We interrupt a planned piece of good news — about the new, once again free Schenectady DailyGazette.com website — to acknowledge the downside of having better, day-long access online to news about Schenectady: You get the bad news even faster. To wit:
“Savage headed for third term as legislative chairwoman” (Daily Gazette, Dec. 12, 2007). Breaking online news this afternoon squelched any hope that we had that some “real” Democrats, with real backbones, would reclaim the Schenectady County Legislature and unseat Susan Savage, when they chose a new Legislative Chair this January, under Sec. 2.06.8 of the County Charter. According to the Gazette:
“County Legislator Susan Savage is expected to win another two-year re-appointment as chairwoman of the Legislature during its organizational meeting Jan. 1.
“The Niskayuna Democrat’s appointment would be her third as leader of the 15-person Legislature, heading an 11-member caucus of Democrats.
“Democrats unanimously selected Savage for chairwoman during a recent caucus, said Legislator Vincent DiCerbo, D-Schenectady. ‘She is a strong leader,’ he said.
“DiCerbo also said Democrats appreciate her prominent role in “enticing Ray Gillen to come to Schenectady County.”
The fact that Susan Savage rammed through the preposterously unconstitutional Sex Offender Eviction law last summer and its faulty amendments, and thereby helped lose the special election to the State Senate, and has since then stuffed the Sex Offender Council with her clones and created further disdain for the Legislature, and engaged in lots of other high-handed conduct (e.g., vis-a-vis the Community College music department) that makes regular folk wince — while she is delusional enough to think she should be elected to Congress to replace Mike McNulty — should of course just be ignored by the Caucus.
encore (from Oct. 26, 2007): A truly scary Halloween scenario from today’s Schenectady Daily Gazette — an All-Susan-Savage Sex Offender Council.
What I need to know is Just What Are Your Afraid Of? You are elected officials, and don’t have the excuses that timid civil servants and managers might have.
I want the public to know that former judge Michael Eidens, although elected as a Democrat and respected throughout the community, has been treated like a pariah by the Democratic Caucus since he spoke out against the Sex Offender laws. Indeed, although Mr. DiCerbo told the Gazette that the caucus met and unanimously chose Savage to again chair the Legislature, Mike Eidens was not present and indeed had never heard about the vote until I called him late this afternoon to ask him about it.
DiCerbo says they chose Savage unanimously. I say they chose Savage pusillanimously. And our Democratic leaders are asking for a revolt within the party by people with a conscience, a brain, a heart, and a spine. There are a lot of us.
update (Dec. 29, 2007): Fans of integrity and thoughtful law-making received another blow yesterday, when we learned that Mike Eidens was resigning his position on the County Legislature as of January 1, 2008. See “Niskayuna legislator resigns: Eidens takes job as judicial hearing officer” (Daily Gazette, by Kathleen Moore, Dec. 29, 2007). Eidens’ new role as a New York State judicial hearing officer prohibits political activity such as serving on the legislature. As the Gazette reported, Eidens was “One of the two Democrats on the Schenectady County Legislature who opposed the controversial legislation restricting where sex offenders may reside” and the only one to vote against the revamped version of the law, which he believed to be “fundamentally flawed.”
We’ve reported that Eidens’ decision to oppose the sex offender laws earned him ostracism by the Democratic caucus. So, one can only smirk at the response of Susan Savage to Mike’s resignation. The Gazette notes Savage “did not mention his defection on that issue in her statement about his resignation.” She did say “Mike Eidens has been a valued member of the County Legislature.” and — with even more than usual political irony — “His expertise in legal issues was very valuable to the County Legislature and will be missed.”