The 3 Amigos Going, Going, Gone!

Carmen: I like the one who is not so smart. Other girl: Which one is that? - 'Three Amigos'- HBO Films

The guy on the left of this photograph is Vincent Reda. Moves to have Reda removed as chair of the Rockland County Republican Party accelerated in 2012 after he made major headlines when arrested and charged with shoplifting a 'pea' coat from Macy's. The case was resolved through what is known in legal circles as an "Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal."  In layman's terms the court stated that in six months the charge would be erased as long as Reda did not find himself in trouble again with the law.  

Whatever became of the infamous 'pea' coat is not known but Reda subsequently survived a challenge to his leadership and was reelected by disputed voice vote to head the remnants of the Rockland Republican Party for another two years. Since then he has been holding 'party disloyalty' hearings and has removed Councilman Borelli from the Republican Committee and seeks the removal of 2011 candidate for Supervisor in Clarkstown, Ralph Sabatini, for attending a fundraiser of another candidate. 

The Rockland County Times in the article 'Republican Rebels Launch Assault on Reda' explained how Reda controls the Republicans and Democrats in what might be dubbed the Rockland 'RepubDem' party.  It described how a former Ramapo Town Supervisor candidate charged Reda with being less than loyal himself to Republican candidates. The candidate pointed to Reda not actively supporting him when he ran against St. Lawrence (Supervisor in Ramapo) in 2007, instead Reda "horse-traded" for bloc vote support in another election.   

The Republican party headed by Reda also did not support the Republican candidate for supervisor of Clarkstown, Ralph Sabatini, in the 2011 election thus tacitly endorsing Democrat Gromack in an act of gross 'disloyalty'.  But that was not surprising since Gromack was the candidate whose name Reda put on the Republican line in the election of 2009 and he may have wished to do so again.  

According to Sabatini, the former Republican minority leader in the County Legislature and major player in the 'legal rackets' Independence Party, Frank Sparaco, also betrayed Sabatini's candidacy by supporting Democrat Gromack with an act of extreme 'disloyalty' when he initiated a campaign mailing three days before the election supporting Gromack.  

'RepubDem' Gromack is apparently a man of such wide political principles that he was the only candidate appearing on all five party lines in 2007.   Voters got to decide which lever they pulled but that was all since each lever returned the same candidate. 

This year Reda has no candidate running on the Republican Party line opposing Supervisor Gromack.  Are you surprised that Reda's 'loyalty' is now to a blank line?  However, Preserve Rockland successfully fought in court to put a candidate for Supervisor on its line. 

The guy in the middle of the photograph is the ex-Head of the Bronx Republican Party, Jay Savino. Supervisor Gromack began the year 2012 by giving him an $87,000 patronage job to fill out forms for the Town's tax certiorari cases.  Several Freedom of Information Requests filed with the Town showed that there apparently was a flawed bidding process. Savino’s bid seems to have been made orally and one other firm knowing of the oral bid wrote that they would not submit a proposal as it was not possible to do the work for the amount that Savino claimed.  

When asked for a copy of Savino's resume Town Attorney, Amy Mele, said she had "discarded" it after he was hired. Savino "sat in" with the white-shoe law firm that lost the tax certiorari case to the Palisades Mall resulting in the Town and Schools having to pay back $20 million to the mall.  The school reserves are now near zero and money will have to be borrowed or taxes increased for the leaking roofs and the Congers School to be fixed. 

The story behind the dismal story of Savino's hiring is that the Clarkstown Town Board gave a pink slip to Independence Party political lightweight, Marsha Coopersmith (who previously had headed up the Independence Party until she was ousted by Debra Ortutay - County Legislator Sparaco's mother-in-law) and handed her job conducting the Town’s tax certiorari matters to Bronx Republican Party Chairman, Jay Savino, claiming 'cost savings'.  Councilwoman Hausner said that Savino came to the Town "with baggage" though what the "baggage" was Hausner refused to clarify despite repeated questioning for over one year. Later she said that she had "concerns about his character" but voted to re-hire him in 2013.   Savino was arrested by the FBI four months later for accepting bribes as part of the 'Corridor of Corruption' scandal and then fired by the Town Board in an emergency 'cover-its-ass' meeting. 

The guy on the right of the photograph is County Legislator, Frank Sparaco who was the Republican minority leader in the County Legislature and a person who had sufficient influence to put his mother-in-law in charge of the "legal rackets" Independence Party.  Clarkstown Highway Superintendent Wayne Ballard, in a move that shocked even his most ardent supporters, gave him a part-time job paying $75,000 to answer the telephones in inclement weather.  Since that time he has been collecting absentee ballots for minority party lines in an act that most would think was 'disloyal' to his own party and surreptitiously videotaping his colleagues and a member of the town board in a 'disloyal' and fruitless search for "corruption". 

The Journal News reported Sparaco's appointment as follows:  

"Rockland County Legislature Minority Leader Frank Sparaco has been appointed 'Constituent Representative' for the Clarkstown Highway Department — keeping alive the town’s penchant for hiring political operatives. As a Republican legislator, Sparaco has fought pay raises for county employees. Now he earns $75,000 for a 25-hour-a-week town post. That’s $57.69 per hour. He gets no benefits, though — he gets those, courtesy of the taxpayer, through his part-time county post. Besides his GOP leadership role, Sparaco, who has owned a tanning salon and a vending machine business, has been a key player in the county’s Independence Party. Highway Superintendent Ballard, like Sparaco, is a Republican. But in Clarkstown, that’s of little matter. The Democratic supervisor, Alex Gromack, has various party leaders in his employ, and election after election, he and Ballard have been cross-endorsed and rarely challenged.   Patronage is an institution in Clarkstown."

The explanation that Ballard gave for paying Sparaco nearly $58 per hour for a position that was expected to pay $20 -$25 per hour and rejecting 260 applicants for the position is a very strange story. At a Bardonia Civic Association meeting Ballard tried to sell the Brooklyn bridge in an explanation that went as follows: 

"I did look around considering comparable salaries what the compensation should be and, believe it or not, the $75,000 was fair and equitable to what was happening in the Town of Clarkstown, in the County and in the State ..... I will tell you that $75,OOO per year for 25 hours per week is below the average with only one position being paid less. The median salary for this position is a little more than $100,000 per year for a full time position and 35 hours per week for full time value. In order to compare the two you have to come up with the comp unit value which is the number of hours worked per year and what that value is. 52 weeks per year at 25 hours per week is 1,300 hours worked per year. For the full time position it is 1568 hours per year. Taking into consideration the number of days worked per year, taking away the weekends, the vacation days, the sick days, it comes down to $64 per hour. So what's in that difference between the two, 52 compared to 64. Then if you think on top of that medical and dental brings that up another $10 per hour. I'm telling you I have come up with a justifiable value."

Now that was clear, wasn't it?  And you did buy the bridge, didn't you?

Ballard explanations, reported further in a Nanuet Patch article of December 24, 2012, brought up a discussion of previous questions about Sparaco’s financial backers that were raised by the Journal News a couple of years ago. Two of the people reported to be supplying funds to one of Sparaco’s election campaigns were Michael Persico and John Staluppi who are alleged associates of organized crime.  Why Ballard would risk a patronage appointment of this magnitude and attempt to explain it at several public meetings as rational and reasonable is a mystery to some but an enlightenment to others. However, Ballard's comment ... "I'm telling you I have come up with a justifiable value"... indicates that he understands the cost of everything and the value of nothing.  

On November 5th you will have an opportunity to put a stop to this expenditure of your hard-earned money supporting this abominable behavior.   

That is if you choose to go to the polls and vote!  After all the only one you will be disloyal to by not voting is yourself. 

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.