Another Shoe Has Dropped
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- January
- 14
We called this one right. Bill Ryan, the Democratic bossman of the county board of legislators is consolidating his power again.
Just as we predicted last month, he has awarded his pliable toadies and punished his opponents. Today, he named seven new committee chairs and as we suspected he would do, he awarded Jose Alvarado of Yonkers the budget committee chairmanship. Alvarado is not a bad guy, but fully expect he’ll rubber stamp everything the boss orders him to do.
Of the four Republicans on the 17-member board, only one got a chairmanship. That was Bernice Spreckman, who heads up the generational, cultural & ethnic diversity committee. Hardly a critical job but like chairmanships it comes with a stipend sweetener. And Spreckman has never given Boss Ryan a hard time, particularly on his grab for a pay hike.
Ryan also eliminated two committees—the appointments committee and public works, transportation and parks. This is his way of saying he’s cutting back on governmental excess. But while he’s at it, he could probably slash at least three more committee, including Spreckman’s.
This entry was posted
on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 6:55 pm by Phil Reisman.
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Phil Reisman is a veteran journalist and native of Westchester County. He began his career in 1977 as the head copy boy of a startup New York City newspaper that quickly went belly up. Reisman was not to blame for the newspaper's failure, or so he claims.
7 new chairs. Pretty soon, they’ll have a dining room set. And, as nature dictates, there is an ass for every chair.
Get a life Phil.
Why do they need committees, when all they do is obey Ryan?
Oh, I forgot. They get to hire their nephews & nieces as “Committee Aides”.
Jake must be one of those nephews.
Westchester’s not quite Chicago under Richard J. Daley—yet—but it’s getting there, slowly but surely. Let’s put together a flow-chart of new County appointees since 2000, with their relationships to the elected officials who appointed them. And check the merit exams.
Every time a shoe drops up there, the public gets laced. We lose another bit of our “sole” and another heel is appointed chair of something or other. It’s high time we gave them the boot. I’m sure a lot of us would get a kick out of that!