The town’s Building Department receives more than 6,000 building permit applications every year.  These applications include new residential construction, new commercial construction, renovations, extensions, and electrical and plumbing works. 

We review and issue permits for 88% of the applications within one day and 92% of the applications within one week. The remaining 8% of the applications have historically taken several weeks. We have now planned to reform this delay situation.  The Town Supervisor, Satish Mohan, end the Building Commissioner, Thomas Ketchum, announce the following policy for issuing building permits in the future: 

(i)                 All of the pending permit applications will be reviewed, and letters of approval or deficiency will be mailed out by Monday, July 28, 2008.

(ii)               In the future, the Building Department commits to a goal of providing permit reviews within one week of the application date.  Either letters of incomplete information will be sent or a permit will be issued. 

The public is requested and invited to write to the Building Commissioner, Thomas Ketchum, regarding any default in our policy.

In response to this press release Council member Guy Marlette had this to say:

The building Commissioner has been managing his department with exceptional character and productivity. There was never a crisis in the department and this press release is misleading to insinuate that a solution was arrived at, since there was no crisis existing.  

This press release is meaningless unless the Town is committed to maintaining proper staffing levels and to budgeting significant overtime for peak periods. Pulling our Inspectors and officers off the street, as requested by the Supervisor, is not a long term solution.

Supervisor Mohan will resign within 2 days  to 2 weeks.  That’s the hot rumor circulating around Amherst’s Town Hall. 

Is the pressure getting to be too much for him?  Will he succumb to the old adage, “If it’s too hot, get out of the kitchen”?  Only time will tell.

Dr. Mohan asked Tom Ketchum to take on another job in addition to being the Amherst Building Department Head.  He asked him to be the Assistant Town Engineer for two weeks before Mr. Ketchum prior to his going on a family vacation.  Tom agreed and was assured he would receive $500 a week for each of those two weeks.

Today was the day Mr. Ketchum should have received his final $500 but as so often happens, our Town Supervisor wouldn’t pay him.  He told Mr. Ketchum the Building Department was “far behind” in building permits, which was a gross lie on Mohan‘s part.  This continues Mohan’s well deserved reputation as a liar.  Mohan said he checked the building permits and that there were thousands to be checked.  He said Tom and his department hadn’t done a good job, which was a lie. 

The building Department handles at least 5,000 permits per year and they were only 36 permits left to be acted upon.  Mohan became angry and said Ketchum and everyone in his department could not go on vacation.  He acted like Joseph Stalin; a mad, out of control, nut case.

Mohan wouldn’t even listen to his faithful guide, Shelly Schratz.  He walked out of the meeting muttering, “No one will get a vacation.”

If you listen to him ranting and raving like a mad man it’s easy to see that he needs help.  Most of the Town Board members believe he is ill.  The only member who didn’t say he was ill was Mark Manna, because he wasn’t present.

Mohan often is lost during discussions. He doesn’t remember what he said in as little as 20 minutes after he says something.  He hired two interns at eleven dollars an hour each because he wanted to pay them four more dollars than other seasonal employees, just because he could.

Our Supervisor doesn’t like the American way of governing.  He believes in the socialist form of government.  Democracy is too bothersome for him.  It puts shackles on what he wants to do.  His plan seems to be to put “his” people in power and turn Amherst into a little Moscow.  

At Monday night’s Amherst Town Board meeting the real truth of how fear has griped the officials of Amherst, was evident, to the point of nausea.

Few people today will stand up for what is right, especially in the workplace.  Again, that word fear has to be used because this is the work tool of pitiful officials who live in fear of losing their jobs.  In Amherst such people should be fired, starting with the fool at the top along with his protectors.  In our town they would include the Town Attorney, who finds ways for Mohan to get away with his foolish plans, our Planning Director - or should I say Mohan’s Planning Director or better still, the Developer’s Planning Director; our Comptroller, who always finds way to save Mohan’s foolish plans or ideas, and our pathetic Personnel Director who will say anything our Supervisors tells him to.

This group will circle our Supervisor, protecting him from bad vibes, when he makes any sort of goof; financial, or ethical.  If they don’t, he starts up the rumor mill to hurt their reputation like he tried to with Guy Marlette, which backfired in our foolish Supervisor’s face.

In a memo sent to Marlette, Mohan said:

RE:  YOUR VIOLENT AND THREATENING BEHAVIOR

“As members of the Town Board representing the citizens of the Town of Amherst, it is crucial that we carefully analyze and consider all aspects of the matters brought before us for our vote.  My duty is and has always been to serve the best interests of the citizens of the Town of Amherst as a whole. At the June 23, 2008, Special Meeting, I had serious concerns about the terms of the police contract that was before the Town Board and the speed in which it was processed.  Accordingly, I felt it necessary to express those concerns.  Although we might not share the same opinion, we should both have an opportunity to share and vocalize our views.

I was very shocked when you approached me in a very angry and hostile posture in my office following the Special Meeting.  I was giving some instructions to my Assistant, Ms. Shirley Voigt, who observed your threat. You told me, “If you ever accuse me again, you will have problems.” Your tone and posture were very violent and threatening.  Before I tried to respond, you hurriedly walked out. I consider your threat that if I ever speak like that again I “will have problems” to be very serious and detrimental to the effective functioning of the Amherst Town Board. I am asking that you refrain from addressing me in this manner in the future and hope that we can work together with the common goal of serving the best interests of our Town.”

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The people of Amherst should not underestimate what Mohan and his minions will do.  It’s very possible our toilets might begin to overflow regularly, until some major problems with our Waste Water Treatment Plant can be solved, which will take a lengthy period of time.

Our Supervisor and his crew could tell the public that the problems are part of a new plan devised by the Supervisor to sanitize our bathrooms with the chemicals in our toilet waste, or something else equally as ridiculous.  

In reality it’s the mess created by problems at our WWTP, poor drainage system and failure to fix our sewers as required by law which are not working as they should, to handle the floods of waste entering our sewers.

Mohan has fouled up all these major projects by removing important people, who were working on them, because he didn’t like them.  

When your bathroom floods with human and animal waste along with dangerous chemicals, like mercury and some we haven’t labeled yet, the public may realize they should start getting involved in what this man is doing before it costs us our homes and a ton more in taxes.

Dr. Mohan sent a letter to Council member Mark Manna asking him to publicly tender an apology for all the false accusations that he has made about him or prove any and all of these accusations.  I think it’s time for him to tender a letter of resignation to the people of Amherst before we sink so low we can’t get out.

Supervisor Mohan had been trying to reach an agreement with the police union for over two years to no avail.  He then asked a trusted Republican ally, Council Member Guy Marlette, to help settle the contract dispute.  Councilman Marlette had the respect of the police union and the full confidence of his fellow Town Board members, both Democrats and Republicans.   

Marlette was able to negotiate as contract, brought it to the Council and the Board voted.  The police contract passed 6 to 1.  Three Democrats and three Republicans voted for it.  Mohan voted against it. 

When Mohan was part of the team he called for seven meetings yet only attended two.  Marlette and the rest of the negotiation team worked hard and met often to solve the contract hitches before they would have had to go to arbitration.  If arbitrators came in they would have given the policeman a much better deal than the Town was offering.   

Supervisor Mohan’s mouth spit out a litany of lies about Guy Marlette concerning the negotiated contract.  He called Marlette a corrupt person who sold his soul to the police union.  Mohan also said Marlette irresponsibly handed over taxpayer money to the police union.

These lies greatly upset Council member Marlette but he reacted calmly to Mohan’s comments.  He stated he never received money from the union when he ran for office.  He called Mohan’s allegations, “insulting and somewhat disgusting” and, “a complete lie.”

In truth it was Mark Manna who received the endorsement of the Police Club and advertised it almost daily during the last days of the campaign on the radio.  Supervisor Mohan‘s memory was totally confused on who did what, but he continued to attack Marlette.  Council Member Marlette said Mohan was lying about nearly everything he was screaming about the negotiated police contract.  

The audience understands when a man is lying and Mohan was a disgrace for being a lying, dishonest man, as he has been for the entire two years he’s been Amherst Supervisor.

After Mohan disgraced himself he sat dejected and angry because his little tirade failed to convince the public he was a hero by trying to cut the police budget apart.

The article in the News should have made it clear that Mohan’s act to come out as a hero for the people was simply a pitiful attempt to try to fool the people once again.

Supervisor Mohan feared someone might become upset with him so he requested our former Police Chief, John Moslow to have a fully dressed police officer on the stage during Town Board meetings plus another policeman in the audience. The Chief refused to have a policeman on stage.

We all feel fear; it’s how we manage that fear which shows our metal. Mohan’s metal? He is made of tin; a coward who attacks people verbally and then hides behind the “rules” of the Town or our police.  I wonder how he would handle himself if he were a solider in IRAQ like so many of our youngsters are doing facing fear every second. 

Mohan can’t handle anything negative said about him. He started to build a fence around himself about a year ago. He outlawed the word “foolish.”  No one is allowed to use this word at own Board meting.  If you do you are scolded and if you persist you are to be escorted out of the building by an armed guard.

Mohan’s most recent and outrageous rule is, speakers can not say the name of a Council person, even if it is to praise or honor them.  e.g. If you want to thank Dr. Weinstein for some help he gave you, if you mention his name you could end up being removed from the meeting by a police officer with a large gun at his side!

Mohan needed some written rules to protect his neurotic behavior against the public.  He choose Debbie Bucki to amend the Rules of Orders.  The following is the rule he is using to act like GOD on stage and abuse public speakers:

Rule 2) Speakers shall address the board as a whole, in an orderly manner. All speakers shall refrain from partisan political commentary, personal, impertinent, slanderous or profane remarks directed to any member of the board, staff or general public that disrupt the meeting. Any person who make such remarks or otherwise disrupts the meeting with loud outbursts, shouting, threats or other disruptive behavior shall, at the discretion of the Supervisor or after a motion and majority consensus of the Board, be ruled out of order.  If after receiving a warning, any person persists in disrupting the meeting, the Supervisor shall order that person to leave and may utilize law enforcement to enforce that order.    

If you read the rule very carefully you’ll see there is no portion which says, or even remotely suggests, that you can’t speak the name of a council member in a friendly, normal way. This newest interpretation of this rule makes it clear that only he will decide what/who is out of order. This kind of power in the hands of one man is dangerous, especially one who demonstrates such neurotic behavior.

If you read the entire rule; if you’re a person of strength who stands up for what you believe is wrong, you may end up in jail.  You would be in good company with the likes of Jesus Christ, Joan of Arc, Gandhi, Thomas Jefferson, Nathan Hale, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Tutu, and Sir Thomas Becket.  This list of brave women and men were people with conviction who stood alone with unbelievable courage knowing what would  most likely be the outcome of their test of courage.  

Just a side note ~ Some residents feel a psychologist rather than a police officer, would be a good choice to sit next to the Supervisor to give him the balance he badly needs.  

Amherst Town Supervisor Satish Mohan is going to officially switch political parties tomorrow.  He will change from Republican to Democrat.   Wonder why?  We thnk we know and will fill you in ASAP.