Update

Here's an update on how much OCEAN has received.

Some slight movement is detected.

What OCEAN is worth to Woodbury

So, I asked the Pieman for an update on the fund-raising.

Seventy bucks.

That's what OCEAN is worth to Woodbury.

What I didn't say to the Pieman (why hurt his feelings) is that that's pretty damned pathetic.

SO, I made a chart (well, one of the nephews made a chart). I'll update it if it ever changes.

The $1,000 is my number. I asked the Pieman what he was shooting for and he said "whatever the people will give us."

As I said, pathetic.

Begging and Whining

The Uncle has received an unhappy e-mail from the Pieman.

It seems that OCEAN is currently running on empty.

Fund-raising is not one of their strong points.

Things are generally fine during a crisis. That's when donors are paying attention.

But during the quieter times, things are, well, quieter.

Obviously, bills are smaller then also.

No huge printing costs (which is apparently their biggie).

But even in quiet times they have some on going expenses.

There is their web-site (which they have now let go of).

And there is the phone bill.

That may seem minor, but it still matters to Verizon.

And up 'til now, three members of the board have basically been underwriting everything.

But they really do need help.

And when the crap hits the fan - as it will - we're going to need their help.

SO, in our own self-interest, send something-

$25 would be nice, $50 would be better still, and even $10 helps.

The bank is happiest with checks made out to "The SOCA Group"

and the address is OCEAN/ 320 County Route 105 / Highland Mills, NY 10930

On Consistency

As we mentioned, John Burke seems to have altered his view of the appropriateness of questioning the Town Supervisor.

Back when Sheila held that job, John would get up week after week and harangue her endlessly.

He would demand explanations for any given board action and, in response, Sheila, would explain in detail (and you know how deeply into the details Sheila can travel).

Then, at the very next session , Burke would pop back up and repeat the same question as if it had never been answered.

It was one of the things that made the televised Town Board Meetings a superb cure for insomnia.

But, now that the Supervisor is Burke, he doesn’t seem to take kindly to questioning.

As we mentioned, Swiller asked him to explain why he would vote against the extension of the Highland Lakes Estates sewer district.

A yes vote means that Brodsky will build a new sewage treatment plant for HLE (and Country Crossing) that will also handle Brodsky’s new development. Brodsky pays for it all, HLE and Country Crossing get a better plant than the one they keep paying to fix and the folks that live in HLE and CC have slightly lower sewer bills.

So, where’s the downside? That’s what Swiller asked Burke. Burke didn’t know - or rather - he seemed to think that he was voting against Brodsky’s WP3 project. Burke talked about the schools being crowded and the roads being clogged - important subjects, but THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SEWER DISTRICT.

When Swiller tried to explain that to Burke, the Supervisor shut him down.

So, is Burke’s motto "I don’t know what I’m doing and don’t you dare try to change that!"

But getting back to consistency.

Newt Gingrich just admitted what was widely known anyway - that throughout the Clinton Impeachment he, Gingrich, was carrying on an affair with an aide.

Gingrich explains why this isn’t hypocrisy - it wasn’t Clinton’s affair that mattered, it was the fact that he lied about it under oath.

O.K., point taken, lying under oath, even about your personal matters, is a bad enough thing that we should bring the entire U.S. Government to a halt for an impeachment. The Uncle doesn’t buy it, but it’s a defensible position.

So, Riddle me this Batman - if it wasn’t the sex, but the lie - why are all these "We Gotta Impeach Clinton" folk - Lindsey Graham, Bill Kristol, the National Review, Kate O’Beirne, Laura Ingram, etc. - all telling us that when Scooter Libby lied under oath, it didn’t really matter all that much and Bush should pardon him?

Maybe Swiller should ask Burke to explain that one next week.

Throwing Out the Baby and Keeping the Bath Water

It seems that the Pieman managed to piss off the Supervisor at the last Town Board meeting - Heaven Forfend!

The Board voted on three pieces of legislation: extension of the Water District, Extension of Highland Lakes Estates Sewage District and creation of a Storm Water District. The four council members voted in favor of each of these, and John Burke voted no.

Some background here - let's take the Sewage District because that's the clearest example - as part of the negotiations between Brodsky and the town on the WP3 project, Brodsky agreed to entirely rebuild the problematic High Lakes Estate sewer plant. He will also pay the back taxes on th old plant that the folks in HLE were paying off. This gives the people in HLE (and in Country Crossing) a lovely new state-of-the-art plant that actually works and, at the same time it, lowers their sewer bills. Nice work if you can get it.

If the town had voted no on the extension of the district, Brodsky would have built his own, smaller plant, just for the WP3 development, a major loss for the folks in HLE and Country Crossing.

But, at the previous Town Board Meeting, a few weeks back, John Burke made clear that he was going to vote against this. Swiller got up and said that when the vote did come he would appreciate it if the various board members would explain their votes. In other words, he gave Burke advance notice that he would be asking Burke to explain himself.

Now, let's make this clear - Swiller gave Burke two weeks notice that he was going to ask this question - if it were up to me, I would have blindsided the guy, but Swiller gave Burke two weeks to prepare a response.

So then comes the next board meeting, and sure enough Burke votes no. And sure enough, Swiller gets up and asks why.

And the amazing thing is, that despite advance notice of the question, Burke didn't have the foggiest idea what the vote was about or why a no vote made any sense.

Burke said that "we've been discussing this for over a year" and that there would be impact on "traffic and the schools."

HUH?

Did Burke think that voting "No" on the sewer district would stop the WP3 project?

WP3 is a done deal. This vote was to accept the givebacks that the town demanded from Brodsky.

Burke was throwing out the baby and keeping the bathwater (a lovely phrase the Uncle has borrowed from the Pieman - credit where credit is due).

But Burke absolutely refused to get it - "It has something to do with WP3 so I'm against it, no matter what and don't confuse me with the facts!"

Shades of the vote on Senior Housing last year. That bill gave the same incentives for selling homes to seniors at a discount as already existed for renting homes to seniors. All that bill did was help seniors buy affordable housing.

And Burke voted no on that one too.

And when he was asked why, he said he was against WP3.

And when every member of the town board loudly explained that the bill had nothing to do with WP3, Burke did what he did this time. He absolutely refused to acknowledge reality.

And the kicker? Supervisor Burke was very displeased with the Pieman. Burke doesn't seem to feel that a supervisor should be questioned about his decisions.

This is a new position for Mr. Burke who, before taking office, acted as if Supervisor Sheila Conroy was the town's designated punching bag.

Then again, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds..."

The Uncle Learns His Place

It becomes more and more apparent that the Uncle is like an air raid shelter. It's the place to head when crisis approaches.

The rest of the time it's just a dusty room in a basement, visited occasionally for a game of ping pong.

So be. When disaster looms, the Uncle will be here.

Meanwhile, feel free to drop by from time to time for a quick volley.

I'll be here ...talking to myself.

(mumble mumble)

The Uncle Asks For Trouble

I don't like the Red Cross.

I don't like the American Red Cross and I don't like the International Red Cross.

I think that they are bad institutions with great P.R.

They could be great institutions, but they're not.

That said -

I love local blood banks!

Local blood banks are wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

Here's the main reason for this post:

Winter Storm Cripples Fragile Blood Supply Blood

Drive cancellations and poor donor turnout after Wednesday's storm puts blood supply at a new critical low.

Please help by donating a pint of blood as soon as possible.

Here's a list of upcoming blood drives in your area.

Saturday, 02/17/2007 9:00AM-2:30PM, Blooming Grove Independent Fire Co., 819 Route 208

Friday, 02/23/2007 7:00AM-3:30PM, Goshen High School, Scotchtown Ave

Or call 1-800-933-2566 for more information.

Your local blood banks keep you and your family alive.

HELP THEM!

The Village Square

Goshen has a downtown, Chester has a downtown, Washingtonville, Cornwall and Monroe all have places where you leave your car and walk from restaurant to store to cafe.

What about Woodbury (and no, I don't count Woodbury Common)?

Can Woodbury have a downtown, a shopping district, a place to stroll with maybe even (dare I say it) a gallery or a bookstore?

Is the area around Smith Clove a likely target?

Do we want one? Do we care?

Pieman Probes Parks; Pork or Prudence?

The Uncle was asked to look into the 150% Park Pass fee increase. I turned the job over to the Pieman and this is what he sent so far:

Dear Uncle,

As far as I can tell. the Parks Commission says that they need the increased fee to pay the costs of creating and keeping track of the actual park passes themselves. They are installing a new (and expensive) system.

It seems like a huge jump and their apparent decision to void all existing passes is disturbing. I'm trying to double check this last point. If someone paid for a four year pass in 2006, are they just out of luck?

I'll let you know what else I find out.

Jonathan

Your State Government At Work

ALBANY, Feb. 7 — State lawmakers rebuffed Gov. Spitzer on Wednesday by choosing one of their own as the next state comptroller, reneging on a deal they made with the governor to choose from candidates deemed qualified by an outside panel.

Their selection of Assemblyman Thomas P. DiNapoli of Nassau County to a post that monitors the state’s finances and oversees its $145.7 billion pension fund was a stinging rebuke to the new governor, who portrayed the vote as a crucial test of his efforts to reform Albany. Mr. Spitzer had wanted a candidate from outside the Legislature who had financial expertise to replace Alan G. Hevesi, who resigned in a scandal.

But the Legislature, which grew used to bucking the governor during the Pataki administration, showed it was more than willing to do so again despite Mr. Spitzer’s landslide victory in November.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat like the governor, decided to ignore the agreed-upon selection process after the screening panel failed to recommend any lawmakers for the post. He and Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican majority leader of the State Senate, threw their support behind Mr. DiNapoli, a Democrat.

Governor Spitzer, facing his first serious political defeat as governor, bristled at what he called the “stunning lack of integrity” of the legislative leaders and charged that they had let “politics and cronyism” triumph over sound judgment.

“We have just witnessed an insider’s game of self-dealing that unfortunately confirms every New Yorker’s worst fears and image of all that goes on in the Legislature of this state,” Mr. Spitzer said at a news conference shortly after the full Legislature voted following a private meeting among Assembly Democrats that selected Mr. DiNapoli.

“When all was said and done, the question legislators asked was not who was best qualified among the 19 million New Yorkers for this job, but rather, who among us will receive as a virtual gift this job that we control,” Mr. Spitzer said. “Nothing could be more fundamentally wrong, especially when dealing with the question of who will make, as sole trustee, the investment decisions relating to the $145 billion pension fund of the State of New York, the retirement money of millions of New Yorkers.”

Mr. DiNapoli, 52, seemed somewhat taken aback by the controversy. “I’m humbled, obviously,” he said in an interview.

“To have this level of confidence expressed gives me a real sense of the great responsibility that I’m undertaking and my obligation not to let my colleagues and the people of this state down,” he said.

It fell to lawmakers to choose a new comptroller after Mr. Hevesi, the elected comptroller, agreed late last year to resign after pleading guilty to a felony for using a state worker as a personal assistant for his wife. He had just been re-elected to a four-year term. There is no provision in New York for a special election to replace a comptroller who resigns; state law calls for a replacement to be chosen by a joint session of the Legislature. That gave Assembly Democrats, with by far the largest bloc of votes in the Legislature, control over the choice.

Still, last month the legislative leaders held a news conference with Mr. Spitzer to announce that they had agreed on a public selection process: a trio of former comptrollers would screen applicants, determine who was qualified and forward to lawmakers a list of the top candidates from whom to choose. But when the panel forwarded only three names — and none were those of the five lawmakers, including Mr. DiNapoli, who had sought the post — the Assembly was infuriated.

Assembly Democrats then decided to go back on the deal with Mr. Spitzer and the party’s bosses got involved, prompting the private decision by party members to select Mr. DiNapoli. “I think the members thought he was the most qualified member, and the most qualified candidate, and they chose to nominate him,” Mr. Silver said after the vote.

Mr. Bruno proclaimed his support of Mr. DiNapoli, who won the respect of many Republican senators by working with them several years ago on a legislative package to bail Nassau County out of its fiscal straits.

But some lawmakers were troubled by the process. The Senate Democrats decided to nominate Martha E. Stark, New York City’s finance commissioner, who was one of the three candidates deemed most qualified by the outside screening panel. At a vote of the whole Legislature that lasted for more than two hours, Ms. Stark picked up support from Senate Democrats and Assembly Republicans, the two largely powerless legislative minorities.

Mr. DiNapoli won the final tally, 150 to 56; 107 votes were needed to win.

Both sides spoke passionately as they took the vote. Greg Ball, a rookie Republican assemblyman representing parts of Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties, called it a “sad day for New York State.”

“The process has been broken, the public trust has been violated,” he said before voting for Ms. Stark. When he declared that “this is the most dysfunctional legislature in the United States of America,” he was drowned out by boos.

“Mr. Speaker, will you please take control?” he asked Mr. Silver.

Mr. Silver replied frostily, “So, Mr. Ball, how do you vote?”

He voted for Ms. Stark.

Other Assembly members said that they were merely exercising their right to pick whom they wanted. John J. McEneny, an Albany Democrat, said there was a reason that the Legislature was given the right to select a replacement for comptrollers who resign. “One of the main functions that Tom DiNapoli will take over will be the governor’s auditor,” he said, explaining the need for independence.

When it was over, Mr. Spitzer let it be known that he was willing to campaign against incumbents of both parties in the future if he felt that more reform-minded candidates were available. And he said that while he hoped Mr. DiNapoli would prove to be a good comptroller, he expressed doubts that he was the best qualified for the post.

Mr. Spitzer said that in recent days he had been asking lawmakers this question: “If Candidate X — take Tom — were approaching you and saying, ‘You know what? I’ve never done this before. Never invested a penny. Never made an asset allocation decision. Don’t know a swap from a derivative. But I’m setting up a money management firm tomorrow. I want your pension money to be my first investment. Will you give me your pension to start with?’

“Nobody said they would,” he said. “Nobody. That, to me, is dispositive. They wouldn’t do it with their money. But they’ll do it with the public’s money.”

Mr. DiNapoli, who was sworn in after the vote, said he had had a cordial conversation with Mr. Spitzer. “In terms of this issue of what the process was and what was good or bad about it, that’s going to be something for the historians to write about,” he said. “The process is now concluded, and we need to move forward. And there’s an awful lot of work to do.”