WPCNR BLACK COFFEE from WPCNR Westchester County Roving Correspondent Nancy King. January 3, 2011:
2011 was one of those active years where political drama and the usual spin was seen in from the County Offices, to the larger cities in the county and right down to tiny villages like the Tarrytowns. Of course there were stories of the never ending economic downturn that were juxtaposed with the increased sales tax revenues from both White Plains and the county. There was also a fair amount of political musical chairs played throughout the county this year.
Early 2011 saw White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley resign from office after being convicted of domestic violence. In a classic “he said she said case,” Judge Susan Capeci sided with the “she saids” and sentenced Bradley to probation and forbade him from having any contact with his wife. But we all know that didn’t work out so well. According to Bradley, he erroneously “pocket dialed “ his wife several times while working out at the gym.
Since Mrs. Bradley didn’t quite interpret it this way, she files a complaint and voila! an arrest warrant is issued for Bradley on a probation violation. And so White Plains ended the year on December 13th with Judge Capeci finding him in violation of probation, slapping him with 10K bail and sending him off to the County Jail. Bradley did however make bond and was released later that evening. White Plains residents started their year off with the Adam Bradley saga and ended it with that story too. It’s early in 2012, and you can rest assured that this isn’t the end of this tale.
White Plains residents did get a new mayor in the process. Common Council President Tom Roach assumed the reigns of the city and shortly faced beloved White Plains sports star, tavern owner, and Republican Bob Hyland in a special election. Alas, Hyland found himself abandoned by the city and county Republican committees and Roach easily won the race.
Roach claimed that he would bring peace and integrity to city hall. He refused to take a city owned cell phone or take home vehicle and also stated that there would be no patronage hires.
Sadly enough though, a few short months later we have a “special advisor” to the mayor and a “communications specialist”; both of whom are well connected politically. Campaign promises are like New Year’s resolutions, they sound good when they are coming out of your mouth even when you know you can’t keep them. By fall residents had seen Al Moroni unceremoniously shown the door even after he quietly repaired the roof at the skating rink and had turned the parking authority into the city’s greatest money maker.
But when you cross another commissioner, you generally fall from grace and you fall hard. And although Roach has claimed that we all need to tighten our belts in these harsh economic times, we now have four new fresh political patronage positions in city government.
Revenue from sales tax was also up in White Plains and in the county in general. It seems that our elected leaders didn’t get the memo that while things are still hard “out there” recession weary consumers are back to spending money. One needs only to take a walk down Mamaroneck Avenue on any given evening to see that the booming nightlife that is White Plains is certainly adding to the city coffers.
We welcomed a bunch of new eateries this year and said good bye to others. But there are still a fair amount of empty store fronts in downtown White Plains. (See the pictures below of retail storefronts empty on Mamaroneck Avenue.) Let’s hope that 2012 finds them rented and pretty please, can we have a store that isn’t a restaurant, bar or cell phone store?
And of course, letus not forget FASNY. Will there or will there not be French American School in White Plains? Even the voters forgot about this mess considering they didn’t vote for Terrence Guerriere, the neighborhood activist who ran for the Common Council on the platform that the residents of the south end of town didn’t want FASNY. In the end the voters proved that they really didn’t care one way or the other.
As White Plains wound its way through the year, county leaders faced their own challenges. County Executive Rob Astorino found that he couldn’t move his ball three yards down the field without being blocked by a Democratic supermajority on the County Board of Legislators.
He’s got a total of 7 Republicans up on the 8th floor now but whether they’ll be able to carry out his agenda of reducing the size of county government and cutting waste remains to be seen. His biggest hurdle in 2011 will be negotiating a contract with 9200, the local CSEA unit which represents county workers.
Good luck with that…it will be difficult to get anywhere with that pesky union knowing there have been a whole lot of patronage positions doled out by the CE (County Executive) to the friends and family network throughout the county.
As we write this wrap-up, there is probably a line out the door of 148 Martine Avenue with those refugees from Yonkers who have found themselves without a job since Mike Spano and the Democratic Party have taken back the city.
Mount Vernon also sees the Democrats retain power but this time with former mayor Ernie Davis back in the mayor’s office. Residents of Mt. Vernon are happy to see the doors of city hall open again but Davis is going to have to deliver a budget in the first week he’s back in office. Compounding that problem is that Mt. Vernon continues to have an image problem which often prevents developers from taking a chance there.
County Executive Rob Astorino, speaking at Davis’ inauguration hoped that they would have a good working relationship and that they could be the new “Bert and Ernie” of municipal government. Judging by the feeling of “awkwardness” of Astorino’s speech, that relationship is doubtful.
Other issues that WPCNR will be following up on this year will be whether or not the village of Tarrytown comes clean with their responsibility in the deaths of two village employees 18 months ago. We’ll keep on checking in with the Village of Port Chester to see if they’ve gotten their political house in order. 2012 will see CSEA members negotiating a new contract at the Westchester Medical Center and of course we have the school budgets to play with when May rolls around. Yep, there won’t be a shortage of topics to comment on in 2012.
