Cuomo vs. Canada! Ladies, gentlemen, children of all ages, and others! I’m proud to present today’s main love spat: Cuomo Vs. Canada! Can’t we all just love each other? I’ve got an idea. Let’s all meet on The Peace Bridge! That should be a great place to discuss any differences. Sooo --- ------------------------------------------------------ Per nytimes/2013/05/28/nyregion/cuomo-and-canadians-in-verbal-war-over-peace-bridge.html?pagewanted=all (Sorry that it’s kind of long, but “The NY Times” likes to be The Guinness World Record Verbosity of Record.) FORT ERIE, Ontario — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration is known for its combative stance toward lawmakers, bureaucrats and reporters alike. Now, the administration has all but declared war on a new enemy: Canada. Or, at least, an arm of the Canadian government. At issue is the 3,580-foot bridge that crosses the Niagara River between Buffalo and this Canadian town. It is called the Peace Bridge, though its name does not seem especially apt now. In recent months, Mr. Cuomo’s chief representative to the binational agency that manages the bridge has described his Canadian counterparts, in e-mails he sent to them, as “duplicitous,” criticizing their “deceitful, disrespectful and arrogant behavior.” “The fact that you ask for ‘mutual respect’ is nothing short of laughable,” the Cuomo representative, William B. Hoyt III, told the Canadians. The dispute began over efforts to expand the plaza on the New York side of the bridge, with Canadian members of the authority’s board expressing concern about spending far more for land than its appraised value. Things quickly turned personal. Mr. Hoyt, the authority’s vice chairman, who is known as Sam, has tried to remove the general manager of the authority, who is a Canadian; boycotted some of the authority’s board meetings; and alleged that Canadian officials were guilty of a raft of improprieties. Cuomo allies in the New York Legislature have introduced bills to change the authority’s structure. The discord has put development projects at risk and led to a governance stalemate unlike anything in the bridge’s more than eight decades of binational control. Howard Glaser, one of Mr. Cuomo’s top aides, even wrote a letter last month to the Canadian transport minister, who controls the Canadian half of the authority’s board, complaining about “years of foot-dragging.” Last week, Mr. Cuomo, in an interview with The Buffalo News, said the bridge was a “metaphor for dysfunction.” The authority’s chairman, Anthony M. Annunziata, a Canadian, responded that the comment was “incredibly arrogant and insulting.” Passions have run so high that senior officials in Washington and Ottawa have gotten involved to calm both sides. In a visit to Buffalo, Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, urged the administration and the Canadians to “bury the hatchet.” Since taking office in 2011, Mr. Cuomo has largely shied from the national — not to mention international — stage, even as his name is often mentioned as a Democratic presidential candidate in 2016. But his administration’s approach toward the Canadians is offering the wider world a glimpse of how Mr. Cuomo often wields power. Governors who run for president tend to struggle to show off their foreign policy prowess. How the conflict over the Peace Bridge is resolved could thus become fodder for the next presidential campaign, should Mr. Cuomo run. The Canadians said they were taken aback by what they termed the Cuomo administration’s outbursts, and are refusing direct dealings with Mr. Hoyt, a former Democratic assemblyman from the Buffalo area. “In the past, there has always been a respectful working relationship,” Mr. Annunziata said. “I’ve never had a relationship like this, which is, if you don’t agree with me, we want you gone,” he said. “And not only do we want you gone, if we can’t get rid of you, we want to destroy the board.” Mr. Hoyt, who is also a senior official at New York’s economic development agency, declined to comment. Melissa DeRosa, Mr. Cuomo’s communications director, said the administration was seeking to overhaul an authority that had long neglected New York’s interests. “After nearly 20 years of dysfunction and paralysis, the administration has put a plan together that, for the first time, commits New York State budget funds to jump-start improvements to the Peace Bridge plaza,” Ms. DeRosa said. State lawmakers of both parties said they supported Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, noting that more work had been carried out on the Canadian side. “It’s our turn to move forward, and they are putting up roadblocks,” said State Senator George D. Maziarz, a local Republican. The conflict began after the Cuomo administration negotiated to buy the blighted property near the bridge in a deal that would have used authority funds. The price was $4 million plus tax debt. The Canadians had misgivings because the appraised value of the land was $1.7 million. The authority had already spent $1 million to clear a lien on the property. Cuomo aides said the price was fair because of the property’s complicated history and a threat of a lawsuit from its owner. The administration has since moved forward with the deal using state funds. Whatever the substance of the dispute, a review of documents and e-mails provided by both camps shows how tensions have spread. Mr. Hoyt, in a letter to the board, assailed the authority’s general manager, Ron Rienas, a Canadian. In particular, he accused Mr. Rienas of hiring his son’s air charter business to ferry authority officials. Mr. Rienas said his son did not operate an air charter business, but conceded that his son flew as a hobby and had flown some authority officials, getting reimbursed at a rate of $205 an hour, which included the cost of fuel. Mr. Hoyt said his mail had been opened by Mr. Rienas without authorization. Mr. Rienas said the staff had long opened mail to the chairman or vice chairman that was not labeled confidential. Mr. Hoyt has upbraided Mr. Annunziata, the board’s chairman, for referring to an American woman who serves as a project manager at the bridge as “the governor’s concubine” during a heated meeting — apparently because he thought that she was doing Mr. Cuomo’s bidding. Mr. Annunziata said he had undergone sensitivity training after an internal review, but American officials said they were deeply disturbed by the matter, which they said had not been appropriately addressed. The Canadians said Mr. Hoyt was in no position to criticize them. In 2008, the State Assembly barred Mr. Hoyt from having interns after he had an affair with a female intern in his office. Last year, Mr. Hoyt sought to have the Peace Bridge Authority give one of his sons a summer job as a toll taker, according to e-mails. Mr. Hoyt withdrew the request after the Canadians questioned whether it was proper. (A second son of Mr. Hoyt’s had been hired by the State Thruway Authority as a toll taker in 2010, according to state records.) Mr. Rienas said Mr. Hoyt’s allegations were “clearly designed to denigrate and intimidate me.” Though both sides have sought occasionally to tone down their statements, for now, the impasse continues. On Friday, the Americans decided to attend an authority board meeting. But when it came time to take the routine step of approving the minutes from an earlier meeting, they refused. ---------------------------- BTW, near the end is the part that I found most shocking: “Mr. Hoyt has upbraided Mr. Annunziata, the board’s chairman, for referring to an American woman who serves as a project manager at the bridge as “the governor’s concubine” during a heated meeting — apparently because he thought that she was doing Mr. Cuomo’s bidding. Mr. Annunziata said he had undergone sensitivity training after an internal review, but American officials said they were deeply disturbed by the matter, which they said had not been appropriately addressed.” ------- Obviously, that’s outrageous! I let it go the first FIVE TIMES by THE TIMES, but enough is enough. Once again, “The NY TIMES” used the non-PC word “chairman”. I demand that the writer and editor(s) for the article be sentenced to Sensitivity Training Camp for at least one year! Well folks, there you have it. As usual, government and media lunacies are the rule pretty much anywhere in the world. Can’t we all just engage in our corruption, bombasts, incompetence, etc. in PC ways? --------------------------- Al, The Plumber of the Depths of Lunacy!
Posted on: Fri, 31 May 2013 04:23:37 +0000
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