Lecuona Furnishes E-Mail Request for Exec Session on Parking Commissioner

WPCNR FOR THE RECORD. Special to WPCNR. November 3, 2011:


Councilwoman Milagros Lecuona who has confirmed to WPCNR exclusively that a consensus of members of the Common Council were of the persuasion that  former Commissioner of Parking, Recreation & Parks Albert Moroni should be dismissed after learning of Moroni’s accident with a city vehicle October 24 from the Mayor, (12 days after Moroni’s accident took place), furnished a copy of her e-mailed request to the Mayor and the city Chief of Staff for an Executive Session on the Moroni matter that was to have taken place October 26.


The letter, shown below, shows Ms. Lecuona asked for an Executive Session to discuss the incident and rules on the  use of city vehicles. Ms. Lecuona explained to WPCNR in the previous article about her concern that she had not been told of the incident by the Mayor’s office had prompted her to write the e-mail to Mayor Roach, his Chief of Staff and all six other councilperons, having learned of it from White Plains citizens at a public event on Sunday, October 23 (11 days after the incident).


Ms. Lecuona told WPCNR in a statement Wednesday afternoon,


“As you are very well aware, Mr. Moroni submitted his resignation to the Mayor before the common council had to take any actions on this matter at the work session (scheduled for Wednesday evening, October 26).”


Ms. Lecuona told WPCNR in her interview with John Bailey last night that she had no idea Mr. Moroni had resigned until she read it in the media Wednesday, The Mayor’s office had not informed her of the Moroni resignation, she said.


Whether or not the Mayor’s office informed the 5 other councilpersons is not known, as details about that wild Monday on the Moroni matter have not been thoroughly explained except by Ms. Lecuona.


Councilman David Buchwald,  confirmed to WPCNR the Mayor had called him asking him his opinion on Moroni’s behavior (in the past, not related to the automobile accident), and Buchwald to WPCNR he was of the opinion Moroni should be dismissed.


Councilpersons Smayda and Boykin have not responded to WPCNR queries about the incident and John Martin and Dennis Power acknowledged being told of the incident the Monday, October 24. Power said he had no comment on anything past being told of the incident or his feelings on whether Moroni should depart, and Martin acknowledged the Mayor contacted him to explain the accident, but denied the council was of the opinion Moroni should leave.


The letter from Lecuona (with e-mail addresses deleted to protect the innocent) reads:


From: Milagros Lecuona
Date: Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 2:19 PM
Subject: item for work session
To: John Callahan , Thomas Roach
Cc: Beth Smayda , Ben Boykin , David Buchwald , Dennis J Power t>, “Martin, John”


Please add on Wednesday agenda for the council work session the following items:

1. Take home city cars policy
2. Incident with a commissioner driving a city car

let me know if item 2 needs to be discussed in executive session.

Thanks
Milagros

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Con Ed Addressing final 10,000 Electricless.

WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. From Consolidated Edison Media Relations. (EDITED) November 3, 2011:


Con Edison as of 6 P.M. Wednesday evening, had restored almost 120,000 customers, and has over 2,000 company, contractor, and mutual aid utility workers dealing with the remaining outages, all in Westchester, affecting 10,000 customers.


A total of 4,160 are without power as of 10 A.M. this morning, including 115 in White Plains.


Crews have addressed larger outages and are moving on to smaller groups of customers and individuals. Some of these restoration efforts are more complex and time consuming due to extensive debris clearing. The goal remains to make progress as quickly as possible without compromising public or worker safety, which remains the priority.


The contractor and mutual aid crews are from upstate New York and Long Island, as well as from Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.


As of 10:15 A.M. this morning, Con Edison reports the hardest-hit communities remain Yonkers (591), Cortlandt(319), Greenburgh(230), New Castle (826), North Castle(1,485), Mount Pleasant (763) and Yorktown (715).


The Con Ed Power Outage Scoreboard November 3, 2011:


Ardsley  30 (DOWN 66 in 24 hours)

Bedford  229 (DOWN 300)

Briarcliff Manor  105 (Down 253)

Bronxville  39 (DOWN 124)

Buchanan 1

Cortlandt 319(down1,233)

Croton 168 (Down 594)

Dobbs Ferry  3 (Down 97)

Eastchester  205 (Down 893)

Elmsford  23 (No Change in 24 Hours)

Greenburgh 230 (Down 715)

Harrison 33 (down 91)

Hastings 31 (Down 126)

Irvington 13 (Down 79)

Larchmont 2 (Down 1)

Mamaroneck  186(Down 65)

Mount Kisco 69 (Down 271)

Mount Pleasant 763 (down 697)

Mount Vernon 92 (Down 347)

New Castle 826 (Down 1,105)

New Rochelle 71 (Down 644)

North Castle 1,485

Ossining 206

Peekskill 63

The Pelhams 54 (Down 78)

Pleasantville 119 (Down 601)

Port Chester 34

Rye Brook 232

Rye City 29 (Down 42)

Scarsdale 119 (down 247)

Sleepy Hollow 40 (Down 92)

Tarrytown 123 (down 91)

Tuckahoe  32 (down 3)

White Plains 115 (down 100)

Yonkers 591 1,938 (Down 1,347)

Yorktown 715 (DOWN 684))

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized

Moroni Told to Resign Or He Would Be Dismissed: Lecuona

WPCNR City Hall Circuit. By John F. Bailey. November 2, 2011:


 


Tonight,Councilperson Milagros Lecuona told WPCNR she  pressed the Mayor on Commissioner Albert Moroni’s failure to report his accident October 12 when he was cut off by a truck which did not stop, causing him to drive his city car over a curb in Valley Cottage.


 


She  confirmed to WPCNR she first learned of the Moroni incident on Sunday October 23, attending an event from persons at the event. Later in the day, she told WPCNR she encountered Mayor Tom Roach at another function  who acknowledged to her that Moroni had had an accident but it was “under investigation because there was no (police) record.”  


 


Lecuona said she called the Mayor’s Office on Monday for an explanation of the incident and was told the Mayor was in a meeting. She then wrote an e-mail, which she promised to furnish to WPCNR.


 


Her e-mail was sent to the Mayor, City Chief of Staff John Callahan, and the rest of the Common Council. It  asked the Moroni matter be added to the agenda in  an Executive Session at the scheduled October 26 Work Session one week ago.


 


Lecuona said that she then received a phone call from the Mayor who explained to her there was no record of the incident.


 


Lecuona told WPCNR she was troubled that Mr. Moroni did not call the police when the incident happened.  “I am a person who has an event involving DWI in my past. The first thing I would want to do (if I had an accident)  is  call the police to have them confirm I was not under the influence of any alcohol. If you ran into an accident, you would want to get it clear  you would call the police, especially so when you are driving a car belonging to the city.”


 


Lecuona said she could not speak for all the councilpersons, but she thought the Mayor called all the councilspersons.  She told WPCNR the Mayor “got responses (to the incident).”


 


Councilman David Buchwald  told WPCNR Tuesday afternoon that the Mayor had called him Monday afternoon, the 24th and “He asked me about what I thought about Mr. Moroni’s behavior (not about the accident).” Asked specifically if the Mayor asked Buchwald  if he Buchwald thought Moroni should be dismissed, Buchwald said no, the Mayor had not.


 


Buchwald said when asked about Mr. Maroni’s behavior that “I came to the belief that it would be better for White Plains to have someone else in that position.”


 


Councilman Dennis Power told WPCNR Tuesday afternoon November 1 (yesterday)that the Mayor had called Mr. Power that Monday afternoon October 24 and told him about the Moroni accident. Power declined to comment on whether the Mayor had asked him about Moroni’s behavior, whether Power felt Moroni should be dismissed.


 


Councilman John Martin told WPCNR the Mayor had called him Monday and told him about the accident but had not asked him about Moroni’s behavior or his opinion on whether Moroni should be relieved of his duties. Asked if the Common Council had agreed Moroni should be let go by the city, Martin said “No.”


 


Councilperson Beth Smayda and Council President Benjamin Boykin have not responded to WPCNR questions about the events of Monday October 24 which Lecouna says lead to Mr. Moroni’s resignation on Tuesday October 25.


 


WPCNR asked Ms. Lecuona this evening if the council sentiment after the Mayor’s phone calls was that Mr. Moroni should leave because of the incident, she answered, “Definitely.”


 


Her second communication with the Mayor that Monday, she said  “The Mayor told me that Mr. Moroni would be asked for his resignation, and if he did not tender his resignation, he would be dismissed.”


 


Mr. Moroni’s resignation was announced Tuesday, October 25 (the next day) by the Mayor’s office without fanfare, (after being first reported by WPCNR),saying Moroni had resigned in a statement that read:


 


“The Mayor accepted Commissioner Moroni’s resignation yesterday (October 24). The resignation will officially take effect in 30 days. He will not be in the office during the time.”


 


On Wednesday, October 26  Gannett’s Richard Liebson interviewed Moroni, and reported based on his interview with Moroni that, the Commissioner said he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and that was behind his resignation, and it had nothing to do with the accident incident.


 


Mr. Moroni did not respond to efforts of WPCNR through Parking Department officials to get his side of the story, but our lines are open.


 


The extent of damage to the city vehicle and a picture of the damage  has also not been discussed or produced by the city and The Mayor’s Office has not responded to WPCNR’s questions as whether the Mayor made the phone calls to councilpersons and what he asked them or the intent of the conversations or whether he gathered a consensus opinion that Moroni should depart.


 


WPCNR requested a statement from the Mayor’s office on the reports of the Monday October 23 events, but it has not responded.


 


 


 

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More Progress on Hooking Up White Plains…135 still Powerless

WPCNR CITY CIRCUIT. From Karen Pasquale, Senior Advisor to the Mayor. November 2, 2011 3:15 P.M. E.D.T.:


Although significant progress has been made, Con Edison advises us that 135 “accounts” out of over 23,000 in the City remain out of service.

 

Any residents in need of assistance should contact the Mayor’s office at (914) 422-1411.

 

We remain in continuing contact with Con Edison, however, due to the widespread nature of the storm damage and the severe impact up-county, restoration efforts may continue to be delayed, particularly to “single home outages.”

 

Dry ice is available through Con Edison at the following locations from 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM today or until supplies are depleted:

 

–  The Midway Shopping Center, 955 Central Park Avenue,  Yonkers/Scarsdale border

 

–   IBM/Town Park, 205 Business Park Drive, Armonk

 

–   BJ’s, 3303 Crompound Road, Yorktown Heights

 

 

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