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

Hits: 0

WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. From The County Clerk Office. (EDITED) July 10, 2008: The Office of the County Clerk reported an sharp increase in consumer credit action filings against individuals for delinquent credit card debt, car loan defaults, medical and tuition bills this year. County Clerk Timothy Idoni projects over 30,000 civil actions will be started in Westchester this year.  The 2006 and 2007 totals were 25,172 and 26,169, respectively. 

 “In 2007, we averaged about 1,700 legal filings a month.  This year we are already averaging over 2,300 a month and anticipate this number will rise,” Idoni said in a news release.  “Our counter people are reporting a massive jump in consumer credit filings.  And as a struggling economy continues and banks tighten their lending practices, we want to let Westchester consumers know what they can do to protect themselves.”  County Clerk Idoni offers the following tips to consumers having difficulty paying their bills:

:

Call the creditor and ask for a repayment plan.  Your creditor wants to be repaid and may be willing to work out a payment schedule you can handle. By entering into a repayment plan, you may be able to avoid your debt being assigned to a debt collector who may contact you repeatedly at your home or office.

Seek help from an accredited credit counseling service.  Credit counseling services offer assistance and counseling to help consumers get out of debt and remain debt-free.  A counselor may be able to contact your creditors and work out a repayment plan that you can manage.   For a list of reputable credit counseling agencies in your area, contact the National Foundation for Credit Counseling ( NFCC) www.nfcc.org.  

Stay away from so-called low interest rate credit card solicitations.  Consumers often find themselves in trouble when they answer mail solicitations for so called low interest rate credit cards.  Beware as some creditors offer a low introductory “teaser” rate for a short time that will balloon into a double digit interest rate that can be difficult for you to repay and hurt your credit score.

Make lifestyle and spending changes.  Keep track of your spending by creating a monthly budget that includes all expenses and bills that are covered by your income and stay on track.  Start saving what’s left and put it in the bank. Cut down on using credit cards to pay for unnecessary spending including frequent dining out, shopping sprees, and expensive cell phone plans, for example.  “Be realistic about your debt.  If it’s between 15 and 20 percent of your income, you need to start trimming down your expenses significantly”, cautioned Idoni.

The Westchester County Clerk is the Clerk for the Supreme Court where consumer credit cases may be filed.  The public can visit the Legal Division located at 110 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in White Plains between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:45 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays.  For more information on our Legal Division, please call 995-3070 or visit our website at www.westchesterclerk.com.

  Just last week, Westchester County Clerk Tim Idoni bumped into a customer filing eighty  consumer credit card actions in his office.  The customer, who has filed cases for local attorneys and banks on foreclosures and consumer credit issues for many years, shared, “I have never seen it this bad… ever.”   .

Hits: 0

WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. July 9, 2008 UPDATED 6:22 P.M. EDT: Paul Wood, Executive Officer for Mayor Delfino, expressed concern to WPCNR about the effect the new payment schedules for buy-outs on the Windsor Terrace and Hale Avenue condominium projects and future development of the city yesterday. Wood  said the new guidelines enacted by the Common Council  had definitely brought inquiries about developing in White Plains to a standstill, saying the cold call inquiries to the city about projects had all but disappeared.

Paul Wood supported the grandfathering of affordable housing buyouts for stalled approved condominium projects in the city and  defended the 55 Bank Street land deal for a 20% Affordable Housing project, the city is attempting to salvage with the developer LCOR as making the most sense at the time

Wood spoke in referencing two projects, Windsor Terrace and the Bobker Hale and Maple Avenue condominiums.  Representatives from those two groups lobbied the Common Council that the new payments their clients owed since the Common Council changed the affordable housing set-aside/buyout benchmarks in April, had made the projects financially undoable in today’s market.

Windsor Terrace, now being developed by Rome Partners, originally approved in 2003, has seen its “buyout” payment escalate from $452,600 to $1.47 Million. Hale LLC Condominium saw its affordable housing buyout payment move from $920,000 to $2.6 Million, since its approval in 2005. Developers could have, however, fixed their buyout cost by paying it in advance, it should be noted.

For the record, in lieu of building actual affordable units, that now reach 10% level, a developer needs to pay into the affordable housing fund, $75,000 for a Studio, $150,000 for a One-Bedroom, $200,000 for a Two-Bedroom, and $240,000 for a Three Bedroom. The costs of building an individual apartment may exceed these levels, and certainly would now, according to both developers who blamed increased construction costs for making the new level of buyouts financially unworkable.

Wood  wanted to clarify that in the first editon of this story, , in his opinion, he, Wood, strongly urged the council to “grandfather in” those two groups, and return to the former buyout amounts, so those projects could begin. He wanted WPCNR to make it clear that the Mayor never said the council should “grandfather in” the two groups.

Wood said the jury was still out on  the new 10% legislation and buyout amounts in the new affordable housing legislation, and as of yet was not ready to recommend a rollback to lower percentages. He acknowledged that the lack of financing and state of financial markets had contributed to lack of development interest, but said that the 10% setaside and buyout amounts hurt White Plains compared to other city candidates for development such as Yonkers, Stamford, New Rochelle.

Bank Street Land Offer Made Sense at Time.

Wood, commenting on the LCOR 55 Bank Street request for a restructuring of the financial terms of the 55 Bank Street 20% affordable housing project which became known last week, said that the original sale of the land to LCOR made the most sense. It was not because they were a favored developer, but because LCOR needed the land for parking for the hotel they planned to build on the 5 Bank Street property (site of Bank Street Commons).  

Wood defended the installment nature of the $15.5 Million purchase price, because the Mayor’s Office was trying to get away from the policy of “one-shot” land sales to balance the budget that it had been criticized for in 2006 when Railside Avenue lots were sold.

So far, no one on the Common Council  and the Mayor’s Office has shown interest in taking the land back from LCOR for default on the June 30 payment.

LCOR expects to pay that $5.5 Million payment in September with financing from Lehman Brothers. It is not clear whether this is contingent on the city accepting LCOR’s proposal to redesign the project to one large building 28 stories high, one building 14 stories high, and parking structure, and finance and build them in sequence.

Hits: 0

WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Board of Legislators. July 9, 2008: County lawmakers approved in a 12-4 vote a bond act in the amount of $5 million to purchase 450 Saw Mill River Road, an 85,000-square-foot building on 5.37 acres in Ardsley. Legislators also approved a separate bond act for $7 million to refurbish the site to a climate controlled environment suitable to storing the approximately 1,600 electronic voting machines, related equipment and ballots that the county will soon take ownership of to comply with federal and state law.

The county’s Board of Elections is under mandate to consolidate all of its electoral functions at the county level, including ownership, care, custody and control of voting machines, as part of the federal Help America to Vote Act (HAVA).

“This property offers the lowest cost per square foot of all the properties considered and is our best option,” said Alvarado, Chair of the Budget & Appropriations Committee that along with the Government Operations Committee conducted an exhaustive review of all the site options. “The purchase of this particular site has become even more attractive due to a reduction in the purchase price and the administration’s plan to use some of the space for the administrative headquarters for the Department of Public Safety.  Moving the headquarters to the Saw Mill River site will eliminate the need to build a new $9.5 million headquarters that is currently in the county’s capital plan.” 

“We’re out of time and we have a pressing decision to make. This site is simply the most prudent deal for Westchester taxpayers,” said County Legislator Ken Jenkins, Chair of the GO Committee. “It would be unfair to say we have not thoroughly investigated all options. We spent two years vetting options. We asked for and completed an RFP process that extended the invitation to any possible bidder in the county who wanted to propose a suitable property. There is significant concern from the state Board of Elections that we don’t have a facility in place. We are bound to act responsibly and comply with the law and this purchase fulfills that obligation. Incidentally, all cost benefit analysis aside, it makes sense to have such a heavy Public Safety presence on the site of a storage facility that must be secured to the highest degree possible.” 

Former B&A Committee Chair Michael Kaplowitz (D-IN-WF, Somers) said finding an appropriate HAVA site started during his tenure.  The planned dual function for 450 Saw Mill is what he considers a good example of what he terms “double duty” dollars.

“Clearly, it’s in best interest of our taxpayers to own, rather than rent. It’s also in taxpayers’ interest to buy one building instead of two. 450 Saw Mill River Road’s value rises by virtue of the fact that it will fulfill two pressing needs of the county for space.  By not having to spend $9 million to build a separate Public Safety Headquarters, taxpayers net a $750,000 annual savings in debt service,” Kaplowitz said. 

Legislators also authorized the county to enter into one or more intermunicipal agreements with the Ardsley Union Free School District whereby the county will commit to expending up to $1 million in capital funding on mutually agreed to projects that will serve a valid county purpose but also have an ancillary benefit to the school district.

Hits: 0

WPCNR MR. AND MRS. & MS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. July 7, 2008: As no less than three developers have come in in the last two weeks before the Common Council claiming they cannot pay the million dollar buyout burdens placed on them by the new 10% set-aside and buyout regulations, and it becomes apparent that the setaside rule requiring the building of 10% of new residential mult-family construction units to meetin affordable housing standards, or pay higher “buyout fees” it becomes apparent that the setaside may be a  White Plains Renaissance killer. Virtually all new projects have been put on hold in the last month, all tied to the new 10% setaside enacted by the Common Council with obvious little research as to its possible effect on the marketplace.

What do Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains think? Pick from the following possible options explained below:

1. Eliminate 10% and Buyout policy completely. A doing away with the affordable housing set aside alltogether.

2.No, keep the 10% and Buyout Amounts As Is

3.Suspend the 10% Setaside and Buyout Policy temporarily as a Market Stimulus Move. Since projects have publicly stated they cannot afford the new rates they must pay, the council could suspend the setaside as a market stimulator to get projects like Hale Avenue and Windsor Terrace moving.

4. Have City Adapt a city wide policy of subsidizing rentals and condo purchases based on income — making all taxpayers share in the burden of housing those unable to afford market housing.

5. Eliminate affordable housing aid entirely, eliminating all programs the city participates in.

6. Create a tax that would fund affordable housing and senior housing, that would be collected on every commercial and residential owner to fund the building of affordable housing and senior housing.

7. Rollback the 10% Setaside & Buyouts to previous level as Market Stimulous.

8. Make the Setaside Rate and Buyout Rates a “Floating” Rate Based on sales and availability of homes/condominiums/apartments

9. Eliminate the Buyout Option, Requiring actual units to be built.

10. Change  BLDG. Codes to Allow Less Expensive to-Build Units.

11. Require WP Banks to Fund set Number of “Affordable” Mortgages Annually.

12. Tie Tax Rebates to Affordable Units Built Instead of to Entire Cost of Projects

Hits: 0

WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. July 7, 2008 UPDATED July 9, 2008:  The county police have arrested Ardian Shala of Yorktown, 24, and will charge him with leaving the scene of an accident, for alledgedly colliding with the Westchester County Millenium Clock in front of the County Center early Sunday morning. 

The Westchester County Police had been seeking information from persons in seeking a 35 year old “muscular”  white male driver of a large dark Chevrolet or Ford sedan, as the culprit in the accident early Sunday morning that resulted in the toppling of the  landmark Westchester County Millenium Clock from its sentinel position in front of the Westchester County Center.

Kieran O’Leary, a spokesperson for the County Police said witnesses saw the accident, which he said occurred at 5:25 A.M. Sunday morning. Witnesses said the sedan allegedly driven by Shala was traveling West on Route 119 when it rode up on the curb and collided with the Clock Tower (see pictures in earlier story). O’Leary said witnesses saw the driver get out of the car and pick up pieces of his vehicle that had been dislodged by the crash. The driver put the pieces into the car, reentered the vehicle and continued westbound on Route 119 towards Greenburgh.

The Westchester County Department of Communications said it was too early to comment on whether the county would repair the clock.