laundry list

I started this blog on January 1, 2011. In the past seven months I have written about a number of issues relating to the government of the town of Stuyvesant and Columbia County and I wanted to clarify the list here, for the record, for anyone new to this conflict.

Stuyvesant Town Attorney helped himself to $10,000 in public money without paperwork with the approval of the supervisor. He also submitted a fraudulent invoice, and demanded payment from an applicant before the planning board in violation of policy. 

When I told the supervisor about this problem, the town hit me with a criminal citation based on a previously unknown law, a charge that defies the laws of physics.

The town assessor listed a Hudson river resort as a tax exempt state park for tax purposes.

The town board held an illegal executive session and secretly and illegally allocated money to a law firm. 

The zoning officer either did surveillance on my house or lied in the public record about it. 

The supervisor used her position as chair of the public safety committee in the Board of Supervisors to try to get officers to arrest Martin Roby for repeatedly FOILing to see the bank records with account numbers visible to track wire transfers between accounts, a problem in other towns. 

The town hired a special prosecutor without permission. 

Town board member made threats of illegal retaliation on video.

Someone did some petty weirdness.

The town board held an illegal executive session and spent money illegally on a special counsel and special prosecutor. 

The town FOIL officer ignores requests for documents and the town has no effective FOIL appeal system.  There was this.

The zoning officer revoked my business permit without evidence of a violation and without the authority to do so. Many of his statements are clearly false and indeed impossible.

The planning board, supervisor and town attorney abused a good faith offer to settle the permit dispute as a reason to attempt to revoke the permit in another way. Here is my reward for offering to settle. 

The supervisor maintains her position as chair of the county ethics board. 

The chairman of the county board of supervisors Roy Brown is entirely aware of all these allegations, did no independent investigation and has refused to consider a process to determine if the supervisor Bertram should retain the position as chair of the ethics board. 

The District Attorney Beth Cozzolino is aware of allegations of a pattern of fraud, embezzlement, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and abuse in Stuyvesant Town government.

County Attorney Robert Fitzsimmons is aware of these allegations and has suggested no action regarding Bertram's position as chair of the ethics board. The issue of government lawyers reoccurs in this case.

I am wholly innocent of all charges and there is no evidence I ever did anything wrong and yet I have spent $60,000 in legal fees and other expenses to deal with this town harassment. Here is the narrative.

Due to systematic failure in local ethics enforcement in New York State, I filed a suit in Federal Court.

And don't forget kidnapping Santa's elves.