Here's the outrage....

Edward Spychalski was hired in 2006 as Executive Director of the Saratoga Springs Housing Authority (SSHA) at a salary of $74,977. In the last four years his salary has doubled to over $152,000 plus benefits, including an authority car and jobs for two family members. Spychalski is the man who ignored bed bugs in the authority housing for seven months!

Who is responsible for this outrage? Certainly, the Authority Board is culpable. But the SSHA is under the office of Mayor Johnson who appoints these Board members.

While it gets HUD money, the SSHA was created at the request of the then City Council as a "municipal" authority under the NYS Public Housing Law. In addition to appointment power, the Mayor is responsible for ensuring that any salary increase comes to the City Council for approval. No vote on Mr. Spychalski’s increased compensation has been before the City Council since the Mayor Johnson took office.

Fire Spychalski sounds like an easy answer. Not so simple. Mr. Spychalski was given a contract that rolls over every year. Contract termination could prohibit the automatic roll over. But, if removed, the Authority must pay Spychalski $600,000 compensation!!! That is how the Mayor interprets the contract.

Since the State law requires that SSHA Director’s salary be approved by the City Council and this was not done, it is possible that the contract is invalid. But the Mayor, who sues citizens and the civil service so easily, is letting this one slide. Johnson’s inaction is part of the outrage.  What or who is he protecting and why?

Mayor Johnson... ask for the resignation of the SSHA Board members who permitted this contract. They didn’t exercise due diligence. If you cannot terminate Mr. Spychalski’s outrageous contract, perhaps you, the deputy Mayor and the City Attorney should reimburse the citizens of Saratoga Springs for all of the money your office cost us. You all failed in your due diligence.

Now acccording to the Times Union, the Mayor has asked Attorney Izzo to research the jurisdiction of the SSHA.  Apparently the Mayor's legal skills don't extend to such a task or  he is too busy to do this work for the City.  And why do we pay  City Attorney Scala?  He is absent when there is need to adhere to legal process. he is absent when contracts have to be negotiated or signed; he is absent when research has to be done. 

But the real question is why Mayor Johnson is obfuscating.  This is a Mayor who hires outside attorneys and sues everything that isn't to his liking.  From rec center to civil service and citizens, he has sought legal remedies at great cost to the taxpayers of this City.  Why has he held back from action in the SSHA?   All of his soft words about "trying to resolve the issue" sound hollow to anyone who has followed his career of City litigation.

Here's the hypocracy....

How many times have we heard Republicans expound on the benefits of free market economics?  Every year American tax payers give oil companies "entitlements" in the form of subsidies.  This is not free market economics although every Republican legislator goes to the mat protecting these company entitlements. 

But aside from that, the gas and oil market is one of the truly free markets.  The countries that produce oil release more or less of it to keep prices up, at the same time considering the competition from other producer nations.  The refiners control production in line with their profit needs; the distributors control gasoline on the basis of their bottom line and even the local gas station has a say in the price of gas in competition with other local stations. Then the speculators play their part in the mix.  Free market economics on every level.  Only the government tax is a stable figure in the mix.  It doesn't fluctuate.

AND YET, every Repbulican candidate for office is screaming that President Obama is responsible for and must do something about the price of gasoline.  What kind of duplicity is that?  If these Republicans really support free market economics why would they want the government to interfere?  Why would they wish to have government manipulate oil and gas prices?  Is attacking the President whom they hate more important than their principles?  

And why do Republicans insist on supporting subsides for oil companies if they really believe in the free market economy?  Isn't taking both sides of an issue the definition of hypocrisy?

Santorum the Sanctimonious....and some other comments....

Mr. Santorum said President Kennedy makes him want to throw up.  What an elegant turn of phrase for a presidential candidate!!!  His point of view is as astounding as his ignorance.  He says our founding fathers were “Christians”.  Rather they were Deists.  Our Founding Fathers believed in God but they made it perfectly clear that no religion would be imposed on the country by government.  Mr. Santorum seems to want to negate our Constitution and impose his religiously crafted social values on the rest of us. 

President Kennedy told us that his faith was personal to him; he would never let it rule America.  True to his word, he kept his personal faith at home but he never let it govern his actions as President of Americans of all faiths.  Neither did President Regan.  Mr. Santorum on the other hand wants all of us to live his faith.  He says religion should never be kept out of government.  He waives the Constitution whenever he speaks. But has he read it?

Let’s talk about his faith.  People in Judeo/Christian based religions all preach certain verities:

Ø      Care for the sick and infirm

Ø      Care for the poor and the hungry

Ø      Treat the stranger within your gates with respect

Ø      Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

What does the current crop of Republican candidates for President as well as Mr. Santorum want to do?  They want to repeal health care.  So much for taking care of the sick and infirm.  They want to cancel unemployment insurance.  So much for caring for the poor and hungry. They want to get rid of illegal immigrants by checking every person of a different nationality even if they are legal green card residents.  So much for the stranger within our gates.

Neo-Republicans speak of smaller, less intrusive government. But they want to impose their prayers in our public schools and our public life.  You become a captive audience to some one else’s faith.  So much for freedom of religion.   They want laws that go into female wombs with vaginal probes if that woman wants something other than what they deem is good for her.  Mr. Santorum says women should have children even if they have been raped or are pregnant by incest. He questions contraception even if it is for health, not reproductive reasons.  He wants to go into our bedrooms; to know with whom we sleep.  If it is with the “wrong” sex, he wants to deny the equal rights the rest of us enjoy including serving in the Military. So much for smaller, less intrusive government.

Mr. Santorum says he wants to do away with our public school system.  He home schools his children because “our public schools are bad for children of faith.” Now, he says our President is a snob because he wants all children to be able to go to college or technical college or some form of higher education.  Mr. Santorum is the elitist.  He who has a college degree and a law degree warns others about the evils of higher education.  Is the American Dream only for him?  Worse then his denigrating education, are the people who cheer him for saying it.  He rallies those who revere ignorance.   Mr. Sanatorium would lock our intellects, our imaginations and our powers of thought up in a narrow, religiously based world.  Does book burning come next?

But perhaps Mr. Santorum’s most egregious sin is that he purveys fear.  He and his fellow candidates spout gloom and doom while hard working Americans are trying their best to work our way out of an economic recession.  Every speech is about getting rid of President Obama.  Surely America deserves Republican candidates who have a more constructive platform than hate of our highly competent black President. 

Religious tolerance started in Pennsylvania where the Quakers found freedom.  Thomas Jefferson wrote the separation of Church and State in that same place.  Pennsylvania kicked Santorum out.  The rest of us should also.

President Kennedy was a war hero.  He broke segregated schools and colleges so that people of all colors as well as backgrounds and religions could get an equal education.  President Kennedy harnessed what makes America great and took us to the moon. He preached hope and inclusiveness and tolerance for all.  Mr. Santorum isn’t fit to walk in President Kennedy’s shadow.

A few comments….

When I went through menopause (that would be past the child bearing age) the doctor proscribed birth controls pills for my health.  I was on them for years.  Does that make me a slut?  I’m a technodolt.  Were I not, I would start an on-line petition saying, “I’m a slut too”.  Come on men, you sign it too.  One wonders what would happen if legislatures outlawed Viagra for unmarried men!!!

Any judge who makes a joke about minorities, no less puts it on the internet, should be impeached.  He no longer has any judgment.  He is no longer able to judge!!!

You want to talk about voter suppression.  Did you know that in the Republican primary, the State of Virginia does not allow write in votes?  One has to vote for choices narrowed by law.

There is a massacre going on in Syria.  Where is the Arab League?  Due to religious differences the West cannot intervene.  It would be mis-labeled.  But the Arab League has no such restrictions.  Why in the 21^st century is anyone who has the ability to stop it, sitting by and watching human slaughter?  We are indeed being dragged back to the dark ages.