Monday, February 02, 2009

Just One More Question . . .

Every culture has its distinctive and normal system of government. Yours is democracy, moderated by corruption. Ours is totalitarianism, moderated by assassination.
-- Unknown Russian


Now that we have learned that $19 Million dollars is missing from the Town of Southampton, the question becomes – where is it? And when was it missing?
For those of you who have not been following the handwringing, remember that real estate taxes -- the money that pays for this government -- is severely reduced and likely to partially evaporate. California can't pay its bills, New York City is about to follow suit and the Town of Southampton may be an economic disaster area before the end of this summer. It should not be lost on anyone that Wall Street drove the economy and paid for the Hamptons government. It should also not be lost on anyone that Investment banks drove the Wall Street machine -- and that they no longer exist.

Of course, if you read between the lines, it’s not so much a question of where that missing Southampton money is now. It is question of how long it has been missing and whether the money was being massaged over the last several years compliments of nearly a decade of Republican “management." Can we be surprised by a group of buddies fed by Masterson’s highway department and his contracts for Town highway contracts and a Planning Board run by a developer named Zizzi? Now that Heaney is carefully ensconced in one of Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy’s mindless jobs to save his lifestyle, will the cover come off the can of worms?

Richard Blowes resigned (was fired?) today from his job and a few other heads may roll. According to Kabot he will focus on finding the $19 Mil.

Instead of asking Blowes, perhaps Heaney and the Republicans can help them find the money. The cell tower and cash on the front seat comes to mind in the last Federal investigation.

According to sources in the Blowes matter, Charlene Kagen who is mentioned in the news reports and who was the former comptroller maintained that Blowes was incapable of reading a spreadsheet. His salary was $118, 000 and he had refused to allow her to train her successor (the Town will now probably hire her back as a consultant to plow through the mess). She is currently Comptroller, Town of Brookhaven but was not able to be reached for comment.

Cheryl Kraft, head of Code Enforcement was also demoted and there may be some changes coming from that direction as well. Her salary was reduced to “only” $114,000. Perhaps, if the Town needs to do a Ch. 11 filing at some point – considering all of the off-budget legal fees defending against unconstitutional behavior – she may be asked to get lost.

Or, perhaps, Obama’s Justice Department will find the racist evictions signed off on by the Justice Court in tandem with the Town Attorney’s office -- might become interested in the unconstitutional behavior there as well.
Just to keep it interesting, George Guldi, former Suffolk County Legislator has thrown his hat into the ring. There are quite a few happy voters and, surprisingly, a few sour faces in the Suffolk County Democratic Party hierarchy. We’ll keep you posted.

Southampton Village Police Chief Wilson apparently has been spotted looking for a job in Las Vegas. That could be interesting. The motivation for that has not yet been established. It might be hotter here than there.

Seems that the Appeals court has found that D.A. Spota’s hounding of nurses who quit their jobs because of abuse -- by threatening criminal action against them and their attorney is a little too much like Stalin’s moves in the Great Terror during the 1930’s. As the appellate court ruled, a synopsis by Mitchell Rubinstein wrote:

“Both the lawyer and his clients [were] criminally charged with endangering the welfare of critically ill pediatric patients and related crimes because the nurses resigned en masse without notice. You might think that such a case could not arise in Twenty-First Century America, but in 2007 that is exactly what occurred in Suffolk County New York and resulted in a New York appellate court having to prohibit the criminal prosecution of both the nurses and their attorney. Matter of Vinluan v. Doyle, ___A.D.3d___, 2009 WL 93065 (2d. Dep't. Jan. 13, 2009).”


They don’t call Suffolk County a Police State for nothing.

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