Taggard Pleads Guilty

Former Town of Ulster Police Chief Matt Taggard plead guilty to a deal that will save him from going to jail. In a plea bargain Taggard plead guilty to official misconduct, that while involved in the boy scouts, Taggard failed to report sex crimes against underage victims.

 

First before going any further, I think we should first congratulate our new Police Chief Tony Cruise who has officially been named as permanent Chief of Police. It took some pride swallowing (and thankfully that's all this time) but Quigley did the right thing and stopped the b.s. and appointed Cruise.  For those that forget, Quig's gave the personal committee, who originally unanimously recommended Cruise to be appointed a hard time. Councilman Eric Kitchen said that he felt he was getting lectured like a child who stole a cookie, by Quigley at the time. (See below on how Quigley feels about his cookies)  Quigley backed off and did the right thing, good for him.

 

Now getting back to Quigley's little boy scout Matt Taggard, it will be interesting to see how Quigley is effected by this scandal. Matt Taggard was Quigley's inside guy during his election for Supervisor in 2009 and Quigley appointed Taggard Chief of police OVER Deputy Chief Sinagra. Despite Sinagra having superior credentials. Also despite rumors about Taggard's personal indiscretions all over town. Quigley admits he knew about the rumors. Bottom line Supervisor Jim Quigley exercised extremely poor judgement on this matter. I can see some interesting mailers if Quigs decides to run for reelection next year.

Sad State in Ulster

Last week we talked about the fact that in last year's town of Ulster budget Supervisor Quigley was cited by Ulster County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach's office for not including the safety net costs in his 2011 budget. Well rumor is Auerbach is now 2-0 against Quig's, because we hear EA's office was correct and that County Exec Mike Hein will indeed charge the town of Ulster for the safety net costs from last year in 2012, which presents more bad news for the Ulster Supervisor, who released his budget last week with a whooping 9% increase. These safety net costs will be on top of that increase! ROTLMAO just thinking how Quigley got himself into this mess. I mean this is Jim Quigley the financial wizard, you know '' James E. Quigley the third, The Buck Stops Here!"  More like Supervisor Quigs trying to pass the buck and his shortcoming on to the backs of us taxpayers. So no I am not rotlmao, or loling, Im sad by the fact next year, just like almost every other year, the town of Ulster will our raise taxes and decrease services. Sad face indeed!! :(

Supervisor Quigley Set to Jack Taxes By 9.3 %...AGAIN

Town of Quigley Supervisor Jim Quigley (well at least he thinks that's the name of the town) has proposed another near double digit tax hike..since taking office, the Republican, Conservative has raised taxes almost every year, some in the double digits. The tax hikes are always someone elses fault.  For his first term, he blamed them on the former Supervisor, than he decided to blame it on the safety net costs. How about taking some responsibility Mr. Quigley? After all he is the Supervisor and will tell anyone who will listen what a great CPA he is and financial wizard. 

However, my fellow residents of Ulster quickly realized while we had to get rid of Woerner, Quigley sold us a bill of goods and failed to deliver on his promises. To the Ulster Supervisor it seems he is more concerned about advancing his political career than running our town. The rumor is he wants to run for County Executive in two years, he's gunna have an uphill battle, because unlike Quigley, Hein has made the difficult choices and actually lowered our taxes.


Maybe it's time that Mr. Quigley think outside of the box ad start lowering some expenses. When Quigley took office, he slashed the salary from Supervisor from 45 thou, to about 27 thousand. In the current budget he has raised his salary back to 45 thousand. Mr. Malloney who is the town assesor has a town cell phone and a nice take home vehicle, I think its a brand new Jeep, rumor is that he is requred to use a Jeep becasue the shocks hold up his signifigant weight. Not sure which is more bloated Maloney or Quigley's budget.


Why for example did the Supervisor's clerk need a raise of more than 15%.. especially when I beleive the Supervisor's clerk is Quigley's sister. NEPOTISM at it's finest.

We also have to wonder if Quigley put the safety net costs in this years budget, unlike last year which resulted in the town facing more embarrassment when the County Comptroller's office issued a report citing the town of Ulster as breaking the law by omitting them.

Fially, Quigley is exceeding the 2% tax cap that is in effect. Gov Cuomo's tax cap is there for a reason, to provide NY residents with real property tax relief. Overriding the cap is really irresponsiable of any town leader, it reaks of smuggess and arrogance on the part of Quigley.

Town resident Dan Barton said it best at a recent town board meeting:


“I do not think that there should be any override of any tax increase (cap),” said town resident Robert Barton. “We’re being taxed to death. ... The continuing increase for all levels of taxation has gotten out of hand.”

Not often, I would agree with malcontent Barton but in this case, well said Mr. Barton, well said.

Supervisor Quigley's Disappointment

Having to come to the realization that Chief Taggard would not be coming back as police chief, after he was charged with alleged misconduct, took some time for Supervisor Quigley to swallow (again, no pun intended).  It also took a lot of pressure from his fellow gop Councilmen for Quigs to pull the trigger. A full month passed after Taggard's suspension and Quigley finally conceded  in an interview with the Freeman that he was prepared to ask Taggard to resign as Chief of Police. However, Quigley's stubbornness on the issue, his failure to put his personal friendship with the Chief aside hurt him with his town board and with town residents. Some of those residents have nicknamed Quigley, Supervisor Peterno, in response to his handling of the matter. So I guess it should come as no surprise that the appointment of a new permanent Chief to replace Taggard has turned into a circus.


Lt. Athoney Cruise who was appointed acting Chief, and was the ranking officer in charge at the time of Taggard's suspension, was recommended to receive a permanent appointment as it's new Chief by the Town's personal committee. This did not sit well with Supervisor Quigley because the personal committee, which is made up of ELECTED TOWN BOARD MEMBERS,  actually had a opinion. You see in the town of Quigley, I'm sorry, I mean the town of Ulster, board members are not allowed to have an opinion. That is politics 101 in the Jim Quigley school of Government, just ask star pupil Kelly Myers. It got so volitial that town board member Eric Kitchen descrbed it this way:

 Councilman Eric Kitchen said Quigley was unfairly reprimanding board members for recommending the next chief be selected from within the town department.

“This is a democracy,” Kitchen said to the supervisor. “You have your opinion, I have my opinion. We can all agree to disagree, but I can’t feel like a child who’s being yelled at by his father (for) stealing a cookie out of the cookie jar.”

This is ot the first time Supervisor Quigley has decided to dish out some of his fatherly advice, click below;

Fatherly Advice Quigley style!!!

 To be fair, Supervisor Quigley loves his afternoon cookie..or two, or three or sometimes four. Come to think of it by the looks of it so does Supervisor Myers, is that what Quigley teaches in politics 102?  It's Wednesday, Kelly does that mean  you reach for a choclate chip or a nutterbutter?  My guess is both but I digress.

Currently, Lt. Cruise is still the officer in charge but there still has not been a formal vote to make him Chief and everyday another name pops up for the job. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if Nicky Woerner tries to get the job, or at the very least a spot in Quigley's government cookie class ( we hear he's a fig nutton type guy).  However, Lt. Cruise has picked up some important support from former Chief Watska who endorsed him to be Ulster's permanent top cop. This also rubbed Quigs the wrong way because it is in violation of  the Quigley School of politics 103, that states department heads and especially former department heads should be seen and not heard, in response to the Watska endorsement, Supervisor Quigley had this to say to the Freeman:


Supervisor James Quigley said Watzka should have encouraged the Town Board to follow established policy when appointing the next chief instead of making a public endorsement among candidates.

 “The letter is very disappointing from a person who led this department in a distinguished manner, who came in at a point and time when this department needed leadership, provided that leadership and organization, and now he’s advocating that we ignore the processes that were put in place under his leadership,” Quigley said.


There are a lot of things Quigley can describe as disappointing and they are all staring him right in the face. However, Watzka's letter should not be one of them.