Now is the time 2 change the somber reality in the Town of Ramapo

On April 12, 2014 Former Ramapo Councilman Danial Friedman took what he described as “the highly unusual but only available option”, & wrote a letter to New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman & New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli asking them to investigate his own Government, the Ramapo township.

In the letter Friedman writes “For some time, I have had growing concerns about the actions of our Supervisor, Christopher P. St. Lawrence, as well as our Town Attorney, Michael Klein. On several occasions in recent months alone, these officials have flagrantly violated the votes and will of the Town Board as well as state laws relating to public contracts, and in their respective capacities, took official governmental actions that disregarded the Town Board’s authority as well as New York State law.”

Friedman goes on to request the “respective offices to investigate, at minimum, the following:

The role of Ramapo Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence in instructing town personnel to perform work activities not related to the job functions they were hired to perform.

The roles of Ramapo Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence and Town Attorney Michael Klein in violations of numerous resolutions approved by the Ramapo Town Board.

The withholding of information by Ramapo Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence and Town Attorney Michael Klein relevant and necessary to the business of the Town Board.

The role of Ramapo Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence in taking unilateral and inappropriate action with regard to various government contracts.

The role of Ramapo Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence in awarding numerous government contracts without Town Board approval, a bid or even an RFP process.

Ramapo Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence’s violations of the Town’s Corrective Action Plan submitted to the NYS Comptroller in response to the 2012 audit.

The deliberate and ignorant disregard for the failing financial health of the Town of Ramapo by Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence and his refusal to address or even recognize key financial issues when they are presented to him during Town Board meetings.

The state of financial unsustainability of the Ramapo LDC under the leadership of its Chairman, Ramapo Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence, and the general lack of oversight of the Ramapo LDC.

Any expenditure of taxpayer monies not authorized by the Town Board, but authorized and expended unilaterally by Ramapo Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence.

Friedman pleas in the letter for them “to intervene immediately for the good of the public and taxpayers, and for the sake of good government. I am also asking that you investigate matters as widely as you see fit, as I am sure that there are other violations that I am not even aware of.

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Friedman’s whistleblowing “for the good of the public and taxpayers” & his accusations of corruption didn’t surprise anyone. It was a known secret in town, Ramapo Supervisor St. Lawrence loves respect, & in exchange for respect & alleged payouts to others within the town, builders have been suppressing the will of the people. While we the people have been shut down.

The timing of his letter came a year after Ramapo was shaken by another corruption scandal, that time in the village of Spring Valley, on April 13, 2013 U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos announced the unsealing of a complaint charging then Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin for receipt of a hidden interest in a real estate project, among other financial benefits. Jasmin was sentenced on August 2, 2015 to four years in prison for extortion & fraud charges.

Along with the announcement of Jasmin’s charges, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos announced the unsealing of a complaint charging then Spring Valley Deputy Mayor Joseph Desmaret for the receipt of approximately $10,500 in cash bribes, in exchange for official act. Desmaret was sentenced on June 18, 2015 to three years in prison for his role in the bribery scheme.

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Most residents within the Town of Ramapo hoped that after Friedman’s bravery of pointing out the corruption within town hall, town officials & the building mafia would stop the corruption. Instead to the shock of many, the building mafia with the support of Town Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence went after Ramapo Councilman Danial Friedman.

Unfortunately, following a vicious campaign of Scaremongering & falsehoods, on Sep 10, 2015 the building mafia successfully got Samuel B. Tress to oust Danial Friedman in the Democrat primary. Tress ultimately won the general on Nov 5, 2015.

Tress’ win came as a somewhat surprise, but more like an open reality, the building mafia’s scare tactics & fearmongering within the orthodox community is so strong, & unfortunately their divisiveness will prevent any non-corrupt figure from successfully being elected to run this great town.

The reason Tress’ win made this somber reality set in, was besides that the mafia successfully ridded us a whistleblower, but the replacement couldn’t be worse. Tress sat on the Ramapo Zoning Board of Appeals, openly known to favor the well-connected & ignore we the people. But even more shockingly is that 14,605 voted for felon Tress. In 2004 he was prosecuted for a federal mail-fraud conviction & in Dec of that year, he pleaded guilty to falsely assuming an identity to obtain a home mortgage loan from a bank in connection with the purchase of a home in Spring Valley. He was sentenced in to three years of supervised release in March 2015.

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Never giving up hope, we the people hoped that following Councilman Friedman’s letter. Justice will be served & all corrupt elected officials along with all accomplices get charged & convicted to the full extent of the law. After all the FBI has raided the Townhall on May 15, 2013 so people where hopeful that the US attorney’s office along with the district attorney will indict & put an end to all the corruption.

The first glimpse of hope came on March 3, 2016 when Councilman Samuel Tress was arrested & according to the Rockland District Attorney office, he faces a felony charge of first-degree offering a false instrument and a misdemeanor count of official misconduct. As Tress voted to back a zoning change on a housing development he held a financial stake in, even though he had signed an affidavit stating he wouldn't profit from his decisions as a Zoning Board of Appeals member. [On Sep 1, 2016 Tress pleaded guilty to official misconduct, he was fined a modest $500 & under a plea agreement, Tress resigned from the Ramapo Town Board.]

Finally, a victory for we the people, someone entrusted to care for the people & instead focused on himself has finally faced justice.

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We the people never giving up hope that truth pushes away darkness, were holding our breath. Will the DA’s offices be successful in uncovering corruption or have the building mafia alongside town officials been so successful in covering up their criminal tracks?

We the people didn’t need to wait long, & on May 14, 2016 US Attorney for the SDNY, Preet Bharara, along with Diego Rodriguez, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the NY Field Office of the FBI Andrew J. Ceresney, the Director of the SEC”s Division of Enforcement & Rockland County DA, Thomas Zugibe, announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Town of Ramapo Supervisor St. Lawrence along with the former Executive Director of the Ramapo Local Development Corporation Aaron Troodler on 22 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy in connection with municipal bonds issued by the Town and by the RLDC. [This was the first municipal bond-related criminal securities fraud charges ever brought.]

A defiant St. Lawrence refused to resign his seat, even after Aaron Troodler plead guilty & agreed to testify against St. Lawrence. Fortunately, on May 19, 2017 the jury in the St. Lawrence trial, returned guilty verdicts on eleven wire fraud counts, eight counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy. St. Lawrence was forced to resign.

Another victory for we the people was on Feb 1, 2017 Ramapo Chief Building Inspector Anthony Mallia was been indicted on 188 counts accusing him of stealing $150,000 from town taxpayers and falsifying building permits and other records.

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Following the conviction of our Town Supervisor, Executive Director of RLDC, a town councilman & the chief building inspector. The one thing that should unite us all is its time for a new direction in Ramapo. This issue should bring our ethnic diversity town together.

non-Jews & Jews alike should all be encouraged & motivated for change. Hopeful for a town not defined by its divisions but rather for our common goals for a new era of integrity, accountability, and social responsibility. That we can each bring up our family without fear of a corrupt elected official approving overdevelopment & turning a blind eye to zoning & safety issues. But arguably most importantly after years of the building mafia run by a group of Hasidic Jews. Causing non-Jews to believe all Jews are evil, even though it is only a select few. [it is like blaming every Italian for the Italian mafia.] this town needs new leaders to heal the divide & work to unify we the people.

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If you are looking for an era of integrity, accountability, and social responsibility. The New Direction for Ramapo ticket is for you. Bill Weber Leads the ticket for Town Supervisor. Bill is a Certified Public Accountant for the last 20 years and currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer of a locally owned company based in Ramapo. He has the experience in both management and budgets. Bill is a lifelong Rockland resident who has long been active in Ramapo. He lives in the Village of Montebello with his wife, Lee, and is the proud father of four children.

Bill has been endorsed by TheJournal News, as the editorial board wrote on Oct 24: We endorse Bill Weber, a Republican who leads the New Direction for Ramapo ticket, for town supervisor. Weber, a CPA, offers financial knowledge and a strong commitment to ethics and transparency. We find his accounting background especially valuable at this juncture. Town finances are a mess and a mystery. “We still don’t have audited budgets from 2014,” Weber said during an Oct. 18 debate at Rockland Community College. “We don’t even know what our fund balance is.”

Running for Town Counsel alongside Bill on the New Direction for Ramapo ticket is, Shani Bechhofer & Grant Valentine.

Shani is a former high school Judaics teacher and principal. She holds a Phd from Northwestern and is currently an independent education consultant. She also co-founded VERAFI, a citizen organization that advocates for integrity in development. Shani is a mother and grandmother and lives in Monsey with her husband of 32 years, Rabbi Yosef Gabriel Bechhofer.

Grant has a long history in local law enforcement and working with Rockland youth, and retired as the Director of Strategic Planning for the NYS Division of Parole. He serves as a Trustee of the Village of Chestnut Ridge, and the strategic planning committee for the East Ramapo school district, where he's lived with his wife, Linda, for the past 20 years. They have four children and five grandchildren.

In the Journal News Editorial endorsing Bill Weber for Town Supervisor, they wrote: Amid Ramapo’s tense ethnic and racial divides, Weber has made more than just gestures toward bridge-building. He leads a ticket that has representation from different party affiliations and various backgrounds, with Democrat Grant Valentine and independent Shani Bechhofer running for town board seats. Valentine, a Chestnut Ridge village trustee and Rockland Community College trustee, is retired from the New York State Division of Parole, where he worked on re-entry standards; he has been active with CEJJES Institute, a Pomona-based foundation dedicated to improving the lives of disenfranchised people, especially children of color. Bechhoffer is a professor at Touro College Graduate School of Jewish Studies and a consultant to Jewish day schools and yeshivas. “We look like Ramapo today,” Weber said during our Oct. 18 debate.

This election should have been a given, after being rocked with corruption you would think the team running for a new era of integrity, accountability, and social responsibility would win in a landslide. But unfortunately, there is one group of people that strive during years of corruption & blind eyes towards zoning & safety laws. That group is the builders. These builders have been making millions off the zoning board giving them everything they want, while ignoring the pleas of we the people.

These builders are supporting Michael Specht, a Deputy Town attorney, [including being an attorney for the town’s zoning board]. Specht either turned a blind eye towards the corruption going on right under his nose. or even worse, is to incompetent to realize that corruption is going on right under his nose. Either way, he isn’t an option for anyone looking for a new era of integrity, accountability, and social responsibility.

in a letter to the Journal News on Oct 26 in response to them endorsing Bill Weber & the New Direction for Ramapo line. Specht argues that he is the “only candidate with the vision and experience to solve the many problems facing our town”

The letter shows how Michael misses the whole point of why this town needs a new fresh direction & not one from the past.
I think the underlying letter in it of itself, should be a reason to vote against Michael Specht. Michael Specht sat alongside the corrupt administration for years on end. So, let's assume Michael Specht has all the right ideas to fix this Town (sidebar: he doesn't), that isn't the point. We aren't necessarily voting for the best ideas, we are voting for the person with the courage & backbone to actually implement change (sidebar: Bill Weber & the New Direction line) & Not someone that remained silent to the building mafia all these years as Michael Specht has done.

The Editorial board at The Journal News give us another reason not to vote for the Specht ticket is, his ticket includes Ramapo’s current acting Town Supervisor Yitzchok Ullman, a Democrat who is seeking re-election to his town board seat. While Ullman now strives to set the town on a better path, we cannot ignore the seemingly blithe neglect of board members in the past.

The builders who have millions to gain if Specht & Ullman win & continue turning a blind eye, nderstand there is no logical way for the ticket that sat through all the corruption should win. The builder mafia understand the only way to remain in power is with scare tactics, fearmongering & divisiveness. The builders are trying to paint Bill Weber & the whole New Direction Ticket as anti-Semites. This is quite ironic since one of people on the ticket is Shani Bechhofer, an orthodox Jew whose husband is a rabbi. [Based on the builders’ logic that whoever gets into the way of what is best for them is an anti-Semite. Then for anyone not personally involved in the builders’ mafia, & is suffering from all the corruption, the builders are anti-Semites. As they don’t have our best interest in mind]

We cannot let the corrupt building mafia crucify good people like Bill, Shani & Grant. We cannot let corruption continue to flourish. We cannot let lies, fearmongering & divisiveness win. We must act, now is our chance. Come out on Nov 7 & Vote for New Direction for Ramapo [on the reform line]. Not coming out to vote is a vote for the corrupt status quo. Encourage ours to get out and vote.

Sean Kay,

P.S. you can check out the New Direction for Ramapo website here. Please volunteer so corruption doesn't continue to flourish & divisiveness doesn’t win.