Goodbye And Good Luck Legislator John M. Kennedy Jr.

December 16, 2014:  Yesterday, at the Suffolk County Legislature in Hauppauge, most Legislators were Legislator Kennedy’s Last Legislative Meetingmeeting for the last General Session in 2014; however for Legislator John M. Kennedy, Jr. (Nesconset, 12^th LD) it was his last session in a decade long legislative career.  For Legislator Kennedy, soon to be Comptroller Kennedy as of January 1, 2015, this was the culmination of a legislative career based upon hard work, accessibility and to always remember, the ultimate bosses are the constituents of the 12^th Legislative District, thereby making constituent services the number one priority of Legislator Kennedy’s Office.   As Legislator for the 12^th Legislative District, Kennedy represented most of Smithtown, south of Jericho Turnpike, some of Islip and some of Brookhaven for most of his tenure in office, with slight alterations done during the last redistricting.

After years of being a full-time “hands on” Legislator, not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get dirty while doing tasks such as; “Clean the Stream”, in which Kennedy and groups of Boy Scouts cleaned the Nissequogue River, or when his office staff, volunteers from Stony Brook and he unloaded a tractor trailer loaded with supplies from West Virginia for Sandy victims, at 2:00 am, Kennedy leaves in January 1, 2015 as he will be sworn in as the new Suffolk County Comptroller, after being elected in November with a 53% to 47% margin.

Presiding Officer DuWayne GregoryAt the last Legislative session yesterday, Legislator Kennedy was presented with a Proclamation, signed by all 17 other Legislators to mark this momentous day.  Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory presented Legislator Kennedy with the honor on behalf of the entire Legislature. 

“It has been my honor to be a Legislator and to work with such a wonderful group of men and women.  Although one chapter closes and another opens, I would like to think of this as a continuation as I move merely across the street to the Comptroller’s Office,” said Kennedy.                                                            

For more information, please feel free to contact my office at (631) 854-3735.

Correct History And Give Credit To Women

By Sandy Trehy 

I started out on a mission to learn why 50% of the “human” race is credited with a disproportionate amount of “mankind’s” discoveries and inventions.  I have long wondered this, but this recent search was somewhat prompted by learning that brave Saudi women were driving cars in opposition to their male guardian rules and laws, and recording and posting videos in protest.  This kind of subjugation is by no means unusual all over our world, but some of these women were doctors and lawyers.  In this situation, they were permitted to get education, but not allowed to control their lives. Without the control, even brilliant women can not succeed.

Even if you went with the current “Membership composition” of Mensa; “American general membership is “66 percent male, 33 percent female”, it would not explain the disparity of famous inventors… and Mensa is a club you have to want to join, not a census of our population. 

So my hypothesis is that a lot of women who were inventors or made discoveries, were forced to let males put forth their ideas.  Some might have done it just to get their theories considered.  Others may have been forced to keep quiet, and allow a male to take credit. 

Oddly enough, this morning on CBS’s Sunday morning, there was a segment about a movie that is coming out soon.  The story of an artist who’s husband took credit for creating those paintings of big eyed sad children we all grew up with.  The painting were made into posters and greeting cards.  I remember decorating my walls with them when I was young.  It’s not that these paintings are so impressive that they should be compared to masterpieces…  But it is an example of what did happened during our time… We may never know how often it happened.  How many famous male artists can you name, compared to women artists?

So it happened with the arts, too.  

I would love receiving similar articles and examples if you have them. And I would encourage you to pass them on to other intelligent persons, male and females alike.  I think too many of us believe that men did all the important things.  It is important to rewrite history when it is wrong.

send emails to sandy@smithtownmatters.com


Learned about this on Sunday Morning on CBS today…2nd article -  Behind the sad eyes

DA Spota - New Indictments For Datre Family

Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota today announced the indictment and arraignment of a company president and her two adult children for a pair of separate criminal schemes; the overbilling of Islip town for Superstorm Sandy cleanup, and the submission of false payroll records to hide the firm’s non-compliance with state wage laws.

Clara DatreClara Datre, 66, of Hauppauge, the President of the indicted company, Daytree at Cortland Square, her son Thomas Datre Jr., 41, of St. James, and her daughter Gia Gatien, 37, of Hauppauge, pleaded not guilty at their arraignment Tuesday beforeGia Gatien, State Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho.  The top charge all of the defendants face in the 492-count indictment is grand larceny in the second degree, a class C felony punishable by five to 15 years in prison.

District Attorney Spota said the company’s inflated billing resulted in a $148,000 overpayment by taxpayers for the Datre company’s Superstorm Sandy tree removal and other work in 2012.

“In reality, it’s a theft of government funds, pure and simple,” Spota said.

“The defendants billed Islip $208,295 for their labor costs – that’s how much Datre claimed they paid their 20 workers during the storm emergency,” Spota said.  “However company payroll records show the actual wages they paid their laborers during the storm cleanup in Islip was $85,000, not $208,000.”     

Thomas Datre JrThe 447 other charges in the indictment allege repeated violations of New York’s prevailing wage law that requires contractors working on public works projects to pay wages equal to the salaries paid on similar projects in the region.  According to the indictment handed up by a special grand jury empaneled by District Attorney Spota in September, Daytree at Cortland Square Inc. submitted 222 falsified payroll reports to Islip town. 

DA Spota said the evidence is on paper.

“The payroll records were signed by defendant Clara Datre and certified as true by Clara Datre, the president of the company.  Each filing certifies her company paid employees the prevailing wage,” DA Spota said.  “In fact, the evidence reveals the truth.  Records show the workers were underpaid by approximately $139,000.”

Following their not guilty pleas, Justice Camacho released the defendants on their own recognizance.

Thomas Datre Jr., the owner of the Datre trucking companies, was formally charged yesterday with 29 crimes detailed in a separate indictment alleging he was the mastermind of a scheme to dump in Suffolk County construction and demolition debris from New York City.  During the eight-month investigation Suffolk DA investigators found evidence indicating nearly 2,000 truckloads of brick, concrete, rebar, glass, metal, and wood were dumped at four locations, including a soccer field under renovation in a town park in

Brentwood.  Tests of the debris showed varying levels of hazardous and acutely hazardous waste present in the debris, specifically pesticides and metals at levels beyond permissible limits. 

Describing the crimes as “an environmental catastrophe now, and for years to come”, Spota said at a news conference December 8 that several criminal charges cite the presence in the debris of Cobalt, a metal classified as an acutely hazardous substance, and of Dieldrin, an acutely hazardous insecticide that is no longer manufactured in the US because of its harmful effect on humans, fish and wildlife.

DA Spota - St. James Man Indicted And Arrested Along With Father And Four Others As 32-Count Indictment Unsealed

Thomas Datre Sr.Thomas Datre Jr.Joseph Montuori 32-count Indictment unsealed, six arrested in illegal dumping of construction debris

(click on photos to enlarge)

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota today announced the arrests and indictment of six people, including two former Islip town parks employees and a Suffolk trucking contractor and his son, for their roles in the illegal dumping of toxic New York City construction and demolition debris at four locations in western Suffolk. 

Christopher Grabe Ronald J. CianciulliBrett RobinsonThe crimes outlined in the 32-count indictment “paint a portrait of greed, and the abuse of power that has left the residents of Islip with an environmental catastrophe,” said DA Spota.

For over eight months, investigators and prosecutors in the Economic Crime and Government Corruption Bureaus investigated what the district attorney called “brazen environmental crimes.”

Spota described defendant, and former Islip Parks Commissioner, Joseph Montouri Jr., “as almost wistful” when he told detectives  “We wouldn’t be here right now” had the bricks, broken glass, rebar and concrete rubble dumped at Clemente Park been covered with dirt and hidden from sight under topsoil and grass. 

Montouri, 61, of East Islip, resigned from his town job last May. ‘It is clear Montouri outright lied to the DEC when he responded to reports of large piles of construction debris in the town’s Clemente Park in Brentwood,” DA Spota said.  “Montouri simply replied there was “no problem” in the park.”

During the eight-month investigation, dangerous toxins, including Colbalt, Dieldrin and Asbestos, were found in the dumped material at Roberto Clemente Town Park in Brentwood, at a site at the corner of Route 111 and Sage Street in Central Islip, in a state-protected wetlands area on the Islip-Babylon town border at 175 Brook Avenue in Deer Park, and in material dumped as fill to elevate a berm at an affordable housing development for military veterans in Islandia.

In the 32 count-indictment, Montouri, and his former parks colleague, Brett A. Robinson, 30, are each charged with 12 crimes related to the dumping at Clemente Town Park, including conspiracy, two counts of official misconduct, three charges of reckless release of an acutely hazardous substance into the environment (for the dumping of material containing Cobalt on the soccer field and recharge basin, and Dieldrin, a banned pesticide on the soccer field), two counts of endangering in the third degree for the reckless release of more than 2,000 pounds of a hazardous substance at Clemente, endangering in the fourth degree for the reckless release of a hazardous substance (for Asbestos dumped onto the soccer field and the recharge basin), and one count of operating an illegal solid waste management facility that causes the release of more than 70 cubic yards of solid waste into the environment (specifically onto the soccer field and recharge basin).

Montouri, Robinson and the four other defendants; Thomas Datre Sr. and his son, Thomas Datre Jr., Christopher Grabe, of Islandia Recycling; and Ronald Cianculli of Atlas Asphalt, pleaded not guilty this morning at their arraignments before State Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho.  The defendants were released on their own recognizance.

Thomas Datre Jr. faces 29 charges including five counts criminal mischief in the second degree, the top charge in the indictment.  Criminal mischief in the second degree is a class “D” felony punishable by a maximum of two and one-third to seven years imprisonment (see the pedigree information below for specific information about the defendants and the charges alleged in the indictment).

The counts against Datre Jr, 41, of St. James, allege involvement in the illegal dumping at all four locations.

Thomas Datre Sr., 68, is charged with five crimes, each occurring, according to the indictment, at the Islandia affordable housing development for military veterans.  The charges are criminal mischief in the second degree, two counts of endangering in the third degree for the reckless release of an acutely hazardous substance into the environment, one count of endangering 3rd degree for the  reckless release of more than 2,000 pounds of a hazardous substance, and one charge of operating an illegal solid waste management facility. 

Christopher Grabe is charged with 17 crimes alleged to have been committed at two sites; Roberto Clemente Town Park and Islip Avenue in Central Islip.

Four Datre family businesses are charged. 5 Brothers Farming Corp. and Daytree at Cortland Square Inc. are charged with 28 counts involving crimes at all four dumpsites, Datre Family Farms Inc. is charged with 11 crimes committed at Clemente Park, and DFF Farms Corp. is charged with criminal mischief in the second degree and five other charges, all crimes committed at the dumpsite at the corner of Route 111 and Sage Street, referred to formally in the indictment as 1625 Islip Avenue in Central Islip. The criminal and environmental law charges against the Datre businesses are punishable upon conviction by substantial fines.

District Attorney Thomas Spota began the probe in April of this year when investigators, informed of a possible dumpsite by DEC police, discovered contaminated fill at the soccer field and a recharge basin at Clemente Park in Brentwood. The investigation soon widened to include three other locations where contaminated debris was found; a vacant lot at the corner of Sage Street and Islip Avenue in Central Islip, the six-home development for veterans in Islandia, and the lot adjacent to state-protected wetlands on Brook Avenue in Deer Park.

“Each one of these defendants saw an opportunity to make money and ignore the consequences of endangering the health of thousands of people,” DA Spota said.

“They took truckloads contaminated demolition and construction debris from NYC and they dumped it here, in their own county, in places where they thought they’d never get caught.  By not going to a landfill or registered waste facility,’ DA Spota said, “they avoided paying dumping costs - and the net gain was pure profit.”

A criminal charge is an accusation.  A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

DEFENDANTS ARRAIGNED MONDAY, 12/8/14

Thomas Datre, Jr. (DOB: 3/9/1973)

St. James, NY

Criminal Mischief 2^nd – 5 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 3^rd – 14 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 4^th – 4 counts

Operating a Solid Waste Management Facility w/o a Permit – 5 counts

Freshwater Wetlands Violation – 1 count

Defense Attorney: Kevin Kearon

Thomas Datre, Sr. (DOB: 6/19/1946)

Hauppauge, NY

Criminal Mischief 2^nd – 1 count

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 3rd – 3 counts

Operating a Solid Waste Management Facility w/o a Permit – 1 count

Defense Attorney: Kevin Kearon

Christopher Grabe (DOB: 9/18/1977)

Coram, NY

Criminal Mischief 2^nd – 3 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 3rd – 8 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 4th – 3 counts

Operating a Solid Waste Management Facility w/o a Permit – 3 counts

Defense Attorney: Matthew Tuohy

Ronald J. Cianciulli (DOB: 10/7/1966)

Brightwaters, NY

Criminal Mischief 2^nd – 1 count

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 3rd – 3 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 4th – 1 count

Operating a Solid Waste Management Facility w/o a Permit – 1 count

Freshwater Wetlands Violation – 1 count

Defense Attorney: John Carman

Joseph Montuori (DOB: 3/17/1953)

East Islip, NY

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 3rd- 5 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 4th – 2 counts

Operating a Solid Waste Management Facility w/o a Permit – 2 counts

Official Misconduct – 2 counts

Conspiracy 6th – 1 count

Defense Attorney: John Halverson

Brett Robinson (DOB: 7/4/1984)

Lindenhurst, NY

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 3rd – 5 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 4th – 2 counts

Operating a Solid Waste Management Facility w/o a Permit – 2 counts

Official Misconduct – 2 counts

Conspiracy 6^th – 1 count

Defense Attorney: Patrick O’Connell

5 Brothers Farming Corporation

Ronkonkoma, NY

Criminal Mischief 2^nd - 5 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 3rd – 14 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 4th – 4 counts

Operating a Solid Waste Management Facility w/o a Permit – 5 counts

Defense Attorney: Kevin Kearon

Daytree at Cortland Square, Inc.

Ronkonkoma, NY

Criminal Mischief 2^nd - 5 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 3rd – 14 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 4th – 4 counts

Operating a Solid Waste Management Facility w/o a Permit –5 counts

Defense Attorney: Kevin Kearon

Datre Family Farms, Inc.

Ronkonkoma, NY

Criminal Mischief 2^nd – 2 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 3rd – 5 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 4th – 2 counts

Operating a Solid Waste Management Facility w/o a Permit – 2 counts

Defense Attorney: Kevin Kearon

DFF Farms Corporation

Ronkonkoma, NY

Criminal Mischief 2^nd – 1 count

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 3rd – 3 counts

Endangering Public Health, Safety, or the Environment 4th – 1 count

Operating a Solid Waste Management Facility w/o a Permit – 1 count

Defense Attorney: Kevin Kearon

No Speed Cameras For Suffolk County

No speed cameras for Suffolk County.  The worst best-kept-secret may be that Suffolk County will not be getting speed cameras.  Apparently, the debacle in Nassau County has Suffolk County’s elected officials rethinking its speed cameras for safety plan.  Speed cameras were scheduled to be installed and become operational in 2015.   It is expected that County Executive Bellone will be announcing later today* that he is scrapping the extremely controversial speed camera plan. The camera program was seen by many as a revenue generator that had nothing to do with safety at schools. Nassau County has generated over $12 million (fines and administrative fees) in revenue in the three months their program has been operational. 

In April of 2014 the Suffolk County Legislature voted 14-3 with Legislator Browning abstaining in favor of a speed camera program for school zones throughout Suffolk County. The proposal would sanction those caught on camera driving ten miles over a school zone speed limit. 

There are sixty-nine school districts in Suffolk County and a portable camera was to be assigned to each school district. The cameras were to be operational one half-hour before, during and after school events.The cameras were to be rotated at various schools throughout each district.

Legislators Trotta (13th LD.), Kennedy (12th LD) and Cilmi (10th LD) opposed the speed camera proposal in April and have scheduled a press conference for Tuesday morning. Legislator Trotta issued the following statement to Smithtown Matters:

 “As I have said from the start and when I voted against this legislation, speed zone cameras are nothing more than a money grab. When the County Executive gets caught with his hands in the taxpayer’s pocket, there is little choice but to pull the plug. This is no different from the overwhelmingly majority of red light tickets, which is simply taxation by citation,” said Suffolk Legislator Robert Trotta.

* County Executive Bellone at a 2pm press conference announced his decision to scrap the speed camera program. His statement is attached.

Update on Monday, December 8, 2014 at 4:08PM by .

“Today I announced my decision that Suffolk County will not implement speed cameras. This comes after a year of research and analysis of programs throughout the nation.

We will be working with our legislative partners led by Legislator Sarah Anker, the Suffolk County Department of Public Works, the Suffolk County Police Departmentand teachers and parents groups to find better ways to improve school safety.” — with Jay Schneiderman,Legislator Thomas Muratore, Legislator Thomas Barraga, Legislator Kate Browning, Legislator Al Krupski, Legislator Steve Stern, Suffolk County Legislator Bill Lindsay III and Sarah Anker for County Legislator.