Those Other Sidney Warriors

I’m so excited, I’m about beside myself.

At a meeting last night, the Delaware County Democratic Committee announced that our very own Pete Cordes will be honored as Democrat of the Year at the DCDC Annual Dinner on June 19th.

How cool is that?

There will be more formal announcements coming from both the County Committee and the Sidney Committee but I just had to share!

Congratulations, Pete! Well earned and well deserved!

I’ve been hesitating to say anything publicly about our new supervisor because I thought that my views would likely to be taken as sour grapes. But we have now reached the point at which it would be out of character for me to keep my mouth shut.

At least here, I’ll come clean.

I’ll say this much for Mr. McCarthy. He is certainly behaving like somebody who does not intend to run for office again and therefore he can burn as many bridges as he likes and not care.

He really is trying to run the town government like a business, which is an idea that has a certain amount of merit. But when it comes to asking for P&L statements from … well, everybody, that gets a bit unreasonable. The town government is not supposed to be operated on a profit and loss basis, after all.

Clearly, Mr. McCarthy is as good as his word and wants to squeeze every penny the town spends until it squeaks and begs for mercy.

Except, on the other hand, that the town’s new bookkeepers (who may or may not know what they are doing) recently had our new supervisor approve (but not sign) a check to the hospital for $50,000.

And Mr. McCarthy has said, in public and on more than one occasion, that he has no idea what that $50,000 was supposed to be paying for!

Now, besides the obvious stuff about how we really can’t afford to just “accidentally” give away a cool $50K at a time when every level of government is strapped for cash in this terrible economic environment, this matters because the town supervisor is legally required to disburse town funds in accordance with the previously approved (by the Town Board) town budget.

The money in question came out of the general fund, which is not the kitty from which the town’s obligations with respect to the hospital are supposed to be paid. And it does not appear to be a line item or otherwise approved expense in the budget.

Bob McCarthy has only been in office for four and a half months, and he is already breaking the law.

Fancy that.

I expect we need somebody from our local press corps to look into this stuff — hey, don’t just take my word for it! Maybe, if he knows people are paying attention to what he is doing, Mr. McCarthy will stop doing stupid but expensive stuff.

Maybe.

I’ve been asked more than once if I’m going to run for Supervisor again in 2013. It’s still a bit early for me to make that decision but, if McCarthy keeps this stuff up, I think I’m going to have to.