There was the unforgetable temper tantrum care of Walt Doyle. As someone who is a manager/supervisor, he should be ashamed of his lack of professionalism. Would you want to work under someone who has frequent outbursts like he does? According to rumor, he only displays this temper towards Mr. Martino on camera in front of an audience, because apparently he's a wussy behind closed doors.
Walt the Whiner accused Tom Martino of cutting his salary in an example of being targeted. What Walt failed to mention were the following points:
1) Walt removed himself from the responsiblity of maintaining Town Hall and the Police/Court Facility plowing, so the town had to hire an individual to perform these duties. Walt is doing less but still receiving the same salary with an added expense to the town's payroll.
2)The town hall janitor has always been under the responsibility of the supervisor, however Pompey Delafield passed this responsibility onto Walt Doyle with a stipend of approximately $1000 to perform this extra duty. Tom Martino took back that responsibility when he became supervisor but DIDN'T take back that stipend at that time.
3)Walt ranted about bills not being paid. If you read the 2006 and 2009 audit report, you would be aware that there was a violation of the procurement policy in which purchases were made first under blanket ourchase orders and then being submitted for approval after the fact. Per the town policy, if unauthorized purchases are made in excess of $5000, the responsibilty would fall upon the individual that made the purchase rather than the town. The town eventually paid these bills, so rather than Mr. Doyle pointing fingers, he should be thanking Mr. Martino for not having him open up his OWN wallet.
4) And to futher support the claim that Walt Doyle gets paid the same for doing less, if you happened to read the latest editition of the HV News over the tree clean-up and the rumors that fund balance was being depleted in wake of the recent storms, Mr. Doyle failed again as Highway Superintendent.
After the last storm, it was incumbant of Mr. Doyle to drive the eighty miles throughout the town and perform a survey of tree and branch removal. Rather than he himself doing it, he had an outside contractor, Steve Costa do it for him. Mr. Costa performs the survey and charges the town for more than $150,000 to do the job. According to rumors, the estimate was then negotiated in the ballpark of $75,000. Because of Mr. Doyle's laziness and negliance, it cost the town money as he didn't verify the estimate and the work that needed to be done himself. He basically gave Steve Costa a blank check and gave him free reign.
5) Walt Doyle accused Tom Martino of signing of $150,000 to Steve Costa, but in actuality, it was $75,000 and can be verified through a FOIL request. Therefore, Walt Doyle is a LIAR.
Who's the smartest two men in Hyde Park? 1. John Bickford and 2. John Bickford.
Mr Bickford, a former planning board member and the smartest two men in Hyde Park, apparently likes to think he knows EVERYTHING but in actually talks mostly out of his rear end. At last night's town board meeting he began ranting about the special tax of approximately $96,000 that the Town of Hyde Park may collect from the school district in order to alleviate some of the tax burden on Hyde Park taxpayers. In his tirade of the Word of John he talked about this district tax collector and how the Hyde Park school district may take the tax collection away from the receiver of taxes in Hyde Park to give it to the tax collector. *Gasp* The smartest man in Hyde Park provided erroneous information!
FACT: In a town of the first class (which is based upon population), it would be illegal per NYS law to take this function away from the receiver of taxes and bestow it to the tax collector who is employed by the school district. Then he went on to imply that the town board members were nothing more than dog doo-doo in his eyes. This rant can be attributed to his bitterness of NOT being reappointed to the Planning Board. It is known that he was a hinderance to having any commercial development in the town. Remember the ridiculous issue of the sign of the new Stop & Shop? Thank John Bickford for that. Without John Bickford behind the wheel at the Planning Board, notice some of the new projects such as the new Hess station being built? The Hess station had been attempting to build a new station for several years with no success. Apparently sans the planning board he has nothing better to than whine about something he knows nothing about. In addition to being a know it all and having the habit of 'dumbing' others down, he also likes to dish it out but somehow runs away with his tail between his legs when it's given back to him. It was witnessed after the meeting by several people in the parking lot that in attempts to "dish it out" to Mr. Taylor, who decided not to be his whipping boy gave it back to him. In response Mr. Bickford scurried away.
Joanne Lown, former bookkeeper that made a blackhole of the town's finances claimed she was not responsible and the auditors were wrong. In a previous blog a letter she wrote was published (coincidently to the wrong accounting firm) she placed the blame onto her deceased co-worker. Talk about a class act.
Aileen Rohr made it a point of bringing up the topic of the current town board depleting the fund balance, which was refuted previously by the town board when the budget was being created. Raise taxes or deplete the fund balance...raising taxes won. Aileen made it a point to ask about this subject at the meeting yet she has not any attempts to verify this through the Comptroller or Supervisor. The new board made other attempts to request resolutions be tabled so that they may make motions in on them when they take office. People at the meeting report that Aileen was hanging out with the likes of Walt Doyle, Sue Serino and John Bickford after the meeting. Birds of a feather...and the bird dropping will be raining down come January 1st.
Sue Serino is very concerned about Yancy McArthur's missing flag and has taken upon herself to conduct her own special investigation (just like Ken Starr) into the whereabouts of this missing flag. She supposedly is using such tactics of threatening to call the police on those that will not cooperate with her private investigator work. Just call her Serino P.I.