people have no choice but to hate lawyers? Really? Salamone wasn't elected! He isn't an officer of the town! Does that mean since he was not elected he is prohibited from being an attorney and prohibited from earning a living? Seems like you guys are jealous!!! Salamone is working and earning money while you fools sit here on blogs all day bashing him...  If Salamone was elected I'd agree that he shouldn't do this. But he wasn't elected he is watching out for the best interest of his client, isn't that what he's supposed to do?

GL is right...Salamone is only looking out for his client while REMS has given him nothing with which to defend them.

  It has to be tough for FS.  He's representing the REMS while covering for the attorney that consulted the Tommasone Administration and who was ultimately responsible for approving the ALS deal.

It was ST's and crew's deal with rems that got rotterdamians to this point.

It 'was' a cozy relationship that FS is still trying to hang on to.

ST should change his party affiliation to dem.
First for supporting and trying to push through a taxing district on the rotteramians.
Second for supporting AS.

I don't KNOW what Steve's intentions were with REMS, but I believe 80-90% of the blame for this mess should be placed squarely on his shoulders. REMS is not totally innocent in this situation, IMHO.

Quoted from 147

I don't KNOW what Steve's intentions were with REMS, but I believe 80-90% of the blame for this mess should be placed squarely on his shoulders. REMS is not totally innocent in this situation, IMHO.

Steve's "intentions" was to secure minor Party endorsements.

And you're right about the responsibility...ST initiated this mess with what he knew to be an insolvent outfit...and he slipped
$120,000 into the budget on his way out the door knowing that scam could not continue...and REMS knew it...while REMS is
now claiming they will suddenly start forwarding ALS revenues to the Town now that they have no choice if they are to use our
paramedics...which they must, since they have no ALS of their own.

They knew what they were doing was illegal and they give us no reason to believe they will be any more responsible
with a second chance...the same REMS personnel who participated is still there running the operation and will not even
tell us EXACTLY what they did with all that money.

Quoted from gadfly

They knew what they were doing was illegal ..

If REMS knew what they were doing was illegal, you would think that the Tommasone Town attorney would have known also and advised him of his illegal actions.  Unless Tommasone approved this without first checking with the Town's highly paid legal council.  

Maybe Tomasone did it in spite of advice not to?

Frank Salamone is actually a pretty good guy.  I would hire him as an attorney anytime.  

Quoted from black spidey

Maybe Tomasone did it in spite of advice not to?

I wouldn't be surprised if he did...it wouldn't be the first time ST ignored better advice...I wouldn't be surprised if he sought no
legal advice at all...but it doesn't matter because whether he was advised against it or not the fact remains that with absolutely
no authority to do so he allowed REMS to bill for ALS service and retain the funds.

ST and REMS always knew the procedure because it was discussed in great detail back when ST was against the taxing
district...that's right...he was against it before he was for it...against it when it was convenient political opposition to the
Democrat administration during which it was first proposed...then for it when it again served his own political purposes.

So both ST and REMS knew they were not following proper procedure...otherwise they would have just continued the practice of
ALS billing and retention of all payment collected...right into the next administration...but instead ST amended the budget for
the following year to appropriate funds to REMS...REMS suddenly stopped billing for ALS upon ST's departure...then started rallying
for their tax vote...the one they never expected to have because as we all know ST originally planned to create the tax by a Board
vote...and they expected it to kick in before anyone found out what was going on. After all, the Town wouldn't miss money they
didn't know was coming in to begin with...and how could they...there was no contract in place and therefore no reason to believe
that ALS calls and corresponding bills needed to be tracked for accounting purposes...and REMS never said a word about ALS billing
until Mohawk pledged to collect those fees and turn the proceeds over to the Town...knowing they had been collecting those fees
all along and were finally caught in the budget process of estimating projected revenues based on Mohawk's estimate.

  

Quoted from black spidey

Maybe Tomasone did it in spite of advice not to?

If that's the case, then the Town Attorney that was appointed to the TB should have immediately shed light on the issue when he was seated. If he was aware that the ALS money was going to REMS illegally while attorney, he should have addressed it.  Instead he staunchly supported creating a taxing district.

Quoted from CICERO

If that's the case, then the Town Attorney that was appointed to the TB should have immediately shed light on the issue when he was seated. If he was aware that the ALS money was going to REMS illegally while attorney, he should have addressed it.  Instead he staunchly supported creating a taxing district.

The only ones we know for sure were aware of this arrangement is REMS and ST....and in the end, ST is the one responsible since
he is the one who "authorized" this rip off...in the form of a "verbal" agreement between REMS and ST, according to REMS's attorney.
Again, both ST and REMS knew the process and knew they were not following that process...so it would be no surprise if ST and REMS
kept the arrangement between them since they would expect to be advised against it.

Knowledge of this scheme on the part of the Town Attorney is mere speculation...just as his support for the tax was assumed...since
he never stated his position.

Quoted from gadfly

Knowledge of this scheme on the part of the Town Attorney is mere speculation...just as his support for the tax was assumed...since
he never stated his position.

He was the Town Republican Chair for the last election and Town Attorney for the entire Tommasone Administration.  You remember "Save the EMS" signs?  Are you telling me he had no knowledge of the save the EMS signs?  Was Steve T running the campaign and purchasing Save the EMS signs without GP knowing?

I wonder if Paolino - Signore knew of this arrangement also - if it pre-dates ST? Is that possible?

this is rotterdam anyyyyyyything is possible