Government For The People By The People?

Once again, the legislative body of the County of Albany has proven itself to be a total embarassment to the citizen’s which it represents. The longtime counsel to the Majority Caucus of the Democratic Party has been asked to clean out his desk. After two plus decades as the lawyer to the majority, he is being let go for reasons unknown to anyone but the majority leader Frank Commisso. He wasn’t fired by the body of the prevailing Democrat’s, who he worked for, and there was no vote. As always, it was a behind closed doors agreement worked out by Mr. Commisso and the lawyer for the departing counsel. As you might expect, there was a sweet parting deal, which of course included a confidentiality clause. So readers, the taxpayers who the majority leader works at the pleasure of, will never know the why all this took place. Just to rub salt into the wound, a new counsel was hired — who used to work for the legislature, but quit to work for the County Executive McCoy, now quits that job to go back to the legislature — and this lawyer conveniently works only for Commisso. So Frank, when you want, or have to make some shady deal, and show everyone who’s the boss, you guys can go out to dinner somewhere (and expense the taxpayers) and we’ll know about it when it blows up in your face. Speaking of deals gone bad. The county is now on the hook for over one and a half million dollars to settle the redistricting lawsuit, that could have been settled for a third of that. We won’t even go into the farce that was the Family Court building. That’s what happens when the fate of the county is forced upon it’s people by one man.……….Speaking of one sided deals. It appears that the SUNY Poly campus is getting some new dormitories. Of course, they will be built by BBL, they being the construction side of Columbia Development. A year or so, Columbia began buying all the homes along a sleepy street next door to the campus for way over market value. At the time, like all secret deals that go on in Albany, no reason was given for these purchases. Now, they go public with the dorm plan like it was a normal sequence of events for the ever expanding college. Supposedly, Columbia was the only developer to bid on the project. It was noted that they were the only qualified developer. I guess it makes it pretty easy to win contracts if you own the property (just like the Convention Center project).……….I am amazed at the ineptitude of the local television newscasts. Last Saturday night, I watched the late night news on Newschannel 13 to catch the score of the Yankee game. The sportscaster — who probably wrote the copy for the sportscast — gave his spiel on several events that happened that day. The next morning, on their never ending two hour Sunday news, a different sportscaster, in her robotic fashion, reported the same stories, in the same order, word for word. Even though there were probably some late night games that couldn’t be reported on the late night news, nothing was mentioned. You would think that, as a professional Journalist, you might want to write your own copy, with your journalistic flair to make the sportscast somewhat original. You might just as well have one of your unpaid interns read the sports, and save the station a few bucks by paying this sportsreader the big bucks.……….Is everyone else getting tired of the Republican fiasco, that being the run for the White House. We have fourteen months before the election, and there is not a viable candidate to choose from. While it might be the most interesting presidency in the history of our country, for reasons of space, we will not talk about Donald Trump. On the Democratic side, the once infallible Hillary, now appears to run into one wall after another. I once thought she might be a good president, but now I’m not so sure. Maybe it’s an inherent defect in the makings of a politician, but why is it that they just cannot tell the truth. They promise you this, and then do that. If something goes wrong, why not just get in front of it. Nobody’s perfect. American’s want someone they can trust, and so far, there hasn’t been any candidate, on either side who has stepped up to the plate. ……….Follow me on Twitter @jonmazur.