Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Kudos to the city for doing the right thing and firing Sgt. McKenna.

Arbitrator: Sgt. McKenna showed no remorse

Scorn on the city for apparently not paying attention to what other employees are doing.

Albany asks independent counsel to investigate employee

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Albany Med aiming $500,000 to help city neighborhood

Master negotiator, Jerry Jennings:

"It's an indication that they want to continue to grow here, and we should do everything we can to make sure that they do," Jennings said. "We've got a state that's taking jobs away from here. And on the local level, I have not seen many institutions making a $360 million commitment.

"They're not obligated to do that," Jennings continued. "They could just pack up and grow somewhere else."

[...] And he cautioned lawmakers against sending the wrong signals.

"They're not doing anything (to help the city) by sending a message that we're anti-development," Jennings said, "and that's what we're doing now."


Apprentice negotiator, John Rosenzweig:

"What are we going to do" asked Councilman John Rosenzweig, who represents the 8th Ward off New Scotland Avenue, "impose a residency law on a medical center?"


Fellas. It's not like you need to be antagonistic about things. But are you looking out for your own city, or are you just throwing up your hands and saying "let 'em do whatever they want!"?

Never mind. Asked and answered.

That area is going to be a suburban office park, wedged into an urban area. It won't be walkable, it's not mixed use. But Albany Med and BBL get what they want, and that's what's important here.

Update: For *%^$'s sake, Jennings was an educator, was he not? Have someone edit your letters, dude.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Public pay, special deals

Mathes, who worked for 16 years as chief of staff to former Sen. Charles Cook, R-Delhi, said criticisms by Brodsky, who is running for attorney general, are self-serving. "He should come down from his ivory tower or from his sweet area of White Plains and see what it takes to make a corn field into jobs," Mathes said.

He said county legislators should be mindful that he has been offered much higher paying jobs elsewhere and the incentive pay was a way for the IDA board to keep him.

"They provided a compensation plan that rewards performance," he said. "Quite frankly if that performance structure was not in place I would not be here for the people of Greene County. Why should public positions always have to settle for inferior talent? Why should the public sector always lose their best talent because it does not have the tools that the private sector has?"


What are we calling this sociological and psychological phenomenon? This phenomenon where a person who is caught in stunning acts of greed responds by saying just how darn important he or she is.

We've seen Wall Street defend their bonuses after they set fire to the country's economy, we've seen rich people whine about paying a few bucks more in taxes and threaten to leave the state. And now we have a "public servant" talking about just how great he is, and trying to talk past the fact that public money is going into his pocket, as opposed to going to the community he "serves."

Whatever happened to shame? Or is it now part of American life that people like this just brazen it out and their greed will be silently accepted?