Date:      11/14/2005
From:     Dan Sullivan
Subject: Election Results

Original Submittal (this from the comments field of a membership form):

 

My Dearest Robert,

Once again I have noticed inaccuracy creeping into your reporting. Paul is the Mayor of Wussville, not Upper-Wussville. That is like Saddle River and Upper Saddle River. Saddle River is where the rich are from, while Upper Saddle River is where the nouveau riche are from. Paul is a Wussy from Wussville, not a nouveau Wussey from Upper-Wussville.

I only ask that you strive for accuracy when doing political coverage. After all, this is a cycling web site not some Planning Board. - Dan Sullivan

 

Response:

Editors Note: Apologies for the American Road Cycling reporting style. It derives from the large amount of time SlingShot spent with reporters from the Times Herald Record in the aftermath of his resigning from the Town of Chester Planning Board.

Bob Fugett was begging for somebody to do some actual reporting on the incredible level of graft, corruption, and criminal enterprise that the Town of Chester had become. Of course, The Times Herald was more or less the same organization that it remains today. You will recall they recently reported Joe Matta was hit by a truck while riding a motorcycle in the local club's big bicycle ride.

In any case, SlingShot's last duty as an 8 year Member of the Planning Board was to spend 2 hours 45 minutes with the FBI handing over information he had assembled and pleading for them to do something about the situation in Chester.

But that was before 9/11, and at a time when the word hawalah had not been heard by SlingShot, nor anyone he associated with. The astounding amounts of money that were apparently changing hands with no record of the transactions, could not be accounted for. The FBI's position seemed to be, "If we could just find the smoking check..." They are still working on it, currently in Iraq or somewhere like that and with similar success, but they're not saying exactly where.

In any case, the only things that SlingShot learned beyond a reasonable doubt at the time (aside from the fact that FBI field agents are really the nicest sorts, and nothing like their movie counterparts) were: Noel Spencer (now County legislator) is certainly a lying sack of shit (and probably a racist), Cindy Smith (still Town Board Member) is a distracted clock watcher, Bill Tully (still Town Supervisor) is an imbecilic moron who has not a clue, nor nearly as much as a word of say in the events around him. He couldn't even institute the most basic of employee reviews at the Town Hall, choosing instead to say, "You don't understand. That won't work here. Everybody here knows each other."

The remaining sour souls who were Town Board members at the time (and maybe still are) were all functional illiterates who could not read simple English.

But all that is just another whole long story. It is only marginally being reported here after the recent elections due to the fact that reporting it before the elections would have had the exact same effect, which is to say none, because the true culprits identified way back when (and this surely remains true today) is the general public who allows people, whom they know absolutely nothing about, to stand in public halls and claim to be their representatives. Of course, that's not everybody in Chester, because significantly less than a quarter of the residents found it even worth their time to bother to vote. SlingShot was in the forefront of those NOT voting, having decided without question that the concept of governing bodies having any relevance whatsoever is as quaint as the Geneva Conventions.

Under these circumstances, it is odd that Noel Spencer may be heard to call himself a "winner," having bested his opponent by only 30 votes.

Otherwise, only two people exhibited any competence at all way back at the time of SlingShot's resignation.

The first was the Town Engineer, Phil Salerno, who was removed from office the very week after SlingShot had his face to face with the FBI. He was removed not by the FBI but by the DEC for his fudging of sewer district numbers. Ironically, he was removed from his position as Town Engineer but was allowed to keep his job as head of the Moodna Sewer District where he was fudging the numbers. Probably the DEC gave him a break, because they were mortified at having taken so long to realize what everyone else had known for some time. The guy is an accomplished crook.

Soon after, when SlingShot was told, "things have changed at the Town Hall," he reminded the person telling him that the Engineer's actions had never been based on his authority, so it was doubtful that taking away his authority was going have any affect on his actions.

The only other competence shown was by Ben Ostrer, Town Attorney, who had fully mastered the art of making absolutely certain no competition in the least existed for his development business, which was partnered with the Town Engineer and some of the Town Board Members. He did it by assuring that a draconian conformance to the most stringent interpretation of building codes was applied to all outsiders (read: made it expensive), while not even a letter of the law was applied to his own projects—which, by the way, were pretty clearly subsidized by citizen tax dollars in addition to Benny and Phil's hawalah earnings.

SlingShot has been told by a reliable source that a document exists in the NYS Attorney General's Office in which Benny states, "I am not now, nor ever have been Town Attorney for the Town of Chester." Last heard, he has also become Attorney for the Town of Warwick, which explains a lot of the stuff one sees going on over there.

SlingShot would have more information about all this, but Elizabeth Reilly the Town Clerk (who remains in office today, having run as unopposed), made sure SlingShot never received a single shred of paperwork (Freedom of Information Act be damned) after his resignation...despite his asking her three (3) times, the moment before submitting his letter of resignation, whether regular citizens were allowed the same access to the documents as he was currently enjoying. She said, "Yes, absolutely," but after his resignation SlingShot was of course denied access to public documents just like all the other schmuks in Town.

Actually, SlingShot made his final decision to resign the moment the Town Clerk pulled him aside and whispered, "You should be careful. Really, if your position on the Planning Board is important to you, you should be careful about what you are saying and what you are doing."

Of course, any sane individual would have had to resign on the spot, just as SlingShot did, in order to better continue doing what needed to be done. Especially considering the number of people who had told SlingShot they were scared for their physical well being, and they had previously considered him one of those to be afraid of, since his name was found on Town documents.

Turns out SlingShot is scared too, but he is suicidal, so it evens out.

For perspective, SlingShot still has 41 e-mails saved from discussions between himself and Chester Pete about the events occurring round and about SlingShot's resignation at the time it took place, and SlingShot remembers fondly his involvement with Chester Pete as the high point of that period.

Scares you don't it? It should.

The political process does not ask for excellence from its participants and gets exactly what it asks for. -Bob Fugett

Editor's Second Note: SlingShot only chose Upper-Wussville instead of Wussville in the other article mentioning Paul, because if repeated many times over, and real slow, it begins to read: Up Her Wuss ville. Sorry for reporting like the Times Herald Record.