Council Dems Lose Again

Déjà vu all over again – Council Democrats pick a needless fight that hurts Troy, get challenged by Mayor Harry Tutunjian and then throw up the white flag, running for the hills. 

The latest lump on the collective noggin of the Senseless Six Council Democrats came yesterday. Little Boss John Brown had engineering the grab of $500,000 from the approved city budget, with no advance notice to the public or20the mayor and no real reason for the move. Maybe Democrats wanted to buy a Senate seat in Illinois.

Mayor Tutunjian vetoed the Brown Budget Blow-up, and Council Democrats said they would be overriding the veto on December 11. And then Council Dems did what they usually do…they caved in, canceling the special meeting and left to wonder if anyone in Troy still takes them seriously.

The Budget Blowup is the latest Brown Boondoggle. He tried to pull a similar trick when he secretly engineering the give-away of debt owed by Rensselaer to Troy. That ruse got exposed by Tutunjian and Dems folded on that deal. We are starting to lose count of the times Council Democrats have started a fight, only to surrender when their questionable actions are exposed.

The last Council to have so many self-inflicted injuries was the 1993-1995 bunch who were aligned with the GOP and scrapped at nearly every turn. But some of the scrapping was due to the city teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. The difference is that Tutunjian has got the city in great financial shape, yet is subjected to bizarre attacks by Democrats on everything from water debt to the sale of City Hall to a budget that does not raise taxes.

Council Democrats won the Council in 2007 throwing around words like "open" and "accountable". The words Democrats will be hearing in 2009 will be "controversial" and "embarrassing". And they have got themselves to blame.