Saturday, November 30, 2024

Bruce Tucker, Of Whole Cloth.


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 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 (OSC)
33 Airport Center Drive, Suite 102
New Windsor, New York 12553 USA
 
Re: NEW Financial Information Regarding Piermont, New York And Mayor Bruce Tucker
 
Dear Ms. Newhall, and OSC Colleagues:
 
Further to my July 21, 2024 and August 16, 2024 letters to your New York State Comptroller’s office and our respective communications which followed, and mindful that the Village of Piermont and Mayor Bruce Tucker are 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 impact to the Village.
 
My belief is that your OSC auditor colleagues should be made aware of this news now, if they are not aware of it already.
 
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 you will recall this next part from our prior correspondence. Mayor Bruce Tucker attested in an April 16, 2024 Board of Trustees meeting, and in a subsequent RCBJ interview, that Tucker and Piermont Village government were flush with a US$3,210,196 “unassigned Fund Balance”. Mayor Tucker further indicated that he would only be using US$216,000 of that US$3,210,196 “unassigned Fund Balance” to offset the 6.9% tax increase pain inflicted on Piermont resident taxpayers because, in his 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

https://rcbizjournal.com/2024/07/30/piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker-talks-about-controversy-engulfing-his-village/
 
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 public attestation about having US$3,000,000 banked for the benefit of the Piermont residents who trusted him, was simply of whole cloth:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker-and-rainbow.html
 
Why would Mayor Bruce Tucker “need major money” and barefacedly 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, Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker’s failures as Mayor caused Piermont’s current financial distress. Tucker and the Village obviously did not adequately plan for eventualities. In a rare moment of candor 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 trust that you and your colleagues will be able to incorporate the new information contained in this letter, and the above-quoted statements out of Mayor Bruce Tucker’s own mouth, into an expansion of the scope of the “Risk Assessment” 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
 
cc:
VIA FAX: 1-518-473-8940, (1-212-681-4468), U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
contactus@osc.ny.gov
sgaaudits@osc.ny.gov
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli
Office of the New York State Comptroller - Albany Office
110 State Street
Albany, New York 12236 USA         
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
jfreeman@osc.ny.gov
press@osc.ny.gov
Jennifer L. Freeman, Communications Director
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli
Office of the New York State Comptroller - New York City Office
59 Maiden Lane
New York, New York 10038 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
 
VIA FAX: 1-518-408-3931, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
InspectorGeneral@osc.ny.gov
Office of the New York State Comptroller – Inspector General
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli
59 Maiden Lane
New York, New York 10038 USA
 
VIA FAX: 1-518-408-3931, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
investigations@osc.ny.gov
Office of the New York State Comptroller – Investigations Division
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli
59 Maiden Lane
New York, New York 10038 USA
at
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