07/22/2023
‘‘𝑪𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒏: 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝑫𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝑾𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑻𝒐 𝑲𝒏𝒐𝒘’ 𝑯𝒂𝒔 𝑵𝒐𝒘 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝑰𝒕𝒔 𝑻𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒉 𝑨𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒂𝒓𝒚.
Ten years have passed ..... A big ‘thank you’ to all of our readers who reside throughout Rockland County, Orange County, and in New Jersey.
Preet Bharara once remarked that a corridor of corruption was running through Rockland County. How right he was! Where is he now after having been ”fired” by Trump? He was speaking the truth at one time and had the power to expose and prosecute political criminality.
As we have said every year, we hope we have been able to provide each of you with useful educational information on the politics AND the corruption that has been pervasive in this community and which continues as we have shown in our posts just as recently as this past week.
Many attempts have been made to have this page removed and we assume that if Bharara was unable to survive then why should we expect anything different? Corruption only survives when good people do nothing and history teaches us that unfortunately most good people are afraid to do something and as a result live in silence and fear.
When we began this page in 2013 Alex Gromack and Ed Lettre controlled the Town, Ed Day was not expected to win the position of County Executive and Legislator Frank Sparaco appeared to be a rising star on the political horizon destined to become the kingpin and kingmaker in Rockland.
The Conservative Party and the bloc vote was adamantly opposed to Day’s election but a group of citizens rallied to his support and provided the necessary votes to twice overcome the Conservative leadership’s opposition and the bloc vote against him.
Then according to a statement put out by the bloc, we learned that Day treated the ultra-Orthodox religious community differently during Covid and sat down with the community. We were informed by a statement issued by the religious community’s leadership to vote for him for a third term. The statement said in essence that despite Day’s poor behavior in his first two terms he had changed and the bloc should accordingly vote for him for a third term.
Gone at that point was the basic principle on which many of Day’s original supporters worked to put him into office - “Equal Treatment For All With Special Treatment For None”. Today, many of those who worked formally and informally to put him into office for two terms now watch as the Rockland he claims to be reviving shows aspects of becoming a third-world theocracy. He has even lost the support of many in the first responder community for his lackadaisical approach and leadership towards code violations and the growth of slum landlord properties.
The arrogance of the powerful interests that controlled Rockland ten years ago led former Republican Party Chairman, Vinnie ‘Pea Coat’ Reda, Legislator Frank ‘Mother Nature’ Sparaco, and former Clarkstown Highway Superintendent Wayne Ballard to sue CWTDWYTK claiming it was “making them look like criminals”. With a wealth of questions we were about to ask during depositions the cowards ran. Reda was eventually removed from party leadership, Sparaco spent time in the local jail for election improprieties and then left the county, while Ballard recently escaped conviction during a bench trial in Judge Russo’s court over his alleged actions leading up to the Evergreen fire.
As to former Supervisor Gromack, he lost an election to present supervisor George Hoehmann after we published a series of articles on the Town’s finances showing that he was attempting to sell the Middlewood Senior Housing complex to shore up the town’s reserve fund. Previously he had attempted to get Rockland County Sewer Funds to pay for the construction of a police garage under the aegis of former Police Chief Sullivan who was later dismissed after a disciplinary hearing on his activities with the Rockland County Strategic Intelligence Unit.
That unit, under the leadership of Stephen ‘Wipe My Hard Drive’ Cole-Hatchard - who among other discretions had been allegedly trying to get rid of a judge and a sheriff - took a great interest in reading one of this Facebook’s publications on the cost of running the Clarkstown Police Department and became overly interested in who had liked and commented on the post. He had passed this information to the police chief of Clarkstown in a highly improper action conducted by the intelligence unit operating out of a building in Pearl River.
Supervisor Gromack, it was later learned, had taken payments from Richard Brega which were not declared on his ethics forms. Gromack’s wife and daughter had also been employed by Brega who was convicted and imprisoned for corruption associated with the running of a bus contract given to him by the county legislature under Ramapo Legislator Schoenberger.
The contract was so underbid that some members of the county legislature attempted to save Brega by proposing to give him money to wash his buses daily so that they would not burst into fire as one had done in Pearl River due to an overheated brake.
Brega had allegedly bundled campaign contributions to Schoenberger. The latter, after Brega’s conviction, quietly stepped down as a legislator and disappeared into the Ramapo wilderness.
Of late it has become increasingly obvious that the behavior of the ultra-Orthodox community in Rockland County, and the associated corruption remains Rockland’s number one problem.
Who can forget former Ramapo Supervisor, the imprisoned Christopher St. Lawrence? Yet what has changed in Ramapo? The answer is ‘Nothing’. Ramapo is controlled by the Ramapo bloc vote and the present Supervisor, Specht, is in our opinion nothing more than a puppet figurehead fronting for the Ramapo bloc. That vote formerly was in control of the Rockland County Democratic Party as was evidenced when a disdained Democrat, who was perhaps really a closet Republican, Judge Walsh, became District Attorney with nearly 100% support of the bloc.
In Ramapo “Three Car Garages” can now be constructed on single family lots and can be operated as “Houses of Worship”. The District Attorney’s office has done next to nothing to help stem the bad behavior of those who operate slum landlord housing. Neither has the county legislature where the sale of the Sain Building still stands today a monument to bloc dereliction in the heart of downtown New City.
Legislator Wieder trashed, and burned in a public bonfire, a report on the requirements for the teaching of secular education to the Haredi children now receiving little to no education in trailers parked in the back yards of private homes while successive NY State Governors still pay periodic visits to the religious leaders of these communities promising to bring the state’s checkbook to their aid in return for their vote.
Today Congressman Lawler and State Senator Weber pile jaw-dropping compliments on the education being meted out in such schools. Both Weber and Lawler spoke about the issue of New York State’s mandated secular education in religious schools and the requirement for it to be substantially equivalent to that taught in public schools. Religious schools are attended by over 30,000 children in Rockland County.
Weber stated that “𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙚𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙞𝙣 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝙔𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚. 𝙒𝙚’𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙩 – 𝙬𝙚’𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙍𝙚𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙙𝙞𝙙. 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝟑𝟓𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙨, 𝙢𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙨, 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮. 𝙒𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝘼𝙡𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙪𝙚𝙨.”
Apparently Weber believes that it is “our values” not to teach 35,000 children growing up in Rockland English, Mathematics, and Science?
Lawler said that he saw “𝙖 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙪𝙢 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙖 𝙨𝙪𝙗𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙩𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚. 𝘼𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙙, 𝙬𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙪𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮’𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙩, 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙧, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮’𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙖 𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙚𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣.”
One wonders just how honest and sincere Lawler is being when he speaks like that? Shortly after his election Lawler rolled Speaker McCarthy up to Rockland County where he spoke to a predominantly religious crowd. Where were the similar speeches to Rockland’s secular citizens? Today Lawler is totally silent on RLUIPA, the federal law that is slowly destroying all logical zoning in Rockland County. A review of it was promised when it first passed and only a person elected to Congress can start that process. Guess why? Correct! It benefits a group to which Lawler is now tied at the hip.
Rockland County still faces crises of unparalleled magnitude. County Executive Ed Day says he is making Rockland great again and claims we are living in a “renaissance”.
Some renaissance! Seven people have died in fires during his watch! He is now reduced to complimenting Sarah Wallace for repeatedly standing on the Rockland County ‘Bully Pulpit’ he used to occupy and asking the hard questions he used to ask. Ten years ago he and Hoehmann championed term limits in the most strident terms. Day promised he would only serve two terms. Today Day is in his third term with the support of the bloc vote.
Hoehmann had a religious conversion on the road to the end of his fourth term. In a flash of ethical revelation his eyes were opened and he discovered that he had put an illegal term limits law into force by not holding a referendum! It seems he then felt a ‘moral obligation’ to put matters right! Today he is running for an additional term beyond the limit that his “illegal law” denied to Frank Borelli and Justin Sweet.
After the last November elections the election districts were redrawn by agreement with bloc-controlled legislators. Ed Day said he was the only one who would veto such a thing if he won a third term.
One of the most important elections coming up this November is that for District Attorney of Rockland County. There are three candidates in this race - the bloc’s candidate, Judge Walsh, on the Republican line, the bloc’s candidate, Judge Walsh, on the Democratic line, and the bloc’s candidate, Judge Walsh, on the Conservative line.
Everyone knows how successful Walsh was in prosecuting criminal cases in his first term. But what does it matter now who the District Attorney is when County Executive Day, Congressman Lawler, and State Senator Weber all depend on the bloc vote to ensure their own re-elections and when a 20 year judge in office in Clarkstown allegedly confessed that the justice system in Rockland County was corrupt, the religious community could fix cases, and that he had smoked ma*****na ever since he left law school including while adjudicating cases in his own courtroom?
Preet Bharara: Where are you now?
That is a short summary of where this CWTDWYTK journey has taken us as we enter our eleventh year with you our 16,000 followers. If we have made a difference to your day-to-day lives as engaged residents then it is all worthwhile.
We look forward to hearing your feedback and please share this post with your Rockland County friends. There is a lot we can do together to control our own destinies if we would just drop our party affiliations and vote in our own bloc according to the principle of “Equal Treatment For All, Special Treatment For None”.
𝗜𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝘁. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹!
