last night at the stuyvesant zba

There is an article in the Register Star by John Mason that is a good summary of the issues and what happened. I think mediation is the way to go now in the neighbor dispute (Serpico-Palladino), as I recommended to the town more than a year ago. As to the second issue: Ronald Knott, the deputy supervisor and later town supervisor, is the author of the policy to spend 17% of the 2011 budget on zoning enforcement to close Glencadia Dog Camp. The town spent $150,000 hiring the biggest law firm in the Capital District, Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna in an illegal executive session. Ronald Knott participated, lead the charge and supported all of this. One of the primary points in that process was whether of not the business qualified as a home occupation if the house and the barn were on separate lots. The law is clear that a home occupation required the business and house to be on the same lot. Meanwhile the town planning board refused my application to put the lots back together, which would solve the problem. Meanwhile, Knott himself was operating a home occupation with a business and a house of separate lots. That's the deal.

sleepergate, episode II, the office

In episode one of the Sleepergate scandal, we saw how Tal Rappleyea, who is or was in 2011 the designated Town Attorney in Durham, Ashland, Prattsville, Lexington, Germantown, Cairo, Stuyvesant, Austerlitz, Copake, Chatham, Greenville, Jewett and assistant attorney for Columbia County, claims to work as much as 21 hours in a single 24 hour period. I only looked at one month so far: October 2010. More to come. WORSE than 21 in another month?

Following episode I, Tal Rappleyea resigned as County Attorney and perhaps Stuyvesant Town Attorney.

We also saw, in episode one, that the other attorneys in the office, Clarissa D. Garvey, Charles E. Hoag, Jr., Tal G. Rappleyea, Robert J. Fitzsimmons, Barrett D. Mack, Brent R. Stack, refuse to deny that they are stealing pension credits for no or little show jobs as does Tal Rappleyea.

Now we come to episode two. The time sheets these guys send in say they are supposed to work at least 6 hours a day.  Here are their timesheets:

http://wikicoco.com/file/detail/Pflaum+-+CA+FOIL+2011.pdf/298379228

http://wikicoco.com/file/detail/Pflaum+-+CA+FOIL+2010.pdf/298379230

http://wikicoco.com/file/detail/Pflaum+-+CA+FOIL+2009.pdf/298379226

So I figure, if they don't mind sending in time sheets to the taxpayer to get pensions, they would have no problem affirming that that information on the time sheets is correct. So I made up some affidavits asking the attorneys to verify that they do some work to get their money and benefits.

Here are the affidavits I asked the attorneys to sign (in the video below), with their time sheets:

http://wikicoco.com/file/view/affidavits.pdf/298327888/affidavits.pdf 

I put the affidavits in an envelope and wanted to hand deliver the affidavits to the lawyers. I went on Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 11:20 AM.

The affidavits are confidential, county business. I went into a public office building to deliver confidential material individually to the people mentioned in the correspondence. The matter is of public interest and valid activity in a public office.




And the guys don't have a desk? And they are not there whenever I check? And no one know when you might be popping in?

I see 10 people on the payroll, all full time. I want to see 10 desks and 10 butts sitting in them. If I can't see that, I'll come back and check again until I see it.

So I went back on Friday, Febuary 3 at 11 AM.



Robert Fitzsimmons has 7 lawyers on the books but he never has 7 lawyers in the office. These are TIME SHEETS with PENSION CREDITS not invoices of independent contractors. That's a big difference.

Now we're at two visits with an average of 2 attorneys per visit. Should be 7. I would have thought 5, maybe 6 might be reasonable: one in court, one sick. The secretary should be able to tell me when they might be back.

Well, I struck out. Four to six no show lawyers. Pensions, salaries... maybe a couple hundred thousand stolen every year for at least 3 and probably many more years.

I'll keep checking. I'll even write Fitzsimmons an email and tell him when I'm coming if he wants. I said I would be back on Monday at 9:30 AM to check again. I wrote him an email.

Now the county attorney Fitzsimmons panics. He can't actually get all the attorneys to come to work and they don't have desks. He calls the sheriff. If I dare to go into the office and count lawyers again, they will arrest me.




I thought about this interaction later. If I can send the sheriff to deliver my paper the same as the county attorney, then the sheriff cannot say that the police AGREE with the paper.

No show jobs for rich lawyers to steal pensions. They won't sign the affidavits. No desks. Not at work. No one knows when they will be in to work.

They had a bunch of sheriff's deputies waiting on Monday, February 6, 2012 in case I showed up again. God forbid I should walk into a public office and check to see if public officers are where they claim to be.

Where in this email did I say which Monday I was coming? Some Monday. And I won't come alone. Send me an email if you would like to join me. I need as many people as I can get. If you work Monday, we can try Tuesday. Or go on your own. Find any lawyers? Report back to me.

Email me.

So, on Monday, February 13, I went to see Pattrick Grattan at the Kinderhook Town Meeting: audio here. Not great quality audio on the iPhone. This incident was reported on page one in the newspaper.

Listen, as best you can, to what Grattan says. If you can't make it out, let me know and I'll try some filters in GarageBand.

So, there is some kind of law that means that the top elected official in the county can't meet with me because I might sue him. He can't talk to his wife because she might sue for divorce one day. If he doesn't talk to her, she definitely will sue him.

Anyone can sue anyone at any time, I guess. So we all stop talking?

And when the person accused of embezzlement was associated with the opposition and not a personal friend of Pat Grattan, as here, he was able to do something about it. Funny how that work. When it's your friends, there is nothing you can do. When it's some nobody associated with the opposition, then, well, that's easy.

Grattan, in the Register Star article cited above, wants to get every penny back from Mulligan-Moore. He wants to keep that story in the news. But Fitzsimmons: he can keep stealing. We wouldn't want the husband of his judge and ticket mate, someone he has known for years socially, to have to stop stealing, let alone give the money back or go to jail, like the hapless Mulligan-Moore.

So today I met with the Columbia County District Attorney Paul Czajka. I want to thank the District Attorney for the opportunity to meet with him.

Robert J. Fitzsimmons, Esq. is the lead attorney of a private law firm: Fitzsimmons, Mack and Mills. He is also county attorney with oversight over Brent R. Stack, Tal Rappleyea, Barrett Mack, Andrew Howard, Charles Hoag, and Clarissa Garvey. 


Stack, Mack and Fitzsimmons are also in private practice together at the same law firm.


So, if Fitzsimmons catches Mack or Stack working on their own legal work in the office instead of doing the public business, if he catches them doing private work at the county office on county time, he would have to discipline him... 


.... although, of course, his personal interest is likely in not disciplining him.


And that would never happen because Mack never bothers to show up at all and doesn't have a desk.

Then Fitzsimmons can hire someone at his private firm, like Brent Stack, and then hire him again at the county office. So you'll have him around and pay with the taxpayer's money in case you need him for your private work.


And who are the clients anyway? I know guys get away with this in the State Senate and State Assembly. What is the client paying for? Legal work by the firm or grease in the county office? Very nice set up: no show public job give you leverage to get money through a no work private job. Not that I can prove this part: they don't have to disclose their private clients, except through financial disclosures, and not even there, and those are highly redacted. 

Stealing pensions is a big deal. Think about how many tax increases and budget fights have to do with pensions and costs governments have to pay for decades after people retire.

Here are the key pension rules:

 For Tier 2, 3, 4 and 5 members, the minimum number of hours in a standard work day is six, while the maximum is eight... Since elected and appointed officials do not usually work a fixed schedule or have pre-set work hours, they must keep a record of their work-related activities so you can accurately determine the number of days worked to report....Effective August 12, 2009, each elected or appointed official must prepare a record of work-related activities (log) for three consecutive months within 150 days of the start of a new term or appointment if: 1) They are members of the Retirement System and 2) Do not use your time keeping system that shows hours worked. (This includes systems that keep track of accruals and attest that, other than time charged to accruals, full hours were worked.)

Fine rules. No compliance in Columbia County.

Rappleyea: $378,000. Mack: $210,000. Howard: more than $330,000. Hoag: $420,000. Plus pension credits and other benefits worth about 1/3 of pay. With just those four guys we easily have 1.5 million in fraud and embezzlement. They never did a lick of work, as per the pension rules.

Right now, the Germantown school board is considering eliminating the high school. They can't afford to pay the pensions. Look at the battles in Wisconsin and check out your local town budget if you don't think this is a HUGE deal. 

Government pensions. Benefits. No show jobs. Rich attorneys.

Right now, what percent of these pensions we are paying out for people retired in Florida are based on crooked accounting? A superficial look at Columbia County government suggest that a large percentage of what we pay is to allow crooks to retire on comfort on the tax money of people who actually work. The workers pay. The no workers get pensions.

What kind of value are we getting as taxpayers for all these pension folk? None. Are you going to get a pension? I'm not. I spent all my money defending myself from a corrupt town. 

Let's look at the Columbia County attorney office. What is the county getting for maybe as much as a million dollars a year in legal services? This million dollars or so does not include other legal services for bond issues, development corporations, etc.

The Columbia County Attorney's office spends $517,000 a year on salaries for seven attorneys and three secretaries. They all claim pensions and benefits which add another third or more in the cost to the taxpayer. 

We're close to a million in total wages and benefits, let alone pensions already being paid out for people who might not have worked a generation ago.

What part of that million or is stolen? Half? It's been going on for years. We're talking about a multimillion dollar fraud.

Compare these two:

Brent R. Stack, assistant county attorney FULL TIME, 7 hours a day, pay rate: $37 per hour, 7 years on the job, $2590 every two weeks, $67,340 per year.

Charles Hoag, assistant county attorney PART TIME, 6 hours per day, $27 per hour, 10 years on the job, $1640 every two weeks, $42,640 per year.

What? The guy with more years gets less? The difference between part and full time is one hour? Lawyers working for $27 an hour? 

Why do they "work" for $27 if not to steal a pension? 

Never saw Hoag in the office. Stack does do work -- clerical work requiring no law degree like answering FOILs that Gail Dicosmo is supposed to do (she disappeared off the website last night for some reason, as did a couple other names). Hoag does nothing. Discosmo doesn't do her job. So, Hoag doesn't mind if his junior gets more than him. Why should he complain about a pension and pay with no work?

Next comparison:

Tal Rappleyea, assistant county attorney III, 6 hours per day, $27 per hour, 9 years on the job, $1640 every two weeks, $42,640 per year.

Lisa Brightly, confidential secretary, 17 years on the job, $22.70 per hour, 7 hours per day, $41,200 per year.

What? An attorney and a secretary get almost the same annual pay? And no one's complaining? Why complain: any pay is a good deal if you do NO WORK. Did I mention the pension?

Here are the rest:

Sheila Zito, clerk/typist, $17.25 per hour, 7 hours per day, 12 years on the job, $1207 every two weeks, $31,382 per year.

Barrett Mack, assistant county attorney III, 5 years on the job, 6 hours per day, $27 per hour, $1640 every two weeks, $42,640 per year.

Rita Lacasse, typist, 12 years on the job, $19.50 per hour, 7 hours per day, $1370 every two weeks, $35,620 per year.

Andrew Howard, deputy county attorney NA, 2 years on the job, 6 hours per day, $2608 every two weeks,  $43.50 per hour, $67,800 per year.

Clarissa Garvey, assistant county attorney, 7 hours a day, pay rate: $37 per hour, 10 years on the job, $2590 every two weeks, $67,340 per year.

Robert Fitzsimmons, county attorney, 5 years on the job, $53 per hour, 6 hours a day, $3210 every two weeks, $83,460 per year.

Our current chair of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors turned in a bookkeeper who was syphoning off funds with the help of the Comptroller and local DA. No one else knew about the crime and the perpetrator had no connections.

When a well connected person is caught red handed by the Comptroller, nothing much happens if they are cozy with the local mucky-mucks.

Stay tuned for next episode: sleepergate, road trip to Albany 

Ain't pretty. First I found out the town of Stuyvesant is corrupt. Then I found out Columbia County is corrupt. What do you think about the state of New York? Not looking good. 

It's a Republican town in a Republican county in a Democratic state. But when it comes to corruption, there is only one party, the party of power. Motto: get yours.

I keep thinking that as I go up the chain, town to county to state to federal government, I will run into an honest, dedicated public servant willing to do the job they are paid to do by the people and say no to obvious rackets of corruption. 

Other news: I filed two lawsuits against Stuyvesant on February 8, 2012. That makes a total of four. Why? New York State has not system of municipal and local ethics enforcement. 

1. FOIL: Freedom of Information Law-- I want some canceled checks and they aren't giving them to me and other issues.

2. Zoning: I filed another suit agains the zoning board of Stuyvesant to get them to enforce the law the same to cronies and non-cronies alike. 

I'm not a reporter but I'm breaking a story, or trying to. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm filing suits. I have no authority or badge or experience or education in any of this stuff. 

I can use help. Email me. 

If the authorities don't shut this racket down, there are always the courts... or giving up. 

I wish I could just walk away from this stuff. 

columbia county, new york state

corruption... corruption... corruption...

can anyone say IRONY?

Here is the story in the paper. See how it works, right?

I stopped arguing with Mr. Grattan to be respectful of the other people in the room but I think the contrast between the politically unconnected Ms. Mulligan-Moore, low level bookkeeper, and the well-connected lawyers is fairly obvious. I didn't need to hammer than point home in the context of the meeting. In one case Mr. Grattan wants every penny. In the other case, he throws up his hands. One is ongoing and involves more money-- but there is nothing he can do. And the accused is someone he knows personally and is connected politically. I see.  Duly noted.

from the comptroller's office

Howard Dean, 66, of Locke, N.Y., pleaded guilty and was sentenced on January 11, 2012 for second degree grand larceny for taking Fridays off for 17 years, cheating the taxpayer and the State and Local Retirement System.

This month, former Rome police officer Thomas C. Hubal, pleaded guilty to third degree grand larceny, six months incarceration, five years probation, and must repay the more than $88,000 he stole from the State and Local Retirement System associated with double dipping.

Okay, Comptroller, you can nab the lone wolves who cheat on their own with the aid of the local DA or when the employee works for the state, not a local government. What about rackets of many individuals when the local DA has not requested your aid?

snake and jellyfish

2 posts from the columbia paper

A salt shed problem solved creatively in Ancram, just $6,500 spent, no bond issues... compare to Stuyvesant.

...some on a town board in Germantown, including Roy Brown who I met with for an hour to go over the invoices for Tal, concerned with honesty in accounting.  That's makes 2 on the ball in Germantown.

 ANCRAM:

 Town Highway Superintendent Jim MacArthur also got in on the money talk, telling the board he obtained two bids for a new metal roof for the old milk factory building, now the town's salt/sand shed. Installed by Highway Department personnel, a green metal roof will cost the town $6,982.95 and a shiny metal roof will cost $6,456.85. The board decided to go with the green metal since the new highway garage is green and the green is more “aesthetically pleasing.” Supervisor Bassin was pleased because the town had budgeted $20,000 for the new roof.

 GERMANTOWN:

Tal Rappleyea, the new town attorney, was introduced to the meeting. Via the Internet connection, which uses software called Skype, Ms. Snyder had expressed misgivings about Mr. Rappleyea's time commitments and the way he was hired. Mr. Craig said he would respond to Ms. Snyder via email, and Mr. Rappleyea assured the meeting that he had time for Germantown

here is another great new york state govenment lawyer

Stealing. Another crooked New York State lawyer. Being crooked seems to be what government lawyers do. Did you see the Sleepergate story too?

school board officials stealing pension credits

Does this sound like Sleepergate to you? Same type of scam.

state lawyer convicted of hate crimes

Those wacky municipal lawyers... the Klan upstate.

PANDORA'S BOX OF ROCKS: Escrow Accounts Pay for Whiteman Osterman & Hanna's Services at the Discretion of BP $ ACCIONA

my mother on aids in africa

snake and jellyfish

Will Pflaum

Instead of an elephant, Republicans should have the snake as their symbol. And the democrats should change from the donkey to the jellyfish. 

If Republicans nominate Newt Gingrich, however, then they will have to move to the platypus: as funny as a duck, only funnier than a duck.

crusader for open meetings

Roy Brown seems to be changing and growing. We all can learn from his example. I met with Mr. Brown on 1-17-2011, talking about attorney invoices for over an hour with observers, and found that he was indeed concerned about corruption in government. I appreciate Mr. Brown's initiatives.

Big story here. Sleepergate.

way to go sanctuary for independent media

WGXC WGXC: Hands-On Radio 

City of Troy settles with Sanctuary for Independent Media after shuttering center in 2008 for free speech reasons, now funds media art there

Big story here.

Kruger Used Campaign Contributions for defense

Columbia County News: ReformNY: Kruger Used Campaign Contributions to Pa...: ReformNY: Kruger Used Campaign Contributions to Pay Legal Fe... : New York’s notoriously weak campaign finance laws were highlighted this we...

District Attorney’s Office won't charge embezzler

Watertown Daily Times | Pitcairn town officials want action from District Attorney’s Office over alleged embezzlement

Sleepergate.

Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna canned

Here is a town that fired Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna for double dealing. If only Stuyvesant and now Ghent would wake up and smell the garbage.

Sleepergate here.

cover up under way?

If you are hear to read about the scandal in the Columbia County Attorney office, click here. You know, with the guy getting paid to sleep. Sleepergate.

Now the latest, an email I shot off this morning. 

just released

This chart is from the Institute for Equal Protection, Ha! at the Bureau of People Acting Like Jackasses at the United Nations.

about work, on the other blog.

On my other blog I wrote more about what it means to work 21 hours in a single day.

Sleepergate: nice work if you can get it

Imagine a job where you get paid $150 to $200 per hour for sleeping, with pension, insurance and paid holidays (when you get paid to sleep, the idea of a holiday is kind of strange but, yes, the sleepers get paid holidays). Is this a dream?

No, welcome to the very special world of the Columbia County municipal attorney. Right now rich lawyers are getting paid in their sleep with your tax money.

If an attorney were to bill for 21 hours of work (at as much as $175 per hour) in a single 24 hour period, we might conclude that either 1) the man is a machine who does not urinate, defecate, eat or sleep; or 2) Holmes is billing for time he spent snoozing in bed.

The man we are talking about is Tal Rappleyea, the man who is or was in 2011 the designated Town Attorney in Durham, Ashland, Prattsville, Lexington, Cairo, Stuyvesant, Austerlitz, Copake, Chatham, Greenville, Jewett and assistant attorney for Columbia County. The day of 21 hours of billing is October 1, 2010.

On October 1, 2010 Tal Rappleyea billed the above towns and Columbia County for 21 hours of work. That day was not way out of line of the other days I've looked at so far: there are more days over 15 hours billed in a 24 hour period than under. Even on his birthday, October 4, he billed for 13.5 hours -- he took it a little easy, as it was his birthday and all. He only worked 13.5 hours.

In 2010, by double and triple billing the man earned well over $200,000 from the towns, plus another about $44,000 from the County. Not satisfied, Rappleyea also steals benefits from the county for which he is not eligible.

I emailed the County Attorneys today to get clarification on this stuff. They refused to comment. So if I get some details wrong, it's kind of their fault. They are welcome to correct me and I will adjust anything I may have gotten wrong. Here is what seems to be the case, the scam.

The Columbia County Board of Supervisors (CCBOS) approves an annual salary for the attorneys in a resolution. Seems like all the assistant attorneys get about $44K: Clarissa D. Garvey, Charles E. Hoag, Jr., Tal G. Rappleyea, Robert J. Fitzsimmons, Barrett D. Mack, Brent R. Stack.

The attorneys, including Rappleyea, then calculate what hourly rate they would have to receive in order to work 30 hours per week, as would make them eligible for pensions and other benefits, then charge that hourly rate, whatever the number comes out to be. For example, rather than bill 5 hours at 150 dollars per hour, which may be the regular fee for that attorney, the would bill 30 hours at 25 per hour. The amount paid for the week may be the same but by lying about the numbers of hours, the attorneys steal pensions and benefits. And there is no way to know how many hours they actually worked, if they did any work at all.

Rappleyea bills Columbia County $27.24 per hour and the town of Chatham $175 per hour. Say what? But you see, it's a pension scam. He would never work for $27 an hour. He doesn't really work ever, actually, he sleeps, has coffee, makes some calls, goes to some meetings,  collects his dough. And his pension. I say when you put down "6 hours" it should mean 6 hours.

Other County attorneys work for towns and other clients, certainly including County Attorney Robert J. Fitzsimmons and likely Deputy County Attorney Andrew B. Howard. Just like Rappleyea, they are billing towns or other clients by the hour and collecting a salary from the county.

I wrote to all of these people today and asked if they would like to deny this statement: every single one of them is defrauding the government by claiming pension and benefit credits they don't deserve in the scheme I outlined above. I said, in my email, please deny this: What Rappleyea is doing is not exceptional: you are all stealing.

I got no response. They won't deny it. None of them deserve pensions. Why not at least deny it before I publish? They are all getting pension credits? More crazy billing in that list of names up there somewhere?

I only have hard evidence for Rappleyea. The people noted here, Stack and Fitzsimmons, refused to supply the records for the rest of the crew. If they were in the clear, why not give up the time sheets?

If Rappleyea's time sheets were exceptional, why not tell me that? You can excuse me for thinking his time sheets are not exceptional. When it says "hour" to me that means 60 minutes of work.

How many people at 401 State Street knew about this scheme? Certainly I told everyone in the County government before I wrote this blog entry. No one bothered to explain anything. What's to explain?  Shut up and go away.

Open season on the taxpayer in Columbia County. These rich guys, like Rappleyea, steal the sales tax my business brings in a year in 5 minutes.

If Rappleyea were a Democrat, he'd be in jail already. Double billing, stealing pension: his rap sheet is longer than the issues in this blog post. He is guilty of a number of crimes over a couple of years. More than one town, more than one man.

21 hours in a single day, I mean, come on.

Quitin Cross, Hudson Democrat, got two years for much less, credit card fraud, a couple thousand. Pegeen Mulligan-Moore worked for Democrats and stole $380,000. Went to jail for hard time. Any Republicans get indicted by any Republican DA? I know Democrats steal. So do Republicans.

Will, where are the documents to prove all this? I got them. I would post them, no problem. First, I would like to see some of these people deny some of this, explain why they did not respond to my requests to show me the documents that prove the stealing of benefits is not widespread.

The ball is in the court of the County Attorney's office. I looked at the documents. I saw fraud. I emailed for an answer. Silence.

What's the deal? Anyone buy this grid?

paul

I donated $100. Go Paul.

I read this: http://www.salon.com/2011/12/31/progressives_and_the_ron_paul_fallacies/singleton/ and decided I'm for Ron Paul, warts and all.

Ron Paul 2012.

Register Star article today

Here it is. Couple of points missing: 1) Everett told me to merge the lots; 2) when does Everett go away?

He did threaten to sue Holly Tanner. If he is not going to sue Holly Tanner, then he can't sue anyone, certainly not me. Of course they back tracked and denied they did so threaten. That's to be expected. But why did he send Holly Tanner the letter saying he "reserves all rights"? What did he mean by that? Who merged the lots? No me. The County Clerk did that.

If we look at his huffy puffy letter as an empty threat, then, no, he did not threaten to sue Holly Tanner. I guess that is what Dave Everett meant: you are not supposed to take my letters so seriously.

If you actually take his letter seriously, that the town wants to preserve their rights in terms of Planning Board, the only one they can sue is Holly Tanner. She merged the lots.

So if we recognize that Everett was bluffing, then no, he didn't threaten to sue Holly Tanner. If we take him at face value, then yes he was threatening to sue Holly Tanner.

What kind of suit would it be to sue me for filing some paperwork? Without naming the clerk who accepted and processed the form, in agreement with me?

He's have to sue the county clerk if he sued me.

Everett bluffed again. Called him on it. He sent out a huffy, puffy bluffing lawyer letter and thought everyone would cower in the corner in fear of his suits... but didn't work out that way.

David R. Everett of Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna asked me to merge the lots back together!!! When I did what he said, he threw a hissy fit!!!! 

Special Prosecutor Looking for Something to Prosecute

Special Prosecutor David R. Everett of Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna Threatens to Sue Holly Tanner. 

Here is the letter. 

1) What is the public interest in whether my barn and house are on two or one lots? Why is Stuyvesant still spending money on something this unimportant? In other words, big deal. The town paid Everett probably $1000 to write that crazy letter. A thousand bucks is a big deal in a small town. And that $1000 is on top of $100,000 spent on Everett in 2011. 

2) When does Mr. Everett stop being Special Prosecutor? Does he get to go out looking for things to prosecute in order to keep the gravy train rolling? Accusing me of stuff I didn't do has been pretty profitably for Everett to date. Why should he stop?

3) Divide means to cut up. If you mash two together, you are not dividing, you are merging. Read the Stuyvesant Zoning Ordinance or the application for a subdivision online: do you see anything about putting two parcels together to make one lot? Divide: read town law. It means to make more. I made fewer.

4) How can Everett sue me for filing paperwork? Why did he send the letter to Holly Tanner? I don't see a suit against me here. For what? I didn't merge two lots together: I can't. Everett must want to sue Holly Tanner.

I've dealt with Everett for 9 months now as Special Prosecutor and I don't wish that on Holly Tanner. She doesn't deserve it.

Everett asked me to put the lots back together. Here is the letter (page 4).


David R. Everett of Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna asked me to merge the lots back together!!! When I did what he said, he threw a hissy fit!!!! 

Here is my review of what happened:

On September 6, 2011 Holly Tanner's professional, well run County Clerk's office received a routine application to unify two lots. The application asked to put a house and a barn on the same deed into a single listing for tax purposes. The man filing the paperwork was me. The barn and the house were on the same lot a few years ago.

Now, more than two months later, Dave Everett, working as the Special Prosecutor for the town of Stuyvesant, has written a letter threatening to sue Holly Tanner (I guess) for accepting paperwork and filing it according to the law. 

Why? Everett says that you need Planning Board approval to put lots together. My attorney thinks that you do not need Planning Board approval to put lots together when they are on the same deed. According to my attorney and our title company, you only need approval by the town Planning Board to split lots apart. 

In passing, Everett accuses me and my attorney of some kind of crime, as if it were obvious that you need Planning Board approval and that we knowingly lied when, in fact, it's not even true and certainly not obvious. It's hardly a crime... What a crazy thing to say. 

We didn't lie. I would file the same form again right now. I'm right. Even if I were wrong, it wouldn't be a crime, but even less so when I'm right. 

Stuyvesant's Special Mr. Wrong

We did not and do not need Planning Board approval to merge two lots on the same deed back into one listing. Everett is wrong again.

Being wrong is nothing new to Dave Everett.

Everett sent me a bill to pay for the town engineer to review my sound study. I didn't pay it. I didn't have to. If he wasn't wrong about that, why did he drop it and stop sending me invoices?

Everett was wrong on invoices.

Everett was the attorney when the Planning Board issued a positive declaration on SEQR (environmental review) of the lot merger. Even he had to admit the declaration was deficient. The declaration was withdrawn.

Everettt was wrong on SEQR.

The town board hired Everett and Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna in executive session. That was against the law and WOH and Everett didn't notice that the town broke the law. They do not deny they broke the law in their motions to dismissed filed in state court. 

Did you get that: They don't deny they screwed that one up.

Everett was wrong on Public Officers Law.

Three times wrong. Now the lots issue: number four for Everett. Stuyvesant has paid him $100,000 to be wrong, wrong, wrong and now wrong again.

Subdividing means making one lot into two (division). Making two lots into one lot is not dividing but unifying or merging. You need approval to subdivide. You don't need Planning Board approval to unify, especially when the two lots are on the same deed.

"I subdivided two lots and now I have one." Doesn't even make sense. That's not what dividing means. 

In Everett's letter, he cites a portion of Town Law Section 276 (4) (a) to support his claim. Interestingly, he left out the first sentence of Town Law Section 276 (4) (a), which provides: " 'Subdivision' means the division of any parcel of land into a number of lots, blocks or sites as specified in a local ordinance, law, rule or regulation, with or without streets or highways, for the purpose of sale, transfer of ownership, or development."

1) The word "division" is defined as "act or process of dividing" (see Websters Dictionary). Subdivision also contemplates the creation of lots (i.e. in the plural) not merger into a single lot. Clearly, the instant merger deed does not constitute a "subdivision" within the meaning of Town Law Section 276 (4) (a).

2) Also, look at  Town Law Section 276 (4) (a): "...for the purpose of sale, transfer of ownership, or development..."

Putting two back into one does not lead to sale, transfer or development but precludes those options on each parcel without the other, making all of those things harder. And I did not do any of those things: no sale, no transfer, no development.

3) And then there is "as specified in a local ordinance, law, rule or regulation" -- and the laws in the town of Stuyvesant are silent on the issue of putting lots back together.

So there are three legal flaws in Everett's crazy argument.

Everett is Threatening Holly Tanner

Everett's letter, cc-ed to Holly Tanner, dated December 20, 2011, reads, "I am writing to advise you that the merger of the two lots without Planning Board approval violates the Town's Subdivision Regulations and the Town reserves all of its rights to enforce the Subdivision Regulations." As Everett's letter notes, Holly Tanner's office merged the lots in question. There is no way to read this other than as a threat to sue Holly Tanner.

If the threatened suit is against me, why did Everett send it to Holly Tanner?

Of course, Everett was the guy who told me to put the lots back together. Then, when I did exactly what he asked, he threatens to sue the county?

Everett blew a hole in the budget of Stuyvesant, causing an 18.8% tax increase through his endless persecution of a small, family business. Everett has already duped the town board of Stuyvesant out $100,000. Now he wants to drag the county into his absurd vendetta and suck yet more money out of the taxpayers. 

Here are additional points:

No elected official in Columbia County is more highly regarded by Democrats and Republicans than Holly Tanner. If Holly Tanner isn't above Everett's threats, no one is safe from this Special Prosecutor out to generate more work for himself. 

Holly Tanner is a professional. Dave Everett comes along and says she screwed up? Nonsense. Holly Tanner, my attorney, the title company and I all agree: Everett is wrong. 

I don't see what the big deal is. I filed some papers to put my barn and my house back on to one lot or parcel. Why should any one care? Why would the town of Stuyvesant sue the county to stop that? It's nuts.

Everett has already taken a wrecking ball to Stuyvesant, now left with almost no reserve fund, in the middle of two lawsuits, increasing taxes by 18.8% this year and the bleeding of funds has not stopped. Indeed, if Everett has his way, the bleeding will never stop. 

Will the taxpayers of Stuyvesant ever wake up? Do the rest of the taxpayers in Columbia County want to be dragged into Everett's dog fight and see their budgets blow up too?

When does Everett's term as Special Prosecutor expire?

Background links:

http://www.registerstar.com/articles/2011/11/22/news/doc4ecb37e94e18e378995469.txt

http://www.registerstar.com/articles/2011/11/03/news/doc4eb22742b68d7817771942.txt#blogcomments

http://newsroom.wgxc.org/archives/tag/david-everett

http://www.sunshineonthehudson.com/

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/High-living-con-man-invoked-God-stole-5-3-2239235.php#ixzz1c9stSTte