There’s nothing quite like an open political race to define candidates. With no incumbent to spar, the various personalities and characters of the candidates usually rise to the surface and take center stage. The race for Rockland County Executive got down to business this past Monday night when all three Democratic candidates met to present themselves to a hometown crowd at the Orangetown Democratic Committee meeting.
County Legislator Ilan Schoenberger of Wesley Hills, former Spring Valley Justice and Rockland County Legislator David Fried, along with Suffern Mayor Dagan Lacorte all attended the meet and greet.
Down the Rabbit Hole
With Rockland facing another round of issuing bonds to finance its big debt, the county’s finances were top of mind. Amid a crowded legislative chamber recently, where people were agitated about non-binding gun control measures, the county legislators approved borrowing $45 million in revenue anticipation notes and $55 million in tax anticipation notes — which not a person in the crowd questioned. Legislator Schoenberger voted for the revenue borrowing measures.
To throw a bit of salt in the wound, County Finance Director Stephen DeGroat said two additional revenue anticipation notes will be needed in 2013, one for $35 million in June and another for $30 million in September.
LoHud writer Laura Incalcaterra reported that during the Orangetown interaction both Fried and Lacorte jumped on the county’s fiscal mess and current $96.4 million debt that helps give Rockland the lowest credit rating of any county in New York state. Fried said he’d give the county executive’s office a 10% across the board budget haircut and fire “the outside company that handles the county’s union negotiations, saying it had failed miserably.”
Lacorte said in turn that “he opposed an effort by some county legislators and County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef to borrow $96.4 million to pay down the deficit.”
Lacorte favors consolidating the numerous county boards and commissions. He said as executive he’d fire the county’s independent auditors and “establish a planning commission of independent engineers to replace what he termed ‘political engineers’ at the county Planning Department.”
Longtime legislator Ilan Schoenberger had the harder road to travel as the county buck ultimately stops with the board he sits on that oversees the executive branch and approves the county budgets and appropriations.
One Democrat in attendance, Marilyn Rosen of Nyack, said she’d heard enough already from the candidates.
“I thought it was informative,” Rosen said. “I’m glad I came. I now know who I’m not going to vote for.” Rosen declined to say who her favorite was.
Guns and Water Make a Splash
Suffern Mayor Dagan Lacorte got out of the gate fast, announcing healthy fundraising numbers and taking pointed positions that have received charged responses. He recently slammed both presumptive Republican county executive candidate Ed Day and Schoenberger for what Lacorte termed their “wildly out of touch” positions on gun legislation. He called both candidates’ recent efforts to squelch any county gun measures as purely “political maneuvering.”
“As the only Progressive Democrat running for Rockland County Executive, I support sensible gun control laws,” Lacorte responded. “I’m a strong supporter of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s SAFE Act, and I believe we need to reinstate, on a federal level, the Clinton-era assault weapons ban.”
Lacorte also took a strong position on the troubled East Ramapo School District, which continues to sink into debt, forcing it to cut people and programs.
Fried launched a piece of his own legislative agenda this week, announcing that as county executive he would appoint a panel to push for an independent Rockland County Water District. United Water, a French-owned utility, has a lock on all county water reservoirs, pipes, and pumps. The company is currently lobbying to build a desalination plant in Haverstraw.
“The waters of New York belong to the people and are held in trust for us by the government,” said Fried. “United Water owns reservoirs, pipes, and pumps, but they do not own the water. Decision makers outside of Rockland make choices about our water, while Rockland has a limited role.”
“I agree with Judge Fried, that ‘the waters of New York belong to the people’; the problem, however, is the facilities that pump it and the pipes that deliver it do not.”
Lacorte called Fried’s water district plan “ill-conceived.” A water district, said Lacorte, would cost “hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire the distribution and delivery infrastructure from the existing utilities.”
We can’t spend that kind of money when we’re broke, Lacorte said in a statement. He called conservation the best solution, with an alternative being possible partnerships between United Water and Suffern and Nyack.
Lacorte also said Desal plants are for deserts.
Stephen Papas, campaign manager for David Fried, said that Fried’s water district proposal was focused on getting Rockland County legal standing and doesn’t include acquiring United Water infrastructure.
Something Afoot in the Republican Camp?
On the Republican side of the equation, Michael Hull in the Nanuet Patch reported that Legislator Ed Day could experience late breaking competition in his race from none other than fellow Republican legislator Frank Sparaco.
Sparaco led the recent county legislative charge against gun control measures, taking Ed Day’s resolution and adding additional anti gun control planks. Neither legislator is an apparent fan of gun control laws, though Day has said that he supports curbs in select-fire and automatic assault weapons.
Studies indicate that the root causes of most gun violence are people with firearms.
In terms of the race for county executive on the Rockland side, Hull said that “several usually reliable sources seem to believe that Sparaco will ‘throw his hat into the ring’ for the County Executive position,” wrote Hull. “Insiders seem to believe that Sparaco is working to be in control of all three of the minority party lines, i.e. the Conservative, Independence, and Working Families Parties.”
Hull responded later in the comments section of the article that a source at the Rockland County Times (RCT) mentioned an email purported to come from Conservative Party leader Ed Lettre that suggested Day lacked support from the Working Families, Conservatives and Independence parties.
Hull reported that RCT followed up with Sparaco and asked him about the contents of the purported email. Sparaco is quoted as saying:
“I am a devout Republican. I will be supporting whoever is nominated at the Republican Convention, whether it is Ed Day, Mickey Mouse, or Frank Sparaco”.
Hull further reported that Rockland Republican Chair Vinny Reda directed spokesperson Butch Babcock to state formally that:
“The rumors Frank Sparaco would be running for County Executive are 100% false.” Babcock went on to say, “I got that directly from Frank this afternoon. Frank was in my office and we discussed it and Frank said he ‘would support’ the Republican nominee, whoever that is.”
Photo of packed house at recent Rockland County Legislature meeting courtesy of Dylan Skriloff and Rockland County Times.
Photo of Dagan Lacorte with New York State Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee (D-95th District) making Suffern revitalization announcement courtesy of Dagan Lacorte.
Photo of David Fried at campaign announcement courtesy of David Fried and Sam Gilbert.
