Whatever the reason, he has just sent over John Sullivan’s latest freshman English essay along with commentary. Both follow below.
GOP incensed over fliers
Says misinformation affected race outcome
By John Sullivan
November 10, 2007
Times Herald-Record
Woodbury — Supporters of the Republicans who were defeated in a close Woodbury election are alleging that misinformation about the candidates in fliers sent by their opponents swayed the vote's outcome.
An unknown number of the fliers blanketed homes in Timber Ridge, a development where residents have been fighting the town over increased assessments. The yellow leaflet states in large black letters that the two Republican incumbents, board members Lorraine McNeil and Michael Aronowitz, hired Town Assessor Roland Tiffany and approved the plan to increase those assessments.
However, assessors act independently of town government, and Aronowitz wasn't serving on the board when it appointed Tiffany.
The flier created a stir among Timber Ridge voters, who are still fuming about seeing their assessments jump by as much as 50 percent or more under Tiffany, said Mickey O'Brien, a McNeil and Aronowitz supporter who also organized the fight against the assessments last year. The controversy resulted in a slight decrease of the assessments, as well as a court proceeding still pending against the town.
It also placed a cloud over Tiffany's career, who declined to apply for reappointment this year. The Town Board recently appointed Laura Breslin, an independent appraiser and former account clerk for the Town of Warwick, to take his place.
O'Brien alleged that many Timber Ridge residents came out to vote against the incumbents after seeing the fliers.
Democratic challengers Amidee Haviland and Carton Levine received the most votes of 666 and 618, according to unofficial results.
Their win, along with town Supervisor John Burke's unopposed re-election, gives the Democrats a 3-2 majority on the board.
But Aronowitz's close third, with 608 votes, has many of the incumbents' supporters wondering how much of a role the fliers played in the outcome. O'Brien said the Democratic candidates denied involvement in the fliers when he confronted them about it. However, Levine admitted that the misinformation had been approved by Burke.
"I was informed by John Burke that that was the appropriate language in terms of their (McNeil and Aronowitz) actions on the Town Council prior to the assessment."
Burke said he believed the allegation to be true, because the Town Board before him appointed Tiffany. Burke, however, apologized for including Aronowitz, who was not on the board at the time.
"I will take responsibility for our (the Democratic Committee's) mistake," Burke said.
-end-
At Thursday’s Town Board Meeting, Mr. Burke made clear that he knew that the Town Board (including Lorraine McNeil and Mike Aronowitz) had nothing to do with "approving" the reassessment of Timber Ridge. (See the public comment session at the end of the meeting on channel 22)
Sullivan’s article shows that Burke okayed the flyer before it went out.
The people of Timber Ridge were incensed by the reassessment.
There are 450 homes in Timber Ridge. Most of those homes have two or more residents of voting age.
That’s 900 or more eligible voters.
Mike Aronowitz lost to Carlton Levine by 10 votes.
I have no doubt that, among those 900 or more angry people, at least 10 votes went to Levine because of the flyer.
John Burke knowingly lied to the people of Timber Ridge in order to smear his opponents.
He stole this election.
Remember that just one day before Burke’s last election, an unsigned flyer appeared all over Woodbury lying about Burke’s opponent Shiela Conroy. It is not a major leap to believe that Burke was involved in that smear as well.
Now Burke says: "I will take responsibility for our (the Democratic Committee's) mistake."
What does taking responsibility mean?
Is there anything short of Burke’s resignation that will satisfy "taking responsibility?"
Does Carlton Levine intend to take office knowing that he was only elected because his campaign committed fraud?
How long will Woodbury stand for this corruption?
21 comments:
Your thread begs the questions, DO THE ACTIONS OF THE WOODBURY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE, SPECIFICALLY SUPERVISOR BURKE & COUNCILMEN- ELECT HAVILAND & LEVINE, RISE TO THE LEVEL OF ELECTION FRAUD??? If so, then can legal action be taken?
Who the hell does John Burke believe he is? For years he denounced the sitting boards (from his position in the audience)for operating as a closed, collusive government who were ignoring the wishes of the residents, as well as often insinuating that they were "on the take". Never did he back up his accusations, rather he just repeated and repeated the rhetoric until those around him started doing the same thing, and soon unknowing residents took it as fact.
Flash forward, and we find Burke has marched on to actually become the dictator of the Town, using the same fraudulent methods!! He should be impeached for his actions! Jump forward another two years, and we find his lackeys have employed the same tactics to steal office!! What the hell is going on?? If Levine "knows" that John signed-off on the flier, then obviously Levine knew about it. So, did Haviland continue the farce by lying at the last town board meeting when confronted about his knowledge of its existence??? It appears these three, with the approval of their committee, are choosing to run our government based on lies and deception- is that what we truly want and need??
Taking responsibility- what the hell??? Burke's means certainly do NOT justify the ends- and I for one am sick and tired of the BS. Come on Pieman- we all need to follow through on this. Can you give us some guidance?? Hell- if charges can be brought, then the residents should DEMAND that Burke, Haviland and Levine either face them, or do the honorable thing and step down. But then again, I highly doubt the word "honorable" exists in their vocabularies!
If charges can be brought, would it be against the Committee to Elect Woodbury Democrats, the Woodbury Democratic Committee &/or the candidates? Seems to me that it was probably a select few who "signed-off" on such a thing. Doesn't Bob Donnelly live in Timber Ridge??
Wow that really shows what John Burke is all about; Aronowitz was his Deputy and he took him down. What a fraud!
"I will take responsibility for our (the Democratic Committee's) mistake," Burke said.
Woodbury wake up, these are your leaders a man who sat in a room knowing full well that the Town Board does not approve the assessors plan and knew nothing about it. “Levine admitted that the misinformation had been approved by Burke.” Then says he didn’t know about it? When you look in the mirror Levine and Burke what do you see? I see two men who have no creditability, ethics, and will do or say anything. Woodbury be on guard these men can not be TRUSTED.
Where is the Town's ehtics committee??
While Woodbury does not have an Ethics Committee (but has a law), both the County and the State do, and are available for Woodbury to use.
Additionally, both the County and the State have Election Boards which investigate such blatant misrepresentation. Perhaps it's time to contact them if it hasn't been done already.
Where is the Towns ethics committee? Where is the town republicaan committee! Why isn't Chairman Ralph Caruso screaming at the top of his lungs about the behavior of the democrats? Why is he not insisting that the win was purely by deciet and fraud? Oh wait, we all kno0w why, because the whole plan stinks of Caruso. The back door Democrat who supported John Burke in his run for Supervisor, and the same BS went out the night before that electioin. Remember that folks? The same BS went out the night before the Village election, remember that folks? How many times are the resident of this town going to believe all this last ditch crap the nights before every election before they wake up? Ralph Caruso along with all his brown nose yes men on the republican committe need to GO AWAY! Where was he and his lackies the night of the election? They weren't with the encumbent republicans thats for sure. Probably hosting a party for Levine, Bo, and Burke!
As for John Burke, you should be ashamed of yourself. How you can sit there and say you had no clue of that flier, or who wrote it is a joke. And Bo, I find it hard to believe that you have no idea who was on your own campaign committee. Really Bo? You have no idea who helped you in your run for office? You looked as pathitic as John Burke at the meeting Thursday night? Bo, your NAME was on the flier. You idiot. The people who switched their vote soley because of the lies they read the night before have no one else to blame but themselves for being duped (yet again) by these same people. Did you all forget (people of Timber Ridge) that is was LORRAINE McNEILL that helped all of you when you wanted to file grievences? Very short memories you all have.
Boy swiller and the other democ rats really are a bunch of sneaky freaks dont you agree ?
NO, sir/madame I don't. Swiller does not align by party, rather by the person. No need for him to be sneaky, as honesty is on his side, and he will prevail.
As far as the reigning Republican committee and Democratic committee, I DO agree. Most (not all) of them are lemmings following the leader, Caruso. And the previous poster brings up a very valid point. Isn't it Caruso who scrutinizes every last petition of every opponent??? Wasn't it Caruso who cried "foul" over the ad that concerned businessmen paid to have run in the Record before the Village election?? Where is he now?? What a two-faced b!@#$%d he is. (See that Mike- I'm sure Ralph had that knife sharpened before shoving it in your back!!)
Well, now it seems Ralph, John and the rest of them have all hit the jack-pot, for you've got Swiller on your trail, and being the intellect that he is, I'm sure he isn't satisfied with John's half-assed answers. I have every faith that Swiller will go to the proper authorities to have this mess investigated, and will see that Burke and his merry band of imbeciles don't get away with it.
Let's see Bahren and Green earn their titles as Orange County Board of Elections commissioners, and conduct a thorough investigation. Hell, may as well bring in AG Cuomo while you're at it!!
I think you guys need to read the article again. John is only taking ownership for the little lie.
"Burke said he believed the allegation to be true, because the Town Board before him appointed Tiffany. Burke, however, apologized for including Aronowitz, who was not on the board at the time."
Burke was only referring to the lie about Mike being on the Town Board at the time that Tiffany was appointed. He doesn't even touch the lie about Mike and Lorraine approving the reassessment.
Do you see how he is trying to weasel his way out of it. How does he explain the other statement? Can we believe he only read half the flier?
I heard at a town board meeting he denied knowing about the flier at all. He also said he didn't know who was on the committee to elect him.
He is twisting and turning in his own shit. I just hope that people who are disgusted with his and his running mates actions come to town board meetings a voice their disapproval. I hope someone does to him what he did to Sheila Conroy for four years.
What is limited growth as it is mentioned in the master plan???? Oh it's when you increase density and have 450 homes instead of 150 homes and you let a builder dictate the future of Woodbury? What is an elected official who has all kinds of meetings at his house, meetings that he tries to keep secret, denoucing the 450 homes and then a year later votes in favor of 450 homes. What do you call him? FLIPER and I don't mean the dolphin!!!
OK- so in your world the zoning isn't changed, Brodsky dumps the land to KJ and then what??? I'll tell you what- KJ goes in under RLUPA, and starts building ad nauseum under the guise of religious freedom, and before you know it they're annexing Ace Farms PLUS the Stainton/Cornell property. Don't for one minute think that Woodbury has, or will ever have the $$ to defeat the annexation in court. Our fates were sealed when the Preservationists and their infamous following put into writing that the Village was being created to stop KJ. I'm sure Szegedin has a copy of that framed and hanging on his wall for future use. Idiots!
For the last time, what difference does all that make since the TOWN is no longer in charge of zoning and planning???
Putting two lying sacks of crap in office to bolster the Head Pooba's lies will only set the stage for our demise. Bring back McNeill & Aronowitz!!!
Part of what has made unified action/PR on these issues so hard from the start is the fact that the town/village walk such a fine line, coming up with policy that's good for Woodbury without saying or doing anything that can be construed as discriminatory. I believe, with many that Woodbury has a right to determine its own zoning and growth... but how that is phrased gets so messy, as we saw during the Village election.
Like it or not, we don't live in Warwick where land can be donated/bought by the town easily to preserve open space. Land, water and other resources are like gold out here for reasons that are well known. Some officials took the risk of negotiating (ie- an agreement involving give and take to achieve one's ends, NOT "dictation by developers"). Some of the benefits of that negotiation often ignored are affordable senior housing, open space and utility improvements for Woodbury. For that they've taken alot of heat, and have had to be so careful even in defending themselves to keep the community out of trouble.
Plenty of loose language was in the "Preservation packet," and its members openly supported practices of targeted zoning that looked like less development in the short-term, but could get the s#!^ kicked out of us in court (pardon mon francais). If anyone's seen the many times Caruso's argued with lawyers (sometimes his own at ZBA meetings!), we can get a hint of where that path would have led us. The fact that a slate of candidates independent of that packet were elected may be a slender hope in legal battles.
But we can still end up down that road. Burke & co. no doubt planned to use the Town Board as a stepping stone to the village, and have been openly caught in the practice of deception and dirty politics. Now is the best time to take a real hard look at our community and these 2 different visions for it.
The one I support here isn't perfect, and involves some sacrifice for the greater good. But the other seems to speak for itself... with volumes of yellow fliers.
This election should be overturned and a new one ordered in its wake.
If Mr. Burke is not owning up to responsibility of the fact the town board does not approve reassessments I ask this to Mr. Burke...how many reassessments were approved by the town board during your term? I am sure the assessor must have reassessed one property in this town during 2006 and 2007? So John did you approve a reassessment then? If your that stupid to not know what the town board does not or does do then you should not be the leader of it sir.
This election was stolen. Only a new council election can rectify this problem so that an informed electorate can put in office who they want based on facts not lies.
IMPEACH BURKE!
DEMOCRATS STOLE THE ELECTION!
DEMAND A RE-VOTE!
To the blogger who posted: "Our fates were sealed when the Preservationists and their infamous following put into writing that the Village was being created to stop KJ. I'm sure Szegedin has a copy of that framed and hanging on his wall for future use. Idiots!"
I keep each and every political flier that comes my way. I have read and re-read all of the Preservationists' fliers, and I have yet to find any mention of the village being formed to stop KJ. Could someone please enlighten me and give me the Preservationist' exact quote, as well as in which flier I could find it. Thank you.
All's fair in love and war, and since this ain't love . . .
You needed to have attended the original "scare tactic" meetings to have the paperwork.
That was the one where Queenan was very vocally in favor of a village? He changed his mind. Then Aronowitz changed his mind. And that's OK. But none of the Preservationist literature (and they weren't around when the very first meeting was held) says that forming a village will stop KJ. I think you people who bash them just don't like them (understatement). I don't like Swiller, but he has some good things to say. Maybe we should all be listening more and bashing less.
That is a very good idea. Perhaps if all residents actually got involved and listened to what the Republican and Democratic committee leaders are saying, they'd realize that they are acting in concert with one another. Thus, the residents of Woodbury are not being given any choice. The same 10 or 12 people have been running Woodbury into the ground for the last 6 years, and sadly, there is no end in sight.
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