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Archives for September 2016

Rockland officials criticize water rate hike plan

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“The Rockland water company’s proposal to raise bills by 17 percent over three years is being criticized by local officials, days before a public hearing.

Suez New York’s attempt to get customers to pay for costs related to its failed Haverstraw desalination plant accounts for 65 percent of the increase — a source of controversy among local activists and officials.

A joint proposal between Suez and the state Public Service Commission staff calls for rate hikes of 5.9 percent in the first year, 5.6 percent in the second year, and 5.3 percent in the third year. [Read more…]

Ramapo Board unanimously votes to exceed tax cap

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Tax Cap with State logos

About four years ago, New York State put a cap on the amount local taxes could be raised. It was an attempt to slow down runaway increases. In the State guidelines, the following section sums up the law: “The tax cap law establishes a limit on the annual growth of property taxes levied by local governments and school districts to two percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less.”

The law applies to all local governments including towns. Unfortunately, the State built in an escape clause for politicians with an override mechanism. “The tax levy cannot exceed the cap unless 60% of the total voting power of the governing body (for local governments) approve such increase.” [Read more…]

$3M E. Ramapo plan OK; full-day K begins Oct. 6

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Commissioner MaryEllen Elia Photo/ Peter Carr Journal News

Commissioner MaryEllen Elia Photo/ Peter Carr Journal News

“The state education commissioner has approved the East Ramapo school district’s plan for using $3 million in state aid to create universal full-day kindergarten and restore arts programs in grades K-6, among other initiatives.

Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said Monday that she had given her blessing to the plan, and also said she would join state-appointed monitors Charles Szuberla and John Sipple at a public meeting to discuss the initiatives at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Rockland Community College’s Cultural Arts Center, 145 College Road, Ramapo. [Read more…]

Ramapo eyes private firm to run planning, zoning

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Laberge Engineering Group

“With Chief Building Inspector Anthony Mallia suspended from his town post due to pending criminal charges, Ramapo officials are looking at contracting with an engineering company to handle issues involving construction projects and developers.

The Laberge Group would be hired to perform the building and zoning work on a month-to-month basis while Mallia is facing a corruption case put together by the Rockland District Attorney’s Office, Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence said Friday.

Laberge Group has been asked to put together a proposal under which it would handle all projects before the town planning and zoning boards. The group also would review the fees charged for construction, which have not changed since 1995, he said. [Read more…]

If East Ramapo didn’t harm our children, we wouldn’t sue

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This is a response, posted in The Journal News, to Joseph Petlin’s complaint about lawsuits directed at the East Ramapo School Board. Petlin is the Superintendent of Schools in Kiryas Joel.

East Ramapo did not have any problem with legal fees before the school board was taken over by people who favor the interests of the nonpublic schools. One of the first things they did was to get rid of the district’s a longstanding lawyer, Stephen Fromson, and replace him with a law firm charging over twice as much. This law firm worked with the rogue school board to spend public dollars on tuition in private schools. This resulted in citations by the state education department and loss of state funding. [Read more…]

Two vie for Ramapo Town Board Seat

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bill-weber

Bill Weber Republican Candidate for Ramapo Town Board 

“Two candidates will face off for a single seat on the all-Democratic Town Board in November.

Democrat Michael Rossman and Republican William Weber Jr. will be on the ballot in the Nov. 8 general election to fill the Town Board seat left vacant by former Councilman Samuel Tress.

Rossman, like Tress, is an insider coming from the Ramapo Zoning Board of Appeals. Same board Tress served on.

Tress resigned earlier this month as part of a guilty plea to official misconductfor voting for a zone change on a housing development that he held a financial stake in. [Read more…]

Ex-Cuomo aides charged in federal corruption inquiry

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percoco-and-cuomo

Joseph Percoco, left, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2013. Mr. Percoco who is now facing corruption charges, was Cuomo’s all-purpose body man and  political enforcer. Mike Groll/ Associated Press

“Federal corruption charges were announced on Thursday against two former close aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a senior state official and six other people, in a blow to the governor’s innermost circle and a repudiation of the way his prized upstate economic development programs were managed.

The charges against former aides, Joseph Percoco and Todd R.

Joseph Percoco is a native Rocklander who grew up in New City
Howe, and the state official Alain Kaloyeros, were the culmination of a long-running federal investigation into the Cuomo’s administration’s efforts  to lure jobs and businesses to upstate Nw York’s limping economy by furnishing billions of dollars in state funds to developers from Buffalo to Albany.

In doing so, says a 79-page criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday, Mr. Percoco and Mr. Howe sought to enrich themselves through bribes, using their positions to help particular companies receive ‘hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts and other official state benefits.’

The charges mark the second major inquiry of the Cuomo administration by the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan; eight months ago, after investigating Mr. Cuomo’s handling of an anticorruption panel that he had created and abruptly shut down, Mr. Bharara said there was ‘insufficient evidence to prove a federal crime.’ ” (New York Times Thursday, Sept 22)

[Local efforts by the FBI and Mr. Bharara’s office have netted and charged 4 local Ramapo officials with federal criminal and civil charges. Those officials include the Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence (22 criminal and 22 civil counts), Executive Director of the Ramapo Local Development Corp Aaron Troodler (22 federal and 22 civil counts), Ramapo Town Attorney Michael Klein (22 civil counts brought by the SEC), and Nathan Oberman (22 counts brought by the SEC). We are still awaiting results of a recent widespread FBI raid of local religious schools and related businesses.]

Read the complete New York Times article here.

Residents share ‘blockbusting’ stories at public hearing

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photo-peter-carrPhoto Peter Carr/ The Journal News

“Claudia Gollub believes real estate agents have placed “a major bull’s-eye on the back of the Village of Chestnut Ridge.”

Gollub detailed during a public hearing at Rockland County Community College put on by the Department of State’s Division of Licensing Service Wednesday night how she has been repeatedly harassed to sell her house in the village by home buyers. In one instance, she claimed she was threatened about how her neighborhood was changing. [Read more…]

Mona’s gamble works–Ramapo Democratic Committee maneuvers Rossman on to Town Board

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mona-montal

If the meeting had been called for Saturday morning (the Jewish Sabbath) there would have been hell to pay–cries of illicit political exclusion and craven anti-Semitism—but since this was called for a mid-Sunday morning (the Christian Sabbath) all that was required was a disingenuous apology from Chair/operative Mona Montal to excuse the scheduling. For those who think that’s kind of overstating a simple mistake, recall the infamous Oz’s Curtain that appeared at a previous Ramapo Democratic Committee meeting—Oct. 29, 2008. Ramapo town attorneys were brought in and hid behind a curtain as they threw out countless proxy votes that could have established Preserve Ramapo’s control over the Committee (read “Throw ‘Em Out” Trying to Steal an Election—Part 3).  [Read more…]

Rockland school district fights Ramapo tax fees

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Ramapo Central school officials are backing a proposed state law that would allow districts to collect their own taxes, which officials say could potentially save residents thousands of dollars

Ramapo Central school district attorney Stephen Fromson said under the current system, the town of Ramapo charges taxpayers 1 percent of the tax levy to collect taxes, which amounted to about $900,000 for the 2015-2016 school year. For a Ramapo Central resident with an average school tax bill of about $10,000, this would mean a $100 fee.

Besides Ramapo Central, taxpayers in the East Ramapo and North Rockland districts were charged 1 percent of the tax levy for the collection. In East Ramapo this added up to an estimated $1.2 million for the 2015-16 school year; North Rockland taxpayers were on the hook for an estimated $1.3 million, according to figures compiled by Ramapo Central. [Read more…]