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Thursday, May 18, 1995, p. 3.
EDITORIAL

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Who's doing what to whom?

There's been an uproar in Monticello since word leaked out of the existence of a three-month-old tape of mayor Bob Friedland urging police chief Mike Brennan to give a job to his son.
Friedland's remarks rubbed salt in old wounds in a village which recalls Nazi images on display at the police station. Here was a white man, for whom many had voted, expecting privilege for his son, speaking the way too many do when they think no one listening.
But community elders noted worse words than Friedland's are uttered in homes daily, without a protest.
Deputy mayor Mike Levinson was right when he said Friedland "has done some good things for the village, and he's also done some bonehead things."
The mayor is being scapegoated.
Former village manager Bill Cummings -- who associated himself with the mayor's rivals during his brief tenure -- pins his decision to quit on Friedland.
He has retained Wurtsboro lawyer Mark Schulman to sue for "severance pay," after only six months of work, based on a partially finished, unsigned agreement which itself does not support his claim.
In comments published here on March 2, Friedland faulted Cummings and former Mountain Lions' attorney (and village attorney) Marty Miller for conflicts of interest in drafting a contract between the ball club and the village, then pressuring the board to sign it on the spot.
Shortly after Friedland made these criticisms, the media was informed a certain audio-tape was available.
Sources say Monticello police routinely erase such tapes after about 30 days. Somehow, this one survived. If Friedland could be branded a racist, he would be neutralized as a leader. Who would stand to gain by this?
Cummings told the press $30,000 would be needed to respond to the present crisis, recommending all village employees and elected officials engage in sensitivity training (himself excluded, of course, since he was leaving).
Something about all this stinks.
True, Friedland has a number of "bonehead" incidents on his dance-card. His errors have been recounted numerous times, and need not be detailed here again.
Friedland participated in musical chairs, which Schulman accuses him of masterminding. (As transparently self-serving as it was, the scheme involved at least two legal brains, including Schulman's own.) But after the swap was voided as unlawful and violating the village's code of ethics, Friedland apologized and got elected promising to dump Schulman as village attorney.
Friedland swore to be a new sort of politician. Always approachable and human, Friedland assumed a proactive stance, pointing out waste and abuse. He asked questions, sometimes annoying ones. He went on a limb at times.
Blaming Cummings' decision to quit on the mayor's alleged "meddling" was a ploy. After setting the stage, his threat to sue became a club, with innocent taxpayers held hostage, if the board failed to yield him a golden parachute.
The timing of Brennan's tape reaching the public seems more than coincidental.
Facts is, Cummings only worked six months. He had no contract. In many ways beyond the most obvious ones, he breached the terms of his own hiring.
Now he'll sue, Cummings says, crying Friedland's "meddling" was so unbearable he just couldn't take it any more! Come off it, Bill.
It would be remiss not to commend the man for some of the so-called "meddling" of which Cummings now bellyaches loudly.
For example, after Cummings and Brennan took a trip at public expense, to the 1994 Annual Baseball Winter Meetings in Dallas, Texas -- under circumstances best described as questionable, Friedland relayed "the board's wishes that they be notified prior to any trip being taken on behalf of the village by your or any employee..."
Cummings should have known better, and so should Brennan! After such an outrageous abuse of discretion, elected officials were correct to demand advance notice of travel by employees.
Friedland was right to scrutinize Brennan's and Cummings' cellular phone claims, though he did so clumsily.
Friedland was right to look into the legality of a foreign national holding the post of village treasurer.
And there was nothing wrong with telling Cummings to leave the lead "contacts," in delicate negotiations with the Oneida Nation, in the competent hands of county chairman Andrew Boyar.
The village was right to deny Cummings severance pay. A spoiled child who takes his bat and ball and goes home, at the top of the sixth, and blames his team for making a quitter out him, deserves no special gifts.
For his part, Miller has already admitted a conflict in relation to his past associations with Northeast League baseball. The Texas junket is sure to come up in any objective trial.
Cummings' suit -- if there is one -- should be thrown out of court. Miller should step back and let someone with no apparent conflicts fight this extortion attempt.
Monticello's travails pre-date the infamous swap of March 1993, though it marked a crescendo in the pattern of waste and abuse of authority which is a hallmark of local politics.
A recent proposal to consolidate village services with those provided by the town has been heralded as an idea whose time has come. It merits the most serious and objective consideration.
Tom Rue, contributing editor