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

WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2007. May 25, 2007: Marc Pollitzer, the perpetual activist turned activism into action Thursday, when he opened up his campaign for the Common Council with Robert Levine and Robert Stackpole by inviting all of White Plains to his North Street Area Civic Association Annual Meeting June 20, from 7:30 to all hours for citizens to hear four community leaders on the future of White Plains. The meeting will be at Ridgeway School in White Plains and the topic will be When Did We Lose White Plains and How Do We Get It Back? 

Marc Pollitzer, longtime addessor of the Common Council — sponsors communitywide meeting June 20 to galvanize the issues.

The Civic Association meeting will feature his running mates, Robert Stackpole and Robert Levine,  and Dr. Saul Yanofsky, former Superintendent of Schools and former Planning Commissioner Mike Graessle. The four speakers will address four issues facing the city:  Fiscal Responsibility (Stackpole), Protecting Our Neighborhoods (Graessle), City/School Interdependence (Yanofsky), and Comprehensive Planning (Levine).

Citzens Plan Committee, January 13, 2005 — at a town meeting at Ridgeway School when the “CPC” first energized, attracting some 200 persons to a meeting on “Where is White Plains Headed.” Dr. Saul Yanofsky is seen addressing the throng, while John Kilpatrick, Mike Graessle and Robert Stackpole, (left to right) look on. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

The “Big 4” city personalities Pollitzer has put together for the panel created the Citizens Plan Committee in 2004 that drove city to reexamine its 1997 Comprehensive Plan, but were not given a hand in being part of the Mayor’s panel that wrote the review of the 1997 Comprehensive Plan.

Pollitzer writes in the flyer advertising the meeting: “We encourage all residents in the North Street community to attend this annual meeting.The preservation of the residential character of our neighborhood, which drew us all here, is dependent upon our show of concern and support. Be an activist in protecting the value of your property and the quality of life in our community.”

WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2007. Exclusive One-on-One Interview with Robert Stackpole. May 24, 2007: Robert Stackpole, spearheading the three man assault on the White Plains Common Council when he confirmed he and Robert Levine and Marc Pollitzer were going challenge in November for the three Council seats, charged the city has been mismanaged and the Common Council had condoned the decisions that have resulted in escalating taxes and budget shortfalls through favored treatment of developers at the expense of taxpayers. In an interview with WPCNR today, Stackpole expanded on why he and his running mates are launching the campaign:

Robert Stackpole appearing on television during the last Common Council, brandishing the city budget.

WPCNR: What is Your First Step?

Robert Stackpole: The first step is to get our act together and get an organization developed around the process of getting petitions signed and the whole mechanics of the election process. None of us have ever done this before. Since we’re not an organized party, it is going to take the help of a lot of other people to be gathered up and assist us in the process. If people want to help us they can contact me, Mr. Levine, or Mr. Pollitzer.

WPCNR: What exactly made you three decide to run?

Stackpole: We’d (he, Levine and Pollitzer) been talking long before I made the attempt in the Democratic Party to be involved as a Democrat, and felt that by observation of the Democrats’ process, from our analysis,  (the process) was preconceived  (as to) who they wanted to be the new candidate on the team if they dropped  (Arnold) Bernstein.

I was told by the senior officials of the Democratic Party that they wanted a woman who was Hispanic and basically had the profile of the person they picked. I think it was basically an unfair process in the midst of the mechanical things of how they were going to do it.

Most of these nomination votes have been by ballot vote, and they elected to have a voice vote (the night of the decision). This surprised most because that would make sure that those people who would bolt the official nomination would now be exposed in public. There would not be a private vote. After the vote was taken, they went back to it being private again.

It turned out to be a very unhappy situation in terms of fairness to those who were seeking to have a democratic vote. It turned out it was not so, because they put a lot of pressure on people to vote from the field for the slate. They got the District Leaders to vote the way they wanted them to vote.

WPCNR: Would you say you were disillusioned by this?

Stackpole: I was very much disillusioned by the party process. I felt, if anything, they should be the pinnacle of fairness and openness and a good debate so you arrive at the best conclusion so you feel you’ve been treated fairly.

WPCNR: What will you be campaigning on?

Stackpole: The first and foremost issue is the financial health of  the city and its transparency, the discussions about what’s on the minds of most of the residents of White Plains who pay taxes that with all the publicity and promises of the golden halo of all this development downtown would be a financial panacea for the city’s long term financial health. Well, it’s not turned out that way.

The Mayor admitted in public at one of these last council meetings it’s going to take 10 or 15 years before we see the fruits of what’s going on downtown. Well, that’s obscene. If you’re going to giveaway 10 or 15 years of financial health to the city because you want to get this stuff done, most of us aren’t going to be here in the next 10 or 15 years, what is the legacy for the next generation to come to White Plains. That to me is a false hope. Wait until tomorrow? We have to pay for it today.

At the same, the school system is getting shortchanged in its ability to finance its own operations with severe raising of taxes. They have their own problems. You have to look at the city as a unit, and not in part. Education is one of the most important civic duties we have.

WPCNR: Are you against development?

STACKPOLE: Not against development per se. We have no agenda about putting a moratorium on development. Again we’re being forced into a situation where the Mayor in closed discussions with Mr. Cappelli have arrived at some design of the transportation center and what can be done down there without the input well he’s going to say, now we’re going to have discussions with the public. At the same time, during this initial phase, there should have been more input from the Common Council, which was left out I’m sure, the people who believe we’re creating a glass wall against other areas, Battle Hill and North Broadway.

There doesn’t seem to be a plan that the city has in mind. We wait for a developer. And it seems to be Mr. Cappelli again. Is he the only guy with any money? I think it’s going to make such a mess of an attempt at rebuilding that part of the city that it ought to open to other creative thinkers in the real estate field. Mr. Cappelli shouldn’t have an exclusivity on this (station area). It should be open to see what other items there are. I’m not sure what he is proposing is the best design for that part of the city. We have a small city and a very crowded area to stuff all the stuff in.

WPCNR:  How could the city could be better managed financially?

 Stackpole: We have already started studying a number of options that would give a broader base to the taxes on our real estate, but we have to look at other revenue sources instead of raising fines and parking fees. That’s a lose-lose situation, over the long term because you’ll be chasing more people away from the city rather than inviting them in.  You have to look at other creative ways to bring money to the city. I think that’s going to be a big issue.

The fact that the Mayor has discovered the other side of the negative of a PILOT that we lose the asset, we talked about this three years ago at our first Ridgeway meeting (of the Citizens Plan Committee). In the last two months now he’s discovered we lose the asset to the county. Where was he 10 years ago when there was an opportunity to bring an IDA to White Plains.  Mount Vernon got one. New Rochelle got one. Yonkers got one, Peekskill has one. Why weren’t we doing it when all this development was going on?

WPCNR: You’re thinking of participating in the North Street Civic Association Meeting June 20?

Stackpole: We ‘re in the stages of giving the public a chance not just us preaching to the public, but I believe the best politics is grass roots and if you have the citizenry voice their opinions about development, schools, taxes, you begin to get the meat and potatos of the campaign of why you would want to run, and why you wanted to spend the time helping the city recover from a very bad 10 years of all one way.

WPCNR:What’s next on your agenda?

Stackpole: We have some time, there’s no need to make a 100 yard dash at one point.  We have an organization to develop. There’s a need to develop intelligent position papers on these issues, not operate off  the cuff. Our approach has to be straightforward honest and heartfelt.

The city has been mismanaged with the help of the Council. They’ve been partners in this.

WPCNR: How are you going to reach out to the minorities who, in this reporter’s opinion, have been excluded in the election process?

Stackpole: This is one city. I’ve always resisted putting people in little boxes saying you’re Hispanic, you’re black, you’re Catholic. First, you’re a citizen. You should be colorblind and treat everybody equally. If some decides to leave someone out they’re just missing one of the big points of Democracy that everybody is part of the process that they should be reached talked to and convinced to be participants.