VIEWPOINT New Alliance Party seeks to address Schenectady’s problems BY ROGER HULL For The Sunday Gazette
In elections across the country, we just saw hotly contested races, with the electorate angry and upset at our politicians and their handling of jobs (or, more accurately, the lack of jobs), defi cits, and taxes. Not in Schenectady. Here in the city, we had only a few, lightly fought races. In the 2011 Schenectady elections for mayor and city council, we expect the races to be more hotly contested. We have decided to do our part to ensure Schenectadians have a choice between welldefined alternatives. After all, if contested elections can be held in war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq, they certainly should be held in the heart of New York state. Who are we? Michael Brockbank, Andy Chestnut, Betsy Henry, Vickie Hurewitz, Brad Lewis, Cathy Lewis, Brian Merriam, and Byron Nichols (all of whom contributed to this piece) — Democrats, Republicans and Independents; conservatives and liberals; community activists and previously uninvolved citizens; businessmen and women, educators, and lawyers; and representatives of for-profit and not-forprofi t organizations. We have come together because national issues have little bearing on matters that need to be addressed locally and because we think an alliance of people working collaboratively for the city’s benefit is our best chance to solve our problems. GET BETTER GOVERNMENT One-party rule, especially unchallenged one-party rule, is undemocratic and harmful to the interests of everyone living in our community. Why should we, aside from a belief in democracy, be for choice in Schenectady? Because we would get better government. With effective competition, elected officials are challenged to deal with issues, rather than put them off. With competition, new people bring different perspectives to difficult problems. With competition, there are checks and balances. And, with competition, officeholders are forced to become more accountable and responsive to residents’ issues. ..........................>>>>...................>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r03501&AppName=1
S.T.O.P. (Schenectady Taxpayers Outrage Party) Welcomes Good Government November 7, 2010 Pat Zollinger
In today’s Daily Gazette (November 7, 2010) a commentary by Roger Hull, former Union College President and current director of the “Help Yourself Foundation,” appeared in the Opinion section. It was titled “New Alliance Party seeks to address Schenectady’s problems” and it mirrored most of what I’ve stated to the Schenectady City Council and the taxpayers for nearly a decade. Mr. Hull states that the party was formed due to the fact that we haven’t had a choice which is why S.T.O.P. was formed last summer.
According to the article the individuals that purportedly represent this new ideology are people that for the most part, are well known in local politics. Michael Brockbank, former City Corporation Counsel and former GOP city chairman; Andrew Chestnut, current school board member elected through the SCOPE (Schenectady Citizens for Openness in Public Education) group; Betsy Henry a political newcomer; Vicky Hurewitz of Better Neighborhoods Inc.; Cathy Lewis, current school board President also elected through SCOPE and former city councilwoman; Brad Lewis, Mrs. Lewis’ husband, professor at Union College and Metroplex board member; Brian Merriam, local businessman and former city council candidate and Byron Nichols, another political newcomer.
It appears that on November 8, 2011 there will be at least a dozen candidates vying for four city council seats. I’m really excited to see more competition as this is what our local government is supposed to be about; representing the people. Competition in every aspect of our lives is good; good food, good fun, good government.
Based upon my interpretation of this new group’s political platform, there’s nothing that I haven’t repeatedly declared over the years, to city administrations. Roger Hull emphasizes “transparency”, Cathy Lewis and Andrew Chestnut engaged in an active cover up of the school district’s litigation award to the “rosary boy.” That is hardly the practice of transparency.
Here’s a news bulletin in case you folks didn’t know this already. Mr. Hull recognizes that “Schenectady’s neighborhoods have been neglected for too long.” But our neighborhoods are beyond neglect. As I said in my campaign they have become battle zones. The City of Schenectady has placed its emphasis over the past decade into recreating downtown thereby ignoring the needs of the community. One example is the $12 Million Federal Urban Renewal grant targeted for Mont Pleasant and Hamilton Hill, but ending up being used for the Erie Boulevard enhancement.
Mr. Hull’s political ideology has always been self-serving and not for the interests of the taxpayers. Case in point, he removed approximately sixty (60) pieces of property off the tax rolls including the former Ramada Inn. This effectively shifted the ever growing tax burden onto residential property owners.
And here’s another piece of breaking news, Mr. Hull advocates the consolidation of city and county services, an idea that’s been beaten to death for the last decade and before. He believes the pay of the mayor and city council has to be frozen for the next five years. I presented the idea that these salaries should be cut by ten percent, saving the city approximately $4 Million if every city employee followed the example of that leadership. In fact, our city firefighters are looking into that right now.
The rest of Mr. Hull’s proposed solutions to our ever growing problems are nothing but recycled, old news.
In light of the recent development of the school board’s “transparency” relative to the “Rosary Boy” settlement, I applaud Mr. Hull’s alignment with these folks.
New people bringing in fresh perspectives? LOL! School Bored members who lied to the public about the Rosary fiasco, a nonprofit leader who shills for useless Weed n' Seed, well known RINOS, with tax and spend cheer leaders thrown in for diversity. Not a CONS nor business leader in the bunch. We don't need any more phony transparency. We have enough happy talk-with no cuts-on the school bored. It's easy to buy a school bored race against disorganized independents.
The militant indifference to the City taxpayers is well documented. City crews cutting trees for free for a Mayor's aide, abuse of City cars with one "commuting" from Lake Luzerne, abuse of cell phones, giving the connected tax breaks, and a $314,000 part time golf pro taking 3/5 of the profits from the Muni course. As I predicted, the implosion of the REPS will bring out new parties to fill the void. We don't need another liberal tax and spend party. Pat Z's huge vote has brought out many others. NEWSFLASH: You ain't Pat.
They clearly took this one right out of Zollinger's play book!!
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
so the GOP and this "new alliance party" will split the vote ... and the Democrats will win in 2011.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Take a few civic minded liberals; stir in several disgruntled Republicans, a couple or three non-transparent school board members, and the spiciness of a former college president. Then serve it to a misguided underserved public and what do we have? We have the Alliance Party.
I attended the first “publicly announced” Alliance Party forum after reading Roger Hull’s commentary in the Sunday Gazette, held at the Price Chopper Community Room on Eastern Parkway. The title of this article is in no way shape or manner indicative of any ill feelings of my own. On the contrary, I had put together the S.T.O.P. party and ran because we haven’t had a choice of candidates during the past five or six years.
The attendees signed in and while there was no “Tea Party” atmosphere to this event, it was a tea party in what this group offered. In fact, it was somewhat subdued with everyone waiting to hear what this “new group” had to say. The forum was simple but the speakers were not. Nor was the crowd containing a mixture of city council regulars as well as representatives from the Democratic and Republican parties. Party committeemen, party faithfuls as well as party hopefuls all crowded the community room. Included in the mix were neighborhood gadflies, school board members and even newly elected Carl Erikson. There were no refreshments as would normally be served at political gatherings, but this was by all means a political gathering.
The Alliance read like a who’s who in inner political circles. On the panel of this new party were obviously the politically “shunned.” Coming in late was Brad Lewis who had run for city council in 1999. Cathy Lewis was a no show as well as one Byron Nichols who was touted as being a professor of Political Science at Union College. Cathy as we all know was a Republican Party member of the City Council before she was passed over for re-election in 2005. She did win the election for school board member earlier this year, under the SCOPE banner. Another no-show was Andy Chestnut, also a school board member and registered Democrat.
The first speaker of course was Roger Hull, former president of Union College earning more than a million dollars a year. He is now living in the GE Realty Plot with pension and a handy not for profit organization that he runs out of his home called “Help Yourself.” According to the tax returns for that organization he brings in more than a hundred grand a year; quite a nice chunk of change for a home business. Mr. Hull spoke about the requirements of the Alliance Party in that they expect people to adhere to “self imposed term limits.” That’s a nice idea but with a shortfall of political activity in the city of Schenectady and no one appearing to educate potential public servants in the Republican Party, we will still end up with a one-party system as ruled by the Democrats.
Then Brian Merriam got up to speak about pay freezes for the Mayor and members of the City Council, for the next five years. He started off with telling us about him being a Schenectadian, something we can all relate to. But, not one member of the Alliance Party came out to state that the salaries should be cut which would be a platform to scare the heck out of the current ruling party. Unfortunately Brian Merriam didn’t appear to know about the laws with respect to pay raises and elected officials and I wasn’t about to raise that question. Any potential city council member should know that pay raises can be granted to the position by the current council for the next elective year. As a matter of fact, the current council can grant pay raises for themselves and the mayor in 2011, the same year as the election. So what they’re saying is that if they are elected, as a block they won’t raise the salaries of mayor and council members in 2015. Of course that’s as long as they even know that it’s the only time they could.
The next speaker was Michael T. Brockbank, former city corporation counsel, owner of a beautiful property at the corner of Nott Street and Wendell Avenue in the GE Realty Plot where he also maintains his law office. He spoke about reduced budgets and caps on property taxes and fees, which by the way is the current buzz phrase of the overtaxed regular middle class folk in the state of New York. He didn’t say anything we didn’t already know but he left out one very important qualifier to any tax cap. If taxes are capped, we can rest assured that our taxes will be raised by that cap. Okay, so maybe they can’t rise by eight percent, but they would never be lowered. What we need are lower taxes, not caps.
Vicky Hurewitz talked about the neighborhoods, and she works for Better Neighborhoods Inc, another not for profit in the city of Schenectady. She is a somewhat regular speaker at city council meetings but what I most remember her saying was that it was okay to take a property on Erie Boulevard by eminent domain to turn it into a pocket park. She stated that she was a certified social worker in another life which may or may not be in the best interests of the taxpayers.
During all of this time Peter Guidarelli sat alongside the wall where he could keep a watch not only on the players in this new party, but on the reactions of the audience attendees. It’s very important for any politician to gage the reactions of the constituency when ideas are presented. It had already been announced that he was considering a run for mayor in the 2011 election and everything that Roger Hull was saying screamed out his own run for mayor. Roger Hull for mayor is what I heard too, in every statement he made about his new party’s platform. Hull is not registered with any party and had apparently tried to get signatures on a petition in 2008, but couldn’t get the minimum required number.
Questions were asked by the audience, one in particular about the PILOT that Union College doesn’t pay. Roger Hull would not support a PILOT even though the college has taken over a million dollars worth of taxable properties off the tax rolls, a theme he has stuck with from the very beginning. Therefore, it is my impression that the Alliance Party is spun out of the Democratic Party in Schenectady County to be used as a spoiler for the elections. According to the visions held by the ruling party in the city and county of Schenectady, the only changes can be of the participants in their version of the game.
Unless the Alliance Party runs on a tax cutting platform they are doomed. I disagree with DVR-these liberal professors and RINO fossils will take votes from the DEMS-splitting the stooge vote. They have nothing to offer the fiscal CONS, the business community the oppressed homeowner. Opening the door for Peter and a grand REP/CONS coalition to sweep City Hall. After 35 years!
Not one word about the fire fighters, not one word about the golf pro, not one word about getting nonprofits to finally pay up-a weak borsht of reaching out to nonprofits and diversity blarney. NEWSFLASH: Obama's stimulus money is about to run out. No do not need pocket parks, diversity or more dead beat nonprofits rattling a tin cup. We need CONS business people slashing spending which is up an unbelievable 40% under horrible Mayor SOS. Revenue is flat but City spending skyrockets and the DEM fiscal nit wits wonder what to do.
Alliance Party Delusions (A fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact) By Pat Zollinger
On Tuesday, December 07, 2010 the second meeting of the Alliance Party was held at the Price Chopper Community Room on Eastern Parkway. Tonight’s meeting was very different than the one held last month, when everyone was interested in what this group had to say. Obviously most of the attendees last month heard enough during that last meeting. Enough to know that they weren’t going to waste any of their valuable time attending this one. But I needed one more meeting to cement my own interpretations of what this group was about.
No chairs had been set up and there was no coffee or refreshments and less than half the crowd from last month were in attendance. Several people started setting up chairs in neat rows in front of the table but Mario – my campaign manager and significant other - grabbed a couple of chairs and we sat against the back wall so that we could see and hear everything. As people started taking seats, Roger Hull walked up to me, shook my hand and told me his name. I did likewise, not that I thought that he didn’t know who I was but because that’s what you do when you’ve never been formally introduced to someone. Of course he knew who I was just as I knew who he was.
He said to me that I didn’t present “the other side” of the Union College tax exempt property issue, the video I produced and the spreadsheet I put together that Lauren Stanforth of the Times Union had posted on the political blog at http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/8269/8269/. It was an article and argument that was initially presented here on the Schenectady Informer website at http://www.schenectadyinformer.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1289688862/. But I don’t have to present any other side except my own and my side is that of the Taxpayers in the City of Schenectady. I told him to present his own side of this issue on the website but it will remain to be seen if he does. Perhaps he will write another commentary that only the Daily Gazette will print; something similar to his “creative class” ideas of grandeur. .......................>>>>...........................>>>>..................http://www.schenectadyinformer.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1291803625/s-new/
So let me get this straight: To have an effective political group, you need cookies at the first meeting and need to be screaming bloody murder over taxes and/or immigration? Sounds like Zollinger is a little perturbed the pathetically named "STOP" isn't getting off the ground...
So let me get this straight: To have an effective political group, you need cookies at the first meeting and need to be screaming bloody murder over taxes and/or immigration? Sounds like Zollinger is a little perturbed the pathetically named "STOP" isn't getting off the ground...
The fact is that the meeting was as pointless as your post about cookies. Guess ya woulda had to be there, huh?
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
Fewer sheeple buying the kool-aid at the poorly attended second meeting. Maybe they should put out better cannoli? If you took away party spies maybe 30.
Mr. Hull needs to talk more about fiscal Conservatism and less about nonprofit solutions. Agree with The Source but let's wait until the entire race card is filled. Rumors about the NNTP seeing a City/Niskayuna opportunities.
SCHENECTADY Hull’s Alliance Party to target Democrats BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.
Mayor Brian U. Stratton may have to fight for re-election next year. Former Union College President Roger Hull has founded an independent political party to challenge Stratton and the four City Council members, all of whom are Democrats up for re-election next year. Hull plans to make a “major political announcement” today at 11 a.m. in City Hall about his plans. He was tight-lipped Wednesday, but said he won’t be announcing the names of his candidates. The party, named the Alliance, is still gathering resumes and will select candidates by February. “We’re trying to do it a lot earlier because we recognize we’re going against the machine,” Hull said. “In terms of voter registration, Democrats have an overwhelming advantage. It makes it very diffi cult. Our intent is to fi eld fi ve candidates and run hard.” The mayoral candidate is likely to be Peter Guidarelli, who lost to Stratton by just 312 votes in 2003. “I suspect Peter will probably run,” Hull said. Guidarelli could also run as a Republican, as he did in 2003. However, he has been involved in the Alliance Party for many months. ...................>>>>....................>>>>.....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01403&AppName=1
Logged
New people bringing in fresh perspectives? LOL! School Bored members who lied to the public about the Rosary fiasco, a nonprofit leader who shills for useless Weed n' Seed, well known RINOS, with tax and spend cheer leaders thrown in for diversity. Not a CONS nor business leader in the bunch. We don't need any more phony transparency. We have enough happy talk-with no cuts-on the school bored. It's easy to buy a school bored race against disorganized independents.
Unless the Alliance Party runs on a tax cutting platform they are doomed. I disagree with DVR-these liberal professors and RINO fossils will take votes from the DEMS-splitting the stooge vote. They have nothing to offer the fiscal CONS, the business community the oppressed homeowner. Opening the door for Peter and a grand REP/CONS coalition to sweep City Hall. After 35 years!
