Ramapo Town Council candidate- Preserve Ramapo/Rockland (MUST READ!!)

Dear Stakeholders,

Our town is in terrible trouble.  This year Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence and his rubber stamp town board raised our general town tax by 9.4%.  Unfortunately, this is only the beginning. Despite this record increase Ramapo is on the verge of bankruptcy. The comptroller of New York has just identified Ramapo as the most financially stressed of New York’s 900 towns.

How did this happen?  It is the result of years of financial manipulation by St. Lawrence who is also Ramapo’s Director of finance. St. Lawrence’s $60 million stadium is losing millions of dollars a year. But this is only part of a story of greed and incompetence.

You probably saw the headlines—40 FBI agents surrounded town hall and left nine hours later with boxes of documents and hard disks.  Have alleged criminal acts occurred in town hall?  Will anybody be arrested? We will not know this unless or until the federal attorney goes to court with criminal indictments.

It is time to fight back.  We are going to defeat St.Lawrence and his rubber stamp board in the election this November.  But we can’t do it without your help.  In order to get on the ballot we have to collect thousands of signatures on the enclosed petitions.  

Our candidate for supervisor is Mike Parietti.  Mike needs no introduction to those of you who have worked with Preserve Ramapo for the last twelve years.  Mike is a graduate of West Point, a former captain in the army  and an eloquent fighter for democracy in Ramapo.  

He is joined by Betty Carmand and Weldon McWilliams, IV. Mrs. Carmand  has three children in our public schools and is the lead plaintiff in the citizen’s appeal to the NYS Education Commissioner to prevent the East Ramapo school board members from using public funds to defend themselves from the lawsuit brought by parents against the board.  Dr. McWilliams who received his Ph. D  from Temple University is professor at SUNY Duchess and the youth minister at the First Baptist Church in Spring Valley.  Both have fought to protect the education of our East Ramapo school children.  Please support our wonderful candidates.  

A second petition is for Ed Day who is running for County Executive   We do not know who he will be running against in November. But we do know that it will be one of the three candidates competing in the Democratic primary this fall.  All of these candidates have been supported in the past by Ramapo’s discredited Democratic machine.  

Ed has been outspoken in his opposition to over development including the proposed development of Patrick Farm.  And, unlike his three Democratic opponents, he has been a staunch supporter of our kids in East Ramapo. As a life-long registered Democrat I do not take any pleasure in my repudiation of my own local party.  But it is clear that it is time for a change.

We are depending on you to circulate our petitions so that we can get on the ballot in November.  It is the only way we can protect our future   St. Lawrence’s irresponsible decisions are going to cost every family in Ramapo thousands of dollars over just the next decade.  We cannot allow this disaster to continue.

We also need your truly generous contributions to continue our fight in November.  You can be sure that the developers and slum lords who are the real power in Ramapo will fight to maintain control of our town.Twenty-five and fifty dollar contributions are greatly appreciated, but we also need much larger contributions if we are going to win in November.  Checks should be made out to Preserve Ramapo, Box 325, Suffern, N.Y. 10901.

Robert I. Rhodes, Ph.D.

Chairman, Preserve Ramapo      www.PreserveRamapo.org