How do I begin Tonights lecture....today there was an article in the Stamford Times about Stamford Bloggers, I was called into the office of the Health Director. It was a good meeting, but I was told I really should be writing about personal issues, rather than City issues. Well said, so I am writing about me and what I will and will not post.
1) I am an environmentalist - I will write about Long Island Sound and the fiasco that the USEPA has created.
2) I will talk about simple PUBLIC INFORMATION that is available through many other channels that I am involved with -they will be my opinions, not the opinions of the Health Department as is stated on the blog main page and there will be links to the public news releases.
These are the things most close to my heart - and I will warn people in any way I can about ticks, mosquitoes, bats, the general water quality.
3) I will not disclose any proprietary info like what the score of my favorite restaurant was in its last inspection.
4) I will not make any specific reference to personnel where I work.
All that said - I will continue to blog, I live in Stamford, I own property in Stamford, I do not use my city position for any purpose than to provide the citizens of Stamford the info for which I am paid.
I have removed or changed any posts that I think have not met these guidelines.
Otherwise it still is open season.
I believe in transparent government, that policy and procedure and above all information should be readily available and I actually believe Stamford's current mayor has done a fair job with this bringing the city's IT Department from the stone ages to something that is accessible and with the open meetings the he holds in various parts of the city. There is always room for improvement.
I am even more fervent in my belief of open scientific data. Many of our research reports are available on the city's website and much of this has been used by other government agencies to formulate policy (USGS, USEPA)
tho sadly they didn't use us as a reference, but they called on us for info many times.
So we let the games begin!
One final addition, if I am involved in any form of intervention as a private citizen, whether it involves other departments or the one I work in, I will post, because they have to do with me being a private citizen in Stamford, stepping in to try to help someone who is bewildered by the system that is government.
I believe this helps others know what can and cannot be done at a government level to help people!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
You choose
I have a limited amount of time and 4 topics to cover
1) the end of the Patron Saint of Long Island Sound
2) The NEW Budget cut requests in Stamford, why and what they mean
3) The new/old Trend in city government - Robots in the personnel what it does
4) The real reason our food is not safe...a national topic
I want some voting on which shall be first and which last.
It will happen in the order that you all present!
I may need to do some changes based on new info that has come to me.
Some post I have deleted based on that info.
1) the end of the Patron Saint of Long Island Sound
2) The NEW Budget cut requests in Stamford, why and what they mean
3) The new/old Trend in city government - Robots in the personnel what it does
4) The real reason our food is not safe...a national topic
I want some voting on which shall be first and which last.
It will happen in the order that you all present!
I may need to do some changes based on new info that has come to me.
Some post I have deleted based on that info.
Friday, July 25, 2008
A short Break from boring environmental stuff
Some know that I have in my house 2 disabled persons...This is part of a commitment I mae with several others many years ago, which one day I will get into, but this post is about David.
David is older than I, but was born prematurely and was given either too much or too little oxygen and so has some cognitive defects. He can not drive a car and some times he has trouble adding money, but he keeps a fair checkbook. His father has past and his mother lives with his sister in Vermont, but has some significant dementia. He is not mentally ill, but he volunteers at Laurel House. He is able to work, but is on disability so he can not work too much or he will lose his benefits which include health insurance. At this point his limit is $960/month. Most of the jobs he gets, he gets on his own, his manner is pleasant and very sociable and sometimes his bosses forget that he is disabled. He worked at the front desk of the Y for a long time until it closed down and for the most part, they treated him well, save for one person, who wanted to punish him because he couldn't operate a computer, but that is past.
Laurel House has an employment program which gets people to work at simple jobs for various businesses for a small salary. David has had a couple of those jobs. The last one was at Marshall's and that came after the Y closed its doors. They had agreed to get him to work 4 hours a week on a Saturday and that was it. So he continued looking while trying to work at Marshall's, but the District Manager kept cutting his hours out as not essential. This was a measly $38 a week which was added to his $58 a week unemployment check. State said he made too much money for them to kick anything in except $10 in food stamps. So he kept looking. He loves animals and he takes care of a dog and 2 cats in our house and a bunch of birds of various kinds that he raises from chicks for a friend.
We found out that PetSmart was opening in Stamford and got him to apply, but they would only accept online applications so the Laurel House person helped him apply.
Weeks went on and we didn't hear from them and then they opened and he called, they never received the application, so he applied again went for an interview and has a job at the pet hotel.
In the meantime he still had the off and on again job at Marshall's and it was suggested that he leave it so he could work all his hours at PetSmart.
Most of the time Laurel House is very good, but they wanted this position to be there for other members in the future and were very strong about him keeping the job until August. Meanwhile the district manager was still playing his games with the hours.
Finally PetSmart wanted him to work a Saturday that he was not scheduled at Marshall's and you guessed it Marshall's changed their mind.
As they say, the fur began to fly and I was madder than a wet hen!
No way was he going to say no to a job that was going to give him his $900 a month for some stupid place that couldn't make up their mind.
David has a significant support group and all of us backed him as he wrote a letter explaining the multitude of time he had been removed from the schedule.
So he had a victory. PetSmart loves him, the animals there love him and he gets to make a living wage doing what he loves (its living since he is supported at our household).
Peace to all.
David is older than I, but was born prematurely and was given either too much or too little oxygen and so has some cognitive defects. He can not drive a car and some times he has trouble adding money, but he keeps a fair checkbook. His father has past and his mother lives with his sister in Vermont, but has some significant dementia. He is not mentally ill, but he volunteers at Laurel House. He is able to work, but is on disability so he can not work too much or he will lose his benefits which include health insurance. At this point his limit is $960/month. Most of the jobs he gets, he gets on his own, his manner is pleasant and very sociable and sometimes his bosses forget that he is disabled. He worked at the front desk of the Y for a long time until it closed down and for the most part, they treated him well, save for one person, who wanted to punish him because he couldn't operate a computer, but that is past.
Laurel House has an employment program which gets people to work at simple jobs for various businesses for a small salary. David has had a couple of those jobs. The last one was at Marshall's and that came after the Y closed its doors. They had agreed to get him to work 4 hours a week on a Saturday and that was it. So he continued looking while trying to work at Marshall's, but the District Manager kept cutting his hours out as not essential. This was a measly $38 a week which was added to his $58 a week unemployment check. State said he made too much money for them to kick anything in except $10 in food stamps. So he kept looking. He loves animals and he takes care of a dog and 2 cats in our house and a bunch of birds of various kinds that he raises from chicks for a friend.
We found out that PetSmart was opening in Stamford and got him to apply, but they would only accept online applications so the Laurel House person helped him apply.
Weeks went on and we didn't hear from them and then they opened and he called, they never received the application, so he applied again went for an interview and has a job at the pet hotel.
In the meantime he still had the off and on again job at Marshall's and it was suggested that he leave it so he could work all his hours at PetSmart.
Most of the time Laurel House is very good, but they wanted this position to be there for other members in the future and were very strong about him keeping the job until August. Meanwhile the district manager was still playing his games with the hours.
Finally PetSmart wanted him to work a Saturday that he was not scheduled at Marshall's and you guessed it Marshall's changed their mind.
As they say, the fur began to fly and I was madder than a wet hen!
No way was he going to say no to a job that was going to give him his $900 a month for some stupid place that couldn't make up their mind.
David has a significant support group and all of us backed him as he wrote a letter explaining the multitude of time he had been removed from the schedule.
So he had a victory. PetSmart loves him, the animals there love him and he gets to make a living wage doing what he loves (its living since he is supported at our household).
Peace to all.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Twenty, the inside story
Everyone knows I have the inside story to some of the local government workings and some have an idea of my loose connection to the place now call Twenty of Stamford. This is the inside story, which is not to different than many restaurants and bars, but this is Twenty's story.
The place known now as Twenty, was for 6 years a very unsuccessful diner in the middle of town called Park Place Diner. These are the same people who own Bull's Head Diner and Court Square and the now gone, Stamford Diner. They also own a couple of diners in Westchester. About this time last year (3 or 4 months previous), the diner people approached a friend of mine, Scott Marz , to try to help them create something different and successful. This was their second approach and he had refused the first one because of their reputation of callous behavior toward loyal employees (example, they cut off the manager from employment at Stamford Diner when it closed after he had worked for them for 20 years) and basically treating most employees like cattle or slaves, but he accepted this time because he felt that with his reputation and a clear contract, he could create something in Stamford (this had been one of his dreams), that was part his and was an eclectic place, being a restaurant and a club and a place to have fun for adults. He wanted to have good food, not diner food, so he managed to get Frankie Whitaker to be the chef and spent about 100,000 of his own money to change the place from what was a rats' nest, into something attractive and comfortable.
Despite the contract, the diner people fought with him with every change, even tho he was spending his own money, but for the most part he prevailed.
When Scott presented items on the contract that talked about money, the response he got was that everything was "Buuulllshittt" with a Greek accent.
The attitude that everyone who worked for them was nothing and could be easily replaced was a tougher situation. This was not Scott's attitude and he tended to respect people because of his background.
When the place was finished and opened, it became a successful club rapidly, but the first casualty of the diner mentality was the chef and the food program became a difficult issue.
Scott worked more hours than the "manager", who was the owner's son and received very little in compensation...the books were being 'cooked'. Mean time the Manager was getting ~ $3,000.00 per month on the books and maybe another $3,000 under the table because he decided to bartend in addition to "managing". Additionally maybe $25,000 seemed to be missing in income based on purchases, price of purchase and sales.
A veiled threat of getting an audit, netted Scott a quick sum of money, but nothing to what he put in.
In the mean time the diner people were not paying the bus people - who were required to do a lot of work and so that staff kept changing and the place is beginning to look dirty.
Same thing happen with the next set of cooks. Scott would step in, but would not know the people were not being paid because the cash out was being recorded.
Alive at 5 came and the place made 5 times the amount it had ever done in it past life as a diner, but again people were not being paid - including Scott.
So what do we call this? Common business practice? A den of thieves? Mismanagement? Or a Sucker is born every minute?
The funny thing is that I like the concept and the initial presentation of Twenty, I still think the Food has manage to stay okay to good despite everything. And I like the music.
The place known now as Twenty, was for 6 years a very unsuccessful diner in the middle of town called Park Place Diner. These are the same people who own Bull's Head Diner and Court Square and the now gone, Stamford Diner. They also own a couple of diners in Westchester. About this time last year (3 or 4 months previous), the diner people approached a friend of mine, Scott Marz , to try to help them create something different and successful. This was their second approach and he had refused the first one because of their reputation of callous behavior toward loyal employees (example, they cut off the manager from employment at Stamford Diner when it closed after he had worked for them for 20 years) and basically treating most employees like cattle or slaves, but he accepted this time because he felt that with his reputation and a clear contract, he could create something in Stamford (this had been one of his dreams), that was part his and was an eclectic place, being a restaurant and a club and a place to have fun for adults. He wanted to have good food, not diner food, so he managed to get Frankie Whitaker to be the chef and spent about 100,000 of his own money to change the place from what was a rats' nest, into something attractive and comfortable.
Despite the contract, the diner people fought with him with every change, even tho he was spending his own money, but for the most part he prevailed.
When Scott presented items on the contract that talked about money, the response he got was that everything was "Buuulllshittt" with a Greek accent.
The attitude that everyone who worked for them was nothing and could be easily replaced was a tougher situation. This was not Scott's attitude and he tended to respect people because of his background.
When the place was finished and opened, it became a successful club rapidly, but the first casualty of the diner mentality was the chef and the food program became a difficult issue.
Scott worked more hours than the "manager", who was the owner's son and received very little in compensation...the books were being 'cooked'. Mean time the Manager was getting ~ $3,000.00 per month on the books and maybe another $3,000 under the table because he decided to bartend in addition to "managing". Additionally maybe $25,000 seemed to be missing in income based on purchases, price of purchase and sales.
A veiled threat of getting an audit, netted Scott a quick sum of money, but nothing to what he put in.
In the mean time the diner people were not paying the bus people - who were required to do a lot of work and so that staff kept changing and the place is beginning to look dirty.
Same thing happen with the next set of cooks. Scott would step in, but would not know the people were not being paid because the cash out was being recorded.
Alive at 5 came and the place made 5 times the amount it had ever done in it past life as a diner, but again people were not being paid - including Scott.
So what do we call this? Common business practice? A den of thieves? Mismanagement? Or a Sucker is born every minute?
The funny thing is that I like the concept and the initial presentation of Twenty, I still think the Food has manage to stay okay to good despite everything. And I like the music.
Scott Marz - an Introduction
I have known Scott Marz some 35 years, since he was five, so that I should support some his endeavors is not surprising to me.
His reputation is extreme, tho if you were to ask him he would probably shrug it off.
He lived with his family in an intentional community, which in Stamford began The community of St. Luke, which created what is now known as St Luke's Community Services, worked with the homeless, the disabled, the people who were the working poor and people who just had hard times.
His schooling at an early age was Montessori , High school was catholic and he graduated
with a B.S. degree in economics from Suny Purchase New York, but his love has been music.
His start was at a place called Park Row Grill which most reading this will not remember, under the mall in the area called old main street. He had a band called Rubin Kinkad which performed in the hall several times to a very large crowd and this was all Stamford had to offer as night life at that time, save for the Terrace club.
He started DJing at Willow Street (Port Chester NY) in the mid 80's and convinced the
management their to try some thing new.
Willow Street was known for 2 things; live bands till 12 and the after 2 crowd from Connecticut, since they stayed open till 4 (it was also known for 18 year old drinking until the laws changed). So after 12, when the bands had finished and the Connecticut crowd had not yet arrived Bounce was born.
Bounce was an event party with DJs and shows of the electronic medium.
They grew to a very successful item with a life of its own including acts such as the then
unknown Crystal Method (in the future to do the sound track to Blade) and the still unknown "Stratosphere" and light and Laser shows(I did the Laser shows).
He then used this success to do regional parties, starting with a series of "Flavor" parties at the old Globe Theater in Norwalk.
All While he was setting up and orchestrating these parties, he was also producing music of the electronic flavor, with no less than 12 hitting the top 50 in the Dance charts, with several in the top ten.
His company, Kingsize-USA became known for its production abilities and was producing shows in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts with crowds in the thousands.
His success as a DJ was so that he had requests from Florida, California, England and other parts of Europe for his services. He frequently preformed at the Sound Factory in New York and was a major draw.
At this point he saw problems coming and began his quest for something different.
He worked with the Bar/club in Norwalk "Symmetry"to change its image and its name to "Ego".
He began working with other Bars and restaurants, recreating their image in the tristate area.
He spun off Kingsize-Usa to a co-producer and created Kusic sound source which was primarily to work with existing clubs and Bars, providing DJ services, sound system installation and event production.
Additionally he created Clearmediamanagement which created a custom music for Hotels and restaurants that would be different than the "elevator music" that was available at that time. He produced a portion of the music on the MTV series "Vidiots".
It was as all this was happening and both these two companies were begining to thrive that he was approached by the "Diner People".
His reputation is extreme, tho if you were to ask him he would probably shrug it off.
He lived with his family in an intentional community, which in Stamford began The community of St. Luke, which created what is now known as St Luke's Community Services, worked with the homeless, the disabled, the people who were the working poor and people who just had hard times.
His schooling at an early age was Montessori , High school was catholic and he graduated
with a B.S. degree in economics from Suny Purchase New York, but his love has been music.
His start was at a place called Park Row Grill which most reading this will not remember, under the mall in the area called old main street. He had a band called Rubin Kinkad which performed in the hall several times to a very large crowd and this was all Stamford had to offer as night life at that time, save for the Terrace club.
He started DJing at Willow Street (Port Chester NY) in the mid 80's and convinced the
management their to try some thing new.
Willow Street was known for 2 things; live bands till 12 and the after 2 crowd from Connecticut, since they stayed open till 4 (it was also known for 18 year old drinking until the laws changed). So after 12, when the bands had finished and the Connecticut crowd had not yet arrived Bounce was born.
Bounce was an event party with DJs and shows of the electronic medium.
They grew to a very successful item with a life of its own including acts such as the then
unknown Crystal Method (in the future to do the sound track to Blade) and the still unknown "Stratosphere" and light and Laser shows(I did the Laser shows).
He then used this success to do regional parties, starting with a series of "Flavor" parties at the old Globe Theater in Norwalk.
All While he was setting up and orchestrating these parties, he was also producing music of the electronic flavor, with no less than 12 hitting the top 50 in the Dance charts, with several in the top ten.
His company, Kingsize-USA became known for its production abilities and was producing shows in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts with crowds in the thousands.
His success as a DJ was so that he had requests from Florida, California, England and other parts of Europe for his services. He frequently preformed at the Sound Factory in New York and was a major draw.
At this point he saw problems coming and began his quest for something different.
He worked with the Bar/club in Norwalk "Symmetry"to change its image and its name to "Ego".
He began working with other Bars and restaurants, recreating their image in the tristate area.
He spun off Kingsize-Usa to a co-producer and created Kusic sound source which was primarily to work with existing clubs and Bars, providing DJ services, sound system installation and event production.
Additionally he created Clearmediamanagement which created a custom music for Hotels and restaurants that would be different than the "elevator music" that was available at that time. He produced a portion of the music on the MTV series "Vidiots".
It was as all this was happening and both these two companies were begining to thrive that he was approached by the "Diner People".
Saturday, July 5, 2008
The Inside Story - a twisted tale
A bit ago I brought the interesting goings on of The Volunteer Fire Department at Turn of River with the musings of "Why do Politicians Lie?" The story came out because of extreme construction behind the Stamford Ambulance (which is City property) where no neighboring residents were notified before hand. The fact that no notices or information was forthcoming from the people who were orchestrating the fast paced work made everything seem like an undercover operation. One worker was extremely out in the open about the lack of proper notification.
He also backed away from involvement.
Scott Mirkin, a rep for the city actually tried to find out what the plans were and was fairly rebuffed:
The item is on review this month on the Fiscal committee agenda. I placed several calls before I left for vacation on 5/25. These were bits of information but nothing concrete. Whatever is going to happen with the project will most likely be different based on the agreement that was mentioned between TOR Volunteer Fire Department and the City. BTW...I returned from vacation and have been digging out.
He called my friend and told them at the meeting nothing concrete was again reveled, but he has the feeling that the mayor has a bug up his rear-end about the volunteer fire departments in general. (my speculation-was he refused one time entry?)
The end result of this action is that we would have the same issue as with the police - many people who don't live in Stamford and don't really care about Stamford in general working in important positions of emergency response.
Again Scott Mirkin told my friend to go visit the area of Turn of River Rd with its 'temporary building' and said the same is planned for this part of Long Ridge Rd.
It is now July and the temp building is in place And a Fire Truck Now sits in the Stamford Ambulance Parking Lot, for what purpose? And what is the problem the mayor has with the Volunteer Fire Department?
He also backed away from involvement.
Scott Mirkin, a rep for the city actually tried to find out what the plans were and was fairly rebuffed:
The item is on review this month on the Fiscal committee agenda. I placed several calls before I left for vacation on 5/25. These were bits of information but nothing concrete. Whatever is going to happen with the project will most likely be different based on the agreement that was mentioned between TOR Volunteer Fire Department and the City. BTW...I returned from vacation and have been digging out.
He called my friend and told them at the meeting nothing concrete was again reveled, but he has the feeling that the mayor has a bug up his rear-end about the volunteer fire departments in general. (my speculation-was he refused one time entry?)
The end result of this action is that we would have the same issue as with the police - many people who don't live in Stamford and don't really care about Stamford in general working in important positions of emergency response.
Again Scott Mirkin told my friend to go visit the area of Turn of River Rd with its 'temporary building' and said the same is planned for this part of Long Ridge Rd.
It is now July and the temp building is in place And a Fire Truck Now sits in the Stamford Ambulance Parking Lot, for what purpose? And what is the problem the mayor has with the Volunteer Fire Department?
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