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Taxpayer-Funded Rockland Green Litigation Continues Into Its Second Year; Court Ordered Discovery Schedule Ignored
By Tina Traster
Has Rockland Green picked a fight it cannot win? If so, at what cost to Rockland County taxpayers?
It remains to be seen how the legal wranglings between the Rockland County Solid Waste Authority (Rockland Green) and Hi Tor Animal Shelter play out, but one thing is indisputable: it’s not happening any time soon and taxpayers will continue to foot the bill for Rockland Green’s case.
Rockland Green sued Hi Tor in May 2024, claiming the animal shelter breached a contract with the tax-funded public authority. In turn, Hi Tor countersued, saying it was Rockland Green that breached the two-year contract because it terminated without notice or an opportunity to cure any deficiencies, and not the other way around.
On Feb. 13, Rockland Green and Hi Tor made their first appearance before Justice Thomas Zugibe in Rockland Supreme Court. The brief hearing laid out a discovery schedule. Initially, Zugibe told the parties to have discovery in by mid-May but Lawrence Garvey, Rockland Green’s in-house counsel, asked for two additional weeks. Reluctantly, the Judge granted his request but told the attorneys he expected them to comply with his ruling. At the time, he also issued a warning against a last-minute request for more time. He told them not to come to his courtroom unprepared.
Despite that, neither Garvey, nor Robert Blanton, Jr., Hi Tor’s attorney, complied with the court’s discovery order, which became clear at a May 29 compliance conference – three months after the ruling was issued. It is unclear why neither attorney complied with the discovery order but Hi Tor’s attorney said that he has provided dates for the organization’s president to be deposed.
An irritated Zugibe said, “you didn’t comply with the court order,” adding that it was “ignored.” He issued a new deadline, June 27, and warned that “if it happens again,” he would issue sanctions.
In the meantime, the case has stretched on more than a year, and taxpayers continue to foot the bill for ongoing legal work. It is also unclear why Rockland Green sends two attorneys – Garvey and Attorney Lee Apotheker of the West Group – to these conferences, while it continues to rack up taxpayer expense. Apotheker is the brother of Jeremy Apotheker, who runs day-to-day operations at the shelter.
In fiscal year 2024, Rockland Green spent $4.133 million on legal fees. That amount was almost $1 million more than it budgeted for 2024. In 2023, Rockland Green spent over $4 million in legal fees, more than $1.4 million more than it budgeted for 2023.
On Dec. 20, 2022, Rockland Green and Hi Tor, which had run the county shelter for 50 years, signed a two-year contract to provide care to and shelter for animals in the county after County Executive Ed Day leased the shelter site for $1 annually to Rockland Green.
The contract between Rockland Green and Hi Tor said: “In the event the Solid Waste Management Authority sought to terminate the contract due to a purported default by Hi Tor, it was to provide 30 days’ written notice to Hi Tor of the intent to terminate the contact and afford Hi Tor the opportunity to cure any alleged default.” This is the heart of Hi Tor’s countersuit.
Rockland Green never issued a notice of intention to terminate the contract between January 1, 2023 through September 21, as required under the terms of the agreement. Without written notice, Rockland Green unilaterally decided the relationship was over because it says it didn’t approve of how the shelter was being run.
From the outset, Rockland Green and Hi Tor were in an adversarial relationship. Hi Tor believed it was functioning as an independent “contract vendor” of Rockland Green, while the public authority viewed its role as overseer of both the facility and the day-to-day operations.
Hi Tor’s attorney Blanton had requested a “Bill of Particulars” from Hi Tor. A bill of particulars is a legal document that provides more detailed information about the charges or claims made in a lawsuit. It’s a way to clarify the specifics of a claim and help the defendant prepare a defense.
In a response Garvey filed on May 28, a day before the conference, the plaintiff provided a list of items expressing its dissatisfaction with how Hi Tor was running the shelter. The list includes Rockland Green’s frustration with being unable to have access to Hi Tor’s “policies and procedures,” saying they were asked for multiple times. The list includes demands for Hi Tor did not hand over its “staffing plan.” Also documented is Rockland Green’s displeasure with Hi Tor’s refusal to provide a copy of an incident report after a Hi Tor staffer was injured.
The bill of particulars points out that “several cats were roaming freely” around the property. “Observations of a group of about 50 feral cats,” adding that cats rubbed up against their legs, and therefore are not feral. The feral cat colony was established and expanded when Mike Sanducci and Nixie Gueits, who run the shelter today under Four Legs Good, managed the shelter in the mid 2010s and forward. It is unclear what has become of the colony cats since Four Legs Good took over management of the shelter.
The bill of particulars rehashes complaints about the state of the decrepit site, failing to cite that Hi Tor passed a mandatory New York State Ag Markets inspection in July 2023, weeks before Rockland Green ousted the shelter management from the site.
The lengthy document attempts to explain why Rockland Green believes it was justified in ending its relationship with Hi Tor without warning or an opportunity to cure any perceived deficiencies. However, what the bill of particulars doesn’t address is where specifically in the contract any of Rockland Green’s presumptions lie. Hi Tor has maintained Rockland Green’s demands were beyond the scope of the written agreement.
Instead, the phrase repeatedly used in Garvey’s response is that the purported obligations Rockland Green assumed are “encompassed in Animal Shelter Management & Operations Services” agreement.
Beyond supporting this legal fight, taxpayers are on the hook to pay for the purchase, buildout, and ongoing operations of the new shelter on Ecology Road in West Haverstraw. This includes principal and interest on the bond over the next thirty years. The bond is a 30-year “Special Obligation” bond with a face value of $18 million that carries a 5.5 percent interest rate for about $9 million of the issue, and 6.25 percent for $9 million that matures in 2049 and 2054. The bonds are rated Aa3 (a high rating with a low credit risk backed by taxpayer dollars).
The debt service will cost about $1.3 million annually through 2054. The total amount of interest on the bond will be $21,419,788. With the repayment of principal and interest, the total amount paid for the bond will be $39,419,788. Nearly $40 million. And that does not include the annual operation of the shelter, which will levy taxpayers $2 million next year and rise steadily every year.
More than 520 people have signed a petition opposing the project, over its high costs and the proposed location of the shelter, which is in a flood zone, sandwiched between a closed landfill that leaches methane and an uncapped construction landfill where a 454,000 square foot truck depot is proposed. It is also next door to the Joint Sewerage Authority, which emits bad odors. The deal will not be sealed until four of the five towns pass resolutions joining an Intermunicipal Government Agreement for the use of the shelter by their towns. Orangetown uses the Hudson Valley Humane Society for its animal management. The Bond Offering Statement says only four Rockland County towns will participate.
*Hi Tor’s former Executive Director, who was dismissed from the litigation by Justice Zugibe in January, is affiliated with Rockland County Business Journal.
