Early winter in Glenville: Snowflake GOP Supervisor & Town Board members attack political cartoon

Glenville saw an early flurry of snowflakes and faux outrage last night, with the Town Board passing a resolution (starts at minute 46) condemning the Daily Gazette for publishing a cartoon critical of police brutality.

The cartoon

The resolution, sponsored by town supervisor Chris Koetzle and his majority Republican caucus - deputy supervisor Gina Wierzbowski and councilman Jim Martin - was a late addition to the meeting’s agenda, and was not included on the advance agenda provided online for the media and town residents.  Koetzle, who is also the chairman of Schenectady County's Republican Party, explained in his remarks that he felt “adamant and strongly” that the resolution go forward.

The text of the resolution, read into the record by Wierzbowski, accused the Gazette of “unjustly characterizing law enforcement in a disturbing and detrimental way,” which was “inaccurate, demeaning, and hateful,” before going on to demand an apology by the Gazette.  

The resolution further said that the purpose of the cartoon was to “incite anger in the community and further perpetuate negative feelings” toward law enforcement, and even called upon federal hate crime laws to be amended to include police as a protected class.

After reading the resolution, Wierzbowski said that the cartoon had made her “sick to her stomach.”  Not to be one-upped, fellow Republican councilman Jim Martin, sporting a blue lives matter mask, called the cartoon an “awful, awful thing to publish” and “completely inaccurate.”

The 2018 cartoon, which did not prompt
a resolution of denunciation 

Koetzle said that the “unfair, not true” cartoon “perpetuated hate,” but more interestingly asked a rhetorical question of the Gazette’s publisher and editor, “if it wasn’t law enforcement,  and if it was anything else that you did that to would it fly?  Why’s it only okay when its law enforcement?”  It appears that Koetzle’s memory is shorter than most, having forgotten that the Gazette just two years ago attracted national outrage after publishing, in the midst of the family separation scandal, a right-wing cartoon depicting an MS-13 gangster at the border with a baby saying “How could you separate a loving father from his newborn son?”.  No resolution condemning the Gazette was passed by the Glenville Town Board at the time of that cartoon.  Nor was one passed by any of the county's Democratic-controlled municipalities, who might have heard of freedom of the press at some point…

The hysterical outrage over a cartoon drawing attention to police violence is in contrast to the lack of any outrage expressed by Koetzle, Wierzbowski and Martin over police violence itself.  No one should be surprised to see this from the county’s Republican chair and his top two lieutenants, why would they be any different from their party’s leadership statewide and nationally?

Solomon Syed OUT at Spectrum News: What’s next for SoloSy?

Tuesday brought news, broken by the Times Union, that Spectrum News’s Solomon Syed will be leaving the network.

Solomon, a Niskayuna native and the brother of town supervisor Yasmine Syed, with whom he shared a dorm in college, is known in the Schenectady County town for his hotheaded temperament, having last year lashed out at the teenage daughter of Yasmine's Democratic opponent at an event hosted by the town’s Co-Op grocery store.  Solomon was also, in 2017, involved with his mother in an unhinged Facebook fight, operating under the thinly veiled pseudonym Solo Sy, against numerous town residents in defense of Yasmine.  Both incidents prompted complaints to Spectrum management by town residents, although they are not believed to have played a role in his departure.

In the Times Union’s article, the sneaker-obsessed 38 year old recommended that those interested in his next move follow him on Twitter or Instagram.

While Solomon does have a law degree from Quinnipiac, he is not licensed to practice in New York, making any such career shift unlikely. 

Some town residents speculate that a shift into Republican politics or right-wing media is probable, although others believe it is more likely that he will land in a communications gig at Ellis Hospital, where his father is Chief of Surgery.  Ellis previously hired Yasmine to be their father's "operations and practice manager."

One potential political landing spot for Solomon is the administration of controversial, Twitter-hooked Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, who is in need of communications help as he heads into a surely contentious 2021 re-election fight, and has had friendly interviews with Solomon in the past.  The two could pair nicely if they split social media trolling duties between platforms..

CHAIRMAN CLUELESS: Ostrelich, county health chair, admits she has no idea what is going on at Health Department during pandemic

 

Schenectady County Democrats were on edge Tuesday evening after the sudden departure of Public Health Director Lisa Ayers was compounded by a train-wreck interview on the topic given by County Legislature Health Committee Chair Michelle Ostrelich.

No public announcement of Ayers's departure was made, and rumors began to circulate widely after employees received correspondence signed by a new "interim public health director."  This led to the Daily Gazette's Pete DeMola contacting Ostrelich, the county health department's chief oversight officer, for comment, to which she "seemed unaware" of the situation

Ostrelich's grasp of her job's duties was thrown further into doubt when she told DeMola that she was "unclear on the process for hiring a new director".  So not only was she unaware that the director of the largest department she oversees had left their vital position during the deadliest pandemic in a century, she also has no idea how to replace them...

In her capacity as health committee chair, Ostrelich oversees the county's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which had already been derided by The Daily Gazette as "unacceptable", due to its minimalist approach, saying that "local leaders haven’t shown them how to wear a mask, or discussed the need for social distancing or even offered public condolences to the families of those who have died. "

We really shouldn’t be shocked at incompetence from Ostrelich, an ex-Bush Republican who did not vote in the 2016 presidential election, according to Board of Elections records, but the lack of surprise doesn't make the situation any less concerning.  As Bob Herbert of the New York Times said about Michelle's favorite 21st Century president, George W., "There are few things more dangerous than a mixture of power, arrogance and incompetence"....

(Open Meeting) Lawlessness: White male member of Niskayuna's Racial Equity Task Force convenes ANOTHER secret meeting

The Observer has learned that Jon Lemelin, the white male who has self-appointed himself as leader of the Town of Niskayuna's Racial Equity Task Force, has called a second secret meeting of the group.  This time, violating the spirit of the state’s Open Meeting Law by telling the Task Force's members that only seven of them may participate - thus avoiding a quorum in an attempt to skirt legal requirements that the meeting be open to the public, and that minutes of the meeting be kept for taxpayers to review.

As you may recall, last week, Lemelin called a meeting of the Task Force's entire 15-person membership under the guise of socializing, a clearcut violation of the Open Meeting Law.

Lemelin summoned only six of the task force's members to last night's meeting in a cynical attempt to avoid falling under the Open Meetings Law's jurisdiction by lacking a quorum.  This is despite having called the meeting for the purpose of preparing the task force's business, which the Court of Appeals has held should be subject to public scrutiny in Orange Pub. v. Newburgh, affirming the Appellate Division in finding that "every affirmative act of a public official as it relates to and is within the scope of one's official duties is a matter of public concern" and that "it is the entire decision-making process that the Legislature intended to affect by the enactment of [the Open Meetings Law]" (60 AD 2d 409, 415).

Lemelin's decision to hold another meeting is particularly shocking given that he has bragged to town residents of having convinced the Daily Gazette that “there’s nothing to see here” regarding his first illegally convened meeting.  It is also took place amidst the continued outcry demanding the removal of all white members of the task force, as detailed in last week's article, and rumors of a new, thus far unidentified effort to sue the town over the racial quotas outlined in Councilwoman Rosemarie Jaquith’s resolution establishing the Task Force (Resolution 2020-189). 

The week's events have left many puzzled, as they so directly contradict Lemelin's past statements on government transparency and the Task Force's leadership.  Just two weeks ago, in a letter read at a public session of July 28th's Town Board meeting, Lemelin said that he "believe[s] that this task force should be led by People of Color, specifically African-American members of our community," but within days he was scheduling secret meetings and maneuvering to take over the Task Force.  Why the sudden sea change on such a basic and fundamental issue?

The secret meetings, and calculated attempts to undermine the state's Open Meetings Law, also come in sharp contrast to the image Lemelin cultivated for himself as a government transparency activist throughout 2019, when he spoke at Town Board meetings in June, July, and November to demand various changes to the town's ethics code, criminal statutes, and meeting practices which he claimed would promote transparency, despite the suggestions falling largely outside of town jurisdiction.

Lemelin's November remarks on the topic of record keeping at Town Board meetings are particularly of note, having said "its in the interest of transparency" for the privilege of the floor remarks of non-governmental personnel "to be documented in the meeting minutes", and that he "would hate to see the town go in the opposite direction and actually withdraw transparency".  So to be clear, Lemelin believes that the musings of non-governmental officials must be documented in the official record for public scrutiny, but he himself convenes unannounced meetings of governmental bodies, of which no record whatsoever is maintained for the taxpayers to scrutinize?

The issues raised by this situation are numerous.  Why does Lemelin continue to flaunt the law?  Who appointed Lemelin - a white man - to lead this task force?  Who is empowering Lemelin to take these actions, that clearly violate the spirit, and sometimes the letter, of the Open Meetings Law?  And most importantly: Where are town officials and why aren’t they speaking out?  

There are some good people on this task force and they want to do good work. However, the Observer questions Lemelin’s motivations.  We call on the Racial Equity Task Force's membership to reject Lemelin’s (and others behind the scenes) manipulative power grab and meet out in the open.  We also urge town decision makers to wake up, pay attention, do their jobs and give the Task Force a scope of work, rather than leaving them to work from Councilwoman Jaquith's brief resolution, which does not provide any guidance for Task Force members. 

Protecting the interest of the taxpayers by scrutinizing a government-sanctioned group with no clear jurisdiction, which is seemingly being co-opted by a politically motivated leader who only respects the law when it’s convenient doesn’t make anyone a racist.  Not doing so makes you incompetent - or worse.  

Broken System: Nisky Racial Equity Task Force convened for secret meeting by white man

The Observer has learned that Niskayuna's Racial Equity Task Force met last night in an unannounced, secret meeting convened by white, male panel member Jon Lemelin.

The meeting, which as of 10 PM on Wednesday evening was not listed on the town's meeting schedule as legally required,

The Town's meeting schedule as of 10 PM
on Wednesday night, with no public notification of the
Racial Equity Task Force meeting (click to enlarge)

violated New York's Open Meetings Law, which mandates 72 hours notice of any meetings be given to the public and news media.  The law unambiguously applies to all public bodies, and committees or subcommittees thereof, no matter whether elected or appointed, at all levels of government in New York.  

The template circulated by Niskayuna
schools alumni (click to enlarge)

Lemelin's appointment, along with the committee's other white members, set off a social media firestorm in Niskayuna, particularly amongst college-aged alumni of Niskayuna High School, who expressed outrage that qualified applicants of color were passed over.  Two alumni organized a campaign urging Town Board members to vote against confirmation of the Task Force's membership, circulating a template to be used while writing e-mails to Town Board members.

The Task Force's first meeting was legally scheduled for August 26th, as noted on the town's schedule, but the group was convened last night, in violation of state law, at the insistence of Lemelin.  This left residents, reporters, and interested people of color unaware that the meeting was taking place, and rendered viewing the meeting impossible for non-members, as no public video stream was made available.

At a time when residents are calling for the white members of the Task Force to resign, it's baffling that one white male seems to have been put in charge of the group.  Who empowered him?  Why wasn't the public told about this meeting?

Federal suit: Niskayuna Police delayed medical care to teen with cracked skull

Michael Stevens, Niskayuna’s Deputy Chief of Police, who was conspicuously passed over for the department’s top job after Chief Dan McManus’s mysterious suspension last week, is named in a previously settled federal lawsuit as having ignored the urgent medical needs of a 16 year old petty larceny detainee with a cracked skull. 

Frenyea

The 16 year old, referred to as S.A.M. in case files due to their age at the time of the incident, suffered “severe and permanent” damage as a result of being slammed head-first into the pavement outside the Consaul Road Hannaford by an off-duty Schenectady patrolman who spotted S.A.M. leaving the store with beer, which the fleeing teen had already dropped prior to being caught by the pursuing plain-clothed, off-duty officer.

S.A.M. was subsequently placed into custody by Stevens and fellow Niskayuna patrolman Todd Frenyea, who later became president of Niskayuna's police union and is now a sergeant.  The two Niskayuna officers then transported the teen to the department’s station at Niskayuna Town Hall rather than Ellis Hospital, despite the 16 year old suffering from injuries severe enough that they ended up in intensive care for multiple days afterwards.

Stevens in 2018, photographed
by the Daily Gazette

The suit alleges that Stevens and Frenyea’s delaying of medical attention for the teen contributed to the severity of their injuries, a claim supported by the City of Schenectady in its own crossclaim against the Town of Niskayuna, Stevens, and Frenyea.

The claim, settled for $112,500 by the City of Schenectady prior to trial, would have been much costlier to Niskayuna taxpayers had the incident taken place after Governor Cuomo signed the Andrew Kearse Act this June.  The new law, passed overwhelmingly by the state legislature in response to the in-custody death of a Schenectady man, affirms that police have a duty to provide or obtain medical assistance for those in need of care who are under arrest, and provides a specific civil cause of action against officers and departments who fail to exercise due care.

Stevens is deeply connected in Republican politics through his brother, Scott, a senior Republican operative implicated by New York state investigators in a campaign finance scheme to improperly finance attack ads in “several senate races” during the 2012 general election.  As the Republican nominee for Town Board in 2007, Scott responded to then-Sergeant Fran Wall's sexual discrimination lawsuit by speaking in support of the police department as "all good people, all good cops."

Ignoring a teenage detainee's medical emergency seems like a decent hypothesis for why Stevens got passed up for Acting Chief while the Board tries to bring forward much needed reform in a post-George Floyd era...

Nisky's Wall becomes first woman police chief in County: Overcame career full of obstacles

Niskayuna’s newly appointed police chief, Fran Wall, overcame a mountain of obstacles to become the first woman to lead a police department in Schenectady County.  

Chief Wall takes over a department in turmoil, with Chief Dan McManus suspended, rumors swirling around Deputy Chief Michael Stevens - who was noticeably bypassed to be interim chief - and decades of systemic misconduct by the department set to come to light with the repeal of 50-a taking effect.

The new chief is uniquely qualified for the herculean task ahead: she has been working to root out corruption and misconduct within the department for over a decade, and had been subjected to retaliation for doing do.

Punished for ambition

Wall first joined the force in 1986, working undercover at the then-Mohawk Mall before beginning as a patrol officer.  Troubles arose, however, when Wall began to show interest in promotion to the rank of sergeant.

Having once been sent for trainings, such as to become a Field Training Officer, by department administrators, Wall’s relationship with management changed, and they began to treat her differently, she said in a 2008 deposition.

When an exam for sergeant came up in 1993, Wall finished first on the civil service list but then-Chief Mark Sollohub refused to recommend her for the position, instead sending male patrolman Leroy Wyman’s name to the Town Board for promotion.  The Board declined to follow Sollohub’s advice though, and made Wall the department’s first woman sergeant.

Wall’s promotion only accelerated the harassment of her, however.  She soon found herself being called off of patrol, back to the station, or yanked out of line-ups in front of the officers on her shift, on a near-daily basis by then-Deputy Chief Darryl Ostrander.

In the same 2008 deposition, Wall said that Ostrander would do “anything to get my officers to feel as though I had done something wrong, and I had done nothing wrong”.  During these meetings, Ostrander would sometimes tell her that women shouldn’t be cops, and that there were plenty of people who wanted her job so she should go work at McDonalds.  

Chief Sollohub, who’s office was next door to the deputy chief’s, knew of these incidents but they persisted for nearly a decade, until Ostrander’s 2003 retirement.

A culture of sexual harassment

Chief Wall began her climb through the ranks in a department which did not have any sort of sexual harassment policy until 2006, her 20th year on the force, and where rampant sexual misconduct, including by those of the highest ranks, was often left uninvestigated.

Lew Moskowitz, photographed by the Times Union

From 1995 to 1999, then-Detective Sergeant Lew Moskowitz would routinely follow female officers into their locker room, and refuse to leave until they would show him their bra.  Chief Sollohub would often stand outside during this and yell out “Moskowitz are you in there again?”  One officer, who had undergone a lumpectomy, had a harassing drawing of a deformed breast appear on her locker and immediately suspected Moskowitz, as only he knew which locker she used due to his routine trespassing.  

Despite complaints about the drawing being submitted to Chief Sollohub by multiple female officers and the Union, no investigation was conducted into it or Moskowitz, and Sollohub went on to promote Moskowitz to lieutenant and recommend that Moskowitz replace him as chief in 2005.

Sollohub’s lack of interest in conducting any sort of investigation should come as no surprise, as he himself is accused in sworn testimony of having referred to his secretary as “Betty Kotex”, in reference to the feminine hygiene products, in front of an entire departmental shift.

Promotions denied

In 1999, the Department received funding for two new lieutenant positions.  Two provisional lieutenants, including Moskowitz, were appointed pending a civil service exam in 2000.  Wall began preparing for the exam, but soon found herself confronted with anonymous threats, and requested an outside agency be contacted to investigate, but nothing was done by then-Chief Sollohub.

Wall ultimately scored ahead of both provisional lieutenants on the exam, but was passed over for promotion, with Moskowitz moving up despite finishing behind her on the exam.

The harassment of Wall took a new form after her first attempt at a lieutenancy.  In fall 2001, she was injured on the job, and spent about 6 months on leave while rehabilitating.  During this period Chief Sollohub forced her to seek permission from his office every time she left her house, which had never been required of a male officer.  This continued even after Sollohub promised the Union that he would stop.

By 2005, another lieutenancy had opened up in a reshuffle caused by Sollohub’s retirement and Moskowitz’s promotion to provisional chief, and Wall again pursued the job.  By the time the civil service exam was scored, it was clear that Wall had received the highest score, with Tom Constantine as the only other eligible candidate.  

Stan Fiminski

Moskowitz, not wanting to promote Wall and fearful that Constantine would dislodge him as chief (Moskowitz’s appointment remained provisional until the next exam for chief), refused the list, instead opening up the process to promote Stan Fiminski, a sergeant who had not even taken the exam.  This was despite the fact that Fiminski had a long disciplinary record, which included domestic violence, harassment of subordinates to the point of a nervous breakdown, falsifying the timesheets of a subordinate civilian employee he was widely believed to be having an affair with, and complaints from civilians that he targeted women for traffic stops and sexually harassed them.

Fiminski was subsequently promoted to deputy chief by Moskowitz before retiring, becoming a major Conservative Party power broker in Niskayuna, and ultimately becoming Deputy Supervisor of the town under Yasmine Syed, a position which he remains in today.

Blowing the whistle

By November 2005, Wall had finally had enough, and filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC’s investigation, which interviewed numerous officers, concluded in September 2006 that Wall had been discriminated against, this unsurprisingly though led to visceral retaliation against Wall.

Dan McManus

In 2007, the position of detective sergeant, which carries a higher salary and better position in the chain of command, became open.  Rather than follow the department’s general orders, which required applications to be sought and interviews held for the position, then-Chief Moskowitz bypassed the proscribed process by, on May 25th, directly promoting then-Sergeant Dan McManus to the position.  McManus, who is at the center of the current town policing scandal, had only one year of experience as a sergeant compared to Wall’s then-14 years.  

In January 2009, Senior US District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy, a former Republican politician and conservative Reagan appointee recommended by Senator Al D’Amato, found that “a reasonable fact finder could conclude that gender-animus motivated the chief’s decision to appoint McManus to the detective sergeant position without interviews or applications from interested sergeants.”

One month after being bypassed for promotion to detective sergeant, Wall experienced much more personal retaliation when Moskowitz attempted to punish her, and tarnish her spotless disciplinary record, for being late for a shift after assisting her elderly mother during a medical emergency, despite it having been cleared with then-Lieutenant John Lubrant in accordance with standard procedure.

When Wall arrived for her shift, after rushing back to Niskayuna from the Albany Medical Center, she was summoned to Moskowitz’s office, where he attempted to issue a formal reprimand and dock Wall’s vacation time.  Moskowitz demurred after Wall’s Union counsel suggested that the punishment appeared to be retaliation, but in a fit of anger refused to turn over documents he had prepared for the meeting.

Taking over

Wall remained a sergeant from 1993 until she was finally promoted to lieutenant in May of this year.  A popular officer throughout town, many are thrilled to see Wall promoted, but are equally shocked to see it finally occur.  With police reform a pressing issue both nationwide and in Niskayuna, Chief Wall has a chance to leave her mark, and move the department away from its long tradition of looking the other way...

Loony Lemelin: Compares Democrats to Anti-Semitic Murderers

Niskayuna gadfly Jon Lemelin took to the Facebook comments section of an interfaith vigil Saturday night to compare local Democrats to the very Anti-Semitic murderers the vigil was being held in opposition to.  This is the latest in a series of dramatically over-the-top statements by Lemelin in response to an early-November mailer decrying a history of workplace and domestic violence by Niskayuna Supervisor Yasmine Syed’s deputy.

Lemelin is the husband of Tina Lee, a former California Republican political appointee, who had unsuccessfully sought the Democratic endorsement for Supervisor against Syed, but was defeated by life-long Democrat Lisa Weber. 

Since Lee’s defeat, Lemelin has become an increasingly prominent cheerleader for Syed.  In one noted incident, Lemelin wrote a November letter to the Daily Gazette attacking Democrats for sending out mail against Syed; even though Syed herself sent out negative mailers attacking Weber and Town Clerk Michele Martinelli.

Using an interfaith vigil against anti-semitism for political grandstanding is a new low though, even by Lemelin’s standards...