Is Rockland Dysfunctional?

While having a hot cup of coffee this morning I began to wonder if Rockland County has become so dysfunctional that its wheels have come off.  The definition of dysfunction in a society is:

A consequence of a social practice or behavior pattern that undermines the stability of a social system.

Consider this - in what is the relatively trivial matter of running a library, the trustees in New City have run amok in dysfunction.

According to the library board there are two possible tragedies that might befall one - the first is not having a New City Library card and the second is having one from West Nyack.

New City Patch reported that despite complaints from several board members, the New City Library Board appointed Christian Cortelli as trustee to finish the remainder of Aney Paul’s term.  Cortelli, who is a New City resident, has a West Nyack Library card. Trustee Ed Kallen said that Cortelli was not qualified because he did not have a New City Library card.

Now not to have a New City Library card may be regarded as a major dysfunction but to possess a card from West Nyack is obviously an act of malfunction which can not be redeemed by one's wife or child and is 'shameful'.   Patch continued .....

Trustee Tom Ninan said Cortelli’s wife and child were New City library members. While the trustees were arguing over whether Cortelli was qualified or not, several were texting each other and at one point several of them abruptly left the meeting room. After the vote appointing him, Cortelli immediately sat down with the other trustees and Greenberg walked out of the meeting.  A resident and former library employee said she opposed the appointment and believed the board should abide by the library’s constitution and bylaws. Reiter said Cortelli had presented the library with evidence of his residency and the library failed to issue him a card. Kallen said an exception was being made and he thought Cortelli’s presence on the board was “shameful.”

Aney Paul, presumably still in possession of a valid New City card, had recently left the library board to join an equally dysfunctional organization grandly referred to in Rockland County's best patronage salons as 'The County Legislature'.  This is a group that is so dysfunctional it has managed to spend Rockland County into near junk bond status and possible bankruptcy.

The representatives that created this dysfunction have now turned their attention to something apparently more dysfunctional than the fiscal fiasco facing Rockland. They are collectively suing our elected representatives in the Town over which of them has the right to close one of the Town of Clarkstown's minor roads – Samuel Road in Nanuet.

Patch reports: The county’s lawsuit includes four plaintiffs: the Legislature, the County Executive, District 15 Legislator Patrick Moroney on behalf of his constituents and Charles “Skip” Vezzetti, the county highway superintendent and chairman of the county drainage agency. The lawsuit seeks annulment of the town's two resolutions and claims the action violates state highway law and potentially could impact public safety.

It doesn’t matter who wins or who loses, the taxpayers get to pay the lawyers for both sides.

And where was New City Library card holder, Aney Paul, who sits on the Public Safety Committee when the vote was taken?  She was mysteriously absent – perhaps, if rumors are true, advising “Skip” to get his Pearl River Library card in order if he wishes to challenge Andy Stewart next year for the position of Supervisor in that Town.  

The dysfunction of the County Legislature in asserting its rights over the matter of Town road closures has now extended to asserting its right not to tax citizens for the maintenance of the County roads.  That 'right' is being frantically off-loaded to the Towns. These legislators, who previously billed you for the taxes to maintain your 'county' roads, now want the Towns to collect the taxes on their behalf. Their dysfunction is such that they seem not to have noticed that one member of their body has slipped away to the enemy ……

Legislator and minority leader, Frank Sparaco, who sits in the front row of the very legislature suing Clarkstown over the closure of Samuel Road has accepted a 'part-time job' in the Highway Department of the Town that is being sued.  The Superintendent of Highways of Clarkstown, Wayne Ballard, interviewed 260 people in a dysfunctional process to fill a position (25 hours per week) answering telephone calls in inclement weather (according to Ballard's statements to the Clarkstown Town Board).  Yet the only suitably qualified candidate that could be found was the Republican Minority leader in the County Legislature who has agreed to answer the phone for a 'part-time salary' of $75,000 per year.

Legislator Sparaco is reported to be a protege of Rockland County Republican Chairman Vinny Reda who had some minor personal dysfunction when it came to the simple task of returning a coat to a Macys department store.  Mr Reda was arrested and charged with shoplifting. Eventually, he obtained an "Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal" which meant that in six months the charge would be erased if Reda committed no more legally dysfunctional acts during that period of time.

Last week Reda was re-elected Republican Party Chairman for another two year term by a third-world-country’s dysfunctional 'voice' vote despite a motion and a second for a secret ballot to be held in accordance with normal procedures followed in the more advanced democratic nations.   

Reda’s principal dysfunction is that he has an apparent predilection to support and cross-endorse candidates for political office who are members of parties other than his own. He didn't support the last Republican candidate to run in 2011 for Clarkstown supervisor, Ralph Sabatini. His control of the Democratic party seems to be such that the head of the Republican Party in the Bronx, Jay Savino, was given an $87,000 per year patronage job in Clarkstown by 'Democrat' Gromack to perform the Town's Tax certiorari work - a job any of the numerous town attorneys that are presently employed by the taxpayers should perform but are apparently considered dysfunctional by the Town Board in matters tax certiorari. 

Savino's ability to function in his patronage job may be esteemed in Clarkstown yet when the Palisades Mall went to court to challenge its tax  assessment Clarkstown hired a different outside law firm to handle the litigation saying that "Mr. Savino just sat in on the proceedings but did not charge anything extra".

Sometimes dysfunction in Clarkstown comes without cost.

Frankly, I'm beginning to believe that I am becoming dysfunctional myself trying to figure out who it is that really runs the Town of Clarkstown. Is it Vinny Reda, Frank Sparaco, or Ed Lettre?  I'm coming to believe that it is the latter, but I don't remember the voters of Clarkstown seeing his name on a ballot for one of the elective positions in the Town. 

Yet, recently the whole of the Clarkstown Town Board including the Town Attorney and the Town Clerk attended 'House of Horrors' meetings called by Lettre to help him remain as Chairman of the Conservative party. Councilwoman Lasker, a liberal Democrat, stated that while she had not attended the meeting she had "listened in by phone" because she appreciates receiving the Conservative Party endorsement. 

Liberal democracy in Clarkstown is in a dysfunctional state if the principles of the Liberal Democrats now appeal to the conservative party run by Ed Lettre. 

The Conservative party, which has about 3,500 members or should I say ‘followers’, runs no candidates of its own.  By rendering the other 80,000 residents of Clarkstown impotent, most of whom are Democrats and Republicans, the Conservative Party controls who the majority can vote into office. The only person that the Conservative Party seems to actually vote for is its own leader.

But even there its ‘followers’ are manipulated into whom they may choose. When it came to holding the party's convention this week to vote on its leadership, it chose Yom Kippur, the highest of Jewish holy days, notwithstanding the fact that one half of Clarkstown's population are members of the Jewish faith as is the one candidate running for leadership against Lettre and some 50 of his supporters.

The Journal News reported that: Ed Lettre of West Nyack would neither confirm nor deny that the convention had been scheduled for Wednesday. When asked if the date was a secret, he replied, “Yes. Until the legal notices go out, it’s a secret”. Lettre also would not specify when the notices would be sent, except to say “in the near future”. 

It was also unclear where the convention might be held.  Although it has only 3,512 registered members in Rockland, Conservative Party voters have made the difference between victory and defeat for some candidates. Those seeking political office have eagerly courted the party’s line, which has in turn upped the influence of the party.

According to the Rockland County Times Longo, the former chairman of the party, said the move by Loeffler and the party’s executive director Ed Lettre was unconscionable. “I know this is a hotly contested fight, but to be so blatantly anti-Semitic is frightful. Throughout the country voter suppression in the presidential primary is all the rage, but stopping over 50 Jewish elected committeemen from attending is either a stupid oversight, blatantly anti-Semitic or simply just a tactic to retain power at all costs.

At a press conference called Tuesday afternoon at the county courthouse Rabbi Justin Schwartz blamed Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack, a close ally of the pair, who had asked Town Board members to support Lettre and Loeffler by helping them recruit committee members.

No dysfunction here - despite the withering condemnation that “what they (Lettre and Loeffler) did is anti-semitic”, the convention was scheduled for Yom Kippur and the venue was announced to be in Lettre’s town hall, known to the ‘publicly ignorant’ as the 'Clarkstown Town Hall'. 

Chairwoman Loeffler opined to the Rockland County Times "At the time we picked it, we thought Yom Kippur was the day before".  

Seemingly Loeffler would clearly prefer to be thought “stupid” than ‘tactically dysfunctional' which may not be the best of the two options given that ‘tactically dysfunctional’ is temporary while ‘stupidity’ is permanent.

Lettre, however, cleared matters up by simply confirming that as to the dates of the Jewish holy days the Chairman of his party was indeed dysfunctional.  He, on the other hand "had checked with Jewish 'friends' who told him the holy day ended at sunset Wednesday and the convention starts at 7:30 p.m. Lettre said his mother-in-law, brother-in-law, daughter-in-law and a granddaughter were Jewish. “I know the Jewish faith,” Lettre said. “I love Jewish people." 

Between friends and family it appears that advice as to wisdom of the date of Lettre's convention was not sought from anyone in his immediate family.

On the bright side, Lettre's conservatives may be the party in Rockland County which is least politically dysfunctional.  It does this by behaving as what might best be described as a 'cuckoo party’.  Like the cuckoo bird, the 'cuckoo party’ lays an egg in another party's nest by simply endorsing one of the other party's candidates. 

The mother parties, dysfunctional Democrats and Republicans, feed and care for the ‘cuckoo party's chick'.  And that is how Democrats and Republicans alike are turned into ‘puppets on a string’ beholden to a party most residents in Clarkstown probably don't even know exists nor know that it controls what they refer to as the ‘Clarksown Town Hall’. 

Lettre's responsibilities including his present job title put the Town's planning board into several minutes of dysfunction last week when his position as Head of the Architecture and Landscape Commission led to a discussion which explored if Lettre understood the responsibilities and authority of those appointed to the planning board. Several minutes were consumed figuring out which grandiose title Lettre now held in the Town with the choices being Clerk of the Works, Superintendent of Works and/or Public Works Administrator. But, like the foster mother of a cuckoo bird who has some difficulty in figuring out if the cuckoo is really a member of its own species, the chirping in the planning board subsided after a few minutes and everyone returned, feathers ruffled, to the job of tending to the mess being created in the nest. 

Lettre's behavior in handling ‘matters fiscal’ was on display during a dysfunctional appearance in front of a Town workshop. Lettre attempted to explain how he arrived at his cost figures to fix some of Clarkstown's Community Centers which are in a state of disrepair through neglect. After appearing to plead, cajole, beg and, God knows, even pray that the Board would just shut up and give him the money, my mind drifted off to the comedian Lewis Black, who appears frequently on Jon Stewart's Daily News T.V. show. Black had remarked: 

"I took economics and I'd explain it to ya, but I flunked that course. Not my fault. They taught it at 8 o'clock in the morning. And there is absolutely nothing you can learn out of one bloodshot eye."

Councilmen Borelli and Hoehmann expressed concern about giving Lettre approval to spend $600,000 (which would be bonded) to do 'repairs' which may in the end may escalate massively cost-wise if left under Lettre's management.  Hoehman ruminated about what would happen once the fees were in and said, "This could be a $900,000 price tag for these community centers.  I think we need to look at an overall plan that makes sense.”  Councilwoman Lasker, who admits appreciation for the Conservative party’s endorsement, felt that the work just “needed to be done” despite all of the ‘non’ sense she had just heard.

Not surprisingly given Clarkstown's nepotistic employment practices, Lettre's son was a Town employee in the Highway Department but his dysfunctional behavior resulted in resignation earlier this year after he burglarized property while on the job and using the Town's equipment.

Meanwhile the 'happy talk' from political gatherings in front of press conference microphones continues unabated.  Recently, a 'gaggle of political geese' honked about how Rockland, and particularly Clarkstown and Ramapo are some of the best places to live in the United States according to CNN. Clarkstown came in at 35th and Ramapo at 59th.  “We are so proud of this wonderful honor,” said Supervisor Alex Gromack. 

Clarkstown was credited for its low crime rate, numerous parks, lakes, and trails and... proximity to the Hudson River and the fact that New York City is an hour away. Residents can catch a show at Nyack's Elmwood Playhouse, attend a Little League game in Zukor Park, or hit the largest mall in the tristate area, West Nyack's Palisades Mall.

CNN’s dysfunctional approach to rating communities as top places to live appears to have looked no further than the nearby mountains and the Hudson River.  It failed to see that Clarkstown has the highest paid police force in the nation that is resulting in dysfunctional deficit spending by the Town and that Ramapo has become dysfunctional with a religious divide that threatens to destroy its school system which is on the verge of collapse and wracked with litigation.

Nor did CNN take into account the dysfunctional state of the Clarkstown School Board which resulted in the removal of the School's Superintendent and three School Board members.  Residual problems remain since the wife of the current school board president is involved in litigation against a former board member who is being defended at taxpayers' expense. 

Clarkstown's Town Board even succeeded in rendering the budgeting process of the Town’s school boards dysfunctional when a 'surcharge' to raise $1.5 million for the Town was added to school tax bills this year so that residents could, according to Supervisor Gromack, get savings through "tax relief".  The feathers flew and the Town Board was forced to announce that its dysfunctional action would be 'rescinded' which will be a 'savings' to the taxpayers in September 2013 even though the fee they were forced to pay in September 2012 is not going to be 'refunded'. 

Like the New City Library Board, last week the gaggle of political geese went beyond dysfunction to malfunction when only a few fluttering feathers were seen in front of the microphones as it was announced that Rockland had now moved up in rankings to become the third highest county in property taxes in the whole of the United States. Nowhere could anyone be found to declare: “We are so proud of this wonderful honor”.

 Yet while taxpayers are being bled white, Clarkstown continues to 'happy talk' its Triple AAA bond rating which permits it to continue with the dysfunctional policy of deficit spending and yearly depletion of its reserve fund account soon to be continued when it reveals its 2013 budget in October.

In my book the definition of dysfunction in a society is: taxes that are sky-high; home values that are depressed by increasing taxation, union employees that are over compensated, schools that are crumbling, patronage jobs that are handed out to political allies, libraries that are involved in more machinations than they have books and Town Boards that in their budgets hide ….…..

Damn it, my coffee is cold and without it I am completely dysfunctional.

Michael N. Hull is a member of the Clarkstown Taxpayers the goals of which are to reduce local taxes and local government expenses and make local government and local public officials more responsible and accountable to the citizenry.  

Picture - 'Wheels Coming Off' courtesy of http://djysrv.blogspot.com/