NEWS DUMP

DEMOCRATS ANNOUNCE SLATE

On Thursday night the Democrats selected their slate of candidates for Troy City Council.

At-Large

Clem Campana
John Brown
Wayne Foy

District Seats

District 1 - Victor DeBonis
District 2 - Mary Sweeney
District 3 - Pete Ryan
District 4 - Bill Dunne
District 5 - Ken Zalewski
District 6 - Gary Galuski

Marge DerGurahian did not get the nod but was offered the chance to run in District 1. Marge reportedly insisted on an At-Large nomination.

This is a solid slate of candidates. Six out of the nine have run winning campaigns before. Newcomer, John Brown has proved adept at raising serious money for an At-Large race and Gary Galuski knows just about everyone on the East Side. That, and his first name isn't Alan.

According to The Record (Saturday, May 26, p. 5) the GOP is still looking for candidates in Districts 3 & 4 as well as a finalizing their At-Large ticket.

PROMOTIONS ON HOLD

We almost forgot this little gem.

TROY - A judge signed a restraining order prohibiting the city from promoting a police officer from the sergeants' Civil Service list until it is determined whether seven officers were removed from the list legally.On May 3, the three-member Civil Service Commission disqualified seven officers from the list for being in violation of the city residency requirement that says any officer hired after Dec. 22, 1995, has to live within city limits.

The interesting thing about this is that, according to our legal analyst, one of the prerequisites for obtaining a restraining order is establishing a likelihood of success on the merits. Meaning, those removed from the promotion list may very well prevail.


TOO MUCH INFO

The Republican Majority in the Rensselaer County Legislature feels that adding the voting record of each legislator to the legislature's website is too expensive.

TROY -- An open government initiative pushed by the Rensselaer County Legislature's Democratic minority is seen by the Republican majority as too expensive to undertake.

The Democrats want county legislators' voting records available on the legislature's Web site at http://www.rensselaercounty.org in an effort to provide information to county residents.

The reason for tabling Fasoldt's proposal?

"We believe the legislative Web site is already comprehensive and useful," said Legislator Martin Reid, R-West Sand Lake.

"Unfortunately, the minority's changes would result in considerable staff time and expense," Reid said. "This was just another proposal by the minority to add to the size and cost of county government."

Sorry, Flora, but Reid's argument is sound. The legislature's website is comprehensive and useful. The staffers responsible for the website are far too busy with adding Chairman Kelleher's Hudson Valley Community College Commencement speech to the site. Who has time for legislative voting records?

Perhaps Mr. Reid should heed the words of Mr. Kelleher:

I guess what I’m suggesting is that you keep your priorities straight…
Take the time to say “thank you” to those who helped get you here today…

College commencement speechifying is all well and good but perhaps legislative voting records might be a priority for residents. It would be a nice way to say thank you to those who helped get you there.

SALES TAX DELINQUENCY?

Before the Democrats announced their slate of candidates, there were rumors that Mike LoPorto wanted to run for an At-Large seat. LoPorto ran and lost in '05. Besides not living in Troy, there were also sales tax issues with Mr. LoPorto's restaurants.

According to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, a sales tax warrant was filed on June 13, 2006 against Loporto's Inc, t/a LoPorto's Restaurant. The amount in the warrant is for $3,576.32. There's no indication if that lien was satisfied or not.

One wonders if this had anything to do with LoPorto not receiving the nod to run (not withstanding the residency issue). Perhaps the lien has been satisfied. We're not sure.

We suppose the real question is whether such a tax problem should preclude LoPorto from running for office, say on the County level ? Is tax delinquency, whether it's state, federal or property, a big deal anymore? Or, do we cut those who operate businesses some slack?