Belgian Block and Absentee Ballots

The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven't thought of yet - Ann Landers

Apparently upset with my suggestion that Highway Department employees were spending too much time Dialing for Dollars to get Highways Superintendent, Wayne Ballard, re-elected the wife of a recent Ballard hire has set the record straight.

In an article in Patch Ms Antonia Sambevski reveals the innermost workings of the Highway department supported by comments to her article that "Michael Hull is a drunken bum" and "Hull is a British protestant trying to get the government to tax catholics considering what 'my people' have done to us in Ireland for the past 800 years".  

Sambevski informs us that the Clarkstown town board created an appointed position for Ballard (used to hire Frank Sparaco) which like all appointed positions goes away when Ballard is "removed from office".  She then informs us that Sparaco's position for $75,000 per year "requires 5 hours a day to be spent on Highway department work " going on to gratuitously add "which Mr. Sparaco does".

Sambevski then reveals that her husband was hired this year and that he is a "Republican committee member" who got to know Mr. Ballard over the past few years. When his business was slow he got his CDL and applied for a job in the Highways Department. 

However, her husband was 4th in line for the 2 positions that were available but got hired after the "other applicants in front of him failed to provide what was necessary for new hires". The most Frank was "able to do" for Mr. Sambevski was to give him a "great recommendation".  As we all recall when Sparaco was hired he had 260 applicants in front of him who apparently also "failed to provide what was necessary for new hires". 

Ms. Sambevski is "an advocate for Frank" and he and his family have been friends of the Sambevskis for some years now.   Apparently she is troubled because Sparaco has been treated pretty shabbily by the media and she cannot stand reading "Hull's innuendo and opinion". 

We then learn from Ms Sambevski that the Belgium Block in “The Dells” was improperly installed by the developer over 20 years ago and that is the reason for its recent replacement at a cost to taxpayers of $1.6 million.  Ms. Sambevski insists that Wayne Ballard did not spend $1.6 million on that project - the Town Board did.   Ms Sambevski offers the insight that "it can become very costly if the right person is not overseeing road dedications" and in case you are unaware of it, the Town of Clarkstown has a purchasing department that approves any purchases over $500 and all purchases are approved by the Town Board. They are the ones who ok'd the money for the project and should be blamed, not Wayne Ballard. 

While this is all fascinating commentary it is a pity that Ms Sambevski fails to mention the more interesting activities that Mr. Ballard requires of his employees.  You see, as a probationary employee under Mr. Ballard, Mr. Sambevski was apparently required to work for Mr. Ballard's re-election by gathering absentee ballots and ballot applications.  

This information was revealed in testimony before the Supreme Court State of New York on September 19, 2013.   Frank Sparaco was being questioned under oath about the activities of Highway Department personnel in gathering absentee ballots which were used to give the left wing Democratic Working Families election line to Republican Ballard in the November 5th election.  Here is part of Sparaco's testimony taken while an assistant District Attorney sat in on the case listening to the testimony.

Q. Did you have any participation in a determination as to which persons would be responsible for picking up which ballots at the Board?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Okay. Could you explain the process by which that determination was made?

A. The best way to describe this would be that there were two absentee ballot drives going on at once. One I was conducting with volunteers, and one Wayne was conducting with volunteers. Wayne did his own thing and I did my own thing, so I had certain "captains"; mine included, John Perrotta, (nominal head of the Independence Party and Sparaco best friend from third grade), Robert Sambevski and Brittany Fonseca, to the best of my knowledge off the top of my head, and they were designated as pickup people.

Q. And that was picking up what?

A. Absentee ballots.

Q. The ballots themselves?

A. The ballots themselves from the Board of Elections. None of those people that I just mentioned picked up any Working Families ballots except for Robert Sambevski who picked up one I believe. I handled the Working Families Party pickup myself.

Q. Were there other people, however, who picked up Working Families ballots who were employees of the Department of Highways?

A. I believe, yes.

In the same court case we learned that a town employee met with Ballard's $100,000+ Executive Assistant, Nancy Willen, to be given Absentee Ballot Applications.  Here is the testimony of highway employee, John Fay.

Q. How did you come to be in contact with Ms. Willen on that occasion when she gave you this form?

A. I met her after work around 4:30 because I was looking for the absentee ballot applications. I was able to obtain them from her.

Q. And where was it that you met her after work that day?

A. A convenience store in Bardonia.

Q. Convenience store in Bardonia?

A. In the parking lot. So I wasn't like driving out of the way or anything. It was, you know, within a mile-and-a-half, two miles.

Q. Okay. So you -- how did it come to be that a meeting had been set up between you and Nancy Willen to meet in the parking lot of a convenience store a mile or so away from your workplace?

A. I talked to her on the phone earlier that day and she said, you know, what are you doing after work, I said nothing, I'll, as long as it's on my way to my home, so I'm not really driving out of the way or anything, it was right there. I had to pick up lottery tickets. It was convenient for me.

Q. Now, in light of your recollection that it was actually Nancy Willen who gave you the form, does that change your recollection as to whether it was Wayne Ballard who gave you the form?

A. Yes. That changes my recollection because Nancy Willen was the actual person who gave me the application forms.

As Ms. Sambevski indicates Mr. Sparaco's 5 hour per day $75,000 job will come to an end when Mr. Ballard is "removed from office" on November 5th.   It would be our recommendation to the newly elected Superintendent, Dennis Malone, that he should consider removing Ms. Sambevski's husband from the Highways Department at the same time as he removes County Legislator Sparaco and Executive Assistant Nancy Willen to ensure that no more patronage appointments and campaign shenanigans continue in that department.  

Highway department employees should be required to do only what it is assumed the taxpayers are paying them to do even if it is for $75,000 per year and for only 5 hours of work per day. 

This blog is authored by Michael N. Hull, a retired senior citizen who writes opinion pieces on local political issues. He is a Director of Clarkstown Residents Opposing Patronage with Tom Nimick and Ralph Sabatini.  Hull contributes periodically to the Facebook page Clarkstown: What They Don't Want You To Know and on Twitter.