Politics & Government
Republicans Challenge Validity of Ad Campaign
The League of Women Voters is considering whether several statements in literature sponsored by local Democrats are appropriate.
Calling advertisements that surfaced in recent weeks "false and misleading", Republican town council candidate Steve Malfitano has appealed to the League of Women Voters claiming foul play.
Advertisements sponsored by the Democratic Party that appeared in the Harrison Report and in packages passed around town had warned residents of the "Malfitano debt" and of a return to "gimmicks" that led to Harrison's recent financial struggles.
Supervisor candidate Ron Belmont joined Malfitano Tuesday in Hartsdale as he presented his objections to several aspects of the Democrat's campaign against him and his running mates.
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Malfitano, who served as Harrison Supervisor from 2002 to 2007, said he alone shouldn't take the heat for past spending projects considering all bonds must be approved by at least four members of the five-member town board. Additionally, the former supervisor said quotations used by the Democrats from a released late last year were taken out of context and were at times inaccurate.
"The report applies equally to both supervisors," Malfitano said of the audit, which examined the town's procedures and financial records from January 2008 to November 2009. The total audit period covered January 2005 to April 2010, which includes both the Walsh and Malfitano administrations.
Find out what's happening in Harrisonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
One advertisement in question quotes the 2010 audit five times, pulling quotes that call Harrison's budget practices "structurally imbalanced" and accusing town leadership of "repeatedly using one-time revenues".
Malfitano, however, said nowhere in the audit was his administration blamed any more than Walsh's.
"Certainly these ads are directed clearly at me and the information that they are quoting is fragmented," Malfitano said. "It's grossly unfair, these statements are also grossly inaccurate."
Malfitano and Walsh offered widely different accounts of the debt incurred during the Malfitano administration. Walsh claims Harrison's overall debt climbed from $23 million to $70 million under Malfitano's watch because of various bonding projects that occurred during that span. Malfitano says the town's debt was $32 million when he took office and $54 million when he left. He says that Harrison's financial struggles in recent years are a result off dropping revenues during the recession, not past overspending as the advertisements indicate.
Walsh, who was the only member of her ticket at the meeting, backed her party's campaign. She told the panel that as a former supervisor Malfitano needs to stand by his record—a record she says includes the bonding of projects she would have avoided, like the West Harrison streetscape project, West Harrison Pool and West Harrison Senior Center.
"It was his leadership that did it," Walsh said. "It was his forcefulness that carried it through."
Walsh did admit that the word "gimmick", which was used to describe bonding practices during the Malfitano administration, was too strong a word and apologized. But the current supervisor didn't back down from questioning the bonding that took place prior to her term in office.
"To undertake so many projects and to cram it all into six years is irresponsible," she said.
Malfitano then questioned how the advertisements could leave out that Councilman Pat Vetere, a Democrat, voted in favor of 104 of 107 bonds during Malfitano's administration.
"To pick and choose," Malfitano said, "that's just not fair."
The League of Women Voters is expected to release a ruling Wednesday.
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