Editorial - Mayor or Sandbox Bully?
The following letter appeared in the Sunday January 13th edition of the Plattsburgh Press Republican:
TO THE EDITOR: Your editorial writer is seriously embarrassing your paper’s reputation by jumping into bed with Mayor Kasprzak.
The editorial you headlined “Stewart spending must be proved” is over the top. It aids and abets the Mayor’s practice of loudly attacking everything he thinks will generate headline(and with your help it usually does) and whacking anybody who appears vulnerable to his mean-spirited assaults.
Look at the record so far: Mayor Kasprzak throws mud at his predecessors, publicly denigrates veteran department heads, lashes out at city employees, threatens workers’ jobs, scorns city unions, damages the unfortunately named Mayor’s Cup messes with the Forth of July fireworks, disses the arts community, assails development projects and generally acts line a sandbox bully.
I’ve watched every mayor since the Steltzer administration, and Donald Kasprzak is no Dan Stewart.
Dan Stewart’s energy was overwhelmingly positive, not negative. He didn’t knock the city down; he helped lift it up. He didn’t try to divide and conquer; he chose to unite and unify. He didn’t denounce development; he delivered dollars and sense.
Even people in the street commented on the changes that blossomed all over Plattsburgh while he held office. The energy and action were palpable. There was a positive buzz among business folks. Community events drew record crowds. City workers were respected. Plattsburgh sparkled.
So don’t go jumping on Dan in some cheap pile-on orchestrated by a clueless guy who has managed to take the pride out of Plattsburgh.
Mayor Kasprzak may have succeeded in enlisting you in his single-minded campaign to make his budget and his bluster the be-all and end-all of the moment, but Plattsburgh will be much poorer at the end of his administration than it ever was when Dan Stewart was here.
Lee Clark
Morrisonville New York
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