FISHKILL – Registered Conservative Fishkill Councilman John Forman claims that his arrest on Tuesday for criminal possession of stolen property is part of a scheme orchestrated by his opponent, Fishkill Town Supervisor Ozzy Albra, a Democrat. The two are locked in a heated battle for the position of town supervisor. Albra is a Democrat seeking re-election while Forman wants to be the replacement.
On Tuesday, October 24, Albra signed a complaint with the East Fishkill Police Department claiming that Forman had stolen an “anti-Forman” campaign sign that was authorized by Albra and paid for by the Fishkill Democratic Committee. The Mid-Hudson News account of the arrest can be found here.
Forman told Mid-Hudson News that Albra orchestrated an “elaborate hoax” that resulted in the arrest of the candidate endorsed by the GOP. Forman says that he and Albra spoke on October 18 after a board meeting about the “anti-Forman” signs that he insists are illegal under New York State Election Law. Forman alleges that Albra told him that the two could remove the signs after conceding they were illegal. One version of the sign claims that Forman voted against lights for Little League and the other says that Forman does not pay taxes in Fishkill. The tax signs are part of a campaign message that Forman does not live in Fishkill.
Forman told Mid-Hudson News that he waited for two days for Albra to remove the signs before he began the task himself. “Ozzy misled the East Fishkill Police when he swore that I was stealing his signs because he neglected to tell them he authorized their removal.”
Forman admits that there were no witnesses to the conversation and no agreement was put in writing. “I started picking up the illegal signs on Friday. Over the course of a few days, I picked up more than 30, including the signs by the village post office. I picked up the sign by the post office this morning in broad daylight around 9:30 because we had an agreement – or so I thought.” Forman stressed that he was not sneaking around at night picking up signs because of the agreement between himself and Albra. Forman stressed to Mid-Hudson News that he was unabashed about picking up the signs in daylight hours because he was not trying to hide anything. State law requires that all political communications including signs and mailings must identify who paid for the communication. “Under the law,” Forman explained, “The signs are required to say ‘paid for by the Fishkill Democratic Committee’ for the signs Ozzy says they bought. Our agreement was to remove the illegal signs which is exactly what I was doing.”
Forman said he took the sign from the area of the post office around 9:30 on Tuesday morning. Albra and Town Board member Louise Daniele also independently indicated that the AirTag on the sign showed it being moved sometime between 9:30 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. which is the time Forman admitted to taking the sign.
Fishkill Republican Chairman Ed Baecher supports Forman’s claim about the legality of the signs. “Campaign law is clear; outside of these signs being filled with lies, they are illegal. They have no “paid for by” disclaimer and therefore are not allowed to be placed in public spaces. Their existence constitutes a blatant campaign violation.” Baecher also indicated that he would address the issue with authorities. “Now that we know who’s claimed ownership of and paid for these illegal signs, we will be filing an ethics complaint and pursuing legal action with State authorities against Supervisor Ozzy Albra for his illegal campaign expenditures and failure to disclose.”
