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Hello everyone, and welcome to being Frank. We're the only way to be, is Frank. I'm your host, Franklebona, and i'd like to thank you for joining us on what we like to call the Intelligent Conversation podcast, where no conversation is out of bounds and all points of view are welcome. Listeners are familiar with our routine. We record life to tape, and I give you the date so you have some context and relevance. It's the IDEs of October.
That is October fifteenth, according to the search Legal Clarity website. A democracy is a system of government where power is vested in the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives. This form of governance relies on active citizen involvement to ensure its vitality and responsiveness. Without this engagement, the principles of self governance and popular sovereignty cannot be fully realized. End quote. The meaning is clear and is emphasized most
emphatically within these three words. Active citizen involvement. Of course, this means that people must exercise their sacred right to vote. But it's more than that. It means participation in the entire process, and that includes those of us willing to run for elected office. Without real choice and elections, we are in danger of losing a government that truly reflects the divers interests of its population, and there are far
too many uncontested elections in our area. That's why I felt it was very important to introduce my guest to our audience. He is undertaking the very difficult task to run as an independent for Rockland County Executive against a well entrenched incumbent Republican at day. Mike Parrietty is a longtime resident of Rockland County and attended Suffol High School, where he was an Eagle scout and four time Rockland
County wrestling champion. He went on to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he was the captain of their NCAA wrestling team. After West Point, Mike served as an infantry platoon leader, company executive officer, and acting commander in the tenth Mountain Division. He was an airborne ranger and rose to the rank of captain. Following his military service, Michael earned a master's degree from Penn State University and had a successful career in the
biotech and pharmaceutical industries for more than twenty years. Mike has been deeply involved in the local affairs and politics of Rockland as a citizen advocate. He has run for a local office several times and was one of the original organizers of Preserve Ramapo and Preserve Rockland, grass roots movements that challenged the political machine. While fighting over development,
corruption and misappropriation. Mike has been a strong voice for fair representation and voting rights, filing several pro say legal actions on those grounds. He fought a protracted but successful court battle to force a referendum on the ward system in Ramapo, and later filed a challenge to the recent reapportment plan for the Rockland County Legislature, which he took
all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Parietti recently resigned from the Rockland County Planning Board after more than ten years of service, where he consistently voted against overdevelopment and applications that did not adhere closely to the zoning codes. Michael Paietti.
Welcome, Welcome, Frank, thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate this opportunity to speak to the voters.
Yes, I think it's important, and forgive me for stumbling through, but I I wanted to get in most of your bio. I open trunk ate them. But it was important to get all of your background because it is diverse and there's a lot of things within that I think we can break down and help us to understand you and your campaign. But first, let's talk about Mike Perietty. You
mentioned you went to Suffer High School. Tell us about growing up in Rockland, a little bit about your family and how it influenced and still influences your life.
Yeah.
Well, you know, growing up in Rockland was actually, looking back on it, kind of idyllic.
Now, you know.
I'm from a large family. So my mother had seven boys in a row and then Wow and his seven son died as an infant. But then she had two girls after that. So we grew up with eight siblings and kind of a raucous household and we live up. I was born and raised on the north end of Spook Rock Road, which is where I live now actually, and it's a really nice spot. You know, we're near the mountains, near the Mahwa River. There's a lot of wood lots and suff atas, so that was really nice.
He used to hike through all the local areas in paused to fish in the rivers and the lakes and everything, and you know, I'll always remember that as an idyllic time. And the interesting thing about it back then was that we had the population here was roughly it was you know, the first but it was roughly fifty to fifty Reform secular Jewish and then Catholic Protestant denominations. But we all lived in the same neighborhoods. We all rode the bus
to school together, we went to the city. You know, we had the same we're in the same classrooms, who compete on the same sporting teams, and we did everything together. We had to shared culture, and you know, back then there really I don't really remember any kind of an issue with anti Semitism or anything like that, you know, so we had a really idyllic, harmonious community and growing up.
And I'll always remember that My great grandfather was came over here from Italy in the late eighteen nineties and he set up shopping in Nayak. He was a brick layer and he had he had a large family and they had large families, and so the Parieti clan has been in Rockham for you know, over one hundred years, and I remember we would go to Nayak and visit the you know, the members of the family and the old family locations and thingf like that. So always remember that too.
You know.
My grandfather was quite a character. He was and they called him Fats Paraetti. He was the guy with the call him Fats. And he was a volunteer firefighter for fifty years at the Chelsea Firehouse in Nayak. And my father was also a volunteer firefighter for over fifty years. So anyway, Yeah, it was a very it was a great upbringing and am very idyllic and I remember it very fondly.
You know, Michael, with that comes to suggestion that it's changed. Well, you talked about idyllic mixed there was not as as animosity. Has it changed, if so, when and in what way?
Yeah, that's a good question. Definitely has changed, no question about it. And as for when it's hard to say. I don't know, I mean the you know what I got involved about over twenty years ago when it sort of started to come to my attention that there was some potent political issues brewing. And I heard about a meeting at My father came home from the virus one night and he said, he said, hey, I heard there's a big meeting going on in Raynple town Hall, so
maybe go check it. Ust I hadn't been out there, I guess since they'd be I was a kid. So I decided to go out there, and I went out and I started to meet people. I got involved, and you know the issue was that the ultra Orthodox or has Citic community, whatever you want to call their number, their population growth rate was, had been expanding rapidly, and they had become they were evolving into a very potent
political force. And now I mean to the credit, you know, they'd organized themselves very effectively.
Okay, called the block for people that from this area. That's kind of the common euphemism, the.
Block, right, the block vote. Sometimes people don't understand exactly what it is. And as stually, what was happening was that they were, you know, we were dividing ourselves along Republican and Democrat lines, and they were simply picking aside and conquering us, right. In other words, they can decide they can this this block vote they have they vote at the at the direction of their leaders, so they can move that vote from one party to the other
very easily. They can change the outcome of election easily, and so you know it. The evolution of that was that both parties were basically pandering to that vote to try and get and ignoring the needs of everybody else.
That's what started to dawn on us. And that's when I think it really started to change and they started to really exert their political muscle, which was right around like the turn of the century, right around two thousand and we realized we had an issue because they started to push higher density zoning and when we went out to try to say, hey, maybe we don't want to do this, they just ignored us and pushed it through anyway.
You know. So, yeah, it has changed, and I think it's become more contentious and it's been become more divisive, right because you know, their political needs are very different from our are in everybody else a secular community, I suppose, and so it becomes we you know, we're pitted against them and they're pitted against us, and it becomes very contentious.
So that's how it's changed. And you know, that's how that's what got me involved. We talk about that obviously more detail. It's a big part of the conversation because it's a big part of what's happening here in Rockland County. But also, you know a couple of little things to know more about Michael Perietty. Also, you were an outstanding wrestler, okay, and and and people who know wrestlers have been involved with it.
My brother did. I did not, but I have many friends who were. And there's a particular mindset if you know wrestling and you know wrestlers. Can you kind of describe that and is that kind of an ethos if you will, that you take with you, especially as I said, fourth four time county champion and nanc double a wrestler, captain of your West Point wrestling team. You know, there there's a lot to that that's between the lines. Can you kind of fill that in? Why is that important in your life?
That's a great you know, it's such a deep question, you know, because I I kind of really my brother joined the wrestling team, you know, like I think it was junior high school and I kind of got dragged into wrestling in elementary school. And it is one of these things that over many years that it must have some kind of an effect on your your your your I don't know, your your your mindset or your you're just your whole psyche, you know, because are different. Yeah,
I mean because it's such a tough sport. You know, it's it's you know, it's so much. It's so demanding, you know, because it's like, you know, you have to lose weight and then wait right, which is very intense, and then and then you have the workouts are intense, and then the the the actual competition is very intense because it's one on one and it's two people, two wills battling each other, see who will who will prevail, who will give in before the other, And you know,
it is it's a very intense thing. And I I you kind of become somehow, I don't know, addicted to it or you're caught up in it. Because when I that helped me get into the Military Academy of West Point, and when I was there, it was so difficult to keep it up because there you have very intensive academic requirements, and you have other extracricter and military requirements, and on top of all of that, you have this wrestling, the weight loss, the travel, all the stressful things that go
along with the competition. And I think is I was not on a wrestling scholarship. Nobody is at the academy. Nobody's on no scholarship. Technically, I didn't have to keep doing it. I could have quit, you know, but I never. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. And I did it all four years and I ended up being
the captain of the team. And there's no question, you know, when I look back years later, I think of how I got involved in this and how I just kept doing it, you know, I always you know, when I first got involved this, I went to this meeting. They were having a They were talking about a organizing a petition drive to force a referendum on award system in Roundpope. You know what it is that the town board is
elected at large by default. But that was playing right into the hands of the block right because they they then they would elect the whole town board in the super bars and have complete control under state, well, you can have a referendum to try to change it to a ward system where different parts of the town have their own representative. That way we would have had some representation on the board. And so I just got involved in that, and I thought it was going to be
a fun democratic exercise. And we turned our petitions in and the town just they just held on to them and held on to them. They just held on to them too.
You know.
The idea was to get this referendum on the next local election right, and they just held it. It was too late to do that. Then they threw them out. They said they were no good. And you know, so we kept doing this like three years in a row, and I sort of took the lead after the first one and I wondered, like, why did I keep doing it? We kept We put it in again, they throw it out. We put it in another time, they threw it out,
and then it wasn't ttil years later. I got dragged into court on something else and we got sort of cheated by a judge, and mean this other guy challenged it. We appealed it pro se the pel division, and to our shock, we won and the case was sent back to the judges. We won, and so I was like, wow, you know we can win this. So I said, we're going to put the petition back and again, and when they throw it out, we're going to take into court.
You know, the town throws it out, we're going to take them to court and fight it out for as long as tax. And that's what we did, and what we went through was just unbelievable. I can't even tell you.
Please.
Yeah, I'm just saying that. It just I looked back and go why did I keep grinding? Why did I keep going at it? And I definitely one day it hit me, Wow, this has something to do with all the wrestling that I did.
Does that stick to it? As I will not be defeated? Nature that it's necessary to compete in that sport. I've been around it enough to know. I thought it was important for people to understand that another thing to another strong commitment.
Uh.
Not easy and certainly not easy to get into, not easy to complete a military career at West Point? What influenced your decision? What called your decision to go there?
Yeah?
You know, I mean, I don't know. I was always a big military history buff and uh and and I like to hike and camp and stuff like that, and I kind of thought it would be a very interesting path to take, you know, to go to the military academy. I felt like I was up to the riggers that it required in terms of, you know, it certainly physically fit enough, and I was, uh, I had, I think, a disciplined mindset, so I thought I could deal with that.
And then I just thought I also thought it was very interesting upon graduation, you know, to become a platoon leader in in in the in the military, and I was, you know, in the combat arms, and so I just thought it would be it would be a more interesting path than just going to regular college. I think that's kind of why I did.
It and didn't fulfill those expectations. Was it what you expected?
Not?
Not entirely. I mean, you know, it's always hard to you know. I'd say that the academy was was pretty tough, particularly with the wrestling involved. I kept wrestling, and but it was very tough going through the academy, and I'm sometimes I don't think I was a real good fit for it. Looking back at it, I'm very intellectually curious, you know, I have so many different interests and there they have a pretty strict set curriculum that you pretty much have to stick to, at least they did back then.
It's it's evolved in change, So that was probably something Looking back, maybe it wasn't a great fit for me, But I have to say getting out in the in the actual army and within in the tenth Mountain Division, that was really awesome. That was a really amazing experience, dealing with the different soldiers and the different missions we went on and and it was really that was really that really did live up to expectations that.
And that was my next question, Michael, So talk a little bit about your military experience and from those experiences again, how it brought you to the next level of developed and we're kind of we're kind of built a Yeah. What what did you take from from those experiences that are most important to you today?
Well, you know, one of the things I did I enjoyed. I was in the infantry, and which is one of the tougher branches, you know, and I and I went to I went to the basic Infantry Officers course, I went to the airborne training, but I also went to a ranger school, which is a very intensive leadership course where they basically take you out for you know, over two months and essentially without a break. They put you through a very intensive course of you know, where you're
facing intense you know, martships and adversity. You don't get you don't get to eat very much, you don't get to sleep very much, and they're freezing you. You know, I went through in the winter. You know, I went through from January to March without any break or any kind and it's was just a real war of atrition.
So many people dropped out because it's so intense, and they're trying to push you to your breaking point and teach you to continue to function and operate and think and lead even when you're stressed to the max from four or five different directions at once.
And you know I did.
I did not breathe through it. It was tough for me. I had to struggle to get through it and pass it, but I did. And I think that too is also in a sort of an extension, the whole wrestling thing and the whole mentality of you know, sticking with it and pushing driving on with the mission in spite of obstacles or adversity, so that was a big thing. From there I went, you know, I ended up ultimately in the tenth Mountain Division, which was a combat deployable light
infantry division, and that was intense. You know, we were not an elite it's I was not in the ranger battalions, which is those are batons that are filled with their
staff with the elite, elite soldiers at every level. Right, I was in tenth mat Division, and in that thing, we had lots of great soldiers, but we you know, sometimes we had personnel issues where we weren't full strength, or we didn't have people that had all the training they were supposed to have and things like that, and so that was you know, learning how to deal with that, deal with the personnel issues, and deal with all the
different kinds of people because it's very diverse. You know, we had people from you know, very every culture and ethnicity and trying to you know, learn to work together because, you know, to go out and do a military operation, particularly in combaty, you know, there are so many elements. There's terrain, there's weather, there's logistics, and all these things
combined to make doing any operation complicated and tricky. And so it was a really good experience and for even how to work with other people and accomplish the mission despite adversity. Again, so that was a great experience, you know, you know, following that, you know, the thing about it was, I was in from nine, graduated in nineteen eighty four, and I was in until nineteen eighty nine, and in
nineteen eighty nine, the Berlin Wall came down. The whole world, the power structure of the world was completely realigned or somewhat, and the army was downsizing, and you know, there's just this feeling I had this certain time for me to move on, you know, and although I was torn because I really did enjoy many the aspects of the military, I decided to you know, leave the military. I'd done
my five year commitment. I fulfilled that, and so then I went out and I ended up getting involved in the biotech or the pharmaceutical industry, which I did for you know, nearly twenty years, and I was, you know, along the way, I got a Masters of Biotechnology from Penn State University, and that was just to me. That was another great experience because then I was working in a different kind of an organization with different kinds of people.
You know, in the military you kind of interact with people in a much different way than you do in like a corporation, you know, so there was definitely a learning curve me to reinvent myself a bit and adjust and figure out how to be successful in that environment. And so I think that was another just another part of the progression in my development.
You know. Do you find and it's interesting, all these great challenges and we talk about more that you've had, is there a common thread that you find You mentioned, you know, different organizations kind of run differently. Is there any kind of common thread that we can look for that kind of binds them all together.
Well, I think the one thing I'll say is in most things I did in life, and probably with most people, it's very similar. Whenever you're trying to accomplish something, there's going to be there's going to be problems, there's going to be obstacles, things are not going to be ideal, and you have to learn to persevere in spite of that. You know, you can't go and you can't say, Okay, you know, I'm going to pack up myself and go home now because I'm done. This is not this is
not run as smoothly as it should. It's not running perfectly. There's conflicts among people. I'm done, I'm quit. You know, you can't do that. You have to learn to deal with whatever has come up as best as possible, but continue to push towards the objective. And I think that's kind of the common thread, and it's you know, and.
I think that's perfect segue into why you're at it again. And it's not an easy path. We mentioned and again this is a Rockland based program right as a stony point, although we stream actually literally all over the world and all politics as local as they say. But you know you're running as an independent. You didn't get the Democratic nod against a very well entrenched and fairly well liked
incumbent or Republican at day. So talk about the challenges that you have running kind of on your own, running as a dependent independent against it kind of as I said, well oiled or well entrenched Maen, that is the Republican party here in Rockland County. What are your challenges and how do you intend to meet them? Right?
Well, you know, just real quick, Ed days running for a fourth four year term after he said he would only run.
For two.
And then he said, oh, I think I want to I need to run for a third term because I want to be in a position to veto the redistricting plan of the county Legislature. It's done unfairly. But then when he got reelected, he did the exact opposite, and he signed off on a just a shameful gerrymander of the county Legislature, which essentially it was drawn so that, you know, the leaders of the bloc community would have the maximum amount of political power possible at the expense
of many of the communities of interest. And that really upset me, you know, And now he wants to run for a fourth term. I had no intention of running for county executive because I thought, for sure, you know, if the guys he's running for his fourth term after saying run for two, that they would certainly challenge him, because there's plenty of you know, good Democrats in the
prime of their political lives here in Rock County. They could have run asen But I think what happened was when he signed that registricting plan, they said, ed, if you signed the plan, we'll make sure you don't have an opponent in the next election. See because a lot of times these parties the gout these deals like that. You know, as a county, why we rarely have contested elections for a sure pa or you know, so I
think that's what happened. I had no intention of running until I saw that he was going to run on a poet. You know, there was one guy who tried to get on the Democratic line on his own. He was a maver or, he was an outsider, but you know, it was a very difficult thing. He couldn't get the signatures for a whole bunch of reasons, and so he didn't get on the belt. And I was actually I was helping him a bet. I was trying to get
in some signatures. But the thing is, so when when it became a parent that they would run on a post, we had about a week to think it over before the independent petitioning period began, right so that the innepetu bea begins after the regular and we decided. You know, I asked around to see if anybody else wanted to do it. Nobody wanted to do it, and I said, you know what, this is an opportunity we can't pass up. Because you see, the thing is this, This is giving
voters a real choice. It's not just a choice, it's a real choice because it's a choice between you know, big party politics as usual, big money politics, and the exact opposite of that, which is honest, fair, efficient government that is free from any conflict adventures, which what's in the best public interest. And so that leads to one of my biggest challenges but also one of my biggest strengths, and that's funding.
Right, it's just going to bring that up. We got to talk the reality of politics. You got to talk money. How are you funded?
Funding?
How do you get money? You have to do campaign ads, travel, all that stuff.
Well, it's very difficult. I mean, look ed, Day's got nine hundred dollars in his campaign account, and if you read through the list of donors, it reads like a recipe for disaster. I mean it is one commercial entity after another. You know, you've got developers, builders, banks, retail interests, unions, data centers, every political action committee, is every strikeing and all of these entities have some sort of business or
interest in Rocklin County. And so you know he's got I don't know how policy decisions are made behind closed Jordans administration. There's so many strings attached and conflicts of interests. And on top of that, he also got the block vote. Like ed Day got elected without the block vote, right, we helped him get elected without the block vote industry. Now he's you know, decided it was more convenient him to go over to the block So he's getting the
block vote, and we know what that means. They're going to have tremendous leverage over him in his in his administration. So he's got the block vote issue, he's got all of this big money pouring in, he's got all these strings attested. So I don't I don't have that problem. I have never in all I've had several runs for office previously, I have never taken a donation from anyone other than a private individual. I'm not doing it this time, and I never will.
No packs, no, no nothing interest groups ever.
Right, I mean, those groups probably would never have donated to me because I've always been about good government and you know, what's in the doing, what's in the best interest in the public. But and so that's that's what I'm doing this time. And people I have had some pressure from people, Oh Mike, you got to go call these donors and get all this, you know, And I just said, I just felt inside I had an internal competency and know what, that's that's not me. That's not
what I want to do. And I think, you know, it's to the contrary, it's it is a strength in some ways because people know that I'm not I'm going to try to do to the best of my ability what is in the best public interest, without any any leverage from any group trying to make me do the wrong thing. Right now, the thing is we have I have We have had fund people coming and fund our campaign. You know, we have private individuals that I give it
just enough money to run a good campaign. One of the big things that I have going for me is the I have There are some social media platforms or pay you know, Facebook pages and websites that are strongly behind me, and they have a strong following because of the fact that these are groups that will talk about
things that your mainstream media will not talk about. And so the point is on that alone, I've got and they should be nervous about that alone, because we've got I've got broad reach through that, and I also have fairly decent name recognition for all the things that I've done over the past twenty years. You know, I'm always surprised, How'll be campaign is somewhere and people come say, hey, Mike, you got my vote. No, I'll be who are you? I just know you if I'm reading about in the
papers or on the on Facebook and stuff. So that's what's what is powering my campaign is a grassroots effort, a real grassroots effort, because people know in this election that there is a real choice and it's a rare opportunity that will probably never come again for a county. I mean, this may be our last chance to really elect someone who's nearly entirely free from any conflict of interest and would do everything in their power to bring it back big government.
So, Michael, what do you see as the key issues facing this county Rockland County. Give me even three, four or five of the most important issues and things that you would address as soon as you were in office.
Okay. I mean one of the big issues is over development, and then there's illegal housing. There's also fair housing and affordable housing. We also need to look at making sure we promote small businesses and the economy and smart industry and there's also corruption, right, and I think you know, if you look at corruption, I mean everything flows from that.
Right.
If I can get in, I will build an administration. I will surround myself with the very best people I can sign. And I'm at my core, I'm a very open minded, approachable, collaborative person that I'm also I also have a record being proactive. I will boil down the problem to it core elements and say what's the most impactful thing we can do to try to address the situation, and go out and try to do it. And so that's how I will govern. And so I would take
on all these issues like over developments. Let's go back to that's a very tough issue, right because it's a home rule state, and so local municipalities they they're empowered to make their own zoning and code enforcement generally, So how do you prevent them from building too much? Which is what is really going on, particularly in the town
of Raupo and Spring Value. They are you see in those towns, the developers and the builders and some of the slowboards, they've got tremendous political leverage over the elected
officials and the judges and everything. The judges are elected to and so there's no real political incentive to stop what, you know, prevent them from doing what they want to do, which is build high density housing because, let's face it, the ultra orthodox the block community they're growing, they have a very high population growth rate, and they need to house those right. They want housing for those people, which
give them it ultimately gives them more and more political power. Right, So so how do you what do you do about that very difficult issue? In Spring Valley, the county was able to show that they were not doing proper code enforcement, so the state stepped in, and now the county is supposedly doing code enforcement for villages Ring Valley. Right, that's not true. They don't have the authority over Ramapo. I would say this.
I know.
I was on the county planning board for ten years, Okay, so I have seen the things that come across our desk, that came across our desk, and how some of them were completely out of whack with what the zoning code or you know allow, and they just would we would routinely vote them down unanimously. They would go to the local board, which would override us, and then they would
build them anyway. Now, I know my training for the Planning Board, I heard them say that if a town shows a gross lack of planning and zoning code enforcement, they're there is a legal remedy to try to bring them into you know, in line. And I you know, as a county executive, I would try to establish a legal unit within the county attorney's officer, maybe within the county executives that would focus on these issues directly, and we would have explore every legal avenue available to us.
Michael, that brings up a good point here within this and even if you got to kind of tiptoe around, because the spectra of anti Semitism is surrounds this issue and is often brought off often as a cudgel have to hit you over the head with. Certainly, how would you how do you deal with that and separate the issues of housing, development, religion, et cetera. And again because even whether way we're talking it's we're treading lightly here or a very important, very real issue.
How do we do well?
I mean, I think we have to talk about it, right, you see, that's one of the things I think block leaders. They want to create an atmosphere where people are afraid to talk about it, because if people aren't talking about what's going on, they can keep on doing what they're doing right, regardless of the negative impact they may have on the environment or the infrastructure. So we need to talk about it, and we need to try to have civil,
open discussions about it. You know what I've said to the town board, now that you know the block is in, you know, the complete control of route. I've said, look, this is your town. Now, okay, you're in control. Do you want to destroy your own town?
You know?
Don't you want to preserve some of it for future generations, for your own generations? You know? That's I think we need to We need to try to get them to open up their minds and say, hey, you know, what are we really doing here? And I you know, I think you know I've I have been talking about it for twenty years, and I have been accused of all
sorts of things. But I always try to the conversation civil, and I always that's one thing I always try to put myself in the shoes of the people I'm I may be at odds with or people on different ends of the political spectrum. You know, we all come from different places and we believe the things we believe for different reasons, right, so we need to try to find some kind of common ground and move forward. So we need to talk about it. Well, we need to do it in a civil, constructive manner.
And that's why we call this program intelligent Conversation. I'm glad you're having one with us. You know, again we talked to all politics is local, and this is a local election Rockland County, but federal things also affect us, particularly now with this tremendous amount of budget cuts. It's
trickling down and it affects the county greatly. For example, one of my good friends, Diane Saratori, the executive director of People to People, is terrified, for lack of a better word, and how are they going to get food to feed hungry people here in our own backyards. How locally kenneb County government take on the federal government to get the funds that are needed to support our people. What would you do?
That's a very tough question. It's a very difficult issue that's going to definitely impact us sooner rather than later. I think, first of all, we can't just sit back and wait for Washington to come to our rescue. We need to be proactive, We need to collaborate, we need to communicate, and we need to try to build strong relationships and alliances with state agencies and departments so hopefully in the interim they can help fill the back the shortfall,
you know it is. It's definitely a tough issue. I don't have an easy answer for it, because we've got to find somewhere to get the funding. If it's not going to come from Washington, can we get it from the state. Can we be also more efficient? Can we manage our affairs as efficient as possible so that we we uh, you know, harbor our resources so that we can get through this tough period. That's another thing we need to look at.
Michael, I talk a little bit more of get your thoughts on some national regional issues, as I said, because they will affect us. Take a quick break, Okay, when we come back to talk about that. My very special guest is Michael Parietti. He's an independent candidate for a Rockland County executive and we're having some great intelligent conversation. This is being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono, and we're back with more right after these brief commercial messages.
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Welcome back to Being Frank, the intelligent conversation podcast. Thanks for sticking with us. I'm your host, FRANKL. Bono and as always, our engineer is the mailman Richter. He always delivers a special guest is Rockland County Independent candidate for a County Executive, Mister Michael Parietti. You know, we bring our audience a fresh topic just about every week and stream from Hudson River Radio located in beautiful and historic
Stony Point, New York. But you can catch Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcasts, That includes Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and all the rest. And because every Being Frank is archived, you can listen to any of our programs anytime you like. You can find a link to Being Frank on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page or at our website Hudson Riverradio dot com. Find my icon, click on it and you're there. Right back to our conversation with the independent
candidate for Rockland County Executive Mister Michael Parietti. Michael, I appreciate your candor for the first half of our program. Let's continue with that right now, in the midst of a shutdown. As of this taping looms is maybe the longest ever. What's your take on it? And if you were in Congress or had the ability to change things, what would you do to end this?
Well, I mean it's yeah, it's a very serious issue that's go only getting worse and worse, which every passing day. And what I would do if I could, is I try to get both sides to get together and talk about it and come up with some kind of resolution. But that's kind of idealistic, I think at this point, because it seems that neither side is willing to do what they need to do to end the shutdown. And I think this kind of goes back to sort of
the whole rationale behind my campaign. You know, I think we're getting so polarized that the two parties are going farther and farther apart, and I think people are afraid to break ranks. You know, even if let's say you're a moderate Democrat or or any any Republican or Democrat that wants to try to forward some kind of a resolution to this. You are sort of prevent you're pressured, you're prevented from doing that because they don't want you
to break ranks. And I think particularly in Congress, who have this problem where the in order to get elected for Congress, as we said before, you need to raise these inorderate amounts of money. And I've funny, I've talked to most of the congressional candidates that are running for the upcoming election. I've met them on the campaign trail, and they all talk to me about the pressure to raise money and they have to be on the phone
constantly raising money. And you know, but the funny thing about is most of this money, the vast majority, comes from outside the district. It comes from across the whole country. So you have these donor networks that are plumping the money in and they're not necessarily concerned about what's good for local people, you know, they're you know so, And I think that is sort of polarizing both sides of
the equation. Like and often the media will say, well, this candidate has raised more money than the other candidates so there are more viable candidate. But that's sort of the reality is almost the inverse. The more money they've raised, the less connected they are, and the more outside money they've raised, the less if there are two people from the district. And so I think that that's why I think my candidacy is such a unique opportunity to try
and forge a new path to this country. Let's start somewhere.
We can.
You can, you don't have to, you know, I'm willing to sit down with anybody from anywhere in the political spectrum and entertain ideas from the right and the left to come up with solutions to the most pressing issues.
That we have.
You have to be free to do that, and I fear that it's gotten to the point where the most congressional representatives are not free to do that. So, I mean, it's it's a tough issue. What would I do to end the shutdown? I don't know. I would try to get people to come together to decide collectively to end it.
Well, you know, I want to expand on that little Michael. We have a little bit of time, and I'd like to expand on it. You mentioned the freedom to speak your mind, lately. I mean, that's being curtailed. It's it's obvious definitely of the administration and the president if you speak against him. I even worry about this program every once in a while because we invite all points of view, and some of them are very contrary to what the
current administration is proposing. And I know that makes us vulnerable, and it makes me somewhat nervous, for lack of a better word, I address that a little bit. How do we maintain our freedom against the fort Again, I want to be overly dramatic, but really, what's becoming the forces of oppression?
Yeah, I know it's a scary thing. I mean, and I felt that for years in Ramapo, you know, with the horble issue, and you know, you know one thing in the last one they did their redistrict the county legislature. It was a total gerrymander, and I challenged it. One of the issues was they wouldn't let us speak at
the public hearing. Here was a it was a ten year it was a mandatory public hearing on a ten year redistricting plan, and they would not allow people to speak at the public hearing, and they allowed their own experts to speak and the members of the county of the Regisa, they spoke, they talked about how great the MAP was, but the people who are being disadfranchised by the MAP were not allowed to speak at the public hearing,
which is just unbelievable. And we I appealed this, like I said, on that issue, all the way to the US Sucremey Court. So yeah, it's it's a definite issue. How do we have to keep fighting. We cannot lay down on this. We need to keep fighting for our right to free speech and our right to dissent and our right to assemble. And that's that's the best tool we have to try and move our country forward and to move it in the right direction. So we got to keep fighting.
Yeah, I want to talk a little bit about our political parties, but in particular Democrats, which seem these days to be somewhat in disarray, or there's certainly at least two camps, the Chuck Schumer's of the world, the more traditional conservative, and then the Mamdani's and the aocs of the world, considered progressive moments to the point of socialism.
Your thoughts are that where should we be going? Are we should we stay the course according to Schumer's way, or should we shake the pod if you will, with the stir the pod forgive me like the aocs of the world do what are your what are your feelings?
Well, I definitely think we need to stir the pot to a certain extent, but of course we don't want to drift too far to the left either. I mean, in order to win an election, right, either party has to get fifty you know, generally speaking, I think at about fifty one percent of the vote right, So you need to win over the middle. You need to have moderates.
So I think we should borrow good ideas from all points on the political spectrum and and use those ideas to build our platform and to attract voters so we can win elections and go forward. So, you know, I think it's about being open minded and approachable and being willing to work with people from from every point of the polical spectrum to get things done.
So that's sort of my answer to that. Okay, Well, one final question Michael too. It's one I feel like I have to ask that political violence has seeped into our conversation. We've seen it in Minnesota. We saw it in uh, Charlie Kirk we we we just we've seen it just recently with the Governor Shapiro in Pennsylvania, shocking video of that man. And does it concern you as a politician, the fact that now it kind of makes you more vulnerable than you've ever been before.
Your thoughts, Yeah, absolutely does concern me. It does concern me. I will say that over the twenty plus years I've been doing this, in the last several years, I've noticed a sort of a turn towards more confrontation.
You know.
I used to knock on a lot of doors, talk to a lot of people, and I, you know, fast jority people are very nice. But but just in the last two years I have run into some very hostile people knocking on the door. And it's it makes you a little gun shy, right, So I do worry about it. I do worry about it. And you know, I think it's it is important for us to try to choose our words carefully and to try to you know, tone is everything. Try to have a conciliatory tone, even with
people that you're at odds with politically. But yeah, it's it's I have to say, I do I do worry for myself and others, you know, and it is said that we can't communicate more in a civil fashion without fear of escalation.
Michael, I'm going to give you a chance to plug some websites you mentioned where people can find out more about you and your platform and campaign. But before that, I'm going to give you an opportunity just flat out why should people vote for you over the incumbenty a day? What should people see in you that should give them confidence that you can roam this county and run it well.
Well, Like I said, I think this is a real choice in the selection. It's a rare opportunity that's not going to come again. So ed Day's going to get the block vote. He's got nine hundred thousand dollars in his campaign account from all these different special interests that wants something that's not necessarily in the best interest in the county. I have none of that. I will be free to do what I think is the most effective solution to any of the problems that we face this.
I will sit down and talk with anyone to try to come up with the best answers to our problems. I have a life's worth of work experience in many different area. I've been in many different organizations with so many people from so many different walks of life, solving problems from academia to the military, to corporate America to
small business and now on the local level. I have been involved in so many efforts I couldn't even it would take me for every caateg all the different initiatives I've been involved in to try and forge good government and fair representation here. And I have ten years on the rocken Aunty Planning Board. I have a deep understanding of the problems that we face. So I think it's time for new leadership. Eddea has had three terms and he I think the time has come for him to go,
and we need new leadership. We need new ideas, and I feel that I will bring the energy and the heightened sense of urgency that we need. We don't Rothen is on the brink right now with all the problems we face. We don't have four years to sit around waiting for ed Day to move on. Well, he enjoys the perkose of power, which is what I think he's really the main reason I feel he's running free election. We need to get to work on these problems immediately, and I will do that. I will bring that to
to Brockon County. So that's that's my pitch. I care deeply county. My great grandfather came here in the eighteen nineties. I was born and raised here. Rockland is an amazing place. We need to do everything we can do to keep it viable and keep it on the right track.
Could have viewsed you on our last show, Michael, about Italian American history, all Italians all the time. I had two Italian scholars with myself and we talked about Italian Americans that up. Yeah, look that one up. I think you'll enjoy it. Richter was the only outsider. But anyway, Michael, how people want to know more about you? Give me some websites? How can they get in touch with you? Do you have a website? You mentioned certain social media
outlets that are featuring you. Tell us about them.
Well, my website is Mike FORO Rockland dot org and that's Mike with the numeral for so Mike FORO Rockland dot org. That has my platform and my bio and a lot of information about me in my campaign. We also have a Facebook page page Mike Perry Eddie for Rockland. That's my Facebook page, and we have an Instagram account with the same name, Mike Perry Eddie for Rockland, and so those that you can get all the information you
need from me there. You can contact me there. And I think this might This is truly a grassroots effort my campaign, no question about it. That's the way I'll win through a grassroots efort. So I would say to everybody, if you support me, if you believe in the things that I believe in, and you want to move the county forward, please try to share the You can go to our Facebook page, you can share our posts, you can share information about my account. We've got the sample
ballot up there. I'm running on the independent party line. It's called the Good GOV line. Is row E on the ballot. I'm easy to find on the ballot. I'm just the fifth row down. There's only two candidates on the ballot. This is a two way race.
You know.
I've run as an independent before in a three way race, and that's hard to win because each side is afraid to vote for you even if they want to, because they can help the other side. We don't have that problem two way race, head to head contest between myself and a Day, a stark choice for people and a rare opportunity for voters. So I encourage everybody please spread
the word. Talk to your friends, talk to your family, share our posts either through email, forward our emails or Facebook posts, and let's get the word out and get the vote out.
One last tough question, Can you win?
Absolutely positively, I can definitely win this race, and that Day I think is very nervous, and he should be nervous because the reason I say that is, like I said, this is not your average election where you have two candidates that may be hampered or hindered by the same
special interests callowing out. And we have a real choice here between big money, big party politics as usual, business as usual, and the complete opposite of that, which is honest, fair, efficient government, free for any special interests or conflict of interest. And I think people are hungry for that. Wherever I go, I run into so many people saying, Mike were behind you, you got my vote. And I think, I really think that that word is spreading virally and widely, and I
definitely think I can win this. So I say to you, we can all win it. I can't win it. We can all win it together. So be a part of it. Don't miss don't miss out on it. Get get out and vote and get your people at the vote.
Michael Periety, dependent candidate for Rockland County Executives, Thank you for being frank and with all that intelligent conversation. Really appreciate you, candidate. That was terrific.
All right, thank you, Frank. Really appreciate it. What's great?
I enjoyed it great. Of course, we offer special thanks to our listeners who take time to give us a voice in their lives. Remember you offer fresh topic just about every week and catch us wherever and whenever you get your favorite podcasts that includes Apples, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and all the others. Check us out on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page. Leave us a comment two, and we'd like you to consider sharing being Frank with others. It's easy to do. As always, I leave you with two
last little extras. One slogan that's appropriate for our conversation, and some great original music. The slogan comes from John C. Calhoun. That was a surprise when I looked this one up, and he said the very essence of A free government consists in considering offices as public trusts bestowed for the good of the country and not for the benefit of an individual or party. Says it all right there, folks. I'll write some great original music from one of my
former colleagues, Chris Wall and his band wreck Wall. It's a great tune and his music is available on band camp. For our engineer the mail Man, mister Neil rich Or. I'm your host, Frank Lobono, and we hope to have you join us on the next being Frank where the only way to be is Frank. Thanks everyone, Sanzi.
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