Two issues resolved, one left on the table in the last council meeting of 2008... Tuesday night's meeting opened with invocation given by one of two ministers present. I thought it was Rev. Bruce Ballantine but it may have been Rev. Joe Warner. Except for Tony Cataldo all council members were present along with the mayor, the finance officer and the village solicitor. Cataldo called in sick and was excused.
In the Public Speaking portion there were several residents present that got up and favorably endorsed Cemetery Superintendent Mike Lombardozzi and urged council to make it a provision that the care taker live in the house up there. Tom Brophey, a member of the Springhill Cemetery Board, advised council that no one on the committee was notified or advised of that situation. Brophey stated that the board recommended that council make living there a part of the job. Mike's father, former mayor, Nunzio Lombardozzi gave a lengthy discourse with facts, figures, documentation, history of how the village got the house and exhibits. Nunzi also presented a petition with over 300 signatures. He stated they tried to limit it to village residents but when people outside the village got wind of it they asked to be allowed to sign it too. Out of the over 300 signatures 230 of them were people that live within the village limits. It was impressive the amount of work that was put into Nunzi's presentation. It was even more impressive that everyone that spoke on this subject spoke with praise for the job and the extra time put in that Mike does up there. Personally speaking I think it was well deserved.
One resident spoke about the three committee meetings that were held last week. Not one of them were posted in either of the local newspapers but there were articles about them the next day in both editions. In checking the requirements of the Sunshine Law he found out that they only need to notify the media that requested being notified along with any other individuals that requested the same. It is up to the publication's discretion whether they put this in their papers or not. Apparently Joe Soldano wasn't listening too closely since he later re-emphasized what a public body's requirements are under the Sunshine law. That resident requested that it go on record that he be put on the list for those to be notified.
Commander Bill Wolfe presented three checks from the Wellsville VFW plus one other from Cora Corak. The checks were for $300 for the Christmas Toy Drive, $350 for the Police Dept. shot gun fund and $150 for the village's kids fire prevention education fund. The shot gun fund is to raise money to equip the two new cruisers. The check from Cora Corak for $100 was designated to go to the Memorial Council toward buying a new flag for the 4th St. memorial in memory of her late husband Pete Corak.
Bill Cataldo on behalf of the Wellsville Eagles presented a check for the Police Dept. for $6,500 with the stipulation that $1,500 go to the Christmas Toy Drive. He also said he had another check for $14,000 that he will hold on to. I think he said this check was for Hammond Park but he said that he would "send it back to the state" if his bill for the work he did up there was not paid. He did not specify where this check came from and I'm not exactly sure of it's intention. I think I heard him say "for the park".
Of the four Administration Departments only Jim Saracco and Fire Chief Bill Smith were present. There were no reports for any of them.
In the Mayor's Report Joe Surace recommended that Wellsville native and resident Patty Boley be given the job as the new Animal Control Officer and in my humble opinion he couldn't have found a better person for this job. I've known Patty for several years and she has a heart bigger than the State of Ohio. She was a member of the St. Francis animal group and is an excellent fit for the job. To avoid any conflict of interest she will have to relinquish her membership in that group but I know she will work well with them. A motion was made and passed 4 - 1 to hire Patty. Don Brown stated it was nothing against Patty but he felt the village should go with the County Animal Control.
In the Committee Reports Randy Allmon made a motion that a bill for $10,600 be paid to LSW for equipment rented and brought in from California to clean up the Sewage Plant digestors. It was unanimous in favor to pay the bill. It was also unanimous to pay over $16,000 in bills to HzW for the cleaning up the lot that the old 9th Street pottery sat on. HzW specializes in cleaning up environmental hazards. So that lot is now ready for any potential development.
John McMahon reported that his meeting with the St. Francis animal group closed any gaps in what the village requires and their mission in tending to the animals. He stated he was confident of the co-operation between the village and the volunteers and doesn't see any problems. That was one of the issues I mentioned that was resolved. For the good of the village I think it was just about the best possible solution they could find.
McMahon also made a motion that it be made part of the job that the cemetery care taker occupy the house up there. That also passed unanimously and resolved the second issue that I mentioned. I was glad to see that tradition was insured and was particularly happy to see that this historic house will remain in the village hands. There is no doubt that Mike & Opal will take good care of it. They have already shown that and over all I think the cost to the village will be insignificant.
The issue left on the table by a vote of 3-2 was the bill from Cataldo Construction. I feel if the absent council man had been present it would have been a tie vote and the mayor would have been the tie breaker. It's just my gut feeling that the mayor is in favor of paying this bill since there was a verbal contract made. Without the absent council member it may have passed if the owner of the construction company hadn't shot off his mouth. Instead heads were bumping and the hole got a little deeper. From what I could see there are two schools of thought on this issue.
One line of thinking that seem to come out is that there was an agreement made with a village official and that agreement should be honored in spite of the fact that procedure wasn't followed. The other line of thinking is that the work done was shoddy especially with the replacing of the rotting wood that was left there. In this second school of thought there have been feelings expressed that the charges were particularly high compared to competitive prices for what was done. I'm sort of in agreement with both schools of thought but I was hoping this could have been taken care of so we can start off the new year with a clean slate. I hate to see hard feelings festering especially in the spirit of the Christmas season. Now we have to start off the new year with this ugly piece of business still staring us in the face.
Four pieces of new ordinances were passed all by unanimous votes. There was one to establish the salary and benefits of the mayor's clerk. There were two for appropriations for this year and next and the last one was to create the part-time position of the Animal Control Officer. No dollar amounts was noted in the hand out or discussion. In fact there was no discussion on any of these ordinances. It would have been nice to know what amounts they were talking about but it was a speed drill to get this taken care of. I got dizzy or I might have shot off my mouth to question this.
In closing the mayor, on behalf of council, himself and other officials present, wished everyone a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. The first meeting in the new year will be January 6.
ole nib
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33 comments:
Cataldo said he had a check from the Eagles for 14,000 dollars, for the Village, but he was going to hold it till the Village paid his bill. Wow, was there any law enforcement there, what a ass. If the Eagles voted to give the Village 14,000 dollars, Cataldo has to give it to them. Maybe they should call the State Eagles to tell them what this man is doing with money up there.
First of all Nib, Bill Cataldo should not ever be hired to do any work for the Village, period. Tony Cataldo, is his cousin, thats called conflict of interest. I don't care if he votes on things pertaining to Bill or not, most of the time there is no vote, Saracco hires him behind close doors and that's it. No relative of any Councilman, Mayor, or any other Village employee, should be hired for any job. Cataldo has gotten a lot of jobs not just one. Maybe this needs looked into, it does in other Citys, and Villages. WAKE UP RESIDENTS, YOUR TAX MONEY BEING PLAYED WITH. Ask Saracco who told him about the electrical contractor he has hired from Alliance plenty of times, guess who. Don't we have anybody local who can do electrical work? The game is about to come to a end, and when it does, Wellsville will be a better place.
Somebody needs to tell Randy Allmon, that there is a Ethics Board in Ohio. He made a motion to hire his cousin Patty Boley as Dog Warden. Not only shouldn't he have nominated her, he should have abstained from the vote. Wake up Allmon, or do you like breaking the law. Patty Boley also was his campaign manager. I can't believe no other Councilman said anything, I know sorry ass Surace wouldn't say anything, he and Allmon are cut from the same dirty cloth.
From the Dec. 17 Review: Bill Cataldo of Cataldo Construction also attended the meeting to address council on an invoice for his company, which has been tabled for several weeks.
The invoice is in the amount of $5,625 for work on the pavilions at Hammond Park.
Cataldo stated that he had a check for $6500 to donate to the village, $1500 of which is allotted to go to the "Christmas for the Kids" charity drive.
Cataldo stated that if council does not pay the invoice, he will "send (the check) back to the state."
Nib, were you at that council meeting? I have wanted to ask somebody who was there if Cataldo really said that he would withhold money from the kids in the area in order to get what he feels is due him, or if it was a misprint.
If this is true, he has lost any support from me. Taking from a child in order to personally gain screams volumes about a person’s character! Yes, like you, I would like to see a clean slate for the new year, but not if Wellsville has to give into extortion to get there.
Getting of the subject a little. Did you happen to get any pictures from the Wellsville Parade that was held on Saturday?
Cataldo did not say he would hold the check for the kids. In fact there was a picture in yesterday's MJ of him presenting the $6,500 check to Police Chief Scarabino this past Thursday. It was the other check for $14,000 that he said he will hold on to.
Hindsight tells us the Sheltergate II job should have been bid out. We may have gotten a better price on that job if procedure had been followed. My feeling is that it's water over the dam. It was done and we - the village - have to live with it. Consider it a lesson learned and move on. It's been discussed, negotiated and looked at side ways to Sunday. Now it's turning really ugly with threats and snide remarks. Anyway you look at it, it doesn't bode well for the village.
In a small town such as the ville there is a huge potential of what some may consider a conflict of interest. There is only a limited amount of people who are willing to step up to the plate and get involved. I don't care who nominated her I think Boley is an excellent choice for Animal Control Officer. I'm confident she will go about doing her job in a compassionate and professional manner. I think she will prove her weight in gold for the pittance she will be paid.
When Soldano made his remarks about the Sunshine Law he wasn't looking at the reporters. It was Joe Surace that was explaining to the reporters what Soldano was talking about. Under the Sunshine Law if a private citizen requests to be notified public bodies are compelled to let them know at least 24 hours before when a meeting that is not regularly scheduled will be held. We shall see if the village follows it.
No, I didn't make it to the parade last week and now I'm sorry I didn't. I didn't see anything in either of the newspapers. My apologies.
nib
I was there , Soldano tried to get a solution for the Res. who spoke about the notification of meetings. He told the reporters about what the Res. said, they were not in the meeting yet when the Res. spoke. Surace did not say anything to clear up the problem, Soldano asked the reporters to put the committee meetings in the paper after they call them in. I hope that the Res. does not think that the Council Clerk is going to call everybody who wants to know when a meeting is, that's why they call the paper. The paper should be the one who makes sure the meeting notice is in the paper. O nce the Clerk, or Councilman calls the meeting in, it's up to the paper to print it.
Since writing this piece I've gotten three comments such as the one below referring to me by my real name. I found a way to copy & paste comments so I could edit them. This is the first time I tried it. As a rule I will not edit comments that are approved for appearing on here. There are a few comments that won't get approval because they are nasty and mean spirited borne out of personal grudges. Most of them are libellous in nature & I won't go there. Here is the comment I edited:
"Post all the comments Nib, everybody knows you are Nib. You blew your cover a long time ago. Who do you think you are fooling? What's the big secret, it's Wellsville not New York City, people all over town even little kids, know that Nib is …. I helped your niece babysit your kids 28 years ago. I knew your Mother and Father-in-law, very nice people. I know Matt Stewart took a lot of shit because he didn't use a alias, but you only tell it like it is, he used to print things just to get things going. You would be respected more if you just used your own name, like I said everybody has known it forever Nib. We figured since you come to meetings with your pad and pen, you didn't care if people knew or not, it's not hard to see. I know you won't print this comment either, but at least think about what I am saying. I have known your brother’s family my whole life, I know they are good people, think about it Nib, you might get a lot more posters on here if you were straight up with people."
For reasons I gave above I won't post all comments. I won't let a slur campaign get started over people's hard feelings and wishes to denigrate others.
Thank you for your compliments toward my family. Although I deeply appreciate them this blog is not about me or my family. Don't take me wrong. I would do anything for my family but the blog is for subjects I care about other than family. It's about things I think others would care about and like to hear and comment about. I write an article and let it go from there. I have a big appreciation of history, especially our history and really enjoy promoting our village. Sometimes I get off the beaten path but my main concentration is happenings in and around Wellsville and what affects us. Some may agree with me, disagree or think I'm totally out of my mind. That's their right. You obviously think I should give up on Ole Nib since many now know who I am. It's not a big secret anymore, is it? I don't really care but to honest with you the Ole Nib persona has served me well and over the past couple of years I've sort of grown fond of it. Maybe I should say I've grown attached to it. Maybe I'm crazy but I've been called worse. I haven't really done anything covert to hide my identity. I just don't publicize it. So for now I'm going to continue on.
I do have to ask, though, why did you sign you comment anonymous?
nib
Let's discuss the conflict of interest in the "Ville"! Why is Mr. Soldano the Chairperson of the Personnel Committee when his wife is an employee of the Village? Isn't Mr. Soldano responsible for the negotiations for the Village employees? Mr. Soldano does personally benefit by his own recommendations, even though he is abstained from voting. Should a councilman chair a committee that he directly benefits from and then has to abstain from voting? Is this a direct conflict of interest? Should the Attorney General be contacted for this matter?
Nib... I am with you, if comments are tasteless and harmful, I respect you for not posting them.
I would think Randy Allmon is well aware of the Ethics Board in Ohio. Once again, I bet his plans are to run for Mayor.
I'm not going to get into a contest of what you thought you saw and what I thought I witnessed. Your defense of Soldano is commendable but irrelevant to the subject and yes, that resident does expect to be notified of each and every unscheduled meeting from now on. Since putting his request on record it's the law that "a public body" honor that request.
Dan Saracco, now there's a name I haven't heard in ages. I recall when he resigned from the PD and I'm thinking he did so to take a better paying job in the private sector. That's been awhile ago and my memory is uncertain. Maybe someone can help us out here. Be careful...
When I get time I'll do some research on Ethnics law especially as pertaining to conflict of interest. It would be interesting to see just what is what. Maybe in the meantime some one knowledgeable in this area can help us out here too. I certainly don't know.
nib
Let me set you straight on Soldano and the personnel committee. I am a former councilman, anytime something came up concerning his wife, not only did he not vote, he would not discuss the matter at committee metings, he stayed out of it. He never negotiates anything concerning his wife. He is one hell of a Personnel Chairman, he will go to bat for all employees other then his wife. Employees have told me at least they will get an honest answer from Soldano, not like a few others who were personnel chairman. As a matter of fact, I have seen him tell his wife if she didn't like something council did concerning employees don't tell him tell another Councilman. Believe me Joe is not crooked, if Allmon knows ethics, why did he nominate and vote for a cousin.
Dan Saracco works at the mill in Midland, it used to be J&L but I think it is called Allegany Ludlem or something like that. Dans been there for at least 25 or more years.
If you had a thanks and spanks on your site I would give a well deserved spanks to Billy Cataldo of Cataldo Construction. How dare he hold the people of Wellsville hostage for refusing to give a donation (not of his pocket) unless he is paid for the work he did as a private business. Anyone who has looked at the work he did on the pavilions at Hammond Park have all said he was ripping off the village. Maybe he should have had the donation given to him and he could have put more money into fixing them the right way!!!
Nepotism is alive and strong at village hall! Former mayor battling council for his son. Council members hiring cousins to do jobs. Need I say more?
Former Councilman...you missed the point! The comment did not state Joe Soldano did not do his job. It talked about a conflict of interest. REcap...Should a councilman chair a committee even though he abstains from voting...he directly influences and benefits from? Please define immediate family, oh cousin is not considered immediate family.
What was the name of the gas station that is Brandt's carryout now. Was it Tommy Oil, or Billy Oil, I can't remember, maybe somebody knows for sure.
Does Dan Saracco still live around here or did he & Marlene move to PA? I haven't seen either one of them for years. If anyone knows please let me know. Thanks.
Dan and Marlene, have been divorced for many years now. I think Dan lives out 45 somewhere, not sure about Marlene.
hireing your cousin is just not the right thing to do, even though Patty is a good christian who never "gossips" or tries to start "trouble" and you never hear her "curse".
Former Mayor was not battling for his son. His son's wife asked him to assist her in finding facts and to address council. If you knew all the circumstances involved, you might just understand. Saving the home from being negelected or even destroyed was the main objective. Making the home mandatory to live in, saves the home. If that means anything to you at all.
Thanks for the info about Dan & Marlene Saracco. I didn't know that they were divorced. I don't think I should look up Dan even though we were good friends years ago. I don't want anyone after me, if he is married again or has a girl or a live in. I wouldn't want to start trouble.
I am reading that hiring a cousin to be an employee of the village just isn't the right thing to do. If Randy had abstained, and with Tony's absence Patty still would have been appointed and voted in. As for her religious beliefs, it's not the business of the general public, and gossiping certainly isn't restricted to her. If the issue was "hiring cousins" well thats a door one must be sure they want to walk through before opening it. Look around you relatives and best friends fare well in a village of which likely 70 % are related. Seems like stones are being thrown at Patty with the goal of hitting Randy.
The Ohio Ethics Board might not agree. You can go to jail for making motions, and voting to hire a cousin, or any relative. That's why people abstain on all Gov. Boards. Mr. Allmon know's better, if he doesn't, somebody better tell him.
stones are always being thrown in this town. It seems if someone isn't hurting someone else, then they aren't happy. Be nice if the miserable people would get a life. All they have time to do is get on here and BASH people.
anon..you seem very sensitive about it but I can not see where anyone is throwing stones at patty to get to Randy. I fail to see where anyone has said anything derogatory about her or her religion. You seem very paranoid. You can get meds for that.
Paranoid no, amazed - yes. If Randy was wrong in making the motion wasn't anyone else on council or the mayor able to figure this out? Someone else could have made the motion. I'm suggesting the value of keeping the issues straight. A dig was thrown just like the one you just threw about meds., I guess that makes you super cool.
Allmon knew it was wrong, he just like's trying to act important, gotta get his name in the paper, along with those meaningless pictures in the paper he sets up.
If it is illegal to make a motion to hire a cousin, then why didn't the other councilmen have the motion rescinded? Apparently, the village council, the mayor and others who represent the village did not know either. Allow them to correct the issue at hand. They are all involved in this. The Ville folks need to stick together because your village is about to experience change forever! It will make this incident a non-issue.
If I was you I would not discuss a person's religious beliefs. Religion is a direct violation if used in any hiring decision. Be Smart. The Chairperson of the Personnel Committee should know all about this. Ask Him.
When was religion brought in on any hiring of any employee? When was religion ever talked about in a personnel matter? The comment that was made about somebody being a good christian, was someone being a smartass, nothing to do with council.
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