Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Analyze THIS.


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
 
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL
Martina L. Cheung – President, S&P Global Ratings
Standard & Poor’s Global Corporate
55 Water Street
New York, New York 10041 USA
 
To:
anna.uboytseva@spglobal.com
anthony.polanco@spglobal.com
benjamin.gallovic@spglobal.com
bianca.gaytan-burrell@spglobal.com
blake.yocom@spglobal.com
centralratingreq@spglobal.com
charlene.butterfield@spglobal.com
charlotte.perry@spglobal.com
christian.richards@spglobal.com
diana.cooke@spglobal.com
dylan.lindow@spglobal.com
eastratingsreq@spglobal.com
alex.tomczuk@spglobal.com
eden.perry@spglobal.com
felix.winnekens@spglobal.com
geoffrey.buswick@spglobal.com
heather.mcardle@spglobal.com
jane.ridley@spglobal.com
jennifer.boyd@spglobal.com
jennifer.garza@spglobal.com
john.sauter@spglobal.com
joshua.travis@spglobal.com
kaiti.vartholomaios@spglobal.com
krystal.tena@spglobal.com
lauren.freire@spglobal.com
martina.cheung@spglobal.com
matthew.martin@spglobal.com
media_relations@spglobal.com
melissa.stoloff@spglobal.com
michael.mooney1@spglobal.com
michael.ryter@spglobal.com
mona.elfar@spglobal.com
moreen.skyers-gibbs@spglobal.com
randy.layman@spglobal.com
ratings.request@spglobal.com
robert.otter@spglobal.com
stephanie.megas@spglobal.com
steven.waldeck@spglobal.com
timothy.barrett@spglobal.com
tyler.fitman@spglobal.com
victor.medeiros@spglobal.com
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
IR@dnb.com
mcabeed@dnb.com
Customerservice.at@dnb.com
Customerinquiries@dnb.com
Anthony Jabbour, Chief Executive Officer
Dun & Bradstreet Corporation
[Re: Case #00374501]
101 John F. Kennedy Parkway
Short Hills, New Jersey 07078 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
tips2@bloomberg.com
contactus@bloombergsupport.com
Michael Bloomberg, Owner
Bloomberg.com/Bloomberg Finance L.P.
731 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York 10022 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
usaclientservices@fitchsolutions.com
alayna.francis@thefitchgroup.com
eleis.brennan@thefitchgroup.com
Ian Linnell, President
Fitch Ratings
300 West 57th Street, 38th Floor
New York, NY 10019 USA
 
VIA AIR MAIL and E-MAIL:
marketingops@thefitchgroup.com
fitch.connect@fitchsolutions.com
emeaclientservices@fitchsolutions.com
Ian Linnell, President
Fitch Ratings
30 North Colonnade, Canary Wharf
London, E14 5GN
UNITED KINGDOM
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
clientservices@moodys.com
ir@moodys.com
Amy Zhao, Lead Analyst - Regional PFG
Northeast Moody’s Investors Service, Inc.
7 World Trade Center - 250 Greenwich Street
New York, New York 10007 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
pulsesupport@moodys.com
Robert Weber - PFG Northeast
Northeast Moody’s Investors Service, Inc.
7 World Trade Center - 250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007 USA
 
To:
lloyd.pepperl@moodys.com
alex.greenwald@moodys.com
joshua.doppelt@moodys.com
howtogetrated@moodys.com
 
Re: CUSIP Base #720798 – The Village of Piermont, New York – Municipal Bonds
 
Dear Sirs/Mesdames:
 
I am an attorney in New York. I am a citizen and resident of the Town of Orangetown, and the County of Rockland. Yet I represent no client in this matter. I only write you as a concerned citizen - and as a known adversary to the Village of Piermont, New York, its current Mayor Bruce Tucker, and their egregious environmental practices. The Village of Piermont is also located within the Town of Orangetown, New York.
 
Through use of a studiously-opaque village government, Mayor Bruce Tucker and the Village of Piermont, New York are in the process of trying to sell-out the Village of Piermont to shady real estate developers threatening taxpaying residents with grave environmental harm, when Tucker and Piermont really should be working to remediate the constant flooding in the village instead. Some Piermont residents have even taken to re-building on stilts because of the flooding.
 
My request herewith is that you and your respective offices please carefully re-examine and re-analyze any current bond rating that you may maintain for the Village of Piermont, New York – and also, consider the within information in connection with future Piermont bond ratings. I base this request upon the following specific reasons, with citations for your respective analysts:
 
Reason #1: Mayor Bruce Tucker and the Village of Piermont, New York just announced a drastic six-point-nine percent (6.9%) tax increase after first voting to exceed the otherwise-applicable tax cap. See “Incorporated Village or Piermont, Board of Trustees Meeting”, April 16, 2024 Minutes, at:
https://cms9files1.revize.com/piermont/document_center/Agendas%20&%20Minutes/2024/Minutes/BOT%20Meeting%20Minutes%20April%2016%202024.pdf

Reason #2: Since Year 2017, Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker has put the Village of Piermont into a negative Net Position of (US$7,600,000) - that is, US$7,600,000 into the hole - from an original US$800,000 surplus. Tucker has purposefully redistributed the wealth of unsuspecting village residents into crushing and overstuffed long-term pension and other obligations, thereby mortgaging the collective futures of future generations of Piermont residents:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/07/he-spent-it.html


https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/08/piermont-do-you-speak-succubus.html
 
Reason #3: In a recent July 30, 2024 “interview” with well-known local planted propaganda publication the Rockland County Business Journal (RCBJ), Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker nevertheless admitted to Piermont’s current financial distress for which he obviously did not adequately plan:
 
“‘[E]verything hit at once’, the mayor said. ‘We’re dealing with sticker shock on insurances, inflation, [sic] huge retirement mandates by New York State’.”
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/08/piermont-do-you-speak-succubus.html

https://rcbizjournal.com/2024/07/30/piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker-talks-about-controversy-engulfing-his-village/
 
Reason #4: When questioned if he would use a portion of a puzzling US$3,210,196 “unassigned Fund Balance” (presumably) to offset the new and imminent tax hit to Piermont taxpaying residents, Mayor Tucker replied that he would only be using US$216,000 of that Fund Balance because, in his words:
 
“Bond counsel recommends not to take from the fund balance because it will affect the Village’s credit rating. [Emphasis supplied]. The credit rating decides the rate of interest the Village will pay on Bond (Capital) items. Currently the Villages[sic] S&P rating is AA+.”

See “Incorporated Village or Piermont, Board of Trustees Meeting”, April 16, 2024 Minutes, at:
https://cms9files1.revize.com/piermont/document_center/Agendas%20&%20Minutes/2024/Minutes/BOT%20Meeting%20Minutes%20April%2016%202024.pdf

https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/08/watch-as-mayor-bruce-tucker-blows-away.html
 
Aside from the fact that Mayor Tucker thereby waived the privilege of confidential attorney-client communications when he was unwise and ill-advised enough to read the advice of “Bond Counsel” into the public record - Mayor Tucker’s own admission of his intentional manipulation of taxpayer funds to make the bond landscape appear rosier than it actually is, should be called out and acknowledged as deception by a public official. I ask that your analysts please review the full text of the above-linked April 16, 2024 Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes for a full review of Mayor Tucker’s unabashed artifice in this regard.
 
Reason #5: Piermont Village Hall made a recent “decision” to finally release and upload to the Village of Piermont website, the multiple years’ worth of Village financial statements which Village Hall had previously sought to conceal from Piermont residents since Year 2020:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/07/tell-it-to-tom.html

https://www.piermont-ny.gov/government/clerks_office/financial_audits.php#outer-452
 
Reason #6: In similar vein, Piermont Village Hall purposefully failed to timely file its financial information with the Office of the New York State Comptroller (OSC), thereby preventing anyone from ever seeing Piermont’s “Fiscal Score”, “Environmental Score”, and “Health Designation” for Fiscal Year 2023 in the “Fiscal Stress Monitoring System” within the Comptroller’s website:
https://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/fsms.cfm

This apparently has become an unfortunately familiar tactic by other financially-distressed municipalities in Rockland County, New York, as I am sure that your East Coast analysts are already well aware.
 
In summary, it is my belief that, at minimum, the innocent bondholders and their representatives who have relied upon any prior Piermont bond rating, deserve a re-examination and review of the Piermont Village Hall shenanigans that the Piermont residents have suffered through during the six-and-one-half years of Bruce Tucker’s malignant mayoral reign. The time to do it is now, before Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker tries to raise taxes again.
 
I will appreciate a response from you and your offices on the above. Thank you.
 
Respectfully,
 
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
at
Labels: , , , , , , , ,