SPEAK NO EVIL

On March 23, 2007, Troy resident and taxpayer Jim de Seve sent an e-mail to Mayor Tutunjian, Deputy Mayor Crawley, Spokesperson Jeff Buell and a number of neighborhood groups.

The e-mail came in the wake of the first Record story on Intimigate. The e-mail called for the resignation of Mr. Buell, Mr. Crawley and Mr. Mirch.

See for yourself:

Jeff and all -I received an anonymous email against Dunne before the election and having read the Record article, I'm shocked at your behavior. Good for Ms. Regan for standing up and telling the truth about the "TONYA SCANDAL".

Is there no integrity in City Hall? You owe the people of Troy an apology and your resignations!Harry - you aren't mentioned in the article as being complicit. You know if you were involved (regardless you SHOULD know what's going on in your administration). You should ask for the immediate resignations of Jeff Buell, Dan Crawley and Bob Mirch.

As for November - LET'S THROW THESE BUMS OUT!

Very disappointed,

Jim de Seve

Many of you may not like this e-mail. Many of you may disagree with the sentiments of Mr. de Seve. That's fine and it's also irrelevant.

What we can all agree on is that the content of the e-mail is a matter of public concern. It is political speech. We can all agree that political speech is one of the cornerstones of our democracy, which everyone - Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Liberal, other - cherish.

Three days after this e-mail was published, Mr. de Seve received a code violation. No, not for over-use of capital letters. In a 'routine' sweep, graffiti was found spray-painted on a wall of one of de Seve's buildings. Mr. de Seve was ticketed but otherwise unharmed.


Here's the ticket

The chronology of events is disturbing. More disturbing are the following facts:

1) The ticket does not list the code that was allegedly violated;

2) The City Code doesn't make graffiti on a wall a violation;

3) de Seve hasn't received any prior code violations so why is this a "Final Notice" and a "re-inspect?"

4) How did the graffiti come to the attention of Code? According to The Record, Mirch said Code was inspecting the neighborhood when they discovered the graffiti. However, de Seve was told that the alleged violation was phoned-in anonymously.

Mr. de Seve wrote Mr. Sheeran on March 29, 2007, which requested in part:

"For easier compliance, would you please send an amended violations notice stating the new timeframe and citing the section and paragraph of the code that is in violation? Also, since this is a legal matter and requires clear legal documentation, would you correct the violation notice to indicate that no previous violations had been issued against us and that your visit was an “initial inspection” not a “reinspection.” That would be greatly appreciated."

To date the City has not responded.

To bad our forefathers didn't proscribe government retribution against political speech. We would have included just such a proscription in the Bill of Rights. Hell, we would have made it the First one.*

We love the smell of a Civil Rights suit in the morning.

*Note: Our legal department points out that even if de Seve was in violation of the code, it doesn't matter. You cannot use a legitimate violation for an illegitimate purpose.