Big Brother in Town Hall!

Dick Hides Spy Cams to Watch Employees

The Dicktor continues to fail to impress with his leadership skills, frequently blowing the most ridiculous situations well out of proportion. Take, for example, the unfortunate clerk in the water and sewer department, Ariel (not her real name). Ariel, with her helpful and professional demeanor, is well-liked by the residents and effective and competent in her job. Unfortunately, she managed to get on Dick’s bad side, so he decided to have her suspended without cause.

It all started with Dick moving Ariel’s desk into the tax receiver’s office –- a huge no-no because accountability rules require that any billing functions be kept separate from whoever is collecting the money. But Dick has never been one to let regulatory requirements get in the way of a bright idea – maybe that’s why his clients in mainland China like him so much?

Not content to ignore state oversight, the Dicktor added his own Big Brother twist. Under his direction, the tax receiver and town clerk installed a hidden camera focusing on Ariel’s desk. When she discovered the surveillance and complained, Dicky retaliated by locking her out of her office. The receiver, meanwhile, continued to talk smack about the clerk and generally persist in putting her anus (French: le Annus) where her mouth is. Ariel filed a legitimate workplace violence complaint, which Dick handled in his typical clueless fashion: he summoned all parties to a secret meeting in the town vault, of all places, apparently to ensure that the receiver’s fabricated bullshit complaints wouldn’t be picked up on the town hall camera system.

It should be interesting to see what happens when this nonsense is sorted out and she goes back to work.

Dirtbags, like Potholes, can be Extra Large

Slimy Highway Superintendent Holds Onto his $90K Paycheck

Wappinger has a colorful rogues’ gallery of public officials. Let’s consider Vinny “Il Stronzo” Bettina, who could have contributed to the betterment of the town simply by never crawling out from under his rock.

Vinny’s unwillingness to exert any effort into earning a paycheck goes back to his days as a gym teacher in Beacon, where he used to tell his students to “just run” while he sat on his fat ass with the newspaper. After Beacon fired him, he ran for the school board so that he could exact revenge, but the public sent him packing once they realized he was an idiot.

Beacon’s gain was Wappingers’ loss: fast forward to today and Il Stronzo is still abusing his authority, now ostensibly serving as the town’s highway superintendent. In the 36 months he’s been “on the job,” he has (allegedly) illegally sold both the town’s surplus salt as well as recycled asphalt from milling the town roads, (allegedly) called female escorts from his town-owned cell phone, and (allegedly) sent lewd text messages to his employees. By diligently looking busy, he manages to hide the fact that he has absolutely zero clue as to how to perform his job. Fortunately for us, the highway employees can keep things running on their own; in fact, we’re told that things go much smoother when Vinnie is not pretending to supervise. (Generally, he’s using his town vehicle and gas to run his personal errands (usually with one hand on the wheel and the other with his cell phone jammed to his ear as he gets updates from his psychic. Allegedly.)

Public records document Vinny’s rich history of milking the town. He and sister Angie have a long trail of delinquent property tax payments and foreclosures, as chronicled on the county website for anyone who cares to look. He also conveniently “forgot” to remove his parents’ STAR exemption for years after inheriting their Chelsea Road house, cheating the town out of thousands of tax dollars. Since Vinny is a member of the Republican club that appointed the tax collector, he was never in much danger of getting caught – all the more so because the collector is the club’s secretary and her husband is the treasurer. (As an equal opportunity scumbag, Vinny has cheated the state as well: both his Mercedes and Jeep have been registered in Florida for at least 10 years.)

One of the many tasks that has distracted Blahtina from his paid duties was obtaining a highway garage job for County Legislator Joe Incoronado’s son-in-law. This guy was Vinny’s pet for a while but is now doing time for a child pornography conviction – and it’s tempting to wonder if there is any connection between this degenerate’s videos and Vinny “losing” his town-issued cell phone (stolen at church, he claimed). You may remember that County Leg Joe was himself censured last year for his remarkably clueless on-the-record remark that rape victims could be to blame for their attacker’s crimes, showing that lack of common sense may well be a genetic trait.

Il Stronzo’s record as a supervisor has not been impressive. Multiple employees who have been intimidated by this thug have filed workplace harassment complaints, resulting in charges being filed and an investigator being appointed. The report findings were clear: Vinny is a bully who should enroll in remedial charm school and not be allowed in a management role.

Despite his close calls, including an ongoing legal action to unceremoniously remove him from office, Vinny still spends most of his time at Dunkin, blathering on his phone and spending a good chunk of his $90,000 salary supporting the local vanity paper. His generosity towards the Hornet goes back to at least 2015, where on the one hand he campaigned with the slogan “no more nepotism” while buying ad space for sweet sister Angie on the other.

Let’s be clear, Butt-boy: campaigning for your sister to sit on the town board so that she can vote for your budget requests is nepotism. Selling town materials on the side is corruption, keeping your car registered in another state is illegal, and keeping your dead parents’ STAR exemption is fraud.