Dear Gov. Cuomo,
First off, congratulations on winning the election and saving us from Carl Paladino. You've got a tough job ahead of you, and if we here at the Niagara Falls Reporter can be of any assistance, we're just a phone call away.
We understand that you asked USA Niagara President Chris Schoepflin for his resignation shortly before you took office, and we think that's great. For all the good it's done in the way of economic development here, you might just as well close the whole office.
But we're bothered by rumors that former state assemblywoman Francine Del Monte is lobbying hard for Schoepflin's job, and the $100,000-plus yearly salary package that goes with it.
Please, whatever you do, don't give it to her!
She was the Niagara Falls state Assembly representative for 10 years. Her associations with the late labor union racketeer Michael "Butch" Quarcini, our corrupt former mayor Vince Anello -- who recently pleaded guilty to felony charges in federal court -- and most recently, Albany lobbyist Patricia Lynch, who you fined $500,000 and barred from doing business with the state Comptroller's office for the next five years, should be reason enough not to consider Del Monte for any responsible position.
But another great reason not to return her bothersome phone calls is that people around here just can't stand her. She lost in every single voting district within the 138th state Assembly District in the general election, which she basically handed to Republican John Ceretto by staying in the race after losing the Democratic primary.
For a decade she demonstrated time and again her disloyalty to the people of Niagara Falls and the surrounding suburbs, and her actions during the election campaign showed her disloyalty to her own political party.
She ran on the Working Families Party line, by the way, which you were also called upon to investigate when you served as attorney general.
Her 10-year record in the Assembly was so dreadful that not two out of every 10 voters in the 138th District cast their ballots for her. That guy who ran against you on the Rent Is Too Damn High Party line did about as well.
If her pal Sheldon Silver pressures you into giving her some sort of job, it might be fitting for her to serve as a live-in counselor at one of the halfway houses established in Niagara Falls for convicted Levels 2 and 3 sexual predators who have been placed into our community under the dangerous "civil confinement" law she sponsored.
Well, you take care and have a great day. And please don't inflict Francine Del Monte on this beleaguered community again, if you can at all help it.
Sincerely,
The Niagara Falls Reporter
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Jan. 4, 2011 |