Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Public Embarrassment

Leave it to the Troy City Council Democrats to make the simple act of scheduling of a public hearing a suspense-filled drama pitting council members and Council office employees against each other.

The issue centers around the scheduling of a public hearing on the proposed downtown Business Improvement District and the emerging feud between Council Prez Clem Campana and would-be Council Prez John Brown and his top advisor, Bully Bill Dunne.

The story goes that Campana wanted a scheduled public hearing on the BID cancelled. Brown and Dunne disagreed and may have ordered city clerk's employees not to send out the cancellation notice. Which led to Campana himself coming down to the Council offices to send out the cancellation, possibly over the continued objections of Brown and Dunne.

The cancellation may have resulted from yet another screw-up by the Council office, which on a seemingly weekly basis makes bone-headed mistake after mistake. The Council office has set a record for incompetence, with meetings regularly cancelled because of procedural mistakes, ignorance of the City Charter and infighting among Democrats.

The battle is reminiscent of the fight between County Dem Boss Tom Wade and City Dem Chair Frank LaPosta. Wade tried to take over selection of candidates, only to see LaPosta muster enough support to thwart the move. With four candidates already announced for three Democrat nominations for City Council, you can see

Hey, Town Boards and City Councils schedule public hearings all the time. Just about every day, so it's not like it's too tough a task, but Council Democrats make the simple seem supremely difficult, turning daily duties into disasters.