by Ted Carroll, Guest Columnist
“My team and I will work together and with others to promote fundamental ideals, including openness, transparency, integrity and accountability, to restore confidence in our City government and get Rye back on track.” (Kirstin Bucci, Julie Killian, Terry McCartney & Joe Sack – Rye United campaign flyer, Fall 2013)
“Any argument that the concealment of these documents was inadvertent must be flatly rejected. We have shown these documents to the Westchester District Attorney’s office, and they agree that the documents contain Brady material. At the very least, they are Rosario material and were required to be disclosed to plaintiff at the felony and suppression hearings of the underlying criminal matter. They were not. It is reasonable to infer that a cover-up was planned and executed from the beginning of the criminal case, knowledge of which may be imputed to all the city defendants. (From letter to Jed S. Rakoff, Senior Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in the matter of Caspi v. City of Rye et al., January 2015)
“It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,' says the White Queen to Alice.”
So yes, we are down the rabbit-hole again as another so-called Rye municipal “reform” slate in short order veers wildly off its pre-election promises and embraces public record secrecy with all the slippery sanctimony of a standard Corridor of Corruption cow town. Mayor Sack claims we are moving forward, not re-litigating the past, and that past issues of transparency and accountability are old news. Where is he getting his legal advice – the same old places?
It’s no coincidence that nationally Gallup reports three in four Americans (75%) last year perceived corruption as widespread in the country's government. Pew Research notes just 19% say they can trust the government always or most of the time and according to Rasmussen Reports – a portfolio company of my investment firm – only 28% of U.S. Likely Voters believe the country is headed in the right direction.
Closer to home, and thanks to The Wall Street Journal and MyRye.com, we can now add the “Iranian Hacking Memo” from the Department of Homeland Security (discovered residing quietly for years in secret at city hall) to a long and dismal list of suppressed public documents withheld from our overly sensitive eyes by those at 1051 Boston Post Road who are paid with our tax dollars and apparently know better. Lowlights from this list include:
(1) Rye’s ex-city naturalist’s full memo to the city council exonerating Bob Schubert and naming names of city hall insiders participating in the atrocious wetland destruction-for-profit gambit that effectively ended The Otis Administration; (2) Police records critical to the public understanding of the former Caspi case document disappearance matter above; (3) The Rye Golf Club 2012-2013 forensic reports from Breen & Associates almost certainly naming city hall insiders who assisted Scott Yandrasevich in the circumvention of our internal financial controls leading directly to the largest fraud in city history and effectively ending The French Administration; and (4) The now most curious case of Mayor Sack’s own city work related emails – which were legally FOILed for last April. Someone is apparently worried enough about these public records to stonewall for 9+ months and force the Rye resident requestor into court.
Nothing to see here? Mr. Sack, for one, should know better.
Public records belong to the public.
Ted Carroll is a lifelong Rye resident, a Certified Public Accountant, and a partner at Noson Lawen Partners, a media industry private equity firm.
At Sack’s State of the City address last week he surrounded himself with 9 year old children who in all likelihood didn’t understand they were being lied to and City of Rye Department heads who serve at Sack’s whim. I guess that could qualify them all as a captive audience.
Why doesn’t Sack want his City of Rye e-mails public?
Will they show Sack enabling his landlord?
From the minutes of the 12/15/15 meeting of the Rye City Council.
“5. Issues Update/Old Business.
Mayor Sack stated that earlier this year there were some concerns raised by Mr. Sculti, the chairperson of the Rye Golf Club Commission, with respect to activities at the Rye Golf Club. After these concerns were raised, the City Manager conducted an investigation. The City hired Vincent Toomey, who conducted a further investigation and Mr. Toomey spoke about his findings.
Vincent Toomey, Esq., as consultant for the City of Rye, stated that he is the City’s labor counsel and has served in that capacity for over 20 years. After conducting his investigation he was happy to report that there was no misconduct involved in this particular case and in fact the investigation showed an exemplary performance by city personnel.
Mr. Toomey reiterated the unfortunate situation with the greens in 2015. He stated while there was a question as to whether Rye personnel contributed to this incident, Mr. Toomey learned quickly that there was no misconduct. (Actually he uses the phrase there was “no contributory negligence.”) There were very minor issues that could be improved, but there was certainly no wrongdoing.
The City of Rye hired experts for the greens who all concluded that this was a tragic situation, but not one that any personnel had an impact on. Mr. Toomey stated that there was no way that the Golf Manager or superintendent would have known that this product was defective. Minor corrective commendations will be presented to the City Council shortly, but Mr. Toomey praised City personnel. Lastly, he stated that there should be a sense that City personnel are acting appropriately and should be continuing their jobs.
Mayor Sack thanked Mr. Toomey for his thorough job on the investigation and report. Earlier unrelated incidents has (SIC) led to this level of scrutiny. Mayor Sack stated there is a need to start a healing process in which the community appreciates the good work from the City personnel. He encouraged personnel to keep up the good work, and reminded residents to raise issues that exist. The City Manager is able to manage questions and feedback of personnel. Mayor Sack stated that this instance was a good exercise to examine whether matters are being handled appropriately.”
Remembering Rye’s Own Madoff Moment.
“Rye Golf Club will be remembered as the City’s Madoff moment when institutional breakdowns in oversight over a long period of time may have led to financial corruption.” (from “Speaking French” – MyRye.com – August 14, 2013)
While we regrettably may not have quite yet gotten to the bottom of those ‘institutional breakdowns’ that led to the largest fraud in city history, at least Rye residents can learn more about the real Mr. Madoff starting tonight at 8PM in a two part series- “Madoff” – airing on the ABC Television Network which you can find on our cable systems as Channel 7 or with your rabbit ear sets on the same channel.
The critical reviews for the series are mixed but it’s worth remembering how the fraud was uncovered and how those who doubted Mr. Madoff’s magical investment prowess were mocked and worse. Richard Dreyfuss sounds tailor-made for the part of the dark financial wizard himself.
ABC provides a trailer and some PR material on the series here at this link:
http://abc.go.com/shows/abc-updates/news/insider/madoff-trailer-new-abc-miniseries-151218
tedc,
Was the Rye Golf Club Greenskeeper arrested shortly after Toomey’s bought and paid for report was released?
Why won’t Sack release Toomey’s bought and paid for report on the Rye Police Department ticket fixing scandal investigation?