As you are likely already aware, Piermont Village Hall made a “decision” late last week to finally release and upload to the Village of Piermont website, the multiple years’ worth of Village financials which Village Hall previously sought to conceal from Piermont residents since Year 2020. Piermont Village government rushed to do this after discovering that the “Unhand Piermont!” Blog released and uploaded these same Piermont financials last Wednesday, July 24, 2024. “Unhand Piermont!” sourced the relevant documents and information from the Moody’s website, and from the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (“EMMA”) website at “msrb.org”. It is astounding that Piermont government worked so hard for years to try to conceal from Piermont residents, a set of documents specifically intended for those Piermont residents to see and review real-time – especially given that those documents were hiding in plain sight at other locations on the Internet.
As you can imagine, the spotlight placed on the Village of Piermont financials last week has caused a flurry of activity since, including inquiries made to New York State and United States federal regulators regarding: (A) the sanctity vel non of the Piermont financials themselves, and (B) the true economic state of well-being vel non of the Village itself. Perhaps the most important regulator and protector against Piermont Village Hall financial misconduct is Tom DiNapoli and his Office of the New York State Comptroller (“OSC”). His photo is posted here. The Newburgh/New Windsor OSC field office apparently handles Piermont.
Accordingly, the following OSC contact-information has been forwarded to me for YOUR use. If you have any information whatsoever regarding financial malfeasance perpetrated by the Village of Piermont government or by any individual public official therein, you are urged to forward it to the following OSC e-mail address:
muni-newburgh@osc.ny.gov
Naturally, there are manifold protections for whistleblowers in federal, state, and sometimes even local law. Those protections can be easily reviewed by basic Internet searches as well as communications with one’s own counsel versed in whistleblower protection law. Moreover, I am informed that OSC will also accept information anonymously when mailed to the following address:
Office of the State Comptroller
33 Airport Center Drive, Suite 102
New Windsor, NY 12553 USA
Thank you for your careful consideration of this memo.
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
