THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR | 2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)

Council Approves 1st Phase of Rotondi Mall Hotel on Main Street.

Posted on January 4, 2011 by John Bailey

WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey January 3, 2011:

The Common Council approved the first phase of A.J. Rotondi’s Main Street Mall and possible hotel Monday evening. It took great pains to explain to a city wide television audience that the hotel portion of the project was not approved at this time. Councilmembers Lecouna and Buchwald questions about access to parking for the hotel, and Councilman Boykin pointed out that any sky way connections from the Rotondi mall to the City Center Garage would require a variance which had to be approved by the Cappelli organization which owns the City Center.

First Phase of Rotondi Mall on Main Street Approved.The hotel below…anywhere from 120 to 150 rooms was not approved yet.

The council did not ask how close Mr. Rotondi was to acquiring financing for the project. Spokespersons for the Rotondi organization said during the hearing that they expected to be coming back to the council within 30 days with more information on the hotel possibilities. During the work session two weeks ago, Mr.Rotondi said the hotel was a key selling point to get retailers to rent up the mall.

180-Bed Rehabilation Facility at Church and Barker. Approval Looks Very Good at this time. Back of building is show below

Mark Weingarten, of DelBello, Donnellan & Weingarten, in his first appearance before the council in a long time, presented a meticulous review of the 180-bed Rehabilitation facility planned for thge corner of Church and Barker Streets, and the hearing was adjourned to February 7, the next Council meeting. Weingarten said the project would cost $50 Million to construct and $60 Million in total. He said it would take 12 months to acquire the government insured financing, and two years more to construct.

The Council also approved $500,000 in new capital projects to rehap a series of city garages. Councilman Buchwald expressed annoyance that this was not presented in early capital project reviews. Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Nicoletti had no answer for why the council was not informed earlier of the need for the garage rehabs. Councilperson Milagro Lecouna said the first time she had heard of the $500,000 in bonding was last Friday morning when she received her agenda packet.

At the beginning of the Council meeting, Mayor Adam Bradley publicly honored Joshua Colas of White Plains for his outstanding performance and achieving Grand Master status in chess.

Mayor Adam Bradley announced that Shoprite was having its grand opening in the City Center on Wednesday at 9 A.M. and that Dick’s Sporting Goods was moving into the Fortunoff vacated space.

Mr. Bradley, Mr. Boykin, Ms. Smayda, Mr. Power and Ms.Lecouna and Mr. Buchwald all praised the Department of Public Works for their great job of snow removal in the Christmas blizzard. Smayda congratulated the police on their cracking two high profile cases in the last month — the Walmart robbery and the Palisades Mall robbery.

Dan Schorr Interviews Commissioner Chong On VOX Tuesday Night

Posted on January 3, 2011 by John Bailey

WPCNR AIRWAVES. January 3, 2011:

Dan Schorr, the former candidate for Westchester County District Attorney is beginning a new weekly radio program on WVOX, Radio 1460.

“Crime and Justice with Dan Schorr” will air on Tuesday evenings and focus on the criminal justice system in Westchester and beyond. The premiere will be tomorrow, Tuesday, January 4 from 7pm-8pm with special guest White Plains Public Safety Commissioner David Chong. Listeners can call in with their questions at 914-636-0110.

Astorino Admin: Board Did Not Amend 1% Levy When Overriding: 1% Tax Cut Alive

Posted on December 31, 2010 by John Bailey

WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. By John F. Bailey. December 31,2010:

A spokesperson for the Astorino Administration told WPCNR that Kenneth Jenkins, Chair of the Board of Legislators, and the Board erred in their procedure overriding County Executive Astorino’s vetoes of the County Legislature revised budget, in effect giving Mr. Astorino the choice between the 2-1/4% property tax cut budget approved by the Legislature last Monday, and the 1% property tax cut the Astorino Administration wanted, that the Board overrode by its action on December 23.

“In their haste to override our vetoes,” Ned McCormack, Director of Communications for the Astorino Administration, “they neglected to amend the tax levy, (when 249 vetoes of 260 were overturned), increasing the property tax cut to 2-14%, therefore the 1% levy is still in effect, unless they do something about it.”

Earlier Thursday afternoon, Tara Martin, spokesperson for the County Board and Chairman Jenkins, told WPCNR the imposition of the 2-1/4% tax levy which County Executive Astorino vetoed, was simply “bookkeeping” to create the math to reflect and fund the Board of Legislator veto overrides (and increased tax cuts). Martin added that according to the charter, the County Executive could not veto the new tax levy as it went along with the budget.

Late Thursday afternoon, McCormack returned a call to WPCNR to explain that the County Attorney maintained the position that the County Executive is able to veto “any act of the legislature. An act is an act is an act,” McCormack said.

As of Friday morning, the last day of the year, the administration, McCormack said is planning to use the original 1% tax cut levy which according to the administration and the Board of Legislature failure to amend the original levy when it overrode, still remains in effect.

He said there were no plans to seek a show cause order in court to stop the 2-1/4% property tax cut budget passed by the legislators, because in the administration opinion, the 1% tax cut budget of the administration is still operative.

Jenkins: Astorino Overrides Charter in Veto-ing Tax Levy.

Posted on December 30, 2010 by John Bailey

WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Tara L. Martin, County Board of Legislators. December 30, 2010:

Today, Westchester County Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins (D-Yonkers) released a statement condemning Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino for his useless veto of the county’s tax levy. The FY 2011 tax levy – which will deliver a 2.25% tax cut to all Westchester residents – was approved by a vote of 10-1 on December 27. The final approved budget was adopted on December 23, when the Legislature overrode 249 of Mr. Astorino’s 260 vetoes.

In an interview with Tara Martin, spokesperson for the Board of Legislators, Martin said the Astorino veto was described as “symbolic” by Ned McCormack, the Director of Communications for the County. She also said that unless Mr. Astorino filed a Show Cause Order the tax levy would go into affect midnight tomorrow night. “He has 24 hours to decide what he (Astorino) wants to do. It’s illegal.(The Astorino veto)”

Jenkins in a statement said: “It would appear that Mr. Astorino and his advisors need to brush up on their knowledge of the County Charter. In Section 167.111, it clearly states that ‘when the county budget shall have been finally adopted, an appropriation act for such budget shall be passed by the County Board and taxes for the ensuing year, including state, county and special district taxes, shall be levied not later than December 28th. The County Board shall levy, assess and cause to be raised by tax upon real property liable therefore the amount of taxes determined by such budgets and in the manner provided for the levy of state and county taxes.

The Budget Act is not a normal Act. The Budget Act is very specific in the actions that can be taken. Mr. Astorino exercised his Charter authority to veto line items within 5 days of receiving the approved budget from the County Board.

The budget was not finally adopted until December 23, 2010 until his 260 line item vetoes were considered by the County Board. The required Tax Levy Appropriation Act is ministerial, a result of the final adopted budget, beginning with the recommended budget, additions by the Budget and Appropriations Committee, deletions to the recommended budget and sustained vetoes. In fact, the Budget Director develops the Tax Levy Appropriation Act and the Legislature is required to adopt such appropriations Act by December 28. This is the Charter role and sole responsibility of the Legislature.

There is nothing for Mr. Astorino to approve, the news release states.

With regards to Mr. Astorino’s outrageous assertions in relation to the Budget process, every detail of the budget process as outlined in the County Charter was followed. The Minority caucus chose not to make any additions to the budget. The Budget and Appropriations Committee spent 3 weeks hearing presentations from the Commissioners and Department heads.

Over 2,000 people participated in the public hearing process and the County Board web-streamed the committee meetings live and have all the sessions available on-demand. The Budget and Appropriations Committee worked throughout the year, having regular meetings with the various County departments in fulfilling the role of the County Board in providing oversight of the County budget. This budget is balanced, accessible and transparent.

Frankly, it is my expectation that in the ensuing year, Mr. Astorino’s administration will be more participatory in the open and transparent committee structure of the Legislature where his proposed initiatives will be vetted in public where good public discourse could take place.

Finally, I think it is completely counterproductive that Mr. Astorino and his staff to continue to use inflammatory and malicious language in various policy debates. The people of Westchester expect their elected officials to be leaders and to act responsibly and respectfully while we develop creative solutions to Westchester’s challenges.

Reasonable people can disagree without being disagreeable and offensive.”