THIS IS REALLY HOT!

This seems to be the topic of late: according to The Record...

City officials met Monday night in executive session to discuss allegations that an employee hired by the City Council was misusing a work computer. Sources close to City Hall said the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the status of City Auditor Charles Drozd, who has been accused of having pornography on his work computer. Police recently went through the employee's work computer, the sources said, but they have not recommended any criminal charges at this point.

There's some interesting things here. Lets discuss.

First, some of our readers, those that consider 7th Grade post-graduate work, will deliberately misconstrue what we are saying. So listen carefully: we are not pro-pornography (unless it's really good pornography). We do not advocate viewing pornography at work (unless it's really, really, really good pornography or unless you work in the porn business and you have to view porn for work purposes).

Also, we do not know if the allegations are true. Lets get that out of the way. These are allegations only.

If an employee is viewing pornography at work (the above examples excepted) then they should be disciplined. The real issue is, what kind of porn? Is it that badly lit stuff, or higher grade porn?

1. Note, Drozd is hired by the City Council. The City Council went into Executive Session because this was a personnel matter. Council President Bauer had 'no comment' for WTEN. How did WTEN find out about the meeting? We guarantee it wasn't from a Council member. It was from someone in the administration. Take a guess.

2. If reviews were done on other computers, lets see what other people were looking at on City time. Is this about porn or about using city property for things unrelated to work? Lets see who's logging into sports sites, gambling sites or .... political blogs.

3. As everyone knows, Drozd is Marjorie DerGurahian's brother-in-law. As everyone knows, the administration had Marge bullet-voted out of the Council Presidency because, in part, she refused to be their puppet on every issue. Is this more about Marge than Drozd? Is this payback? It's low, dirty and despicable, which is certainly their style.*

4. Should Marge recuse herself from any Council action taken on this issue? An intriguing question. In today's climate, we say no. In a world were Justice Scalia goes on hunting trips with Dick Cheney while cases involving Cheney are pending before the Supreme Court, we hardly think Marge needs to recuse herself from any action. Remember also, that recently, a then North Greenbush council member voted a pay raise for his boss's wife. Judge Hummel said there was no conflict. Recusing yourself for ethical conflicts is just so last week.

5. Is this a big deal? Nope. Not when Harry rewards guys like Tom Spargo. Not when they lie about how money was saved. That's obscene.

6. The Council needs to assert it's independence and tell the administration "thanks, we'll take it from here." Or maybe they should buy Drozd a gift. As far as we know, if Drozd did do anything, he didn't break the law. Now, Mirch broke the law. Mirch verbally abused a city employee. Is a traffic ticket a big deal? Of course not. But, Mirch tried to worm his way out of it by using his public position. What did Mirch get for embarrassing the city? A gift from the City Council.



* Caution. We will delete and ban anyone that insults or somehow associates DerGurahian with these allegations. People are not responsible for what their relatives do or do not do. If that were the case, Harry should start explaining LoPorto's tax issues. In short, don't be dicks. It's embarrassing enough for all involved.