John Polimeni
In our humble opinion, Former Schenectady City Councilman and current Rotterdam Republican Supervisor John Polimeni has always been a selfish scumbag only worried about his own political career. In 2017 when the Times Union reported that Councilman Polimeni pushed a 74 year old black woman in a bar, he decided not to apologize instead calling it a “misunderstanding.” The woman he was said to have pushed? Marva Isaacs remembers it differently. She was headed to the restroom in a bar when someone pushed her - when she turned around Polimeni screamed “Screw you Marva!” according the the TU. Heck of a way to treat a respected member of the community.
For years, John masqueraded around town pretending to be a Democrat - and spending city money like a fiend in that time. But maybe his true political values - aligned with the disrespecting women values he displayed - all along. These days John and his fellow women disrespecting Conservatives are trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes once more as he runs for Rotterdam Supervisor as a “Conservative” and “Republican.” This phony doesn’t believe in anything except lying straight to your face and doing what’s best for himself.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Women-s-group-calls-for-Polimeni-to-resign-over-11721478.php
Furthermore, John is one of the most disloyal backstabbers imaginable. During his time on the city council he repeatedly conducted back channel conversations with City GOP Chair Tom Kennedy, passing along damaging information about some of his fellow Democrats-Damoni Farley, Carl Williams and Marion Porterfield. What do these people have in common? They are black. Not once did Polimeni pass along a negative story about any white member of the city council or Mayor Otis. Publicly it was a race war on the council and privately fellow democrat Polimeni was working with his old pal Union fraudster Tom Kennedy to destroy some of his black colleagues. Sadly, Kennedy was such a sucker he played right along. He even kept his mouth shut when John bought a house in Rotterdam months before his term on the City Council expired. At that time Tom and John were already discussing John moving to Rotterdam and running for Supervisor, so of course Tom didn't want to throw his buddy under the bus-even though John was and remains at heart a DEMOCRAT. Talk about two loser RINO's-Kennedy and Polimeni take the cake.
Everybody hates a rat, and John Polemini is the Sammy Gravano of Schenectady politics-king rat. Democrats have no use for him, real Republicans and Conservatives have no use for him, the only ones who do have use for them are his fellow rats-people like Tom Kennedy and John Mertz and the leadership of the conservative party, always willing to make a deal to expand their own power.
We here at the swamp know our swamp creatures-there is the alligator, the river otter and of course the snapping turtle. We imagine Polemini as a Copperhead (venomous pit viper) and Kennedy as a mosquito, buzzing around, looking to suck some blood off of any political carcass he is able to leech onto.
Once Polimeni was elected Town Supervisor as a “Conservative” he reverted right back to Democrat form. During the transition period he ignored all advice from the outgoing administration, later blaming them for not turning over information and documents (lie). At his swearing in Democrat Senator Pat Fahy and Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara were front and center mugging for photos with no actual Republican in site. One of Polimeni’s first acts was to appoint a Democrat to run the Town Planning Commission.
Then, he hired his old friend Elisa Sgueglia-Blum as his Secretary. The Swamp remembers her under her old name Elisa Wickham. Elisa used to be a code enforcement officer in the City of Schenectady, which is where she got to know Polimeni. She was fired for illegally closing businesses and assessing outrageous fines without cause. So much for Rotterdam being “open for business. Blum was also in some legal trouble a while back in Benevento Italy. More to come on that one.
At any rate her old pal Polimeni just keeps rewarding her. Recently he tried to appoint her as Town Assessor despite the fact that has ZERO qualifications and has taken none of the required courses. The current Assessor has been there 20 years and has come to meetings to publicly castigate Polimeni and Town Attorney John Mertz.
Read the article about Blum here: Complaints against Schenectady code enforcers probed | Archives | dailygazette.com
Speaking of helping his Democrat friends, Polimeni also forced out the respected former head of the Senior Center in Rotterdam. He replaced her with former Democratic clerk Diane Marco, who herself was under a severe ethics cloud while in office.
Most recently, Polimeni struck a corrupt bargain with Democrat Assemblyman Santabarbara. John refused to carry petitions for Republicans seeking the Conservative line because he was “waiting on a grant” from Santabarbara. Lo and behold he got a $4 million grant to build a park. Residents at the last Board meeting seemed less than impressed.
Polimeni is a political chameleon who only cares about himself. He isn’t a Republican, he isn’t a conservative, he is a typical double dealing Democrat.
He has refused to attend any GOP event, refused to support a single fundraiser and has bad mouthed party leadership to anyone who will listen. No wonder he was denied the Republican line in his reelection this year.
Polimeni is a massive swamp creature. He should be removed from office as soon as possible.