Keller out as Chief?
The KPD scandal involving Tim Matthews has shocked Kingston and there will be a lot more on this in the next few months when the state attorney general and comptroller release their investigation, which is expected to show the top Detective as head of security for Kingston high school was double dipping.
Rumblings at City Hall say Police Chief Jerry Keller could be forced out due to "lack of oversight." Forcing Keller to retire is a mistake, he is a great public servant, honest as the day is long and really it's not his responsibility to be the school district's book keeper. Some argue Keller is too laid back and again I disagree. The role of the police chief, requires Keller to wear several hats, in public Keller does come across like more of a politician than a police chief.
However the FBI trained Chief, is as tough as nails and does a great job running KPD and making sure the department runs smoothly and efficiently. Chief Keller should retire when he is ready on his own terms.
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John Guerin ended his week long campaign for Mayor. Mr. Guerin decided his business would take too much of a negative hit for the run. Good to hear, I like Mr. Guerin and was not looking forward to attacking him on the blog for the next six months. ;~)
Rich Parete announced he would not seek reelection for another term on the legislature. No real surprise, Rich has made it clear for some time that he wanted to retire. Rich who usually leads the ticket over his brother Rob, and Roy Hochberg (Kraft before Hochberg), would of easily kept his seat. I wish Rich Parete the best and I would suspect he stays active, even running for a higher office in the future.
Speaking of Rob Parete, it was mistakenly reported in recent attendance audit that his legislative committee attendance was as low as 10%, the real number is well over 95% and the mistake has been corrected.
Jonathan Sennett is having a fundraiser, Wednesday February 9th 530pm at Hillside Manor to kick off his campaign for Ulster County District Attorney, tickets are $75. Please attend this event and take part of an exciting campaign for the next D.A. of Ulster County.
38 comments:
You really need to look at your double standards here. While he may be a good man, etc. whatever misdeeds were committed were on his watch and he is responsible for failing to recognize a problem staring him in the face. If this was Wadnola or any other republican executive you would be calling for their head.
If anyone should recognize that this is one more example of the Kingston old boy network milking their connections to the own benefit, it is you
As to your argument that Keller is not the school districts
bookkeeper,remember that there is reason the security gigs
are called moonlighting. Matthews is KPD first, school
security second. Primary responsibility lies with the
primary employer. While the district certainly shares some of the blame for allowing this to continue, the first line is
with KPD not the school district.
Save your money. Carnright rides KPD scandal to victory.
Chief Keller is NOT a Democrat.
You are way off base when you say Keller does a great job running KPD. He is not respected by his men and the department is a mess. Ask any of the officers off the record and they will tell you it is time for him to go. They need a take charge chief and someone that the men and women will respect.There is alot going on in this department that the public does not know. If they knew the truth, they would want his head.
"tough as nails, a great job, smooth and efficient". YOU are blind on this one Mr Blaber. This guy has no clue. Read the comment on your previous story. Do you think this is the kind of police department the public wants. It looks like you might have some friends on the department. Ask them, they will tell you its time for him to go.
1019 1034; I diagree, I know Jerry Keller very well,I think he's a great police chief.
Get all the dirty cops off the street. carnright won't ride this anywhere he hasn't a clue
3:07 is right - Carnright won't do anything - that's why Al Spada and the crooks in Kingston wanted him or Bradley. They knew they could get away with murder - they feared Sennett because they knew he wasn't in the Good Ol' Boys Club.
chief keller is an outstanding chief and let us wait until this matter is cleaned up.
Thats ok that you disagree, thats what this countries all about. But i'll tell you one thing, you don't know chief keller as well as I do, and you don't work for him. He is not respected on the job and he is not a good chief.
When officers use and sell cocaine, when an officer has to attend rehab beccause of a drug problem, when an officer is arrested for DWI, when a sergeant has to retire because he fails a drug test for marijuana,when an officer attends a party like the one on new years eve, and now the alledged theft of money by the lieutenant, theres a big problem. And i think the problem points right to the chief.
If you are going to call someone a crook ... Have the balls to identify yourself.
Well,Well... We had a the same thing in the Town of Ulster until Paul Watzka became the chief. He, with help of Joe Sinagra made the T/U one of the finest police departments in the state of NY. That was because Paul was given the order to do what ever he had to by the Supervisor, Fred Wadnola. We had a department out of control, and the laughing stock of the state. It comes down to this, does Chief Keller have the total 100% support of the Mayor. It may be time for Mayor Jim to say "do what ever you have to, you have my support". If that is not openly, (and I mean in writting, or print) then maybe Chief Keller should go quitly into the night. Why? He is beign set up for the fall.
Its always sunny in the T/U
Sunny in Ulster, as usual, you have a disillusion interpretation of what actually happened or happens in Ulster. Wadnola was at the helm for most of the problems with the UPD. It was not until Lt. Don Short and SGT. Bill Smith got arrested for sales tax skimming. They were under investigation for events surrounding their towing business too. After that things happened for the better.
Wadnola had no choice... when something is bleeding to death, you let it die or put a tourniquet on. Fred simply had no choice.
Unsafe, dirty and unaffordable - Sottile legacy.
You hit the nail on the head 9:41. You have to have a strong Chief and politics have to stay out of the police department. Thats just what is needed at KPD.
This never should of been on a blog yet, only reason all this made the newspapers is becasue Blaber acted in an inappropriate manner by putting it up. He should have waited until the KPD was ready to release information not forced to.
Rumor mill? - only Blaber could confirm any of this before allowing this post - Mayor's wife drives thru some stop signs, maybe a DWI, yells at police woman - Mayor tries to squash it - retaliates against Matthews. They let Matthews file for his pension before charging him? Isn't Matthews using the same lawyer as Sottile did when the Bid-rigging suit came out on a blog? Only Jeremy will find out the truth - weeks later it may hit the newspapers.
9:41:
Let's be fair here. Chief Watzka turned around the UPD long before Sinagra came back from his county assignment. Nothing against Sinagra, but give credit where it's due he came back to a very well running accredited department.
What information are you talking about KPD was going to release 2:07 ? The cocaine use, the officers rehab, the sergeants marijuana use, the new years party, the lieutenants alledged theft ?
So this is Jeremy's fault for publishing the story?
Please.
Whatever you think of his politics or his tendency to mix his opinions with his reporting, he professes to be a journalist and journalists publish stories. They do not wait until the powers that be declare that it is time for a story to break. The fact that he broke the story before the arrest and he seems to have been on the money with his facts, speaks volumes on how much he has progressed over the years.
Historically, when journalists sit on stories and wait for the go ahead from the powers that be, scandals get burried, more money is stolen and the public suffers.
Good work.
7:32 I was not being political in what I wrote. You BACKED ME 110%. I am sorry that you have have issues with your personality. Fred Wadnola did have a choice, and he made the right one. Your resopnce only shows how little you understand the Town of Ulster. What about the Republican dominated Town boards that were in power when the people that you mentioned were employed.What did they do,NOTHING. They knew full well what was going on, and sat on the issues hoping that it would all go away. The party of no did exactly that,nothing.At least Nick Woerner formed a commission that would watch over the police dept. and ask the tough questions. Now we have a Supervisor who wants every thing under his thumb, and made sure the new Chief shakes at his Imperial presence. So do you really think you have a handle of what is going on in the T/U. I think not. You are just an avarge political hack.
We will get past this, and other problems. Why?
Its allway Sunny in the T/U
Thats why, you dumb ass.
I saw Rich was one of the legislators you said would retire in your predictions post.
11:09 - the police commission that Woerner formed was a farce. Though the UPD has thus far avoided any scandals, under the watchful eye of Woerner/Watzka the UPD skyrocketed. Everything Watzka asked for, Woerner gave him. In Woerner's 3rd year the UPD plowed through their budget by Oct. 31st - they had to tap into the reserves to finish out the year. They depleted their budget because of ridiculous purchases and too much overtime. Why so much overtime? There are that many crimes in the ToU? I thought it was sunny in the ToU.
11:09 - most of your post makes sense, but the unnecessary name-calling at the end completely undermines your point. No one takes people seriously when they act like they're seven years old. Cut the name-calling and maybe people will pay attention to what you're saying. Can we not have intelligent dialogue and arguments in this venue?
7:38. This commentary is not about the Town of Ulster, Woerner, or Watzka. But since you mentioned it. The part you say about plowing through the police budget by Oct 31 is a complete and absolute LIE. That did not happen. THAT is a republican generated LIE. If the idiots that are spreading these lies would add the revenue in, and not just look at the expense line, they would see the budget is not in the red. But this is just one of the MANY LIES that they spread about the police department. So please,get your facts straight.
My facts are straight - I saw the books - I went through the budget and the abstracts. Woerner and the Town Board let Watzka spend, spend, spend. That's a large part of the reason the reserves were decimated - and Woerner's administration still gave the citizens a 20% tax increase. Then the next year, when he learned he lost, he figured he'd screw Quigley by not giving him enough money to meet expenses with a 5% tax increase. Unfortunately for Nick, Quigley is smarter and cleverer than he is. Woerner's reputation is so bad that it will take years for him to recover. The best thing Woerner could do is slither back under his rock for several years - he can come back in about 20 years when everyone has died or forgotten about him.
7;53 you're a liar and an asshole. Now you go crawl under a rock.
JB:
Tell Sennett to get ready. Apparently it wasn't such a gray day in law enforcement. At least not if the DA had gotten all of his facts before filing felony charges. They are going to try to hide this one because it will come back on the DA mayor and chief. This is Sennett's chance to run Carnright out of the county. Don't let him blow it.
4:04 - very intelligent and mature response. I'm impressed that you could formulate such a cogent argument.
Will Lt. Tinti also be picking up extra shifts at the high school? ;)
Sgt. Stedenko
wow things are heatingup here.
Blabers support of Keller with the old standby "I know Keller..." is an indication of Blaber himself being too close to politics to give us a good read out.
Blaber has no facts to offer, just his sweetheart opinion.
If you have facts, Jeremy, nows the time to put them out. The other writers here are talking from experience, from police personel they know. And we know for certain that police service in Kingston is quite poor over all. Unfriendly, slow to move, uninvolved, and never out of their cars. (My friend visiting says I should add "arrogant"")
It goes to the top: Sottile. And Keller. And then Mathews.
And overall, the $9000 is not where the crime is: like they got Capone for income tax evasion, they'll get the cops for the $, but the real crime has been perpetrated on the people, week in and week out with slow, poor police work.
That kind of work in a strong mayor system goes to the top. Time after time, you will find the departments of Kingston hamstrung by a mayor that runs on ego.
OK, Kingston, you're going to have a chance to make some new choices. If you vote your "friends" (like Blaber likes his friend Keller) you're going to get more of the same.
We have three new alderpersons who have demonstrated through hard work the way it can be done: follow that lead.
What have the three new aldermen done?
What changes have they made?
Oh yeah, absolutely nothing . . .
We are talking about a housewife who sells real estate whose best claim to fame is that her husband played bass with King Crimson, a cable television producer who thinks that the secret to revitalizing the city is attracting more artists and Jen Fuentes. What does she do for a living anyway. Or maybe you are referring to Polacco, he who brings the very relevant experience of being a photographer to his rolle as an alderman.
Digging out of the hole Kingston has dug is going take a lot more than these lightweights bring to the table.
10:57: I can't wait for your take on the deadwoods who have been on the council for many moons!!
We know they(Senor,Noble,Reynolds & Landi) haven't done a thing. The evidence is in. We are living it.
Your criticism of the newer members is really uncalled for. They have offered remedies which have been shot down by the old school.
And what remedies would those be?
I'm listening. . .
and still listening . . .
And not hearing a thing . . .
I can't wait to see Keller's crime statistics.
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