February 13, 2009

Mr. Vincent Tamburro

Dear Vinnie,

I write to you in light of the recent facts involving the Bob Schubert wetland cover-up. Most of the Schubert issues have already been exposed and hopefully will be dealt with in an appropriate manor. Chantal Detlefs and her husband are brave and courageous people to speak out the way they did. I say that because I understand Chantal’s husband is still an employee of the city of Rye. I have only met Chantal once, and have never met her husband, but I am aware of many people in Rye, Bob Schubert and myself included, that are willing to come to their defense should any retaliation surface.

The reason I’m contacting you today is to ask you to display the same courage that Chantal and her husband have. I am requesting you to expose this administration for the corruption that has plagued Rye for years. I refer to the present Hen Island conflict that you were personally involved in on July 17, 2007. As you know, Hen Island was inspected on that date for health, safety and environmental code violations. You and environmental inspector Ron Gatto debated who would issue the violations and wanted the island closed until remediation was performed. Your exact words ring in my head over and over again, “Ron, I am a one-man show. For me to issue all of these violations would inundate my office. The county has a much larger staff and is better equipped to handle violations of this magnitude.” To my amazement, and I am sure yours as well, a few weeks later the city of Rye’s city manager (Paul Shew) told the New York Times "No violations were found when Rye's building inspector, along with county health and environment officials, inspected the island in July." I was shocked and outraged.

Inspector Gatto was immediately removed from the case and asked not to discuss it with anyone including me. When I questioned you, I was told you had been informed not to discuss the case with me. When I asked County Executive Andy Spano (a long-time friend) to look into the matter, he told me his people advised him not to discuss it with me due to the fact that the case was in litigation. Mr. Spano said, “ Ray, we can have breakfast or dinner and talk about anything you like but we can’t talk about Hen Island.”

Westchester County replaced environmental inspector Gatto with Deputy Health Commissioner Lenny Meyerson and Meyerson issued a response similar to that of Mr. Shew. Except Meyerson went further and issued a two-page letter and had it delivered to Judge H. Bellantoni, the Judge presiding over my case against Hen Island in the Supreme Court. As a result of Myerson’s actions and statements to the court, my case was dismissed inappropriately and is now in front of the Appellate court in Brooklyn; hopefully awaiting a reversal.

I believe this was all a plan by the City officials (involving political favoritism) in hopes that I would go away, just as they hoped that a psychiatric examination would prove that Bob Schubert did not need to be taken seriously. Fortunately, neither one of us went away -- which brings us to today. I have been working since August of 2007 in the hopes of exposing the current administration and their complete disregard of the laws put in place to protect the people and the environment. The snowball is running down the hill, Vinnie, and you can be the one to steer to into the tree so it doesn’t hurt anyone else. Please have the courage to come forward and confirm my story. Please speak out before

someone gets hurt on Hen Island from another fire. Or a child drinks water from a kitchen sink filled with bird feces. Please speak out to stop the untreated sewage from entering the sound. Join Chantal in having the courage to be honest even though mistakes have been made in the past. We will stand behind you just as we stand behind Chantal. This is America and we need to remove corruption from our political offices in order to have true freedom. The same freedom Bob Schubert fought for on the shores of Okinawa we are both fighting for today on the shores of the Long Island Sound; only this battle is fought with the pen. You, my friend, can help us win. I hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. I’m sorry if it created turmoil.

Naturally, I wish these incidents had never happened. I’ve seen the pain and frustration and fear in your face each and every time talk about it -- this is no way to live. But you can help make it go away. I hope the future brings much needed change not only in your life and career but also in the life of everyone that this corrupt administration affects on a daily basis.

Sincerely,
Ray Tartaglione