Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com. It beats listening to nothing.
Speaker 2: It's right through my goodness, it's Frank being Frank. Fright.
Speaker 2: We're the only way to.
Speaker 3: Be is Frank.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to being Frank. We're the only
Speaker 2: way to be, is Frank. I'm your host, Franklebona, and
Speaker 2: i'd like to thank you for joining us on what
Speaker 2: we like to call the Intelligent Conversation podcast, where no
Speaker 2: conversation is out of bounds and all points of view
Speaker 2: are welcome. Listeners are familiar with our routine. We record
Speaker 2: life to tape, and I give you the date so
Speaker 2: you have some context and relevance. It's the IDEs of October.
Speaker 2: That is October fifteenth, according to the search Legal Clarity website.
Speaker 2: A democracy is a system of government where power is
Speaker 2: vested in the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.
Speaker 2: This form of governance relies on active citizen involvement to
Speaker 2: ensure its vitality and responsiveness. Without this engagement, the principles
Speaker 2: of self governance and popular sovereignty cannot be fully realized.
Speaker 2: End quote. The meaning is clear and is emphasized most
Speaker 2: emphatically within these three words. Active citizen involvement. Of course,
Speaker 2: this means that people must exercise their sacred right to vote.
Speaker 2: But it's more than that. It means participation in the
Speaker 2: entire process, and that includes those of us willing to
Speaker 2: run for elected office. Without real choice and elections, we
Speaker 2: are in danger of losing a government that truly reflects
Speaker 2: the divers interests of its population, and there are far
Speaker 2: too many uncontested elections in our area. That's why I
Speaker 2: felt it was very important to introduce my guest to
Speaker 2: our audience. He is undertaking the very difficult task to
Speaker 2: run as an independent for Rockland County Executive against a
Speaker 2: well entrenched incumbent Republican at day. Mike Parrietty is a
Speaker 2: longtime resident of Rockland County and attended Suffol High School,
Speaker 2: where he was an Eagle scout and four time Rockland
Speaker 2: County wrestling champion. He went on to graduate from the
Speaker 2: United States Military Academy at West Point, where he was
Speaker 2: the captain of their NCAA wrestling team. After West Point,
Speaker 2: Mike served as an infantry platoon leader, company executive officer,
Speaker 2: and acting commander in the tenth Mountain Division. He was
Speaker 2: an airborne ranger and rose to the rank of captain.
Speaker 2: Following his military service, Michael earned a master's degree from
Speaker 2: Penn State University and had a successful career in the
Speaker 2: biotech and pharmaceutical industries for more than twenty years. Mike
Speaker 2: has been deeply involved in the local affairs and politics
Speaker 2: of Rockland as a citizen advocate. He has run for
Speaker 2: a local office several times and was one of the
Speaker 2: original organizers of Preserve Ramapo and Preserve Rockland, grass roots
Speaker 2: movements that challenged the political machine. While fighting over development,
Speaker 2: corruption and misappropriation. Mike has been a strong voice for
Speaker 2: fair representation and voting rights, filing several pro say legal
Speaker 2: actions on those grounds. He fought a protracted but successful
Speaker 2: court battle to force a referendum on the ward system
Speaker 2: in Ramapo, and later filed a challenge to the recent
Speaker 2: reapportment plan for the Rockland County Legislature, which he took
Speaker 2: all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Parietti
Speaker 2: recently resigned from the Rockland County Planning Board after more
Speaker 2: than ten years of service, where he consistently voted against
Speaker 2: overdevelopment and applications that did not adhere closely to the
Speaker 2: zoning codes. Michael Paietti.
Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Frank, thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate this opportunity to speak to the voters.
Speaker 2: Yes, I think it's important, and forgive me for stumbling through,
Speaker 2: but I I wanted to get in most of your bio.
Speaker 2: I open trunk ate them. But it was important to
Speaker 2: get all of your background because it is diverse and
Speaker 2: there's a lot of things within that I think we
Speaker 2: can break down and help us to understand you and
Speaker 2: your campaign. But first, let's talk about Mike Perietty. You
Speaker 2: mentioned you went to Suffer High School. Tell us about
Speaker 2: growing up in Rockland, a little bit about your family
Speaker 2: and how it influenced and still influences your life.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, growing up in Rockland was actually, looking
Speaker 1: back on it, kind of idyllic.
Speaker 4: Now, you know.
Speaker 1: I'm from a large family. So my mother had seven
Speaker 1: boys in a row and then Wow and his seven
Speaker 1: son died as an infant. But then she had two
Speaker 1: girls after that. So we grew up with eight siblings
Speaker 1: and kind of a raucous household and we live up.
Speaker 1: I was born and raised on the north end of
Speaker 1: Spook Rock Road, which is where I live now actually,
Speaker 1: and it's a really nice spot. You know, we're near
Speaker 1: the mountains, near the Mahwa River. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: wood lots and suff atas, so that was really nice.
Speaker 1: He used to hike through all the local areas in
Speaker 1: paused to fish in the rivers and the lakes and everything,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'll always remember that as an idyllic time.
Speaker 1: And the interesting thing about it back then was that
Speaker 1: we had the population here was roughly it was you know,
Speaker 1: the first but it was roughly fifty to fifty Reform
Speaker 1: secular Jewish and then Catholic Protestant denominations. But we all
Speaker 1: lived in the same neighborhoods. We all rode the bus
Speaker 1: to school together, we went to the city. You know,
Speaker 1: we had the same we're in the same classrooms, who
Speaker 1: compete on the same sporting teams, and we did everything together.
Speaker 1: We had to shared culture, and you know, back then
Speaker 1: there really I don't really remember any kind of an
Speaker 1: issue with anti Semitism or anything like that, you know,
Speaker 1: so we had a really idyllic, harmonious community and growing up.
Speaker 1: And I'll always remember that My great grandfather was came
Speaker 1: over here from Italy in the late eighteen nineties and
Speaker 1: he set up shopping in Nayak. He was a brick
Speaker 1: layer and he had he had a large family and
Speaker 1: they had large families, and so the Parieti clan has
Speaker 1: been in Rockham for you know, over one hundred years,
Speaker 1: and I remember we would go to Nayak and visit
Speaker 1: the you know, the members of the family and the
Speaker 1: old family locations and thingf like that. So always remember
Speaker 1: that too.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: My grandfather was quite a character. He was and they
Speaker 1: called him Fats Paraetti. He was the guy with the
Speaker 1: call him Fats. And he was a volunteer firefighter for
Speaker 1: fifty years at the Chelsea Firehouse in Nayak. And my
Speaker 1: father was also a volunteer firefighter for over fifty years.
Speaker 1: So anyway, Yeah, it was a very it was a
Speaker 1: great upbringing and am very idyllic and I remember it
Speaker 1: very fondly.
Speaker 2: You know, Michael, with that comes to suggestion that it's changed. Well,
Speaker 2: you talked about idyllic mixed there was not as as animosity.
Speaker 2: Has it changed, if so, when and in what way?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good question. Definitely has changed, no question
Speaker 1: about it. And as for when it's hard to say.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I mean the you know what I
Speaker 1: got involved about over twenty years ago when it sort
Speaker 1: of started to come to my attention that there was
Speaker 1: some potent political issues brewing. And I heard about a
Speaker 1: meeting at My father came home from the virus one
Speaker 1: night and he said, he said, hey, I heard there's
Speaker 1: a big meeting going on in Raynple town Hall, so
Speaker 1: maybe go check it. Ust I hadn't been out there,
Speaker 1: I guess since they'd be I was a kid. So
Speaker 1: I decided to go out there, and I went out
Speaker 1: and I started to meet people. I got involved, and
Speaker 1: you know the issue was that the ultra Orthodox or
Speaker 1: has Citic community, whatever you want to call their number,
Speaker 1: their population growth rate was, had been expanding rapidly, and
Speaker 1: they had become they were evolving into a very potent
Speaker 1: political force. And now I mean to the credit, you know,
Speaker 1: they'd organized themselves very effectively.
Speaker 2: Okay, called the block for people that from this area.
Speaker 2: That's kind of the common euphemism, the.
Speaker 1: Block, right, the block vote. Sometimes people don't understand exactly
Speaker 1: what it is. And as stually, what was happening was
Speaker 1: that they were, you know, we were dividing ourselves along
Speaker 1: Republican and Democrat lines, and they were simply picking aside
Speaker 1: and conquering us, right. In other words, they can decide
Speaker 1: they can this this block vote they have they vote
Speaker 1: at the at the direction of their leaders, so they
Speaker 1: can move that vote from one party to the other
Speaker 1: very easily. They can change the outcome of election easily,
Speaker 1: and so you know it. The evolution of that was
Speaker 1: that both parties were basically pandering to that vote to
Speaker 1: try and get and ignoring the needs of everybody else.
Speaker 1: That's what started to dawn on us. And that's when
Speaker 1: I think it really started to change and they started
Speaker 1: to really exert their political muscle, which was right around
Speaker 1: like the turn of the century, right around two thousand
Speaker 1: and we realized we had an issue because they started
Speaker 1: to push higher density zoning and when we went out
Speaker 1: to try to say, hey, maybe we don't want to
Speaker 1: do this, they just ignored us and pushed it through anyway.
Speaker 1: You know. So, yeah, it has changed, and I think
Speaker 1: it's become more contentious and it's been become more divisive,
Speaker 1: right because you know, their political needs are very different
Speaker 1: from our are in everybody else a secular community, I suppose,
Speaker 1: and so it becomes we you know, we're pitted against
Speaker 1: them and they're pitted against us, and it becomes very contentious.
Speaker 5: So that's how it's changed. And you know, that's how
Speaker 5: that's what got me involved. We talk about that obviously
Speaker 5: more detail. It's a big part of the conversation because
Speaker 5: it's a big part of what's happening here in Rockland County.
Speaker 5: But also, you know a couple of little things to
Speaker 5: know more about Michael Perietty. Also, you were an outstanding wrestler, okay,
Speaker 5: and and and people who know wrestlers have been involved
Speaker 5: with it.
Speaker 2: My brother did. I did not, but I have many
Speaker 2: friends who were. And there's a particular mindset if you
Speaker 2: know wrestling and you know wrestlers. Can you kind of
Speaker 2: describe that and is that kind of an ethos if
Speaker 2: you will, that you take with you, especially as I said,
Speaker 2: fourth four time county champion and nanc double a wrestler,
Speaker 2: captain of your West Point wrestling team. You know, there
Speaker 2: there's a lot to that that's between the lines. Can
Speaker 2: you kind of fill that in? Why is that important
Speaker 2: in your life?
Speaker 1: That's a great you know, it's such a deep question,
Speaker 1: you know, because I I kind of really my brother
Speaker 1: joined the wrestling team, you know, like I think it
Speaker 1: was junior high school and I kind of got dragged
Speaker 1: into wrestling in elementary school. And it is one of
Speaker 1: these things that over many years that it must have
Speaker 1: some kind of an effect on your your your your
Speaker 1: I don't know, your your your mindset or your you're
Speaker 1: just your whole psyche, you know, because are different. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean because it's such a tough sport. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's you know, it's so much. It's so demanding,
Speaker 1: you know, because it's like, you know, you have to
Speaker 1: lose weight and then wait right, which is very intense,
Speaker 1: and then and then you have the workouts are intense,
Speaker 1: and then the the the actual competition is very intense
Speaker 1: because it's one on one and it's two people, two
Speaker 1: wills battling each other, see who will who will prevail,
Speaker 1: who will give in before the other, And you know,
Speaker 1: it is it's a very intense thing. And I I
Speaker 1: you kind of become somehow, I don't know, addicted to
Speaker 1: it or you're caught up in it. Because when I
Speaker 1: that helped me get into the Military Academy of West Point,
Speaker 1: and when I was there, it was so difficult to
Speaker 1: keep it up because there you have very intensive academic requirements,
Speaker 1: and you have other extracricter and military requirements, and on
Speaker 1: top of all of that, you have this wrestling, the
Speaker 1: weight loss, the travel, all the stressful things that go
Speaker 1: along with the competition. And I think is I was
Speaker 1: not on a wrestling scholarship. Nobody is at the academy.
Speaker 1: Nobody's on no scholarship. Technically, I didn't have to keep
Speaker 1: doing it. I could have quit, you know, but I never.
Speaker 1: I just couldn't bring myself to do it. And I
Speaker 1: did it all four years and I ended up being
Speaker 1: the captain of the team. And there's no question, you know,
Speaker 1: when I look back years later, I think of how
Speaker 1: I got involved in this and how I just kept
Speaker 1: doing it, you know, I always you know, when I
Speaker 1: first got involved this, I went to this meeting. They
Speaker 1: were having a They were talking about a organizing a
Speaker 1: petition drive to force a referendum on award system in Roundpope.
Speaker 1: You know what it is that the town board is
Speaker 1: elected at large by default. But that was playing right
Speaker 1: into the hands of the block right because they they
Speaker 1: then they would elect the whole town board in the
Speaker 1: super bars and have complete control under state, well, you
Speaker 1: can have a referendum to try to change it to
Speaker 1: a ward system where different parts of the town have
Speaker 1: their own representative. That way we would have had some
Speaker 1: representation on the board. And so I just got involved
Speaker 1: in that, and I thought it was going to be
Speaker 1: a fun democratic exercise. And we turned our petitions in
Speaker 1: and the town just they just held on to them
Speaker 1: and held on to them. They just held on to
Speaker 1: them too.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: The idea was to get this referendum on the next
Speaker 1: local election right, and they just held it. It was
Speaker 1: too late to do that. Then they threw them out.
Speaker 1: They said they were no good. And you know, so
Speaker 1: we kept doing this like three years in a row,
Speaker 1: and I sort of took the lead after the first
Speaker 1: one and I wondered, like, why did I keep doing it?
Speaker 1: We kept We put it in again, they throw it out.
Speaker 1: We put it in another time, they threw it out,
Speaker 1: and then it wasn't ttil years later. I got dragged
Speaker 1: into court on something else and we got sort of
Speaker 1: cheated by a judge, and mean this other guy challenged it.
Speaker 1: We appealed it pro se the pel division, and to
Speaker 1: our shock, we won and the case was sent back
Speaker 1: to the judges. We won, and so I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: you know we can win this. So I said, we're
Speaker 1: going to put the petition back and again, and when
Speaker 1: they throw it out, we're going to take into court.
Speaker 1: You know, the town throws it out, we're going to
Speaker 1: take them to court and fight it out for as
Speaker 1: long as tax. And that's what we did, and what
Speaker 1: we went through was just unbelievable. I can't even tell you.
Speaker 2: Please.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just saying that. It just I looked back
Speaker 1: and go why did I keep grinding? Why did I
Speaker 1: keep going at it? And I definitely one day it
Speaker 1: hit me, Wow, this has something to do with all
Speaker 1: the wrestling that I did.
Speaker 2: Does that stick to it? As I will not be defeated?
Speaker 2: Nature that it's necessary to compete in that sport. I've
Speaker 2: been around it enough to know. I thought it was
Speaker 2: important for people to understand that another thing to another
Speaker 2: strong commitment.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: Not easy and certainly not easy to get into, not
Speaker 2: easy to complete a military career at West Point? What
Speaker 2: influenced your decision? What called your decision to go there?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, I don't know. I was always
Speaker 1: a big military history buff and uh and and I
Speaker 1: like to hike and camp and stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: I kind of thought it would be a very interesting
Speaker 1: path to take, you know, to go to the military academy.
Speaker 1: I felt like I was up to the riggers that
Speaker 1: it required in terms of, you know, it certainly physically
Speaker 1: fit enough, and I was, uh, I had, I think,
Speaker 1: a disciplined mindset, so I thought I could deal with that.
Speaker 1: And then I just thought I also thought it was
Speaker 1: very interesting upon graduation, you know, to become a platoon
Speaker 1: leader in in in the in the military, and I was,
Speaker 1: you know, in the combat arms, and so I just
Speaker 1: thought it would be it would be a more interesting
Speaker 1: path than just going to regular college. I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of why I did.
Speaker 2: It and didn't fulfill those expectations. Was it what you expected?
Speaker 3: Not?
Speaker 1: Not entirely. I mean, you know, it's always hard to
Speaker 1: you know. I'd say that the academy was was pretty tough,
Speaker 1: particularly with the wrestling involved. I kept wrestling, and but
Speaker 1: it was very tough going through the academy, and I'm
Speaker 1: sometimes I don't think I was a real good fit
Speaker 1: for it. Looking back at it, I'm very intellectually curious,
Speaker 1: you know, I have so many different interests and there
Speaker 1: they have a pretty strict set curriculum that you pretty
Speaker 1: much have to stick to, at least they did back then.
Speaker 1: It's it's evolved in change, So that was probably something
Speaker 1: Looking back, maybe it wasn't a great fit for me,
Speaker 1: But I have to say getting out in the in
Speaker 1: the actual army and within in the tenth Mountain Division,
Speaker 1: that was really awesome. That was a really amazing experience,
Speaker 1: dealing with the different soldiers and the different missions we
Speaker 1: went on and and it was really that was really
Speaker 1: that really did live up to expectations that.
Speaker 2: And that was my next question, Michael, So talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about your military experience and from those experiences again,
Speaker 2: how it brought you to the next level of developed
Speaker 2: and we're kind of we're kind of built a Yeah.
Speaker 2: What what did you take from from those experiences that
Speaker 2: are most important to you today?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, one of the things I did I enjoyed.
Speaker 1: I was in the infantry, and which is one of
Speaker 1: the tougher branches, you know, and I and I went
Speaker 1: to I went to the basic Infantry Officers course, I
Speaker 1: went to the airborne training, but I also went to
Speaker 1: a ranger school, which is a very intensive leadership course
Speaker 1: where they basically take you out for you know, over
Speaker 1: two months and essentially without a break. They put you
Speaker 1: through a very intensive course of you know, where you're
Speaker 1: facing intense you know, martships and adversity. You don't get
Speaker 1: you don't get to eat very much, you don't get
Speaker 1: to sleep very much, and they're freezing you. You know,
Speaker 1: I went through in the winter. You know, I went
Speaker 1: through from January to March without any break or any
Speaker 1: kind and it's was just a real war of atrition.
Speaker 1: So many people dropped out because it's so intense, and
Speaker 1: they're trying to push you to your breaking point and
Speaker 1: teach you to continue to function and operate and think
Speaker 1: and lead even when you're stressed to the max from
Speaker 1: four or five different directions at once.
Speaker 4: And you know I did.
Speaker 1: I did not breathe through it. It was tough for me.
Speaker 1: I had to struggle to get through it and pass it,
Speaker 1: but I did. And I think that too is also
Speaker 1: in a sort of an extension, the whole wrestling thing
Speaker 1: and the whole mentality of you know, sticking with it
Speaker 1: and pushing driving on with the mission in spite of
Speaker 1: obstacles or adversity, so that was a big thing. From
Speaker 1: there I went, you know, I ended up ultimately in
Speaker 1: the tenth Mountain Division, which was a combat deployable light
Speaker 1: infantry division, and that was intense. You know, we were
Speaker 1: not an elite it's I was not in the ranger battalions,
Speaker 1: which is those are batons that are filled with their
Speaker 1: staff with the elite, elite soldiers at every level. Right,
Speaker 1: I was in tenth mat Division, and in that thing,
Speaker 1: we had lots of great soldiers, but we you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes we had personnel issues where we weren't full strength,
Speaker 1: or we didn't have people that had all the training
Speaker 1: they were supposed to have and things like that, and
Speaker 1: so that was you know, learning how to deal with that,
Speaker 1: deal with the personnel issues, and deal with all the
Speaker 1: different kinds of people because it's very diverse. You know,
Speaker 1: we had people from you know, very every culture and
Speaker 1: ethnicity and trying to you know, learn to work together because,
Speaker 1: you know, to go out and do a military operation,
Speaker 1: particularly in combaty, you know, there are so many elements.
Speaker 1: There's terrain, there's weather, there's logistics, and all these things
Speaker 1: combined to make doing any operation complicated and tricky. And
Speaker 1: so it was a really good experience and for even
Speaker 1: how to work with other people and accomplish the mission
Speaker 1: despite adversity. Again, so that was a great experience, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, following that, you know, the thing about it was,
Speaker 1: I was in from nine, graduated in nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 1: and I was in until nineteen eighty nine, and in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, the Berlin Wall came down. The whole world,
Speaker 1: the power structure of the world was completely realigned or somewhat,
Speaker 1: and the army was downsizing, and you know, there's just
Speaker 1: this feeling I had this certain time for me to
Speaker 1: move on, you know, and although I was torn because
Speaker 1: I really did enjoy many the aspects of the military,
Speaker 1: I decided to you know, leave the military. I'd done
Speaker 1: my five year commitment. I fulfilled that, and so then
Speaker 1: I went out and I ended up getting involved in
Speaker 1: the biotech or the pharmaceutical industry, which I did for
Speaker 1: you know, nearly twenty years, and I was, you know,
Speaker 1: along the way, I got a Masters of Biotechnology from
Speaker 1: Penn State University, and that was just to me. That
Speaker 1: was another great experience because then I was working in
Speaker 1: a different kind of an organization with different kinds of people.
Speaker 1: You know, in the military you kind of interact with
Speaker 1: people in a much different way than you do in
Speaker 1: like a corporation, you know, so there was definitely a
Speaker 1: learning curve me to reinvent myself a bit and adjust
Speaker 1: and figure out how to be successful in that environment.
Speaker 1: And so I think that was another just another part
Speaker 1: of the progression in my development.
Speaker 2: You know. Do you find and it's interesting, all these
Speaker 2: great challenges and we talk about more that you've had,
Speaker 2: is there a common thread that you find You mentioned,
Speaker 2: you know, different organizations kind of run differently. Is there
Speaker 2: any kind of common thread that we can look for
Speaker 2: that kind of binds them all together.
Speaker 1: Well, I think the one thing I'll say is in
Speaker 1: most things I did in life, and probably with most people,
Speaker 1: it's very similar. Whenever you're trying to accomplish something, there's
Speaker 1: going to be there's going to be problems, there's going
Speaker 1: to be obstacles, things are not going to be ideal,
Speaker 1: and you have to learn to persevere in spite of that.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't go and you can't say, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm going to pack up myself and go
Speaker 1: home now because I'm done. This is not this is
Speaker 1: not run as smoothly as it should. It's not running perfectly.
Speaker 1: There's conflicts among people. I'm done, I'm quit. You know,
Speaker 1: you can't do that. You have to learn to deal
Speaker 1: with whatever has come up as best as possible, but
Speaker 1: continue to push towards the objective. And I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of the common thread, and it's you know, and.
Speaker 2: I think that's perfect segue into why you're at it again.
Speaker 2: And it's not an easy path. We mentioned and again
Speaker 2: this is a Rockland based program right as a stony point,
Speaker 2: although we stream actually literally all over the world and
Speaker 2: all politics as local as they say. But you know
Speaker 2: you're running as an independent. You didn't get the Democratic
Speaker 2: nod against a very well entrenched and fairly well liked
Speaker 2: incumbent or Republican at day. So talk about the challenges
Speaker 2: that you have running kind of on your own, running
Speaker 2: as a dependent independent against it kind of as I said,
Speaker 2: well oiled or well entrenched Maen, that is the Republican
Speaker 2: party here in Rockland County. What are your challenges and
Speaker 2: how do you intend to meet them? Right?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, just real quick, Ed days running for
Speaker 1: a fourth four year term after he said he would
Speaker 1: only run.
Speaker 2: For two.
Speaker 1: And then he said, oh, I think I want to
Speaker 1: I need to run for a third term because I
Speaker 1: want to be in a position to veto the redistricting
Speaker 1: plan of the county Legislature. It's done unfairly. But then
Speaker 1: when he got reelected, he did the exact opposite, and
Speaker 1: he signed off on a just a shameful gerrymander of
Speaker 1: the county Legislature, which essentially it was drawn so that,
Speaker 1: you know, the leaders of the bloc community would have
Speaker 1: the maximum amount of political power possible at the expense
Speaker 1: of many of the communities of interest. And that really
Speaker 1: upset me, you know, And now he wants to run
Speaker 1: for a fourth term. I had no intention of running
Speaker 1: for county executive because I thought, for sure, you know,
Speaker 1: if the guys he's running for his fourth term after
Speaker 1: saying run for two, that they would certainly challenge him,
Speaker 1: because there's plenty of you know, good Democrats in the
Speaker 1: prime of their political lives here in Rock County. They
Speaker 1: could have run asen But I think what happened was
Speaker 1: when he signed that registricting plan, they said, ed, if
Speaker 1: you signed the plan, we'll make sure you don't have
Speaker 1: an opponent in the next election. See because a lot
Speaker 1: of times these parties the gout these deals like that.
Speaker 1: You know, as a county, why we rarely have contested
Speaker 1: elections for a sure pa or you know, so I
Speaker 1: think that's what happened. I had no intention of running
Speaker 1: until I saw that he was going to run on
Speaker 1: a poet. You know, there was one guy who tried
Speaker 1: to get on the Democratic line on his own. He
Speaker 1: was a maver or, he was an outsider, but you know,
Speaker 1: it was a very difficult thing. He couldn't get the
Speaker 1: signatures for a whole bunch of reasons, and so he
Speaker 1: didn't get on the belt. And I was actually I
Speaker 1: was helping him a bet. I was trying to get
Speaker 1: in some signatures. But the thing is, so when when
Speaker 1: it became a parent that they would run on a post,
Speaker 1: we had about a week to think it over before
Speaker 1: the independent petitioning period began, right so that the innepetu
Speaker 1: bea begins after the regular and we decided. You know,
Speaker 1: I asked around to see if anybody else wanted to
Speaker 1: do it. Nobody wanted to do it, and I said,
Speaker 1: you know what, this is an opportunity we can't pass up.
Speaker 1: Because you see, the thing is this, This is giving
Speaker 1: voters a real choice. It's not just a choice, it's
Speaker 1: a real choice because it's a choice between you know,
Speaker 1: big party politics as usual, big money politics, and the
Speaker 1: exact opposite of that, which is honest, fair, efficient government
Speaker 1: that is free from any conflict adventures, which what's in
Speaker 1: the best public interest. And so that leads to one
Speaker 1: of my biggest challenges but also one of my biggest strengths,
Speaker 1: and that's funding.
Speaker 2: Right, it's just going to bring that up. We got
Speaker 2: to talk the reality of politics. You got to talk money.
Speaker 2: How are you funded?
Speaker 1: Funding?
Speaker 2: How do you get money? You have to do campaign ads, travel,
Speaker 2: all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, it's very difficult. I mean, look ed, Day's got
Speaker 1: nine hundred dollars in his campaign account, and if you
Speaker 1: read through the list of donors, it reads like a
Speaker 1: recipe for disaster. I mean it is one commercial entity
Speaker 1: after another. You know, you've got developers, builders, banks, retail interests, unions,
Speaker 1: data centers, every political action committee, is every strikeing and
Speaker 1: all of these entities have some sort of business or
Speaker 1: interest in Rocklin County. And so you know he's got
Speaker 1: I don't know how policy decisions are made behind closed
Speaker 1: Jordans administration. There's so many strings attached and conflicts of interests.
Speaker 1: And on top of that, he also got the block vote.
Speaker 1: Like ed Day got elected without the block vote, right,
Speaker 1: we helped him get elected without the block vote industry.
Speaker 1: Now he's you know, decided it was more convenient him
Speaker 1: to go over to the block So he's getting the
Speaker 1: block vote, and we know what that means. They're going
Speaker 1: to have tremendous leverage over him in his in his administration.
Speaker 1: So he's got the block vote issue, he's got all
Speaker 1: of this big money pouring in, he's got all these
Speaker 1: strings attested. So I don't I don't have that problem.
Speaker 1: I have never in all I've had several runs for
Speaker 1: office previously, I have never taken a donation from anyone
Speaker 1: other than a private individual. I'm not doing it this time,
Speaker 1: and I never will.
Speaker 2: No packs, no, no nothing interest groups ever.
Speaker 1: Right, I mean, those groups probably would never have donated
Speaker 1: to me because I've always been about good government and
Speaker 1: you know, what's in the doing, what's in the best
Speaker 1: interest in the public. But and so that's that's what
Speaker 1: I'm doing this time. And people I have had some
Speaker 1: pressure from people, Oh Mike, you got to go call
Speaker 1: these donors and get all this, you know, And I
Speaker 1: just said, I just felt inside I had an internal
Speaker 1: competency and know what, that's that's not me. That's not
Speaker 1: what I want to do. And I think, you know,
Speaker 1: it's to the contrary, it's it is a strength in
Speaker 1: some ways because people know that I'm not I'm going
Speaker 1: to try to do to the best of my ability
Speaker 1: what is in the best public interest, without any any
Speaker 1: leverage from any group trying to make me do the
Speaker 1: wrong thing. Right now, the thing is we have I
Speaker 1: have We have had fund people coming and fund our campaign.
Speaker 1: You know, we have private individuals that I give it
Speaker 1: just enough money to run a good campaign. One of
Speaker 1: the big things that I have going for me is
Speaker 1: the I have There are some social media platforms or
Speaker 1: pay you know, Facebook pages and websites that are strongly
Speaker 1: behind me, and they have a strong following because of
Speaker 1: the fact that these are groups that will talk about
Speaker 1: things that your mainstream media will not talk about. And
Speaker 1: so the point is on that alone, I've got and
Speaker 1: they should be nervous about that alone, because we've got
Speaker 1: I've got broad reach through that, and I also have
Speaker 1: fairly decent name recognition for all the things that I've
Speaker 1: done over the past twenty years. You know, I'm always surprised,
Speaker 1: How'll be campaign is somewhere and people come say, hey, Mike,
Speaker 1: you got my vote. No, I'll be who are you?
Speaker 1: I just know you if I'm reading about in the
Speaker 1: papers or on the on Facebook and stuff. So that's
Speaker 1: what's what is powering my campaign is a grassroots effort,
Speaker 1: a real grassroots effort, because people know in this election
Speaker 1: that there is a real choice and it's a rare
Speaker 1: opportunity that will probably never come again for a county.
Speaker 1: I mean, this may be our last chance to really
Speaker 1: elect someone who's nearly entirely free from any conflict of
Speaker 1: interest and would do everything in their power to bring
Speaker 1: it back big government.
Speaker 2: So, Michael, what do you see as the key issues
Speaker 2: facing this county Rockland County. Give me even three, four
Speaker 2: or five of the most important issues and things that
Speaker 2: you would address as soon as you were in office.
Speaker 1: Okay. I mean one of the big issues is over development,
Speaker 1: and then there's illegal housing. There's also fair housing and
Speaker 1: affordable housing. We also need to look at making sure
Speaker 1: we promote small businesses and the economy and smart industry
Speaker 1: and there's also corruption, right, and I think you know,
Speaker 1: if you look at corruption, I mean everything flows from that.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: If I can get in, I will build an administration.
Speaker 1: I will surround myself with the very best people I
Speaker 1: can sign. And I'm at my core, I'm a very
Speaker 1: open minded, approachable, collaborative person that I'm also I also
Speaker 1: have a record being proactive. I will boil down the
Speaker 1: problem to it core elements and say what's the most
Speaker 1: impactful thing we can do to try to address the situation,
Speaker 1: and go out and try to do it. And so
Speaker 1: that's how I will govern. And so I would take
Speaker 1: on all these issues like over developments. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to that's a very tough issue, right because it's a
Speaker 1: home rule state, and so local municipalities they they're empowered
Speaker 1: to make their own zoning and code enforcement generally, So
Speaker 1: how do you prevent them from building too much? Which
Speaker 1: is what is really going on, particularly in the town
Speaker 1: of Raupo and Spring Value. They are you see in
Speaker 1: those towns, the developers and the builders and some of
Speaker 1: the slowboards, they've got tremendous political leverage over the elected
Speaker 1: officials and the judges and everything. The judges are elected
Speaker 1: to and so there's no real political incentive to stop what,
Speaker 1: you know, prevent them from doing what they want to do,
Speaker 1: which is build high density housing because, let's face it,
Speaker 1: the ultra orthodox the block community they're growing, they have
Speaker 1: a very high population growth rate, and they need to
Speaker 1: house those right. They want housing for those people, which
Speaker 1: give them it ultimately gives them more and more political power. Right,
Speaker 1: So so how do you what do you do about
Speaker 1: that very difficult issue? In Spring Valley, the county was
Speaker 1: able to show that they were not doing proper code enforcement,
Speaker 1: so the state stepped in, and now the county is
Speaker 1: supposedly doing code enforcement for villages Ring Valley. Right, that's
Speaker 1: not true. They don't have the authority over Ramapo. I
Speaker 1: would say this.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 1: I was on the county planning board for ten years, Okay,
Speaker 1: so I have seen the things that come across our desk,
Speaker 1: that came across our desk, and how some of them
Speaker 1: were completely out of whack with what the zoning code
Speaker 1: or you know allow, and they just would we would
Speaker 1: routinely vote them down unanimously. They would go to the
Speaker 1: local board, which would override us, and then they would
Speaker 1: build them anyway. Now, I know my training for the
Speaker 1: Planning Board, I heard them say that if a town
Speaker 1: shows a gross lack of planning and zoning code enforcement,
Speaker 1: they're there is a legal remedy to try to bring
Speaker 1: them into you know, in line. And I you know,
Speaker 1: as a county executive, I would try to establish a
Speaker 1: legal unit within the county attorney's officer, maybe within the
Speaker 1: county executives that would focus on these issues directly, and
Speaker 1: we would have explore every legal avenue available to us.
Speaker 2: Michael, that brings up a good point here within this
Speaker 2: and even if you got to kind of tiptoe around,
Speaker 2: because the spectra of anti Semitism is surrounds this issue
Speaker 2: and is often brought off often as a cudgel have
Speaker 2: to hit you over the head with. Certainly, how would
Speaker 2: you how do you deal with that and separate the
Speaker 2: issues of housing, development, religion, et cetera. And again because
Speaker 2: even whether way we're talking it's we're treading lightly here
Speaker 2: or a very important, very real issue.
Speaker 4: How do we do well?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we have to talk about it, right,
Speaker 1: you see, that's one of the things I think block leaders.
Speaker 1: They want to create an atmosphere where people are afraid
Speaker 1: to talk about it, because if people aren't talking about
Speaker 1: what's going on, they can keep on doing what they're
Speaker 1: doing right, regardless of the negative impact they may have
Speaker 1: on the environment or the infrastructure. So we need to
Speaker 1: talk about it, and we need to try to have civil,
Speaker 1: open discussions about it. You know what I've said to
Speaker 1: the town board, now that you know the block is in,
Speaker 1: you know, the complete control of route. I've said, look,
Speaker 1: this is your town. Now, okay, you're in control. Do
Speaker 1: you want to destroy your own town?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: Don't you want to preserve some of it for future generations,
Speaker 1: for your own generations? You know? That's I think we
Speaker 1: need to We need to try to get them to
Speaker 1: open up their minds and say, hey, you know, what
Speaker 1: are we really doing here? And I you know, I
Speaker 1: think you know I've I have been talking about it
Speaker 1: for twenty years, and I have been accused of all
Speaker 1: sorts of things. But I always try to the conversation civil,
Speaker 1: and I always that's one thing I always try to
Speaker 1: put myself in the shoes of the people I'm I
Speaker 1: may be at odds with or people on different ends
Speaker 1: of the political spectrum. You know, we all come from
Speaker 1: different places and we believe the things we believe for
Speaker 1: different reasons, right, so we need to try to find
Speaker 1: some kind of common ground and move forward. So we
Speaker 1: need to talk about it. Well, we need to do
Speaker 1: it in a civil, constructive manner.
Speaker 2: And that's why we call this program intelligent Conversation. I'm
Speaker 2: glad you're having one with us. You know, again we
Speaker 2: talked to all politics is local, and this is a
Speaker 2: local election Rockland County, but federal things also affect us,
Speaker 2: particularly now with this tremendous amount of budget cuts. It's
Speaker 2: trickling down and it affects the county greatly. For example,
Speaker 2: one of my good friends, Diane Saratori, the executive director
Speaker 2: of People to People, is terrified, for lack of a
Speaker 2: better word, and how are they going to get food
Speaker 2: to feed hungry people here in our own backyards. How
Speaker 2: locally kenneb County government take on the federal government to
Speaker 2: get the funds that are needed to support our people.
Speaker 2: What would you do?
Speaker 1: That's a very tough question. It's a very difficult issue
Speaker 1: that's going to definitely impact us sooner rather than later.
Speaker 1: I think, first of all, we can't just sit back
Speaker 1: and wait for Washington to come to our rescue. We
Speaker 1: need to be proactive, We need to collaborate, we need
Speaker 1: to communicate, and we need to try to build strong
Speaker 1: relationships and alliances with state agencies and departments so hopefully
Speaker 1: in the interim they can help fill the back the shortfall,
Speaker 1: you know it is. It's definitely a tough issue. I
Speaker 1: don't have an easy answer for it, because we've got
Speaker 1: to find somewhere to get the funding. If it's not
Speaker 1: going to come from Washington, can we get it from
Speaker 1: the state. Can we be also more efficient? Can we
Speaker 1: manage our affairs as efficient as possible so that we
Speaker 1: we uh, you know, harbor our resources so that we
Speaker 1: can get through this tough period. That's another thing we
Speaker 1: need to look at.
Speaker 2: Michael, I talk a little bit more of get your
Speaker 2: thoughts on some national regional issues, as I said, because
Speaker 2: they will affect us. Take a quick break, Okay, when
Speaker 2: we come back to talk about that. My very special
Speaker 2: guest is Michael Parietti. He's an independent candidate for a
Speaker 2: Rockland County executive and we're having some great intelligent conversation.
Speaker 2: This is being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono, and
Speaker 2: we're back with more right after these brief commercial messages.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to Being Frank, the intelligent conversation podcast. Thanks
Speaker 2: for sticking with us. I'm your host, FRANKL. Bono and
Speaker 2: as always, our engineer is the mailman Richter. He always
Speaker 2: delivers a special guest is Rockland County Independent candidate for
Speaker 2: a County Executive, Mister Michael Parietti. You know, we bring
Speaker 2: our audience a fresh topic just about every week and
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Speaker 2: Riverradio dot com. Find my icon, click on it and
Speaker 2: you're there. Right back to our conversation with the independent
Speaker 2: candidate for Rockland County Executive Mister Michael Parietti. Michael, I
Speaker 2: appreciate your candor for the first half of our program.
Speaker 2: Let's continue with that right now, in the midst of
Speaker 2: a shutdown. As of this taping looms is maybe the
Speaker 2: longest ever. What's your take on it? And if you
Speaker 2: were in Congress or had the ability to change things,
Speaker 2: what would you do to end this?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean it's yeah, it's a very serious issue
Speaker 1: that's go only getting worse and worse, which every passing day.
Speaker 1: And what I would do if I could, is I
Speaker 1: try to get both sides to get together and talk
Speaker 1: about it and come up with some kind of resolution.
Speaker 1: But that's kind of idealistic, I think at this point,
Speaker 1: because it seems that neither side is willing to do
Speaker 1: what they need to do to end the shutdown. And
Speaker 1: I think this kind of goes back to sort of
Speaker 1: the whole rationale behind my campaign. You know, I think
Speaker 1: we're getting so polarized that the two parties are going
Speaker 1: farther and farther apart, and I think people are afraid
Speaker 1: to break ranks. You know, even if let's say you're
Speaker 1: a moderate Democrat or or any any Republican or Democrat
Speaker 1: that wants to try to forward some kind of a
Speaker 1: resolution to this. You are sort of prevent you're pressured,
Speaker 1: you're prevented from doing that because they don't want you
Speaker 1: to break ranks. And I think particularly in Congress, who
Speaker 1: have this problem where the in order to get elected
Speaker 1: for Congress, as we said before, you need to raise
Speaker 1: these inorderate amounts of money. And I've funny, I've talked
Speaker 1: to most of the congressional candidates that are running for
Speaker 1: the upcoming election. I've met them on the campaign trail,
Speaker 1: and they all talk to me about the pressure to
Speaker 1: raise money and they have to be on the phone
Speaker 1: constantly raising money. And you know, but the funny thing
Speaker 1: about is most of this money, the vast majority, comes
Speaker 1: from outside the district. It comes from across the whole country.
Speaker 1: So you have these donor networks that are plumping the
Speaker 1: money in and they're not necessarily concerned about what's good
Speaker 1: for local people, you know, they're you know so, And
Speaker 1: I think that is sort of polarizing both sides of
Speaker 1: the equation. Like and often the media will say, well,
Speaker 1: this candidate has raised more money than the other candidates
Speaker 1: so there are more viable candidate. But that's sort of
Speaker 1: the reality is almost the inverse. The more money they've raised,
Speaker 1: the less connected they are, and the more outside money
Speaker 1: they've raised, the less if there are two people from
Speaker 1: the district. And so I think that that's why I
Speaker 1: think my candidacy is such a unique opportunity to try
Speaker 1: and forge a new path to this country. Let's start somewhere.
Speaker 2: We can.
Speaker 1: You can, you don't have to, you know, I'm willing
Speaker 1: to sit down with anybody from anywhere in the political
Speaker 1: spectrum and entertain ideas from the right and the left
Speaker 1: to come up with solutions to the most pressing issues.
Speaker 4: That we have.
Speaker 1: You have to be free to do that, and I
Speaker 1: fear that it's gotten to the point where the most
Speaker 1: congressional representatives are not free to do that. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's a tough issue. What would I do to
Speaker 1: end the shutdown? I don't know. I would try to
Speaker 1: get people to come together to decide collectively to end it.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I want to expand on that little Michael.
Speaker 2: We have a little bit of time, and I'd like
Speaker 2: to expand on it. You mentioned the freedom to speak
Speaker 2: your mind, lately. I mean, that's being curtailed. It's it's
Speaker 2: obvious definitely of the administration and the president if you
Speaker 2: speak against him. I even worry about this program every
Speaker 2: once in a while because we invite all points of view,
Speaker 2: and some of them are very contrary to what the
Speaker 2: current administration is proposing. And I know that makes us vulnerable,
Speaker 2: and it makes me somewhat nervous, for lack of a
Speaker 2: better word, I address that a little bit. How do
Speaker 2: we maintain our freedom against the fort Again, I want
Speaker 2: to be overly dramatic, but really, what's becoming the forces
Speaker 2: of oppression?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know it's a scary thing. I mean, and
Speaker 1: I felt that for years in Ramapo, you know, with
Speaker 1: the horble issue, and you know, you know one thing
Speaker 1: in the last one they did their redistrict the county legislature.
Speaker 1: It was a total gerrymander, and I challenged it. One
Speaker 1: of the issues was they wouldn't let us speak at
Speaker 1: the public hearing. Here was a it was a ten
Speaker 1: year it was a mandatory public hearing on a ten
Speaker 1: year redistricting plan, and they would not allow people to
Speaker 1: speak at the public hearing, and they allowed their own
Speaker 1: experts to speak and the members of the county of
Speaker 1: the Regisa, they spoke, they talked about how great the
Speaker 1: MAP was, but the people who are being disadfranchised by
Speaker 1: the MAP were not allowed to speak at the public hearing,
Speaker 1: which is just unbelievable. And we I appealed this, like
Speaker 1: I said, on that issue, all the way to the
Speaker 1: US Sucremey Court. So yeah, it's it's a definite issue.
Speaker 1: How do we have to keep fighting. We cannot lay
Speaker 1: down on this. We need to keep fighting for our
Speaker 1: right to free speech and our right to dissent and
Speaker 1: our right to assemble. And that's that's the best tool
Speaker 1: we have to try and move our country forward and
Speaker 1: to move it in the right direction. So we got
Speaker 1: to keep fighting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to talk a little bit about our
Speaker 2: political parties, but in particular Democrats, which seem these days
Speaker 2: to be somewhat in disarray, or there's certainly at least
Speaker 2: two camps, the Chuck Schumer's of the world, the more
Speaker 2: traditional conservative, and then the Mamdani's and the aocs of
Speaker 2: the world, considered progressive moments to the point of socialism.
Speaker 2: Your thoughts are that where should we be going? Are
Speaker 2: we should we stay the course according to Schumer's way,
Speaker 2: or should we shake the pod if you will, with
Speaker 2: the stir the pod forgive me like the aocs of
Speaker 2: the world do what are your what are your feelings?
Speaker 1: Well, I definitely think we need to stir the pot
Speaker 1: to a certain extent, but of course we don't want
Speaker 1: to drift too far to the left either. I mean,
Speaker 1: in order to win an election, right, either party has
Speaker 1: to get fifty you know, generally speaking, I think at
Speaker 1: about fifty one percent of the vote right, So you
Speaker 1: need to win over the middle. You need to have moderates.
Speaker 1: So I think we should borrow good ideas from all
Speaker 1: points on the political spectrum and and use those ideas
Speaker 1: to build our platform and to attract voters so we
Speaker 1: can win elections and go forward. So, you know, I
Speaker 1: think it's about being open minded and approachable and being
Speaker 1: willing to work with people from from every point of
Speaker 1: the polical spectrum to get things done.
Speaker 2: So that's sort of my answer to that. Okay, Well,
Speaker 2: one final question Michael too. It's one I feel like
Speaker 2: I have to ask that political violence has seeped into
Speaker 2: our conversation. We've seen it in Minnesota. We saw it
Speaker 2: in uh, Charlie Kirk we we we just we've seen
Speaker 2: it just recently with the Governor Shapiro in Pennsylvania, shocking
Speaker 2: video of that man. And does it concern you as
Speaker 2: a politician, the fact that now it kind of makes
Speaker 2: you more vulnerable than you've ever been before.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts, Yeah, absolutely does concern me. It does concern me.
Speaker 1: I will say that over the twenty plus years I've
Speaker 1: been doing this, in the last several years, I've noticed
Speaker 1: a sort of a turn towards more confrontation.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I used to knock on a lot of doors, talk
Speaker 1: to a lot of people, and I, you know, fast
Speaker 1: jority people are very nice. But but just in the
Speaker 1: last two years I have run into some very hostile
Speaker 1: people knocking on the door. And it's it makes you
Speaker 1: a little gun shy, right, So I do worry about it.
Speaker 1: I do worry about it. And you know, I think
Speaker 1: it's it is important for us to try to choose
Speaker 1: our words carefully and to try to you know, tone
Speaker 1: is everything. Try to have a conciliatory tone, even with
Speaker 1: people that you're at odds with politically. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's I have to say, I do I do worry
Speaker 1: for myself and others, you know, and it is said
Speaker 1: that we can't communicate more in a civil fashion without
Speaker 1: fear of escalation.
Speaker 2: Michael, I'm going to give you a chance to plug
Speaker 2: some websites you mentioned where people can find out more
Speaker 2: about you and your platform and campaign. But before that,
Speaker 2: I'm going to give you an opportunity just flat out
Speaker 2: why should people vote for you over the incumbenty a day?
Speaker 2: What should people see in you that should give them
Speaker 2: confidence that you can roam this county and run it well.
Speaker 1: Well, Like I said, I think this is a real
Speaker 1: choice in the selection. It's a rare opportunity that's not
Speaker 1: going to come again. So ed Day's going to get
Speaker 1: the block vote. He's got nine hundred thousand dollars in
Speaker 1: his campaign account from all these different special interests that
Speaker 1: wants something that's not necessarily in the best interest in
Speaker 1: the county. I have none of that. I will be
Speaker 1: free to do what I think is the most effective
Speaker 1: solution to any of the problems that we face this.
Speaker 1: I will sit down and talk with anyone to try
Speaker 1: to come up with the best answers to our problems.
Speaker 1: I have a life's worth of work experience in many
Speaker 1: different area. I've been in many different organizations with so
Speaker 1: many people from so many different walks of life, solving
Speaker 1: problems from academia to the military, to corporate America to
Speaker 1: small business and now on the local level. I have
Speaker 1: been involved in so many efforts I couldn't even it
Speaker 1: would take me for every caateg all the different initiatives
Speaker 1: I've been involved in to try and forge good government
Speaker 1: and fair representation here. And I have ten years on
Speaker 1: the rocken Aunty Planning Board. I have a deep understanding
Speaker 1: of the problems that we face. So I think it's
Speaker 1: time for new leadership. Eddea has had three terms and
Speaker 1: he I think the time has come for him to go,
Speaker 1: and we need new leadership. We need new ideas, and
Speaker 1: I feel that I will bring the energy and the
Speaker 1: heightened sense of urgency that we need. We don't Rothen
Speaker 1: is on the brink right now with all the problems
Speaker 1: we face. We don't have four years to sit around
Speaker 1: waiting for ed Day to move on. Well, he enjoys
Speaker 1: the perkose of power, which is what I think he's
Speaker 1: really the main reason I feel he's running free election.
Speaker 1: We need to get to work on these problems immediately,
Speaker 1: and I will do that. I will bring that to
Speaker 1: to Brockon County. So that's that's my pitch. I care
Speaker 1: deeply county. My great grandfather came here in the eighteen nineties.
Speaker 1: I was born and raised here. Rockland is an amazing place.
Speaker 1: We need to do everything we can do to keep
Speaker 1: it viable and keep it on the right track.
Speaker 2: Could have viewsed you on our last show, Michael, about
Speaker 2: Italian American history, all Italians all the time. I had
Speaker 2: two Italian scholars with myself and we talked about Italian
Speaker 2: Americans that up. Yeah, look that one up. I think
Speaker 2: you'll enjoy it. Richter was the only outsider. But anyway, Michael,
Speaker 2: how people want to know more about you? Give me
Speaker 2: some websites? How can they get in touch with you?
Speaker 2: Do you have a website? You mentioned certain social media
Speaker 2: outlets that are featuring you. Tell us about them.
Speaker 1: Well, my website is Mike FORO Rockland dot org and
Speaker 1: that's Mike with the numeral for so Mike FORO Rockland
Speaker 1: dot org. That has my platform and my bio and
Speaker 1: a lot of information about me in my campaign. We
Speaker 1: also have a Facebook page page Mike Perry Eddie for Rockland.
Speaker 1: That's my Facebook page, and we have an Instagram account
Speaker 1: with the same name, Mike Perry Eddie for Rockland, and
Speaker 1: so those that you can get all the information you
Speaker 1: need from me there. You can contact me there. And
Speaker 1: I think this might This is truly a grassroots effort
Speaker 1: my campaign, no question about it. That's the way I'll
Speaker 1: win through a grassroots efort. So I would say to everybody,
Speaker 1: if you support me, if you believe in the things
Speaker 1: that I believe in, and you want to move the
Speaker 1: county forward, please try to share the You can go
Speaker 1: to our Facebook page, you can share our posts, you
Speaker 1: can share information about my account. We've got the sample
Speaker 1: ballot up there. I'm running on the independent party line.
Speaker 1: It's called the Good GOV line. Is row E on
Speaker 1: the ballot. I'm easy to find on the ballot. I'm
Speaker 1: just the fifth row down. There's only two candidates on
Speaker 1: the ballot. This is a two way race.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I've run as an independent before in a three way race,
Speaker 1: and that's hard to win because each side is afraid
Speaker 1: to vote for you even if they want to, because
Speaker 1: they can help the other side. We don't have that
Speaker 1: problem two way race, head to head contest between myself
Speaker 1: and a Day, a stark choice for people and a
Speaker 1: rare opportunity for voters. So I encourage everybody please spread
Speaker 1: the word. Talk to your friends, talk to your family,
Speaker 1: share our posts either through email, forward our emails or
Speaker 1: Facebook posts, and let's get the word out and get
Speaker 1: the vote out.
Speaker 2: One last tough question, Can you win?
Speaker 1: Absolutely positively, I can definitely win this race, and that
Speaker 1: Day I think is very nervous, and he should be
Speaker 1: nervous because the reason I say that is, like I said,
Speaker 1: this is not your average election where you have two
Speaker 1: candidates that may be hampered or hindered by the same
Speaker 1: special interests callowing out. And we have a real choice
Speaker 1: here between big money, big party politics as usual, business
Speaker 1: as usual, and the complete opposite of that, which is honest, fair,
Speaker 1: efficient government, free for any special interests or conflict of interest.
Speaker 1: And I think people are hungry for that. Wherever I go,
Speaker 1: I run into so many people saying, Mike were behind you,
Speaker 1: you got my vote. And I think, I really think
Speaker 1: that that word is spreading virally and widely, and I
Speaker 1: definitely think I can win this. So I say to you,
Speaker 1: we can all win it. I can't win it. We
Speaker 1: can all win it together. So be a part of it.
Speaker 1: Don't miss don't miss out on it. Get get out
Speaker 1: and vote and get your people at the vote.
Speaker 2: Michael Periety, dependent candidate for Rockland County Executives, Thank you
Speaker 2: for being frank and with all that intelligent conversation. Really
Speaker 2: appreciate you, candidate. That was terrific.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you, Frank. Really appreciate it. What's great?
Speaker 2: I enjoyed it great. Of course, we offer special thanks
Speaker 2: to our listeners who take time to give us a
Speaker 2: voice in their lives. Remember you offer fresh topic just
Speaker 2: about every week and catch us wherever and whenever you
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Speaker 2: like you to consider sharing being Frank with others. It's
Speaker 2: easy to do. As always, I leave you with two
Speaker 2: last little extras. One slogan that's appropriate for our conversation,
Speaker 2: and some great original music. The slogan comes from John C. Calhoun.
Speaker 2: That was a surprise when I looked this one up,
Speaker 2: and he said the very essence of A free government
Speaker 2: consists in considering offices as public trusts bestowed for the
Speaker 2: good of the country and not for the benefit of
Speaker 2: an individual or party. Says it all right there, folks.
Speaker 2: I'll write some great original music from one of my
Speaker 2: former colleagues, Chris Wall and his band wreck Wall. It's
Speaker 2: a great tune and his music is available on band camp.
Speaker 2: For our engineer the mail Man, mister Neil rich Or.
Speaker 2: I'm your host, Frank Lobono, and we hope to have
Speaker 2: you join us on the next being Frank where the
Speaker 2: only way to be is Frank. Thanks everyone, Sanzi.
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Speaker 4: Thanks Hudson River Radio dot com, m