Greg Helsmoortel
The tactics, untrue accusations and exaggerations by Gaetana Ciarlante never seem to end. I seldom reply to an opponent’s rants, but I must make a statement about her accusations. Recently she accused me of buying and selling foreclosed properties because of unpaid taxes, taking advantage of unfortunate situations. Neither my wife’s real estate business or myself have ever bought one of these supposed properties. Nor have we ever been unsuccessful in bidding on one of these properties. We have never looked at one of these properties. An outright lie by her.
In a public letter from her a few years ago, she accused me of following the Communist Manifesto. Really, a communist, how dare you say that. That is a very improper, unethical and immoral slander of me. She has no regard for others with her thoughtless attacks on anyone in her way.
She claims I do not care about the recent financial rating of the town. The formula used weighs heavily from 2012 to present. Our non-partisan and highly regarded town CPA feels the rating system is unfair. Our fund balance went from a negative in 2012 to a positive in 2014. If you look at the report in its entirety, which I doubt she did, you will see that our fund balances have improved greatly and our debt continues to decrease. We have met all of the New York State budget objectives. The library debt which was voted on by the public and all of our water and wastewater districts are taken into consideration in looking at obligations. Are they true obligations, yes, but they were agreed to and wanted by the public. Our debt, other than what I just mentioned, is miniscule. We owe very little money.
Her attack on our economic development initiatives is a joke and she probably has no idea what she is talking about. I would put our “business friendly” reputation up against any town in the Hudson Valley. That statement can be verified.
Here is information about someone that attacked my integrity from a few elections ago. The factual story is that Ciarlante was putting negative political flyers about me in the empty shopping bags that the Boy Scouts of America leave at homes for their annual food drive for the needy. Ciarlante was personally given a message from the Mid-Hudson Valley executive director of the Boy Scouts of America to stop doing it, but she did not listen and continued doing this, totally ignoring the request.
Not much character there, as her campaign signs lead you to believe.
To the voting public, I will continue to work hard in a non-partisan way with the whole Town Board keeping the wellness of our town as our top priority. I believe my success at the recent Republican and Democrat caucuses attests to the fact that I work hard for the whole town and am supported by the majority.
-Greg Helsmoortel is the Saugerties town supervisor.