WARNER CLAIMS RATH “SATANIST”
Web image signals fellow Devil Worshipers

Hamlin Supervisor Austin Warner escalated the war of words with Town Board member Paul Rath claiming he had evidence Rath was a worshiper of Satan.

“This is all the proof anyone needs!” bellowed the zaftig Supervisor at an ill-attended press conference called to make his bizarre announcement. “It’s been right hear under our noses all along and we have never noticed it!” echoing a familiar criticism leveled at Warner himself regarding his well documented failure to collect revenues from the Town Hall ATM.

“Paul Rath is obviously a worshiper of Satan, look at his fingers!” bawled the vast Warner as he pointed to a copy of Rath’s portrait on the Town of Hamlin website.

“I warned you all! I told you he was a Democrat and you wouldn’t listen! Now, how do you like this? We have a devil worshiper in town government!” blustered the substantial Supervisor.

“Evidence” of the fantastic accusation is that Rath’s fingers, which are poised on a calculator, have only the first and fifth fingers extended, in the familiar Italian “Molokia” or Texas Longhorn gesture.

In recent years fringe groups of paranoid Christian fundamentalists have identified the gesture as a symbol of devil-worshipers. They have provided no historical or practical proof claiming that their personal belief is evidence enough.

Warner’s grotesque claim seems to be the result of an ongoing dispute with Rath over the councilman’s refusal to support Warner’s hand picked replacement for Supervisor, Patricia MacIntosh.

“Pat MacIntosh is the kindest, sweetest, most loving, generous, friendliest, warmest, most giving person on the face of the earth!” Warner replied when questioned about his motive for attacking Rath.

“Anyone on my Republican committee who does not support my nominee should not only be kicked off the committee, but kicked out of the Republican Party! And shot too! That’s my opinion anyway.” sputtered the visibly rattled Supervisor as Ms. MacIntosh handed him two steel ball bearings which seemed to calm him.

Rath, reached by phone, denied the allegation.

“I have no idea what he’s talking about. I know Austin has great affection for MacIntosh but this seems a little extreme.”

Rath claims that the dispute derives from some private conversations he had with members of his extended family. Word of those discussions apparently made there way back to Warner.

A town employee in the Clerk’s office, speaking anonymously, said the attack came after Warner heard that Rath had allegedly said, “That guy is wreaking the Hamlin Republican Committee. MacIntosh isn’t qualified to be Supervisor, even if she can write a sentence- which is a step up!”

Rath and Warner have frequently bickered and it is dissension which the Supervisor hates above all things.

“Warner hates it when anyone disagrees with him. He takes it personally. He’s got a very fragile ego to begin with and perceives any dissent as a personal attack” said a local psychiatrist and political observer, who wanted to remain anonymous. “This thing with MacIntosh seems much more sensitive then that however. He’s just gone off the deep end.”

“That’s just the way I hold the calculator” said Rath, a Certified Public Accountant. “That’s how I was taught to do it. It’s efficient.”

Is rudeness catching?

What can the future hold for Hamlin if Pat MacIntosh becomes Supervisor?

At the July Town Board meeting Ms. MacIntosh sat in abject silence while the board undertook to ram a huge package of legislation down the taxpayer’s throats. Board members were almost completely unprepared. Several obviously hadn’t even read, much less understood, the legislation they were planning to enact into law that day!

Lame-duck Supervisor Warner made his feelings toward the public crystal clear: He didn’t like them, they were a nuisance and he wished they were gone! Warner used every impolite tactic to rush the hearing forward while rigidly refusing to participate in any description or justification of the proposals.

Hamlin residents will have to obey these laws, but Warner refused to participate in any explanation of them.

What did nominee MacIntosh do? She sat silently throughout the hearing. She never asked a question, never participated, never admonished the legislators for being unprepared or hostile.

In other words, she was in agreement with Warner! The public is a pest. Questions about proposed new laws are simply a pain. Elected officials are superior. The public is thorn in their side.

Many, many people who have had the unfortunate experience of interacting with Ms. MacIntosh in her capacity as Warner’s secretary will testify that hostility, contempt and superiority were the most obvious tones of that experience.

Those attitudes must be contagious in the town hall.

I told you, I DON'T CARE!

It is difficult to find words that adequately describe the contempt that Supervisor Warner displays toward Hamlin’s voting public.

His behavior at last week’s Town Board meeting was beyond excuse or explanation. Warner obviously wanted no part of hearing from the public. He was boldly rude and dismissive. At every opportunity he rushed the process in a naked effort to quash debate, dialogue and discussion.

Warner never defended a proposal. He never explained a proposal. His words, attitude and body language merged to convey his message: “I don’t care! I just want this over. Nothing you all say means anything.”

Warner is a lame duck, bailing out of the job to escape apologizing to former Building Inspector Larry Gursslin. Gursslin has sued Warner and the Town for firing him without cause or due process. Considering that two board members voted against the firing and made statements on the record confirming the allegations, it is almost a certainty that the town will lose.

Gursslin is demanding a public apology from Warner as part of any settlement. Warner is so prideful that he will walk away from the job rather than apologize.

Despite his lame-duck status the Supervisor is still obliged to show respect and regard toward the public.

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Nothing but the truth...

Sadly, most Americans fear and loath lawyers. The reasons are complex involving adversarial relationships, complex legal rhetoric and the fact that one almost never gets a straight, clear answer!

Often a concrete answer is not possible because of conflicting judicial decisions. Often legal answers are complicated by variables. Sometimes lawyers don’t want to be held to an opinion.

Then there are times when lawyers deliberately try to obscure or confuse the truth. When that happens people are genuinely justified in their disdain.

Hamlin Town Attorney Ken Licht surely has earned some public scorn by his behavior at last week’s public hearing.

Warner designated Licht as official spokesman to describe the meaning and impact of the proposed new laws to the public.

Ordinarily, a citizen might expect this assignment to include telling the truth. The public should expect a full and honest accounting of the regulation and its effects. Expectations of truth include the idea that the public will not be mislead by half truths, partial explanations and shaded meanings.

The public did not get the truth from attorney Licht. Instead it got a tainted, politically driven July snow job. Licht, in collusion with Supervisor Warner, deliberately shaped his explanations and descriptions to mislead the public about several of the proposed laws and their effects.

The change to the law on variances was conceived by the Zoning Board to make it easier for them to grant variances but Licht never acknowledged that. He deliberately misled the public about the regulation’s origins and its full impact on the community. He presented the new law as an innocuous “change of language” that brought Hamlin into better conformance with the state.

While that may be true, it is a half truth. This was the ONLY reason Licht gave for the change, masking the true motive. By saying that it was simply a “change of language” Licht purposefully, willfully attempted to deceive the public about the impact that this change will have on our community.

Licht was questioned about that impact and his answer was evasive and off-point. He kept returning to “change of language” while not answering the question about impact and consequence.

Lawyers tricks.

That’s why, eventually, average citizens come away with a bad taste in their mouths when they interact with attorneys. Slippery, shifty, contemptuous and focused on the paycheck, not the truth.

Unfortunately Ken Licht was not elected to any public office. Consequently, he must rely on pleasing Austin Warner to continue receiving his $40,000 plus income from Hamlin every year.

Too bad for Hamlin. Too bad for the truth.

No Licht at the end of the tunnel

The performance by Hamlin’s town board at last night’s public hearing on eight new laws can only be described as disgraceful. The meeting was well attended by about fifty prepared residents. They came armed with solid questions, opinions and insights.

The residents were prepared, the town board was not.

The worst performance by far was that of Supervisor Warner. With a glaring lame-duck contempt for the public he took every opportunity to rush the process along showing repeatedly that he didn’t care what the public had to say or think. Several residents pressed the town board for an estimate of the costs to enforce the proposed new codes. Warner had no answers and seemed to take pleasure in defying the request to answer.

Claiming that “This is a public hearing ,” he refused to respond to the questioning. At one point a resident stood up and bluntly asked the Supervisor to reply to another person’s question on cost and enforcement. “Will you answer that man’s question?” the citizen demanded. “No!” replied the Supervisor with hostility. Warner alleged that the Town Board was, “here to collect information” and consequently there would be no dialogue.

To his credit, Paul Rath made numerous efforts to explain the rationale behind some of the proposals. While each board member, save Warner, tried at least once to explain or defend a proposal, Rath took the lead and worked to offer the residents frequent explanations.

However, it was clear to the public that the Town Board was unprepared for the hearing. In fact, George Todd admitted that he had not read the proposed seventeen page Property Maintenance Code. That was evident, but it was also clear that most if not all the others had not read it either.

Defense of this monster, which no doubt would have been passed in-tact had the public been absent, was left to the Building Inspector. The best Mr. Bauman could offer was that these laws were designed, “to make my life easier.” He asserted that the regulations were intended to cope with varied violations from junked cars to abandoned property.

The public, many of whom had read through the entire proposal, asked pointed questions about the codes that were not relevant to clean up. The public informed the TB that ninety per-cent of the proposed laws were building codes regulating everything from the size of door and windows INSIDE the home to keeping one’s eves painted. It was obvious that no one on the Board knew that. Mr Bauman claimed that the codes had been recommended by Brockport and had been successful there in combating property maintenance issues. Apparently he has not been following the political scene in Brockport. It was obvious too that Mr. Bauman either had not read the entire code or did not understand it.

The Town Board, Building Inspector, Fire Chief and town attorney all demonstrated a shocking, but familiar, lack of understanding of the law. The officials asserted that some proposed laws were not relevant because they didn’t plan on enforcing them! When pressed about the onerous building regulations, the B.I. insisted that they didn’t matter because they only planned on using those parts of the code which regulated maintenance! Several members of the public reacted with the obvious logic, “Why pass laws you don’t intend to enforce?” asked one; “Why don’t you just write the code you need instead of all this?” asked another. Don’t they know that laws still apply, even if nobody acts to enforce them? Laws like that tend to become weapons to be used against citizens.

The entire dias acted as if they had never thought of that. In fact, they hadn’t.

The most offensive performance of the night belonged to town attorney, Ken Licht. Licht apparently views his contract with Hamlin as an obligation to collude with Supervisor Warner’s political agenda. Time after time, Licht obfuscated, blurred and misdirected both the motives and effects of the proposed laws. At other moments, when he might have assisted the B.I. or Councilperson with a legal perspective, he was strangely silent.

His most obvious political performance came when he explained the plan to liberalize the process to obtain an area variance. Licht asserted that the town would be sued if it denied a variance using the language of the existing law. He claimed the wording was outdated. Under questioning from the public, he acknowledged that the criteria for granting or denying an application was essentially the same under both the old and new wording. He promoted the new law as being the “accepted language.”

Licht deviously and pointedly left out the real motive for changing the law: The Zoning Board of Appeals wants to make it EASIER to give out variances. Licht admitted that the criteria was relatively unchanged only the emphasis on the “benefit to the applicant” was affected. Licht claimed that Hamlin needed to conform to language which emphasized a “balancing test.” Then he explained that the town was already using this test because of training he had given to the ZBA.

This is a throughly disingenuous explanation. Why would a town need new language if the process is correct? Mr. Licht knows that courts rule on the process in these matters. If the ZBA follows the right process, if the correct questions and issues are discussed, if the decision is sound and rational then the court is not going to speak to the underlying language of the local code. Conformance to the PROCESS is what matters. Hamlin’s law has already been through the courts and was not found lacking.

In truth, the real reason for changing the language was to make it easier to grant variances. The law was specifically changed to give a variance to the Vito property on West Watuoma Beach Road, where the contractor violated nearly a dozen local laws and NONE were enforced. Very shortly, every Hamlin citizen will witness a heinous act of revenge and rebuke toward the family who had to resort to a lawsuit to compel Hamlin to enforce its laws. Within a few months the ZBA will produce the very outcome the lawsuit sought to block. Instead of punishing a law-breaker, the new owner will be given the right to sub-divide the parcel, convert the “garage” into the house (it was all along,) and sell two parcels where one had been! The innocent, the residents who are in the right, will be punished and the guilty will be rewarded. Even if there is a new owner (from probate) the property is STILL in violation and the town continues to ignore the judge’s orders.

Another example of Licht’s deception and obfuscation during last night’s meeting concerned the proposal to adopt the seventeen page Property Maintenance Law. As mentioned, ninety per-cent of the code is regulation governing buildings and it is unlikely that Licht read the document.

Members of the public questioned if their existing properties would have to conform to the new laws. They were told by the B.I. that they would not have to since their homes are “pre-existing non-conforming” structures.

Of course this is not true. Under our zoning code anytime a property is “enlarged, altered or changed in area,” that property must come into conformance with all new, existing codes.

When questioned about this attorney Licht gave another wrong and misleading answer. He claimed that the language of the law (125-55) governing pre-existing non-conforming uses refers only to the Zoning Code laws and not the new Property Maintenance Code since that will be a “local law” not part of zoning law.

But unfortunately for the community Licht did not read 125-55 far enough. He only read the first page. On the next page the zoning code says, “no enlargement, change or alteration of a non-conforming structure housing a non-conforming use shall be permitted except by a finding by the ZBA that such enlargement, change or alteration will permit greater compliance with the provisions of this or other appropriate regulations...” This clearly, obviously, includes the new Property Code. (And God help the resident who offends- the full force of compliance will come down heavily on their heads!)

How could he have left that out? Too hot in the hearing room? Unprepared? Maybe it was simply cynical one-upmanship with the public. (One citizen publicly chastised Licht for smirking during questioning of the Supervisor!)

Maybe he just doesn’t care. Why should he? The public doesn’t sign his checks, the Supervisor does. That is where his allegiance is. The Supervisor’s politics guide Licht’s legal interpretations in Hamlin. Don’t bite the hand that feeds- regardless of the virtue, regardless of the ethics, regardless of the impact to the community.

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To summarize the public hearing: The public came out in large numbers. They were well prepared, thoughtful and direct. The TB was not prepared. Paul Rath tried to communicate, the others were largely silent. Apparently no local official read the seventeen page Property Maintenance Code in detail. The town attorney obfuscated, misdirected and erred.

The town passed the following new regulations: LL# 4- Keeping of Animals and Poultry; LL# 5- amending the Zoning Code to make variances easier to get; LL# 6- Amending the Fire Code to eliminate the annual inspection of one and two family homes; LL# 7- Amending the Zoning Code definitions for Refuse Disposal and Fill; LL# 8- Amending the Zoning Code to transfer the jurisdiction of Ponds from the ZBA to the Planning Board (Effectively eliminating the public hearing process so neighbors will not know about a new pond until it is dug.;) LL# 9- Lead by Paul Rath, and to their credit, the TB defeated the B.I.’s request to enlarge the size of temporary signs. In addition, they reduced the time these signs may be displayed. An unusual act of support for the idea of community aesthetics!

[As an aside- why DIDN’T the town act to make the proposed Property Maintenance Code PART of the Zoning Code? Why is it a separate “local law?” Would it be too difficult to include it in our code book? Is it more convenient that the public would have to discover, then request, additional documents to learn what laws govern their property? Making this a separate law instead of a revision to the Zoning Code doesn’t make any sense.]

The town tabled, for further review, these: LL# 3- Junked and Abandoned Vehicles (There was much dispute as to regulating “lot cars” unregistered cars used to teach kids to drive with, especially in rural districts.;) LL# 10 the infamous seventeen page Property Maintenance Code.

The performance by our elected officials, and the town attorney, was a disgrace. The tunnel is dark.

TOWN TO RAM CODE CHANGES ON PUBLIC


The most important, and perhaps the only VALID, information to emerge from Hamlin’s flawed town survey was that residents, almost unanimously, want to protect the rural character of our community. Nearly 90% of respondents said that protecting agriculture and rural living should be the most important goals for the Town.

In a remarkably perverse reaction to this directive, the Warner/MacIntosh administration has proposed a new law which will almost certainly accelerate the rapid destruction of our cherished rural character!

Our Town Board has proposed, Local Law # 5 which eases the conditions for granting an “Area Variance.”

A variance is an exemption from zoning restrictions. A variance is granted to a specific property by the Zoning Board of Appeals. Once given it goes with the property in perpetuity. A typical area variance is one which exempts a homeowner from the ordinary set-back distances for building in their neighborhood.

Hamlin’s law which governs these variances has traditionally been very conservative. A property owner who sought a variance was required to prove that he or she would suffer substantial financial hardship without it. They also had to show that they had not created that hardship themselves! In addition, the law stated that no variance could be granted if it gave special privileges to one parcel which were not enjoyed by all similar properties.

This last rule was an essential component of the regulation since it protected the concept of precedent. If one person, in a neighborhood, is granted a variance then the next person, in a similar circumstance, MUST also be given a waiver if they ask. Eventually, if an entire neighborhood is granted enough variances it, de facto, becomes a different zoning district altogether! That is the slippery slope which the rule protected the community from!

The new proposed Law #5 completely liberalizes the variance process. It turns it utterly on its head. The rigid test has been stripped away. The old variance rule was presumptively unfavorable to the request, it discouraged change. This new proposal is presumptively favorable to the request, encouraging change. Herein is the threat to our community: Every variance, every liberalization of restriction, will negatively impact Hamlin’s “rural character.”

Who is behind this astonishing change in preservation regulation? Norm Baas and the Zoning Board of course.

It is difficult for the average citizen to understand the culture of the Hamlin Zoning Board. Mr. Baas has installed a philosophy of hostility toward the law. He believes that the mission of the ZBA is to discard the legislative process. The town board writes our laws, Baas believes it is his royal duty to give waivers to them.

Normal Zoning Boards understand that they function foremost as protectors of the law. They understand it is their duty to make property owners adhere to the law. While a ZBA has the authority to grant a waiver, it must consider very carefully the reasons for giving one person an exemption from a regulation everyone else must follow. A normal ZBA has a very narrow and conservative approach to giving out variances. An intelligent, sophisticated ZBA understands that it is a judicial body which may grant variances only if the request passes a rigid set of tests. The guiding principle of most ZBA’s is to deny a variance request unless there are extraordinary circumstances which cause harm to the applicant. Normal ZBA’s are opposed to granting variances as a matter of policy. Normal ZBA’s support their legislators. Further, a strict policy of opposing variance requests serves the community by upholding the legislative process. Laws are not meant to be discarded- even if you have the authority to do so.

Not in Hamlin. Under Norm Baas the ZBA sees itself as separate from, and superior to, the legislative process. There are certain zoning laws which Norm Baas hates! As a member of the ZBA he should be neutral on his personal views regarding the laws, but he is not. He regularly comments on the value of certain regulations and asserts his negative opinions about them.

Worse, is that this attitude has nurtured a culture on the Hamlin ZBA of righteous superiority. The Baas Zoning Board believes it is on a “divine mission’ to right the wrongs of our legislative process. They believe their job is to grant every variance if at all possible. (IE: Tops gas station or the new car wash that is right in the neighbor’s yard!.) Norm doesn’t like most laws. The ZBA follows suit.

Baas’s dislike of laws seems to be part of a larger half-wit political philosophy shared by some core members of the Hamlin Republican committee. There are local officials who advocate a near total rollback of regulation! Judith Hazen, a member of the Planning Board, recently called for eliminating even more protections, advocating abandoning zoning law altogether! “This is still America, people should be allowed to use their property as they want!” she declared in a fit of wild Libertarianism.

Of course you can use your property, Mrs. Hazen! But you don’t live in a vacuum. You can’t burn your property to the ground and endanger firefighters; You can’t process raw sewage on your property; You can’t erect a 350 foot radio tower on it- even if you might profit from doing so. Mr’s Hazen you are part of a community and in every community, throughout civilized society, there are rules. Rules that protect each citizen from the self interest of all the others. Nobody would seriously advocate repealing laws against murder and theft, but stupidly think that limitations on land use is bad. No doubt Ms. Hazen would change her tune instantly if her adjacent neighbor decided to “use their property” to bury toxic waste.

Baas believes that he is being a Conservative when he proclaims that certain zoning laws are infringements to property owners. He cannot recognize that granting virtually every variance request is the very definition of “liberal.”

As to the rest of the zoning board they seem to follow right along, quietly bleating, “ baas, baas, baas.” The other members of the ZBA are complacent, uninterested in learning and profoundly backward in understanding community planning. When Norm baas, they follow.

Despite these policies Baas has occasionally had to struggle with granting a variance because, in reality, the law is written to limit them. Reacting to that, Norm has lobbied the Town Board seeking to liberalize the code. Norm wants legislation to make it even EASIER to give out the candy.

The Hamlin TB, sheep of a different stripe, are poised to give Baas just what he wants- an extreme liberalizing of the language of the law. Once again in Hamlin we see the tail wagging the ram: the ZBA wants a legislative change, the TB follows.

Liberalizing variance law will rapidly erode our community’s rural character. Strict rules which limit growth and discourage "change” are the community’s only defenses! The Warner/MacIntosh administration is totally incapable of grasping this fundamental concept of Town planning.

As children we learned that if, “You keep the rules, the rules keep you.” This applies in Hamlin too. Strict regulation and limitations on variances are good things. They are essential tools to protect the rural character of the community. Take some time to tell your Town Board that you do not support liberalizing the regulations which protect our community. Go to the public hearing at July 11 Town Board meeting- speak up!
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This is outrageous!

The worst and most devious reason for Norm Baas’s plot to liberalize the zoning code is so he and Warner can get revenge on some citizens who have caused “trouble” for the town.

Most readers of The Blog will remember the outrageous story of the house that pretended to be a garage on West Watuoma Beach Road. (See archives: 5/7/03; 5/22/03; 2/9/04; 5/11/04; etc.) This famous embarrassment to the community resulted in a lawsuit by the Delapa family against the Zoning Board. The Delapas won the suit easily with Judge Frazee admonishing Hamlin to “obey it’s own laws.”

Almost immediately after the court decision the property owner, Rick Vito, died. Hamlin used the interval, while the property was in probate, to ignore the judge and scheme to find a way to reward the villain while punishing the innocent.

They have succeeded. The planned revision to the variance law will allow some sleazy new developer to snap up the Vito property and get a variance to subdivide the parcel!

THAT is the plan ladies and gentlemen! Instead of complying with the existing law which forbids two principle buildings (houses) on a single parcel, instead of enforcing the law and punishing the violator by having him tear down the old cottage, instead of doing the right thing Hamlin officials have conspired with the town attorney to rewrite the law to make it easier for the next owner of the Vito property to get a variance!

Norm Baas and the Warner/MacIntosh administration have conspired to disobey a court order just so they can punish the Delapa’s for seeking justice. The court determined that the Delapa’s wre in the right and told the town to act. They have refused to act and schemed to alter the law to punish the innocent.

The Zoning Board has already met in secret and illegal “executive sessions” to plan the strategy.

This action will send a clear message to all the sleazy, creepy disreputable developers in the five county area: “Come to Hamlin! We do NOT enforce the law and we’ll find a way to reward you if you break it!”


What a town!

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Citizens Pitch-In

It looks like the helpful residents of Hamlin are pitching in to help locate a buyer for the Burkes Hardware property.

The project began when realtor, Kyle Rath, placed the For-Sale sign. Knowing the direction Hamlin was developing, he naturally thought that the parcel would make an excellent location for a new gas station.

A good realtor knows that sometimes you have to stimulate potential buyers to "think outside the box." He sought to give people ideas on how to develop the property.

Other alert citizens soon joined in the effort! Many, many residents understand the unfettered liberalism of the Planning and Zoning Boards. They have seen the kinds of dangerous, undermining and commercially disastrous decisions these Boards have made about Hamlin's future. They have witnessed the fear and uncertainty of the boards. They have seen how these men and women are incapable of saying “NO” to any project or proposal. Hamlin residents know that they cannot rely on local government to limit growth. The concept is over the heads of our officials.

So, what the hell!? Let’s go for it. Let’s get this property sold! Maybe a Dangerous Dog Kennel? Maybe a K-Mart or Rite-Aid. Maybe a CLUSTER of cell-towers! Maybe a nice strip mall with an insurance company/sub-shop/tanning & nails/pizza parlor/liquor store/bagel shop/diner? That sounds GOOD! Man, Hamlin will Really be a MODERN town then!

Keep the ideas coming folks! Send an email here if you like and we’ll publish the ideas. Let’s show local government that we have all given up! Let’s show the Warner/MacIntosh administration that Hamlin residents support the kind of development that trashes the future of the community! Let’s get out there and show our support!

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.

BRING IN THE CLOWNS

Support our cause!

How bad is Hamlin’s management?

Consider this episode from our prestigious Planning Board. About two years ago a local businessman announced that he intended to build a carwash adjacent to the Dollar General Store.* The parcel with the carwash is zoned Commercial-General Business. Next to the carwash, to the south, is a residential parcel.

Hamlin zoning code states that wherever a C-NB parcel adjoins a Residential parcel there must be built a 50' buffer. The code includes a definition of a buffer which describes it as mainly agricultural.

The purpose of a buffer is simple. The new commercial activity may significantly change the character of the neighborhood and impact the residential property owners. The buffer helps reduce that impact and encourages the installation of an attractive barrier protecting the homeowner from the effects of the new commerce.

Attractive is an important consideration. It is important for the long term development of the community.

Well, fellow residents, OUR PLANNING BOARD IGNORED THESE REGULATIONS! Apparently, nobody bothered to remember, or look, up the regulation on the buffer set-back distance! As a result, the tarmac for the carwash is now about 10' from the boundary with the residence! They are off by FORTY FEET!

Imagine how you would like that!

Great job Planning Board! Thank you for your due diligence, your caution and your over-riding concern for the careful development of the town!

Naturally, everybody wants to find a scapegoat. One member of the Zoning Board told me it was the Building Inspector’s fault! WHAT?? Hamlin’s Building Inspector has only had the job a few years but there are people on the Planning Board who have been there for over a decade! The obligation of the Planning Board is to APPROVE a proposal as it is shown on the map. The authority to approve obliges Planning Board members to KNOW THE RULES! Don’t blame the BI, sure he might have mentioned it, but the legal obligation lies with the “experts” on the PB.

Once they discovered their monumental screw-up the PB was at a loss how to fix it. Since the map and plan was approved, the developer of the carwash had no obligation to change it. His plan, with the incorrect set-back was approved by our “town fathers,” He is off the hook. (His plan required a variance, something the PB directs developers to do all the time- just not this time.)

Subsequently the Planning Board met to find a solution for the aggrieved residents to the south. They proposed first a stockade fence, then a chain link fence.

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

One of the most important duties of a Planning Board is to protect and promote the aesthetics of the community. In fact, it is their duty to IMPROVE the aesthetic quality of the community. So the solution to their horrendous screw-up on a parcel which has a great deal of exposure on our main thoroughfare is to install a chainlink fence!

Thank you Hamlin Planning Board. Thank you so much. Thank you for failing to do your job. Thank you for contributing to the ever increasing commercial ugliness of the Town. Thanks you for hurting everybody’s property values.

You are the poster children of municipal incompetence.

*[Many Hamlin residents know the background of the Dollar General mess- about how the Planning Board didn’t even bother to ask the developer to show them a sketch of the building! Consequently they installed the cheapest, ugliest structure they had in their inventory! Dollar General was not permitted to build in Hilton because none of the designs presented were acceptable to that town’s Planning Board!]

Hamlin GOP Produces Candidates

Jumbo, the GOP mascot, dispenses Hamlin's future

HAMLIN GOP MAKES BIG DECISION

On Tuesday, the Hamlin Republican Committee produced a slate of candidates for local office in 2005. With its usual regard for the future of the community, the constipated clique that controls and terrorizes the organization directed the other members to “support the nominees or quit the committee.”

The candidates are all hand-picked Austin Warner supporters. They were selected by secret ballot with no vote count given. The ballots were immediately BURNED! Destroyed before anyone could verify them.

Said one disgruntled member, “That core group demonstrated their contempt for the committee, for the democratic process and for the future of Hamlin. They dumped on everybody.”
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Due to regulations established by our web-server Smell-o-Blog has been turned off for this story. The Blog apologizes for any inconvenience.
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Bumper Stickers Now Available

I Scheme!

Austin Warner certainly does! Who knows the truth about what his plans really are? Most people agree that the reasons he gave for leaving office are phoney. Many residents now believe that Warner, Pat MacIntosh, Jim Breslawski and Big Nelly Nesbitt have hatched a lame-brain plot that will re-install Warner in the Supervisor's seat, immediately after a settlement with Larry Gursslin is reached!

Here's the scheme: MacIntosh gets elected Supervisor; She appoints Warner Deputy Supervisor; She settles the lawsuit which includes signing written apology to Gursslin; She then decides that she doesn't want to be Supervisor anymore and resigns, naming Warner interim Supervisor!

What a plan! Warner gets out of the humiliation of apologizing to Gursslin (he'd rather drink poison) then gets the Supervisor's job back! He has told people that if MacIntosh doesn't get the Republican nomination, "I will primary." Get it? He didn't say, "Pat will primary." He said, "I will primary!"

There are a few problems of course. To keep the Supervisor's job he will have to be voted in by the town board. They might not be too hapy about the shenanigans however! This is the problem for Town Board- who ELSE are they going to pick??!!

Slippery Slope or Rocky Road I scheme any one?

Over Easy

Stick a fork in. Jim Breslawski’s self serving career as Chairman of the Hamlin Planning Board has finally come to an end. Supervisor Warner’s threat to pass a local law, which would permit any person living in New York State to serve on the PB, collapsed last night. The Hamlin Town Board held an illegal Executive Session at which Warner sought support to reinstall Breslawski. Under NYS law, local government is not permitted to discuss this public issue in secret. Despite that, and ignoring their individual personal obligations to the public and the law, all our Town Board members, and the Town Clerk, willingly violated the rules. The Breslawski matter is far from private, but Warner demanded to know if he had TB support. To avoid his own personal public embarrassment he sought a straw-poll in secret, the TB agreed to give it to him.

He didn’t like the results. Warner discovered he had NO SUPPORT for a local law elevating Breslawski above everyone else. To their credit, no Town Board member would accept opening our support boards to membership by people who live outside Hamlin. It’s just too bad they had to do it behind closed doors.

Maybe when Warner is gone, and the culture of fear and intimidation evaporates from the Town Hall, the public will have their right to open government restored.

Warner Woman poses for campaign pic

Warner Woman to run for Supervisor!

Hamlin Supervisor, Butchman Warner, has announced his retirement from public office- but he ain't done yet! While he goes away for a term he has hand picked his successor, none other then his Super-Secretary Pat MacIntosh!

The Warner-MacIntosh team has been around for several years. Blog readers may remember that evil scientist Doctor Minarik once cloned both Warner and MacIntosh to create Super-Supervisor, a he/she being which was able to both bully people and do math! Unfortunately for Hamlin the experiment failed and the cloned creature first blew up to gigantic proportions then exploded in a monsterious rage against some imaginary threat.

"We buried the remains down in Stink Pond," recalled Highway Boss Tom Ingraham at the time.

Feelings were mixed about this new Warner concoction.

"Ah baloney!" commented town resident Marty Gattenhousenn of Apple Hollow. "Warner is just doing this so he can get out of apologizing to Larry Gursslin."

Steve Gruppenfuerer of Bark Tree Road added, "Warner is gonna spend the next two years cryin about how overworked MacIntosh is. He's gonna lobby to have the Supervisor position made full time and full pay. Then watch, he'll run again and try to take the job back! Good freakin' luck!"

In addition to MacIntosh, there are three others seeking the Republican nomination, Mike Marchetti, Denny Roach and Councilwoman Shirley Hollink.

Mike Marchetti commented, "That's good. It's about time we had an Irish candidate. The Germans have been running things for too damn long!"

Roach, a retired sea captain said, "Harrr! 'Taint no good place for a lady!"

Hollink, hoping to capitalize on the "comfort vote" from the profoundly confused Hamlin Republican Committee said, " I don't really care. She hates the library as much as I do. I'll kick her ass anyway."

Highway worker, and Committee member, Larry Tarzinsky commented, "I think it's all a sandbag. She ain't running for office, she's just runnin' Warner's secret campaign. She'll turn all her votes over to him on nominating night, just watch. Oh, please don't use my name. Warner will accuse me of being a Democrat, again."

Local Republican tries to find path to the truth.

Is Warner Sandbagging?

Austin Warner’s minions have been scurrying around town pitching Hamlin’s need for a “full-time Supervisor.” Is it possible that Warner was only playing the drama-queen when he announced his retirement to theHamlin Republican Committee? Probably. Since then, all the usual suspects ( Nesbitt, Breslawski, Baas, Martin) have been out shilling the pitch, in all the usual locations (Kaiser’s, the VFW, Lions, etc.) ad nauseam. Hamlinites long ago deduced that they were hearing a pre-fab speech when a Warner mouthpiece would regurgitate the exact story, over and over, to every hapless victim they could trap. That is the essence of “old time politics” in Hamlin.

Beyond these carping Harpies, there was the sham “extension of time” to submit names for nomination. At the meeting, Warner flunky Jim Nesbitt “just happened to have” the committee’s by-laws. Moses-like, “Big Nelly” declared the right to extend the deadline. After some hemming and hawing, but little debate, the HRC voted for the extension.

Local pol watchers fingered this as a tactic to buy time so the GOOBERS (Good Ole Boys) might persuade Dave Rose to toss his tired old hat into the ring. The ol’ timers fear both Mike Marchetti and Denny Roach. Marchetti is “too young,” and Roach is an “outsider. Translation: We can’t control Marchetti, and we don’t know if Roach will obey. Like an old dog looking for a dark place to die, the GOOBERS sought out the familiar, the comfortable: “Let’s ask Davey!”

But this was all just bait and switch. It was never about Rose. It’s about Warner’s last desperate maneuver to keep his seat, and maybe, pocket a few extra bucks. Too bad for Butch that the plan hinges on a commodity that’s in short supply in the Town Hall- sympathy. Warner’s pitiable gamble began when he announced to the HRC that “nobody had bothered to ask” if he wanted to run again. This silly Shirley-Temple act backfired when George Todd leaned forward in his chair and boomed, “Bullshit!” Todd told the throng that Warner had been asked and had refused to commit. Butch played the pity card and went bust.

That launched the PR campaign. First Warner wept to the local papers, “The job don’t pay!” He complained, “I’m putting in 25 to 30 hours a week and I’m only making $21 thou!” Whaaaa??? Good Lord! 30 full hours? Wow, how does he ever survive? Natch, he left out the approximately 8 Grand he gets in benefits! Butch whines he’s overworked and underpaid.

His solution? Quit! Warner thinks we’re dumb enough to buy the notion that, “No dollars beats low dollars.”

Next his crew of carnival barkers hit the streets. “Oh, Hamlin really needs a full time Supervisor!” they ladled. But nobody wanted a taste. The public replied, “Yeah? For what ?” “We’re gonnna double Warner’s salary so he can work 40 hours?” And, “What’s he do now? Nothin’! More dough for more of nothin’. No thanks!” And, "There are a lot of people who think 30 thousand bucks for 30 hours a week ain't too bad. What's he think he's worth?!"

And it still doesn't solve his problem with the Gursslin settlement!

Butchy’s learnin’ that you don’t get much sympathy when you lead with both palms up!

Coming Soon to a Town Hall Near You!
Staring Austin Warner as the Monster, Pat MacIntosh as the Mistress with Jim Nesbitt as the Igor the Geek.

Hamlin's burning Ship of State



The Real Reason

Much of the community remains in shock about Supervisor Warner’s seemingly abrupt decision to step down. As The Blog reported the day before his announcement, rumors had been circulating that Warner was planning to quit. The reason cited by knowledgeable insiders was always, “health.” Warner told friends that while his health had taken a downturn, it was his wife’s concern for his well being that was driving his decision. This explaination was repeated so often that Warner was clearly the source.

In truth, Warner’s health is fine. Despite a bad cold and recent knee surgery he is as healthy as he has ever been. “Poor health,” is a cover story.

So is the feeble rationale he offered to the Hamlin Republican Committee on Tuesday night. There he claimed that the job did not pay enough money and he couldn’t support his family on the income from this part time job. Warner’s salary and benefits comes close to $30,000 annually. Not bad for a part time job. He also claims to be an ad salesman for a local publisher of a free newspaper. Can money really be the reason he is quitting? Six years into the job and he is feeling the pinch only now?

No, that storyline is also a cover up.

The real reason that Supervisor Warner is stepping down is because of pressure from the Town’s insurance company to settle the Larry Gurrslin “Wrongful Termination” lawsuit! Warner has been told he must settle or risk losing insurance coverage for the town!

He refuses to settle!

On October 13, 2003, Warner conducted a kangaroo court which resulted in a 3-2 vote by the Town Board to fire Hamlin’s Building Inspector, Larry Gursslin. The Supervisor’s persecution of Gursslin was extraordinary. Both Councilmen Paul Rath and Ed Evans went on record opposing the firing. They stated that the town had established procedures for terminating an employee and that these procedures were not being followed. Rath said that the Hamlin “Employee Handbook” laid out a clear process and it was being ignored. He warned that the town was opening itself to a lawsuit. Warner pressed the issue and Gursslin was terminated with votes from Warner, George Todd and Shirley Hollink.

Until now, most of the facts surrounding the Gursslin matter have been hidden from the public. However, a careful examination of public record sheds light on the events. In the summer of 2003 Gursslin served a summons on the homeowner of a very expensive property on Summer Haven Road. The summons resulted from the homeowner’s refusal to comply to an “order to conform” from the Building department. The order was to remove a fence which had been built in violation of Hamlin’s zoning code. The homeowner refused to correct the violation and enlisted powerful, “outside” political influences to help crush the complaint. This political leverage came in the form of a letter and phone calls from the homeowner’s neighbor. The neighbor is a well known Rochester attorney and allegedly very influential in the Monroe County Republican Party. In the letter he demanded that the Supervisor intervene in the zoning matter and menaced Warner with hints of serious political damage if the matter was not fixed. The implication was clear: Get your Building Inspector under control; leave my neighbor’s fence alone- even if it is a violation- or suffer serious political consequences from the Republicans downtown!

Warner crumbled. He rushed to Gursslin and demanded that the matter be droped immediately. Gursslin refused. He told Warner that it was a matter of law, that the summons to Town Court had already been issued and that it would be resolved by the judge. Warner was furious and commenced the action to fire Gurrslin. The community was startled by the speed at which the Supervisor drove the termination. He held a “special” town board meeting to set the hearing on a Saturday morning when he knew both Rath and Evans were out of town! Warner never revealed to the public, or the Town Board, what the rush was about. In fact, he was in a hurry because he wanted to fire Gursslin before the court date! With Gursslin out of the way, he could quash the summons! That is what happened.

Making matters worse, and in violation of the law, Warner purged town records immediately after Gursslin left office! This was reported, with photographs, on The Blog on Tuesday, October 21, 2003.

There is no doubt that Warner’s termination of Larry Gursslin was “unlawful.” There is no doubt that the Town of Hamlin will lose the lawsuit. That is what brings us to Warner’s sudden decision to quit.

People close to the legal negotiations have indicated that the town has made several offers to Gursslin to settle, but he has refused. The sticking point is an apology! Gursslin believes that the Town (Warner) severely damaged his reputation by not giving a public reason for the firing. By terminating his job, with only two months to go on his contract and failing to name a cause, the Town created an environment of speculation. That speculation has caused unmeasurable harm to his public reputation and made finding new employment difficult. He wants Warner to write, sign and publish a clarification of the matter and apologize for the action!

Warner refuses.

This, in turn, has created a very difficult situation for the company which provides litigation insurance to Hamlin. All insurance companies have a dollar range which they will pay out for various types of injury. This range will be negotiated with a plaintiff to settle their case. If the company feels their client is wrong, they offer a higher dollar amount. Hamlin’s insurance company has made it’s best monetary offer, but Gursslin won’t take it without the apology!

Larry Gursslin has not sued for money, he sued to recover his reputation. Only that will resolve the issue. It is likely that Gursslin’s own attorney has urged him to take the offer but he will not accept any conclusion which doesn’t include a published apology and clarification.

Warner refuses to apologize. Stalemate.

How does this lead to Warner’s decision not to run? Because he has been so intractable, and Gursslin so insistent about an apology, the prospect of a settlement is at an impasse. Gursslin is ready to take the matter to trial. Hamlin’s insurance company does NOT want that. Not under any circumstances. They know the Town was wrong, the termination was unjustified and, probably, that Warner acted illegally in destroying documents related to the matter! The insurance company does not want a trial because they are confident they will loose and, if there is a jury trial, the payout could be huge. The costs of litigation alone, separate from any settlement, would be far greater then the range of acceptable dollars usually offered in this type of suit.

The insurance company is in a terrible bind. Warner refuses to apologize, which is the linchpin for any settlement. If the matter goes to trial the outcome will likely be much worse then any settlement. What can they do?

Then can cancel Hamlin’s policy. They can force the Town to seek other coverage from other carriers at extraordinarily higher premiums. That is what they are telling the Supervisor. Apologize to Gursslin or the town’s insurance will be cancelled.

Warner still refuses. He is willing to jeopardize the legal well being of the entire community because of pride!

He has only one way out. He must get the insurance company to delay a trial until after the election. After the election, an apology to Gursslin will fall to the new Supervisor. Once inaugurated, the new Supervisor will quickly publish it and settle the case. Warner will retain his false pride and, possibly, avoid prosecution for destroying town records.

Those are the real reasons why Austin Warner is not seeking reelection.
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REPRINT OCTOBER 21, 2003**** REPRINT OCTOBER 21, 2003 **** REPRINT OCTOBER 21, 2003 **** REPRINT OCTOBER 21, 2003****


Getcha Free New Identity Here!

A new kind of “Open Government”

In these days of rampant identity theft homeowners are urged to protect themselves. Experts suggest that you shred bills, returned checks and bank statements so they are not plucked from your trash. They even advise that you remove subscription labels from old magazines before they are recycled.

But, here in Hamlin, that might not help.

The reason is the Warner Administration has adopted a new form of “Open Government” which puts many of us a risk.

The attached photos show several containers outside the Town Hall. These wer put outside yesterday. Outside for everyone to enjoy! Outside for the public to casually page through, or if you like, take a handful of files home for yourself to enjoy later.

What are in the piles? Town records. Specifically, old Building Department records. Documents which include: Building inspection reports on people homes and businesses; site plan maps, correspondence between the Building Department and various governmental agencies; letters from attorneys; copies of deeds; transfers of property. Your basic stuff.

What is the matter with this town? At a time when there is a legitimate risk of identity threat, the municipality puts hundreds upon hundreds of records out in the parking lot for all to share. The files are filled with people’s names, addresses, phone numbers and correspondences. It is mind boggling.

Setting aside the horrific breech of customer confidentiality, there is an equally troubling question as to why these records are so suddenly being dumped.

We all remember the events at Enron and Global Crossings when incriminating documents were destroyed to prevent their discovery. Why are these records, some of them dating back to only 2002, being thrown away now? Is there a relationship between the sudden firing of the Building Inspector and the rush to destroy documents from his department?

Gursslin has said that he was never confronted with charges or allegations of wrongdoing so he believed his dismissal was arbitrary and capricious. If it is true that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, then it might benefit the town to destroy hundreds of records in anticipation of litigation. Is this possible?

Whatever the motivation, the sudden public dumping of a large number of documents- into the public parking lot for all to grab- is a distinct violation of public trust and government responsibility.


Helpy Selfy