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The
Staley Conspiracy, Smoking Gun FOUND! 12/16/02 A short time ago I wrote a story about Doug Staley being unfair in his handling of the Shirley Bed and Breakfast. Staley took this personally and contacted Dan Dineen of Cortland County Planning and had him send a letter saying that the Code Enforcement Officer (CEO) could send applications to them directly. Doug brought this letter to the 12/5/02 ZBA meeting and proudly gave it to chairman Dan O'Shea, in an attempt to embarrass me about my article. The letter (below) does indeed say the Code Enforcement Officer (CEO) can send applications to the county, but Staley is NOT the Code Enforcement Officer! He is just a contract worker for the town. The supervisor is the CEO and must sign permits etc. The application for the Shirley B&B did NOT have the supervisor's signature on them, they only have Staley's signature and he is not the CEO. Staley's attempt to embarrass me blew up in his face. But wait... It gets worse... for Staley. When I started to write this story I researched Staley's official job position so I could quote it. That is when I found the real 'Smoking Gun'. It seems that 'someone' changed the designation of Staley's position at last January's town board meeting. And it is different from the previous four years in the following way. From this website (Minutes, all of 1998 to 6/17/2000): http://www.prebleny.com/PreblePublicInfoArchive/all98to20000617.txt 1998 "Code Enforcement Officer - Peter Knapp - Services as per contract with Life Safety Consultants - c/o Doug Staley" 1999 "Code Enforcement Officer - Peter Knapp - Services as per contract with Life Safety Consultants - c/o Doug Staley" 2000 "Code Enforcement Officer - John Steger - Services as per contract with Life Safety Consultants - c/o Doug Staley" From the towns website, filename 010108.doc. Appointments for the year 2001: Code Enforcement Officer John Steger/Doug Staley Services rendered as per contract with Life Safety From the towns website, filename 020114.doc. (January 14th, 2002) "Appointments for 2002:"~
It is such a small thing that I would have missed it, (and did) were I not looking for confirmation about Staley's job position in the town. This makes it appear that Staley is indeed one of the CEO's. And it indicates a change from the previous four or more years. However, this is a problem because, as I am told, the CEO has to be an elected town official and Staley is not elected. Just before the 12/9/02 town board meeting I asked Supervisor Pitman about this and she told me, in no uncertain terms, that SHE was the CEO, NOT Staley. When I showed the board the above excerpts of the minutes she again stated she was the CEO. There was some discussion about how this happened and it was thought that a typo had been made and Pitman again assured me that there was no change in Staley's job status from previous years. I called Dan Dineen and asked him if he was aware of Staley's position as CEO and he said he was. He also told me that it was Staley who informed him of that change. Now it gets interesting. This means that when Staley told Dineen that he was CEO he was conspiring to circumvent Pitman's authority. Someone, other than Pitman, made the changes to the appointments for 2002 so Staley could say he was CEO and present applications and other things that only the CEO can do. Who could that be? I called Pitman and informed her of my conversation with Dineen. She was furious and said she would call Dineen and inform him that Staley was not the CEO. I suggested she contact Staley also. How did this happen? The person who made the change to the appointments had to be in a position to edit or suggest the wording of the appointments without being noticed. This appointment is part of a whole bunch the board makes every year. It is a boilerplate list with only a few names changed from year to year. For someone in the right spot it would be easy to make this simple one line change. It has to be someone on the board, the clerk, the town attorney or even the county legislator as he was the previous supervisor. Picture the scene. It is the middle of January and Betty Pitman is about to have her first town board meeting as the new supervisor. She wants to make a good first impression. She wants to do everything right and this list of appointments is just part of a large stack of things she has to get ready. She calls the previous supervisor and other board members for advise and counsel. On of them offers to do the appointments list. Or possibly make some small change that is lost in the mix of stuff she has to do. She doesn't suspect that a change would be made in the appointments as it is so common. The change is made, the list presented and voted on. The person who made the change contacts Staley and Staley tells Dan Dineen that he, Staley is now the CEO. Dineen has no reason to doubt Staley so he assumes he is what he says he is. Things go along just fine with no one the wiser until Staley try's to embarrass me at the ZBA meeting and I discover his and the 'other guy's' secret. Here is the list of possible suspects with my thoughts and conclusions: Betty Ann Pitman, Supervisor: Obviously she was not the one. Why would she undermine her own power. If she wanted to permit something she wouldn't need Staley, she could do it herself and is thus removed as a suspect. (Remember when past Supervisor Peter Knapp permitted the cell tower on his own brother's land.) Kate Edinger: Kate is Betty's close friend and is thus removed as a suspect. Tom Fox and Lynette Currie: They were both new to the board this year and would not have been in a position to make the change and are thus removed as suspects. Jane Davenport, clerk: She did assume that the change was a typo on her part but she is not in a position to make this change and is thus removed as a suspect. Don Armstrong, town attorney. He might have been able to influence this because he does advise the board. However, if it was then he would likely be fired and more likely be brought up on ethics charges. Don is too smart to do either and is thus removed as a suspect. John Steger, County Legislator. John was also new to his county job in January of 2002 and would have a lot to do getting up on that. It is unlikely that he had anything to do with this in any direct way. Possible, but unlikely. The only one left is Peter Knapp. He was appointed Deputy Supervisor and with his past years as Supervisor it is easy to see him advising Pitman on procedures and wording and things she needed to do at that first meeting. He was in the perfect position to make the change to the wording and his close relationship with Staley over the years make it much more than reasonable that he was the one behind it all. Therefore, I conclude that it was Peter Knapp who made these changes without the rest of the board knowing. He probably called Staley after the meeting and had Staley tell Dineen that he was CEO. The next question is: Why? With Staley acting as CEO for the last 11 months what did he do with that power? Obviously they wanted to submit applications to county without Pitman or anyone else knowing about it. They might have other plans that I haven't uncovered... yet! I am looking into that now. It is possible that the occasion has not arisen and they are biding their time. What I do know for absolute sure is that there is something sneaky afoot or Knapp and Staley would not have done this. Conclusion: I have long advocated Staley's firing. He has been the center of disputes and ill will in the town for decades. This was an obvious usurping of the Supervisors power by Staley and is an offence that requires dismissal. I think that Peter Knapp should be asked to resign from office for this flagrant offence. Now it is up to the town board. They next meet on Monday the 30th of December. I'll be there. Frank
Hogg 12/13/02 - 11:10 AM Called Staley's office. Told the woman who answered that I wanted to talk to Doug and who I was. She asked me to hold on and after a couple of minutes (When she consulted with Doug I presume) she came back and told me Doug had been really sick and couldn't come to the phone. I said I see and mused that I was surprised that she didn't know that fact when I first called. No response from her so we hung up. (Perhaps Staley got sick when he heard I was on the phone.) Excerpt from Dan Dineen letter to the ZBA dated 12/4/2002 "It is the policy of the Cortland County Planning Department to accept General Municipal Law 239 M & N referrals from any of the following municipal officials: attorney, clerk, code enforcement officer, planning board chair, or zoning board of appeals chair." |
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