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
Friday, August 16, 2024
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
lnewhall@osc.ny.gov
muni-newburgh@osc.ny.gov
LGSA-Audits@osc.ny.gov
Laura A. Newhall – Auditor 3
Office of the State Comptroller
33 Airport Center Drive, Suite 102
New Windsor, New York 12553 USA
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
eburgess@strategen.com
Edward Burgess – Director
Strategen
10265 Rockingham Drive, Suite #100-4061
Sacramento, California 95827 USA
Re: Follow-Up
Memo - The Village Of Piermont, NY Government
Dear Ms. Newhall, and Mr. Burgess:
Further to my Sunday, July 21, 2024 letter to the New
York State Comptroller’s office, your kind replies, and our respective
communications which followed – I have this updated information for you
regarding the Village of Piermont, New York and its distressed financial
condition:
As you will
recall, I am a New York attorney residing in the Town of Orangetown and the
County of Rockland. I write 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. Piermont used to be the most beautiful
and picturesque of all the Hudson River communities in my view. However, through use of
a studiously-opaque village government, Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker and
the Village of Piermont government are now in the process of selling-out the village to shady real estate developers threatening taxpaying residents
with serious environmental harm, when Tucker and the rest of Village Hall
really should be working to remediate the constant flooding in Piermont
instead. Some Piermont residents have even taken to re-building on stilts
because of the flooding.
The Village
of Piermont, New York now appears to be facing significant financial distress.
I base this observation upon the following specific reasons, with citations:
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
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/08/watch-as-mayor-bruce-tucker-blows-away.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/08/piermont-do-you-speak-succubus.html
Reason #2: As you know
from my prior correspondence, since Year 2017, Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker has
put the Village of Piermont into a negative Net Position of 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’.”
[Emphasis supplied].
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 you 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://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/07/pay-no-attention-to-garmento-behind_13.html
https://www.piermont-ny.gov/government/clerks_office/financial_audits.php#outer-452
Reason #6: In similar
vein, and as you already know, 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
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/07/that-time-when-bruce-tucker-sandbagged.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/07/crouching-tiger-hidden-garmento.html
As you also already
know, this approach apparently has become an unfortunately familiar tactic by
other financially distressed municipalities in Rockland County, New York.
Reason #7: Upon
information and belief, Piermont Village government just incurred a liability
of at least US$55,000 in litigation fees payable to outside litigation counsel,
with respect to one or both of these litigations:
Litigation
#1
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/04/newsflash-piermont-new-york-residents.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/04/how-to-access-court-file.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/04/dont-turn-around-this-is-for-real.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-fall-of-house-of-usha.html
Litigation
#2
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/05/newsflash-valentina-slams-tucker-de.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/05/how-to-access-second-court-file.html
The thing is,
Piermont Village government shows no signs of capitulating to the Piermont
residents and doing the right thing in either of these litigations. Therefore,
it is possible that neither of these litigations will end at anytime soon. At a
burn-rate measured in US$55,000 increments in the months that follow,
Piermont’s litigation fees may well eat substantially into the US$3,210,196
“unassigned Fund Balance” which Mayor Tucker has thusfar sought to hang onto to
the detriment of taxpaying residents, as an artifice in his attempt to
wrongfully manipulate the municipal bond market, bondholders, and analysts.
Mayor
Tucker’s house of cards appears to now be crashing down.
In summary,
it is my belief that, at minimum, the innocent bondholders and their
representatives and affiliates who have relied upon any prior Piermont bond
rating, must examine and review the Piermont Village Hall shenanigans that
Piermont residents have suffered through during the six-and-one-half years of
Bruce Tucker’s malignant mayoral reign. In my opinion, so, too, must the Office
of the New York State Comptroller examine and review Piermont’s financials. The time to do that
is now, before Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker tries to raise resident taxes again,
or before he sells-out the Village to another irresponsible real estate
developer again. Come to think of it, it would also be a good idea to probe
Piermont financials before the next unfortunate flood. The Village is in
peril.
Thank you for your continued attention to this cause.
Very truly yours,
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
Resident
of the Town of Orangetown, New York
