#StandUpForPeekskill

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

#StandUp4Peekskill

Opening of the Campaign Headquarters at 9 Bank Street in #Peekskill

3rd October 2021

1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

#EmilianoPerez

#LeestherBrown

#BillMoran

#KenGilleo

#PeekskillNY

#CityOfPeekskill

#Westchester

#HudsonValley

#Rivertown

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

STAND UP FOR PEEKSKILL

(Robert Sullivan)

As the recently elected chair of the Peekskill Republican City Committee, it is incumbent upon me to respond to set the record straight.

The ghost-written statement by the Deputy Mayor and the Chair follows the long running strategy of the PDCC manifest in the past 2 elections. Deflect from the issues to cover your own shortcomings by invoking the aura of Trump and simply misstating the opponents record.

First, to my knowledge President Trump is not on the ballot in Peekskill, nor is he currently on the ballot anywhere. Whether he will again be on the ballot in the future is something which remains unclear since it depends upon his own wishes and the votes of Republican voters in a certain primary. In any event, it is some years before the GOP and the general electorate will need to decide that.

However, if the PDCC wants to engage in a debate over the character and fitness of national and state party leaders, I ask everyone to go the gas station or grocery store, to the Mexican border in Texas or talk to a US Citizen in Afghanistan. Ask why the past three Democratic Governors terms were marked by persistent scandal and two of them resigned. Ask where the virtuous PDCC was when Governor Cuomo’s sexual proclivities became public.

Unfortunately, the PDCC wants to deflect attention from the issues facing Peekskill by giving labels to people because of their political views or party affiliation in the hopes that voters will take the bait and vote a straight party line. Unfortunately, the voters in this City are not that easily swayed. As stated recently by Amy Perlow, former candidate for Council on the Working Family Line:

“ I’ve spent almost 25 years blindly voting down the democratic line, assuming the party aligned with my personal values – but not anymore.

Primary elections are good for democracy; so is continuing to show up and demand substantive policy discussions that will positively impact you, your family, and your neighbors. ---Amy Perlow …”

Well said Ms. Perlow.

Second, the consultant from New York City- sorry- Ms. McKenzie - patently misstates the GOP candidates positions on Covid 19 public health measures. Being from New York City, he is apparently not aware of how much Covid 19 impacted both our candidates and the GOP City Committee. To suggest that the Stand Up For Peekskill slate opposes sensible public health measures is tacky at best. As the record shows, The “Stand Up For Peekskill” ticket merely criticized the Council’s lack of transparency because, at the time of their alleged offending statement, the Council was hiding behind Covid as an excuse to keep Council meetings virtual.

On the topic of Covid, I applaud the Deputy Mayor’s event encouraging people to "get the shot" and paying them for it. However, I query why the Deputy Mayor’s activism in promoting the vaccine has only come about in the middle of an election campaign. She, along with the rest of her ticket, in fact the rest of the Council and the City government – have been pretty much missing in action in promoting the vaccine.

To be clear – everybody must “get the shot” and follow all pertinent prevention measures. Nobody has suggested otherwise.

Third, again the Deputy Mayor and the PDCC misstate the position of the “Stand Up for Peekskill” candidates regarding affordable housing. All the candidates understand the need for sustainable affordable housing programs. Because the GOP is a big tent party, Emiliano Perez and Leesther Brown have suggested different approaches to the issue. Emiliano’s approach takes into consideration the potential impact of the Democrat and Working Family Plan upon the tax base and those who directly pay property taxes. Many of those homeowners are on fixed incomes and ticks on the tax meter can be devastating. Emiliano’s plan avoids that. Let’s discuss the issue, debate the issue, and present it to the voters. Just don’t lie about it.

Fourth, Ms. Claxton knows full well the source of funding for the Stand Up For Peekskill candidates. She can read the public campaign disclosures online or if she can’t, she should have her paid consultant do it. Her request for a pledge for the candidates to disavow funds from the state GOP or Trump is a red herring because she knows full well there is no such source of funding. What people really should review is the PDCC’s financial disclosures and note the source of their money.

Finally, most sophomoric is the picture of my good friend and candidate for County Legislature, Joe Torres, with “radical” Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. I would think that Ms. McKenzie would be more respectful of a woman who holds so much power in Congress, who comes from a very modest background and who worked her way through Harvard. I frankly would be more worried if Joe posed with Congresswomen Ocasio- Cortez, Omar, Tlaib and Pressley.

In closing, if you want integrity, honesty, straight talk and solutions to the City’s problems:

ELECT :

Emiliano Perez – Mayor

Leesther Brown – Council

Ken Gilleo – Council

Bill Moran – Council

They have my vote.

Robert Sullivan

Chair – Peekskill Republican City Committee

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

Via Leesther Brown For Common Council:

Setting The Record Straight

Over the past several months, the "Stand Up 4 Peekskill" candidates have tried to run a clean campaign free from any false or negative allegations of the opposing Democrat candidates. Unfortunately, it appears that the Peekskill Democrats have once again resorted to mudslinging and making false allegations. In a recent statement posted on the Peekskill Democratic City Committee Facebook page, Democratic Party Chair Drew Claxton and Mayoral Candidate Vivian McKenzie falsely allege that the Stand Up 4 Peekskill candidates for Mayor and Common Council oppose COVID precautions, oppose affordable housing, supposedly attended Trump rallies this past summer and received campaign funds from the Republican Party. All of these statements are outright lies and have no substantiation whatsoever.

So now, we would like to take this opportunity to show just how outrageous and untruthful these allegations are. First, in alleging that we opposed COVID precautions, are the Democrats attempting to show that our opposition to their scheme of not allowing in-person attendance at public meetings was somehow dangerous? That's almost laughable. A few weeks ago, the current Democratic administration attempted to once again lock the public out of Common Council meetings based on the excuse of protecting the community from COVID-19, which at that time only afflicted 51 people in Peekskill. When we voiced our protest in a subsequent post, the Democrats begrugdingly caved in and allowed in-person attendance at the following Common Council meeting. Furthermore, the Democrats' newfound concern about COVID-19 precautions is highly questionable when none of them were wearing any masks or practicing social distancing at any of their recent fundraisers!! Clearly, the Democrats have no regard for governmental transparency and want the public kept in the dark in regard to their closed-door Executive Session sweetheart deals.

Second, how can the Democrats say that we oppose affordable housing when we actually issued our proposed affordable housing policy a few weeks ago? For those of you who might not have seen it, our proposed affordable housing policy requires future housing developments to set aside 15% or their proposed units for affordable housing based upon the Peekskill AMI. If a developer is willing to set aside 25% or more of the proposed units for affordable housing, then that developer would be allowed to utilize the Westchester County AMI. This ensures that Peekskill residents would have a fair opportunity in applying for one of these new affordable housing units. So, how does our plan compare to the Democrats plan? Well, the Peekskill Democrats don't even have an official plan or policy right now!! However, it appears that Mayoral candidate and current Deputy Mayor Vivian McKenzie would allow future housing developments to set aside only 10% of their proposed units for affordable housing based upon the much higher Westchester County AMI. This plan basically opens up Peekskill's affordable housing to every applicant in the county at the expense of long-time Peekskill residents!! Contrary to the Democrats' assertion that they're "Moving Peekskill Forward," they are actually leaving Peekskill residents behind!!

Finally, the Democrats' allegations that the Stand Up 4 Peekskill candidates attended Trump rallies and received campaign contributions from the Republican Party are completely baseless. Neither our Mayoral candidate Emiliano Perez nor our Common Council candidates, Leesther Brown, Ken Gilleo and Bill Moran, have attended any such Trump rally or received one penny in contributions from the Republican Party. We challenge the Democrats to post any picture they may have showing these candidates at such a rally. Furthermore, we encourage any member of the public to review all of our campaign financial disclosures on the NYS Board of Elections website for any possible Republican Party contributions. Although the Stand Up 4 Peekskill candidates will appear on the Republican and Conservative Party lines on this year's ballot, none of them have received any Republican Party funds. Will the Democratic Mayoral and Common Council candidates also invite the public to review their contributions? When we looked at their campaign financial disclosures, we saw that Mayoral candidate Vivan McKenzie and her fellow Common Council candidates have accepted numerous contributions from developers and real estate investors. Shouldn't the Democrats refrain from accepting these contributions while they are debating an affordable housing policy for Peekskill? Maybe that's why Vivian McKenzie is giving developers a highly favorable afforadable housing policy at the expense of Peekskill residents? Furthermore, isn't Vivian McKenzie the candidate who's looking to benefit from President Trump's policies? Recently, she advertised a pop-up COVID vaccination clinic in which her community supporters would pay $25 to each person who agrees to be vaccinated. Interestingly, the funding for the research, development and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine was all initiated by former President Trump. Now, Vivian Mckenzie and her friends want to use this federally funded COVID vaccination program for the benefit of her political campaign without disclosing who exactly her supporters are!! This is clearly a violation of Federal and New York State Election laws. As if that weren't bad enough, Ms. McKenzie and her so-called supporters have implicated Sav-Mor Pharmacy in Croton in this politicized vaccination scheme in which patient confidentiality would clearly be compromised and pharmaceutical ethics would be violated for exploiting COVID vaccination patients for the gain of a third-party, namely Vivian McKenzie. Our campaign has forwarded Ms. McKenzie's ad to the NYS Attorney General's Office, the NYS Board of Elections Enforcement Division and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern New York District. We will let those authorities make the judgement call on this politicized vaccination scheme. In the meantime, we would like to remind our readers that our dear friend, former Peekskill Republican Party Chairman Bruce Bellom passed away from COVID-19 earlier this year. For Peekskill Democrats, such as Drew Claxton, Vivian McKenzie, Ramon Fernandez, Dwight Douglas and Rob Scott to suggest that any of our candidates are opposed to COVID precautions is nothing less than outrageous!! All of these political charlatans should be ashamed of themselves!! Consequently, the Stand Up 4 Peekskill team demands a full apology from the Peekskill Democratic City Committee and their respective candidates.

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

Via Leesther Brown For Common Council:

Where We Stand On Affordable Housing

Recently, there's been a lot of debate on the Peekskill Common Council in regard to an affordable housing policy. We would like to share with you our affordable housing action plan for Peekskill. Here's how it works...

First, all new housing development comprising at least 20 new units within the City of Peekskill should be required to set aside 15% of those new apartments for affordable housing. Any development with only the minimum affordable housing requirement of 15% or less than 25% set aside for affordable housing would be required to use the Peekskill annual median income as the qualifying criteria. If a developer sets aside at least 25% or more of his or her planned units for affordable housing, then that developer would be allowed to use the Westchester County annual median income in order to attract a greater number of people to apply for those planned units.

Last but not least, the Stand Up For Peekskill team will actively try to bring new labor-intensive businesses to Peekskill to creat more economic opportunities for our residents. With more job opportunities, Peekskill residents would have more income for their housing needs. Our plan is basically common sense economics. Unfortunately, common sense seems to be in short supply on the Peekskill Common Council these days.

That's why we need to elect people who will Stand Up For Peekskill!!

And, that's why we need to elect Leesther Brown for Common Council!!

If you agree with this message, why not Stand Up For Peekskill yourself by making a contribution.

You may do so by using...

PayPal at the link paypal.me/FriendsofLeeCBrown

Zelle under the email address of friendsofleecbrown@gmail.com

Or, if you prefer, you may send checks or money orders to:

Friends of Lee C Brown

11 Colonial Road

Peekskill, NY 10566

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/FriendsofLeeCBrown?fbclid=IwAR0QnH2hEYqBdSVFcwXEOZvj3JB3q3srCBOI80C5vZ4V0AwsSS5Gao6GkyE #StandUpForPeekskill #StandUp4Peekskill #LeeCarolineBrown (at Peekskill, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTBUOvfntgiTSiXZVJudibcM-VrasyF71qsGqA0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

Butterfly Release sponsored by Stand Up For Peekskill and Joseph F. Nardone Funeral Home, Saturday 21st August 2021, Depew Park, #Peekskill

#StandUpForPeekskill

#NardoneFuneralHome

#PeekskillNY

#CityOfPeekskill

#ButterflyRelease

#StandUp4Peekskill

#HudsonValley

#WestchesterCounty

#RiverTown

#LeestherBrown

#Nardone

#Depew

#DepewPark

(Photographs: Brendan Walsh Fitzpatrick)

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

Butterfly Release sponsored by Stand Up For Peekskill and Joseph F. Nardone Funeral Home, Saturday 21st August 2021, Depew Park, #Peekskill #StandUpForPeekskill #NardoneFuneralHome #PeekskillNY #CityOfPeekskill #ButterflyRelease #StandUp4Peekskill #HudsonValley #WestchesterCounty #RiverTown #LeestherBrown #Nardone #Depew #DepewPark (Photographs: Brendan Walsh Fitzpatrick) (at Depew Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CS295ZTgkJOZyMaPbKyb2xXaax-tsmF4MYzGKI0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

#Peekskill

#StandUp4Peekskill

#StandUpForPeekskill

#HudsonValley

#Westchester

#DepewPark

#MeetAndGreet

#CookOut

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

#Peekskill #StandUp4Peekskill #StandUpForPeekskill #HudsonValley #Westchester #DepewPark #MeetAndGreet #CookOut (at Depew Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CSx50pigfgPcLOIdvHP4kR6tkUFbn7ngDquXSc0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

#Peekskill #StandUp4Peekskill #StandUpForPeekskill #Perez (at Peekskill, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CSiXDUpne1Li7pLwCQBl8iLsYV7_ofO_e2DQRY0/?utm_medium=tumblr