Who asked me, and why they should have, what’s wrong, and why I’m disgusted (ECIP)

[Tom]

Call me an idealist, or rather a rationalist. Because I choose to maintain a level of antinomy in a ‘public’ forum, I will, as I always have, leave my name out of things. However, I can remain silent no longer.

I am an ‘elected delegate’ of the Independence Party, and as such I represent a region of North Buffalo. This information along with my ‘user name’ here is enough to ‘out’ me, and I imagine the Politicos in the ‘Party’ will figure out who I am, where I am, and ‘take care of’ me. If they feel so inclined, I welcome them to do so, because I am at the point of ‘leaving’ the party, and have considered doing so of my own free will. So if you are one of those and want to remove a ‘rabble-rouser’ then please do so, you will only be making my life easier.

Before I get into the main point of my argument, I would like to give some background on myself. This will further ‘out’ myself, and make me a ‘clear target’ of the Party’s nefarious action. I was never ‘for’ or ‘against’ anyone in ‘The Party’ and /still/ am not. I was approached as a member of the party to be an elected delegate (which I still believe, having been officially told otherwise to be) by someone whom had a clear ‘beef’ with the Orsini administration of the party. I was approached because, then, and as it turned out, nobody else who was of the party was to stand for the delegate position in my district.

I was nominated, and elected as the delegate for my region, I believe unopposed, and I was happy to ‘serve’ my party for the silent majority whom would not, could not, or simply did not know there was someone to stand up for them. I have never been a fan of neither major party, nor a ‘yes man’ for anyone. I have served as Secretary and President for a public entity (a position I recently vacated by not seeking re-election), and have been as political affairs are concerned been beholden to any person or group.

I was elected at a time when the party was (and still is) in serious turmoil. My first action as a delegate to the party was during the reorganization meeting. No person, or group approached me on the matter, and I held no position on the issue other than to participate. Had the delegates been polled, it was my position at all time to abstain from voting, and for good reason. Before attending the meeting itself, no candidate for chairperson had contacted me, sent anything to me, or made any attempt to communicate their position on issues related to the party. What little information I had prior was based on limited local news sources, and I took those with a grain of salt. I had no position on the issue, and considered taking one based upon my limited information to be a disservice to those I represented as an elected delegate. I went to that meeting not to vote, but to observe, and to gain insight to the party leadership (past and future), to watch the parliamentary process of a large assembly in action, but mostly to self-educate on the leadership, issues, processes and customs of the elected delegation as a whole.

Having served in a legislative body before, governed by its own bylaws and Robert’s Rules of Order (RONR), I expected, as the laws and rules of that body (The Party) governed, would be adhered to, even more so than a small not-for-profit entity such as the one I presided over would have submitted itself to.

My, was I wrong. The recording secretary announced that a quorum was not present, and the ex-chair (at that moment) disagreed. Rather than follow proper procedure (and I condemn both groups for this) the ex-chair just ‘declared’ without justification a quorum did exist, and proceeded to hold an illegal meeting. When members of the body raised a point of order (including myself), we were ignored, absconded, and steamrolled. As a Parliamentarian, I was outright disgusted, but attempted to raise my issue under parliamentary rules, which were still ignored. I said to a friend, whom I was previously unaware of his involvement in the party until that night, that I witnessed the biggest ossification and perversion of parliamentary procedure I had ever witnessed.

What happened /after/ that meeting, made me even more disgusted. A member of that body conducted himself outside the accepted decorum of such a meeting, and for that, I was also disgusted. However, the actions of other individuals amplified that disgust. Again, being beholden to no group other than my constituents, I attended the meeting with no ulterior motive or predisposition, but what transpired post-illegal-meeting, was just so disgusting, I seriously find myself ashamed to be associated with the group as a whole. I was witness to, and subject to, personal verbal attacks, criminal insulations of violence, threats to my own and others personal well-being and safety, and general harassment, not only from the assembled group, but also by law enforcement agents, for the mere criminal act of being present at a gathering of my political party.

I say this without mincing words, because I lodged a complaint with the citizen oversight group for the Buffalo Police Department over the actions of specific (but not all) members of the Buffalo Police that evening. The only amusing part of that entire evening was when a veteran police officer tried to restrain an over-zealous one, and confirmed what I stated, that I was just /standing/ there when all hell broke loose. Yet, I was threatened with arrest on ‘whatever I can come up with’ for simply having the misfortune of standing outside post-meeting, and being accused of “being part of the group that started all the trouble, and threatened (so-and-so) with physical violence.”

The problem with all of that, and this will raise another eyebrow my way, is that, and I know people want to ‘find’ the person responsible, and I will admit to it here and now, as I have since that day. Someone in attendance at that meeting ‘recorded’ the meeting (and more than the meeting). That person was me. People have assumed the recorder of the meeting did so for ulterior motives, and I will state unequivocally that was not the case, and I will refer those who doubt this to my original intent for attending the meeting. While I served on the legislative body of another civic group as I mentioned prior, it became my habit to record our board meetings for my own personal reference. I did the same that night, expecting to use it only to review the meeting myself. However, after events unfolded, I stated then, and have, that if anyone wanted a copy, I would happily provide such. I went even further as to state that if it was to be used in a legal matter, I would happily provide a sworn affidavit to its circumstance, scope, and origin. Copies have circulated, legal issues came about, and yet nobody ever contacted me about it.

The ‘altercation’ after the meeting was recorded in its entirety on that, because I inadvertently failed to turn off the recorder. The personal threats levied at me, and others, by other individuals as well as the entire exchange with law enforcement agents also appear on the same recording. Yet no party of the legal issue, the court, the citizen oversight body, or any party has ever contacted me to attest to the circumstance, authenticity, or any aspect of that.

To add a level of insult to personal injury at that time, two weeks later, in the only correspondence I’ve ever received from ‘the party’, came a letter from Mr. Orsini thanking me for my support in ‘re-electing’ him as chairperson. I did no such thing; In fact, I stood in opposition under parliamentary procedure to the entire affair. Regardless, I am thanked for my support?

Regardless, this is the only communication I’ve ever received from the party. Yet my party, whom again, I am an elected delegate of, has approved candidates for positions in districts for which I reside and represent, yet never has an organized committee for nominating such ever been formed in my area, and if such ever was, I was not notified of such an organization, nor granted the opportunity to voice such support for or against such individuals in any regard for myself, yet alone those I am supposed to represent.

The only thing that makes this more sickening is that after receiving the Bartles & Jaymes style, “Thank You For Your Support” letter, the next and only time I heard from anyone related to my ‘Party’ was a recent phone solicitation against The Honorable Sam Hoyt, citing not his actions as a legislator, but his “Inappropriate” relationship with an intern.

To that aspect, “Inappropriate” can mean a host of issues, and as far as I’ve read nothing has specifically stated what that amounted to. However, and more importantly, I could not care what the RH Hoyt’s ‘personal’ issues amount to, what matters to me, and what I think should matter to any voter is the legislators “legislative” issues, decisions and actions, not matters of one’s personal affairs. Call me crazy, but I care what someone in office dose, or what someone vying for an office proposes or dose that matters to me. This is not a defense of the person, but rather a “I’m not stupid, lets talk issues” argument.

Regardless, I find the entire IP to be disgusting, distasteful, corrupt, illegal, unjust, unfair, misrepresentative, and outright deceitful. I speak not only of its leadership, but its opposition as well, its practices, its policies and its actions. I think of it as nothing but wrong, immoral and unjust. I invite any supporters or opponents to respond to what I have to say, either publicly or privately, I invite the party leaders to do the same. I also respectfully demand that those persons in a leadership capacity show true leadership show a willingness to conduct themselves properly, fairly, and legally. Failing to do so, I invite them to contact me, so that I may vacate my position, if I have not been vacated of such already, to do so formally, and disassociate myself from a corrupt, immoral and illegal organization.

-Tom

[TheRightView]

First, out of curiosity, why drudge up the past since it will not truly affect the immediate future? Second, the legality of the meeting, has/had already been decided, the point is now moot, however was there not proof asked for to show that a quorum was or was not present and no proof of no quorum was present? Proof was court ordered to be there, the absence of one makes a Descartian(sp?) deliemma(sp), in that you can't disprove what is not there(ie. you can't disprove that God doesn't exist, so therefore He does).
Politics has always been an unsavory affair and it will always be so, but if you do/ don't participate you are part of the problem.

[raoul duke]

OH SNAP! Real dirt. (Maybe.)

Orsini, in my opinion, is like Illuzzi. Why does he have political 'cred' again? That's always befuddled me.

[WNYresident]

You tell me Roaul...

A complete waste of everyone times who is an IP member.

I was told he winters in Florida... Doesn't like Erie County enough to stay here all year and he represented a political party... go figure.

[raoul duke]

You tell me Roaul...

A complete waste of everyone times who is an IP member.

I was told he winters in Florida... Doesn't like Erie County enough to stay here all year and he represented a political party... go figure.

Who cares where anyone "winters". Jesus, if I could afford it I'd get "the hell outta Dodge" for at least a month in the depth of the recently-mild Buffalo winters.

I don't care about the Independent Party, personally. In my armchair observation - like I said, I don't follow the internals - it's hardly "independent" and it seems more business venture/power broker than political party.

Either way, Illuzzi and Orsini are B-rate hacks by any measure, yet we pay attention to them for some reason - some actually pay cash-money-dollahs.

Like I said, color me befuddled. Amused, but confused.

Ps. Yes, I realize and acknowledge that that Illuzzi is larger and more pervasive cancer. When will the "players" of any party realize that?