I submitted this piece for the August issue of The Lincoln Eagle. Corruption in New York State is nothing new, of course.
Yess
Says No to Republican Mockers
Mitchell
Langbert, Ph.D.
Over the past few months
internecine GOP warfare has turned into an intense Internet battle between
former GOP chair Robin Yess and an anonymous group of GOP regulars who support
Terry Bernardo, chair of the county legislature. The GOP regulars' website, Mocking Robin (http://mockingrobin.blogspot.com),
takes aim at allegations Yess has made on her New York Liberty Coalition website
(http://nylibertycoalition.com).
The Internet is a new
front in an ongoing war that is tearing the Ulster County GOP apart. Back in January Yess objected to second-term
Town of Rochester legislator Bernardo's election to legislative chair. At the time, The Kingston Freeman noted that Yess had questioned Bernardo's
legislative track record; as well, GOP Majority Leader Kenneth Ronk accused
Yess of smearing Bernardo. Yess had
raised questions about the election of the wife of the head of Ulster County's
Independence Party, Len Bernardo, to chair the legislature.
There are more
important issues than political smears and name calling. Yess had resigned her position as chair of
the Ulster County Republican Party last year when it became evident that Ulster
County's Republicans could not muster enough votes to divest the county's
Golden Hill nursing home.
This year Ulster
County paid a $4.3 million subsidy, slightly less than in prior years, to
Golden Hill. About one percent of
Ulster County's senior citizens reside at Golden Hill, but many seniors (as
well as other taxpayers) pay higher property taxes to subsidize it, making it
difficult for some seniors to make ends meet.
Critics have charged that beds at Golden Hill have been reserved for
political insiders' relatives who are at the higher end of the county's wealth
distribution. Golden Hill is one of
seven senior facilities in Ulster County; the other six receive no county
subsidy, but they are profitable.
Yess has been concerned that the GOP has
become big-government party number two and that it is not the party it claimed
to be in Reagan's days. She is
particularly concerned that here in Ulster County the GOP has pandered to
boondoggles like the low-income project in Saugerties, which Senator John J.
Bonacic (R, C, IP) has supported. Last year virtually the entire county GOP
leadership stood up and applauded the radical environmentalist U.S. Green
Building Council when its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design group
gave a building award to a corrupt local real estate developer.
Yess has observed that New York has more
government than any other state, and its economy is among the worst of all the
states. Privileged insiders, friends of
politicians, corrupt real estate developers, and public-private partnerships
receive subsidies. Real jobs and real innovation have left, in her view.
The Mocking Robin
site offers a political response to the rivalry between Yess and Bernardo. The site relies on phrases like these: "Robin…doesn't even understand how democracy
works"; "the list of people who Robin owes an apology to is growing
by the day. And it is getting really, really long"; "Is the
Kerhonkson Kook really this dumb?"; "nutjobs like the Liberty
Coalition," and so on.
A better debate would
involve mustering facts to define efficient and effective policies. The
tradition of buying votes through special interest pandering has
failed--millions have fled this state specifically because of the kind of
political atmosphere defended through smear tactics typified by Mocking Robin, The New York Times, and similar
defenders of the status quo.
On her site, Yess
makes the following allegations:
1 (1) Bernardo,
backed by Ulster County GOP Chair Roger Rascoe, has appointed a non-Ulster
County based attorney (and non-Ulster County resident), Langdon Chapman, to be
counsel to the Ulster County legislature over alternative qualified choices who
reside in Ulster County.
2
(2) Chapman is an attorney at the law firm of Bonacic,
Krahulik, Cuddeback, McMahon & Brady in Middletown. J. Scott Bonacic is
Senator Bonacic’s son. Rascoe’s wife is a paid employee of Senator
Bonacic. In an e-mail Yess adds that
Chapman is on the New York State Senate payroll for $96,000 and makes $50,000
from Ulster County's tax coffers. In
addition, Chapman represents "numerous municipalities (all in Bonacic's
Senate district) as a senate staffer."
3 (3) Bernardo hired Sandy Mathes, a former Greene County
IDA leader, to fill a deputy clerk position for $37,500. At the same
time, Mathes has been calling on businesses in Ulster County for businesses he
has been promoting, namely, United Realty Management Group and Mathes Public
Affairs. He is rarely seen in the legislative office.
4 (4) Bernardo hired Lisa Mance, an
inexperienced employee, to replace Nettie Tomshaw, an experienced employee with
competent ratings, whom Bernardo fired without cause.
5 (5) Bernardo hired
Frank Reggero as a budget analyst, a job for which he has no relevant
experience. Yess indicates that Reggero’s role is not
budgeting, but rather driving Bernardo to political meetings.
(6) While Karen Binder, the legislative clerk, was being
treated for stage four cancer, Bernardo harassed her and questioned her use of
comp time, to which she was entitled under the terms of her employment
agreement, to visit doctors.
Binder died recently.
7 (7) Because of the unproductive atmosphere in the GOP
county legislature staff offices, another experienced legislative employee,
Tammy Wilson, found an alternative job within the county. Legislative Clerk Karen Spinozzi retired;
when Bernardi realized that she couldn't function without Spinozzi, she asked
her to return, but Spinozzi refused.
I e-mailed Bernardo, Rascoe, and Chapman these allegations and asked
for an interview or a written response.
I also asked the Mocking Robin site (via the vetted comments board on
their site) to do so. None has
responded.
Mitchell Langbert is associate professor at Brooklyn College and
political editor of The Lincoln Eagle.
