The unhappiest man in Irondequoit

If the Town Board passed a binding resolution on April 1st stating that it is in fact April 1st, Richard Barone would have a problem with it.

If the West Irondequoit Central school board formally honored the Girl Championship Volleyball team, Richard Barone would find that a government abuse.

I read Richard Barone’s paid advertisement in the Irondequoit Post today, where her rambles about some lawsuit that would essentially prohibit government from doing anything to create jobs, and I can’t help but think – what the hell is wrong with this guy?

You could write a book on Richard Barone’s body of work as it relates to complaining about local government in Irondequoit. It would be full of a lot of anger and disappointment, mainly because Richard Barone hates government, so much that he thinks about it 24 hours a day. I’m sure it would take a good deal of psychoanalysis to arrive at the roots of Mr. Barone’s utter distaste for the body politic and its relationship with our everyday lives.

I’ve always wondered if something might have happened to trigger this disdain for elected officials. Alas, I think I may have found the answer. A while ago, someone long involved in town politics mentioned to me that Mr. Barone’s tenure as the Business Manager for the East Irondequoit school district may hold the key.

If you ask any longtime resident of East Irondequoit, they are likely to tell you that Richard Barone was one of the people most directly responsible for the destruction of that school district during the 1970s, 80s and 90s. As much as the name Amelia Nugent sends shivers down residents’ spines, mentioning Barone’s name in the same context is equally as souring.

Yes, in America, I suppose you have the right to destroy a school district, as long as it’s done through the Democratic process.

Let me tell you what isn’t right.

Richard Barone has spent his entire life making elected officials feel like inadequate buffoons who couldn’t balance a checkbook. However, in the early 1980s, the State legislature was forced to pass a special law just to bail him and the district taxpayers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The laws of New York tell the tale….(Many thanks to the fine staff at the Rundel Library for their help in obtaining this information!)

Chapter 656 of the Laws of New York for 1980, approved an effective June 30, 1980:
Relates to the East Irondequoit Central School District – State Transportation Aid
An Act authorizing the state department of education to apportion state aid for transportation to the East Irondequoit Central School District, Monroe County in certain cases.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of section thirty-six hundred twenty-five of the education law to the contrary, the state education department is hereby authorized to apportion state transportation aid to the East Irondequoit Central School District, Monroe County, for certain transportation contracts for the nineteen hundred seventy-nine – nineteen hundred eighty school year as if said contracts had been duly transmitted to such department on a timely basis, and which in fact were filed late as a result of administrative and clerical error.

Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

After you navigate through all of the notwithstandings and spelled-out years, the legislative intent of this law is pretty simple: to make sure that the East Irondequoit Taxpapers weren’t punished due to the mistakes of their business manager.
And who exactly was the business manager at the time? The man, the legend, himself – Richaarrrrrdddd Baaarooooooooone!

Sure, Richard Barone has serious issues when Town government tries to construct a better community center for our senior citizens. And he may think it’s illegal for state government to try to spur economic development.

But when he needs government to bail him out? No problem.

The week that legislation was signed into law by Governor Carey, I highly doubt there were any ads taken out by Mr. Barone lambasting the state for doing right by him.

Therefore, the next time Richard Barone takes out an advertisement (with his illegal campaign operation) lecturing us about fiscal responsibility or bloated government spending, he should have an asterisk or disclaimer that states: “Oh by the way, just for background: I’m not angry with government; I’m angry with myself. This is how I deal with it.”

Yes, Madam Supervisor – campaign promises do carry over into a new decade

Just in case anyone had forgotten the little back-and-forth that took place during the January Town Board meeting between Supervisor D’Aurizio and Councilwoman Aldersley, in which Councilwoman Aldersley made the point that the MJD campaign had criticized former Supervisor Heyman’s administration for hiring out-of-town residents…



…here is the mailing which I believe Councilwoman Aldersley was referencing. If you recall, during that meeting Supervisor D’Aurizio denied that any such attacks were made during the campaign.

I wonder if the Republican Party now takes issue with the fact that some guy from Brighton is now one of the highest-paid staff members at Town Hall, more so than Irondequoit’s own Marty Piecuch – who, incidentally, was not retained due to his apparent lack of loyalty to the Republican Party.

Nevertheless, we just wanted to make the point that this was, in fact, a Republican attack made on the Democratic candidates. Therefore, unless Supervisor D’Aurizio is going to publicly admonish the content of this mailing, she can’t deny that this mailing that was done to bolster her election efforts – one that I’m sure her campaign helped coordinate and was thrilled to see hit mailboxes in October of last year. And if she argues that she didn’t know about any of this, well frankly she’s being disingenuous. She might be the artsy-type, but she can’t act her way out of this one.

Just so I’m getting this right: A negative mailing comes from Republican HQ that says “Vote For Change to Keep our Jobs and Tax Dollars in Irondequoit.” Yet, the Republican candidate (who I’m assuming this mailing was referencing with the word “change”) claims it has nothing to do with her.

I wish they could hand out “Explain this to me again?” violations. If so, Supervisor D’Aurizio might compete with her husband’s collection of code violations that rival most 12 year old’s baseball card collections.