A Haverstraw Republican says the supervisor ignored his interest in Ramundo’s seat
- January
- 10
In my recent story on Papo Cancel’s quick comeback to the Haverstraw Town Board, Supervisor Howard Phillips was quoted, saying that two people  Cancel and Salvatore Greco of West Haverstraw  notified the Democratic Committee of their interest in the Town Board seat vacated by John Ramundo. He also said because Greco later withdrew his application, Cancel was the only one left.
After the story was published, John Lawrence, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for the Town Board in November, sent me e-mail to point out the fact that in the week before Thanksgiving, he met Phillips at Mt Ivy Diner and told him that he wanted that seat.
Then I asked Phillips why he omitted the fact that Lawrence expressed his interest.
“He met with me, but he never applied,� Phillips said. “He told me he was interested, but he never wrote to the Town Board or anything like that.�
So I asked Phillips if he advised Lawrence to write letters to the Town Board to tell the board members that he wanted to be appointed. Phillips said he did.
And Phillips continued: “I like John, he’s a nice person. … Anybody can apply to the Democratic Committee, but if you’re a Republican, I think it would be hard pressed for the Democratic Committee to back.�
Phillips was basically saying that he didn’t include Lawrence in the pool of applicants because he didn’t write letters to the Town Board, but even if he had done so, he wouldn’t have been appointed because he’s a Republican.
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