Should I be upset that George doesn't have enough political clout and failed at getting Angelo fired? Or am I supposed to be angry that he allegedly threatened Angelo's job?
Did Angelo get fired? I know Angelo's boss got some nice Rotterdam contracts while he was on the IDA. That should score some brownie points for Ang.
OMG And what about Angelo's and Gerard's true colors. Lying, thieving bastards. Sons of Anarchy if you ask me. IMHO
Really Rasputn?? angelo is one of the most hard working, family oriented man I know... He has NEVER done anything like King George has done to him.. Get real!!!
It was in the Spotlight-WOW! Real credible news source. Why doesn't ANG release the tape? Because it doesn't exist. This is too hilarious. Maybe ANG should order some more signs from Penn.
Channel 10 News at 11 Benny!! Thats pretty credible if I say so myself!! Tapes do exist, listen to the audio on Spotlight!!
Fair Campaign Practices for the Capital Region, Inc. found George Amedore, Jr, candidate for the 105th NYS Assembly District, to have committed an unfair campaign practice by issuing a press release with allegations he brought unsuccessfully, in a court case against the nominating petitions filed by Angelo Santabarbara for the Change Albany Now line.
Mr. Amedore charged that many of the signatures on Mr. Santabarbara’s nominating petitions were fraudulently obtained. NYS Supreme Court Judge Roger D. McDonough, issued a ruling in the case September 21, dismissing it and stating: “The court finds that there has been no showing here that either Santabarbara or his agents participated in any fraud in the collection or submission of the relevant signatures” A press release issued by Friends of Amedore on September 23 included the following quotation, clearly referring to Mr. Santabarbara and the petitions he had submitted: “There are enough dishonest politicians in Albany and the taxpayers do not need another who is willing to bend the rules to further their careers.”
Fair Campaign Practices for the Capital Region, Inc. found this to be a violation of its Principle 2, “The candidate will not engage in, permit or condone unfair or misleading attacks on the character of an opponent.”
Mr. Santabarbara had also complained that the same press release quoted a dissenting opinion of an earlier court case as a “decision of the court” in violation of Principle 4: “The candidate will not use…any campaign material that misrepresents, distorts, or otherwise falsifies a fact… regarding either the candidate or an opponent.” The press release does not misrepresent Mr. Santabarbara and so there is no violation of Principle # 4. The panel noted that the press release is misleading, since it uses a wrong standard of law by citing a dissenting opinion as a “decision of the court”.
The hearing panel, meeting October 19, consisted of Michael Foster, Beverly LaBarge, Stephen Muller, Faith Weldon, panel Chair Katherine Henrikson and Coordinator Barbara Thomas.
Fair Campaign Practices for the Capital Region, Inc. was established to promote a climate of fair, open, and honest campaigns; encourage candidates to discuss the issues; encourage candidates to refrain from defamatory attacks on opponents; discourage use of campaign materials that distort facts; and expand the political debate by more fully informing the electorate about the use of unfair campaign practices. Information on FCP can be obtained at http://faircampaignpractices.wordpress.com/. Reverend Mick Drown, President can be contacted at 424-8787.
Assembly candidate Angelo Santabarbara ,D-Rotterdam, has provided The Spotlight with audio recordings he says proves incumbent 105th District Assemblyman George Amedore, R-Rotterdam, threatened Santabarbara’s job by telling his employer a political challenge would be bad for business.
Santabarbara said the audio recording is of parts of a conversation between him and Amedore on or around April 29 at Aperitivo Bistro in downtown Schenectady. Amedore was not aware of the recording, said Santabarbara, which he says occurred a full month before Santabarbara officially announced his candidacy.
He is planning on turning this information, which includes the audio recordings, over to the Attorney General’s office, so they can conduct a full investigation and get any other evidence Santabarbara doesn’t have in his possession.
In the tapes provided by Santabarbara, he discusses with Amedore what was said to Santabarbara’s boss, Joe Lanaro, vice president of engineering services for The Chazen Companies.
In the first recording, Santabarbara said to Amedore, “[Lanaro] said if I ran for office, after he talked to you, uh, that you discussed that, uh, if I ran for office, it would be bad for Chazen, really bad for Chazen because of stuff going on in Saratoga, stuff about Jasper Nolan”
Nolan is the chairman of the Saratoga County Republican Committee.
Amedore responded to Santabarbara in the recorded conversation and said, “I had the conversation with him about what I was telling you. You know, I said, ‘Joe, what’s going on here? Angelo’s going around telling, telling everybody he’s running against me.’ And he looked a little surprised.”
Santabarbara provided two audio recordings — one totaling 2 minutes and 29 seconds, and the second one with a shorter length at 14 seconds. Background music and ambient noise can be heard on the audio. Santabarbara said the conversation was recorded using his mobile phone and conversation between the clips lasted for maybe a few minutes. Also, he said there was no particular reason he stopped the original recording.
Santabarbara continued to say in the recording he hadn’t told anyone he was running for office yet and he would’ve told Lanaro, because he would want him to know before anyone else did. Santabarbara continued to say he didn’t want him running in the race to affect his work.
Amedore replied and said “Right and you shouldn’t.” He then said, “But, again, one of those things that I cannot and have nothing to do with or can’t control what others are going to do.”
Santabarbara said he released the audio recording because Amedore had previously denied talking to Lanaro that Santabarbara entering the race would affect the business negatively. Santabarbara said he recorded the conversation because he wanted to protect himself if he did get fired from his job.
“It is shameful that Angelo Santabarbara would confront me while secretly recording an audio tape that he then doctors and submits to the press,” said Amedore in prepared statement, released after The Spotlight contacted him regarding the recording. “I have never, in any way, attempted to have him fired from his job and this is clearly a last ditch effort by a desperate politician.”
Thomas Buchanan, chair of the Schenectady County Republican Committee, echoed Amedore’s statement and said it is just a “Hail Mary pass” two weeks before Election Day.
Buchanan characterized Amedore’s statement to Santabarbara as a matter of fact: “Obviously, Amedore Homes isn’t going to do business with Chazen, so yeah, that is true,” he told The Spotlight Tuesday night, Oct. 19.
The second audio file supplied by Santabarbara only has a brief statement from Amedore.
Amedore says in this recording: “I did say, ‘Hey Joe, uh, if you want me to hire you again, meanwhile you got one of your top guys trying to take me out, that’s not going to look too good, especially to my father and my brothers.’”
Santabarbara said he feared for his job, even with the recordings, but he now feels comfortable releasing them and doesn’t fear for his job anymore.
“He denied it in the paper and I feel that the public needs to know what type of tactics are being used,” said Santabarbara. “These are the things that go on in Albany that nobody knows about and I am going to shed some light on it.”
When Lanaro was previously asked about the alleged incident he said he couldn’t comment on employee matters because it goes against company policy.
Santabarbara also filed a fair campaign complaint against Amedore on Oct 8., because he said Amedore violated fair campaign principles “2” and “4” of the Fair Campaign Practices for the Capital Region. On the night of Tuesday, Oct. 19, at the Calvary United Methodist Church, in Latham, the hearing occurred for the complaint. Santabarbara said a decision should be made in the near future.
The complaint dealt with statements made by Amedore surrounding with the lawsuit he filed against Santabarbara, which alleged he committed fraud with his filed petition for the Change Albany Now party line. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Santabarbara and said Santabarbara. committed no fraud.
This is only a small handful having to do with downtown. This is information taken from the county records. I would have used links, but the link I tested just brought me to the main page regardless that I copied and pasted.
Parker Building 434 State St Assessed for almost $2 million, looks like it has a 35% tax exemption because of historic. Gee, what residential owners get exemptions because their houses are old? Ends 2012. Predated Savage
P T Development LLC 432 State St If you look up Proctors---on their website, in the yellow pages, etc, the address is 432 State St. To look at the records, it seems it is recorded incorrectly. The description is “detached row building” and it has indicated that the full market value is, get this, just $100! Of course, it is wholly exempt, exemption started in 2008 with no end date. What puzzles me is that there is no way in hell that this building has a full market value of just $100. ALL property always has a real full value and then the assessment which is a portion (or more) of the full value based on the equalization rate. Then exemptions are take from the assessment value. Like a church might be assessed for $500,000 and have an exemption for $500,000. That is, the assessment on a non-profit would never be $0 or something. This 432 State St is listed as full market value AND assessed value at $100.
P T Development (without the LLC) 430 State St. Looking at the tax map, this property very clearly is the former Carl Co. The property description is “attached row bldg.” This huge property also is indicated to have a full market value and assessment value of $100, again, wholly exempt, starting in 2008 with no end date.
Hampton Inn – 450 State St. It is assessed for $8,763,500. Yes, that is almost $9 million, nine million dollars. The place gets an exemption in the amount of $6,134,450 which is roughly a 70% exemption. Why???? A for profit business, a business that is worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars; Hampton and Hilton are basically one company, a worldwide company. But we pay most of their property taxes. A very very generous gift from Savage to a super rich business while Savage causes our taxes to go up to cover the cost of the tax exemption
Bombers, 447 State St. A for profit business. Now how do they do this one? It’s assessed at 100%, the assessed value is $531,000 but it gets an exemption of $774,000? So, I guess the taxpayers are giving Bombers a check on the date we pay our taxes? The roughly 150% property tax exemption has a start date of 2010 and no end date. A very generous gift from Savage which causes the taxes of the residential homeowners, struggling financially, to cover the cost of the taxes.
Center City – 433 State St. assessed for $6.3 million and WHOLLY exempt – a Savage gift we have had our taxes increased for.
DOT Building. 328 State St. It’s assessed for just over $10 million, has an exemption of about $1.4 which ends in 2012 – predated Savage’s big free wheel spending
Bow Tie theater. 400 State St. Assessed for $7.5 million, it’s a for profit-business, and it pays taxes on only $525,000, meaning it has a 93% tax exemption started in 2007 - there is no end date. Another generous gift from Savage to a for-profit business---causing the struggling seniors on fixed incomes to pay the taxes
that Paul Mitchell cosmetology school, a for profit business. 411 State St Assessed for $2,207,500 Wholly exempt, exemption ends in 2025 (after all the taxpayers have left the city) – a Savage gift to a for profit by causing our taxes to increase to cover the cost of the well-heeled.
R & S Restaurant Holdings 411 State St. This is Nico’s Pizza – long time business downtown, assessed for $430,700 predating Savage, no tax exemption
Arts Center and Theater 436 State St. Property class is “bank”, so we all know. Assessed for $538,900, wholly exempt, a Savage tax increase on the struggling overtaxed residents of the city, started in 2010 and no end date
OTB – 325 State St. Assessed for just under $1.4 million, and wholly exempt!??!?!
Rudnicks. 308 State St. Assessed for $334,200. Very very long time downtown business. No exemption, not that I would expect them to have one, but here’s a business that stayed through the worst, and they foot their whole bill, and surely their profit and income is only a teeny fraction of these well heeled political cronies buddies of Savage, so their reward for hanging in there is to keep paying the taxes and subsidize the Savage’s buddies
Villa Italia. 226 Broadway. Very very very wealthy family and business. Assessment $815,500. Wholly exempt from property taxes – no end date to exemption. A Savage gift to a rich political crony, resulting in a HUGE tax increase to the struggling homeowners in the city.
Marcella’s Appliances. 560 Broadway For profit business, in business in the city for a long time. Brand spankin new building. Assessment $2,275,300 Wholly exempt from taxes – a Savage project
38 Broadway - I think this is Pinhead Susan’s – Assessment $385,615 A small exemption of just under $14,000 and that ends in two years – project predated Savage (who gives out 100% exemptions)
And just think folks.........santabarbara is part of the same political party that screwed the taxpayers!!! Like I'd vote for him....NOT!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
105TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT Candidate alleges that job threatened BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.
Angelo Santabarbara claims Republican state Assemblyman George Amedore Jr. approached his boss at Chazen Companies last spring and threatened business repercussions if the Democrat challenged his seat in the 105th District. The Schenectady County legislator said Amedore approached Joe Lanaro, Chazen’s vice president of engineering services, during a business mixer in April and informed him that Santabarbara’s rumored candidacy for the state Assembly would have a negative effect on the company’s relationship with Amedore Homes, one of the region’s premiere builders. Lanaro relayed the conversation to Santabarbara a short time later, though he didn’t indicate whether Amedore’s statements would have any impact on his job as an engineer with the company. “My employer was told, among other things, that if they wanted to be hired for work, it wouldn’t look good if I was in the race,” he said during a news conference at his campaign headquarters Wednesday. Santabarbara confronted Amedore about the accusation during a meeting at Aperitivo Bistro in late April — about a month before he announced his candidacy for the 105th — and the assemblyman allegedly acknowledged the statements. Part of the nearly hour-long conversation between the men was recorded on Santabarbara’s cell phone and offered as proof of Amedore’s comments. A pair of audio clips provided by Santabarbara demonstrates a dialogue between the two men., yet the conversation is garbled and difficult to understand amid the noise inside the restaurant. .......................>>>>.......................>>>>........................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01201&AppName=1
Honest hardwoking men don't flip flop, hold the bible for Gerard Parisi and procreate with Gerard Parisi. You get real you ostrich.
there are alot of voters out there that have switched parties, through out the years, so because they changes parties, that classifies them as NOT HARD WORKERS?? REally?? Get a grip, who cares if he changed parties... You guys are upset because GEorge got caught lying and doing unfair campaining you guys are grasping for straws!!!
If you owned a business and did business with another company that your opponent (who was once a friend and ally) worked for then turned on you, would you hire their company? I wouldn't!
What kind of man secretly records another man at a cocktail lounge - especially a friend? What a coward?
If this was illegal, why didn't Ang file this with the proper authorities IMMEDIATELY after the fact? It’s just a little too convenient.
Ang is just a grimy politician. George and Angelo were once friends and George supported Ang, helping him get elected for County Legislator. If Angelo is willing to destroy a friendship and secretly tape his friend all for political gain, and change his political stripe in the middle of his term, after his constituents elected him as a Republican County Legislator - why would anybody trust a man with that type of character for State Assembly?
The point here is that, and as the gazette reports, the conversation wasn't factually audible! Santabarbara had to 'translate' it in 'his' own words. I mean come on here folks. Like I said....who would even trust Santabarbara ever again? Santabarbara was actually trying to set up a FRIEND!!! OMG!!
Who is his campaign manager....GP? When GP was rotterdam's chair, he tried the same negative campaigning with FDG. How did that turn out??
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
there are alot of voters out there that have switched parties, through out the years, so because they changes parties, that classifies them as NOT HARD WORKERS??
No, he's definitely a hard worker. He works hard at getting elected all cost. He has no guiding principles as far as I can see. He has already shown he's willing to switch parties and political philosophy in the middle of his term so he can run for a state office. Angelo is an opportunist.
Logged
It was in the Spotlight-WOW! Real credible news source. Why doesn't ANG release the tape? Because it doesn't exist. This is too hilarious. Maybe ANG should order some more signs from Penn.
