What could be a bigger news story than the attempted manipulation of the press and public by elected officials? It’s big news at the federal level, where presidential candidates are making candor the cornerstone of their campaigns. People are losing tolerance for blatant attempts to mislead and manipulate public opinion. But the journalists in Northern Westchester are blissfully unaware of this national trend. They are asleep at the wheel in Peekskill, and have missed the biggest news story so far in 2008.
On Monday, January 14, 2008, the Peekskill Common Council voted to appoint Andrew Torres to the seat vacated by Mary Foster. The new Mayor and supermajority of Peekskill Democrats made a big political point about the alleged openness of the appointment process. And the press let them get away with it because the journalistic instinct is dead in Northern Westchester – at least, among those who control print media.
The Peekskill News acquired copies of the resumes that were submitted, and did what no journalist or Common Council member did: We read them.
One fact screams out for explanation: Mr. Torres submitted his resume on December 7th, 2007, to Democratic power broker Michael Kane. The first sentence of his cover letter reads: “First and foremost, thank you for considering me to fill the vacant Peekskill City Council seat. Enclosed please find a copy of my most recent resume, as you requested by phone earlier today.”
This document shows very clearly that early in December, the Peekskill Democrats had hand selected a member of the Party faithful to fill Foster’s seat. The deal was sealed that day. The North County News asked Mary Foster on December 12th to describe how her party would fill her seat. “Foster refused to get into specifics and would not say who they are interviewing,” the paper reported. They then quoted Darren Rigger as saying, “We want the process to be open and deliberate.”
But the process was not open. The closed, smoke-filled room of Peekskill Democratic politics had made their decision.
In direct response to our post of December 13th, which exposed their corrupt process, the Peekskill Democrats began scrambling for political cover. They looked to the press to cover up their broken campaign promise to issue in a new era of nonpartisanship.
On Monday December 24th, the Peekskill Democrats issued a press release to Mid Hudson News, saying that they were accepting resumes to fill Foster’s seat. Mid Hudson News has a lower circulation than even the North County News, whose Peekskill circulation is reportedly less than 3% of the population. (The only people who read Mid Hudson News are those who have a Google Alert on “peekskill”.)
The North County News repeated this story when covering Foster’s inauguration.
But did anyone in Peekskill (other than Mary Foster) read that issue?
The most compelling evidence that no one in Peekskill knew that it was possible to apply for the vacated Council seat is the number of people who ultimately applied.
At the end of the day, the Democrats circulated to Council Members the resumes of only 4 people other than Torres, who submitted cover letters expressing a desire to join the Common Council. Three of them were Democratic Party District leaders, the fourth was an unknown computer repairman from Benefield Boulevard – perhaps the person behind the awful Peekskill Democratic Party website. (Council members also received a number of resumes without cover letters; there was no indiciation in these documents that the individuals were applying for the Common Council spot. These resumes could have been pulled off of Monster.com, for all the public knows.)
Curiously missing from the resumes was that of former Councilman Mel Bolden, who applied for the position, but whose application was rejected without comment by the partisan Democrats.
It is the Democrats’ prerogative to employ a corrupt appointment process. But if you’re feeding the public beef jerky, don’t try to pass it off as Prime Rib.
There was a time when journalists felt a responsibility to expose the corruption and broken promises of politicians. But there are no journalists in Northern Westchester, outside the blogosphere. Stay tuned for more...
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