THE BLUE SUIT
“The mayor was feeling pressure to explain away to the city council and how he turned $2,500 a year into $40,000 a year. That’s a bit of sorcery, like turning dirt into gold. The mayor wanted to tell everyone he is really a magician. His lawyers told him confusing everyone would be a much better strategy.”
– The mayor’s Blue Suit to Josh Resnek Tuesday afternoon
The city council meeting Monday night was historic for identifying the political psyche and inner feelings of most of those who serve. Let us say for the sake of this piece to be simply understood, it is not an indictment of the elected public officials who refused to say a word about Anthony DiPierro, much less to demand his resignation. It is not an indictment of those councilors – which is most of them – who seemed to yawn and to fight off sleep listening to Fred Capone. He insisted as he had done previously that the mayor taking that so-called longevity money was a crime, a fraud, and an outright absolute incontestable criminal act and theft. Capone demanded the mayor repay the $180,000 he took when he deserved to get only $10,000.
Carlo came to the council to explain it all away.
Some people thought the mayor did a great job. The mayor certainly believed he had done a great job. In the dimness of his own mind, he assured himself that his performance before the council Monday night put longevity to rest.
“There it is,” he thought to himself. “The crowning touch to receiving $180,000 that was not mine, keeping it, spending it, being found to have taken it (at least by Capone) and now reveling in not having to pay it back because the lawyers have determined it was not about theft, it was about interpretation.
Carlo made Mike Marchese to look like he was acting foolish in asserting publicly that the $40,000 yearly longevity paid to Carlo was as wrong as robbing $40,000 a year from a bank, or it was like cheating the IRS of $40,000 of taxes he should have paid.
The council is no more able to speak out against racism and call for Anthony DiPierro to resign than it is able to launch a rocket that could land in Chelsea or fit a four inch hose onto a fire hydrant.
The council was not only silent, it was absolutely, positively silent about racism and about theft – or at least what former council- or and attorney Fred Capone called fraud and theft. That’s how he put it Monday night about Carlo being paid $40,000 a year when the payment should have been $2500 a year.
“The council was more interested in the water pressure on Ferry Street than in the theft of $40,000 from the city treasury,” I said to the Blue Suit.
“Josh. Get over it. The mayor said he did nothing wrong. What’s wrong with taking $40,000 the city council gives you even if it was supposed to be $2500? What’s wrong with you, Josh? Carlo said he did nothing wrong. He said he did nothing illegal. He really put Mike in his place, didn’t he, Josh?” the Blue Suit said to me.
“Not really,” I answered. “Mike was right. The mayor scammed the dough – or forgive me – he likes to say he didn’t ask anyone to do anything for him because he didn’t want to cause a conflict of interest. You’ve got to be kidding me! His entire mayoralty has been a conflict of interest since day one,” I told the Blue Suit.
“Wrong!” the Blue Suit said to me.
“How can you not believe Carlo when he gives away the secret about how to convert a $2500 city payment into a $40,000 yearly city payment as he did Monday night? He put the whole issue to rest. Capone must be insane to think that was a theft, a fraud or a robbery of the city treasury,” the Blue Suit added.
“Are you nuts?” I said to the Blue Suit. “Has Carlo managed to brainwash you too?” I asked.
“Being brainwashed by Carlo is soooo goooooood. Letting Carlo think he has convinced me that a theft was really a good thing or as Colleen Mejia once told the city council, ‘”Carlo has to take the $40,000. Not to take it might be illegal,’” is what this is all about, Josh.”
‘Wait a minute. Has Carlo paid you or given you a small quid pro quo to talk this way?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“Do you think Carlo would do that, Josh?” he replied.
“Yes I do,”I said to the Blue Suit.
“Come on, what did Carlo give you?”
“He’s sending me to a big man’s suit outlet in Aruba for the summer. What do you think of that?”
“It gets awfully hot in Aruba in the summer,” I said to the Blue Suit.
“I am so looking forward to it,” he said to me.
I shook my head. I got myself together.
“You know taking that $40,000 a year was a theft as Capone insists. You know the mayor owes $180,000 and he should be made to pay it back. You know the council will never ask him to pay back a dime. You have to know that a court of law won’t accept Carlo’s upside down reasoning that the overblown, illegal, outrageous $40,000 payment yearly is about an interpretation. In fact, it is the rough equivalent of robbing a bank,” I added.
The Blue Suit nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, Josh, but what court is going to hear this case? Who is going to indict Carlo? He’s protected. Don’t you get it, Josh. No one can touch him. He will skip out on everything like a Teflon don.”
“No he won’t. Not on this scam. This scam has the potential to be a big legal problem for Carlo – and he knows it. That’s why he didn’t take the $40,000 payment this year,” I told the Blue Suit.
“He didn’t tske it becauser the city council took it away,” the Blue Suit said.
“That’s a real piece of investigative reporting,” I answered the Blue Suit. “Carlo didn’t take it before it was taken away. That’s a bit different than taking it after its taken away because that can’t happen.
“Call it what you want. Lert Carlo laugh at all of us calling it an interpretation. I’ll side with Capone.
“It was a simple theft. It was a crude theft. It was a robbery and the money must be repaid and Carlo ought to serve some time so he can think about what his underlings did to enrich him.
“Ignorance is not a defense, even for Carlo.”