Rye Off the Record: Otis Plane, Osborn’s $70K, Mack Hold the Mayo Save the Economy
MyRye.com asked mayoral candidate Doug French about the Otis team airplane that took flight over the Rye – Harrison game: “As far as the plane – It was funny. I have been involved in Rye elections since 1989 and traditionally the parties have agreed to keep politics out of school events and I agree with that, but it was a good laugh near the end of the campaign. If it were us, we would have used a hot-air balloon for the sake of the environment.”
We hear the Osborn School fair raised around $70,000. The money will go to fund cultural enrichment programs and smart boards. View MyRye.com’s photo album of the Osborn School “Monster Mash” Carnival.
In Andrew Ross Sorkin’s new book, Too Big to Fail, the New York Times writer talks about Lehman’s Dick Fuld meeting with Morgan Stanley’s John Mack at his home in Rye (PHOTO, below: Mack, the House):
"On Saturday morning, Mr. Fuld pulled up to Mr. Mack’s mansion in Rye, N.Y. Despite the beautiful weather, he was tense. He could already imagine the headlines if it leaked.
The Morgan Stanley team had arrived and was socializing in the dining room, where Mr.
Mack’s wife, Christy, had put out plates of food she had ordered from the local deli. There was Walid Chammah and James Gorman, the firm’s co-presidents; Paul Taubman, the firm’s head of investment banking; and Mitch Petrick, head of corporate credit and principal investments.
Bart McDade, Mr. Fuld’s new No. 2, showed up next, dressed in a golf shirt and khakis. Skip McGee, the firm’s head of investment banking, was running late; his driver got lost.
As the group took their seats on sofas around a coffee table, an awkward silence followed; no one knew exactly how to begin."
I wonder what deli they ordered from…
Crisfield’s
The Journal News Snooze
By the on-screen count, between 24 and 27 people live-viewed the Journal News Editorial Board Interview’s with the Rye City candidates yesterday afternoon. It’s available for replay on the http://www.lohud.com site.
Overall I’d say it was a snooze and overall I’d say “Team Otis” did themselves little good in their cram session the night before (the one that caused them to last minute bag the EGAR debate). Andy Ball did shine for a few moments but aside from that the Otis slate pretty much adopted a defensive crouch. This “no mistakes” approach was actually blown by none other than their fearless leader late in the game when he tried to bloviate some slippery facts about the new police station building purchase past the ever watchful Peter Jovanovich.
Peter has evidently followed this particular Otis financial debacle like a hawk and cut across the Mayor’s pious pontifications about taxpayers being held harmless with facts that contradicted the petty fictions and outright falsehoods the Mayor had laid out. One could immediately sense this particular subject was a loser for the Mayor and just when the temperature was getting cranked up the time clock ran out.
Note to the French slate – the building purchase debacle is only one of several errors of commission that the “Gang of Steve” has foisted upon Rye’s taxpayers. Additional fruitful areas of waste, special contracts, negligent judgment and craven mismanagement abound. If only Paul Shew could speak.
And all the while Mr. Otis says we really really need him.
Mr.Carroll, you really need to quit spreading rumors that originate with you. It’s always “word on the street”, “word leaked out” “documents I’ve attached reveal”.
Rye is not the place for this scurrilous kind of negative campaigning. You and all your sock puppets detract from the value of this blog.
I’ll post my letter to Jay Sears again – requesting that he rein in the uglier aspects of the comments section.
Jay – I’ve resisted giving this perspective for some time now, but recent activity on the site has compelled me to write. I hope that you give serious consideration to what I have to say here, as I believe I speak for many.
You know, because I’ve said so, that I admire you for spending the time and effort it takes to launch a blog dedicated to sharing stories of and observations about Rye. It has a neighborly editorial voice, and provides interesting odds and ends that visitors have appreciated since its debut.
MY RYE also performs a valuable public service as a kind of virtual village green. And, in the 21st century spirit of interactivity, you allow– and in fact actively encourage– visitor comment . As time has passed, however, your blog has become more and more dominated by three men who are involved in legal disputes with the City. These three hi jack and shut down every thread. In addition to using their names, one or more of them has created multiple identities – forming a kind of toxic Greek chorus. While anonymity is an important tool for ordinary citizens who fear retribution should they voice their opinions publicly, there is always the danger of it being used as a foil for snipers to hide behind as they attempt character assassination. Chief vs commissioner, mimi otis, the van man, mywry, and fire plunkett and shew fall into this category.
I am referring of course to Ted Carroll, Tim Chittenden, and Ray Tartaglione. I hesitate to do so because I anticipate being attacked immediately, but this has gone on too long and Rye has been portrayed unfairly in the local news media as a result of their theatrics and worse. What residents of Rye know and what the local media should investigate is the facts about these men and their personal agendas.
Lets start with Ted Carroll. Mr. Carroll did not want to pay his fair share of taxes on a property he developed. He went to court and lost. He appealed and lost again. So now he produces charts and spread sheets of dubious worth and distributes them under his name, and probably under several aliases as well, in an attempt to make it seem like there is more support for his vicious attacks than there is in reality. But understand, this is all because he did not want to pay his fair share of taxes on a property he developed. Mr. Carroll sued Rye. The City protected Rye taxpayers and won. Prior to this lawsuit Mr Carroll never showed the slightest interest in public life in Rye although he’s lived here every one of his 64 (?)years. Now he’s the champion of the aggrieved, everyone in city hall is his enemy, and he piles on others posts with emphatically snide extra shots to the ribs.
Next there’s Tim Chittenden. Mr Chittenden has been involved in lengthy legal battles with the City and the police department. They too, of course, involve money. Money we, the taxpayers, will have to pay if Mr. Chittenden wins. This kind of dispute is not unique to Rye despite what you may hear about our evil police commissioner. Everyday in America some cop hates his commissioner and some cop is suing for an increased pension. Its the nature of uniformed services. There’s nothing particularly awful happening in Rye. I speak from experience as my husband retired with distinction from the NYPD. Believe me, Rye is relatively sheltered from most of the realities of public labor disputes. And I, for one, like it that way.
Finally there is Ray Tartaglione. Mr. Tartaglione does not live in Rye or vote in Rye. He has a cottage on an Island called Hen Island run by a kind of co-op as far as I understand it. Having lived in a co-op I have some sympathy for Mr. Tartaglione as he is apparently on the outs with the Board and his neighbors over a number of issues. That is the crux of the problem. He says they pollute the Sound, they say he’s disgruntled. Now, I don’t know if he raised those issues when he served on this board, or if he’s just angry now that he was voted off. Where he loses me is how this has become our problem here in Rye when 1) we have limited jurisdiction 2) we have visited the island and issued violations where they were found. Perhaps Mr. Tartaglione wants the island upgraded at our expense. Who knows?
What he fails to realize is that even if his neighbors are the worst people on the planet, very few of us in Rye are sympathetic to the way he’s disrupted our public meetings, hijacked our local blog, tormented at every opportunity the men and women we have elected to represent us and subjected all of us to the visual assault his crass vehicles provide. He used to park down the block in front of Kelly’s. Do Jerry and Martha deserve that? Does Luna?
Messrs. Carroll, Chittenden and Tartaglione have turned every public forum into their own mean spirited and petty spectacle. Many people may read this blog, but few post because the tone has deteriorated as these bullies have taken it over. Council meetings too are avoided by good citizens who wish these men would just shut up and go away, but, being good people, they’re too polite to say so, so they just stay home.
Jay, I’m asking you to moderate this blog , redirect off topic comments, and delete gratuitously vicious multiple posts. Threads of this nature contribute to the coarsening of public discourse, and I believe the majority of the people in Rye find it offensive. Repeat offenders should be warned, then suspended if need be. Again I write this fully expecting to be flamed, but someone has to speak up. I do hope that if others agree with me they will add their voices on this thread.