In mid-May, Utica Mayor David Roefaro said he’d find a solution within 90 days to Hotel Utica’s chronic problems making tax and loan payments.
Those three months have come and gone, and Roefaro has failed to make good on his word. Indeed, the hotel hasn’t made a loan payment since then, and it remains behind on its city tax payments.
So much for bold promises. What the city needs to do is what it’s failed to do this entire decade — use its negotiating and legal powers to force the hotel to meet its obligations.
So far, the administration's response to calls for it to actually do something has been to lash out at anyone pointing out their epic failure. This whole sorry situation could probably have been avoided if city staffers were chosen on the basis of their expertise instead of their political and personal ties to the administration, but the Roefaro "Friends and Family Plan" has left the city of Utica with a management team that obviously isn't up to the task.
Update: Damn, I've been exposed! A conspiratorially minded emailer suggests that the OD's editorial, along with the one on the Roefaro "Friends and Family" plan from earlier this year, is proof that I am, in fact, one of the paper's editorial staff. Even more troubling is that the emailer has figured out my "hidden agenda" and plans to make a formal complaint to the FEC.
I desperately hope they aren't lying. Do you realize how much material I'd be able to milk out of that? I'm not sure how criticizing the Hotel Utica and Mr. Roefaro would earn me the ire of the FEC, but bring it on. Bwahahahahahahahaha!
