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Health & Fitness

PreserveRockland Lives

On September 11, 2013, New York State Supreme Court Justice Gerald E. Loehr rendered a decision to validate both the PreserveRockland/Clarkstown independent line as well as the PreserveRockland/Ed Day independent line.  This overturned the previous invalidation of the PreserveRockland/Clarkstown line by the Rockland County Board of Elections.
 
Being the contact person for the PreserveRockland/Clarkstown line, I had started to become concerned on August 23rd when I received a couple of phone calls from political insiders while I was on vacation in North Carolina.  Both of these individuals told me that they had heard through the rumor mill that the PreserveRockland/Clarkstown line was going to be invalidated by the Board of Elections.  The reasons that I was given was that there were a few page numbering errors on the petitions as well as the cover sheets being attached to the incorrect volumes.  While still on vacation, I had an associate reach out to an attorney that was familiar with election law to inquire if invalidation would be a proper remedy by the Board of Elections.  The answer that my associate gave me through counsel was that it was NOT a proper remedy.  Page numbering and cover sheets are "curable deficiencies" which call for either the contact person (which was me) or one of the candidates to simply be notified by overnight mail or in person, to come into the B of E and make the proper handwritten corrections.  The individual so notified would have three days to make the corrections.
 
Upon arriving back into New York on August 24th, I decided that I was going to draft a letter to Kristen Zebrowski-Stavisky (Democratic Commissioner) and Louis C. Babcock (Republican Commissioner) to make sure that they understood election law as it was explained to me by our attorney (Thomas E. Humbach) whose office is in Pearl River.  Mr. Humbach furnished me with Election Law section 6215.7 which states- "Within two (2) business days of the receipt of the petition (this means all of the signatures of people who had signed for the PreserveRockland line), the Board with whom such petition was filed shall review the petititon to determine whether the petition complies with the cover sheet and binding requirements of these regulations.  Such review shall be limited to matters apparent on the face of the documents.  Such review, and such determination, shall be WITHOUT PREJUDICE to the determination by the Board of objections  and specifications of objections filed pursuant to the provisions of the Election Law.
 
In the event that, upon the review conducted pursuant to the above paragraph, the Board determines that a petition does not comply with these regulations, the Board shall FORTHWITH NOTIFY THE CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATES NAMED ON THE PETITION OF ITS DETERMINATION AND THE REASONS THEREFOR."  The law then explains that the candidate would then have three business days to cure the violation.
 
Newly armed with the exact statute of law which would be violated by the Board of Elections if they were to invalidate PreserveRockland/Clarkstown, I drafted a respectful letter addressed to both of the election commissioners.  At this point the letter was written in the "hypothetical" tone due to the fact that I was merely writing based on unsubstantiated rumor that we were going to be invalidated.  With the letter completed, I went to the B of E on Monday August 26, 2013 to turn in the letter and request a conference with both of the Election Commissioners.  On my way over there, someone emailed me a link to the B of E website with petition status reports on the PreserveRockland/Clarkstown line.  It was official before I even got into the building, PreserveRockland/Clarkstown was invalidated!!  Five weeks of volunteers sweating in the July heat accumulating the signatures of 2,762 citizens had been discarded like trash.  At this point (9AM), I figured my best strategy would be to wait until both Stavisky and Babcock were in the building so that I could alert them of what parts of the standardized legal procedures hadn't been followed by them.  I waited for an hour in the building before it was alerted to me that Mr. Babcock would not be in that day due to personal reasons.  I then requested the conference with Mrs. Stavisky and the Deputy Republican Commissioner, Gerry Rogers.
 
We went into Mrs. Stavisky's office and she confirmed to me that PreserveRockland/Clarkstown had indeed been invalidated by both her and Republican Commissioner Babcock.  She did show me the actual petitions where the four page numbering errors had occurred.  I then inquired why neither myself, nor any of the three candidates had been notified of the errors so that we could have our chance to come into the building and correct them (in order to correct them, all that we would of had to do is cross out the incorrect page number, initial and then write in the correct page number), Mrs. Stavisky's reply that these errors are "fatal" and that correcting them is not allowable.  I told her that she was incorrect and election law section 6215.7 clearly states that.  I even went so far as to read section 6215.7 verbatim in her office for both her and Mr. Rogers.  Her reply to me was that she didn't feel that these fatal errors fell under section 6215.7 and therefore, the invalidation would remain intact.  With that, I clearly understood that I would be further wasting my time in that room so I left the building.  I then immediately met with Mr. Humbach and authorized him to file the lawsuit against the Rockland County Board of Elections.
 
Mr. Humbach filed the suit and in short order we were in NYS Supreme Court to essentially argue over whether petition page numbering was a "fatal flaw" as Mrs. Stavisky had referenced it in an article that appeared in the New City Patch, or a "curable deficiency".  Mr. Humbach referenced four examples of recent case law in which it was ruled that page numbering was curable.  In short, after two and a half days of testimony which included both election commissioners being in the courtroom as well as a county attorney that was representing them, the judge made the obvious ruling.  PreserveRockland/Clarkstown had showed "substantial compliance" and no effort to defraud or deceive in our signature drive.  The judge also outlined in his written decision how the deficiencies should have been properly cured.  He cited election law section 6215.7 in his ruling.  He placed emphasis on the exact wording that I had courteously read aloud for both Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Stavisky on the day that I showed up in her office.  In one short eight page ruling, PreserveRockland/Clarkstown was validated!!
 
One can only look back and wonder how both a Democratic and Republican Commissioner could both agree to such a grossly erroneous decision to invalidate the efforts of forty volunteers (people that went around collecting signatures) and disenfranchise 2,762 petition signers.  I can honestly say that it is not my opinion that Mrs. Stavisky and Mr. Babcock are incompetent. 
 
It is becoming increasingly more clear through events that have unfolded in the past few months, that PreserveRockland may have significant impact in this election cycle.  You see, we are the line that can say unequivocally is for the people.  We have not had any conversations with any established party chairmans.  Quite frankly, we don't care who "they got."  We personally interviewed all of our candidates and feel comfortable that they will adhere to our bedrock principle which is to "provide equal treatment for all and special treatment for none."  If you feel as we do, then please make sure that you understand that on November 5th, on the bottom of your ballot, you will have the opportunity to vote for candidates with integrity.  Those candidates will be on the line known as PreserveRockland.  They are: Ed Day for County Executive, Brian Moran for Clarkstown Supervisor (THIS IS THE ONLY CANDIDATE RUNNING AGAINST ALEX GROMACK), John Noto for Clarkstown Council and Dennis Malone for Clarkstown Highway Superintendent.  Join us in making a difference this November.


Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't mention a platform which has become very important in reaching out to a wide audience.  If you are a Facebook user ( or even if you are not ), please check out- "Clarkstown What They Don't Want You To Know".  They have been around for about three months now.  They seem to be rapidly accruing a nice following ( they just surpassed 2,000 likes a few days ago ).  The idea is that there is a public forum for discussion of Clarkstown and Rockland issues as well as local news updates.  Please log onto it and "Like" it.  It will allow you to have the latest updates automatically fed to your Facebook account.
 
 Pete Bradley
Clarkstown Preservation Society- President

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