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 ON THE AISLE. Theater Review by John F. Bailey.  March 13, 2009:  The third production in the sixth season of the  White Plains Performing Arts Center, continued its subscription series of  Broadway history lessons when A Little Night Music, the 6-Tony Award, 661-performance Stephen J. Sondheim Greatest  Hit of 1973 debuted last week.

 

Rivals for Desiree (Penny Fuller) Arrive at Desiree’s mother’s mansion by motorcar unexpectedly. Mark Jacoby plays Fredrik Edgerman, left and the pompous Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, Stephen R. Buntrock in the WPPAC production of A Little Night Music now playing.  Photography, Courtesy White Plains Performing Arts Center by  Carlos Gustovos Monroy

 

The Performing Arts Center delivered what you get from a Sondheim show – wonderfully performed self-introspection, clichéd views of  “truisms,” more  personal reality checks than you ever want from a musical.  WPPAC’s fine talents commissioned for this revival admirably strive for all the feelings ALNM explores.  However, you will leave, feeling appreciative of the art, but melancholy, thinking maybe you didn’t really need to feel this way.

 

My  standard Sondheim disclaimer  now delivered, A Little Night Music succeeds for what it is: a crisp, seamless and workmanlike production by professionals of what has been called Mr. Sondheim’s greatest work. 

 

 The show opens with a “Greek Chorus” of black tie and tails professionals  precisionally performed and elegantly danced by  Jonathan Gabriel Michie, Leah Jennings, Christy Morton and Branch Woodman, who bridge the rapidly changing scenes with musical interludes throughout.  Their demeanor sets the tone: you are in for an evening with the swells going back into time. But, it could be any time, really. The human overture is classic Cole Porter-like style, a very unique opening at the time when this musical was first introduced.

 

We meet the Egermans, father  Fredrik Egerman (played  by veteran Broadway light Mark Jacoby with Len Cariou/ Leo G. Carroll panache – (Mr. Sondheim once wrote the Topper series in the 1950s)  and son Henrik, (Eddie Egan) who duet on the unique Sondheim trick of  weaving three songs together to make a point.

 

Henrik is  a divinity student afflicted with conflict between his holy calling and his being smitten with his father’s teen wife. His father Fredrick, married eleven months to the ingénue Ann Egerman (played with silliness by Erin Davie) half his age, has yet to consummate his marriage, singing “Now as the sweet imbecilities Tumble so lavishly onto her lap, now there are two possibilities: A. I could ravish her, B. I could nap..”

 

Henrik after his father decides to nap, answers, singing “How can I wait around for later? I’ll be ninety on my death bed, and the late, or rather later, Henrik Egerman! Doesn’t anything begin?”

 

ALNM is made up of series of these statement-and-answer duets, which originally were mostly done in ¾ waltz time, lending a lilting feel. But I heard no waltz time Saturday night. The songs were done pretty straightforwardly without the glide of waltz time.

 

Clive Barnes in his review of the original show said “the music is a celebration of ¾ time, an orgy of plaintively memorable waltzes, all talking of past loves and lost worlds.” Again, I got none of this treatment of the music from the ALNM ensemble Sunday afternoon. They laid a professional “bed” for the singers, but I did not sway in my seat as you do with the lilt of the waltz. With a little more lilt and sway, the melancholy would have brimmed to a level of measured mirth.

 

Shiela Smith as Madame Armfeldt — raising Fredricka with “Lessons of Life.” Ms. Smith is hilarious!

 

A douse of the lights and we meet the wheelchair bound  Madame Armfeldt played with solid comic timing  by Sheila Smith, the wheelchair-bound mother of the actress, Desiree, who is taking care of Desiree’s daughter Fredricka  of an uncertain liaison  Smith plays the role created originally by Hermione Gingold with the best lines.

 

She giving Fredricka life lesson of the day, and talking to the audience, laments “Most mothers have daughters who become mothers, mine became an actress.” Another life lesson: “Never take up with a Scandinavian.”  I think I got that line right. Smith has one solid laugh line after another, and though the lines are funny, they serve to underscore the regrets of old age at the end of life, in a most amusing way of course.

 

The entourage of  Desiree is introduced and the chorus combines with Ms. Fuller to sing The Glamorous Life  the highlight of act one.

 

Lights dim and we are whisked to the theater where Fredrick and Ann, his bride observe Desiree played with the elegance of a doyenne of the footlights, Penny Fuller, voluptuously grand and attractive, and looking very much like Glynis Johns who created the role 35 years ago. Fredrick and Desiree are transfixed, and you know they still got it goin’ on, as the young people say.  Ann notices it too, and is immediately jealous.

 

Fredrick decides to go backstage a little later.  He and Desiree strike up like old times, only to be encountered by the blustery Count Carl Magnus-Malcom, Desiree’s current lover. He is suspicious of Fredrick’s presence. In this reuniting moment, Jacoby and Fuller team on the very clever song You Must Meet My Wife that pokes fun of Fredrick’s young wife’s youth. It’s very funny if you’re a person my age remembering how teens act. Not so funny if you’re a teen.

 

We’re still in the first act and we meet another great comic couple, the stuffy, misogynic Count, whose putting down of women, (feminism was in her heyday in 1973) and comic double-standard towards his  wife, Countess Charlotte Malcolm, is rollickingly earnestly portrayed in his song in Desiree’s dressing room, In Praise of Women.

 

 

Best of Friends? Rachel de Benedet as the Countess right, plots with Ann Egerman (Erin Davie) left,  to win back Fredrick’s affections in this comedy of manners and immoralities.

 

Stephen Buntrock as the Count is marvelously pompous, a cartoon, a riot. Rachel de Benedet as his wife the Countess has a precisely exasperated roll-your-eyes delivery that keeps the audience chuckling, with lines like  “or shall I slit my throat on the tram,” when she follows the Count’s orders. Ms. de Benedet has the timing of the classic comedienne, Eve Arden. She also delights the house with Die a Little Death, an analysis of marriage .(“Every Day is a Little Sting in the heart and in the head. Every move and every breath. And you hardly feel a thing, brings a perfect little death.”)

 

Desiree has it in her head that she can win Fredric back from his silly young wife. She has her mother plan a party in the country. The Count has his wife talk Ann into plotting how to keep her husband by going to the country and the song A Weekend in the Country wraps up the first act. This is another waltz executed as one big chorus song. It does not achieve its full affect. But if you don’t  know A Weekend in the Country is supposed to be a waltz you probably won’t notice. (You can’t deliver a waltz temp with a 6-piece orchestra. Maybe that’s why the big songs were not compelling. Good, but not showstoppers.)

 

 

 

The Second Act  descends into a madcap dinner scene (without a table) where the Count’s wife (fourth from left, played with exquisite tipsiness by  Rachel de Benedet ) in an attempt to flirt with Fredrick gets tipsy and says outrageous things.  As Fredrick and the Count each try to liaison with hostess Desiree, they encounter each other, a duel is arranged, and the denouement of this farcical is reached.

 

 

Ms. Fuller as Desiree  delivers the signature song Send in the Clowns splendidly with schmaltz, velvet, pathos, making the audience really feel again every romantic setback in their life. They are all just as she sings about them. And they all come back to you as you’re watching.

 

 

 

I must mention Petra – the engaging maid of Fredrick’s household. Played by the darkly attractive Laura D’Andre she represents the spirit of lust and romance.

 

She succeeds in seducing Henrik, and vividly brings out the pathos and regret of  the  poignant  The Miller’s Son in Act II. Her voice is deep and full of range, her stage presence vivid.   she sings “There are mouths to be kissed Before mouths to be fed, and there’s many a tryst and there’s many a bed. There’s a lot I’ll have missed but I’ll not have been dead when I die! And a person should celebrate everything passing by.”

 

Ms. D’Andre makes this song really work. ALNM  is her New York theatrical debut. She’s a recent graduate of UC Irvine with a BA in drama. Welcome to New York kid, I think you’re going to be around a long, long time.

 

 

The troupers in this revival do an admirable job. And now I can show you them. Previously publicity stills requested by WPCNR,  though sent according to internet records, were not received by this reporter. Perhaps Effie Perrine,  my secretary recently of Spade & Archer, deleted them from my e-mail queue by mistake — she does so try to tydy up. However they are here now, so I can show them to you! Thanks to H. Bruce Harris for resending them along.

 

The production is executed with minimalist touches, very minimalist.  The distinct lack of production values, (perhaps forced due to WPPAC’s apparently sharply reduced production budget) hurts the fine effort of the actors. There are excellent performances that are not supported by the production values we have come to expect from Mr. Batman.

 

A Little Night Music is an officially anointed classic – that the audience if they have not seen it before or know Sondheim will not be used to. It’s funny. It’s sad. It’s touching. It’s entertaining, Before the next production, (Hello, Dolly!) the “few people who have money left, or know corporations who have money” as Jack Batman pleaded when he welcomed the audience Sunday afternoon, had better step up and support the theater.

 

 

This  musical is one of the great lies  spun by the Broadway historians: Sondheim musicals are breakthroughs, yes, he is a musical giant yes, and West Side Story (he wrote the lyrics) broke new ground in the musical (an unhappy ending, what a great thing!), with songs of cleverness and virtuosity.  But like the novel  Tolstoy’s War and Peace ( magnificent work, yes, but poorly plotted, plodding and too much character changes)  “Sondheims” are hard to sit through.

 

But, you’ve paid your $75 or whatever on Broadway and well, you sat through it because the critics and tastemakers said it was good, so it must be good. The laughs ring hollow and nasty, the shock of self-recognition just a little too painful personally.  Even the good lines you laugh at hurt you a little inside. No one likes to feel like a fool and that’s how Sondheim musicals, and especially this one, make you feel. But that’s the way art was on Broadway in the late 60s and 70s, they wanted to shock you, tear down values. Break ground. Sondheim did. And the critics recognized the artistry the talent and the breakthroughs. At least they said they were breakthroughs.

 

Forget taking the children. But, then I am old-fashioned.  Even though WPPAC’s A Little Night Music is a trouper like effort with intriguing leads, Penny Fuller as the actress of a certain age, Desiree, and Mark Jacopy as the aging lawyer once her lover are similar in looks and demeanor to the original stars Len Cariou and Glynis Johns in 1973 – you cannot change what the musical is.  By the way,  a question for you etymologists out there, if Desiree played by Ms. Fuller  is a cougar, what is Fredrick Egerman played by Mr. Jacoby, a “panther?”

 

Clive Barnes’ original review of the  A Little Night Music  Opening in 1973 called it “heady, sophisticated and enchanting…a mixture of Cole Porter, Gustav Mahler, Antony Tudor, and just a little of Ingmar Bergman…more fun than any tango in a Parisian suburb.”

 

 I don’t know what Clive was looking at that opening night in 1973, but A Little Night Music even when it opened was not all that.

 

When I left the original ALNM when I saw it in its first run, I did not have that “rompy” feeling. This is not a gay romp. It’s an edgy musical comedy of human frailty, with the premise as Sondheim said, but in striving to be the Shakespeare of the musical and to bring reality to the musical stage,  Sondheim’s music and lyrics does not achieve the uplifting effects of Shakespeare’s farces and comedies, nor Moliere’s for that matter.   

 

Hugh Wheeler, the book writer, wrote of his own very funny material, said he was inspired by the Shakespeare line by Puck, “Lord, what fools these mortals be.”  Larry Brown writing Sondheim Notes  describes the musical as portraying the themes of action versus inaction, man versus woman, and dignity versus folly.

 

Well it is fun, it’s done as well as can be by the WPPAC  company working without scenery which on the original Broadway stage created multiple changes of scene with the trademark birches used for transitions. (Not one birch in this show that I recall). The birches added to a dreamlike quality of the movie (Smiles of a Summer  Night) from which it was adopted. The original Broadway version created a remarkable villa on the stage. There are no painted sets in this show. The production is minimalist, which in my definition means “the sophisticated, politically correct word for cheap.”

 

But then there is that segment of the theatre going public that thinks an empty stage is great. Well then, this is your show. There were none of the usual lighting magic that made Man of La Mancha and other WPPAC productions so affecting.

 

There is no scenery in the WPPAC production. It is minimalist.  WPPAC which did such a lavish stage treatment for Man of La Mancha and an amazing series of sets for  How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying last season,  and Oliver! this season uses a screen,  and  has actors simply roll furniture on and off the stage. The villa scene has one white gate drop down. There is not even a table in for the dining scene. Costumes were excellent though for the time of the musical: turn-of-the-century Sweden.

 

Sondheim musicals (products of his absolutely miserable childhood) make you think a little too much and  examine your own life, and laced through his works (with the exception of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) is that existential ennui that was the chic art style of the 60s and 70s (the free love, anti-establishment, feminism, anti-war, anti-tradition era – not that there is anything wrong with feminism, mind you.).

 

Well that’s not how I want to feel when I go to a musical. I want to believe everything is possible. I want to believe in real love, that romance can work out, I want to believe the decisions I make can work out right. I want to believe in moral codes, but I am, as I say old-fashioned.  

 

Sondheim’s works turn that notion on its head. He says you never can win.  I saw Company when I was first married and it really depressed me. I saw Sweeney Todd, seeing it on reputation, and could not understand what in the world was entertaining about it. I saw A Little Night Music on Broadway when it first opened, and I had the same feeling when I walked out  after the performance Sunday afternoon as I did then. It made me cranky. It made me depressed. I recognize the opus of the Sondheim artistry, but you have to have a stomach for it.

 

“Sondheims”  are striking great art.  A Little Night Music, acclaimed as his greatest success is clever, it was in keeping with the women’s liberation, anti-romantic, cynical nature of the times. But like most Sondheims, clever and wonderfully talented as he is,  it takes a very bitter person to want to make a young couple feel foolish about romance being real, to make a married couple see the flaws in their own marriage, and to remind the elderly how many missed opportunities for happiness this musical lets go by.  

 

Cole Porter’s sad songs soothed rather than made you want to slit your wrists.

 

Which brings us to the White Plains Performing Arts Center situation pointed up by this musical.

 

 It was classic musicals that producer Jack Batman felt were the formula for reviving the White Plains Performing Arts Center which was comatose in January 2007 when Batman took it over.  White Plains Performing Arts Center, now in its second year with Mr. Batman , when he took over the theatre from the previous Executive Director.  The ensemble assembled by Mr. Batman and Director Sidney J. Burgoyne delivers the clever and amusing score of Broadway legend with workmanlike professionalism.

 

This third effort by the WPPAC poses the question, is the unsatisfying feeling you get walking out because of the production or the material?  It’s a little of both.

 

But, it is great history, diligently, doggedly delivered. Mr. Batman, as he said at the opening of the show, “I beg of you to come and support us. We need you to support live theater.” He described WPPAC as a training ground for young actors as well as a vehicle for you to see productions such as this. Batman sounded very pessimistic in his pleas for monetary support. There was none of his usual optimism about how the theater was going. The Cappelli Foundation underwrote the season this year. They will need the Foundation again in a much bigger way.

 

Batman’s plea to me, was not a good sign.

 

White Plains Performing Arts Center needs a stimulus.

 

The Common Council refused to provide it with funding last spring, and that may be related to why Mr. Batman’s production of A Little Night Music  seemed spare compared to his mountings of Camelot  and Oliver!, the first two shows of the season.

 

A Little Night Music shows Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. And Thursday Friday Saturday and Sunday next week.

 

For more current information contact 914-328-1600, or go to their website at www.wppac.com where you can purchase tickets.

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WPCNR THE PARKING NEWS. By John F. Bailey. March 12, 2009: Paul Wood, City Executive Officer told WPCNR Wednesday evening the city is discussing a lease sale of the Galleria and Library parking garages to any of four parking management companies, for an estimated $30 Million. Wood described  one of the firms as the managing company for all Chicago parking garages and New York City’s leading parking garage operator (which would be Central Parking Systems). CPS, based in Nashville did not return WPCNR calls for confirmation.

 

Paul Wood, City Executive Officer Exploring the leasing of City Municipal Garages for Cash

 

Galleria Municipal Parking Garage, being eyed for lease to private operators.

Wood said the Common Council was informed of this lease plan in Executive Session two weeks ago prior to the Urban Renewal Agency meeting of last Friday morning. At that meeting, the Urban Renewal Agency voted to add The Galleria Municipal Garage and the area occupied by The Galleria itself,  and the Library garage  to the Urban Renewal area.

 

Wood told WPCR  this allows the Agency to lease or sell the properties in efforts to develop those areas. He acknowledged the city has been in preliminary talks with potential operators of the garage which in return for a lease fee would operate the garages, keep the revenues or possibly split them with the city (no arrangement had been worked out as of yet).  CPC collects parking exclusives.

 

Just for example, last year CPC  signed a five year extension with Broward County in Florida to continue to manage the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood Airport where they have increased revenue from $9 Million to $37 Million in five years. They recently purchased and operate garages in Hoboken, New Jersey, where they charge as much as $3 an hour.  White Plains charges about $1 an hour at present rates. The agency can also service parking meters and gives out summonses as part of their operation services.

 

ImPark, another private company, based in Vancouver, Canada, operates the White Plains Mall Parking facility which charges the highest parking rates in the city. They, too,  may be in play.

 

Wood said the Common Council would be asked to consider such a leaseback or a purchase agreement. Asked by WPCNR if the city could expect money upfront in such a purchase, Wood said yes. Asked how much, Wood estimated about $15 Million  of a possible $30 Million which could be used to fill the anticipated holes in the 2009-10 city budget that the Mayor described last night as a “financial emergency,” last night.

 

Wood said such a down payment anticipated to be received in the 2009-10 budget year could replace fund balance he anticipated would be depleted by the anticipated $9.3 and up deficit the city is currently running according to Mayor Delfino last night. WPCNR notes this windfall would also allow funding union raises for 2009-10 currently held hostage to revenue shortfalls.

 

Asked why the city was considering such sale or leaseback arrangement, Wood said the city was following Governor David Paterson’s suggestion to municipalities that towns and cities outsource operations to the private sector to save expenses. “We’re just following the governor’s suggestion,” Wood said.

 

Another incentive for the city to sell or lease the two garages was both garages were at the stage where the city had to invest in major capital improvements such as resurfacing,

 

Asked for the engineering report detailing the flaws in the garage, Wood said it was being worked on by an independent firm, and that Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Nicoletti had not completed his personal report.

 

Wood said the city needed an indication that the Common Council was interested in such a lease agreement, because the firms the city has received initial interest in leasing the garages did not want to invest dollars in doing extensive “due diligence” evaluating the garages if  the Common Council was not inclined to dispose of the municipal garages. Wood said one firm was interested in purchasing all the municipal lots, “but we decided we’d take some baby steps first,” Wood added.

 

The White Plains Library Parking Garage — also in play for private operator lease or other arrangement.

 

Asked if the garages were safe, Wood said they were, and said WPCNR needed to talk to Commissioner Nicoletti on what the garages needed. Recently,  WPCNR readers will recall capital project monies have been allotted to repair city parking lots and garages.

 

WPCNR asked why the garages in question needed capital investment since the Parking Authority, (the organization which previously managed all city-owned parking facilities and also paid for any capital improvements needed), used to handle that as a matter of course and manage the garages at a profit. Wood said the garages were profitable, but had reached a point where major, expensive maintenance was needed which the private firms, one of which was described as a smaller firm with local persons, would undertake at no expense to the city.

 

Rod Johnson, Deputy Commissioner of Planning, told WPCNR (which was on assignment at the time of the Urban Renewal Meeting), said the resolution moving the garages into the urban renewal area was a first step, and gave the city a number of options on the land to redevelop it, lease it, sell the properties – even to small local firms whose principals the city might know in order to redevelop the area. He said the city really did not know what it was going to do with the properties at the present time.

 

Asked if the owners of  The Galleria could prevent the city from selling or leasing the two assets to a private management firm, Wood said they could not, the city retains the right to change operators of the garage.

 

The possible lease of sale of the assets of the municipal garages for an upfront down payment in the near future the city could use to plug a budget shortfall in 2009-10  is remarkably similar to the LCOR 55 Bank Street project of 2006 where the city sold  municipal parking lot land to LCOR for a rental/affordable housing complex for $16.5 Million, for which the city has received some $11 Million to date. That sum helped to balance last year’s budget. The LCOR project is currently stalled because of the lack of availability of financing. LCOR, readers will recall negotiated a delay of the final approximate  $5 Million in payment until after the project is completed.

 

The sale of assets is similar to the sale of Railside Avenue lots several years ago to plug a smaller budget gap.

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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL-CHRONICLE EXAMINER. March 11, 2009: Mayor Joseph Delfino told the White Plains Common Council tonight the city was in a budget “emergency.”  Just four months ago in October, the city said it was in good shape  financially (after a robust first quarter) but watchful and worried. That has changed dramatically.

 

 

To address an immediate need to fill a $9.3 Million plus budget gap, Mayor Joseph Delfino  introduced three home rule requests Wednesday evening. The first  requests an additional ¼% in sales tax for the city from the state legislature, another establishing a municipal development agency and a third requesting the establish of separate commercial and residential tax rates for the city.

 

He hoped the council would grant the requests for home rule tonight in order that the Mayor could go to Albany before April 6 and lobby for passage of the ¼% sales tax, the municipal development agency and separate tax rates with Assembly Legislators Richard Brodsky, Legislator Adam Bradley and Legislator Amy Paulin.

 

The Common Council, with Dennis Power and Tom Roach citing lack of information on what cuts the Mayor had made in the budget,  voted 4-2 with Councilpersons Benjamin Boykin, Milagros Lecuona, to table the Mayor’s three “home rule”  resolutions until the pros and cons  could be discussed in public at the Common Council meeting of April 6 when the 2009-2010 budget is introduced. Councilperson Rita Malmud was not at the meeting. Councilman Glen  Hockley and the Mayor opposed the table.

The top side number of the 09-10  City Budget (projected by WPCNR at about $167 Million if the city rolls over the current budget at a 4%  and delivers union raises  of 3-4% across the board, and $161 Million if the city keeps the budget at the present level),   remains a mystery at this point. Paul Wood, Executive Officer, and the Mayor did not reveal what that budget number was currently on the table. There have been no public meetings called by the Mayor to discuss the budget since October.

 

Mayor Delfino  began the proceedings by saying he called the meeting to readdress budget issues that had come up last year ( a ½ % sales tax increase – which the council cut to ¼%–  and the city municipal development agency) that the council had rejected.

 

He said “the city is truly facing a financial emergency,” and that the issue of an additional ¼%  sales tax should be “relooked at as we look at so many things we’re doing and looking into the future, it’s important we look at every possible revenue, rethink and be extremely creative. There is no more (expenses)  to cut. We know the issues,” the Mayor said sternly, (sales tax ), “I need direction (from the Council). I cannot spend time in Albany talking to our legislators the next three weeks without a home rule request (from the council).”

 

Council President Benjamin Boykin said, “I’m a little confused, why it can’t be dealt with at our regular meeting in April.”

 

The Mayor testily replied it would take “considerable time discussing it (the three home rule requests) in Albany, and I’m not going to do that if I’m not assured I’m going to get a home rule request (from the Council).”

 

The Mayor continued, “We’ve massacred expenses,” saying the council would see that when they received the budget, “that’s the point.”

 

 

CouncilmanTom Roach (far left)  interjected, wanting to know what those budget cuts were. The Mayor’s Office has for the last six  weeks, declined repeated WPCNR requests for a detailed list of all budget cuts by department, layoffs and cost cutting moves. The Mayor declined to say how much he had cut from the budget tonight.

 

 “I can’t decide without information (on the cuts),” Roach said,  “I need to see more of the budget.”

 

The Mayor grumbled, saying the council should be aware the city is facing a $9.3 Million budget shortfall going into the next year  and “it could be higher.”  The Mayor said “There is no revenue.”

 

He said the fund balance would be used to take care of the present shortfall, leaving the city with no cushion for the 2009-10 budget, which was why the home rule requests were introduced, to get the revenue tools in play.

 

The Mayor repeated that the city faced a $9.3 Million budget gap because there was no development, dropping building permits issuances to almost zero. He chided the council for refusing certain projects (the Cappelli Station Plaza project comes to mind).  He also cited the sales tax is down and the mortgage tax collections, and parking fines are down (“you can’t fine cars that aren’t here.”)  He mentioned the Zoning Board did not meet and the Planning Board met for one hour at its last meeting.

 

Roach said, despite the Mayor’s argument the sales tax does not affect most residents adversely,“Before I can agree to raise taxes and more fees, “ he needed to see the expense cuts.

 

The Mayor said, “Every day our situation is getting worse.”

 

 

Councilman Dennis Power jumped in, saying  that when the Mayor described tonight’s meeting as an emergency financial meeting, he felt “the public needs to be involved.”

 

The Mayor majestically stated, “Mr. Power, I have noticed you are process oriented. I’m results-oriented.”

Power pointed out that the last two televised Common Council meetings lasted 20 and 19 minutes and the financial issue was not discussed.  However, no member of the Common Council spoke up on financial concerns at either of those two meetings, either.

 

Exasperated, Power introduced a motion to table the three resolutions until April 6. Benjamin Boykin quickly seconded. The Mayor wanted to discuss it further, but Power pointed out the motion to table had been moved and seconded. The roll was called. The resolutions tabled, 4-2  and the meeting abruptly.

 

 

The council was observed by representatives of the Civil Service Employees Association, and the police and fire unions, all of whom are working without contracts. Police and fire personnel were denied a 3.75% pay increase by the council in December.

 

By voting to table, the council missed an opportunity to call on Acting Budget Commissioner David Birdsall (whom they had rejected as unqualified for the position in December) to explain the budget and expense cutting in detail that had been done to date and to clarify what the possible budget now under consideration was.

 

Mr. Birdsall, Paul Wood, City Executive Officer, and City Assessor Lloyd Tasch, and Parking Department brass, Commissioner of Parking Albert Moroni and Deputy Commissioner John Larson were in attendance in the audience though no parking matters were on the agenda that concerned their agency.

 

Paul Wood interviewed by WPCNR said he could not comment on what the city position with the unions was. The union personnel left before WPCNR could collar them, but their leaders have not returned calls in the past. Two police officers asked by WPCNR what the union had been telling them about the state of their in limbo pay raise,  respectfully declined to comment

 

Wood declined to say what the projected budget was.

 

 

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WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. MARCH 10, 2009: A Special Meeting of the Common Council has been called for Wednesday evening at 6 P.M. On the agenda is a resolution calling for the state to allow White Plains to establish a Municipal Development Agency, and a resolution asking the state legislature to raise the White Plains Sales Tax an additional 1/4% (to 2.5%. 8-1/4% overall). None of the resolutions have been discussed during a  previous work session prior to this date to this reporter’s knowledge

The Agenda:

1.                  Communication from the Mayor in relation to requests for the passage of State legislation to establish a White Plains Municipal Development Agency, to support adoption of the classification of real property into two classes for purposes of allocation of taxes in certain cities, and adding an additional one-quarter of one percent Sales and Compensating Use Tax.

 

2.                              Resolution of the Common Council of the City of White Plains authorizing the certification of a Home Rule Request seeking enactment of State legislation amending the General Municipal Law to establish the White Plains Municipal Development Agency (Assembly Bill No. A1021).

 

3.                              Resolution of the Common Council of the City of White Plains supporting the introduction and adoption of State legislation to amend the Real Property Tax Law in relation to authorizing the classification of real property into two classes for purposes of allocation of taxes in certain cities.

 

4.                                          Resolution of the Common Council of the City of White Plains supporting the introduction and adoption of New York State legislation to amend the Tax Law in relation to authorizing the City of White Plains to impose an additional one-quarter of one percent Sales and Compensating Use Tax.

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WPNCR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. March 9. 2009: The Board of Education meets this evening and will unveil the latest version of the touchy 2009-2010 School Budget. Will they cut or will they not?

 

As analyzed on White Plains Week last Friday night and its internet telecast, at www.whiteplainsweek.com, (see the telecast at 7 tonight on Public Access 76 (Cablevision) or  FIOS Channel 45) WPCNR notes that with the drop of the city assessment roll of  about $5 Million dollars, the school budget going into this evening’s meeting ($185.9 Million) needs to raise taxes $16 per $1,000 to $519/$1,000 of assessed value to make up for the lost $4.3 Million in revenues due to the drop in the assessment roll to $186.8 Million. Tonight, it is expected the district will go over its expected revenues, which may or may not result in a larger tax increase.

 

Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors is expected to announce layoffs. The meeting is open to the public at 5 Homeside Lane, Education House at 7:30 P.M. Also on the agenda is approvals of substitute teachers and extra-curricular activity appointments.

 

 

The head of the White Plains Teachers Association, Kerry Broderick,  told WPCNR last week, the district is planning to fire 24 certified teachers, 20 Teaching Assistants, plus secretaries, custodians and security guards adding up to a total of 58 layoffs in order to make further cuts in the budget. The teachers union is currently in state-supervised mediation talks with the district over their impasse in salary and benefits negotiations,

 

Broderick said the mood of negotiations is not good. She charged that no administrators were being cut. The Superintendent of Schools, Timothy Connors told WPCNR, he did not know where those numbers came from and that there would “across-the-board” layoffs, including administrators. Broderick said the school board was taking the attitude that “the board thinks we (the teachers) owe them so much.” She charged that “negotiating with the School Board is like negotiating with JELL-O. Every time I think we have something, they change their mind. It (a new contract) is in their hands, I don’t know what they’re going to do.”

 

Connors said he would detail the cuts in personnel this evening.

 

From a city standpoint, the Common Council is expressing no interest or concern about the budget publicly. With the drop in the city assessment roll to $285.2 Million, if the city keeps the budget the same as it is this year, $161.7 Million the district needs $1 Million to “catch up” with the assessment drop. The city tax rate will go from $147 per $1,000 of assessed value to $151/$1,000 – if the city keeps the budget where it is.

 

If they roll over the budget to $168. Million, the tax rate will go up to $173 per $1,000 of assessed valuate. Your city tax for a $700,000 home will go from $2,700 to $3,200, up $500. If the city does a modest budget increase to $165 Million – they will need only a $159 per $1,000 of value and the city tax on the $700,000 will go up only $238 to $2,938.

 

Since the city has not even projected revenues yet  which the city says is expected to be down about $9 Million plus – that would have to be figured into any tax increase in addition, unless of course the city decides to cut the budget substantially.

 

To date, the city has said they have cut the budget, and there has been talk of the city entailing contingency budgets for next year. To date despite weekly requests by WPCNR for detailed lists of the cuts, the city has not confirmed any, and has not given a list of the cuts.