December 22, 2020
HORNELL, NY – At the Monday night Common Council meeting, Hornell Mayor John Buckley made a motion to appoint Rick Andolina Jr, to the Hornell Industrial Development Agency. This led to Alderman Rich Argentieri to ask, who would Andolina be replacing? When Mayor Buckley answered that it was Sam Nasca who was being replaced, it was an eight minute heated discussion from then on.
Alderman Argentieri voiced objections that the Hornell Industrial Development Agency was getting to Republican. “I think the City needs to have a voice on both sides of the aisle,” Argentieri stated. “It looks like we’re four to one, Republican, on that I.D.A. Board now. The two boards that I spoke about earlier (Public Works And Public Safety boards) John, have four men who are all Republicans. We played semantics, it was my first term, I remember, listen, was naive, I was eager to work with the administration, this one just doesn’t come across as clean. It’s my opinion, lets just leave it at that, you’re going to win the vote,” Argentieri stated.
“First of all, I take offense to you, basically accusing me of playing politics,” Buckley shot back. “Where were you, when we had three Democratic chairman on that I.D.A. Board? Where were you, trying to find, the fair and balanced-ness?”
Argentieri went on to suggest that Sam Nasca was pushed out by Buckley, the mayor answered that he (Buckley) had a nice conversation and that Nasca agreed to this move.
The Hornell Common Council ended up voting unanimously, including Alderman Argentieri, for the motion to replace Nasca with Andolina.
Click to hear full discussion, Republican Alderman Dan Warriner weighs in at 6:52 in, the rest of the voices heard are Mayor Buckley and Alderman Argentieri.)
