Lackawanna Council Debate

[Lorrie_Whitfield]

They are really trying to make Andrea and Dennis look bad. Grasping at straws to get a connection with the both of them. Everyone knows how they go around gossiping about Andrea. So now they are trying to toss the two together, using their ill feelings about Andrea to put a bad reflection onto Dennis. We really haven't seen anything that they are willing to do to win an election......doesn't matter to them how much it costs either.....that will be coming next. I am sure there are promises for $, jobs, etc. Basically they will sell their own souls for a vote and use the citizens in the meantime and then forget about the citizens right after the election. Proven time and time again!!! That is the set up!!

I already know one canadate that has promised people jobs. Unfortunally the people that he promised these jobs to are not qualified to roll out of bed. Its unbelieveable the lies that would be told to gain a vote....what they are not realizing is that some of these people probably don't even know how to vote or will be too drunk and vote for somone else.....

Just wondering what positions are open anyways......hummmmm???

[minimello]

Yes everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Here is mine. I'm not only one
of the few houses around, my house is less than a 1000ft away from the purposed Slaughterhouse on (S.Steelawanna ave),I've lived here 30 years and a taxpayer. I sure as H---don't want to look out my windows and see a place,hear animals being slaughtered,smell the smells(goats smell worse than pigs)fight the rats,mice,birds(seagulls)with their poop and diseases. I already have to clean poop and cement dust off my car.
norm and company made a Sensitive Business Negotiation without the input of the First Ward residents or other concerned citizens of Lackawanna.norm and company could've moved the purposed slaughterhouse to the country,to Bethlehem Steel anywhere including in their front or backyards. JUST NOT IN MINE.
Ridge Road is a Road well traveled.Imagine when FATHER BAKER IS CANONIZED and buses traveling thru (believe it or not they come thru the 1st
ward) imagine the smells they'll have to endure,and the image it'll leave.
Wake up folks this is not only a first ward problem.......IT"S A LACKAWANNA PROBLEM.
This is my fact of life.

[cath829]

I am curious as to the shipment / delivery of the live animals. Does anyone know? I find it funny that Sorrento isn't allowed to use Lackawanna streets for the milk trucks but we will allow live animals to traverse the city streets??? Just wondering what anyone else thinks about this?

[Lorrie_Whitfield]

yes everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Here is mine. I'm not only one
of the few houses around, my house is less than a 1000ft away from the purposed slaughterhouse on (s.steelawanna ave),i've lived here 30 years and a taxpayer. I sure as h---don't want to look out my windows and see a place,hear animals being slaughtered,smell the smells(goats smell worse than pigs)fight the rats,mice,birds(seagulls)with their poop and diseases. I already have to clean poop and cement dust off my car.
Norm and company made a sensitive business negotiation without the input of the first ward residents or other concerned citizens of lackawanna.norm and company could've moved the purposed slaughterhouse to the country,to bethlehem steel anywhere including in their front or backyards. Just not in mine.
Ridge road is a road well traveled.imagine when father baker is canonized and buses traveling thru (believe it or not they come thru the 1st
ward) imagine the smells they'll have to endure,and the image it'll leave.
Wake up folks this is not only a first ward problem.......it"s a lackawanna problem.
This is my fact of life.

so well said!!!!!!

[andreahaxton]

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andreahaxton
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Home > City & Region > Local Columns > Donn Esmonde


COMMENTARY
Donn Esmonde: Pork dollars are in essence buying votes
By Donn Esmonde
News Columnist
Updated: October 04, 2009, 3:59 PM / 11 comments
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Buzz up!
Santa Claus keeps coming to town. And coming. And coming. If you are a soccer league, fire department, AMVETS Post, Boys&Girls Club or similar group, there is a good chance that you are on his list.

The problem is that you and I are buying the gifts.

Taxes have risen into the ozone layer and a multibillion-dollar state deficit looms. Yet state legislators, in what amounts to vote-buying, get $170 million tax dollars to hand out as they please. By filling the wish lists of various groups, they buy the good will that helps them to repel campaign challengers and preserve a broken government.

It is enough to make me mutilate my I Love NY lapel pin.

The handouts are called “member items”—taxpayer dollars given to each state senator and assemblyman, with ruling-party Democrats serving the largest portions.

Leading the local pack of not-so-secret Santas is Democrat Bill Stachowski of Lake View. The state senator has this year spread $4 million (!) worth of taxpayer-bought “gifts” to 62 groups, ranging from the Empire American Legion ($5,000) to the Character Council of Hamburg ($10,000); from the Lackawanna Yemen Soccer Club ($25,000) to AMVETS Post 72 ($35,000).

All of which leaves those people— and their friends and family—more likely to vote for the Santa-impersonating politician.

Stachowski got a whopping share of “member item” dollars because he faces a tough race next year. But he and Democratic State Sen. Antoine Thompson ($1.2 million) are merely the leaders of the porky pack. Each of our 17 other state legislators gets a slice of a $170 million pie that is divided among all 212 state legislators (check the list at www.seethroughny.net ). This is the system, and it stinks.

It stinks because our tax dollars are used for what amounts to a campaign slush fund.

It stinks because some districts get more money than others. It stinks because groups that deserve tax dollars should get it directly from the budget. It stinks because candidates use our money to inoculate themselves against voter frustration. It stinks because it makes for unfair elections.

Republican State Sen. Dale Volker is the 18-term poster model for Albany petrification. He seemed ripe for defeat during last year’s wave of voter disgust. But the $2.5 million of “member items” that Volker-Claus sprinkled across the district, mostly in gift packages of $10,000 and $20,000, helped him to beat back a challenge from reformer Kathy Konst.

Konst said she would, on the campaign trail, walk into fire halls and community centers and “I was not welcome. People would say, ‘Well, Mr. Volker gave us all this money.’ . . . He would show up with these outsized, six-foot-wide checks. How do I compete with that?”

You don’t compete with that. That is partly why state legislators keep getting re-elected. These people are nearly impossible to unseat, despite voter disgust and a Legislature that long ago exiled ordinary taxpayers to the end of the line— behind municipal unions and other heavy political contributors.

If “reform” were not a four-letter word to legislators, they would put their $170 million “slush fund” back into the budget. But I do not want to sound delusional. This is Albany. Even lukewarm change—say, halving the dollars and giving each lawmaker an equal amount —seems beyond imagination.

“People should be outraged,” said Blair Horner of NYPIRG, the good-government group. “It is a political spoils system, and there is no defense for it.”

Even worse, there is no defense against it. Remember that the next time you see Stachowski,





This is a question that came up last week at the public debate that many of us need an explanation to, we did not know about this "pork money". I thought the state reps cut the budget to the bone awhile ago.
I am not trying to start something with this article----I am trying to end it.
Last week after I was told about the above article I asked a 16 year old from the First Ward if he goes to the Yemen Soccer Club Building on Ingham at Eaton to play pool and use the computers?. His answer was a flat no. I then asked, "why not?" Answer, "Because it is only for Arabic's". I had no answer. Ali, I am still waiting for an answer to give this child.

Sorry, I had posted on wrong thread----I guess question belongs here.

[14218]

So you asked a random 16 year old kid who gave you an answer based on his opinion, if there really is a kid or maybe u made him up. Thats what u just said, re-read your post. DIRTY POLITICS---

[zanna vaida]

I decided to jump into this conversation and state that your answer, Andrea, to this kid should be, "As a councilwoman, I'm not working hard enough to bring grant money to my constituents. Instead, I'm talking too much and too long about "Whatever." I should focus on my responsibilities."

Your facts are wrong. I hope you wouldn't comment.

Best,

[la_rez]

#4
andreahaxton
Gold Member


Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 136 Facts!

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Home > City & Region > Local Columns > Donn Esmonde


COMMENTARY
Donn Esmonde: Pork dollars are in essence buying votes
By Donn Esmonde
News Columnist
Updated: October 04, 2009, 3:59 PM / 11 comments
Story tools:
LargerSmallerSave
Print
Email
Get Alerts NEW
Share this story:
Buzz up!
Santa Claus keeps coming to town. And coming. And coming. If you are a soccer league, fire department, AMVETS Post, Boys&Girls Club or similar group, there is a good chance that you are on his list.

The problem is that you and I are buying the gifts.

Taxes have risen into the ozone layer and a multibillion-dollar state deficit looms. Yet state legislators, in what amounts to vote-buying, get $170 million tax dollars to hand out as they please. By filling the wish lists of various groups, they buy the good will that helps them to repel campaign challengers and preserve a broken government.

It is enough to make me mutilate my I Love NY lapel pin.

The handouts are called “member items”—taxpayer dollars given to each state senator and assemblyman, with ruling-party Democrats serving the largest portions.

Leading the local pack of not-so-secret Santas is Democrat Bill Stachowski of Lake View. The state senator has this year spread $4 million (!) worth of taxpayer-bought “gifts” to 62 groups, ranging from the Empire American Legion ($5,000) to the Character Council of Hamburg ($10,000); from the Lackawanna Yemen Soccer Club ($25,000) to AMVETS Post 72 ($35,000).

All of which leaves those people— and their friends and family—more likely to vote for the Santa-impersonating politician.

Stachowski got a whopping share of “member item” dollars because he faces a tough race next year. But he and Democratic State Sen. Antoine Thompson ($1.2 million) are merely the leaders of the porky pack. Each of our 17 other state legislators gets a slice of a $170 million pie that is divided among all 212 state legislators (check the list at www.seethroughny.net ). This is the system, and it stinks.

It stinks because our tax dollars are used for what amounts to a campaign slush fund.

It stinks because some districts get more money than others. It stinks because groups that deserve tax dollars should get it directly from the budget. It stinks because candidates use our money to inoculate themselves against voter frustration. It stinks because it makes for unfair elections.

Republican State Sen. Dale Volker is the 18-term poster model for Albany petrification. He seemed ripe for defeat during last year’s wave of voter disgust. But the $2.5 million of “member items” that Volker-Claus sprinkled across the district, mostly in gift packages of $10,000 and $20,000, helped him to beat back a challenge from reformer Kathy Konst.

Konst said she would, on the campaign trail, walk into fire halls and community centers and “I was not welcome. People would say, ‘Well, Mr. Volker gave us all this money.’ . . . He would show up with these outsized, six-foot-wide checks. How do I compete with that?”

You don’t compete with that. That is partly why state legislators keep getting re-elected. These people are nearly impossible to unseat, despite voter disgust and a Legislature that long ago exiled ordinary taxpayers to the end of the line— behind municipal unions and other heavy political contributors.

If “reform” were not a four-letter word to legislators, they would put their $170 million “slush fund” back into the budget. But I do not want to sound delusional. This is Albany. Even lukewarm change—say, halving the dollars and giving each lawmaker an equal amount —seems beyond imagination.

“People should be outraged,” said Blair Horner of NYPIRG, the good-government group. “It is a political spoils system, and there is no defense for it.”

Even worse, there is no defense against it. Remember that the next time you see Stachowski,





This is a question that came up last week at the public debate that many of us need an explanation to, we did not know about this "pork money". I thought the state reps cut the budget to the bone awhile ago.
I am not trying to start something with this article----I am trying to end it.
Last week after I was told about the above article I asked a 16 year old from the First Ward if he goes to the Yemen Soccer Club Building on Ingham at Eaton to play pool and use the computers?. His answer was a flat no. I then asked, "why not?" Answer, "Because it is only for Arabic's". I had no answer. Ali, I am still waiting for an answer to give this child.

Sorry, I had posted on wrong thread----I guess question belongs here.

So why didnt you take this so called 16 year old to the soccer club yourself and see if he would have been denied entry. I have been to the soccer club many times and there are always kids of different races there playing and studying together. Mr.Noman has dedicated his life to the children of Lackawanna. Go to the club and look at all the pictures on the wall and you will see that dating back years and years kids of all ethnicities have been a part of the soccer teams and club. So stop trying to get a few extra votes by LYING. How low can you possibly go.

[minimello]

So why didnt you take this so called 16 year old to the soccer club yourself and see if he would have been denied entry. I have been to the soccer club many times and there are always kids of different races there playing and studying together. Mr.Noman has dedicated his life to the children of Lackawanna. Go to the club and look at all the pictures on the wall and you will see that dating back years and years kids of all ethnicities have been a part of the soccer teams and club. So stop trying to get a few extra votes by LYING. How low can you possibly go.

How long have has the club or clubs been recieving federal funds?. I know that a young women wanted to use the soccer field and was told she would have to wait till the schedule was checked (a couple years ago) she's still waiting. No one is LYING on this one.

[la_rez]

How long have has the club or clubs been recieving federal funds?. I know that a young women wanted to use the soccer field and was told she would have to wait till the schedule was checked (a couple years ago) she's still waiting. No one is LYING on this one.

You are full of it!!! No one has EVER been denied access to the field when there wasnt a league game or practice going on. So stop it already!

[Lorrie_Whitfield]

You are full of it!!! No one has EVER been denied access to the field when there wasnt a league game or practice going on. So stop it already!

LA REZ......since you know the inside workings of the soccer club I guess we must assume you involved in the running of it. Can you post when the league will be recruiting members for a young girl league. I have a 5 yr old and a 9 yr old who would love to play next year. Let me know so I can spread the word so all of Lackawanna's little girls can play soccer next year. I don't read many other papers besides the Hamburg Sun and the buffalo news, sometimes the penny saver so if you had a add in another paper I must have missed it. Would be nice to have a online Lackawanna community Board to post only events- Maybe an ongoing post on here would do.

[la_rez]

LA REZ......since you know the inside workings of the soccer club I guess we must assume you involved in the running of it. Can you post when the league will be recruiting members for a young girl league. I have a 5 yr old and a 9 yr old who would love to play next year. Let me know so I can spread the word so all of Lackawanna's little girls can play soccer next year. I don't read many other papers besides the Hamburg Sun and the buffalo news, sometimes the penny saver so if you had a add in another paper I must have missed it. Would be nice to have a online Lackawanna community Board to post only events- Maybe an ongoing post on here would do.

You know what they say about assuming Lorrie. My son plays soccer and i frequent the club and soccer field often. I have a 6 year old girl who might wanna play soon so ill mention it to the directors. Hopefully we can get a few teams goin.

[Lorrie_Whitfield]

You know what they say about assuming Lorrie. My son plays soccer and i frequent the club and soccer field often. I have a 6 year old girl who might wanna play soon so ill mention it to the directors. Hopefully we can get a few teams goin.

Well u just seemed to know about the inside runnings of the club so i thought u could through out some info for us intrested. I was going to sign them up in a Buffalo League but if we can get a lil girls league formed right here on my block that would be great!

[minimello]

You are full of it!!! No one has EVER been denied access to the field when there wasnt a league game or practice going on. So stop it already!

You are full of it or refuse to accept the truth!!! The incident I'm referring to is (a couple years ago a young lady went to the person who schedules your events). She wanted the field for her drill team.

[runningdownadream]

Did the "Pillar of the Community" Boo-HOO????? Still can't hide from the truth that he and the DEMOCRATIC PARTY are lying to the citizens of Lackawanna with his BS article in the front page. What is "appalling" is that he himself "BLATANTLY and KNOWINGLY" lied and he had it printed in the front page by his good, POLITICAL friend, Billy Delmont. Like people don't see him sneaking into the front page on a daily basis. The Citizens of Lackawanna DEMAND a retraction from the LIAR called the Democratic Chairman, just like you made Larry Murphy do for printing the TRUTH about you in his article. You, Fran Warthling are the SHAM along with the people you support!!! Now everyone knows the front page is nothing but a bought and paid for political RAG!