The Real Ken Runion

Posts Tagged ‘Ken Runion’

Ken Runion was endorsed by the Albany Times Union in his 2009 re-election bid for Guilderland Town Supervisor.  Read the endorsement here.

Warren Redlich was unhappy with the endorsement from the comments he posted.  The public and media, however, can see through Warren Redlich’s deception and untruthfulness.

Guilderland News
At the January 19, 2010 Town Board meeting, Councilperson Paul Pastore was absent due to being sick.  This caused an interesting vote to occur.
Metro 20 Diner had commenced litigation against the Town Assessor several years ago challenging the tax assessment on the property.  The assessment is approximately 1.6 million dollars and the Metro 20 diner is seeking to reduce its assessment by approximately 1 million dollars.  The Judge in the litigation has ordered the town to get an appraisal of the property to justify the town’s assessment.  The assessor solicited several bids from appraisers to provide the court ordered appraisal.  The low bid was $5,000.

Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich abstained in the motion to hire the appraiser (basically an abstention is the equivalent of a no vote).  Ken Runion and Pat Slavick voted to hire the appraiser.  Because this was a tie vote, the motion to hire the appraiser was defeated.
Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich stated that they did not have enough information or time to make a decision on hiring the appraiser.  They claimed they were unaware of the litigation.  Whether they were aware or unaware of the litigation is irrelevant in that the Court ordered the town to obtain it.  It is also strange that they were unaware of the litigation in that Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich are the liaisons to the Town Assessor.  Well, while it may appear strange, it is not surprising in that neither one of them have met with either the former assessor (Carol Wysomski) or the present one in the two years they have been town board members.  As for the excuse that they did not have time to make a decision, the materials were hand delivered to their homes five days prior to the meeting.  Neither Mark Grimm nor Warren Redlich contacted the Assessor or any other town employee prior to the meeting with questions about the agenda item.

The Town is in a tough position due to the conduct of Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich.  We are unable to comply with the Court’s order and we are placed at a disadvantage in our ability to defend the litigation and support the assessment.  In the end, this could result in the Taxpayers having to refund over $70,000 in taxes and a loss of approximately $25,000 a year in future taxes all because Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich refuse to act like town board members and do the jobs they were elected to.  This is not good news for the Town of Guilderland.

Guilderland Town Board meetings can now be viewed online.  Please visit Guilderland Town Topics for more information and to view Guilderland Town Board meetings.Visit that site for up to date Guilderland News.  The site is hosted by Ken Runion.

We have all been struggling with our failing economy.  Revenues to the town through sales tax has declined.  Recently the state, Albany County and Saratoga have announced dramatic shortfalls in their budgets due to sales tax declines.

This brings up the effect of the Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich team of negativity and the cost to the town.  Let’s look at just a few examples of the economic impact of negativity by the Republican team of Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich.

The Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich team accused the town attorney of unethical conduct.  The allegations were investigated by the town ethics board and by the Committee responsible for disciplining lawyers after Warren Redlich  filed a complaint with them.  The town attorney was cleared by both panels.  The cost to the town was approximately $5,000.

The Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich team did not like our Chief of Police and Captain.  So they opposed their applications for promotion.  They wrote in blogs and told newspapers they were “political flunkies”.  A clear violation of state law which required the town to retain a lawyer to defend it.  The cost was approximately $1,200.  These are the hard costs.  This does not include the expense of lost resources, employee time, etc. from chasing false allegations.

The above are only two examples.   There are many more.

Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich want to add Matt Nelligan to their team. Of course, Matt Nelligan wants us to believe he is unconnected and independent, but this is just an act. In 2007, the team of Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich were handled by several NY Senate Republican staff members. Isn’t it ironic that Matt Nelligan’s campaign is being run behind the scenes by staff members of the Republican minority in the NY State Senate and Nelligan’s advisers are the same staff members who managed the Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich campaign.

Matt Nelligan claims the town board meetings are like watching the “Jerry Springer” show. But it is his two team mates Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich that have made it that way. Can we forget the scene in July of 2008 when Matt Nelligan, Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm teamed up to take over a Guilderland School Board meeting and turn it into a “Jerry Springer” show. As reported in the local newspaper, Matt Nelligan jumped up on a desk, made the sign of the cross, and incited a crowd against the School District. While that was going on his partners Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm were asking the people in attendance to give money to the team’s defense fund.

Guilderland can’t afford the negativity and bullying of the Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich.

Over the last two weeks, Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich have attempted to draw me into a web war.  They have admitted to taking my identity and placing a defamatory site on the web. Warren Redlich has posted my name with links to my personal information on a large number of Internet sites (estimated to be over 50 sites) in several states.  He has even posted pictures of my home.

Apparently the web is part of Warren Redlich’s  business and this is the way he conducts it.  In one post he describes how his activity is “legal” and certain laws don’t apply because the sites originate from outside of New York state.

In order to protect myself and my family, I have had to spend substantial amounts of money, not only to purchase various combinations of my name to prevent more defamatory sites appearing with my taken identity, but I have had to purchase credit protection and cancel or modify financial items due to the exposure of my personal information.

Both Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm have access as town board members to all of my personal information, as well as that of other employees.  This  includes social security numbers, direct deposit records which contains information on my personal banking information, etc.  Their conduct demonstrates that they have no sense of decency.  They have even posted The statement of a victim of sexual harassment made against our former Chief of Police on the Internet which includes some of her personal information including address and date of birth.  This is information which under town policies is to remain confidential.

Over the past week, I have been swamped with phone calls at the office and at my home in regard to this activity.  I am not only concerned about my personal and financial information, I now have a concern for the safety of my family and myself.  As one caller put it, Warren Redlich with his sarcastic and vitriolic comment can use the site which bears my name and picture to post something which offends another person and that individual could look to take retaliatory action against me or my family thinking I am the one responsible.  This caller pointed out an incident elsewhere of a citizen upset over parking tickets who went into a city hall and shot members of the city council, the mayor and other city staff.

Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm have in the past used a mail list server on a domain called guilderland-ny.com to anonymously mail to hundreds of people misinformation about the Town.  The e-mails were cleverly worded to make them appear to be sent by the Town of Guilderland.

I now know what it feels like to be stalked by an individual, and that stalking can be carried out both physically and electronically.  If Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich invested the time they have in “bashing” and “stalking” me into performing their job as town board members, the town would be much better off.

What I have learned most of all, is that the conduct of Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm, has become a total distraction in both my personal life and  in my ability to perform my job.  While their negativity has made it more difficult to get things done on the town board level, it has now accelerated and grown making it more difficult to carry out day to day operations.

I have reached the conclusion that I can no longer be distracted by the conduct of these two individuals.  I am, therefore, going to concentrate my full efforts on my job and my family.    It is also my opinion, that Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich have engaged in this conduct in order to pressure me to not run for re-election.   I will not be pressured by either Mark Grimm or Warren Redlich into making that decision.

At this time, I need to concentrate on the issues at hand, which includes the economy and the effect it can have on the operation of town government.   We need to continue in our efforts to improve the town infrastructure and plan for the town future.  We also need to address some of the issues we have in various parts of town, such as McKownville and several other areas, which are experiencing serious storm drainage issues.

Keep in mind how important this election year is for Guilderland. Regardless of who runs for elective office, if a Republican is elected, Warren Redlich takes control of the town and town hall. Not only will Warren Redlich destroy town government, he will attempt to destroy anyone who gets in his way or his partner Mark Grimm’s way to capture it.  Warren Redlich will malign, retaliate and attempt to destroy anyone who speaks out or disagrees with him or his partner Mark Grimm, even to the extent of placing someone’s identity or personal safety in jeopardy.

—Ken Runion

The Town Board will be re-visiting the recommendation of the 3rd Judicial District Administrative District Judge that Guilderland add a third Judge to its court staff.  This became the center of controversy at the March 3, 2009 town board meeting.  Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich oppose the recommendation and believe the Guilderland Town Board should direct the police department to not issue tickets for some DWAI infractions and for Aggravated DWI infractions.  Their contention is this would reduce case load.  Here is a snippet from the draft minutes from March 3, 2009 Guilderland Town Board meeting:

Councilman Redlich said, “ My conversations with Judge Bailey, and this is something I have heard from Judge Crummie and I have heard it from a number of other Judges in Albany County, is one of the things that people should know is, driving the burden on our Courts is the District Attorney’s DWI policy, plea bargaining policy, and so they have a lot more hearings.”

Supervisor Ken Runion said,  “But there isn’t anything that the Town Board can do about the DA’s policies. That is between the District Attorney and the Court system.”

Councilman Warren Redlich said, “No, that’s not completely true. No, that’s not true. You said before that you wouldn’t do what I suggested, which is that we could have our Police Department adopt policies like, not writing DWAI tickets on .05’s or let’s say it was a .22 or a  .20 and above where the DA has a policy on this, that they could not write the Aggravated DWI and write it as a Common-Law DWI and that would mean we might have a lot less hearings.  These are things we could do.”

Councilman Pastore asked, “ Are you saying we have the province to do that?

Councilman Warren Redlich said, “Absolutely.” Absolutely, we do.”

Supervisor Ken Runion stated that he disagreed.

Councilman Pastore said, “I think that’s a slippery slope.  We are going to legislate how our Police Officers, under what circumstances they are issuing tickets?”

Councilman Warren Redlich said, “Absolutely.  We absolutely can, and we absolutely should.”

Supervisor Ken Runion said, “ I don’t think that we can, and I don’t think that we should, so I guess that we are really going to disagree on that one.”

Councilman Warren Redlich stated that they did disagree.

Councilman Pastore is absolutely correct that this is a slippery slope.  Board members are public officials and required by their positions to enforce the laws of the State of New York.  Because Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich disagree with the DWI laws in the State or their enforcement does not give them the right or the responsibility to direct police officers when or how to enforce criminal violations.

Warren Redlich’s and Mark Grimm’s suggestion would take Guilderland in the direction of becoming a police state. This is not the first time that Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm have made this and similar suggestions. Please stay tuned to this important issue in town and watch the town board meeting on cable channel 17 or attend the meeting at 7:30 PM on March 17, 2009.

At the March 3, 2009, Town Board meeting there was a rather lengthy discussion concerning a recommendation by the State 3rd Department Administrative Judge who oversees the Town and Village Courts in our region.  The Administrative Judge recommended that Guilderland add a 3rd Judge to its Court staff.  Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm opposed the additional Judge.  (Mark Grimm did vote to allow a bill to be introduced in the legislature to add a third Judge but stated he was opposed to an additional Judge)  It was explained that the need for a 3rd Judge is the result of the number of cases being handled (over 11,000 per year) and the complexity of the cases (criminal cases).

Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm suggested that the way to cut down on the number of cases was for the Town Board to formulate a policy instructing Guilderland police officers not to write tickets for certain “Driving While Ability Impaired” (DWAI) from alcohol offenses.  They also indicated that the District Attorney’s Office has a policy where they will not reduce an aggravated  “Driving While Intoxicated” (DWI) offense  to a lesser DWAI ticket.  An aggravated DWI occurs when there is more than .18 percent alcohol in the blood stream.  Their contention is that Guilderland police should be instructed not to write Aggravated DWI tickets.

The Democrat majority of the Town Board dismissed this notion as improper, shockingly inappropriate and illegal.

In an article in the March 5, 2009 edition of The Altamont Enterprise, Warren Redlich admits to registering the domain name of Ken Runion and placing a negative website up on the Internet.  Mark Grimm admits to knowing and joining in the scheme, and in fact links his site to the deceptive website.

Since their election to the town board the two of them have engaged in a variety of unethical and counter-productive conduct.  They have wasted thousands of dollars of taxpayers money on baseless and unfounded claims against a number of town employees.  All in an effort to promote themselves.  Both of them have violated town laws by operating businesses in town without obtaining necessary permits.

This latest act of  taking the “identity” of a public official is just another display of unethical and immoral conduct by the two of them.

The article in The Altamont Enterprise describes a number of websites that have been propagated on the web since their devious, despicable and deceptive action.