Does Democrat Bob Duffy Have A Problem — Why Are So Many City Employees Stealing?
The six and seventh employees of the City of Rochester were arrested since Bob Duffy became Mayor a little more that 2 years after taking office. According to the morning fish wrapper, a 24 and 25 year employee of the City’s parking meter operation office were arrested for stealing:
“This pattern of conduct, we believe, has been going on for a long time,” Mayor Robert Duffy said, declining to give further detail when announcing the arrests Thursday. “At this point, we cannot establish how much money has been taken.”
Anthony J. Morelli of Rochester, a 25-year city employee and supervising parking meter mechanic in the city’s four-person parking meter operations office, is accused of fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, three counts of petit larceny, official misconduct and second-degree falsifying business records.
Samuel A. Vito Jr. of Hilton, a 24-year city employee and a parking meter mechanic, is accused of fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, petit larceny, official misconduct and second-degree falsifying business records.
(snip)
The city brings in more than $500,000 annually from parking meters, records show, but has seen that revenue fall steadily in recent years. Factors including downtown’s decline and fewer meters previously explained the drop. According to records, revenue was more than $600,000 in 2001-2002.
Why has it taken Duffy 2 years and 4 months to catch 6 people stealing, when his predecessor Bill Johnson was in office for 12 years and most of these crimes date back to his term in office?
And how does the City not know how much these guys stole? At my place of work, we have internal controls and policies that prevent one or two people from having access to a bunch of cash without anyone else being involved.
These arrests confirm several things to me. First, Bill Johnson was a terrible Mayor and performance doesn’t matter to City Democrats. Luckily for us, Johnson decided that 12 years of being Mayor. There is little doubt that if he wanted a 4th term, City voters would have given it to him.
Secondly, the media play on this has been relatively low key. I can’t help but think this would have been a bigger deal if it happened in the County or a Republican town. Who knows, maybe there will be an editorial in the D&C tomorrow about how Mayor Blue Sky and Sunshine needs to move quickly to assure the public that this isn’t a pattern among City employees. Maybe that editorial will say that Duffy needs to appoint a citizen committee to insure stronger internal controls will be in place as the City has its’ hand out for increased state.
Maybe, but I’m not holding my breath.
13 Responses to “Does Democrat Bob Duffy Have A Problem — Why Are So Many City Employees Stealing?”
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This isn’t the Anthony Morelli that blogs around here is it?
And this was in the local birdcage liner?
Where was it section 7F below the weekly $2 want ads?
Unfortunatly… err.. Scratch that I mean, Fortunatly I do not read it anymore.
Sorry Anthony Morelle that blogs here. It’s obvious who your true identity is and now I see you spell your name different “i” insead of “e” at the end
Equalizer
Nice work including “Democrat Mayor” on the headline. The D&C only seems to believe party affiliation is important when a Republican has negative press.
You might want to consider the City’s new Ethics Office. I think that through the Ryan and Johnson years the feeling at City Hall was same old, same old. Well, that’s not the case any more. The pathetic circumstances of these employees stealing, or kick-backing, or falsifying documents, is due in some respect to a lack of departmental oversight . If the City doesn’t get it’s house in order, will the State appoint a fiscal control board as they did in Buffalo?
Addendum - Did I hear that Buffalo is not running a deficit anymore?
I thought you guys were real conservatives. I guess I need to do all the thinking around here since you’re so busy trying to hang graft that’s probably been going on for decades around Duffy’s neck.
Do a little math. The parking meters bring in $400K. There are 4 employees in the department and they’ve all been there forever. Salaries + benefits alone have to be at least half of that, and probably more like $250K. And that doesn’t count the cost of replacing meters, office space, vehicles to drive around and fix those meters. When all is said and done, if the city is clearing more than $100K on this whole thing before figuring in enforcement costs, I’d be surprised. This is close to a break-even operation for something that’s a total asspain to anyone who drives downtown.
If cut enforcement down to a minimum - instead of checking every meter, concentrate on problem areas where cars tend to park longer than they should - the city could probably come out ahead if they just junked parking meters.
Now there’s a solution everyone could like. But I guess it’s just too much fun to try to blame it on Bob Duffy, and patting each other on the back because you got the word “Democrat” into a post. Sheesh.
Hey Rottenchester
Thanks for doing the math. I hope many people read that. As someone who parks downtown a lot for business, I could agree with junking the parking meters.
However a long term theft by employees under the watch of Democatic officials is news and worth of mentioning then party. Let us not forget the current mayor is a Democrat, ex Police Chief. Bill Johnson before him was a Democrat for 12 years. Before that Tom Ryan was mayor, nobody voted for him. Mayors were appointed back then, so I guess it does not matter which party he was.
The city council are all Democrats as well. Maybe it is time to look and say we need a little balance in the city. If at least just to keep an eye on each other.
Psssst…….
Follow the money
Rottenchester, whats the point of a political blog if you don’t mention party? I have to agree with tiberius. It sure does seem when a Republican like Larry Craig does something wrong you never hear his name without his party. With Elliot Spitzer it was always “The Governor of New York” I remember a few years back Democratic Congressman Gary Condit of California was at the center of a murdered aid. Turns out they were having an affair. You never heard his party. I even saw the media refer to him as a Republican.
In this case it seems like party is very relevant. The city is under one party control. If there is gross misconduct like this it should be pointed out that the only competition of ideas are to maintain power instead of providing honest service.
Even Democrats and the Liberal/Progressive elitists have to agree that if this kept happening at the County like it is here in the City, that it would be front page news at the D&C for a good week straight.
When you have one party Democrat rule in the City, no one is watching the hens but the foxes. Nobody will point out what kinda illegal activity is going on until they have no choice but to involve the cops.
Then and only then does it become public knowledge.
And then it’s only a buried story at best… again, if you’re a Democrat in this city.
Let’s be honest here. As was mentioned, these were longtime employees of the Democrat Party controlled city. This very well could have been going on under Ryan’s, Johnson’s and, as reported, Duffy’s watch, and these guys weren’t caught until now?
Democrats/D&C can’t say whoever is in charge is to blame only when that person is a Republican.
Sorry, but it really has to apply to the democrats too.
I have no argument with the notion that one-party rule is a problem in the city. And certainly Bill Johnson was asleep at the switch in many ways.
But I think most Democrats or Republicans would read this story and think that Duffy is cleaning house, and that’s a good thing. Is he supposed to walk in on day one and magically figure out that the parking meter maintenance guys are lining their pockets? It looks like he put some new people in charge who are going through city hall and finding problems.
That’s why your “nah nah nah Duffy’s a Demrat” spin strikes me as stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime.
Rotten, don’t get me wrong, getting rid of the bad appleas is a good thing.
But again, here’s the difference:
If a democrat does it, the media spin is positive.
If a republican does it, the media spin is negative.
That is definitely true.
Unfair and biased… but very, very true.
And if they refuse to report it equally for all, we are left with no choice but to do it ourselves.
We didn’t start the fire.