letter to the editor by steve greenfield 2-7-2013

Letter to the Editor by Steve Greenfield -- February 7, 2013

How much more of this are we going to take, New Paltz?

Susan Zimet, in her brook-no-questions zeal to merge the Town and Village as quickly as possible before she registers to vote at her actual home in Gardiner, where she won't have a share of the consequences of her haste, blindsided the two governments last week with a proposal to skip over going out to bid for an unbiased review of her epic fail of a financial report by proposing, with no advance notice, but with resolution-ready text in hand, to have the review done not by an accountant, but by a lawyer. And not someone with no financial stake or personal associations with the Town, Village, or its officials and employees, but someone in whom those ties and conflicts of interest are maximized -- Kenneth Bond. The two boards then voted to expend funds engaging Mr. Bond to start by advising them on legal matters pertaining to the operations of a coterminous "town-wide village," pending another vote to expend even more funds on his review of the financial projections. Supervisor Zimet is hard-selling these no-bid consultancies on the grounds that Mr. Bond, having been involved, for pay, in legal and financial matters with both boards in recent times, knows both the bookkeeping and officials of both boards well, supposedly streamlining the review process. But she deliberately left out a critical matter of which, on the two boards, only she and equally aggressive consolidation advocate, and former Deputy Mayor Sally Rhoads was aware: Kenneth Bond was involved in the creation of the report that is currently under challenge. Consultation with Ken Bond during the report's creation was referenced in emails exchanged between the members of the Financial Committee, including Susan Zimet and Sally Rhoads. This alone must completely rule out any further role for him in the process of vetting the methodology or the results. He's inside the product. The idea of steering taxpayer funds into his pocket for this purpose is utterly wrong. They did not reveal his contribution to the process to their fellow board members before the vote. They still have not. Thankfully, this is why the Freedom of Information law exist, and luckily, it's been used. Hopefully, the information will motivate people to act.

But the depth to which Ken Bond is embedded in Supervisor Zimet's long-term personal and political ambitions goes further still. Many of us remember that this is the same Ken Bond whom Supervisor Zimet brought to government meetings to help her sell the idea of buying the Middle School to re-purpose it as a government center. But it turns out that his political relationship with Supervisor Zimet predates his professional engagement by New Paltz. Mr. Bond was of counsel during the 2011 Ulster County Legislature debates over the sale of the Golden Hill Senior residence, on the side of interrupting the sale -- one of Ms. Zimet's final efforts as a county legislator before she bailed out to seek the Democratic Committee appointment to become Town Supervisor. If it were possible to draw up a list of consultants who, as a matter of propriety, are absolutely ruled out as eligible to take part -- particularly in receipt of taxpayer funds, which must always be used in an impartial manner -- in further review of New Paltz consolidation research, that list would have just one name on it: Kenneth Bond. Small wonder that Supervisor Zimet wants him on the job to the exclusion of even seeking bids from other candidates. It's up to us to stop it. We're way past "this has gone far enough," and well into "this has gone way too far." Contact your Town and Village Board trustees and demand that Ken Bond not be used for any further consultations on any matter related to consolidation, and that only truly impartial review be sought through a standard Request For Proposal (RFP) outreach, and bidding process.

Steve Greenfield
New Paltz