Robert Gregor has stepped down as the Chairman of the Troy Democrats. The Troy Polloi learned of this breaking news directly from Mr. Gregor. That is all the information we have at this time.
Gregor inherited a party in chaos, as did his predecessor, Lynn Mahoney. The blame for the current state of the Democrats cannot be placed wholly on their shoulders. Success breeds organization and the Democrats have had little success in the past few years.
However, when a political party ( state, national or local) is weak and its organization all but in shambles, opportunity does exist. A strong, creative leader can rebuild the party from the ground up. There will be little or no factional clashes, those family feuds that are sometimes fatal in the political world.
The Democrats do not have to worry about factional clashes as they rebuild. Unless of course, they waste valuable energy worrying about the "Dworsky Faction" (5 middle-age men).
There's an opportunity here to build from the ground up. Someone should seize that chance and it should be someone who will listen to the old guard but not blindly follow their advice.
MONUMENT NEWS
A quick update on the Uncle Sam Monument. According to The Record, the Uncle Sam Monument will incorporate the already existing Uncle Sam Statue that now graces Riverfront Park. The question is, where will the new monument be located (thus necessitating that poor Uncle be uprooted from his current roost and moved). Maybe the Rensselaer County Jail could be moved to Riverfront Park and Uncle Sam could be moved to the jail site.
One Councilman explained that he does not like the fact that the current statue is near a bus stop. Of course, the bus stop could always be moved.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
A bill recently passed by both the Assembly and Senate must strike fear in the heart of local governments throughout the state. The bill would require that government agencies and departments respond to FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) requests within 20 days. If signed by the governor, someone at City Hall will need to do some work. Word has it that most requests go unanswered by this administration.
Case in point, the Carignan matter. The president of Carignan requested documents involving the looming insurance scandal months ago. There has been no response. Come on guys! At least respond and let him know that no documents exist. It doesn't take months to destroy all those records.
Remember people, 99% of documents created by government, local and state, are our property, not the property of any administration.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF WHAT?
Jeff Buell, Tutunjian's Minister of Propoganda gets paid $39,140 a year. We just can't figure out why.
Image-making won't develop all by itself
By Tim O'Brien, Staff writer First published: Thursday, April 28, 2005
Perhaps the most often heard comment at public meetings is that the city needs to do something to improve its image.
It happens at City Council sessions. It happens at Board of Education meetings. It happens whenever Troy residents gather.
At a meeting in February to talk about the type of new superintendent of schools the district needs, residents were adamant the district needed someone to promote a positive image of the city.
What's interesting is how often people talk about the need for more public positivity, how seldom they act on it.
Mayor Harry Tutunjian, for example, is a positive, upbeat guy. His spokesman, Jeff Buell, is a former reporter for The Record. And yet, when regularly asked what is happening in the city, Buell comes up empty. Told recently he was being pitched a softball, he replied it was true and admitted "I don't even have a bat in my hands."
He's holding something in his hand. It's just not a bat.
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