County GOP chair Bill Reilich clearly wants to kill off the controversy he started by dragging I-Square into some routine political posturing. And he’s joined County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo in blaming the spat on Justin Roj, who yesterday resigned as deputy county executive at Dinolfo’s insistence.
Reilich issued a statement this afternoon, which he said was a response to “the many media versions of explanations involving my comments on I-Square,” and was meant to “set the record straight concerning my involvement.” Reilich’s full statement is at attached at the end of the post.
But his statement hardly sets the record straight. It just adds more questions, and makes a confusing situation that much more so.
This whole messy fight started when Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed former Irondequoit Supervisor Adam Bello to the vacant county clerk seat. Reilich wanted to take a swipe at Bello and issued a statement doing that. But in the process, he said I-Square – a popular Irondequoit development owned by Mike and Wendy Nolan – was struggling. He later elaborated and said the project had defaulted on a tax incentive agreement administered by the Monroe County Industrial Development Agency, and agency officials issued statements backing him up.
The remarks caught the Nolans by surprise. They say the business is doing well and that they hadn’t heard a thing from COMIDA about any problems or concerns with the incentive agreement or the project’s progress. And they questioned why Reilich knew of any problems before they did.
Well, here’s the answer by Reilich’s own admission: As he was drafting his statement on Bello, Roj contacted him and told him about the default. That makes him the second figure in this mess to fault Roj.
Earlier this week, Dinolfo said COMIDA officials reached out to Roj for advice on how to handle all the media questions on the I-Square flap. But last night she sent out a new statement saying she’d learned that it was Roj who reached out to COMIDA’s attorney. That’s when Roj got the axe.
Nobody comes off clean here. In politics and government, appearance and perception are just as important as what officials actually do. And right now, it looks like Reilich, Dinolfo, and Roj all plotted an attack on Bello, and that Reilich and Roj, at least, had no problem dragging COMIDA – which is basically a county agency, though on paper it’s independent of county government – into the mud. Word is that COMIDA Board Chair Theresa Mazzullo, who is a key Conservative Party official, is not happy about that.
So far, the controversy has centered on where Reilich got the information on I-Square. But it’s also fair to ask why Reilich believed it was a good idea to portray a popular local business, owned by local people, as struggling. That portrayal could do real harm to I-Square; since businesses generally don’t like uncertainty, the Nolans might worry that it could cost the development new leases. The Nolans have already said they may sue Reilich for defamation.
This article appears in Mar 30 – Apr 5, 2016.
All this petty political drama ignores two larger issues:
1. In criticizing Mr. Bello for leaving Irondequoit at a time when one of its developments is struggling, what is Mr. Reilich suggesting Mr. Bello actually do to help the development? I wasn’t aware that elected Town Supervisors have a whole lot of direct [legal] power to assist developers.
2. Why is an INDUSTRIAL development agency assisting a retail development in the first place? I’m a big fan of I-Square and the efforts to create a “town center” for Irondequoit, but the whole system of tax breaks and government choosing development winners and losers is corrupt. Rather than doling out baubles and trinkets to those who come to grovel at the high priest of COMIDA, government should be lowering obstacles to business development across the board.
Jeremy writes: “This whole messy fight started when Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed former Irondequoit Supervisor Adam Bello to the vacant county clerk seat. Reilich wanted to take a swipe at Bello and issued a statement doing that.”
Are you reporting the facts or just opining and making up drama that you THINK Reilich took a swipe at Bello?
Sorry, this “whole messy fight “started when your left-wing media jumped in and tried to divert and redirect any blame from the I-Square owners, who dropped the ball on their contract obligations, Your contentious, media expressions seem to rile up this fight, that does not need to happen.
Rather than being so divisive and accusatory , why not curb your hate for the Republicans by just not making a mountain out of a mole hill?
I blame Obama.
Don Sherman is in many ways right! Here are the reasons:
1. If a Republican was accused of not completing a Comida deal, City would comb through the campaign filings to see if that Republican was a contributor. In this case, if you did that, you would see that the Nolan’s are substantial Democrat contributors!
2. There are 4 parties to the agreement Nolan violated….him, the town, school district, and Comida. How do we know that the town did not agree to his building a smaller building than proposed because he is a contributor? Why did they issue a permit for a smaller building when they were party to an agreement for a larger one?
3. Why would Nolan not know he was in violation of the agreements…he is the one that choose to build a smaller building from the one proposed.
4. He has acted like a political spokesperson, calling for the resignation of the head of Comida, investigations, admonished the County Exec. called the forced out operative a “fall guy”…yet no one looks at this agenda…not have to build what he agreed to build.
5. On his I square Facebook page he proudly talks about “standing ovations” and posts pictures of him and Louise Slaughter, pictures of Adam Bello…but there is also a picture of what he was supposed to build including a 3 story building he replaced with a glorified garage!
Now, to be sure, City is a Democrat publication. But, Nolan appears to be a Democrat contributor acting like a victim. Isn’t it time to look objectively at the issues in question?…Did he build what he was supposed to?…No. Did he receive a public benefit and tax breaks? Yes!
It is time for Nolan to be looked at! If he was a Republican you would be all over these issues and the story would be a different one in tone…sorry, that is true!
“Are you reporting the facts or just opining and making up drama that you THINK Reilich took a swipe at Bello? ”
DON SHERMAN, if you read Reilich’s remarks, he accuses Bello of of neglecting the town by allowing I Square to fail. Not opinion-fact. Another fact-I Square isn’t failing. What Reilich did was try to publicly smear a small business (which can be death for a small business, but no matter to Reilich) in order to smear Bello. If the I Square folks haven’t met their square footage requirements on the new building (which is in dispute) it doesn’t give Reilich the right to so carelessly lip off.