Dear JPCA member:
Once again many of you are in receipt of a letter, printed on NYC Council stationery, from Councilman Dennis Gallagher attacking both the Juniper Park Civic Association and Second Vice President, Edward Kampermann for exercising his first amendment right to freedom of speech.
Strangely, Councilman Dennis Gallagher continues to portray himself as a “victim” of the JPCA. We’ll let you decide for yourself who the real victims are here.
Q. Which of the following have happened to JPCA members who dared to speak out against the abuse of power by Councilman Dennis P. Gallagher?
A) Lies about them were spread throughout the community
B) Bogus complaints about their home were called in to the Department of Buildings
C) They were thrown off the community board
D) They were sued by one of his cronies for $1 million
E) The councilman showed up at their house unexpectedly
F) An attempt was made to take away their livelihood
G) All of the above
If you answered G – “all of the above,” you’d be 100% correct!
Dennis Gallagher has continued to spread the lie that Bob Holden was against a moving Vietnam War Memorial at Juniper Valley Park in 2004. The only problem is that neither Holden nor the JPCA had anything to do with issue. Dennis was even quoted by the Ridgewood Ledger as saying that Bob Holden was not against the installation of the memorial wall. Oops!
Dennis Gallagher has been calling in bogus complaints to the Department of Buildings about Bob Holden’s house and then mailed out an anonymous flyer basically announcing this fact. Bob Holden simply followed the advice that Gallagher gave at a COMET civic meeting and refused access to inspectors based upon the fact that the calls were meant to harass. How do we know the complaints and flyer were Dennis’ dirty work? Simple. The flyer contains a photo that the entire community board observed Dennis taking of Bob at one of their meetings. Oops!
JPCA 2nd Vice President Edward Kampermann was not reappointed to the community board for daring to speak out and write about Dennis Gallagher’s chicanery. Gallagher tried hard to have others thrown off as well, but the borough president didn’t do it. Oops!
JPCA Acting Secretary Christina Wilkinson is in the midst of fighting off frivolous legal action brought against her by a Gallagher crony over a letter to the editor that she wrote in response to a Gallagher hit piece against JPCA. The purpose was to harass and intimidate her since she was named the new editor of the Juniper Berry. After reading the last issue, you can see that the attempt failed miserably. Oops!
Gallagher and his civic association have also been spreading rumors that she hates Italians when she in fact is of Italian descent. Oops!
JPCA member Michael Schaefer e-mailed a complaint to Dennis Gallagher about his treatment of the JPCA and Gallagher showed up at his house unannounced in an attempt to intimidate him. Instead, Schaefer notified the JPCA and we published his letters in the Juniper Berry. Now all of Maspeth and Middle Village knows what Gallagher did. Oops!
JPCA Board Member and super volunteer Steve Fiedler had refereed for a local basketball league part time. After Steve refused to acquiesce to Gallagher’s demand that he resign from JPCA’s executive board, Dennis Gallagher called up the league president and told him to deny Steve the opportunity to referee any more games. Steve continues to serve on JPCA’s board and found another league for which to referee. Oops!
What other devious actions will backfire on Councilman Dennis Gallagher as he continues his war against a community volunteer organization? Stay tuned. There are sure to be many more because certainly Dennis Gallagher is acting irrationally.
A good question is how does he have time to represent our community when he is busy doing all of this?
The Juniper Park Civic Association attempted to settle this dispute several months ago using Monsignor Nicholas Sivillo of Our Lady of Hope as the peace broker. Dennis Gallagher walked away from the table of discussion further indicating his lack of desire to settle the impasse.
As usual we thank all our JPCA members and friends for sticking with us and recognizing the huge effort the JPCA and its Executive Board make in the community 24/7 on a volunteer basis. Your gratitude is apparent to us as we have been receiving many new applications for JPCA membership. Thank you all.
Yours truly,
The Executive Board
Juniper Park Civic Association
