10/25/2017
This just came out this morning, a great endorsement for a great guy!
Our Town Newspaper Endorses Thom Kleiner for Supervisor, October 25, 2017
Kleiner seeks to return to Orangetown Town Hall bringing with him 14 years of experience as an elected Supervisor and six years of state government experience and as the Labor Department regional representative for economic development in the Hudson Valley. He also worked in consumer protection in New York City.
While serving as Supervisor, he and the Town Board bought the Rockland Psychiatric Center property as state surplus, fended off a proposal for a 5,000 unit condo complex, and negotiated a deal with the Hovnanian organization for a mixed-use development with much lower density.
In his 14 years he has worked equally well with a Democratic council majority and as a minority Supervisor with a Republican majority board, the latter achieved through consensus and diplomacy. Worth noting: All decisions made by the Town Board during Kleiner’s administration were made by a majority town board vote.
It was Kleiner’s idea to designate the Town Board as the lead industrial development agency in all land development decisions affecting the surplus property to prevent over-development and runaway density. That careful preparation is now bearing fruit. Kleiner is seasoned and has demonstrated his competence.
Chris Day, his opponent, is a Clarkstown native who just recently settled in Orangetown. He has unsuccessfully sought elected office before running for Supervisor.
A former military officer, he has announced his plan to introduce military discipline to town government.
While the top-down command chain works well for those giving direct orders, it does not work in elected office, where cooperation and consensus are required, as well as responsiveness to a flow of open communication from the citizenry and town employees upward.
Day has also raised the spectre of “high density housing” with vivid shock photos of Ramapo overdevelopment in campaign literature, clearly designed to incite fear and divisiveness. Fearmongering with false or misleading accusations is despicable.
For the record, and any despite any last-minute anonymous robo calls that may go out, there is no public or high-density housing planned for or coming to Orangetown.
The last “public housing” that was built was the Homes for Heroes development on surplus military property in Tappan, with apartments specifically designed for disabled combat veterans. We’ve heard no complaints about that, only warm welcome from the community.
Prior to that, the Republican administration of Joe Colello in conjunction with the Carpenters and Joiners Union, built Cortwood Village, a senior citizen complex managed by the Orangetown Housing Authority. No complaints there either.
And yes, Day should look at the subsidized housing provided for volunteer first-responders along Chief Billy Harris Way.
Besides campaigning on deliberate half-truths, Day also fails to understand the need to work with, and not against the villages in Orangetown. In proposing a ferry service between Piermont and Westchester, Day chose not to consult or even inform Chris Sanders, the mayor of Piermont about the plan. For what reason? Sanders is a Democrat, therefore eligible to be ignored. Day’s world is black and white, either with him or against him; the real world is made up of shadings of opinion which must be recognized and understood for successful leadership.
