East Ramapo Board Loses in Court Again

Power of Ten Update

In This Issue:

1. East Ramapo Board Loses in Court Again
2. CUPON Protests Ramapo Zoning
3. School Board Protests Continue Tuesday
4. Power of Ten Spanish Version Expands

1) East Ramapo Board Loses in Court Again

NY State Supreme Court has found that East Ramapo has overpaid attorneys $2,055,345.50, more than ten times the amount the judge said was reasonable!

The school board has repeatedly voted to pay legal fees for school board members, former school board members, and district employees who have been sued by parents or taxpayers. The board’s insurance company (NYSIR) refused to cover these costs, saying “the NYSIR policy precludes coverage to the insureds above regarding the “fraudulent, dishonest, malicious, criminal or intentional wrongful act(s) or omission(s)”.

The board then sued its insurance company, but the court found that “the allegations sustained by Judge Seibel, purchasing religious textbooks, paying religious school tuition, and transferring school property to religious schools, were clearly of a deliberate and intentional nature.” Therefore the court ruled that the insurance company was not liable for payments after Judge Seibel sustained the allegations on March 12, 2014.

The board approved spending $2,233,485.50 in legal fees before the judge’s March 2014 ruling. The insurance company called that “excessive”. The judge agreed, saying “a reasonable fee for the legal services provided is $187,500”. Read the full decision here.

This judgement is just one more step on the path to Justice for East Ramapo. None of our legal actions would be possible without your continued support of Advocates for Justice, a public interest, not-for-profit law firm. Please GIVE GENEROUSLY, all contributions are tax deductible.

2) CUPON Protests Ramapo Zoning

CUPON is a group formed to hold our planning and zoning boards accountable. They are holding a Rally at a Zoning Board meeting TONIGHT:

Residents, it is time for us to stand up for our neighborhoods! The Monsey Flats ll project that is being proposed for Hillcrest is on the Ramapo Zoning Board agenda. This destruction of our neighborhoods needs to stop now! We need YOU, Rockland residents, to come out in full force to protest a construction that requires multiple zoning variances.

The Rally and Zoning Board meeting information:
Date: Monday, July 27th, 2015
Location: Ramapo Town Hall 237 Rt. 59, Suffern, NY 10901
Time: rally – 7:00pm
Zoning Board meeting: 8:00PM

3) School Board Protests Continue Tuesday

Please join us in our continuing protest demanding that Klein resign (or be removed), and the public school community be involved in choosing a competent replacement:

Tuesday, July 28 at 7:00 PM
105 S. Madison Ave
Spring Valley, NY

4) Power of Ten In Spanish

Last year, with the help of a translator, Power of Ten included some Spanish content. This week, we have added a machine translator, which although not as good as a human translator, has enabled us to greatly increase the number of pages and posts available in Spanish. Every new post will be automatically translated. Bienvenidos to all of our new Spanish speaking readers!