Found Her.
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
Thursday,
August 8, 2024
VIA U.S.
MAIL and E-MAIL:
oladunni.ososami@spglobal.com
Oladunni M. Ososami
– Primary Credit Analyst
S&P
Global Ratings
Standard
& Poor’s Global Corporate
Two Lincoln
Centre, 5430 LBJ Freeway
Dallas, Texas
75240 USA
Re: CUSIP
Base #720798 – The Village of Piermont, New York – Municipal Bonds.
Dear Oladunni
M. Ososami:
Your
colleague Mominah Kamran in Credit Client Services informed me that you are the
S&P Global Ratings Analyst for State of New York matters. As indicated
above, I am writing to you regarding the embattled Village of Piermont, located
within the Town of Orangetown, Rockland County, and the State of New York. I
trust that you are the senior S&P Analyst who handles the Village of
Piermont.
I am an
attorney in New York. I am a 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 well-known adversary to the Village of Piermont,
its current Mayor Bruce Tucker, and their egregious environmental practices.
Through use
of a studiously-opaque village government, Mayor Bruce Tucker and the Village
of Piermont are in the process of trying to sell-out 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 please carefully re-examine and re-analyze any bond rating
that you and S&P may currently 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
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: 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, 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/
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-iceberg-that-piermont-ny-mayor.html
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, 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 New York State 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
This
apparently has become an unfortunately familiar tactic by other financially
distressed municipalities in Rockland County, New York, as I am sure that you
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 or disclosures
relating thereto, 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 on the above. Thank you.
Respectfully submitted,
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
