Part 2: A Man Is Known by the Company He Keeps

Holbrook and the company he kept. 

If the amount of ink consumed and paper used was any indicator, it would appear that Sluys’s least favorite politician of all time—and he had more than a few enemies—was Clarkstown Supervisor Charles Holbrook. Native of Congers, an unincorporated hamlet within the Town, Holbrook was bright, personable, and articulate. The man had a presence about him. He was a natural leader, organized and efficient, ran smooth meetings, got things done. People wanted to be around him, work for him, be recognized by him. He instilled loyalty, and rewarded it. He instilled fear: Never forget what can happen to one who doesn’t Play the Game My Way. Or else.

One would be forgiven for thinking that Holbrook was to the manor born. But he most certainly was to the manor headed. A former social studies teacher at Clarkstown North High School, Holbrook married into a local, and well-to-do, landed gentry family. He had a keen sense of living history, and lived, with his wife, in Congers’ oldest pre-Revolutionary War home. A student of psychology, as well, Holbrook intuitively understood what people wanted, knew what it took to rise through the ranks—and had every intention of becoming the Biggest Fish in His Pond. By hook or by crook.

And that he became. By the time our infamous case came along, Holbrook had been Town Supervisor for nearly 20 years. He had a finger in every pie, hand in every pot, and web over all that happened. He had personally hand-selected or approved every department head and every other employee of consequence. All members of all Town Boards and committees had to pass his personal muster. Almost all lawyers practicing in Clarkstown were, or became, registered Democrats. All Democratic lawyers seeking election to one of four seats on the Town Justice Court had to receive his blessings. Whatever went on within the Clarkstown Democratic Party had Holbrook’s invisible fingerprints on it. Two of its chairpersons, we were told, were subsequently appointed Town code enforcers. 

Enforcement begets enforcement …which begets power. As the saying goes, “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Sluys certainly thought that about Holbrook—and had the documentation to show for it! 
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Money was no object to Holbrook. At least not taxpayer’s money. Although not the largest Town by population at the time, Clarkstown nonetheless had by far the greatest number of police officers, despite being ranked the 7th safest suburban community in the country. And, despite multiple scandals involving its own Finest, the police force was growing in number, budget, and power—if not prestige. 

Never forget that enforcement begets enforcement…which begets power.

There were so many official vehicles tooling around Town—and beyond—one would be forgiven for thinking that even some mid- to low-level employees thought of them as personal entitlements. Even though Ramapo township had the largest, and a rapidly changing, population; was fragmented into numerous villages, had all manner of legal issues and a burgeoning and increasingly contentious Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish community and illegal immigrant population, Clarkstown’s legal staff was nearly twice as large. Clarkstown’s total number of employees also far exceeded that of Ramapo. So did its annual budget. And Town Hall was, well, absolutely the finest that money could buy—taxpayers’ money, that is. And that was for starters.

Patronage goes a long way toward retaining power. And it was clear to Sluys, if not to the editors of The Journal News, that Clarkstown was a festering swamp of patronage. 
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Under Holbrook, New City, the seat of Town and county political activities, was deteriorating. Its infrastructure was in need of repair. Main Street consisted of a single lane in each direction, and was often choked with traffic. Access from side streets was difficult. Parking was hard to come by. Shop owners, who saw customers abandoning them in droves for the new 1.8 million-square-foot Palisades Mall, located at the other end of the Town, begged for improvements. As did business people on Maple Avenue, the street where Town Hall and an extravagantly expensive courthouse and police station were also recently erected. But none of them, individually or collectively, had Holbrook’s ear, or sufficient political clout—or a civic association that could deliver thousands of bloc votes to insure one’s election.

End of story? Not at all. Informal discussions and communications ensued about Main Street improvements, meetings were held, a committee appointed, consultants engaged, a study prepared, more meetings, promising architectural and engineering plans were drawn up, vague promises were made, all at a leisurely pace, more pleadings by shop owners dying on the vine, years gone by with no movement. Oops, sorry, we’re in in a budget crunch now. Now, that was how to give lip service in a democracy. 

End of story? Well, not quite. You see, Holbrook wanted—and got—a magnificent new courthouse and police station. Gleaming marble floors, lots of glass, magisterial courtrooms, well-appointed chambers. Cost? Let’s see: $5 million in initial contracts, $5 million in cost overruns, almost no parking, not well thought out.…No problem. You see, there might have been money for Main Street, too, except certain Main Street boosters just didn’t know how to play the game. Take that!

Congers, on the other hand, well, that was a different story. Holbrook, born and raised there, had long-established roots there, nurtured the “establishment” there, scratched their backs, while they in turn scratched his. The alpha and omega of this little story was the Congers Civic Association, founded and run by Penny Leonard—who “just happened to be” Holbrook’s campaign manager and Deputy Supervisor—and who was reputed to be able to deliver 8,000 bloc votes. Bloc voting: now, there’s something a politician could hang his hat on!

Holbrook and Leonard badly wanted to upgrade the “downtown” area of Congers, a small, relatively non-descript, three-street-long retail area with a freight railroad line running through it. Couple of bars, couple of pizza parlors, couple of convenience stores, gas station, fire house, church, VMA hall, couple of other small retail establishments. Not much else.But the “downtown” area had a problem: where the train station stood, dating to the late 1800s, the soil had significantly elevated levels of heavy metals, PCBs, volatile and semi-volatile substances—orders of magnitude higher than any tested soil on our property. 

At one time, the station had been a depot for passengers and, for some 75 years, for the transport of goods, lumber, natural resources, and other essentials destined for New York City and its thriving suburbs. Diesel and coal-powered engines frequently idled during on-and-off-loading, giving off plumes of smoke and toxins. Pressure-treated lumber used for rail beds decayed by the dozens and by the decade, leaching arsenic, cadmium, and other carcinogenic substances into the ground. The bathrooms contained septic systems, with fields that ran into a cesspool, which leached into the ground and under nearby stores. 

Horses, cars, and trucks frequented the property, leaving behind remnants of their visits. Other hazardous and carcinogenic chemicals may also have been transported, stored, and sold for many years. After falling into disuse, the train station was sold to Frederick’s Feed, which stored and sold, among other things, fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.

Elevated levels of hazardous materials from “several upgradient off-site facilities” on a street backing the train station, ran down toward the area. And Congers Lake, which feeds into Lake DeForest, the county’s only reservoir, was just a few hundred feet away.

Problems? No problem! The Town simply hired Lawler, Matusky & Skelly Engineers, P.C., the same engineering firm the Town hired to prepare a hatchet-job report on our property* (*Surely he meant: comprehensive, detailed, legally and scientifically documented, entirely neutral report), by means of undocumented and proven-false hypothetical allegations, court-admitted impermissible use of a State DEC guidance memo for designated Superfund sites on the alleged basis that it was a legal document enforceable by law against undesignated residential properties; improper testing of soil abutting a State highway, as opposed to our property; improper testing procedures, invalid results, scientifically insupportable conclusions, and constitutionally overburdensome recommendations—for starters.
     * Did LMS undertake any tests of the soil at the Congers railroad depot? Nope. 
     * Of groundwater? Nope. 
     * Of air? Nope. 
     * Did LMS address the possible issue of radon, lead in drinking water, or wetlands issues in relation to the railroad depot? Nope. 
     * Did LMS appear concerned that the site “exhibits no apparent means of natural or engineered runoff, and is apparently not connected to the Town’s sanitary sewer system for either wastes or runoff?” Nope, despite acknowledging said issues. 
     * Was LMS concerned about the fact that “historical records in the Town’s possession are minimal, filled with significant gaps, and entirely inadequate in helping to determine site use and possible environmental issues?” Nope, despite acknowledging said issues 
     * Did LMS express any concern about the federal database that “contains 20 additional records” of reported spills and other ‘events’ by Safety-Kleen Corp, the large “upgradient facility” whose primary daily operations included the heavy use of known carcinogenic solvents for cleaning? Nope, despite acknowledging said issues.

What is particularly notable about this LMS report is that it acknowledges the presence of each and every one of these issues—and then summarily dismisses them. So much for scientific objectivity in the interest of the community at large!

If you thought findings, conclusions, and recommendations were all relative to who was paying and their desired outcomes, you surely wouldn’t be the only one. As for LMS, being the most favored engineering company, obtaining numerous no-bid contracts, and reaping many hundreds of thousands of dollars a year makes you kinda, sorta feel like you wouldn’t wanna bite the hand that feeds ya, wouldja?

After a few public hearings, statements whitewashing of the environmental issues, congratulations all around, and approval of $1.3 million to fund a cosmetic makeover of the site—with no remediation whatsoever—the Congers railroad station site became the centerpiece of the Congers downtown rejuvenation project, one that encourages residents (including pregnant and nursing mothers, senior citizens, and other individuals in the most vulnerable subpopulations) to engage in Town, hamlet, and civic association meetings there; play on the grass and hold special events there; and generally be a daily social meeting place for future generations of this fast-growing and upwardly mobile community of environmental tree-hugging purists symbolized by Leonard and her successor at the Congers Civic Association. At a significant cost overrun.

Not a single Journal News story offered the slightest indication that a single probing question was ever asked about the numerous environmental red flags raised in the LMS report. 
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Next week and beyond, we'll take an inside look at Holbrook's lavish expenditures of taxpayers' money, his own mysterious bankruptcy while apparently rolling in dough, and his “hit men.” See also my web site, townofclarkstownvgoldberg.org, for a lot more information.