Board of Education Member James “Hadji” Latter: Is he paying his fair share of property taxes?

In the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District, the name James “Hadji“* Latter has a murky history. He’s been able to stay on the RCS-CD Board of Education for a number of years now, not because of his tidy background and performance record, but because the RCS-CD is just a corrupt and manipulated as any other “elected” body in the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk/Albany County region, including New Baltimore and Greene County. But New Baltimore, although in Greene County, pays a portion of their property taxes to support the bloated budget of the RCS-CD and the idiotic programs approved by a board of back-scratchers and cronies.

* “Hadji” is our nickname for James Latter II because of his close associations with the Saudi Arabian company SABIC.

We have reported in the past about Latter’s questionable conduct on the board but when you are dealing with a group who love their power to spend public money, and then ask for more and then make decisions that affect the school age young people in the district and their futures. It’s hard for them to let go and share the responsibility or even to acknowledge and consult the public. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the RCS Central School District Board of Education is no exception. Least of all Mr James Latter II.

That’s why, when a local resident drew our attention to the parking and traffic situation in the Village of Ravena in connection with our recent investigation of Village of Ravena Code Enforcement and, while guiding us around on the grand tour of the many Village of Ravena parking opportunities — in no less than six public parking areas less than one block from the commercial district of Village Center —, and that resident pointed out and commented on a particularly ostentatious eyesore of recent construction on a large lot on Aluise Drive, just in back of the huge lot owned by the Roman Catholic Church of St Patrick, we got curious.

That’s when sitting RCS Central School District Board of Education member James J. “Hadji” Latter II again waddled into the spotlight in his usual murky and questionable style.

You see, Latter and wifey, Amanda C. ( Mrs Hadji) purchased two large adjacent lots (total acreage 6.5 acres, cost $101,000) on Aluise Drive in the Village. The lots were previously owned by the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Patrick (Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany) but were sold off and Latter was in the pews ready to close the deal. Was that because former BoE member and crooked cop Gerald “Dirty Hands Jery” Deluca was high up in the Church’s lay administration and an insider? Probably. Latter and “Dirty Hands” Jerry were thick as flies on fresh summer sh*t. So here we have another questionable business deal in Ravena, Home of the Incest Club, and the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Patrick, an Incest Club meeting place, probably brokered by “Dirty Hands Jerry” Deluca before he was forced out (“resigned”) of the Coeymans Police Department with former dunce Coeymans Police Chief Gregory “Dumplin” Darlington was canned (“retired”), and disgraced town/village justice Phil Crandall was elected to be Coeymans Town Supervisor. You really can’t make this stuff up!!!

Our investigations to date have revealed the following interesting and questionable situations. But please note: This information is preliminary and is based on our research in the Village of Ravena and the Town of Coeymans using immediately available information, that is, information we could get on the spot without the formal F.O.I.L procedure (demanding production of public access documents and information under the provisions of the New York State Public Officers Law), and our vetting of that information on official New York state tax online sites. We have demanded the production of documents that will provide finer details of the transactions and Mr Latter’s operations but that may take some time, given Mr Latter’s position and his “friends” in Village and Town offices.

The properties are listed in the official property tax documents as belonging to James and Amanda Latter of 13 Laura Drive, Ravena, New York. Note that address because we’ll be returning to that information shortly.

James “Hadji” and Amanda Latter posing with Hillary Clinton.
Birds of a feather…!

New York State Law Requires the Assessor to Assess Property Under Construction

In some states a new construction is not subject to assessment for tax purposes until it is completed and a certificate of occupancy is issued. The situation in New York State is different, however, here in New York state there is the so-called partial assessment.

Sitting Board of Education Member James Latter’s new house he will be sharing with teacher wife Amanda Latter.
It’s at 9 Aluise Drive in Ravena, in back of St Patrick’s Church.

New construction assessments are placed on the assessment roll based on the partial market value if the construction is in process or the market value of the completed construction as of March 1st, and that assessment is used to compute the school tax bill issued in September and the county, town, and special district tax bill issued the following January.

9 Aluise Drive. Behind St Patricks RC Church and next to the P.B. Coeymans Elementary School.

In the case of a partial assessment, the market value of the home is determined by using the completion percentage of the construction as of March 1st. If the construction is partially complete as of March 1st, the assessment will represent only a percentage of the total property tax assessment when the construction is completed.  A partial assessment will be place on the tax roll as a “partial”, and increased each year until the construction is 100% complete.

In New York State, the assessor is required to value the property exactly as he or she finds it on taxable status date, that is on March 1st. The Assessor is required by New York State law to value property in its condition on that date. A partially completed building will receive a partial assessment based on its estimated percentage of completion as of March 1st. If your house is under construction on March 1, its estimated percentage of completion on that date will be the basis for the assessment

The property was assessed at a time when the progress of the entire construction project was measured and recorded as a partial assessment. An assessment calendar requires that a property review be based on where the progress of the construction is at the time, and the assessment be based on the progress at the cut-off date on the calendar year. The property has to appear on the tax roll for taxes to be paid in the following year.

The law would require that the Latter construction be assessed in it’s state of construction on March 1st. It was not. This partial assessment procedure was not followed in Latter’s case and Latter’s property was not assessed in part while under construction and, though completed, the Town of Coeymans Assessor was unaware of the construction and the property has not yet been assessed! Mr Latter is not paying his fair share of property taxes. Mr Latter is not paying his fair share of his school taxes to the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District. Mr Latter should be required to resign from his position on the Board of Education for such malconduct.

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We did some research and found that the latest tax information on the property at 9 Aluise Drive in Ravena doesn’t show a thing about any new construction and lists it as vacant land. But there’s a house on it that looks as if it’s market value would be at least $200,000!!! What is the deal here? We all have to pay our property taxes and a big part of those taxes go to the schools. Latter is on the Board of Education and decides on the school budget and how much we have to pay but it looks like he’s scamming the Town of Coeymans, whose Assessor wasn’t even aware the house was there — even though you can almost see it from Coeymans Town Hall!!!

Extract of New York State Real Property Report for one of the Latter Lots (where the house is standing).

New York State real property tax assessment law requires that a new construction be assessed as a partial assessment if it’s not completed by the date of March 1st of any year. That means that whatever part of Latter’s house that was completed by March 1, 2018, should have been assessed at that percentage of the total value of the house. But it wasn’t and we all want to know Why?

Another inconsistency is this: James Latter and Amanda Latter list their address of record as being 13 Laura Lane in the Village of Ravena. A bit more research shows that 13 Laura Lane in the Village of Ravena is owned by Anthony and Ann Carrk, not by the Latters. True, the Latters could be renting from Amanda’s parents all these years but isn’t that a stretch? Could be true, though. Maybe Jimmy “Hadji” or Amanda could shed some light on this question. Or maybe Anthony or Ann Carrk can explain the living conditions and how so many could be living in that tiny hovel on Laura Lane.

13 Laura Lane and 9 Aluise Drive. Where do the Latters live?

If you ask the Village of Ravena Building Department Joe Burns, he willl tell you that they issue the building permit for new constructions, do the code enforcement inspections, and when the construction is done, they issue the certificate of occupancy. The Town of Coeymans Sole Assessor Dawn DeRose will tell you that they are notified by the Village of Ravena when the construction is finished. But that’s doesn’t explain why a partial assessment of the Latters’ property wasn’t done by the Town of Coeymans according the New York State Real Property Law. You’d think Town of Coeymans Sole Assessor Dawn DeRose would know better.

This just in: According to a very simple document provided to the Town of Coeymans by the Village of Ravena entitled “Village of Ravena, Building Projects Completed in July 2018” the Village of Ravena provides a one-liner notification of Latter’s construction project. That’s all. The document provides only the following information:

The Bare Bones Provided to the Town of Coeymans Assessor.

The above document provided by the Town of Coeymans in response to a F.O.I.L. demand clearly shows that Latter’s new construction was likely completed by March 2018 and is valued at $300,000. Even if it were not completed it would have been substantially completed and should have been assessed and on the tax rolls!!! It is not. A 1728 square foot two-story home with attached garage can represent a pretty fair amount of tax revenue, even if only subject to a partial assessment. Our question is: Why wasn’t the information provided to the Town of Coeymans Assessor when the building permit was issued? Why was it provided only after a Certificate of Occupancy was issued on July 3, 2018!!! Latter saved a pretty penny thanks to the Village of Ravena’s substandard reporting procedures. We’re certain the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance will be very interested in this case and will likely want to investigate how many other similar cases have gotten past the Assessor and the Tax Department.

Ravena will tell you it’s not their problem because they don’t have an assessor; the assessments are done by the Town of Coeymans Assessor. Coeymans will tell you that they don’t police the Village of Ravena and the Village of Ravena has to tell Coeymans what’s going on so that the assessor can do his assessments. Latter will likely tell us that he doesn’t know anything about all this. Sounds like a really shady case of finger-pointing or passing the buck here, now that the cat’s hit the fan and yet another problem in Village of Ravena-Town of Coeymans communications is revealed. Don’t you think it’s high time the Village and the Town started communicating? Now the community is losing property tax money from a select few that managed to drop below the assessment radar. That’s just not fair and it’s not legal. Someone has to answer for this illegal conduct and investigate how many other similar cases have cheated the Town out of tax dollars.

This is another case for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Real Property Division, and the Office of the New York State Comptroller. Rest assured they’ll be informed of all relevant details.

Do the Village or Ravena and the Town of Coeymans need a Special Audit?

But isn’t Latter a Board of Education member elected by the deaf-dumb-and-blind voters of the Town of Coeymans? Doesn’t he put together the school budget that gets funded in major part by our property taxes as assessed by the Office of the Assessor. And isn’t Latter a so-called “financial analyst” at SABIC? Wouldn’t you expect him to know about property taxes, assessments, etc.?

Ignorance is no excuse
Village and Town are Accessories.

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Editor’s Aside: Diverting a bit from Mr James “Hadji” Latter’s past malconduct while a Board of Education member and later as president of the Board of Education that ranged from violations of confidentiality to a laundry list of questionable conduct and associations, he seems to have allied himself with a clique that manages to get elected no matter what. Probably by friends and family and a bit of influence peddling. But Latter is a decision maker on the Board of Education that hires the Superintendent of Schools for the RCS Central School District who runs the schools and manages the teachers. Latter’s Board hired a former principal/teacher from the RCS high-school as Superintendent at an astronomical salary, and others in turn to other posts.

“Hadji” Latter and his cronies have considerable influence on what gets taught by whom in our schools but he is obviously a supporter of Hillary Clinton. What’s worse still, is the fact that he is employed as a financial analyst at the Saudi Arabian company SABIC!!!

The SABIC flag flying near one of the company’s cogeneration towers in Feura Bush.

SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation) is a Saudi diversified manufacturing company, active in petrochemicals, chemicals, industrial polymers, fertilizers, and metals. It is the largest public company in Saudi Arabia, as listed in Tadawul, but the Saudi government still owns 70% of its shares. SABIC is also the largest listed company in the Middle East. Private shareholders are from Saudi Arabia and other countries of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Saudi SABIC

While Saudi Arabia is often a secondary source of funds and support for terror movements who can find more motivated and ideologically invested benefactors (e.g. Qatar), Saudi Arabia arguably remains the most prolific sponsor of international Islamist terrorism, allegedly supporting groups as disparate as the Afghanistan Taliban, Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Al-Nusra Front. Saudi Arabia is said to be the world’s largest source of funds and promoter of Salafist jihadism, which forms the ideological basis of terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, Taliban, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan) and others.

This is one of the guys you elected to run your school system!!!

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We’re staying on top of this one and will publish the information provided by the Village of Ravena and the Town of Coeymans in response to our F.O.I.L demands as it becomes available.

Yes. We know.
But let’s see what you say when the cat hits the fan.
JUST PAY YOUR TAXES!!!
The Editor

 

New Baltimore Taxpayers Sucked In Again by Teachers-Union-Owned-and-Operated RCS Board of Education

The Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District and its Board of Education manipulated the timing and the vote to again shortchange RCS taxpayers and deprive them of their votes when, on Tuesday, January 13, 2015, they pushed the vote on two proposals totaling and additional $30 million in tax burden on an already faltering tax base. So, Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Social Services Recipients and Friends of New York State United Teachers, the Teachers-Union-Owned-and-Operated Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District approved an additional $30 Million dollars in indirect tax assessment they’re calling “Capital Improvement” for the RCS Schools. Let’s watch and see who gets the contracts for the so-called “capital improvements.”

New Baltimore Taxpayers Sucked In Again

May be business as usual in Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk but New Baltimore doesn’t have to put up with it! Or do we?

We have just one question: When will the Town of New Baltimore smarten up and leave the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District, a failing group of schools with a corrupt board of education under a corrupt superintendent and move on to join the Greene County success story? When will the Town of New Baltimore town board finally get its act together and take the necessary steps to ensure that New Baltimore taxpayers are not playing the fool for a failing district that knows no bounds when it comes to spending and taxation. The RCS district is losing tax base a mile-a-minute and attracting non-taxpaying population. More properties are either going up for sale, being abandoned, or vacant in the case of commercial properties with more of the tax burden falling on Guess Who?!?!

Ravena has enough money to allow Cathy Deluca’s unlawful and failing Ravena Health and Fitness Center to continue losing taxpayer dollars to the tune of more than $6000 a month, and the town of Coeymans can give half the town away in concessions to carpetbagger business with nothing in return. But can New Baltimore continue to pay for Raven-Coeyman’s debauchery and free-wheeling spending addictions? We say NO!

Don’t be a Newbaltimoron
(First used by Joan Ross, pseudosophisticate of New Baltimore, to describe her neighbors.)
The Editor

 

 Articles in Press

Stay Tuned and Stay Informed!

Retaliation in Local Government: Ravena Village council/board Violates Law & Dismisses Planning Board Member without Due Process or Public Hearing! and New Baltimore Highway Superintendent Denis Jordan removes Deputy Highway Superintendent vanWormer Because vanWormer admits he’s planning to run against Jordan. Ethics violations and retaliative human resources action = lawsuit!

Ravena-Coeymans Taxation and Water-Sewer Rates: Continuing indifference and unlawful billing! Should the NYS Attorney General, Comptroller, Inspector General get involved to straighten out residents’ dilemma? Another resident writes to this blog for help.

 

Letter to the Editor: Town of Coeymans Should Merge Ravena and Coeymans Hamlet!

On occasion, some readers’ comments are just so good and so on-topic that we think they should be published on their own as free-standing articles. With this in mind, we’ll be publishing what we call “Letters to the Editor,” similar to those you’d read in any of the local rags, but much more informative and honest, of course. It’s so much better to have readers themselves do the writing, since that frees us up to do more research and uncover more facts for you.

This letter-to-the-editor is the second letter of a two-part series that we think you’ll really enjoy, especially in this pre-election run-up period in Ravena. When reading these letters, you may want to ask you why these commonsense actions haven’t been taken already by the residents of Ravena and Coeymans and the town of Coeymans. After all, Ravena and the Hamlet of Coeymans were once one single municipality. They’ve had several decades to make the division work but to date the split of Ravena and the Hamlet of Coeymans has caused only problems and bitterness. Why not go back to the merged community and have some peace and save some money? So here goes!

Dear Editor, Dear Neighbors:

As we know, some things and some things remain the same. However, at some point, change is necessary, needed and valuable.

With this in mind, I offer the following:

The Hamlet of Coeymans seems to be in a stagnant situation, both  with a population that is not increasing and with a lack of services that its residents should have. The residents pay higher fees for both Village of Ravena drinking water and Sewer District Tax.

In contrast to what is perceived as a modern move to consolidation, I propose that the Hamlet of Coeymans petition the Village of Ravena for Annexation-that is, the residents of the Hamlet actually become ‘residents’ of the Village of Ravena with all the privileges afforded the current residents of the Village.

I offer there must be a number of caveats to this Annexation (and there are more I am sure):

1.  Coeymans Fire Company maintains its current structure and coverage area along with the current taxing authority to maintain its equipment and continue to be able to protect its area in the exemplary manner it always has.

2. The ‘new’ residents continue to have and use the current Post Office, Zip Code and address-much like Colonie and Menands residents do with regard to and with their relationships to Albany. The idea of mail delivery to those who wish to take advantage should also be investigated

 By the Annexation, users of the Village of Ravena water supply and the Sewer Customers of the District would all be under the auspices of the Village of Ravena, who would be responsible for the entire systems. Of course this would take additional resources but we can get to that later.  Additionally, all the customers of the Water and Sewer Distrcts would pay the same rates, in contrast to the current system-this means the former Hamlet residents would see a sharp drop in both rates which may equate to the now payable Village of Ravena tax!

 The new residents would also be able to take advantage of services formerly available to only the original Village residents, like brush pickup, street cleaning, Holiday Decorations, a second vendor for Cable TV Services, stump removal and the like.
 
With regard to staffing, workload and duties: I offer that the Current Village Building Department be responsible not only for the expanded Village but also for the rest of the Town of Coeymans and staff from Coeymans be moved to accommodate this. It would make sense too as Coeymans Building Department needs would go down and the Village up. I would think the same issues might be in line for the Clerk Offices, Highway Department and Court Offices too. We may even have a chance for some building/office consolidation and economic savings to boot!

 At the same time, the Annexation would allow the Town of Coeymans to explore the possibility of having it’s own municipal water and sewer systems to encourage community growth and maybe enjoy some prosperity because of it. Just imagine municipal water and sewers ‘out back’, on the northern Route9W and northern 144 ends of Town!!

 Seeing as the current Route 144  ‘home’ for the Town Highway Employees (the former Coeymans Firehouse) will not be needed any longer, it can go back to taxable property and maybe a Stewart’s or the like will show up!  The former Town occupants will have less to do as the park would be now on Village property, so the remaining employees can either move to the Town Office Building or the Highway Department as their new workstation. [Editor’s Note: Once the Town of Coeymans makes the right choice and eliminates the Coeymans police department, the space in the basement of the Town Hall can accommodate both a Sheriff’s satellite office and the highway department staff! Actually, it might make a great RC Youth and Teen Activities Center!]

 I know there is more to this than I have outlined but the idea may just have merit and is worth discussing. Why not talk about it?

Outsider

Now isn’t this what our elected town board and village board should be thinking about and proposing, instead of acting like grinning idiots every time someone wants to create a dump or a transfer station in residents’ back yards? Isn’t this what our elected officials should be envisioning instead of bickering like a coven of old hags and creating discord and anxiety, while resident’s basements are filling with water and sewerage, 100-year-old water mains are failing, village and town are hemorrhaging residents, tax base, and businesses? Come on, people, listen to the Voice of Reason and make some changes!

Get rid of Bruno and his gang-bangers, and kick the Town of Coeymans’ board in the ass and get some action!

Outsider is a frequent commenter and reader. We think he’s been in local government in the past because he knows an awful lot about the people and events. He also thinks like a good administrator should think. But we’d like to hear what YOU think about Outsider’s letter. Please leave a comment.

Stay Tuned: In the Days Leading Up to the Ravena Elections,
We’ll Be Running the Series,

10 Reasons Why You Should Vote NO!
for Bruno-Case-Persico!

(Get the latest Election Poll Results at: RESULTS!)

“Qui tacet consentire videtur ubi loqui debuit ac potuit.” “Silence is admission when when the accused ought to have spoken and was able to.” Special Notice: We make every effort to be truthful, complete, fair, and balanced on this blog; therefore, if you see anything that you know to be false or incorrect, or if you have additional information to clarify any issue, please let us know by e-mailing your information or by leaving a comment. It’s very important to us that we don’t fall into the same category as those whom this blog is intended to expose. Thank you very much in advance for your coöperation and assistance. Graphics and Images Disclosure: Unless otherwise noted and credited, all graphics used in this article are the result of a Google image search, and at the time the images were collected and used in this article, no conspicuous or visible copyright notice or other proprietary mark was shown. Please communicate any claim or corrections to rcs.confidential@gmail.com All images are used in good faith for non-profit, public information and public service purposes.

 

Definite Rejects: Town of New Baltimore

In the Town of New Baltimore

O’Rorke, Angelis, Schrauf, Jordan, Brooks

New Baltimore voters have a very clear choice this election day: Give up the town of New Baltimore to the O’Rorke control freaks or take back the town of New Baltimore and re-establish democracy and resident participation in our local government. It’s truly ironic, the Republican / Conservative / Independence candidates of the Dellisanti team are more democratic than those running on the democrat ticket, most of whom couldn’t get real political party endorsments and are running either as no-party candidates or as candidates of obscure “parties” like the “Our Town Party” and the “Responsible to the People”—Lord knows what crackpot politics those parties endorse. (Or they’re running on a democrat line but aren’t democrats!). Here’s our take on the VOTE NO! candidates in New Baltimore.

Fangs, Claws, and Excess Body Hair Airbushed Out
New Baltimore Democratic candidates? Lies! Front, from left: Hilary Schrauf and Janet Angelis, both running for town council, and Tax Collector Diane Jordan. Back: Town Clerk Janet Brooks, left, and Town Supervisor Susan O’Rorke. Uncredited posed photo.
What you see is NOT what you get!

Local Catskill-Hudson Newspapers the Ravena News Herald, the Green County News, the Daily Mail all call them “Democratic Candidates.” That’s an outright lie, misinformation in your local papers (Thank you! Jessica Mosier of the Catskill-Hudson Newspapers/Register Star!). Only Angelis is a registered democrat. O’Rorke and Brooks are not registered or enrolled in any political party. Jordan, a Republican, is running on the democrat line because the Republicans didn’t want her (she has nothing to offer). O’Rorke, Schrauf and Brooks are “endorsed” by what they’re calling the “Our Town Party“, and Jordan is endorsed by the “Responsible to the People” party. Ever heard of them? Nor have we! This bunch must have cooked up those parties at one of their drinking orgies at Donovan’s Shady Harbor, the former Boathouse bar, the official New Baltimore Dem watering hole. (Just what New Baltimore needs in the town hall: a bunch of boozed-up freely fornicating cows!) The Independence Party dumped the entire bunch and put its support behind the Delisanti team The O’Rorke witches coven is not endorsed, apparently, by any mainline party.

The “O’Rorke 5” Plan for New Baltimore

NO New Madams in New Baltimore Town Hall

Susan O’Rorke (no party endorsement and not registered or enrolled in any political party but endorsed by the “Our Town Party”) running for New Baltimore town supervisor
Here’s where we get into some real evil stuff. Where do we start with Susan O’Rorke? She never made a commitment to any political party and is an NOP on the voter registry. O’Rorke’s party is O’Rorke, and it’s her party. The residents of New Baltimore are not invited. She didn’t get the Independence endorsement but then the entire democrat mob in New Baltimore got snubbed by the Independence Party. She’s hated by her own town board except for the brown-nosers Christopher Norris and Lisa Benway but their time is almost up and they’ll get the boot in the next round of elections. O’Rorke is noted for her violation of free speech at New Baltimore town meetings, her discriminatory practices, her circumventing the law to make unlawful purchases for her favorites, her practice of excluding the public in New Baltimore government. Susan O’Rorke and her small group of selected apes have taken over New Baltimore town hall and have locked the doors to the rest of the community. It’s really time for a change in New Baltimore and the Dellisanti team seems to be the perfect group to bring that change. New Baltimore can’t survive another four years of O’Rorke-ism.

Janet Angelis (registered democrat) running for New Baltimore town council
This is another control freak who is a member of the O’Rorke private party. Angelis close to the lunatic fringe in New Baltimore that want to classify the locals as “Newbaltimorons” together with the other separatist elitists, the Rosses, the Nightons and their crowd, who wan to make New Baltimore their little gentry paradise. The O’Rorke private clubhouse, the New Baltimore town hall, and its current lunatic occupants are dead set on creating two classes of residents in New Baltimore: them and us. The once noble New Baltimore Conservancy has mutated into a private club of snobs, Angelis being one of the leading snobs. Angelis and her allies, the notorious and nefarious Ross pair, Joan and Bitter Bob, the local New Baltimore wholesale hate-mongers, together with their loose-cannon neighbor, John Luckacovic, all joined in a lawsuit several years ago, when they sued the Town of New Baltimore to keep public water out of New Baltimore. With people like Angelis, who want to make New Baltimore a country-club town for downstaters, and push everyone else into the Hudson, are the biggest enemies of progress and development in New Baltimore. It’s people like Angelis and her crowd who will ensure that any worthwhile interests in the area will continue to jump over New Baltimore to invest in Coxsackie. That’s how the Lewis regime worked before O’Rorke, and that’s how the O’Rorke regime has been working. Put Angelis in town hall on the New Baltimore town council and get ready to feel a really heavy heel on your necks. Again, we can’t say enough in favor of the Dellisanti team who are offering real alterantives to the tyranny and dictatorship we’ve been living under in New Baltimore under O’Rorke, the female version of Ravena’s mayor John “Black Mamba” Bruno, and Angelis is the New Baltimore version of Bruno’s hatchet-woman, witch-on-a-stick, youth-hating Nancy Biscone-Warner! No! Thank you!

Hilary Schrauf (endorsed by the Our Town Party) running on same sign/ticket, literally, as Angelis for town council
Hilary Schrauf is running on the same lack of principles as O’Rorke and Angelis. In fact, Schrauf is running literally on the same campaign sign as Janet Angelis, that’s how close they are in so many ways (tsk, tsk). Schrauf has been cashing in as paid coordinator of the New Baltimore Farmers Market. Yep! Schrauf’s for community if she gets paid for it. Shrauf is actually quite unknown, probably because she’s a member of the private insider club and won’t have much to do with the majority of residents of New Baltimore, unless it’s to hit them up for their votes (and then she probably overdoses on hand sanitizer!). The bottom line is this: Schrauf is an insider with O’Rorke and Angelis and the rest of the private club in New Baltimore town hall. That bunch has their own agenda, being elitists, and it doesn’t include the rest of us. If you want to hand over the town of New Baltimore to a bunch who want nothing to do with the rest of us, Schrauf is your pick.

Diane Jordan (endorsed by the “Responsible to the People Party”) running for New Baltimore tax collector
Well, in our discussion of poor nitwits manipulated by their handlers to be clowns, Diane Jordan is the Michelle Maddage of New Baltimore. She has no education, no qualifications, and is disloyal. She couldn’t get the Republican endorsement to run for the office of tax collector so she changed parties, and registered democrat to run with her insider friends in New Baltimore town hall. Her husband, by the way, is Denis Jordan, of the New Baltimore Highway Department, the same Denis Jordan for whom Susan O’Rorke illegally spent more than $100,000 on a new truck, a new toy for Denis, and now they want to give Diane Jordan a new playpen, the office of New Baltimore tax collector. Well, friends and neighbors, there’s a bit too much favoritism going on in New Baltimore town hall for my taste, and Diane Jordan is not the kind of person I want cashing my tax checks.
Jordan’s Republican/Conservative/Independence opponent, Sally Russo, is everything that Diane Jordan is not: Sally Russo, a member of the Dellisanti team, is educated, experienced, has a degree in accounting and is married to a CPA. Sally is the kind of person we need to be handling anything money. Sally Russo is not an insider, either, and is a first-generation, fresh-baked American citizen. Yes! Sally loves this country so much she renounced her British citizenship to become and American. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Janet Brooks (not enrolled or registered in any political party, endorsed by the “Our Town Party” but running on the democrat line) running for New Baltimore town clerk
This is a disappointing case, indeed. If you asked us four years ago, Brooks wouldn’t be included in this discussion of VOTE NO! candidates. But recent developments in the town of New Baltimore and a number of incidents that have come to our attention in recent months have made us re-think the Brooks question and we have to say that we have very serious concerns about Janet Brooks’ fitness to continue as New Baltimore town clerk. Brooks has become tainted by being too friendly with the O’Rorke crowd at the expense of the rest of us. She has lost much of the independence and non-partisanship that a town clerk needs to have in order to serve the community without judgment. We have been harboring doubts about Brooks’ sincerity and authenticity, her genuineness. Recent allegations of questionable morality have also blackened her record. Even more recently, there are allegations that she was involved in the intimidation of a New Baltimore senior to remove the Dellisanti team’s signs from the elderly widow’s property. We have received the report, which at this time is still unconfirmed, that “a woman from the church (the New Baltimore Reformed Church) took down the signs.” The report also indicates that the “woman from the church” took down the signs even before asking the property owner. The New Baltimore Reformed church has been breeding more sinners than saints these past couple of years, and now the allegations only serve to buttress that local opinion. But this is not about church, it’s about hypocrisy, about those who attend church and make the appearance of being good Christians, the love-thy-neighbor types, who then become villains outside. Hypocrisy is one of the gremlins we need to remove from our local government because hypocrisy is deceit, dishonesty. While we regret to have to Vote NO! to Janet Brooks, we are left with no other choice if we are to remain true to our principles and to our desire to clean up local government, re-establish democracy, and return New Baltimore to the people.

Well, there you have it. Our reasons for recommending that  New Baltimore voters VOTE NO! on the above candidates. If our readers want to know more about many of these candidates, we have published quite a few articles about them in the past, and you can easily search this blog for those articles.

We are not telling our readers how to vote but only to be sure to vote and when voting, to know something about the people you are voting for. We publish stuff they don’t want you to know and you won’t find in their newspaper profiles. That’s for certain.

It is our policy to ask our readers to please comment on our articles. We also want to hear from the candidates themselves with any information or clarification that might make our comments less severe, or which will shed some light on some of the points we have made. All comments are welcome and, if on topic and civil, will be published.

VOTE YES! for Dellisanti, Ruso, vanEtten, Russo, and Vadney
The Editor

Boycott the Daily Mail, the Greene County News and the Ravena News-Herald. Cancel Your Subscriptions in Protest!
Demand Truth and Fair Plain in Our Local Newspapers!
Demand a Pulbic Apology from John B. Johnson, owner of the Johnson Newspaper Corp., and Mark Vinciguerra, publisher of the Catskill-Hudson Newspapers, and Melanie Lekecevic, editor of the Ravena News Herald. Fire Melanie Mosier for refusing to cover the New Baltimore Republican, Conservative, Independence candiates!

“Qui tacet consentire videtur ubi loqui debuit ac potuit.” “Silence is admission when when the accused ought to have spoken and was able to.” Special Notice: We make every effort to be truthful, complete, fair, and balanced on this blog; therefore, if you see anything that you know to be false or incorrect, or if you have additional information to clarify any issue, please let us know by e-mailing your information or by leaving a comment. It’s very important to us that we don’t fall into the same category as those whom this blog is intended to expose. Thank you very much in advance for your coöperation and assistance!

 

A Resident’s Letter

Protest Letter RCS CSD 2013-14 Budget

Some Local Residents Would Sell Their Souls Based on Dysinformation

Careful what you sign on for!

Some Will Even Abuse their Privileges and Commit A Serious Violation of HIPAA and FERPA Laws Governing Privacy and Confidentiality of Information!

Parents are being flooded with emails urging them to contact the BoE for a higher tax levy! The e-mail campaign is selective—some parents and familes are being excluded from the mailing—and is spreading misinformation! So we’re asking where did the senders get all those specific, target e-mails? Are you wondering, too?

Electronic health-care transactions:

Since the Central New York Regional Information Center (CNYRIC) submits all Medicaid claim data to the electronic Medicaid system in New York State (eMedNY) for processing; it is a covered entity under this act. The electronic transmission of Medicaid data is now HIPAA compliant.

Privacy:

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act-Buckley Amendment (FERPA a.k.a. Buckley Amendment) is more restrictive than HIPAA with respect to the protection of privacy and security of all health related services. Since all school districts /§4201 schools/counties (and any other educational entities that have access to student data) are obligated to be in compliance with FERPA, they are also HIPAA compliant.

Read More on this Subject

That Excuse Won’t Work!

We call for an investigation by the Interim Superintendent Dr Alan McCartney and the RCS Central School District Board of Education! Is your privacy and household information being abused? Find out before it’s too late!

If Gerald “Dirty-Hands Jerry” Deluca can make a public statement to the board of education that he is aware of how they voted in their private voting at the polls, are you safe from scoundrels like him? Deluca recently made a very disturbing remark at a school board meeting when he stated that he knew how people voted. (Board of Education Meeting of 3/26/13. Deluca: “Last year there was a number of people on the board that voted for the budget here at the meeting. I am concerned that some of those who voted for it at the meeting went out and voted against it.”) Now how and where would he have access to such information. Isn’t our vote supposed to be secret? Is Deluca misusing police information resources? Isn’t anything safe from these villains?

We posted the facts about the tax levy at More Dysinformation Misinformation by the Ignorant Pundits and we warned you all of the Deluca-Coeymanazi propaganda at Deluca, Miller, Teachers Clique Want More Money!!!!. You need to click those links and read those articles if you haven’t done so already.

A Resident’s Letter
To Superintendent MCartney and to the
RCS Board of Education

A resident has addressed a letter of protest to Dr McCartney and to the RCS Central School District Board of Education. We are reprinting it here.

Dr Alan R. McCartney, Interim Superintendent
RavenaCoeymansSelkirkCentralSchool District Office
15 Mountain Rd.
Ravena, NY12143
e – mail: amccartney@rcscsd.org

Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk CSD
Board of Education
P.O. Box 100
Ravena, NY12143
e – mail: BoardMembers@rcscsd.org

Dear Superintendent Dr McCartney, Board of Education Members:

First of all I and my family would like to thank you for your fine efforts at navigating the RCSCentralSchool District back on course. Your untiring study and analysis and your leadership together with a team spirit when working with the RCS board of education to arrive at some level of collaboration is truly appreciated.

The purpose of this letter is not to give you a big head nor to second – guess results, however.

I am sending you this letter to expressly state that I object to any tax levy that exceeds 2 % and urge you to even further reduce the tax levy to 0 % and make appropriate adjustments to the 2012 – 13 RCS Central School District budget.

The fat in the budget not only hurts the property owner and business base in this RCS district, it has far – reaching secondary effects on our local economy, including a negative effect on our property values. Those effects are not restricted to this community alone but adversely affect the entire region and beyond.

I am aware that such abuse and misuse is a criminal violation of both the HIPAA and the FERPA.

I realize that there are elements in this RCS community who are using or misusing resources, very likely RCS CSD resources, such as parents’ e – mail addresses, that should not be used for political purposes, to get their partisan message out to the community. Most of us do not have access to those resources and, even if we had such access, would probably not misuse or abuse them for the purpose of propagandizing the community. That having been said, we also urge you to investigate whether such RCS CSD resources are being abused and misused for such purposes.

Once again, I wish to make very clear that I do not support a tax levy in excess of 2 % and would urge you to reduce the levy to 0 %, if possible, and to make appropriate adjustments to the budget, and to further sanitize RCS CSD programs and services.

Thank you for your efforts!
 [Names Withheld by Request]
Concerned RCS Resident

We have processed the letter, which we feel is very good and says what it has to say clearly and briefly, and we are providing that processed letter for your use as a pdf and as a word document. All you have to do is click the links below print or download the letter, fill in the personal information at the top, sign it and mail it. Make your voice heard!

• Get the MS Word letter here: Protest Letter RCS CSD 2013-14 Budget
• Get the pdf letter here: Protest Letter RCS CSD 2013-14 Budget.

 And please don’t forget to read the facts about assessments, tax levies, and tax rates at our recent article: More Dysinformation Misinformation by the Ignorant Pundits and Deluca, Miller, Teachers Clique Want More Money!!!!

And Tell Them So!
Invest a Stamp and Save Your Community!
The Editor

 

Deluca, Miller, Teachers Clique Want More Money!!!!

Look RCS Property Owners:
You’re Simply Going to Have to Shit or Get Off the Pot!!!

If You Don’t Stand Up and Fight
You’ll Be Doing this, Too,
Just to Pay your Property Taxes!!!

You’re going to be cleaning toilets at Shop’n Save to pay your property taxes while Gerald “Dirty-Hands Jerry” Deluca is sucking up his pension, Cathy Deluca is collecting $30 grand of Ravena residents’ tax money, Matt Miller becomes the teachers’ hero for getting them more of your money, and the New York State United Teachers union is laughing its way to the bank!

How is it that James Latter and Howard Engel can say they were “blindsided” by the budget?!? They’re on the board of education for chrissake! Well, I can understand Teddy Revelle not knowing what’s going on…he’s either on another planet, playing with his water bottle, or typing idiotically on his laptop while the world passes him by. How in hell did that character get elected to be on the board in the first place. He’s a wet dud! Latter’s just devious. But really, Jim, you don’t have to play stupid, just be yourself. That’s convincing enough!

As for Edward “Teddy” Reville, he was just downright disrespectful and impolite when he finally woke up from his torpor, his usual coma. He was even nasty to the young lady who spoke. Learn some decorum Reville! What a dork you are “Teddy”.

Let’s clarify the issue for those of our readers who did not see the meeting and may not understand completely what went on. There was a 6:2 vote. Some think that Mike Robbins and Judy Sylvester voted with the teachers against the 2% proposal and for a higher levy. THEY DID NOT! They voted against the 2% because they want it even LOWER! In fact, Vadney, Robbins, Sylvester, Lukens reason, YES! REASON, that technology, operations and maintenance and transportation can be trimmed even more. One example: the budget contains a provision for two new lawn mowers at $25,000 each. Only one is actually needed.

Who is running the board anyway? Deluca, Miller? Why do Whalen, Engel, Latter, and Reville march in lockstep with what they want? Are Whalen, Engel, Latter and Reville mindless zombies? (I can’t believe I asked that question!)

Do you feel a silent scream swelling up inside…like rage?

The “Dirty-Hands Jerry” Deluca and “Gimme-a-Health-Club” Cathy Deluca together with their Coeymanazi mob joined with New York State United Teachers lackey “Matt-the-Mutt” Miller, teacher and union rep at the RCS high school, to say that Dr Alan McCarthy’s efforts to keep the tax increase low was not going to be enough money!!! Deluca and Miller got up and actually said that McCartney’s budget was too low and the 2% increase was not enough. Deluca and Miller told the RCS CSD school board that they should raise the taxes even MORE!!!!

Two things are crystal clear: The first one is that Jerry Deluca is a loudmouth with very questionable motivation. Miller is a loudmouth with very clear motivation. Jerry Deluca is a crook (you don’t have to steal money to be a crook, just swindle people out of their freedom of choice). He’s a bully in a suit.

The second one is that Matthew J. “Matt-the-Mutt” Miller is just sleezy. Yes, he’s a crook, too, and pocketed plenty of your money while he was double-dipping as energy manager and still is doing his union work on your dimes. He’s a clown who thinks his union position is a power position. It’s not, really. But it does say something about Miller’s character: he plays both sides of the fence, he’s insincere, and immoral.

Of course, the teachers clique on the RCS CSD school board agreed and Alice Whalen, Howard “Bray” Engel, James Latter, and Edward Teddy Revile … that’s Reville voted McCartney’s budget down because it wasn’t raising your taxes enough to satisfy the greed of the teachers and their NYSUT union rep and the Coeymanazis.

We’re inviting you to send in your comments on how you feel about Gerald “Jerry” Deluca’s and Matt Miller’s demand that you pay more property taxes. We want to know your comments on how you feel about board of education members Alice Whalen, Howard Engel, James Latter, and Edward Revelle sending Dr Alan McCartney back to the drawing board to figure out how to raise your taxes more. We want to hear from YOU, NOW!!!

You’d Better Decide What You’re Gonna Do and Do It
Or you can read in the Times Useless how many more businesses and residents leave the area for places where they can live affordably.

It’s time for you to start writing letters to the Superintendent, to the New York State Board of Edcucation, to the Board of Education Members who think you aren’t paying enough taxes. You need to attend the next Board of Education meeting and ask Whalen, Engel, Latter, and Revelle to explain why they think you need to be paying more taxes. You need to wake up and tell the Delucas and Matt Miller to SHUT UP!

Because if you don’t YOU DESERVE the SCREWIN’ YER GONNA GET from Deluca, Miller, the Coeymanazis and the New York State United Teachers union!

(Editor’s Note: We urge you to watch the video of the April 16, 2013, board of education meeting. You won’t believe what you hear. It’ll be available on the RCS CSD website in a couple of days.)

something tells me you should start listening those voices
The Editor

 

Waxing Whimsical: Why the US and You Have no $$$ !

We Have Been Following the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District Budget Deliberations and Reading Some of the Local Comments Lamenting Possible Cuts. Why Do We Have To Worry About These Things…?

Ever Hear of USAID?
United States Agency for International Development

We’re getting less and less federal aid and less and less state aid. Superstorm Sandy victims had to wait more than 90 days to get any disaster aid by an act of the United States Congress. Food prices are soaring. Fuel prices are soaring. But we have billions to give away to people who do little or nothing to help themselves, who seem to thrive on war and atrocities, who are more corrupt than the Ravena, New York town hall. And we’re giving it away to people who either steal it from their own people or to people who hate the United States.

And it’s not just about foreign countries and what is going on outside of the USA. By no means. Right here at home we have a POTUS who wants to be King Obama, we have the crown prince Governor of New York, Prince Andrew Cuomo, who acts like corrupt royalty passing unconstitutional laws right under the electorate’s nose. We have a state legislature that is corrupt, indifferent, and self-serving. We have a Supreme Court giving away the People’s rights to the corporations who then turn around to beat us up with the Corporate Greed Gorilla Stick, while they and the federal government reward their immoral practices and incompetence with bailouts. And we have a Congress who rubber stamps on the one hand anything that benefits them and stymies anything that might benefit the man on the street! We pay our potential enemies both inside and outside the country! But we have billions in taxpayer dollars to give away while cutting programs and benefits at home. What a bunch of morons!

They can’t give us a minimum wage but they can take pay raises, accept premium benefits, and enjoy the high-life while we have to acquire a taste for cat food! Times have changed dramatically; the USA is no longer the Oz of the rest of the world, we are in recession, we are suffering, we are having to tighten our belts. We no longer can give generously because we have our own hungry ghosts to feed. We have not managed our own greed well enough to have anything left to share.

You might well ask!
Or we could ask our elected officials!

Yeah. I thought I’d ask that question myself. Here are some very interesting bits of information and some places to go to read more:

Israel got more than $3.075 billion (that’s close enough to $3.1 billion) in 2012.
Israel’s special relationship with the United States pays off when it comes to foreign aid. The Jewish state has long been a top recipient of foreign aid, receiving nearly $3.1 billion in 2012.  We have to ask Why? when its loudmouth leader, Bibi Netanyahu (Wotayahoo) badmouths the US on a regular basis. And, besides, King Obama loathes him (but Obama loathes everyone not Obama) (Source: U.S. Foreign Aid By Country at Huffington Post)

Israel is currently the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since World War II.

To date, the United States has provided Israel $115 billion in bilateral assistance. It is currently the second largest recipient of aid worldwide, with Afghanistan now first.

The fiscal year 2013 budget request “includes $3.1 billion in Foreign Military Financing [FMF] for Israel and $15 million for refugee resettlement. Within the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s FY2013 budget request includes $99.8 million in joint U.S.-Israeli co-development for missile defense.” (Source: U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel: 2012 Congressional Report at Journalists Resource)

You can get an overview of the top 20 countries receiving USAID and the programs receiving money in spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel)  at USAID Where Does The Money Go? (USAID Where Does The Money Go?) But the really troubling part of this story is this is only what the government is making public. It doesn’t even consider the covert programs. And it doesn’t include the operating expenses of the agency nor the wages and salaries or benefits paid to the government employees administering the foreign aid agency!

So, before you start badmouthing the local board of education or bitching about your property taxes, you might want to ask your legislators: Where does the money go?

Losting our jobs, losing  our homes, no disaster relief, can’t afford food, no healthcare.
The New American Reality!

We can and should ask our state and local elected officials Why? are we seeing our rates go up Up UP and our local, state, federal, and unions putting the overspending on the 99% of taxpayers who are carrying the burden. Why?

Do you wonder now why they want to take away your guns?

Maybe we should keep some for ourselves, at home?
The Editor