Free to attend public meeting (Perviously threatened with arrest)

The Saratogian ^ | Thursday, March 01, 2012 | By LUCIAN McCARTY

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SARATOGA SPRINGS — A local resident under threat of arrest if he steps on public housing property will be able to do so after all — to attend a public meeting.

A trespass notice had been issued against John Tighe based on a complaint made by Saratoga Springs Housing Authority Executive Director Ed Spychalski, who has been the target of criticism in Tighe’s blog.

The banishment also made a controversial January meeting of the authority off-limits.

But it turns out such a notice won’t lead to the arrest of someone who is merely attending a public meeting on the property.

“The district attorney’s office will not prosecute a trespass charge in circumstances when the individual simply attends the public meeting and then leaves the property at the conclusion of the meeting,” a memo from Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen reads, in part.

The Tighe trespass situation dates back to Dec. 30 when, a police report states, he was taking pictures in the Stonequist Apartments parking lot. Tighe said there were no signs indicating the parking lot was off limits, only a sign that says “unauthorized vehicles will be towed.”

Tighe said Spychalski came out to Tighe’s vehicle, asked what he was doing and told him to leave.

“I didn’t know who he was,” Spychalski said Wednesday. “If I saw someone sitting at the back door I would do it again.”

Tighe’s version of the story is a little different.

“I was taking pictures of mattresses in the back of a Housing Authority truck,” he said Wednesday. “I told him exactly who I was.”

According to the police report, Spychalski said Tighe told the Housing Authority director he “could not make him leave the property.”

Spychalski maintains that the trespass order has nothing to do with Tighe’s blog, which has been highly critical of Spychalski, including his handling of bedbug complaints in Stonequist Apartments.

“I respect what he does,” Spychalski said.

After Spychalski’s complaint to the police, Tighe was asked to sign a notice that informed him he would be arrested if he went back on the property. Tighe was told that the trespass threat prevented him from attending a Jan. 19 public meeting of the Housing Authority’s board of directors.

That’s not the case, and Tighe will likely be at the board’s March 22 meeting.

Tighe is one of about 30 people who have been issued trespass notices from Housing Authority property. Spychalski has said some notices are related to drugs and vandalism or other threats to residents.

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See video at the link.

Note there is a raging bed bug problem in the public housing. Saratoga Springs Housing Authority Executive Director Ed Spychalski has double his salary in five years and hired his son.

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Quote:

Spychalski’s 2011 compensation is $151,956, not including benefits, including the use of a publicly-owned vehicle. His starting salary in November 2006 was $74,777 and he has received $77,179 in pay raises since then.

http://saratogian.com/articles/2012/02/16/news/doc4f3dca541644d207098322.txt

[rockrr]

“I like my corruption conducted the old fashioned way - without witnesses”

[rockrr]

“I like my corruption conducted the old fashioned way - without witnesses”