Venditto gets Smacked Around by Fellow Republican

Posted without comment from the Massapequa Post...

Reader opposes land deal between Plainedge and Town
Dear Editor:
Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto has a fiduciary duty to see that the tax dollars paid to the Town by its residents are properly spent. If someone were to ask me today how I would grade him on this duty, I would give him an "F".

Back on Nov. 3, 2007, the Oyster Bay Democratic Committee ran a full page advertisement in Newsday critical of the 2007 Town Budget. Though not a registered Democrat, I agree with many of their findings. For example, the ad asked why are we paying the Superintendent of Beaches $105,378, the Assistant Superintendent of Beaches $106,743, two Beach Supervisors $192,831 and the Bay Constables full time salaries for what essentially are seasonal jobs. We don't pay lifeguards a yearly salary, so why should we do it for these other seasonal jobs?

Now the Town Board and the Plainedge School Board have come up with a further means of fleecing the pockets of the Town's taxpayers. I refer to the plan to have the Town buy the defunct Sylvia Packard Middle School building for $1.5 million, pay to have the building torn down and spend a projected $22 million to build a new Town Hall South. They would also transfer ownership of the present Town Hall South to the Plainedge School District requiring us to pay $120,000 annual rent for the building while the new Town Hall South is being built. Do you know what many of my neighbors are saying about this? "The Town Supervisor and the Board must be on drugs."

Unless he wants a tax revolt in this Town similar to what happened at the County level, I would strongly advise our Town Supervisor to get rid of some of those high salaries mentioned above, keep a tighter rein on Town expenses and forget about projects like the sweetheart deal with the Plainedge School District.

John J. Tarpey Jr., Massapequa