Quigley for Supervisor?!

Above is a message from our Supervisor who apparently is considering running for office abroad, hope the natives don't ruin it for us by asking to see a copy of his birth certificate. In ay event, the Town of Ulster started their New Year's right with James E. Quigs the third not being here to bug us, here's hoping 2014 we will have the same luck!!!! The guy must be pretty confident or arrogant, to take a three week vacation on an election year. Don't worry though he left us in qualified hands with his Deputy Eric Kitchen running the show. Not to toot our horn but we called that one a week before any othere blog or newspaper did.

Supervisor Quigs Begins his three week vacation!

Brawl at the Hillside?!

Rumor has it former Sheriff candidate Kevin Costello and Ulster Legislator Jim Maloney both had a lot to drink recently at the Hillside Manor and got into a huge fight that allegedly turned into a World Wrestling Federation style argument with chairs being thrown around and both had to be asked to leave by the owner. No word on who won but my money would be on Costello.

I would of loved to be a fly on the wall to see both those heavyweights going at it. Allegedly Maloney before he left pleaded with the owner for a slice of cheese cake.

Any who, we have a real treat for all of you guys, we were able to get a still shot of the argument at the Hillside. After we do some checking on it's authenticity, we will put it up!

Wizard of Quigs Endorses The Shake Weight

After a long town board meeting, I need to relax, shake of the likes of Councilman Morrow, Gadfly Robert Barton and that pesky Bill Kimble. That's why the Wizard of Quigs proudly uses the Shake Weight. It fits easily in my left palm and I give it a few jerks to the left and a few jerks to the right and after a few minutes all my stress and tension is released. It also is good at working off all those cookies I eat, I'm the Wizard of Quigs for cripes sake, I have to look good!  I don't want to end up looking like the guy behind my curtain. The Wizard of Quigs highly recomeds the Shake Weight this holiday season.

Quigley to Tap Kitchen as Dep Sup?

 Looks like the father and son team are close to reuniting, we hear on good authority that Supervisor Jim Quigley plans on tapping Councilman Eric Kitchen as Deputy Supervisor to shore up his support. Councilwoman Chris whatever her last name is this week, and John Morrow are on the same page, so with Morrow's planned run for supervisor, Quigley needs Councilman Kitchen for his vote and for his support. It's funny how politics makes strange bedfellows because we hear that Quigley thinks Kitchen is an idiot and Kitchen thinks Quigley is a arrogant jerk. They both may have a point.  On second look, maybe this duo will work!

Wizard of Quigs shorts Out During Town Hall Meeting

For those of you who have not been to an Ulster town board meeting recently, this is an actual snapshot of last months meeting to adopt the 2013 budget. However, three seconds after this picture was taken, the board meeting had to come to an abrupt recess after Jim "behind the curtin" Maloney, spilled grape soda and McDonald's secret sauce on the keyboard, shorting out The Wizard of Quigs. 

Good news is The Wizard of Quigs made a full recovery about five minutes later, blamed his predecessor for the malfunction and the meeting was able to continue. During the recess Legislator Maloney was able to regroup with  a strategy session at Friendly's, Maloney felt so bad about shorting out the Wizard of Quigs that he wolfed down three Jim Dandys. Legislator Maloney confirmed this saying " well you know, the Wizard of Quigs' first name is Jim and I was eating a Jim Dandy. It makes me feel closer to the Wizard of Quigs when we're not together."  Maloney also wanted it to reflect for the record that he ate those three Jim Dandy's  in only three minutes. ''As the assessor of the town I know that if I only used three minutes and was given five, I have four minutes to spare. I want to donate those minutes back to the taxpayers in the town of Ulster said Maloney proudly, they deserve those minutes back.  Any who, the Wizard of Quigs short out seems to be water under the bridge and for now all is well again in the Wizard of Quigs' town of Ulster.


We are also pleased to report that the Wizard of Quigs has agreed to appear on this blog as he did today to provide us with regular news updates and product endorsements . Stay tuned to see the Wizard of Quigs later this week with a very important update for our readers.

Open Thread

Who knew Mike Spada's man boobs would attract us such a large audience. Our numbers have spiked significantly. We welcome you! As we look to expand our lampooning of truth mixed with a little bit of satire. Here is an open thread, what's going on in Ulster politics?! Whatya hearing? We wanna know the dirty little details. Leave them in our comments section.

NOT SO FAST QUIGGY!!!

Before Supervisor Quig's sister was his confidential secretary (who he proposed a 15% raise for in this yrs budget) she was none other than Mike Spada's book keeper. Maybe the Supervisor's secretary can give some insight on some of the RRA alleged shenanigans?? What a tangled web we weave...

Comptroller DiNapoli's Damning Report on RRA

Daily Freeman Story  w report

“The agency awarded a contract for the hauling of waste to landfills to a vendor who was paid $388,515 during the audit period (but) who did not meet the requirements set forth in the bidding documents,” the audit report stated. “As a result, there is no assurance that goods and services are procured in the most prudent and economical manner, that goods and services of desired quality are being acquired at the lowest possible price and that procurement decisions are not influenced by favoritism, extravagance, fraud and corruption.”

The auditors said the agency board was aware the vendor identified as Spada’s “did not possess the required experience, qualifications and insurance coverage” but still approved the contract. The auditors also said the vendor had not obtained required workers’ compensation insurance.

“By awarding this contract to an unqualified vendor, the agency hindered competition by excluding other trucking companies with experience, qualifications, and necessary equipment,” the auditors wrote.

Quigs' Hypocricy

Note: Mr. Maloney please do not lick the screen, hun.

When Jim Quigley was running for Supervisor against Nick Woerner, part of the whisper campaign against Woerner was nepotism. The fact that Woerner employed his Aunt as his secretary became a campaign issue that Quigley used as a reason for change in Ulster. What did Quigley do when he got elected Supervisor? He appointed his sister to the job. If that's not hypocritical enough in his 2012 budget that was just approved, he gave his sister a Maloney size raise of a whopping 15%.

But after skimming through the budget a bit, this new position really takes the cake as far as Quigs' hypocrisy. A new budget director at a 21k salary has been approved. Are you kidding me? Why does Jim Quigley, the former CFO of a billion dollar company and self proclaimed watchdog need a budget officer? This is the guy that ran on being able to be a financial wizard in the town. What happened to the buck stops here? Guess that was shot down, no pun intended.

Supervisor Quigs Cutting off his Nuts to Spite his Face

Earlier this year we reported the story that our highfaluting Supervisor, Jim Quigley, was considering a run for state senate in the newly created 46th senate seat, rumor was that Dean Skelos and the state GOP leadership put a quick stop to it, their hand picked candidate George Amadore was going to be the Republican nominee and they told Quigley they would do whatever they had to, to make his life hell if he ran. And by rumor, we mean anyone that follows local politics even a little bit knows that's pretty much how it went down. Quigley put his tail between his legs and ran off, deciding not to run. 

Well this past Tuesday was election day and while there are absentees yet to be counted, it looks like George Amadore will lose to Cecilia Tkaczyk, in large part because of the absolute beating Amadore took in Ulster county. You can bet right now Jim Quigley is pretty pissed he pussied out of running because while he probably would not of won Ulster County, he would of been very competitive. This is not to inflate Quigs' head. He would of done better in Ulster County because he has run county wide and is known better here. Tkaczyk ran an extremly negative campaign which worked, specifically in Ulster county. Why? Pretty simple, it's a new senate seat, and the negative ads by Tkaczyk against Amadore, where really the first glimpse folks got of this guy. In essence, while the ads largly distorted Amadore's record, they became fact to many new voters unfamiliar with George Amadore. Amadore did not respond to these ads, which really was a big mistake on his part. 

Jim Quigley may have also hesitated from running because this is the four year anniversary of his first electoral run, where he was defeated by a slim margin in a huge Democratic year,  If not for Obama on the ballot in 2008, he may very well have become County Comptroller.  There is an even bigger reason why running for the senate was too much of a risk for Quigley. You see Quigs'  running for any office where the numbers of the race present a risk that he would lose (we hear he'll examine them to a science), would be too much of a risk for Quigley. Jim Quigley has a big ego and low self esteem, a bad combo for a politician to say the least, which is why, I never take it too seriously when I hear Quigs' name thrown around for higher office. Quigs puts his name out as a possible candidate, just so people will talk about him and stroke his ego. 

Sure he wants to run and has wet dreams of being Ulster County Exec but Quigley wont take the risk of losing, he desperately needs to present to the public this image of him being a political power player and lets face it he's got a long way to go. He got elected in a 2:1 Republican town and has not had a serious challenge since his 09' victory.  If Quigley wants to be the gop power player, he's got to play like one and take a risk, give up the Supervisor's gig and run for a real office. As scary as it sounds, had Quigley primaried Amadore and won, he probably would of become our Senator, sticking it to now soon to be former NYS Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos in the process.  Ah, Quigs, what could have been.

A Few of Jim Maloney's Favorite Things

What is it with Ulster town officials and their cookies? But hey it could be worse, some former town officials were into the actual scouts!

I hear his Ulster Jeep doubles as a grave yard for old big mac boxes

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.

BORED IN ULSTER

The staff at Ulster Insider is reallly bored with the political season this year. Town races are not up this year and the Gibson/Schreibman race is nothing that we are really excited about. We expect Gibson to win in a landslide.

Speaking of Congress, our own Congressman Maurice Hinchey was given a very prestigious award from the Woodstock film festival-- Our Congressman was honored with the spirit of Woodstock award for his life long advocacy of the arts.


On a county level we hear Mike Hein had a very successful birthday party, while our staff were unable to attend we hear about 250 people were there. 

Our Assemblyman Kevin Cahill is running unopposed, the staff at Ulster Politics are a little disappointed with Cahill. What happened to the guy in 98 that was full of life and boundless energy, now Kev is just content to be an Assemblyman and it disappoints us. C'mon Kevin, where is the fire? 

Sup. Quigs to DA

"District attorneys have their own way of prosecuting cases," he said. "Some prosecute in the newspapers; some prosecute in court."

ouch!! Temper Temper Supervisor Paterno, do you see your hopes of being Executive fading??? Rumor has it Quigs is telling anyone who will listen he may end up in front of a grand jury answering questions, well I sure hope the District Attorney does not read the Record! Gadzooookss!!!

Supervisor Quigley or Supervisor Paterno?

Supervisor Jim Quigley is in a politically pickle, pardon our pun,  over what he did or did not know when he appointed disgraced Police Chief Taggard  shortly after taking office in 2010. Taggard was recently placed on PAID leave by the Ulster Town Board after being arrested by state police on charges of official misconduct. While the charges allege that Taggard did not report abuse that he had knowledge of, there are rumors that much more serious charges may be coming down the road. Sources tell Ulster Insider that Taggard was charged quickly with the minor misconduct charge to get him out as Chief. Getting people to speak out against a sitting Chief can be very intimidating.

Taggard who was Quigley's inside man during his 09 race for town Supervisor was rewarded handsomely by Quigs, Taggard was appointed Chief after Chief Watzka was forced out. Taggard was also promoted over than Deputy Chief Sinagra who was much more qualified. Many Ulster police officers retired after Taggard's appointment. Rumors of Taggard's questionable relationships were well known throughout town for years, while nothing was ever proven you have to question why someone like Quigley with high political asperations would appoint this guy as his Chief of Police.

 As stated earlier, Taggard remains on paid leave. From what we have been told the votes to bring Taggard up on former charges by the town (which is required to take him off of a paid leave) are there but Supervisor Quigley aka Supervisor Paterno wont have any of it.


Why Mr. Supervisor? The people deserve to know!

Quigley to Dep. Chief Sinagra: No Health Care For You!

Details still emerging but we were appalled that Supervisor Jim Quigley has chosen to deny health care for former Deputy Chief Sinagra. We know of the Quigley/ Sinagra feud but we hope that our esteemed Supervisor would not deny a town officer that protected his and my community his health care.