At least the Record cares about honest elections in Woodbury.
Today's editorial says it all:
Opinion
'Sorry' is not enough
'November 13, 2007'
The supervisor in Woodbury has apologized for his role in disseminating disinformation that might have affected the outcome of the recent election.
The apology is nice and welcome. Now, what else will he do and what will those who benefited from the sleazy campaign tactics do as well?
Here's what happened: Fliers went to homes in Timber Ridge, a condominium development where owners are fighting increased assessments. The fliers blamed two Republican incumbents for hiring the assessor and approving the actions.
Here are the problems: The assessor acts independently, the board does not act on the figures, and one of the candidates was not even on the board when it appointed the assessor.
One winning candidate in the close race said the information came from the supervisor. The supervisor says that's true. So Woodbury has elected a Democratic majority based on disinformation. Worse than that, it has at least one board member and a supervisor who seem to know little about how the offices they now hold really work.
If they really regret these actions, the members will resign and give Woodbury voters a chance to have an honest election.
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12 comments:
Too bad a second election will never happen. Whats even sadder is that Burke and those two other liars don't care what the Town people think. To them the end justifies the means. This Thursdays Board meeting should be attended by everyone who finds this whole matter discusting! MAKE THAT MAN ( which he is not) admit to, (not a "MISTAKE BEING MADE"), but to a well planned, well thought out, deceitful message that was aimed at the people who were at their most vulnerable, being Timber Ridge.
I live in Timber Ridge, and you can bet that I will be at this weeks meeting. I want to know what part of that flier did he musunderstand. There was nothing ambiguous about it. I want to know why he thinks it was ok to lie to me, the person who pays his salary, about such an important issue. Be very careful Supervisor
Burke.
I beleive the next meeting will not be until December...next Thrusday is Thanksgiving. Uncle..can you verify?
PLEASE, don't try to confuse or throw people off...The meeting is THIS Thursday, 11/15/07 at Town Hall. Thank you!
TOWN BOARD MEETING THURSDAY NOVEMBER 15
The list of lies from the Burke/Caruso camp is growing:
1) 2005 election: mysterious flyer hits people's mailboxes the day before the election. The cowardly flyer, unsigned by the way, implies that Conroy and others are selling out the Town and rezoning thousands of acres of land in Woodbury to high density zoning. None of this was true.
Land all over town was not being rezoned. Only a few parcels even qualified for an incentive zoning possibility if they donated land for open space. Many communities here in Orange County do such zoning to get everything from open space to affordable housing to senior housing. But people were lied to and frightened.
This so called high density zoning was the same size lots that Sullivan, Haviland, Mulolley and many others live on and was almost twice as large as Caruso's lot and many times larger than Bob Donnellys' homestead in Timber Ridge. High density housing claim also true.
The best part: a copy of a Record article was reduced and copied on this flyer, implying the article supported these claims. If anyone bothered to read it, it said nothing about the above.
Again, the flyers were not signed but benefited Burke, who never disclaimed that they put out false information which helped him in the election. Burke won by less than 150 votes in an election where over 2,000 votes were cast.
2) During the creation of the Village, Burke, Caruso and team misled people about the village--stood up at 2 meetings and gave out incorrect information.
3) Now this election, a flyer from the Democratic Committee to elect Burke and his team is put on people's doors in Timber Ridge, again one day before the election, with lies.
Begin to see a pattern here, folks?
Shameful that someone who was a principal has to cheat and lie to win. Not a very good role model.
Hey, you forgot the time that Burke stood up at a Town Board meeting and quoted from an audit in such a way that implied that the Town was not following proper procedures.
One of the Board members caught it: that he had left out a key sentence which stated just the opposite. Either he purposedly left out that key sentence or he can't read.
Maybe lying is such a pattern now and they have gotten away with for so long that some people can't help themselves.
Especially when they keep getting away with it and there are no consequences.
My guess: Burke and company figure in a few days this will go away and they will not be held accountable.
Can you imagine if it had been the other way around and this had been done to Burke and Company? They would have stormed Town Board meetings, had letters in the newspaper, even gone on TV.
It sounds like both of Burke's elections included shaddy tactics. Maybe this is the only way he figures he can win?
It is hard to believe that in a small community such as ours that we have our own "Woodbury Gate". Anyway to find out who put out those flyers in the 2005 election? I remember seeing them and absolutely they benefited Burke, no doubt about that.
One should alway question unsigned materials, but they were done in such a way and so crowded with print that people likely did not look to see who sent them. Perhaps Caruso Republicans who wanted to help Burke but could not identify themselves?
How sad that these sleazy tactics have come to represent the last two elections in Woodbury. Regardless of your party preference, everyone should be offended and angry that their votes were stolen from them by dirty tricks.
If people will lie to you to get elected, what else will they lie to you about? Pretty scary.
Just goes to show you that although a person can shake your hand and be friendly, you don't know what they will do to win.
If Burke is willing to do this to win, what is he pulling behind our backs as supervisor?
And now that he has his Democratic majority that lied its way into office, we could be in big trouble in Woodbury. Kind of sad when you think about it: that the main reason people should have voted for them was to give Burke a Democratic majority on the Board instead of talking about why we should vote for his team due to their experience in doing things for the Town.
Someone can have a great resume but know nothing about running a Town.
What have you done for the Town before asking people to vote for you? How have you volunteered?
Perhaps the lack of doing those things that would qualify you for the job was a main reason for the lies. I saw nothing in the Democrats literature that showed any work for or knowledge about Town Government. Guess the lies were needed to conceal this fact?
Wonder if Burke, Haviland and Levine know that they have sold out to win.
This should not go away--- they won in a tainted election.
Guess they got expert help from the people who did the same thing in Burke's first election.
And as long as there are no consequences, it is likely to continue.
My, such excitement to come back to after a weekend stuck in with a cold.
It appears the new era of critique has been ushered in, only its not the sort Burke and co. were planning.
I'll be taping those meetings, and attending my own in December and January. Here's to not letting this one get swept under the rug.
Only time will tell, but this gives me hope that while years of lies can do serious harm to decent people's reputations, they do eventually make it back to their source.
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