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 PROFILES IN CHARACTER. By John F. Bailey. July 4, 2007: It is the 231st birthday of our  nation, commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776. I usually run this column on George Washington’s birthday, however, in light of the chracter being shown lately by our leaders, it is instructive to look at our first leader, George Washington, the father of our nation.  One cannot help be reminded of the snowy winter at Valley Forge, when the bedraggled, poorly equipped rebel army suffered but held together, and attacked the Hessians in Trenton on Christmas Eve, 1776, crossing the Delaware River at night. What kind of man was he that George Washington could inspire his troops against all odds?

Washington was a man of tremendous character. Where did he get this character? He specialized in self-control at an early age.

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When I was elected, many doubted that I would be able to change the status quo enough to put into effect my administration’s ambitious plans. It hasn’t been easy, but we have achieved significant success.

Over the past six months, we have managed to push through substantial gridlock in the state legislature to make some huge advancements for New York:

In addition to making a historic investment of $1.7 billion in education, we have targeted assistance to the districts that need it most, and tied investment to accountability and reform.

We created the first building blocks to universal health care by expanding Child Health Plus to cover all 400,000 uninsured children, and vastly simplified Medicaid enrollment.

Property taxes have been reduced by $1.3 billion, and 60% of New Yorkers will see benefits within the next year.

Our beleaguered upstate cities will receive $200 million for economic development, technology innovations, and assistance in fighting crime. Major downstate projects- like the redevelopment of Ground Zero and the expansion of Stewart Airport- have been pushed through legislative gridlock and are finally underway.

Lawmakers and government employees are now subject to comprehensive Ethics and Lobbying Reform that prohibits them from taking gifts from special interests and makes them accountable to the people of New York State.

A lot has been accomplished, but there is still so much to be done- from major environmental initiatives like cleaning up brownfields, to the revamp of the Wicks Law, to campaign finance reform measures that make our government more responsive- and it must be done now.

Last week, the Senate majority chose to end the legislative session and go home, rather than stay in Albany to finish the people’s business.

Our state government must work as effectively and diligently as the companies, organizations and people that make New York great.

You can learn more about what’s been going on in Albany by clicking here to view a presentation I’ve been making across the state.

I urge you to contact your legislator, which you can do from my website, and encourage him or her to return to work in Albany, and finish the business we came here to do.

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WPCNR THE DUMP TODAY. By John F. Bailey. July 2, 2007: For allowing TEC contamination to linger in the City Dump for 9 years as of this Friday, the City of White Plains was in line for a civil penalty of $316 Million payable to the state.  However, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation allowed the city to sign a consent order June 8 limiting the fine to $10,000.

THE CITY DUMP TODAY: A flatter, cleaner place. Who Knows What Lurks Beneath its benign surface? DEC will be supervising the city’s efforts to quanitify the TEC contamination that exists. Remediation is called for in the Consent Order, but that has not been decided.

In the coming weeks, according to Department of Public Works Commissioner, Joseph Nicoletti, the city will be meeting with the DEC to implement the final testing specifications on the City Dump Site, to be conducted to prepare a Final Investigation Report that, according to Wendy Rosenbach, Regional Citizen Participation Specialist for the DEC, is due to be submitted December 1. At that time, determination will be made if the extent of the contamination needs remediation or is safe to allow to remain. The Consent Order by its language strongly suggests the DEC expects some sort of remediation to be required.

City Site Investigation Work Plan Not Acceptable

The city plan for testing the present level of the Trichloroethylene(TCEz)  contamination first discovered officially  July 6, 1998 according to the consent order, was not acceptable to the DEC. As part of the consent order, the DEC testing expert analyzing the city Department of Public Works plan designed by AKRF Environmental  and Planning Consultants, added “modifications and additions as required.”

The DEC expert, S. Parisio,  said the city’s Site Investigation Work Plan “should be broadened and expanded to include…characterize the landfill, including type of wastes, spatial distribution of the various waste types, and vertical and horizontal limits of the landfill,” “Define the extent of groundwater contamination both laterally and vertically,” “Define the critical stratigraphic section at the site including the overburden and the underlying bedrock,” “Identify all potential receptors for landfill derived contamination including surface water bodies, water supply wells and enclosed structures which may be impacted by landfill gas or vapor intrusion,” “Develop a site conceptual model which identifies contaminant sources within the landfill, locations and mechanisms for contaminant release and actual/potential contamination and migration pathways…” “This model should also show how storm water drains affect migration of landfill gas, organic vapors, landfill leachate and leachate impacted groundwater…”

The Consent Order notes  the city drilling plan was “not acceptable,” because it limited drilling depth to the “overburden.” The DEC demands the city drill deeper. IT requests various “plan sheets”

Remediation Appears Likely

The language of the consent order signed by the Mayor, read literally, indicates the city is going to have to remediate the dump, to wit:

“After completion of the site investigation, the Respondent shall submit a site investigation report (SIR) including a description of the investigation methods, a summary of the data collected, a discussion of the results, conclusions and recommendations for further investigation , if needed, remedial action and landfill closure.”

The Violation and Fine.

On July 6, 1998, the Consent Order notes, inspection of the site by Department staff revealed the presence of drums of trichloroethylene. During subsequent investigations and removal activities carried out by the city in 1999 and 2000, a total of 46 drums were indentified and removed, and the presence of organic contaminants, including trichloroethylene, was confirmed in the drums and in soils within the drum disposal areas. The order reports TCE breakdown products have been “detected” at concentrations exceeding applicable levels of concern in stormwater, surface water, groundwater, soil and soil gas during numerous investigations and sampling efforts carried out in and around the landfill by various consultants between 1987 and 2003.

These conditions which the city has admitted to by signing the consent order June 8, violate Environmental Conservation Law Sections 27 and 17 and 6NYCRR Parts 360 and 703 and 5 statutes.

$316 Million ?

Neither Ms. Rosenback nor Paul Wood, City Executive Officer could name the exact total amount of the possible civil fine White Plains has incurred as a result of the 9 years since the violation was discovered.

WPCNR roughly estimates the fine to be $316 Million as follows:

From July 6, 1998, the date of the verified condition, 2,385 days have passed (about 9 years as of this Friday)

Under the fine mechanism of Section 71-2703, there were five statutes violated, calling for a $7,500 fine per statute,($37,500) plus $1,500 a day for 2,385 days for $3,577,500 for each of the 5 statutes violated for a total of $17,887,500 plus the initial $37,500 fine for a total of $17,925,000 for city violation of Section 71 2703.

Now we add the violations of Section 71-1929. There were 5 statutes violated at the cost of $25,000 a day per statute adding up to a $125,000 a day fine in total multiplied by 2,385 days totals $298,125,000.

Add the two violations and the Civil Penalty owed the DEC is $316,050,000.

Fine would have been double the City Budget

That fine is more than double the city of White Plains budget for 2007-2008 ($154.7 Million), and in order to pay it – had the DEC not cut White Plains a $316,040,000 discount – would cost every White Plains taxpayer twice the taxes they are paying now, and probably 4 times the amount of taxes unless the assessed the shortfall on the businesses in the town.   

WPCNR  awaits comfirmation of the exact amount of the total possible fine, which is not mentioned in the consent order.

All the city is required to pay is $2,000, leaving the $8,000  as possible to be paid and then some if the city does not comply with the rest of the Consent Order.

Rosenbach told WPCNR Friday the city has made adjustments to the Site Investigation Plan: “Yes, the work plan has been revised to address Department comments and much of the work indentified in the plan has been completed.”

Asked why the city received leniency from the DEC, Wood said he did not have an answer and would get back to us on that.

Ms. Rosenback of the DEC said she would be asking the DEC negotiators for a statement on the lowered fine.

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WPCNR PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DAY. By the WPCNR Roving Photographer. July 2, 2007: The changing face of the Westchester County skyline is captured by this view from Long Island Sound of the Trump building in New Rochelle, looking like the fabled Ancient Wonder of the World, the Lighthouse at  Phobos in Alexandria, Egypt. Like the Trump Tower, the lighthouse at Phobos built in similar stepped plateaued style was  visible for miles in the eastern Mediteranean Sea, a guide for ancient mariners. The Trump, Louis Cappelli building dominates the shoreline yesterday on a perfect day on the inland sea, Long Island Sound.

Trump Tower, right, dominating the New Rochelle skyline. Viewed from the entrance to New Rochelle Harbor, Long Island Sound. Photo by the WPCNR Roving Photographer

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WPCNR THE SUNDAY BAILEY. By John F. Bailey. July 1, 2007:

 The damage has been done.

The Bush-loaded Supreme Court has declared it’s not ok to discriminate in terms of race, if you’re already discriminating by race opting for a don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t even think about it policy in determining racial balance in schools by their sophist decision to strike down the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. That decision in 1954 can be argued was the primary reason why segregation practices in all fields were vastly curtailed and remediated in the country painfully through the courts through lynchings over the last 53 years. Now the Supreme Court is bringing discrimination right back.

Well the court says that that decision was discriminatory because it discriminated. These guys went to law school?!?  Look at this statement by Chief Justice John Roberts: and let it sink in:

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

What judicial brilliance! Obviously Chief Justice Roberts does not wear his robes “to right wrongs,” as Judge Francis Nicolai of the 9^th Judicial District here in Westchester does. He wears them to do other people’s bidding. Roberts and the “Favored Five” do not come to grips with the question of how do you stop wrong? Without the force of law, you would never have desegregated the schools in the 50s and 60s, and even with the law you needed the military to do it.

But the Bush Court is no longer the people’s court, it is the Bush Court. They do what they are told. And they followed orders very nicely.

Does anyone really think that Hispanic and Asian and Black persons were going to be chosen over white candidates in businesses in the 60s if there was no Equal Opportunity Law? Businesses were afraid of it. They started hiring the token blacks.

I remember it well what it was like for a token black hired.  I was starting out in television in 1968 at WMAL  TV in Washington DC. They hired a young black reporter, to add to their all-white news staff. They sent Bernie out on auto accidents to do standups. To my everlasting shame, I was editing film at the time, and would complain about his lack of cutaways, (which are stationary views shot by the cameraman to bridge from one interview to another instead of jump-cutting). Well, I know now that they never trained him. They threw him in there. He did not know.

So what happens when Dr. Martin Luther King is shot? All Washington erupts into riots. Well the white reporters are all afraid to go below 16^th street. So what do they do they send Bernie in. He works like 24 hours straight. He does articulate, dramatic, intense standups and radio reports. He does Pulitzer work. He was brave. When the riots end. He goes back to doing accidents. He left the station and I often wonder where he went. He had done the best local reporting on the riots and all he got was photo ops afterwards. He knew.

  I think of him often when I hear people say as the apologists for the Bush administration say we are beyond that now because businesses, schools, do not need quotas on admissions, hirings, etc. Are we really? We are going to find out!

No, we are not. You saw it this week from the mouths and pens of Justice John Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas (incredibly a Black man) and Alito.

The worst scorn I reserve for Justice Kennedy, he put in reservations in his opinion, leaving some loopholes. Hey, that does not do it. Vote it down! When Justice Kennedy is on his death bed, he will be thinking of this decision.

 Don’t mask a dirty deed by semantics. Vote it down. No Justice Kenesaw Mountain Landis, he.

Where is all that equal opportunity legislation headed after this Brown/Board of Education outrage by the Supreme Court? Where does No Child Left Behind stand now? If that is not discriminating I do not know what is…it is very easy to apply discrimination by race to discrimination by test scores. The Supreme Court is using an argument to win an argument…what is known philosophically as sophism — or a lack of rational argument.

How does one achieve performance improvement in minorities  in the schools now – by grades, by test scores? That should be interesting. How about lumping all the students who do not pass the absurdly curved New York State Math and English Language Achievement tests into special schools to really work on them? You could conceivably do that, using the argument that we’re not discriminating by race here…we’re using their test scores. Mr. Roberts and the “Favored Five” are living in the world of privilege where they actually believe they are good people and good people won’t discriminate because of the honor system.

If I am a crafty education lawyer I could apply this Supreme Court decision to school testing. And throw that out too on the basis it is discriminating based on performance.

The honor system does not work, guys…especially, in the judiciary.

But that’s not all the Supereme Court did. They O.K.’d oligopoly – restricted for a century, by an overturning  stranglehold pricing  restrictions of anti-trust legislation on the books for 100 years.

They struck down a 100 year old classic. They eviscerated the law prohibiting manufacturers from agreeing on minimum retail prices. The justices ruled that by striking down this law, it would lead to more competition and service. Right!  The decision helps manufacturers combat discounters, knockoff artists, etc.  How does that help competition?  The law they killed was a law that defined resale price maintenance agreements (manufacturer to wholesaler) as “automatic” violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Judges now have to  take a case-by-case approach.

 So if you’re a wholesaler and retailer,  unless you have deep legal pockets to fight a price rise, you are in for long legal fights. How is this constructive? We already see how the oil market fixes prices don’t we? Now the Supreme Court says every manufacturer can do it, and you have to prove they are being unfair on a case by case basis.

You need only look no further to see how prejudiced America still is at the American Senate.

By the Immigration Bill defeat, when Republican and Democratic Senators in congress voted against it said, well people back home are so against this. Well back in Revolutionary America, there were colonists who opposed the colonies rebellion against England. It would have been easy to listen to them. But an extraordinary number of persons gave up their lives (with no helicopters to take them to a state-of-the-art field hospital) because they realized tyranny was not what they could live with. Where are leaders like that today?

First equality, then fairness, then truth

These events were topped by the latest assessment of the Iraqi War effort.

The commander in Baghdad said the American casualty count last week, largest weekly death toll in the war,  showed we were winning the war to control Baghdad. He said the Queda cells were bloodthirsty and that was why since we are going after them more aggressively house-to-house, our casualty count was up which he interpreted as good and a sign we are winning.

So when we watch the fireworks tomorrow night in White Plains we have to think a little harder about our role in combating those who promote the good of the few at the expense of the many; the preservation of the status quo; the exploitation of the weak; the patronization of a person without privileges.

Read the Constitution on July 4 and really think hard about it.

The Bush Administration and the infamous Bush Court has just begun to take back America for the morally superior, the politically connected, the competently-inept, the fixers and the looters.

It is not what you say, it is what you do.

This was a bad week for America.