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In Response to
Maclsaac
Maclsaac's letter wherein he accused The
Saugerties Post Star of attacking the new
school board president via The Heidcamp Report
is utterly ridiculous. The average person would
expect MacIsaac to possess the degree of
intelligence necessary to read and decipher the
caption at the bottom of the Report, which clearly
states: "NOTE: The opinions expressed on this page
are solely the opinions of the writers and may not
reflect the opinion of The Saugerties Post
Star." In her editorial, Heather Plonchak,
Post Star editor, also made that point quite
clear. But, with all due respect to Heather, I must
disagree with her—she owes no apologies.
Both Brennan and Maclsaac, in typical cowardly
fashion, secretly approached the editor of The
Post Star and made an "off-the-record" request
to have The Heidcamp Report stopped. The
motive behind the Brennan and Maclsaac maneuver was
to avoid controversy since they would soon be
taking the reins at the school board and wanted
their pending leadership to proceed without public
scrutiny.
As far as the e-mail that Maclsaac refers to,
it's true, I "don't trust" him, and I stand behind
what I said 100%, I do think Rhau is like a
used-car salesman–it's the impression that
he's given me. And I do believe there will be new
faces on that school board after the next
election—in fact, I have every intention of
actively campaigning in an effort to achieve such
changes. As far as Maclsaac's contention that I've
attempted to manipulate board members behind the
scenes is another ridiculous statement. I've merely
attempted to get board members to do the job they
were elected to do, and to work for the benefit of
the District, the children, and the taxpayers,
rather than themselves and their family and
friends. While Maclsaac has done some favorable
things on the board , printing the portion of that
June 7th e-mail which upset him while conveniently
omitting the portion he preferred to hide from the
reader, shows a somewhat dishonest side to his
personality...perhaps this is why I don't trust
him. This is especially so when you realize that
the omitted portion is the portion that upset him
the most. So, here is the rest of that e-mail:
"Mike... I have a question for you..... when you
voted ‘yes' with Buono, McCaig, Parisian and
Kovac for the redistricting a few months ago...
Isn't it "true" that the only reason you really
voted "yes" was you knew that it was a 4-4 vote and
if you voted "no" it would have been a dead issue
and you didn't want to lose that opportunity for
your children to attend the Blue Mtn school??
"Wasn't that true, Mike? Didn't it benefit you
and your children to vote ‘yes' Mike?"
He never answered that question.
In another matter, I was told that board member
Maclsaac is the author of most letters written for
the school board. I understand that the letter
signed by all board members just prior to the
second budget vote on June 20th was drafted by
Maclsaac—this, per Brennan, who read the
entire letter to me over the phone prior to being
approved or signed by the board. According to
Brennan, certain language was omitted from the
original draft. I inadvertently discovered later
that the reason for omitting this "certain
language" was because it contained false
statements, lies designed to protect Rhau and stop
The Heidcamp Report! Fortunately, we had
honest board members who refused to sign it. If
these allegations of a malicious and intentional
attempt to silence The Heidcamp Report are denied,
I am prepared to prove what I've said, and
publicly. The underhanded,
sneaking-behind-the-scenes behavior is one of the
primary reasons why I mistrust certain board
members. After all, if they could do this what else
will they be willing to do? And, indeed, what else
have they already done? In fact this disturbs me to
the point where I am seriously considering filing
an official complaint with the Commissioner of the
New York State Board of Education and requesting an
investigation into the activities and behavior of
certain members and the leadership (both present
and former) of the Saugerties School Board. I may
further request that subpoenas be issued to obtain
Depositions from all board members. This is
precisely why I write The Heidcamp Report
and will continue writing it regardless how many of
their friends write negative letters.
That brings me to my final point, responding to
James Harris' letter to the editor. Let me save
Harris some time and trouble before he files all
those FOILs for my PBA and Conservative Party
expenses. I am not reimbursed for any expenses as
chairman of the Conservative party, and the only
reimbursement expense I receive from the PBA is
when I'm either negotiating a contract or
representing my members. It amounts to less then
$200 a year, and a far cry from the hundreds of
thousands of dollars we waste on Rhau's
coast-to-coast escapades. Harris claims my articles
are boring, yet it is obvious that he continues
reading them each week. I hope that Harris
continues to enjoy his walks through the park and
watching out-of-towners looking at antiques. And I
will continue writing The Heidcamp
Report.
George Heidcamp
8-17-06
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