Stoned in Stony Point

All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation – W.H. Auden

Reading a recent article in the Journal News I was surprised to learn that the editor-in-chief of the Rockland County Times, Dylan Skriloff, who has decided to run as a candidate for the position of Supervisor of Stony Point, was forced into an admission to the use of LSD in college. The Journal News reported:

The Republican-Conservative candidate for Stony Point town supervisor acknowledged that he was convicted of possessing LSD while at college in Albany. Skriloff, who turned 34, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance in Albany City Court in November 2000. He and his roommate were arrested following an undercover police sting and accused of supplying LSD to students.  Skriloff  told The Journal News he spent the night in jail and was “scared straight. I have a misdemeanor drug possession from Albany, No. 1 party school at the time,” he said. “What I got in trouble for was five hits of LSD, enough for two people.”

Skriloff faced additional charges of fourth- and fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, both felonies, and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia, misdemeanors. Skriloff said those charges were thrown out because he didn’t possess any illegal substances other than the LSD. He also said he was using LSD but not selling it. “I was experimenting,” Skriloff said. He was sentenced to time served and three years of probation. Skriloff said he was released from probation for good behavior after two years. “I think it’s something you move on from and I have moved on, a long time ago,” Skriloff said.

Skrilloff says he was not selling LSD but according to the Albany papers of May 2000 Sheriff's Inspector John Burke said that Skriloff and his friend Greenberg were "doing quite a bit of business".   

The issue about the qualifications of who runs for elected office gets mired in collateral issues such as: "Is LSD possession with intent to sell just part of a hit job by the Journal News against a media competitor?”  To a large degree the Rockland County Times has broken stories and exposed issues that the Journal News seems loathe to touch. That is how the story of Skriloff's LSD escapade was spun but that is not the issue.

The real issue is that certain 'political bosses' put up candidates who have no qualifications to govern. 

In the case of Mr. Skriloff one might ask what are the political principles of a person who was registered in the ‘Green’ Party up to 2007, then was a member of the ‘Socialist-Libertarian’ Party up to 2012 before switching to the ‘Conservative’ Party? 

We now find that Mr. Skriloff is running on the Republican line controlled by the Rockland County Republican Chairman, Vinny Reda, the Conservative line controlled by Clarkstown employee and Supervisor Gromack's friend, Ed Lettre, and the Independence line controlled by Supervisor Gromack's present patronage employee, County Legislator Frank Sparaco, and his third-grade school friend John Perrotta III.

Ed Lettre, who controls the Conservative Party, is so powerful that on his command alone he ordered the whole of the Town Board, including the Town Attorney, to attend a meeting which Skriloff properly derided as a ‘House of Horrors’ meeting. Lettre, who has a $170,000+ job in Clarkstown, is the King of Clarkstown's Diamonds and his candidate on the Conservative Party minority line for Supervisor of Stony Point is now his former nemesis, the editor-in-chief of the Rockland County Times.

Frank Sparaco who controls the Independence Party is so powerful that he can command the unanimous vote by the whole of the Clarkstown Town Board to create a position for him that netted him a $75,000 part-time job under Highways Superintendent, Wayne Ballard.  I'm sorry to tell all all of you 'independent' voters out there that the Independence Party has been declared a "legal racket" that trades its party line for patronage jobs so you should not be surprised to find that the three Town Board members who voted to create this position, Gromack, Hausner, and Hoehmann, all appear as the candidates on the "legal racket" Independence Party line along with Highways Superintendent Wayne Ballard.

Given that Reda, Lettre and Sparaco essentially control which candidates can run in Clarkstown (except for those on the newly created Preserve Rockland Row G line) one is forced to wonder whether Mr. Skriloff is just another puppet on a string as Messrs. Reda, Lettre and Sparaco seek to take over the Town of Stony Point as they apparently have succeeded in doing in the Town of Clarkstown. There is no love lost between Supervisor Gromack and the Supervisor of Stony Point ever since Mr. Gromack placed a "horse's head in the bed" courtesy call to the Stony Point supervisor and railed to him that he was "taking the gloves off" against "those taxpayers" in response to their request for an audit of the Town Attorney's office as to its practices in hiring an individual (Jay Savino) who was later arrested by the FBI for alleged corruption.  

"Those taxpayers" were a group of Clarkstown citizens who had hired a local Rockland County law firm to force the Town of Clarkstown to release documents that by law were in the public domain. Three citizens of Clarkstown had asked, on behalf of their fellow citizens, if the fix was in to hire the Bronx Republican Chairman, Jay Savino, at any price and was the selection process rigged to justify his retention? Why was he hired behind closed doors and then fired behind closed doors after he was arrested by the FBI? 

Supervisor Gromack was apparently so desperate to avoid these questions from being answered by an independent and open investigation of the procedures being followed by the Town Attorney's office that he appeared to employ a campaign of derogation against three citizens and their law firm while using strong-arm tactics against a fellow Town Supervisor. Gromack's anger appeared to be so outrageous to those of us that were trying to have their questions answered by the Town Board of Clarkstown that a call was made for Gromack's resignation. 

The question that Skriloff's candidacy raises in one's mind is whether the Town of Clarkstown's employees, Sparaco and Lettre, are now attempting to put a puppet in as Supervisor of Stony Point? Does Mr. Sparaco want to control Stony Point and has he been making moves toward that goal for some time? Consider this, Skriloff's running mate is Tom Basile, a Sparaco ally who until recently lived in Clarkstown. Sparaco has according to some also tried to make known to Doug Jobson, that he will run a Republican candidate against him and take over the town's GOP committee.

What does it mean to be in a Political Party in Rockland County? Ed Lettre gives Supervisor Gromack the Conservative Party endorsement. Is Gromack a “Conservative”? Of course not, he is a Democrat. Four years ago Mr. Gromack was the candidate of the Republican Party. Is Mr. Gromack a "Republican"? Of course not. This year the Republican line has been conveniently left blank. Is Skriloff a “Conservative”? Of course not. He is "Green" one day, "Socialist Libertarian" another day, "Conservative" today who runs as the "Independence" candidate with "Republican" support.

The Supervisor of Stony Point is the true conservative in taxes, and a conservative when it comes to ethics and moral values. Stony Point is the only Town in Rockland that did not break the 2% tax cap. Yet there are a lot of people in Rockland County who see the Stony Point Supervisor as the real “Mr. Smith goes to Washington” and who do not want that comparison with their own Towns and their own leadership. In Clarkstown there are citizens who are simply asking why we can not have good ethics and good government principles in Clarkstown. New City resident Tom Nimick is one such individual and when Mr. Nimick Goes To Clarkstown it is always to speak about ethically problematic practices in our Town. 

Sometimes one can understand a lot about what people stand for not in their public campaign speeches but in their public conversations and practices on the internet. To demonstrate my point, let us take a short look at some of the internet exchanges of the two leaders of the Independence Party, Frank Sparaco and John Perrotta and of their candidate, Dylan Skriloff, whom they are backing to lead the people of Stony Point.

1) Legislator Frank Sparaco with the knowledge of Highways Superintendent, Wayne Ballard, surreptitiously recorded a Clarkstown Town Councilman, Frank Borelli, and Ballard’s opponent for the position of Superintendent of Highways, Dennis Malone. Sparaco and Ballard claim he was seeking “corruption” except no one sought the assistance of the FBI, the Clarkstown Town Attorney, or even the Clarkstown Police Chief. Ballard and Sparaco were subsequently sued for slander by Malone which led to the following exchange between Sparaco and Perrotta on Legislator Sparaco's Facebook page in which he referred to Councilman Borelli and Malone as "punks":

Sparaco:  Mr. Borelli and Mr. Malone are liars, extortionists and bribery artists. They are trying to cheat there (sic) way into office. They have threatened to sue me for slander. My response is the tapes speak for themselves, I have truth on my side. I dare you to sue me. I can't wait to dispose (sic) you and see you lie under oath. Put your money where your mouth is punks!

Perrotta:  Oh this is going to be fun. We love playing with little punks.

2) On another occasion a supporter was encouraging a "run for President of the United States". Sparaco offered a glimpse as to what might be his European foreign policy as it pertains to the Serbian people. 

Wahlberg Bryan:  Bro run for president in the next election we got your back.  Get them (sic) demorats (sic) out of there lol (laughing out loud)

Sparaco:  lmao (laughing my ass off) Thanks for the asupport (pun intended?) ... Treat them like we did the serbs in 95 kick there (sic) asses.

3) Given that Sparaco is a Republican he became strangely involved with the ultra-left wing Democratic Working Families Party in helping them through an absentee ballot scheme that resulted in his Republican boss, Superintendent of Highways Wayne Ballard, becoming that party's nominee in the November 5th election. Apparently, in this case he was "kicking Democratic asses" to get them to nominate a Republican.  

Before the absentee ballots were counted a very strange conversation took place on Legislator Sparaco's Facebook page in which Sparaco, Skriloff and Perrotta attempted to explain to Barbara Thorn how the results from the absentee ballots could be known before they were counted. Perrotta, the putative head of the Independence Party then concluded that Barbera (sic) was no better than a "sheep" and that Rockland County should be called Rockland Farm.  Here is that exchange: 

Sparaco September 13, 2013:   I want to thank all of you that supported our team in this years primary election.  We won by record numbers.  All of your overwhelming support exceeded our wildest dreams.  Our opponents are the filthiest I've ever come across.  There (sic) attempts at voter surpression (sic), bribery, and extortion have failed miserably this (sic) far. Lets keep up the momentum and win big in November. I'm proud that Ballard won the conservative primary 5 to 1. The independence primary 4 to 1 and the working families 3 to 1. The voters do know our record and seem to be receptive to our message

Barbara:   Frank, I thought I read that Malone won Working Families but you said Ballard won.

Sparaco:  Ballard won.  We just have to wait for all of the ballots to be counted. He won huge.

Barbara:  I thought all of the votes were counted this past week

Skriloff:  The absentee balots are counted a week after the election night ballots.  That's because they have to allow time for them to arrive by mail.

Barbara:  Thanks Dylan but I think Frank is wrong.  It said in the Patch (which I checked!) that the conservative party line went to Ballard who received 261 votes to the 155 votes cast for the other guy and it said that Ballard won the independence line by 95 votes to 54 but Malone is the Working Families candidate for highway superintendent.  My friend told me I should look at the board of elections website so i did and it shows the same thing that the malone guy won the workers so I'm right.  Absentee ballots only make a difference when candidates are neck and neck like in Florida that time Bush won. Also frank said ballard won the conservative primary 5 to 1 and the independence 4 to 1 and the working families 3 to 1 which is all also wrong.  Not criticizing you guys but just sayin' you men shouldn't exaggerate ;-) 

Sparaco: I am just counting all the absentee ballots that will be officially tallied on tues. The results will be what I said aprox 500 to 160 on the con. 200 to 50 on the independence line. And 160 to 50 on the working families line. All votes are counted it doesn't matter if they make a difference. Tuesday will only confirm my numbers. 

Barbara:  Frank and Dylan ... the absentee ballots are not going to be opened until later this week. You can't be counting them when the board of elections haven't counted them yet.

Perrotta:  Omg (Oh, my God) some people are so ignorant ... Smh (shaking my head) I can't believe how many "sheep" we have on here.  they should call it Rockland Farm not county.   On top of that Barbera (sic) you're wrong about the Independence line ... believe me I should know lol shm idiots! Frank, Dylan don't even respond to idiots like this ... it's literally like talking to a four year old. 

Now that we have established the Independence Party's view about women, Serbs, Democrats (or are they demorats?) and sheep as expressed by its leadership in conversations between themselves and with their candidate for Supervisor of Stony Point we might wonder why Councilwoman Hausner as a young female Democrat in the Town of Clarkstown would have accepted the nomination of the Independence Party to represent it to the voters of Clarkstown?

4) Candidate Skriloff declared himself to have been "scared straight" following his arrest in 2000 as a young man in his early twenties. Yet one wonders why eight years later he would register on the MeetUp website on February 25, 2008 as follows:

Name: Dylan Skriloff
Location: Stony Point, NY
Hometown: Stoned Point, NY
Bio: I dig the energy of life

Was this a hint to readers that he was claiming to be 'Stoned' in Stony Point eight years after a very serious drug conviction for the possession and sale of LSD? If it was a hint to them then Skriloff is probably unfit to hold any political office and if it was not then Skriloff is possibly incompetent to hold political office. 

5) Finally one seeks for a rational explanation as to why anyone would make a comment about women on a YouTube video entitled How to Really Attract Women that was captured in a screen shot before it was removed and described women in a way that is better left to one's more prurient imagination?

This story is not about who should be elected as the Supervisor of Stony Point or of Clarkstown. It is a story about understanding how political bosses get pawns and puppets to run for public office in the dark and dank recesses of Rockland County party politics. Sparaco calls Vinny Reda his mentor; Perrotta on Facebook calls himself Sparaco's top advisor; while Ed Lettre controls all of them through his House of Horrors meetings.

Mr. Skriloff was growing into an effective advocate for the Rockland County Times. He had uncovered many dirty dealings in the Town of Clarkstown. However, as a candidate for Supervisor of the Town of Stony Point beholden to Reda, Sparaco, Perrotta and Lettre, it is to be hoped that the voters will do him a favor and return him to the newspaper business from whence he came and to which he belongs. 

This blog is authored by Michael N. Hull  a retired senior citizen who suggests that the time has come to bring ethics and transparency back into local government. Crony, patronage politics in local government is an expensive and unnecessary tax burden on the electorate. Hull contributes to the Facebook page Clarkstown: What They Don't Want You To Know .