Robeson’s Testimony Resounds Today as Immigration Reform Is Introduced

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WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. April 16, 2013:


As Marco Rubio promoted a thirteen-year path to citizenship through a compromise immigration reform bill  that includes border security strengthening, already being criticised for being too lenient on illegals now in this country, (many of whom are paid very little, worked long hours, and are given no health benefits by employers who knowingly employ them illegally), it is worth noting the testimony of the black singer, Paul Robeson, testifying before the House Un American Activities Committee in congress on his connections with the Communist Party. on June 12, 1956.


A correspondent of WPCNR, passed this along and it is worth noting the parallels between Negros and the illegals of today.


The highlight:


Mr. SCHERER: Why do you not stay in Russia?



Mr. ROBESON: Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here, and have a part of it just like you. And no Fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear?



This colloquy is of course iconic, but the entire testimony, which I just stumbled upon this morning and is pasted beneath the link below, is really something. It’s hard to imagine, in the history of Congress, that a witness ever treated Congressmen with such open and palpable contempt. Clearly, the hearing didn’t turn out exactly the way the witch-hunters intended when they convened, as is evident in the words with which the Chairman closes it:



THE CHAIRMAN: Just a minute, the hearing is now adjourned.



Mr. ROBESON: I should think it would be.



THE CHAIRMAN: I have endured all of this that I can.


Mr. Robeson’s complete testimony follows:







_________________________________________



Testimony of Paul Robeson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, June 12, 1956



THE CHAIRMAN: The Committee will be in order. This morning the Committee resumes its series of hearings on the vital issue of the use of American passports as travel documents in furtherance of the objectives of the Communist conspiracy. . . .



Mr. ARENS: Now, during the course of the process in which you were applying for this passport, in July of 1954, were you requested to submit a non-Communist affidavit?



Mr. ROBESON: We had a long discussion—with my counsel, who is in the room, Mr. [Leonard B.] Boudin—with the State Department, about just such an affidavit and I was very precise not only in the application but with the State Department, headed by Mr. Henderson and Mr. McLeod, that under no conditions would I think of signing any such affidavit, that it is a complete contradiction of the rights of American citizens.



Mr. ARENS: Did you comply with the requests?



Mr. ROBESON: I certainly did not and I will not.



Mr. ARENS: Are you now a member of the Communist Party?



Mr. ROBESON: Oh please, please, please.



Mr. SCHERER: Please answer, will you, Mr. Robeson?



Mr. ROBESON: What is the Communist Party? What do you mean by that?



Mr. SCHERER: I ask that you direct the witness to answer the question.



Mr. ROBESON: What do you mean by the Communist Party? As far as I know it is a legal party like the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Do you mean a party of people who have sacrificed for my people, and for all Americans and workers, that they can live in dignity? Do you mean that party?



Mr. ARENS: Are you now a member of the Communist Party?



Mr. ROBESON: Would you like to come to the ballot box when I vote and take out the ballot and see?



Mr. ARENS: Mr. Chairman, I respectfully suggest that the witness be ordered and directed to answer that question.



THE CHAIRMAN: You are directed to answer the question.



(The witness consulted with his counsel.)



Mr. ROBESON: I stand upon the Fifth Amendment of the American Constitution.



Mr. ARENS: Do you mean you invoke the Fifth Amendment?



Mr. ROBESON: I invoke the Fifth Amendment.



Mr. ARENS: Do you honestly apprehend that if you told this Committee truthfully—



Mr. ROBESON: I have no desire to consider anything. I invoke the Fifth Amendment, and it is none of your business what I would like to do, and I invoke the Fifth Amendment. And forget it.



THE CHAIRMAN: You are directed to answer that question.



MR, ROBESON: I invoke the Fifth Amendment, and so I am answering it, am I not?



Mr. ARENS: I respectfully suggest the witness be ordered and directed to answer the question as to whether or not he honestly apprehends, that if he gave us a truthful answer to this last principal question, he would be supplying information which might be used against him in a criminal proceeding.



(The witness consulted with his counsel.)



THE CHAIRMAN: You are directed to answer that question, Mr. Robeson.



Mr. ROBESON: Gentlemen, in the first place, wherever I have been in the world, Scandinavia, England, and many places, the first to die in the struggle against Fascism were the Communists and I laid many wreaths upon graves of Communists. It is not criminal, and the Fifth Amendment has nothing to do with criminality. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Warren, has been very clear on that in many speeches, that the Fifth Amendment does not have anything to do with the inference of criminality. I invoke the Fifth Amendment.



Mr. ARENS: Have you ever been known under the name of “John Thomas”?



Mr. ROBESON: Oh, please, does somebody here want—are you suggesting—do you want me to be put up for perjury some place? “John Thomas”! My name is Paul Robeson, and anything I have to say, or stand for, I have said in public all over the world, and that is why I am here today.



Mr. SCHERER: I ask that you direct the witness to answer the question. He is making a speech.



Mr. FRIEDMAN: Excuse me, Mr. Arens, may we have the photographers take their pictures, and then desist, because it is rather nerve-racking for them to be there.



THE CHAIRMAN: They will take the pictures.



Mr. ROBESON: I am used to it and I have been in moving pictures. Do you want me to pose for it good? Do you want me to smile? I cannot smile when I am talking to him.



Mr. ARENS: I put it to you as a fact, and ask you to affirm or deny the fact, that your Communist Party name was “John Thomas.”



Mr. ROBESON: I invoke the Fifth Amendment. This is really ridiculous.



Mr. ARENS: Now, tell this Committee whether or not you know Nathan Gregory Silvermaster.



Mr. SCHERER: Mr. Chairman, this is not a laughing matter.



Mr. ROBESON: It is a laughing matter to me, this is really complete nonsense.



Mr. ARENS: Have you ever known Nathan Gregory Silvermaster?



(The witness consulted with his counsel.)



Mr. ROBESON: I invoke the Fifth Amendment.



Mr. ARENS: Do you honestly apprehend that if you told whether you know Nathan Gregory Silvermaster you would be supplying information that could be used against you in a criminal proceeding?



Mr. ROBESON: I have not the slightest idea what you are talking about. I invoke the Fifth—



Mr. ARENS: I suggest, Mr. Chairman, that the witness be directed to answer that question.



THE CHAIRMAN: You are directed to answer the question.



Mr. ROBESON: I invoke the Fifth.



Mr. SCHERER: The witness talks very loud when he makes a speech, but when he invokes the Fifth Amendment I cannot hear him.



Mr. ROBESON: I invoked the Fifth Amendment very loudly. You know I am an actor, and I have medals for diction.



. . . .



Mr. ROBESON: Oh, gentlemen, I thought I was here about some passports.



Mr. ARENS: We will get into that in just a few moments.



Mr. ROBESON: This is complete nonsense.



. . . .



THE CHAIRMAN: This is legal. This is not only legal but usual. By a unanimous vote, this Committee has been instructed to perform this very distasteful task.



Mr. ROBESON: To whom am I talking?



THE CHAIRMAN: You are speaking to the Chairman of this Committee.



Mr. ROBESON: Mr. Walter?



THE CHAIRMAN: Yes.



Mr. ROBESON: The Pennsylvania Walter?



THE CHAIRMAN: That is right.



Mr. ROBESON: Representative of the steelworkers?



THE CHAIRMAN: That is right.



Mr. ROBESON: Of the coal-mining workers and not United States Steel, by any chance? A great patriot.



THE CHAIRMAN: That is right.



Mr. ROBESON: You are the author of all of the bills that are going to keep all kinds of decent people out of the country.



THE CHAIRMAN: No, only your kind.



Mr. ROBESON: Colored people like myself, from the West Indies and all kinds. And just the Teutonic Anglo-Saxon stock that you would let come in.



THE CHAIRMAN: We are trying to make it easier to get rid of your kind, too.



Mr. ROBESON: You do not want any colored people to come in?



THE CHAIRMAN: Proceed. . . .



Mr. ROBESON: Could I say that the reason that I am here today, you know, from the mouth of the State Department itself, is: I should not be allowed to travel because I have struggled for years for the independence of the colonial peoples of Africa. For many years I have so labored and I can say modestly that my name is very much honored all over Africa, in my struggles for their independence. That is the kind of independence like Sukarno got in Indonesia. Unless we are double-talking, then these efforts in the interest of Africa would be in the same context. The other reason that I am here today, again from the State Department and from the court record of the court of appeals, is that when I am abroad I speak out against the injustices against the Negro people of this land. I sent a message to the Bandung Conference and so forth. That is why I am here. This is the basis, and I am not being tried for whether I am a Communist, I am being tried for fighting for the rights of my people, who are still second-class citizens in this United States of America. My mother was born in your state, Mr. Walter, and my mother was a Quaker, and my ancestors in the time of Washington baked bread for George Washington’s troops when they crossed the Delaware, and my own father was a slave. I stand here struggling for the rights of my people to be full citizens in this country. And they are not. They are not in Mississippi. And they are not in Montgomery, Alabama. And they are not in Washington. They are nowhere, and that is why I am here today. You want to shut up every Negro who has the courage to stand up and fight for the rights of his people, for the rights of workers, and I have been on many a picket line for the steelworkers too. And that is why I am here today. . . .



Mr. ARENS: Did you make a trip to Europe in 1949 and to the Soviet Union?



Mr. ROBESON: Yes, I made a trip. To England. And I sang.



Mr. ARENS: Where did you go?



Mr. ROBESON: I went first to England, where I was with the Philadelphia Orchestra, one of two American groups which was invited to England. I did a long concert tour in England and Denmark and Sweden, and I also sang for the Soviet people, one of the finest musical audiences in the world. Will you read what the Porgy and Bess people said? They never heard such applause in their lives. One of the most musical peoples in the world, and the great composers and great musicians, very cultured people, and Tolstoy, and—



THE CHAIRMAN: We know all of that.



Mr. ROBESON: They have helped our culture and we can learn a lot.



Mr. ARENS: Did you go to Paris on that trip?



Mr. ROBESON: I went to Paris.



Mr. ARENS: And while you were in Paris, did you tell an audience there that the American Negro would never go to war against the Soviet government?



Mr. ROBESON: May I say that is slightly out of context? May I explain to you what I did say? I remember the speech very well, and the night before, in London, and do not take the newspaper, take me: I made the speech, gentlemen, Mr. So-and-So. It happened that the night before, in London, before I went to Paris . . . and will you please listen?



Mr. ARENS: We are listening.



Mr. ROBESON: Two thousand students from various parts of the colonial world, students who since then have become very important in their governments, in places like Indonesia and India, and in many parts of Africa, two thousand students asked me and Mr. [Dr. Y. M.] Dadoo, a leader of the Indian people in South Africa, when we addressed this conference, and remember I was speaking to a peace conference, they asked me and Mr. Dadoo to say there that they were struggling for peace, that they did not want war against anybody. Two thousand students who came from populations that would range to six or seven hundred million people.



Mr. KEARNEY: Do you know anybody who wants war?



Mr. ROBESON: They asked me to say in their name that they did not want war. That is what I said. No part of my speech made in Paris says fifteen million American Negroes would do anything. I said it was my feeling that the American people would struggle for peace, and that has since been underscored by the President of these United States. Now, in passing, I said—



Mr. KEARNEY: Do you know of any people who want war?



Mr. ROBESON: Listen to me. I said it was unthinkable to me that any people would take up arms, in the name of an Eastland, to go against anybody. Gentlemen, I still say that. This United States Government should go down to Mississippi and protect my people. That is what should happen.



THE CHAIRMAN: Did you say what was attributed to you?



Mr. ROBESON: I did not say it in that context.



Mr. ARENS: I lay before you a document containing an article, “I Am Looking for Full Freedom,” by Paul Robeson, in a publication called the Worker, dated July 3, 1949.



At the Paris Conference I said it was unthinkable that the Negro people of America or elsewhere in the world could be drawn into war with the Soviet Union.



Mr. ROBESON: Is that saying the Negro people would do anything? I said it is unthinkable. I did not say that there [in Paris]: I said that in the Worker.



Mr. ARENS:



I repeat it with hundredfold emphasis: they will not.



Did you say that?



Mr. ROBESON: I did not say that in Paris, I said that in America. And, gentlemen, they have not yet done so, and it is quite clear that no Americans, no people in the world probably, are going to war with the Soviet Union. So I was rather prophetic, was I not?



Mr. ARENS: On that trip to Europe, did you go to Stockholm?



Mr. ROBESON: I certainly did, and I understand that some people in the American Embassy tried to break up my concert. They were not successful.



Mr. ARENS: While you were in Stockholm, did you make a little speech?



Mr. ROBESON: I made all kinds of speeches, yes.



Mr. ARENS: Let me read you a quotation.



Mr. ROBESON: Let me listen.



Mr. ARENS: Do so, please.



Mr. ROBESON: I am a lawyer.



Mr. KEARNEY: It would be a revelation if you would listen to counsel.



Mr. ROBESON: In good company, I usually listen, but you know people wander around in such fancy places. Would you please let me read my statement at some point?



THE CHAIRMAN: We will consider your statement.



Mr. ARENS:



I do not hesitate one second to state clearly and unmistakably: I belong to the American resistance movement which fights against American imperialism, just as the resistance movement fought against Hitler.



Mr. ROBESON: Just like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman were underground railroaders, and fighting for our freedom, you bet your life.



THE CHAIRMAN: I am going to have to insist that you listen to these questions.



MR, ROBESON: I am listening.



Mr. ARENS:



If the American warmongers fancy that they could win America’s millions of Negroes for a war against those countries (i.e., the Soviet Union and the peoples‘ democracies) then they ought to understand that this will never be the case. Why should the Negroes ever fight against the only nations of the world where racial discrimination is prohibited, and where the people can live freely? Never! I can assure you, they will never fight against either the Soviet Union or the peoples’ democracies.



Did you make that statement?



Mr. ROBESON: I do not remember that. But what is perfectly clear today is that nine hundred million other colored people have told you that they will not. Four hundred million in India, and millions everywhere, have told you, precisely, that the colored people are not going to die for anybody: they are going to die for their independence. We are dealing not with fifteen million colored people, we are dealing with hundreds of millions.



Mr. KEARNEY: The witness has answered the question and he does not have to make a speech. . . .



Mr. ROBESON: In Russia I felt for the first time like a full human being. No color prejudice like in Mississippi, no color prejudice like in Washington. It was the first time I felt like a human being. Where I did not feel the pressure of color as I feel [it] in this Committee today.



Mr. SCHERER: Why do you not stay in Russia?



Mr. ROBESON: Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here, and have a part of it just like you. And no Fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear? I am for peace with the Soviet Union, and I am for peace with China, and I am not for peace or friendship with the Fascist Franco, and I am not for peace with Fascist Nazi Germans. I am for peace with decent people.



Mr. SCHERER: You are here because you are promoting the Communist cause.



Mr. ROBESON: I am here because I am opposing the neo-Fascist cause which I see arising in these committees. You are like the Alien [and] Sedition Act, and Jefferson could be sitting here, and Frederick Douglass could be sitting here, and Eugene Debs could be here.



. . . .



THE CHAIRMAN: Now, what prejudice are you talking about? You were graduated from Rutgers and you were graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. I remember seeing you play football at Lehigh.



Mr. ROBESON: We beat Lehigh.



THE CHAIRMAN: And we had a lot of trouble with you.



Mr. ROBESON: That is right. DeWysocki was playing in my team.



THE CHAIRMAN: There was no prejudice against you. Why did you not send your son to Rutgers?



Mr. ROBESON: Just a moment. This is something that I challenge very deeply, and very sincerely: that the success of a few Negroes, including myself or Jackie Robinson can make up—and here is a study from Columbia University—for seven hundred dollars a year for thousands of Negro families in the South. My father was a slave, and I have cousins who are sharecroppers, and I do not see my success in terms of myself. That is the reason my own success has not meant what it should mean: I have sacrificed literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars for what I believe in.



Mr. ARENS: While you were in Moscow, did you make a speech lauding Stalin?



Mr. ROBESON: I do not know.



Mr. ARENS: Did you say, in effect, that Stalin was a great man, and Stalin had done much for the Russian people, for all of the nations of the world, for all working people of the earth? Did you say something to that effect about Stalin when you were in Moscow?



Mr. ROBESON: I cannot remember.



Mr. ARENS: Do you have a recollection of praising Stalin?



Mr. ROBESON: I said a lot about Soviet people, fighting for the peoples of the earth.



Mr. ARENS: Did you praise Stalin?



Mr. ROBESON: I do not remember.



Mr. ARENS: Have you recently changed your mind about Stalin?



Mr. ROBESON: Whatever has happened to Stalin, gentlemen, is a question for the Soviet Union, and I would not argue with a representative of the people who, in building America, wasted sixty to a hundred million lives of my people, black people drawn from Africa on the plantations. You are responsible, and your forebears, for sixty million to one hundred million black people dying in the slave ships and on the plantations, and don’t ask me about anybody, please.



Mr. ARENS: I am glad you called our attention to that slave problem. While you were in Soviet Russia, did you ask them there to show you the slave labor camps?



THE CHAIRMAN: You have been so greatly interested in slaves, I should think that you would want to see that.



Mr. ROBESON: The slaves I see are still in a kind of semiserfdom. I am interested in the place I am, and in the country that can do something about it. As far as I know, about the slave camps, they were Fascist prisoners who had murdered millions of the Jewish people, and who would have wiped out millions of the Negro people, could they have gotten a hold of them. That is all I know about that.



Mr. ARENS: Tell us whether or not you have changed your opinion in the recent past about Stalin.



Mr. ROBESON: I have told you, mister, that I would not discuss anything with the people who have murdered

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City Sales Tax $$ 2% ($1M) off for the Year; County Sales Tax $$ UP 5%

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WPCNR QUILL AND EYESHADE. From the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. April 15, 2013:


March White Plains Sales Tax Receipts were $10,000 less than March 2012, erasing a 2% behind last year’s trend that had persisted for four months, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance reported to WPCNR today. 


Should the city continue to ring up sales on pace with the last quarter of last year (April May June), the city will collect about $1 Million less  ($49,945,564 in  sales tax revenue) — 2% less than they did in fiscal year 2011-12, when the city collected $50,972,671, an all-time high.


(It should be noted that the city takes $5 Million out of their total sales tax revenues and puts it in the Tax Stabilization and Reserve Fund which they have taken $5 million out of to meet budget shortfalls primarily due to wage and benefits costs  in 2012-13 and plan to do so again in 2013-14.)


Westchester County Sales Tax Revenues outside of the six cities that collect sales tax, (which includes White Plains)  are doing significantly better than Westchester’s supposed retail hub, White Plains — Westchester County sales tax receipts are up 5% in the first quarter of the county fiscal year,  $122.4 Million to $116.5 Million in the first quarter of 2012.


 


 

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Photographs of the Day

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WPCNR’S ROVING PHOTOGRAPHER. April 13, 2013:


The Lyons Place Garage adjacent to the Esplanade was half way demolotioned this week, as the city quietly prepares to build a new $7 Million parking garage, expected to be complete in November to serve businesses in the immediate vicinity.



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Legislators: More Time on Sustainable Playland Contract. Poses Q’s, Wants A’s

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WPCNR County Clarion-Ledger. From the County Board of Legislators Press Office. (EDITED)  April 11, 2013:


The resolution for the asset management agreement  proposed by County Executive Astorino that will cede control of Playland, Westchester’s 280-acre amusement park and recreation facility, to a not-for-profit entity called Sustainable Playland, Inc. (SPI) was held over by Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL) Chairman Ken Jenkins (D-Yonkers) at today’s meeting of the County’s Board of Acquisition and Contract (A&C), as questions abound regarding the financial viability of the agreement.



The BOL Government Operations Committee, chaired by legislator Catherine Borgia (D-Ossining), has been carefully scrutinizing the proposals of the top four respondents, as indicated by the Administration. A financial audit of the four proposals initiated by the BOL is due any day now.



The BOL’s vetting of the proposals (Editor’s Note: the proposals have been available to the Legislators for two years)  has generated a number of important questions about Astorino’s choice of SPI, and whether the not-for-profit organization will deliver the best financial deal for Westchester taxpayers, who will be on the hook for any County incurred costs at Playland not covered by the agreement.



Today, BOL Chairman Jenkins entered into the record of the A&C meeting several of these questions:



Question: Please explain why attendance is the factor being delineated for “greater county subsidies” when in fact the data as presented in the Adopted 2013 Budget book reflects a decrease in County subsidies.



The resolution authorizing Westchester to enter into a management agreement with Sustainable Playland, Inc. states that a downturn in attendance which has “translated directly into greater county subsidies going to support the budget to operate Playland.” While service indicators from 2009 to the present reflect a reduction in attendance, the net cost to operate Playland has not increased. Actual net costs in 2009 were $4,846,514, and actual costs in 2011 were $3,325,430. The 2013 Adopted Budget reflects a net cost to the County of $2,166,041(see page C504). Therefore based on the data presented in the Adopted Operating Budget of the County, the cost to the county tax payer to operate Playland has DECREASED.



Question: What is the rationale for the assumption utilized to calculate a $2,750,000 receipt of over a 10-YEAR PERIOD, when the resolution delineates the time frame to be “on the earlier of May 1, 2014 or the date each zone commences business operations and generates the first dollar of revenue from the activities and programs occurring in such Park zone after such Park zone opens to the public”?



The resolution states, “SPI has agreed to pay $3,250,000 to the County as follows: $500,000 on the Commencement due Date and the balance paid in installments of $500,000 for the Great Lawn Zone and $750,000 each for the Amusement Zone, Beach Zone and Field Zone on the earlier of May 1, 2014 or the date each zone commences business operations and generates the first dollar of revenue from the activities and programs occurring in such Park zone after such Park zone opens to the public. Yet the “budget box” included in the resolution reflects $500,000 to be received in 2013 and the balance of $2,750,000 to be received in the period 2014 to 2023.



Question: Since the revenue to be received by the County is predicated on the net operating income of SPI, how has the County determined the value of the revenue?



The resolution states, “Additionally, net operating income will be distributed as follows: a.) to the County 50% or more up to and including 100% of the net operating income after the payment of all operating expenses and capital expenses as approved in SPI’s Operating and Capital Budgets; b.) 25% to the SPI’s capital reserve fund until the amount therein equals $10,000,000; and c.) 25% to the SPI’s operating reserve until the amount therein equals $5,000,000.”



Question: According to County Executive Astorino, the agreement with SPI is designed to “stop the financial bleeding.” If that is the case, how is the remaining $2 million in annual debt service being paid for?



County Executive Astorino recently stated: “SPI will pay the county a base fee that could eventually total $4 million, provided all zones become operational as planned. SPI will also make annual payments to the County based on the park’s net operating revenue. SPI estimates this to be about $1.2 million per year once the park is fully developed. All of the SPI payments will go toward retiring the County’s existing debt for Playland of approximately $35 million.”



But the existing debt for Playland (including the Ice Casino) is in excess of $3.2 million in 2013 (per adopted 2013 budget book). Revenues of about $1.2 million per year “once the park is fully developed” will still leave approximately $2 million in debt for County taxpayers to shoulder.



Question: How will the County offset the approximately $4.4 million of interdepartmental costs which are now allocated to Playland and offset by revenues in the applicable County departments providing the services?



Added to the $2 million burden of continuing debt not presently met by SPI’s payments to the County, Playland also carries “interdepartmental costs” which equate to approximately $4.4 million in the 2013 adopted budget.



Question: What happened to the upfront payment of $4 million?



In his original announcement and press release on October 31, 2012, County Executive Astorino outlined an upfront payment of $4 million from Sustainable Playland, as well as a minimum payment of $1.2 million a year.


Donna Greene, spokes person for the Department of Communications told WPCNR that Director of Communications, Ned McCormick stated this afternoon that all questions would be answered and the legislature would be given the answers they need. Greene said that many of the questions had already been answered “in committee.”

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Connors Consults through June. His Interim Superintendent Pact Not Ready Yet

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. April 11, 2013:


The White Plains City School District completed an 81-Day Independent Contractor Services Agreement with Timothy Connors, the district former Superintendent of Schools from 2002 through 2009 Wednesday night when Rosemarie Eller, the President of the Board of Education, signed a contract to bring in Mr. Connors.


An additional expected contract with Mr. Connors to serve as Interim Superintendent of Schools beginning July 1, while the district searches for a new Superintendent of Schools to replace Dr. Christopher Clouet,  (leaving as of July 1 to become the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns Superintendent of Schools), has not been completed with Mr. Connors yet, according to the Clerk to the Board of Education, Michele Schoenfeld.


According to the contract just signed, Mr. Connors, in his services from now until the end of the school year in June will “Conduct/Participate in Union negotiations; participate in meetings to lay out a process for the screening and interviewing of candidates for key District positions; conduct interviews for finalists; meet with Middle School Redesign leaders to ensure smooth transition, and additional transitional assignments/projects as requested by the School District’s Board of Education.”


Mr. Connors will be paid at the rate of $1,200 a day for each full day (prorated for partial day). He will not be reimbursed for any expenses he incurs in executing his per day duties.


Dr. Clouet remains as Superintendent of Schools in the district through June 30.


At this time there is no timetable as to when the Interim Superintendent contract is expected to be completed, according to Schoenfeld.


During his two years as Interim Superintendent of Schools in Hastings-on-Hudson, Eileen Baecher, President of the Hastings Board of Education told WPCNR,that when Mr Connors was hired in 2010-11, he was a full-salaried employee at $230,000 a year plus benefits and the next year was raised to $235,000 a year plus benefits.


 

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Ryan Collects Harrison Democratic Party Endorsement for County Exec Nomination

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WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2013. From County Legislator William Ryan. April 11, 2013:


Democratic district leaders in the Town of Harrison met Monday night and gave unanimous support to County Legislator Bill Ryan in the race for the Democratic nomination for Westchester County Executive.


 


The Harrison endorsement comes less than two weeks after Democrats in Peekskill gave Bill Ryan their overwhelming support for County Executive.  Nearly two months ago, White Plains Democrats were the first to announce their preference in the race, giving overwhelming support to Ryan.


 


“This is shaping up to be a real horse race,” said Legislator Ryan reacting to the news from Harrison.  “It looks like each of us will arrive at the convention with decent support.” 


 


On April 24th, Harrison district leaders will join others from throughout Westchester at the County Democratic Convention to select the party’s candidate to face incumbent Rob Astorino.


 


“From all indications, this race is wide open.  Judging from the hundreds of leaders I’ve spoken to, no candidate will have a majority on the first ballot,” predicts Ryan.  “I entered the race late — at least two years behind Ken and a year behind Noam.  Playing ‘catch-up ball’ isn’t easy but we’re making progress.”


 


Ryan says that feedback from district leaders has been important.  I listen carefully to what they’re saying.  My message about property tax relief, vital services and our quality of life is well-received.  I’m viewed, hands down, as best qualified for the job.  I have the strongest property tax relief record of anyone in the race including Astorino.  And many district leaders see me as the only candidate who can take votes from Astorino north of I-287.”


 


 

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County Executive Seeks Injunction to stop HUD WITHHOLD OF SANDY $7.4 M

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Westchester County Department of Communications. April 10, 2013:


Calling a threat from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to take away $7.4 million in funds for Westchester and its communities “extortion based on nothing more than its unsupported opinions,” County Executive Robert P. Astorino has asked for a formal hearing with HUD to give the county the due process it is entitled to and for a partnership from the Board of Legislators in seeking an injunction to prevent HUD from arbitrarily taking away the funds that had been promised to Westchester communities two years ago.


“In a nation of laws, the rules apply to everyone and that includes HUD,” said Astorino. “If HUD has issues, there is a process to be followed. What HUD is doing is extortion based on nothing more than its unsupported opinions. The county is asking for nothing more than to be treated fairly under HUD’s own rules.”


On March 25, the county was notified by Vincent Hom, director, community planning and development of HUD, that the $7.4 million would be taken away from the county and reallocated to other communities around the nation on April 25 based on the agency’s claim that the county has failed to “affirmatively further fair housing.” For three years, HUD has promised to provide a definition of what “affirmatively further fair housing” means, but has failed to do so. More broadly, HUD is trying unilaterally to expand the terms of the 2009 federal affordable housing settlement to dismantle local zoning.


Under the terms of the settlement, entered into by former County Executive Andrew Spano, the county must come up with a document called an “Analysis of Impediments,” or AI, that is acceptable to HUD. The county has submitted five AI’s to date, all of which have been rejected by HUD because the agency claims the county has not developed a “satisfactory plan … to overcome exclusionary zoning,” has not notified municipalities of the “changes that must be made, and if not, the consequences of municipalities’ failure to make them.”


HUD has labeled standard zoning as “exclusionary.” In its view, normal zoning criteria governing such things as lot size, height, number of bedrooms, density, setbacks, sewers and environmental considerations, are “restrictive practices” that as of HUD’s March 25 letter must be corrected as part of the county’s “civil rights obligations.”


HUD has offered no proof to support its contentions. The county, on the other hand, has conducted a comprehensive analysis of every zoning district in the county – consisting of more than a dozen criteria covering 26,443 data points, as well engaged an outside legal analysis by the Pace University Land Use Center, and found no evidence of exclusionary zoning based on race.


“Let’s be clear what’s going on here,” said Astorino. “HUD refuses to accept the conclusion of our objective and thorough analysis. To force the county to change its conclusions, it is holding hostage money that’s been promised to our communities, some of them not even a party to the settlement and with the biggest needs. How that helps advance affordable housing, which we all agree is vitally important, is best left to HUD to explain.”


Astorino emphasized that the county is in full compliance with the settlement and where there have been disagreements it has availed itself of the dispute resolution process outlined in the agreement. He also noted that the county is well ahead of schedule in building the housing. As of today, the county has 305 units with financing in place. Only 300 are required by the end of 2013. More than 100 units are already occupied.


In a letter dated April 4 to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Astorino formally requested a hearing and disputed the HUD assertion that the county has not complied with statutory requirements to qualify for the money, which is given to local communities under three federal programs: Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnership and Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG), and that HUD has any right to withhold the money without giving the county any chance to refute HUD’s assertions.


“In light of the unprecedented amount of work, analyses and submissions by the county, HUD’s claim that the county has failed to submit appropriate documentation to HUD’s satisfaction is simply unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious,” Astorino writes.


As part of his ongoing commitment to comply with the settlement, Astorino sent a letter to members of the Board of Legislators today again asking for them to reintroduce so-called source of income legislation as a follow up to last week’s ruling by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals.


He also sent a second letter, this one formally requesting that the board adopt an act authorizing the County Attorney to institute legal proceedings on behalf of the County of Westchester against HUD to challenge the determination to deny and reallocate the federal funds.


“I am asking for the Board of Legislators to stand up for Westchester and against this punitive action brought on by HUD, and I am asking for them to do so expeditiously,” Astorino said. “There will be very minimal expense to the county because the matter will be handled in house, but it is important that Westchester protect itself from the federal government taking away money without any due process,” said Astorino.


The call for the hearing with HUD is one of several recent developments that relates to the 2009 housing settlement that requires the county government to facilitate the construction of 750 units of ‘fair and affordable” housing in 31 so-called eligible (mostly white) communities by 2016. As part of that settlement, a housing monitor was appointed to oversee the county’s compliance.


To date, legal disputes have evolved over so-called source of income legislation and the county’s zoning practices. These issues have spilled over to effect the county’s funding from HUD allocated in past years.


At issue currently is $7.4 million in funds awarded to the county for federal fiscal year 2011. The money was allocated to fund a variety of local projects, including park improvements, playgrounds and sidewalk improvements in local municipalities throughout the county. In addition, the money was allocated to fund eviction prevention and homeless services and affordable housing construction.

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Home Sales up 8 % in Tri-County Region in Jan-Feb March

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WPCNR HOME WATCH. From the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service. April 10, 2013:


 


Realtors participating in the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service, Inc., a subsidiary of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, Inc. reported 8% more closings than last year  of residential transactions throughout the four-county region served by the MLS.


 



Orange County showed the greatest percentage increase in sales volume, 16%, followed by Westchester at 7%, Rockland at 5%, and Putnam at 2%.


 


Westchester and Putnam both posted slight price gains. In Westchester, the $515,000 median for a single family house was just 2% higher than in 2012, and the condo median was flat at $313,500. In Putnam, the single family house median of $286,500 represented a 3% increase from last year.


 


 For Westchester, the surge in sales was concentrated among condominiums and cooperatives, 11% and 8% respectively;


 


Orange County experienced high condo and co-op increases, 24% for the combined categories, whereas Rockland showed greatest strength in the single family house sector with an increase of 10% there. Rockland, however, was the only county to show a negative posting in one of its land uses, condos and co-ops, with a 5% decrease from last year.


 



There were 2,263 closed transactions during the recent first quarter, constituting a large 8% increase over the 2,090 transactions reported in the first three months of 2012. The closed transactions were largely of properties that had been listed and marketed during the winter and early spring months of 2012-2013.


 



 


The quickening market that commenced in 2012 has been responding to several factors, one of them being pent-up demand by consumers who need to be in the market for one reason or another, and who perceive that economic circumstances are supportive.  For example, mortgage interest rates have been extremely low – at an average of 4% or less on a 30-year conventional loan – and there is little prospect for rates to lurch upwards in the next few quarters.


 


 Also, the equity markets – the Dow Jones in particular – have achieved record highs in recent days; while not directly or immediately affecting real estate, the daily DJIA has served as a morale booster for real estate consumers. An additional factor is the region’s unemployment rate; it has been stuck in the 7-8% range for many months, but it is at least stable.


 


The factors that support the release of pent-up demand have also attracted first-time buyers as well as others who see an unparalleled opportunity to acquire affordably priced housing in what is well known to be an expensive region. Their market activity is having the effect of making the pricing structure look weak or even decreasing from quarter to quarter. 


 


 However, there is no devaluation taking place – that all occurred in 2008 and 2009 when the housing recession took place. 


 


 Rather, the bulk of the market has strongly shifted to the moderate and lower priced properties; there are more such sales relative to the high end, and that has the effect of pulling down the averages.


 


In Westchester, for example, the proportion of first-quarter single family transactions for $1 million or more was about 16%, the same as last year at this time, but well below the level of 20% or higher that prevailed in prior years.   


 


Rockland and Orange counties were the most affected by such averaging during the first quarter of 2013. The median sale price of a single family house in Rockland was $358,000, a decrease of 3.8% from last year.  Rockland condos and co-ops, however, posted a median price of $190,000, an increase of 5%.  In Orange county, the single family house median of $226,000 was 10% lower than in 2012; it’s condominium median of $153,470 was 3% lower.


  


The pace of sales throughout the region appears to have affected inventory levels more significantly than it has for many years prior. The decreases in 2013 end of quarter (inventory)levels ranged from 19% and 17% in Westchester and Putnam, respectively, to 10% and 6% in Orange and Rockland, compared to a year ago.


 


Realtors are not reporting actual shortages of suitable housing in any category.  Rather, they say that the tightness in the market is increasing the level of competition for properties, with the result that prospective purchasers need to make faster decisions. 


 


There may also be an increase in prices, as is beginning to appear in Westchester and Putnam now.


 


If that occurs and general economic conditions remain favorable, more property owners who have postponed selling their properties will be induced finally to do so, and inventory will increase again, making an even more inviting setting for purchasers.


 



  

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D.A. Charges Unform Store Owner with Supplying False Warranty Information in a B

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Office of the District Attorney. April 9, 2013:


 


Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore announced that John Holmes (DOB 10/02/60) of 4 Francis Lane, Port Chester, New York was arraigned today on a Felony Complaint charging him with:


 



  • one count of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, class “E” Felony,

  • one count of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree, a class “E” Felony.

 


On March 4th, 2013, the defendant, the owner of New England Sportswear, a White Plains police and fire uniform store, submitted a fraudulent letter of warranty for products sold by Blauer Manufacturing Inc., a Massachusetts public safety clothing manufacturer, in support of a bid submission to the City of Rye police department.


 


The product warranty was a requirement for the City of Rye to award the uniform contract.


 


The defendant submitted a letter ostensibly drafted by the owner of Blauer Manufacturing Inc. and addressed to “Jack” at New England Sportswear indicating that “Blauer will provide a warranty on new garments purchased that its styles will be free from defects in workmanship or materials for a period of one year provided the garments are properly cared for, used, cleaned and following care tag labels.”


 


The defendant knew the warranty was not provided by Blauer and further knew that New England Sportswear is not an authorized vendor for products sold by Blauer.


 


Bail was set at $1,500 cash or bond.


 


The defendant’s next court date is May 7th, 2013.


 


He faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison.


 


Assistant District Attorney Brian Conway, Deputy Chief of the Public Integrity Bureau is prosecuting the case.


 


 


 

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School District Hires Connors as Consultant/Interim Superintendent. Ups Budget

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. April 8, 2013:


The school district tonight brought back former Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors as a consultant effective this Thursday, and also brought him on as Interim Superintendent of Schools effective July 1.


The President of the Board of Education, Rosemarie Eller told WPCNR that Mr. Connors had not signed a contract yet, but expected he would sign one in the next few days. “We have an agreement,” she said.


She told WPCNR that she expected him to be handling matters pertaining to appointments and negotiations with the White Plains teachers. Connors told WPCNR he expected to be working closely with Dr. Christopher Clouet, the Superintendent of Schools in place until July 1 on personnel appointments.


In other action tonight, the Board voted 5-0 (with Board members James Hricay and Peter Bassano absent), to raise the school budget from $192.9 Million to $193.4 Million, to reflect an additional $450,000 in state aid consisting of an additional $150,000 in Building Aid and $250,000 in a state grant. Assistant Superintendent for Business, Fred Seiler told WPCNR the majority of the $450,000 would be spent on improvements to school security, with money also devoted to paying for the search for a new Superintendent of Schools.


The President of the White Plains Teachers Association, Kerry Broderick, told WPCNR the teachers were still in a fact-finding stage of seeking a new contract.


Broderick said she had stepped down as chief negotiator for the teachers and that David Eng-Wong, the teachers’ representative to the New York State Union of Teachers, would be the teachers’ new negotiator. She said he was getting his “team” in place.


Fred Seiler told WPCNR 230 White Plains teachers were not eligible to receive the “step” increase the majority of White Plains teachers received under terms of the Taylor Law, now covering teacher pay this year because the teachers are working without a contract.

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