RAMAPO WARD VOTE

As regular readers of my Blog will notice, today's offering is quite serious.

I have been a resident of the Town of Ramapo for a great many years. My family moved from New York City to a gorgeous little village called Spring Valley at the height of the building boom of the 1960's. The whole town could be found at Pakula's Bakery on a Sunday morning, buying rolls and pastries. We went ice skating in shifts on the pond behind Memorial Park -- the kids who owned their own skates went first. After a couple of hours, they came home and loaned their skates to those of us who had none; then we took our turn skating for a couple of hours. I was afforded the opportunity of a stellar public education by this District. As a child, I lived in safety and harmony with our diverse friends and neighbors. No one ever locked their doors at night -- there was no need. Houses are yards were tidy, if modest, and we all looked out for each other.

Somewhere along the line, I grew up and got married. I can still remember walking around the block with my then-fiancé, and running into someone who was gathering signatures for something called "The Village of Chestnut Ridge." I didn't see the need to have a separate village, and said so, but this lady seemed to think that it would somehow "protect" our area from degrading due to a certain "element." I told her that I would be proud to live next door to anyone who could afford our taxes, and refused to sign.

Fast forward about a decade and a half.

Without moving, we were now living in the Village of Chestnut Ridge. As I had predicted, the extra layer of Government had resulted in higher taxes and not much else. The quality of life in our area was still quite high, and our schools were still the pride of New York State. And then...

I had never paid too much attention to local politics, and certainly not to the School Board. We had no children so it didn't affect us. I thought. Then we began to hear rumblings of discontent from friends and neighbors who did have children in school. Test scores were going down. The graduation rate was dropping. One or two members of the school board seemed to be overly concerned with lowering school taxes, even though their own children attended private schools. Another few years passed and I began to read about troubles in our school district in the newspaper. Our taxes were staying nice and low, though. On a whim, I went down to a School Board meeting. The rest, as they say, is history.

I won't bore you all with the litany of woes that have befallen our school district in the ensuing years. You are all too familiar with them. I will, however, do my level best to convince you to vote in favor of a Ward System this day, Tuesday, September 30.

First of all, you may wonder what a Referendum is. It is a Special Election or Vote on a matter of great importance to the ENTIRE Town. Remember a couple of weeks ago when Scotland voted on its own independence? That was a Referendum. A referendum vote is so important that special pains are taken to ensure that ALL residents have a chance to cast their ballots. Remember when Scotland lowered the voting age to 16 in order to let more people vote? Under New York State Municipal Law, ANYONE over the age of 18 who can prove they are a legal resident of the Town of Ramapo can vote in this Referendum. Period. You do NOT have to be a registered voter to vote in this Special Election; this Referendum. That means that if you are a high school senior and you have reached your eighteenth birthday, you may vote in this election. Imagine that -- actually being allowed to have a say in the future of your own schools.


What is a Ward System and why should you care? I'm glad you asked. Under our current system, our Town Board Members are elected by popular vote and serve the Town "at large;" that is to say, all of the Town Board represents ALL of the Town. In theory. In reality, the Town Board is stacked with members who have a vested interest in keeping our school taxes low. What do lower school taxes mean? Lower school taxes mean an inferior public education. The graduation rate for students in the East Ramapo School District is 61.2%, compared to a national average of approximately 78%. The drop-out rate for students in East Ramapo is 17%, compared to a national average of approximately 3%. Under the Ward System, our town would be divided by area -- for the purposes of elections -- , with a representative (Town Board Member) assigned to each area. This would ensure that MORE members of our community would have their voices heard. It would be difficult, hypothetically speaking, for our entire Town to continue to elect a corrupt Town Official, such as a Supervisor, for example.

Another component of this public referendum is whether or not to expand the number of the current Town Board from Four members to six members. We currently have four members. This referendum, if passed, would increase that number to six. So we would have a more diverse population being represented in our local elections, and there would be more representatives.

The Ramapo Town Supervisor's office is currently under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Councilman Daniel Friedman (D, Ramapo) has taken the nearly unprecedented measure of asking New York State Attorney General Eric Schneidermann and New York State Comptroller Thomas Di Napoli to investigate malfeasance in the office of the Town Supervisor (St. Lawrence). When a member of the Supervisor's staff questioned what she perceived to be improper fiscal activities within the Office, she was defamed and suspended from her job. She is now suing Christopher St. Lawrence (and others) for $2 million in damages. In 2010, the Ramapo Town Council approved a resolution giving the town's backing to $16.5 million in bonds to be sold by the Ramapo Local Development Corp to fund the currently named Provident Baseball Stadium in Pomona. An overwhelming 70% of Ramapo voters REJECTED this resolution. Chris St. Lawrence went ahead and built the stadium anyway, claiming that it would not cost the taxpayers anything. Instead, we taxpayers are on the hook for $60 million in expenses related to the stadium.

Perhaps the greatest insult to our Town came on January 13, 2008, when Supervisor Chris St. Lawrence made this victory speech, thanking his supporters: http://youtube.com/watch?v=GzdliD9c

This is the Town Supervisor who has been elected over and over again under our current voting system. This is the Town Supervisor who would likely NOT be elected under the Ward System. This is why your YES vote is so important today. Please, vote YES for the Ward System and for the Addition of two members to the Town Board. To find your polling place, go to: http://www.preserveramapo.org Our future is in our own hands.

(If html links are not displaying properly, please check back for updates. You can reach the links by copy/pasting them into your broser. Thank you.)