Our County Executive, Steve Neuhaus aka Stevie Thunder,
has been very busy lately. Not busy with work for the County but with political
doings. He was a delegate at the Republican National Convention!!! And he was
quite vocal. He didn’t take too many chances while stating the he was originally
for Kasich but will now support Trump. And he didn’t take too many chances
praising Former NYC Mayor, Rudolph Guiliani, who held NYC together after 9-11
and also cleaned the city up, especially Times Square. (and for those of you
who say Mr. Guiliani sanitized Times Square by removing the drug dealers,
hookers and thieves, Auntie says: Too bad! ) http://www.recordonline.com/news/20160723/fray-cruz-should-have-skipped-gop-convention-neuhaus-says
While Stevie was hobnobbing with Republican elite, The
Times Herald Record’s Chris McKenna, was taking a “look at the books” You see,
while Orange County has a “Pay to play law” Stevie’s pals in the legislature
weakened the law by making exemptions for the Trade Labor Unions. Why?
STEVE SAID “They
back me up, and now you are seeing me back them up”
“Neuhaus, in an
interview last week, said he had no objection to the limit on contractors'
donations, other than the large amount of time the county's attorneys and other
employees spend on paperwork to enforce the law. “-McKenna THR
What is the implication here? That it is an unnecessary
expenditure to enforce a “pay to play” law?” He pointed out that all of his
contributions are publicly disclosed and said he would never jeopardize his
reputation and livelihood by steering a contract to a donor, making the new law
irrelevant in his case. All contributions to EVERY candidate are transparent to
the extent that they are posted on the board of elections website IF reported. And
his attitude is the equivalent of “I am the government, trust me”.
Todd Dioro, Labor Union Leader with CE Stevie Neuhaus
No bias here! Keep smiling, boys…
if the law states a there is limit on the contributions,
then contributors should not exceed that limit through a loophole in the law,
even if “transparent”. While many candidates would say, is that “Ah well, it
was legal” just think how you felt when Andrew Cuomo received $250K through 4 LLCS
from the big KJ real estate developer, right after the DEC decision in favor of
KJ! Exploiting the loopholes goes
against the intent of the law. And the legislators that passed the weakened
legislation which created the loopholes (where there should be none), go against
the intent of decency.
“As it was
originally written, Orange County's pay-to-play law would have limited the
trade unions' contributions in the same way as contract-holding businesses,
since the project-labor agreements that unions typically secure for county
building projects qualify as contracts. But Republican lawmakers explicitly
exempted trade unions from the law before the final version was adopted”. McKenna (Please note that it was Republican Mike Anagnostokis who sponsored the law.)
TODD (Diorio) said “The
money's there to spend on candidates — that's the way we look at it,"
That about sums it up.
Eddie Diana the
former County Executive is good to his “friends”
too, using monies donated to his “treasure chest” campaign fund (You know, the
one looted by Carmen Dubaldi) for payouts to various candidates running for
office. He dispenses money to various Republican Candidates as he sees fit.
Diana still sitting on $331K in campaign cash
“Former Orange County Executive Ed Diana has
been out of office since 2013 and hasn’t gotten any campaign donations since
2012, but he still has around $331,000 in unspent loot in his account,
according to the semi-annual disclosure report that his treasurer filed this
month.”- McKenna THR
WHY are former
campaign committees allowed to keep these monies designated for a campaign
after a candidate is no longer such? When individuals, businesses and
corporations donated to the campaign for Eddie they did not contribute so the
money could be doled out to someone of Eddie’s choosing. WHY are they allowed
to hoard this money even when they are neither running now, nor will they be
running for office again? Shouldn’t there be a statute imposing a time limit on
retention of campaign cash? Allow the candidate to keep it for 2 years and if
they do not run again, the money must go to charity? A valid 501c3? Let's change the Election Law. And all of our Nieces and Nephews should be asking Assembly and State Senate candidates if the would be willing to do it!
When Steve returned to Orange County and his Monday morning radio
show where he spoke of the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia this week, he
was full of opinions!
STEVE SAID:” I hope
that Philadelphia has (updated) their public urination laws”
We all know the incident to which he refers, but is bringing
it up in this context necessary?
No, it is actually very immature.
Thanks Steve, we missed you.
Hammer home the two Record investigations this political season and keep it going until the laws are changed. How can people think Eddie Diana is for you and I? He should use that money to help students, the shrinking middle class and so much more.
ReplyDeleteEddie must have big plans for holding onto that money. Even better how do we even know the money is still sitting there? Is it in an interest bearing account? Good questions and no answers why there are no laws governing a time limit.
ReplyDeleteAuntie,
ReplyDeletePlease share with us who the Republican lawmakers were who "weakened the pay to play law," so that trade unions were exempt. It is important that we, as the Orange County voting public, know who doesn't have our back instead has the backs of Neuhaus & Brescia. After all, elections for all Orange County legislators will occur in November, 2017, and we want to be an informed voting public. We do not want to return to office those who do not have our best interests at heart! As always Auntie, thank you trying so hard to keep our Orange County politicians honest and transparent. It is a fulltime job!!!
Eddie is Back!
ReplyDeleteLots of work do do here on home turf. Politics is Local. Heard the Eddie Diana is taking his $333K and running for the Bonacic seat in the NYS Senate.
Time to start digging. Telling the stories of Valley View, Campaign Contributions...
There is ONE Legislator in Orange County that stands above all others, and we know he is the one with that name none of us can say (the one with that long last name, Mike A.) .... the answer to post at 5:18 can be found here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.recordonline.com/article/20160727/OPINION/160729537/0/SEARCH
"The legislation as originally proposed by Republican Mike Anagnostakis of Newburgh would have severely limited the kinds of donations that allowed the former county executive, Ed Diana, to pile up hundreds of thousands of dollars in his campaign fund. And by the way, he still has more than $300,000 in that fund three years after leaving office, enough to overwhelm any opponent should he run again, enough to donate to others making him a political power broker himself. These funds can distort elections at the time they come in and for years in the future.
Over the objection of Anagnostakis and several Democrats, Republicans on the county Legislature exempted trade unions from the limitations, an exemption that has paid off nicely for Neuhaus and Brescia. And it has paid off for the unions who are invited into meetings long before the public is involved."
Throw da bum,s out. Hope jim booth does a tell all book about his buddy Seve Neuhaus an friends an the young republicans jim kbows plenty. He was Neuhaus,s driver on many a trip to an frow.
ReplyDelete