Kings Park, New York 11754

Smithtown Planning Director Frank DeRubeis

99 West Main Street

Smithtown, New York 11787 March 15, 2009

Re: Supervisor Patrick Vecchio, Tax Assessor Gregory Hild, Richard Vecchio, 255 Kohr Road & Newsday’s Saturday March 14th Report by Stacey Altherr

Dear Planning Director DeRubeis:

Two months before Tax Assessor Gregory Hild sold property at 255 Kohr Road to Supervisor Patrick Vecchio’s son, Richard, he received a variance from the Zoning Board allowing a house to be built on that property with a 50% floor area ratio. Would anyone buy a 10,000 square foot piece of property with 5,000 square feet of it on unbuildable, environmentally-sensitive land without a legally-enforceable guarantee that one could build on it -- let us say a 2,500 square foot house with a 50% floor area ratio as Richard Vecchio built in the summer and fall of 2000?

Why would Hild go through the expense and trouble of applying for a variance to build on land he owned only to sell the same land months later, apparently knowing that it would be Richard Vecchio who would get the benefit of the variance? Was 255 Kohr Road -- with its dimensions -- more valuable with a variance allowing construction? Was the increased value reflected in the selling price? Was the proverbial fix put in with the Zoning Board with Hild effectively acting as nominee for Richard Vecchio who was the real party in interest?

Hild is quoted in Newsday as saying, “I spoke to my neighbors, there was a public hearing, it was nothing that was out of the ordinary.” Find us another “ordinary” 50% floor are ratio. At the time Hild applied for the variance did he have a contract for the sale of the land to Richard Vecchio? Did Hild have an understanding with Patrick and Richard Vecchio to this effect? Ask John Toomey, Esq. What would one think if it turned out that there never was a written contract for the land between Hild and Richard Vecchio but that, spontaneously, Hild obtained the variance and later showed up to close title on it to Richard Vecchio? At the time Hild applied for the variance did he disclose to the Zoning Board that he would shortly sell to Richard Vecchio? Did Hild obtain the variance and then, miraculously, decide to unload it to Richard Vecchio? Did the Zoning Board members know – directly or indirectly -- that Hild would soon sell to Richard Vecchio? What was the fair market value of the land on the date title closed? What was the purchase price? What was Hild’s annual salary before and after title closed?

Next is Carol Terlaga in the Building Department, formerly headed by Supervisor Vecchio’s 18-year Chief Building Inspector Robert Bonerba. Terlaga’s son at 97 Walnut Road in San Remo received a variance from the Zoning Board for a 49% floor area ratio. This house is built on fill with a 100% drop off in the rear. Find us another 49% floor area ratio? Should Elmer be questioned about this favorable disposition? Compare the Zoning Board’s treatment of the DeGraws on the same Walnut Road. They were denied a 38% floor area ratio, knocked down to a verbal plea for 28% at their hearing before the Zoning Board. I have seen the DeGraw property. Their proposed house would have been another 40’ by 100’ house that already characterizes this portion of Walnut Road. How to explain an officious intermeddler’s opposition to the DeGraw’s application?

Until a court ruled slam-dunked otherwise, the Fallicas were limited to a “Ma-and-Pa-Kettle” house on more than an acre of land at 26 Chestnut Stump Road in Fort Salonga. Theirs would have been limited to the size of Richard Vecchio’s house which sits on matchbox-sized land. We will postpone for a later day the house in the rear of 35 Chestnut Stump Road in that is hooked up to everything except the tax rolls.

As quoted in Newsday, Planning Director DeRubeis, you say that the Hild and DeGraw “cases… are basically apples and oranges in comparison.” Fruity metaphors emitted to service a lie. If there is a fruit’s worth of a difference between the Hild and DeGraw decisions it is skin deep. Do you believe that folks -- like the oldsters on Cannery Row -- just fell off the back of a turnip truck?

Mr. DeRubeis, you are a public servant. You do not hold your position for the purpose of justifying the behavior of Tax Assessor Hild or Supervisor Vecchio who took off for Florida rather than hang around to answer embarrassing, possibly incriminating, questions. Especially is this true when it is the District Attorney’s Government Corruption Unit that has issued a grand jury subpoena for the records of Richard Vecchio’s house, Carol Terlaga’s son’s house and records of the Degraw and Fallica applications that were treated as comparative orphans by an otherwise inexplicably indulgent Zoning Board. A grand jury proceeding is a criminal proceeding that is commenced when a prosecutor in good faith serves a subpoena on its behalf. It is the only compulsory process known to the criminal law which may be issued without a specific charge against a named person because its function is investigatory as well as accusatory. It puts people under oath and questions them for days if warranted.

Knight v. Amelkin, 68 N.Y.2d 975 (1986) from New York’s highest court states that “a decision of an administrative agency which neither adheres to its own prior precedent nor indicates its reason for reaching a different result on essentially the same facts is arbitrary and capricious.” So what has been going on in Smithtown?

Smithtown’s Planning and Zoning Boards in conjunction with its Building and Planning Departments and its Supervisor’s Office have been at the epicenter of the 30-year continuing criminal enterprise. Zoning and Planning Board members are protégés of a political party hack and an octogenarian.

Robert Bonerba is expected to plead guilty this coming March 26^th. Any defense attorney worth his salt will want Bonerba’s plea to cover not only the 42 counts in his indictment but also all criminal transactions with others as yet unnamed so that these past transgressions will not come back to haunt him. This can only be accomplished by an allocution by Bonerba that admits to everything but B and A felonies in consideration of the People’s recommendation of the plea and the court’s acceptance of it.

On a final note, have at the ready a justification for the malign-neglect attending all of the illegal two and three family houses in San Remo that scoff up school taxes and sanitation resources. Does the “King-of-the-Hill” element in San Remo still park their pickups on their front lawns?

Please forward a copy of this communication to the Zoning Board.

Yours truly,

Lawrence N. Gray, Esq.

Cc: Town Council

Supervisor

Legislators Lynne Nowick & John Kennedy