The Hunting of Dan Livingston

[Bingoloid]

Am I missing something here?

The City of Binghamton is looking to spend $7,500 - about 3 years worth of city property tax revenue from a typical West Side homeowner - to investigate Dan Livingston's internship, which apparently cost $1,500, none of which came from the City.

Seems like a pretty bad investment to me, unless somebody's got a lot more to gain at a personal level by putting a stop to his questions about the mismanagement of the many millions of dollars spent at the sewage treatment plant.

I've got no issues with Sophia - unless he's got some hard evidence that she knew something, Solak is off the rails about the children's home - but even she should be livid at how crooked this makes her election look.

[ginger]

Bing Hi, I saw your post on another thread but I really don't know what you're posting about. If it takes too long to explain forget it  Eventually I'll be able to piece everything together between BCV and Binghamton Now.

[Bingoloid]

40 minutes ago, ginger said:

Bing Hi, I saw your post on another thread but I really don't know what you're posting about. If it takes too long to explain forget it  Eventually I'll be able to piece everything together between BCV and Binghamton Now.

Dan is the Democratic city councilman for the West Side. He's been very vigorous about showcasing the problems with the $270 million sewage treatment plant project. The project appears to be out of control and under constant threat of very hefty state fines.

https://wskg.org/news/social-media-fuels-controversy-over-binghamton-johnson-city-sewage/

http://www.wicz.com/story/41250154/binghamton-council-members-reiterate-frustration-with-joint-sewage-treatment-plant-plan

First, Rich David tried to shut him down claiming his videos were a some kind of terrorist security risk. When the election rolled around, they pulled some very grade school stunts to try to run him out of office entirely.

The last of these was a claim that a Binghamton University internship he created, using his own campaign funds, was an ethical breach. Apparently, the city plans to spend $7,500 on attorneys to "investigate" him, which seems to be far more money than the whole thing cost in the first place.

It was obviously a hit job to stop the questions about the sewage treatment plant. The project is bigger than the city's entire annual budget and deserves full transparency, but instead they're lawyering up over a timesheet.

[binghamtonian]

From my understanding, and this comes from someone I know at BU that's dealing with this, her internship was supposed to be unpaid and her job was limited in scope, her working as part of his re-election campaign, was a no-no as well according to the agreement with BU. Also, since it was through the University, she was not supposed to represent herself as an employee of the City of Binghamton, which she also did.

[Bingoloid]

32 minutes ago, binghamtonian said:

Also, since it was through the University, she was not supposed to represent herself as an employee of the City of Binghamton, which she also did.

I'm not saying they don't have a technically legitimate gripe. Just that given the amounts of money alleged to be involved, I don't see where spending nearly five figures on outside legal counsel is a proportionate reaction. Normally things like that initially get handled with an internal letter warning somebody that they're doing it wrong and to knock it off.

(In fact, that's what was done with Debbie Preston's credit card, and it was entirely proper. She ignored the letter and maxed it out again, proving her intent.)

Certain people have been cruising to shut down the public backlash about the sewage treatment plant, as well as Livingston's postings of city meetings so the public can see them, all year.

[19April1775]

1 hour ago, Bingoloid said:

I'm not saying they don't have a technically legitimate gripe. Just that given the amounts of money alleged to be involved, I don't see where spending nearly five figures on outside legal counsel is a proportionate reaction. Normally things like that initially get handled with an internal letter warning somebody that they're doing it wrong and to knock it off.

(In fact, that's what was done with Debbie Preston's credit card, and it was entirely proper. She ignored the letter and maxed it out again, proving her intent.)

Certain people have been cruising to shut down the public backlash about the sewage treatment plant, as well as Livingston's postings of city meetings so the public can see them, all year.

Hopefully taxpayer money laundering has entered your mind. This is a classic example of what I'm always raging about. A rebel against the establishment emerges. The establishment goes after them, looking for anything, including jaywalking. I jest to make a point. The establishment demands an official investigation and hires someone with taxpayer money to do it. Part of that taxpayer money gets laundered back to the establishment.

This is how we can pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes collectively and they always need more. They always need more.

 

[binghamtonian]

19 hours ago, Bingoloid said:

I'm not saying they don't have a technically legitimate gripe. Just that given the amounts of money alleged to be involved, I don't see where spending nearly five figures on outside legal counsel is a proportionate reaction. Normally things like that initially get handled with an internal letter warning somebody that they're doing it wrong and to knock it off.

(In fact, that's what was done with Debbie Preston's credit card, and it was entirely proper. She ignored the letter and maxed it out again, proving her intent.)

Certain people have been cruising to shut down the public backlash about the sewage treatment plant, as well as Livingston's postings of city meetings so the public can see them, all year.

From what I've heard, the City asked BU for some documentation about this intern and BU rejected them citing privacy laws. According to the BU source this pissed off CoB attorney's, while they're getting a chuckle from it.

[ginger]

Thank you ^^^:)

[Jack McGurn]

This entire internship scenario smells wonderfully reminiscent of those blissful days when Tarek Abdelazim and former Mayor Matt Ryan filled City Hall with the youthful exhuberance of brainwashed interns (BU, Citizen Action,....) primarily to further their "progressive" agenda......and accomplishing nothing of significance whatsoever for the greater good that comes to mind.

In reality, local government is the only level where an immediate impact by the focus and decisions of elected officials can be made and felt. The Binghamton area suffers through having some of the highest taxes relative to property values in the nation; aged housing and spreading blight; increasing crime; lack of downtown parking in conjunction with an unabated BU presence; the traffic flow of a congested major metropolis; crumbling infrastructure, an inanate inability to look at cost saving efficiencies through consolidation, privatization, elimination, and  on and on. Local issues. 

And while the aforementioned sewage treatment debacle is indeed huge, at this level  I do not wish nor do I need to hear about my Council person refusing the Pledge of Allegiance (his right), or his stance on climate change (his right), or his discovering that the Mayor might have unintentionally received STAR tax relief not entitled to ( good grief).

Address some of the above everyday quality of life issues dramatically impacting our City.  Or don't. Let the next person try. And now she will. Good Luck.

 

[Bingoloid]

2 hours ago, Jack McGurn said:

The Binghamton area suffers through having some of the highest taxes relative to property values in the nation; aged housing and spreading blight; increasing crime; lack of downtown parking in conjunction with an unabated BU presence; the traffic flow of a congested major metropolis; crumbling infrastructure, an inanate inability to look at cost saving efficiencies through consolidation, privatization, elimination, and  on and on. Local issues. 

And while the aforementioned sewage treatment debacle is indeed huge, at this level  I do not wish nor do I need to hear about my Council person refusing the Pledge of Allegiance (his right), or his stance on climate change (his right), or his discovering that the Mayor might have unintentionally received STAR tax relief not entitled to ( good grief).

Address some of the above everyday quality of life issues dramatically impacting our City.  Or don't. Let the next person try. And now she will. Good Luck.

We can respectfully agree to disagree about this, Jack, but while I think Sophia is a fine lady and I wish her the absolute best of luck, your choice of words was interesting. If you don't "wish nor need to hear" about the pledge of allegiance issue it might be worth reflecting on the motives behind publicizing it. Fair play, he handed them the gun, but they took the shot because they can't say he was wrong on the issue.

We have an adversarial system in court for a reason - to find facts - and it's good and proper for the parties to serve that purpose in city council, too. Papastrat used to play himself up as a fiscal hawk and make Matt Ryan sit down and defend the individual line items on spending proposals.

Now that David is in office? To say that oversight has broken down is an understatement. The sewage treatment plant is a very serious and very local crumbling infrastructure issue. My prediction - and I hope I'm wrong, but I'll bet you a beer I'm not - is that when the city finally unveils the truth of how bad this is going to be for us as ratepayers, David is going to bury it like he accidentally strangled it in a strip club, and local media is going to stand next to him holding the flashlight while he digs.

Good to see you posting again.

[FormerSomeone]

Never underestimate the vindictiveness of City Republicans in their effort to keep all actions silent.  

They HATED that Livingston posted videos of council meetings on YouTube.  That will end in January and we'll go back to "transcripts of that meeting cannot be found" responses.

[PARMELEE]

On 11/8/2019 at 5:42 PM, Jack McGurn said:

This entire internship scenario smells wonderfully reminiscent of those blissful days when Tarek Abdelazim and former Mayor Matt Ryan filled City Hall with the youthful exhuberance of brainwashed interns (BU, Citizen Action,....) primarily to further their "progressive" agenda......and accomplishing nothing of significance whatsoever for the greater good that comes to mind.

In reality, local government is the only level where an immediate impact by the focus and decisions of elected officials can be made and felt. The Binghamton area suffers through having some of the highest taxes relative to property values in the nation; aged housing and spreading blight; increasing crime; lack of downtown parking in conjunction with an unabated BU presence; the traffic flow of a congested major metropolis; crumbling infrastructure, an inanate inability to look at cost saving efficiencies through consolidation, privatization, elimination, and  on and on. Local issues. 

And while the aforementioned sewage treatment debacle is indeed huge, at this level  I do not wish nor do I need to hear about my Council person refusing the Pledge of Allegiance (his right), or his stance on climate change (his right), or his discovering that the Mayor might have unintentionally received STAR tax relief not entitled to ( good grief).

Address some of the above everyday quality of life issues dramatically impacting our City.  Or don't. Let the next person try. And now she will. Good Luck.

 

Great post spot on

 

[Mr. Met]

Dan was on Binghamton Now this morning and he brought up this situation and about the interns but I was unable to listen much further. Did anyone happen to catch it?