Should the owners of Patrick Farm be required by the town to scale back their development plan and provide a park for the town?

That was the suggestion of one resident at a Town Board session this week. The meeting was held to decide what environmental issues would be reviewed as part of Scenic Development’s plan to build nearly 500 single-family homes, townhouses and rentals on the 200 acres off route 202 and 306.

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.

Here are some highlights of last night’s reorganizational meeting of the Orangetown Town Board.

• Nancy Low-Hogan, who was sworn in as a member of the Orangetown Town Board last night, promised to hold monthly meetings with the community to talk about town issues.

• Michael Maturo, a 23-year-old from Sparkill, was also sworn in as a Town Board member. Interestingly, he started his speech by remarking on the great diversity in the room, even though he was more or less talking to a room of white people. Elaborating, he mentioned the diversity in ages and that fact that people came from all parts of town for the meeting.

• Justice Paul Phinney used his swearing in to make another plea for his department. He thanked his staff, who he said worked day and night and through the lunch hour. He estimated that his office was 20 to 40 percent understaffed, but his pleas went unheard during budget time, when the Town Board cut funding to his office.

• Denis Troy joked about his status as the board’s last-standing Republican, but after the meeting said he was not worried about the board’s new 4-1 Democratic majority. His only concern was that Supervisor Thom Kleiner would use the pulpit to push liberal-agenda items such as Indian Point and climate change, which Troy said had as much to do with the town as the man in the moon. Kleiner, of course, disagrees.

• Kleiner gave a predictable State of the Town address, where he talked about ongoing development, senior housing and traffic calming. He also offered examples where the town could help the improve the environment, such as reducing its energy use.

Since John Ramundo left the Haverstraw Town Board to become West Haverstraw mayor earlier this month, the Town Board has been missing one board member.

Supervisor Howard Phillips said he was planning to appoint someone to fill the vacancy at the reorganization meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 3.

Rumors have been circulated that Town Board member Isidro “Papo” Cancel, whose term expires at the end of this month, may be appointed to the position. Cancel lost his re-election bid to Hector Soto in the Democratic primary in September.

Right after the regular Town Board meeting last night, Haverstraw town Supervisor Howard Phillips casually asked Hector Soto, Haverstraw Town Board member-elect, if he wanted to join him and others at Dunkin’ Donuts.

Soto politely declined, saying that he was watching his weight.

Phillips insisted and said, “I’m going to drink water. That’s what I’m going to do.�

Soto smiled, gesturing to his gut, and left.

Phillips looked disappointed, and I felt that his disappointment was not only because Soto didn’t want to eat doughnuts.

Soto, a retired Haverstraw town police detective, wanted run for a Town Board seat on a Democratic line, but the Haverstraw town Democratic Committee nominated incumbent Town Board members Isidro “Papo� Cancel and John Gould for the two seats up for election.

Soto did not give up and ran for the Democratic primary against Cancel and Gould. He defeated Cancel and went on to secure a Town Board seat in the November election, along with Gould.

Phillips, who supported Gould and Cancel for the primary, obviously wants to build a good relationship with Soto so that his town businesses will go smoothly, but if Soto can say no to Phillips’ suggestions beyond the invitation to Dunkin’, things are going to be very interesting.

At any Haverstraw Town Board meetings I’ve attended, I’ve never seen a Town Board member voting no to any resolution proposed.

We’ll see.

Back in September, I complained in this blog that Supervisor Thom Kleiner presented his budget at a public Town Board meeting, but that it was not noticed in an agenda.

To be fair, I’ll have to take Nyack to task as well. The village’s agendas, which are available online by clicking on the calendar, are often lacking in detailed description.

Here is the agenda for the most recent meeting on Monday, copied from the Web (see www.nyack.org):

Public Hearing (continuation)-
To consider amending Chapter 55 of the Village Code of the Village of Nyack, entitled Vehicle and Traffic.

********************
In addition to the continuation of the Public Hearing, other Parking topics/issues will be discussed.

An ideological debate over illegal immigrants and global warming spilled out into Orangetown Town Hall Monday.

Republicans Tom Morr, Denis O’Donnell and Denis Troy voted for a resolution condemning the Gov. Spitzer’s plan to give driver licenses to illegal immigrants, arguing the measure would devalue the licenses and could put the public at risk. Supervisor Thom Kleiner and board member Marie Manning abstained. Kleiner said he had not made up his mind on the issue and that law enforcement officials had mixed reviews on the measure.

During the same meeting, Kleiner and Marie Manning, the board’s lone Democrats, supported a resolution to adopt the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which calls on communities and the federal government to take steps to reduce global warming. The GOP voted against it, saying they disagreed with aspects of the resolution. Morr and Kleiner reportedly traded barbs about whether global warming was a human-made condition.

Ultimately, Troy said he did disagreed with the resolution because of its support for the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that requires countries to reduce greenhouse gas emission. He thought it would hurt the US in its competition with China.

“We just have different philosophies on that,� he said. “I believe that Kyoto agreement would be an economic catastrophe.�

Doug Hostetter, a Democrat running for Clarkstown Town Board, is planning a “Meet the Candidate/Campaign Fundraising Party” for Sunday, October, 14, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Hostetter, whose top two issues are controlled spending and preserving the environment, is running alongside incumbent Shirley Lasker. The event is to be held at Kristi Zea’s house at 495 Mountainview Avenue in Valley Cottage. For more info on the Town Board race, look for my story later this month on lohud.com!

Also, looks like Howard Gerber, an incumbent Democrat who is running for Clarkstown Town Justice, is holding a similar event at Romolo’s Restaurant in Congers this Wednesday, October 10, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. For more info, call 845-267-5003. Gerber, who has worked in the legal field for some 25 years, has been a town justice since January. You can read more about him and his top issues in a story I wrote before the primaries, which can be found here.

Over the past several weeks, members of the Orangetown Civic Association have hit the pavement to try and collect signatures to get two propositions on the November ballot. The organization wanted a public vote on measures to require term limits and to require mandatory referenda on any bonding over $1 million. But two things got in the way.

First, the Civic Association learned that term limits can’t be imposed through a referendum. Only a town board can vote to impose term limits, state officials told Civic Association co-founder Carol Silverstein.

Second, the group didn’t get enough signatures on the bonding referendum to meet the Oct. 1 deadline.

Silverstein said members had collected close to 500 names in support of each measure and would keep collecting. They will sumbit signatures to the Town Board on term limits to deliver a message from the public.

On the bonding issue, they will try to get enough names to force a special election so the public can decide.

Orangetown Supervisor Thom Kleiner handed over his budget proposal at the Town Board meeting Tuesday and delivered his budget message, basically outlining his rationale for spending.

Too bad he didn’t let the public know ahead of time.

The five-page agenda for the meeting included notice of an audit presentation, four updates on town business, and 27 other items, but not one word about the budget.

The budget discussion was only added to the agenda at the start of the meeting.

Kleiner said there was an oversight at Town Hall and that he thought it had been placed on the agenda. Too bad it wasn’t.

Somehow I knew Ryan Karben knew how to throw an impressive party.

From the red and white checkered tablecloths on the outdoor dining tables to the waitresses serving multi-colored mojitos and fruit kabobs, patrons of the Karbens’ backyard barbecue all seemed to be enjoying themselves.

And that was before the caterers busted out the burgers and hot dogs on a grills just slightly smaller than the average twin-sized bed.

And those guests just kept coming. By night fall, Karben’s street and surrounding neighborhood were packed with cars. Hopefully, the neighbors were too busy enjoying the party to notice.

Though Karben has been hinting at a return to politics via a run for Ramapo Town Board, there were no announcements tonight. Instead he addressed the crowd from his back deck, thanking his former Assembly colleagues Adam Bradley and Amy Paulin for coming and paying tribute to late Assemblyman Kenneth P. Zebrowski.

As expected the party had a mix of long-time politicians and up-and-comers looking to hobnob with those long-time politicians. Though unsurprisingly Democrat heavy, there were some partygoers from the other side of the ballot, including Republican Sheriff James Kralik.

The host himself was busy entertaining his guests, casually decked out in an untucked buttoned-down shirt and man sandals (a recent purchase, he noted.)
The Ramapo Town Board seat in question has been empty since the death last month of longtime Board Member Harry Reiss.

He’s one of four Democrats that have shown interest in the seat. The Ramapo Democratic Committee is expected to hold a convention next month to choose a candidate for the November ballot.

“Friends of Stony Point,” an independent political party, recently chose its candidates for the November election.

The slate is a mixture of Republicans and Democrats.

For town supervisor, the party endorsed Jerry Rogers, a Republican.

Two seats are up for election on the Town Board, and the party chose James White, a Republican, and George Potanovic, president of the Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment, for those seats. Potanovic, a Democrat, is petitioning for a primary.

The party also endorsed Megan Carey for town clerk and incumbent William Franks for town justice, both Republicans, and Patrick Kennell, a Democrat, for superintendent of highways.

The party endorsed Mike Diederich for County Legislature representing District 1. Diederich, a Democrat, is petitioning for a primary.

Chris Holmes, chairman of the party, said he invited Democratic Town Supervisor Phil Marino several times to the party’s endorsement interview, but that Marino didn’t respond.

Haverstraw town’s Democrats are likely to have a primary election as a recently retired police detective plans to declare his candidacy this evening for a seat on the Town Board.

Hector Soto, 60, of Pomona, said he would make an announcement at 6 tonight at the Haverstraw King’s Daughters Public Library on Route 202 that he planned to run for Town Board.

Two seats are up for election on the Haverstraw Town Board this fall, and the town’s Democratic Committee has nominated incumbent Isidro “Papo” Cancel and John J. Gould, a lieutenant with the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office, to run on the party’s line.

Town Board member and Democrat Jay Hood Jr. is not seeking re-election because he expects to be appointed next week to the County Legislature representing District 3. The seat will soon be vacant because Legislator Roman Rodriguez (and his wife, Evelyn, a Haverstraw village trustee) are moving out of the area.

A former county court judge that was appointed by Gov. George Pataki last year and later defeated at the polls, will start a new gig with Orangetown next week.

The Town Board this week appointed Barbara Gionta a deputy town attorney. She will start June 5.

The job includes an annual salary of $39,199 and is considered part-time.

Gionta replaces Patrick Loftus, a lawyer who specializes in real estate, banking, land use and trusts law.

Loftus resigned effective May 25. He was unanimously appointed about a year ago after a long disagreement among some board members about whether the town would be better served by a land use or labor relations lawyer. The board went with a land use lawyer because most of its labor issues are contracted out.

Gionta, a Republican from Pearl River was also unanimously appointed by the board. A native of the hamlet, she started her career as a prosecutor with the county and was later promoted as an assistant district attorney for domestic violence. She was also a partner at her own firm.

In addition to two town attorneys, the town’s law office has five part-time deputy attorneys.

No members of the public spoke.

That’s how the Orangetown Town Board report read this week. For those not familiar, it’s a basic report that the paper publishes after every meeting.

It has all of the board resolutions; most are matters that are important, but not necessarily breaking news. I take care of Orangetown’s with the help of the clerk’s office.

For anyone who has ever been at an Orangetown Town Board meeting, the public portion is pretty vibrant, perhaps more so than other towns in the Lower Hudson Valley.

It can be the most interesting part of the meeting and board members hear — and often get hammered — from the public. It can be a decent gauge for how things are going in town.

Since my time on the Orangetown beat, more than 2 years, I can’t remember a meeting where no one spoke. Not one.

No members of the public spoke. Strange indeed.