Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Apologies all around
to anyone who may have received communique(CQ?) of any kind from me last night. Why I thought it was a good idea to down a pitcher of beer BY MYSELF probably correlates with the ugly, self-indulgent mood I’ve been in the past couple weeks, but I tell you what: My mood has improved dramatically since. And I wasn’t even as hungover as I was expecting!
Also, muy thanks to Paul for going to the meeting I was supposed to go to, because I very likely would’ve hemorrhaged had I been:
HIGHLAND—A Highland Police Commission member accused by Town Council members of violating his oath of office will not continue to serve on that board.
With Councilman Mark Herak absent from the meeting, the other four members unanimously voted to oust John Koval from his position on the Police Commission.
Following the vote, public comments were permitted. Former Councilman Joseph Wszolek of Highland read a prepared statement in opposition to the action taken against Koval.
Wszolek said Koval’s behavior was consistent with the recently adopted Code of Ethics for Highland officials in that he took the responsibility to expose corrupt behavior and took action to support the public’s right to know.
Attorney Joe Hero, who represents Koval, was not allowed to speak.
Koval’s reprimand stems from a letter to the editor he wrote before the November election countering information in Highland First Coalition literature.
The brochure said the previous Town Council trimmed $311,633 from the Police Department’s budget, which in turn would reduce police patroling capabilities by 19 percent.
The Police Department’s net operating budget for 2007 was cut, said Highland Clerk-Treasurer Michael Griffin. But most of that money was made up through two other funds on which the department relies.
In Koval’s letter, dated Oct. 31, 2007, he said former Republican and current Highland First Councilman Mark Herak “concocted a fairy tale.”
“I find it morally offensive for (Herak) to use scare tactics and prey upon our citizens’ fears regarding their safety for the sole purpose of trying to maintain power,” he wrote.
In January, the Police Commission’s four other members—James DeGraaf, Chairman James Turoci, Patty VanTil and Danny Stombaugh—sent a letter to the council requesting that Koval be removed from the commission because by identifying himself as a police commissioner he was allowing politics to influence the Police Department and Commission. The council turned to Town Attorney Rhett Tauber for an opinion.
In a letter dated Jan. 8, Tauber said Koval’s actions weren’t a violation.
So, SO very disappointing, though coming from Herak—a guy who put together his election strategy with Democrats when he was a Republican and who now left out the part of how most of the Police Department money was given back in his campaign literature—I’d expect nothing less. The man is pathological in his need for control of whatever power he thinks he has over his little town.
And how about Danny Vassar wanting to make Lincoln Center “residents only?” Are nonresidents peeing on the floor or holding baby-tossing contests in the fieldhouse? If they’re not, I’d say his reasons smack of racism, or least of a snobbery to which Highland really has no claim. And if Lincoln Center DOES go resident-only, how much are the resident fees going to get hiked to make up the difference? Because you DO know the money’s going to have to come from somewhere, right? Way to go, Danny!
