Concerned Orthodox Jewish Families Endorse New Direction 4 Ramapo

October 26, 2017

Dear Ramapo Residents,

We have never been involved in politics, but for the upcoming election of a new supervisor, we feel a need to express our opinion. The Town of Ramapo establishment has Michael Specht as their candidate. He has been a town attorney under St. Lawrence for many years. Together with our whole neighborhood, we are witness to Mr. Specht’s and the town’s negligence in protecting our legal rights as tax-paying citizens of Ramapo.

A massive commercial/ residential mixed use development is going up behind our bedrooms. St. Lawrence’s administration assured us that our legal rights to a buffer with trees would be upheld. By law, that buffer is supposed to be 25 feet. On May 29, 2014 there was a zoning board meeting to decide if variances should be granted to the development. (We have the entire transcript of the meeting.) Many variances bypassing the laws of Ramapo were granted based on a few tradeoffs for the neighbors.

Mr. Michael Specht was the attending town attorney at that meeting. The decision he wrote up for that zoning board meeting did not reflect the final instructions of the board as documented by the transcripts. Since Mr. Specht delayed for one and a half years until he finally wrote up the decision, Mrs. Weaver (chairwoman of the zoning board) must have trustingly signed his write-up without referring back to the transcripts. When we neighbors, at a requested meeting with Mr. Specht and Mr. Alan Berman (another town attorney), pointed out the discrepancies, Mr. Specht refused to correct the mistakes. He is an attorney. We neighbors are not attorneys. He knew that by that time we had no legal recourse to challenge what he wrote.

But we do have recourse in the voting booth! By publicizing how he was instrumental in devastating our neighborhood, we are doing our civic duty to protect our town and other innocent taxpayers. Our whole neighborhood is working against his being elected. The establishment is spreading lies about A New Direction candidates saying they are anti-Semites. We met with Shani Bechhofer and were assured that these are lies that are made up spread with no basis or proof. The candidates are truly motivated to save our town. Please help us spread the word to vote for Weber, Bechhofer, and Valentine to finally take the Town of Ramapo in a new, honest direction.

Please go out to vote for Weber, Bechhofer, and Valentine on November 7th as every vote counts!

Respectfully,

Concerned Citizens of the Augusta, Treetop, Grove Neighborhood

The Ebsteins
The Rubensteins
The Tresses
The Friedmans
The Schwabs
The Wengers
The Kreitmans
The Schafer
The Rabinowitzes
The Tillims