In Wake of Sandy, Councilwoman Killian at Kegger
Well, this is interesting…
Late this afternoon, in response to a detailed email update from Rye Mayor Doug French on Rye City affairs in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, new-ish Councilwoman Julie Killian hit "reply to all" and gave her own update…
While the Mayor, the Police Commish and city workers have been toiling away; and while 70% of Rye City residents are dealing with the stress of no power — Killian is at an "impromptu keg party"…
What do you think about your councilwoman at a kegger while you are in the dark? Leave a comment below.
Here is the email:
"From: "Killian, Julie P." <[email protected]>
To: "French, Douglas H." <[email protected]>
Cc: (omitted)
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 5:01 PM
Subject: Re: Hurricane Sandy Post-storm Resident Update — City of Rye
I am in Louden Woods now at impromptu keg party. People are saying Bloomberg took all our Con Ed workers. Is that true? Also they want Halloween to be Friday if schools hv their celebrations that day. Also Novel night is Saturday.
julie
Julie Killian
(omitted) Forest Avenue
Rye, NY 10580
(omitted) cell
(omitted) home
On Oct 30, 2012, at 4:26 PM, "French, Douglas H." <[email protected]> wrote:"
Doesn’t surprise me. The whole council, the city manager, police commissioner should all be fired for what they did or lack there of. They did nothing to help the people of Rye. As I wrote before how in the world did they wait until the day if the storm to evacuate. The forecast said this storm was going to be bad and historic and for whatever reason no city official took it seriously. Asking people to leave on Monday at 2pm is putting them more at risk and the first reaponders! Councilwoman Killian had no idea what was going on and didn’t care. She shouldn’t be in office to begin with!!! I am nt even a democrat and on a small town level the democrats are looking better ad better. I guess the past 4 major storms didn’t do enough damage for the city officials to take this seriously. Shame on them! They should be blasted at the next city council meeting! I would ask the council to look back at the 1992 storm but none of them even knew Rye existed since they didn’t live in Rye many. Rye people have moved from that era who were there for that storm.
Need change-
I don’t think you understand what the role is of the city council. The council does not direct safety issues… That is the role of the city manager, police commissioner, EMS, and fire chief. They are the ones with training and experience to handle big storms. I’d rather have people with the proper training who are paid to do the job, rather than any elected official without experience trying to learn on the job.
The city council also does not control the operations of Con Edison. The decision to evacuate low-lying areas at 2 PM doesn’t seem to have had any consequences – there was plenty of time to get people in low-lying areas to higher ground. With full benefit of hindsight, when do you think they should have evacuated? Sunday night? Saturday morning? Here’s another thought… Anyone who was worried prior to 2pm on Monday were free to leave of their own accord. They did not have to wait until the mandatory evacuation.
While the optics of a council person at a keg party might look bad, Julie was obviously looking to get information to the mayor about what some people were thinking about in the aftermath of the storm. That’s the nature of her note. Having thousands of kids on streets for Halloween without signals, and downed wires, and fallen trees wouldn’t be wise. Ditto with Novel Night. Don’t you think this information of what some people were thinking was helpful to the mayor in assessing options?
The rumor of Bloomberg commandeering “our” ConEd workers is interesting, if true, but that speaks to the power of a mayor with millions of voters instead of one with only 15,000. Again, the mayor can’t tell Con Ed how to run its operations.
Matt your comment is why you are no longer an elected official. You haven’t a clue. I have plenty of experience in the field and the decision comes from the commissioner, Mayor and City Manager. DO NOT insult my intelligence or those of the citizens or readers on here. People react differently when they hear mandatory evacuation compared to leaving on their own. Yes it should have been in place Saturday night.
Oh and one more thing Matt, why wasn’t a state of emergency declared on Sunday. A whole lt of people walking around the beach area in 60mph winds. Parking all over the steeets hampering reaponses. Lucky, lucky! No one was seriously hurt or killed. reverse 911 should have been used to tell people if they come out they will be arrested or fined.
Need Change –
Some facts for you.
-The reason why I’m no longer an elected official is because I chose not to run.
-Reverse 911 was used to alert people to the impending storm, and to warn them. Government cannot force people to make wise choices concerning their own safety.
-A mandatory evacuation is ordered when emergency services will soon be no longer able to respond to those in need. If they were to have ordered one on Saturday, that would add more vehicles on the streets and forced emergency workers to stop prepping for the storm to assist those evacuees.
-Do you really think the police would have started arresting or fining people who were outside on Sunday, had they declared a state of emergency? You’re describing martial law, which is a different level of response altogether. But of course you understand this difference, since you have plenty of experience.
Yeah Matt you make the order on Saturday and Sunday that it will be as of Monday! Common sense but you were an elected official so you have none. it’s not martial law when 200 people at the beach is unsafe! Sure they should know better but still need govt to put it in place. Realistically no arrest would be made or a summons but its put out there to the public to deter them. Yeah Ryes govt is screwed they have no idea what’s going on to begin with. People were auppose to have faith in this admin for the storm of the century. Hahaha Matt you won’t win this argument. No elected official would swallow the pride they messed up. Including the commissioner.
Need Change –
Here’ s a simple question for you. Were you promoting a state of emergency on Saturday and urging anyone for a mandatory evacuation at that time? I think not – I can’t find anything on this site from you in this regard.
You are one of the faceless whiners who constantly complain about how others have screwed up after the event is over. You never step forward and offer to assume leadership at the time of crisis, but emerge only when the danger has passed to tell those who performed how they messed up. You remind me of what enlisted men call a REMF. Look it up.
Aware of the term. Matt. So what you are saying is the you as a past city councilman and those who are the curret council don’t have a clue of what’s going on and need the advise of others. See I would think those in a position of power and leading their citizens would have thought about these things. But I should have known better. I would run for office but can’t. Weren’t you a volunteer firefighter for all of a week? Oh you were that’s right you used to it to help get you elected. Coward. Oh and yes I was out all weekend working for this storm preparing. Doing what the mayor of the town/city where I work told me to do. Since I work as a rescue worker. Keep trying Matt I’m still winning
What is it that you think you’re winning?
And yes, I was a volunteer firefighter from June of 2001 until about a year later. Thanks for remembering
I realized it was not really helpful to the effort to be a volunteer firefighter while I had a full time job in the city, where I left at 6 am and returned around 8 pm or so every day. I looked for other ways I could aid in the community, which is why I ran for office starting in May of ’03. I’m proud of the four years I put in, which is four more than you.
Why is it you can’t run for office? Are you under 18? Are you too scared to? Why can’t you use your real name? The story is always the same with you chickens who won’t use your real names in these posts. For some “unknown” reason you can’t reveal who you are, you can’t run for office, and you can’t help but whine about the efforts of others. The real reason you can’t reveal who you are is that you’re a gutless wimp. You are the coward here, not me.
You’re also clueless… How is it that the mayor and council members are supposed to know the mind of the community without listening?
I also notice you didn’t answer my earlier question. Were you pushing for the state of emergency on Saturday or not? As I see no evidence you were, your current carping is nothing more than Monday morning quarterbacking.
Matt:
First off thank you for your service on the Rye City Council. It is mostly a thankless job with lots of work and time away from your family.
If Rye is a City Manager government, and you are correct that the City Council does not run the day to day operations, why do we only hear from French about all things Sandy and almost every other issue facing Rye? Why isn’t Pickup at the forefront of these issues?
French ran on a platform that included Otis was micromanaging the City of Rye. Otis now looks like an absentee manager compared to French.
I don’t want to get into a back and forth with you but would certainly welcome your opinion on this.
No coward here I cant because of my job! and gutless whimp Matt you couldn’t do my job if you wanted to!You only dream about doing it. you became a volunteer to get into office and everone in Rye knows it. I know more then you think. Matt trust me watch what you say and how you say it. I am not even going to bother speaking to you on here anymore but you want to speak to me face to face more then happy to. You have no clue my friend. Why did other areas evacuate then starting over the weekend? Answer me that? Hope you don’t run for political office again.
Legal Fees – the city manager is an operational position, and the mayor is an oversight position – much like a COO and a CEO. You can expect the day to day operations to be handled by the city manager, with the direction determined by the city council, with the mayor as a “first among equals”. The heads of DMV, Finance, Recreation and others report to the city manager. The city manager reports to the mayor (and the council), and the council reports to the people of Rye. Otis often ran in front of the city manager, trying to micro-manage the operations of the city. As far as I know, French has not done this.
Need Change –
I’d be happy to talk to you face to face, but can’t seem to find “Need Change” in the phone book. And how could you possibly know that I’d want your job since I don’t know who you are and what you do? Unless your real name is Eli Manning, I probably wouldn’t want your job – I’m happy with what I have.
As I explained earlier, I joined the volunteer firefighters to do what I could to help the city. But I realized that a 14 hour day trying to provide for my family by working in New York City meant I wouldn’t be able to respond to many fires here in Rye. The decision to run for political office came later.
We can agree to disagree. I just have my opinion based on what I saw. I’m not trying to get personal we just have our own opinions.
Below is is the email I sent to our “CITY OFFICIALS” on 10/26.
They issued a “MANDATORY” evac on Monday afternoon???????
WHAT A JOKE!!!!
“(S)uper (S)torm (S)andy………
So far this storm has been nicknamed “SUPER STORM”, “THE PERFECT STORM”, and “FRANKIENSTORM”!!!
The death total in result from this STORM is up to 43!!!
WHAT, other than ridiculous Nixels that only seem to go out for SILLY WEATHER REPORTS from our Commissioner of Police, are the Officials of Rye doing to prepare for this storm that has predictions to be worse than Irene???
What are the Rye Officials doing to protect their Residents & the Children???
Will there be a “MANDATORY” EVACUATION put in place???
If Not……WHY NOT???
What is the EMERGENCY EVACUATION PLAN, it’s ROUTE and when will you inform your RESIDENTS???
Have you contacted or plan to contact all the new residents of Rye that have moved into our FLOOD ZONES???
OVERALL…..WHAT ARE YOU DOING???????????”