Oooooo, I hate Republicans...I mean Democrats...I mean Conservatives...I mean Independents...

What’s it all about Shirleeeeeey?

Everyone knows soon to be ex-councilperson Shirley Hollink is pissed at the Hamlin Republican Party, but what makes her think that qualifies her to be a Democrat?

Not just any Democrat either. No, Hollink fancies herself to be the top-dog Dem. She thinks she can become the Supervisor of Hamlin by running on the Democratic ticket!!

How would Hollink, a life-long arch-conservative Republican, become the town’s first Democratic Supervisor in decades?

Answer: She hopes to steal the nomination from the unsuspecting Hamlin Democratic Committee!

Hollink, who has an extremely bloated opinion of her political shrewdness, is circulating a very special type of nominating petition. Hollink’s petition does not originate with the Democrats or ANY political party. Her petition comes off of the internet! Holloink is passing around the type of petition which forces a DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY. Not a real primary mind you, but a WRITE-IN Primary!

Oh, my, my, my. Isn’t she clever?! “Those stupid old Dems. Why they must be just as dumb and asleep-at-the-wheel as the Republicans. They certainly must be as dumb as the Conservatives and the Independence Party.”

Shirley is trying to steal the nominations FROM THEM TOO!!

To review: Shirley Hollink is: 1) Petitioning to be in the three way Republican Primary for Supervisor. 2) Petitioning to create a “write-in” primary for the Democratic ballot. 3) Petitioning to create a “write-in” primary for the Conservative ballot spot. 4)Petitioning to create a “write-in” primary for the Independence ballot too.

Shirley Hollink wants to have FOUR BALLOT POSITIONS in the election in November!

Well, good for her! Go for it Shirley! We have just one question.

WHAT ARE YOU?

What kind of political freak pretends to be everything from Neo-Con, nut-case Conservative to “diversity-oriented” bleeding heart Liberal?

Answer: Shirley Hollink, that’s who.

WHO ARE YOU SHIRLEY??

WHAT ARE YOU?
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Keep reading The Blog! Our next story will feature a full report on Hollink’s disastrous visit to the regular meeting of the Hamlin Democratic Committee on June 22.

Also, don't miss learning about the terrible risk that Deputy Town Clerk Sherry Dobson is taking by acting as notary for Hollink's Democratic petition!

Don’t miss it!

Poster Child Planning Board, Part II

In the June 6 Planning Board meeting two different applicants sought to enlarge their pre-existing, non-conforming parcels.

That means that the original parcels do not conform to the zoning regulations of the district in which they are located. In these cases the parcels were too small. Both applicants sought to add property to their parcels which would, “improve” the parcel, in the words of one PB member.

Both applications were granted.

Sadly for Hamlin, the Planning Board once again, as they do so often, failed to understand and enforce our laws.

Statute 125-55 C: [Nonconforming lot size, open space, height or building size regulations,] (2), states: Such non-conforming building, other structure or use of land, when enlarged or extended, shall comply with the regulations of this chapter.

This means, simply, that if your property does not conform to the regulations of your district it must come into conformance upon enlarging or extending it.

There is a process for “relief” if enforcement of the regulation is too onerous for the property owner: they make seek a variance.

By granting the applications to enlarge the parcels the PB granted a de facto variance, something they are not empowered to do. Only the Zoning Board, following the correct process, may grant a variance to the lawful legislation.

Who doesn’t know that?

The Planning Board and support board attorney apparently.

While the PB might be confused about some other, seemingly conflicting, language in the rule, [125-55 A, (1)] the attorney should know better. “Unless otherwise provided...” doesn’t work. It is actually provided- in C (2).

This is not the first time the Planning Board has violated the law in this regard. They have done it other times right on Redman Road even. This rule is a plain and ordinary regulation in virtually every zoning code in the state. For our Planning Board to not know it, to not have it on it’s fingertips to enforce the law, is incomprehensible.

The only other explanation is that Hamlin’s Planning Board believes it is above the law. Sometimes they act as if they are empowered to disregard regulations they disagree with or find inconvenient. Given the PB’s arrogant and dismissive history, combined with their superior attitude toward the taxpaying public, that is a very plausible interpretation.
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A GREAT IDEA FOR CIVIC IMPROVEMENT

Recently a prominent Republican contacted The Blog with a great idea. As most residents know, Hamlin’s two biggest eyesores, the apartment buildings on the NW and SW side of Rt. 18 at 19, are for sale. The idea is this: Hamlin should immediately seek out funding to purchase the two structures. Once owned, the municipality can improve them or bulldoze them.

If we had a smart, contemporary local government ‘revitalizing” these two properties would have topped the list of “incentive zoning” projects. Incentive zoning is the process of negotiating with commercial interests who seek zoning variances for increased profits. A recent example is the five variances granted to Tops for their gas station. If our local officials had been smart and civically responsible, they might have arranged some form of assistance from Tops.

Sadly for Hamlin, local government is dull-witted, unambitious and lost in the past. Yet, they keep getting voted into office!

How about it City Fathers? Let’s see how fast you can move. Let’s see if you really care about the community or just give lip service to the idea.

[No odds are being offered at this time, for obvious reasons.]

Shirley gets a makeover

As if the public needed more proof that the Hamlin Republican Committee is in a state of collapse here it is:
Shirley Hollink wants to run for Supervisor as a DEMOCRAT!!!

That’s correct. Shirley Hollink wants to run for Supervisor as a DEMOCRAT!

How did all this come about? First, we have to return to her expulsion from the Town Board last March. The public has never been given an explanation for why Hollink was purged and the answer is simple, and sadly predictable.

Shirly Hollink, who had repeatedly been voted into office by the citizens of Hamlin, was removed from incumbency for one reason: She was the first, and only, elected official to challenge the legitimacy of James Breslawski’s membership on the Planning Board.

That’s right. Hollink had her candidacy removed, and has been effectively ostracized from the HRC, because she gave voice to the FACT that Breslawski was not a resident of Hamlin, and therefore could not legally serve as a public official.

It is that simple. It is that puerile too. And punitive, and the complicit Warnerites on the HRC ought to be embarrassed by their juvenile participation with the Supervisor’s petulance and revenge-taking.

Hollink was right. The rest of the Town Board, the entire Planning Board and every other official in Hamlin government who propped up the Breslawski fraud was wrong. They ought to admit it. Instead, they have decided to participate in the punishment of the innocent.

“I was just following orders!”

So, driven from her own party Hollink has sought support elsewhere. First, she approached officers of the Hamlin Democratic Committee hoping to make a presentation. She told Rich Marsden, Democratic Town Leader, that she was, “highly elect-able.”

Maybe so, but that didn’t make her a Democrat.

The HDC invited Hollink to write to them requesting time for said presentation and the request would likely be granted for the next regularly scheduled meeting later in June.

Obviously, this would be too late to secure Democratic petitions to get on the ballot, so she made an end-run around the committee. Hollink went right to the top, she called the Monroe County Democratic headquarters and requested that she be given the nomination for Supervisor on the Democratic ticket!

Naturally, Dem HQ referred her back to the local Democratic Committee...which has invited her to write a letter...

Once again, the community sees the troubling character of members of the local Republican Committee. Alleged Republicans, more accurately. First, they try to solicit important Democrats to join their committee in a transparent effort to syphon off talent. Next, an elected official and determined Republican, purged Stalin-like from the party for advocating the truth, runs to the Democrats for salvation of her career.

Hey, Hamlin Republicans! If you like the Democrats so much go to the Post Office, get a voter registration card and change parties! They will welcome you! They will give you a patient and thorough re-education.

If you like Dems, join the Dems! Don’t just try to use them.

Tonery submits to interview

GADFLYATTACKS PLANNING BOARD

After leading the effort to remove the unlawful Chairman, James Breslawski, from the Planning Board political gadfly and perennial candidate Peter Tonery applied for the newly vacated seat. Recently, The Blog had the opportunity to sit down with Tonery and discuss his application. Here’s what he had to say...

TB:How did the interview go? PT: Quite well actually. Everyone was polite. Warner was snippy, chomping at the bit to try to sabotage or embarrass me. On the other hand Paul Rath was very generous and asked several meaningful questions.

TB: Like what? PT: Well he asked what ideas I would promote to the Town Board if I were a member of the PB. I suggested that Hamlin should drastically cut back on the amount and location of commercial zoning along Lake Road. I said too that the town should have a laundry list of projects that they wanted to see accomplished so that the next time a project like the Tops Gas Station came along the town might practice a little “incentive zoning.”

TB: What’s incentive zoning? PT: Well it’s the practice of trading some leniency of zoning regulations with developers in exchange for something which would serve the community at large. For example, right now the town is building a new road into the playing fields behind the town hall and constructing a shelter and food service booth. Either of these projects might have been funded or built by Tops in exchange for the five variances they received.

TB: Did the town receive any consideration from Tops for the variances the got? PT: NO! We lost out again. There is little doubt that this lack of imagination and municipal sophistication has cost the taxpayers probably around $10,000 is services.

TB: Would Tops have paid that much? PT: We don’t know what they would have paid. You have to ask first.

TB: What else notable happened? PT: The most interesting thing was a statement made by Judith Hazen, the newest PB member. I had said that I would be much more conservative about granting SUP’s (Special User Permits- allows a property owner to conduct an activity that is prohibited in the zoning district where the property is located. IE: A retail business in a residential district.) I stated that I thought the PB was egregiously liberal in granting SUP’s and that it was bad for the town, for town planning and future growth. At the time, I was speaking to Dave Rose when Mrs. Hazen interjected, “This is still America you know. People have a right to use their property!”

TB: Why is that notable? PT: Well while it sounds like rational, hard core Libertarian philosophy it is, of course, simple nonsense.

TB: Why? PT: In the first place I’ll bet Mrs Hazen would scream her head off if the next door neighbor tried to bury barrels of toxic waste in his/her backyard! Naturally, she would be right to do so since burying of toxic waste is highly regulated and forbidden in residential and agricultural areas. The point is that not even she, a pseudo-Libertarian, actually believes in the principle, “People should be able to use their own property.” Hey, if you don’t want regulation go for it- a family could move into Hamlin, live a nice life then have a new neighbor move next door and start a cemetery. Why not? “People should be free!” Right Mrs. Hazen?! She also knits throughout the PB sessions.

TB: What? PT: Yeah, she knits during the meetings. Sometimes she looks at the maps wrong too. BUT, she is a good Republican. Rather, a “Good-Ole-Republican.” She is an entrenched Warner Republican.

TB: Anything else? PT: Yeah, Warner was really funny! He kept trying to cut Paul Rath's and my conversation short. He was dying to try to bludgeon me with some really old, old news about my presence on the defunct “Water Committee.”

TB: What was that about? PT: When it was Warner’s turn to ask me a question he asked, “Do you think you can be a team player?” I replied, “Yes, of course.” Then he asked, “What about how you acted on the Water Committee?” Now this goes back, it must be, four or five years. I wrote a letter to my neighbors about the proposed waterline for our street. I said that I thought we might get the line a lot cheaper if the Supervisor would get off his backside and negoticiate with the State Park to tap into the existing waterline in the Park. I estimated that it would cost us about half of what it finally did. I also told them that the water committee had been formed mainly to force Dave Rose to start having the town install the waterlines rather than outside contractors. Rose, who had been Highway Supervisor, had always resisted this. Warner, still harboring lots of animosity toward Rose for failing to name Warner to the Town Board the previous year, wanted to embarrass Rose and so he assembled this committee to force the issue. Warner claimed that I had broken some unspoken code of silence, that I was not permitted to speak to my neighbors about water issues as long as I was on the committee. That was nonsense. Actually, I was surprized that he brought it up because of the bad blood it represented between him and Rose.

TB: What would you have done differently? PT: Hmmm. I think I would have challenged Warner to define his concept of “teamwork.” Whatever baloney he offered I would have replied that, by all accounts, his measure of teamwork was, “Do as I say, not as I do. Do it and don’t argue.” Everybody knows he is a bully and micro-manager. It would have been fun to debate it with him.

TB: Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences withy our readers. PT: My pleasure.
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Please Mr. Democrat, can ya' help us out?

BEGGING FOR HELP

How bad is the condition of the Hamlin Republican Committee? Pretty bad considering they are actively soliciting Democrats to join!

That’s right, attempts to recruit Hamlin Republicans has been such a dismal failure that they have now resorted to seeking out prominent Dems, trying to entice them to join! In the last two months two well known Democrats, one a former candidate for office the other a prospective candidate, have been approached separately by both George Todd and Howard Hueser who asked them to come over and join the local GOP committee. Note: both these individuals are founding members of the new Hamlin Democratic Committee!

What would prompt such a move? Was it a clever plot to undermine the Dems? Was it designed to deprive the Dems of candidates? Was it genuine? Were they being ironic?

The truth is, the Hamlin Republican Committee is in crisis. The powerful Warner clique has just enough votes to stay in power. Just enough votes that is IF the number of committee members is artificially suppressed. The HRC can have 44 members, it has only 34! Even that is not enough to insure the Warner Republicans a majority however. In fact, Warner had to arrange to keep some committee members away from the nominating meeting in April just so he could get his Supervisor and Town Board candidates elected! There were only 27 members at the meeting to vote! The Warner Republicans number no more than 14 or 15. If the HRC had full membership then there is little doubt that the only qualified candidate for Supervisor, Dennis Roach, and Shirley Hollink would have been selected.

Today’s crisis has been brewing for a number of years and the fault lies with Warner. He is so demagogic that he must dominate the Republican committee to stay in power. This has resulted in the frustration, disaffection and departure of many good, quality Republicans from the committee. People like Jerry Hoffman and Mark Reeves, good solid citizens who were willing to sacrifice to help their party and the community were turned off and driven away by the power politics of the Warnerites. It is too bad.

Only by reducing the membership could the Warnerites maintain dominance however. So losing good people was an acceptable price to pay.

How would recruiting Dems help this ugly situation? Well, the Warner Republicans are famous for bait and switch. Just as they turned down a qualified candidate on the basis of, “not long enough on the committee,” they would entice some poor dumb Dem to join, suggesting they could win office with GOP support. Naturally, the HRC would then turn the tables- relegating the new recruits to the back row saying that they were not yet qualified because they were “too new!” Oh, its been done before!

Sadly for the HRC, there are no, “poor dumb Dems” around for them to prank this way. The Hamlin Dems are smart, united, dedicated and aggressive. Hamlin Dems are the opposition! They are not, ”power seekers.” Hamlin Dems want office because they genuinely believe that Democrats can, and will, do a better job of governance than the Republicans have done.

For a party led by a man who once denigrated councilman Paul Rath by calling him a “Democrat,” they have once again revealed their near total absence of integrity. Not only do they insult their own dedicated party members by soliciting outside the organization, they offer power and prestige, which they have no intention of giving, to Democrats. It’s a hell of a way to do business. It’s demonstrates a true poverty of character. What we’ve all come to expect.