Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel: The PAB Names Lesli Myers-Small as Its Executive Director!

The Police Accountability Board (PAB) needs no introduction to anyone who has lived in Rochester, New York for the last six years or is an aficionado of Black Comedy. 

Or to anyone who has read this blog for the last few years.

That being the case, only a cursory history of the PAB will be provided here.

The PAB was originally conceived to be a body of citizens appointed to investigate alleged incident of police abuse regarding their interaction with criminals.

To be appointed to this "august" group, one needed to be a resident of the City of Rochester.

Some weren't.

A prospective candidate could not be related to, or be a friend of, a Rochester City Police Officer.

But they could, and many are, family and friends of criminals.

Clearly, the PAB was never meant to be unbiased in their investigations.

The creation of the PAB was approved by a majority of voters during an election with a low turnout and City Government promptly budgeted it with $5 million a year!

Then delusions of grandeur overcame the PAB's leadership, which believed it to be superior to Rochester's City Council, the Mayor's Office, the Rochester Police Department and the policemen's union, the Locust Club.

The PAB's leaders believed that they could not only investigate alleged incidents of abuse by Rochester's policemen, but they also believed that they could discipline and even fire policemen.

Which, as New York State informed the PAB, after several lawsuits regarding these subjects, was illegal and not withing that "august" body's competence.

At best, they would have merely an advisory capacity, which was NOT to their early leadership's liking.

And the most they could be is an annoyance to the Rochester Police Department, which is not beholden to work with them.

So, for the next few years, the PAB did nothing but spend their budget and provide the community with endless hours of mirth and hilarity with their sex scandals and the Caesar Complexes of their leaders.

You can read my previous blogs about those, too.

However, as the position of the PAB's executive director has been vacant for months (and nobody noticed), they have announced the appointment of a new leader.

The PAB's new executive director will be none other than Dr. Lesli Myers-Small, yet another of that long yutz parade of failed Superintendent of Schools of the Rochester City School District.

She really isn't all that unique, despite the hype given her by the PAB to make her appear a suitable choice for a leadership position there.

Like most of her predecessors and her successor as Superintendent of Schools, Myers-Small never completed her three-year contract.

She was forced out after only one year, managing to accomplish nothing for the schools (to do her some justice, a year isn't long enough to have any impact on a school district that has been failing for nearly forty years) but did manage to piss off the School Board, which promptly rejected her budgets and school closing plans.

That didn't deter her from remaining, but alleged sexual harassment on Myers-Small's part did, though she did negotiate and early exit with RCSD and laughed all the way to the bank.

With PAB's own history of sex scandals regarding their leadership, perhaps that's why they thought Myers-Small would fit in!

Myers-Small stated that she was "excited to pursue public accountability and transparency."

THAT would be a whole new experience for her.

As for the PAB, they continue to be an expensive kept woman for Rochester's taxpayers, and an internally diseased one at that.

It remains to be seen if hiring yet another known failure will have any effect of the PAB's dismal reputation.

On with the show!

*****The photo of Lesli Myers-Small was from the Democrat and Chronicle Newspaper*****