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March 16, 2012
To the Editor:
Once again, I have to waste time correcting the record to inform residents that Barbara Gosda, and sadly her running mate too, Jan Smith, and, of course, Andrew Argenio, never let the true facts get in the way of their agenda. Not surprisingly, Gosda and Smith adhere to the Argenio rule about facts, “invent them, or ignore them, or torture them, and repeat your twisted version so that unsuspecting residents may believe them.”
In their March 14th letter, Gosda and Smith state that on the Standard Work Day & Reporting Form “Trustee Kane has submitted starting April 5, 2010 that he has worked 20 days per month (5 days a week).” Thus, without knowing they state that I submitted information for the form and infer for hours I could never have worked. They then ask do I have documentation to support this or is it an error. They also advise that retirement costs continue to “escalate in our small village and you should know why.” Not finished there, Gosda along with her collaborator Argenio, are posting doctored printouts of the form throughout the village, many on utility poles (which is prohibited – but who cares, regulations don’t apply to Gosda or Argenio).
Had either employed some common sense, not purposely ignored the information on the form, and done even a cursory fact check they would have quickly determined the answer: a Village error. But that is not what they want. Had they wanted the truth, they would have easily learned I never submitted any documentation claiming I spent 20 days working on Village matters. In fact, I never submitted any documentation claiming any time (minutes, hours or days).
Had they remotely cared about the truth, they would have learned the alleged “20” days worked was a clerical error, not mine, which was not relied upon by the Comptroller. The entire process of reporting part-time employee time is only two months in effect. Not surprising a clerical error was made because the software default figure for the number of days worked is “20” (full time employees) and since I never filled out a report form, the default figure occurred and never changed. This error was transcribed by hand onto the NYSERS form, posted to the Village website, and then rejected on March 5th by the Comptroller since the entry was inconsistent with the reporting time period as entered “4/5/2010 – 4/2/2012”. Thus, the wrong number of days worked was and never will be used to calculate anything.
So, in a desperate attempt to make themselves look good and dupe residents to vote for them, they purposely ignore facts and look to blame me for the escalating retirement costs. Well, Ms. Smith, did you refuse to take a federal pension or matching federal contributions to your TSP? If you didn’t, shouldn’t residents conclude that you are personally responsible for the escalating federal deficit mess we have? Hypocrisy – Absolutely! Maybe Ms. Gosda, had you not spent time perpetuating the falsehood by hiding in your car while your cohort Argenio posted the form on utility poles, you could have know the truth. Boiled down, Gosda, Smith and Argenio: No solutions, invent and ignore facts, engage in personal attacks and avoid legitimate Village issues.
James P. Kane
Trustee
Cornwall-on-Hudson
Comments:
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Gosda/Smith exemplify low road politics. After Trustee Gosda's reelection two years ago instead of being a gracious winner she writes a scorch and slash piece on Trustee Vatter who lost by one vote. It was an embarrassing indictment of her moral compass gone adrift. Negative politics can certainly work on all levels of government as we have all seen. I prefer politicians who stick to facts and tell me what they will do when elected.
I reject those who campaign on fear and falsehoods trying to besmirch someones good name all for the sake of a seat at the Village Board.
posted by P W on 03/16/12 at 4:33 PM
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Gosda and Smith ask is there documentation of the 20 days, or is this a mistake? Kane states it is a mistake.
However, Kane's letter indicates the mistake was a software default, which was then transcribed by hand and submitted to the Comptroller. Shouldn't it have stood out to the Village Clerk that Trustee Kane had twice as many working days as the Mayor? Even if the Comptroller did reject the number, this left it up to them to rectify the error. Our own government did not catch it.
Kane's letter speaks out against Gosda and Smith for not researching the topic before they questioned it. However, he simultaneously claims the Clerk transcribed this error onto a formal document and did not do her own due diligence to find it.
Somehow not fact checking before submitting the error is no big deal, but not fact checking to question it is.
posted by Melissa Vellone on 03/16/12 at 5:23 PM
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Wow! Mr Kane -- this certainly pushed your button! (Was this the guy who spoke about lack of civility on the board?)
If the employee who filled out the form had "employed some common sense ... or even done a cursory fact check" this information never would have been sent to the comptroller on Feb 2.
Was the corrected info ever sent in?
Who proofreads the forms that our Village employees send in?
Why was the form, with such a mistake, even posted on the Village web site?
Where is the form with the correct information?
What on the web site are we taxpayers to believe is correct?
posted by Emily Thomas on 03/16/12 at 6:14 PM
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Anyone can look at the signed document on the village web site.It is clear for all to see.
posted by Andrew Argenio on 03/16/12 at 6:42 PM
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I urge the residents to look at the form in question themselves. It is filled out by hand. How can there be default buttons when it is clearly filled out by hand.
posted by Andrew Argenio on 03/16/12 at 8:54 PM
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Mr. Kane,
I want to thank you for setting the record straight and answering the question about whether this was an error. If the village has made an error in what was reported, sent forward to the Comptroller's office, and then posted on the official Village website then it should be corrected immediately. When this document was rejected by the Comptroller's office on March 5th, as stated in your letter, this document on the Village website should have been taken down and a corrected one put in its place. Hopefully the Village will take care of this error now and ensure that, in the future, information is correct before leaving the Village office or being posted to the official Village website.
Jan Smith
posted by Jan Smith on 03/16/12 at 9:55 PM
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Trustee Kane's response speaks volumes about is inclination to respond in anger and intimidation of others, namely Trustee Gosda and Candidate Smith, because of a significant error that it was his responsibility to verify and correct.
As Village taxpayers we should all thank Barbara and Jan for being so conscientious in verifying the Village pension obligations. We should also wonder about Trustee Kane's suitability to continue to serve if he is so quick to criticize and blame others for errors that he in fact is responsible for.
Neil Drislane
Cornwall on Hudson
posted by Neil Drislane on 03/17/12 at 11:48 AM
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According to the New York State Comptrollers Office regulation 315.4 entitled Regulation for Reporting Elected and Appointed Officials became effective on August 12, 2009. Not just two months ago. Two months ago may be when he village decided to follow it. The regulation further states that the elected or appointed official must prepare a written record of work related activities for three consecutive months within 150 days of taking office. This applies only to elected or appointed officials who choose to be members of the retirement system. This record of work is then given to the clerk of the governing body and must be kept on file for ten years and provided to the comptrollers office upon request.. Perhaps because these work records were never provided to the clerk it contributed to clerical error and thus was rejected by the comptrollers office on March 5th.
posted by Robert Basil on 03/17/12 at 4:28 PM
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Just as a correction to my prior post: The regulations on elected or appointed officials requiring a record of activities has been in effect since 1976 according to the comptrollers website. It was in August 2009 that revisions to the regulation were made requiring that he activity log be given to the clerk and kept on file.
posted by Robert Basil on 03/17/12 at 4:34 PM
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here is a litthe information from the comprolles website
Effective August 12, 2009, each elected or appointed official must prepare a record of work-related activities (log) for three consecutive months within 150 days of the start of a new term or appointment if:
?They are members of the Retirement System and
?Do not use your time keeping system that shows hours worked. (This includes systems that keep track of accruals and attest that, other than time charged to accruals, full hours were worked.)
posted by Andrew Argenio on 03/17/12 at 4:47 PM
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