Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Bring It On Home.

Law Office of John J. Tormey III, Esq.
John J. Tormey III, PLLC
1578 Third Avenue, PMB 188
New York, New York  10128  USA
(212) 410-4142 (phone)
(212) 410-2380 (fax)
jtormey@optonline.net
https://www.tormey.org
 
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
elizabeth.oreilly@dhses.ny.gov
Elizabeth O’Reilly – Program Administrator II
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
jackie.bray@dhses.ny.gov
Commissioner Jackie Bray
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
Re:     
The Village of Piermont, New York – Outgoing Mayor Bruce Edward Tucker
BRIC 2021 Grants - FEMA – FMA – NYSDEC – NYSESD - NYSDOS
Your Grant Number EMN-2021-FM-023 – Your Grant Number EMN-2021-BR-069-0018
[I]HMGP-DR4567 Application (4567-2 Piermont [V] HMP-A) - V-FIRE - VF23-1100-E00
Contract No. C000988 - FOPS#36-57749

Dear Commissioner Bray, Administrator O’Reilly, and Colleagues:
 
I am writing this letter to each of you, to ensure you are already aware that the Village of Piermont, New York and its soon-departing Mayor Bruce Edward Tucker are under Audit and Investigation by the Office of the New York State Comptroller’s Office (OSC). While no OSC Audit Report has yet issued to my knowledge, residents of Piermont and the Town of Orangetown are eager to receive and review it:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/garmento-mayor-bruce-tucker-learns-hard.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/07/exclusive-new-york-state-comptroller.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/07/news-12-exclusive-ace-reporter-katerina.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/07/thus-spaketh-village-yorg-piermont.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/08/other-guests-may-be-coming.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/08/how-not-to-handle-new-york-state-audit.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/audit-piermont-hose.html
 
Yesterday as some of you already know, I received a substantial number of Records from your NYSDHSES pursuant to FOIL. Thank you for those. In those Records I was since able to identify each of you and your offices as bearing some connection to Piermont’s and Tucker’s grant history.
 
The Village of Piermont and Mayor Bruce Tucker appear to have collected a significant amount of grant money from various agencies since the 2018 commencement of Bruce Tucker’s mayoral reign – your agency included. At least some of this relates to the persistent flooding problem suffered by Piermont in recent years.
 
My understanding is that, at minimum, the Village of Piermont received a “planning grant” from your New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Planning (as administrators for FEMA) “to develop a Comprehensive Plan with a focus on resiliency in the era of climate change”. Other possible grant and application identifiers are listed at the “Re:” portion of this letter above. In the opinion of some, Piermont’s Comprehensive Plan was a rushed and amateurish undertaking. The proof will now be in its efficacy and resiliency vel non.
 
Moreover, it is reasonably clear from records that I obtained via FOIL from other agencies, that Piermont’s grant activities have been mishandled in at least certain respects in recent years:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/garmento-mayor-bruce-tucker-learns-hard.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-volunteerism-at-its-finest.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/feeding-from-trough.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-how-not-to.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-rubbish.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-she-drew.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-sylvia.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-yorg-drops.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-us4310625.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/garmento-mayor-and-village-yorg-feed.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-for-zoning.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-how-village.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-sail-on.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/pierontsic-nysdos-grant-money-for.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-0-piermont.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-village.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-when-sign.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/12/piermont-grant-money-everybody-gettin.html
 
Additionally, as I previously indicated in my FOIL request to NYSDHSES by way of background, the Village of Piermont rammed-through a rushed draft of an uncorrected Comprehensive Plan by a unanimous 5-0 Board of Trustees vote on Tuesday evening, April 29, 2025 at Piermont Village Hall in Piermont, New York. Yet the Piermont Comprehensive Plan was kicking around with minimal activity for years prior to that. The so-called Piermont “Comprehensive Plan Committee” or “CPC” continued to kick that proverbial can down the road until the more recent fervor of activity during Spring of 2025. The reasons that lame-duck Mayor Bruce Tucker and his Village Hall cronies rammed-through the Piermont Comprehensive Plan on April 29, 2025 were: (1) to seek to bootstrap-in a harmful real estate development at 447-77 Piermont Avenue to be built over the site of a former Sunoco gasoline station that had underground gasoline tanks, as well as (2) to avoid the requirement of generating an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in favor of a Negative Declaration (“Neg Dec”) instead.
 
Yet, a third reason for the bum’s-rush that Piermont residents suffered on April 29, 2025, could be the most alarming and likely the most directly relevant to you and your agency. Videos of April’s Board of Trustees meetings on April 15, 2025 and April 29, 2025 at Piermont Town Hall are linked here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPRpiePQSEA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYpJIEuOb5w

At these meetings, Piermont’s publicist-planner Maximilian (“Max”) Stach of the Nelson Pope Voorhis firm spoke to the public and the Village Board of Trustees, on behalf of the Village and Village Board. Mr. Stach admitted that the Village of Piermont was in jeopardy with respect to Comprehensive Plan grant monies. Mr. Stach further indicated, by admission, that Piermont needed to rush its Comprehensive Plan - not simply to obtain future prospective grant money, but in order to not be forced to refund Comprehensive Plan grant money back to the original grantor. This was an astounding admission against interests for Stach and Piermont to make in an open tribunal.
 
After all, why would a New York State agency confer Comp Plan grant money to a village, but only if subject to a naked promise of a full or partial after-occurring “rebate” or “refund’ if the Comp Plan was later unapproved or otherwise failed?... A condition subsequent?... Unless Piermont failed to match and then lied to you about it, that confounded logic and made no sense. I am therefore concerned that the Village of Piermont may have already made off with grant money previously paid over by one or more government entities - perhaps yours – and perhaps predicated upon a prior written Village misrepresentation that the Piermont Comp Plan had already been approved, or was somehow already in effect. Well, prior to April 29, 2025, it hadn’t.
 
Therefore, all these things carefully considered, this letter is a renewed request for an NYSDHSES investigation of the Village of Piermont and of outgoing Mayor Bruce Tucker.
 
I also must note that the Village of Piermont appears to have been less-than-transparent with its residents as to the amount of Comprehensive Plan grant money applied for and obtained over past years. For example, to my knowledge, the Village of Piermont never posted its Comp Plan grant applications themselves to the Internet or social media. Therefore, I am back-tracking through the list of agencies that the Village of Piermont “credited” in the textual acknowledgments of Piermont’s most recent draft Comp Plan, to inform all likely grantors of the OSC Audit and Investigation.
 
I will appreciate a response from you and your office in this matter. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.
 
Respectfully, and with thanks,

John J. Tormey III, Esq.
 
cc:
NYSDHSES
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
alison.maura@dhses.ny.gov
Alison Maura - State Hazard Mitigation Officer
New York State Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA

VIA FAX: 1-518-322-4983, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
kevin.clapp@dhses.ny.gov
Kevin Clapp – Supervisor, Hazard Mitigation Planning
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA FAX: 1-518-322-4983, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
cynthia.zobel@dhses.ny.gov
Cynthia (Cindy) Zobel - Planning Manager, Mitigation Programs
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
corrina.cavallo@dhses.ny.gov
Corrina Cavallo - Deputy Chief of Mitigation Programs
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
gabriel.garcia@dhses.ny.gov
gabe.garcia.esq@gmail.com
Gabriel Martin Garcia, Esq.
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
kathryn.christopher@dhses.ny.gov
Kathryn A. Christopher – Administrative Specialist I
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
larissa.guedko@dhses.ny.gov
Larissa Guedko – Program Manager
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
roland.paperman@dhses.ny.gov
Roland Paperman, Hazard Mitigation Planning Representative
Hazard Mitigation Program
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
susan.mutch@dhses.ny.gov
Susan Mutch – Director of Disaster Recovery Finance
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
marlene.white@dhses.ny.gov
Marlene White – Program Manager
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
brigitte.mcauliffe@dhses.ny.gov
Brigitte McAuliffe – Program Administrator II
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
carol.stumpf@dhses.ny.gov
Carol Stumpf - Assistant Director for Public Safety Grants Management
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
eric.abramson@dhses.ny.gov
Eric Abramson - Director, Grants Program Administration
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA

VIA FAX: 1-518-474-3240, U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
bryan.monacelli@dhses.ny.gov
pio@dhses.ny.gov
Bryan J. Monacelli - Branch Chief of the Safety Branch
NYS Office Of Fire Prevention and Control
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
joanne.kessler@dhses.ny.gov
Joanne Kessler – Associate Budget Analyst
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
tami.morrissey@dhses.ny.gov
Tami Morrissey – Program Administrator I
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
mei.wu@dhses.ny.gov
Mei Wu – Deputy Chief Accountant
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
hazardmitigation@dhses.ny.gov
grant.info@dhses.ny.gov
CivilRightsEvaluation@hq.dhs.gov
New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NYSDHSES)
1220 Washington Avenue, Building 7A - Floor 4
Albany, New York 12242 USA
 
FEMA
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
thomas.mendez@fema.dhs.gov
tom.mendez@fema.dhs.gov
Thomas (Tom) Mendez - Supervisory Emergency Management Specialist - FEMA Region II
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a division of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
26 Federal Plaza, Suite 1307
New York, New York 10278-0001 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
jose.lebron@fema.dhs.gov
Jose Lebron - Regional Earthquake Program Manager - FEMA Region II
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a division of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
26 Federal Plaza, Suite 1307
New York, New York 10278-0001 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
sharon.edwards@fema.dhs.gov
Sharon Edwards - Emergency Management Specialist - FEMA Region II
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a division of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
26 Federal Plaza, Suite 1307
New York, New York 10278-0001 USA
 
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
VIA FAX: 1-518-292-5100, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
opa@esd.ny.gov
New York State Department of Economic Development
Division For Small Business
111 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12245 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
mwbecertification@esd.ny.gov
New York State Department of Economic Development
Division of Minority and Women’s Business Development
633 Third Avenue
New York, New York 10017 USA
 
USDHS
VIA U.S. MAIL
The Honorable Kristi Noem - Secretary of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL:
U.S. Department of Homeland Security - Office of the Executive Secretary
Mail Stop 0525
Washington, DC 20528 USA
 
NYS GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
VIA U.S. MAIL
The Honorable Kathleen C. (Kathy) Hochul - Governor of New York State
Office of the Governor of the State of New York
New York State Executive Chamber
633 3rd Avenue, 39th Floor
New York, New York 10017-6706 USA
 
OSC
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
awines@osc.ny.gov
Amy M. Wines – Contract Management Specialist
Office of the New York State Comptroller
110 State Street
Albany, New York 12236 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
awarrenchak@osc.ny.gov
Adam Warrenchak – Contract Management Specialist
Office of the New York State Comptroller
110 State Street
Albany, New York 12236 USA
 
VIA FAX: 1-518-473-9104, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
lcrisafulli@osc.ny.gov
Laura M. Crisafulli, Esq. - Assistant Counsel
State of New York, Office of the State Comptroller (OSC)
Division Of Legal Services
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli
110 State Street, 14th Floor
Albany, New York 12236 USA
at
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