Bruce Tucker, NY CON.
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
Saturday, November 30, 2024
VIA FAX: 1-845-638-5298, and U.S. MAIL
District Attorney Tom Walsh
Rockland County District Attorney’s Office
1 South Main St, Suite 500
New City, New York 10956-3549 USA
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
info@rocklandda.org
Criminal Investigations Unit
Rockland County District Attorney’s Office
1 South Main St, Suite 500
New City, New York 10956-3549 USA
Re: NEW
Financial Information Regarding Piermont, New York And Mayor Bruce Tucker
Dear District Attorney Walsh, and Colleagues:
Further to my April 17, 2024 and July 21, 2024 letters
to your office, and mindful that the Village
of Piermont is currently under an OSC “Risk Assessment” inquiry, investigation,
or audit as the case may be - there has been a significant new development in
Piermont with potentially grave economic and other impact to the Village.
My belief is that your office should be made aware of
this news now, if not aware already. I have also informed OSC about it.
1. The Piermont Pier Tip Is Crumbling. It was
just reported-out to all of us on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, November 28,
2024, that the end of the famed and cherished Piermont Pier is in imminent
danger of collapse into the Hudson River. Piermont Village government has shut
it down and closed it off:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/attention-piermont-residents-your-mayor.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/piermont-piers-final-section-closed.html
2. Mayor Bruce Tucker Said That He Had Approximately
US$3,000,000 Banked. I trust that you will recall this next part from prior
correspondence. Mayor Bruce Tucker attested in an April 16, 2024 Board of
Trustees meeting and in a subsequent RCBJ interview published on July 30, 2024, that Tucker and Piermont Village government were flush with a US$3,210,196
“unassigned Fund Balance”. Mayor Tucker further indicated in that meeting that
he would only be using US$216,000 of that US$3,210,196 “unassigned Fund
Balance” to offset the pain of a 6.9% tax increase inflicted on Piermont
resident taxpayers because, in Tucker’s words at the time:
“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, Page 4 of 8, at:
https://cms9files1.revize.com/piermont/document_center/Agendas%20&%20Minutes/2024/Minutes/BOT%20Meeting%20Minutes%20April%2016%202024.pdf
Therefore, even assuming arguendo that Mayor
Tucker already parted with US$216,000 in tax relief, it would stand to reason
that he would have approximately US$3 million remaining, extant, and banked. Yet
based upon the below, it now appears that he either never had it to begin with,
or if he did ever have it, he since squandered it.
3. Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker Is Now Begging People
For Money. Unbelievably, Mayor Tucker and Piermont Village Hall are now, in
essence, pleading poverty in their public statements about the imminent
collapse of, and needed repair or replacement of, the Piermont Pier tip. We are
now told that the Village Board is “investigating the possibility of potential [g]rants[emphasis
added] that may be available to replace” the crumbling Pier section:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/attention-piermont-residents-your-mayor.html
Moreover, Mayor Tucker himself was quoted in
yesterday’s Journal News article as pathetically begging for money to replace
the crumbling Pier tip:
“The Village
Board was working on obtaining cost quotes to replace the concrete portion,
which includes seeking grants… ‘We are going to need some major money
here”, Tucker said. “If anyone has any money, we’d love to talk to them’”.
[Emphasis added].
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/piermont-piers-final-section-closed.html
4. It Now Appears That Tucker’s Claim Of A
US$3,000,000 Fund Balance, Was A Lie. Mayor Bruce Tucker is an individual
who took the Village of Piermont from a US$800,000 Net Position surplus, way deep
into a negative (-US$7,600,000) Net Position abyss, in his seven short
incompetent years as Piermont’s Mayor. It now appears that this former garment
industry hack’s April 16, 2024 and July 30, 2024 public attestations about having US$3,000,000
banked for the benefit of the Piermont residents who trusted him, was simply of
whole cloth. Same as it ever was. Just like he lied about his sheeting company’s
thread-counts then, he is lying about Piermont’s finances now:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker-and-rainbow.html
Why would Mayor Bruce Tucker “need major money” and
beg rich individuals for it in the Journal News, if he had US$3,000,000 safely
banked in an “unassigned Fund Balance”?
5. Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker Is A Fiscal Failure.
The fact of the matter is, Bruce Tucker’s failures as Piermont's Mayor caused
Piermont’s current financial distress. Tucker and the Village obviously did not
adequately plan for eventualities. In a rare moment of ingenuousness from
Tucker in a different interview:
“‘[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://rcbizjournal.com/2024/07/30/piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker-talks-about-controversy-engulfing-his-village/
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/08/piermont-do-you-speak-succubus.html
Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker is not only an economic
disaster.
He cannot even keep his own story straight, press interview-to-press interview.
I hope that you and your colleagues will see fit to
incorporate the new information contained in this letter, and the above-quoted
statements out of Mayor Bruce Tucker’s own mouth, into a further review and
analysis of the misconduct of the Village of Piermont government and Mayor
Bruce Tucker.
The residents of the Village of Piermont are counting
on you.
Thank you for your continued attention to this matter.
Very truly yours,
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
Resident
of the Town of Orangetown, New York
