After last evening's Common Council meeting I went home and drafted this letter which was sent to the Mayor and Council President Noble for their consideration.
Dear President Noble & Mayor Sottile,
In light of our Common Council meeting this evening as well as the meeting of the Finance Committee I am urging you to have the Common Council launch an investigation on this issue.
Clearly, regardless of the Mayor authorizing work to be done without a formal contract outlining the scope of work, we have serious issues here if our Building Inspectors were on site to witness workers without proper protection going in and out of a known Asbestos area. The City has known about the presence of asbestos for months, yet the City’s project manager or whoever is overseeing the demolition should know the protocol with New York State Regulations. We now have a 4 day period with City officials in charge of a demolition preparation project who knew there was asbestos inside allowing work to continue. It is not about the theft of the copper pipes here, that is another issue entirely, but the City of Kingston is facing a lawsuit which includes asbestos exposure, and how many more workers were there those 4 days without proper protection?
We can blame as much as we want on a careless contractor, but City Officials, in particular our Building & Safety Enforcement should know the laws and the liability the municipality faces. The City has a responsibility to make sure the Kings Inn property was secure, safe, and all precautions were in place as soon as asbestos was identified. Even the supervisor to the Alternative Sentencing Program refused to allow his crew to work in these rooms as stated in Chief Salzmann’s report to the Finance Committee.
I feel that we (the Common Council) are justified to explore several issues:
Violation of safety guidelines with known asbestos (NYS Rules & Regs Sub-part 56-1.4 laying out guidelines for Multi-Vendor Work Sites),
Why did our Building Inspectors who are there to insure safety measures are being met fail to identify this problem? Shouldn’t they have halted all operations if employees were without protective gear?
Work permits issued: Was there a work permit in order to insure that the contractor (McGowan) used insured and qualified employees, and was he notified beforehand that this work site had known asbestos? Department of Labor outlines this in Sub-section 23-1.5 (especially part ‘D’) outlining the General Responsibility of the Employer (in this case the City)
When the City owns a property that has been identified with having asbestos it is our responsibility to make sure that all vendors are aware of the potential dangers. If the Mayor indeed negotiated this contract himself, in my opinion, he had to disclose this to the potential contractor. If he did not, then he acted recklessly exposing the City to potential lawsuits and potential harm to persons performing work for the City. With that said, it would bring into question a possible violation of his general powers and duties outlined in our Charter as it reads “The Mayor shall…..maintain the peace, good order and prosperity of the City; take care that within said city the laws of the state and the ordinances of the Common Council…..”.
What we have here is a mess. I understand that it is within the power of the Mayor to grant emergency projects (McGowan to prep the site) but in this instance, the City was well aware of the presence of asbestos. To not insist on proper protocol and ignore state regulations on safety precautions has now increased the cost by nearly $200,000. We will now incur additional legal fees to defend these actions in court, and I can assure you that asbestos cases are not easily won.
I am absolutely requesting an investigation.
Respectfully,
Andi Turco-Levin
City of Kingston Alderman 1st Ward
Common Council Minority Leader
anditlevin@gmail.com
Cell: 917 975-3039
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Do you ever stop grandstanding? Leave the investigation to the District Attorney's Office.
ReplyDeleteDo you really think Bill Reynolds and the Democrats should be the ones investigating Mayor Sottile? Do you really think they would be fair and impartial?
I can't say you lost my vote with this lunacy. You lost my vote long ago.
The DA is investigating the Criminality with the theft that took place.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Council having the authority to look at how this was handled it is well within their right and it says so in the City Charter. If the Council is unable to conduct a fair investigation then they are not performing their duties either and voters should remember that come November.
Thank you Andi for being one of the only canidates and Alderman who is really trying to do something about the mass corruption that is in every single department in our city, from City hall to the school superintendent, police and fire departments! how can such a small city have so much corruption? answer the good ole boys club time for these guys to go!!. maybe it's time for a women to take charge, we can see how the men have done a dismal job.
ReplyDeleteHays,Gallo,Polacco,not a peep-whats going on? according to the freeman the cooper story is the #1 story being looked at and has the most hits!! the primary is right around the corner guys and we are all watching and waiting?.
Andi --keep working hard and dont get discouraged by the idiocy of this current council. An investigation is totally needed to be carried out by an outside entity for this outragious activity at the Kings Inn site. Of course, it doesnt help when you have a resentful, vindictive,sour grapes opponent for the primary either trying to undermine your credibility. You are showing courage and true grit with your words and deeds as a lawmaker. Keep up good work!
ReplyDeletePerhaps the Mayor should appear before the council for a public reprimand. He seems to think he wears Teflon but he needs to be accountable for his actions. Can't impeach at this late date but thank god he is leaving before he totally brings the city to ruination. His irresponsible ways along with childish retort when confronted is getting so old. Thank you for sticking to your guns inspite of the democratic attack on you last night. More like gang mentality or circling the wagons in their attitudes towards your objections.
ReplyDeleteDO NOT GIVE UP ON THIS ISSUE,there is going to be alot of fallout from this and it's about time somebody stood up to the good old boy's,no doubt the contractor will sue the city saying he knew nothing about asbestos.
ReplyDeleteAndi: the cats out of the bag, the lawsuit against the city is on the front page of the freeman. this is just the tip of the iceburg as far as lawsuits go, this mess Sottile has gotten us into is going to effect us taxpayers for years to come, thank god Sottileshis time is almost over time to get the good ole boys club to close up shop time for new blood in Kingston politics.
ReplyDeleteSince when are you posting anonymous comments? Thought you were not accepting postings unless individuals identified themselves.
ReplyDeleteI am having difficulty for some reason which does not allow me to post responses on my blog with the limited settings. Not sure why so for now I have it set that way.
ReplyDeleteI don't prefer it this way but that's the way it is for now.
Good work. Maybe someone will look into the $400,000 overruns on the Pike Plan project too? The tax payers are on the hook for so many mistakes it makes me want to move.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find disturbing about the investigation is that the contractor Joe Mcgowan refused to give police the list of workers he hired to work in the building. They were getting ready to subpeona for info whe one of the workers,Steve Augustine, rightly stepped forward with info. Mcgowan should be charged for obstruction of justice in addition to felony theft. He needs to pay us back the money we lost!
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Freeman yesterday the work was already done and so the Council had to vote to pay the contractor - seems they are still there working-hm?
ReplyDeleteCan citizens really vote to dissolve this City? It seems so rotten and corrupt.
ReplyDelete