Survey Shows Republicans Scheming to Get Democrat Quast Out of Office with Fake News!
By Dan Murphy
Attempts by republicans in Yorktown to ‘cancel’ and discredit the reputation of the only elected democrat, Town Clerk Diana Quast, have backfired, with many residents wondering why Councilman Ed Lachterman berated Quast for a half-hour at a Town Board meeting last month, falsely accusing her of not preserving the minutes of the meetings without having any knowledge about the process, or reading the minutes himself.
And, Westchester Rising has received a copy of a survey sent out by Yorktown republicans which show that they had devised a plan to discredit Quast so that Jenna Lennox-Belcastro could win election this fall as Town Clerk. Lennon-Belcastro was the assistant to former Supervisor Matt Slater and is in the same position for Supervisor Tom Diana.
We became aware of the antics of Lachterman after reading a letter in both the Yorktown News and the Examiner from Yorktown resident Phil Corrao, who writes, Yorktown Town Board Abused the Public Trust Over Meeting Minutes
“The Yorktown Town Board meeting on Dec. 13, 2022, began with a political statement, which was made at taxpayer expense. Councilman Lachterman claimed that the Town Board’s written meeting minutes were not available to the public.
“In actuality, these minutes were available in four different locations. Additionally, they were no longer even considered to be the official minutes.
“Last February, New York State law changed, which made video recordings the official minutes of Town Board meetings. This made the need for written minutes obsolete. But our town clerk continued to provide written minutes for the benefit of our residents.
“The councilman wasn’t aware that the written minutes are in four locations. Nor was he aware that the video recording of the meeting was the official record of the meeting. And for nearly two years did he even notice that the written minutes weren’t being stored where he had expected them to be.
“Councilman Lachterman hadn’t looked at the minutes for nearly two years! And why, after all this time, did this become a Town Board issue? Why did our Town Board spend 30 minutes at a recent Town Board meeting on this subject?
“Well, the reason became crystal clear on Tuesday, Dec. 27 during the holiday break, when a political survey was distributed to Yorktown residents asking (quite misleadingly) if they knew that the minutes of Town Board meetings were deliberately being withheld from the public.
“The entire Yorktown Town Board created a nonsensical reason to attack our town clerk. Unfortunately, it was for their own political purposes. This is outrageous! It’s more than outrageous, it’s an abuse of our public trust! Phil Corrao, Yorktown.”
The meeting can be viewed at
https://yorktownny.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1550
Most Yorktown residents we spoke to find it to be a disgraceful attack by Lachterman on a good public servant. We also wonder what Town Clerks from across Westchester County will think after taking a look.
We applaud Clerk Quast for keeping her cool and calmly answering all of the questions asked, under this unfair attack. Is this how you want your elected officials to be treated?
Several days after the meeting, Dec. 27, a survey was sent to Yorktown Democrats and independents by phone and text. We do not know who paid for the survey, but the slanted questions asked point to someone favorable to republicans in town. Anyone with information on who, or which group paid for the ad can email us in confidence at dmurphy@risingmediagroup.com. It is also interesting to note that the survey went out, with negative inferences about Quast, after a Town Board meeting that could not have gone any worse for Lachterman and anyone trying to discredit the clerk.
We have received screen shots of the texts and the questions. Two questions are “loaded” and are aimed, in our view, at discrediting the opinion of Town Clerk Quast by voters in Yorktown leading up to her reelection campaign this year.
1-Survey Question: Would you be more or less likely or less likely to vote to reelect Town Clerk Diana Quast if you knew that she secretly tried to extend the developers contract to build the town’s par 3 golf course for another 10 years after the developer repeatedly missed deadlines and was charged with numerous violations.
Our Comment: Our readers know that we have been writing about the Par 3 for some time. The decision to close or extend the agreement with RC Recreation came from former Supervisor Matt Slater and the Town Board. It did not come from Town Clerk Quast. A Town Clerk does not have the authority to extend agreements with vendors. This is fake news.
2-Q-Would you be more of less likely to reelect Town Clerk Diana Quast if you knew that she failed to make town government more transparent by refusing to post the minutes of town board meetings on the town’s website or make government information available to the public.
Clerk Quast explained herself in the video of the meeting and took apart Lachterman’s arguments one by one. Residents we spoke to agree that the town clerk has done her job and the minutes are available to anyone who really wants to read them, and that the law has recently changed concerning minutes of public meetings.
Two other questions in the survey are about Jenna Lennox-Belcastro.
Q-Would you be more likely to vote for Lennox-Belcastro knowing that she is a lifelong resident and wants to bring new ideas that will make the town more accountable to Yorktown taxpayers.
Q -Would you be more or less likely to vote for Lennox-Belcastro knowing that she has the support of Assemblyman Matt Slater?
Former Town Supervisor Susan Siegel said, “As someone very familiar with the workings of town government, I’m troubled by the clearly politicly motivated attack on Town Clerk Diana Quast. The 2023 election campaign for town officials has started early and with the creation of a phony issue. Phony because the minutes, as well as other records kept in the town clerk’s office, have always been readily available to the public. I should know. I make frequent requests for them,” said Siegel.
Some residents questioned who paid for the survey and how did they get the names of those contacted? Email us at dmurphy@risingmediagroup.com.
