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You are not going to like what's happening in the Town of Rochester, Ulster County — a situation best described by a Daily Freeman editorial as "Ridiculous in Rochester."
You said in your Inaugural speech: "This One New York includes Chris Kelder and his family, who have farmed their land in Ulster County for more than two centuries... It includes today's immigrants whose lips speak the languages of Spanish, Chinese, Korean, French and an infinite array of dialects from all over the world."
Chris Kelder is our neighbor and we are among those immigrants trying to "enrich our state with their vitality and their vision, in the same way as the immigrants of the last century." We've been living in New York State since arriving in the United States almost 30 years ago. We moved from New York City to Ulster County after 9/11, when our company was badly hurt.
We got involved in our new community. We volunteered our help as much as we could. We became members of the local Chamber of Commerce, Friends of Historic Rochester, Accord-Kerhonkson Business Alliance, Rochester Republican Club, the Antiques Dealers Association of Ulster County, the Society for the Preservation of Hudson Valley Vernacular Architecture... At times we focused more on volunteer work than on our businesses...
We created BusyRochester.com — the first website dedicated to the businesses in our town. We built an antique shop, a nice addition to our town's business landscape. We live in a locally significant historical residence, the Brick House on Route 209, across the road from Kelder's farm... In December 2006, the DeWitt Gazlay Barn on our property received the largest Historic Preservation matching grant in the history of our town.
Quite impressive accomplishments, one would think...
Not good enough for our town's Democratic leaders!
Living in a historical residence, being involved with historic preservation, helping with Heritage Day celebration, getting the town's largest historic preservation grant ever, willing to put my MBA in Marketing/Advertising to work for the Town of Rochester, I applied for a seat on the Historic Preservation Commission — as suggested by its Chairperson and the Town Historian.
It seemed natural to volunteer for the Commission.
Not natural enough for our town's Democratic leaders!
After a first interview, I was singled out and asked to come for a second interview on January 24, 2007.
I did. My interview was supposed to be about PRESERVATION, NOT PORNOGRAPHY. Not one question was related to preservation. Instead, I was absurdly accused of being "associated with an adult site," and exposed to hundreds of color photos detailing sexual acts and close-ups of genitalia — shown to me by Councilman Francis Gray.
I cannot accept that Pam Duke, the first WOMAN supervisor in our town, allowed me, the only woman in her office at that moment to be humiliated the way I was, ambushed by 5 men (4 town board members and the town's attorney, Mr. Rod Futerfas.). As she knows, I was so shocked and so emotionally distressed after hearing their totally false accusations that I had an accident right in the Town Hall's parking lot (the first on my 37-year spotless driving record!).
On January 24 I was ready to share with the board the good news regarding an article about our barn grant published that day in Ulster County Press; instead I was shown extremely offensive pornography. The so-called second interview was just a set up for a premeditated vicious attack, "prepared" for months by the leadership's inner circle who spread the "porno site" ugly rumor all over the town...
The Rochester Democrats declare on their website (under Responsible Government, no less) that they "value the diversity of our community and the views of all of our residents..." and that "everyone deserves to have their views heard by a government that is respectful, welcoming, and accessible." Really? Diversity? What about appointing a Romanian-American on the HPC? How was the government respectful and welcoming to me, during the Inquisition-style interview held behind closed doors?
How can Supervisor Pam Duke be trusted as a LEADER if she acts on unchecked rumors, if she even doesn't try to find out the facts? If it were only a computer literacy issue it would have been solved in less than five minutes by any group of decent people. As I learn now that her inner circle has spread the rumor around the town for over two months, she had plenty of time. The only explanations I can think of is that she is either part of the lie or has no use for the truth...
What happened to me on Jan. 24, 2007 is a disgrace and begs the question: what is at stake in our town that makes the Democratic Town Board willing to take so huge a risk with this unconscionable behavior?
Governor Spitzer, you are absolutely right: "Each of us comes from a different place and from a different background. Each has faced their own tests and trials along life's journey." I didn't imagine that after getting political asylum in the United States I am going to face in the Town of Rochester a situation bringing back the memories of my native Communist, totalitarian Romania...
Governor Spitzer, you have to change much more than "the ethics of Albany." As you said in your Inaugural speech, "for any one of us to succeed, we must succeed as One New York. A state that is not urban or rural, upstate or downstate, Republican or Democratic, but first and foremost New Yorkers — striving together, reaching together, working together toward our common dream."
Can you believe that in the very community you mentioned as an example of One New York, town officials engaged in such gross misconduct against me, an innocent woman, only because I am a Republican and the wife of the Republican Club's webmaster? Where is that "New York that values the dignity of each person," as you rightly asked all of us to do?! From the support I got following this nightmarish experience I realize Republicans in our town are more willing to work together with Democrats than the other way around...
If "we must transform our government so that it is as ethical and wise as all of New York..." maybe a good place to start is the Town of Rochester in Ulster County, where Chris Kelder but also Romanian-Americans live...
We cannot build "that One New York" while the government in our town works hard to destroy it.
Sincerely,
Manuela Mihailescu
The Brick House
5868 Route 209
Kerhonkson, NY 12446
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