The NEW Mount Vernon City Council - Week (and a half) in Review

The first get down to business session of the new city council took place on Wednesday, January 13 and Maureen's four council lackeys wasted no time in displaying their lack of independence and leadership. The session started off with public comments by Scam Rivers directed at Councilman Steven Horton. Scam painted Horton as corrupt and unethical, and as usual, provided his own brand of fiction to back up his claims. After the public comments were over and the councilmembers offered their response, Councilman Horton took the high ground and stated simply that since he's been in public service he has acted honorably, ethically and above board. Sadly, when given the opportunity, none of Horton's colleagues on the city council spoke up on his behalf and it was quite shocking that Council President Edwards actually embraced Scam Rivers comments. Well, maybe it wasn't all that shocking since both Edwards and Rivers are under the thumb of the city's Comptroller and all are working together to stifle progress in Mount Vernon until the next mayoral election when Walker expects to be annointed Mayor. Those in the audience couldn't help but wonder how Councilman Horton felt sitting there as his colleagues, people he's known for decades, failed to call out Rivers for his wild and crazy accusations. In their first opportunity to display the leadership and independence that they crow so loudly about, the four failed miserably.



The shenanigans continued the following week at the Board of Estimate meeting. From various reports, it was a typically mundane meeting with routine matters being handled. However, when the official meeting agenda items were all completed and an adjournment was called for by the Mayor, the comptroller indicated to the City Clerk that there were still two items left to be discussed - unbeknownst to anyone in the room other than her royal comptrollerness and her puppet, the City Council President. These remaining items that she was referring to were in sealed envelopes, which were opened and then read to those in attendance. The first of these surprise items was legislation to eliminate the Office of the Inspector General. The second was to transfer the money budgeted under the IG's office to reinstate positions eliminated in the 2010 budget. Among those positions they tried to reinstate were the Chief Accountant position in the comptroller's office (an office that in 2009 had 7 people earning over $100k/year), and the Deputy Registrar's position in the City Clerk's office. In addition, they tried to raise the salary of the vacant part-time Legislative Assistant position from $34k to $50k and they sought to create a brand new position in the City Clerk's office titled Secretary to the Legislative Assistant at a salary of $52k per year. Now I'd like the taxpayers of this city to try and figure out just why a part-time assistant's position, which is essentially entry level work, needs a secretary which would earn more money that the person whom they would work for.



Fortunately, this illegal attempt by the comptroller and city council president was thwarted by the mayor who refused to allow this scheme to go through. It would be interesting for Walker and Edwards to explain to the taxpayers the logic behind such a move. The Office of the Inspector General was funded and staffed by Mayor Young soon after he took office has saved this city millions of dollars in fines and penalties from three high profile fraud/corruption cases that occurred during the Davis regime. Eliminating the OIG's office would send a clear signal to federal and state authorities that Mount Vernon does not have any interest in ridding Mount Vernon of the Davis era fraud and corruption and would put at risk both the city's finances and reputation.



Behind Closed Doors - are they allergic to sunlight?
Sadly, the four blind mice weren't finished with their funny business as a non-scheduled special meeting of the city council was called on less than 24 hours notice. Stymied in their attempt to illegally eliminate the OIG, they went and transferred monies around in the city clerk's budget lines to raise the salary of the vacant part-time Legislative Aide's postion from $34k/year to $85k/year. Again, this is a part time position that is typically filled by recent college grads and is more or less an entry level position, so perhaps someone from the new city council could explain why they felt the need to more than double the salary for this job. They could also explain just why they couldn't wait just 7 more days until the next regularly scheduled city council meeting to conduct this business in a public meeting. Or, are they trying to keep the public in the dark about their true agenda?



Although Edwards is the President of the council, it appears that councilperson Watts is the Walker Lieutenant who is leading this squad. In all, it didn't take long for councilmembers Watts, Edwards, Munro and Appuzo to show that they do not have the best interests of the taxpayer in mind and are more than willing to be led over the edge of a cliff by the pied piper in the comptroller's office. Unfortunately, it appears that they will be taking the rest of the city crashing down with them.