2 June 2005
Spectator
The View From Here: How do you tell the crooks from the merely incompetent and stupid?The Spectator has noticed that a grammar book—Eats, Shoots & Leaves— has actually made it onto the best-sellers lists. The title refers to a panda bear and derives from the change in meaning that results from a seemingly minute error in punctuation. Without much alteration, the title could be adapted to cowardly incumbents in the Erie County Legislature: "Eat, Crap, and Leave." After feasting at the public trough through the "good years" when they blithefully ignored the fiscal sleight-of-hand that passed as financial policy, the legislators have crapped all over the public and now leave the stage for someone else to clean-up. Elise Cusack, who was elected more because of who she wasn't than who she was or what she could offer, is the latest to slink away from the mess she had a hand in creating. She told the media that she was frustrated that no one was receptive to any new ideas to deal with the crisis. Funny, isn't it, that the media never asked her what those new ideas might have been. The only thing we've heard from Legislator Cusack is that she voted against the sales tax increase AND the massive layoffs that resulted from her vote. If she has another idea perhaps she would like to share it with the rest of us mere mortals. She might even shame those who ignored her in private to discuss her ideas in public. The simple fact remains though is that the rats are deserting the ship at the first sign of leakage. Someone ought to remind those folks that elected officials get paid to deal with the hard issues as well as the softballs. But then again, if someone wanted to deal with hard issues, they wouldn't be seeking a seat in the county legislature.
Joel Giambra's timing would not seem to be any better than his arithmetic. He's paid Kathleen Leighton, once a Channel 7 anchor, to shill for him starting June 1. Unfortunately the news leaking out of the state comptroller's audit today is going to put to rout Joel's notion that Medicaid is the boogey man . In fact, Alan Hevesi's troops are assigning little more than 10% of the county's fiscal disaster to increased Medicaid costs. NOTE TO JOEL: check your Bible, Mr Born-Again-Christian: Luke, Chapter 4:23: Physician, heal thyself! Thus, despite the bigoted disclaimer at the bottom of your county tax bill, it isn't the poor people who are responsible for the hole the county has dug. In the meantime, forget Joel's $60 million estimate of the hole ... forget, even, Nancy Naples' $113 million figure ... Hevesi and Co. say it's bigger than either number. The simple fact is that Joel Giambra took a county in great financial shape and is drowning it in red ink. Medicaid might have pissed in the pool but it is Joel who provided the rest of the water. Perhaps Joe Passifume, the county budget director, can shed some light on this. Oops! - he's quitting too. The Comptroller? - nope, she's bailing too and not a minute too soon. What's the point of paying someone a lot of our money to be the fiscal steward if the best she can do is say "the county's ship is sinking"? Wouldn't it have been better if she had said a couple of years ago "Hey fellas, you've got a leak!"? The hell with a county comptroller - we need an activist DA. Even at their most creative, neither Damon Runyon, Jimmy Breslin, nor H. L. Mencken could make up the cast of characters that have inflicted themselves on the unwitting dupes of Erie County.
The Spectator hopes that the district attorney is not dismissive of Sam Hoyt's contention that illegality was involved in the county budget process. Someone had to certify that the county budget was in deficit. That's "certify" as in swear to. The president of the United States got impeached for lying about adultery so what makes anyone in county government immune to similar prosecution when so much more damage has been done? Is it too far a leap to think that the most scandal-ridden government in recent county history is above lying to cover up the budget fiasco? Is it too much to ask that someone be called to account for that perjury? And who's to say that the money hasn't been stolen? No one can even come up with an amount of what's in deficit so why should the public be confident that it was simple stupidity and not voracious avarice at the root of the problem? We already know that Giambra gave a Halliburton deal to his goombah Jimmy Spano and he's thrown big money at Ron Raccuia Jr. for county office supplies. The Spectator smells smoke. Can Frank Clark see the fire?
And just when you think you've heard it all about government stupidity, someone like Buffalo Common Council member Marc Coppola comes along to let you know how deep that well really is. Coppola nixed the suggestion that Joel Giambra be kicked off the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority overseeing city finances. Coppola's reasoning? He doesn't want "to kick a guy when he's down." What a noble guy, that Councilman Coppola. Keep in mind, though, that Giambra is the guy who kicked the City square in the gonads when it was down. Giambra is the guy who told the governor not to give the City the extraordinary state aid that annually kept the City afloat. Giambra is the guy who told the City to pound salt when it asked for a share of the extra sales tax revenue. Giambra is the guy who singlehandedly forced the control board on the City as the first step in its dissolution. That's the guy you don't want to kick when he's down? Too bad Giambra doesn't feel the same way about the City that paid his salary for such a long time. Maybe Coppola wants a job in County Hall.
Marc Coppola might be notable for his idiocy but he is certainly not alone in his quest to plumb the depths of governmental incompetence. Take Charley Flynn for example. Charley Flynn is a commissioner of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority. Why, no one really knows but that's another story. Flynn recently made a public statement that he felt deceived because he voted for an executive search for the Authority to be performed by something called "African Americans in Housing." Charley feels that although he voted to award the contract to the group, he didn't know they would be recommending only African-Americans for the job of Authority executive director. Well, Charley, did you think you were voting to award a contract to Boers when you voted for African-Americans in Housing? Duh!!!
And yet we still wonder why nothing in this town gets done, much less done right.
Copyright 2005 by Buffalo Report, Inc.