The Anthony R Canna Thread

[|- Amherst Stakeholder -|]

The Amherst Town Board reportedly was to meet today to consider the fate of one of it's (former?) employees. It was said that he didn't do his job adequately enough. And legal wrangling led to a judge recommending that he be fired. He has reportedly been on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the charges lodged against him. [If reports are accurate, he's collected somewhere in the $150,000 range without doing a lick of work for the Town! Add that to the cost of legal services, and the Town Board & taxpayers have should be outraged.]

I do not know what the Town Board will do or has done in the matter... though I'd like to know.

In general, I believe that at some point the Town Board must start holding employees accountable for their actions -- regardless of the employee's service status. And, yes, making an example (within the boundaries of the law) is absolutely in order. A message must be sent to all that draw pay from taxpayer funding that it is expected that they meet and exceed the requirements of their job description. "Adequate" is not good enough in today's environment.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I hope the Town Board chooses to carry out the judges recommendation. Anyone know what happened?

[WNYresident]

$150,000?

Exactly what did this man do? Outraged.. i'm surprized they haven't been tar and feathering the town board.

[Publius]

Originally posted by |- Amherst Stakeholder -|
In general, I believe that at some point the Town Board must start holding employees accountable for their actions -- regardless of the employee's service status. And, yes, making an example (within the boundaries of the law) is absolutely in order. A message must be sent to all that draw pay from taxpayer funding that it is expected that they meet and exceed the requirements of their job description. "Adequate" is not good enough in today's environment.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I hope the Town Board chooses to carry out the judges recommendation. Anyone know what happened?
Well, just got back from some business out of town ready and was ready to chime in with my thoughts on the Tony Canna and industrial pellets, but thanks Stakeholder for already aticulating my position perfectly. Clearly this is a case where political loyalty and the employment structure of Amherst Government punted responsibility big time. With any luck (haven't heard how the meeting turned out yet) Dan Ward will once more be in the minority opinion and this matter will finally be settled.

To go beyond the points already made by Stakeholder about the cost of this controvery and his salary to stay away from Amherst facilities and the legal fees to handle his competency hearings; let's not forget that it was Canna's vehement argument that he knew how to run the new pellet-making procedure and that the product was deficent that led to a wasteful lawsuit against the company that sold us the device to make the pellets. That lawsuit went against Amherst and cost us not only our legal fees but those of the company we sued. ::Insert sarcastic remark here::

For anyone who's curious, a fairly accurate explanation of the whole Canna saga is still available in the archives of Joe Illuzzi's site
http://www.politicswny.com/readLetter.asp?ID=22

[Publius]

P.S. I'm still curious why these hearings stretched through the fall and couldn't be announced until after the elections. Couldn't have hurt Ward that he didn't have to face questions about a patronage appointment that screwed up on the same scale as the types of things he carped on about Giambra doing.

[AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH]

I was at the afternoon session where the fate of Mr. Anthony Cana was deceided . He was dismiss as an Amherst Town Employee. He lawyer informed the attoreny who was handling the case for the Town that Mr. Cana will be bringing a lawsuit against the Town. The vote for his dismissal was 4 to 1. Mr. Ward voted for Mr. Cana's right to keep his job. Shelly Schratz and Bill Kindel were not present.

[Publius]

The legal bill that never ends...

[WNYresident]

You know why this stuff never end, we do not have the best or the brightest in all the elected positions.

[|- Amherst Stakeholder -|]

Canna's going to sue the Town??? Any remote respect I have for him just disintegrated. Fine, let him sue. Let him get defeated! I cannot fathom that he would have a solid case -- otherwise he'd have presented it already.

[WNYresident]

I always assumed when someone is not qualified for position you get rid of them. WHat is so hard to understand about that?

[|- Amherst Stakeholder -|]

Originally posted by AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH
I was at the afternoon session where the fate of Mr. Anthony Cana was deceided . He was dismiss as an Amherst Town Employee. He lawyer informed the attoreny who was handling the case for the Town that Mr. Cana will be bringing a lawsuit against the Town. The vote for his dismissal was 4 to 1. Mr. Ward voted for Mr. Cana's right to keep his job. Shelly Schratz and Bill Kindel were not present.
Possibly a little late in questioning this, but...

Anyone know why Schratz & Kindel were no-shows for this meeting? If there are legit reasons for their absence, no problem... however, if they simply whimped out and didn't want to be on record one way or another, then they should be exposed for being babies.

[WNYresident]

Now why would ward vote to keep his job when he states he's supposed to be looking out for the resident? If this person wasn't the best choice to work for the resident then he should be dismissed..

Are all politicians hipocrites?

[AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH]

I believe Dan Ward ,who hired both Tony Cana and Paul Bowers at the same time really believes that Cana was set up. He strongly feels since Bowers was Tony' boss and knew full well what was happening at the plant concerning the co-mimgling process. Bowers gave permission to use this process to Cana that both of these men if they are guilty should be fired. I
In case your interesred Bowers, the Town Engineerinng is still using the process that Cana was found guilty of using co-mingling. The Board knows it,too. This process puts us in noncomplance with the DEC which can bring huge fines but Amherst does have a friend in the DEC,l the agent in charge of our area,Phil Smtye who has said he's never heard of a process called co-mingling. I would recommend that this agent be check out to his level of knowlegde concerning Waste Water Treatment plants.