PETITION SIGNING BEGINS IN WHITE PLAINS WITH MAYOR’S ROBO CALL CALLING ON DEMOCRATS NOT TO SIGN PETITIONS FOR ANY CANDIDATE BUT HIM AND HIS SLATE OF MARTIN, KIRKPATRICK AND BRASH. LECOUNA TELLS MAYOR HE DOES NOT WALK THE WALK FOR IMMIGRANTS

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WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2017. June 8, 2017:

The gathering of signatures for contenders for Mayor and the Common Council began last weekend with the leader of the Democratic City Committee sending a letter to registered Democrats (who are eligible to vote in the September primary where incumbent Mayor Tom Roach, incumbent Councilmen John Martin and James Kirkpatrick and nominated Justin Brasch are being contested by Councilwoman Milagros Lecuona and democratic challengers Michael Kraver, Alan Goldman, and Saad Sidicci.

The Democratic City Committee Chair letter urged  Democrats to stick together and accused Mr. Goldman of being anti-immigrant, and criticised his Republican background.

Milagros Lecuona responded to the Chairman’s letter, calling on Mayor Roach to ask the Chairman to resign for his alleging Mr. Goldman was against immigrants.

Last night in the early evening, Mayor Roach contacted Democrats with a 45 second, recorded RoboCall message from what appeared to be a private company number (888-414-7752–not the city number 422 exchange)

The Mayor’s message said this:

“Hello, this is Tom Roach with a message about the petitioning process in my election campaign. This message is paid for by Friends of Tom Roach.

I’m pleased to have been endorsed by the White Plains City Democratic Committee, but I do have an opponent. So, I’m asking my supporters to be careful and only sign the petitions for Mayor and City Council that include me and my running mates.

We’re headed in the right direction. Let’s keep White Plains a progressive leader in our region. Thank you for your support.”

 

This morning in response to the Mayor’s apparent lack of response to her call for the Chairman’s resignation,  Ms. Lecuona circulated a news release accusing  the Mayor of “talking the talk” on immigration support, but not “walking the walk.”

Here is a copy of that news release:

“On Thursday, June 1, 2017, Common Councilwoman Milagros Lecuona issued a statement condemning the White Plains Democratic City Committee Chairman Tim James for an email he sent to the City Committee entitled “Sticking Together”. In the email, the Democratic chairman Tim James falsely claimed that Common Council Candidate Alan Goldman was anti-immigrant.  In her previous statement, Councilwoman Lecuona called on Mayor Roach to put politics aside and to stand with her in calling Tim James to resign from his position as Chairman of the White Plains Democratic City Committee. Mayor Roach has not responded.

“I asked the Mayor to put politics aside, and to stand with me in asking Tim James to resign,” said Lecuona. “What Tim said was callous, offensive, and completely out of line. Mayor Roach has not responded. In his silence, Mayor Roach has sent a loud and clear message that he will talk the talk on standing with immigrants, but clearly he won’t walk the walk.”

Lecuona continued, “I am an immigrant who had to watch the heartbreak of her own child go through the deportation process. What Tim said goes far past politics, and it is time that the Mayor stops doing the political thing and does the right thing.”

The letter from the White Plains Democratic City Committee Chair that began the petitioning campaign, distributed June 1:

Dear Fellow City Committee Members and Friends:
 
First, a reminder that we will be handing out petitions (and sharing pizza) next Monday evening, June 5.  (But no taking signatures until the following day — the first legal day of petitioning!)  See the attached flyer for details.
 
Second, I want to stress the importance of unity, and of getting behind the candidates who won the support of the City Committee via our fair and democratic endorsement process.  
 
The Nominating Committee interviewed all candidates, accommodating the candidates’ schedules as needed, and extended the process to allow for new candidates for Common Council after Beth Smayda announced her decision not to seek re-election.  Per our party rules, anyone who was not recommended by the Nominating Committee was entitled to contest the endorsement  on the floor at the endorsement meeting if nominated by a single District Leader.  By that method, Milagros and all three of her running mates had their names placed in nomination.  By the time of the endorsement meetings in March and April, however, it was so clear to them that they lacked sufficient support among the members of the City Committee that Milagros and two of her running mates withdrew in advance of the voting, and in advance of the discussion among City Committee members that was to precede the voting.
 
One of the reasons we have been a highly successful local party is because we have enjoyed a high degree of unity.  One aspect of that has been respect by our members for the decision of the majority after contested votes on endorsements and other important matters.  Without that kind of ethic, no party organization can be effective.  It is what gives real meaning to our endorsements and other major votes.
 
So, I want to urge all District Leaders to support and work for our endorsed candidates, regardless of your initial preferences.  A couple of months ago, one District Leader, in telling me that he might work against our endorsed candidates — or at least some of them — in a primary, stressed what he called “conscience.” I certainly do not want to denigrate the importance of conscience in politics.  We would be better off if we saw more of  that in our politics.  But not every disagreement of difference of preference rises to the level of a matter of “conscience.”  (Or the term would have no meaning.)  From my perspective, neither Milagros nor her running mates have articulated — in public or in private — the kinds of major differences on policy or principle that rise to that level and warrant a departure from the normal custom among City Committee members of respect for the decision of the majority — in this case, overwhelming majorities.
 
Indeed, it is hard to tell what they — as a slate — stand for.  Milagros and two of her running mates are fellow Democratic District Leaders, whose views, to the best of my  knowledge, are well within the mainstream of the City Committee and of White Plains Democrats generally — which is equally true of our endorsed candidates for City office:  Tom Roach , John Martin, John Kirkpatrick and Justin Brasch.  But the fourth member of Milagros’s slate, Alan Goldman, is a very different story.  By his own admission when he spoke to the Nominating Committee, Mr. Goldman was a lifelong (now age 69) Republican until he changed his party registration to “Democratic” on October 11, 2016 — just in time, legally, to be able to run for office as a Democrat this year.  And Mr. Goldman did not even claim that his change of party enrollment was based on any change in his lifelong political views.  On the contrary, he told us flatly that he had changed his party enrollment because “There is no Republican party in this town” and that it was what he had to do “[I]f I wanted to run for office.”
 
And not for nothing was Mr. Goldman a Republican.  When he was asked during his Nominating Committee interview for his thoughts on how the City should deal with the problem of illegal occupancies in certain neighborhoods, he told us:  “We gotta get the INS involved,” referring to the former name of the Federal agency now known as “Immigration and Customs Enforcement” (ICE).  Can you imagine any of our endorsed candidates giving that answer?
 
Mr. Goldman’s presence on Milagros’s slate makes clear the incoherence of that slate.
 
(End)

The same day the Chairman sent out the above letter, Ms. Lecuona distributed this news release protesting the Chairman’s comments is as follows:

“On Thursday, June 1, 2017, White Plains Democratic City Committee Chairman sent an email to all Committee People with the subject line “Sticking Together,” calling for “unity” against Democratic City Councilwoman and Mayoral Candidate Milagros Lecuona, and her slate for White Plains Common Council. Committee Chairman Tim James callously described local businessman Alan Goldman as opportunistic and anti-immigrant.

“As an immigrant and a member of the Hispanic community, I found this email disturbing. Tim James has never had to live through the heartbreak of watching his own child suffer through the deportation process. I have.”

“I am absolutely disgusted that Tim James would ever insinuate that a close friend of mine is anti-immigrant, much less that I would run with someone who harbors any anti-immigrant sentiments,” said Lecuona. “Alan Goldman is an exceptional human being and is running because he wants to see bold change in our City. The fact that the Chairman would ever stoop this low and attack a Democratic candidate just speaks to the need for change.”

Councilwoman Lecuona continued, “I’m calling on Mayor Roach to put politics aside and to stand with me in asking Tim James to resign. What he said was callous, offensive and unacceptable.”

Lecuona is an immigrant from Spain who moved her family to White Plains in 1987 to pursue their American dream. A trained architect and urban planner for the last 35 years she has served on the White Plains Common Council for the past 9 years. During her time in office Lecuona has taken on powerful interests on behalf of the people of White Plains.  Entering public service was a natural progression given her lifelong community involvement.  She has been the recipient of multiple recognitions and awards.

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County Executive Robert Astorino Declares War on Opioids After 200% Increase in County Opioid Deaths in 5 years.

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Westchester County Department of Communications. June 7, 2017:

Joined by leaders in health, mental health, law enforcement, business and community organizations, County Executive Robert P. Astorino Wednesday kicked-off a new program that mobilizes an array of available resources and expertise to combat the growing opioid and heroin epidemic that affects communities, large-and-small, throughout Westchester.

The county has experienced a 200 percent increase in opioid fatalities from 2010 – 2015.

Project WORTHY — Westchester Opioid Response Teams Helping You is the latest extension of the county’s Safer Communities initiative, whose hallmark is to build comprehensive and practical solutions to difficult problems by integrating expertise and resources from across the county.

Project WORTHY’s response teams are made up of health and mental health experts and providers, law enforcement professionals, parents, teachers, coaches, clergy, business executives and youth. Their role is to provide expertise in their respective fields in response to specific calls for help, and to conduct informational forums at schools, churches, temples, mosques, municipal meetings, civic associations, businesses and other groups.

“Westchester County, like communities all across the country, is facing a lethal enemy that grows deadlier by the day,” said Astorino. “Whether you live in a city, town, village or hamlet, in the northernmost stretches of the county, the Sound Shore or along the Hudson River, the opioid epidemic affects all of us. The work ahead will be tough, because the enemy is strong. But working together, we can and will make a difference. Opioid addiction can be stopped. We will continue to fight, and Project WORTHY can make us more effective.”

Leadership for Project WORTHY is provided by Dr. Mark Herceg, Commissioner of the Westchester Department of Community Mental Health, Dr. Sherlita Amler, Commissioner of the Westchester Department of Health, and George Longworth, Commissioner of the Westchester Department of Public Safety – all of whom spoke about their experiences with the epidemic in their given fields. The program operates from four foundational blocks: education, integration, prevention and action – and marshals the resources necessary for each of those areas.

The County Executive first announced the program in his 2017 State of the County Address in April, and formally kicked-off the program at the Westchester County Center in White Plains today where he was joined by hundreds of stakeholders, Project WORTHY’s leadership team and keynote speaker Dennis Romero, regional administrator with the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The kick-off event included an overview of the issue, insight into how each area is attacking the problem, and discussions on how best to bring together working solutions. The County Executive also aired a seven minute video with testimonials from people whose lives have been devastated or severely impacted by opioids and prescription painkillers.

Barbara, a 47-year-old housepainter from Montrose, shared her story of getting hooked on drugs because of chronic back pain. She discussed how it nearly took her life, and how it was only after getting arrested and going through a court diversion program that she was able to get the proper treatment.

“It was the court-system that put the thumb down on me so that I could be accountable,” she said.

Watch the video here.

Romero, the keynote, spoke of the changing face of addiction and the most common ways that people start using – and eventually get addicted – to opioids, painkillers and heroin. Usage among women is up 100 percent, he said, and addicts are typically young working white men who are “hiding in plain sight.”

The best ways to attack the problem is locally with integrated efforts, he noted, praising Project WORTHY as a model on how best to approach this epidemic.

“The face of addiction is indeed changing in the United States,” Romero said. “What was once viewed as an urban problem now stretches across communities large and small, rich and poor; this crisis does not discriminate. What we’re also seeing, however, is the importance integration plays in prevention and treatment programs. Westchester County’s Project WORTHY understands that it is necessary to bring together expertise across various disciplines. There is no other way to beat this epidemic than by working together.”

Police Commissioner Longworth shared law enforcement’s efforts to crack down on the crisis, notably the county’s participation in joint federal and local task forces to take down organized gangs and drugs rings; its stepped up investigations into doctors and people purporting to be doctors who knowingly overprescribe opioids; and working with local police to increase arrests of those supplying the drugs.

“This is an issue of significant size and scope for law enforcement,” said Longworth. “It is not just an urban issue, nor is it limited to any one age group or socio-economic group.  This problem hits home everywhere, whether home is a larger city or a small town, whether it’s a working-class community or a wealthy community. No one is immune. What is obvious, though, to law enforcement is that we cannot arrest our way out of this problem.  The integration across disciplines that we are speaking about today is critical to our success.  It will take all of us — government, health care professionals, mental health professionals, community groups, clergy and other organizations — to fight this battle together if we are to prevail.”

Dr. Amler, Westchester County’s Health Commissioner, explained a multi-layered approach that includes training first responders and family members to administer Narcan to overdose victims; providing more prescription medication drop-boxes for old and unneeded medicines; and educating physicians on the need to consider alternatives to prescribing opioids to alleviate the pain of surgery, sports injuries and more.

“Underlying prevention, integration, and education is action,” Amler said. “There is no room on the sidelines in the fight against opiate addiction. That’s why we’re all here today. We need your help. It isn’t enough to save a life. We need the help of our partners to change the lives of the mothers and fathers, sons and daughters with opiate addictions.”

Community Mental Health Commissioner Herceg addressed the role that common mental health problems and psychological issues play in addiction.

“The reality is that many people who suffer from drug or alcohol addiction are dealing with other psychological issues,” he said. “Depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are all common mental health problems among people with addictions. If we don’t address the entire picture and work to address the underlying cause and ensure that the person is fully treated, along with their family, then we will never fix this in a comprehensive manner. This is why I am grateful for the leadership of our County Executive for bringing us together, to make sure we work as a unit to get it right: For every one of every demographic and age.”

During breakout sessions, professionals from education, public safety, corrections, health care community groups, non-profits and related service providers discussed challenges they each face, and potential solutions to those problems. View the Project Worthy booklet here.

The Project WORTHY team is available to visit local schools, houses of worship and community organizations. To learn more, contact 914-995-5220 or email [email protected].

 

 

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Somers Middle School Presents New Rooftop Solar Energy Installation–1st such school project Opened in State. White Plains Schools Approved for Panels at Post Road and the High School

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. From the New York Power Authority and WPCNR’s John Bailey. June 7, 2017:

The Somers Middle School in Westchester County today unveiled its new rooftop solar system to become New York State’s first school to receive a portion of its electricity through Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s innovative K-Solar clean energy initiative.

The K-Solar program helps schools statewide save money on energy and lower their carbon footprints, while also inspiring the next generation of energy leaders.

The Somers district paid no upfront costs for the solar project and will pay a fixed rate for the energy produced by the solar array.

The White Plains City School District has been approved for installing two such installations in the Governor’s program at the new Post Road School and White Plains High School, according school district Administrator of Facilities and Operations, Frank Stefanelli. Stefanelle told WPCNR it is a Planned Purchase Agreement of 18 years, and the details of the contract are currently being negotiated. He confirmed there is no charge for the two projects, that would be installed by Solar City.

Jill Anderson, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at the New York Power Authority (NYPA), Dr. Raymond H. Blanch, Superintendent of Schools for the Somers Central School District, and Somers Middle School Principal Jeff Getman kicked off a “turning on the panels” ceremony today at the school, along with 50 8th grade science class students, teachers and staff.

“The Somers district is leading the way in showing its community the importance of using renewable energy by going solar,” said Jill Anderson, NYPA executive vice president and chief commercial officer. “The K-Solar program provides the expertise to integrate a new power source into a district’s infrastructure while also incorporating lessons on sustainability and clean energy technology into a school’s curriculum.”

K-Solar is a core component of Governor Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build a clean, resilient and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers. The program aims to make solar energy an affordable and accessible option for schools in New York State that are interested in reducing their energy bills and carbon footprint. K-Solar also supports New York State’s goal to supply 50 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2030; the Governor’s “50 by 30” renewables goal.

About 380 districts – more than half the number in the state – have registered for the K-Solar program, which is also part of Cuomo’s $1 billion NY-Sun effort to expand the growth of a sustainable solar industry statewide. A partnership between NYPA and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) in collaboration with competitively selected solar developers, the K-Solar program aims to bring solar power to more public districts and non-public K-12 schools throughout the state.

As announced by Governor Cuomo last week as part of his Climate Jobs initiative, NYPA will double annual investments in energy efficiency and solar deployments from $150 million to $300 million to get more clean, renewable energy into local governments, public facilities, and schools.

As part of this investment, NYPA will conduct 1,000 energy efficiency and solar audits for municipalities and school districts by 2020 to help support prudent investments. NYPA also will install more than 125 megawatts of solar capacity on schools and other public buildings by 2020, through its K-Solar and BuildSmartNY initiatives, achieving a 300 percent increase in distributed solar projects at public facilities statewide.

The 390-panel 120-kilowatt system, located on the roof of the Somers Middle School, is expected to generate more than 136,000 kilowatt hours of solar electricity a year to offset the building’s electric load.

Overall, the project is expected to save the school more than $27,000 in energy costs. It is also estimated to offset more than 170,000 pounds of CO2 each year, which is equivalent to removing more than 280 cars from the road.

The middle school will be able to monitor the panel’s energy production live-time on a monitor in their lobby that shows the kilowatt hours of energy produced each day, how much was consumed and the percent of energy that is offset by solar.

The school, which already includes clean energy and climate change lessons in its STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) classes, will incorporate the real-time monitor and the solar panels into their electricity lessons. The K-Solar program offers training workshops for teachers at participating schools to train them on incorporating clean energy lessons into their STEM curriculums.

The Somers Central School District was already familiar with solar as it had a 50-kilowatt solar installation added to the roof of its high school in 2011 with the help of a NYSERDA grant.

To date, 25 districts throughout the state have signed 48 individual power purchase agreements and are developing solar panel installations.For more information or to register your school for an energy evaluation visit the K-Solar section of the NYPA website.

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