Fire Starter wrote recently of the negativity of a leading dissolution proponent, John Sullivan. We pointed out that such negativity is itself detrimental to the Village of Johnson City. Apparently, it is not appropriate to disagree with dissolutionists. Do so, and you are labeled a greedy, liar.
Recently, Mayor Hannon formed a committee on shared services. This certainly sounded innocuous enough. In these tough times, who is not in favor of finding cost savings; so long as services are maintained. However, eyebrows were raised when Bill Klish, a leading proponent of dissolution, was appointed as the chair of the committee.
Certainly, an argument could be made that Mr. Klish was in a great position to handle such a committee since he had spent the last two years studying the Village's services and budget. However, Mr. Klish's prior service on the dissolution committee, his open campaigning for dissolution and his subsequent statements regarding the opponents to dissolution have shown him to be anything but a fair arbiter of the "public interest".
A recent article in the Ithaca Times reveals that Mr. Klish recently spoke to residents of the Village of Candor regarding his fight for dissolution of the Village of Johnson City. The article can be accessed here. In speaking about the process, Mr. Klish showed himself to be closed minded to other solutions. In Mr. Klish's world, dissolution is the only viable approach. Apparently, in Mr. Klish's world, dissolution only failed because the voters were misinformed.
Even more disturbing were the outright lies told about Village employees. While claiming that fear and misrepresentations caused dissolution to fail, he spread his own version of fear and lies. He claimed that fire fighters threatened not to respond to fires. Not attribution is provided. This whopper just hangs on its own. In the next breath he claims to have "stuck to the facts" in arguing for dissolution. However, demonization of opponents, exaggeration of savings, and minimizing of reduction in services is anything but "factual".
Mr. Klish's conduct, before, during and after the campaign for dissolution makes clear his agenda. His appointment to the shared services committee appears to be another step by Mayor Hannon to thwart the will of the people and effectuate dissolution by other means. Klish's tactics make clear his lack of character. But who can be surprised? He was Dennis Hannon's choice.
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