Friday, October 25, 2024

Meet Bruce Tucker's Sewer Hook-Up.

 
Right now, while you are reading this Blog post, Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker’s brain is contemplating its next reptilian move.
 
You see, Tucker and his 447-477 Piermont Avenue over-development money-grab were destroyed by New York State Supreme Court Justice Hal Greenwald two weeks ago, on October 11, 2024:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/in-shape-of-l-on-their-foreheads.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/for-immediate-release-piermont-ny.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-courts-decision-in-young-v-village.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker-hides-from.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/word-of-ugly-residential-monstrosity.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/residents-sue-piermont-village-board.html



Bruce Tucker and his shiftless Village Hall submissives are getting beaten badly and are now running out of options. 

Sure, Tucker and Piermont could try to appeal Justice Greenwald’s October 11, 2024 Decision and Order to the Appellate Division:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/warning-to-piermont-new-york-residents.html
But Tucker would thereby waste tons more Piermont taxpayer money, and then lose yet again... 

(The leaves at my feet crackle)...

What's that? You wanna go upstairs, Bruce? Go ahead. Go upstairs. See what happens.
 
Or, Bruce Tucker and his Village Hall fawners could try to bring an Article 78 proceeding against the Rockland County Department of Planning, in an effort to somehow overturn the above October 23, 2024 letter. But again, Tucker would thereby waste tons more Piermont taxpayer money, and would lose that maneuver, too. 

Tucker is likely already well into six-figures in the hole on these 447-477 Piermont Avenue litigations. Tucker’s reptilian brain is now looking for the cheapest way to punish his local Piermont resident neighbors - his own voters and constituents - who were rightfully successful in blocking his ill-conceived monstrosity of a real estate development and his illicit US$312,000 Year-One money-grab plus benefits:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/07/another-piece-of-nonsense-from-tina.html
https://rcbizjournal.com/2024/07/30/piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker-talks-about-controversy-engulfing-his-village/
Besides - now he has to find another operating budget for next year, particularly because he has already spent Piermont into a US$8,000,000 Net Position hole.
 
So what Bruce Tucker’s reptilian mind is plotting right now, is a snake-like end-run around the Rockland County Department of Planning, while trailing a clause in New York’s oft-arcane General Municipal Law (“GML”; sometimes alternatively cited as "GMU"). 

GML Subsection 239-m(5) (alternatively punctuated as "239-m.5") provides:
 
“… 5. Extraordinary Vote Upon Recommendation Of Modification Or Disapproval. If such county planning agency or regional planning council recommends modification or disapproval of a proposed action, the referring body (here, the five-person Village of Piermont Board of Trustees) shall not act contrary to such (county) recommendation except by a vote of a majority plus one of all the members thereof. [Emphasis added].”
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/GMU/239-M
 
That’s right. Bruce Tucker and his Village Hall sycophants are, right now, actually considering a Piermont Board of Trustees “supermajority” override vote to expressly disregard Rockland County’s determination:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/what-now.html
 
Yet Bruce Tucker is about to encounter the New City mongoose known as “EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 01-2017” - abbreviated herein as “EO #01-2017”. Moreover, Bruce Tucker is about to come face-to-face with a County Executive in the form of a former cop known as Ed Day. Perhaps needless to say here, but Bruce Tucker and Ed Day, respectively, hail from two very distinct and opposite political parties. In New City, they're not crazy about Bruce Tucker or any other of his skell Piermont Village Hall minions.

Here is how the Rockland County website describes EO #01-2017:



Now, let's go to the primary source. 

EO #01-2017 is set forth in this three-page document, which I re-print below in corrected Word format directly above the corresponding three ".jpeg" pages of the same EO which follow it. Please be aware that the key part of the EO does not happen until the end of the document at its Page 3, though:
- - - - -

Rockland County
Ed Day, Rockland County Executive
 
OFFICE OF THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE
11 New Hempstead Road
New City, New York 10956
Phone: (845) 638-5122
Fax: (845) 638-5856
 
May 22, 2017
 
To: All Commissioners and Department Heads
 
From: Edwin J. Day, County Executive
 
Re: 
EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 01-2017 – 
Report of GML Review as a Requirement for a County Permit, License[,] or Approval
 
Intent of Executive Order.
 
The New York General Municipal Law (GML) recognizes that the County has an interest in inter-community and county-wide planning, zoning, site plan[,] and subdivision considerations and that such considerations are required to be brought to the attention of the County Commissioner of Planning.[1] The requirement seeks to promote coordination of land use decision-making and to enhance consideration of potential inter-municipal and county-wide impacts prior to action being taken by town and village land use boards. The referral process is sometimes known as the “GML review” and it is conducted by the County Commissioner of Planning.
 
The GML review contemplates various considerations, including the protection of community character and the values of achieving and maintaining of[sic] a satisfactory community environment[,] and expressly authorizes the County Commissioner of Planning to make recommendations as to whether the local land use board should approve or disapprove an application for the planning or zoning action along with recommendations. The local land use board is bound to consider the County Planning Commissioner’s review and must have a vote of a majority plus one of all of its members to disapprove any recommendation of modification or disapproval. Local land use boards, however, override these recommendations often times[sic] without a stated reason.
 
- - - - -
[1] In Rockland County, the Commissioner of Planning exercises the powers that State laws provide to a County Planning Board. See Rockland County Charter § C5.02 and Laws of Rockland County § 5-82.
 
Rocklandgov.com
- - - - -
[Page 2]
 
The GML, however, requires that if overridden, the local land use board shall file a report with the County Commissioner of Planning of the final action taken and, if contrary to the recommendation of the County Commissioner of Planning, the reasons for such action.
 
Unfortunately, in the[sic] many cases, the local land use boards fail in their mandated responsibility to report the reasons for taking such contrary action. Such failure violates the law and deprives the public of the transparency and accountability it deserves in the regulation of local development.
 
As County Executive, it is my duty, subject to the provisions of the Charter, to supervise, direct[,] and control the administration of all departments of the [C]ounty government. Within the parameters of that duty, I have the authority to require the several [C]ounty departments that issue permits, licenses[,] and other County approvals relating to real property which has been subject to local board action, to the extent allowed by law, to require a certified copy of the report of the local land use board overriding the recommendations from the County Commissioner of Planning and the reasons for the override, and to consider those reasons before issuing such county permit, license[,] or approval.
 
Implementation of Executive Order
 
In order to implement this Executive Order I hereby direct that, to the extent permitted by law,
 
A. Every application for a permit, license[,] or other approval submitted to any County agency within the jurisdiction of the County Executive shall require the applicant to provide the following:
 
1. where the County Commissioner of Planning has recommended approval of the proposed action, a copy of [the] County Commissioner of Planning’s report approving the proposed action; or
 
2. where the County Commissioner of Planning has recommended modification or disapproval of the proposed action,
 
a. a copy of [the] County Commissioner of Planning’s recommendations to modify or disapprove the proposed action, and
 
b. a certified copy of the determination of the local land use board overriding the County Planning Board’s recommendations to modify or disapprove, which determination must contain, or be accompanied by, a certified copy [of] the statement of the local land use board’s reasons for the override required by General Municipal Law § 239-m(6) and/or 239-n(6).
 
B. No County agency within the jurisdiction of the County Executive shall issue a County permit, license[,] or approval concerning an ongoing proposed action that was, or needs to be, referred to the County Planning Department, pursuant to GML § 239-m or 239-n, unless the required documents are produced, and
 
Rocklandgov.com
- - - - -

[Page 3]

C. Every County agency required to obtain the recommendations and reports described in sections B and C [] above, shall consider the contents of those reports in making their determinations as to whether or not to issue or deny the application for the subject permit, license[,] or other County approval. [Bold-face emphasis added]
 
The term “proposed action” shall have the same meaning as described in GML §§ 239-m and 239-n.
 
Nothing in this policy shall affect any other rights or obligations at law of the County of Rockland with respect to any matter related to the subject of this Executive Order.
 
THIS EXECUTIVE ORDER IS EFFECTIVE THIS 22 DAY OF MAY, 2017.
 
_____________/s/________________
Edwin J. Day
COUNTY EXECUTIVE
 
Cc: All Rockland County Legislators





In other words, it's a two-step process. EO #01-2017 says, inter alia, that the village board must file a certified copy of the written reasons for its disregard of the county planning authority's land use recommendation. Upon receipt of that document, that county planning body is then required to consider its contents and thereupon make a determination as to whether or not to issue or deny the permit. 

That's right. The county planning body has discretion to deny the requested permit. Period.

Now in this case, Bruce Tucker and the buzzards of Village of Piermont government already faked a law and lied about it on record repeatedly. They got caught... Schmeissed... Does anyone really think that now, any Rockland County agency is going to embrace any 447-477 Piermont Avenue permit or permission-request with open arms?

Additionally, I have already been assured by one local government official in Rockland County that EO #01-2017 is still in full force and effect, and has been in full force and effect continuously since the day it was signed by the County Executive in 2017. Additionally, I am informed that EO #01-2017 itself spawned the electronic messaging system since put in place in Rockland County, which now assures that the Rockland County Department of Planning is easily able to exercise oversight over abysmal land-use and zoning practices like those of Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker and the cretins of Piermont Village Hall.
 
What is particularly wild here, is that even rank anti-environmentalist and RCBJ Succubus propagandist Tina Traster herself acknowledged the existence of EO #01-2017 back in April – within one of her several "articles" on topic that otherwise all read like they were planted by Tucker himself:

“…Complicating the matter further is Executive Order [#0]1-2017, signed by Rockland County Executive Ed Day, that requires county departments to verify that real property applications subject to local board action have complied with GML, prior to issuing permits or approvals. If the project is non-compliant, County Departments cannot issue any required approvals, permits, or new 911 addresses…” [Emphasis added].
From the RCBJ propaganda-piece entitled “Piermont Proposal Draws Ire At Planning Board Meeting; Residents Oppose Modern Design - Planning Board Chairman Wants Clarification On Legality Of Local Law That Allows Multi-Family Dwellings Along Piermont Avenue”, by Tina Traster, RCBJ Succubus – Rockland County Business Journal (“rcbizjournal”), April 10, 2024.


And wait. Don’t just take the word of noted legal scholar luminary RCBJ Succubus for it. The Village of Wesley Hills in Rockland County also acknowledges EO #01-2017, in this manner:

“What is Executive Order #[0]1-2017?
Rockland County Executive Ed Day issued an Executive Order (EO) that requires land use development projects subject to local board action and seeking a permit, license or other approval from a County agency to first provide a copy of the General Municipal Law (GML) Report associated with the County Planning Department’s review of the project. The applicant must also provide the pertinent copy of the minutes or resolution from the municipality’s board.
Failure to comply with the requirements of EO #[0]1-2017 will result in the County not issuing permits or approvals for such uses as water and sewer connections, well permits, rooming house permits, drainage permits, road opening permits, issuance of new addresses and others.” [Emphasis added].
https://www.wesleyhills.org/planning-board/pages/land-development-process-eligibility-county-permit-license-or-approval

Here's the print-out from the Wesley Hills website:




That’s right.

Wow.
 
Just now, somewhere in Piermont, a reptilian vagus nerve started throbbing.
 
So, sure. Bruce Tucker can try to snake around the Rockland County Department of Planning by setting-up a staged “supermajority” override vote, deploying the four unctuous dissembling elvers currently sitting on his eminently-detestable Piermont Board of Trustees. Tucker can then rubber-stamp the 447-477 Piermont Avenue development under GML 239-m(5), with a “supermajority” override vote expressly purporting to flout Rockland County’s October 23, 2024 determination.
 
But do you know what will happen as a result?
 
The County will then deny Tucker and the developers any new “911” address or designation on the subject 447-477 Piermont Avenue property. I am sure that federal Homeland Security officials will really enjoy hearing about that. And I know just the guy to tell them.
 
Additionally, on an even more primordial level, the County will deny Tucker and the developers any sewer hook-up, water hook-up, drainage permits, road opening permits, and pretty much any other utility connection or permit that Tucker and the developers would ever want to otherwise have for 447-477 Piermont Avenue. 

In politics, government, and law, it’s really all about how you deal with the head of the snake.
 
And... wait a minute. No sewer hook-up?
 

Given that the 14-unit monstrosity as last planned for 447-477 Piermont Avenue by Bruce Tucker and his supplicants has virtually no set-backs and is intended to take up almost the entire footprint of the site, EO #01-2017 means that once the structure is built, there will soon be a veritable Matterhorn of sewage there and no room whatsoever to put it – except, perhaps, piled on top of an already disgusting-looking 35-foot-high roof. Now, that hardly sounds like it would fit in with the otherwise-prevailing artsy aesthetic of Piermont Avenue. Then again, Bruce Tucker’s newest Trustee-enabler Rondi Casey is a sculptress who works in mixed media. Therefore, what an astute Board of Trustees "appointment" the Tucker selection of Rondi Casey was in retrospect, and what a perfectly-appropriate resultant visual expression of Bruce Tucker’s towering mayoral reign... Bruce Tucker's own personal "substack", as it were.


In any event, on further careful reflection, to militate against this wholly-unsavory and wholly-unsightly architectural nightmare of an ocular prospect, which I dare not depict in this Blog for fear of offending any of the more milquetoast of Piermont residents, I instead recommend a modest open-space "cut-in" on the next set of architectural plans and renderings - and I offer Bruce Tucker this depicted outhouse for inclusion within those plans, as Tucker's de facto 447-477 Piermont Avenue sewer hook-up in lieu and my heartfelt present to Piermont's current Mayor pro tempore. Congratulations, Bruce.


Bruce Tucker wants to do it without the County?... Good... LET him do it without the County.
 
Given that there is still a fence surrounding the 447-477 Piermont Avenue site as of today, complete with signs telling us all to “Keep Out”, I will be happy to instead deliver the depicted outhouse gift to Tucker’s own office in Piermont Village Hall - or even deliver it to his front lawn in lieu. His choice. My treat. My fax number is 212-410-2380, it has paper in it, and it is ready to receive.
 
Once Bruce Tucker and his Piermont Village Hall goon squad takes down the ugly fence currently surrounding 447-477 Piermont Avenue and then moves his new gifted “sewer hook-up” outhouse onto the site - and given that no less than 14 families are next intended to occupy the “market-rate rental” 14-unit behemoth at 447-477 Piermont Avenue when hastily thereafter built - hopefully this new Bruce Tucker outhouse won’t get too crowded. The occupants of the new construction will just need to learn how to take turns and knock, that’s all.
 
Vagus nerve calmed. 

Who NEEDS the County - right, Bruce?

Problem solved.