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.

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WPCNR Post Road Rambler. By John F. Bailey. July 16, 2004: Revellers and well-wishers to George Gretsas, including Mr. Gretsas mother and father attended the posh Gretsas Fairwell at Laguna  on Post Road Thursday evening. Most City Commissioners attended, as well as a great many county legislators with whom Mr. Gretsas used to work. The program was highlighted by a slide show chronicling the achievements of Mr. Gretsas during his six-and-a-half year career as the City’s Executive Officer. Mayor Joseph Delfino extolled Mr. Gretsas talents saying how hard he worked for the city, and told the gathering that he, Mayor Delfino would be taking over the day to day details of Mr. Gretsas job “for the time being.” Gretsas was given a proclamation and a key to the city.

At one point when a slide was shown of the former Main and Mamaroneck fountain then the new Renaissance Plaza fountain was shown, the audience spontaneously burst into applause and tears could be seen, according to one observer in the eyes of many of the Gretsas faithful. The CitizeNetReporter was denied entrance to the affair by the Mayor’s Office, even though your reporter was willing not to eat or drink any of the vituals provided as part of the $35 admission fee.

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WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. By John F. Bailey. July 16, 2004: The George Gretsas era in White Plains ends today.

George Gretsas, left, and his mentor, Mayor Joseph Delfino at Opening of White Plains Performing Arts Center. November 2003. Photo by WPCNR News.

About this time George Gretsas will be shaving at his modest apartment on Westview Avenue in White Plains. He’ll be donning his trademark white shirt and dark tie and black suit with the sharply creased pants for the last time. Or, will he be taking advantage of casual Friday at City Hall?  He’ll put on his Woodrow Wilson spectacles. Then it will be time to put the key in the ignition of the dark sedan to motor to 255 Main Street for the last time.

Gretsas, “The Man Behind the Scenes” as he calls himself will quietly head to his last day, much like a character in a 1930s gangster movie. Perhaps he will wear his long black coat even though it is the middle of summer.

He will leave White Plains as much of an enigma as he was when he arrived in 1998. The man who has micromanaged every aspect of the city for the last six-and-a-half years will be heading to the corner office at the big house on Main Street and in eight to ten hours he will head for new worlds to conquer.

How will city hall change after Mr. Gretsas leaves?

City hall will be a far less nervous place. Things will not move as fast, if Mr. Gretsas truly is divorcing himself from city affairs, and stays true to his statement to the CitizeNetReporter that he will not consult with the Mayor’s office once he takes a job as City Manager with Fort Lauderdale.

Will the “gag order” on all city commissioners be more loosely enforced by whomever Mr. Gretsas’ successor be? City Commissioners under Gretsas are not allowed to speak to the media, or Councilpersons without a Gretsas staffer or Gretsas himself monitoring the interview or telephone conversation.

Will the Mayor start to hold news conferences again where questions are invited from the media?

Over the last year every news conference has not had a formal question-and-answer period — a subtle change that has avoided embarrassing questions being asked of the Mayor. Will news releases announcing changes in the city start to be issued again by the Mayor’s office in a timely manner to all media? They have not.

This will also be the last day city commissioners will sit in dread of an irate Gretsas phone call summoning them to his office to grill them for some transgression against a developer, or for their not cooperating with favored partners of the city, or simply to be hollered for a leak to the press, letting some embarrassing piece of information slip.

Will there be a last tense meeting at the last moment, called on six hours notice in the absurdly small Mayor’s conference room? Perhaps he will want to do that one last time just for kicks.

Perhaps Mr. Gretsas will stroll around the Mayor’s Conference Room for a last time and feel a touch of nostalgia at the intrigue and arm-twisting of councilpersons that month after month he orchestrated, maneuvering the council into situations where they had to approve matters, had to not ask the embarrassing questions, and were presented with choices that made doing The Mayor’s bidding more politically advantageous than doing their due diligence.

Maybe he will call one more Executive Session just for the fun of it.

There have never been more Executive Sessions on important matters in the City of White Plains than in the least 6-1/2 years according to seasoned observers.

Meetings or work sessions were carefully set up by the politically shrewd maneuverer of City Hall. From the New York Presbyterian Hospital offer to settle their Article 78 action, to the Nicoletti Bypass solution, to the awarding of the White Plains Performing Arts Center contract, the council was wrangled masterfully by Mr. Gretsas into making politically expedient decisions, and it could be argued, the wrong decisions.

Perhaps Mr. Gretsas should suppress one more damaging memo or piece of information today.

 Just for old times’ sake. Like the Nicoletti City Center sewer  memo, the Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s bond analysis, or the actual sales tax collection figures, and how $5.2 million from the Parking Authority was spent on economic development when the council agreed it was to go to debt service.

All were important pieces of information that the Council’s attention was subtlely misdirected  from at the time when that information should have been paid attention to very closely for the good of the city.

At lunch, Mr. Gretsas can order his favorite chinese takeout one last time. (He may not be able to get the same Chinese quality down in Fort Lauderdale.)

Perhaps the Mayor’s office will have its locks removed now that Gretsas is leaving.

The outer entrance tothe Mayor’s Office is always locked, and you have to be buzzed in. The interior Mayor’s suite is also locked during meetings in the conference room, resulting in fumbling knocking when a commissioner or zealous aid needs to go in and consult with Mr. Gretsas in his inner sanctum. The resulting knockings and openings during the course of a meeting lately resemble Seinfeld skits.

Since the first edition of this article appeared, a reader has suggested that the television security cameras installed under the Gretsas regime could be the next things to go.

Maybe, just for the memory, Mr. Gretsas will summon one last private meeting with a member of the press in which he offers to go off the record with the reporter to give them the real reasons why something happened. Or summon a reporter for an advance story of an event about to happen Monday.

This taking a reporter into confidence is a technique of news management Mr. Gretsas has perfected to engineer softpedaled stories about very embarrassing situations. The cadre of journalists in Fort Lauderdale will not know what hit them when he starts doing this down there.

Perhaps more timely and candid budget analysis will be presented in September when the first financials usually come out.

Last year the information was notoriously sketchy and explained away by assurances “it’ll get better.”

Another thing he might do is to give assurances to one more citizen that something will be done for them that they expect.

Well, Mr. Gretsas no longer has to worry about White Plains future. But who will?

Will Mayor Joseph Delfino suddenly take the policy reins and plot out the choreography of each City Hall day beginning Monday? It may take time away from his public appearances.

Perhaps on Monday the Mayor will report how the city will be reorganized after Gretsas leaves at the end of the day. We still do not know.

Or maybe the Mayor won’t have to.

Mr. Gretsas jocularly referred to a sattelite link to Fort Lauderdale on his appearance on the Winbrook Like It Is show Wednesday evening. Mr. G. is only a phone call away, a computer and a fax away and evenings on his balcony with the Atlantic Ocean breeze blowing in, he can simply review the events of the day in White Plains and direct Mr. Wood (the rumored next Executive Officer) how to proceed.

That couldn’t be the plan, could it?

Of course not. No one would be that egocentric to think they could run a city by telephone from half-a-continent away.

Or could they?

At the end of the day, George Gretsas will have left the building for the last time. But the memories will linger on.

Mr. Gretsas has engineered the White Plains Renaissance. No question, as he says. He has achieved a lot for the city, it seems good.

He deserves all the credit for that. He could have executed it better though. He could have run a more open government, a nicer government, a government that inspired confidence instead of suspicion.

Time will tell whether the Gretsas style and the Gretsas methods and the Gretsas decisions were the right ones.

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WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. July 15, 2004: George Gretsas says his good-byes this evening at a private party at Laguna Restaurant to his closest friends and associates.

On Wednesday evening, he said his fairwell to Mr. and Mrs. White Plains on Winbrook Like It Is, in a half-hour cable television interview with Ron Jackson, “The Last Activist” on WPPA-TV, The Spirit of 76. It was Mr. Gretsas’ first personal interview since coming to work for Mayor Delfino six and a half years ago.

GETTING READY FOR NBC: In a warm interview filled with touches of Mr. Gretsas’ personal philosophy and glowing accolades from Mr. Jackson, Gretsas thanked the people of White Plains for his experience. He praised Mayor Joseph Delfino (“This guy has a heart of gold. His heart bleeds for the people in this city. Everything we’ve done in this city, it’s been about people.”), and said that in the year-and-a-half left in Mayor Delfino’s term, getting 221 Main Street and developing the Silverman-Minskoff owned property across Mamaroneck Avenue from City Center would complete the revitalization of the White Plains downtown. Photo Capture by WPCNR News From WPPA-TV, White Plains Public Access Television.

” As far as my absence is concerned, nothing’s going to change, the Mayor is in charge of this city. The Mayor will continue to be in charge of this city.” George Gretsas, who assumes the helm of Fort Lauderdale as their new City Manager August 2, said on the Jackson show. ” He’s got some decisions to make in terms of what he does, whether he runs for reelection or not is going to be the pivotal thing about whether he stays or goes. My presence (lack of) won’t really make much of a difference because other people could do the (my) job. People may have different styles but at the end of the day the job will get done,  because the vision, the leadership, that’s Mayor Delfino. Mayor Delfino will be here.” Photo Capture by WPCNR News from WPPA-TV, Winbrook Like It Is.

Asked what White Plains would be like in 10 years by host Ron Jackson, Gretsas said,

“The real question is, what happens after the Mayor is gone. Obviously, if he stays another four years, I think you’re going to see the continuity, you’re going to see the same leadership style, and I think you’ll see the unity with the (Common) Council, because I think he works very well with the council. The question is, if the Mayor doesn’t run, who will replace him. There are certain people who are waiting to run I think that will probably carry on similar philosophies, because  a good number of the Councilpeople feel the same the way Mayor does about the policy decisions.

Warns about one Mayoral Prospect.

Gretsas warned about one individual whom he felt would not be good for the city:

“But there is one individual who I think, if was elected  would substantially change the direction of the city, the culture of the city and I don’t think that would be very good for the city. I think the question becomes who the Mayor is, that would determine the direction of the city (over the next 10 years). I know that with Joe Delfino in charge you’ll see a continuation wrapping up the downtown. We’re very close to finishing but we have one or two projects we still have to get done. 221 Main Street still needs to be completed and also the property across the street from the City Center where the Foot Locker is right now. That needs to be redeveloped as well.”

Praises the Common Council

Complimented by Mr. Jackson on his relationship with the Common Council and the high regard for Mr. Gretsas credibility expressed by councilmembers Mr. Jackson did not identify, Gretsas tossed bouquets to the Common Council saying the Common Council relationship has been “spectacular, you’d be hard-pressed to find a government with the collegiality and the willingness to work for the good of the city.”

Gretsas said this was due to the talents of Mayor Delfino whom he said “draws out the best in people and gets them to work together.”

Jackson calls him an “icon.”

Mr. Jackson praised Mr. Gretsas work on restoring heat and power and water to Winbrook when a ruptured gasline disrupted services to the building and said that Gretsas was an icon, and that the city will not know what it is missing until the icon is gone. Gretsas graciously accepted the compliment.

Jackson also noted that Common Councilpersons he knows have personally told Jackson they made decisions based on consultation with Mr. Gretsas on issues.

“Always Tell the Truth.”

Reacting touched to that anecdote, Gretsas said “My own personal rule is always tell the truth and be good to your word. Because jobs come and go, people come and go, but at the end of the day that’s all you have. You need to know that when you sit down with me in my office when I commit to something it’s going to get done.”

Gretsas indicated this applies to projects, deadlines, commitments.

Final words to White Plains

Asked what his final message was to the people of White Plains, he said, “I can’t thank Mayor Delfino enough for the opportunity he provided me. I was 29 years old when he picked me, and living in New Jersey, and he really took a chance on me. We’ve had a tremendous relationship. Working with the council, and working with the people of White Plains really has been an unbelievable opportunity, and I’m very grateful. I thank them, and thank your viewers particularly. I’ll look back on these days with great affection.”

Gretsas cited among the achievements of the Delfino Administration, was turning White Plains into a model for downtown revitalization for the whole country in 6-1/2 years, and expressed special pride in the atmosphere created by the Renaissance Plaza fountain square at Main and Mamaroneck.

White Plains Commissioner Drain?

Jackson asked if he was bringing any of the Mayor’s staff with him to Fort Lauderdale. Gretsas said that sounded like a John Bailey question, grinned and said a lot of people had spoken to him about jobs in Florida, but “The Mayor’s Staff is the Mayor’s Staff.”  He pointed out the Mayor has selected good commissioners and department heads whom he relies on for their expertise.

Gretsas said his job in Fort Lauderdale would be helping the city manage its budget to live within its means.

 (According to a report July 4 in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, one of Gretsas’ first trial balloons already sent aloft in Fort Lauderdale,  is calling for establishment of a Human Resources Department reporting directly to him to manage staff, set salaries, and allocate resources. He is also recommending backing off wholesale police firings. Mayor James Naugle of Fort Lauderdale has endorsed the establishment of that department..)

The interview can be seen on Saturday evening at 8:30 P.M. on WPPA-TV, “The Spirit of 76”

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WPCNR SOUTHENDER. By John F. Bailey. July 14, 2004: Con Edison crews blocked off about a quarter of a mile of Soundview and Ridgeway Avenues last night in their efforts to replace a burned-out underground cable on Soundview Avenue opposite Temple Kol Ami. The work has been going on since last Thursday evening when the second blackouts within 5 weeks affected parts of Soundview Avenue, as well as Battle Hill, where the blackout was caused by a different burn-out in a feeder cable.

A Con Edison supervisor on the scene on Soundview Avenue last night said liquid nitrogen (supplied by two tanker trucks on the scene, above) was used to freeze the oil within the underground cable in order to splice the new cables. Asked by WPCNR what could have caused the burnout, he said he did not know. Photo by WPCNR News. 

NITROGEN TRUCK supplying the supercold nitrogen to facilitate splicing of new cable last night opposite Kol Ami Temple. Photo by WPCNR News.

LANE CLOSURE WRAPPED AROUND THE SOUNDVIEW HORSESHOE CURVE  down Ridgeway, crossing Mamaroneck Road. Here the Con Edison supervisor on the scene said the cable lines on Ridgeway joints were being tested. Photo by WPCNR News.

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WPCNR PRESS BOX. From Pro Sports Radio. July 13, 2004: Before a standing room only crowd in Oklahoma City, the Team USA Olympic Softball team placed a 5-spot on the board in the 4th inning to break open the first game of the National Pro Fastpitch-Team USA Twilight Night Doubleheader Tuesday night. The NPF East Stars threatened against Lisa Fernandez in the first three innings, while Jocelyn Forest of the New England Riptide worked her way through the USA lineup.

There were two runners aboard for TEAM USA in the bottom of the fourth when Lisa Fernandez came to the plate and whacked a double to the wall  off Forest to give Team USA a 2-0 lead. Stacey Nuveman doubled next, scoring Fernandez to make it 3-0. After a walk,  Gina Oaks came in to pitch and Jessica Mendoza tripled on her first pitch to send home two more runs to make it 5-0 and that’s the way she stayed. Team USA plays the NPF West Stars in the Nightcap. You can tune in the action of the nightcap coming up at www.npf.prosportsradio.com, and clicking on the All Star Game Logo.