Borelli Blasts GOP After Removal From Committee

After his removal as a Rockland County GOP Committee member, Clarkstown Councilman Frank Borelli is lashing out at its leadership. In a statement released on Wednesday, Borelli claimed he was ousted from the committee because he refused to support Republican incumbent Clarkstown Highway Superintendent Wayne Ballard and chose to openly back the Democratic challenger Dennis Malone.

Republican Committee Chair Vinny Reda said Borelli was expelled on several charges following a meeting of 19 committee members on Saturday.

“Disloyalty is one of the charges, attempted bribery, attempted corruption,” said Reda.

“Their statement, of attempted bribery, is false, malicious and impugns my character and honorable career,” said Borelli. “This will be rectified in another forum at another time.”

The dispute comes after Borelli, Malone and Rockland County Democratic Committee attorney Larry Weissman were secretly videotaped and recorded by Legislator Frank Sparaco, who is also a part-time highway department employee. Sparaco released portions of eight hours of tapes on July 15 and alleged they revealed an effort to bribe and threaten him to back off supporting Ballard for re-election so Malone could win.

Borelli said, “We should also not forget that actions by the Republican Committee are nothing but a kangaroo court held by people who have spent the past month making false allegations about me and are based solely upon Mr. Sparaco’s highly edited ‘cut and pasted’ tapes.”

Borelli criticized the committee for preventing him from having an attorney and stenographer present at the hearing. Reda said Borelli was asked to attend the hearing but did not and instead sent the attorney and stenographer. 

Despite numerous attempts, Borelli said Sparaco refuses to allow him to see the full set of recordings. Sparaco showed about 40 minutes of edited tapes at a press conference on July 15, which he said revealed attempts to bribe him by offering a large raise and benefits and a vacation to Florida or the Jersey Shore.

“Despite my attorney’s repeated requests for the entire eight hours of the unedited tapes, with time codes, Mr. Sparaco, continues to refuse to turn them over,” Borelli charged. “That’s because Mr. Sparaco knows full well what’s on those tapes and what he said and did. If he had nothing to hide he would release them.  Instead he’s playing a shell game of, “trust me, what I’m showing you is all you need to know and nothing else is relevant.”

When he showed the taped segments, Sparaco said he felt compelled to take action.

“I was never approached in such a blatant manner in my life,” he said.

Borelli said he did not support Ballard because of his opposition to the consolidation of the town garages and his hiring of Sparaco for a $75,000 a year part-time position as constituent services representative.

After the release of the tape segments, Borelli and Malone threatened to file defamation of character lawsuits. Malone confirmed on Thursday he will file a defamation of character lawsuit against Sparaco, Ballard, Reda and Clarkstown Republican Chair Bob Axelrod within the week. Borelli did not say what the status of possible legal action is but his statement indicated it is still a consideration.