Ten Weeks And Counting

The Utica Common Council's investigation into city Police Chief C. Allen Pylman effectively ended February 23, 2007. That's the day Council attorney Anthony Garramone resigned from his position for "health reasons".

It has now been over ten weeks since the last witness testified, but the Council continues to stall a resolution of the investigation by claiming there hasn't been enough time to "transcribe" testimony.

Clearly, the Council's administrative staff is incompetent and should be fired immediately. It's hard to believe that tax dollars are being spent on an employee or employees that obviously lied about their stenographic and transcription skills, but the Council needs to accept that they were indeed bamboozled and respond with a clear message that even civil service employees are expected to meet basic standards of competence.

Unless, of course, it's not Council's secretarial staff that is incompetent.