Rye City Council Inauguration, 4pm Today
It's party time on the village green today; January 1st, 2012 at 4pm.
Rye City will hold an Inauguration Ceremony and the celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the City of Rye.
Someone clearly forgot to tell the city it's also MyRye.com's sixth birthday…
When: Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 4:00 p.m.
Where: Rye City Hall
1051 Boston Post Road
Rye, New York
Who: Newly elected Council members
Laura Brett
Catherine Parker
Joseph Sack
Light Refreshments will be served.
Well if Rye’s current political class will not offer congratulations to MyRye on your anniversary – your reader’s and writer’s will.
CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU JAY AND LAUREN for the essential public service you’ve provided these past 5 years. And may you and MyRye prosper for many, many more.
In my experience never was there a time when our local first amendment freedoms were more in jeopardy than when we see a sitting Rye Mayor using both council cronies and his taxpayer supplied gavel to effectively suppress and outright block unpopular public speech targeting his own apparent long running municipal misconduct.
No citizen should have to bring a skilled federal litigator into a Rye City Council meeting to call out first amendment abuses. And when he did arrive – why then finally were the city manager and city attorney silent? Instead of the Mayor’s attack dogs they suddenly looked more like, well, lap dogs.
The Rye government reform movement has picked up speed in advancing its exposure of the insider’s game in Rye, unearthing, in this latest incarnation, yet another apparent example of how the political class enriches themselves personally at the expense of the rest of us.
Un-permitted, un-inspected and un-taxed substantial home construction is illegal. And STAR tax exemptions cannot be claimed on non primary residence properties. Yet apparently this behavior is kind of an open secret, snickered at among certain officials, comfortable in their belief that no one in their clique is accountable and that all issues can and will be papered over in time.
And why in retrospect should they actually be concerned? No permits are required to destroy documented wetlands if you know the ‘right people’ – FOIL laws are openly and now publicly mocked, and the filth and safety hazards out on Hen Island of course remain. Imagine what else remains hidden along these same lines.
Fixers call the shots in secret, and most on this city council work to maintain a state of contrived ignorance about these and other huge unresolved matters. Influence and access unfortunately count for much these days at City Hall. As does a certain carefree “catch me if you can” insolence. Secret keepers are the real gatekeepers of what gets done – and what gets suppressed.
This all puts enormous personal stress on Rye’s mostly honest, long serving valuable public sector employees. And that stress has long term consequences. What better antidote for their long suffering spirits could there be than a spotlight shined on the schemers, the gamers, the players and other dishonest actors who favor-trade voluntary public board service for a quiet special arrangement here or crony rigged ruling there?
That’s where local reformers come in. Perhaps the beginning of the end of this dishonest new self entitled cult in Rye is nigh. I might suggest keeping an eye on MyRye – and other larger circulation media – in the coming days.
Happy 2012!