and where you were.
Councilmember VanEtten: I’ll not going to be able to provide you with that information. It’s been years that you’ve been complaining about this.
Resident Vadney: Did you bother getting… Listen do you people bother getting out of your…
Councilmember VanEtten: How long have you been complaining about this?
Resident Vadney: Excuse me, my three minutes.
Supervisor Ruso: Your three minutes are closing up to an end here.
Resident Vadney: Okay. Do you people get out of the car or do you just…?
VanEtten: Of course we do.
Vadney: I’ve got one email here [from the DCO] that ‘I drove through making loops’ from the Animal Control.
Ruso: I could understand what she meant. If you can’t I’m sorry.
Vadney: I just don’t understand making loops okay. Final issue…
Ruso: I can understand it rather well. Is there anyone here in the room, on the Board who can’t understand what making loops is?
VanEtten: No, I get it.
Vadney: Excuse me, excuse me.
Ruso: Okay, so there you go. You asked the question, sir.
Vadney: Excuse me. We’re going not vernacular. We’re going plain language. That is not the language that I expect from a duly appointed official in the Town of New Baltimore charged with enforcement activities.
Ruso: We are talking about an Animal Control Officer, we’re not talking about the Town Attorney. Nevertheless…
Vadney: It’s still an official of the Town of New Baltimore charged with enforcement issues and that was a demeaning statement by the way, Mr. Ruso.
Later in the meeting, (Note: Ruso wants to make his comments but he makes clear he does not want his comments to appear in the official minutes by stating “off the record.”)
Ruso: Well. Alright. Off the record, I will say, too, that he, he…I drove past his house again today. [lowering voice] I didn’t hear a dog. But he wants me to…he wants to know what documentation we have, and it didn’t quite get pressed [sic] to me but I wanted to suggest that when I drive around based upon complaints or concerns, whether it’s highway stuff that I have, or code enforcement issues or dog issues, I drive around on Sundays, usually, just looking around. I don’t write down things I don’t see. Just a bad habit of mine. [laughter] I only write down things I do see. And, uh, I drive past Harold’s house, and I didn’t see a dog in front. I don’t write that down. [laughter].
Boehlke: Well, Jeff, I gotta …
Ruso: But he wanted documentation on stuff I didn’t see, and I, I…
Boehlke: C’mon…
Ruso: I didn’t make that. I didn’t do that.
Well, it should be clear from the above extract from the regular meeting proceedings of the New Baltimore Town Board how seriously Ruso and the Town Council take resident inquiries, complaints, and investigations of reported violations of New York State law and their own New Baltimore Code. But it seems that Ruso and VanEtten expect that dogs will bark only on Sundays or at the random times they are “driving around.” We should wonder if the dogs are aware of that.
New York Agriculture & Markets Law (AGM) CHAPTER 69, Article 7, §122[1] empowers local municipalities to enact local dog control laws (see note below) and New Baltimore has on the books Local Law Chapter 42, Article One, Dog Control, are handled by the Dog Control Officer[2] which provides at §2 Unlawful to Keep Dogs Disturbing the Peace[3] and defines a violation according to that law (see note below).
New Baltimore local law also describes how a violation is to be determined and how notice of a violation is to be served. It states that “any person may request in writing” that the Animal Control Officer[4] The law also states that the Animal Control Officer [sic] shall deliver a copy of Article 42 together with the complaint to the owner of the offending dog. The law further states that “a violation of this article shall be deemed to have occurred upon a second or subsequent violation of § 42-2 above after the date of delivery of the written warning.”
In order for any enforcement officer of the Town of New Baltimore charged with enforcement of state Article 7 and New Baltimore Code Article 42, certain records and documentation must be kept. If the Town of New Baltimore has complied with the New York State Freedom of Information Law and has produced all documents and records per the contents of a lawful F.O.I.L. demand, then any such documentation of inquiry or investigation in response to a resident’s request should be available; if no such documents were produced, it must be understood to mean that none exist.
Returning to Mr. Ruso’s attempts at humor in the “off the record” comments made in public session and quoted above, Mr. Ruso is wrong in stating that he should not make not of negative findings, that is, if he does not find evidence of barking dogs. In fact, New Baltimore local law indicates that he must make a record if only to ensure documentation of compliance with the law.
Furthermore, we have to ask on what authority Ruso, Dellisanti, or VanEtten are investigating a violation of Article 7 and Article 42, when New Baltimore has an appointed Dog Control Officer being paid to do that job?[5] According to the New York state Town Law, they do not have that authority unless that authority is granted by New Baltimore Town Law, and it is not!
Given the state of facts and the circumstances and history of dog control issues in New Baltimore, at least in the Hamlet and National Historic District, there is clear evidence of dereliction of duty on the part of all concerned. They are simply not doing what they are being paid to do.
The situation is crystal clear in the Town of New Baltimore: we have a DCO who is obviously overextended and can’t do the job but is still being paid out of the public treasury. The current DCO is a part-time appointee in at least 4 municipalities, and she is apparently employed as a home health aid. The present DCO is not receiving supervision and there is obviously no control over her activities. No records are being kept regarding animal or dog control activities in the Town of New Baltimore. No one is policing animal or dog complaints and the current DCO is not responding to resident calls. Dog licensing is not being properly monitored by the DCO or by anyone else in New Baltimore as is shown by the records provided by the Town. This situation clearly means that the current Town Council is squandering $3,250.00 in taxpayer dollars, is not getting the services it is paying for and to which residents of the Town of New Baltimore are entitled, and no one in the Town of New Baltimore is enforcing New York State law or New Baltimore Code requiring the annual licensing of dogs and their control. This said, there is clear evidence of dereliction of duty and abuse of office; there is also evidence of misappropriation of public funds and unlawful enrichment of an appointee. Who is accountable for this situation? The New Baltimore Town Council and no one else!
Given the fact that Ms Sherry Vieta is acting as Dog Control Officer in the municipalities of the Town and Village of Coxsackie, the Towns of Catskill, Greenville, Athens, in addition to the Town of New Baltimore, we intend to serve demands for production of documents and records under the provisions of the New York State Freedom of Information Law, with the intend of investigating if similar situations exist in those towns as well.
NOTES:
[1] AGM 69 Article 7, § 122 states in pertinent part: “Local laws or ordinances. 1. Any municipality may enact a local law or ordinance upon the keeping or running at large of dogs and the seizure thereof, provided no municipality shall vary, modify, enlarge or restrict the provisions of this article relating to rabies vaccination and euthanization.”
[2] As defined in Agriculture & Markets (AGM) CHAPTER 69, ARTICLE 7, §108 Definitions at 6: “’[d]og control officer’ means any individual appointed by a municipality to assist in the enforcement of this article or any authorized officer, agent or employee of an incorporated humane society or similar incorporated dog protective association under contract with a municipality to assist in the enforcement of this article.” And at §118 at 2: “It shall be the duty of the dog control officer of any municipality to bring an action against any person who has committed within such municipality any violation set forth in subdivision one of this section.”
[3] “§ 42-2. Unlawful to keep dogs disturbing the peace. It shall be unlawful to own, harbor or keep in custody any dog which disturbs the peace by barking, howling or making other loud noises to the annoyance and discomfort of any person in the Town of New Baltimore. Continuous barking, howling or the making of other loud noises by any dog for more than any one hour or continuous barking for periods of less than one hour but more than 1/2 hour, which periods occur on two or more consecutive days, shall be deemed to be a disturbance of the peace and a cause of annoyance and discomfort to persons in the Town of New Baltimore.”
[4] As noted above New Baltimore does not have an Animal Control Officer; instead, the Dog Control Officer has the duty of enforcing both the Article 7 state law and New Baltimore local law 42. New Baltimore, although admitting that it has not had an Animal Control Officer “for many years,” has not amended New Baltimore Code, local law 42 to replace “Animal Control Officer” with “Dog Control Officer.” The difference has legal significance.
[5] It should be noted that Ruso is Town Supervisor and is basically a financial officer and a member of the Town Council, which is a legislative body, not a law enforcement body. Under Section 29 of NYS Town Law, the primary duty of the supervisor is to receive, disburse and account for all moneys belonging to the Town. Depending on the provisions of Town Law, the supervisor may be empowered with other duties, such as addressing public concerns. The Town Board is the governing, legislative, and policy-making body of the Town; accordingly, the responsibilities of the town board and the town board members is particularly that of legislation and policy-making, as well as making decisions relating to overall town administration and government. Neither the supervisor nor the members of the town council have law enforcement powers or responsibilities.
“We can’t distinguish between real news and fake news because we don’t even question the credibility of the source of news … Why would we, when we think of ourselves or our friends as the source?”
This article was inspired by what we read in the January 13, 2022, issue of the Ravena News Herald, a local rag run by Capital Region Interactive Media, and a McHugh associate, Mark Vinciguerra. The RNH was formerly owned by McHugh, bought after previous owner/publisher Dick Bleezarde died, and in which McHugh continues to hold an interest. In fact, McHugh’s law offices occupy the Ravena building on at 164 Main Street in Ravena, the former location of the Ravena News Herald. McHugh uses that address as his primary address on his license and elsewhere. McHugh actually lives; that is, his primary residence address is really at 100 Lawson Lake Road, a Feura Bush address (12067) but on the Town of Coeymans assessment rolls.
We’ve frequently taken issue with the reports printed in the McHugh Public Relations Manual calling itself the Ravena News Herald, and have written about misreporting, incorrect facts, partisanship, partiality, and outright favoritism when it comes to reporting about McHugh or any of his friends or clients (Readers might want to visit our article “George McHugh: Conspiracy, Misrepresentation, Possible Fraud?”, or any of our articles relating to the 2019 elections and McHugh). The front-page stories in the January 13, 2022, issue of the Ravena News Herald did nothing to improve our opinion of the News Herald as a dirty tampon.
Case in point: Not a word was printed in the Ravena News Herald about the September 8, 2021, two-car accident that occurred on Route 9W, in front of Pickers Nation (2530 US Route 9W, Ravena), that involved Coeymans Town Supervisor George McHugh and local Ravena resident, Laszlo Polyak, and which also destroyed the sign at the Capital Care Family Practice medical facility, at 2524 US Route 9W. Wouldn’t that be news? After all it involved the Town Supervisor, was investigated by the Coeymans Police Department, and caused significant damage to a local business? A month later, almost to the day, Rosemary McHugh, 4th wife of Town Supervisor George McHugh, t-boned a vehicle operated by a local Ravena resident, Kayleen Cique, in the Ravena Stewarts Shop parking lot. (See our article, “Rosemary McHugh: Driving While Disabled?”.) Again, not a word in the Ravena rag. Do you think there may be some favoritism or influence at work here?
We then have the report, again a front-page article, about the untimely resignation of a newly elected town official, Laura J. Barry, who was elected to be Town Clerk. The article does nothing but obscure the facts behind the resignation but it does contain hundreds of sugar-coated words reinforcing the incest club calling Coeymans Town Hall its home. Disgusting.
A second front-page article discusses the “revitalization of a long-vacant Main Street building” in Ravena.[5] Well, the misinformation starts with the title because the building in question was not a “long-vacant building”! The building is occupied by Mr. Laszlo Polyak who has been living there for 30 years! Polyak also rents three apartments on the second floor, which have been occupied for at least 10 years!That hardly qualifies as long-vacant building!
You say Tomehto We Say Tomahto; They Say Gay-bler, We Say Gobbler.
Yep! Just what we needed in Ravena-Coeymans: Another Land-Gobbler. It’s as if the Michael Biscones and the George McHughs, and their insider friends Carver Laraway, Albert Collins, and Robert Nolan weren’t grabbing everything in sight, we now have a new kid on the block who will gobble up properties or whatever’s left over and worth having. They may pronounce it ‘Gaybler’ Realty but in the tradition of a Josephine Bruno, they’re still gobblers, no matter how you spell it or pronounce it.
Coincidentally, the owner of the building, Mr. Laszlo Polyak, is the second party in the George McHugh accident, and Polyak’s tenant Kayleen Cique, rents and lives in one of the apartments in the “long-vacant Main Street building” – long-vacant according the News Herald’s and Lekocevic’s definition of ‘vacant’ – that’s the same Kayleen Cinque, whose car was T-boned by Rosemary McHugh. Interestingly, we have unconfirmed information that Rosemary McHugh made a deal with K. Cinque to go 50-50 on the repairs needed by Cinque. Now isn’t that interesting? No ticket and no insurance company involvement in that accident, even though the Albany County Sheriff’s deputy S. Hotaling investigated the accident and filed the Police Accident Report.
Nowhere, absolutely nowhere in the article is Mr. Polyak mentioned, nor is the fact that the “long-vacant” — though occupied for 30 years — building also contains three occupied apartments! Nowhere in the article does Lekocevic mention that Polyak spearheaded the renovation of the entire building on the corner of Main Street and Central Avenue. Nor does Lekocevic mention the actual “long-vacant” buildings along Main Street like the old Bushes Hardware, the former offices of the Ledger newspaper — both the Ledger and Bushes have been gone for more than 10 years but their signs are still there —, and the eyesore just across the street from the Gabler Real Estate offices, a large corner building that has had an “Auction” notice posted on it for several years now! Looks like the News Herald’s Executive Editor, Ms Melanie Lekocevic, has a big problem with the facts, but manages to get everyone else’s name in the article from Ravena bar-owner Mayor Misuraca to village untrustworthy trustee Nancy Warren to Delmar realtor Joy Iafallo, none of whom had anything to do with the improvements made to Polyak’s property! Even stupider is the fact that Mayor Moose-Moron Misuraca states in the article that the “building where Gabler Realty opened has been vacant for many years.” Misuraca is mayor of Ravena, has his mayoral offices just blocks away, and his bar is just down the street on Main Street, yet he is unaware that the building has been occupied continuously for more than 30 years! Can he be that stupid? (Answer: Yes!)
Well, Ravena doesn’t have to deal with Misuraca any longer; he lost his bid for nomination by the Republican party and will not be on the ballot for the March village elections.
What we find incredible is that Gabler Realty and its principals, Judi Gabler and Joy Iafallo, knowing full well that the News Herald story was a load of crapola, didn’t get an immediate conspicuous correction of the fake facts in the article. Iafallo is also president of the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Community Business Association, so you’d think that she’d be interested in getting true facts out there. But wait a minute, doesn’t the fake news about the property make Iafallo, Gabler, and Gabler Realty look real good? Even better since the article, although full of misinformation, does paint Gabler as being the hero-savior of yet another derelict building in Ravena? When you actually think about it, the lies do make Gabler Realty look good, so why should they want a correction? Realtors are not really noted for any interest in truth-telling, are they?
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Another instance of the Ravena News Herald keeping silent on the antics of Ravena elites occurred in 2021, when Robert Nolan of Nolan Propane (Ravena, NY) and a McHugh appointee to the Town of Coeymans Planning Board/Zoning Board of Appeals, and Ravena shyster Michael Biscone attempted to bully the neighboring Town of New Baltimore into denying a local business project competing with Nolan. The RNH neither reported on the conspiracy nor did it mention that Coeymans Town Supervisor McHugh was representing the Town of New Baltimore against one of his own board members and a business in the town to which McHugh was elected to be Supervisor! (See our article, “Nolan, Biscone, Miller vs. Albright & Sons: News Herald a Day Late and a Dollar Short”.)
Editor’s Note: We could agree that Judi Gabler is a graduate of the RCS school system when she is quoted as saying, not once, but twice, ”As an alumni of RCS…” The correct term would be alumna, if the speaker is a woman; “alumni” is the plural men or mixed men and women. We can almost forgive such ignorance in a realtor but not in a journalist! But then, we’re talking about the Ravena News Herald, aren’t we? But then, we do live in a gender-identity confused culture, so maybe Gabler’s apparent error is actually a true statement of who she is.
It seems that the author of all three front-page articles in the January 13, 2022, issue of the Ravena News Herald, Ms Melanie Lekocevic, who gets a billing in theNews Herald as “Executive Editor,” really needs a refresher in journalism and reporting, particularly as regards getting real facts and checking those facts! Shame, AGAIN, on you, Ravena News Herald!
Here’s a good idea for a front-page story, Ms Lekocevic: Why is it that Coeymans applies for grants (and is rejected) and Coeymans organizations can get money to repair an old chimney (We’re referring to Lekocevic’s front-page story, “Historic Alcove Chimney: Restoring a local landmark.” (RNH, January 13, 2022)) but can’t find money to revitalize or restore the water mains in the Village and Hamlet so that the Fire Departments can get water to extinguish fires?!? Does Supervisor George McHugh or Mayor William Misuraca or Trustee Nancy Warner have an answer to this question? How about Gabler Realty? Is Judi Gabler or Joy Iafallo or any of the claimed 20 Gabler employees going to disclose to potential buyers that the Village and Town can’t provide a reliable source of water?Are they going to tell their “match[ed] property buyers” how that might affect their property insurance? Or is all that going to be swept under the carpet like so many other things in Ravena and Coeymans?
By the way, as of this date and after an exhaustive search, we cannot find a single word about the two McHugh accidents nor about the Notice of Claim and possible lawsuit against the News Herald’s little friend, Georgie McHugh, or his protégés Keyer, Baker, Collins, Bruno, LeFevre, Seney, or Arnold. The Town is on the brink of a huge legal controversy and the Supervisor and Police Chief are about to be investigated, if they’re not already under investigation, and Coeymans is kept in the dark all this time. Why is that Mark Vinciguerra, Melanie Lekocevic? Aren’t you selling a newspaper, and aren’t Coeymans residents purchasing the Ravena News Herald to get their news?
Of course, residents in the Town of Coeymans are certainly aware that the Coeymans Town Board annually designates the Ravena News Herald to be the Town’s official newspaper, the place where you’ll find all the news McHugh and his mob want you to know about in your lovely Town of Coeymans.[6]If it seems that incest is best in Ravena-Coeymans, it’s because it is part of the culture; everyone has his or her hands in the other’s pockets or panties.
Notes:
[1] Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.” Part I Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.” Part II Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.” Part III Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.” Part IV Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.” Part V
[2] McHugh and his Town Board take good care of themselves. On January 29, 2021, the Coeymans Town Board gave notice of a Resolution Authorizing the Transfer of Certain Lands Owned by the Town of Coeymans to Albert F. Collins Jr. and Lori Collins, in which two parcels of land were to be transferred to the Collins for $66,300.00, which “represents the amount owed by the Town to Collins & Son, Inc. under a contract for prior cleanup work performed on the property.” That must have been on hell of a cleanup job! How many Coeymans residents knew about this and was it published conspicuously or even reported in the Ravena News Herald? (See our article, “Coeymans: Send McHugh and His Nuggets Down The Tube.”)
[3] The County Legislator’s seat was left vacant in 2021, when George Langdon, representing the Town of Coeymans and previously a sitting member of the Town of Coeymans Town Board, a member of George McHugh’s so-called Comeback Team, was forced to resign in disgrace from the Albany County Legislature. McHugh moved quickly to tap another of his Comeback Team, rookie Town Board member Zachary Collins, son of McHugh appointee to the Planning Board/Zoning Board of Appeals, to run for Langdon’s vacant seat, even though Collins had not completed even half of his 4-year term on the Town Board to which he was elected in 2019! That’s exactly what the Albany County Legislature needs: corrupt inexperienced puppets elected by sheeple.
[4] Chief of Police Douglas Keyer himself is in the hot-seat as we write, since he is named in the pending Claims as having abused his office as Chief of Police, as having knowingly engaged in clear conflict of interest, as having obstructed or impaired a police investigation, and as having conspired with George McHugh to influence the process and outcome of a police accident investigation, among other charges.
[5] “Gabler Realty revitalizes long-vacant Main St. building,” RNH, January 13, 2022, p. 1.
[6] Re: New York Town Law. The promulgation of notice provisions in the Town Law frequently deters effective publicity. Although the Town Law does not suffer from the politically oriented designation procedure of the County Law, its provisions often cause confusion and injustice, however. Unlike counties, towns need not designate an official newspaper but have the option to do so. Being an “official newspaper” does not mean that everything pertaining the events in a municipality must appear in the newspaper but legal notices, notices of hearings, various administrative and legislative actions are examples of what should be published in a municipality’s designated “official newspaper.”
A recent motor vehicle accident involving Coeymans Town Supervisor George McHugh and investigated by the Coeymans Police Department, including Coeymans Chief of Police Douglas R. Keyer,[1] raises a number of questions about judgment, accountability, conspiracy, and trustworthiness.
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Not surprising, the Coeymans Police Department’s taking control of the investigation inappropriately, given the fact that McHugh and his Town Board supervise the Police Department, control the PD’s budget, and have the power to hire and fire members of the PD, including the Chief, sends up red flags pointing to grossly poor judgment on the part of the Chief of Police, Douglas Keyer, and abuse of public office and power by George McHugh.
Smalbany will join with L. Polyak in filing a formal complaint and a demand for inquiry and investigation with the Office of the New York State Attorney General, the Office of the New York State Comptroller, and the Albany County District Attorney.
Chief Douglas Keyer, as soon as he became aware that his boss, George McHugh, was involved in the accident, should have recused the Coeymans PD from the investigation for reasons of conflict of interest and possible impartiality, and handed it over to a neutral, impartial law enforcement agency such as the Albany County Sheriff’s Department (ACSD), who were at the scene. Even if Keyer did not recuse his department from the investigation, it would have been appropriate for McHugh to have at least given the appearance of propriety and good judgment by even informally asking Keyer to hand the investigation over to a neutral, impartial law enforcement body.
Neither Keyer nor McHugh did the right thing; they instead demonstrated grossly poor judgment and opened the flood gates to suspicion of conspiracy to influence the process and outcome of the accident investigation, and unlawfully obstruct justice. The Public must demand that both Keyer and McHugh resign from their positions immediately, since both have shown extremely poor judgment and should not be in positions of public trust, authority, and accountability.
The Accident Investigation Was Tainted; It Was Procedurally Flawed and Favored One Party: George McHugh
Important Definitions
On September 8, 2021, a two-car accident involving Coeymans Town Supervisor George McHugh and a Ravena resident, Laszlo Polyak. The first law enforcement agency to arrive at the scene was the Coeymans Police — Yes! It went to hell in a handbasket from that point on! — the Albany County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene, as did Albany County Sheriff’s Department Emergency Medical Services (ACSD-EMS). The accident occurred on Wednesday, September 8, 2021, 2524 US Rt 9W (in front of Pickers Nation antiques) at or about 11:41. When reading our report keep in mind it was a weekday, at about noon, in front of several busy businesses, and in clear weather.
Shortly after the accident — in fact, on the very next day, on September 9, 2021 — at the Coeymans Town Board Meeting of September 9, 2021 (before the unamended Accident Report was even completed and reviewed on September 13, 2021, and “amended on September 16, 2021), George McHugh and his 3rd wife, Rosemary McHugh, and the Coeymans Town Board, revisited the accident and misrepresented numerous facts on the Town of Coeymans Facebook account.
The very fact that George McHugh abused his public office by taking advantage of the Town of Coeymans FaceBook account and the Town’s public resources including the video and the videographer’s time to misuse the video, the purpose of which was to make it possible for the public to participate in local government, NOT to be exposed to McHugh’s self-serving public misrepresentation of HIS version of the accident.[2]
After having reviewed the Facebook video posted on the Town of Coeymans Facebook page, Smalbany demanded, received and reviewed the Police Accident Report(s) (original and amended) created by the Coeymans PD, the Photo Log Sheet in support of the Evidence Report, the photos taken at the scene, the Incident Detail Report, the Police Request for Driver Review, the Supporting Deposition by the Coeymans PD investigating officer (Kelly A. Arnold), and the Albany County Sheriff’s Department Emergency Response (EMS) Incident Report, and after having physically visited the accident site with an eye-witness, and having taken photos of the site and the Polyak vehicle, Smalbany contacted the investigating officer (Arnold) and the detective photographing the scene (E.J. Seney) by email, requesting contact to clarify certain questions listed in the respective emails.
Shortly after having sent the emails, the Smalbany correspondent was contacted by telephone by Chief Douglas R. Keyer, who identified himself as the media contact for the Coeymans Police Department: “I handle media inquires with the police department.”[3]
Smalbany returned Keyer’s call and interviewed Keyer per the questions sent to Arnold and Senney. The statements and conclusions in this article are based on that interview and Keyer’s disclosures in the context of a so-called “media inquiry.”[4] Keyer explicitly and clearly stated that he “was at the [accident] scene” and that he has “direct knowledge of everything that transpired on that day.” Based on those statements, but despite the fact that Keyer’s statement was not entirely true, the Smalbany media correspondent considered him to be qualified to answer questions.
Chief Keyer, in typical law enforcement fashion, attempted to play the tough guy throughout the interview but it didn’t work. At one point Keyer states, “I feel no obligation to respond to you” and at another point stated “you have no right to make an enquiry to either detective Seney or to Officer Arnold,” but the Smalbany media correspondent quickly and summarily corrected Keyer’s mistaken assumptions, and the interview continued.
Chief Keyer does concede that the “Town Board” is his boss, which is a correct statement, and the Town Board is commandeered by George McHugh.
With that background information, we’d like to move on to the specific questions Smalbany had regarding the accident investigation itself, how it was conducted, and why it was tainted. The fact that the accident investigation was conducted by the Coeymans Police Department under the direct supervision of Chief Keyer, and that one of the parties involved in the accident was Town of Coeymans Supervisor George McHugh should be kept in mind, because these facts provide probable cause for the charge of serious conflict of interest and obstruction of justice.
The First-on-the-Scene
According to the Albany County dispatch record or Incident Detail Report, the first call reporting the accident was received at 11:41:35 on September 8, 2021. At ll:43:32 the case was assigned to “1st enroute” and the first unit arrived at the scene at 11:44:45 (CPD Arnold from 2 Park Drive (Mosher Park, Ravena)). The first to arrive was Coeymans PD K.A. Arnold (AL5920) and was noted as primary; Albany County Sheriff’s Deputy Jonathan Pushee (AL3148) also arrived at the scene. At 11:43:32 CPD Arnold requested and received jurisdiction. At 11:53 Arnold reports “tow on scene” without specifying who the “tow” was. It is interesting to note that throughout the Report, the location of the accident is given as Capital Care Family Practice (2524 US Rt 9W), the final location of the Polyak vehicle, whereas the accident actually occurred in front of Pickers Nation, 2530 US Rt 9W).
Problems at the Scene
We have already reported on a number of problems connected with the scene investigation, including McHugh’s several attempts to shift blame to Polyak, and changing his story at least three (3) times. Please read our initial coverage of the accident at “McHugh Tries to Put a Spin on Accident” for details.
Obviously, all vehicles involved in an accident must not leave the scene before the investigation is completed. Since the McHugh vehicle was removed from the scene before required photographs could be made of the vehicle, whether the vehicle left the scene at the direction of the operator, McHugh, the investigator PTL Arnold, Police Chief Keyer, or Det. Seney, the removal of the vehicle impaired the investigation and obstructed justice. We have to ask the question of Why the McHugh vehicle was removed or allowed to be removed before the scene investigation was completed.
We should further note that in addition to the numerous deficiencies in the investigation, deficiencies that clearly benefit George McHugh, no examination of the interior of the McHugh vehicle was made! Nor was McHugh given the standard field sobriety tests by Coeymans Police.
Who Investigated the Accident?
As noted, the Police Accident Report was created and then amended. No real problem with that. It’s the fact content of the Report that raises problems, because it is inconsistent, incomplete, and does not reliably report what actually happened.
First of all, CPD Arnold was the investigating officer; she signed the Report, which was later reviewed by a Daniel Braden. No mention is made in the report that Chief Keyer was there, and the only indication that detective E.J. Seney was there is the fact that he is shown to be the “photographer” signing the Photo Log Sheet. No mention is made that Sheriff’s Deputy Pushee of the ACSD was present nor of the ACSD EMS. No mention is made in the report whether or that the parties were requested to submit to field sobriety testing, which we found unusual, since it is well-known that George McHugh has a special fondness for Truly, a spiked seltzer beverage containing 5% alcohol by volume.
McHugh’s Preferred Beverage
In fact, the Coeymans Police Report appears to be a fairly exact rendition of George McHugh’s fabricated version of the accident, and George McHugh’s version alone, right up to and including the statement that the driver of Vehicle 1 was “sleeping” while driving northbound on US Rt 9W! More on that below.
Given the fact that Chief Keyer admits that he was personally at the scene together with Kelly and Seney, and given the fact that Keyer was aware that George McHugh was one of the parties, Keyer should have turned the investigation over to ACSD Deputy Pushee as soon as practicable. Keyer did not and allowed his department, the Coeymans PD, under his direct supervision and authority, to continue the investigation!
In fact, Keyer, in the interview states, and we quote directly:
Keyer: “We went … above and beyond in this particular accident because…uh…well, obviously because there’s a political official involved, and I want to make sure that any scrutiny upon the police department for not conducting a fair and impartial investigation would be squashed from the onset.”
and this is later confirmed by the Smalbany interviewer, commenting to Keyer:
Smalbany: “[Y]ou have volunteered at several points in this discussion the names and the fact that it involves a political individual, namely Mr. McHugh, who is supervisor and your boss.”
It is obvious from the Police Accident Report and the many defects in the report that the Coeymans PD lead the investigation. One glaring point is that the Report signed by Arnold explicitly and clearly states that
Keyer: “Both parties were evaluated at the scene by EMS with no injuries reported.”
That would be fine if it weren’t for the fact that Arnold writes “both” when there were actually three persons involved — George McHugh, his fourth wife, Rosemary McHugh, and L. Polyak — and in the header under “No. Injured” we read an entry of “1”, but Who? was it? Which was it? One injury or no injuries? Or, in Coeymans-speak, both ways?
Arnold also writes “Parties at the scene stated that the driver of V1 appeared to be sleeping.” Question: Which parties? The McHughs? Had to be, since no witnesses were canvassed at the scene! More on that below.
Can anyone please tell us how it is possible that anyone could have observed that the driver of V1 was “sleeping.” Try that driving down 9W. Just try to watch another vehicle driving in the opposite direction, and say with certainty that the driver is awake or sleeping. But that’s what McHugh insists and what Arnold put in her report. And that’s what Chief Keyer admits.
The Incomplete Photo Log
In the documents Smalbany demanded and received, there is a Photo Log Sheet (PLS) Supplement to Evidence Report dated 09/08/2021 at 12:22 and documenting an Incident: Crash-Property Damage, Case 21-179879, and the Subject: Scene. The PLS gives the “Location Photos Taken” to be 2580 Route 9W, Ravena, and identifies the “Photographer” as Detective EJ Seney, whose signature appears on the form. The report lists 22 digital photos with brief descriptions. Copies of the photos are provided.
The first problem we find with Seney’s PLS Supplement to Evidence Report is that he is at the wrong location. All of the documents place the accident at 2524 US Rt 9W but Seney says his photos were taken at a scene located at 2580 US Rt 9W, which is over 1/5 mi South of the accident scene! Looks like the Coeymans PD detective/photographer doesn’t know where he is or which scene to photograph.
Seney Places the Accident Site fully 1/5 Farther South from the Actual Accident Site!
Put it this way: Say you’re charged with vandalism at 2524 Rt 9W but the police evidence photos per the Photo Log Sheet Supplement to the Evidence Report were, according to the photographer, taken at 2580 Rt 9W, you’d be off the hook! Case dismissed! This is just very sloppy, incompetent police investigation, and you should want no part in it!
But it gets worse, still! The Smalbany correspondent didn’t miss this point and pursued it in the interview with Chief Keyer.
Smalbany: Is this the entire photo log?
Keyer: Yes.
Smalbany: Would it be procedurally correct…that if two vehicles were involved in and accident that photos would be made of both vehicles?
Keyer: Perhaps.
Smalbany: If both vehicles were significantly damaged, would that still be a “Perhaps?”
Keyer: We went … above and beyond in this particular accident because…uh…well, obviously because theres a political official involved, and I want to make sure that any scrutiny upon the police department for not conducting a fair and impartial investigation would be squashed from the onset. So we took photos that we felt necessary to document the accident…Now I understand that the damage to Mr. McHugh’s truck I don’t think we captured on photo.
Smalbany: My question is, well, my statement is that I have only copies of photographs and photo log documenting damage to one vehicle and one vehicle only … the fact remains that photographs were made only of one of the vehicles and not of the other vehicle. I presume that the other vehicle was not available for photography…given your previous statements that such care and scrupulous attention was made to document this because of the sensitivity of the issues … So if the Vehicle 2, McHugh’s were removed from the scene prior to Mr. Seney’s arrival, then, of course, it would be impossible to make any evidentiary photographs in this situation. Would that be a correct assumption?
Keyer: Yes. That would be a correct assumption.
Well, Keyer previously admitted that he was personally at the scene and had direct knowledge of what transpired. So why did he let McHugh’s vehicle be removed so that no photos were taken, while photos were taken in evidence of the other vehicle?
All this was done on Chief Keyer’s watch and right under his nose! Keyer noted several times in the interview that he is “trained,” has more than 30 years in law enforcement, etc. so we would have to accept that there is no excuse for the sloppy police work. Keyer has to accept responsibility if we are to believe what he says at the end of the interview. According to Chief Keyer:
“The legacy of the [Coeymans] police department has been questionable…training is a big component…treating everyone fairly, investigating things that need to be investigated, and having the evidence that leads to a conclusion the evidence takes us to, where we need to go.
“Well, you know, I’m responsible for the department, and in that particular instance, and forgive my vulgarity, but ‘shit rolls uphill.’ So, if…my people are not doing things the right way, that falls on my shoulders. It’s my job to make sure they do it the right way.
“Yes. I think…I do not mind being held accountable by the public that we serve. I think that keeps us on our toes, it keeps us honest…uh…it’s the way it should be, I wish it worked be the same for politicians but it doesn’t quite.
(Coeymans PD Chief Douglas Keyer, Smalbany Interview, October 19, 2021)
Well, any clear and reasonably thinking person reading those words would have to think that there is some contradiction and inconsistency between what Keyer does and what he says. This is borne out in the statement made by the Smalbany interviewer in the segment above:
Smalbany: It’s important to have somebody with extensive experience, extensive integrity sitting in that Chief’s office, and we have not had it at some points. It makes a big difference. And somebody with the balls…the balls to stand up to the politicians upstairs, which is… walking the tightrope between integrity and budget.
It seems Chief Keyer made the decision in favor of the “politicians upstairs” and the “budget,” while leaving integrity and accountability in the dust.
NO WITNESSES WERE CANVASSED
The situation we have here is a two-car accident involving two parties, Vehicle 1 and Vehicle 2. Each party has his version of the facts, and they differ significantly. I such a situation, the investigator is presented with at least four options to choose from: (1) accept one party’s version of the facts while rejecting the other party’s version, (2) rely only on what is objective evidence, ignoring the inputs of the parties, or (3) ask witnesses what they saw or heard, or (4) consider the parties’ versions, the objective evidence collected at the scene, and witness statements, and then form an impartial factual opinion. . They did not interview any witnesses. In fact, one man who was on the scene stated, “The police weren’t interested in talking to me.” Why? Because they had already made their decisions as to the outcome.
All of the accident investigation guidelines we reviewed emphasized the importance of identifying witnesses, but Chief Keyer didn’t think witnesses were necessary — even though he did not observe the accident and arrived much later on the scene —, because he was “clear” how the accident happened. The Smalbany interviewer pursued this point by asking Chief Keyer directly about the lack of witness support.
Smalbany: It appears to me odd that nowhere in the comprehensive report that I have here…is there any mention of any interview requesting persons, who may have had…who might have served as eye-witnesses or who may have made a statement as to the circumstances of the accident.
Keyer: No. No, there were not.
Smalbany: My concern is that there were several witnesses to the accident, and none of these people claims to have been interviewed. We would assume that it would [be] reasonable to get different statements to determine the circumstances…that you would have seen to it that persons with knowledge…
Keyer: No. Perhaps it would have been, however, the way the accident was explained to us…
Smalbany: By whom?
Keyer: [B]oth subjects were interviewed. The accident scene obviously was documented and based on evidence at the scene, it was clear to me… In this particular instance the interview of witnesses would not, was not, necessary. It was clear, based on the evidence at the scene which vehicle was at fault in the accident…and how the accident occurred.
So Keyer states that both subjects were interviewed and witnesses were not necessary. Keyer wasn’t there when the accident occurred but he was clear how the accident occurred. Witnesses may have seen the actual accident in real time but, according to Keyer, their statements were not necessary, because Keyer was sure how the accident happened. We are not as convinced as Keyer appears to be.
It’s very comforting to know that we have a police chief in Coeymans who has paranormal, supernatural powers and is able to arrive late on an accident scene yet know exactly what had happened with such extraordinary clarity and assurance. Now doesn’t that give you a warm cuddly feeling of security?
If Keyer states that his people went “above and beyond in this particular accident because…uh…well, obviously because there’s a political official involved, and I want to make sure that any scrutiny upon the police department for not conducting a fair and impartial investigation would be squashed from the onset.” All we have to say is that his “above and beyond” was in the wrong direction because the fairness and impartiality of the Coeymans Police Department and Chief Keyer are under scrutiny and the investigation was not fair and impartial from the outset; in fact, it was quite the opposite.
Finding a Scapegoat, Framing and Defaming Him
In our opinion, even considering the conspiracy and political undercurrents adversely affecting this rather minor traffic accident, the accident itself being minor but the implications of the conduct of the Coeymans Police Department and the involvement of Town Supervisor George McHugh make the issues major, one of the most devastating and damaging outcomes of the inept investigation is the fact that given all else, the Coeymans Police Department took an additional step to damage the other party, L. Polyak.
Obstruction or Impairment of Justice
We are using a broad definition of this crime: Obstruction or impairment of justice means that a person who “corruptly … influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice”” is guilty of the crime of obstruction of justice. Two types of cases arise under the concept of obstruction of justice or the concealment, alteration, or destruction of documents; and the encouraging or rendering of false testimony. Actual obstruction is not needed as an element of proof to sustain a conviction. The defendant’s endeavor to obstruct justice is sufficient. “Endeavor” has been defined by the courts as an effort to accomplish the purpose the statute was enacted to prevent. The courts have consistently held that “endeavor” constitutes a lesser threshold of purposeful activity than a criminal “attempt.” Obstruction of justice, in the most general terms is the act of willfully interfering with the process of justice and law. This includes any act that involves influencing, threatening, harming, or impeding a potential witness, juror, legal officer, law enforcement or anybody otherwise involved in the administration of justice. As you may expect with such a broad definition, there are many types of misconduct and criminal activity that constitute an obstruction of justice, anybody can face these charges for alleged illegal acts when involved with law enforcement or criminal court proceedings.
How many forms of obstruction of justice can you identify in this accident investigation?
This was done by fraudulently creating a Police Request for Driver Review that was sent to the Department of Motor Vehicles, and in which two unsubstantiated and totally fabricated statements were included that were said to have been made by Mr. Polyak.
Smalbany: You know, it’s troubling that in one of these sets of documents I have a Police Agency Request for Driver Review signed by Arnold … Does this signatory have any medical qualifications?
Keyer: No. Those statements are based on discussion and statements made by Laszlo about his physical, his mental…er… his medical condition, where he was coming from.
Smalbany: I doubt very much that Mr. Laszlo would have stated that he was “medically incapable of maintaining control of the vehicle” nor that ”he was disoriented because of medications prescribed;” I’m reading directly from the agency request. There is no other signature appearing here. There is no urine, saliva, or blood tests indicated, so I’m just wondering how Arnold made these…and you say that these statements are taken from Mr. Laszlo…but I can’t see a party to an accident making statements like that, unless he was high on something, but you have no evidence of that, either.
Keyer: Correct.
Smalbany: What I am saying is this: This is very serious stuff because this was reported by a law enforcement officer requesting the Department of Motor Vehicles to examine this individual based on these statements. And that’s scary stuff because this can severely and adversely affect this individual’s driving privileges.
Keyer: The last thing I’m going to say on this topic is that that review was done, specifically made because of observations at the scene and statements made by Laszlo, and I’ll leave it at that.
Smalbany: OK. Which raises the question of… Why? is it stated in the Police Request for Driver Review that the licensee appears to be medically incapable of operating a vehicle and the licensee…
Keyer: There was no breathalyzer given to either party. There were standard field sobriety tests done with Mr. Laszlo, which is part of the investigation that goes in to determine whether a driver may be impaired. Based on that testing which was done by detective Senney, we determined that Laszlo did not show signs of impairment that would preclude him from driving.
Smalbany: And you said there was no chemical test, no chemical, no respiratory gases, no blood, no saliva …
Keyer: Correct. Because the standard field sobriety tests did determine that Mr. Laszlo was not impaired to the point where that would be necessary.
Again, it seems that the Coeymans Police are treating the parties differently, giving favorable treatment to the ‘Boss’ and prejudicial treatment to Mr Polyak. First of all, given McHugh’s alleged drinking habit and his constant companion, a can of Truly hard selzer, we feel it would have been good investigation procedure to routinely administer sobriety tests to BOTH parties; instead, and probably to appease McHugh, only Polyak was tested by Seney, even though he appeared and acted, for all intents and purposes, unimpaired! What’s even more suspicious is that no mention is made of the field sobriety testing nor of the fact that Polyak was found to be unimpaired!
So, we have to ask Why? was the Police Request for Driver Review submitted to the DMV, and Why? were such damaging and untrue statements made in that Request regarding Mr. Polyak’s condition, when Chief Keyer clearly admits that the tests administered by his detective Seney showed that Polyak was not impaired? No chemical tests at all were done. The Albany County Sheriff’s Department EMS personnel gave Polyak a clean bill of health after examining him at the scene.
The glaring fact remains that, although Det. Seney administered the field sobriety tests, and the Albany County Sheriff’s Department EMS personnel at the scene found Polyak to be unimpaired and completely OK, ‘no serious medications on board‘,’ absolutely no mention of this is made in the Police Accident Report. Now, don’t you find that to be a bit bizarre?
How can the Coeymans Police officer, Kelly A. Arnold, make such a stupidly ridiculous statement that Mr. Polyak said that he was “medically imcapable of maintaining control of the vehicle, due to pre existing medical condition,” and was “disoriented from medications prescribed?” Anyone would have to be totally insane to make such statements about himself after being involved in a traffic accident. But that’s what Arnold and Chief Keyer seem to want us to believe, even after both the Coeymans Police and the Sheriff’s EMS determined that Polyak was not impaired and that no further tests were required!
Editor’s Note: We must note that the allegation that Polyak was “drunk” or affected by medications or asleep are taken almost verbatim, word for word, from George McHugh’s statements made in the video of the Coeymans Town Board meeting of September 9, 2021, in which McHugh states, “He was asleep, and I guess he’s on some pretty serious medications, and was just coming back from UrgentCare” (Town of Coeymans Board Meeting of September 9, 2021, position 00:27–00:37). None of this was or is factually true according to our investigation, and was totally fabricated by McHugh, and accepted by the Coeymans Police Department in their Police Accident Report. Polyak denies making any of the statements included in the Police Request for Driver Review or in the so-called Supporting Deposition made by CPD Arnold.
By this point in the interview it was abundantly clear that Keyer was backpedalling at warp speed and that there was no useful purpose in continuing to confirm what was already conspicuous and obvious: The Coeymans Police Department did what it does best: They screwed up yet another investigation. As the Smalbany interviewer put it: “the guy who holds the purse strings calls the dance steps…the fish stinks from the head down.” McHugh and the Coeymans Town Board, packed with McHugh’s puppets hold the purse strings and called the dance steps in this investigation, and Chief Keyer and his Department danced to McHugh’s tune.
This sort of misconduct by a public elected official and by a chief law enforcement officer is absolutely unacceptable, and indicates a standard of conduct that falls far below what the public is justified in expecting of their elected public officials and law enforcement personnel. The conspicuously poor judgment shown by both Town Supervisor George McHugh and his Chief of Police, Douglas Keyer cannot be tolerated, particularly since both officials are entrusted with power and authority that requires honesty, integrity, objectivity, impartiality, fairness, and crucially good judgment.
Given these horrible and damning facts as stated by no less than the Chief of Police, Douglas Keyer, and documented in the official documents relating to the subject accident, the Public must demand that both Town Supervisor George McHugh and Chief of Police Douglas Keyer resign immediately from their respective positions. The People of Coeymans cannot rely on the Coeymans Town Board to do what is ethical and lawful, because every member of that Board is deep in McHugh’s pockets. This may require concerted and sustained public effort to clean up the garbage in Coeymans Town Hall.
Editor’s Note: Why wasn’t the accident reported in the Ravena News Herald? An accident involving Coeymans Town Supervisor George McHugh in an election year certainly must be newsworthy. But it becomes clear if you know the history of the relationship between the Ravena News Herald and George McHugh. We have done a thorough search of the Ravena News Herald over a period of six weeks dating from September 2 to the present, and have not found a single word about the accident in that newspaper. It must be noted that George McHugh owned the Ravena News Herald prior to selling it to Mark Vinciguerra, who is a close friend of McHugh’s. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the Ravena News Herald was silent about McHugh’s involvement, particularly since McHugh is seeking another term as Supervisor in the November elections.
Interestingly but not surprisingly, a the Organizational Meeting of the Coeymans Town Board on January 1, 2021, the Ravena News Herald was designated the “official town newspaper.” We find it particularly questionable that a newspaper with such close ties to McHugh and with a paltry subscriber rate of about 1,500 subscribers or far less than 25% of the population of the Town of Coeymans should be designated the “official newspaper” for the Town. According to New York State Law, since the purpose of designating an official newspaper is to ensure that notices reach as many people within the town or village as possible (see Myers-Brooks Publishers v Board of Supervisors, 68 Misc 2d 1033, 328 NYS2d 741), the office of the NYS Comptroller has expressed the opinion that a town or village’s official newspaper must have a general circulation within the town or village (Opn No. 84-58, supra; Opn No. 82-173, supra; see also NY Const, article I, §11). Since the Ravena News Herald reaches less than 1 in 4 residents in the Town of Coeymans, it clearly does not reach a substantial number of persons in the Town, and cannot be considered to have a general circulation in the Town of Coeymans.
Postscript: Almost one month to the day, on October 7, 2021, George McHugh’s third and current wife, Rosemary McHugh, was involved in yet another two-car accident. McHugh was pulling out of a parking slot at the Ravena Stewarts Shop on US Rt 9W and, while backing out, she T-boned a vehicle operated by Kayleen Cique of Ravena, causing considerable damage to Cique’s vehicle. Cinque opted not to call the Coeymans Police and instead contacted the Albany County Sheriff’s Department, and one Deputy Houghtaling responded. No ticket was issued to McHugh. Kayleen Cique was not available for comment.
Notes:
[1] Douglas R. Keyer was hired in January 2021 to be Chief, Coeymans Police Department. Keyer retired from the New York State Police with the rank of major, a promotion received shortly before he retired, a common trick in state service to ensure maximum pension benefits. Keyer’s state pension is $108,924.00, exempt from New York State income tax, plus benefits. In addition to his pension benefits, Keyer, as Chief of Police, receives an annual salary of $65,000.00 plus benefits from the Town of Coeymans. Keyer’s wife, Bonnie Keyer, is employed by the Town of Coeymans as a Deputy Town Clerk with a salary of $37,380.00 plus benefits. It should be clear that the Keyers stand to risk a great deal, to the tune of more than $100,000/year if they don’t play their cards right and rub the Supervisor and Town Board the wrong way.
[2] Based on witness statements we have claimed that the “official” Coeymans Police Accident Report is phony, and that McHugh was exiting the Pickers Nation parking lot, is supported by the fact that in the video the audio of Rosemary McHugh discussing the “antiques parking lot” is suspiciously deleted! The video goes silent as soon as she starts talking and after she mentions the “antiques parking lot.” Now isn’t that convenient? The actual video can be accessed at https://ne-np.facebook.com/CoeymansNY/videos/150240583956353/, and the segment in which McHugh is discussing the accident goes from the beginning to about position 04:41. The video goes silent from position 02:13 to 04:20, with Rosemary McHugh mentioning the “antiques parking lot” at position 02:13, where the audio suspiciously goes out again.
[3] Text enclosed in quotation marks (“…”) are direct quotations taken from the interview.
[4] This is the term used by Chief Keyer in the course of the interview.
George McHugh is living proof that if you have enough losers supporting you, you can be a winner.
Supporters of George McHugh going to Polls
What species of depraved animal life could have spawned a creature like George McHugh? I often wonder what kind of community would be so ignorant or evil to have elected such a miscreant to be their town supervisor, and put him in charge of local government and law enforcement?
How can a community trust a man and his co-conspirators, who use a public Town Board Meeting to spread misinformation about an accident? At the Coeymans town board meeting of September 9, 2021, George McHugh and his wife made public statements regarding the September 8, 2021, accident caused by McHugh’s unsafe turn out of the Picker’s Nation/Changing with the Times auction center parking lot. McHugh’s remarks and the misinformation he spread have no factual basis whatsoever; McHugh’s underhanded misconduct is an unscrupulous, deceitful, and desperate attempt to save his own cojones. It’s also a flagrant abuse of public resources.
McHugh Misuses Public Resources to Publicize His Lies…
McHugh: So he careened off me, and went back across 9W, right into the sign, and stopped and that’s where he skidded. He’s lucky he didn’t get killed.
Unidentified woman (Tanner?): No kidding. You’re lucky you didn’t get killed.
McHugh: Well, I have a truck and my truck is pretty big. So even if he hit me head-on I might not get hurt. [inaudible]
Rowzee (Clerk): Is that the one you have out there?
McHugh: Until tomorrow. It’s my father’s… my daughter’s.
McHugh: He was asleep, and I guess he’s on some pretty serious medication.[1] He was just coming back from the Urgent Care.[2] He fell asleep, he was falling…he was asleep; and I guess he didn’t have a phone on him.
Male voice: Rosemary got just a little bit of seatbelt bruise but nothing major. He was one lucky individual; if he was in front of a tractor trailer…he was gone, he would have been crushed.
McHugh: If I wasn’t paying attention…I moved over so far that when he hit me the impact was in the middle of my lane, half of my truck was off the shoulder. If I didn’t move over to the right we would have hit him head on…and that would have been different. Probably for him, because his car is a lot…[Inaudible male voices]
McHugh: Well, he was asleep.[3] He was so far asleep he didn’t even realize he hit somebody. When they said to him where’s the other vehicle,[4] he said “What other vehicle; it’s just me. I didn’t hit anybody.” He did not know he hit somebody.[5]
You were there…we’re talking about the accident with Laszlo [inaudible]
Unidentified male voice: Do you know who the driver was? [Multiple voices] Lazlo?
Rosemary McHugh: It’s, it’s not funny but it is funny now, because I’m like looking back, I’m like I can’t remember just holding on to the side of the door and he’s like, I think he’s going to hit us. I think he is, too, but he’s going to the right, so I’m, like, [sound goes out in the video]
Rosemary Mchugh: In the antique center parking lot…it was in the antique center… (audio fails)[6]
[Indistinct overtalk about “little old lady”…]
McHugh: He didn’t hit his brakes until he got to the lawn.[7] There are no skid marks until he got to the lawn.[8]
Rosemary McHugh: He must have woken up at some time … [McHugh interrupts]
McHugh: John… [McHugh calls the meeting to order.]
One outraged local wrote to the Coeymans Town Clerk, expressing outrage at the fact that McHugh and his wife commandeered Town resources to get their lies out to the public. S/he writes:
“I cannot believe that the conversation relating to the McHugh-Polyak accident of September 8, 2021, was part of the ToC Board Meeting video posted on Facebook!
“That conversation should never have been recorded, much less posted as part of the ToC Board Meeting; it should have been redacted prior to publication, since it publicises one side of a story and unduly and unfairly influences public opinion in favor of McHugh. McHugh is prejudicing public opinion in his favor and doing so in an unethical and inappropriate manner. Mr Polyak does not have the opportunity to commandeer Town of Coeymans resources to get his side of the story out, which is patently unfair and unconscionable.
“I realize you had no control over the recording but I am certain you were privy to the plan to get McHugh’s message out. I hope you agree that it was inappropriate and out of order.”
The Coeymans Town Clerk, Cindy Rowzee, a very professional public servant with integrity to spare, responded:
“My office, by order of the Town Supervisor, has nothing to do with the Town Facebook page or the Town webpage.”
McHugh and his puppets have marginalized the Clerk’s office, and appear to have total control of the Town FakeBook page and the town website. No wonder there’s so much abuse!
After hearing this banter and the lies and misinformation being broadcast by McHugh and his wife, it seemed almost blasphemy, sacrilege for McHugh and his cronies to have pledged allegiance to the flag, saying “justice for all”; it was even worse when board member Zachary Collins intoned an incoherent prayer asking for blessings for the “supervisor” and the “board.” Such hypocrisy makes you want to vomit.
Here are the Facts Smalbany obtained from Witnesses — Witnesses the Coeymans PD Refused to Interview:
On Wednesday, September 8, 2021, at about 1 p.m., George McHugh was exiting the parking lot at 2530 US Rt. 9W, Picker’s Nation/Changing Times auction center, and attempted to make a left-hand turn out of the parking lot onto southbound 9W, according to witnesses. McHugh and his wife were exiting the auction center parking lot and McHugh, driving, allegedly was on his cell phone, made a miscalculation when entering 9W, causing the accident. The driver of a passenger car, Laszlo Polyak (Ravena, NY) heading North from Coxsackie to Ravena, struck McHugh’s pickup truck in the rear on the driver’s side, veered into the oncoming lane after his airbag had deployed, and narrowly avoided hitting a utilities pole in front of the AMC Urgent Care, taking down the Urgent Care sign before coming to a stop.
Both rear tires of McHugh’s pickup blew out; the passenger vehicle driven by Polyak was totaled.
McHugh Does His Best to Confuse the Facts…
When Coeymans Police Departmentresponded, McHugh attempted every trick in a shyster’s book to shift the blame for the accident on the driver of the passenger car. McHugh started off telling the responding Coeymans Police patrolperson:
He’s drunk, meaning Polyak, the driver of the passenger car. Breathalyzer proved negative.
He was on his cellphone. Sorry, Georgie, the driver didn’t have a cellphone on his person or in his car. Try again, Georgie!
Finally, all else failing, Georgie tells the police officer that the other driver was sleeping (!). Georgie, if he were sleeping, how did he manage to control his car with an airbag in his face, and avoid serious injuries while careening into the CapitalCare sign.
Apparently, George McHugh was desperately trying to shift the blame from himself on to the other driver, but the physical facts are undisputable.
Polyak was returning to Ravena from Coxsackie, where he purchased several silver dollars at Miller’s Mint. That fact is easily verifiable since, according to New York State tax law, Miller’s Mint would have had to document the sale and the collection of NYS sales tax on the merchandise sold. Most sales receipts not only describe the items purchased and their price(s) but also the tax collected. Moreover, most receipts show a date and a time the receipt was printed out. Using that information, Polyak can prove that he was at Miller’s Mint purchasing the coins shortly before returning to Ravena, and the date and time on the receipt would prove the timeframe between leaving Miller’s Mint and the accident.
As for McHugh’s fake and fabricated claim that Polyak was at some unspecified UrgentCare, there would be records showing that Polyak was not there and did not have an appointment there.
McHugh claims that Polyak was asleep when the accident occurred. Another fabrication that can easily be exposed as a lie. The salesperson at Miller’s Mint can testify as to Polyak’s mental state when purchasing the coins. Furthermore, Miller’s Mint has video recordings of activity in the shop. Those recordings can demonstrate that Polyak was not impaired or somnolent. Are we to believe that in the few minutes between leaving Miller’s Mint and the accident, Polyak decided to take a nap at the wheel? He made it to Ravena with no mishap, why would he have fallen asleep at the particular moment of the accident. The obvious answer is clearly that he was not asleep. The suggestion is ridiculous.
According to witnesses, George McHugh was exiting a private property parking lot onto US Route 9W. George McHugh was attempting to make a left-hand turn into the southbound lane of 9W, and in order to do that he had to cross the northbound lane, in which the oncoming vehicle operated by Polyak was approaching. McHugh obviously miscalculated or was distracted by his passenger, his wife, Rosemary McHugh, or by his cellphone, because upon entering 9W, he was unable to make the turn into the southbound lane safely, and caused the oncoming vehicle to collide with the rear of his (McHugh’s) truck. (See the reconstruction diagram, above.)
The physical evidence shown in the images below of the passenger car prove that McHugh was in the turn but couldn’t make it. The severe damage to the left, the driver’s side of the passenger car, and the damage to the rear of McHugh’s truck clearly show that McHugh attempted the turn unsafely, and caused the accident.
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Now, as most of our readers know, George McHugh is town supervisor of the Town of Coeymans, and the Coeymans Town Board is packed solid with McHugh’s lackies.
Coeymans Police Department up to Their Old Corrupt Tricks Again?
For several years now, the Coeymans Police Department had been considered for elimination, until McHugh and his board decided they could take advantage of a town police department for their own purposes. The Coeyman’s PD had and continues to have such a scandalous reputation for corruption and incompetence that three years ago, the Crandall Town Board had to ask for assistance from the Albany County Sheriff’s Department. Coeymans is now regularly patrolled by Albany County Sheriff’s deputies operating out of a substation in Coeymans.
Of the three most recent police chiefs, two, Gregory Darlington and Daniel Contento, went into retirement in practical disgrace; the current Coeymans Police Chief is Douglas Keyer, a former NY state trooper, and many of the patrol personnel are out-of-towners, part-timers. The Coeymans PD continues to be a Keystone Cops act, and they continue to botch investigations but McHugh can use them to his advantage, as he’s doing in this accident case.
You see, George McHugh and his Town Board have hire-fire authority over the Coeymans PD, including its chief, Keyer, so the clowns must dance to McHugh’s tune. And they do!
Coeymans Police Department on an Investigation.
Why is this important, you may well ask?
Answer: The responding officer called in to get guidance from Coeymans police chief Keyer, who allegedly instructed her to issue a ticket to the driver of the passenger car, Laszlo Polyak, and the officer obeyed. The ticket was “failure to keep right.” Yes, you are reading correctly: the driver with right-of-way was issued the ticket for “failing to keep right.” McHugh was not ticketed for his unsafe turn, which caused the accident. Surprised?
Well, if your job depended on not rubbing George McHugh the wrong way, what would you do?
McHugh called a buddy of his, Charlie Martinez of Martinez Auto Body, in Coxsackie to come to remove his truck. Apparently, McHugh knew he had to get the truck out of sight and fast, because any examination of the truck would have raised questions about McHugh’s cooked up version of what happened.
Another question is: If Burns + Sons Auto Repair & AAA Towing was just across the street, Why did George McHugh call a towing company (Martinez Autobody) located more than 12 miles away, in another county, deep in Greene County, to remove his vehicle almost immediately? Answer: In order to conceal incriminating evidence.McHugh had to get the truck out of Albany County, out of the jurisdiction of the Coeymans Police Department, so that they couldn’t complete an investigation of the damage to McHugh’s vehicle, and McHugh could cover up any culpability in the accident. Even the Coeymans Police Department couldn’t miss or fail to question McHugh’s story in light of the reported damage to his truck!McHugh fans should ask their dirty darling what he’s trying to hide.Do you think you’d get away with such criminal obstruction?
Charlie Martinez and Martinez Autobody Conspire with McHugh to Conceal Evidence…
Charlie Martinez is the owner of Martinez Autobody on Flint Road in Coxsackie. Martinez, a rabid Republican, is also a sitting Greene County legislator. You’d think he’d be running an honest game. You know: fair play, truth, justice, the American way? Really? Wake up and guess again. Martinez and McHugh are cut from the same cloth: both self-serving and crooked, on a power trip at public expense.
When a correspondent/reporter went to Martinez’s auto body shop and asked to see McHugh’s vehicle, Martinez called McHugh. McHugh ordered Martinez not to have anything to do with showing the vehicle. Martinez ordered the correspondent/reporter off the premises. Martinez opted to cooperate with McHugh to conceal the evidence of the damage to McHugh’s vehicle. That’s Coeymans government and a member of the Greene County Legislature doing what crooks do: cheat the public.
McHugh belongs behind bars, not behind the Supervisor’s desk.
So, there you have two elected government officers, McHugh and Martinez, the one a lawyer and Coeymans town supervisor and the other a business owner (Martinez Auto Body, Inc.) and county legislator, concealing evidence to obstruct justice. Nice place we live in, right?
Charles Martinez, owner of Martinez Autobody, Inc., and a sitting Greene County Legislator, denied access to McHugh’s vehicle.
Editor’s Note: Martinez earned his Judas label, when he and his playmates in the Greene County Legislature handed Nolan Propane, an Albany County propane gas supplier, the contract for Greene County Government locations, ignoring the fact that a historical Greene County business, C.A. Albright & Sons, had spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars on the creation of a modern propane distribution facility right in Greene County, in New Baltimore. It was a slap in the face of Greene County business and development; a betrayal, in fact. This blog reported extensively on those developments. So Martinez’ behavior in this case is no big surprise. Charlie Martinez and Martinez Autobody should be boycotted, and Martinez removed from the Greene County Legislature!
The Coeymans Police Department showed what puppets they are and how incompetently they conduct law enforcement and investigations.Only the faces have changed since Jerry “Dirty Hands” Deluca and Gregory “Dumplin'”Darlington were bullying Coeymans. Now we have a new bunch who will persecute the innocent at the whim of their boss, George McHugh. Car 54, Where are you?
Coeymans PD Official Incident Report Delayed…Surprised?
The “official” police report was supposed to have been completed on Monday, September 13, 2021, but was not ready; it still wasn’t ready on September 14th. The reason given was that “some parts had to be tweaked.” I’ll bet they do! Translation: “Facts have to be falsified.” McHugh probably ordered his pocket-police-chief Keyerto give it a “clean up” before it goes out, just in case he has to make any changes. We’ll certainly get a copy and dissect it for you. Or maybe the Coeymans Police under Keyer’s guidance will get smart and honest, and report the true facts, not McHugh’s fantasy facts.
Our advice to the driver of the passenger car, Mr. Polyak, was to immediately plead “not guilty” to the fraudulent ticket issued by the Coeymans Police, and to demand a supporting deposition by the investigating police officer.
McHugh is not electable because of his scandalous misconduct…
In the meantime, this is an election year, and George McHugh appears to be running for a second 2-year term as Coeymans Town Supervisor. Seems he’s not done setting Coeymans up for himself and his cronies and clients. Coeymans made a mistake putting him in the Supervisor’s office two years ago. Let’s see if they’re that stupid to give him another 2 years to make fools of Coeymans residents. His conduct in this accident should put a damper on his political hopes.
McHugh has shown his true colors AGAIN. We warned Coeymans two years ago that McHugh is bad news but his lies and his thugs apparently won the first round, and he got himself elected two years ago. Will Coeymans let it happen again, after this exhibition of lies and abuse of public office?
George McHugh and his lies and misconduct have hurt his chances for re-election. That’s fortunate for the Town of Coeymans, because a very experienced and intelligent woman will be running against him in November.
Notes on the Town Board Video Transcript
[1] McHugh has no way of knowing what medications Polyak is taking. Furthermore, McHugh has no way of knowing whether Polyak was asleep or not! Is McHugh trying to say that Polyak was driving down US 9W asleep?!? As an attorney, regardless of his low standard of ethics, McHugh should know that his statements are inappropriate and inadmissible HEARSAY!
[2] McHugh apparently has no sense of direction. AMC UrgentCare is 7 miles South of the accident site. Polyak was not at UrgentCare prior to the accident.
[3] McHugh idiotically continues with his claim that the driver was asleep! It was 1:00 in the afternoon! Not 1:00 a.m. Polyak had driven about 6 miles from Coxsackie to Ravena AWAKE; why would he be asleep in the few seconds McHugh may have been able to observe him.
[4] Why would anyone ask Polyak where the other vehicle was? It’s stupid to even suggest that such a question was asked. It was obvious where the other vehicle was; no need to ask the question.
[5] This statement is totally moronic! First of all, how would McHugh know what Polyak said to the personnel from CapitalCare or the police? Second, Polyak had a face full of airbag! When the airbag deployed it would have likely obscured his vision if it didn’t knock him into next week. Polyak had the presence of mind to be able to regain control of his vehicle despite the airbag, and get it back into the right lane, even if he didn’t have complete control of his vehicle due to the extensive damage caused by the collision.
[6] McHugh’s current wife, Rosemary McHugh — he’s had several so far — isn’t the sharpest tack in the box. She does state that they were in the antique center parking lot, which contradicts McHugh’s statement that Polyak was asleep and hit them while they were in the left, southbound lane. See our reconstruction diagram for what witnesses saw.
[7] Of course Polyak applied his brakes! You don’t leave skid marks unless you apply the brakes. The first thing you do in such a situation is apply the brakes! If he hadn’t braked he’d have landed in Alcove! See the accident site photographs above.
[8] But there were skid marks right near a piece of Polyak’s wheel on the edge of the southbound lane, before Polyak guided his car onto the Urgent Care property. See our images, above.
Months of worthless investigations and testimony, a failed impeachment investigation and proceeding, headed by a bunch of idiots elected to public office by another bunch of idiots, all while in Wuhan, China, the next killer pandemic was brewing. At the same time the US Congress was playing their backstabbing, witchhunting antics, and giving away American taxpayer’s medical equipment and supplies, while ignoring the basics for the homeland, like healthcare, the elderly, the working poor, and Congress and state legislatures were legislating abortion and pay hikes for themselves, the highly-paid executives of America’s so-called non-profits — like the Captial District YMCA and Easton Mountain sex camp — were abusing veterans or promoting promiscuous sex, while collecting six-figure salaries, WHERE WERE YOU?!?!
A body wrapped in plastic is unloaded from a refrigerated truck and handled by medical workers wearing personal protective equipment due to COVID-19 concerns, Tuesday, March 31, 2020, at Brooklyn Hospital Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Meanwhile, the Pentagon will Provide 100,000 Body Bags.
Now that you have learned what self-isolation, quarantine, social-distancing, empty supermarket shelves, people roaming the aisles and streets with face masks all means, maybe you’d like to re-evaluate your status as a “free American,” who is free to die as the result of government and elected official’s negligence and stupidity.
Look, people, this situation doesn’t happen in a single administration; it takes multiple administrations to create a problem like this! This has been brewing in Washington for at least three presidencies: Bush (remember 911!), Obama, and now Trump. It’s not Trump’s fault, either, but he’s the face we glue to the administration. The fault lies in the Senate and the House of Representatives, in Albany, and in Washington, DC. If you look at what’s been going on in Congress over the past two years, you might want to find a barf bag. It’s sickening, so sickening that Americans are now dying, and the Pentagon will be donating 100,000 body bags, while Nancy Pelosi and the gangsters in Washington D.C., are still pointing fingers and wagging their tongues.
Medical staff move bodies from the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center to a refrigerated truck on April 2, 2020 in Brooklyn, New York. – The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has asked the US Defense Department for 100,000 body bags as the toll mounts from the novel coronavirus, the Pentagon said on April 2. White House experts have said that US deaths from the disease — currently at more than 5,100 — are expected to climb to between 100,000 and 240,000, even with mitigation efforts in force. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP)
Is this the new Fear Factor? Is the US government trying to cause a panic? It has!
The New World Order has begun, people! You know now how you can be so infected with fear and anxiety by your government that you hoard toilet paper and paper towels; you race to Walmart and your local supermarket to empty the shelves. FEAR!!! AVOIDABLE FEAR!!!!
Businesses and government offices are CLOSED! Restaurants are CLOSED! You are told to stay home!!! See how easy it is to control you? Now we know.
Schools have been closed for weeks. Even God is put on hold! Churches are open but not for public worship! No wakes, funerals, etc. No closure for the bereaved! Thanks to poor or absent government! Incompetent elected officials! More finger-pointing and accusations while Americans are dying!!!
But the United States Goverenment has a solution for its incompetence: SPENDING! What’s Inside The Senate’s $2 Trillion Coronavirus Aid Package, an emergency aid spending package that is spending money we don’t have, but will have to back up in tax dollars. Great planning, right? Poor planning costs us a bundle when a pandemic hits us and then, in order to take our attention off the poor planning and incompetent government, the same incompetent government passes an irresponsible aid package to cover their tracks! Are you going to continue swallowing this shit? Are you still going to sleep on your stomach waiting for the …. ? Read what the package contains at What’s Inside The Senate’s $2 Trillion Coronavirus Aid Package. But once again, big business gets the lion’s share of the so-called aid: $500 billion compared with $377 billion to small businesses and a stinking paltry $153 billion to public health. We can see where Congress’ loyalties are.
You all have dumped your hard-wire landlines and now are addicted to Facebook and Twitter, where you get all your information and news! How convenient for the Controllers.
People are getting fired or relieved of their commands in the military for speaking out about the government’s denials of support in the crisis. That’s censorship. That’s propaganda. That’s authoritarianism, totalitarianism, the first step towards Big Brother becoming the next fascist dictator!
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) on Capitol Hill after a meeting with fellow Democrats. (Susan Walsh/AP) (Susan Walsh/AP)
You are all addicted to your electronic devices, your smartphones but what will you do when some military genius or government officials ORDER THE CELL PHONE TOWERS deenergized? What will you do when they suspend communications by microwave transmission? You’ll race around in circles like a cornered rat, that’s what!!! You’re trapped in the booby trap set by your American freedoms, your greed, and your ignorance. Stupid sheeple!!!
OK. So you won’t believe us. Denial is very effective, isn’t it? But perhaps you’ll believe a well-respected physician, the editor-in-chief of a respected source for the medical profession. Here’s his recent editorial that appeared in the online medical journal for physicians, Medscape:
The year 2020 started with American physicians, nurses, and the whole healthcare workforce dispirited, in a deep state of burnout, with the worst rates of clinical depression and suicides that have been recorded. Indeed, this was not confined to the United States; a global epidemic of burnout had been diagnosed. But things were about to get considerably worse for the healthcare workforce.
In December 2019 an epidemic of pneumonia, with many fatalities, erupted in Wuhan, China. The pathogen was sequenced and determined to be a novel coronavirus on January 5, 2020, and was subsequently named SARS-CoV-2. The first patient in the United States with COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, was diagnosed in Seattle on January 21, which was within 24 hours of the first patient diagnosed in South Korea, a key country for comparison (Figure, adapted from Our World in Data).
Figure 1. Testing for COVID-19 in the United States and South Korea
The First Phase: “Silent” US Spread
Unlike South Korea, which quickly started testing for COVID-19 using the World Health Organization (WHO) test, the United States refused the WHO test, opting to develop its own through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But the CDC test was ultimately found to be flawed and represents one of many government stumbles. Without an adequate test, there were nearly 50 days from the first patients in both countries before the United States started to ramp up testing. Why was this so critically important?
During this extended phase in the United States, there were countless numbers of patients presenting with pneumonia and respiratory tract symptoms to emergency rooms, urgent care centers, and doctors’ offices. Without the ability to make the diagnosis of COVID-19 or even suspect it, these patients unwittingly spread their infections to healthcare workers. Also, during this first phase of spread, there was likely — albeit still not yet validated — a high rate (approximately 30%) of asymptomatic carriers for COVID-19, which further amplified the chances for doctors and health professionals to be infected.
For the sake of comparison, during the month of February, South Korea performed more than 75,000 tests (versus just 352 in the United States) and adopted all of the WHO best practices, which includes massive testing, tracing every contact of a person infected and testing that person, quarantine of all known cases, and social distancing.
The United States did none of these. Instead, officials repeatedly made bad choices that put public health in jeopardy, along with the healthcare workers charged with caring for the public.
South Korea, meanwhile, got ahead of its outbreak and became a model in the world for how that was achieved. But it wasn’t just South Korea that reacted well. As Atul Gawande summarized, Singapore and Hong Kong also adopted all of the WHO practices, including providing protection for their healthcare workers. In both places, healthcare professionals were expected to wear surgical masks for all patient interactions. That practice turns out to foreshadow the second phase of failure in the United States.
The Second Phase: The War Without Ammo
Although Seattle is where the first cluster of cases occurred, it was the unchecked number of patients diagnosed in New York City in early March that led to the full realization of how ill-equipped the country is in terms of personal protective equipment (PPE), intensive care unit beds, and mechanical ventilators.
Together, a situation was set up for healthcare workers to not have masks — or to reuse them for days on end — and lack other protective gear. And this is about plain 75 cent masks, not the N95s that are better for blocking aerosol droplets.
But the required sharing of equipment is not just among doctors and nurses; it even extends to patients sharing a ventilator in some intensive care units. To put some numbers on ventilators, we will need several hundred thousand to a million but have fewer than 160,000 throughout the country.
It’s bad enough that the United States was totally unprepared for a pandemic and has such an unimaginable shortage of requisite resources. But the situation still gets worse. On a widespread basis, doctors and nurses are being gagged and muzzled by administrators for expressing their concerns, and penalized or even fired when they do speak out.
Meanwhile, the unconscionable lack of COVID-19 testing has continued in this second phase. And with that, systematic testing of the workforce has yet to start, despite being desperately needed.
The Third Phase: Healthcare Professionals Broadly Infected and Dying
Back in Wuhan, Li Wenliang, a 33-year-old ophthalmologist, was one, if not the first, doctor to alert people in China of the outbreak. He died on February 7, 2020. But he certainly wasn’t the youngest doctor to die in China. Xia Sisi, a 29-year-old gastroenterologist, also died after a 35-day hospitalization.
Yet on March 11, from the Oval Office, President Trump stated, “Young and healthy people can expect to recover fully and quickly.”
By late March more than 54 doctors in Italy had already died, and in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, one of the worst hit regions in the world, 20% of the healthcare workforce have become confirmed cases. Now, in the United States, as large numbers of healthcare professionals are getting diagnosed with COVID-19 in Boston, New York, and other hotspot cities, young doctors are writing their wills and making provisional funeral plans.
COVID-19 was not supposed to kill young people, but young nurses and doctors are dying in the United States. There are many theories as to why this is happening, perhaps the best one is the viral load — the mass of COVID-19 inoculum.
Because healthcare workers are exposed to the sickest patients — often without access to the proper protective equipment — the heavy viral load may be overwhelming even young clinicians’ ability to mount a sufficient immune response to counter the infection.
That doctors and clinicians are succumbing to the virus is beyond a tragedy, as many of these dedicated individuals are dying unnecessarily, as a result of the no-testing and no-PPE fiascoes.
Yet a far greater toll in numbers is the temporary loss of clinicians to infections and sickness. This is the other poorly recognized exponential growth curve: As each doctor, nurse, respiratory therapist, paramedic, and patient-care person takes care of tens to hundreds of patients at any given time, the loss of even one of these individuals has a dramatic ripple effect on the shortage of professionals trained to care for affected patients, no less the non-COVID-19 usual patient mix. No number of accelerated medical school graduations (which are being announced) can compensate for these losses, not just by numbers but also by experience.
The handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States will go down as the worst public health disaster in the history of the country. The loss of lives will make 9/11 and so many other catastrophes appear much smaller in their scale of devastation. Perhaps what we in the medical community will remember most is how our country betrayed us at the moment when our efforts were needed most.
Any views expressed above are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
Cite this: Eric J. Topol. Topol: US Betrays Healthcare Workers in Coronavirus Disaster – Medscape – Mar 30, 2020.
We’ve kept the links in Dr Topol’s article so you can follow the facts.
Question: Why is it that the death toll in the United States now exceeds that in China, where the whole thing started? Why is it that South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, were able to keep things under control but the United States cannot? Good ol’ American snobbery, poor planning, greed, and stupidity.
Instead of acting like a herd of cattle with mad cow disease (remember that one?), perhaps you should just sit down, meditate for a minute, collect your thoughts, clear your mind, and consider where the real problem lies, and how you’re going to face tomorrow, when this all clears up.
Think about how different you will be and how different the world will be for you post-COVID-19; sort of like the conditioning you received post-911? Is this another way of training you, conditioning you like Pavlov did with his dogs? Is that what you have become, a pack of trainable dogs? Now that’s something to be proud of, isn’t it?
Think about all of this next time you pledge allegiance to a flag; think about what you’re saying. Or have you forgotten completely how to THINK?
Think of it this way: What if you were the next one to fill a body bag. How would your survivors or your Senator explain your death to your terrified children? Think about that, won’t you?
So, enjoy your stockpile of toilet paper and paper towels. They’ll go well with that case of ketchup you’re hoarding. And wait for the next wave of fear and anxiety while you huddle in some dark corner, denying what’s going on around you.
Local Residents at Shop’n Save buying up toilet paper! How typical!
If you’re a weasel and you see this guy… Be afraid. Be VERY afraid!!! You can run for office but you can’t hide!
Hi, neighbors!
This is CPT Weasel Whacker. I just want to say that we’re out there whack’n those weasels, and you can bet they’re runnin’ scared.
This site was created to bring you the best quality journalistic reporting, and some well-researched opinion about our local politics and politicians. We’ll woo the wonderful and whack the weasels. Our slogan, if you haven’t noticed is:
Find’em, Expose’m, Whack’em.Integrity before Politics.
And that goes for all of us: No more alphabet soup voting for the Rs and the Ds. The Republican and the Democratic parties have degenerated and have consistently let us down. They lie to us, deceive us, take us for granted, and screw the life-blood out of us and everything we earn. They can’t come up with good, honest candidates so they give us weasels. If you don’t get weasels, they deprive you of your right to choose by not even running a candidate to oppose the other party.
Unless we do something and do something damned quick, we’ll be a dictatorship, a one-party system, a Big Brother State before you know it!
Well, neighbors, it’s time to think Declaration of Independence [Editor’s Note: … and Bill of Rights, how about that thing we call a Constitution?], and go Independent. Why do you think the Republicans and the Democrats are always coming to the Independence Party to ensure their candidate gets elected? Because they know their party [ Republican and Democrat]sheeple can’t do it alone; they need some credibility and integrity and they get that from the Independence Party.
Conservatives are half-baked Republicans; Democratic Party is a shame to their name, they’re failures and crooks like Cuomo and his Downstate Mob who elect Cuomo-the-Homo. You need to go independent of the two has-been parties: Be independent. Be an Independent!
I want to ask you to click the button to follow this blog; you’ll get email updates every time a new post goes up, and you’ll be notified when a friend or neighbor posts a comment.
You can share information or send us a tip by writing to us at captain.weasel.wacker@gmail.com. Anything you send me by email will be strictly confidential. I’ll never post any information until it’s been checked and verified. And your name or email will never be shared or made public without your written permission. You’re safe with us!
Stay tuned! We’ll be whacking another weasel shortly!
CPT Weasel Whacker
The Weasels site is really very well done; some beautiful images of Greene County. Cpt Whacker is going for the gold…or the Greene. We wish him well! We’ve added a couple of notes (in grey) and some emphasis to the original Greene County Weasels message from Captain Weasel Whacker but nothing else. He seems to be doing a great job and doesn’t need any help from us. But they do need YOURhelp. Please support the Greene County Weasel Wackers and their site. Maybe we can make one county in New York a better place to live … Albany County is a lost cause!The EditorSmalbany
Yup, The Inbreeding is Showing: Stupid is as Stupid Does
Please don’t waste our time with your stupid attempts to demonstrate your stupidity.
You are a Freakasaurusand the Smalbany Blog reports on freakasaurs; we do not publish freakasaurianbullshit.[1]
This is what to look for. Sometimes that actually look and act almost human.
As our more intelligent readers can appreciate, being a pubic forum and allowing public comment we get all kinds of visitors. Add to that the fact that we publish our email so that it’s easier for readers and informants to contact us. As you might expect, there are plenty of freaks who will abuse any and all opportunities.
Smalbany deals only in verifiable facts. Sometimes we get them by simply requesting the information, other times we have to use the Freedom of Information Laws to get the information. We interview informants to make certain they are real people and that they have real information. Only then do we go ahead with our investigations and finally, we publish what we find.
But, as we mentioned above, there are plenty of freaksout there and we’d like to share just one example of one who tried to pass off what the freakthought would be bait. It failed miserably. But that’s not to say that we didn’t give the freakasaurusa chance to come through, as you’ll read below.
Note that in the interest of protecting the innocent, we have redacted any information that would have the potential of identifying the persons concerned. That is our standing policy until the facts are confirmed: at Smalbany, you are innocent until the facts indicate your guilt.
Here’s the original message from a freakasaurus calling him/herself “small[redacted]@gmail.com”:
“Someone from [redacted] and [redacted]’s inner circle is paying to have the criminal records of them published as new on the internet and she is going to make flyers that [redacted] and [redacted] are the publishers of this website. She is actively getting the DEC involved to pursuit prosecution and getting the ATF to get a search warrant and pursue prosecution. Just a heads up and GOOD LUCK!!!“
Freakasaurus actually expected us to bite at the bait. Instead we responded:
“Thank you very much for your tip; we appreciated hearing from you and would like to comment below.
“First of all, if you have information about a possible or a real conspiracy to harm Mr and Mrs [redacted], then you have a moral duty to inform them of your suspicions or of the facts you might have in that regard. We gather from your message that you are at least familiar with them and would know how to contact them with the information or “Heads up!” as you call it.
“To leave them vulnerable to some scoundrel without letting them know the facts is immoral; we hope you will take appropriate steps.
“Second, let me clarify one fact: Neither Mr or Mrs [redacted] have any connection whatsoever with this site. They certainly do not own or write for Smalbany nor to they contribute to any of the content. So let’s put that tidbit to rest now and for ever.
“Thirdly, the information you provide anonymously is too vague to be of any use to us. If you have names, we need names. If you have facts, we need those facts. If you are familiar with this site, and it would appear you are, you certainly know that we don’t just publish speculation or common gossip. We need names and facts, and we will do our own fact-finding and verification.
“If you are really interested in getting the word out about some local dumbass with an axe to grind, please share details with us that we can verify.
“You write that “[S]he is actively getting the DEC involved to pursuit prosecution and getting the ATF to get a search warrant and pursue prosecution,” so we at least can guess that the villain in this story is a woman. That’s a start.
“Please provide us with details, what “inner circle” is it that you are referring to, what “criminal records,” how would the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation???) be involved in such a plot, and Why? the ATF? You obviously know more than you are sharing, and we would be grateful if you would share more.
“First things first: If you feel that this is a genuine conspiracy to harm the [redacted]s, you MUST inform them even if it has to be anonymously. We cannot do that for you unless we have more to go on.
“Thanks once again and we hope to hear back from you soon. Please note that we do not publish the names of informants and any information provided is subject to verification or editing. Apart from the facts and the names of the individuals plotting this alleged conspiracy, you will remain a confidential informant.”
We think that was a very decent response, don’t you? And we’ve given Freakasaurus several days to get back to us but s/he has not done so. We have to consider the “tip” to be bogus.
Given the fact that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is probably one of the most corrupt departments in New York State government apart from the Executive Chambers (Office of the Governor) and the New York State Assembly and Senate, we wouldn’t wonder for a New York minute that the DEC could be involved in something so shadowy, so nefarious, so stupid as to get involved in a silly-ass conspiracy. But the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms)?!?! Freakasaurus has a very vivid, if not pathological imagination.
ATF agents “protecting” us.
The ATF has to be as big a joke as the DEC!!! According to the ATF website,
“ATF is a law enforcement agency in the United States’ Department of Justice that protects our communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations, the illegal use and trafficking of firearms, the illegal use and storage of explosives, acts of arson and bombings, acts of terrorism, and the illegal diversion of alcohol and tobacco products.” [emphasis provided] [Source: https://www.atf.gov/, last accesed on July 22, 2019)
We have the Russian mafia in our front yards and the ATF is worried about “diversion of alcohol and tobacco products.”
Now that had to be one of the biggest jokes since Laurel and Hardy were dancing across the Silver Screen! So, the ATF is going to protect our communities “from violent criminals, criminal organizations, and illegal use and trafficking of firearms…and the illegal diversion of alcohol and tobacco products.” Well, that’s certainly what we all needed, another law enforcement agency to “protect” us. Yeah, they’re going to protect us from “criminals, criminal organizations…terrorism…and illegal diversion of alcohol and tobacco products,” while they’re building pot factories in our back yard that are very probably funded by the Russian mob and a Russian mobster!!!We have the Russian mafia in our front yards and the ATF is worried about “diversion of alcohol and tobacco products.” We have the Russian mafia in our back yards and the DEC is ignoring the contaminants and pollution being caused by Carver Companies and their dumping. You simply cannot make this stuff up, people! Either the DEC and the ATF have gone nutz or Freakasaurus thinks we all came down with the last shower. Maybe both.
Sgt Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon (Dragnet) rescue a Coeymans local from a DEC trap.
“How’d such shit-for-brains ever get beyond the evolutionary reject line?”
Given the amount of time and energy we spend getting information, responding to informants, following up on tips, and investigating, not to mention the writing and layout of the articles, we a justifiably pissed when some reptilian-brained freak wastes our reading time with such crap. But unfortunately this area is lousy with such remarkably stupid types that it would be hopeless to wish them to become extinct. The place would be a cemetery, a boneyard.
So, just look around yourself when you’re next in Shop’n Save, PriceChopper, a local yard sale, or even in one of our local churches and think to yourself, “How’d such shit-for-brains ever get beyond the evolutionary reject line?” But some did and they’re breeding locally.
[1] A freakasaurusis a freak of nature, a creature that did not have the good sense to go extinct 60 million years ago, and continues to walk the earth with only a primitive reptilian brain. They are caprophages (syn. scatophage, “shit-eaters”) and thrive in their local habitat. The only known habitats for the surviving mutant species are in the Albany County region — particularly in the city of Albany, Albany County Offices and state capitol offices —, Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk region, and Northeastern corner of Greene County (Town of New Baltimore), while the brooding facility is maintained at the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District elementary, middle, and high schools.
Yes, Freakasaurus does exist. It was first used on StarTrek Voyager, Series 2 (1996):
Is the Chairman of the New Baltimore Town Planning Board
Guilty of Conflict of Interest and Abuse of Public Office?
Our message to Robert Van Etten, Shelly Van Etten, Jeff Ruso, Nick Dellisanti, Gorden Bennett, Donna Degnen.
Is his wife, sitting Town Board Member Shelly VanEtten, accessory to the criminality of her husband?
Are the New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso and Deputy Supervisor Nick Dellisanti and the Town Board involved as well?!?
Based on documents, records and information received under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Law, and based on the Town of New Baltimore’s refusal to provide information exonerating the suspects, we think that several resignations are in order and that the alleged criminal activity in Town Hall should be prosecuted by the Greene County District Attorney, Joseph Stanzione.
As the saying goes, if you pick up rocks, you’re liable to find snakes. Well, we’ve been picking up rocks in New Baltimore, New York, and we’ve found snakes, a lot of snakes. Here are just a few:
Several months ago we reported on some disturbing facts about the Town of New Baltimore Assessor, Gordon Bennett, and the New Baltimore Board of Assessment Review, headed by Donna Degnen (members include: Donna Degnen, Linda LeClair, Bernie Jones, Ronna Smith, Lynn Taylor). Based on our initial findings, we continued our investigations and have received confirming information in the form of documents produced by the Town of New Baltimore in response to a resident’s Freedom of Information Law demands.
Not only is the Assessor’s Office under Gordon Bennett operating under some very creative assessment procedures and is very likely guilty of abuse of office, the Board of Assessment Review, as we have already reported is incompetent and corrupt as ever. But more details on Bennett and Degnen in a follow up article devoted completely to them and their keepers, New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso, his deputy supervisor, former town supervisor Nick Dellisanti, and the New Baltimore Town Board. Bennett is one of their hirelings, and the Board of Assessment Review is a town committee appointed by the Supervisor and Town Board. The incompetence and corruption is gargantuan but more on that later. Right now we’d like to take a closer look at one property owner who got special treatment under the Board of Assessment Review and with Gordon Bennett’s blessing: William Brandt, owner of the Bristol Manor Senior Housing Project in the Town of New Baltimore, and who is represented by local Ravena sheister Michael Biscone, so you know something has to be crooked about the whole business once Biscone gets involved. Well, we won’t disappoint you on that item.
Business as Usual in New Baltimore, Coeymans, and Ravena.
The Brandt project had been languishing in the New Baltimore Planning Board for several years. It got our attention when we started investigating the New Baltimore Board of Assessment Review and found, after reviewing the documents and the taped recordings of the proceedings, that Brandt was granted a substantial reduction in his tax assessment, and that he was supposed to have submitted a number of documents, including receipts, to support his claim for a reduction. Michael Biscone clearly states that he will provide the receipts within two weeks of the Board’s hearing, those receipts were to have included receipts for work done by “VanEtten construction.”
The first problem we found was that the Board of Assessment Review made all of their determinations on the evening of the hearings. In other words, they didn’t wait for any further discussions or for any receipts to arrive from Mr Biscone; they just doled out the reductions in assessment to their friends. We’ll report on the details in that promised follow-up.
The name VanEtten raised our interest because Shelly VanEtten is a sitting member of the New Baltimore Town Board and her husband Robert VanEtten owns VanEtten Excavating out of Ravena (1314 Saw Mill Rd, Ravena, NY 12143 (518) 756-3517 / 424-8854). Robert VanEtten is also chairman of the New Baltimore Planning Board, and has been since at least 2017. Before that he was a member of the board.
[Editor’s Note: In all fairness, we have attempted to obtain information from the Town of New Baltimore in order to either eliminate any involvement of Van Etten or to confirm his alleged misconduct. The Town of New Baltimore on at least two (2) occasions has refused to provide confirmation or any information about Van Etten in response to our inquiries. In fact, both the New Baltimore Town Clerk and the Clerk of the New Baltimore Planning Board, Ms Marjorie Loux, have denied having any telephone number or other information on Mr Robert “Rob” Van Etten. We find that incredible (unbelievable) that no one in New Baltimore Town Hall has any information on a member of a Town committee, particularly an individual appointed by the Town Board to the position of chairman of the New Baltimore Planning Board. Too many secrets in New Baltimore Town Hall, don’t you think? Now, Readers, do YOU believe that the Town of New Baltimore doesn’t have as much as a telephone number for Mr Robert Van Etten or for sitting board member Shelly Van Etten? Aren’t they both getting checks from the Town of New Baltimore? The snakes are thriving in Town Hall and the lies and corruption don’t seem to end! Note that the Town did not respond by saying “We cannot disclose the requested information,” they responded that they did not have the information. Now either that’s a lie or it’s complete incompetence, neither of which belong in Town Hall.]
The Building Permit 2017-65 issued by the New Baltimore Building Department (Allan Jourdin) to Mr Brandt was based on the information provided in the Application for Building Permit approved by Marjorie Loux on November 15, 2017. The Application names “VanEtten Construction” as the general contractor doing the work on Brandt’s building. Was this the same VanEtten construction as the VanEtten construction owned by sitting New Baltimore Planning Board and husband of sitting New Baltimore Town Board member, Shelly VanEtten? When we looked up some information, the picture got grimmer and grimier by the minute. You see, Robert VanEtten’s business is exactly what you’d expect a local general contractor to be and is described on VanEtten’s website as “Excavation Contractors, Landscape Designers & Consultants, Tree Service, Drainage Contractors, Utility Contractors, Concrete Contractors, Foundation Contractors.” Now that alone doesn’t make VanEtten’s activity criminal in any way but what we found in the Planing Board minutes does.
You see, New York State law forbids a sitting member of a Planning Board to vote on any project in which that member has an interest. So, if Robert VanEtten is a member of the New Baltimore Planning Board and has accepted work from a developer whose project was before the planning board, and the member votes on that project, then the member has committed a crime.
We demanded the Planning Board Minutes for the meeting at which the Brandt project was finally discussed and approved. Guess what we found! You guessed it!
At the 2017 Organizational Meeting of January 1, 2017, and reported in the approved minutes of that meeting on January 9, 2017, Mr Robert VanEtten was appointed by the New Baltimore Town Board (in a motion by then Supervisor Nick Dellisanti and passed by board members Dellisanti, Ruso, Briody, and Irving. S. VanEtten abstained since they were appointing her husband) to be Chair of the Planning Board. So, Robert VanEtten was a member and chairman of the New Baltimore Planning Board in 2017, and reapppoitned on the motion of Supervisor Jeff Ruso (passed by board members Ruso, Briody, Downes, and Irving; S. VanEtten again abstained). Robert VanEtten was again chairman of the New Baltimore Planning Board in 2018. Having established that fact, we then examined the Minutes of the New Baltimore Planning Board.
In the Minutes of the Town of New Baltimore Planning Board Regular Monthly Meeting of June 8, 2017 (Approved on November 9, 2017), the meeting was called to order by “Rob” VanEtten, and the meeting was opened with board members Jean Horn, Bob Court, Pat Bruno, and Lee Salisbury present. Board members Vadney and Boehlke were excused and absent.
Under the heading “Old Business” we find “William Brandt – Bristol Manor Assisted Living Facilty [sic] – Site Plan.” According to those official minutes, Mr Robert VanEtten presided as chair and voted to approve the site plan together with board members Court, Salisbury, Horn and Bruno (members Vadney and Boehlke were excused and absent).
If Mr Robert VanEtten who is a sitting member of the New Baltimore Town Planning Board is the same Mr Robert “Rob” VanEtten who owns VanEtten Construction, and if Mr Robert VanEtten as owner of the VanEtten construction company voted to approve the Brandt site plan, and if that same VanEtten construction company is the same “general contractor” named in the Application for Building Permit, and VanEtten construction did the preparation work for the Bristol Manor Senior Living Facility on Route 9W in the Town of New Baltimore, then Mr Robert VanEtten has violated New York State law and is guilty of profiting from a conflict of interest.
There are some pretty big snakes in New Baltimore Town Hall!
Given the fact that the then Supervisor, Nicholas Dellisanti, and present Supervisor Jeff Ruso, were on top of the Brandt project all along. And given the fact that Dellisanti and Ruso appointed VanEtten to be on the Planning Board and to be chairman of the Planning Board, and S. VanEtten, wife of Robert VanEtten and sitting Town Board member, was aware of all these goings on, Dellisanti (currently Ruso’s appointed “deputy supervisor”), Ruso, the entire Town Board, and especially Shelly VanEtten, as the wife of Rob VanEtten and a sitting board member, are all implicated in serious abuse of office.
Consequently, there are two options: (1) Either Robert VanEtten, Shelly VanEtten, Nick Dellisanti, and Jeff Ruso come forward and deny these allegations, and provide proof that the facts so presented and based on the documents provided by the Town of New Baltimore were incorrect and the documents misleading. This is unlikely because the Town of New Baltimore, according to New Baltimore Town Assessor Gordon Bennett, is in “lawyer mode“, meaning that they’re scared shitless and won’t say a thing because it might incriminate them. Despite our efforts to get more information the Town has been silent — in Bennett’s “lawyer mode” — and has not provided any other information, not even confirming VanEtten’s telephone number!!!
The second option, (2): Robert VanEtten must resign from the New Baltimore Planning Board and the Town of New Baltimore must notify the Greene County District Attorney, Mr Joseph Stanzione, of the facts of Mr VanEtten’s suspected criminal activity. Furthermore, VanEtten’s wife, Shelly VanEtten must resign her seat on the New Baltimore Town Board because she knew or should have known of her husband’s alleged conflicts while chairman of the New Baltimore Town Planning Board. Jeff Ruso and Nick Dellisanti, both responsible for recommending Robert VanEtten to be chairman of the New Baltimore Planning Board, were and continue to be responsible for his activities while on the Board, and, consequently should be forced to resign from public office for their abuse of office and failure to ensure the lawful operations of the Planning Board they appointed and which the New Baltimroe Town Board approved!!!
If the documents are misleading and, despite our good faith efforts to clarify the outstanding questions, and despite the Town of New Baltimore’s refusal to provide accurate information, Mr Robert VanEtten comes forward and provides proof that he has not been involved in a conflict of interest in the Brandt project, then we will take appropriate action.
The fact is that all of the circumstances and available facts point to a conflict of interest on the New Baltimore Town Planning Board and the Town of New Baltimore has done nothing to refute those facts is evidence enough to make the reasonable conclusions made in this article.
The further fact that the New Baltimore Office of the Assessor refused to produce the receipts promised by Mr Michael Bisconeat the Board of Assessment Review hearings, receipts that Mr Biscone expressly and explicitly states on the record to be from “VanEtten” construction, further supports our conclusions. Had those receipts been provided as promised by Mr Michael Biscone, and if they were not provided we have to ask: Why did the Board of Assessment Review proceed to grant a reduction in tax assessment to Brandt? If the promised receipts were provided but not produced upon demand under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Law, then there is something the Town is hiding. We think we know what.
We think that it’s time New Baltimore Town Hall started answering some very serious questions about what’s going on in New Baltimore’s inner circle of special friends. Town Hall has too many secrets being kept from voters and residents. Town Hall is doing too many favors for special people while ignoring those with real complaints and failing to play fairly and in good faith.
When you have two individuals in the Supervisor’s office who have not been put there by a democratic vote — one who ran unopposed and took office by default (Supervisor Jeff Ruso) and the other one (Nick Dellisanti) appointed by him as his deputy — there’s something wrong with the system. When the Greene County District Attorney Joseph Stanzione — another Republican who ran unopposed — the supposedly “elected” chief law-enforcement officer for Greene County runs “unopposed” and has to recuse himself from the investigation of the New Baltimore Highway Department because of involvement with former Highway Superintendent Denis Jordan (forced to resign), there’s something wrong with the oversight in Greene County. When the brother, Alan Jordan, of suspect Denis Jordan’s former deputy, Scott Jordan, runs unopposed for the office of New Baltimore Highway Superintendent and gets into office by default, there’s something rotten in New Baltimore Town Hall. When the Office of the Assessor, the New Baltimore Building Department and the Board of Assessment Review ignore facts and hand out favors, there’s something wrong in New Baltimore. How long will New Baltimore residents and taxpayers continue to play STUPID and ignore what’s going on. But is the real question this: Are residents of New Baltimore just playing stupid or are they, in fact, really STUPID? After all, STUPID is as STUPID does.
Most popular tattoo in New Baltimore. Wonder why? (Ask Joan or Robbie Ross. They coined the term “Newbaltimoron.”)
As of this writing there are still public Town Meetings and you can ask questions — even if your elected public servants refuse to answer them — , and even if the media closes their eyes and ears to the situations that are not news but need to be covered.
Time for New Baltimore Town Hall to Come Clean!
The Town of New Baltimore’s calendar of “events” can be viewed here. The next Regular Town Board Meeting is on February 11, 2019, at 7:00 p.m. Please attend and get some answers.
If you’d like to contact your New Baltimore Town Officials, here is their information:
Members of the New Baltimore Town Board Supervisor Jeff Ruso – jruso@townofnewbaltimore.org Scott Briody – (518)469-0031 Chuck Irving – (518)424-1950 Kelly Downes – (518)396-9255 downes@townofnewbaltimore.org
Shelly VanEtten – 518-756-3517 svanetten@townofnewbaltimore.org
Members of the New Baltimore Planning Board* Robert “Rob” Van Etten – Chair Robert Court
Frank Orlando
Lee Salisbury
Ann Marie Vadney Marjorie B. Loux, Clerk mloux@townofnewbaltimore.org
* The Town website does not provide contact information on the Planning Board Members. You may email the Town Clerk, Hon. Barbara Finke (clerk@townofnewbaltimore.org) or Ms Marjorie Loux ( mloux@townofnewbaltimore.org) with your comments or complaints.
Stay tuned for upcoming reports on:
The New Baltimore Office of the Assessor and the Board of Assessment Review: Abuse of Public Office and Incompetence.
Local Government by Appointment: How New Baltimore is run by Unelected Supervisor, Deputy Supervisor, Highway Superintendent and what it means to residents.
Unelected Town Government and Appointed Board Members: Dictatorship and Tyranny at Home.
The New Baltimore Office of the Assessor, the Sole Assessor, Gordon Bennett, and Abuse of Office.
UPDATEon the New Baltimore Highway Department and Denis Jordan Investigation. Confirms all we have been saying!!!
We’ll also keep you up-to-date on the progress of the Van Etten case and what the Town of New Baltimore and the Greene County District Attorney, Joseph Stanzione, are doing about it. We hope to see some resignations real soon…or some prosecutions.
The local epidemic of running stop signs and heavy trucks pulling out in front of oncoming traffic (LaFarge, Port of Coeymans and Carver). Our question is: Where are the Coeymans cops? Or are they letting the Albany County Sheriff do their jobs while they collect their salaries and accrue their pensions? “Car 54 Where Are You?” Crandall’s Coeymans Cop Comedy.
We’re big enough now to start making a real serious difference in how things are done around here. So far, we’ve just been providing information and facts. Maybe it’s time to start rocking some boats through the courts. Just think of it this way: If we were to ask only 50% of our readers to donate only $1 to a Justice Fund, we’d have enough to send a good number of our elected officials and public servants to the new jail they want to build. (We say only 50% of our readers because the other 50% are readers who say they don’t read this blog but practically live on it. That 50% are the state, county, and town parasites who go on this blog to see if they’ve been mentioned today. We seriously doubt that they’d be willing to contribute to their own prosecution fund. Even if we sent just two or three to jail and a couple were to lose their pension rights, that would send a message to the others that they might be next. Send a couple of public employees to jail, have a couple of judges disbarred, take away a couple of attorney’s license to practice their corrupt law. What do you think, readers, voters, citizens? Does that sound like a plan?)
It’s an election year and in the New Baltimore Town Hall they’re still in “lawyer mode,” according to New Baltimore Sole Assessor, Gordon Bennett.
It’s and election year and County Legislator for New Baltimore, Patrick “Pat” Linger, running on the Republican ticket, is seeking re-election. Joseph “Joe” Stanzione is also seeking re-election to the Greene County District Attorney Office.
Linger’s and Stanzione’s Republican “friends” in New Baltimore Town Hall haven’t done them any favors! In fact, the way New Baltimore Town Hall has conducted the business of government is likely to have hurt Linger, Stanzione and others very badly, and may even cost them the election. We’ll be doing our best to see to that.
These two politicians seeking re-election have two things in common:
They have dropped the ball when it comes to ensuring good government and compliance with the law.
They have managed to slip under the radar during their past terms in office, to avoid detection of their incompetence.
We haven’t missed the fact that while the New Baltimore Highway Department was squandering taxpayer dollars, Pat Linger and George Amedore were handing him fistfuls of taxpayer money in CHIPS grants and other state and federal support for highway infrastructure. The New Baltimore Highway Department under Denis Jordan and now under Scott van Wormer, had no training or education to qualify them for planning or designing or even for repairing roads and highway infrastructure. The money was squandered, wasted, and Linger and Amedore just were oblivious, never checking or monitoring how the money was being used. The Greene County DA, Joe Stanzione, was aware of what was going on; WE REPORTED IT TO HIM!!! Nick Dellisanti and Jeff Ruso were also aware of what was going on but couldn’t control Jordan!!! Puppet Dellisanti, we recall, defended his choices of appointees by saying, “Republicans appoint Republicans,” and we see where that got New Baltimore! Residents and taxpayers got screwed!!!
Thanks Linger, St anzione, Dellisanti, Ruso, Jordan, van Wormer!!! You sure know how to kindle a cozy fire for yourselves…using our money!!!
We think that a local resident has hit the nail on the head when he writes in an
Open Letter to Patrick “Pat” Linger, Greene County Legislator for the Town of New Baltimore and Joseph “Joe” Stanzione, Greene County District Attorney
Here’s what the resident has to say: (Reprinted in its entirety; we have added the graphics.)
Dear Mr. Linger: Dear Mr. Stanzione:
You have failed us miserably. You have betrayed the trust we invested in you when we stood behind you and elected you to public office. You have violated your oaths of office. You have shown yourselves to be unfit for public office.
I am writing to you regarding a state of affairs in the Town of New Baltimore, County of Greene, which has been ignored by the incumbent Republican Town Supervisors over three terms: Nick Dellisanti during his two terms in office, and Jeff Ruso, the current Town Supervisor.
We cite here as well the state of affairs that has been going on for almost two decades in the New Baltimore Highway Department under former Highway Superintendent Denis Jordan, and which is continuing under the acting Highway Superintendent Scott vanWormer, and will likely continue under the next Highway Superintendent Alan vanWormer, Scott vanWormer’s brother, who is running for that office unopposed and who will be “declared elected,” under New York State ElectionLaw.
Residents and voters, at least those of us who have not been so discouraged by the state of affairs in New Baltimore, and who still go to the polls – for all the good it does and what little difference it makes. New Baltimore voters have for several years now been deprived of their right to choose their elected officials because the Greene County and New Baltimore political party committees are unable to run candidates, and we voters are being force-fed candidates running unopposed; we are being denied our vote. We do not have “elections” in New Baltimore; we may go to the polls but we have a choice of ONE. That’s not democracy.
Business as usual in Greene County and New Baltimore.
Former Town Supervisor Nick Dellisanti chose not to run for office in 2017; instead, his deputy Jeff Ruso (R) ran unopposed and was “declared elected” though not elected, in fact more than a third of those going to the polls abstained from casting a vote for Ruso. But Ruso’s first order of business when assuming office in January 2018 was to appoint Nick Dellisanti as his Deputy Supervisor. Although the fact that Dellisanti accepted the appointment doesn’t make a lot of sense, the bottom line is that we in New Baltimore have two executives, the Supervisor and his Deputy Supervisor, neither of which have been democratically elected.
But what’s worse, is that in Town Hall we have a gaggle of clowns who have no idea why they are there, and are blinded by their political ambitions and have forgotten or never knew what public service is; they are not public servants, they are interested only in cronyism and their simple-minded notions of power.
Here’s an example out of real life in New Baltimore, and an example of how Mr. Dellisanti, Mr. Ruso and their respective Town Boards, appointees, and hirelings have misused taxpayers, and abused their pubic offices.
You, Mr. Linger, and you, Mr. Stanzione, have been personally informed of these situations by those affected but have done NOTHING. It’s an election year, Mr. Linger and Mr. Stanzione, so don’t you think it’s time you grunted or got off the pot? It’s an election year, Mr. Linger and Mr. Stanzione, so don’t you think you should come up with some answers and some actions? You’ve done nothing so far so now might be a great time to show some good faith, even if it is self-serving in an election year.
First of all, for almost two decades, the former New Baltimore Highway Superintendent, Mr. Denis Jordan, was given carte blanche to do what he pleased in the Town of New Baltimore, squandering countless hundreds of thousands, very likely millions of taxpayer dollars doing more damage than improvement. Why? Because he was allowed to do that by past Town administrations, both Democrat and Republican, and because he was not monitored, despite the fact he had no training or education, and was about as qualified as a cabbage to do the job. His recent resignation and the so-called investigations are in reality a smoke and mirrors game. The investigations it seems are nothing more than a pornographic dog and pony act, making fools of voters, taxpayers, and those adversely affected by Jordan’s incompetence and indifference.
Why haven’t we heard anything more about the so-called investigations? What was the outcome? You investigated a public entity and a public figure but the public has been kept in the dark. Is that your idea of good government? It appears to us that it is.
We don’t hear anything from our elected officials in Town Hall about these investigations. In fact, according to local media, New Baltimore Town Officials claimed not to be aware of any “investigations,” or not to have been informed of them. I find that very hard to believe, especially given the fact that the subject of the investigations was a New Baltimore Department head and an elected official, Mr. Denis Jordan, and the New Baltimore Town Clerk’s office was floor-to-ceiling with banker’s boxes all labeled “Highway Department,” during the investigations. But Supervisor Ruso and members of the Town Board were unaware of the investigations. Were you, Mr. Linger, or you, Mr. Stanzione, aware of the investigations? If so, why weren’t New Baltimore residents and taxpayers informed?
The incompetence and negligence of the New Baltimore Town Board under Dellisanti and Ruso, and their indifference and negligence of the damage that Denis Jordan was doing can’t be made up. It’s real, it’s ongoing, and it’s going to haunt them and you for some considerable time to come. Why? Because it’s scandalous!
In 2016, both Dellisanti and Ruso, along with sitting Town Board member Shelly van Etten, made personal inspections of the results of lack of maintenance of New Street in New Baltimore, and the damage to private property as the result of that lack of maintenance of the roadway owned by the Town of New Baltimore and for which the Town of New Baltimore and its Highway Department were legally liable for repair and maintenance. [Editor’s Note: After two years, neither Dellisanti nor Ruso, nor the Highway Department have responded with any proposal to fix the damage they caused.]
Dellisanti and Ruso, and two days later, Mr. Denis Jordan and his Deputy Mr. Scott van Wormer, again visited New Street, and for a second time Dellisanti and Ruso were apprised of the situation and the damage being done.
Dellisanti, Ruso, and Jordan managed to ignore the ongoing damage, Jordan creating new hazards and damage every time he managed to make an appearance.
Notices of Claim were served in which the Town was apprised in detail of the damage, and the associated liabilities. Dellisanti and Ruso did nothing to cure the damage or to take any responsibility; they simply handed the Notices over to their insurance company, who then handed the Notices to their attorneys.
Why is it that bad government seems to think they can avoid liability and responsibility if they hand their incompetence over to a law firm? Town law provides for remedies but the Town of New Baltimore has, and continues to avoid their responsibilities and forces taxpayers and residents into the poor house because the only possibility is court, lawsuits. But the insurance companies have much deeper pockets than residents. Why should a resident have to fight to get local government to accept responsibility for what they have done? Why should it cost local residents, hard-working honest people, tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to force elected officials to do what’s right and to comply with the law.
That’s a good question for you, Mr. Stanzione. You’re the chief law enforcement official in the County of Greene, what’s your position on New Baltimore’s liabilities and failure to comply with the law?
Well, the Town of New Baltimore, and you, Mr. Linger, and you, Mr. Stanzione, have been kept updated on the ongoing damage to a private residential structure in the Hamlet of New Baltimore, which you all KNOW has sustained damage due to the failure of the Town to maintain drainage and roadways as required by the law. The structure has been subject to ongoing damage thanks to incompetent roadwork. The Town has been provided with images, videos, and ongoing updates but the Town has so far ignored everything, and has done nothing.
The Highway Department installed a deep so-called “catchment” that’s almost 2 feet deep and 30 inches across, a booby-trap, but when asked to put in a proper grate, they’ve ignored the request for nearly two years. When asked at least to mark the catchment to avoid and accident, they ignored that request, too! Don’t drive down New Street, New Baltimore at night, you’re risking your life. But you, Mr. Linger, you, Mr. Stanzione, you Mr. Dellisanti, and you Mr. Ruso, all know about this. But you have done NOTHING about it. And now Linger and Stanzione, you’re asking New Baltimore for their votes?!?
In fact, Mr. Linger, we’ve read that you were asked to share your accomplishments with a local reporting medium but you refused to respond. Does that mean you have no accomplishments or that you feel you don’t owe the voting public that information or even a response? Which is it Mr. Linger?
Well, the tax bills come out though, with clockwork regularity. A building’s collapsing because of Town negligence but the building inspector/code enforcement officer and the assessor refuse to inspect the building. The owner pays his taxes on a building that he can’t use.
When asked to inspect the site and to adjust the assessment, the New Baltimore Sole Assessor, Gordon Bennett, refuses and tells the owner to take it up on Grievance Day.
The owner presents the case on Grievance day to the Board of Assessment Review, a group of appointees, appointed by the Town Supervisor and approved by the Town Board. Again, facts, just the facts, images, answers were presented to the BAR, who granted 9 out of 11 requests for reduction of assessments but denied the requests made by the New Street property owner. This blog reported on that scandal.
The next step was to go before a hearing officer in a Small Claims Assessment Review proceeding (S.C.A.R.) and ask that an independent hearing officer reconsider the BAR’s determination. This was done and Sole Assessor Bennett appeared to defend his assessment, but claimed that the property was not owner-occupied, and therefore, the owner was not eligible to be heard. But the property was and is “owner-occupied” as defined by the law but the more-than-eighty year old hearing officer stopped listening early in the hearing and, despite volumes of proof, sided with Bennett, although allowing a $1,000 reduction in another affected property.
Does something sound fishy here? Well, it gets even better, because New Baltimore’s Bennett responded to the hearing officer’s question, “Why hasn’t New Baltimore condemned the structure?” Bennett replied that New Baltimore Town Hall was in “lawyer mode,” meaning that they would not respond because of liability. [Editor’s emphasis]
If that wasn’t enough, Bennett shot himself and the Town of New Baltimore in the foot a second time when he stated, and I quote from the hearing officer’s official determination:
But first, a quote from the hearing officer:
“Petitioner representative under oath states that the house is used for storage and that it is uninhabitable and unsafe to use as a residence because of structural failures and water damage. Photographs were presented to support the contention that it was uninhabitable.” [Editor’s emphasis]
And then the hearing officer states and certifies that:
“The Assessor [Bennett] concurred that the property was uninhabitable because of structural failures. Assessor then moved to disqualify the petition on the ground that the property was not owner-occupied.” [Editor’s emphasis. “Not owner-occupied”? Is Bennett crazy or just stupid? Maybe both! He just admitted that the property was “uninhabitable because of structural failures.”]
Well, if I am reading that correctly, the hearing officer was provided with enough evidence and proof to clearly show that the property is “uninhabitable and unsafe,” and Bennett agreed that “the property was uninhabitable because of structural failures,” I am at a loss Why? Mr. Bennett and the Town of New Baltimore have not acted in good faith and at least reduced the assessment of the property.
I am also aware that the owner/owner’s representative has addressed numerous letters and emails to the Town Supervisor, the Town Board, the Office of the Assessor, the Building Inspector, the Highway Department asking what they are going to do, what they propose should be done. The owner/owner’s representative hasn’t received a single response from any of those offices!
Sole Assessor Gordon Bennett explained the reason for this is that Town Hall is in “lawyer mode.” [Editor’s emphasis]
“Lawyer mode.” I wonder if you, Mr. Linger, or perhaps you, Mr. Stanzione, can explain what exactly “lawyer mode” is and whether there is a provision of Town Law that permits elected, appointed officials and public employees to ignore their responsibilities and claim “lawyer mode?” Is that something like pleading the Fifth? I’d be very grateful if you could get back to me on that one. Yeah! Fat chance? Well, if hell doesn’t freeze over in the meantime, there’ll be a very special place there for you, Mr. Linger and you, Mr. Stanzione, as well as Mr. Jordan, Dellisanti, Ruso, and Bennett.
Shame on you all!!! You are hypocrites all!
Even if Mr. Ruso, Mr. Dellisanti, Mr. Bennet, Mr. van Wormer and the others in that den of thieves don’t have any dignity, one would hope that one of you, Mr. Linger or Mr. Stanzione, would have the decency to call New Baltimore to explain, to justify their scandalous treatment of honest taxpayers, or at least to investigate their abuses. Or is that too much to expect, to hope for?
The hypocrisy includes their treatment of veterans. I am a veteran. The property owner of the damaged property is a veteran. I know of others who have suffered at the hands of Mr. Jordan and other public officials in New Baltimore, and those residents are veterans.
I am personally disgusted and affronted by the fact that so many of our county and town officials claim to support and to honor veterans but stab them in the back when push comes to shove. Mealy-mouthed, pabulum-puking hypocrisy is what it really is. Veterans luncheons, monuments, the whole embarrassing hypocritical dog and pony display makes me physically sick.
What’s worse is when you see who’s at those events, it’s a bunch of deluded old men thinking that they are being honored – sometimes they’re even outnumbered by the politicians who all seem to crawl out of the woodwork in time for a photo op, and then exchange a few empty words before making some sort of excuse that they have to be somewhere else.
In recap, we in the town of New Baltimore, the Little North Korea, Greene County, New York, USA, the Third World of the East Coast, are sick and tired of the propaganda and election campaign rhetoric, and the abuse we receive from elected officials who, in reality, are not elected. We are sick of being ignored and subjected to retaliatory or “special” treatment by incompetent public servants, who have their own agendas once they steal our votes. We are sick and tired of public servants and elected officials who breach and violate the contract between the taxpayer and government, the contract that basically says that we’ll elect you, you’ll collect tax paid salaries and pensions, but you have to conduct our business in good faith and fair play.
You have not done that. You have violated our trust. You have violated your oaths of office. You have cheated us. We now demand justice and your heads!
I demand, and I think I can speak not only for the abused property owner on New Street, but the abused residents throughout New Baltimore, for the abused citizens, residents, tax payers and voters who have been cheated and misled by people like you, Mr. Linger, Mr. Stanzione, Mr. Dellisanti, Mr. Ruso, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Jordan, Mr. vanWormer and so many parasites like you, that you make amends for your evil, your piracy, your treasons, your misconduct, your incompetence, your shameful abuse of the trust we gave you on election day.
Fix what you have allowed to happen and make those whose suffering and losses you have caused whole again.
And for those of you who were not elected, who were “declared elected,” but not by voters, you are the worst of the bunch because you have not been approved democratically to lead or to govern.
Shame on you! Shame on you all! And shame on New Baltimore for allowing this to happen at all!
Disgusted,
A Concerned Resident
The Smalbanyblog has already published numerous articles on the issues presented in the resident’s letter. They are all true and factual. Supervisor Ruso, Deputy (former supervisor) Dellisanti, Sole Assessor Gordon Bennett, the New Baltimore Highway Department under Denis Jordan and Scott vanWormer,the New Baltimore Town Boardare all a disgrace to any concept of decency, much less good competent government.
Veterans?!? The writer mentions an important point that we may have overlooked in the past but now have focused on: veterans and how they’re treated. And Yes! we have noticed the so-called Veterans Luncheon and the Veterans Monument at Town Hall. New Baltimore has a Veterans Committee, too. You have to wonder if that so-called committee works as well as the other New Baltimore “committees,” it’s a wonder we have any living veterans in New Baltimore. Our opinion as veterans: Keep your casseroles and mealy-mouthed speeches and give us the justice we put our lives on the line for!!! And all you cowardly parasites who never wore a uniform in your lives, don’t give us your bullshit about how you love your veterans!!! Put your policies where you’re foul-smelling mouths are!!
By the way, Mr Linger, Mr Stanzione: Were either of you in the military? We mean other than the boy scouts, girl scouts, or National Guard or Reserves? How about you, Mr Ruso, Mr Dellisanti: Were you ever in uniform? We mean other than Albany Girls Academy, that is.
Yes, it’s an election year and this is the time to make your voices heard, that is, if you haven’t been deprived of a voice through your vote. It’s uncanny that so many people will put up with having their rights taken away without uttering even a whimper. How can real Americans tolerate “unopposed candidates” or “uncontested elections” without screaming at the top of their voices: NO WAY!
Either do the job or get out of Town Hall! Do the job or get out of County government!
And we’d like to know more about this “lawyer mode” thing Mr Bennett has revealed; is this a new fad in Town and Village government? And what’s the deal with the Town’s refusal to respond to letters and correspondence? Too cowardly to take a position on the questions asked about how you operate the Town? Are the questions about taking responsibility and complying with the law over your heads? Yeah. We can see why you’d try to hide. Confused are you? Look, either do the job or get out of Town Hall! Do the job or get out of County government! And what about the Town of New Baltimore Town Board’s responsibilities in terms of public safetyand good stewardship of public resources? Have we turned a blind eye to that, too?
You! Yeah, YOU! Your ass is grass, dude, and our foot’s a lawnmower!
Mr Ruso, Mr Dellisanti, Mr Bennett, Mr Jordan, Mr vanWormer, Mr Linger, Mr Stanzione, and others can run but they won’t be able to hide.
Letters will be going out soon the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (and the Office of Real Property Services), the Office of the New York State Comptroller, and the Office of the New York State Attorney General, demanding investigations or at least inquiry into what’s going on in New Baltimore (and Ravena/Coeymans, too). We’re going to ask Why? Mr Patrick Linger and Mr Joseph Stanzione have dropped the ball on so many issues, Why? they’re asleep on duty. We’ll also drop Mr Cuomo cc’s of the letters to see what he has to say about his Repukelican friends in Greene County.
We will allege conspiracy to obstruct justice, to deprive citizens of their civil and protected rights, election fraud, violation of oaths of office, unlawful deprivation of rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the New York State and United States Constitution (3rd, 5th and 14th Amendments), violation of due process rights, breach of contract, among other violations and crimes, tortious negligence, unlawful eviction (constructive eviction), discriminatory practices. The list could go on but rest assured, the evidence and the proof for these allegations and others is clear, conspicuous, and incontestable. Mr Ruso, Mr Dellisanti, Mr Bennett, Mr Jordan, Mr vanWormer, Mr Linger, Mr Stanzione can run but they won’t be able to hide.
How is it possible that New Baltimore, Greene County has such a bunch of irresponsible, despicable morons running the show. How can they get away with destroying private property, avoiding any notions of fair play and good faith, and still sleep at night. Well, when you have no conscience, you can do anything and still get a good night’s sleep. new Baltimore Town hall, Mr Patrick Linger, Mr Joseph Stanzione, Mr Jeff Ruso, Mr Nick Dellisanti, Denis Jordan and Scot vanWormer are living proof of that!
New Baltimore & Greene County Elections. What we have to choose from.. One Big Garbage Sorting Operation!
The New Baltimore Republican Committee claimed that VanWormer’s deficiencies were the reason why VanWormer was not to be endorsed by the Committee for re-election to the position of Superintendent of Highways in November 2023, and claimed that the decision was the result of a vote by 11 of 15 Committee members present with 4 absent and one abstention.
The fact that VanWormer has not come forward with strong denials is troubling.
Is Joe Stanzione Up to It?
To be clear, this is not a political matter and Smalbany Magazine & Blog does not get involved in party politics. This is a situation in which members of the same political party are backstabbing each other, playing stupid games, and putting the public at risk. We now face accusations against a sitting elected official who stands to be in office for another four years by default, since he is running unopposed. The principal accuser, Town Supervisor Jeffrey Ruso, will also be running unopposed and will remain in office by default. Either way, New Baltimore will be saddled with these two warring factions but will have no voice in the matter. This situation puts everyone at serious risk and must be corrected at once.
Well, it should be clear from the above extract from the regular meeting proceedings of the New Baltimore Town Board how seriously Ruso and the Town Council take resident inquiries, complaints, and investigations of reported violations of New York State law and their own New Baltimore Code. But it seems that Ruso and VanEtten expect that dogs will bark only on Sundays or at the random times they are “driving around.” We should wonder if the dogs are aware of that.
It’s and election year and 
Albany NY a.k.a. Smalbany 