In my last post, I left off at a turning point.
Hundreds of people were attending town board meetings in the fall and winter of 2012. We were disgusted by the Monroe Town Board's behavior.
Supervisor Sandy Leonard slammed her gavel, and shouted at frustrated residents. Harley Doles, the Acting Supervisor, rattled off his pie-in-the-sky visions for the movie theater the Town Board had just purchased, without public input, and Councilman McQuade accused citizens of antisemitism for absolutely no reason at all, as often as he could. Councilman Dan Burke was in a constant state of agitation and irritability, and Councilman Colon was the king of the face-palm. He looked absolutely miserable.
What the citizens quickly discerned from these unpleasant meetings held at the Senior Center in Monroe, was that this Town Board had no interest in representing all of the citizens of Monroe.
Harley Doles, Acting Supervisor, the man I mentioned in my last post titled "Enter the Villain" was the guy calling the shots. Sandy Leonard, the Town Supervisor, was merely a figurehead. An ill tempered one at that, but she wielded no power.
Doles, in relationship to the newly purchased movie theater, was acting on his deluded desires for a legacy. He wanted his name on the Town movie theater, and he wasn't going to let something as frivolous as hundreds of unhappy taxpayers get in his way.
He was on a mission. A mission to spend Town money as though it was his own.
He was, and still is, a puppet for the Kiryas Joel leaders who elected him.
The State of New York is an odd and redundant place. We have Towns. Then we have Villages which sit inside of Towns. So, we have a Town Supervisor and Council, then there are Mayors and Trustees who govern the Villages inside of the Towns. Very redundant. And wasteful.
In the Town of Monroe, there are three Villages: Village of Monroe, Village of Harriman, and the Village of Kiryas Joel.
The Village of Kiryas Joel is unique, and illegal. It's entirely Hasidic and separatist. There is no separation of church and state within this Village, and there is no way for anyone to purchase land or an apartment in this Village if you are not Hasidic. Complete segregation.
What is also interesting about Kiryas Joel, is that the leaders decide who their citizens vote for. So, on election day, citizens are sent numerous phone calls, flyers, and even trucks with loud speakers travel throughout the one-square-mile-village, to ensure a high voter turn out every time. On election day, the Kiryas Joel citizens walk up to their polling place where day laborers are stationed outside with instruction cards for them which tell them exactly how to vote, and who to vote for.
The citizens of Kiryas Joel (KJ), head into the polls and do exactly as they are told.
The leaders of Kiryas Joel then have in place their very own puppets in the Town government, and get whatever they want. In the case of the year 2013, it was land, land and more land. But, I will get to that later.
So, Harley Doles was installed in Town government to do the bidding of the Kiryas Joel leaders.
And that he did.
But Doles also wanted a movie theater, and the KJ leaders said, "Sure, go ahead, buy your theater, and have fun! It will be a great distraction to the people of Monroe when we try to steal 507 acres of land next year!"
So, here we all were. Sitting in interminable meeting after meeting. Speaking at the podium. Getting interrupted, shut down, screamed at, disrespected, abused, and ignored.
It was at these meetings that I met some of the people who I would come to love, and call some of my dearest friends.
Lolie Farrell, for a shining example. Monroe resident of almost 40 years. Mother of five, Grandmother of many. And a spit-fire with a heart of gold and boundless energy.
Lolie and I became fast friends and she's like a second mom to me. My favorite afternoons happen when Lolie stops by for a cup of tea and we talk about Monroe, family, life, and love at my kitchen table. She's a stunning icy-blue eyed red head who could run circles around most people half her age.
Lolie stood up, fearlessly, and entered into the first of what was to be two lawsuits against the Town of Monroe against their purchase of the movie theater. We were in this together, big time.
Our law suit helped stop a lot of the damage which could have been done financially in Monroe since the Judge on the case granted an injunction disallowing the Town of Monroe to open the theater, or do any work outside of necessary repairs until the judge made her decision. This held the spending at bay for quite some time while we organized, and formed what was to become the largest, most powerful grassroots organization in Orange County, New York: United Monroe.
By the Spring of 2013, after countless Town Board meetings resulting in more and more enlightenment as to just how bad our Town government was, we were ready to form our non-partisan coalition.
We learned that the voters outside of Kiryas Joel voted their party line in all local elections. Monroe is almost exactly 50 percent Democrat, 50 percent Republican. Kiryas Joel, on the other hand, doesn't vote party line. The citizens vote for whoever the leaders tell them to.
So, if KJ leaders want the Democrat to win that year, the Democrat wins, because half of the rest of Monroe votes Democrat.
I realized this pattern could not continue. I realized that in order for the REST of Monroe to have some representation in government, we needed to stop voting our party line in local elections.
After all, Town Council people do not decide on gun rights, gay rights and abortion. This is local government! There is no reason at all for partisanship on the local level. At all.
So, I decided to form a third party- inclusive of all, where all Monroe citizens could cast their votes.
At this point, we had hundreds of supporters for the "Save the Theater" movement. We had hundreds of email addresses, and the Town Board meetings were packed every month. We had the beginnings of a movement, and we needed to keep up the momentum.
In April of 2013, I scheduled a meeting in the back room of our local pizza place, Planet Pizza, who were so generous to host us.
This was the night we were going to vote on a name for our movement. I wanted to make sure all of the people who had stepped up since day one were heard and involved. People like Mike and Diane Egan, Phil Gagler, Cristina Kiesel, Debbie Behringer, Marc Miller, Eileen Ruddy, Neil Dwyer, and so many more. These people formed the backbone of our organization.
We announced the candidates who would be running against Harley Doles, Gerard McQuade and Rick Colon that coming November of 2013 on the newly formed, "United Monroe" line.
I was going to run for Town Supervisor. I was a reluctant candidate. But, having put the word out for people to contact us if they were interested, and having received no responses, I knew I had to put my money where my mouth was.
The months to come would prove to be life changing, monumentally enlightening, and extremely difficult.
To be continued......
