Today, Carl Chipman – the Spineless Liar – posted this on his Facebook Wall:
“Well folks now it is official. At Thursday night’s Town of Rochester Town Board Meeting I officially announced that I will not seek nor accept the nomination for re-election to the position of Town Supervisor. This decision was made after considerable thought and prayer. The Lord has called me and I have decided to follow the path that our Lord has led me on. I am beginning my journey hopefully to be ordained in the Permanent Deaconate of the Roman Catholic Church. This process will be over 4 years long and will involve Masters Level Study at St. Joseph’s Seminary in the Dunwoodie section of Yonkers and one of the rules is that I may not serve in an elected office. Upon completion and during this journey I will work to serve the needs of the poor, the infirmed, and all those I meet who need help. I look forward to preaching the word of God and showing my love of God and for my fellow men and women through how I conduct myself daily. I am very much looking forward to this next chapter in my life with Christina at my side. We will finally be joined together in matrimony in the eyes of God on June 17th. I feel so blessed to have Christina supporting my decision to follow this path and to have her be a part of this. We are a team and our faith runs very deep and my love for her has continued to grow every day of the last 5 years we have been together.
I am truly grateful to the residents on our Town who have put their trust in me to be their Supervisor for the last 10 years. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve all our residents. The Town of Rochester was a mess when I was sworn in. People were fighting with each other over stupid things. No one was communicating, just bickering over exaggerated claims. I decided to change things. It wasn’t easy but it worked. I believed in inclusion and brought everyone to the table regardless of partisan persuasion and demanded that everyone first and foremost respected the viewpoints of others and that they realized that we are all neighbors and are involved because we love our Town. From that point people, could work together to make our Town better. I was very fortunate to be surrounded by many talented dedicated citizens who worked hard to move our Town forward. We went from being a backwater version of the Wild Wild West to being a progressive leader of other towns in our region and the state. Many of our citizens contributed to this and they came from all walks of life and political persuasions and are now seen as leaders by their colleagues. I think of people like Mike Baden former chair of the Ulster County Planning Board and chair of our planning board, Steve Fornal Zoning and Planning Guru, our Town Clerk Kathleen Gundberg who serves as President of the Ulster County Clerks Assoc., our Assessor Mike Dunham who serves as President of the Ulster County Assessors Assoc., Laura Finestone our ECC Chair who is widely respected in the environmental community, and many others. I myself have served as President of the Ulster County Assoc. of Supervisor and Mayors for the past several years, as well as chairing and presiding over many other committees and commissions. We have accomplished many things in our Town during my tenure but the most important thing has been inclusion of all to come to the table. I’ve also been very fortunate to work with dedicated Town Board members and dedicated Town Employees from varied backgrounds during my tenure. Some of our best work has been the result of pooling our individual talents and points of view. This is the way government is supposed to work. Not like the messes we have in Washington and Albany.
Although I will not be holding elected office after the end of this year, this does not mean that my passion for good government for all the people will have diminished. I will still be advocating for those who are less fortunate who must struggle to support themselves and their families. I will still be working to help protect our environment and to promote affordable clean locally controlled energy for all. I also believe that all our citizens deserve equal opportunities for quality education with individualized education plans to make the most of their abilities for equal access to sustainable employment. Wherever I see need or injustice, I will be there. Effective yesterday I have changed my political party affiliation from the Republican Party to the Working Families Party. I believe the 2-party system has failed us and both the Republican and Democrat Parties kowtow to special interests which line their coffers with cash. The time has come for true campaign finance reform. I will also continue to contribute at the Town level wherever needed to continue to move our Town forward as we meet the challenges of the future. Thank you for your support all these years and may God Bless each and every one of you.”
::
As expected, friends of the ex-Republican Supervisor – overwhelmingly from the left side of the political spectrum – left flattering comments on the page… blah, blah, blah…
The only meaningful, telling comment was posted by Kristen Chipman, the Supervisor’s daughter: “My question to you is why does your daughter have to log on to Facebook to find this stuff out, Especially when she just called you?“
