Supervisor Spotlight – Ramapo’s Michael Specht

When Michael Specht began working part time at Ramapo Town Hall, he never would have imagined that 19 years later he would be elected to serve as the Town Council Supervisor. “I always was interested in politics, but I never thought I would be in it”, admitted Specht. 

Moving to Thiells from the Bronx when he was four, Specht spent his childhood in Rockland. After attending Cornell and then Albany Law school, he came back to Rockland for a job at the county District Attorney’s office. He relocated once again upon marrying his wife, who insisted    “‘you have to move to Ramapo” as a condition of their engagement. “I said alright”, recalled Specht, who has now spent much of his professional life advocating for the town. 

He got involved working part time at Ramapo Town Hall in January 1998, and ran for office in 2017 when there was an opening for the Town Council Supervisor seat. It has now been seven years since his election and in that time Specht has worked to stabilize the finances and upgrade its infrastructure.

So what exactly is a Town Council Supervisor? As  Specht explained, “(I am) The chief executive officer of a town…under law I am the budget officer, I am responsible for the town’s finances”. With a budget of approximately $130 million a year, it’s not exactly chump change. This budget is collected through taxes, fees and charges made through Ramapo and funds all of the town government’s operations . This includes paying the town hall staff, maintaining town properties such as parks, and services like ambulances and garbage collection. The town also provides lighting and building inspections in unincorporated villages 

Many changes have happened within Ramapo since Specht jumped headfirst into his role. Namely, the population. Between the 2010 and 2020 census, the population leapt by 20%. According to Specht, this population increase has led to a housing crisis in Rampo, particularly for “…the two ends of the demographic spectrum. The young couples that are starting out…or older people who are looking to scale down”. Currently, Specht says “…there is no incentive to build small apartments”. He is planning to change that. While some may be under the impression that Ramapo is continuously building, Specht says that current development is only a fraction what is required by the growing town. 

According to Specht, the goal is to “build 3% new housing every year…we’re below where we should be. We’re working to upgrade that.” This upgrade plan includes updating their zoning plan to further incentivize these smaller apartments. 

Specht has also worked to improve Ramapo’s bond rating. Every year outside auditors go through a town’s financials, ensure they are accurate, and then post them on public forums. Prior to Specht’s tenure as Supervisor, an audit had not happened for years. Through work done by Specht and his team, they were able to not only rebuild their bond rating but improve their balance from a negative balance to a positive one. That work  directly impacts Ramapo’s ability to improve their outdated infrastructure. Bonds are how towns pay for these large infrastructure projects, and the better a town’s bond rating, the lower the interest rate. The lower the interest rate, the less taxpayers have to shell out. According to Specht’s Director of Finance John Lynch, these bonds rating have noticeable impacts on taxpayers. Lynch stated that “…once we got the A+ rating in 2021 we were able to refinance $17.7m of high-cost debt raised by the previous administration with a savings of $2.8m for the taxpayer.”

In his years spent living in and serving Ramapo Specht has developed a deep appreciation for his diverse constituency, telling the RCT  “…any community within the town…they want the streets to be safe. They want the garbage picked up. They want a place to take their kids to play…they don’t want there to be traffic, which will never go away but we’re hoping to make better!”. As he works to add more housing and improve the town’s infrastructure , Specht hopes that community members “…realize we’re here to help”.