CARLTON FLETCHER: Time has come for Albany commissioners to act

Time has come today … time … time … time.

— The Chambers Brothers

In their landmark 1974 book “All the President’s Men” chronicling the downfall of U.S. President Richard Nixon, the two men whose names are now synonymous with investigative journalism — Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward — wrote about former Attorney General and Watergate conspirator John Mitchell, “Bernstein had perceived the excruciating depth of Mitchell’s hurt. … (F)or the first time Mitchell was flesh and blood, not Nixon’s campaign manager.”

As I write this, one of the hardest things I’ve ever written, I have an inkling of how Woodward and Bernstein felt.

The time has come for Ward VI Albany City Commissioner Tommie Postell to step down from his position or, barring that, to be removed from office.

I don’t make that statement lightly, and while I make it in the context of this job, I also make it as someone who has long held Postell in the highest regard. There is no animus in this declaration, no malice toward a man that I’ve come to personally like and whose courage I have long admired. There is only sadness at the circumstances, and maybe a touch of bitterness at the people who have the long-time commissioner’s ear but have steadfastly refused to mention what has become increasingly obvious.

I reached the decision to write this after attending Thursday’s meeting of the joint City Commission/Albany Utility Board Long-Term Financial Planning Committee meeting. It was after that meeting that I realized I should be castigating myself for not writing it sooner.

When Postell returned to the commission two months ago after having suffered what his family said was a light stroke, it was obvious that he’d undergone a dramatic change. Unfortunately, the change wasn’t just physical, although it was obvious that sitting through a two-hour-plus meeting was taxing on the commission stalwart.

No, it was Postell’s comments that were, at first, amusing, then puzzling, then down-right offensive. Never one afraid to speak his mind, the 82-year-old commissioner talked of the “field-hand mentality” of people who “were not interested in finding a job but would rather sit on the porch and collect a check.” He referred to mentally challenged individuals with a word that has long since been deemed off limits. And he frequently confused his colleagues by discussing issues that were on no one else’s agenda.

On Thursday, Postell had to be talked into supporting a call to award a Job Investment Fund grant to the Webstaurant restaurant equipment company that has, in its year here, spent $10 million on capital improvements and begun to hire the 240-plus workers it will bring to the community. Postell wondered aloud if there might be something “shady” about a company that “changed its name” like he said Webstaurant did. It hadn’t.

It turns out he’d fixated on Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission President Justin Strickland’s declaration that EDC officials had referred to the Webstaurant project as “Project Cowboy” so as not to violate nondisclosure requirements during negotiations.

What has happened among members of the commission and other city leaders as Postell has grown obviously less capable of the demands of his position is they’ve laughed, rolled their eyes or shrugged their shoulders while their colleague has become increasingly more erratic. In doing so, they’ve become complicit in a situation that threatens to escalate into more than just momentary embarrassment.

This city government is, after all, a quarter-billion-dollar “company” that operates on taxpayer funding.

The people who enable Postell by, essentially, not facing reality, probably have it in their minds that they’re showing “respect” to a man who has served his constituents doggedly and admirably during his career. But by allowing him to continue as he has in the weeks since his return to the commission is only tarnishing the legacy of a man whose lion-like pride has earned him the respect of those who’ve served with him.

And so, I say again, with no malice, instead with a heavy heart, that, until such occasion that he more fully recovers from his health issues, the time has come for Tommie Postell to step down from his position with the Albany City Commission, to move — godspeed — peacefully toward his personal sunset. The kind of service he is providing to the people of Ward VI now is much less than they deserve. And to see this fiercely proud man so diminished is much less than he deserves.

I’m certain I’m neither the most qualified, nor the person in the best position, to make such a call. But it’s a call that needs to be made. And it appears no one else is willing to publicly make it. I just wish I didn’t feel so awful doing so.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_Fletcher on Twitter.