This must be some sort of new record. Newly-minted U.S. Rep. Bill Owens (D-N.Y.) has apparently broken 4 (or perhaps if you believe the update, only 3) campaign promises in his first HOUR in office.
As someone who had business dealings with Owens a little over a year ago on a multi-million dollar real estate transaction and got to know what kind of person he is at least professionally, I can say that I am not surprised. Owens is a pompous ass of titanic proportions. His problem is that his ego vastly overshadows his capabilities.
While I was working solo on my end at home after work, he had a team of attorneys in his law office to help him. Yet, on this $3 million transaction there were multiple errors on the tax prorations on their part that I uncovered and forced them to correct. (I still have all the documentation to prove it.) And a Satisfaction of Judgment document on file with the Clinton County (NY) Clerk’s Office signed by Owens contains some of the most sloppy, slipshod work I have ever seen come out of a professional attorney’s office where the typed amount is crossed out and replaced with a written amount. I would NEVER have filed something like that, especially in this day and age. Why he didn’t just have a secretary type in the correct amounts is beyond me. Then of course, the amount written in is nearly $1,000 lower than the amount typed in. I will have to go back and check my records to see if that extra money was eventually remitted to my clients or if it may still be in Owens’ account.
This document became something of a point of contention between Mr. Owens and myself about a month and a half ago. In October 2008, he said he would file the document. In late Sept. 2009, my clients informed me that the judgment was still appearing on their credit report. One of Mr. Owens’ associates told them (incorrectly as we later discovered) that Owens hadn’t filed the document.
I blew my top and called Owens and left a very nasty message demanding that he correct the matter by close of business that day. He called me back and we had quite the argument where he threatened to report me to the NY Bar. Apparently, demanding that someone do their job is offensive to him — and for the record, he even got wrong who you report misconduct to in NY State. The correct entity is the Committee on Professional Standards. I was tempted to tell him that as well as who he should contact there as the Clerk of the Court who oversees it is my best friend from high school’s dad and I used to work for him there. However, I didn’t want to further humiliate Owens or for that matter prolong our conversation. I already felt like I needed to take a shower by that point.
As it turned out, the document had been filed with the clerk, however, Owens had never provided a copy of it to the credit reporting agencies or for that matter to my clients with an explanation that they would need to provide it to the credit reporting agencies themselves. I told this jerk that it would have been common courtesy to do so and his response was that I wasn’t very courteous in my voicemail to him! I replied that had nothing to do with the document at hand nor his handling of the matter. Since that time, a number of attorneys have stated to me or my clients that as a matter of due course they themselves would have sent the document in to the credit reporting agencies.
So now NY-23 is stuck with this idiot for the next year. Here’s hoping that the NY GOP can get their act together and nominate someone who doesn’t have the backing of ACORN and unions next time so they can send this hack packing back to NY’s North Country where he can return to his ways as their preeminent shyster.
Filed under: 2009 Elections, Democrats, National Politics
