You Are Going to Give the Zoning Law to WHO Mr. MacSherry????

The Cape Vincent Zoning Committee came out a couple of days a go with some ideas and options for regulating industrial wind turbines.  I will comment on that in another post.  But
I did find the comment by CV Planning Board Chairman Dick MacSherry rather interesting, and not without current significance if you know some of Mr. MacSherry’s historical  actions regarding wind developemnt in CV.  It is reported the Mr. MacSherry told the committee that after all the comp plan and zoning work was completed he would forward the plan to BP’s project manager Mr. Gross.  Now it is hard to tell exactly what that means. Maybe he would like to clarify those statements.   At what point will this happen? Will it happen before the public has had a chance to see the law and comment at a public hearing?  Will it happen before the lawyers and county have looked at the law?  I hope not.  And geee why would I be concerned and sensitive to this matter?????

I think it is ludicrous to make ANY special accommodations for BP and Mr. Gross, and I am not sure why MacSherry thinks this would be necessary, even as a courtesy in any way.   We are not zoning for BP.  We should be zoning for the health, safety, and welfare and aesthetic protection of the community, and frankly I don’t give a damn what BP or Gross think about the law.  They can come to a public hearing just like the rest of the public, and see the law for the 1^st time and comment even though that is likely to be a dog and pony show. And I will probably explain later at some point why I say the hearing is a “show”  based on some actions some members of  our current zoning committee have already  taken to completely ignore detailed public input…maybe even walking on a very thin legal line in doing so. Another thing you will not hear about on JLL or Pandora’s.  Anything else by either MacSherry or any other town officials or boards to accommodate BP on this law means that BP is driving the zoning process and would make it a complete sham.

Now why should this statement by Mr. MacSherry concern us as CV citizens?  This is also stuff you won’t hear on the other blogs. Well, Mr. MacSherry was selected by Mr. Hirschey to represent WPEG on the 2008/2009 wind law committee formed by Rienbeck when Mr. Hirschey was unable to attend those meetings over several months.  MacSherry agreed. I was invited to a meeting at Mr. Hirschey’s house with others to help update Mr. MacSherry back in 2008 on what we knew about the convoluted and unethical CV wind situation up to that point. Ultimately Mr. MacSherry agreed to sit on the committee in place of Mr. Hirschey, and he became a key player on that committee. However, not long after those wind committee meetings started MacSherry bolted from WPEG and made it clear he was an independent player and not representing WPEG.  That struck me a little screwy, or should I say pissed me off,  because he was specifically picked to represent WPEG not himself. He wasn’t picked to be an independent. But I guess he thought he knew better than those of us that had already worked on the wind issue in detail for a couple years.   Rienbeck had picked Hirschey I would suppose to represent the primary opposition interests even though the committee was heavily stacked pro wind.  It was basically  an eye wash scam I am sure was created by Osterman Whiteman and Hanna the Albany pro wind lawyers to try to make a case against the ethics and make the wind law fly.  Got to make it look all slick like the public actually had input. I even put a letter in the WDT to that effect in 2008 right after the committee was formed.  What this effectively means is that MacSherry took it upon himself to go independent and make a point of saying he was not representing WPEG and thereby leaving the committee and WPEG without ANY effective representation from WPEG, the only recognized wind “opposition” group. Thanks Dick!!! I’m not sure how Mr. Hirschey felt about this development. I guess he wasn’t too upset ultimately since he selected MacSherry for a rather powerful position as PB chair. Does this mean Mr. Hirschey condones some other questionable judgments of Mr. MacSherry as you will see here ????  And this was even after MacSherry decided it was in good taste to enlighten the public on Hirsheys personal health issues during the 2009 election campaign.  Remember that…that was real classy. Although you won’t hear this in other places, but there were a number of people in WPEG that were not real happy about MacSherry’s committee move or his later cozying up to the Rienbeck gang when he ran for office in 2009.  There are a number of key players in the wind issue who are not real trusting of Mr. MacSherry, but won’t say so publicly. He even supported Rienbeck on the camera issue where Rienbeck tried to have John Byrne arrested over the camera/video issue.  He and I had some sharp words in that meeting, and I was stunned by that move.

But now history has come directly back to our door step in a very relevant manner with Mr. MacSherry and this is why your antenna should go up when we hear MacSherry say he will give the new law to BP and Gross. 

This is not the wind history you are going to hear much about on JLL or Pandora’s for a couple reasons.  One, their allegiance to the Hirschey board and zoning committee will not allow them to tell this truth in any detail, and second they don’t really know much about it because they were not there 1^st hand.  In fact the 1^st time Wiley at JLL blocked my comments was over comments I made about MacSherry last summer similar to here after Wiley proclaimed that MacSherry was competent and capable of running the planning board.  My personal experience says otherwise, but Wiley apparently didn’t want this truth out there and refused to give it anymore light.  And this is only part of the story concerning Mr. MacSherry. But you will hear it here because it is very relevant now.

After the 2008/09 wind committee  MacSherry, unknown to WPEG, or the public met privately with the wind developer project managers of Acciona an BP in Rienbeck’s office with Rienbeck apparently, and were allowed to go page by page through the new draft law and raise objections.  Now this was BEFORE the public had any real official knowledge of what the law said or had been put to public hearing WTF!!!…and this was around the  time MacSherry was beginning the cozying up to Rienbeck and the gang deciding to run for office himself. So I'm guessing that is why Rienbeck picked him for this little private get together.  I even saw him campaigning with them in the same car near my cottage in fall of 2009. I don’t know why they didn’t stop by my house!!!  He had mentioned to me that he thought Rienbeck and  the board were ok just misguided and in over their heads on the wind issue. Yeah I guess that would be an understaement, not to mention UNETHICAL as hell!!!!   I guess he was the genius to set them and us all straight. At least that was the basics of his comments. MacSherry told me personally that the wind managers had so many objections in this private meeting that he and Rienbeck finally told them to put them in writing for consideration.  I dubbed this the “Real Wind Law Committee”, Rienbeck, MacSherry, and the wind managers in a cozy little private meeting in Rienbeck’s office.  My reaction to MacSherry in a conference call with WPEG and himself was “Are you out of your mind!!!!!!”  I could not believe what I was hearing after all the work I and others had done objecting to secret meetings and the entire ethical cesspool that had gone on up to that point.  MacSherry was even livid over  the WPEG ad I designed exposing in detail all the unethical relationships between board members and the wind developers.  He apparently thought it would piss off Rienbeck and keep him from passing the wind law he worked on.  I told him that law is going nowhere and Rienbeck and that board will never pass it no matter what, and the pro wind stacked committee was a sham from the get go.   History proved me right on that.  And he didn’t seem to get it that 2 of 3 conflicted board members would have to be allowed to unethically vote on it for it to pass and be defended against a pro wind super majority challenge. They should not be voting on any wind issue one way or the other.  It was a terrible idea and would have set a terrible legal precedent.

2009 Media event for Gov. Patterson at Wood Farm.  Dick MacSherry (red jacket)

our current Planning Board Chairman "yucking it up" with his

new found 2009 election campaign buddies Orvis and Rienbeck.

Sorry I missed the apparently good joke!

Same event, Mr. MacSherry at extreme left partially out of camera frame spots me with a camera. 

Apparently not so happy now to see me taking pictures of he and his new buddies.

I guess the joke was over!

So my friends… I would keep a very careful eye on  Mr. MacSherry if I were you in this matter of zoning laws and who he thinks he has a right to give them too and when, where and how. I would also consider carefully his past actions and judments, and why he is appointted to where he is now.  It will ultimately be the planning board under MacSherry's leadership that will deal with any BP project siting.  What people don't get is that despite any wind law the PB still has a lot of power in what the outcome will be.   I don’t care what Mr. MacSherry thinks, BP and Mr. Gross have no more right to see that law, no matter what, than you or I do until it is published publicly for public hearing.  And there is NO need for MacSherry to send Gross a special copy even after that. Let’s hope he isn’t now having private little conversations like before in Rienbeck's office... with Gross.   Gross can read, so let him find it wherever it is posted publicly before the hearings like the rest of us.  Mr. MacSherry is very welcome to come on this blog and clear some of this up if he would like. Somebody very highly visible in the wind issue who you might not ever expect once told me that if Dick MacSherry said it was raining outside they would damn well run outside to make sure for themselves!!!

Why don’t you send Gross flowers and a card too Dick!!!