Oh, For the Good Old Days

The fall of 2005. Leaves were turning and the air was growing crisper. And Democrats in North Greenbush were promising to unite the town by chasing the bad old Republicans out of town government.

Fast forward to the present. The North Greenbush Town Offices are anything but a sleepy place. Loony lightning rod CB Smith has been installed to run town government, despite the fact he has never been elected to anything. Troy financial wizard Steve Dworsky has a gig with the town, as well.

And the Democratic coalition has fallen apart, as seen in an article in The Record March 30. The article Supervisor Mark Evers is bypassed or ignored by CB and Town Attorney Josh Sabo on important issues. Important issues like Evers deciding not to pay CB because of a lack of work product. No problem, says Town Attorney Sabo – like CB, never elected to anything and last seen in 2005 shilling for the Defreestville Area Neighborhood Association – we’ll pay CB anyways.

Now when was the last time that there was a controversy over time sheets in Rensselaer County? Oh, yeah, the Dirk Van Ort deal. And who did most of the complaining? You guessed it, CB Smith.

The chaos in North Greenbush is only getting worse. More than a dozen employees were improperly fired just after the New Year by the Democratic Town Board. Not only did that disrupt services, it stands to cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, costs of re-hiring employees and additions to the town workforce to make the rehirings possible. More lawsuits are expected. Now, you have two appointed employees essentially ignoring orders by the town’s top elected official.

Democrats are so worried they have begun holding meetings to try and figure out how to get CB and his gang out of town government. But CB – unfortunately – doesn’t look like he is going anywhere without a fight.

It might be hard to believe, but some North Greenbush residents are probably looking back on 2005 as the good old days.