It has come to my attention that Cape Vincent councilman Marty Mason was appointed to the position of deputy supervisor of the CV town board.
That is a rather frightening prospect!!!
I'm still trying to pin down details, and a comment left on my blog under another post suggests I should view the TB video.
More later
STOP, The regional wind energy industrialization of one of New York State's most beautiful and environmentally sensitive areas, the 1000 Islands of the St. Lawrence River and the Golden Crescent of Eastern Lake Ontario. If you don't think you are seeing the most recent posts click on the current month in the archives to the right.
What is up with the people in Cape Vincent? Is there something toxic in their water?
ReplyDeleteHow could they make Mason Supervisor(deputy) , or even a town official?
Wasn't he investigated by the AG for ethics violations?
Didn't he try to pass an illegal voting law?
Didn't he help set up an illegal water district?
Sounds like a dismal person to have in any leadership role.
Yes to all your questions. You raise a very interesting question as the WHY Mason was selected, however, keep in mind his appointment is supposed to be temporary until councilman Bragdon returns.
ReplyDeleteTHEY ( the people of CV ) didn't make Mason the dep. supervisor. That was the singular choice of the town supervisor Mr Hirschey who by law has the right to pick whomever he pleases.
He doesn't even have to select a fellow town board member who can vote. Remember he previously replaced Bragdon who wasdoing fine as deputy and duly elected by the people, with Dick Macsherry who was not elected to a town board position, and would also have no voting power. Macsherry later stepped down for personal reasons.
But even so Mason is a very odd choice by the town supervisor who ran on a platform of ethics and who many thought was "anti wind". It would be hard to find anyone who was more controversial than Mason in the CV wind battle.
When one considers Mason's illegal voter law, and law suit it makes this choice by Hirschey very peculiar since Hirschey and his candidates have gained office by the very seasonal votes M. Mason was desperately trying to shut down in one way or another.
Current NYAG Schneiderman called M. Mason's illegal voter law unconstitutional. Yet Mason refused to rescind the law when given a chance, but a vote by the rest of the board rescinded the bogus law.
Seems to me a man who has no grasp on voting rights or the Constitution that he took an oath to uphold as a councilman should not be the dep. super. or have the access to the town checkbook.
Seems like a bit of a slap in the face to seasonal voters who put and kept Hirschey and crew in office.
But it is not just Mason...Karen Bourcy who was also under investigation by the NYAG and voted despite her deep conflicts of interested with wind developers remains to this day on the planning board as an alternate, and was appointed to that position by the supposed "ethics minded" and supposed "anti wind" Hirschey board.
I find it interesting in the video of the Thur TB meeting that Councilman Byrne raised no objection to the Mason appointment.
Go figure! Maybe there IS something in the water or maybe it's the long hard winter.
The other Cape blogger,JLL, blamed the seasonal folks for letting Mason get elected in Nov. Maybe this is a payback by Hirschey. Very strange indeed.
ReplyDelete8:26 PM Well CV politics is so screwy I wouldn't discount anything, but I don't think that is the case.
ReplyDeleteJLL and the rabid Hirschey supporters were so desperate to make it appear they had won against BP they fostered the idea we as a protest front had won and a lot of that was due to the Hirschey govt. and its participation in Art 10.
That is more fantasy than real. BP walked because of the changing economics around wind energy. keep in mind they got out of solar before that, and tried to divest their wind portfolio, not just in CV.
Fact is in their desperation to show their wind law and Art 10 appeasement was correct they gave the impression that it was over with wind and we were home free. I believe this erroneous message led a number of seasonal voters to think the threat was over and switched back to voting at their other residences.
JLL and other screwed the pooch by promoting a false reality of the wind threat and why BP actually left. Wiley should stop blaming the seasonal voters since a great deal of the problem in the last election was related to his message after BP left.
The renewal of Galloo Is. should be a severe wake up call.
Fact is we sit on a good wind resource in the view of wind developers. AND the bigger issue the Hirschey WPEG endorsed board wrote a wind law that actually ALLOWS some wind development, so to appease the horrific Art 10 which stole our rights to home rule on energy project siting in our communities.
THAT is what we should be dealing with as local communities, rejecting Cuomo's Art 10. It is a much bigger threat than the Safe Act or the delusion that SASS designation is a threat.
People need to wake up as to what is an imagined threat and what is a real threat.
In addition about the last CV election. I believe Oswald lost because a number of Hirschey supporters simply don't like her and didn't vote for her because she is outspoken and didn't always play by the script. Bragdon once told me to my face he thought Oswald was difficult to work with, and Bragdon is an extreme Hirschey loyalist.
And Hirschey and Bragdon were once willing to appoint Paul Aubertine over her for a open council seat, but fortunately that got squashed
Marty Mason is in office in my opinion because the JLL blog and the Hirschey loyalists dropped the ball.
And as long as we are talking about that, note that Mr. Hirschey who has considerable political capital in Jeff. County and at the state level never that I could tell publicly endorsed John Byrne when he was running for NY Assembly against Russell. With Byrne losing by a slim margin that public support might have been critical.
I found that real strange...wonder if that plays into why Mason is the deputy supervisor.
If you look a the CV wind battle history, it is real strange for Hirschey to appoint Mason. Maybe he figures he will heal the community!!!!
Those people both local and seasonal in CV who truly oppose wind development I hope will figure out what the hell is really going on in CV before it is too late.
So basically, you're agreeing with JLL that Mason got elected because many seasonal residents failed to vote in Cape Vincent, and the locals were to stupid to vote for someone else.
ReplyDeleteOne reads comments on different articles and letters to the editor, that Cape Vincent's economy is in the tank. No wonder, when the voters show such little respect for their own community by electing leaders such as Mason. Sad.
What the hell's up with the extra charges for water?? Somebody on the town board better make sure this is on the up and up. Mason can't be trusted. Doesn't the state comptroller have a responsibility to make sure the water rates are legal? This could be Mason's way of sticking it to the people of Cape Vincent. Something smells ,and it ain't the new sewage treatment plant.
ReplyDeleteSorry but I have not really kept up with the water issue basics. maybe one of my readers can answer...or go to a board meeting and ask questions at the privilege of the floor where the answers will be on video ...If they answer.
ReplyDelete4:38 Sort of ... agreeing with JLL but the more important question is WHY did some seasonals not vote?
ReplyDeleteWhat worries me is people think the threat is over and Art 10 is a process that will protect us as long as we have a zoning law and we write letters. And I think JLL and some Hirschey supporters gave a dangerously erroneous impression on that account.
Art 10 would not even exist if the energy companies thought it was actually going to be an impediment to their agenda and bottom line ($$$$$)!
I think a tremendous opportunity was squandered while we had the votes when the town board tried to appease Cuomo and Art 10 and wrote a wind law that actually allows some wind development. That is a terrible message to send to the state, when we could have banned wind development and opposed Art 10.
We sent a message that indicated we MIGHT be willing to accommodate wind development. Look across the river at the Wolfe Is. wind farm. It doesn't seem like a brilliant idea to invite even the chance of more wind development near the 1000 Islands. Yet that is exactly what the Hirschey board and WPEG supported.
I have no problem with the SASS proposal but it has raised a lot of controversy, but there are also other approaches that could be done through outright banning wind development and also an approach put forward with the free Community Environmental Defense Fund with community rights laws.
A lot of Hirschey supporters thought the Art 10 wind law route was the right one...but never forget the reality was that Art 10 was never tested in CV...BP just walked away before the process was complete, and the way the process worked up to that point in my opinion was a disaster.
Despite what fantasy you might hear from JLL and Hirschey and crew we don't have a clue if our law would have been upheld or overridden by Art 10 with BP.
The difference is JLL wants seasonals to shoulder the blame when in fact he and the WPEG Hirschey crew may have given a false impression of safety and the seasonal walked away to vote elsewhere.
doesn't bode well for the future of your town. What a scenario! Didn't Bragdon once state in a public meeting that he didn't think Mason was fit to run for office? Now ,while he's in a hospital bed Hirschey appoints Mason to replace him as deputy supervisor? YIKES is right! You can't make up this kind of stuff.
ReplyDelete4:40 I had forgotten, but I think you are right about Bragdon's past comments on Mason.
ReplyDeleteThe long lasting damage wind developers did to this town should be a graphic lesson to any community faced with a wind proposal.
It's very sad.
If you take the whole wind issue out of the equation, you still have a town that was run by some (not all) unethical people with insider deals and disdain for the minority who make up the majority of the tax revenues. I think wind became a wake up call which was good, but we must continue to keep our eye on those in politics, regardless of party, and ensure they represent ALL the people.
ReplyDelete