Villanova Alleges Stimulus Shenanigans

Putnam Valley Town Board candidate Patty Villanova. Patty Villanova, a Town Board candidate in Putnam Valley has alleged that the Putnam Valley Fire Department lied about its condition when it applied for federal stimulus money to build a $9 million firehouse. Having pored over the grant request, Villanova also insists that the Town may have secretly promised $4 million in funds to be added once the stimulus funds are granted. Villanova has sent her charges, and a request for a formal investigation into the stimulus application to the Inspector General of FEMA, Robert Skinner.

Villanova, a 50-year resident of the town who recently won a Republican nomination for a Town Board seat over the objections of the local Republican Committee describes herself as a “taxpayer advocate.” “I don’t care what party you are in, if there is wrongdoing I will expose it,” she said. Some in the town, even her own party, see it otherwise.

Putnam Valley Town Supervisor Robert Tendy “She is not a gadfly, she’s a crank,” says Putnam Valley Supervisor Bob Tendy. “Patty has been pointing a lot of fingers at a lot of people.”

Villanova’s letter is based on the grant request the Putnam Valley Fire Department filed with FEMA for stimulus funds to build a new modernized firehouse. Her letter quotes page 10 of the application which states that the request is to “Replace unsafe/uninhabitable fire station.” Villanova says, “They use it every day and for other functions. How is that uninhabitable?”

The grant request notes that the Putnam Valley Court House has been deemed “in violation of public safety codes” by the state and must be renovated or replaced. Villanova’s letter says that no such determination has been made.

Tendy counters: “The town has been put on notice that the courthouse is in violation of public safety codes, certain DEC violations. That’s not necessarily an incorrect statement.”

“It’s a really terrible and reckless thing for her to do,” Tendy said, “It’s easy to take sentence out of a 26-page application. She takes three or four lines out of it. The letter itself is unfair.”

“The town board was not forthcoming with the information,” Villanova said, “I had to investigate what was going on with the firehouse. The project has appeared before the town planning board and design board. How can the Town Board say they don’t have the information on it?” Villanova began filing Freedom of Information Law Requests, commonly called “FOILs” with the town.

“We spend a good part of our day responding to her FOIL requests.” Tendy said, “I’ve asked her to come into the office and talk about things.”

Tendy says that until the Fire Department is simply doing its diligence in exploring options for a new building, and that the issue of a potential bond referendum in the future to complete a project like building a new firehouse are moot until the Fire Department receives a response to its request. “If a referendum is appropriate at that time, we’ll go through a referendum,” Tendy says.

Villanova points out that the grant request filed with the federal government already certifies that the town has the capability to “pay the nonfederal share of [the] project cost,” which is nearly $4 million. “It is unconscionable in these economic times to try to sneak through two potential projects that can bankrupt Putnam Valley,” Villanova said.

“The Town Hall and the Fire Department buildings, certainly within the next ten to twenty years, will need to be renovated or rebuilt.” Tendy maintained. “If they explore a new fire department building, they would give their old building to the town hall (and courthouse).

“We would save money by renovating a building that already existed. As it stands now, we have no storage space. We have floods in our basement every time we have a rainstorm. This is a very small building. My office is the size of a walk-in closet. We have to plan ahead.”

Villanova maintains that she is a tireless advocate for the taxpayer, acting in the best interests of Putnam Valley, without heeding the proprieties of Putnam Valley’s politics-as-usual. “Just for looking into what they are doing. He [Tendy] is calling me a conspiracy theorist,” Villanova said.

Tendy maintains that the Fire Department and the Town Board have been acting responsibly. “We think in terms of 10-30 years down the road, she thinks of this minute,” Tendy said.

“To say that we shouldn’t plan to change these facilities in the future would be a dereliction of our responsibilities,” he added. “She grabs something, tries to make everybody look bad, comes up with a conspiracy, and wants an investigation. It’s not responsible.”