On Tuesday October 7th at 7PM, the County Legislature will be meeting at their building at 11 New Hempstead Road in New City to vote to override two important Ed Day Vetoes. The first Ed Day veto was executed when the Legislature had voted “YES” (except for Legislators Carey, Meyers and Grant who voted “NO” ) to raise every county taxpayer’s bill by 4% over the next 4 years in order to finance daily bus washings for the Brega Bus Company. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!! Our County Legislature had already approved this ridiculous expenditure only to have it vetoed by County Executive Day. We have consistently been ranked as the most fiscally stressed county in New York State. Our deficit is at a staggering $138.5 million dollars. The county is fighting through a FINANCIAL CRISIS. Yet the very generous and friendly individuals that represent us in the County Legislature (except for Carey, Meyers, Grant and now Kantrowitz who has changed his mind ), are about to again authorize your money to be given to Brega Bus Company to wash buses daily. The most galling part of this disgrace is that the Legislature is claiming that the buses need to be washed daily to prevent bus fires! The Legislature has determined without any professional opinion from members of any fire service, that the bus that caught fire earlier in the year, did so because it was not washed frequently enough! I can tell you as a former New York City Fire Marshal, that the notion that automobile fires are caused by grime build-up is patently ridiculous! A much more plausible explanation to this tragedy may be that favors are being returned with our money. Employees of Brega Busing and the owners as well, made obscene contributions to the “Ilan Schoenberger for County Executive” campaign last year. When all of the contributions were tallied up, they totaled more than $50K! Many of these low/mid level employees of Brega were donating $2,500 each! Another problem with this upcoming vote, is that reliable sources have confirmed that Legislator Frank Sparaco’s wife is currently employed by Brega Busing. If this is any way untrue, then Legislator Sparaco should jump out in front of this allegation once and for all. Otherwise, we should fully expect to see both Legislators Schoenberger and Sparaco recuse themselves from participating in any vote regarding this agenda item. Their ethical integrity shall be tested on Tuesday night! There will be an additional agenda item that the Legislature will vote on. This item was previously vetoed by County Executive Day and it regards the integrity of future zoning laws. The Legal Consistency Law, if enacted will allow local municipalities to potentially classify their neighborhoods as “historic areas.” If this gets approved by the Legislature, it would open the floodgates for unscrupulous builders to “down-zone” and have carte-blanche to build any monstrosity that they want to as long as the municipality designates that area as a “historic area”. These municipalities would not have any legal thresholds that they would be required to meet in order to declare an area “historic”. They would become the prevailing authority in this matter! Again, the will of the people is being denied by the representatives that are supposed to be advocating for us. Please participate in the democratic process by attending the Legislative meeting this Tuesday. You will be able to park in the courthouse parking lot as well as the parking lot across the street. The Legislative building is located on New Hempstead Road about 150 yards up the street, once you turn off of Main Street in New City. You will not be expected to speak at this meeting. Your physical presence in the room will speak LOUD AND CLEAR to the Legislators that will have to look at you as they vote on these items. You saw the amazing results that occurred in the past year by everyone’s involvement. Let’s keep the momentum up. It is also important that you call your Legislator Monday or Tuesday at 845-638-5100. Sincerely, Pete Bradley rocklandvoice/opinion/a-tax-increase-of-4-and-a-zoning-decrease/
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 19:10:30 +0000
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