SamPratt.com: 2 posts from July 14, 2013

July 18, 2013

Amid heat wave, Hudson Dems experience total meltdown

Aaron Enfield

There appears to be a whole lot more to the story (reported by The Gossips of Rivertown and The Register-Star) of former Mayor Rick Scalera spurning the nomination of the the Hudson Democratic Committee, which he once chaired. Two well-informed Democratic sources offer and confirm the following nuggets, though at this point readers may want to view the following as credible rumor:

(1) Faced with criticism from several aldermen for continuing to support Scalera for 5th Ward
Supervisor, even as he embarrassed the Democrats, newly-minted Hudson City Democratic Committee (HCDC) chair Aaron Enfield reportedly resigned yesterday morning.

(2) Enfield’s name was on the Committee to Fill Vacancies for the now-emptied Democratic petitions for 5th Ward Supervisor. But if he refuses to help choose a replacement candidate, that would mean the other two members—said to be Sarah Sterling and Debby Mayer—would have to agree on a substitute, otherwise the Dems will have no 5th Ward Supervisor candidate. NOTE: The Register article claims that the three have already “decided against nominating anyone,” despite Scalera’s repudiation of his party.

(3) Sterling reportedly sent an irate message to several fellow Democrats, denouncing any notion of finding another Democrat to run against Scalera. The 1st Ward Supervisor also is said to have threatened to file some sort of “ethics complaint” against certain aldermen for attempting to “intimidate” the Democratic Committee. (If true, Sterling may want to consider the maxim that politics ain’t beanbag—and that trying to criminalize political speech is not only difficult, but a perilously slippery slope.)

(4) While spurning his own party’s nomination, Scalera may not get the Republican line that he now intends to run on, due to a reported petitioning error. This could leave no candidates on either of the two major party lines for 5th Ward Super, unless someone files Opportunity to Ballot (OTB) petitions in the next few days. OTB petitions would create a write-in primary in either party (or both) in September. Scalera does, however, appear to have the Conservative and Independence party lines sewn up, so he would be on the ballot—just not as a Democrat or Republican.

(5) Democratic Alderman Nick Haddad has been trying to locate former Hudson police chief Ellis Richardson to encourage him to have his name written in for 5th Ward Supervisor. Note that when OTBs are filed, anyone could then have their name volunteered by voters.

(6) On the Mayoral front, Democratic candidate Victor Mendolia reportedly would not have secured the HCDC nomination if even one Committee member had changed his or her vote. Had Enfield stepped off the committee before that vote, the Dems might not have nominated anyone for Mayor.

(7) Several prominent local Democrats have reached out to 1st Ward resident Robert (Bob) Mechling to serve as acting HCDC chair, but he has declined the role, at least for the present... Getting someone to fill the role now may prove difficult, since even before this latest mess, any new chair is going to need a high tolerance for mopping up other people’s puddles.

Indeed, there is still time for anyone to file paperwork to force a write-in primary for any office in the City.

If anyone has further information to add, or disputes the source’s reports, feel free to email this site at [email protected] ...

in Cities | Hudson, Elections & Voting Rights, Politics | Columbia County | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 15, 2013

Indifferent editorial confuses good and bad

The Columbia Paper editorialized last week that TCI of NY has “a good environmental track record.” Was the writer actually referring to the same company whose plant burned to the ground last summer?

Over the past 30 years, all three of TCI’s PCB-handling facilities in the region have suffered fires, explosions or both:

TCI left Newburgh in 1985 after a major blaze caused the local fire chief to condemn the building and cite the company for code violations. That shut-down was preceded by many written complaints from neighbors about smoke and emissions.
Moving briefly to the Industrial Tract in Greenport, TCI’s 1987 transformer explosion “rocked an area within a half-mile.”
And as everyone knows, TCI had not one but two major fires in Ghent last year—the second of them truly disastrous. The building’s contents were incinerated in a colossal, uncontrolled, two-day burn.

Try that in your backyard, and see if you’re still considered a good neighbor.

Multiple explosions endangered the lives of firefighters, generated a massive plume, showered neighbors’ properties with oily pellets, and led to most Columbia County residents being told to spend the next day indoors.

And while the editorial calls TCI a “loyal employer,” the above series of calamities and dubious management have put company workers at risk:

According to Newburgh news reports, the Attorney General found the company “violated the toxic substances law by not training the employees to handle [PCBs].”
The aforementioned blast in Greenport tossed a worker 20 feet, sending him to the hospital with injuries.
Most tragically, a young man needlessly asphyxiated to death while cleaning a tank with freon at TCI in Ghent.

Compounding such problems is TCI’s apparent habit of keeping host communities in the dark about its intentions and operations:

In Newburgh, DEC “charged the firm with transporting regulated wastes without a permit.”
TCI’s failed 1988 plan to add an incinerator initially bypassed Ghent officials, leading to a costly legal wrangle with the Town of Ghent and neighbors, which dragged on for years.
TCI quietly filed another expansion plan with DEC and EPA last year, without notifying the Town of its intent to expand operations.
TCI likewise did not notify the Town that it had invited in a second company, PSS, to treat PCBs in a manner not covered by its Ghent permits, leading to the 2012 inferno.
TCI sued the Town to prevent it from exercising ordinary zoning and planning review. (A homeowner putting in a pool could expect more enforcement than TCI seems to tolerate.)

Meanwhile, though the Columbia Paper writes of “lost tax revenue” from TCI’s possible departure, the editorialist may not realize that this multimillion-dollar company paid less than $5,000 in Town, County and fire taxes in 2012.

A local fire company had to request a $10,000 budgetary increase to help cover expenses from responding to the TCI fire, making their presence a net loss for Ghent.

One gets the sense that the editorialist was striving so hard to appear balanced, that common sense fell off the beam. If TCI’s corporate history constituted a “good” track record, what would be a bad one?

NOTE: The above was submitted as a letter-to-the-editor this past weekend... Let’s see if The Columbia Paper prints it.

in Media & Publishing, Towns | Ghent | Permalink | Comments (1)

SamPratt.com

2 posts from July 14, 2013 - July 20, 2013

July 18, 2013

Amid heat wave, Hudson Dems experience total meltdown

July 15, 2013

Indifferent editorial confuses good and bad

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