Unhand Piermont!: "We Are Going To Need Some Major Money Here".

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, December 6, 2024

VIA FAX: 1-518-474-3767, and U.S. MAIL
The Honorable Kathleen C. (Kathy) Hochul - Governor of New York State
Stacy Lynch – Chief of Staff
New York State Capitol Building, Executive Chamber
State Street and Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12224 USA

Re:
The Current “Risk Assessment” Of The Village Of Piermont NY, By The NYS Comptroller’s Office
The Apparent Possible Disappearance Of US$3,200,000+ In Public Funds In The Lower Hudson Valley

Dear Governor Hochul, Chief of Staff Lynch, Lt. Governor Delgado, Attorney Mahanna, and Colleagues:

Further to my prior letters to you regarding the Village of Piermont, New York dated April 18, 2024 and June 6, 2024 respectively, I have updated information about Piermont for your review. In my opinion, these new items, taken together, may signify a possible and yet-unexplained disappearance of US$3,200,000+ in public funds, once managed by the Village of Piermont New York government and its current Mayor, one Bruce Edward Tucker, an infamous former garment industry sheet and towel wholesaler out of Elizabeth, New Jersey:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker-and-rainbow.html

1. Piermont Village Government And Bruce Tucker Are Currently Operating Under OSC “Risk Assessment”. As you are likely already aware, Mayor Bruce Tucker and Piermont village government are operating under a current “Risk Assessment” by the Office of the New York State Comptroller (OSC), now managed by an OSC Audit Manager:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/newsflash-office-of-new-york-state.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/bruce-tucker-of-whole-cloth.html
During his mayoral reign, Mayor Bruce Tucker and Piermont government appear to have spent unsuspecting Piermont village residents into a negative US$7,600,000 “Net Position” deficit while concealing financials from the Village’s website for approximately four years. Mayor Bruce Tucker and the Village of Piermont then failed to timely furnish financial information to OSC for inclusion in OSC’s Fiscal Stress Monitoring System, even after an extended deadline - thereby permanently preventing inclusion therein:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/07/he-spent-it.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/07/that-time-when-bruce-tucker-sandbagged.html

2. Mayor Tucker Bragged About Piermont’s Financial Condition In An April 2024 Meeting. In an April 16, 2024 Village of Piermont Board of Trustees public meeting, while engaging in what appears to have been false braggadocio about the Village’s financial condition, Mayor Bruce Tucker stated that the Village maintained a surplus of US$3,200,000+ million dollars as an “unassigned Fund Balance”:
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
Yet in that same meeting Mayor Tucker shiftily refused to convey the bulk of that fund balance back to Piermont taxpayers who were just hit with a 6.9% tax increase:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/08/watch-as-mayor-bruce-tucker-blows-away.html

3. Mayor Tucker Also Bragged About Piermont’s Financial Condition To A Local Rag. Mayor Bruce Tucker repeated the same boastful claim in a subsequent interview with the Rockland County Business Journal (“RCBJ”), a local blogged website notorious for running mouthpiece items for Rockland County public officials:
https://rcbizjournal.com/2024/07/30/piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker-talks-about-controversy-engulfing-his-village/

4. Mayor Tucker And Piermont Government Now Appear To Plead Poverty. Faced more recently with the reality of the imminent collapse of, and needed repair or replacement of, the tip of the historic, iconic, and well-beloved Piermont Pier, Mayor Tucker and Piermont Village Hall are now, in effect, pleading poverty. Press reports indicate that the Piermont Village Board is “investigating the possibility of potential [g]rants[emphasis added] that may be available to replace” the crumbling Piermont Pier section:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/11/attention-piermont-residents-your-mayor.html
Moreover, Mayor Bruce Tucker himself was quoted in this November 29, 2024 LoHud/Journal News article as pathetically begging for money to replace the crumbling Pier tip. Said Mayor Tucker:

“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

5. One Of The Tucker-Associated Non-Profits Is Begging People For US$10,000. Upon information and belief, Bruce Tucker and the Village of Piermont government use two apparent not-for-profit entities to front certain of their efforts and activities throughout the year. As I understand it, Mayor Bruce Tucker maintains a close connection to both entities. These entities are:

- “Piermont Civic Association” (501[c][3], IRS ruling year: 2014, EIN: 80-0916072):
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/800916072

- “Piermont Historical Society” (501[c][3], IRS ruling year: 2007, EIN: 56-2597821):
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/562597821/202331299349202958/full

I am not yet able to locate an on-file Form 990 for “Piermont Civic Association”.

“Piermont Historical Society”, on the other hand, lists Mayor Bruce Tucker’s residential address in Piermont, New York, as the entity's own address, on its most recent Form 990.

In any event, in perhaps the most unabashed of recent actions, Bruce Tucker’s Village of Piermont, through the apparent instrumentality of Piermont Civic Association, appears to be now openly soliciting US$10,000 in funds for Christmas lights directly from Piermont residents and others on social media. Piermont Civic Association actually requests that donors either mail their checks to, or else drop them off at, Piermont Village Hall at 478 Piermont Avenue. Piermont Civic Association further requests that the checks be made out to “Village of Piermont”:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/12/just-make-your-checks-payable-to.html

* * * * *
This all raises what I believe to be a valid question worth further Gubernatorial exploration.

If Mayor Bruce Tucker and the Village of Piermont already have US$3,200,000+ effectively banked as an “unassigned Fund Balance”, then why are they begging for donors for Piermont Pier repair and even for US$10,000 worth of Christmas lights?

Thank you for your continued attention to the Village of Piermont, New York and its innocent and previously-unsuspecting residents.

Respectfully submitted,

John J. Tormey III, Esq.

cc:

VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
brian.mahanna@exec.ny.gov
Brian Kenneth Mahanna, Esq. - Counsel to the Governor
New York State Capitol Building, Executive Chamber
State Street and Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12224 USA

VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
info@kathyhochul.com
The Honorable Kathleen C. (Kathy) Hochul
Governor of New York State – Attn: Press Office
P.O. Box 1463
New York, New York 10021 USA

VIA FAX: 1-518-474-3767, and U.S. MAIL
The Honorable Antonio Delgado - Lieutenant Governor of New York State
New York State Capitol Building, Executive Chamber
State Street and Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12224 USA