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 SLATER CENTER CHRONICLE.  October 10, 2008:  The Thomas H. Slater Center recently held two fundraising events as a part of its Step-Up! Girls Program to promote the “Big Give” project, based on Oprah Winfrey’s reality show “The Big Give.”  The announcement was made today by Heather Miller, Executive Director of the Center.

Step Up! Girls, funded by the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services, began in February 2008.  Currently, twenty-two girls, ages 14-17, are registered with the program which meets twice weekly.  In April, 10 girls traveled with Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity on a five day college tour, visiting thirteen colleges.  Other activities include life skills development, academic assistance, employment assistance, among others.  Step Up! Girls is modeled from the White Plains Youth Bureau’s Step Up! Boys, a program which is being duplicated by many communities.

Ms. Miller offered the challenge to the girls to use a $500 donation to raise additional funds and decide on a charity to donate the proceeds.  The girls chose the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Hurricane Relief Efforts for Haiti as the recipients of the donation.

Step Up! Girls held a fashion show that featured local designers, Lou Torres-Gardner, Zebulon Crawford and Tara deVere.  The models, many of who was Step Up! Girls themselves were likened to the best of the models on television series “American Next Top Model” and the designers to the best of “Project Runway.”  “The audience of over 100 was enthralled and awed by the professionalism and expertise of the young people, both the models and designers,” said Miller.

The girls raised $3000, between the two events. Proceeds from both events will be split amongst the two charities. 

Donations are still being accepted and checks should be made payable to the Thomas H. Slater Center/Big Give, and sent to 2 Fisher Court, White Plains, NY 10601.

Donors may also drop off non-perishable donations and items for the hurricane relief efforts for Haiti at the Center.

For more information on the Step Up! Girls program, please contact Martha Leonard or Naiyma Ford at (914) 948-6211 and/or mloeonard@slatercenter.net, nford@slatercenter.net.

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WPCNR SERGEANT JOE FRIDAY REPORTS. From Don Hughes October 9, 2008: A frequent contributor to WPCNR, Don Hughes advises that communications from banks received by e-mail may be covers to access personal information, and not from your bank at all:

The current financial crisis has provided a fertile new area for scam artists.  They are blasting out e-mails claiming that it necessary for you to provide account and other personal details to the firms new owners for verification purposes.  Some of the scams are quite well done, even including links to legitimate web pages.

Do NOT respond to these requests.  Financial institutions would ask for such information via regular mail, not e-mail.

Here is a link for an example claiming to be from Chase: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10057180-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1009_3-0-20s

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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER By John F. Bailey. October 7, 2008 UPDATED October 8,  11:25: The Common Council under the leadership of Council President Benjamin Boykin tabled  resolutions to spend $90,000 in bonds to construct a Tot Lot at Mitchell Place; $1,555,800 in bonds to purchase garbage trucks, dump/snow plow trucks, and street sweepers; $578,000 for the purchase of 2 fire trucks; and $523,000 to purchase police cars and sedans.

The delay in approving the  total of $2,656,800 in bonds  Monday night due to the  “precarious economic times” Councilman Boykin told WPCNR Tuesday. “We need to look at where we’re at in the city budget.” Boykin said it was the collective feeling of all six councilmembers that they needed the city finance Commissioner to update them financially before the bonds could be considered to go out to the frozen financial markets. He expected that  update to happen at the next Council work session October 23.

The Council did approve $225,000 to build a conferenceroom at City Court (funding from the New York State Office of Court Administration), $100,000 for Municipal Parking Lot Rehabiliation from the General Fund, and $300,000 in bonds for rehabilitation of City parking garages.

Boykin said there was no lending  being done in the financial markets anyway, and it would take months before the bonds had they been floated would have attracted buyers. He said the projects were not eliminated, just postponed.  Boykin noted that the Wall Street Journal Tuesday had an article noting how municipalities across the country were suspending projects due to credit not being available. He said there is no liquidity, credit has dried up.

Asked if the council was giving the Mayor’s Office any direction on negotiating union contracts, Boykin said they were not, that it was the Mayor’s responsibility to negotiate contracts. He did not rule out that other councilpersons were perhaps making suggestions individually to the Mayor.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. October 6, 2008: Donna McLaughlin, Board of Education President, called for the board to “get involved in early with the way we do the budget” this year, saying a good way to start would on the finance committee working with the Superintendent of Schools and Assistant Superintendent for Business, Fred  Seiler, and finding what components go into making up the budget. Paying close attention to “line item involvement” and “what makes up the budget.”

The Superintendent appreciated her concern, but  said that the district first had to watch and interpret what the state was doing first and be aware of what it means for the district, and what “may reoccur so we do things that make sense.”

The Superintendent made no statement on the status of negotiations with the White Plains Teachers Association. Kelly Broderick, the President of the union told WPCNR after the meeting was over, there was no progress in her meeting with the district today: “It (negotiating) is going to be a long process,” she said. The union is seeking a two-year contract and is seeking a wage increase to offset a 17% increase in the health premiums the teachers pay, which the union feels has taken away much of last year’s 3.5% wage increase. Teacher salary and health benefits currently take up 75% of the $184.4 Million budget.

In other action…

Bonding for Certs Approved in Teeth of Interest Rate Uncertainty

The district approved going out for bonds for more certioraris which were approved, the amount of which were not disclosed in the public meeting. Fred Seiler the Assistant Superintendent for Business said the district would probably go out to bond after December, but would consult with their legal advisory on the best time considering the now unstable condition of the credit markets. Both and the school district and the city will be putting out bonds in next year’s as yet unknown financial climate.

Ms. McLaughlin asked if the district was considering a way not to bond for certioraris going forward. Seiler said an alternative to financing certiorari refunds had not been explored yet.

A Superintendent Profile: Everything But Financial Magic

In other action, the district heard the report of Hazard, Young and Attea Associates outlining what the district was looking for in a superintendent whom some 379 persons and 100 questionaires felt should be very much like Mr. Connors, who is visible and active and available throughout the district. The search firm is already recruiting and will be looking for a Superintendent who will support the district Strategic Plan, is accessible and approachable, able to communicate the vision of the White Plains Schools, is a good manager, with a proven track record of success with a diverse student population. He or she should be able to change policies, bring factions of the district together, decisive and able to motivate staff; and finally able to see all areas of the district. There was nothing in the makeup of qualifications for a Superintendent that required them to show a prior expertise in slowing budget growth.

Energy Reduction Contract Approved — Seeking Technological Changes to save $700G a Year

The district approved a contract  with ECG Engineering to develop a survey from which a Request for Proposals would be formulated to have large Energy Service Companies submit proposals to supply energy to the district with a guaranteed savings, based on technology improvements across the district that would result in the savings. Seiler told WPCNR after the meeting that the district would fund such technology improvements by financing of some sort, but would realize a predicted $600,000 to $700,000 in energy savings annually once the improvements had been installed across the district.

The district  would have to buy its energy from the Services Company. No financial model was shown. ECG Engineering would not charge the district for the initial survey to develop the Request for Proposals, but would be paid by the Energy Services Company which offered the best RFP proposal.

Loucks & Parker Stadium Fees approved

The district approved rental fees to community, school, and outside groups who wished to use the new Loucks and Parker Stadiums, outfitted with artificial turf. The fees are $60 for the first two hours of rental and $30 for each additional hour. For Loucks Field rental at night, using the lights it is $60 for two hours plus $50 an hour for lights ($220 for two hours at night). Persons or groups interested in renting the new fields, should if you are a community group contact the White Plains Department of  Recreation and Parks, 914- 422-1336 School groups, should contact the School District at 914-422-2050.

Advanced Placement  Course Students Grow

Lesley Tompkins Director of Guidance announced that the number of White Plains students in advanced placement courses and taking advanced placement exams had increased 259% since 1993. Her report was not immediately available to the media, but it will be furnished tomorrow. She was asked for a breakdown of results in how many advanced placement students had passed the placement exams by Board Member Cheryl Brady, and Board Member Rosemarie Eller asked how different racial groups had done. Tompkins said  the passing percentages were often misleading due to the small number of students taking some exams. She did not have those figures based on ethnic performances, but would supply it.

After School Programs Approved but Must Prove Themselves by Spring Budget.

In a related matter, the Board voted to approve funding for academic After School Programs, over President Donna McLaughlin’s objections that the district has never been able to quantify how successful students have been in those programs.

Superintendent Connors said they were holding a meeting Friday morning at 10 to begin a study that would at last determine with Larry Killian, Director of Research and Testing,  promising to provide data tracking how students have fared after participating in these programs. 

This is a breakthrough for the school district, because for the eight years WPCNR has covered the district individual breakout data on student groups, ethnic or otherwise related to their progress after taking programs has always been reported by Dr. Killian as being inaccessible using the White Plains data systems in place.

Board Member Peter Bassano suggested they could run the After School programs for half a year then suspend them in January if found to be cost ineffective. Connors suggested instead that the evaluation would not be done until  the spring—at which time the district would have the results and could make cuts in the after school programs that were ineffective.

Incidents, violent and not so violent, down 63% in 07-08 Year.

The Superintendent said the 2007-2008 violent incident reports prepared by the School District “reporting everything” showed only 117 incidents, compared to 323 in the previous year which the state had criticized the School District for. He complimented the principals for cutting down on the incidents. Connors said the 117 included fights, and some possession of weapons but, downplayed the incidents as mostly being violations of the code of conduct such as cutting classes, attire problems and the like. He did not provide a breakdown of the 117 incidents for the media, which WPCNR will request.

The Superintendent said total enrollment in White Plains schools as of October 1 was 7,085 students.

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WPCNR THE CABLE ACCESS ADVOCATE.  Cable Commission Coverage Special to WPCNR by Don Hughes. October 6, 2008: The last year has been marked by unprecedented breakdowns in transmission of Common Council meetings and the quality of public access transmission of regular programming. Sixteen documented complaints were received within the last four months, and there were others not reported to the commission. The criticism of the programming reception quality included loss of picture, loss of audio, for hours at a time. One Common Council was completely blacked out. The complaints both documented and undocumented were frequently traced to different breakdowns in the transfer of Public Access Studio signals to Cablevision for distribution to the city. Don Hughes sat in on the Cable Commission meeting last Tuesday in which this trend was discussed. Here is his report:

Gina Cuneo-Harwood, the White Plains Finance Commissioner gave a presentation to the White Plains Cable Commission last Tuesday evening,  where she indicated that she wanted to address some unfounded rumors that no money was available to upgrade equipment that she  had been hearing. 

She indicated that White Plains Cable Access did have money available to address issues such as expanding coverage and replacing equipment.  She said that there was approximately $300,000 available in the fund balance for such uses.  She also recalled previous discussions where money was added to last year’s budget to upgrade the TV equipment used at City Hall. The actual revenues  Cablevision and Verizon contributed to the city were not disclosed, but Cablevision, the Commissioner reported was “by far” the largest source of revenues.

Surplus Held onto for emergencies it is said. Revenues Growing by 10%

There was some discussion that Cable Access was unique  because of the possible emergency replacement of expensive equipment and, since the city is self-insured, they needed a large cushion.  There was also discussion that they should not spend on their needed equipment list since that might impact their negotiations for capital funds from the vendors.  The Finance Commissioner dismissed both reasons.

The Finance Commissioner mentioned that the cable revenues seemed to  be increasing by about 10%/year.  This years fees were about $891,000 which would be shared with the city 70/30.

When asked about the split of the fees between Verizon and CableVision, she claimed that she was legally prohibited from giving that information because it is considered private and confidential, although she could say that CableVision is by far the biggest payer.  There was some discussion whether this information had been provided to the director and some members of the commission in the past, with a number of conflicting claims made. 

Cable technology gap confirmed. Quotes Sought

There was some discussion and agreement that Cable Access has fallen way behind where they should be in terms of technology.  The Executive Director of  White Plains Cable, Jim Kinney,  indicated that he had a proposal to study what is need to upgrade the system and was directed to obtain two additional quotes.  He was also directed to upgrade the approximately $500,000 wish list of needed equipment upgrades that he had previously prepared.

Commission Members Should Not Speak Individually

One of the commissioners wanted to be ensured that she was given copies of all materials made available to the director.  At this point the chairman indicated that it was not right for a single member to get information that not all the commissioners wanted to see and requested a motion directing that information would not be forwarded
to any one member without approval of the rest of the commissioners. He also indicated that he wanted to put a stop to individual  commissioners speaking on behalf of the commission without approval.

16 Transmission Complaints in 4 months.

The commission was presented a compilation of 16 complaints received  since the last meeting on 6/10/08.

The commission voted on and passed a salary increase for the director.