COUNCILWOMAN ADRIENNE CAREY: THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR CLARKSTOWN VOTERS

To the Editor,

There is only one Political Contest in Clarkstown this year , Adrienne Carey vs. Dan Caprara and only one choice  Adrienne Carey.  At first glance both candidates appear to be very similar ,good family orientated people, Dan raises his family in New City and Adrienne raises hers in Nanuet. Both have been heavily involved in donating their time and energy volunteering for various community programs. When you ask people who know either of them they are quick to say they are nice people. Councilwoman Carey is a nurse administrator for a local hospital and Dan Caprara is a business agent with the CWA Union on work release from Verizon.

Sadly, although he appears to be a nice guy, we cannot afford to let Mr. Caprara get a foothold on the Town Council. He appears to be out of touch with reality. When speaking at the Congers VMA, Dan explained how last year he wanted to run to be part of his mentor’s Alex Gromack’s team because he liked how the town was being run by Alex. He said this year he wanted to run because he did not like the way the town was being run by the Hoehmann Team! During Mr Gromacks 11 ½ years running Clarkstown,Alex drove it into Insolvency (January 2014), increasing the long term obligations by nearly $200 million dollars, incurring over $18 million in future liabilities each and every year to be paid off by the taxpayers in the future. He ran up our bonded debt, he borrowed all he could from the State Comptroller to make pension payments and he failed to put money into reserves for all the other obligations (debts) he was incurring.

We as Clarkstown residents and taxpayers have only one choice, Councilwoman Adrienne Carey. She is already six months into making the hard decisions. Working with the rest of the HoehmannTeam they have started some studies, completed others and implemented  changes. They are carrying out their pledge to us, to analyze every department, identify cost-saving measures and implement them. Councilwoman Carey led the review study of take-home cars, from 39 people having cars 24/7 on our dime.  The number has been reduced to three year-round and three or four for highway supervisor during the winter months. When all costs are considered it is probably $500,000 in annual savings.

Others will take time to implement and some will have to wait until people leave the town’s employ and positions are eliminated or restructured. The Police Department including the PBA and current leadership team have signed off on an agreement to reduce the 2017 budget practically $3 million dollars from the 2016 budget. Not only is it not going up, but it actually goes down nearly $3 million. Sorry, we could not do this under Alex. Dan fought against the police study earlier this year and claims it was not needed. This past Sunday he stated it was a waste of money, that the police could have come up with the changes themselves. It is a shame that never happened under Alex. These changes in the police alone would have saved us $30 million during the decade he was in office.

Thus in good conscience I cannot go backwards with Dan Caprara. The time of Gromack, Lettre, Sparaco and Reda is behind us, it is time to move forward and complete the job that is just started. Help Save Clarkstown. On November 8 come out and Vote for Councilwoman Carey. Return her to the Hoehmann Team.

Sincerely,

James Flynn

Nanuet