Veronica Howley
1. Freedom Of Information Compliance And Knowledge Ratings:
Popular and long time North Salem Town Clerk – Veronica “Ronnie” Howley and her assistant Patricia Butler successfully completed all Freedom Of Information requests used in the FOILNY.org compliance review and earned a five star rating their town.
Ms. Howley and her assistant Ms. Butler jobs include issuing permits, licenses, marriage, birth and death certificates, providing copies of documents and much, much more.
“There are no secrets here,”Ms. Howley often tells town taxpayers. “Practically everything is foilable.”
2. Email Address For Filing FOI Requests
vhowley@northsalemny.org
3, Mailing Address For Filing FOI Requests
Town Clerk
Delancey Hall
266 Titicus Road
North Salem, New York 10560
4. Experience:
First elected as town clerk in 1999 – Often runs unopposed in political deals with opposing party. Town clerk term is for four years and she ran uncontested for her fifth four year term in 2015. Many in the town complain about a lack of transparency in their local government.
Town Clerk’s Salary: $79,009 Plus Benefits And Retirement
City/Town of Residence: North Salem
Education: Graduated from North Salem High School in 1976
Prior Civic Service: Girl Scouts, Improvement Society, Lions Club
Married to Police Chief Thomas Howley
Political Contact Email Listed : Ronhow57@aol.com
5. From The Town Website:
The Town Clerk is responsible for keeping records of the Town Board meetings and all contracts and agreements the Town makes. The Clerk processes numerous licenses and permits and certificates of birth, marriage and death. She also serves as the Records Management Officer, acts as the Registrar of Vital Statistics and is in charge of running Local Elections. The Town Clerk is elected to a four-year term.
6. News Reports / Related Pages:
North Salem court clerk with cancer loses job months before retirement
NORTH SALEM – A Danbury woman who is battling cancer says she is shocked after losing her job as a court clerk in the town of North Salem.
Trish Rubino was just five months away from early retirement when she lost her job and her health benefits. She says it’s all due to a change in judges in North Salem.
Town officials told the single mother of three that she lost her job because new judges wanted to appoint their own court clerk.
“Between the judges and the supervisor and the town board, everyone knew what I was going through, and I think they could have been more compassionate and just kept me on the five months, given me my health insurance and that would have been the right thing to do,” she says.
News 12 reached out to North Salem Town Supervisor Warren Lucas, who said that he had been told by the town council that “because of HIPAA and the personal aspects of the issues raised,” he was not allowed to talk about the matter.
http://westchester.news12.com/news/north-salem-court-clerk-with-cancer-loses-job-months-before-retirement-1.11302583
Four Vie For Pair Of North Salem Council Seats
NORTH SALEM, N.Y. — Incumbent North Salem Town Board members Amy Rosmarin and Martin Aronchick are facing challengers Lisa Douglas and Brent Golisano in their re-election bids on Tuesday.
The incumbents, who are running on the Democratic ticket, are also running on a ballot line called Non Partisan. The challengers are running on the Republican ticket, along ballot lines for the Independence, Conservative, Reform and North Salem Local parties.
Incumbent Supervisor Warren Lucas, who is running unopposed, is also running on a ticket with Douglas and Golisano.
The quartet of council candidates recent appeared at a League of Women Voters forum, where they took questions on several issues. One was about how the candidates rate the state of the town…..
….“This is a special place,” Aronchick said about the town. Still, Aronchick expressed concern about quality of life issues, such as drug abuse and traffic.
Aronchick also touted his ability to work in a bipartisan way at the local level, citing an effort with Deputy Supervisor Peter Kamenstein to recruit Croton Falls merchants for planting new trees.
Douglas cited infrastructure, the MTA platform tax and speed on streets as local concerns. She also suggested that, as a way to save money on beautification efforts, high school students could help with the work as a way to earn community service credit for graduation…..
Please Read More Here:
http://northsalem.dailyvoice.com/news/four-vie-for-pair-of-north-salem-council-seats/600893/
PATCH: North Salem Court Clerk Loses Job, Health Insurance While Fighting Cancer
The Danbury, CT, resident was told of her job loss via email, just five months before early retirement.
Trish Rubino, a Danbury woman battling multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, was five months away from early retirement when she was told by the Town of North Salem that she lost her job as court clerk and her health benefits, according to Fox News.
One of her three daughters, Jessica Rubino, posted on Facebook that she was notified of her job loss via email three days before Christmas that her last day of work would be Dec. 31, 2015 and that she would be replaced by a new court clerk. She held the position for nearly 10 years before she was let go. Jessica wrote:
“While my sick mother was hoping to kickstart a fresh new year, after 2015 couldn’t have gotten worse, she starts 2016 being ‘released’ from her job while battling her health issue. To make this worse, she was given notice 3 days before Christmas in an email stating that her last day of work would be 12/31/15. She is being replaced by a new court clerk at the decision of the newly elected judges who are being inducted today at 1pm. She sits here at treatment speechless, disappointed, and hurt that the people she worked with for almost 10 years could allow this to happen only 5 months before she is eligible for early retirement, with her health benefits that she desperately needs. I cannot believe that anyone could make such a heartless decision. Shame on you, Town of North Salem.”
Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer that develops in the plasma cells found in bone marrow….
Please Read More Here:
http://patch.com/new-york/bedford/north-salem-court-clerk-loses-job-health-insurance-while-fighting-cancer
DAILY VOICE: Douglas Edges Aronchick By Just 3 Votes For North Salem Council Seat
NORTH SALEM, N.Y. — Republican challenger Lisa Douglas has defeated Democratic incumbent Councilman Martin Aronchick by just three votes, according to updated unofficial results from the Westchester County Board of Elections.
The new tallies show that Douglas received 646 votes while Aronchick got 643.
If the numbers hold up for when the official results as certified by the county board, then North Salem’s Republican slate will have swept the local races.
Fellow Republican challenger Brent Golisano easily won the other council seat by finishing first in the four-candidate field, receiving a total of 719 votes.
Amy Rosmarin, the other Democratic incumbent, was unseated and finished fourth with just 575 votes.
Under the elections structure, the top-two vote recipients out of the four candidates are the winners.
Meanwhile, in the race for a pair of open town justice seats, Republican candidates Stephen Bobolia and John Aronian have won with 725 and 760 votes, respectively. Democratic candidates Solomon Schepps and Robert Leder received respective vote totals of 609 and 433.
Republican incumbent Supervisor Warren Lucas, who ran unopposed, was re-elected and received 1,081 votes. Incumbent Town Clerk Veronica Howley, also a Republican candidate, ran without opposition and won with 1,068 votes.
Please Read More Here:
http://northsalem.dailyvoice.com/news/douglas-edges-aronchick-by-just-3-votes-for-north-salem-council-seat/605818/
North Salem Teachers Press For New Contract
Parents, teachers, alums and administrators spoke at the North Salem Board of Education (BOE) meeting June 1, once again calling on the district to come to terms on a new contract agreement for the district’s 135 unionized teachers. A mediation session is planned for this week.
The current teachers’ three-year contract expires on June 30. Talks reached an impasse in the past month and both sides agreed to bring in arbitrator Philip Maier to oversee the negotiations.
John Vassak, a retired teacher whose sons attended North Salem schools, talked about how his son graduated Fordham University and went on to become a social studies teacher in a western suburb of Tampa, Florida. He said that 11 years, his son was one of several staff members who chose to leave because he could not support his family on the salary provided by the school district. “I mention this,” he said, “Because I want North Salem to continue to be the quality it is and has been. We must retain the quality teaching staff we have and a contract that will enable us to attract quality teachers in the future.”
Please Read More Here:
https://www.tapinto.net/towns/north-salem/articles/north-salem-teachers-press-for-new-contract
LinkedIn;
https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-howley-22444a2a
7. Recent Town Political History:
In March Of 2009, North Salem Supervisor Paul Greenwood submitted his resignation Thursday, a week after he was arrested on fraud charges connected to his investment firm.
Greenwood and his business partner were arrested Feb. 25 by the FBI on federal fraud charges. According to investigators, the town supervisor swindled more than $500 million from investors.
Following his arrest, Greenwood was set free on $7 million bail, but his assets, including a 250-acre horse farm on the Putnam-Westchester border, have been frozen for possible use in restitution to victims of the alleged scheme.
Please Read More Here:
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/2014/12/03/paul-greenwood-sentenced-securities-fraud/19841599/
North Salem Resident Sentenced For Bribery
Forty-eight-year-old Anthony Bove of North Salem was sentenced Friday to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay restitutiion for accepting a $10,000 bribe.
Bove, the former Commissioner of the Board of Water Supply in the City of Mount Vernon, pled guilty in White Plains federal court on March 22 to soliciting the bribe and then lying to federal law enforcement officers during questioning.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, issued a statement following the sentencing saying, “While entrusted to provide clean and safe water for the people of Mount Vernon, Anthony Bove looked out only for himself, demanding a bribe from one of his own employees for a promotion to which the employee was already entitled.”
The water department is responsible for serving Mount Vernon city residents by monitoring and treating the city’s water supply, repairing water main leaks and reading water meters and generating water bills.
Prosecutors say in the spring of 2015, Bove solicited a the bribe from a Water Department employee in exchange for approving the employee’s promotion within the department. The employee, who was serving as the bookkeeper at the time, had passed a civil-service bookkeeping examination in order to become eligible for a permanent position within the department.
Bove did not approve the application, instead he told the employee on April 14, 2015 to meet him at Memorial Field in Mount Vernon where he explained he would not approve the worker’s promotion unless they came up with $10,000. He worked out a payment plan with the worker, saying he would accept $5,000 up front and then the remaining payments on an installment plan.
The worker was unable to make any payments and as a result the permanent bookkeeping position remained unapproved for months. Bove eventually lost his position when a new mayor was elected…..
Please Read More Here:
https://www.tapinto.net/towns/north-salem/articles/north-salem-resident-sentenced-for-bribery
7. Notes
This Ratings Page Has Been Updated With Additional Information
About North Salem, New York
North Salem is a town in the northeast part of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is a suburb of New York City located approximately 50 miles north of Midtown Manhattan.
The county ranks second for wealthiest counties in New York State and the seventh wealthiest county nationally. The population of North Salem was 5,104 at the 2010 census.
In 2011, the average income for a household in the town was $157,258, with an average net worth of $1,300,058. The median house value in 2009 was $772,817. The per capita income for the town was $59,403. About 1.5% of families and 2.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.2% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.
As of the census of 2000, there were 5,173 people, 1,764 households, and 1,374 families residing in the town. The population density was 241.5 people per square mile (93.2/km²). There were 1,979 housing units at an average density of 92.4 per square mile (35.7/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 95.44% White, 0.75%African American, 0.08% Native American, 0.97% Asian, 1.12% from other races, and 1.64% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.65% of the population.
There were 1,764 households out of which 39.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68.1% weremarried couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.1% were non-families. 17.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.80 and the average family size was 3.17.
In the town the population was spread out with 26.2% under the age of 18, 4.4% from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 27.0% from 45 to 64, and 13.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 91.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.4 males.
- Croton Falls – a hamlet in the northwest corner of the town with its own Metro-North station
- Grants Corner – a hamlet southeast of North Salem
- North Salem – a hamlet in the west part of the town. The North Salem Town Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
- Salem Center – a hamlet at the east end of Titicus Reservoir. The fictitious headquarters of the X-Men Marvel Comics superhero team is located in Salem Center.
- Purdys – a hamlet south of Croton Falls with its own Metro-North station. The Joseph Purdy Homestead was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
- Twin Lakes Village – a hamlet on the south town line…..
Please Read More Here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Salem,_New_York
