After 7 months of this so called 'open & shut' case....it still lingers on. It's been 7 months!!!! This only leads people to believe that Raucci has plenty to sing about. Plenty of people to believe that raucci could incriminate MANY! If raucci is smart, than I would get this info out SOMEHOW, SOMEWAY! (where's the gazette's investigative reporting?) Is raucci guilty...perhaps. But it is obvious that Raucci did not act in a vacuum.
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
Right. Instead of prosecuting the case the DA has to fight endless bail hearings and appeals because he fails to prosecute the case. Endless circle to nowhere.
The excuse that he is in the midst of a re-election campaign is hilarious. With all the REP attornies in town no one can run against Carney? The REPS are too busy committing suicide and wasting time on a stunad Town Clerk race.
Believe The Mad Bomber should be sent to Cuba after conviction but the endless delays are not looking good for justice in these parts. Of course everyone in the horrible City school administration knew-but who else?
SCHENECTADY DA: Energy work motive for crimes School board praised Raucci for cost-cutting effort BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
The informal titles came quickly for Steve Raucci on this night. He was “Captain Kilowatt.” Raucci was “Energy Czar.” It was the Jan. 3, 2007, Schenectady Board of Education meeting and praise was being heaped on an energy consulting firm and upon Raucci, the man charged with tracking energy use in the district. Raucci took all the praise in stride, according to a Daily Gazette account at the time, jokingly assuring the audience that he got no kickbacks or commissions on the savings. Raucci, now 61, is no longer in charge of tracking energy use. He’s in a Schenectady County Jail cell charged with terrorism and 25 other counts, accused of using explosives against those who crossed him. He is charged with placing incendiary devices at four homes in the Capital Region. Two of the devices exploded. No one was injured. He is also accused of damaging the cars and homes of people who disagreed with him, slashing tires, damaging paint or damaging windshields. One couple reported their car being vandalized five times. Raucci, who is in jail without bail, is not expected to stand trial until at least after the first of the year. He retired from his job as the school district’s facilities chief after his arrest. New filings in the criminal case last week have placed that 2007 board meeting in a new context, including what one official present at the meeting, Superintendent of Schools Eric Ely, had been told of Raucci’s alleged methods just weeks before. In the filings, Schenectady County District At-..........................>>>>..........................>>>>..........................................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....1&Continuation=1
Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com. Raucci had close ties with school chiefs Browsing through the latest court filing in the matter of Steve Raucci, former Schenectady school employee alleged to be an arsonist and a terrorist, I am pleased to see my view confirmed that Raucci “owed his power and compensation to maintenance of a favorable relationship with key school district administrators and board members.” Also that he “continued to nurture relationships with administrators and board members by, among other things, being a source of information to them and by ordering his workers to help board members win re-election and school budgets to pass.” So states Schenectady County District Attorney Bob Carney in a pre-trial motion, and so I have been saying right along: Steve Raucci did not act in a vacuum. He was a member of a team, and that team included school administrators and members of the school board, who benefited from his bullying regime and protected it. How did they protect it? By bestowing on Raucci the responsibilities and power of the supervisor of buildings and grounds, a management position, while naming him only “head utility worker,” a lowerranking position that allowed him to remain in the maintenance workers’ union, which he ruled, and not incidentally earn overtime pay. How do we know the arrangement was phony? Because while he was supposedly a worker, his assistant was officially part of management, a member of the management bargaining unit, not eligible for overtime. So I learn from Carney’s court filing. Thus was Raucci able to triple his pay, up to $120,000 a year, rule tyrannically as supervisor of the 120 maintenance workers, and at the same time suppress labor grievances in his capacity as their union leader. His usefulness came not only in keeping labor peace but in delivering janitors to do campaign work at election time, working the CSEA phone bank and stuffing envelopes at the direction of school board members. Who were the administrators that Raucci had cozy relationships with? According to Carney, they were “both Superintendents John Falco and his successor Eric Ely, Assistant Superintendent Michael San Angelo and Human Resources Director Michael Stricos, all of whom continued to support Raucci’s authority.” Carney did not name Jeff Janiszewski, president of the school board from 2004 until this year, but Janiszewski has acknowledged using Raucci’s services to get candidates elected to the board and to pass budgets. So the Schenectady school saga continues to unfold, and now I await the release of the school board’s investigative report into Raucci’s behavior, a release that it twice refused and now will make under legal pressure. What I want to see is how much they black out. .................>>>>..............>>>>...............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00900&AppName=1
Carl Strock was on WGY, Don Weeks this morning. He said that there is going to be a school board meeting tonight. He is expecting them to release the information that they have been reluctant to do in the past. He said that he doesn't expect 'all' of the information to be available, but is hoping.
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
Raucci report a no show Heavily redacted report thin on details, yields nothing new
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer
First published in print: Friday, October 9, 2009 SCHENECTADY – Dozens of pages are entirely blacked out in the school district report on an investigation into possible workplace misconduct by retired facilities director Steven Raucci. The 192-page document, dated June 15 and released Thursday, dashes hopes of those who anticipated learning new information about Raucci's interaction with senior administrators and staffers he supervised. In several instances, all but one word -- "employee" -- is blacked out on a page, with no context to give it meaning. And though the document says 18 current or former employees from the Operations and Maintenance Department who worked under Raucci's supervision were interviewed for between 15 minutes and two hours, there is nothing about what they may have revealed in that process to the consultant, Rachel M. Rissetto, . ..................>>>>.....................>>>>................http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=850982
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
Anybody heard anything yet about this fiasco? Or do we just chalk it up to another cover up in the great city of schenectady?
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
Unsuccessful bomber Raucci still a terrorist and an arsonist
Reading letters from those in support of Steve Raucci, I have noted three similarities: They are childhood friends of Raucci’s, retired fi refighters who apparently see nothing wrong or criminal about arson — which is disturbing in and of itself — and they all speak with a logic that makes the kind of sense that doesn’t. For a stellar example, let’s look at David Castricone’s Oct. 4 Viewpoint, “Half-true articles are an effort to smear, demonize Raucci”. His key point seems to be that Mr. Raucci is not, in fact, a terrorist, because no one died or was physically harmed. I don’t know what Cracker Jack box Mr. Castricone obtained a law degree from, so let’s look at fact instead. Merriam Webster defines terrorism as “the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion.” I’d say planting bombs in vehicles, homes and a school would clearly be defined as terror. Note the definition mentions nothing about physical harm or death. Note Mr. Castricone’s complaint of the witness: “an informant can sometimes be a person who is trying to save his own skin.” It seems to me Mr. Castricone is trying to claim someone else has a criminal record without benefit of a trial — precisely what he claims has been done to Raucci. Mr. Castricone complains about the weapons found, which he states he has the right to because he has permits. Guess what, David? He also hasn’t been charged with weapons violations. Again, Mr. Castricone states that no one was injured. So I guess we should simply forget about all the property damage done. We should forget about the death threats. We should forget about the arson. We should forget the fact that the “valorous brothers and sisters” Mr. Castricone was so proud to be a part of had to risk life and limb fighting these fires because, by some fluke of incompetence on Raucci’s part, no one was harmed. Make no mistake — this was not by design, it was sheer luck. Mr. Raucci’s acts were the same as [Unabomber] Ted Kaczynski, the only difference being that Mr. Raucci was not quite as skilled.
With all that has transpired over the past several months involving the Schenectady City School District, its superintendent, its school board and the Raucci cover-up, it would seem to me that if the candidates running for school board election next year had, as one of their planks, the immediate removal of the current superintendent, they would win a seat. Our children, and their parents, deserve much more from the district's administration than they are now receiving. Demonstrated incompetence, arrogance and total disregard for the very people who pay his outrageous salary should be enough reason to terminate the current superintendent. I, for one, would vote for a candidate who is courageous enough to run on this platform.
Guilty or not, $79G a year for Raucci Former Schenectady schools facilities chief will get that much in pension
By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer First published in print: Thursday, October 15, 2009
SCHENECTADY -- Former city schools facilities director Steven Raucci will receive a state pension of $79,067 every year for the rest of his life for his work with the school district.
Logged
Right. Instead of prosecuting the case the DA has to fight endless bail hearings and appeals because he fails to prosecute the case. Endless circle to nowhere.
