Congers' School Is Falling Down!

His money is twice tainted: 'taint yours and 'taint mine - Mark Twain

On September 12, 2013 the Clarkstown School Board met in Clarkstown South High School's auditorium in front of a highly charged and emotional crowd that was angry their children from Congers Elementary were being dispersed to other schools and that the Board might consolidate Clarkstown's children into fewer schools because of declining enrollment.

The board was brutally honest with the parents.  Clarkstown School District's Assistant Superintendent of Business John LaNave was quite clear - his reserve savings will be gone in 18 months and he has no funding to fix any school infrastructure including Congers Elementary or the leaking roofs on other Clarkstown schools. Further, it seems the taxpayers are in no mood to approve bonded debt to pay for needed capital projects.  

Simply put the School District is broke and the taxpayers' desire to cough up any more in taxes has been squandered by:

a) the County Legislature which wishes to borrow to cover its $125 million annual deficit after having raised taxes by 18% last year, and

b) the Town Board of Clarkstown who under Supervisor Gromack has run up over $100 million in bonded debt and raised taxes by 6.2% last year while depleting its own cash reserves.

Mr. Gromack, who unlike the school board does not have to get voters' approval to add bonded debt, has merrily borrowed and spent his way into insolvency putting expensive stone walls, brick paving, lamps and flowers around his 'Taj Mahal' Town Hall on the backs of parents whose children are now being taught in schools with "buckets having to be moved around to catch the drips".

What Panglossian world is Mr. Gromack living in?  
 
He wanders the streets and airwaves of New City blandly declaring that the sky is not falling because he still has a Triple A bond rating and so can borrow, tax and spend all that he wants. He can even steal if he wishes - which is metaphorically what he did when he placed a 1% fee on the school tax bill last year netting him $1.5 million because the Town of Clarkstown has borrowed itself into insolvency and needed to fund tax collection on the backs of a school system whose infrastructure is collapsing.

Here, from a few days ago, is Mr. Gromack's exchange with a caller on WRCR. 

Caller - Barbara: I have a question about the lawsuit with the Palisades mall and taxes.  I want to hear from you what is going to happen with our taxes.  I heard that they won the lawsuit and if that is true with the Nanuet Mall opening up is that going to alleviate some of the tax burden for the taxpayers?

Gromack: I have to mention that, you know, the settlement with the Palisades Mall on the outstanding tax suit was one that the judge had recommended that we move forward indicating to us that if it had to be decided it might not be as advantageous to the School District, the Town, and the County. So we did forge a compromise and settle.

In other words he tries to do the right thing with our money. "Save a dollar here and there, clip some coupons, buy ten gold chains instead of twenty, four summer homes instead of eight".

Gromack: The good news, if there is ever good news about a compromise suit (sic), is that the school district had funds in reserve to take care of their portion. By State law they are allowed to set up a tax reserve and they were able to take that so it shouldn't be any impact.  

Really, Mr. Gromack?  The settlement wiped out the Schools' reserve fund and the School Board is now broke.  If that isn't "any impact" you may be trying to fool Barbara but Mr. LaNave will not be fooled.

Gromack: The Town was able to bond their portion of it.  

Mr. Gromack, you had no reserve funds left because you have spent the Town into insolvency and so you charged your part of the Palisades tax settlement to the taxpayers' credit card to be paid tomorrow with interest.

Gromack: However, we did get back over $1 million to offset police costs so that has been minimal and then the County had their share. 

Yes, Mr. Gromack, but we paid over $1 million to a 'white shoe' law firm to convince you that it was "good news" the taxpayers would return $20 million to the Palisades Mall.

Gromack: Going forward, we certainly don't believe that, you know, that you will see any impact in the Town budget of any substance because, you know, it is a long term effort and because we were able to settle we should be, you know, pretty much right where we are and you won't see any spike.

Huh? Mr. Gromack, if taxpayers can afford to give away $20 million dollars and it has no impact on the Town budget "of any substance" then please explain why you had to put a 1% fee on the school tax bill last year which netted you $1.5 million dollars.  Senior citizens certainly felt the impact of that fee and today are not "pretty much right where they were and DID see a spike". Indeed, Mr. Gromack, you seem to believe that most senior citizens living in Clarkstown "will have enough money to last them the rest of their lives, unless they buy something!"

Gromack: Now, I just want to put this in perspective. When you talk about a $20 million negotiated settlement and while the number is large if you look at Mirant - they had a judge that put forth a number of, I think, $350 million dollars to the Town of Haverstraw and the North Rockland School District. So when you look at what happened up there - over $300 million in a settlement or judge's decision that certainly, in a smaller Town, is certainly detrimental. 

Bad comparison, Mr. Gromack, because "oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse".
 
Gromack: But for us you won't see any impact in the budgets going forward and you are right with the Nanuet Mall coming on line - they are scheduled to open October 10th - we are going to picking up, you know, a lot of the money for the assessment that was evened out in the Palisades. So that is also a very positive aspect of it.

"Money is always there; it's just the pockets that change!" Mr. Gromack, in a Town where there are no remaining reserves, over $100 million in bonded debt and an increase in revenue from the Nanuet Mall coming at the expense of an equivalent decrease in revenue of the Palisades Mall, are you promising that the tax increase of 6.2% you imposed last year will not be repeated?

Gromack: And we also have done, you know, a considerable amount of development in the last few years and going forward with some of our senior housing projects and some of the smaller strip malls where there has actually been an increase. So all that kind of led to the settlement which will certainly have, I think, almost no impact at all that you will notice.

Mr. Gromack, I have no idea what you were trying to say here. Were you trying to appeal to the senior citizens of Clarkstown who received a 1.8% increase in their Social Security last year while you increased their Town property taxes by 6.2%? If so as a senior citizen may I assure you that "I've got all the money I'll ever need to live in Clarkstown; so long as I die by four o'clock tomorrow morning".

Caller: I have one more question. The Nanuet Mall does not help the Clarkstown School District's situation, it helps Nanuet  ...... right?

Oops, we have an informed citizen here.  I listened to hear Mr. Gromack think fast on his feet. He sat down and this is what he came up with.

Gromack: Yea ... it helps the school district of Nanuet but it certainly helps the Town and ... yep ... so the Nanuet Mall goes towards the Town of Clarkstown and the Nanuet School District ....... helps the Town.  So all in all it should work out, you know, very well for the school district and the Town when all is said and done.
 
Stop, Mr. Gromack, you have hit 'rock' bottom; don't continue to dig.  The Shops at Nanuet do nothing to help the Clarkstown School District.

Gromack: It also creates tax stability for the next seven years. Part of the settlement was that they could not challenge their assessment for the next seven years going forward. So we at least know some definite numbers going forward and can adjust and work that out. 

This apparently means that for the "next" seven years "going forward" the mall will be paying less in taxes that it did for the "past" seven years "going backwards".  Do I add this loss in tax revenue from the mall to the $20 million you borrowed from me to pay back to them and is this loss in revenue included in your statement that it "should all work out very well when all is said and done"?

Caller:  Do you know anything about the Congers elementary school?

Ah, good she changed the subject ...... Last time I was at a meeting on this I offered everything including my $200,000+ salaried police force to help but I didn't offer to give them back the $1.5 million dollars I swiped from the school parents on their tax bill last year.   Hmmm, I'm up for re-election so I better sound empathetic.

Gromack:  I was at the meeting last week.  Um, and you know I live in Congers and certainly I have a concern. My feeling is that it is an important part of the hamlet that I live in.  I don't know if you live in Congers but they seemed to indicate that their wish is to fix the school and keep it a functioning elementary school.  I think the only uncertainty at this point in time is that they need to do more review by the engineers of what exactly the fix could be and then they have indicated that they want to have a very open dialog with the community because there might be a reason once you start to fix some of the structural problems, you know, do you explore adding on a gym?

Adding on a gym?  I thought the "open dialog with the community" was to explain that Mr. LaNave had lots and lots of plans for ways to fix the infrastructure of the schools and had no funds to pay for any of it?  He can't borrow without a vote.  You have borrowed not needing a vote.   Both of you are now broke and the taxpayers are approaching taxation destitution. How can you address that?

Gromack: It's the only elementary school that, you know, the gym is on the stage.  

Mr. Gromack, I don't care whether the gym is on the stage or suspended from the ceiling and neither does Mr. LaNave because like London Bridge the Congers School is falling down, falling down, falling down.  Somehow they managed to rebuild London Bridge!

Gromack: My daughter graduated from Congers elementary school and, you know, it certainly has a lot of character but it has a lot of shortcomings as a 1927 building. So I think they were also exploring if they were going to make an investment and fix the walls and things that they feel that they need to do.  Is it also a time to talk to the public because the residents have to approve their capital projects. 

What the public has to approve is the bonding (i.e. borrowing with interest) the funds for capital projects.  You Supervisor Gromack, on the other hand, do not. Which is why you have run up over $100 million in bonded debt to put, among other things, a walkway around Congers Lake and line the streets around the Town Hall 'Taj Mahal' with flowers, shrubs and bubbling fountains.  You avoided adding $1.5 million to your own debt by charging a 1% fee on the school tax bill last year to pay for you to collect our school taxes.  Imagine what that could have done for the Congers elementary school had it been spent there instead of your 'walk to nowhere' around Congers Lake.

Gromack: Is this the time to do some other improvements and make it, you know, a more modern functioning elementary school. You know they have indicated that these are things they are looking at and I think they were very up front in saying, you know, for now don't plan on being able to use the school for this school year, possibly even another year depending on the final outcome of these discussions and they are actively looking, and they may have found it, where the Congers children can be placed all together whether it be St. Augustine's - I think they have another tour at St. Anne's because of the parochial schools closing.  So I think they have positive options and can make a final long term decision of where they will be temporarily.

Mr. Gromack, given the above blather, I think the voters of Clarkstown should make a final long term decision as to where you will be located "temporarily". You tried to run unopposed this November by getting the minority Conservative line from your $170,000+ Town employee, Ed Lettre, and the minority "legal racket" Independence line from your $75,000 part-time patronage employee from Congers, Frank Sparaco, but Preserve Rockland went to court and got its' slate of candidates approved. You will face candidate Brian Moran in a debate to explain to the parents and citizens of Clarkstown how they have ended up with this debacle under your leadership.

"There are three groups that spend other people's money: children, thieves, and politicians. All three need supervision but mostly the politicians" - Dick Armey

This article is written with apologies to Gertrude Stein, Jackie Mason, LL Cool J, Henry Youngman, William Shakespeare and the author of the childrens' nursery rhyme 'London Bridge is Falling Down'.

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.