Well, it seems County Executive Mark DiVecchio is now firmly ensconced at the Erie Times News' new whipping boy. Today's full editorial column (the thing on the left on the letters' page) was devoted to his dealings with the County Redevelopment Authority. I've been following this story for a couple weeks now, but still don't fully understand what this Authority does... so I've reserved from writing on it. Well, the Times did a pretty good job of laying the situation out in black-and-white. (Go to the "Opinion" section, and you'll see the villain's name.) No, they didn't explain what the Redevelopment Authority does - it seems to mainly involve managing a fund to float loans to local business, as well as some housing responsibilities (like I said, the whole thing sounds a little specious)- but the Times did feel it understands the situation well enough to blast DiVecchio for trying to put his campaign manager in charge of the Authority and threatening to fire three members of the Authority Board, who apparently don't agree with him. An aside: Does anyone know if these Board members get paid - if so, is it a nominal fee or real money? If not, or if it is nominal, is the term "fire" the correct one to use?
The interesting thing about this is Tim Selker's, the campaign manager (maybe he wasn't the manager, but definitely a supporter) relationship with Rick Novotny, the current executive director of the Authority. Apparently, Selker, who (to me) seems qualified to be the Executive Director of this thing - after all, I've read that he's done some pretty solid work trying to develop Parade Street, which in my opinion deserves a hats off - apparently, Selker, at some point in time, introduced a plan to Novotny that Novotny reportedly laughed at. So, there is an interesting dynamic here. DiVecchio wants top make Selker Novotny's boss. Sweet revenge. I kind of like that aspect. I don't know Selker and I don't know Novotny - so I may be wrong and Selker may be a tool, but he went to Prep, graduated in '86 (I graduated in '85), so I'm kind of predisposed to favor him. It sounds to me like, the Man, Novotny, in this case, is getting a case of hard medicine from an innovative upstart like Selker.
As for DiVecchio, well all this threatening and firing - yesterday, there was an interesting column by AJ Adams about cronyism in the public defender's office, which didn't shine too favorably on DiVecchio either - well, it all smacks of Filippi. Yes, despite my admiration for Selker, it appears we've elected another political hack. This is especially disturbing as the County Executive's office is going to have to play a big role if we are going to get anything good to come out of these city/township merger talks that finally seem to be gaining at least a little bit of traction.
Cheers.
Ralph
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2 comments:
I don't know Mark DiVecchio from Adam, but everything I've seen from him so far has been questionable. He barely defeated Republican Dale McBrier in the election without talking about any plans or ideas of his own for the county (even as McBrier was talking specifically about economics, jobs, and such).
This struck me as odd. It appears to me that he was elected not on his ideas, but by making deals with certain powerful groups. Deals that he now apparently has to pay back. I realize this scenario is not new to politics, but this seems fairly brazen.
My question is Who are his backers? Does anybody know? We will know a lot more about this man once we understand how he was elected and who he owes.
So, after eeking out a tight election victory, DiVecchio's first proposal was to agree to pay $14 million of taxpayer money to MTR gaming to prevent them from suing the county over racetrack shenanigans. What kind of joke is that? The County Exec should be a stone wall when it comes to paying out taxpayer money. But DiVecchio apparently doesn't see it that way. I have an idea: I'm going to call the County Exec's office and threaten to sue the County for $15 million. Maybe DiVecchio will settle out of court for $8 million. He'll be saving the taxpayers $7 million and I'll be $8 million richer. Sounds like a good plan to me.
Personally, I am embarassed by his actions so far. Is he simply a stooge that grants political favors to his friends or is he completely incompetent? What are his credentials? Is he an attorney? Has he held public office before? Quick, I need a dossier.
I haven't seen such blatant mismanagement of an Erie office since the Filippi administration.
And even though I'm typically against recall elections and/or impeachment proceedings, I'm feeling that it may be time to start talking about impeaching DiVecchio. There are too many key issues at stake (such as the discussed merger between Erie and Millcreek). We need someone competent who will do what's best for the area and not just for his friends and cronies.
I'm going to have a lot more to say about this situation in the future. I agree with the Times-News; he needs to clean up his act or we need to jettison him from office. I am currently of the opinion that he is incompetent and not fit for public office.
Mike
DoktorDee:
I guess the sad thing, or fortunate thing (depeding on how you look at it, is that we have elected such stooges to even more important offices that this in the past (i.e. the current Presidente) and have survived. Today, of course, is Presidents Day, the Times opinion column ran a list of some of the more dubious Executive office-holders in U.S. history, and we have survived and bounced back. The free vote can do that. I guess the big problem with the County Execs office is that we've landed two losers in a row.
Ralph
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