The exciting story of the WAC Castle

 

The Watershed Kingdom

Once upon a time, in the misty green hills of the Catskills, there arose a magnificent kingdom dedicated to protecting water.

Not farmers.

Not towns.

Not people.

Water.

The Kingdom was called the Watershed Agricultural Council, although everyone in the countryside simply called it “The Castle.”

Nobody was entirely sure who owned The Castle.

The Castle itself insisted it was private.

The City insisted it was independent.

The farmers insisted somebody was definitely in charge.

And the paperwork insisted everybody needed another form.

At the center of the Kingdom stood the Sacred Lever of Filtration Avoidance.

The Lever was guarded day and night by administrators in fleece vests carrying binders thick enough to stop rifle rounds. Legend said that if the Lever was ever disturbed, New York City would be forced to build a gigantic filtration plant made of gold, concrete, and taxpayer tears.

So the Lever could never be touched.

To protect the Lever, the Kingdom developed many sacred rituals.

There were Whole Farm Plans.

There were BMPs.

There were Easement Guidelines.

There were Resource Protection Areas.

There were Allocation Tracking Worksheets.

There were Annual Status Reviews.

And, of course, there was the most holy phrase of all:

“Consistent with the Conservation Purposes.”

Nobody knew exactly what the Conservation Purposes were.

But everybody agreed they were extremely important.

Farmer Bill discovered this one spring after asking whether he could move a culvert twelve feet downhill.

The Easement Committee assembled immediately.

Five solemn officials reviewed satellite maps, topographic contour lines, stream buffer diagrams, slope calculations, nutrient management charts, and historical cow trajectories.

Three months later, Farmer Bill received a forty-page determination.

The answer was:

“Maybe.”

Meanwhile, giant trucks from the City arrived every year carrying mountains of money.

The Kingdom called these “Program Funds.”

The farmers called them “the reason the lights stay on.”

The Castle insisted the money did not create control.

This was explained carefully in many legal documents.

The explanation usually went something like this:

“Although ninety-five percent of our funding comes from the City, and although the City reviews budgets, audits expenditures, approves projects, monitors compliance, oversees implementation, reviews contracts, participates on committees, controls payment approval, and determines whether the work is satisfactory, we remain a completely private organization.”

The farming community listened respectfully.

Mostly because nobody wanted another site inspection.

At meetings, the Kingdom spoke constantly of partnership.

The farmers were told they were stakeholders.

They were collaborators.

They were stewards.

They were participants.

They were sustainable.

They were resilient.

But somehow they were never simply owners of their own damned farms anymore.

A man could inherit three hundred acres from his grandfather, survive floods, survive droughts, survive milk prices, survive Albany, survive Washington, survive taxes, survive equipment loans — and still end up needing committee review to decide whether a shed created too much impervious surface.

The Kingdom was very concerned about impervious surface.

Except parking lots for administrators.

Those were apparently sacred.

And although the Castle declared itself independent, the entire countryside understood an obvious truth:

The moment the City stopped funding the Kingdom, the Sacred Lever would begin to shake.

The reports would stop.

The consultants would vanish.

The binders would dry up.

The committees would dissolve into the forest.

And somewhere deep inside the Castle, somebody would whisper the forbidden words:

“We may need filtration, after all.”

Which was, of course, the one thing the Kingdom feared more than transparency.

The strange thing was that the farmers were not even against conservation.

Most of them had spent generations protecting streams long before anyone invented PowerPoint presentations about watershed resilience.

They knew every bend of every creek.

They knew which fields flooded.

Which springs dried up.

Which hills washed out after October rain.

Which woods held snow longest.

But none of that counted unless it appeared in a formally approved planning document reviewed under proper procedures pursuant to applicable guidelines.

The Kingdom trusted paper.

Paper was measurable.

Paper could be audited.

Paper could be monitored.

Paper could justify budgets.

A farmer’s memory was merely experience.

And experience, unfortunately, was not grant-compatible.

So life continued in the Watershed Kingdom.

The cows grazed.

The committees convened.

The reports accumulated.

The Lever remained untouched.

And every year, the Castle repeated the same sacred proclamation to the countryside:

“We are not a governmental entity.”

While standing knee-deep in government money.

Under government supervision.

Performing government functions.

To satisfy government mandates.

For the benefit of government infrastructure.

In partnership with government agencies.

Under government agreements.

With government oversight.

But absolutely, completely, unquestionably private.

Naturally.

The Great Delaware County Senior Meals Miracle Or: How Delaware County Ended Up Fighting With a Nonprofit Run By Delaware County

Yeah...

There are ordinary contract disputes.

Then there are Delaware County contract disputes.

For more than 50 years, Delaware Opportunities, Inc. handled senior meals for Delaware County.

Then, suddenly, in May 2026, the public was told that Delaware Opportunities was shutting everything down because the County allegedly owed it about $300,000.

Immediately, the public relations machine burst into life.

There were emergency press releases, volunteers, sheriff deputies, churches, restaurants, heroic rescue stories, promises that nobody would miss a meal, and dramatic descriptions of locked refrigerators and handwritten signs.

The only problem was this:

the people supposedly “fighting” each other were sitting on the same boards.

The Same People on Both Sides

The public was told there was a breakdown between Delaware County and Delaware Opportunities.

But public records show something much stranger.

Wayne Marshfield was simultaneously Treasurer and Board member of Delaware Opportunities, Inc., and Delaware County Supervisor on the Advisory Committee overseeing the County's Office for the Aging.

Maya Boukai was also simultaneously a Delaware County Supervisor and a Board member of Delaware Opportunities.

So let it sink: 

1. The County hired Delaware Opportunities.
2. The County supervised Delaware Opportunities.
3. The same people sat on both sides of the contract, talking out of both sides of their mouths to the press, and blaming one another for not paying one another for contracts that they were not supposed to enter into - with taxpayer money, no bidding, as always - in the first place because, once again, they WERE on both sides of that contract.

Now consider this:

If Delaware Opportunities now sues Delaware County over the unpaid $300,000, will Wayne Marshfield the Treasurer of Delaware Opportunities effectively end up suing Wayne Marshfield the Delaware County Supervisor overseeing the Office for the Aging?

Will one side of the table demand payment from the other side of the same table?

Will everybody recuse themselves?

Or will Delaware County simply hold a meeting with itself - no leaks, ensured by County Supervisor's leak police PIO Johnson-Bennett and Frank W. Miller, Esq. - and call it accountability?

By the way, consider Maya Boukai's self-promoted public image as an advocate of accountability.   Starts to look blurry.

What is completely hilarious in all of this circus is that County PR weavers thought it smart to tell the public that the entire arrangement between Marshfield & Co. (on behalf of the County) versus Marshfield & Co (on behalf of Delaware Opportunities, Inc.) suddenly collapsed overnight in confusion, with Marshfield publicly offering a classic defense of 

monkey no see, monkey no hear and monkey no speak.

According to public reporting, Delaware Opportunities claimed the County owed it approximately $300,000 for services already provided since April of 2026.

How exactly did that happen, with Marshfield and Boukai sitting on both sides of the contracting table?

The County said there were concerns about documentation, invoices, oversight, and financial records.

How did that happen, again - did Marshfield and Boukai deceive Marshfield and Boukai by not keeping and providing documents from Marshfield and Boukai to Marshfield and Boukai.  I am getting confused.

Did Marshfield and Boukai not review the bills from Marshfield and Boukai?

Did Marshfield and Boukai not ask questions of Marshfield and Boukai?

Did Marshfield and Boukai not reconcile the numbers with Marshfield and Boukai?

Or were Marshfield and Boukai simply planning this military-grade PR operation during a pending state audit for a classic money laundering scheme? 

Everybody Was Shocked. Somehow.

One of the funniest parts of the entire affair was watching longtime insiders pretend to be surprised.

Apparently Marshfield and Boukai woke up one morning and discovered that the system they RUN in Delaware Opportunities, Inc. had all participated in for decades was in trouble.

There were public statements about:

1. sudden shutdowns;
2. emergency responses;
3. rushed rescues;
4. heroic intervention;
5. and immediate County action to the rescue.

This might sound believable if the same names were not appearing everywhere:

1. on boards;

2. in County government;
3. inside nonprofits;
4. on advisory committees;
5. and inside the very programs supposedly collapsing.

At some point “nobody knew” stops sounding serious and starts sounding like community theater.

The Comptroller Arrives

Then came another problem.

The New York State Comptroller’s Office arrived to audit Delaware County.

Officially, this was described as routine.

Unofficially, everybody suddenly seemed nervous.

Public reporting started mentioning staffing problems, financial pressure, oversight questions, transparency concerns, delayed audits, and repeated references to criticism from the public.

Interestingly, this was not the first time Delaware County’s system had attracted attention.

In 2015, I also wrote about NYS State audit that produced devastating reports of County shenanigans with taxpayer money.

There were all the 9 yards of no-bid contracts, weak oversight, overlapping public and nonprofit roles, and the same small circle of people approving contracts involving organizations connected to themselves.

Apparently the solution was not fewer conflicts.

The solution was suppression of the press: persecution of The Reporter's editor and reporter Lillian Browne and against her TWO employers, as her recent deposition testimony in federal court revealed, a war against my family on all levels for my journalism here, and more press releases with fake spins.

Enter the New Miracle Worker

No local political drama is complete without a rising hero.

Enter Eric Northrup.

In a remarkably short period of time, Mr. Northrup, instantly on arrival from the beautiful sunny North Carolina into the Walton winters (failed there, eh? ran back home to Daddy for a nepotism hire?) appeared everywhere at once.

County publicity campaign immediately presented Eric Northrup as a 

• DA’s office paralegal (what were his interesting credentials for this job - I am checking now through a FOIL/1st Amendment request);

• sole manager of the little money trove of the DA's office (Family business of former DA, County Judge and now-ADA Dick Northrup, apparently) Traffic Diversion Program reportedly generating about $500,000 for the County (a program that DA Smith and ADA Northrup should be disbarred for - boasting of violating your sworn neutrality and turning your office into a business venture is not a good thing, Mr. Smith);

• a “good Samaritan” helping during the senior meals crisis;

•  Deputy Mayor/Trustee of the Village of Walton - where he was very interestingly APPOINTED into his position as Trustee at a very "special" session of the Village Board, and not elected;

•  The Coordinator of the Child Advocacy Center of that same offending Delaware Opportunities, Inc. - which raises all the interesting additional conflict of interests questions.

The public relations campaign around little Eric was impressive.

He was suddenly helping - a lot: helping seniors, helping children, helping the DA’s office, helping the Village, and apparently helping everybody at once.

Meanwhile, almost nobody seemed interested in discussing how all these institutions kept overlapping.

Or why the same names kept appearing across:

• County government;

• nonprofits;

• local politics;

• child advocacy;

• and revenue-generating programs.

The result was less “small town public service” and more “everyone wearing four hats at the same time.”

The Very Diverse Traffic Question

One detail deserves much more attention.

The Traffic Diversion Program.

According to public reporting, the program generated nearly half a million dollars for the County in traffic diversion revenue - which indicates that people who run it (DA's office) have a financial incentive to:

• generate an extra high amount of traffic tickets - in a poorly populated, and generally poor County;
• steer the non-attorney judges who handle such tickets to refuse to dismiss fake tickets (I had such reports) no matter what; and then
• steer the fake-ticketed people into the cash-cow program now handled by the little Eric - member of THE FAMILY - to generate revenue for the County, DA's pledge of neutrality be graciously suspended.

That creates an uncomfortable question.

District Attorneys are supposed to neutrally administer justice.

They are not supposed to look like business-development departments.

Yet here we suddenly have:

• a DA office employee;

• heavily promoted during a political crisis;

• tied to a money-producing County program;

• while also connected to overlapping nonprofit and local-government networks.

Anybody who would believe that this little set of facts translates into perfect innocent of actors involved should consult a shrink.  

Why Was the County Not Paying?

This may be the strangest question of all.

If Delaware Opportunities was so important, why allegedly leave it unpaid?

If the County believed there were documentation problems, why continue operating this way for years?

If everybody was so deeply involved in the same system, why was there no internal solution before public collapse?

And if the County truly believed Delaware Opportunities mishandled records or finances, why were overlapping insiders still sitting inside the structure?

The "incompetence" answer is much too simple.

The "politics" answer is much too simple. 

Another is the natural result of small local systems where everybody knows everybody, everybody works with everybody, everybody supervises everybody, and eventually nobody wants to challenge anybody - and that will continue until the feds will come in with a raid - which the situation is begging for.

The Press Releases Became the Story

One thing became very clear during this entire episode.

Public relations mattered more than straight answers.

Questions about contracts, bidding, invoices, oversight, staffing, conflicts of interest, and accountability were repeatedly answered with emotional language about seniors, compassion, volunteers, sacrifice, dedication, and community spirit.

As always, dirty deeds are covered with noble causes.

Feeding seniors in a poor community, made poorer every year by the County management (while self-raising salaries to that same County management) is, of course, a noble thing - and a perfect coverup of public corruption.

And More $5,000,000,000 Questions Remaining

If Delaware County truly could not or would not pay Delaware Opportunities roughly $300,000 for months — enough to allegedly drive the senior meals program into collapse — then where did the money suddenly appear from for the “rescue”?

Food does not materialize because somebody issues a dramatic press release.

You need:

• suppliers;
• fuel;
• kitchens;
• payroll;
• refrigeration;
• insurance;
• vehicles;
• staffing;
• emergency purchasing authority; and 
• immediate operational cash -

AT A MINIMUM.

Oh, yeah, here we go - "volunteers", the classic money-laundering fall-back song.

The County officials creating these fake PR spins should not hold the paying taxpayers for idiots.

Was the County actually broke?

How would it - taxpayers are getting ever increasing tax bills.

County promotes more and more land to be purchased by tax-exempt organizations.

But again - even, by a crazy stretch of imagination, the County is too broke to pay its bills from Marshfield the Supervisor over the County's Office of the Aging over Marshfield the Treasurer of Delaware Opportunities, Inc. - then where did the rescue money instantly come from?

Or was the money there the entire time, while Marshfield/Delaware Opportunities was deliberately left unpaid by Marshfield/Delaware County until the system publicly exploded - and then Marshfield/Delaware County claimed the "3 monkeys defense" and Marshfield/Delaware Opportunities took cover?

And if the money was there all along, then taxpayers deserve to know:

• Why was the County-run nonprofit supposedly pushed toward collapse in the first place?
• Why create a public emergency?
• Why generate a dramatic “heroic rescue” narrative?
• Why suddenly move operations in-house during an active State Comptroller audit?
• Was the County's response to State Comptroller that delayed the audit fake?
• Was this rescue operation meant to cover up for the County during the audit delay? 

AND - the mammoth in the room

• why are the same people sitting inside:
• County government,
• Delaware Opportunities,
• the Office for the Aging structure,
• advisory committees,
• child advocacy systems,
• the DA-connected revenue family business - and what not?

At some point this stops looking like an unfortunate misunderstanding and starts looking like a closed local machine fighting internally over money, control, records, liability, or audit exposure (that is at best, it is for the feds to explore the potential criminal side of it - and I hope they will, soon) — while taxpayers and seniors are used as emotional cover for whatever is really happening behind the curtain.

Delaware County Attorney Amy Merklen and deer in floodlights - who knows New York Times v Sullivan better?

Just a couple of short illustrations of the litigation prowess and philosophy of Delaware County Attorney (NY) Amy Merklen.

By the way, the caricature is based on the actual deposition testimony of Amy Merklen and on her affidavit filed in another court case.  

I wonder when taxpayers and voters of Delaware County would finally rebel and require her removal from office.  Longtime overdue.

An alternative CPLR course is offered by Delaware County's litigation counsel Frank W. Miller at taxpayers' expense - the frivolous use of the CPLR

The course is short.

If you see The Frivolous Being using the CPLR - catch her and sanction her!

And a yet another Miller's requests for sanctions (rejected as a late filing)! And it is not even Friday night yet!

It looks like Delaware County litigation counsel Frank W. Miller is seriously going bonkers.  Now is seriously trying to justify to the court that it is ok to execute (sorry - just sanction) my husband for association for the likes of me, who filed a grievance complaint against him - I wrote about it here.

I now have serious concern about Mr. Miller's well-being.

Maybe - time to retire?  Unlimited Scotch does that to people.

Is talking out of both sides of your mouth (and under oath, too) a good thing, Town of Delhi Supervisor Maya Boukai?

I am currently suing the Town of Delhi, NY - as a property owner and taxpayer - to invalidate the 2026 Town budget.  

Just received a verified Answer by Town of Delhi Supervisor Maya Boukai - sworn in the form of an affidavit.

Found a lot of interesting things.

First of all - the Town of Delhi, at the same time, 

• just published the tentative assessment roll of 2026 listing me as owner of multiple properties within the Town of Delhi - which the Town of Delhi assessed (and I am suing the Town of Delhi for that assessment since 2024: a stop occupancy order on the door - and tax-assessed as hale and hearty fully functional family residence/ office);

and

• the Town Supervisor Maya Boukai submitted to the court, under the penalty of perjury, a statement that she "lacks information to form a belief" whether I am or am not the owner of several properties in the Town of Delhi.

So - I am confused: will Boukai tax-assess me this year or not?

Or is it Boukai confused about my property ownership while taxing me and being sued for wrongfully taxing me - and unlawfully exceeding the tax levy cap?

Here is a summary of what she is saying.  Idk - she is REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL, FOR GOD'S SAKE!  Do lawyers for the Town of Delhi even think what they put before the court - a false sworn statement (and that's just one of them!)

If Boukai is THAT confused - what is she doing as the Town's Chief Executive Officer?

Why is Frank "The Procedural Drama Queen" Miller, Esq. after me with harassment in court? - Easy-peasy. I FOUND something - the WELCOME RICH NEIGHBOR POLICY IN THE POVERTY STRICKEN TOWN OF HAMDEN

Here is what I found:

And this is the Delaware County litigation counsel's reaction to it:

By trying to have all kinds of courts in all kinds of cases for all kinds of reasons to rain fire and brimstone on me, he - doth - protest - too much.

You know why?

His client Wayne Marshfield is LYING to the public - there is no such thing as 20% equal assessment across the board in the POOR (Census) Town of Hamden.

There is instead a WELCOME, RICH NEIGHBOR policy where those same properties recently sold "for big bucks" (Marshfield's statement to the public, not mine) that Marshfield is using as a justification for a 20% tax assessment, are then given HUGE tax breaks - reaching 81% BELOW the sale property value.

Marshfield is this shifting the tax burden to locals and ROBBING THE LOCAL SCHOOLS of taxes.

Taxpayers of the Town of Hamden - file grievances with the Town Board of Assessment review by the Grievance Day - May 26, 2026!!! 

FOR INEQUALITY OF TAX ASSESSMENTS!!!

CONTESTING SUPERVISOR MARSHFIELD'S not-too-little WELCOME, RICH NEIGHBOR policy at the expense of the locals!!!!