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Ramapo Trexit

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Photo of Shmuel Tress leaving Airmont court

Shmuel Tress hustling away from Airmont Court after entering guilty plea.

By the time he arrived at Airmont Village Court, at 5:10 this afternoon, Ramapo Board Member Shmuel (a.k.a Samuel) Tress had already submitted his resignation to the board, to which he had only recently been elected in January. It was the shortest term in recent memory and was part of a plea agreement to satisfy a felony and Class A misdemeanor charge. Tress resigned this morning according to Chief Ramapo Attorney Michael Klein, who, himself, is facing more than 20 federal charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. [Read more…]

Ramapo hires first finance director in 8 years

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John Lynch_Peter Carr

John Lynch  Photo/Peter Carr  The Journal News

“The town has hired a CPA to balance its books at a time when its supervisor and other officials await trial on financial corruption charges.

John W. Lynch, 61, was hired on July 18 at a yearly salary of $140,000, according to the town’s personnel department. He becomes the first person in eight years to hold the position. [Read more…]

The importance of Tim Cronin

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Image of Tim Cronin with St. lawrence resign poster

Tim Cronin on his way home to Vermont

There were a number of gratifying moments at the Sunday night celebration of the Ramapo indictments at the Waterwheel restaurant but one of the most important for me was to see Tim Cronin and his wife Cathy again. Tim had come down from his home in Vermont.

Tim’s story goes back 12 years. It was one of the first feature-length stories that I posted on the website. What happened to Tim and his family provided me my first realization of how corruption emanating from one official in a town can spread out over the entire system. It’s no secret to even casual observers that St. Lawrence is a small, vindictive person whose ambitions far outreach any abilities he might think he possesses. But rarely do people see very much about those victimized by St. Lawrence and those sycophants and cowards who willingly line up behind him.

Tim Cronin is an important figure in the history of the Preserve Ramapo website. He has been a personal example for me, and a major part of my motivation to spend more than a decade exposing the corruption at Ramapo Town Hall, and trying to get those agencies responsible for policing local governments to act on what we have found. Now, the most powerful of those agencies, the U.S. Department of Justice will be handling the prosecution of St. Lawrence and others at Town Hall. [Read more…]

This is a defense of the indicted supervisor?

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Photo of Matthew Ivan Brennan

Matthew I. Brennan Photo contributed to The Journal News

Last night, on the front page of LoHud’s web version of The Journal News, a strange Community View titled “In Defense of Christopher St. Lawrence” was posted by Matthew I. Brennan. The logic was twisted, key facts were not checked by either Brennan or the editors, and the astounding conclusion was that the U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was very disrespectful even if he was on sound legal ground.

Here’s the opening paragraph: “In all fairness, I consider the 30-page indictment against Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence and former Ramapo Local Development Corporation executive director and assistant town attorney N. Aaron Troodler a vindication of the supervisor’s administration.”

A vindication? Is Brennan suggesting that a good way to let everyone know what a great job you’re doing is to get yourself hauled out of your house, pre-dawn, in handcuffs, dragged off to a Federal Court, and there have about two dozen of your crimes read to you, your fans, and the press? [Read more…]

Ramapo auditing firm wants out

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Wordmap of corruption in Ramapo

Today, The Journal News is reporting that the auditing firm that has been annually checking St. Lawrence’s books for many years wants out. “Ramapo’s outside auditors say they are quitting their work for the town, apparently spooked by a federal indictment accusing Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence and others of “cooking the books” to make it appear the town was in healthy financial shape when it actually was hemorrhaging millions of dollars. PKF O’Connor Davies, one of the region’s biggest accounting firms, said it was dropping Ramapo — effective immediately — in an April 28 letter to St. Lawrence and Town Board members.” What is not addressed in the letter is O’Connor Davies’ possible complicity in allowing fraud to continue under their watch, despite being told of its existence by a whistleblower from within the town finance department.  [Read more…]

Bedlam at Ramapo Town Hall

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Photo of demonstration outside Town Hall

Crowd outside Town Hall before the meeting began

It was the second public meeting of the Ramapo Town Board since the arrests and filing of federal charges against the supervisor and three others in town government. At the first meeting, the public was not allowed to offer public comment. At this meeting, Wednesday May 11, they could, and they did.

Photo of crowd inside town hall May 11

Crowd inside Town Hall May 11

The meeting hall was packed, and the overflow was escorted to another meeting room where a monitor was set up to show the proceedings. Ramapo police monitored the crowds in both areas.  [Read more…]

The United States v. Christopher St. Lawrence

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Rockland County Times banner

This article first appeared in the Rockland County Times on April 28.

April 28, 2016–When Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence was arrested two weeks ago, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said it was the first municipal-bond related criminal securities fraud case brought against a public official.

St. Lawrence was charged with 22 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy for selling over $150 million in municipal bonds on fabricated financials. Those defrauded included the citizens of Ramapo and thousands of municipal bond investors around the country. The case will probably not get to court until next year, but hopefully, by that time, the New York State legislature and/or Governor Cuomo will have begun a long-overdue reform of New York’s Local Development Corp. law, which has enabled ethically challenged politicians like St. Lawrence across the state. [Read more…]

St. Lawrence’s two-step fails

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Ramapo police clear the meeting room April 27, 2016

Board watches as Police clear the meeting room

I guess the plan to sneak the first public meeting of the Town Board past the people and the press failed. The regularly scheduled meeting was to be on Thursday morning at 10 am, and there was a rally calling for St. Lawrence’s resignation already in the works. So, St. Lawrence calls a special meeting for Wednesday morning at 9:15. That introduces the quandary: which one to go to? Should the rally still be set for Thursday? What if our group shows up 45 minutes late, thinking the meeting is at 10?

Ah, how the indicted can scheme. Let ’em plan a rally for Thursday, we’ll call a special meeting for Wed with very short notice and change the usual time to 45 minutes earlier. Have the meeting, and then cancel Thursday’s meeting. If anyone does show up Wednesday, it’s a special meeting so the floor does not have to be opened up to the public for them to say bad things about us, and we’ve solved the problem of the first public encounter of  the indicted and the indignant.

Well, it didn’t work. [Read more…]

Provident Park renamed–and the $137k naming fee?

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Aerial photo of Provident Bank Park

Provident Bank Park Photo courtesy Lee Ross

There was a contract in place granting the naming rights of the  ballpark to Provident Bank. The bank signed on to a 10-year contract, paying $2.75 million for the right to have their name on the stadium. The annual payment made to the Town of Ramapo was $137,500.

Now that the “master builder” of the project has been indicted, it appears Provident Bank (now known as Sterling National Bank) is scrambling away from any association with the failed, and now toxic, enterprise. But what about the Town’s $137.5K? How was the contract terminated? We are in the 5th year, only halfway through the life of the contract. [Read more…]