“I don’t think the public really cared who I supported,” he said. Sottile supports fellow Democrat Gallo as “the best man for the job” (among four candidates).
According to the mayor (Shayne Gallo did not get back to the writer in time for inclusion in this piece) there have been limited exchanges between the mayor-elect and his predecessor. Asked if he and Gallo had gone over the 2012 budget together, a tradition with Kingston mayors regardless of party, Sottile said Gallo reviewed the budget with City Comptroller John Tuey. “John knows the budget better than anybody,” Sottile said.
He says he’s proud of his appointees, but doesn’t expect Gallo to keep all of them. “It’s his call. It’s his administration. He has to pick the people he’s comfortable with,” he said.
City Clerk Arlene Rion, Economic Development Coordinator Steve Finkle and Deputy Assessor Brenda Slattery have announced their retirement.
Sottile cited Finkle for his work on Rondout’s waterfront revitalization and projects elsewhere. He considers his partnership with Rural Ulster Preservation Co. to restore the long-vacant Kirkland Hotel in the Stockade District a signature accomplishment — Sottile’s late father, Artie Sottile, was a bartender at the Kirkland’s old Rathskellar Restaurant.
Get contracts settled, Sottile advises
Sottile says it’s not fair to compare the mayor-elect with his brother. “It’s a disservice to Shayne” he said. “He needs the opportunity to define himself as a leader and he’ll do that in the next year or two. The public should take a step back and give Shayne a chance.”
“Shayne will put his heart and soul into the job,” he added. “He is committed. He understands he’ll have a tough job ahead of him, particularly without mandate relief.”
Sottile said he was reluctant to offer his successor advice, but did suggest he quickly settle contracts with the city’s biggest unions — police, fire and DPW — as soon as possible. All expire on Dec. 31, a deliberate tactic on his part, Sottile said.
“This way, we negotiate with all the unions at once,” he said. “You don’t have one basing their requests on what another union settled for.”
Sottile, who was instrumental in getting unions to pay a small portion of their health care expenses, advised that negotiations were “about give and take. And that doesn’t mean the city gives and the union takes. They have to understand we live in different times now,” he said.
Hugh Reynolds use of vulgarity in his recent column is totally inappropriate and unnecessary.
“Someone committed to the less fortunate” is a very funny line(hilarious, actually) when measured against his bloggate comments on the subject in general in www.yuku.com ulsterpublishingmessageboards . You really have to give him credit though for consistently lying through his teeth down the final bell, and directly controverting his role model Sister Dorothy(who taught him never to cheat otherwise the only person who would be cheated would be himself). He seems to lie in direct proportion to the number of times he is interviewed by the press. What will be next for this pathological liar? Phony deductibles and selling broken down barns as mansions? Hah.
The huge holes in the road that sunk down so low you couldn’t find them that took two years to fix on Albany Avenue. That “Giant Schupping Sound” continues to “Schupp right along.” Yes, in addition to this appointment being against the City Charter(and this indiscretion, ahem, rubber stamped by the city council, making its own law as it went along and not bothering to repeal the one in place in case it found it worthy of such), it was Sottile’s way to say “My BIGOTRY was BETTER than that of many others(hahahahaha)”. Reminds me of the old time song I fist heard on my paternal grandfather’s 78 RPM recording of “The Robert E. Lee” as a mere boy, just with new lyrics:”SEE them Schup-ping alonnnnnng…HEAR them Schup-ping alonnnnng….you see they’re soooo neat…rrrrrreal sweet…go down by the Lev—ee, right down by the Lev–ee… waiting for the Robert E. Leeeeeeeeee!!(weeeee!!)(I will play it and sing it on the piano and make Mark Russell appear like a creative piker in comparison to his musical political commentary) The “flip side” happened to be “The Yellow Rose of Texas”, which was also done by Mitch Miller and his male singers on television too. Shayne kind of reminds me of Mitch Miller, conducting these singers(or trying to), except without the Goatee(and plenty more hair). I can picture him conducting the singers marching along Broadway some Memorial Day Parade, waving his hands as if trying to conduct with Hoffay the Clown trying to juggle balls with faces of Kevin Cahill on them with his face looking as if it is ready to ask the question “What is my Raison D’Etre?” “Jo-Jo the Clown”, if we could resurrect the kind old soul, would have laughed so hard UPAC would crumble to the ground!!!