Bradley Credits Detailed Case Law for Favorable Reversal. Latest News.

5 O’Clock Report By John F. Bailey, filed 3/14/02, UPDATED 5:00 PM EST: Adam Bradley, Glen Hockley’s attorney, whose arguments won an historic reversal from the Court of Appeals today, credited the decision favoring his client, Glen Hockley, with his detailed presentation of case law, showing that quo warranto proceding had only been waived once and that was because of a death in office.

SUNCIN PAYS OFF FOR HOCKLEY BRADLEY TEAM: With smiles a legal brief wide, Glen Hockley, left, and Adam Bradley, his relentless attorney, relax in Mr. Bradley’s office Thursday afternoon in a WPCNR interview. Hockley said “He was ready to go,” on the council and “euphoric” about the decision. He said he planned to begin his walking tours of White Plains neighborhoods shortly. Bradley told WPCNR that any further legal action would involve Mr. Delgado filing a request for a quo warranto procedure with the Attorney General. Bradley said the Attorney General only has to decide whether a court action is warranted. He said that any court decision unfavorable as a result of that action would likely be appealed. City Hall said Thursday afternoon, it had learned that certification of Mr. Hockley by the Board of Elections is being delayed “a couple of days” because the Board’s computers were down, so it would be “a few days” before Mr. Hockley was certified allowing him to be sworn in on the Common Council. “Suncin” is Japanese for “focus,” a trait that Mr. Hockley says he lives in his karate training and his community service.
Photo by WPCNR


“The court listened very carefully, to my summary of case law,” Bradley told WPCNR this morning in a telephone interview.. “There has only been one case where quo warranto was not available, (the Shiels case, 1937) where a declaratory action was undertaken, and that was because an incumbent died in office.”

Bradley detailed the arguments for WPCNR weeks before the Court of Appeals decision handed down today. Bradley said he had no problem with the Larry Delgado camp filing a quo warranto procedure with the Attorney General, as suggested by the Court of Appeals.

Where are the affidavites?

However, he did say that he was surprised that the Delgado forces had not presented sworn affidavites from voters in District 18 who said they had voted for Delgado. Such affidavites, Bradley said, were routine procedure when election results are contested.

In any quo warranto procedure with the attorney general, should the attorney general grant it, affidavites, with evidence of the voting machine breakdown would buttress the Delgado case. The quo warranto procedure is “legal proceding undertaken to recover an office, franchise, or privilege from the person in possession, initiated upon an information.”

The next step in the procedure to install Glen Hockley as the sixth Common Councilperson is for the Board of Elections to certify his election as stands, including the District 18 results as of November 6.

In that proceeding Mr. Hockley defeated Mr. Delgado. However, Delgado received 100 votes less than his Republican running mates, Mike Amodio and Robert Tuck, whom he had been running ahead of in every district. Had Delgado received the 100 votes or so that he felt had been taken away by a jammed voting machine, Mr. Delgado would have been thewinner. The voting machine was discovered, upon court-ordered inspection, to have jammed on election night.

The Court of Appeals decision today clears the way for Glen Hockley to be sworn onto the Common Council without a new election. Only after Hockley is seated can Mr. Delgado, based on the evidence of a jammed voting machine, petition the Attorney General Elliot Spitzer for a jury trial to find a remedy. Mr. Spitzer has to consider whether or not to open a proceding should Mr. Delgado petition the Attorney General.

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FLASH!Court of Appeals Reverses Appellate Decision. Hockley Can Take Seat

FLASH! By John F. Bailey, 3/14/02, UPDATED 11:25 AM EST: The New York State Court of Appeals this morning, in a 8-page decision, has dismissed the Appellate Court ruling calling for a citywide election in White Plains to decide the disputed Larry Delgado/Glen Hockley District 18 voting machine jam. The ruling effectively means Glen Hockley can take a seat on the Common Council after the Board of Elections certifies the election results.
Buys Bradley Argument All the Way — Delgado has one recourse– the Attorney General

In the concluding paragraph of the brief, the Court of Appeals said they did not accept the caselaw cited by John Ciampoli, Mr. Delgado’s attorney, allowing for a declaratory judgment action.

The judges upheld Adam Bradley’s argument that Mr.Delgado’s only relief was to file a quo warranto action with the Attorney General’s office. Mr. Bradley, in a WPCNR interview, explained his principles of argument in detail. He also argued that only the legislature had the authority to change the law. And, the Court of Appeals agrees.

Ciampoli, Delgado’s attorney, commenting to WPCNR moments ago said that he expected his client, Delgado, would file a letter with Attorney General Elliot Spitzer requesting a quo warranto proceeding.

The decision appears to be asking the Attorney General to step in:

Ciampoli’s reading of the case, he says, indicates that the Court of Appeals wants the Attorney General to set up a proceeding to address the issue, or else “they will.”

However, the seven Court of Appeals judges unanimously declined to break new ground in election law, which had been Adam Bradley’s (the Hockley legal counsel) argument all along.

The key text:

Delgado and Supreme Court below relied on Matter of Felice v Berger (1992), in which the Appellate Division converted an Election Law article 15 proceeding into a declaratory judgment action, declared the election invalid and ordered a new election because of a defective voting machine. In converting the proceeding the Felice court, however relied on dicta from other lower court cases.

The only other authority that arguably supports the availability of a declaratory judgment action as an alternative to quo warranto is Shiels v. Flynn(1937). In Shiels, however, unlike this case, quo warranto was not available because the declared officeholder had died and the aggrieved candidate, who sought to establish the term of the office, had been appointed to fill the vacancy. Irrespective of the validity of Shiels, the Corrigan dicta should not be read as supporting the availability of a declaratory judgment action, commenced before the declared winner has taken office, to resolve a challenge such as the one raised here.

Delgado nonetheless urges that, entirely independent of quo warranto, when there are circumstances such as those presented here, the courts should determine whether the irregularity affected the election process and be empowered to order a new general election. We do not find such authority under the statute (See Election Law 16-1024) or decisional law. If such authority is to be accorded the courts, it should be by act of the Legislature.

In sum, quo warranto is the appropriate remedy in this case. We need not determine at this time whether a declaratory judgment action might lie as an alternative remedy where quo warranto has ceased to be available to the aggrieved candidate because the Attorney General has declined to act (various cases cited). Nor need we address Hockley’s remaining arguments.

Accordingly, the order of the Appellate Division should be reversed without costs and the petition dismissed.

The complete decision can be downloaded from the Court of Appeals Website, by clicking on “Latest Decisions,” Clicking on “March” and clicking on the Delgado vs. Sunderland line. The Court of Appeals website can be reached by going to White Plains Links on this site, and going to Courts in the News, and clicking on the CofA site.

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“Good Job!” City’s Best Looking Ballplayers Go for 6th Title in 7Yrs

WPCNR Press Box, by John “Baseball” Bailey, 3/13/02, 10:30 PM EST: There’s a quiet dynasty in town that’s had a better record than the New York Yankees the last six years, and never received a parade, championship signs, or a big recognition ceremony.

When you spell “softball,” you spell it W-H-I-T-E P-L-A-I- N-S.


THE WHITE PLAINS TIGERS CHAMPIONSHIP SOFTBALL TEAM. Tryouts over, Ted O’Donnell’s club heads to Virginia next week. They are getting ready to defend their League 1A Championship. The veteran team has won two championships in a row and five of the last six “A” titles. The champions (24-4 last year), will be together for their final title run as a team this spring in a tougher league. Coach O’Donnell is at far right. Coach John Roselli at far left.
Photo Courtesy, Ted O’Donnell White Plains Tigers


WPCNR interviewed Tiger mentor, Ted O’Donnell, “O’D” as his players call him, at his WPHS office to get his perspective on the “Champions nobody knows.”

O’Donnell is entering his seventh year as varsity softball coach, and he cannot say enough about his players’ dedication to getting better in their sport. His bushy steely gray reddish hair, soft-spoken voice, and perpetually sunburned complexion just says brands him a student of the game. Softball is his sport.

O’Donnell looks like Earl Weaver, the Baltimore Oriole Manager of the 1970s. And he’s been just as successful. O’Donnell is the former Junior Varsity coach who built the “feeder” system that created the “quiet” dynasty. It is his system that equipped White Plains girls to play fastpitch softball better, more consistently than any other program in the county.

The Quiet Coach Talks.

He doesn’t like to talk about himself, giving the credit to his players and their work ethic. O’Donnell, however pioneered encouraging girls with the talent to play at higher levels, and play summer travel ball. He brought in a new windmill pitching style, the California Drag. This style enabled the Tiger pitchers to dominate the county the last five years.

He gave such a pride and love of playing ball to his players that they play it all year round, just to get better. They love playing ball so much that all practice six days a week, play all summer, and deep into fall. They do drill after drill, many of which O’Donnell designed. They hone their trigger- step-explode hitting styles. They work at it.

The Quiet Players Do the Winning.

The White Plains Tigers show you how it’s done on the field, at the plate, and how to conduct yourself on the field. More than any other White Plains team, (all known for their good sportsmanship), the softball team sets the standard for conduct during a ball game. Nothing ruffles them.

Losses are quietly suffered, and any loss encourages them to just work harder. In fact, when the Tigers lose, they are at their best. They don’t take it personally. They don’t throw gloves. They don’t make excuses. They take responsibility.

Wanting to get better.

O’Donnell attributes the start of the championship run to when he was the Junior Varsity coach for six years prior to taking the Varsity job in 1995. He said he always felt White Plains had the talent to be a competitive team. In his time at the JV helm, he started a summer softball travel team and acquired players willing to “devote a lot of extra time developing their game…year-round.”

He and John Roselli won three consecutive titles after O’Donnell took the Varsity job. Roselli’s daughter, Kristin, was their dominant pitcher as a ninth grader.

All Softball. All the Time.

“Year-round” is the key to O’Donnell’s success. His players think and play and work at softball all year. He feels that to field a really good varsity program, you have to select the best athletes for the team, regardless of grade in school.

If they can play up to the varsity level, he brings them up. The result is there is no varsity learning curve. He gets three good varsity years out of them. Has a brief rebuilding year, where his players still win and is ready to win it all again. The only year they did not win the title was 1999. They lost to Ursuline 1-0, and 3-2 to lose the title by one game. That was an “off year.”

A veteran team poised for their final run.

This year the “Tiger Ten,” features seven seniors, one junior and three sophomores. He feels he will select two players from the Junior Varsity to bring up to complete the team, but has not decided on them yet. He prefers the players to play as much as possible.

Pitching

This year the Tiger duo of crafty lefty Senior Jesse Orfe and sophomore Tara Pollard will split the wind milling. Orfe is coming off a 12-2 year in ’01, with a 0.77 Earned Run Average. Orfe’s poise, pitch selection and cool demeanor recall Whitey Ford, if Whitey Ford could windmill. Pollard, the straw-haired sophomore right-hander was also 12-2 with a 1.09 ERA. Last year Orfe and Pollard pitched 98 and 96 innings respectively. They averaged one walk a game.

This year the duo may be better. O’Donnell worked both pitchers with Olympic pitcher Lorie Harrigan, over the summer. (Hannigan pitched a no-hitter against Canada in the 2000 Olympics.) Harrigan, who uses the Drag, has refined the Drag to where she strides about three quarters across the power line to the plate to give her more speed. O’Donnell likes this theory.

He has fine-tuned Orfe’s and Pollard’s motions to give them a little more speed. Instead of striding straight to the plate in their California Drag motion, the coach, at Hannigan’s suggestion is having his “Koufax-Drysdale Team” “stride into the power line” with their stride leg about “three-quarters to bring more of their hips into the pitch.”

Catching

Behind the plate is senior Ciara DiFrancesco, the All-Section Catcher, and Hudson River Bandit, who will be backed up by Sophomore Jessica Issaacs. Jessica was the starting third sacker in 2001. This year when DiFrancesco is catching, Issaacs will play third, and when Issaacs is catching, Ciara will be on the hot corner.

Around the Horn

Out at shortstop will be senior, Cristin Pasqua, the All-County First Team Second Baseperson in 2001. O’Donnell describes her as having “excellent lateral movement, a strong accurate arm, with speed” to get to tough chances.

Moving to second base when she is not pitching is Tara Pollard, who can hit as well as pitch. When Pollard is pitching, impressive sophomore Kelly O’Neill will be at second base.

At first base is the statuesque (5’ 10”) and fearless Kathryn Fitzmaurice, a senior who stands in to choke off the bunt almost on top of the plate. She reacts incredibly fast getting back to take a throw or cut off a grounder in the first base hole with a great stretch. She is in her third year on the varsity.

Senior Picket Duty

The Tiger outfield is a trio of seniors.

Out in Centerfield, this is our last year to watch the graceful, far-ranging Leslie Busch cover “O’Donnell’s Bluff.” Leslie is a four-year starter, who made All-County First Team in 2001.

In a testimony to just how good she covers gaps, goes and gets’em, and shoestrings ‘em, Leslie has won a softball scholarship at SUNY Albany, a Division I school, next year. O’Donnell is very impressed with Leslie’s achievement saying Division I scholarships are very tough to get.

Flanking her in left field is senior Cyndi Carnaghi, the Hudson River Bandit, and another four year starter for Ted. He describes Cyndi as having a good arm and a good glove.

Cyndi, he says, played on an elite fall softball team, the Jersey Girls playing clubs in Delaware, California, Texas and Florida.

Out in right field is senior Kara Younkin in her second year on the varsity. A member of O’Donnell’s Rockland Stix summer team, he describers her as very committed.

A freshman making the team this year is the Little League standout, Candace Abbott, and Illinois native, who performed extraordinarily in the Little League Senior Softball Division last year.

Virginia swing coming up.

The team will be traveling to Virginia the weekend of March 23, to start a spring training swing playing top teams in the South to get ready for their opener April 5 at Ossining.

O’Donnell’s White Plains Fastpitch organization funds the trip through his clinics and fundraisers to charter a bus to take the team on down. The coach describes the Virginia Swing as a great bonding experience, good training conditions, and stimulating competition.

“The weather there is a little warmer. We get to play teams we would never see normally. Virginia’s got very very tough softball teams,” Ted said. “I set the games up against the top teams they have to offer. Last year we didn’t score a run in any of the scrimmages. But we were competitive. But that’s how good the pitching was. They’re a few weeks ahead of us, but we ended up the number 2 Class A ranked team last year and lost 2-0, and really played well.”

A Tougher League Awaits

This year the league has been trimmed to include the usual suspects: New Rochelle, Ursuline, Mamaroneck, Scarsdale, and stranger in town, Yorktown has joined the league.

Dropping out of the league are the weaker clubs: Mount Vernon, Gorton, Roosevelt and Lincoln. It will mean playing five competitive teams twice instead of the Yonkers schools which were usually breathers in the schedule. It will be tougher to win it all. But the Tigers love good competition.

O’Donnell has also scheduled Pascack Valley, the Horace Greeley Tournament, North Rockland, Arlington, and wraps up the season with the Morabito Tournament which he describes as the top high school tournament in New York State, with Horseheads, Cornwall or John Jay as scheduled opponents.

O’D’S OTHER CLUB, THE ROCKLAND STIX: Many players from his Tiger roster, played in the AAU Nationals in the summer of 2001, splitting 8 games against what O’Donnell described as “all-star teams” from around the country. They enjoy playing the best. The season of 2002 is the last year White Plains will be able to see this great team together. Enjoy them. They will be talked about for years to come in terms of “Remember when?”
Photo Courtesy, Ted O’Donnell, White Plains Tigers


“Good Job”: the Praise that Pays.

Coach O’Donnell closed our talk expressing his admiration and respect for the dedication and commitment to the game that his players have shown him over the years.

He said they were totally unselfish, outstanding individuals, dedicated, who are dedicated to filling whatever role is asked of them. They just win, baby.

The quietest bench in softball.

A factor in the Tigers’ poise is the way O’Donnell manages them: He never yells at them for a mistake.

O’Donnell once told me that raising your voice at a player makes them unwilling to risk getting yelled at again. He feels yelling at the girls makes them tentative, afraid to make the same effort, or a greater effort for the next chance or at bat, or next pitch, in fear of failure.

Yelling just insults them, he feels. Instead, he always attempts to say what they did well first, before making a suggestion on how they could execute better next shot.

The “Good Job” Coach.

O’Donnell’s trademark chatter during the game is “Good job. Good job. Good effort. Good eye.” with a lot of “get-em next time’s.” He rarely ever loses his control during a game.

His total emotional balance is reflected in his players’ demeanor. Players do not question his moves. They do not pout when taken out or substituted.

There have been a lot of “Good Job’s” the last six years.

Make your plans to see the best.

The Home Opener at O’Donnell’s Bluff at the High School is April 8 against Scarsdale at 4:15 PM. You all come on out.

The White Plains Tigers Varsity Softball Schedule

March 23-26: Virginia Swing
Friday, April 5: At Ossining, 4:15
Saturday, April 6: at Minisink Scrimmages
Monday, April 8: SCARSDALE, 4:15
Monday, April 15: ROOSEVELT, 4:15
Thursday, April 18: NEW ROCHELLE, 4:15
Friday, April 19: MOUNT VERNON, 4:15
Monday, April 22: CLARKSTOWN NORTH, 4:15
Thursday, April 25: at Ursuline, 4:15
Saturday, April 27: The Horace Greeley Tournament Doubleheader at Horace Greeley
Sunday, April 28: Horace Greeley Tournament Doubleheader at Horace Greeley
Monday, April 29: MAMARONECK, 4:15
Wednesday, May 1: at Yorktown, 4:15
Friday, May 3: at Scarsdale, 4:15
Saturday, May 4: CLARKSTOWN SOUTH, 11:00 AM
Monday, May 6: at New Rochelle, 4:15
Thursday, May 9: URSULINE, 4:15
Saturday, May 11: NORTH ROCKLAND, 11:00 AM
Monday, May 13: at Mamaroneck, 4:15
Wednesday, May 15: YORKTOWN, 4:15
Saturday, May 18: Morabito Tournament, at Port Chester playing Mechanicsville at 9 AM, and Cicero North or Brewster, time TBA
Sunday, May 19: Morabito Tournament, 2 games, times TBA
Friday, May 24: Sectionals Opening Round
Tuesday, May 28: Quarter-Finals
Thursday, May 30: Semi-Finals
Saturday, June 1: Finals

2002 White Plains High SchoolVarsity Softball Team Roster

3 – Jesse Orfe** 12th
11 – Candace Abbott 9th
12 – Cristin Pasqua** 12th
13 – Leslie Busch** 12th
15 – Cyndi Carnaghi 12th
19 – Ciara DiFrancesco 12th
21 – Tara Pollard 10th
26 – Kara Younkin 12th
31 – Kathryn Fitzmaurice 12th
34 – Jessica Isaacs 11th
36 – Kelly O’Neil 10th
Head Coach: Ted O’Donnell
Assistant Coach: John Roselli
** Denotes Co-Captain


Photo by WPCNR

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Common Council Hears First Reading of Police/ Fire Study Authorization

WPCNR MATINEE NEWS, UPDATED by John F. Bailey, 3/13/02, 2:00 pM EST: After receiving a revised proposal from the Center for Government Research (CGR), the Common Council heard the ordinances authorizing an $84,000 study of the city Police and Fire Departments. No councilperson commented on the revised proposal submitted by CGR last week.
The Council will meet again Friday morning at 8:30 AM to hear the second readings and vote on the authorization of the study that will study the fire and police operations, and exclude emergency services from the study.

No Comment.

Last Wednesday, the council raised the issue of the competency of the CGR-recommended fire department expert, who it was revealed had only managed a volunteer fire department in his work experience.

This troubled the Council.

Councilman Tom Roach discovered this situation, through a routine casual question. Charles Zettek, Jr., Director of Government Management Services, and Project Director for CGR, revealed that his fire department consultant had managed a fire department but not one that was unionized.

Last week, Councilman Robert Greer expressed reservations about an expert passing judgment on a professional, union-run fire department without the experience of running such a department.

Zettek agreed to seek out a fire department consultant with more heavyweight professional fire department background.

Zettek’s most recent proposal issued Friday finds big time fire guy.

In the new proposal, Zettek writes that CGR plans to use James Harrington, described as being “active in the fire services for over 30 years, which included 19 years working for I.S.O., and worked with CGR on the New Rochelle Fire Station Study, as well as having conducted fire department studies as an independent consultant.”

Second “Fire Hire” Sought.

Zettek reports in his final proposal to the Council that “CGR also intends to use a veteran who has served in a large city fire department and has working knowledge of the requirements of the professional fire service in a union environment.”

The proposal as received, we believe on Friday of last week, reports “CGR has several candidates for this service and is currently negotiating with them. The city will be notified of the person selected once that person becomes a part of the CGR team for this project.”

Other Metro Areas to be Studied. Budget Impacts of Alternatives to be Modeled

The CGR study in addition to studying the present Department of Public Safety structure in White Plains, will go to other areas and attempt to find governments similar enough to White Plains, and then identify those factors that are unique to White Plains that have to be considered in any comparison analysis. CGR will identify a range of comparable municipalities to use in the study to put White Plains’ performance, service, cost/performance and cost/service performance parameters into perspective, and relate these parameters to alternative management structures.

Study to provide a model of a separate police and fire department.

CGR is expected in their study to compare the present combined police-fire operation to a “separate Police and Fire department model, and possibly other models, if they appear applicable to the White Plains/New York environment.”

Budgets to be Projected.

The money question is expected to be answered by the study. CGR states, it will be important to use cost and performance data over a multi-year time period and that it plans to develop recommendations based upon an analysis of trends within the comparables, and to make reasonable projections for the next 5 to 10 years.

The study is expected to take 12 weeks.

The Common Council will meet in the Mayor’s Conference Room at City Hall again at 8:30 AM to hear the ordinances a second time.

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