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Law Office of John J. Tormey III, Esq.
John J. Tormey III, PLLC
1636 Third Avenue, PMB 188
New York, NY
10128 USA
(212) 410-4142 (phone)
(212) 410-2380 (fax)
jtormey@optonline.net
https://www.tormey.org
Sunday, July 21, 2024
VIA FAX: 1-845-534-2520, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
skoufis@nysenate.gov
New York State Senator James Skoufis (D - 42nd
Senate District)
Chairman of Committee on Investigations and Government
Operations
45 Quaker Avenue, Suites 202 & 207
Cornwall, New York 12518-2146 USA
VIA FAX: 1-518-426-6784, and U.S. MAIL
New York State Senator James Skoufis (D - 42nd Senate
District)
188 State Street, Legislative Office Building, Room
815
Albany, New York 12247 USA
VIA U.S. MAIL, FAX: 1-518-426-6784, and E-MAIL:
fuentes@nysenate.gov
vbest@nysenate.gov
Emma Fuentes, Chief of Staff
Valerie Best, Director of Communications
Office of New York State Senator James Skoufis (D - 42nd
Senate District)
188 State Street, Legislative Office Building, Room
815
Albany, New York 12247 USA
VIA U.S. MAIL, FAX: 1-845-425-4617, and E-MAIL:
weber@nysenate.gov
New York State Senator Bill Weber (R - 38th
Senate District)
Rockland County District Office
163 Airport Executive Park
Nanuet, New York 10954 USA
Re: Request For An Investigation Of The Village Of
Piermont, NY Government
Dear State Senator Skoufis, State Senator Weber, Ms.
Fuentes, Ms. Best, and Colleagues:
Enclosed with this letter as Exhibit A is a
copy of the May 31, 2017 “Statement Of Net Position” of the Village of
Piermont, New York.
Enclosed with this letter as Exhibit B is a
copy of the May 31, 2023 “Statement Of Net Position” of the Village of
Piermont, New York.
My understanding is that 2017’s Exhibit A was
made available on the Village of Piermont, New York Internet website. However,
my further understanding is that the Village of Piermont may have ceased making
this type of financial reporting available on its website circa 2020,
and that therefore Exhibit B needed to be extracted from Piermont
government through FOIL recently.
It is unfathomable that the government of a small village
of approximately 2,500 residents with a formerly positive Net Position of “US$834,138”
in 2017, could have possibly now run that same village into the ground within
the space of 6 short years to a Net Position of “(US$7,622,669)” – that is, to
a negative Net Position of over 7.6 million dollars in the hole.
While clearly, accounting conventions may have changed
in that six-year period as regards pension liabilities for example, the pension
vector between 2017 and 2023 as reflected in the Exhibits still appears to be
staggering. Moreover, it appears that Piermont Village government deliberately
changed the format of its “Statement of Net Position” macro template from 2017
to 2023, as also reflected in the Exhibits, perhaps in an attempt to shield Piermont
Village Hall defalcation. As for the timing, my understanding is that the first
mayoral term of current Village of Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker commenced at the
beginning of 2018. His mayoral reign lines up almost perfectly with these two
alarming documents.
I am a political Independent and represent no client
in this matter, although in recent months I have undertaken to fight
irresponsible real estate development and environmental practices by the
Village of Piermont government. Those harmful real estate development and
environmental practices may well be related to the Village’s underlying
financial distress reflected in the two Exhibits hereto. Though I know that it
should have no effect on any governmental investigation of potential Piermont
village government financial malfeasance, and as I am asking for the bipartisan
help of your respective offices, you should please be aware that Piermont Mayor
Bruce Tucker is a Democrat, and that the recently-departed head of the Village
of Piermont Planning Board is one Daniel Spitzer, brother of disgraced former
New York State Governor and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Mindful that you will likely receive similar requests
to investigate what is apparently newly-discovered information regarding the
Village of Piermont’s 2023 negative “Net Position”, I respectfully request that
you and your colleagues probe how a small-town village government in New York could
have possibly blown-through that much by way of financial resources over a
6-year period, thereby putting its unsuspecting village residents so deeply in
the hole.
Thank you for your careful consideration of this
letter and its Exhibits.
Respectfully submitted,
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
Town of Orangetown, New York
