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)

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. January 21, 2004. UPDATED January 23, 2004 1:05 A.M. E.S.T.: Councilperson Glen Hockley’s lawyer Tom Abinanti has declined to ask for Leave for Appeal to appeal the Appellate Court ruling in Brooklyn in December that Larry Delgado’s quo warranto action had exceeded the statute of limitations to be brought. Thursday evening Jeffrey Binder, working on the case with the Attorney General’s Office for Mr. Delgado, said Judge Nicolai was on a tight timetable, and had promised that he would rule swiftly on the motions brought by Mr. Abinanti detailed in this story. Binder said Judge Nicolai had state “White Plains has waited long enough.”

THE STOLEN ELECTION 2001: Larry Delgado, center, with just-relected, Mayor Joseph Delfino, on the night he thought he was elected, November 5, 2001. The Republican faithful at the Crowne Plaza Hotel were expecting District 18 to bring Mr. Delgado home comfortably ahead of Glen Hockley, when something went wrong. Mr. Delgado has been fighting through four court decisions and a quo warranto action since that night. Photo from WPCNR News Archives.

In a telephone interview Thursday with WPCNR, Larry Delgado, the “phantom councilman,” who claimed “was robbed” of a Council seat in 2001 when a voting machine jammed in District 18, costing him 103 votes which would have made him the Councilman over Mr. Hockley, spoke on where the quo warranto action brought by the Attorney General’s office is now. Mr. Delgado brought WPCNR up to date on the case that has meandered its legal way back and forth between White Plains, Brooklyn, and Albany for two years and two months without resolution.

Delgado said that Mr. Abinanti has chosen not to appeal the Appellate Court ruling. Mr. Hockley, asked on several occasions by WPCNR whether he was going to appeal said he did not know what his lawyer, Mr. Abinanti was doing on the case after the Appellate Court had unanimously thrown out their statute of limitations claim in December.

The Case Without End.

Instead, the case has been returned to Judge Francis Nicolai’s Supreme Court in White Plains on December 3, 2003, Delgado recalls, where it all began in December, 2001.

Delgado said Mr. Abinanti has made several motions, the first of which was for Judge Nicolai to appoint another judge to consider the case.

BEGINNING A LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG WINDING ROAD: Larry Delgado, with Mayor Joseph Delfino, December, 2001, announcing at Republican Headquarters his claim to the Council seat. Photo from WPCNR News Archives.

Mr. Abinanti’s second motion on behalf of Mr. Hockley was a request dismiss a report in the Attorney General Office quo warranto brief which detailed the Attorney General’s investigation and interrogation of persons involved in the 2001 election in District 18, where the machine jammed.

The third procedure is that Mr. Abinanti has begun calling witnesses involved in the case who notarized documents to depose them in preparation for a jury trial. Among those called are Mr. Delgado and his wife, and other legal representatives and witnesses. Mr. Delgado characterized this as a nuisance tactic since the testimony has all been given before.

There is also, Delgado said, a motion by the Attorney General’s Office for a “Summary Judgment” by Judge Nicolai or any judge, Mr. Nicolai appoints to resolve the matter.

Stretching a Rain Delay?

Delgado professed anxieties to WPCNR that any rulings Nicolai or the judge he appoints, should he choose to do so, could also be appealed by the Hockley camp. Delgado said he sees the potential for stretching the case out for many months to come, perhaps to the end of the present council term Delgado says the courts have determined is his.

Delgado said, “They can’t stretch this out much further, because the Appellate Court in their decision said the legislature needs to take a look at this, this has to be moved, because at the end of the expiration of the current term, the question they said is moot.”

Give Me My $60,000, Please.

Asked if he would seek full restitution of back pay, should Judge Nicolai or a subsequent judge instate Mr. Delgado to the Common Council, Delgado said he would test the full scope of the “remedy.” This would seem to indicate that Mr. Hockley would have to return the in excess of $60,000 in Councilperson salary he has received since March of 2002 when he went on the Council. By rough estimate, Hockley has been paid about $60,000 since he was sworn in to the Common Council on March 15, 2002.

Asked what his legal expenses were in mounting his legal challenge for the council seat since November 2001, Mr. Delgado acknowledged it was over $10,000 and less than $50,000, but had not totaled the figure.

Hockley Raises Funds

Mr. Hockley has, within the last week, sent out another fundraising letter to cover ostensibly his legal expenses of having Mr. Abinanti carry on the fight to save his seat.

Mr. Delgado has obtained a copy of that letter and objects to what he characterizes as Mr. Hockley’s distorting the facts of the case in the letter in which, in Mr. Delgado’s opinion, leads the audience to believe that Mr. Delgado is challenging for the seat without cause, when Delgado says, “I was robbed of a rightful seat.”

WPCNR TRAFFIC TATTLER. By John F. Bailey. January 21, 2004: The White Plains Parking Authority Board voted Tuesday evening to authorize Executive Director Albert Moroni to seek an increase in the basic onstreet parking violation ticket in White Plains from $10 to $15 effective July 1, 2004. Mr. Moroni said he would present the case for an increase to Judge Joann Friia of the White Plains City Court which is the governing body that controls fine structures for the city.

WHITE PLAINS TRAILS OTHER MUNICIPALITIES IN FINE LEVERAGE: Executive Director Albert Moroni of the White Plains Parking Authority, right, demonstrates with Deputy Director John Larson, basic on-street parking violations of other municipalities in the region. Some of the fee structures have built-in rate increases that quickly raise the ante on the ticket if not paid promptly. Moroni plans no increase in the late ticket fees for White Plains. Photo by WPCNR News

The Executive Director noted that increased salary costs, an expected increase in ticket collection fees by the outsource vendor which administers the ticket collection, dictated the ticket increase. Moroni said the raise in the basic street parking ticket would net an additional $900,000 a year, based on 250,000 to 270,000 Parking Tickets issued.

Moroni related some interesting statistics to the Parking Authority Board: White Plains issues more parking tickets than the city of Cleveland, Ohio. The last increase in the basic parking violation was in 2001, when the levy went from $5 to $10. White Plains collects on 90% of its tickets, a “phenomenal” rate, Moroni said. No rise is planned in the late payment scale.

Moroni also reported that the WPPA collects $4.5 Million a year in Parking Permit Fees and $4.3 to $4.4 Million in Parking Ticket Fines, for net revenues of $9 Million a year. He said the number of parking tickets had dropped recently due to a shortage of Parking Summons Officers which are now up to full strength he said.

A CLOSER ANALYSIS: Moroni determined that judging by the basic Parking Violations (for overtime) Fines charged by nearby cities and towns, that White Plains at $10 currently is below market rates. Photo by WPCNR News.

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

The White Plains Roving Reporter

The Delgado-Hockley Zone: Hock Does Not go for Leave for Appeal; Wants New Judge

Parking Authority to Ask City Court to Hike Street Parking Ticket Fines July 1

White Plains Roving Photographer