ווילדע העצערייען פון די אלייענס קעגן ק"י

FOILS - Cursed Again.

Last August the Kiryas Joel Alliance submitted a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to Gedalya Szegedin, in his role of KJ Village Clerk, requesting copies of the voter sign-in books. The KJA has reason to believe that the signatures in the those books are proof that illegal voting was taking place in village elections.

As he has many times in the past, Szegedin ignored the FOIL. The KJA filed a lawsuit demanding that the books be given to them and the case was assigned to Judge Stuart Rosenwasser, who seems to get a disproportionately large number of the cases which involve Kiryas Joel.

The case wasn't heard until December. Lawyers for Szegedin argued that under New York State law the books were the responsibility of the County Board of Elections and that the case should be dismissed. Judge Rosenwasser agreed. He told the lawyers for the KJA to go to the County Board of Elections and he dismissed the suit.

There are two things that Judge Rosenwasser either was ignorant of or didn't care about:


The New York FOIL Law makes clear that it doesn't matter who else has a document or even who else has primary responsibility for it. If you have the document, you must give the document. There are a very small number of exceptions, such as National Security, which do not apply here. KJ should have been ordered to produce the books.
. The section of NYS law quoted by KJ's lawyers (Election Law Section 3-220(1)), gives responsibility for elections to the County. However, they ignored another section (Election Law Section 15-124(1)) which makes clear that village elections are independent of the county and that villages have full responsibility for their own voter rolls.




It is difficult to believe that Judge Rosenwasser was unaware of the special independent status of villages. It is impossible to believe that KJ's attorneys were just making a mistake. They were purposely misquoting the law.

The KJA's attorneys went to the County Board of Elections and took a sworn statement from the clerk stating that only KJ had the requested documents. The attorneys then requested a rehearing from Judge Rosenwasser. He ignored them. For months.

Finally, one month ago, just a week or two before the village elections, the attorneys for the KJA contacted Judge Rosenwasser's superior (yes, judges have bosses). They explained the matter by telephone at 9 AM. The Administrative Judge then said that he would call Rosenwasser. And at 9:20 AM, 10 months after the first FOIL and 6 months after their request for a rehearing, the KJA got their answer from Judge Rosenwasser. The answer was "No!"

As the KJA grows and becomes more and more the majority party in the village, the only way that Szegedin and his friends can hold onto power is by preventing fair elections. It is sad to see how many politicians outside the village are willing to help these corrupt leaders subvert elections to stray in power.

We must let those politicians know that we are here, we see what is happening and we will remember.

when they are next up for reelection we will act.

Revolution in Orange County Politics - Almost.
A few weeks ago the people of the Village of Kiryas Joel voted for Mayor and two village trustees. Abe Weider and his two running mates were reelected. But the Kiryas Joel Alliance (the dissidents) came within 500 votes of victory, the smallest margin ever. To us, this means that if the election had been honest, the KJA would now be running KJ. And if that had happened politics in this County (and in this State) would have been turned inside out.


The Problem
Locally, the only possible long term solution to the projected nightmare of endless skirmishes with the men who now run KJ is a change in the Village's leadership. The current leaders, Szegedin and Weider, have repeatedly, endlessly in fact, demonstrated a total lack of concern for the rights and needs and desires of their neighbors. Their philosophy boils down to:"I want it, gimme!"

On the County and State level, the lure of the so called "Bloc Vote" and the large contributions that accompany it have won over too many politicians. Ed Diana has to be pushed into every decision he makes, State Senator Bill Larkin uses his discretionary funds to please Szegedin and silence KJ's opponents, Governor Pataki seems far more willing to visit the Village than any of the rest of the county, and even some judges make inexplicable decisions when KJ is involved.


The Solution?
Hundreds of hours of talks with members of the KJA have given us real hope that, when they get the honest election that they have been fighting for, and take control of their village, they will work with their neighbors to try and find ways that we can live together peacefully and with mutual respect.

This doesn't mean that there aren't major issues dividing us, there are. But it does mean that there is a real chance to deal with those problems fairly.

A clean government in KJ, honestly elected, will also give us a better chance to get rid of the corrupt politicians in Goshen and in Albany, who sell their votes and their souls to the highest bidder. And that's why, when it comes to cleaning up the crooked elections in KJ, our judges, our State Senator, our County Attorney and even our Governor, won't lift a finger to help.

So it's time that we got organized and helped ourselves.