WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. May 14,2009: The Educational Public Access Channel announced days and times of its video tape of the League of Women Voters Public Forum held Tuesday night. The first telecast will be Friday evening at 8 P.M. on Cablevision Channel 77, and Verizon FIOS Channel 46, (right after White Plains Week, showing at 7:30, the city news roundup show -- public access channel's best lead-in), just switch the channel to 77 or 46.
School Board Candidates' Public Forum For the Record begins Friday at 8 on Educational Channels. (L to R), Peter Bassano, Jim Hricay, Reynolds Longfield, Donna McLaughlin without Augostino Zicca, Jr. and Elsie Lahrmann, (empty seats) who declined to participate, according to Mr. Zicca, on advice of his legal counsel due to an inflammatory letter circulated by leaders of the White Plains Democratic Party.
That letter urged Democrats to turn out and ask pointed questions of the two. The letter also portrayed Mr. Zicca as being anti-immigrant, which Zicca told WPCNR was "slanderous." Zicca told WPCNR, "we thought they were going to ambush us, and we would not get an oppotunity to get our message out."The series of Forum telecasts of the replay featuring the four candidates who appeared will be televised Friday at 8
Viewers on Educational Access Channels 77 (Cablevision) and Channel 46 (Verizon) can view all the action in Tuesday evening's League of Women Voters Public Forum beginning at 8 P.M. Friday night. The show will also be telecast Saturday at 12:15 and 4 P.M.; Sunday at 9 AM, 3:15 P.M. and 7 P.M.; Monday, at 12 P.M., 3 P.M, 5:15 P.M., 8 P.M. and 10 P.M., and on the election day itself, Tuesday at 9 A.M., 12 P.M. and 3 P.M.
The letter Zicca and Lahrman in a news release refers to, reads:
The Text of the Democratic Leader Letter, obtained by the CitizeNetReporter reads:
Hello friends and fellow Democrats:
As you probably already know, Augie Zicca has filed
as a candidate for WP School Board this year.
Zicca, however, is not the only Republican stalwart
running this year.
He is joined by Elsie Lahrman, who is a regular
contributor to Republican causes
and who gave Zicca $300 for his 2007 campaign.
Ms. Lahrmann, it should be noted, has never
(to my knowledge) had a child in the White Plains schools
nor has she been involved with any
school-oriented activity that she can identify or
that anyone I know is aware of.
At the candidates' interviews at the Journal News today,(last week)
Zicca also acknowledged not having any involvement with
school activities (although I believe his daughter did
attend school here). Both candidates stated today that
they would be voting no on the school budget this year.
Zicca, as you can imagine, has showed the same
disregard for facts in his recent campaign for School Board
as he did in 2007.
For instance, he made several claims regarding a statue (spelling incorrect)
around tax certiorari which turned out to be completely false,
and after being told so by school officials and attorneys only now
is acknowledging that he was wrong.
He has also claimed to support a 0% tax increase (despite falling
property valuations) and that this should be funded by cutting administration
and not staff positions. Some simple math shows that this is infeasible.
What is unfortunate this year is that the WP Teachers
Association, which is seeking a new contract, has chosen to endorse
Zicca, Lahrmann and a third candidate, James Hricay, in order to
'send a message to the Board incumbents about their contract demands.
Unfortunately many of their (teacher) members seem
to be unaware of who Zicca and Lahrmann really are and don't know anything
about Zicca's positions in the 2007 election, including his stated wish to
sic the Immigration authorities on our neighbors with problematic
immigration status, which would presumably mean them
and their children who attend WP schools facing deportation.
What I am asking of you is:
*support Board incumbents Donna McGlothlin and Peter
Bassano in this year's election, along with new candidate Reynolds
Longfield, a community-minded person with a child in the high school
who will work for the benefit of the children, not his personal agenda
*support the school budget, which has the lowest
expense increase (actually a small decrease if you take out debt
service) in over 225 years and whcih was prudently crafted by he Board.
BTW, if the budget fails and the District has to go to
contingency budget, by statute all groups using the school facilities
will have to pay full price for their use.
A Little Leaguer may have to pay as much as $100 more to play baseball.
* come to the candidates forum Tuesday 5/12 at the High School and have
pertinent questions ready for Zicca and Lahrmann
*spread the word about the current issues,
particularly if you know any teachers in the District who may not know
about Zicca and his friends. help offset the cost of a mailing in support
of the candidates and the budget (contact me directly if you are interested)
*above all, come out to vote on Tueday, 5/29 from noon
to 9 p.m.
Remember that there are a limited number of voting
places and you may not be voting in the same spot for the general election.
Absentee ballots are available from the District office for those who
can't make the polls that day.
thanks to all for taking the time to read this.
After 5/19 I look forward to working with all of you to
march to victory in November.
RESPONSE -- ZICCA AND LAHRMANN NEWS RELEASE SENT TO LEAGUE
In response, upon becoming aware of the mass circulation of this e-mail letter among district leaders in the Democratic Party last week, Zicca and Lahrmann sent this e-mailed press release to the League of Women Voters notifying them they would not attend the forum.
Mr. Zicca said he and Lahrmann did not telephone the League informing them of their decison to withdraw from the forum due to the "poisened atmosphere." As a result, the League moderator did not read the news release as requested, and did not announce why Zicca and Lahrmann were not present, as requested in the news release. Apparently no one monitors the League of Women Voters e-mail in the afternoon of a public forum.
The Zicca-Lahrmann News Release:
Elsie J. Lahrmann
Augie Zicca Jr.
For White Plains School Board
changewp@gmail.com
May 12, 2009
Press Release via Email:
We authorize and request the media and the League of Women Voters to read and or print for the record the following statement.
In the past few days we, (Mr. Augie Zicca Jr. and Elsie J. Lahrmann), have been privy to a hateful and libelous email. The inflammatory missive is presently being requested to be circulated throughout the (White Plains Democrat) community. This vicious email has personally attacked the integrity and real purpose of our campaigns for the School Board of the City of White Plains.
These emails are filled with untruths which hold no validity and attack the political information about us. We believe our political registrations should not influence or be a subject in a School Board election. We believe partisan political party politics and the education of White Plains school children are clearly two separate subjects.
We will not participate in tonight’s debate due to the political overtones threatened by the emails circulating. We will be notifying the press when a non-partisan debate and forum can be arranged.
Candidates for White Plains School Board
Augie Zicca Jr.
Elsie J. Lahrmann
