WPPBA: Release of Police Pistol Permit Owners violated Freedom of Info Law

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WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By Robert Riley, President, White Plains Police Benevolent Association. January 3, 2012:


Attached please find the letter that I wrote in response to the Journal News article that released the names and addresses of legal gun permit holders in Westchester, Rockland, and Dutchess counties.


 

As I have stated in the letter about officers and their families safety, they have also put many more legal gun owners and their families at risk, not to mention the victims of domestic violence who got permits to protect themselves and their families from the person that abused them.

 

It is my belief that Journal News was very irresponsible and did not think about the safety of the whole public in general. What they have done is opened Pandora’s box for the bad guys by letting them know who may have a gun permit which in essence gives them a shopping list if they wanted to get their hands on a weapon. This also could let them know who does not have a weapon in their home which gives the bad guy a sense of security that he will not encounter a weapon if he does burglarize the home.



 

December 31, 2012

 


 SENT VIA ELECTRONIC AND REGULAR MAIL


 

Janet Hasson

 

President/Publisher

 

The Journal News/LoHud  

 

Re: December 24, 2012 Guns Permits Article

 


 

Dear Ms. Hasson:

 


 

The White Plains Police Benevolent Association represents police officers of all ranks

 below Chief employed by the City of White Plains, New York.  On or about December 24, 2012,


 The Journal News published, in both print and online, the names and addresses of individuals


 who have a firearm carry permit in Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess and Putnam counties.  I am informed some of the names and addresses of the individuals listed are of active and retired police officers.


 

While I believe these lists were published in the aftermath of the unfortunate tragedy in  Newtown, Connecticut and while I believe everything should be done to prevent such tragedies, releasing the names of active and retired police officers endangers their lives and those of their families. 

 


Every day, police officers risk their lives to protect the citizens and visitors in their communities.  They enforce the laws and detect crime.  In performing these duties, officers encounter persons that, for whatever reason, seek retribution against the officers (e.g. for making  an arrest or engaging in some other law enforcement action).  By making these officers’ names and addresses public, such disturbed person seeking to commit acts of violence against an officer  and/or his family will be given another tool to obtain critical information about these officers’ personal lives.  It is for this reason, and for others described below, that I am requesting the Journal News delete from all of you publications, online and print, the names and addresses of all such active and retired officers.  I believe it was not the intent of your publication to heighten the dangers the police face each day or to place their families in danger.  As such, I am hopeful and  confident that you will do the right thing and address this matter expeditiously.


 


There are other, legal reasons why I would request that active and retired officers be removed from publication as part of your ‟firearm carry permit database”.  Among them are  protections contained in the New York State Civil Rights Law and the New York State Public  Officers Law.

 


 

Section 50-a(1) of the New York State Civil Rights Law provides, in pertinent part:

 


 

All personnel records…under the control of any police agency or department of the state or any political subdivision thereof or agencies maintaining police forces of  individuals defined as police officers in the criminal procedure law…shall be considered confidential and not subject to inspection or review without the express written consent of such police officer…except as may be mandated by lawful court order.

 


 

I am informed that the legislative purpose behind this statute was to prevent personnel records from being disclosed except when a legitimate need for them has been demonstrated sufficiently  to obtain a court order or unless the individual police officer consents to such disclosure.  I am  aware of no police officer, active or retired, who has given such consent nor am I aware of any  court order that would permit the public disclosure of such information. 

 


 

In addition, Section 87, sub-section 2(f) of the New York State Public Officers Law (the

 States Freedom of Information Law) provides:


 


‟Each agency shall . . . make available for public inspection and copying all records, except that such agency may deny access to such records or portions thereof that . . .if disclosed would endanger the life and safety of any person


 

(emphasis added).  As described in greater detail above, the White Plains PBA believes the publication of its active and retired members contact information would endanger their lives and the lives of their families.

 


I thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in honoring this request.  I await


 your reply as soon as possible. 


 


 

Very truly yours,

 


 


 

Robert Riley

 

President

 


 

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City Already Over the Fiscal Cliff and Falling. Where’s Our Parachute?

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WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. December 30, 2012:


Well,  fasten your seatbelts, as Bob Murphy used to say.


Here we go in free fall, for the city, its school district, and Westchester County have already gone over the fiscal cliff.


Like congress a few years ago, they built this cliff themselves.


The city, the city school district, and Westchester County have lost control of their destiny. Not knowing the meaning of the word cut, all three have put themselves in vulnerable financial positions at a time when help is not on the way. We are not talking  disaster aid, either.


It makes no difference whether our incompetent representatives in Washington come to a compromise or not within the next 24 hours.


Here is what the city and the school district, and the county have to look forward to in 2013 and what the White Plains resident can look forward to if the city does not execute responsibly:


·         A dwindling tax base. Westchester County has informed the city of White Plains they can expect a 6.07% cut in their share of county taxes in 2016. This has been prematurely ballyhooed by some media as a tax cut. But, this “tax cut” will only come true if  the White Plains assessment roll stays the same. If the roll declines  for the fifth straight year, or the  $2.6 Million the roll declined this year, there will not be a 6% tax cut in your county tax bill. There will be a 5% increase in your city tax rate to cover the county tax.


 


·         Soft Sales Tax Revenues. The city is now off 4.5% in sales tax revenues, and crossing its fingers they hit $5 Million in sales tax receipts in December to hold the shortfall where it is. If December figures are off, the city will have to make up that difference with more tax increase piled on top of that 5%. The revenues are not looking pretty at the halfway point of the city’s fiscal year.


 


·         Financial Crisis in the School District. The crisis will be triggered if the above ominous trend in the assessment roll comes true. There is no reason to suspect that the assessment roll will stay at this year’s level with more certiorari settlements with businesses and homeowners to come. The School District will have to raise their tax rate in addition to the city tax rate increase to catch up with the


 


·         The Assessment Crisis Continues. The city government is the least affected by the assessment roll. But, the school district will be devastated again. Another assessment roll will aggravate a budget that faces at least a 7% increase in school taxes because of the pension increases the school district is facing, a  1.1% increase in debt service from its new $48 Million bond, and  the 2.5% step increases the district  was  not expecting to have to pay in 2012-13—brought on by the teacher association rejection of an expected contract settlement.


 


The district still has to negotiate that contract or face fact-finding, arbitration and worse,in face of a rising inflation rate. To avoid around a 8% tax increase  they  may be faced with  taking  savings by laying off some full-time teachers or teaching assistants, who will be the newest teachers hired. It is not a pretty picture.


 


Failure to cut the school budget this year in 2012-13  (raising your tax 3.01% because they could), is forcing the district into a pretty hefty school tax increase in 2013-14.


 


City Scramble for Development. WPCNR has learned that two new projects will soon be presented to the Common Council. There is one for the former Sholz Buick property at the intersection of South Lexington and Post Road. The other is a project for one of the office parks on Westchester Avenue, the first under the new mixed use ordinance approved to stop the bleeding property values of office park owners east on Westchester Avenue. 


 


You can bet that any project will be approved by the city to get the assessment roll into recovery in about three years – maybe. The last three years development in the city has stood still. Now finally it may be moving, but it’s not going to keep up with the inexorable march of the certiorari refunds. Business owners are already coming back for second rounds of refunds thanks to the poor economy.


 


FASNY Approval. I would think that no matter how much the South End of town protests against The French American School of New York project on the defunct Ridgeway Country Club, that the city will have to approve it.


 


They need the development public relations that approval of this project will generate. If the Council rejects it, if you were a developer would you  purchase a large tract in White Plains and go through what the city is putting FASNY through? If the Recreation District Ordinance affecting golf courses is not tweaked by the Planning Department and not resubmitted, that would be an indication to this reporter that the roadblocks put up by the Common Council in response to this proposal are in the process of coming down.


 


Detox Center Approval. This will be interesting. This is another project that should produce revenues for the city coffers. I’d expect it to be approved, despite the very reasonable objections to it by the neighborhood.


 


Labor Contracts.  The city has problems with the police and fire unions and binding arbitration is going to solve those. The city should cross their fingers that inflation does not glide over 3% otherwise they have big problems. With dwindling sales tax revenues, the fund balance cushion will be hard-pressed to meet a 3%-3% dictated settlement, then the city has to negotiate again on the 2013-14 year. What a mess.


 


Winbrook Limbo .  Ground has not been broken on the first building of the Winbrook  rebirth project so much lauded just 4 years ago. It’s been funded (at least the first floor of the first building).  Had the city managed this whole project better, something might be happening now. Instead the project, its residents, are in limbo, waiting on HUD and Washington for funding.  The huge parcel is in limbo, locked into a never-never-land project. Hopefully the masterminds in city hall and the Housing Authority have a blockbuster announcement to make that billions are on the way. That would be welcome.


 


Development of Downtown with Vision. The next two years the Roach administration needs to show some initiative in developing the Metro-North Plaza and work in tandem with the County and the state so they do not screw it up and take 10 years to do it.


 


They don’t have to even touch the station, just fix the bus station, the parking, and the plaza where traffic is a mess every rush hour. (The Traffic Commission has been alerted to this by this website and my television show  a number of times, and do nothing to straighten out the perpetual traffic jam during rush hours in the city. Hopefully the new Planning Commissioner can put a magic touch on this blighted transit hub – if only the envisioned Bus Rapid Transit system does not screw development potential up. The Roach administration has to be pro-active with the transit nuts on the Tappan Zee task force and not let White Plains downtown be sacrificed on the altar of rapid transit.


 


The administration is concentrating on marching development of housing and alternative uses out Westchester Avenue but the inner downtown has to be massaged it has stalled out like Providence, Rhode Island. Perhaps the new Commissioner of Planning  and BID can pull together the mishmash of the downtown as it now exists and get some districts going—financial-entertainment-park/rec. The downtown thanks to the downtown drinking district is holding its own but losing lustre – the new Planning Commissioner faces a growth problem that is the challenge of her career.


  Comprehensive Plan to the Rescue — Or an invitation to procrastination. I expect the city will raise the possibility of reviewing the Comprehensive Plan again. But, this should not be an excuse to delay doing things.


When a city stops building and developing, it begins to whither economically. The last two Democratic Administrations sandwiched around the Delfino administration were marked by ennui and slow, if any growth and a fixation on affordable housing as opposed to vibrant projects that make the city grow.


The Roach administration needs to change that mindset.

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Skating with the Stars — New Classes Begin January 4 –Still Time to Register

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WPCNR Ebersole Penguin. By John F. Bailey. December 29, 2012:


So you’re a slightly older guy or gal feeling guilty about the poundage acquired over the last week, or you’re a parent wondering what in the world to do with children on weekends as the dreary winter unwinds to spring. (Going to two kids’ movies a weekend cost a fortune!)



Figure Skating School Graduates, 2004 — Many now teach at the Ebersole Rink eight years later. WPCNR PHOTO ARCHIVE


Who you going to call? Ebersole Skating School Of course. 914-948-6696


Ebersole Rink is the winter recreation answer for young and old!


Classes for all ages from Kids to Curmudgeons are still open for registration before the winter season starts January 4 at the friendliest, safest rink in Westchester County.


Young skaters (or children who have never skated) immediately identify with the personable,friendly expert instructors at the rink, many of whom took lessons themselves and learned to skate at the 50 year old rink.


No matter what the level of your skater, or (if you’re even an adult), the instructors have keen diagnostic eyes for the mechanics of skating, the acumen to identify mistakes in your execution, and the effortless solutions to clearly correct technical problems holding back the Oksana Bayul or Gordie Howe in you and raise the levels of skaters of all ages.


Friendly smiles and endless patience of  Figure Skating School Director Kristen Fuerst’s Skating Stars (who are treated like idols by the young girls and boys who come back for these lessons every year) deliver a warm, confidence-building lesson week to week.


The $135  (less than the cost of  six movies for kids over 6 weekends) or so invested in a series of Ebersole Skating instruction classes (just long enough for the little guys and gals and the big guys and gals, too) topped by participation in the annual sping skating show, can be the start a lifetime of skating comaraderie and friendships for your youngsters. (And who knows, it might give parents who skate together a brand new activity if they take lessons, too. Couples might want to consider ice-dancing — just kidding.)


Longing to skate like Kristie Yamaguchi,Victor Petrenko,Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean, Sarah Hughes or Sasha Cohen? Want to learn to skate backwards after all these years, or simply stop on ice without grabbing a wall?


Ebersole has adult classes, with instructors who will not laugh at you, will techincally explain the subtle adjustments you need to do to stop on a dime, improve your speed without fear, and (My God!), skate backwards like hockey players! Adult classes are still open for registration and offered on Sunday mornings (right after church)  from 11:15 A.M. to 11:45 A.M.


For those of us working on our left-crossovers in their slightly older years, these adult group classes rekindle dreams of skating like Rocket Richard in the old Montreal Forum.


In the three years this reporter has skated adult classes, the instructors, Mark, Robin, Jen and Nora have taught me to stop without using sideboards, skate backwards, balance my ballast and turn by shifting my weight, and skate with confidence. Soon, I am going to put my Montreal Canadiens jersey.


 No longer do I have to watch figure skating on television and wish I could skate better. And neither do you.


As far as I know no other rink offers adult group classes with mentors as empathetic, uncritical, and dedicated as these professionals. They rejoice in your success and are not mere instructors without enthusiasm. They are skating therapists, getting you past your fears of falling and mistrust of your muscles with adjustments that work! They turn inferiority complexes into mind-freeing triumphs.


They compassionately identify your bad skating habits you’ve learned over a lifetime, and in an adult who has never learned to skate, they patiently build your tools one by one, effortlessly, build your self-confidence and self-esteem in the process.


And for you younger guys — a little skating prowess — gives you an extra thing to do with the ladies in a completely innocent, neutral recreational setting. (A hard place to find these days!)


As I once told my daughter about her skating, when you grow up and you’re out on your own and feeling bad about yourself, you can always go to any rink, whip around the ice a few times, do a couple of cross-overs (or axels) and feel really good about yourself.


The winter season of lessons for “children of all ages,” starts January 4. There is still time to register for classes.


Ebersole Rink, that I have dubbed “The Happy Rink,” is not the impersonal, overcrowded, lumpy iced, long-time-between-ice-cuts typiucal professional rink with ice so crowded it is dangerous.


Ebersole is a uniquely White Plains treasure, as is Murrays Rink in Yonkers, Hommocks in Mamaroneck and Ice Hutch in Mount Vernon.


Ebersole is the rink where everybody knows you, and those from out of White Plains are welcomed and treated like family.


Ebersole Rink is looking for more skaters in all classes, beginning January 4.  Contact the Figure Skating School at 914-948-6696, leave your number to begin the registration process.


Ebersole is a good place to drop your children to.  Its ice house is complete with Wi-Fi, big screen television and the Slap Happy Snack Bar delivering coffe, hot dogs and burgers (best in the county). The ice house is warm and friendly and the rink is open air with The Joseph Nicoletti Roof protecting the skaters from the elements. It gives you the skating pond feel without the precipitation.


And it has the best skating surface in the county. Never a rut, or a bump!


Drop on by this weekend and get the feel of the rink yourself on Saturday and Sunday afternoon!


Skating and learning to skate at any age at Ebersole makes you feel good.

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Mobil Station Held Up

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WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. December 28, 2012:


 The Mobil Station at 174 Westchester Avenue was held up at 5 A.M. Thursday morning by three men, one armed with a handgun, according to The Journal News.


 The attendent handed over money and lottery tickets. White Plains Police Detectives are asking anyone with information on the robbery to call 914-422-6200 oe 914-422-6223. Identities will be kept confidential.

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Council Dissolves 150 Lake Assoc., Enables Rehab of 68 Apts, Adds $467G in Rev

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WPCNR Common Council Chronicle-Examiner. December 28, 2012 UPDATED 5:15 P.M. E.S.T.:


Unlike the U.S. Congress, four members of the Common Council met Thursday evening and again this morning at 8:45 A.M. to approve an ordinance dissolving the company that originally built 150 Lake Street, the 68-unit Section 8 apartments near the Ebersole Rink.


The ordinance passed this morning enables the city to receive $467,000, due the city under the terms of the Public Housing Finance Law, from the new company which will own 150 Lake Street, White Plains Affordable Housing Development Fund Company, Incorporated, owned by the same owner Mark Soja.


The company being dissolved was known as 150 Lake Street Associates, LP.


The passing of the ordinance by the Council in two separate votes of 4-0 by Councilpersons Benjamin Boykin,Dennis Krolian, John Martin and Beth Smayda, paves the way for White Plains Affordable Housing Development Fund Company to rehabilitate the 68 apartments.


John Callahan, Corporation Counsel for the city, told WPCNR that the $467,000 has not as yet been earmarked for any specific purpose, that it will go into the city general fund.


Callahan said the sudden meetings (noticed at approximately 3 P.M. Thursday afternoon), were called to approve the dissolution at the request of the developer, otherwise the developer stood to lose tax credits.


WPCNR has placed a call to the developer, and hopes to learn more about how and when the renovation would proceed, and the financing, if any, involved.


 

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Approximately 600 Hold Pistol Licenses in White Plains

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WPCNR  Southend Times. December 27, 2012:


A rough count of the locations of  persons licensed to own a handgun in White Plains. The locations were disclosed by a Westchester County wide map published by the Journal News this week based on data obtained by a Journal News freedom of information request.


The map, if you count up the dots in White Plains, indicates that there appear to be about 611 registered Gun Licenseholders in the city out of 31,030 registered voters, or about 2% of the adult registered voters population of the city. (There are approximately 57,000 residents in the city of White Plains.)


The area of the city with the most gun licensees is the Highlands from south of Post Road, east to Mamaroneck Avenue to the Scarsdale border with 137 households licensed to own a gun.


The next most heavily Licensed-up  area  is the North end of town above I-287, including, Woodcrest Heights, Garrestson Road to North White Plains with 80 Gun Licensees.


In the North Broadway area from I-287 to Hamilton Avenue, including Ferris Avenue and Eastview and Church Street, there are 59 residents licensed to carry a gun.


Fisher Hill West of Post Road shows 48 Gun License Holders; Battle Hill, west of Route 119 has 59 licensees, and Eastview, East of North Broadway has 22.


There are very little gun license owners in the heart of the downtown. The most of any one area is Carhart, 7.


In the Highlands from Post Road South to Scarsdale, including Soundview Manor, there are 137 residents with gun licenses.


In Rocky Dell, there were 12 gun licenses.


 South of Ridgeway, to the West of Mamaroneck AvenueMamaroneck there were 52 Gun Licensee locations, and in the Gedney Farms neighborhood  there were 66. In Haviland Manor east of North Street there were 46 Gun License holders, 31 of them  in the Rosedale Section.


 

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Backhoe Blues

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WPCNR PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DAY. By the WPCNR ROVING PHOTOGRAPHER. December 27, 2012 UPDATED DECEMBER 29. 2012:


A backhoe could be seen delivering multiple coups de gras to the former Cappelli Enterprise sales offices today.


The perfectly viable and taxable office building, built in 2005, is being torn down as part of the original Ritz Carlton approval, to build an as yet, undesigned, off the tax rolls, vest pocket park that will provide green space between the Ritz on the left and Grace Church on the right.


John Callahan, Corporation Counsel for the City, told WPCNR, Louis Cappelli, the owner is expected to come back to the Common Council in the spring to discuss his suggested design of the park. Callahan said the previous building, (now being demolitioned), was taxable, but added that Cappelli Enterprises is not deeding the city the park. Cappelli Enterprises will continue to own whatever park design ends up being acceptable to the Council, Callahan said. Callahan said the future park land would be on the city tax roll as land, and would be assessed as land.


 

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Should residents be Notified of Neighbors Having a Gun License?

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WPCNR MR. AND MRS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. December 26, 2012:


The Journal News published an interactive map on their website (compiled by filing a freedom of information request) this weekend that shows the locations and identifies persons in Westchester and Rockland County, who have gun permits.


By zooming in on the White Plains area on the map, you can see the locations, names and addresses of persons on your block who have pistol permits.


The map is  located at http://www.lohud.com/interactive/article/20121223/NEWS01/121221011/Map-Where-gun-permits-your-neighborhood– 


The map raises a question whether neighbors should have the right to know who has gun permits in their neighborhood, and whether or residents in a neighborhood should be notifieed by police and the county when new gun licenses are granted to persons living near them much as when persons are notified when sex offenders move into their neighborhood.

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John Dolce, former Commissioner of Public Safety Dies at 83

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WPCNR MILESTONES. December 26, 2012: 


John Dolce longtime Commissioner of  Public Safety for the City of  White Plains through 2002, died Monday at the age of 83. 


A native of  New Britain,he was born June 27, 1929 the son of  Francis and Theresa Dolce. He  attended New York University on a football scholarship and finished college in three years, graduating from Adelphi University.


Dolce began his career with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, rising to  assistant special agent in charge of the New York field office.


In 1965, he accepted a position as the deputy public safety commissioner with the city of White Plains. He eventually became commissioner of public safety and served in the position until his retirement in 2002.


He married Lola Perazzo on Nov. 6, 1954.


Dolce is survived by his wife; two sons, John Dolce, of Virginia, and Timothy Dolce, of Yonkers; two daughters, Patricia Kelleher, of Brewster, N.Y., and Christine Wiseman, of Bethel, Conn.; a sister, Theresa Tancredi; and six grandchildren. He was predeceased by a daughter, Cathy Ann, in 1967.


Visitation is from 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday at McMahon, Lyon and Hartnett Funeral Home in White Plains. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in White Plains. Burial will follow at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale.

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Christmas Past

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WPCNR ROVING PHOTOGRAPHER From Christmases Past: These photographs of Christmas night and Christmas Days of the Past feature the some of the festive lights of the city, an American parlor, a typical family dinner setting, complete with kids’ table, and a Christmas Hearth.



SANTA’S WORKSHOP and Reindeer, White Plains. Photo by The WPCNR Roving Photographer.



A Holiday Parlor. Photo by the WPCNR Roving Photographer.



A Holiday Hearth. Photo by the WPCNR Roving Photographer.



A HOLIDAY TABLE, Complete with “Kids’ Table” Photo by the WPCNR Roving Photographer


For more Photographs, click Read More…






Christmas Morning, 2005. Photo by the WPCNR Roving Photographer





The Yule Log from White Plains Bake Shoppe. Photo, WPCNR Roving Photographer.



Christmas Treats. Photo by WPCNR Roving Photographer.



Kitten’s First Christmas. Bela The Christmas Kitten. Photo, WPCNR Roving Photographer.












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