Town supervisor candidate Frank Ciano is threatening legal action over a series of mailers depicting him as a "fraud" and "bully" ahead of the Republican primary on June 24.
Ciano is challenging incumbent and Carmel Republican Committee endorsee Mike Cazzari, who is running for a third term after a long tenure as Carmel chief of police. Ciano denies allegations made in the mailers and on social media that he engaged in fraud, among other accusations.
"I have not been convicted of a crime and I do have a pistol permit in New York for 26 years," Ciano said via text Tuesday. "I'm going after those [behind the mailers] for what they said and done...I never had a charge on me."
Ciano, a vocal critic of local government, is running as an outsider with a mission to root out what he calls corruption. He has built a following on Facebook through his Mahopac Dads and Moms UNCENSORED page (which has 3,000 members as of press time), where he posts videos making allegations against local government and school officials—and, at times, criticizing this paper.
Meanwhile, mailers paid for by an organization called the Putnam Integrity Project (putnamintegrityproject.org) call Ciano “unqualified” and “dangerous” and accuse him of scamming a retiree out of his life savings through a mortgage scheme.
Ciano denies all the allegations. In a video posted June 16, Ciano said: “I have no felonies, I have no fraud charges,” and admits to “one misdemeanor,” a speeding ticket when he was 17.
“It was a bad speeding ticket,” he said.
However, court documents show a 2015 case between Gary McCarthy and Ciano/C & C Land Company where Ciano failed to pay the plaintiff $275,665, prompting the court to order Ciano to turn over a Mercedes-Benz and Corvette to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and was further accused of failing to do so.
According to the document, Ciano filed for Chapter 7, with his counsel arguing that the judgement was invalid due to the bankruptcy.
Ciano’s opponents also have accused him of intimidating people, something he denies.
“Listen, I come off strong,” Ciano said. “I speak loud, I’m deaf in one ear.”
Asked how he handles a disagreement, Ciano said: “I never approach somebody like I’m attacking them. If you don’t like me, please say that to my face. Don’t talk behind my back. I would like for you to curse me out to my face because I feel for you then. Let me know why you don’t like me. If you have a problem with me, you come to me.”
Ciano’s opponents also reposted a video of Ciano challenging former highway superintendent candidate Gerard Ahler to a fight and calling Ahler’s son “a transvestite.”
Ciano said the video is taken out of context and that he posted it after “Ahler threatened to kill me” for opposing Ahler in his highway supervisor campaign, which Ahler lost to write-in candidate Mike Stern.
Meanwhile, Ciano is accusing local officials of corruption and nepotism.
“I'm not here to throw bad stuff out, and I'm not here to talk bad about Mike [Cazzari] because he's a good guy. He's just not the right guy for the job. And after the primary, everybody would know everything—that I'm gonna guarantee.”
Ciano has repeatedly made allegations of “backdoor stuff” in town government. Critics of Ciano have accused him of making allegations in his videos and then failing to produce hard evidence when pressed.
“Like I said, I'm not here to badmouth nobody, so I can't answer that question for you,” he said. “But it definitely is back-door stuff.”
Pressed for an example, Ciano has called the town’s employment of Cazzari’s wife, Doreen, as senior account clerk in the town “nepotism” and criticized the Recreation and Parks Department’s recent hiring of Cazzari’s daughter Juliette as recreation leader, a civil service position. Mike Cazzari points out that, to qualify, his daughter had to score in the top three of a county-administered exam, held a similar position in Kent before her Carmel appointment, and served as an intern in Carmel before taking the Kent job.
Cazzari said “she was approved by Putnam County personnel to take this position,” and that to deny her the job for which she’s qualified because she’s related to him is wrong.
“Because she [was] the only qualified person for that job at that time, and that's just the way that is.”
As for the fliers, Ciano calls them politically motivated and says they show that his opponent is getting desperate.
On its website, Putnam Integrity Project—the group sending the mailer—does not identify its members but calls itself a “nonpartisan grassroots initiative committed to exposing corruption and demanding accountability in Putnam County.”
Ciano calls the attacks politically motivated and said Ahler, Putnam County Attorney Compton Spain, and Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne were behind it.
“Kevin doesn’t like it when I bark back at him, but it’s too bad,” Ciano said. “Compton Spain don’t like anybody barking to him because he’s the biggest crybaby out there.”
Ahler and Byrne both deny involvement or knowledge of who created the mailers. Spain did not return a call seeking comment before our deadline.
Ahler also denies threatening to kill Ciano and any involvement in the mailers.
Byrne called the allegation that he created the mailers laughable and said he was not publicly weighing in on the Carmel supervisor primary.
"That's absolutely absurd," Byrne said. “I’m too busy running the county to get involved.”
Byrne also bristled at Ciano’s claim that he doesn’t like it when Ciano “bark(s) at him.”
“I talked to him at a constituent meeting in Mahopac and he was civil,” Byrne said, adding that Ciano attended a recent press conference announcing the sales tax deal between the county and town governments, where Cazzari was also present.
"Frank shared positive remarks about it," Byrne said.
Cazzari has also denied any connection to the mailers.
“I want to be very clear,” he said in a text. “I had nothing to do with any of the negative mailers being sent out. I also have never touched, taken down or damaged any of my opponent’s signs, even though he keeps saying I did.
“The mailers clearly show who sent them, and I have no connection to that group at all,” he added.
Ciano has repeatedly called Cazzari “a good guy” and a “good cop” but says he’s unqualified to run the town. He suggested Cazzari run for county sheriff.
Asked how he would work with the Town Board, Ciano praised recent additions Mike Lugo (who is in a three-person primary race for two GOP nominations against former supervisor Ken Schmitt and former board member Robert Schanil) and Robert Kearns. He said outgoing Councilwoman Suzy McDonough “doesn’t give a sh*t” and called Councilman Frank Lombardi “an empty suit.”
“People want change,” Ciano said. “They don't want the same old stuff.”
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here