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Going back to the late ’90s, Linda Mussmann—co-director of Time & Space Limited, former Waterfront chair, and Hudson Democratic chair—has made many private and public pronouncements about Mayor Rick Scalera.

Most of these are now inconsistent with her current politics. In 2007, hoping to salvage her unpopular Waterfront plan, Mussmann did an about-face (to save face) by becoming a Scalera ally. Her primary run that year against Michael O’Hara, and subsequent independent bid—against the wishes of her board, many of whom resigned in protest—helped ensure another Scalera term.

But many of her past condemnations of Scalera, whether published in the papers or circulated via various email lists, are pretty difficult to walk back. Some choice nuggets follow below; Mussmann also has some pungeant things to say about a number of other familiar Hudson political figures, from the Elks Club and Tom Koulos to Jack Connor and Cappy Pierro. The typos, ALL CAPS and malapropisms have been left intact.

THE SAYINGS OF CHAIRMAN MUSS

Rick Scalera could not wait to tear [the 4th Street] school down. I know some don't like to remember the past but this was one of Mr. Scalera's grand achievements....Stalin had similar longings. [Linda Mussmann, May 2005]

I have not run for office because I need a job but because I thought that the people in power were not representing a larger view.....very few people are allowed to participate in Rick Scalera's government for example. In fact this is a very closed circle. [Linda Mussmann, Dec. 2004]

I did see in the Indep. a photo of Danny, Ricky, & Patty Mann [Assemblyman Patrick Manning] at Laura [Margolis]'s club....pretty cute---sure looks like Republicans havin' a good time. [Linda Mussmann, Nov. 2004]

it might be time for the Democratic Committee to censure Rick for breaking the law as well as Shook and Donahue. [Linda Mussmann, Sept. 2004]

the real issue here is "conflict of interest" ---it is against the City Charter to play a duel role in government. The questions have been asked all year and last year and years before that about these conflicts but we are told that "it has always been done this way and we should mind our own business" or Jack Connor(the inept city attorney) is checking on it---now an answer was delivered and now Rick Scalera will fix it because he has to keep Grandinetti employed. The CONFLICT OF INTEREST list is long and grows longer every day that these people are in office....please speak out about this gross act of self interest. Rick Scalera, Dan Grandinetti, Chris Nedwick, Bill Lowenstein, Dick Koskey, Eric Galloway, Bill Better, Judy Meyer, Charlie Butterworth, the Elks Club members (who voted on their own application which is now tied up in court and costing the city a great deal of money) Cappy Pierro (who cut one of the worst deals over the fire house building) and on and on. The deals constructed by SLC and this administration to get a "host" deal with the city goes back to Scalera's campaign contributions as well as block parties sponsored by SLC and on. The Spririt of Hudson boat deal, Colorusso deal regarding Hudson's backup water supply, Willard Place deal, the Library's Preservation obstruction by Scalera and company and ond, and on. There are more but time is short for me this morning.  Please write a letter to Elliot Spitzer the attorney and ask for an investigation.  Please write a letter to the ed. and ask that Rick Scalera be investigated, and the rest of the back room of Hudson's political players who are raising your taxes to pay for their deals.  The mayor got a salary this year, so did Grandinetti, and so did Cappy Pierro----they will need more next time----and one would think that they use much of their time working to stay in power---what have these people done for the city of Hudson is the real question. [Linda Mussmann, Sept. 2004]

the Library has become this season's political football---starring Rick (Rough & Ready) Scalera, Pat (tall man) Manning, Ed (ever-ready to serve) Cross, and  Dan (I want to Mayor) Grandinetti....no way should the Library let the city get this building with out an army of Lawyers making a contract that it can only be a Library and this deal can only be used for THE Library....It is clear that the School board was outa the loop on this one.,...I guess it would have made sense to ask the school board what they thought about this swap first before going public at the "press conference?!!". The Library should be free of this nightmare----the Library board should make a statement on the position it wants to take and not be used by Rick, Pat, Ed, and Danny as a tool of political monkey business. I doubt that these men have read a book lately???!!!!! favors, exchanges, swaps, this Library Fiasco sounds like classic ole' timey Hudson Politics or a poker game gone sour.  (here is a little factoid that I learned last night at CCF meeting)---the closing of the new fire house will cost over a 1/2 million dollars.....how about that for steering the ship of state right into the river bank?) [Linda Mussmann, Aug. 2004]

Rick Scalera hates this idea of saving anything that does not benefit him and he thinks the preservation commission is worthless. If he can't control it he is going to dismantle it. [...] Sarah Sterling seems lost, Lew Kramer  was stunned, Ashton was holding Rick's hand, and Jamison Teal???!!!! wow! where's the gavel ???? it sure could have been used last night. The meeting was a platform for Rick, Tom Koulos, Tom Flemming, and Shailer Evans (school board pres) to rant about the irrational Preservation Committee” [Linda Mussmann, July 2004]

Willard Place is under siege---saws, trucks, earth movers, seem to have taken the post-modern axe[the chainsaw] to the contested trees----T. Eric Galloway/Rick Scalera the Paul Bunyons of Hudson have won another victory-----Willard Place looks like Baghdad....check it out. Reports came in that the attack came Friday night at 5:30pm buzz buzz crash democracy in action Ricky style. [Linda Mussmann, July 2004]

My guess that the $81,000 problem with the audit ticked some people off. That was an old wound and Scalera, has dirt all over his hands from this little mess.  This was the ruling of the DEC regarding the DSS building being built on petroleum site.  THis may be part of it. Or it is the good ol' boys just taking care of business.  The last thing the Demo's need is a Republican watching the dough???!!!!! [...] Jimmy Dolan at work?  Was it the Hudson cops that got him?? I missed it. I don't believe Scalera was upset,  remember the Chief Martin was brought down and disgraced. Payback time. [Linda Mussmann, Feb. 2002]

THERE IS NO GOOD IN SITTING ON A PANEL BY ST. LAWRENCE, FOR  ST. LAWRENCE---THIS IS NOT DEMOCRACY WHEN THE COMPANY IS IN CONTROL.   THIS IS A JOKE.  THIS REMINDS ME OF RICK SCALERA'S PANEL TO OVER-SEE  JIMMY DOLAN.  THIS WAS A WAY TO SHUT THE OPPOSITION UP AND MAKE A MOCKERY  OF FAIRNESS AND INCLUSION. [Linda Mussmann, Mar. 2000]

This is another plot by Rick S. to save his ass---he could have had this  property for the city but was out bid by Sun.  Now Sun wants to  sell---but I don't know if the selling price is right?? However-- this is  another bash to the Antiquers---cause who needs another Antique  Store???according to the locals??? and Mr. Scalera---is saying this in  coded words.  Hudson could use a grocery store---and Ricky wanted his buddy from  Philmont to come on down here to serve us some snacks---but failed to get  the space cause he wanted it another way---this is another HDC/HCDPA deal  that failed(ie) bankrupt/auctioned off and SUN became the owner. This could be a better plan then the Scrap Yard project ---maybe some one  should mention it to Rickky and Jimmy (the HudStones). [Linda Mussmann, Jul. 1999]

the actions of various parties going to Jimmy Dolan  Jr. or Scalera with their hands out for HUD money --these requests have  all revolved around the HUD money:  The parking lot for the Opera House  is one, Historic Hudson (Chicken Shack) is 2, and Columbia County (Carrie  Haddad's) art mall idea for the 300 block of Columbia Street is 3,  Operation Unite is 4, and I am sure there were/are more.  These are just some examples of the inability to listen to some who have  stood up to speak out while others went behind closed doors to do a deal  with the devil. There has always been a desire to believe that Jimmy Dolan and Rick  Scalera could be changed. (WHat a joke)! [Linda Mussmann, Apr. 1999]

These are the people Rick's gang s really likes--they provide the way for  HUD money to roll on into Hudson---this money comes off the backs of the  poor people---if Hudson was not so poor and filled with blight Rick's  gang would have not grants to write. [Linda Mussmann, Feb. 1999]

During the 2003 election, Scalera swiped the independent party name, logo and ballot line of his mayoral opponent using an election law technicality. Even longtime Scalera loyalists were scandalized.

The Register Star’s normally 100% supportive editorial board wrote:

[Scalera’s] actions remind us of a notable American politician who so feared his opponents that he resorted to tricks: Richard M. Nixon.

The editor of the now-defunct Independent said that “Scalera’s move this week... fails to pass the smell test for spite,” calling it “just plain stupid” and “a cross between a prank and bullying.”

Scalera himself chortled to a Metroland reporter that his move “was meant to be devious” and that he fully intended to “hurt feelings.”

[NOTE: Of course, the candidate he stole the line from (and whose feelings he intended to hurt) was Linda Mussmann of TSL—who since has been exhibiting symptoms of some political strain of Stockholm Syndrome, empathizing with her former tormenters. Some of Mussmann’s past opinions of Rick Scalera will follow in Volume 5 of this series.]

In February 1999, noted book author and national columnist Edward M. Gomez published this letter-to-the editor, recounting his experience at a public hearing about the Americlean toxic waste project. First, some background may be in order...

The Americlean project would have trucked highly carcinogenic perchloroethylene, a dry cleaning waste, from all over the Northeast, to a neglected structure in the South Bay—a former glue factory which was later dubbed “The Basilica.” The fly-by-night Canadian company would have been given $600,000 in Cuomo-era HUD grants to do this, supposedly “recycling” the perc with a supposedly patent-pending process.

Public officials including the Columbia-Hudson Partnership and Mayor Rick Scalera initially tried to hide (or else later professed ignorance of) the real nature of the project, which was presented as a benign factory which would just make coat hangers and polybags for the dry cleaning industry. But citizens dug up the company’s real goals through independent research, and demanded that the company send a representative to Hudson to explain themselves.

Backed into a corner by better-informed citizens—and firmly reminded a hasty promise to bring someone from the company to town before handing over the $600K—Scalera reluctantly agreed to a hearing. Not expecting more than a handful of “usual suspects” to attend, the Mayor scheduled the meeting for the largest auditorium in town (at the high school) hoping the audience would look small and isolated.

Instead, the hall was packed to the rafters with citizens from all walks of life—from a lifelong resident running a day care center near the path of the waste, to a prison employee who wanted to support the project, but was treated with disdain by the company rep. Citizens posed pointed, well-researched questions, and brought a toxicologist to testify to the dangers of perc.

Albany TV cameras and radio reporters were there to document the woefully unprepared and evasive answers of Americlean rep, Brett Walker, who seemed to have spent more time getting his hair cut and picking out a fancy suit than prepping for the meeting. Among other things, Walker “couldn't remember” where the company’s supposed “pilot plant” to test their miracle technology was located.

But Rick Scalera wasn’t embarrassed by Walker’s fumbling performance. Instead, he declared himself to have “never been so embarrassed” by the citizens who, once the company slunk away, had spared the town from a expensive debacle.

But don’t take it from me, take it from Edward. His firsthand reaction shortly after the hearing (and before the citizen victory several months later) follows below.

DEMOCRACY—WHAT A CONCEPT!

Chemical and political pollution in our midst.

by Edward M. Gomez 

The stench of corruption and old-guard cronyism in our town’s politics and among its elected leaders is as foul as any toxic chemicals the notorious Americlean company may release into the air we all breathe if it is allowed to set up shop here.

But the good news is that a refreshing breeze is blowing through our town and through Columbia County—it’s the fresh air of people power, of good, hard-working, upstanding folks from all walks of life standing up to the corrupt political machine to say: “No! We won't let you steamroll another one of your dubious schemes through the system that you have for so long manipulated to your advantage, bypassing the public and ripping us off.”

At Thursday night’s town meeting at Hudson High School, at which a public relations representative of Americlean, invited by Hudson's mayor and his cronies, answered local residents’ questions, we saw an exciting revelation of the power of a thoughtful, inquiring, conscientious citizenry to seek out and demand the truth.

What we learned was that this toxic-waste company has no firm financial standing or bank funding for its proposed Hudson factory, no complete pay plan worked out for its workers, incomplete research in many areas, and no environmental impact survey. Add to this its intention to avoid accommodating unionized workers and an unabashedly greedy eagerness to seize upon tax deferments and de facto direct funding through taxpayer dollars—our taxpayer dollars.

How alarmed the mayor and many Common Council members, as well as their tax-dollar-funded, unelected “consultant,” appeared at the town meeting by the vigorous display of citizen activism. One alderman and his sidekick, a well-known crony of the mayor's, huffed and puffed and stormed out in outrage because they couldn't stand to see their fellow citizens stand up and demand explanations about the discrepancies in the city government’s HUD application to benefit Americlean and about the tide of misinformation that has been coming our way.

Democracy—what a concept! It has always been terrifying to despots, to those who abuse the public trust for their own ends. Hudson's homemakers, high school students, merchants, nurses, homeowners, and residents of all stripes have had enough. We care about our families, neighbors, friends and homes, and don't want anymore pollution—chemical or political—in our midst.

During the 2003 Hudson campaign, former Police Commissioner Geoffrey Bagnall was moved by a Rick Scalera TV ad to write an open letter to the community. The bulk of Bagnall’s statement follows below.

HUDSON POLITICS & HUDSON POLICE:
MYTH VS. REALITY

I was amused to see Mr. Scalera’s television commercial wherein he portrays Hudson as a safer city because of all he has done for the Hudson Police Department.

In his commercial, Mr. Scalera takes credit for the introduction of the Police Department’s bicycle patrol. As a point of information, Mr. Scalera cut last year’s budget for the Department, and did not fund these bicycles or the cost of training the officers. The funds came from private donations.

It costs approximately $1,700 to buy and equip a police bike and train the officer in its use. These bicycles and training were paid for as a result of the Hudson Police Benevolent Association raising the funds on their own. [...]

In his commercial, Mr. Scalera takes credit for the Hudson K-9 units. These units came into existence during the prior administration as a direct result of funding found and provided by New York State Senator Stephen Saland. Mr. Scalera, on the other hand, has a long history of public opposition to any Hudson K-9 operation. Further, the police union, which has chosen not to endorse candidates, has filed a grievance over Mr. Scalera’s forced use of the Police Officer in the filming of the commercial.

In his commercial, Mr. Scalera points to the creation of surveillance cameras, which are wired directly into the Police Station. The point of fact is that this project was commenced by Chief Richardson and myself, before Mr. Scalera became mayor.

In his commercial, Mr. Scalera points to a sign indicating an area as a “Neighborhood Watch” community. That program was a direct outgrowth of something called “N.J.A.” or “Neighbors Joined in Action”, a private group of residents who literally took to the streets to put pressure on drug dealers. [...]

When it comes to the upcoming Hudson City election, there are only three local propositions on the upcoming ballot. One deals with the Library budget while the other two deal with the city charter. The salary increase for a “full-time” mayor is not among them.

That’s right, the increase in the Mayor of Hudson’s salary to $60,000.00 is not going before the voters for approval. In fact, it is already a done deal, and, interestingly enough, it did not require a change to the city charter or voter approval. [...]

Even more interesting is the concept that the mayor’s job was sold as a “full time” position, and that therefore this salary increase was necessary for a “full-time” mayor. However, the section of New York State law which covers elected officials has no provisions for how many hours an elected official need put in. In the case of this already approved, “full-time” mayor, the mayor can work more or fewer hours, as few as he/she wants, and there are no minimum hours. In effect, one becomes one’s own boss; accountable to no one for what hours he or she works. In effect, it is nothing more than a smokescreen for a huge pay increase for the same job. [...]

Mr. Scalera has claimed the salary increase, which is now law, was done months ago in the hope of “removing politics from the issue.” I would suggest the true way to remove politics from this issue would have been to put the proposition for his salary increase in front of the voters, in the same fashion that the Library budget is on the ballot. Had he chosen to do so, perhaps it would not have been as necessary for him to cut the Police Department’s budget.

At The Gossips of Rivertown, Carole Osterink reports some details of Rick Scalera’s private meeting last weekend at the mansion of embattled Hudson developer Eric Galloway. According to her source, Scalera attempted to make an inventory of “his accomplishments during his many years in office” for an audience largely of new residents, most of them not from Hudson.

A review of Rick’s List would appear to leave many controversial episodes unmentioned. For the next few days, this site will present a few items from past campaigns and controversies, largely from third-party sources.

TAKING A HINT

During the 2007 Hudson election, a flyer was circulated by a group calling itself the Hudson Information Network, or “HINT” for short. Though the group remained anonymous, it was widely assumed that this flyer was created by members of the Michael O’Hara mayoral campaign team.

The HINT flyer challenged Scalera’s claim that Hudson needed his “proven experience.” On page 1, HINT reviewed what it called Rick’s Greatest Hits, taking Scalera to task for one claim after another, making the following allegations pegged to various topics such as:

• Experience: HINT alleged that “Rick Scalera has never written a budget.”


• Fiscal Responsibility: HINT alleged that under Scalera, “the cost... of firehouse consolidation ballooned from $2 million to $3.8 million.”


• Integrity: HINT alleged that Scalera made a key appointment “in violation of the City Charter.”


• Conflict of Interest: HINT alleged that Scalera accepted a water filtration plant bid from the DPW Superintendent's brother’s firm.

On page 2, the HINT flyer from the O'Hara camp levelled even more explosive charges against Scalera:

• A HINT item entitled A Rotting Stinking Mess charged that the “incompetence of Rick Scalera... exposed the City to a liability of over $2 million for raw sewage dumped into the Hudson River.”


• Another HINT item, entitled Fool Me Once, stated that Scalera “brokered the Schroeder Chevy/Cadillac deal” with HUD. Schroeder was said by HINT to have “defaulted” and the City “became responsible for repayment of the $1.4 million.” The flyer also made several hard-to-document charges about a Cadillac said to be driven by Scalera at the time.

• In Can Rick keep the City Afloat, HINT stated that Scalera received a $1,000 donation from the Spirit of Hudson after the company got a sweetheart deal for “a five year lease ($150/yr) for the only municipal deep-water dock in town.” [NOTE: The riverboat at one point sank at the Hudson waterfront, then was repaired—presumably with insurance money.]

The flyer furthermore listed past issues over assessment lawsuits, police contracts, and the Waterfrnt process during Scalera’s previous terms, concluding that “voters do not need to settle for more of the same.”

[NOTE: Yours Truly was not a member of the O’Hara campaign team or HINT, and has merely transcribed the following material from the flyer received.]