Those Other Sidney Warriors

You know, every time I think this Sidney vs. the Sufi thing is about to go away … it doesn’t.

And why not, you may ask?

Because evidently our trusty Town Supervisor, affectionately known here as King Bob, has all the public relations skills of your average two-year-old.

Our friends at The Watershed Post have a thorough but succinct summary of what happened at last night’s Town Board meeting.

He is in a mess of hot water — which I guess he doesn’t have to care about since his term won’t be up until 2013, at which time (he has said) he will not run for re-election. And this thing will not go die because he refuses to (a) clarify for the Sufi that their private cemetery is legal and (b) he refuses to apologize.

(Parenthetically, I’m kind of wondering if this whole mess really has seriously impacted U.S.-Arab relations on the international stage or if that is an exaggeration. So far as I know, King Bob has not yet received a call from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or President Obama. Of course, if he did get such a phone call, he might not answer … )

This is about some of the most amazing political theater I’ve ever watched. I mean, I have never seen anybody in public service alienate so many different sets of people and isolate himself so thoroughly.

Not ever.

Not even Richard Nixon was this maladroit.

Meanwhile, I’m sure Mr. McCarthy must still have some supporters somewhere in Sidney but they seem to be very quiet and low-profile right now. Go figure.

At this point, I don’t really have much to say about the entire thing, except to paraphrase a Woodrow Wilson quote that somebody repeated to me today:

“Don’t shoot a man who’s committing suicide.”

After all, overkill is so tacky, isn’t it?

He finally did it. Bob McCarthy has finally provoked me into taking him on in public.

It all started with an exchange between our Supervisor and Susan Sklenarik in the pages of the Daily Star. Sue was basically complaining that McCarthy was a little off to be focusing on his evident one-man campaign to get rid of the STOP-DWI program instead of his required paperwork for the Comptroller’s office.

Mr. McCarthy responded by sniping at her about said program, lying about his tardy homework and accusing me of breaking campaign finance law.

I’d provide a link to his letter, which was published in the Daily Star on July 16th, but I haven’t been able to find it online. I guess it didn’t make the cut for the online edition. (If you find it, please post the link in the comments. Thanks!)

UPDATE: The eagle-eyed Sue Sklenarik found the letter in question! It’s here, second letter to the editor on the page. Thanks, Sue!

My response, which should be appearing in the Daily Star very shortly now, was as follows:

It had been my intention to remain more or less silent about what has been going on with the town government since January but, since Supervisor McCarthy has dragged me into the debate, I believe there are some things that need to be clarified.

First, Mr. McCarthy writes, “The quarterly financial report was filed long ago.” In fact, the report had not yet been filed as of the June Town Board meeting, so it is unclear what qualifies as “long ago” in Mr. McCarthy’s lexicon. And his assertion that “we not aware that it was required” is simply untrue, since that requirement was discussed in public at the May 13 Town Board meeting when the report was only a few weeks late.

As for my 2009 campaign for Town Supervisor, I designated the Sidney Democratic Committee as my campaign committee for financial reporting purposes. The Sidney Town Committee filed all appropriate reports with the State and County Boards of Elections and itemized every donation we received in excess of $99, including that from Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee.

I completely fail to see what my campaign has to do with Ms. Sklenarik’s concerns but, in any event, the Sidney Democratic Committee’s financial filings are a matter of public record. Five minutes’ research at the NYS Board of Elections web site and Supervisor McCarthy might be able to avoid embarrassing himself like this in his next bait-and-switch attempt.

I recall a lot of rhetoric from Mr. McCarthy about openness and transparency when he was running for office. Yet, he trumps up this silly and irrelevant campaign against STOP-DWI, is careless about his fiduciary responsibilities as Town Supervisor, and is rude and defensive when a voter attempts to hold him accountable. It seems to me that Sidney deserves much better.

Dawn Rivers Baker
Chair, Sidney Democratic Committee

I’ll be interested to see what Mr. McCarthy has to say about that.