John Caldararo, a Senior Building Inspector for the City of New Rochelle, misappropriated a government computer and government email account then spent the afternoon publishing a series of angry, threatening comments aimed primarily at Talk of the Sound Managing Editor Robert Cox. Most of the comments were published while he was being paid as a building inspector. John Caldararo, also President of the New Rochelle City Civil Service Employees Association President, continues to be upset about his arrest last year on Long Island for Driving While Intoxicated.
Caldararo began his tirade stating “I am sick and tired of you refering (sic) to me as a drunk. Again all your infomation (sic) is wrong, what ever moron at City Hall who is your rat and feeding you mis-infomation (sic).”
Talk of the Sound has never referred to Caldararo as a “drunk” but did report last year that he was arrested on the Southern State Parkway in Suffolk County on Saturday July 24, 2010 at 7:40 PM. He was charged with two misdemeanor counts – Operating a Motor Vehicle with a Blood Alcohol Level Above .08 Of 1%, Operating a Motor Vehicle while Intoxicated and an infraction – equipment violation for not having required safety glass on the vehicle. Caldararo was back in court just a few days later to plead guilty. He was required to pay fines, fees and surcharges totaling $895. As part of his sentence, Caldararo’s drivers license was revoked and he was required to undertake court-mandated treatment for convicted drinking drivers which typically includes some combination of attending 12-Step meetings and outpatient and/or inpatient treatment for alcohol and drug abuse.
Caldararo wrote “I was never driven around”.
In fact, Caldararo did not have a drivers license for several months after his DWI conviction but continue to work for the City as a building inspector. Prohibited by a judge from driving a vehicle, Caldararo was routinely driven around by other City employees.
Caldararo said “you lied right to my face telling me you were going to retract your story and put in the right infomation (sic) I provided you.”
Talk of the Sound never agreed to “retract” any story about Mr. Caldararo’s public and well-documented problems related to his drinking. Caldararo refers to an accurate report by Talk of the Sound that New York State court records indicated that Caldararo had a blood alcohol level of .4 or several times above the legal limit. Caldararo requested a meeting at which he produced a document that indicated his blood alcohol level was .14, still almost double the legal limit. At that time I told Caldararo that I would be willing to check with the courts and see if they had made an error and, if they had, I stated that I would willing to run a story that said the New York State Unified Court System had made an error and publish the information he provided. I never said I would retract a story about his arrest and conviction because he was arrested and convicted and any error in the BAC reported by the courts would not change that. Caldararo said he did not want another story and wanted the whole thing to go away at which point Caldararo withdrew his request regarding the discrepancy between the document he showed me and the New York State Unified Court System web site; I did not pursue the matter further and therefore never ran a correction. In either care, there would never been a retraction of the entire story merely a change in the reported BAC level.
Caldararo went on to make reference to a story about the Iona College dorms situation writing: “The City of New Rochelle Building Does not inspect dorms for Occupancy the Fire Dept. does that. So again wrong Infomation.”
The Talk of the Sound article referenced Bob Marrone’s column for Patch where Bob Marrone cited Chuck Strome saying “the city did not even have enough money to staff the inspectors that should have caught the Iona College dorm code violation”.
Chuck Strome’s comments to Bob Marrone are consistent with what Chuck told Ned Rauch of the Journal News
City Manager Charles Strome III said the college would not face any fines for
the longstanding violation. He said the city didn’t know anything about it until
Nyre mentioned it. Asked if the city ought to have been aware of Iona’s
overcapacity issues, Strome said that with just three inspectors, “I don’t have
time to do anything proactive like that.”
Caldararo, writing on an account created using his government-issued computer on a government email account, then threatened litigation against me personally and made various childish comments:
Keep refering to me as a drunk Mr. Cocks and you be hearing from my
Lawyer.But since you don’t make any money and you don’t own a house in New
Rochelle its proberly a waste of time. Which is pretty funny because your always
bitching about taxes and you don’t even pay them. I’ve done my job well for 27
years and have done more for the people in this City in civic organization then
your stupid blog will ever do….Anybody else who wants to trash me be a man
and put your real name.
He signed his threatening missive “John Caldararo” and then, apparently, spent the rest of his afternoon fanning the flames by engaging various commenters in a “flame war”.
Talk of the Sound has also reported that John Caldararo signed off on a Certificate of Occupancy for the Huguenot Hills condominium complex on East Main Street despite the failure of the builder to install a roof drainage system specified in the architectural plans submitted to New Rochelle Planning Committee and the City of New Rochelle Building Bureau. Talk of the Sound has received numerous reports of Caldararo turning a similar blind-eye to violations by builders in New Rochelle — and not out of the goodness of his heart.
Talk of the Sound has issued the following statement regarding the statements by the City’s Senior Building Inspector:
“It is alarming to see that in these troubled economic times, the City of New Rochelle and its employees have nothing better to do with taxpayer-funded resources than issue threats and engage in childish public tantrums” said Talk of the Sound’s Managing Editor Robert Cox.
Mr. Caladaro:
I hate to say
Mr. Caladaro:
I hate to say it, but I think you are getting the short end of the stick. People make mistakes throughout their lives and shouldn’t have to be punished for them over and over again. I sympathize with you because I know how hard it is to read some of the trash that is posted and not become irrate. Hopefully, people will let you move forward peacefully.
As far as Bob Cox goes, he tries to be helpful to people and I believe he has good intentions.
john
there is no good intention. Mr Caldararo made a mistake and was punished for it. Mr Cox does report some good information but much is lost with his agenda. There is a growing concern on how things are reported and how he freely attacks people with out concrete evidence. Many of us are tiring of it, if you want to be a serious journalist prove it.
I missed the comment
Did I miss something here? Im not being a wiseguy, I cannot seem to find where Bob called John a drunk. Please someone point this out to me and I will be the first to say shame on you Bob.
Drunk
Might not call him a drunk but saying
” Is it really too much to ask that the City properly mothball a building or have a building inspector leave a bar stool long enough to go inspect a dorm once a year?”
Id say that this is a reference from Cox to his DWI which has nothing to do with the scandal.
Its like all of the stories on here, they start with an incident and then people get added into them to smear their character and livelihoods.
Al – drunk
OR…it just becomes a reality check to some when they see their actions in black and white. OR…they become offended when they realize that their behavior isnt viewed as normal to someone elses opinion. OR…perhaps they have been practicing(and getting away with) the same routine for decades with little or no eyeballs on them. Thats enough to upset anyone, no?
Im sure you are a sensible person Al. These could be possibilities correct?
I would be remiss if I didnt say that I agree that certain adjectives would be better left out of some of Bobs reporting. He should leave that up to the readers for posting.
Deep
Deep,I agree. I Just get annoyed when news mixes with slandering and name calling. As for the bar stool referring to someone at at west end social club not being Mr.Calderado my apologies. I missed that story and I wasn’t aware that the west end social clubs were bars. Mr.Cox if you are going to play the game and use sly comments, remarks, names etc.. it is ok, but please don’t cry when it comes back to you. The guy, if it is even actually him replied to your article threatened you with “bad karma” and a lawsuit you start a whole new article of how he threatened you from a government computer? Comon be a big boy, If your going to play the game play it don’t spin it. At least you recognize your own readers replies as “childish public tantrums.”
actually, no
That was a reference to another building inspector who, we had previously reported, spent a good deal of time during the work day sitting inside a certain West End social club.