Tea Party Councilmen Daniel J. Halloran’s ‘Snow Story" unraveling in New York
Credit: NY Post Councilman Daniel J. Halloran is getting heat for possibly a phony story The Tea Party didn’t care who they voted for in November as long as they were not from the left. And the latest one to be exposed as a kook is about to face the snowstorm of his nightmares. You might have heard about the NY Post’s breaking story that sanitation workers sabotaged doing their jobs in a blizzard because of a feud with Mayor Bloomberg. These garbage men really stink. Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts. “They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important,” said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot. Halloran said he met with three plow workers from the Sanitation Department — and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan — at his office after he was flooded with irate calls from constituents. The snitches “didn’t want to be identified because they were afraid of retaliation,” Halloran said. “They were told [by supervisors] to take off routes [and] not do the plowing of some of the major arteries in a timely manner. They were told to make the mayor pay for the layoffs, the reductions in rank for the supervisors, shrinking the rolls of the rank-and-file.” Well, the Post’s key witness isn’t looking too good: Evidence Is Elusive on Charge of a Blizzard Slowdown The story rocketed around New York City when streets went uncleared after the Dec. 26 blizzard: Sanitation workers, angry about job reductions, had deliberately staged a work slowdown. — And it occurred because one man, Councilman Daniel J. Halloran, Republican of Queens, said five city workers had come to his office during the storm and told him they had been explicitly ordered to take part in a slowdown to embarrass Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg . But the more that investigators look into Mr. Halloran’s story, the more mystifying it becomes. Mr. Halloran said he had been visited by two supervisors in the Transportation Department and three workers in the Sanitation Department. But the two transportation supervisors did not back up his story in interviews with investigators, according to two people briefed on the inquiries. And Mr. Halloran has steadfastly refused to reveal the names of the sanitation workers. Mr. Halloran expects to testify this week before a federal grand jury looking into the question of a slowdown, according to a person familiar with his intentions, and it is not clear whether prosecutors will try to compel him, under oath, to divulge the workers’ names. Meanwhile, investigators had hoped that extensive publicity would bring out others with knowledge of the purported plot. That has not happened, according to the people briefed on the investigations, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are continuing. This leaves prosecutors with no proof that anything occurred. “When you’re talking about establishing a negative, I don’t know how it’s going to get firmer,” one person briefed on the inquiries said. Mr. Halloran declined to be interviewed for this article. All the evidence is not in yet, but it appears another weirdo is getting caught up in a bizarre web of lies. read the story because it’s full of insane s–t. He’s part of some fringe religion called the Theodism. WTF is that? During his 2009 campaign, his faith was briefly an issue. He is an adherent of Theodism, a neo-pagan faith that draws from pre-Christian tribal religions of northern Europe, and he led a branch in the New York area. He campaigned as a conservative Republican with the support of Tea Party organizers, advocating personal responsibility and limited government. The story gets weirder and weirder. In 2008, Mr. Halloran sternly criticized the city’s Buildings Department after it cited him for building a bathroom in the basement of his home without obtaining the required permits. Shortly after winning election, he accused the department of issuing improper citations for illegal basement conversions that had been called in by home repair companies hoping to get work fixing the violations. Then, last month, he requested a building permit for a $60,000 project to add a second floor onto his Cape Cod-style home. On Jan. 3, the Buildings Department denied the request, saying it would make the house too big for the area’s zoning. The timing of the permit was unusual, given the recent financial difficulties faced by Mr. Halloran and his wife, Cynthia. In January 2010, Wells Fargo began foreclosure proceedings on their home. In November, Ms. Halloran, a registered nurse, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, seeking to wipe away $116,521 in credit card debt, while retaining a 2005 Jaguar and their home. Her debts include $14,777 owed to Home Depot, $29,000 on three Chase credit cards and $58,000 on two American Express cards. The couple has an annual salary of $166,660, according to bankruptcy records and Council salary rules. Mr. Halloran’s spokesman, Steven Stites, said that the couple was in the process of a divorce, though no public court records have been filed, and that they planned to sell their house. For the Koch brothers and the GOP Elders, he’s a perfect politician for their cause. And the Tea Party movement has not been interested in facts or the truth so they got what they deserve. Halloran is also backing up as fast as he can on his original assertions. In a letter published in The Chief-Leader, which focuses on municipal labor issues, Mr. Halloran seemed to feel conflicted about all the uproar. In the letter he defended his original assertions about the slowdown, but also suggested it might have been small in scope, involving “a few bad apples.” “My goal was never to make headlines or anger people,” he said. I do hope that if he did lie about this story that he couldn’t run fast enough to the NY Post with, then he deserves everything he’s going to get. And so do the Post editors. I’m just saying.
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Tea Party Councilmen Daniel J. Halloran’s ‘Snow Story" unraveling in New York
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on January 27, 2011. Filed under