At long last ,we have rescheduled our General Membership meeting for April 18th, 7pm to 9pm, at the Nanuet Library 149 Church Street,Nanuet N.Y. (845-623-4281). We are hosting speakers E.J.McMahon and Tim Hoefer from the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for N.Y.S. Policy, who will be discussing the topic of Pension and Health care costs. They will cover what reforms are needed and what we as taxpayers can do to lobby legislators for less restrictive mandates from the state. This concerns all of us and the main reason why our school,town and county taxes are rising at such a fast pace. If you feel, as a resident of Clarkstown, that you are being forced out of your homes due to escalating and un-affordable taxation, then by all means attend this important meeting. Learn about some tools we can use to combat this aggression. IF YOU NEVER STAND FOR SOMETHING,YOU WILL FALL FOR ANYTHING. Let's learn from reality rather than politically painted illusions. Keep informed on how our town is managed by browsing thru our website. I'm sure it will raise an eyebrow or two. See you on the 18th.

What seems to be good for the goose, the gander now tries. W. Ballard, our Superintendent of Highways, has been watching all the patronage appointments and political cronyism being made by the Clarkstown Town Board to secure their re-election that he has now jumped on the bandwagon to secure his own future re-election.

Mr. Ballard just hired a new “Constituent Service Ass’t”, aka customer service agent, to answer phones and field residents’ complaints and needs. While the position is laudable, Mr. Ballard’s choice to fill this position and to pay an outrageous salary is despicable. Ballard’s choice for this job out of the 260 resumes that he received is our own Rockland County legislator, F. Sparaco. Mr. Sparaco was hired for this 25 hour/week job at an annual salary of $75,000, which is equivalent to an outrageous hourly rate of $60/hr. Don’t you think that out of 260 resumes in these hard economic times that Ballard could find a non-political person to fill this job for less than $20/hr? I guess not when your main criteria for hiring a person is to secure the ballots lines of the Republican and Independence Parties with the political appeasement of V. Reda, the head of the Republican Party and his associate, F. Sparaco, who secretly controls the Independence Party.

Supervisor Gromack continually says government service is a NOBLE profession, but it is too bad that the people that practice this profession, politicians, are far from NOBLE with politicians having one of the lowest approval ratings of any profession.

     In our attack on Patronage in Clarkstown, Mr. Savino seems to think that the Clarkstown Taxpayers have orchestrated a politically motivated attack on him. The only political motivation that the Clarkstown Taxpayers have is to rid our Town Board of the entrenched politicians (think Term Limits) that continue to hand out patronage jobs. Savino’s appointment by Supervisor Gromack is just the most recent example of a patronage appointment by the Clarkstown Town Board. Savino, who just happens to be the head of the Bronx Republican Party, was hired to handle the town’s tax cert cases. However, according to Savino, he has never represented a municipality in a tax cert case; and then when the Palisades Mall challenged its assessment, Gromack chooses another law firm to handle this case. Such is the confidence that Gromack places in the ability of Savino, his most recent patronage appointment.

     The Clarkstown Taxpayers are not accusing Mr. Savino of any wrong doings, but rather are asking the Town Board why they were willing to hire a law firm from outside of Rockland with no tax cert experience that had a past association with politicians of dubious backgrounds.

     While Savino is the most recent patronage appointment, the history of patronage in Clarkstown is legendary. Isn’t it odd that M. Coopersmith, who headed the local Independence Party and gave the party’s endorsement come election time to the incumbents, had a high paying job in Clarkstown until she lost the Independence Party, then she was let go. Isn’t it also odd that E. Lettre, co-chair of the local Conservative Party, has a high paying job in Clarkstown and M. Loeffler, the other co-chair of the Conservative Party, also had a high paying job in Clarkstown. Both of these Clarkstown employees always gave their party’s endorsement come election time to the incumbents. Finally, is it a coincidence that the recently hired Deputy Town Attorney is the son of Harriet Cornell, the head of the Rockland County legislature.

     Clarkstown is a great town, but it could be greater if employees and contractors were truly hired for WHAT they know rather than WHO they know.

Guy Gervasi
President
Clarkstown Taxpayers

At the beginning of this year, Supervisor Gromack did not renew the contract of Deputy Town Attorney M. Coopersmith supposedly to save money. However the real reason seems to be that once she lost the chairmanship of the Independent Party, she was a no further use to Gromack and the rest of the Town Board because she couldn't give them the Independent Party line on the ballot any more. To compound this unethical behavior, Gromack and the Town Board then hired an outside law firm from the Bronx, represented by Mr. Savino, to take over Ms. Coopersmith's work, which was mainly tax certiorari issues. Not only was this a patronage appointment for Savino, but this appointment seems to have skirted around NYS Open Meeting rules. Mr. Savino just happens to be the head of the Bronx Republican Party and he and his law firm have NO experience in tax cert. matters. Even Town Board member S. Hausner, who never seems to disagree with Gromack, said about the Savino hiring: "There are individuals more qualified than Savino and they may not come with his baggage" To find out more about this baggage and the seemingly unethical dealings of our Town Board, please click on the READ MORE button below.