Bossart Fires Back at Murray's Accusations

Rockville Centre Mayor Francis Murray recently mailed residents a letter detailing his first 100 days in office, the difficulties he faced once he entered office, and how he plans to move the village forward in the future.

At Monday's village board meeting, former Mayor Mary Bossart said she felt there were some innaccuracies outlined in the letter, including Murray's stance on the village's financial state, the electric department, its road projects and the overall morale in the village.

"Your letter was a clever work of political spin – incomplete and inaccurate," Bossart said. "It obviously is meant to shield you and your administration from responsibility for the difficult and unpopular actions that your board will have to take as this recession continues."

In his letter, Murray said the prior administration "failed to deal effectively with current economic conditions, thereby assuring tenuous budget conditions for the current fiscal year."

Bossart refuted that statement, saying her administration settled a $25 million lawsuit while in office, and took a hard-nosed negotiating stance against Avalon Bay's initial Industrial Development Agency application, which helped earn the village extra monies from the developer for the next 15 years. "Next year this means that funds will be added to the Village budget through no effort on your administration’s part," she said. "This much needed revenue is money our taxpayers would not have seen had my administration not taken a tough negotiating stance and had the tenacity to resist outside forces."

She added that the budget Murray's administration will inherit for this fiscal year has a reserve of about $1.5 million.

Murray also said in the letter that the Electric Department had been running for the past two years with "operating deficits" and that "we can no longer run our utility in the red." Bossart vehemently denied Murray's statement. "Operating at a deficit implies that we were borrowing money to run the electric department," she said. “Running in the red means that we did not have money to cover the department’s expenses. Neither of these things ever happened."

She did say her administration used reserve money to cover expenses in the Electric Department — a practice not recommended by rating agencies — but was something discussed and decided on by the board.

Lastly, Murray stated in his letter that the village's part-time grant writer helped secure a $1.2 million grant to repair Maple Avenue. Bossart said securing the funding for the repair of Maple Avenue began in December 2009, when the village was awarded a grant through a notification from Congresswoman McCarthy's office. The grant, Bossart noted, was actually awarded to the village in 2007 (before she was mayor) but noone had followed up on it. Village officials helped secure the grant, she said, and work was scheduled to begin next year.

"I am glad that the project is on track, but again must point out that your new administration came in at the end of a very long process and has had little to do with obtaining these funds," she said.

Murray did not comment on Bossart's statements after she had finished.