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Former Spring Valley Trustee Bettie Brown has said she has personally witnessed Mayor George Darden use profanity towards village clerks.

Darden did not return calls seeking comment, and village officials wouldn’t speak on the matter.

Brown was speaking yesterday during an interview for a story I wrote (which appeared in today’s paper) about Trustee Demeza Delhomme’s request for police presence during workshop meetings.

Delhomme alleged being the victim of a profanity-laced verbal attack by Darden. The trustee also said he witnessed similar verbal attacks by Darden upon former village clerk, Sherry Scott, and the current clerk, Mae Naber.

Brown often was the lone voice of dissent on the board, and often was criticized by Darden for not showing up to board meetings.

Brown said yesterday that she couldn’t come to Village Board meetings for a few months last year because she underwent major surgery. After the surgery, she said, “I did not have peace of mind to come back to the board meetings because of (Darden’s) demeanor, because of his attitude, during the meetings.â€?

But, on one occasion in the fall, the board sent two Spring Valley police officers to her home to collect her to attend a board meeting, she said.

“The police arrived with the resolution they passed to do it … and told me what their business was and I read it and I asked them ‘are you arresting me?’ and they said no, ‘I’ve come to escort you,â€? she recalled.

Even though she missed meetings, Brown said she was always accessible to her constituents and kept up with her duties. Her absence didn’t change the outcome of any votes, she added.

Residents have increasingly been criticizing the Spring Valley Village Board as being dysfunctional.

It’s been reported that Spring Valley Mayor George Darden has a reputation for being abrasive in his dealings with the public. He has no problem offering strong opinions to his constituents and fellow Village Board members.

Well, we found out yesterday that the newspaper is not spared.

As reporters, we’re used to politicians not rolling out the welcome mat for us at times. (And we know they might not want to hear from us, but we have to call, because to not do that would be unfair to them.)

However, when it comes to issues of public importance, most understand the need to have a conversation with the press, even if they don’t want to.

Since we reported in our paper that Darden hired day laborers from Route 59 to work on a village project in July, and that those workers were illegal immigrants, and that he paid them in cash, and that he was reimbursed for it on the same day, and that he’s refused to discuss the issue, and that he got his unusual actions ratified by the Village Board after the fact, Darden hasn’t talked to us, except for one or two instances when we reported positive news in Spring Valley.

Barring one press conference in July when he didn’t discuss details of the hiring and didn’t take questions from the press, Darden’s been closemouthed about the whole hiring episode.

Now, there’s word that the Village Treasurer, Sandra Bullock, has resigned. She handed in her notice on Aug. 20, and her last day is Sept. 19. (She says she found a better job opportunity and that her departure has nothing at all to do with the immigrant hiring situation.)

We — or, rather, I — called Darden yesterday to ask him whether a search was on for Bullock’s replacement and who would run the department in the interim.

I was told he wasn’t at Village Hall. I left a message. A little later, I called his assistant, who said the mayor wasn’t in, and it wasn’t clear whether he would return to the office that day. Still later that day, I called the Village Attorney, Bruce Levine. Levine referred the call to the mayor, who, by the way, wasn’t in. Levine didn’t know if Darden would return to the office.

So I tried the mayor’s cell phone. He answered. I identified myself and started to tell him why I was calling. I didn’t get very far. He cut me off.

“We don’t get along well enough to talk like that, dear,� he said in a pleasant tone. “You put a spin on everything I say. With that, have a nice day.�

And he hung up. I can’t say I was surprised. He’s ended calls like that before.

County Legislature Vice Chairman William Darden, D-Hillcrest, is not happy that two signs bearing his name were ripped from the ground this weekend and, in one case, tossed over a fence onto the sidewalk.

 The campaign signs promoted Darden, along with village trustee candidates Joseph Desmaret and Anthony Leon and justice candidate Christine Theodore. He said today that they were ripped out of the ground at his brother’ house and at the home of Deputy Mayor Noramie Jasmin. His brother is village Mayor George Darden.

“I don’t know why it’s just my sign and nobody else’s,” he said.

 And it’s not the first time the family had been targeted. Two years ago, his brother’s campaign signs were not only taken out of the ground but sliced with a sharp object.

Darden said the signs were expensive—and big.  There are a total of six around the district like the ones that were vandalized, each about 4 feet by 8 feet.

This morning, Rockland County Legislature candidate Alden Wolfe held a news conference to tie his opponent, Legislator Bruce Levine, to the Spring Valley mayor’s hiring of illegal immigrants for a government public works project.

Reporter Steve Lieberman attended the news conference. Here’s his account of the news conference and a discussion afterward with Levine:

Levine, the village attorney, called Wolfe’s accusation false, saying he had no role in the hiring of illegal immigrants and was on vacation when it happened.

During the news conference in front of Spring Valley Village Hall, Wolfe said Levine should explain what role, if any, he played as village attorney in Spring Valley Mayor George Darden’s decision to hire illegal immigrants and to discuss the advice he had given the mayor.

At one point, Wolfe asked, “What other advice did he give the mayor to cover up the illegal hiring?”

Wolfe denied that he was accusing Levine of committing a crime. He also said his demands that Levine explain himself were not political.

“This is about good government,” Wolfe said. “This is about accountability. … As an elected official [county legislator] … Mr. Levine needs to be held to a higher standard.”

Wolfe said Levine had been silent for more than a week since The Journal News reported that Darden had shelled out his own money to hire 10 people from Route 59 for a urban renewal job.

Wolfe also charged that Levine’s job as village attorney conflicted with his being a legislator — a charge he has made previously. He said Levine was voting on issues that might be good for the village but not necessarily good for the county and all his constituents.

Reached by telephone, Levine said when he learned about the illegal hirings, he told the village treasurer not to reimburse the mayor. When he was told that already had happened, Levine said he told Darden to return the money until he could resolve the issue.

“When someone in government makes a mistake like this,” Levine said, “it creates a complex legal situation.”

He called Wolfe’s accusations “Nixonian” in nature.

“It’s classic for people in political campaigns to make false accusations for the purpose of the trying to divert the people’s attention from the real issues,” Levine said, adding that he believed people were more interested in taxes, the county’s fiscal problems, affordable housing and environmental issues.

Wolfe said the key issue was that Levine couldn’t serve two masters—Spring Valley as village attorney and residents as a county legislator.

“This is not a political issue,” Wolfe said. “Rockland taxpayers deserve the highest level of service from their elected officials, but when scandal clouds the air, we need to know that our elected officials can stand above.”

This is the second campaign between Levine and Wolfe.

Wolfe was appointed to the Legislature in 2006 to replace Robert Berliner after the latter won election to the bench as Surrogate Court judge. Levine, a former legislator for 10 years, decided to seek the seat last year after an 11-year hiatus.

Wolfe won the party’s nomination for re-election with the support of Ramapo’s political leaders.

Levine forced a primary and soundly defeated Wolfe. Wolfe and Levine each gathered enough signatures to force a primary, during which Levine soundly defeated Wolfe. Levine won election in November for the remainder of the term, which expires at the end of this year.

As most anyone reading our paper in the past week or so knows, we’ve been covering the story of the mayor of Spring Valley having hired illegal immigrants to do work on a building that’s part of the downtown revitalization project.

Reporter Suzan Clarke was interviewed last week by our partners at RNN and explained how the story came about. I wanted to share (better late than never) her interview with you:

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