Rye Dems Add Two to Fall City Council Race

The Rye Democrats have added two candidates to the city council race, Meg Cameron and Shari Punyon. They have not produced a third for the council race and are leaving Joe Sack unopposed for Rye Mayor.

Meg Cameron: on LinkedIn; on Facebook

Shari Punyon: on LinkedIn; on Facebook

Here the the PR from the Dems:

Cameron and Punyon Selected as Rye City Council Candidates

Meg Cameron of Martin Butler Court and Shari Punyon of Glen Oaks Drive announced today their candidacy for two seats on the Rye City Council, vowing a campaign to bring fresh voices to City government at a time when the City needs new direction.

City of Rye Democratic Chair Rod Brown confirmed selection of Cameron and Punyon by the local selection committee saying, “We are very excited to bring these impressive candidates to City government. They will deliver a spirit of reasonableness and cooperation, a marked contrast to the divisiveness among Council members during the last four years.”

In a joint statement, the candidates echoed those sentiments: “As people with deep roots in Rye, we want to see the City Council focus on improving the community. Rye residents deserve careful, efficient use of tax dollars, top-notch City services, and open decision-making.”

Meg Cameron is running for the City Council to foster good government and accountability in Rye.  Meg was one of the original writers for The Rye Record and her efforts helped establish the paper when it was founded in the 1990’s. She has lived in Rye for over 25 years with her husband Jim Glickenhaus. She volunteered in Rye's public schools, which their two children attended, and with Meals-on-Wheels, Literacy Volunteers of America and Open Door Family Medical Center. Meg has a Masters in Science in Immunology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a BA/BFA from SUNY Purchase.

Meg and her husband support numerous Rye-based organizations, including Rye Youth Council, Rye Free Reading Room, Rye Association for the Handicapped, Helping Hands for the Homeless and Hungry and Sprye.

In announcing her candidacy Meg said, “People in Rye want their City governed responsibly, transparently and efficiently. The City Council can best address Rye’s problems by adding new voices.”

Shari Punyon also joins the race for a seat on the City Council. She looks to refocus city government on the needs of all residents and to encourage openness and harmony on the council. Shari belongs to the Friends of the Rye Nature Center, the Friends of Rye Town Park, and supports the Rye Free Reading Room. Shari was active with the Junior League on the Sound from 2006-2012. She and her husband Harris have lived in Rye for 14 years, and have two adult children who went through Rye schools and a 5-year old daughter about to enter Osborn School. Shari has a BA in Physics from Rutgers and has been a technical writer for the last 25 years, for the last 11 with Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. Shari and her family have been regular users of the pool at Rye Golf Club and the Rye Free Reading Room. On the Council, she will work to help those and other important Rye institutions succeed.

Rod Brown added, “We are focusing our efforts on these two races to bring voices to the Council not tied to the dysfunction and Council infighting of the last four years. The City needs checks and balances to bring open and effective government back to Rye. We will be asking voters to insure that by electing Meg and Shari.

We discussed possible candidacies with other hopeful City Council candidates but Meg and Shari were the only two to win support of the Rye Democratic Committee.

Other people were approached regarding Council or Mayoral candidacies in the course of the last six months. Many expressed concern about the City’s decline but were not able to run for a variety of reasons.

The most common factor cited by the people who chose not to run this year was the divisiveness on the Council and personal attacks against and between Council members.

Meg and Shari are outstanding candidates who will serve the community with distinction. We believe Rye residents will support them this November.”

Comments

[tedc]

THE GOOD HANDS PEOPLE?

87 percent of New York voters say corruption is a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” problem in government according to an April 2013 Quinnipiac University survey:
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes--centers/polling-institute/new-york-state/release-detail?ReleaseID=1881
But unless I’m mistaken, a look at the some of the political ads and blog postings over this long weekend show Rye political class courtship rituals as oblique as usual. And that would be (as a member of Rye Golf Club might say) ‘par for the course.’
If you can’t call something by its proper name – if you’d prefer pointing fingers based on political parties – you’re not real about your true intentions if elected. Here’s my Help Wanted ad that ran this spring when supposedly no one except Joe Sack wanted to step up and run. Remember that long ago time? So let me ask – like Allstate Insurance – if you’re elected, are we in good hands?

WANTED: Rye City reform candidates for City Council who are not conventional Rye political class – i.e. - they have not been groomed for so-called “service” in other Rye minor committees or organizations in how to think, who to check first with and who to obey before expressing their opinions publicly – especially about our widespread city corruption created by them. Shrinking violets need not apply (nor half-truth specialists) and candidates should have stood before the council and cameras at city hall and expressed an opinion about a matter of significance in the last year. If you haven’t found your voice by now it’s assumed you don’t have anything to offer except more of the same.
A legal degree is not required but a brain, conscience and integrity are. Candidates must have no secrets of the type used to manipulate votes because that is a Rye city management specialty. All this counts because, to be blunt, the taxpayers don’t exactly yearn for yet another hollow shill for the discredited self-entitled ex-politicos who expect winners to throw away every election promise of note and just follow orders from them, their political cronies and their high billing, patronage hustling “advisors.”
Political party is not important. Both have damaged themselves here over the past decade. Candidates should therefore educate themselves and reflect upon; Schubert’s Pond destruction, the story of city owned 1037 Boston Post Road, the six year saga of the Midland & Palisade stop sign, the Mayor’s illegal 13 Richard Place rental house, the Dapolite Affair, Hen Island’s continued filth and West Nile Virus breeding vats, the Rye Golf Club Rip-Off (biggest in history and still unresolved) and - fresh out - the Rye Police Uniform Bidding Fraud. How much do you know?
Candidates can expect a thorough public (rather than private) vetting. Successful entrants meeting the above criteria can expect widespread public support and election to office. The Rye grassroots good government reform movement wants you - will support you – will defend you. And this city needs you.
(Past and present members of the Rye finance committee need only apply if they can bring the public written proof that the city council legally approved the removal of $5M of municipal working capital to pay the final 1037 BPR balloon payment, which has left the city crumbling around us for the past 3 years.)

[A Joe Sack Form of Community]

1. No community members willing to run for local government for fear their character will be slandered by Joe's loyal thugs.

2. Character assassination by loyal thugs encouraged.

3. Disingenuously votes yes to Code of Ethics motion while his loyal thugs slander and assassinate the character of opponents.

4. Unable to hire RGC restaurant manager due to loyal thugs slanderous rhetoric of Rye City establishments.

5. Property values plummet due to loyal thugs slanderous statements.

6. School teachers attacked and thrown under bus while Joe say nothing.

7. Consistently throws temper tantrums as evidenced by consistently being only dissenter in Council votes.

8. Allows grudge against City Manager to influence votes at Council Meetings.

9. His BFF is Mr. Flotie.

10. Doesn't think FOIL laws apply to him.

11. Thinks only himself is qualified to make decisions regarding the future of Rye. City Manager position should be put in the Smithsonian. Wants to burn Rye City Charter.

12. Wants to be king as Council Member in a City Manager form of government.

Thanks Joe!

[martin Ederer]

Snarky..Read betwixt the lines and perhaps you will have a better insight

[Snarky Jones]

Rye Wit types like Rich Filippi speaks...hmmm.

[martin Ederer]

The Hen Islad pest is still directing Rye.

Yu may have a awat comming yet "Ray"

[Ray Tartaglione]

"Catherine Parker, the right person to sell luggage and gifts, the wrong person to lead our communities."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njx5JLOgxMA&feature=c4-overview&list=UUSKIv_k38Xqk1FmYNjQDnzA

[P. StephenLamont]

...On the other side of the aisle, Peter Jovanovich has five (5) business days to voluntarily withdraw from his unlawful candidacy before the Committee for Election Equality takes it to the next level. Charmian Neary for Chairman in 2014.

[P. StephenLamont]

Ms. Cameron and Ms. Punyon, On RyePatch, aren't your proposals 1, 2, and 3 fairly obvious? Do you mean to tell the voters that this is all you have come up with in your 8 weeks as Steve Otis's candidates, the things which the voters already know. Or, perhaps, this is merely a way to get your names in front of the public, where there has been an eery silence from the dens of the Rye Democratic Party, if one still exists. This has the handiwork of the "even keeled," outgoing Rod Brown written all over it. What a shame to see what the party of FDR, JFK, LBJ, and WJC ("Bill") has come to. To think, if FDR was even keeled, our children might all be speaking German right now; if JFK was even keeled our children might all be speaking Russian. Please tell us you have some original thoughts to bring forth before Nov. 5, and to see Lawyer lead off the comments list -- does the non-existent Rye Democratic Party think we are stupid. Thank You. Charmian Neary for Chairman in 2014!!!

[Mayor FrenchToast]

I was in third grade.

PARKER NEVER SPOKE OUT ON RYE GOLF CLUB'S FRAUDULENT GM OR RM STAFFING... EVEN THOUGH SHE AND THE MAYOR MET AND WERE TO "REPORT" TO OTHER COUNCIL MEMBERS ON IT MONTHS BEFORE "RYE'S MADOFF MOMENT" BECAME PUBLIC. SHE ALSO IGNORED A 2010 AUDITORS REPORT WARNING OF BIDDING AND INVENTORY DEFICIENCIES AT RYE GOLF CLUB... DOES (PRIMARY FOE) MURPHY HAVE THAT REPORT?

"Catherine and I are meeting on this and will report back to Council." That is an email from Mayor Doug French in response to inquiries about the relationship between Scott Yandrasevich and RM Staffing, before hundreds of thousands of dollars of fraud was found to have taken place at Rye Golf Club.

SOME DEMOCRAT... SHE WALKED LOCK STEP WITH THIS TAX-CHEATING REPUBLICAN MAYOR FOR YEARS...

SHE SAT BY AND WATCHED HIM MAKE MONEY OFF HIS ILLEGAL INVESTMENT PROPERTY AND HID LIKE A CHILD... SHE TURNED HER HEAD AND LET A YOUNG CITY EMPLOYEE'S (ANDREW DAPOLITE) CAREER DIE... SHE VOTED FOR PICKUP'S FRUAD FILLED POLICE UNI BID HOOK, LINE, AND SINKER...

RYE GOLF FRAUD HAPPENED UDER HER WATCH... WHAT DID CATHERINE KNOW AND WHEN DID SHE KNOW IT?

Oh, Westchester so desperately needs Catherine Parker, what will we do without her.

Holding Doug French's hand is Democratic Leadership? More like skunk piss.

[Skunk Piss]

Hugo Sack-less gets bitch slapped. And deservedly so, your post was wholly irrelevant and partially false. If there was ever a giveaway that you're a French/Pickup sycophant, being stupid and incompetent is it.