Synopsis, PART II: I have sat down to describe last nights meeting a number of times today and for the first time, Im at a loss for words. I cant stress enough how important I feel that it is for each of you in Facebook land to attend at least one Town Board meeting- preferably one with public comment, to fully grasp what were dealing with. I know its not possible for you to attend every meeting. But, I gently urge each of you to try to attend as many as you can. The future of our Town truly is in the hands of people who work for the leaders of Kiryas Joel with the exception of Councilman Colon who has been speaking out in meetings much to the appreciation of the public. Before I continue with my perceptions of last nights events, I need to get something off my chest. On the agenda last night was the request for a Hassidic girls camp to use Mombasha Park for one day so the girls could play soccer. In the audience, a few, vocal citizens shouted out of turn things like they should use their own park and why cant we use their park. While I understand the frustration with the citizens of Monroe in that we feel unrepresented and disenfranchised, I was troubled by the reaction of a vocal minority in the room. I would like to clarify that the above mentioned comments are not sanctioned by United Monroe, in fact, I urge all of you to refrain from knee-jerk, emotionally based reactions, and to instead examine the details before judging. I know that its hard for a lot of people who sit politely and quietly at Town Board meetings to get lumped in with a few, vocal, shouting citizens and I do believe it degrades the cause. Anger is an emotion that is valid, but, speaking in anger is never effective. On behalf of United Monroe I would like to state for the record that we have no problem with any group requesting the use of Mombasha park for sports activities. Town residents have the right to Mombasha park- citizens of KJ have the right to Mombasha park. I would also like to illuminate the fact that MOST of the people in the room did NOT shout anything during the discussion of the agenda item allowing the Talmudic Academy using the park. Most of the citizens said nothing. However, Councilman McQuade and Councilman Dan Burke took the opportunity to lambast and chide ALL of the citizens in the room in an effort to, once again, paint us as bigots or an angry mob. All of our frustrations with the Town Board are valid. Supervisor Doles needs to be removed from office. And soon. Councilman Burke voted on a resolution to hand over lead agency and the 507 acres to KJ without even apparently understanding the resolution (See his interview with News12 to watch Burkes confusion), Councilman McQuade has consistently accused the people of Monroe of bigotry and shared at last nights meeting that he is ALL FOR giving the 507 to KJ in exchange for them pursuing a separation. As all of you now know, KJ cannot guarantee separation. The legislature must vote and there is a public referendum as well. No municipality can guarantee separation. Its a process. To return to the meeting: I went up to speak, speech in hand, knowing full well that I would not be able to get to my second sentence without interruption, so, I first pointed out the obvious, unfair method by which Harley Doles was determining who could finish their sentence. (See Part 1 of the synopsis on this page for specifics, below). A few citizens were able to speak on subjects during public comment which were not on the agenda. Whereas, Cristina Kiesel, Attorney for United Monroe-Dan Richmond, Myself, Roni Connolly and a few others were interrupted incessantly by Supervisor Doles. I asked for the Town Attorneys opinion. I pointed out the cherry picking by Doles as to who could go off the agenda topics and who could not. Doles scolded You may not address the attorney, Ms.Convers (he always purposefully mispronounces my name). He continued We follow Roberts rules of order- you must address the Supervisor or the Town Board. So, I addressed McQuade and Colon and asked them to ask Town Attorney Donnelly to answer my question. I look forward to the video being posted since everyone really needs to see the public comment in its entirety to fully understand what we all endured. The Town Board, following public comment, discussed 40k in closing costs associated with the movie theater which were not previously accounted for, they brought up the need to further discuss what Doles called a Confidential Agreement with a PR firm that the Town wishes to hire to essentially market Monroe as a great town to move to and raise a family. Once the agenda items were finished, Supervisor Doles stated that the Board would adjourn. I immediately attempted to correct Doles and stated youre not adjourning, youre moving to attorney client/executive session. The meeting isnt over until the Board returns from executive/attorney client session and officially adjourns the meeting after potentially making any resolutions which may have been discussed during the private session. I and about 30 others had full intention on staying until the Board returned. You see, over the last 6 or 7 months, on at least 3 or 4 occasions, I have had to inform Public Safety Supervisor Joe Brown, that he may not throw us out of the Senior Center while the Town Board is in attorney client/executive session. There have been SO many occasions where the board has made taxpayer affecting resolutions after the Public Safety officers locked the doors to the Senior Center after ushering us out. So, after Doles statement about adjourning I walked up to Town Attorney Donnelly and informed him that a group of us will be staying until the Town Board returns from Attorney Client session. Donnelly assured me that was my right to do so. I walked back to the seats and waited with the other citizens as well as UM attorney Dan Richmond. We noticed that the Board was not moving into the back room where they always go when in attorney client/executive session. Several minutes passed and Doles was still sitting in his seat at the dais. Roni Connolly approached Doles and asked why they werent moving into executive session. Doles replied that hes not moving. The public needs to move out to the vestibule (a room no larger than 10 by 12). Roni argued but you always move to the back room for executive session and theres 30 people here, why should we have to stand in a vestibule? Doles began to manipulate. He told Roni to stand back! He repeated Stand back! Roni asked Why, theres a table between us and Im asking you a question?. Doles responded Youre making me uncomfortable. Its important for me to now mention that Doles has a habit of playing the victim, pretending to be persecuted, and even tried to frame a fellow Town Board member by inciting a fight. Doles has claimed death threats, alleges that his window was smashed, and has told several Monroe citizens in Town that I am the reason his children are bullied at school. I find it highly unlikely that his children are bullied and that the good people of Monroe would ever condone their children mistreating the children of Doles. We all know not to blame the children for their parents bad behavior. People on many occasions have suggested that we rally outside of Doles home and each time I have responded, No, he has children, that would not be appropriate. Roni Connolly, getting nowhere with Doles, then approached Councilmen McQuade and Colon. She asked them if they could please convince Doles to move to the back room and get on with attorney client session since it was after 11pm at this point. McQuade and Colon somehow managed to dislodge Doles from his chair. The Town Board returned from attorney client session close to midnight to tell the public that they had no resolutions to make and the meeting was adjourned. We managed to raise close to 70K for legal fees since January. This is a tremendous accomplishment. Member of United Monroe have created a non profit corporation called Preserve Hudson Valley AND weve joined forces with other groups to create a Political Action Committee called United New York. Were finishing the petition to remove Harley Doles from office, weve handed over documents to the FBI, the DA and the State BOE. Weve met with Rob Astorino and well be meeting with Zephyr Teachout- the anti corruption candidate for Governor in the coming weeks. We are running two phenomenal candidates on the United Monroe line. We only have a few more days to obtain signatures to get them on the ballot. We will be at the Summer Concert Series on Saturday evening with our clipboards. Please come and sign the petitions. Well be announcing other locations where you can sign in the coming days. In addition, we are holding a fundraiser. Fundraisers help us continue the fight and will ensure that we win the election in November. PLEASE buy your tickets to our Ramblers Rest Fundraiser on August 13th (Wednesday) at our website: unitedmonroe.org/fundraiser/ OR At Monroe Jewelers on Lake St. Thanks for all that you do. Your support is greatly appreciated. Stay United.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 00:51:20 +0000
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