October 14, 2010 Just three weeks ago, in response to an overwhelming 70% to 30% defeat in the ballpark referendum vote, Christopher St. Lawrence promised the 10,145 voters who came out that he had heard them. He told The Journal News, "The stadium will be built with private money. There will be no taxpayer dollars. I got the message." Last night, St. Lawrence and two board members broke that promise rendering what the Supervisor guaranteed just a few weeks ago an expedient lie.

Who Voted
The proposition as it was printed on the agenda for the meeting read: "Surveying services for Project Grand Slam—Traffic Improvements: Jay A. Greenwell PLS LLC." Project Grand Slam is St. Lawrence’s multimillion-dollar baseball project.

But when St. Lawrence asked the attorney to read the proposal to the board, Town Attorney Michael Klein read, "A proposal for surveying services for a property at the corner of Pomona Road and Firemen’s Memorial Drive for Traffic Improvements. . ."

The change had to be intentional, and the purpose was clear to many in the room. Run past it as though it was just another expenditure in a long list of minor expenses; there were nine items in just that one section of the meeting. Who would notice?

The contempt shown for the voters, the residents, was amazing even for this supervisor. Did he and the two board members who voted with him think the public was too simple to see what they were doing—that the residents were too clueless to ever catch wind of this betrayal? It was only three weeks ago that St. Lawrence told any and all media that would listen that he was getting private money, and the public didn’t have to worry about it. "No taxpayer dollars would be used." And here they were signing a check for $8,700 on the back of the Ramapo taxpayer.

Daniel Friedman moved the motion to approve the expense, and Fran Hunter seconded Friedman’s motion. The vote was: Christopher St. Lawrence (yes), Daniel Friedman (yes), Fran Hunter (yes)—Itzy Ulman (no) and Patrick Withers (no). What remained of the Board’s respect for the residents resounded in the minority vote of Ulman and Withers.

Is St. Lawrence still dyspeptic over the vote that removed public funding from his $25 million monument to his administration, and is this a way of exacting some revenge? Or is he getting desperate with a failing attempt to sell as risky a proposition as this ballpark is to investors? The probability for the failure of a team in the CanAm League is 73%. Although that fact seems to have escaped the supervisor’s grasp, investors might have noticed it. The irony is that the failure rate for the team is almost the same number that showed up in the referendum vote. Ramapo taxpayers, 70% of them, said they wanted no part of this crapshoot.

Does this untrustworthy majority of three—St. Lawrence, Friedman, Hunter—plan to continue the public funding of multimillion-dollar baseball project? It would seem so. At least the public has learned that the promises you hear from them about private financing will not be honored.

Public Comment
At the end of the meeting, the public was allowed to comment. Why at the end of the meeting? Isn’t that counterintuitive if you are really interested in what the public has to say about the items on the agenda? Well, you could ask that question of the board, but they don’t answer questions in the public comment section so you might as well save your breath. And besides, three of the board members had rather loudly proclaimed earlier in the evening what they thought of public opinion whether delivered over a microphone or by way of a ballot box.

Robert Romanowski had an interesting question about Town Tax bills. Residents are charged a fee because the Town of Ramapo collects the school taxes for the school boards. The fee is 1% of your tax bill. Romanowski pointed out an inherent unfairness in the process because the person who has a higher Town Tax bill is charged more to do the same thing, collect school taxes, than is the next door neighbor with a lower tax bill.

Patsy Wooters got up to ask the Board and Supervisor to formally dedicate as open space parklands properties that were recently purchased in Western Ramapo. Her statements can be viewed here.

Michael Castelluccio pointed out the hypocrisy of the supervisor’s public comments relating to funding Project Grand Slam and also the Open Space program as well. Video here.