4h, hot dogs, rides, crafts and anti-corruption campaign: what could be more American? Want to know about the white dog on a red sign? Come to open government booth at the Columbia County county fair.
Want my story? Try this.
Want a complete rap sheet on the town, try this.
Taking the fight for open, accountable government directly to the people. Come see me at booth 3.6, only steps from the table for Beth Cozzolino and other candidates for office.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/...
Thank you to all the people who stopped to listen to my story, get a flier, sign a petition. I had too many petitions and no one signed all of them, so I'll reduce the number... come back and sign if you were in a hurry when you came by the first time.
And show everyone where you stand: buy a shirt, get a dog sign for your house. Say no to corruption. The newspaper is in the tank. The district attorney is a crony. The county board of supervisors will hear no evil. The chair of the ethics board is corrupt.
It doesn't have to be like this. New York needs a local ethics enforcement law.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/...
Stories not covered:
Here are more stories you can read on my blog but not in the local paper of record.
1) Embezzlement: Tal Rappleyea, town attorney to many of the towns in Columbia and Greene counties and for Columbia County as well, helped himself to $10,000 from the town of Stuyvesant with no paperwork in 2009 or consistent explanation. The DA refused to hear my evidence on this case. Mr. Rappleyea recently wrote a letter to the county board of supervisor (CCBOS) justifying this removal of funds but his explanation does not fit the evidence. Because of this recent letter to the board we can no longer consider the removal of funds to be a possible clerical error and we should call it what is is, embezzlement.
Town supervisor and county ethics chair Valerie Bertram assured me that this removal was "no problem." When she said that, it might have been a clerical error, but it was some kind of problem. How can it not be some kind of problem?
http://www.sunshineonthehudson.com/...
2) Fraud: In 2009, Tal submitted a fraudulent invoice and requested an inappropriate payment from me when I was before the town planning board seeking a permit for my business and doing a minro subdivision. Again, in his letter to the CCBOS, he disseminates about this incident. His claims would not withstand investigation. He also threatened to sue me for libel in the same letter to the CCBOS. I am cc-ing Mr. Rappleyea on this email in case he wonders whether or not his libel threat did or did not have the effect he desired.
3) Perjury: In January 2011 Tal participated in a campaign to file a false charge in town criminal court based on pre-mediated and coordinated perjury. I was the victim of this crime. The charge was filed two days after I spoke with the supervisor of the town and county ethics board chair, Valerie Bertram, about the missing $10,000. The town board then illegally hired a special prosecutor in executive session, defying both public officers law and criminal court procedure, to pursue this false charge, the largest law firm in Albany, Whiteman Osterman and Hanna, doing the bidding of a corrupt town government on the taxpayers' dime.
The chair of the ethics board hates to hear about ethics violations. She hates it so much, she will lock you up if you bring her such a charge.
4) Fraud: The town assessor signed off on a resort being listed as a state park for tax purposes. While he admits a "mistake" his actions following the revelation of the "mistake" suggest otherwise.
http://www.sunshineonthehudson.com/...
5) Abuse of power: Is it a coincidence that the guy writing to you, me, has been hauled in front of 13 hearings in Stuyvesant town hall, zoning, planning and criminal court, all on the basis of a charge, loud dog barking, which defies the laws of physics, as affirmed by the editor of the leading peer reviewed acoustics journal in the world and 3 other PhD acoustical engineers and physicists?
I report corruption on my blog. I am hauled into court on trumped up charges. My small, family business is targeted. Is this not a direct assault on my freedom of speech?
http://www.sunshineonthehudson.com/...
6) If need something from other towns, you might check out the comptroller audits. No story?
7) Misappropriation of funds/abuse of power: The town of Stuyvesant held an illegal executive session and spent money based on this secret session. Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna, the largest law firm in Albany, collaborated with the town of Stuyvesant to illegally remove public funds in violation of public officers law with no public interest involved.
http://www.sunshineonthehudson.com/...
8) The role of the district attorney: The DA will not hear a complaint if the fingered suspect is a prominent elected or appointed official in Columbia County, unless maybe the person belongs to the other political party or is otherwise expendible. Tal Rappleyea helped himself to more money than alderman Quintin Cross, who spent time in jail. Mr. Rappleyea wrote a letter to the board, he put his story down in writing. The story doesn’t hold water. Where is the investigation?
Laws broken including both the items above and the issues raised by Mr. Roby: public officers law, perjury, obstruction of justice, embezzlement, fraud, criminal court procedure, penal law, some civil, some criminal. I only know about what I happened to stumble across and now my FOIL requests are routinely ignored.
The amount of money involved in the fraud, embezzlement and misappropriation of funds under public officers law in total is hundreds of thousands (bad assessment, law firm, invoices, etc.), including both misspent funds and uncollected taxes. I believe what I know to be the tip of the iceberg. The officials involved in some of all include Valerie Bertram, Tal Rappleyea, Howard Gleason, Gerry Ennnis, in terms of public officers law, also David Everett, William Nolan, possibly others.
If I believe I can prove these points in court, having files suit in federal court, civil rights action, how it is possible that the local paper can simply ignore the charges? How is it possible that I am able to substantiate all of these charges yet I am the one who has had to have 13 hearings, criminal court, planning, zoning, an on-going 12 month legal battle to protect my liberty and property based on charges with ZERO evidence against me?
I listed the charges I would like considered in court and by the district attorney. I noted the crimes and individuals by name and can include title and address if that would help. I think the charges are serious.
On the other hand, what am I accused of? Dog barking. Not me, actually, the dog. I know, dogs are supposed to bark. Still, that's the charge: dog barking by a dog. The town spent over $60,000 to date, trampling laws and ethics, to pursue a charge of loud dog barking. A nuisance complaint. Not a murder charge.
Does that sound right to you? And get this: the charge isn’t even true. It would be an outrage if the dog were barking loudly. But he isn’t. Let’s hire a special prosecutor and deal with dogs, barking 1000 feet away... never mind the laws of physics which say that sound decays at the inverse square of distance. If we can walk over the constitution, public officers law, criminal law, ethics rules, the media, why shouldn’t we ignore the laws of physics too?
The Register Star wouldn't want to be standing there with no story in the paper when a Federal judge rules on some of this stuff and people wonder why it wasn't in the local paper of record prior to the finding in court. So, get to work.
God bless Anna Hazare. Whatever law India comes up with to stop corruption, I would like a law modeled on that act of the Indian parliament passed by the New York legislature to combat local ethics violations. I would stop eating too but I have small children. Anna Hazare is my hero.
You want to go to a banana republic with no bananas? You can just sit right where you are and wait for it to come to you.
Best,
Will Pflaum
Small business owner: glencadia.com
Blogger: sunshineonthehudson.com
American citizen