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

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. May 3, 2005: Eyde McCarthy, City Assessor, kept her rendezvous with the Board of Education Monday evening, and assured them the PILOTS (Payments In Lieu of Taxes) now being paid the city by properties developed since 2000  were $7,000,000 as opposed to $3,000,000 that the same properties  were paying in taxes before they were developed under PILOT agreements.

MEETING OF THE FINANCIAL MINDS: Eyde McCarthy, City Assessor, meets with the White Plains Board of Education Monday evening. Photo by WPCNR News

She said she did not have a figure on what liabilities in possible certioraris the Board of Education could expect, but staunchly stated that Mark Scharf, of Slaw & Perelson,  the attorney who represents the Board of Education, works very closely with her and could be relied upon for accurate numbers in expected certioraris. “Mr. Scharf consults closely every step of everything the city does,” Ms. McCarthy said. “He’s with us every step of the way. If there’s something major, we’ll call (Mr. Scharf).”

 Mr. Scharf has estimated refunds the school district should be prepared to pay as being from $5 million to $8 million in 2004-05, and this evening Donna McLaughlin said the figure was $10 Million.

Ms. McCarthy said some 300 certioraris proceedings are now in process with the city of some 8,000 commercial properties. She said it was not possible to put a dollar amount on what the city would settle them for because it was up to the judge, Thomas Dickenson of the Certiorari Division of the New York State Supreme Court to adjudicate the actual awards. She pointed out that the organization filing the certiorari puts forth a high figure and then arguments are made to lower that refund requested and the judge weighs both arguments before making a decision.

Certioraris Erode the Development Gain

She did not subtract what the school district was losing in certioraris this year from the PILOT “windfall.”  WPCNR notes that when you figure that amount of certiorari payments, $5.8 Million, the School District “profit” from the PILOTS is approximately $2.2 Million. Whatever gain from the PILOTs is being eroded by certiorari givebacks. 

Ms. McCarthy did not bring a long term perspective on what revenues the PILOT-producing properties could be expected to supply beyond next year, but said she could develop that and would develop a spread sheet for the district on those numbers. The School District has requested this from the city for five months.

Ms. McCarthy blamed the long decline in city assessments to the equalization rate that computes housing assessibles as being higher than commercial properties, resulting in commercial property assessments being lowered proportionately.  

Special Franchise Assessments A Villain?

Ms. McCarthy said the city has lost “a significant portion of assessibles” due to Special Franchise reassessments. This occurs, she said, because the state sets depreciation rates on public utilities, lowering the value of the public utility infrastructure, but did not name a figure as to how much the city has lost. 

Commissioner of Planning Susan Habel, has supplied this figure, though in a chart she showed the Comprehensive Plan Committee, two weeks ago, pegging the figure at  $3,069,294 in 2004-2005 (a 24% decline in assessment of utility Special Franchises in the city in one year). However, from 1995/96 to 2003/04 (the last nine years)  the city lost a total of  $3,657,613 in Special Franchise Assessibles according to Ms. Habel’s chart, lowering the assessment of Special Franchises from $13,305,392 to $9,647,779 in 2004-05, a decline of 27% in nine years, or an average of 3% a year.

During the same time period, overall city assessibles of commercial and residential properties declined 15% from $359,117,859 in 1994-95 to $304,680,309 at the close of 2004-05.

Condo Tidbits.

An interesting revelation on the condominium market came from realtor Nick Wolff, of Century 21, who volunteered that the Cappelli Trump Tower condominiums were not sold out as previously reported and declared by the Cappelli organization for about the last two months. Wolff said there were 12 units up for sale in Trump Tower. Three penthouse units in the Trump Tower are currently being advertised by their owners, WPCNR has learned.

 It also was reported by Ms. McCarthy that condominium sales are taxed at 40 to 60% less than residential homes. She pointed out that a million dollar house would likely pay $20,000 in property taxes while a million dollar condominium would pay $10,000.

WPCNR BACKROOM BULLETIN. By John F. Bailey May 2, 2005: WPCNR has learned from listening posts within the labyrinth of the Democratic City Committee, that Westchester County Chair of the Board of Legislators Bill Ryan is focusing on his county role as County Legislator, and is no longer interested in running against Mayor Joseph Delfino.

WPCNR has learned that several sources close to Mr. Ryan have said Mr. Ryan got very dissappointing news from the telephone survey he took of the White Plains electorate about two months ago to gauge his propects of disposing of “Da Champ,” Mayor Delfino. The bowing out of Mr. Ryan, without officially announcing he is doing so, has set up rampant speculation as to who will “take one for the team.” (I.e., lose to Delfino.)

WPCNR interviewed perennial Democratic Party fixture, Dennis Power, former Councilman, and asked if he was interested in running for Mayor, and Mr. Power declined to answer the question.

 Benjamin Boykin, Councilman, told WPCNR that he had not held any fundraisers yet, as of two weeks ago, and it was news to him that Mr. Ryan was not running. This means that if Mr. Boykin is the Mayoral nominee is way underfinanced. Will County Executive Andy Spano open his coffers to a Boykin run? He will need it.

Mr. Boykin will also have a hard time separating himself from the mayor on financial and development issues. He can if he uses the facts, and seizes the “hold-on-what’s-going-on-here?” approach, and declares that he used to trust the Mayor, but now he does not, because he does not get timely financials, is not consulted on the budget, and is concerned that the city is playing cowboy with its finances.  He could campaign on the line that the City of White Plains needs a Mayor they can trust. This is the way Boykin would have to go, a tactic that Mr. Greer eschewed using in 2001, running a lackluster campaign with no central focus and lost when he had a 2-to-1 edge in registration. It was almost as if Greer campaigned to lose in 2001.

Mr. Boykin cannot afford to do that. He has to be out in front on the issues early. At this stage, the Democratic Party has no clue. They have no candidate.

Perhaps they don’t really want them and will make a joint endorsement of the Mayor.

Glen Hockley has flatly stated to the CitizeNetReporter that he was not interested in running for Mayor, and is interested more in running for Common Council.  But, you never know. Hockley, next to Bradley, is the city’s most indefatigable campaigner, and he might just win if he got the nomination. I guarantee you he would visit every resident in the city. No one campaigns harder or gets people to do things more than Glen Hockley.

Mr. Hockley’s Quixotesque quest to over turn his expulsion from the Common Council by proving voters affidavits were doubtful, though, has not commenced.  Mr. Hockley told WPCNR that his attorney has not begun deposing the 103 voters who signed sworn statements they voted for Larry Delgado in the 2001 election. Mr. Hockley and Thomas Abinanti,  have 59 days to do that according to the Appellate Court of Appeals in Brooklyn.

Coming up the backstretch, who of all Common Councilpersons has the most chance of unseating the Mayor due to his charisma and previous questioning of the Mayor’s policies is Tom Roach. Whether or not Mr. Roach is tough enough to beat Delfino is the question mark. Would the party pull behind him, if they nominated him? Mr. Roach would be an easy candidate to work for.

But, again, Mr. Roach would have to give up his seat to run against the Mayor. Decisions, decisions.

Of all the Democrats, Roach has that j’ ne sais quoi that could galvanize the Democrat Registration to come out and whip the Mayor. Roach was penciled in to run for Mr. Ryan’s seat in the County Legislator, but now that Mr. Ryan has according to sources in his office, decided a bird in hand is worth more than the aggravation of the hot seat in City Hall, where budget chaos lurks if the rosy scenarios do not work out,  Mr. Ryan has effectively become a Roach-Blocker to Mr. Roach’s political future.

Rita Malmud who of all the Councilpersons has the most experience, and has shown the most moxie of councilpersons when the city’s welfare is on the line,  would have to give up her seat to run, because her seat is up for election in November 2005. Insiders tell WPCNR she is not going to oppose the Mayor. It is now or never for Ms. Malmud, who has to decide once and for all whether she cares to lead or continue to follow for the next fifteen years.

Adam Bradley, perhaps the strongest Mayorl candidate of all, the most intelligent of politicians, who is up for election to the State Assembly, apparently does not want the Mayor job, and will defend his Assembly seat. Mr. Bradley, would be the strongest Democratic candidate the Party could run and win easily and would greatly improve his commute.

Insiders say he eyes a State Senatorship or even a House of Representative run in 2006 when Nita Lowey may step down, or perhaps a Senate run in 2006. 

That is a shame. Mr. Bradley is wasted in Albany, and certainly would be useless in Washington. Because they do not want people who can get things done there. 

Bradley has brains. He has no baggage on any city issues, and is a devastating, slash-and-burn-and-pillage campaigner, who marshalls facts and can galvanize the electorate on issues. And knows how to campaign to win.

Meanwhile, on the Republican Side, William Waterman, whose unflagging support of Mayor Delfino in recent weeks, sounds like a man interested in running with him, could conceivably run with Mayor Delfino for one of the Council seats with Larry Delgado, who is running for his Council Seat. Possible candidates for the third Councilseat, purely random speculation here would be Tim Sheehan, who lost the last time out. Sheehan has denied he’s interested.  Perhaps the Republicans would run an African-American candidate to present a more ethnically diverse ticket than the Democrats.