To The Residents of Patchogue

“But scheming people always have to invent some noxious,
dangerous party. It’s an old trick.” Tolstoy Anna Karenina

I received a letter recently that appears to have gone out to all residents of the Patchogue Village calling for Mayor Pontieri’s resignation and accusing him of stealing gas and abusing a credit card. I assume that the authors believe that this disclosure is the “smoking gun” that will show malfeasance and felonious behavior. This is ridiculous.

Mayor Pontieri is the chief executive of our Village,
responsible for a multi-million dollar annual budget and for managing the
complexity of our local government. As such, he has certain benefits that
senior executives are usually afforded. The idea that he is sneaking around
stealing gas is absurd. In fact, it is my understanding that the current pump
metering system was put in place by Mayor Pontieri so that any abuses could
readily be tracked. His utilization of Village gas, purchased at wholesale, for
his car very likely saved money over the standard mileage reimbursement.
Furthermore, all of the mayor’s expenses, indeed all Village expenses, are
reviewed by our finance department and subject to audit. I am
confident that other state, county, and local officials with similar
responsibilities have similar benefits. The fact that this board of trustees
may not have approved this expenditure is irrelevant.

A second issue I have with this letter is its official status.
The letter is presented on Village of Patchogue stationery, but is not an
officially authorized communication, thus likely to be an ethics violation in
itself. It is another political document designed to attack the mayor and cause
his defeat in the upcoming election. If anyone believes that an ethics
violation or a crime has been committed, as this communication implies, the
information should be reported to the proper investigative authorities. The
authors appear to be attempting to try the mayor in the court of public
opinion.

Thomas E Ferb,
Candidate for Trustee

270 West Avenue

Patchogue NY 11772

tom_ferb@hotmail.com