John Byrne Running for NYS Assembly - Does His Record Support His Political Rhetoric?

Cape Vincent councilman John Byrne is running against incumbent Assemblywoman Addie Russell for the NYS 116^th Assembly District seat.

John has some big bold rhetoric about what he intends to do if he gets to Albany.  Particularly about NY Gov. Cuomo’s Safe Act gun control legislation, and “cleaning up Albany corruption”. 

Of course if you have been around Cape Vincent for a while there is an actual record we can use to see if Byrne is willing to do what he is schmoozing the voters with.

So let’s see if his past record actually supports his rhetoric.  In my opinion …it doesn’t!  And NNY voters should know about it and examine it closely.

Now let me make a couple things clear before I go on. 

First I am NOT a supporter of Assemblywoman Russell.  These comments are NOT on her behalf.  Byrne’s record is what it is for bad or good and stands on its own. And my comments are not all negative.

Two… unlike many voters who will go to the polls to consider Byrne with only the political hype in their minds, I actually know the guy and had the opportunity over about 6 years to work closely with him on the Cape Vincent industrial wind issues. Many many conversations, phone calls, emails, and meetings.  So when I comment, I do know something about this guy, how he thinks and reacts, far beyond the media hype, and political ads put out for your “public” consumption.

But first let me give credit where credit is due.

On a personal level I believe Byrne is generally a nice guy and family man.  Also I will always give Byrne credit for his bold moves against unethical former Cape Vincent town officials and their wind energy lease conflicts of interest, by personally video taping, at his own  risk, town meetings to expose what was going on.  He was threatened with arrest by the former town supervisor Tom Reinbeck, but stood his ground, and won that battle since Reinbeck and the board looked like fools as the police arrived and informed them Byrne had a right to have a camera in the meetings. 

Those videos helped spur an investigation by the NYS Attorney General’s Office under Cuomo as AG into wind lease conflicts of interest by former Cape Vincent town officials.

However, after Byrne was thinking of running for town council and was elected as a Wind Power Ethics Group candidate and Urban Hirschey (town supervisor) board candidate, he appeared to lose his spine for opposing wind energy and on  other issues. He went through a weird political metamorphosis for Hirschey.

  In fact in my opinion current town supervisor Urban Hirschey was not against wind energy (even said so on TV) over all.   Even though Byrne was sometimes really upset by Hirschey’s stance in his comments to me, but  he seemed to become a rubber stamp for whatever Hirschey wanted.

You see,  Hirschey is a very important Republican player in Cape Vincent and around Jefferson County and the State with close ties to people like former and powerful Republican NYS Sen James Wright, now the head of DANC and Byrne knew taking a stance to really protect his community and the 1000 Islands against wind development wasn’t as important as protecting his political future. 

Byrne has always had big dreams about moving up the political food chain and rubbing elbows with the big boys in Albany.  THAT is what is really at the top of Byrne’s agenda, not so much  the other rhetoric he is spouting off. 

A look in town records concerning votes and minutes, and letters will verify that the supposedly independent Byrne was pretty much a rubber stamp for Hirschey and his board.  And I’m holding a flyer from Byrne right here that claims he is our independent candidate for the North Countrty.  Byrne made it known he was the ultimate “team player.”  He wasn’t about to truly stand up against wind energy or anything else Urban Hirschey wanted.  And when the political pressure is on down in Albany he will be a good team player too and isn’t likely to upset any apple carts despite his rhetoric.

If he gets to Albany he is  not very likely to take on the big boys.

In fact when Byrne was considering a run for CV council he initially made a statement that he was against industrial wind energy development in CV.  He even put that out on the CV blog JLL. But I’m sure Wiley removed it long ago.  Don’t want that record around for people to examine.

But then the social political heat started.  He complained to me he was suddenly getting the cold shoulder from Hirschey and the Republicans attached to Hirschey because of his stance.  Hirschey even told him he was probably unelectable.

Well it seems John suddenly saw his political life flash before his eyes and had a sudden epiphany, since he really needed to attach himself to Hirschey Republican ticket, since Hirschey and former CV councilman Clif Schneider (another one not really opposed to wind energy) were also running for election.  Byrne desperately needed on that ticket to win and for his later political plans. The last thing he wanted to do is show any independent thought against wind energy.

Suddenly Byrne decided to play nice and that was the last we heard of any anti wind statements or attempts to ban wind in the CV zoning.  Can you say flip flop?  In fact in 2011 at the CV  Meet the Candidates Night I asked Byrne before he spoke whether he would come out against wind development in CV.  He said he couldn’t, implying he would get crucified by his fellow WPEG/ Hirschey Republicans if he did.  And this is the guy we are supposed to believe is independent and going to stand up to the big wigs in Albany? I don’t think so!

Today Mayor Graham of Watertown had Byrne on his radio call in show….and here is the real kicker…I got an email apparently mistakenly from Byrne (since we really don’t see eye to eye any longer and we haven’t talked in a couple years) and he suggested supporters should call in to field him some “easy questions”  Easy questions????   Seriously????

Apparently the independent tough guy wanting to go to Albany to face the entrenched Albany political elite, and who is supposedly going to clean up Albany and repeal a very popular governors Safe Act didn’t actually want to have to deal with any tough questions in public!!!!  

  Maybe Byrne can go to Albany and ask them some polite “easy questions” about corruption as he cleans up Albany!

Are you kidding me!!!  THAT is the real John Byrne I know!

 I was lucky enough to get a question in to Mayor Graham’s show, and I am sure after a couple seconds Byrne knew exactly who it was. Below you can see the question I asked.  In his response he called me an “anti wind person thumping on him”  Poor boy!  Wonder how he will react in Albany when the powers that be start thumbing on his effort to clean up Albany???

My radio show question:

“Mr. Byrne… as a member of the CV town board it was widely thought you and the board where anti industrial wind energy, yet you personally voted to approve a zoning law that allowed some industrial wind energy development, and that also heavily promotes solar energy. 

You willing signed off on this zoning law,  and on several letters in town record from your board that even supported Gov. Cuomo’s Art 10 process that expedites the siting of these energy sources while at the same time removing critical home rule on these zoning issues.

In addition, both of these are unreliable energy sources heavily dependent on NYS and Fed tax payer subsidies where in fact NYS allows NYSERDA to tax rate payers electric bills which are then doled out as subsidies including to large corporations who develop these unreliable energy sources.

So as  a Republican who claims to be on the side of the average middle class NNY voter why did you support this zoning law allowing these unreliable heavily subsidized energy sources at NYS tax and rate payer expense, and support Cuomo’s process to expedite them.

So what is your stand on wind and solar in NNY?”

Of course as a true politician, Byrne dodged the question.  In fact when you look at Byrne on TV and in the media he rarely takes a real stance on anything controversial unless he knows it is a real safe bet.  Here in Upstate he knows he is real safe opposing the Safe Act gun control and cleaning up Albany corruption.   Otherwise he is vague, changes the subject, or flip flops all over the place.  Case in point is his answer to my question.

Referring to my question about wind energy, “he believed in letting the communities decide.”  He said he was a “community guy”.

So in regards to CV and my question, what the hell does that mean?????

Mayor Graham was savy enough to call Byrne on that comment, saying that in CV it was not a clear cut issue either way, and that the community was badly divided on the wind question. But he didn’t push Byrne far enough to get some real answers or insight into his real thinking or record.

Of course Byrne managed to deflect the Mayor’s comment.  One thing you can say about Byrne, he WILL make a great  Albany “politician”!

Of course this is the vague flip flop answer he hopes the listeners will suck up on both sides, especially since he was anti wind, but now knows he needs the farmer vote who generally are the ones hosting wind energy on their land.

 

He even pandered further and indicated the Maple Ridge wind project might be OK in it's place.  Why is Byrne a Republican, and one would think a fiscal conservative looking out for us as NNY middle class tax payers willing to tinker with the free market and play favorites to support a heavily subsidized unreliable power source that needs huge NY and federal tax payer subsidies to even be able to compete?

He is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

So let’s look at Byrne’s comment in light of my question and how it represents a clever duck and weave, and how it is so representative of Byrne and his actions.  I think it is time for NNY voters to think on this before they vote.

So he’s a” community guy???”  OK.  So that means if heavily tax payer subsidized wind and solar and their dismal output that will severely damage our community are OK by community consensus, that he is for them?

Or… as long as the community(s) is/are for industrial wind energy even though it would have a tremendous negative impact (which Byrne can clearly see on Wolfe Is. from CV) on one of NYS’s treasured scenic and recreational areas, the 1000 Islands, he would be ok with that?  Is this really who we want as a steward of or natural NYS treasures? “If the community wants it, or the community should decide” in this case is pure political bullshit and pandering. Sometimes you have to show leadership and take a stance.

 Or like in CV which was divided he would be for AND against them at the same time?  OR for a compromise even though the electric rate payer and tax payer suck up the bill?  Gee I thought he was a good Republican who would be against useless subsidies burdening the average middle class citizen he reports to defend.

And the Mayor didn’t mention that the Zogby poll on wind energy in CV done by a town board Byrne supported actually indicated that more people were for wind energy in some form than against it.  

So by Byrne’s criteria of being the “community guy” and the Zogby poll he should have supported intermittent unreliable and heavily subsidized wind energy development at tax payer expense that would be a disaster for the 1000 Islands.

Now Hirschey supporters and supportive CV blogs like JLL where spouting off that most of the community was against wind development.  OK, so if that was the case then why didn’t Byrne stand up to publicly oppose wind development in his community. What’s the problem?  After all he told Mayor Graham he was a  “community decides guy”, and the community according to his local Republicans was definitely anti wind. So why not ban wind energy outright  But Hirschey wasn’t anti wind, and Byrne probably knew he needed the farmer vote if he ran for Assembly in this district.

Well in fact… he did vote for Hirschey’s zoning law that allows some wind development in CV despite the media hype that he and his board where “anti wind”. They weren’t and scammed their supporter and voters on that account. 

He also supported the CV Comp Plan and zoning that heavily supports solar as well.  Mainly because Hirschey wanted it and in fact put up his own solar project.  And in fact when the town supervisor put up and had to take down that solar project that was illegal according to CV zoning, and this and another solar zoning screw up created an embarrassing zoning fiasco I  uncovered and was even splashed on the Watertown Times front page,  what did Byrne do?  Absolutely NOTHING.  He didn’t object or even say a word about it. Not even when the CV Zoning board of Appeals approved very questionable permits for another illegal solar project under legally questionable conditions.

Of course Urban Hirschey is the town supervisor, and Byrne’s political ticket so he isn’t about to bight the hand that feeds him politically.

He can’t even stand up to his CV board, the supervisor, the zoning or planning board officials that support Hirschey right here in little CV when two solar projects were clearly illegal, even the supervisor’s project.  And this is the guy who is going to be intendant  and take on Albany corruption and repeal the Safe Act of a very powerful and popular governor?????  Seriously????

 And one average middle class citizen, like the ones Byrne claims he will support and defend was badly aggrieved by this screwed up zoning process.

So what did Bryne do? 

Well, when the zoning officials, along with the town board Byrne sits on went into damage control instead of doing the right thing and dealing with badly screwed up permits and zoning process hurting an average CV citizen, Byrne must have agreed.  He did nothing, said nothing, didn’t object, and as far as I know never even talked to the citizen involved to hear her concerns.  He was too frightened of the political blowback and couldn’t even defend one average CV citizen, how is he going to defend the average citizen in his district???

Byrne didn’t exactly side with the “little guy” as he implies in his political hype nor did he act responsibly in a town crisis! You can see this solar zoning mess revealed if you go back to July – Oct of 2013 on this blog.

Once again, John Byrne’s actual record doesn’t match his current rhetoric about being tough on Albany. Based on this, when the big boys in Albany start putting pressure on him and start schmoozing him…how do you think he will react???

And about that idea  Byrne is a “community guy” and the “community should decide.”

Hmmmm…that does add up either.  Pure nonsense.  Let’s see how Byrne reacted when the ability of his community to decide was actually severely threatened and still is. There is an actual record to compare against his community rhetoric.

When BP was threating CV with a huge invasive wind development, they applied under Cuomo’s Art 10 law and process that essentially can remove a community’s home rule rights on wind energy or any electric power plant siting with the ability to override a community zoning law a wind developer might think is too restrictive.  It is a direct attack on community rights to “decide” their own land use on a local level on critical or invasive land development. 

The town board of CV choose to engage with BP in this insidious process instead of taking alternatives to battle against it. And they and Byrne were presented with alternatives that they ignored.   They refused, like a number of counties and towns, to even pass a symbolic political resolution to oppose Art 10.

Ironically Byrne initially was a member of COAX that was a NY grassroots organization formed to oppose Art 10.  But what happened when Art 10 came to his very own community with BP and his community was in crisis? He flip flopped!  When his feet were actually put to the fire in another  town crisis, he caved into an insidious process he was previously opposed to that could override “community rights” to decide.

Why?...because this was the path Hirschey and his board (some who were NOT against wind energy) had determined and Byrne went right along without question.

So let me get this straight.  When push came to shove in a critical community crisis, Byrne the “community should decide guy” couldn’t even defend critical home rule rights…so they actually could decide!!!

So much for Byrne’s “the community should decide rhetoric!”  Once again he folded to what Hirschey wanted.

The Hirschey govt (along with Byrne) caved into Art 10 and tried to appease it with a zoning law that accommodated some wind energy and solar.  In fact they at one pointed sent a letter to the NYPSC and Art 10 board to appease them saying they thought the Art 10 process was balanced, fair,  and even handed.  This would be the exact same process that that removed community rights on this issue…and Byrne went right along and signed that letter.

It’s in town record and on the NYPS website for the BP and Art 10 process involving CV.  Apparently Byrne agreed that legislation that removed critical community rights was somehow fair and even handed and balanced approach...God help us!

When the town found out that a NYPSC high commissioner was actually the wife of the BP lawyer in the Art 10 process with CV the town should have been livid and vehemently protested.  Nope…just more polite letters.

So when this happened where was Byrne who is supposed to be the big clean up corruption in Albany guy?  He was silent and instead signed those nice polite letters to the NYPSC!!!

He wasn’t about to challenge Hirschey.  And this is the guy who is going to stand up and clean up Albany.  I seriously doubt it!

And on that issue of cleaning up govt. He had the perfect opportunity to do it right in his own town govt. 

 

After he was elected on the Hirschey ticket it wasn’t long before appointments had to be made to the town planning board.  One person who had deep wind lease conflicts of interest through her family relations was up for re-appointment.  She had previously voted on wind issues despite her conflicts, and those votes were critical in expediting the wind developer agenda.  In fact at that point she was still technically under an NYAG investigation along with others over conflicts of interest.  Yet after running on an ethics platform with Byrne to get elected, Hirschey decided to re-appoint this conflicted person as an alternate to the planning board anyhow. And of course whatever Mr. Hirschey wanted Byrne was very quick to support and voted for her appointment as well, despite her conflicted history and votes.

Byrne had the opportunity to continue to ethically clean up his own small govt but failed to even do that.

I will have more on Cuomo’s Safe Act gun control legislation and the reality of Byrne’s claim to repeal it in another post.