Attachments

20231102-132058-Consolidated Statement of Tax Liabilities.pdf

HIGHLAND, NY — A card mailed to Highland residents late last week tries to make the case that a recent history of unpaid bills makes John Pizzolato a poor candidate for supervisor.

“40k+ in Unpaid Judgments, Debts and Liens,” says the card in bold letters, accompanied by thumbnail images of a tax warrant and two judgments, plus a claim that he had not filed a site plan for the Barryville Oasis, one of the businesses he owns in town.

Pizzolato explained the extenuating circumstances for each of these cases. He also produced documents of his own, including the completed site plan for the Barryville Oasis and a letter from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance that states, “According to our records, you do not have any unpaid New York State tax bills at this time.”

He said the mailer was the latest in a years-long pattern of harassment by his opponent, Town of Highland Supervisor Jeff Haas, and Haas’ daughter-in-law, deputy supervisor Kaitlin Haas. Pizzolato ran a close race against Jeff Haas in 2021, losing by fewer than 20 votes.

Haas told the River Reporter he had “absolutely nothing to do” with the mailer, “and I don’t know who did.”

Pizzolato said he is lying. “The town under the leadership, or lack thereof, of the Haas clan is always secretive, anonymous, and leads to litigious outcomes,” he wrote in an emailed statement to the River Reporter. “The recent mailing has the deputy supervisor and the supervisor’s paw prints all over it in their true mean spirit of transactional, punitive, and exclusionary behavior.”

The card says it was paid for by the Citizens for Truth, which is not included in the state’s campaign disclosures database.

There is, however, a Facebook page of that name, created on Friday. It includes the same images featured in the mailer and a tutorial on how to find a tax warrant. The page says, “We are a group of citizens who don’t support a specific candidate or campaign but believe in transparency and disclosure. Got a tip or something you want us to explore, drop us an email.”

A message asking for the identity of the page’s administrator, sent to the email listed on the page, was not returned. The page was soon afterward altered to remove the word “transparency.”

Pizzolato said the cases listed on the mailer were related to COVID-era difficulties.

“I’ve been a business owner for 20+ years and if these are the sum of my errors, I’ll wear them like a badge.”

Town supervisors in New York act as the treasurers of their towns. The law says a supervisor’s responsibilities are similar to the duties of a business corporation, in that directors must perform their duties “in good faith and with that degree of care which an ordinary prudent person in a like position would use under similar circumstances.”

Find more Highland news from this week here and here. 

[Editor's note: This article has been revised from the original on November 1. After an internal discussion among the editorial staff, the River Reporter changed the spelling of the word "klan," which appeared in John Pizzolato's statement to the paper and in the original story, to "clan." The paper regrets the confusion.]