The Ghost of City Hall Exposed

CBS 6's Greg Floyd blew the lid off City Hall Tuesday night with his report on Bobby Martiniano, the Ghost of City Hall, as part of the station's "You Paid for It" series.

Floyd's report could be a local classic, for the comments it prompted and the reactions from Martiniano's supporters. Floyd was seen poking into a very dark office marked "City Council" seeking Bobby, who was nowhere to be found despite making $10,000 for what is apparently a very part-time job. A very-part time job in addition to his other taxpayer-funded position with the state.

Floyd was interrupted by a voice off-camera, and is told "lotsa luck" when he says he is looking for Bobby Martiniano. "He's never here" a woman tells Floyd. Floyd asks the woman what she thinks of the situation. "It's pretty bizarre," she says.

Pretty hilarious stuff and just another in a long string of embarrassments for the trouble-plagued Council Democrats. It gets funnier, when Bobby himself explains his job. Which based on his explanation sounds like some kind of deep undercover Council post that requires him to be far away from the office doing very, very top secret stuff, including maybe searching for other defenders of his sweetheart arrangement. We say searching because only Council President Clem Campana could be bothered to try to explain the Bobby Martiniano position, and frankly, didn't do a very good job of it.

What Troy taxpayers should know is that Bobby Martiniano's predecessor, Vito Ciccarelli, worked hard in the part-time council job and earned a reputation for being accessible and responsive. During Floyd's report, he explained the work he put into the job, which involved considerably more hours than Bobby.

We'll post the video for the Martiniano expose when CBS 6 posts it.