THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR

WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. From The County Clerk Office. (EDITED) July 10, 2008: The Office of the County Clerk reported an sharp increase in consumer credit action filings against individuals for delinquent credit card debt, car loan defaults, medical and tuition bills this year. County Clerk Timothy Idoni projects over 30,000 civil actions will be started in Westchester this year.  The 2006 and 2007 totals were 25,172 and 26,169, respectively. 

 “In 2007, we averaged about 1,700 legal filings a month.  This year we are already averaging over 2,300 a month and anticipate this number will rise,” Idoni said in a news release.  “Our counter people are reporting a massive jump in consumer credit filings.  And as a struggling economy continues and banks tighten their lending practices, we want to let Westchester consumers know what they can do to protect themselves.”  County Clerk Idoni offers the following tips to consumers having difficulty paying their bills:

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Call the creditor and ask for a repayment plan.  Your creditor wants to be repaid and may be willing to work out a payment schedule you can handle. By entering into a repayment plan, you may be able to avoid your debt being assigned to a debt collector who may contact you repeatedly at your home or office.

Seek help from an accredited credit counseling service.  Credit counseling services offer assistance and counseling to help consumers get out of debt and remain debt-free.  A counselor may be able to contact your creditors and work out a repayment plan that you can manage.   For a list of reputable credit counseling agencies in your area, contact the National Foundation for Credit Counseling ( NFCC) www.nfcc.org.  

Stay away from so-called low interest rate credit card solicitations.  Consumers often find themselves in trouble when they answer mail solicitations for so called low interest rate credit cards.  Beware as some creditors offer a low introductory “teaser” rate for a short time that will balloon into a double digit interest rate that can be difficult for you to repay and hurt your credit score.

Make lifestyle and spending changes.  Keep track of your spending by creating a monthly budget that includes all expenses and bills that are covered by your income and stay on track.  Start saving what’s left and put it in the bank. Cut down on using credit cards to pay for unnecessary spending including frequent dining out, shopping sprees, and expensive cell phone plans, for example.  “Be realistic about your debt.  If it’s between 15 and 20 percent of your income, you need to start trimming down your expenses significantly”, cautioned Idoni.

The Westchester County Clerk is the Clerk for the Supreme Court where consumer credit cases may be filed.  The public can visit the Legal Division located at 110 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in White Plains between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:45 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays.  For more information on our Legal Division, please call 995-3070 or visit our website at www.westchesterclerk.com.

  Just last week, Westchester County Clerk Tim Idoni bumped into a customer filing eighty  consumer credit card actions in his office.  The customer, who has filed cases for local attorneys and banks on foreclosures and consumer credit issues for many years, shared, “I have never seen it this bad… ever.”   .

WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. July 9, 2008 UPDATED 6:22 P.M. EDT: Paul Wood, Executive Officer for Mayor Delfino, expressed concern to WPCNR about the effect the new payment schedules for buy-outs on the Windsor Terrace and Hale Avenue condominium projects and future development of the city yesterday. Wood  said the new guidelines enacted by the Common Council  had definitely brought inquiries about developing in White Plains to a standstill, saying the cold call inquiries to the city about projects had all but disappeared.

Paul Wood supported the grandfathering of affordable housing buyouts for stalled approved condominium projects in the city and  defended the 55 Bank Street land deal for a 20% Affordable Housing project, the city is attempting to salvage with the developer LCOR as making the most sense at the time

Wood spoke in referencing two projects, Windsor Terrace and the Bobker Hale and Maple Avenue condominiums.  Representatives from those two groups lobbied the Common Council that the new payments their clients owed since the Common Council changed the affordable housing set-aside/buyout benchmarks in April, had made the projects financially undoable in today’s market.

Windsor Terrace, now being developed by Rome Partners, originally approved in 2003, has seen its “buyout” payment escalate from $452,600 to $1.47 Million. Hale LLC Condominium saw its affordable housing buyout payment move from $920,000 to $2.6 Million, since its approval in 2005. Developers could have, however, fixed their buyout cost by paying it in advance, it should be noted.

For the record, in lieu of building actual affordable units, that now reach 10% level, a developer needs to pay into the affordable housing fund, $75,000 for a Studio, $150,000 for a One-Bedroom, $200,000 for a Two-Bedroom, and $240,000 for a Three Bedroom. The costs of building an individual apartment may exceed these levels, and certainly would now, according to both developers who blamed increased construction costs for making the new level of buyouts financially unworkable.

Wood  wanted to clarify that in the first editon of this story, , in his opinion, he, Wood, strongly urged the council to “grandfather in” those two groups, and return to the former buyout amounts, so those projects could begin. He wanted WPCNR to make it clear that the Mayor never said the council should “grandfather in” the two groups.

Wood said the jury was still out on  the new 10% legislation and buyout amounts in the new affordable housing legislation, and as of yet was not ready to recommend a rollback to lower percentages. He acknowledged that the lack of financing and state of financial markets had contributed to lack of development interest, but said that the 10% setaside and buyout amounts hurt White Plains compared to other city candidates for development such as Yonkers, Stamford, New Rochelle.

Bank Street Land Offer Made Sense at Time.

Wood, commenting on the LCOR 55 Bank Street request for a restructuring of the financial terms of the 55 Bank Street 20% affordable housing project which became known last week, said that the original sale of the land to LCOR made the most sense. It was not because they were a favored developer, but because LCOR needed the land for parking for the hotel they planned to build on the 5 Bank Street property (site of Bank Street Commons).  

Wood defended the installment nature of the $15.5 Million purchase price, because the Mayor’s Office was trying to get away from the policy of “one-shot” land sales to balance the budget that it had been criticized for in 2006 when Railside Avenue lots were sold.

So far, no one on the Common Council  and the Mayor’s Office has shown interest in taking the land back from LCOR for default on the June 30 payment.

LCOR expects to pay that $5.5 Million payment in September with financing from Lehman Brothers. It is not clear whether this is contingent on the city accepting LCOR’s proposal to redesign the project to one large building 28 stories high, one building 14 stories high, and parking structure, and finance and build them in sequence.