WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

Hits: 0

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. March 19, 2007: In the public hearing on the City School District Budget last night, the school district acknowledged that even were the school budget voted down May 16,  the contingency budget enacted would be slightly more than the district is proposing ($173.9M).  Councilman Glen Hockley responding to anguish over the school district dwindling tax receipts, suggested that the city would consider giving the school district a share of the city sales tax receipts in exchange for input on how the school budget is spent.

Public Hearing on the Budget: About 15 citizens attended. Photos, WPCNR News

The gathering of approximately 20 persons, (including councilmen Glen Hockley and Dennis Power, and council nominee candidates,  Robert Stackpole and Don Hughes), asked questions on salary and benefits, but did not raise the question of what cuts, if any the district had made in administration personnel. 

Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors began the meeting saying the Board continues to review the budget for last minute cuts (there have been none since last week), but also pointed that the White Plains budget increase (4.82%) is the lowest in the area.

Chart showing White Plains coming in at lowest budget increase in Southern Westchester. Column on right is the commensurate tax rate increase.

Fred Seiler Assistant Superintendent for Business, put up a chart showing  White Plains to be the lowest budget increase among districts in Southern Westchester. When asked for identities of other districts, Seiler said the districts gave the information under condition of anonymity.  A citizen pointed out that though White Plains had the lowest budget to budget increase, it had by far the largest tax rate increase (8.34%), and the other districts had tax increase rates at or below their budget rate increases. Asked why that was, Seiler said it was because assessment rolls in those other districts were rising while the White Plains roll was declining ($6.3 Million this year).

Why City Condos and PILOTS aren’t working.

Robert Stackpole raised the issue of the value of city PILOTS and how low condominium projects are assessed  compared to individual homes.  Stackpole gave the City Center project, The Lofts condominiums, as an example of this, saying that the total property taxes paid by the owners of Lofts condominiums was only $35,000 total for twenty or so units. After the meeting, he cited one example to WPCNR of a person he knew who bought a $750,000 Lofts condominium and whose property tax was only $2,500. (The owner of a $750,000 home, in contrast pays about $10,000 in property taxes.) Bill Pollack, school board member, explained that real property law prohibited condominium project owners from being taxed on the full real estate value of the individual condominium units, in addition to the “revenue” from their building.

Mr. Seiler (shown above), supported Stackpole’s interpretation, and agreed that due to the real property law, the assessment of a condominium building is not figured the same way as the value of a rental building, though the building may be owned by an individual, the individual units are purchased and are taxed differently, and not figured into the assessment value of the building.

Seiler’s point appeared to this reporter to be that the owner of a condominium building pays out far less in property taxes than a rental or an individual homeowner does, and the school district and city do not make up the difference from the individual condominium unit buyers.

PILOTs do not keep pace with Assessment Plunge.

Seiler said the school District lost $6.3 million off the assessment roll this year, and that PILOTS, despite the city’s public statements that PILOTS paid to the city offset the loss in city taxes caused by the drop in assessments, that the PILOT increase to the School District, ($1.6 Million) “never will offset that loss,” ($10.8 Million in tax revenues). ($291.8 Million times the $37 increase in the tax rate).

Seiler said he needed to get from the city a breakdown of how many commercial property owners and homeowners paid at lower and higher rates, respectively. Stackpole volunteered to the CitizeNetReporter  walking out to the parking lot, that if the present trends continue, the school district would be looking at a tax rate of  $700 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation, instead of the present $480.80 per thousand in this year’s proposed budget.

City Needs to Share, Resident Says. Hockley Offers Sales Tax Aid

 The discussion of PILOTS lead to the most acrimonious exchange of the evening. A resident, Nina Kimenker was the most vocal critic, saying that the Board of Education had done “a good job” of controlling costs, but that the problem lay with the city for not sharing sales tax receipts with the district.

 Councilman Glen Hockley (defending the city), said the sales tax and city property taxes “all come out of the same pocket.” Kimenker shot back that “when the city can help it does not. You must share taxes.”

Hockley, in a statement that shocked the audience,  made the proposal that he felt the city would be willing to share sales tax with the School District if the city could have “a say” in how the district budget was spent. Mr. Connors headed this conversation off at the pass, saying, “let’s stick to the school budget.”

Earlier, Councilman Hockley said the decline in assessments is partly due to the equalization rate, and suggested the school district higher a grant writer to acquire funding to contribute to running operations. Superintendent Connors pointed out  that grants in general on the federal and state levels are for specific new programs, and cannot be used to fund operating budgets. Nevertheless, Hockley suggested hiring the grant writer on a contingency fee basis. Connors said the district has acquired grants for many of its new academic programs.

Salary Curiosity

It was asked if salary negotiations were figured into the budget, and if they were, what would happen if the settlement called for higher amount than the district had planned for. Connors said the Board would have to make changes or cuts elsewhere to accommodate the settlement. Asked if he felt a settlement with the teachers would be settled before the budget vote (in May), Connors said he was not optimistic. No one raised the question of what the district was working on to make the settlement (for the next three years).  Connors said last week the district was attempting to negotiate on the teachers paying more of their health benefits.

Another resident criticized the district for spending more per student that a much larger district, New Rochelle.  Connors explained this was because New Rochelle had larger class sizes, “our tax base is less,” and our major issue is “loss of revenue.”

At Contingency Levels Now.

The question was asked how much would the budget be cut if it was defeated. Seiler noted that it could rise only by the rate of inflation plus new debt service which would be about 5%, slightly more than the proposed budget increase of 4.82%, plus a 2.3% increase in the tax rate, meaning the tax rate increase would stay the same at 8.34% and no savings to the taxpayer would result from defeating the budget.

Asked if the district was mandated by a contingency budget to cut specific activities such as music, sports or extra curricular activities, Seiler said they were not, that what they would cut was at the discretion of the School District.

The CitizeNetReporter asked Mr. Seiler after the hearing had ended how many personnel had been cut. Seiler said none, saying three new persons had been added and three positions dropped. Connors said this was not right and that he would see I got the actual personnel cuts from Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources, Lenora Boehlert Tuesday.

The beginning of the hearing was taken up with Mr. Seiler pointing out that the district had cut utilities costs by 27%, eliminating $1.1 Million by eliminating overbudgeting for fuel costs which had occurred in the past. He said the debt service had increased 30% ( $1.8 Million) due to the first round of payment on the Capitol Project bonds and salaries 2.6% ($2.4 Million, a total of 95.4 Million of the $173.9 Million budget), and benefits had increased 8.8% ($3 Million, a total of $37.1 Million of the total budget).

The Superintendent held out the possibility of more last minute cuts before the Board votes on adopting the budget March 26.

It should be noted that in the 1990s, the city gave $2 Million in sales tax to the school district, but no strings were attached.

Hits: 0

WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. By John F. Bailey. March 19, 2007: The city Budget and Management Committee will not get to review the city’s new 2007—2008 budget until after the complete budget is submitted to the Common Council in April, Councilman Benjamin Boykin, Chairman of the Committee told WPCNR Friday.

LIGHT WORK LOAD THIS YEAR FOR BUDGET & MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE, shown here meeting at the end of January.  Budget will not be ready for their quills and eyeshades until April.

Boykin’s statement confirmed what Mayor Joseph Delfino had told WPCNR Thursday evening when he said preparation of the budget was going right down “to the last minute,” and would be ready “when it’s printed.”

Boykin said  although city Chief Financial Officer Gina Cuneo-Harwood had promised the committee she would have the budget for them to review by March 15, that that was not going to happen and the committee would have no opportunity to make suggestions to the budget until after April 4 when the budget is to be submitted to the Council.  He assured WPCNR the committee would have the opportunity to affect the budget after the document is presented to the Council.

Boykin said part of the delay  was a heart attack suffered by a Finance Department employee and a maternity leave of another department employee had contributed to the budget delay.  The city is operating with only a Deputy Budget Director, recently hired, and there has been no Budget Director since Ann Reasoner, who previously held the post, whose employment was terminated  by the city last June. 

Harwood had told the Finance and  Management Committee in January that she would present a preliminary budget by March 15, however last week Mayor Delfino told WPCNR that the budget would “not be ready until the last minute. It’ll be ready when it’s printed. ”

Boykin said he had attempted to call a meeting of the Budget and Management Committee to discuss the budget prior to the April 4 Common Council meeting, but said that was not going to happen either. Boykin assured WPCNR that even though the budget was printed that the committee would have input and impact on the budget prior to its final approval in late May.

Cuneo-Harwood, was awarded an additional $20,000 by the city early this year in recognition of her additional duties of preparing the budget in view of the city being without a Budget Director.

Hits: 0

WPCNR MAMARONECK AVENUE AMBLER. March 18, 2007: White Plains celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a parade in balmier temperatures last weekend with several thousand persons viewing the festivities. Here, thanks to photographer Stephen Morton and Parade Chair, John Martin are some views of this classic parade:

The White Plains Police Color Guard followed by Bob Hyland (in green sash), Parade Grand Marshall and Parade Chair, John Martin. All Photos by Steve Morton

Mayor Joseph Delfino and Common Council (walking).

Girls Basketball Team from OLS, WPHS

The Bump Robinson Slater Center Drum Corps

The Plainsmen Hockey Team

One of the Many Bands

The Reviewing Stand at City Hall

Parade Grand Marshall Bob Hyland and Parade Chair John Martin — Thank you for sending these shots to WPCNR.

Hits: 0

WPCNR’S AT THE HOP Review of GREASE by Johnny Angel. March 15, 2007: GREASE is America’s My Fair Lady! Just as My Fair Lady is so-so British  GREASE is as American as a cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and French Fried Potato. Whether you’re 25 or 65 grab your old leather jackets, you ex- Flaming Dukes, Pink Ladies and Burger Palace Boys, the greaser gang is back hanging out at the WBT Drive-IN and the Burger Palace.

Sandy (Melissa Larsen) and Danny (Kasey Marino) are All Choked Up in the fabulous finale of GREASE — rocking again on the Mighty WBT in uptown Elmsford, “The Big E.” All Photos, Courtesy, Westchester Broadway Theatre by John Vecchiolla

WBT’s cover of the  original 1971 stage monster hit guarantees Allan Freed, the malt shop, the record hop, leather jackets, pompadours ducktails and pony tails  and deejays in plaid jackets will be forever cool– and the new WBT production of 2-1/2 hours of  hits just keep on coming.  The book is so spare and fast-moving with the New Yawk accents and wise guys and gals you’ll recognize. The songs get your feet moving, the  hand-jive choreography, and signature slouch of 1958 teenage boys – are masterfully brought back by choreographer  Kathy Meyer  on the WBT Boards. The hard-working gang on stage has their doo-wops and rama-lama-ding-dongs so right, it’s the coolest.

From  the inspired set of an old 50s year book pictures to turning the WBT into a high school gymnasium to the Greased Lightning hotrod on stage, GREASE takes you back in time.

Even Cole Porter’s musicals have a few clinker songs in them , but in GREASE there are no flipsides, every number is a hit from the opening scene at the Reunion of Rydell High’s Class of 1959, when Miss Lynch (Karen Murphy), Patty  (Allison Couture) and Eugene (Aaron Young) sing the Alma Mater – you are going to dig this show, man.

 Faster than a Little Deuce Coup, Danny Zuko  played with hunch-shouldered wise guy cool by Kasey Marino and the Ms. Goody Two Shoes, Melissa Larsen as Sandy launch into their great duet of the show, the signature song of GREASE – Summer Nights –  the pair nail this duet and you don’t want this instant replay to ever end. Here, Danny, (Kasey Marino), is trying to give Sandy (Melissa Larsen) his ring at the drive-in. Marino’s hilarious attempts to put his “night moves” on Sandy stir many memories with knowing laughter.

Ms. Larsen is crinoline crisp as the innocent  Sandy Dumbrowski  — managing to look and act 16and Mr. Marino works the New Yawk wise guy hood persona – like, ya know, really cool.  (The Fonz – of Happy Days – was modeled on the Zuco character). Though actors an actresses who play the Sandy and Danny parts have to go up against the charisma and electricity of Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta from the GREASE movie – Marino and Larsen just have the timing, the hesitation, and the awkwardness of teen attraction just right.

On and on through the very short evening every number surprises and delights and brings out laughs naturally – never a clunker line.

If you have not seen GREASE – I’ll lay it on you. New innocent girl Sandy meets wise guy hood Zuco during the summer and they have a romance.  They meet that fall in school and hood doesn’t want to admit to his pals he’s stuck on her. The girls in school, The Pink Ladies, lead by  wise-cracking Rizzo, played by Jacqueline Colmer, alternately make fun of Sandy, and Rizzo is jealous of Danny’s digging her. It’s high school!

The anxieties of this teen romance serve as a vehicle to recreate the high school experience of the  baby boomer 1950s, when your biggest worry as a teenage girl was being popular and deciding between college, beauty school or Katherine Gibbs (a secretarial school), and going all the way,  as a boy whether you were a athlete, a hood, or a nerd, and whether you could get a girl to go all the way,  and, oh, yeah the disk jockeys on the radio were your friend and took dedications and actually talked to you. So simple then.  GREASE brings it all back.

Picks to Click

Director Richard Roland has assembled a set of wonderful meshed players who bring Rydell High back to life with their over-the-top energy and Bronx accents.

The trio of would-be rock and roll singers, of Doody (Geoffrey Goldberg),  and the Burger Place Boys falsetto with the best of the Cleftones  on Those Magic Changes. They return in Act Two for the ode to the Rock N Roll Party Queen.  Liz O’Donnell as Marty, the boy-crazy vamp, who flips out a wallet of pictures of her boyfriends at a recreation of a 50s slumber part in Act One, brings out the laughs with her Freddie My Love ballad.

A real hot rod comes on stage for the uptempo, Greased Lightning  recalling those days of auto shop.  Will Ray as Kenicke – Zuco’s rival —  brings off this driving number.

The first act comes to a close with a hilarious duet between Roger  (Nathan Scherich) and Jan (Tory Ross)  about the joys of mooning (over each other). Colmer as Rizzo then has her big mocking  number, I’m Sandra Dee, making fun of Sandy  And if you do not know who Sandra Dee is – you don’t need to know– to enjoy this show. The music and good nature of GREASE just wins you over like a scratchy old record.

Rocking at the High School Hop.

Act Two recaptures the high school dance as it used to be when the versatile set  of George Puello and Steven Loftus, transforms into  Moonlight In the Tropics with paper palm trees and WAXX dee jay Vince Fontaine as master of ceremonies with formals and teen boys in suits and sneakers (so typical of the time). Shakin at the High School Hop by all the dancers  makes you – as a person who lived in this era – really nostalgic. Those dances were such fun!

The hop is highlighted by the lecherous Murray the K/Allan Freed disk jockey character, from WAXX, (The Big 15),  Vince Fontaine played by Rob Sheridan whose kicking the standup microphone bit is reminiscent of Allan and Murray at the Brooklyn Fox rock and roll shows. He introduces one of the main men of this show 

Todd DuBail  in gold lame suit as Teen Angel, plays the Dwayne Eddy/Elvis/Conway Twitty type rock star, Johnny Casino who comes back later as Teen Angel to sing Beauty School Dropout. Mr. Dubail’s grunts, gyrations and guitar slinging are the end. He even sounds like Elvis, and all you 50s chicks out there will love the curl on his forehead, too.

The stage production of GREASE is not like the movie. Though the characters are the same, the supporting characters have larger roles and the Rizzo-Danny romance is not as prominent.  There is some reference to teen pregnancy  and gang rumbles. But little violence.

One of the strengths of the stage production, and this one in particular is that though the characters are stereotypes – (you will recognize them all) – they all have stories to tell.

Home Room at Rydell High begins nightly at 6:30 with dinner in the mighty WBT in Big E-Uptown Elmsford through May 26. For tickets information go to www.broadwaytheatre.com. Or call 592-2222. Did I mention that you can have a genuine cheeseburger and fries for dinner or the usual excellent prime ribs, fish, eggplant parmigiana before the show?

The show rolls on with never a lull and is never dull. Is Rizzo really knocked up? Will Sandy and Danny get together again? Will Danny choose Patty the Cheerleader over Sandy? Will Eugene win Patty? Will the Flaming Dukes show up for a rumble. Like your high school, GREASE has terrific storylines that all get tied up and Rydell High – your high school lives once more .

Hits: 0

WPCNR CNA NEWS. By John F. Bailey March 14, 2007 UPDATED 3:45  PM: Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors spent an hour and a half defending the proposed 2007-2008 $173.8 Million school budget to about 12 Council of Neighborhood Association representatives last night who leveled withering criticism on the school district labor negotiation skills, suggesting the present negotiating team was not tough enough with the teachers union. Several residents suggested bringing in a more aggressive labor negotiator.  The group agreed by consensus to perhaps run educational advertisements in local media to make residents aware of school budget issues. They stopped short of saying they would recommend against approval of the school budget.

Patti Cantu, President of Battle Hill Association has received a response from Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors on a written request the school district do more about removing illegal students from the school system. She forwards the Superintendent’s response:

Suggestions were also made that the school district negotiate hard for givebacks on health care benefits such as lowering starting salaries, adjusting salary step increases, and much was made of teachers “working only 10 months of the year.” (To be fair, White Plains teachers are required to attend workshops on curriculum during summers, and prepare extensively for the fall classes. They do not say goodbye on June 24 and return in early September.)

Connors said, teachers pay only 5% of their health care benefits. Connors defended the Board negotiating team which he said consisted of a lawyer, James Roche,  another member of the School Board and the Assistant Superintendent for Personnel. Connors said “The board is well aware of your concern,” and though he would not delve into specifics, acknowledged the negotiating team was working on some of the very issues the CNA representatives addressed. During the portion of the meeting WPCNR attended, there was not a lot of complaints about Administration salaries and staffing, though one mention was made about the high salaries of the district administration.

At the close of the meeting, the group agreed by consensus to place advertisements in local media to acquaint the populace with school budget issues and to get out the vote on the May School Budget. It was unclear whether the advertisement would actually call for the voters to reject the 2007-2008 budget which calls for a 4.82% increase in spending, compared to last year’s 7.16% increase. The budget increases the schoolk tax 8.34%

Complaints were raised that the school district does not do enough to eliminate children attending White Plains schools illegally. Connors said the school employs two investigators to followup on suspect non-resident students when they are brought to district attention. Connors admited that no tax papers are requested when parents register their children for school. He said that the district would be willing to cooperate with the city Safe Housing Task Force to provide addresses where clusters of children appear to be living as grounds for investigation.

 It was suggested by a representative to WPCN R in conversation afterwards that as many as 200 or more ineligible children attended the district schools (about 10 classes and 20 teachers worth…if that guestimate is anywhere near accurate). Residents called on the district to make more effort to identify alleged illegal attendees and where they live in order that the city Safe Housing Task Force could shut down the illegal rooming houses. Residents were annoyed the district has not routinely done this in the past. Patti Cantu of the Battle Hill Association demanded the school district do address checks, note multiple attendees from the same address and share that information with the city. Connors agreed that he would.

Knots of animated, indigant representatives continued to talk past 10 P.M. about the growth of the school budget and its effect on resident-ability to afford the tax burden. One representative said the tax increases were really eating into his retirement savings, and he was seriously concerned about his future ability to continue to live in White Plains on a fixed income in his present house.

In a related development expected this week, Gina Cuneo-Harwood the City Financial Officer is expected to reveal the 2007-2008 city budget and tax increase. As of last week, the city Budget and Management Committee budget review meeting had not been set yet.