COMPTROLLER MAUREEN WALKER JOINS FORCES WITH BLACK CHURCHES TO STEAL $108 MILLION SCHOOL BONDCORRUOT

Churches Plan to Steal The School Bond

 COMPTROLLER MAUREEN WALKER

It has been 14 years since Mount Vernon voters passed the ill fated $100 million bond. The 2002 bond was looted, and Longfellow Middle School and Grimes Elementary School were poorly constructed, and are now falling apart.

Prior to 1997, the Italian Community Association (ICA) had a strangle hold on the school board. Rev. Franklyn Richardson, of Grace Baptist church and a few other Ministers, who called themselves CEEPA, received a higher calling to rescue Mount Vernon from these bad Italians. CEEPA claimed black kids were being treated unfairly. The higher calling must not have been from God, because CEEPA destroyed Mt Vernon’s educational system. Under church control, Mt Vernon’s School District imploded, and more children went to jail than to college.

In 2002, Mount Vernon’s voters approved a $100 million bond. CEEPA’s board members eliminated oversite of the bond by terminating the buildings and grounds department, and money went missing.

The construction of Longfellow Middle School and Grimes Elementary School were performed with substandard materials, and left unfinished. Twelve years after their completion, these schools are a mess, and huge sums of money are needed to make necessary repairs.

Last November, Mount Vernon Exposed warned the citizens of Mount Vernon about voting for the proposed $108 million bond. The majority of the current board members have done a fantastic job, but bad people will never stay away while $108 million is floating around Mount Vernon.

POVERTY PIMP
REV. W. FRANKLYN RICHARDSON

Sources say that Rev Richardson and the United Black Clergy (UBC) have quietly positioned themselves to once again destroy the district. A relatively unknown person by the name of Kevin Bunch, decided to run for School Board Trustee in the upcoming May, 17^th election. This appears to be a very innocent and noble decision by Mr. Bunch, until you peel back the top layer and unveil the sick truth. Kevin Bunch is being pushed to run by the UBC (formally known as CEEPA}

Sources say that UBC members calculate that a Bunch victory would tip the power of the board. This will allow them to control $108 million, which is slated to improve the school district. Sources close to the UBC have informed Mount Vernon Exposed, that they are targeting Trustee Dr. Serigne Gningue to be replaced by Bunch.

SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE
KEVIN BUNCH

Comptroller Maureen Walker has turned her back on the citizens of Mount Vernon. She has been on the wrong side of the people of Mount Vernon the past few years. Walker has punished seniors, as well as struggling homeowners, by foreclosing on our most vurnalable citizens. Sources say Walker has made herself rich by wheeling and dealing properties she forecloses on, and sells them to friends for pennies on the dollar. Her resent action on the sale of the Mount Vernon Music School is shameful. Maureen Walker has single handedly destroyed Mount Vernon property values. Walker is also supporting the UBC and Bunch.

The Mount Vernon school system has made tremendous strides the past few years. Gone are the thuggish, uneducated board members, who were tied to thieves. Superintendent, Dr. Kenneth Hamilton and most of the current board members have been game changers for the district. Taxes have remained within the tax cap, the state has rewarded homeowners with refunds, and children are being educated. If left alone, the district’s future is bright.

Mount Vernon Exposed warned you about greed, and about passing a $108 million bond in Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon Exposed believes that if a full investigation of past bonds were performed, some of the clergy meddling in this election would be behind bars. Mount Vernon Exposed wants the UBC to stay out of the school district. If they are truly interested in helping children, they need to open their churches in the evenings to help keep children off the street.

The School Board voted in several safeguards to assure that this bond would be used appropriately. However, they did not take into account the sick disease called Mount Vernon corruption.

It is no secret that The Feds are looking into corruption in Mt Vernon. The biggest catch they can make, is investigating the thievery perpetrated on the children of Mount Vernon. It is time people go to jail for their crimes.

CONVICT MAYOR ERNIE DAVIS AND COMPTROLLER MAUREEN WALKER SET TO APPROVE 10.4% TAX INCREASE

CONVICTED CRIMINAL MAYOR ERNIE DAVIS

CORRUPT COMTROLLER MAUREEN WALKER

At a time when prices at the pump are falling, taxes in Mt. Vernon are set to rise by double digits if Mayor Davis and Comptroller Walker get their way. Three members of the Council - Griffith Apuzzo and Edwards - are also on board as rubber stamps to approve an effective 10.4 % tax hike for 2015.

Find time to attend the Council hearing on December 23 at 7pm to voice your outrage about the city taking the jingle out of your pocket! 

This is your chance to fight for what's in your wallet! Tell a friend and neighbor to join the demand for a tax refund! 

Mount Vernon’s Mayor, Comptroller, and some members of the City Council, are taxing Mount Vernon into financial ruins. If the proposed 2015 budget is passed, Mount Vernon will be hit with a double-digit tax increase. With this increase, Mayor Davis, and Comptroller Maureen Walker would have raised city taxes 30.6% in four years. 

Mount Vernon is one of the only cities in New York State that has opted out of the 2% or less tax cap, and has done so, 4 years in a row. The casualties of this destructive taxing behavior can be seen throughout the City of Mount Vernon. Property values have tumbled, common everyday services are not being provided, houses are crumbling, and homeowners are losing their homes in record numbers.

While citizens struggle to stay afloat, Mayor Davis refused to pay on his personal and property taxes. Mayor Davis by his own admission, has pleaded guilty on 2 misdemeanors which makes him a known criminal and faces incarceration in Federal prison, when he is sentenced on January 26^th.

Mayor Davis has solicited residents to send letters to the sentencing Judge on his behalf, asking for leniency. However, he and Comptroller Walker have shown no leniency to residents who fall behind on their property taxes. Davis and Walker have foreclosed on a record number of taxpayers in the past 3 years. Sources have reported that personal friends of Maureen Walker have purchased foreclosed homes for little or nothing, while evicted Grandmothers were not offered a payment plan in order to stay in the their homes. They were thrown out in the streets.

Mayor Davis and Maureen Walker are asking for a 4.5%, 2015 tax increase. What he and Comptroller Walker are hiding from the public, is that Mount Vernon’s Library has been removed from the city budget, and is now a separate tax. Four Million, three hundred and fifty thousand ($4,350,000) comes off the city books. That was 5.9% of last year’s City budget, which should now be refunded to taxpayers. Although the library budget came off the city books, and should reduce city taxes, Ernie Davis and Maureen Walker proposed a 2015 tax increase. If you add the proposed 4.5% tax increase to the separate 5.9% library tax, you will realize that taxpayers will be paying 10.4% more in taxes next year. Davis and Walker are trying to keep the citizens in the dark.

Tax increases in the last 4 years under Ernie Davis and Maureen Walker, are 2012 (7.8%), 2013 (6.2%), 2014 (6.2%), and 2015 (10.4%). Therefore, our Mayor and Comptroller have hit the people of Mount Vernon with a whopping 30.6% increase in the last 4 years.

The 2015 proposed budget, consist of increases in pension cost. Pension cost is tied to the stock market performances 5 years prior to the budget year. Pension cost for 2015 should decrease, because of the rise in stock equities in 2010. It should continue to decrease for years to come, because the stock market has increased each of the last 5 years, and is in record territory. The 2015 budget also comprises of raises for Commissioners, and spending for unnecessary projects. Meanwhile, services in Mount Vernon continue to go down.

City Council members, Yuhanna Edwards and Roberta Apuzzo have voted for obscene tax increases, four years in a row. Marcus Griffith has voted for unnecessary tax increases, two years in a row. Since Comptroller Maureen Walker has taken office in 1992, she has never provided a solution to bring the budget down to an acceptable level. Comptroller Walker, the financial watchdog of Mount Vernon, has turned her back on the people of this city. She has remained silent while Mount Vernon taxpayers are being fleeced. Mount Vernon has the highest foreclosures and the worse ratio of taxes to property values in the State of New York.  Maureen Walker is the Comptroller and financial watchdog of a hemorrhaging city. Her performance is embarrassing, and she should resign.

Mount Vernon is in trouble. Some of our elected officials are driving its residents into financial ruins. We have a Mayor who may go to jail, a Comptroller who has joined forces with him to raid the coffers, and some City Council Members who are not protecting our city. Ernie Davis and Maureen Walker were elected to look after the best interest of Mount Vernon, but have pushed it to the brink of disaster.

COMPTROLLER FIRES HER FIRST DEPUTY

Comptroller Maureen Walker

Mount Vernon Exposed has learned that Comptroller Maureen Walker has fired 1st Deputy Comptroller Thomas Rajala.  A reason has not been provided to Mount Vernon Exposed for Mr. Rajala's dismissal.

Mount Vernon Exposed is investigating this matter and will keep you updated.  

MOUNT VERNON CITY COUNCIL EXPECTED TO SERVE SUBPOENA ON COMPTROLLER FOR FAILING TO TURN OVER FINANCIAL RECORDS

Comptroller Maureen Walker

Sources have told Mount Vernon Exposed that a subpoena is expected to be served on Comptroller Maureen Walker within the next 24 hours.  The subpoena is to be signed by City Council President Yuhanna Edwards.  According to sources, the subpoena is seeking public documents that the Comptroller’s officer is refusing to hand over to the City Council so they can make decisions to adopt the annual estimate. 

Mount Vernon is still healing from a bitter Mayoral election that left the city divided. The candidates that ran for Mayor was; Mayor Ernie, Comptroller Maureen Walker, City Council President Yuhanna Edwards, and former Mayor Clinton Young.  The favorite to win the Democratic primary was Maureen Walker, but then former Mayor Ernie Davis narrowly defeated Walker by a little over 100 votes. 

Today the infighting continues in City Hall and the residents are victims of the ambitious, higher office seeking elected officials. Many in Mount Vernon view Maureen Walker as the “financial watchdog”, but critics of Walker view her as an obstructionist to progress in the City of Mount Vernon. Several taxpayers have slammed the Comptroller in recent weeks to Mount Vernon Exposed saying she has not stepped up for taxpayers and the citizens of Mount Vernon and virtually remained silent on matters of great public interest and even accused the veteran Comptroller of engaging in retaliatory politics to further her political agenda.

This is the second year in a row that the annual budget will be adopted after January 1^st.  Mount Vernon Exposed was in attendance at the City Council meeting last week when a third reading was done of an ordinance authorizing the City of Mount Vernon to override the state mandated 2% tax cap.  Two prior reading of the legislation seeking to override the tax cap failed to win approval.  Some legal experts say that after two attempts the City must stay within the 2% tax cap and cannot have any further votes or readings on the tax cap matter.  Other political insiders are saying the City Council is waiting until Marcus Griffith is sworn in to have another vote on passing a budget exceeding the state mandated 2% tax cap.

Councilman Thomas compared adopting a budget without thoroughly examining financial data in possession of the Comptroller, to purchasing a house without first obtaining a home inspection.  Does current technology allow the Comptroller’s office to comply with Councilman Thomas’ request?  It would be troubling to find out that the City of Mount Vernon does in fact posses the technology to share financial data in the requested medium and the Comptroller is purposely withholding information for political purposes.  Taxpayers cannot afford the petty games and infighting anymore. Taxes are souring, foreclosures are rising, and our infrastructure in crumbling right before our eyes. Low income, tax abated projects, which will destroy Mt Vernon’s tax base, will be built all around Mt Vernon.

Last week during the City Council meeting, Councilman Richard Thomas appeared frustrated with the budget process and informed the public of his many unsuccessful attempts to get basic, public information from the Comptroller’s office in Excel format.  Thomas stated that the data received by the City Council from the Comptroller’s office is on black and white paper and not in electronic format.  Many times data is denied to the Council Thomas said and the Comptroller deems this public information “proprietary”. 

In a statement to Mount Vernon Exposed Thomas said “The City of Mount Vernon’s financial books have been closed for far too long resulting in taxpayers paying among the highest taxes in the State of New York. The time has come to open the books to begin an honest dialogue about how to reduce the crushing tax burden and finally grow our local economy.”

To be continued…

Next issue…. Analog or Digital? Is lack of technology in the Comptroller’s office putting the City of Mount Vernon’s financial health at risk?

  

MOUNT VERNON MAYORAL DEBATE #2

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ALLEGED MAYORAL VOTER FRAUD COMMITTED IN MOUNT VERNON

Sources have told Mount Vernon Exposed that serious voter fraud was committed on behalf on a specific candidate running for Mayoral office in Mount Vernon.  Mount Vernon Exposed was also told that the United States Department of Justice and the F.B.I. was notified of the alleged crimes committed against the citizens of Mount Vernon.

According to a voter, Mount Vernon Exposed was told that the alleged voter crimes were committed on the Southside of Mount Vernon, specifically buildings where voter machines were placed where voters live in that specific building.  According to an undercover worker posing as a worker for the Mayoral candidate that was involved in the voting scam, workers were told that this specific voter candidate must win “by any means necessary”.  Workers were told to say that they were volunteers if they were asked if they were paid for their services because the specific Mayoral candidate was showing a negative balance in their campaign account with the Board of Elections.

“I want everyone in the City of Mount Vernon to know that the 2011 Mayoral elections were rigged” said the campaign worker.   “If you check the voter machines in the projects and the building across from Pathmark, you will see what the deal is” said the campaign worker.  “I’m not going to be nobody’s bitch in jail” continued the campaign worker when approached by the staff of Mount Vernon Exposed.  

Based on the foregoing, Mount Vernon voters deserve to know the truth about the 2011 Mayoral election.  No Mayoral candidate should concede until every vote, signature, and voter is subpoenaed and interviewed.  “We think we are on to something here” said one voter.  If need be, I will spend any amount deemed necessary to get to the truth. The truth needs no defense”.