Guest Editorial: Pughilistics.

by Paul Steinberg

Editor’s Note: The following piece was first published as a letter in the October 10-16 issue of The Gazette.

Brian Pugh and Len Simon try to take microphone away from Ed Riely during housing information session last Monday evening

Is three-and-a-half minutes of free speech so repugnant to Mayor Pugh as to warrant expulsion from a village meeting?

I understand that there is a bit of history between Mr. Pugh and Mr. Riely, and that Mr. Riely can be a bit long-winded on occasion. But Mr. Riely is a citizen of Croton, and Mr. Pugh is neither a king nor a schoolyard bully.

The video of the now-infamous October 7 meeting is online, and the camera does not paint either of the two antagonists in a good light. At the conclusion of the prepared remarks by Adam Bosch, Mr. Riely got up to speak from prepared notes. It is difficult to hear the start of the Riely remarks because he did not have a microphone at the start, but audience members can be heard talking while he is speaking. Within a minute and a half, he is being interrupted by shouts of “Do you have a question”.

At this point, other audience members jump in to disrupt Mr. Riely to the extent that Riely admonishes them: “You can get your turn.” Len Simon comes over and sits next to Mr. Pugh, whispering something to Pugh. The Mayor gets up, takes the microphone from Mr. Bosch, and it is off to the races.

From start of Mr. Riely speaking to the time Mr. Pugh takes the microphone is less than three minutes. Mr. Riely tells Mr. Pugh that he wants a response from Mr. Bosch, and tells Pugh: “You are not running this show.” Mr. Pugh starts to respond: “You want to find out who…” and then stops. He walks to the back row where Mr. Riely is standing, pushes into Mr. Riely’s personal space and tries to grab the microphone Mr. Riely is holding. It is not clear from the video whether Mr. Pugh makes physical contact, but the physicality and aggressiveness of Mr. Pugh towards an elderly resident is uncomfortable to watch.

Mayor Pugh then says: “Ed you’re gonna have to leave…. Oh, you better believe you’re leaving…. Ed, you’re leaving.” The camera then cuts away, but attendees report that Mr. Riely was not removed from the meeting room.

Mr. Bosch then gets his microphone back and tells the audience that he abides by the rule that you should act your age and not your shoe size. The entire event from the time Mr. Riely started to speak till Mr. Bosch regained control of the meeting is less than five minutes.

Dissent in Croton is a bad idea. This is the village where they change the law to go after you if you put up a political sign for the “wrong” candidate. It is the village where the Mayor tells people they are not being forced to live here, the Trustees think people who disagree with them are racists, and the person who has run housing policy for 30 years gives residents the middle finger at an official meeting.

Mr. Riely speaking for three minutes was not excessive. It did not warrant the reaction by Mr. Pugh. It did not warrant the interruption from audience members. If you don’t like what someone is saying, then wait your turn and speak your piece. The Bosch presentation dealt with some broad themes. There is nothing wrong with that, but you can’t then complain when an audience member touches on regional housing and tax policy issues.

And to Mr. Pugh: You are in politics. Constituents who disagree (and disagreeable constituents) come with the territory. You are not on the grade school playground. You don’t go up and stick your chest out and put your arm across someone’s face. You are the chief elected executive of a municipality and chief of staff to a state senator, for god’s sake. Stop acting like Conor McGregor and start acting with the dignity befitting your office.

The village pays a lot of money to have a law firm on retainer. If we are going to have village officials threatening to expel (let alone arrest) attendees at village meetings, then it behooves us to come up with a written policy and stick to it. Mr. Riely is not easily intimidated, but some residents are wary of retaliation and I can’t say such concerns are without foundation.

Those concerns were reinforced by the incident at the Bosch meeting. Take a look at the video: this was not Mr. Pugh losing his temper. It was a planned response, carefully considered and taken after getting that whispered advice from Mr. Simon. Nor was this due to Mr. Riely speaking out of turn or at excessive length: he literally had the microphone and didn’t even get two minutes before Mr. Pugh’s audience acolytes began to heckle. Three minutes before Mr. Pugh erupted. 

To think this was not planned by Mr. Pugh is to ignore that anyone in the village could have predicted that Mr. Riely would get up to speak at the first opportunity. Mr. Riely may be a pain in the butt sometimes, but this was not one of those times. He was provoked and physically intimidated by the Mayor of Croton, backed up (literally) by the Deputy Mayor of Croton.

In the final analysis, the opinions of residents like Mr. Riely don’t matter anyway. Mr. Pugh, Mr. Simon, and the folks that make these decisions have already planned out the course of apartment development in Croton. In due time the decisions made behind closed doors will be revealed to the masses. In the meantime, pretending to listen for three minutes to the village gadfly is not an undue burden.

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