Ron Gatto
Time Magazine Article (Handcuffed Cop)
Westchester’s new lead investigator on The Westchester County
Environmental Enforcement Unit
Ron Gatto was assigned to investigate Hen Island and its serious crimes against nature. On July 17th, 2007, Mr. Gatto – along with The City of Rye Building Department Inspector Vincent Tamburro and The Westchester County Health Department Sanitarian, Matthew Smith – conducted an inspection/investigation on Hen Island.
Inspector Gatto along with the other officials, agreed on the many volatile violations present on Hen Island. The only questions at the time were who the lead agency would be and to whom the County legal department would issue summonses to, the homeowners or the Corporate Owners (Kuder Island Colony Inc.).
It was evident that the violations were present and serious. (Westchester County Environmental Security Specialist Steven Carol documented this investigation in video). A short time later Inspector Gatto and his investigative team were removed from the Hen Island investigation and replaced with Deputy Health Commissioner Leonard Meyerson and his team. Suddenly the many volatile violations present on Hen Island were no more. (Why were Inspector Gatto and his team removed from the Hen Island investigation and why were Deputy Commissioner Meyerson and his team replacing them????)
On September 25th 2007, Deputy Commissioner Meyerson of the Westchester County Health Department issued a letter stating “with respect to your concerns about sewage” “That there were no violations of the County’s sanitary codes that would prompt our intervention”. As you can see by reading the linked document, that statement is totally untrue.
Commissioner Meyerson continues to say with regards to the use of water collected and stored from the rooftops and gutters, that “the County does not have any regulations prohibiting this practice”. As you can see by reading the linked document, that statement is also totally untrue.
Commissioner Meyerson also comments on the severe mosquito infestation on Hen Island acknowledging the infestation and the nuisance to humans but insinuating that because the County has never enforced the law with regards to a mosquito infestation, it should never be enforced. We don’t believe that there is any other residential community in Westchester County other than Hen Island that encourages growth of the mosquito larvae due to the large availability of water storage cisterns used for domestic water. The Commissioner further states, “ The department typically advises that the open containment of stagnant ponded water be avoided.” How is that possible when each home needs over seven hundred gallons of ponded water for its domestic use, which the commissioner has just condoned in the previous paragraph?
Letter sent in response to Commissioner Meyerson’s letter of Sept.25th, 2007
