CHRISTOPHER

Now that the dust has settled, no arrests have been made or are forthcoming, he no longer works in City Hall and well there has been at least one request – by none other than our old friend Democratus – for an update on what actually happened to Vic Christopher, the city’s former economic development coordinator.

Here’s what I’ve gathered by talking to a bunch of people.

Back towards the end of Harry Tutunjian’s term as mayor, Christopher told the law firm that was moving out of the city owned Dauchy building he would help them move their leftover stuff. In other words, they said he could have a bunch of the stuff they didn’t want like old desks, chairs and other office-related materials.

He ran it by Tutunjian who told him to get it in writing.

He didn’t.

About that same time, near as I can tell, the FBI comes to Tutunjian to see if they could use a building in Troy for an unknown reason. It had nothing to do with the location of the Dauchy Building on River Street – they looked at a couple buildings including some in South Troy but the Dauchy had what the FBI were looking for to do whatever it was they had to do. Nobody is quite sure what that is but that’s how things go with the FBI and far be it for a mayor to ask too many questions when helping out the federal government, especially in the home of Uncle Sam.

DAUCHY BUILDING

Fast forward a few months again, the FBI has set up shop and Christopher decides to get the things out of the Dauchy. Since the Dauchy isn’t all that large, and moving chairs and desks and such can only be done so quietly even when someone is trying to be quiet about the moving such things and from what I gather about the whole situation Christopher didn’t think he had any reason to be quiet.

You guessed it, on that same night as only Troy constellations can align, the FBI were using the building for whatever they were using it for Christopher decided to go get his stuff.

So, the FBI scared the bejesus out of Christopher, who was going about his own business, and Christopher scared the bejesus out of the FBI – or at least as much bejesus as a skinny guy wearing a skinny tie and riding a Vespa can scare out of an FBI agent – who were doing their thing.

Anyway, the FBI alerted City Hall, which was by then occupied by the administration of Mayor Lou Rosamilia. I’m told they knew of the FBI business at the Dauchy Building but didn’t know about Christopher’s and when they asked, he could produce nothing in writing giving him permission to take the stuff.

The rest, as they say, is history. Christopher was placed on administrative leave without pay, resigned a short time later and is now working on opening up his wine bar on Second Street.

That’s it in a nutshell.

A couple things come to mind:

- There were all sorts of rumors about Christopher stealing building materials like tin ceilings and banisters but it’s not confirmed and since he wasn’t arrested I don’t think it’s true. Though, I suppose there is a chance he could be brought up on charges.

- If Christopher did have permission from the law firm to take its stuff it should be easy enough for City Hall to confirm.

- While he may have been apolitical when he took the job with the city, he certainly became known as Tutunjian’s guy. And while Rosamilia probably appreciated someone who had a number of irons in the economic development fire, I’m sure those in his administration weren’t too crazy about a Tutunjian holdover and were looking for any excuse to get rid of him. I don’t blame the last group in the least. It’s a new administration, new blood and new ideas. Holdovers don’t generally fit in all that well and honestly, Christopher gave them a reason.

- And, it was nice seeing Democratus post something about Troy. For those of you who don’t know he/she ran a blog called the Troy Polloi a while back and it was known for wry humor and good inside information. It is also one of those amazing mysteries because nobody knows who Democratus actually is.



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