Thursday, October 22, 2009

Take Ownership!

The blog Mayor Graham's View has commented on our GasGate.  Yes I said OUR.  This problem belongs to the Town Board, you, me and everybody.  The only way to fix a problem is for the entire community to take ownership.

 Mayor Graham makes this point:
 "The fact that 6,700 gallons of gasoline can be used in this manner tells me there is too often no meaningful public or press oversight......"

Now ask yourself ......Do I agree or disagree with the above point?  Be honest


He also raises this question:
"......why did it take so long to come to the public's attention"?

There is no room for pointing fingers.  If you feel you must lay blame, then just look in the mirror.  I will make a bet that most if not all of the Sutton supporters heard rumors or knew about GasGate but justified it in their own minds that it was an unwritten perk for a town supervisor to do this or simply refused to believe it.  I personally have heard a lot of chuckling from his supporters condoning this gas benefit.  On the flip side are the non supporters.  Why did they clam up?  Was it fear, intimidation, or apathy?  Probably a little bit of everything.



I know what some of you are thinking.......Where were you JC?  Mister Super Sleuth.  How come you were not sticking your nose into that dirty business?  Months ago I was getting these little messages that Sampie wants to talk to you.  Also one day a politician showed up at my house and chewed my ear for over an hour about the gas thing, how he was not happy with the lack of progress of the board, and could he rent a space on my blog for the upcoming election {any guesses who that was?}
Then one day I was finally cornered by Sampie, who smothered me with explanations.  If any of you have not figured this out yet. I get curious when I hear  a rumor, but I thrive on the facts and truth.  Up till this past week I was not in possession of either.  Now you and I have the facts and hopefully all of you  have come to grips with the TRUTH.


Read Mayor Graham's View by Clicking Here

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mayor Graham brings some interesting points to the discussion.
However, when Mayor "Quick Draw" Graham is involved, the discussion is usually about the pot calling the kettle black.
My humble opinion? The Jeff County DA and the NY State's Atty should be looking at this, and soon....

Anonymous said...

....call me curious, but didn't the republican incumbant councilman, Jim Durand, who is running for re-election, say he didn't see anything wrong with Sutton's gas misuse, improperly kept monthly logs, lack of vouchers, and lack of supervisory accountability?
How does he feel now? Is he still ok with the information that has come out, so far, on GASGATE?
Also, why is Sampie trying to blame a fellow Republican who is also running for re-election?
So much for his notion of TEAMWORK....

Anonymous said...

Someone has to be held accountable for the missing gas. If the Town Board members don't want to seek financial reimbursement from Sampie then they can chip in repay the funds themselves. By turning a blind eye to Sampie's actions they are placing suspicion on their activities. Once the audit showed questionable behavior on Sampie's use of Town assets it became their responsibility to pursue and resolve the situation. Should they ignore this problem they are as guilty as Sampie and should face criminal prosecution as accessories to the criminal actions involved in this case.

Anonymous said...

The town board members admitted they did talk about the supervisors travel/fuel expense, so they obviously had knowledge of it, they just didn't clarify the terms...and act on it.
Whos fault is that? TOWN BOARD-Martha, Alcid, Jim and Doug
Who is supposed to look after all the fuel and everything else at the town barn? "The Highway Super" Is there no accountability there?????

jim cummings said...

Anon. 10:51
There are 5 members on that board. As long as your naming them....don't forget Dale. And you might as well identify yourself. You knew about this too. Public participation keeps everyone accountable....
You, me, and everyone has an obligation to vote but more importantly we must attend the meetings [only 1 a month] then when it does come time to vote, we are all prepared to make an educated decision. That way we are not cramming like we used to for a test.....

David H. Bain said...

For the record, the Highway Supt. billed all The Supervisor's fuel and has the totals on all usage of the fuel system. All tranactions are automaticly entered as each key is inserted. Furthermore I have confronted several times in the past several years the misuse of many funds as that is what red flagged the auditer in 2008 while they were reviewing past minutes.