times union readers

Over at the other blog, I write about how a small business person takes risks, has to deal with planning and zoning, workman's comp, payroll, and a whole lot of crap and cannot pass the buck. When Mitt Romney claims he was chief executive but not in charge, I don't feel a lot of sympathy.

Hello people coming here from the article by Chris Churchhill in the Times Union. A couple of years of struggle cannot be broken down into 800 words but Chris did as good a job as anyone could have, so thanks. And he was completely fair to the town. A well-balanced piece of journalism.

Here a couple of points that don't fit in the article. The town spent as much as $200,000 hiring the biggest law firm in the capital district in an illegal executive session, Whiteman Osterman and Hanna to work as special counsel in zoning and planning and special prosecutor against me in town criminal court. The town and the law firm wanted to close my business and put me in jail on false charges. Town officials harassed me (page 122, paragraph 414), threaten to beat me up, said good, yes, beat him up, told me to get out of town, observed my house every day before dawn with video cameras, made other threats, and more incidents,  and the reason for all of this cannot be clearer. Here is the town zoning officer saying why they did this himself. They told me I had no right to appeal anything they did.  The town raised taxes 18% to pay for all of this. More on the Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna thing here at page 78, paragraph 265.


By the way, the idea that there can be loud barking at more than 1000 feet defies the laws of physics. They should have charged me with kidnapping Santa's elves: it's more likely. The town cronies know there is no noise but voted against me on the noise charge anyway. You can tell it is not loud right there from your computer. (At page 107, paragraph 368.)


So now, is five lawsuits too much of a response to all of this? Well, what are the lawsuits about? Well, keeping my business open, getting information, Freedom of Information, stopping cronies from running businesses prohibited by the zoning law, assessment corruption, and the town attorney stealing a lot of money. Five is no where near enough, since there is so much crap to try to put a stop to!


Another thing: I said I sent in 100 FOIL requests -- those requests are mostly to every town in Columbia and Greene Counties for attorney invoices, not to Stuyvesant. I have only sent Stuyvesant about 20 requests over two years. I can hear the spin from the town side already about the 100 FOIL requests!


I built sound proofing. The town revoked my permit after the work was done anyway. I tried mediation. The town said no. I tried to cut a deal. The town agreed, but not in good faith. Here is the neighbor who is supposed complaining. 


So thanks for stopping by the blog. Comment, say hello, thanks. Here is the zoning officer of the town of Stuyvesant explaining why they hired the biggest law firm in the capital district, Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna, to close down a family business and put the operator in jail on false charges, right from the horse's mouth:



And yes, the town attorney did steal $10,000 from the town and a whole lot more from the county, that would be: Tal G. Rappleyea, a man who has as many as fourteen (14) jobs in 2011 and 2012. He is or was until early 2012 an assistant county attorney, claiming work 6 hours per day at $27 per hour. Rappleyea was in 2011 or is in 2012 the designated town attorney for Durham, Ashland, Athens, Prattsville, Lexington, Germantown, Cairo, Stuyvesant, Austerlitz, Copake, Chatham, Greenville, and Jewett.