Wolfe Holds Fast to Rejection of Rockland Human Rights Commissioner

New City, NY — Rockland County Legislature Chairman Alden H. Wolfe said he has not changed his position regarding the legislature's refusal to confirm the county’s Acting Human Rights Commissioner.

“In an effort to further politicize the position of Human Rights Commissioner, the County Executive has made a very serious and irresponsible accusation - that Legislators have interfered with an ongoing investigation by rejecting Dr. Jennings’ appointment. This is an utter fabrication,” Wolfe said. “Despite my request of Dr. Jennings, no details of any kind related to this investigation have been provided to us. We are not mind readers, and rely on our department heads to provide us with timely, relevant information on all issues concerning County government.”

Wolfe was surprised to learn in early November of investigation into Rockland County’s CDBG program.

Apparently it has been going on for some time.

“My administration has long had concerns about how the Community Development Office is run. We instructed the former director to report back to us about the agency’s financials. We were not satisfied with the response," Rockland County Executive Ed Day said in a statement Nov. 10. "In June of this year, very soon after Dr. Penny Jennings was appointed [Human Rights Commissioner], I directed Rockland County Auditor Robert Bergman to review the financial operations. He reported back that he found numerous areas of concern, including issues that were possibly criminal. In early October, he informed the office of the District Attorney of his preliminary findings. The federal Housing and Urban Development has also been reviewing the Community Development Office. They have recently added a special investigator to the review. Any allegations of wrongdoing involving federal funds is handled by federal agencies."

The CDBG program is administered nationally by HUD and locally by the Rockland County Office of Community Development.

The grants help fund public improvement projects ranging from the Bowline Point Park playground in Haverstraw town and a community park in Kaser, to sidewalk improvements on Midland Avenue in Nyack and Wayne Avenue in Suffern.

The CDBG investigation is also retroactively a reason to hold to his opposition to Jennings, Wolfe said.

Jennings signed a questionnaire in which she acknowledged that the executive and legislative branches are co-equal branches of Rockland County government and that she had a responsibility to both branches. Instead, a legislative spokesperson alleged, "she ignored emails and calls from Wolfe and his assistant, and failed to attend any committee meetings for weeks."

“The subsequent disclosure of an investigation within the CDBG program and the fact that despite my request of her, the press has more information than Legislators do, further supports my position on this issue,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe said he backs the investigations into the CDBG program, and that he sent memos last week to the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office and the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C. and to the Office of General Counsel’s Region II Regional Counsel in Manhattan.

The most recent CDBG awards were announced by the County Executive in July and totaled more than $2.38 million to more than 30 municipalities, not-for-profit organizations and community groups across Rockland. Wolfe also said that Jennings had never answered lawmakers' questions from July about how the 2016 block grant allocations were "more fair" than in previous years.

Responding to that allegation, Day made public a copy of her response to the Legislature dated and time stamped by the Legislative clerk Aug. 2, 2016.