Piermont “Grants Administrator” Sylvia Welch identified
herself as the so-called “Oversight Individual” on the below
service-description “Certifications” contained in multiple signed writings
submitted to New York State grant-money authorities. Because of that, Piermont
collected US$29,850+ in state money, under color and claim of
right.
Yet Sylvia Welch, acting as a public official on behalf of Piermont village government, affixed her signature to BLANK service-descriptions though otherwise legally-required, one hundred fifty-four (154) times.
Even more ridiculous, Sylvia Welch “certified” her own “time-sheet” submissions to the New York State Department of State (NYSDOS). That’s right. First, she signed the official NYSDOS form as the “Volunteer” conferring the subject services, even though we know that she ultimately got paid around US$20,000 or perhaps even more in connection with Piermont grant activity:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-how-not-to.html
Yet Sylvia Welch, acting as a public official on behalf of Piermont village government, affixed her signature to BLANK service-descriptions though otherwise legally-required, one hundred fifty-four (154) times.
Even more ridiculous, Sylvia Welch “certified” her own “time-sheet” submissions to the New York State Department of State (NYSDOS). That’s right. First, she signed the official NYSDOS form as the “Volunteer” conferring the subject services, even though we know that she ultimately got paid around US$20,000 or perhaps even more in connection with Piermont grant activity:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-how-not-to.html
Then and thereafter, Sylvia Welch had the audacity to purport to “certify” her own signature and her own “time-sheets”, as the “Oversight Individual” and “Grants Administrator” – on the face of the same form - two separate times.
In other words,
Sylvia Welch repeatedly “certified” to NYSDOS that she exercised “Oversight” over herself.
She must have been watching herself in a mirror.
In more recent times, imagine if you took Pharma Bro’s assurance that all his pharmaceutical patients and customers were treated fairly by him, because he oversaw all of it and checked it out himself?
Or, what if Bernie Madoff assured you that no securities laws were violated because he kept a careful watch on his own conduct?
In any event, Sylvia Welch’s recidivist shooting of 154 blanks in a row tells you exactly how seriously Welch and Piermont Village Hall took these New York State grant money “Certifications” – with “took” being the operative word. Moreover, this was a group effort. This was yet another abuse of governmental function by the failed Bruce Tucker mayoral regime.
These newly-discovered primary-source documents were produced to me by NYSDOS pursuant to New York State’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).
Now, depending upon the day or the mood, you might see Piermont’s Sylvia Welch referring to herself as the Village’s “Grant Writer”, “Grants Administrator”, “Oversight Individual”, or “Consultant” - in connection with the subject NYSDOS grant money and the grant-writing services which induced them. Again, when reviewing these posted “.jpeg” documents below, please keep in mind that, by my interim count thusfar, Sylvia Welch collected around US$20,000 from the Village of Piermont for grant-related services:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-how-not-to.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-volunteerism-at-its-finest.html
Perhaps ironically, and perhaps unacceptably, the money grabbed by Sylvia Welch to fill her own pocket appears to have been in turn sourced from the self-same New York State grants as authorized by NYSDOS and by the New York State Comptroller (OSC).
Perhaps even more ironically, that very same Comptroller is now auditing Piermont and Bruce Tucker over Piermont’s finances. The approximate US$20,000 collected by Sylvia Welch may turn out to be a significantly greater dollar-figure number at end of day, once final calculations are made, and particularly once the currently-ongoing OSC Audit of Bruce Tucker and Village of Piermont finances concludes. The dollar-amount collected by the Village of Piermont was greater - at least US$29,850.
Please also keep in mind that Village of Piermont “Grants Administrator” Sylvia Welch as “Oversight Individual” was required by law to prepare, sign, certify, and submit these documents to NYSDOS in order to legitimize Piermont’s receipt of the NYSDOS grant money. These documents were intended by NYSDOS to be accurate time-sheets of “volunteers” during 2021 and 2022 on (A) the Piermont “Zoning And Building Code Update” project and (B) the subsequently-botched Piermont Comprehensive Plan project.
Piermont’s certification and submission of
these documents to NYSDOS was required in order for the Village to be excused
from otherwise paying-in “matching” funds in connection with the associated
NYSDOS grant monies:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-how-not-to.html
In other words, what you are looking at below, is a roadmap. It shows how Piermont Village Hall snatched US$29,850+ from NYSDOS, from OSC, from New York State, and from taxpaying New York residents. The Village of Piermont took that New York State grant money over a period of years, in exchange for, at least in part, these preposterous-looking, principally-blank Sylvia Welch forms. I'll be blogging the underlying grant applications and other related documents in short order.
While the names of other individuals are indicated on the below documents as “volunteers”, these Piermont “time-sheets” appear to have been either indirectly or directly submitted to NYSDOS by Sylvia Welch. As you will see from reviewing them yourself, these documents are best characterized as follows:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-how-not-to.html
In other words, what you are looking at below, is a roadmap. It shows how Piermont Village Hall snatched US$29,850+ from NYSDOS, from OSC, from New York State, and from taxpaying New York residents. The Village of Piermont took that New York State grant money over a period of years, in exchange for, at least in part, these preposterous-looking, principally-blank Sylvia Welch forms. I'll be blogging the underlying grant applications and other related documents in short order.
While the names of other individuals are indicated on the below documents as “volunteers”, these Piermont “time-sheets” appear to have been either indirectly or directly submitted to NYSDOS by Sylvia Welch. As you will see from reviewing them yourself, these documents are best characterized as follows:
- Sloppy.- Incomplete.- Back-dated – in some cases, for years.- Containing time-expenditures noticeably and implausibly rounded-up to integers sans any decimal-point in almost all cases:
Here are the names of the individuals for whom “volunteer” services were “certified” in the documents at an apparently-illusory rate of US$15 per hour:
- Chris Sanders, former Piermont Mayor.- Klaus Jacob.- Nate Mitchell, current Piermont mayoral candidate.- Ray Fusco.- Rod Johnson.- Sylvia Welch alias “Doctor Blank” herself.- Usha Wright.
Yet the most outrageous part about these ersatz Piermont “time-sheets”, is the manner in which Sylvia Welch on behalf of the Village of Piermont proffered 154 blanks in lieu of the legally-required content and substance according to New York State.
Rather than bothering to inscribe the “Descriptions of Services Provided” where required on the form and where required by NYSDOS and operative law, instead all you see on 154 of Welch’s service-description lines are blanks.
Air.
Nothing.
Yep… That’s right.
One hundred fifty-four (154) freaking times.
These documents - as “prepared”, signed, “certified”, and submitted by a Piermont public official in the form of a “Grants Administrator” - were a disrespectful insult to any grant professional who received them, including those at NYSDOS. They were also a disrespectful insult to OSC, New York State, and New York State resident taxpayers.
Moreover, the lack of care taken in the preparation and submission of these documents would strongly suggest a lack of care in the making of the time-expenditures themselves ab initio, not to mention their obviously post facto “accounting”. These slapdash, careless documents put the entirety of Piermont’s “time-sheet” submissions and therefore the entirety of the subject Piermont grant monies into serious question and doubt.
And here’s the clincher. As “Oversight Individual”, here is how Sylvia Welch herself “certified” these so-called “time-sheets”:
“By signature, I certify that this time log represents an accurate representation of the hours worked towards completion of tasks related to the contract listed above.” [Emphasis supplied].
Given the 154 blanks in plain sight as submitted by Sylvia Welch on behalf of Bruce Tucker’s Village of Piermont, the above Sylvia Welch “certification” is nothing other than complete horse-hockey. Alternatively, the 154 blanks are themselves the accurate representation, meaning that this set of Piermont “time-sheets” was not only a misleading null but also a waste of NYSDOS time and resources.
The only thing that these Sylvia Welch Piermont documents “certify”, is
the need for OSC to audit these "time-sheets" and the grant luminary that signed
them.
