WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK By Bull Allen (John Bailey) Meets Phil Pepe, the King of the Corona (typewriter) in the Old Yankee Stadium mezzanine open air press box. May 29,  2011:

One of the great shows on Public Access Television White Plains is Beyond the Game, hosted the last decade by John Vorperian, crusading county attorney by day, sportscaster/interviewer, sabermetrician by night.

View from Phil Pepe’s seat in the Old Yankee Stadium Press Box in the Mezzenine, 1961, when he covered the greatest Yankee team of them all: the 1961 Yankees and the Maris-Mantle homerun chase.

Mr. Vorperian gets the most interesting sports personalities dropping by his show. Last week, he invited me to meet Phil Pepe, the man who covered the Yankees in 1961 when Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris battled to beat Babe Ruth’s 60-homer record in a season, with the Rajah hitting number 61 on the final day of the season. I saw Maris hit that one on television off Tracy Stallard with Phil Rizzuto making the call on old WPIX Channel 11(Baseball and Ballantine; Baseball and Ballantine).It was fittingly the only run of the game, to beat the Red Sox, 1-0

I was 16 years old when I saw the September 1 Friday night game with the Tigers that year on a 95 degree night that the Yankees won, 1-0 in the ninth on a single by the Moose, Bill Skowron, after a tense duel between the Tigers Don Mossi and a string of Yankee pitchers who kept defusing Tiger threats. Well, I digress.

Mr. Pepe has written a book about the Maris-Mantle race for the home run crown, titled 1961 from Triump Books. (http://www.amazon.com/1961-Inside-Story-Maris-Mantle-Chase/dp/1600783902 That wonderful Yankee season featured the Bombers (they were Bombers then) holding off the Detroit Tigers by 3 games. The CitizeNetReporter interviewed Mr. Pepe after his BEYOND THE GAME appearance.

After Mr.Vorperian’s show, I talked with Mr. Pepe about baseball today here’s his view from the Upper Deck:

WPCNR: How has Bud Selig done as Commissioner of Baseball? Good, bad, or what?

Phil Pepe: I think he’s done a terrific job. When he took over, him as an owner,  you thought well….but I think he’s really improved the game. He doesn’t get high marks on the steroids  situation (in the 90s). He should have known. We all should have known.He didn’t react to steroids right away, but he’s made a pretty good comeback since then.

I don’t have daily contact with him. From afar, I look at him as a fan, and I think his overall record has been positive.

WPCNR: You think his changes to the playoffs have been positive (adding two extra teams to the Wild Card for example)?

Phil: I don’t like it. I’m a traditionalist. Every move he’s made. How can you argue with a success? The attendance is up all over, everywhere. The Yankees are going to draw 4 million people this year. In my day if they drew 2 million that was outstanding. In 1961 they drew 1.7 million I think it was. The final day  they had 23,000 people at the game when Roger Maris hit his 61^st homerun. The proof is in the pudding. Attendance everywhere is up. TV ratings are high. World Series ratings aren’t very good. Look at the Red Sox, how many consecutive sellouts have they had, 600?

WPCNR: Back in the 90s, do you think sportswriters should have discovered and reported steroid use?

Phil: I don’t think they knew. I don’t think they were aware of it. We didn’t have privy to what was going on behind the scenes. It  did not come about in the early 90s, it was more in the late 90s. The first tip off was the number of homeruns being it. But there were other reasons for that: the ball was juiced, the bats were different; the ballparks were smaller; the strike zone was reduced; they were excuses, they were alibis.

The other thing that should have been a tip-off was the size of some of the players. They exploded. They burst. Their heads were getting bigger. Their shoulders were getting bigger. If you didn’t want to think the worst  you’d say it was because of weight-lifting and the way they were working out. Every player now works out year round.  It wasn’t that way when I was young. Most of the high paid guys have gyms in their homes. They workout in their home. They have trainers they work with. They don’t have to have a job in the offseason. So they can devote their offseason to working out. Back when I was covering, players would use spring training to lose weight, Now they come into spring training in shape.

WPCNR: Do you like the way the game has evolved today?

PHIL: No. There are some things I don’t like. I don’t like the idea that they have a sixth inning specialist, a seventh inning specialist, an eighth inning specialist, and a closer. I like to see pitchers go nine innings. I appreciate a guy like Halliday (Roy), he’ll pitch 9 complete games. Big deal. We’re never going to see the pitching records we used to see.

A guy pitches 90 shutouts in his career. That’s never going to happen (again).

WPCNR: What’s wrong with the game? What’s right?

PHIL: It will always be the national pastime. But the game has changed. The purists and traditionalists like me  don’t  see the game we used to see. We don’t see pitchers like Bob Gibson. We don’t have a Nolan Ryan, though Nolan Ryan should be given credit for getting back some of those old-fashioned ideas (going the distance).

What’s  right about it is the players are much better, bigger, stronger, faster. The teaching and conditions in college and high school baseball are much better than it ever was.They have four or five coaches. They have better facilities. They play in these beautiful ballparks. There are college teams  that are probably good enough to play professionally as a group in Class A, or whatever. Now you don’t have as many minor league teams but you have the independent leagues now. The players are bigger, you should see the size of some of these guys. My son is an agent and he tells me there are scouts who will not look at a pitcher unless they are 6 foot 4.

WPCNR: Baseball’s future?

Phil: I think it’s  going to keep growing. There will be more expansion, but some dilution though. They’ll just move to another location. Maybe Tampa will be replaced by the next coming big city. Free agency is good for the players. They’re making so much money because of that. I just think there’s a problem, and I  don’t mean to pick on the Yankees but they do have a $200 million payroll and the Cleveland Indians, a $30 Million payroll.

That’s not fair. There has to be a cap where you can only spend so much money. Revenue sharing is a good idea if they’d only put it into their team. They put it in their pocket.

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WPCNR FBI WIRE. Special to WPCNR from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. May 27,2011:

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that SAMIR BARAI, a/k/a “Sam Barai,” a portfolio manager at two different New York based hedge funds, and SON NGOC NGUYEN, a/k/a “Sonny,” an employee in the finance department of NVIDIA Corporation (“NVIDIA”), pled guilty today in Manhattan federal court to charges arising out of their involvement in separate insider trading schemes. BARAI, who had previously been arrested on February 8, 2011, and charged in a criminal complaint, also pled guilty to additional charges, including obstruction of justice, in connection with the insider trading scheme.

According to the informations to which BARAI and NGUYEN pled guilty, statements made during the plea proceedings, and other court documents:

Between 2006 and 2010, BARAI worked as a portfolio manager at two hedge funds located in New York, New York. During that time period he and his co-conspirators, including DONALD LONGUEUIL, NOAH FREEMAN, JASON PFLAUM, and WINIFRED JIAU, participated in a conspiracy to obtain material, non public information (“Inside Information”).

The Inside Information included detailed financial earnings about numerous public companies, including NVIDIA and Marvell Technology Group, Ltd. (“Marvell”). Often, BARAI and his co-conspirators used an “expert networking” firm, (the “Firm”), to communicate with and pay their sources of Inside Information, many of whom were employees of public companies. In addition to their use of the Firm, they also obtained Inside Information from independent research consultants who communicated with employees at public companies.

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WPCNR STOP AND GO. From the Westchester County Board of Legislators. May 25, 2011:

In a unanimous vote Monday night, the Westchester County Board of Legislators authorized $4.075 million for improvements to North Street in the city of White Plains.

The North Street project involves the 2.52 mile stretch of roadway running from the Hutchinson River Parkway to White Plains Road.  North Street has an annual daily traffic count of 12,059. It is expected to begin in July.

This project is sponsored by Legislator Bill Ryan (D-WF — White Plains, Scarsdale).  Mr. Ryan chairs the Board’s public works committee.

In urging the County Board to authorize the bonding for the job, Legislator Ryan said “North Street is a major ‘gateway’ into White Plains and it needs corrective maintenance to extend the life of the roadway.  Corrective maintenance now, will cost less than structural rehabilitation or reconstruction at a later date.  This saves taxpayer dollars.”

In 2010, the road received a pavement condition index (PCI) of 67.  The PCI is a pavement condition rating with a range of 0 to 100, with 0 signifying that the road requires reconstruction and 100 signifying that the road is new.  With a rating of 67, the road requires corrective maintenance.  “The planned improvements will provide a safer roadway for the thousands of motorists who use North Street each day,” stated Mr. Ryan.

The job calls for milling; resurfacing; catch basin repair; concrete curb replacement, as needed; new pavement markings; and the installation of two in-pavement bus pads.

“The job will be relatively quick, straight-line work,” explained Legislator Ryan.  The current schedule calls for a July-August start-up.

North Street will be the fifth “gateway” road in White Plains to be improved by County projects sponsored by Legislator Ryan:

·        $1.1 million   Post Road upgrade focusing on curbs and sidewalks

·        $2.0 million   Central Westchester Parkway safety improvements

·        $2.1 million   Old Mamaroneck Road upgrade/improvements

·        $5.1 million   Mamaroneck Avenue upgrade/improvements

·        $4.0 million   North Street upgrade/improvements

Legislator Ryan has a sixth “gateway” road project in the pipeline for the city of White Plains:  $2.33 million to improve North Broadway from Main Street to the White Plains-North Castle line.  The project is currently in design with construction tentatively scheduled for 2012.

Mr. Ryan recently advised residents at the annual meeting of the North Broadway Citizens Association that he is working to “fast track” the job for a 2011 start-up as much of North Broadway’s road surface is in rough shape and progressively getting worse.

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From the Governor’s Office. May 24,2011:

 Governor Andrew Cuomo and Assembly leader Sheldon Silver have announced an agreement in Albany on a 2% property tax cap for New York State. The details have to be worked out in the two houses of the legislature.

Early descriptions of the agreement indicate contributions that school districts make into the state pension system would be exempt partially from oroperty tax increase calculations of the 2% property tax increase allowed, and districts could adjust taxes if assessibles grew in value. The tax cap could also be overridden with 60 percent of a local school district vote.  It should be noted that in the White Plains City School District, the school budget is routinely passed by over 60% of the voters.

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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. May 24, 2011:

The Roach administration and Common Council chose to preserve city services rather than layoff employees to lower the tax rate more, last night when they cut $814,825 off the budget by  finding savings through procedures to lower the proposed tax increase of 6.7% to 4.9%. 

The city tax increase in dollar terms, Roach told the Common Council in his opening statement was $124 for an average White Plains home assessed at $15,000 accessed value.

When the county tax for 2011, the school tax for 2011-12 and the new lowered 4.9% city tax are considered, the median-valued White Plains home, with market value of $650,000 will pay $14,441 in property taxes this year to the county, the city and the schools.

The tax on the White Plains mid-market home has gone up approximately $168  from the schools; dropped $46  from the county, and gone up $154 from the city . The total tax increase year-to-year from the three taxing authorities is $276.Of course, if your home is market-valued at more than $650,000, your taxes will be higher.

Mayor Thomas Roach, asked why the city chose not to layoff employees to lower the tax increase closer to the rate of inflation (2%), said the city wanted to preserve quality of life by maintaining a high level of services to the public.

He blamed the rise in taxes on the mandate imposed on the city by the state requiring increased contributions to the pension fund and the health care benefits which alone account for about $8 Million. The city pension and health care premiums are up 4.84% and 4.86%, Roach said

Michael Genito and Eileen Earl, Commissioner of Finance and city financial consultant, respectively, made a presentation explaining how the cuts came about.

Genito said the city faced an $814,825 shortfall in revenues lead by an unexpected drop in mortgage taxes of $350,000, $12,000 in state aid for the Youth Bureau and an $803, 868 drop in the tax levy (due to a $3.2 Million drop in the assessment roll) and drop in Payments In Lieu of Taxes of $47,218. He said the city made up that $814,825 revenue shortage by  finding ways to cut expenses due to developing situations that were unexpected benefits of the city’s financial prudence.

Genito and Earl said the city enjoyed a $165,000 drop in interest expense in the coming year thanks to a lower bank anticipation notes sales  at an interest rate of .75%, for city certiorari payments and other capital expenditures. (The notes have to pay a higher interest if not paid off in five years, Earl told WPCNR).

The city cut contributions to the Library Fund by $66,000; saved $110,000 from less “waste haulaways” due to the success of the city recycling program; saved $107,000 in various jobs turnovers; and $97,423 in overtime/  part-time/and benefits (savings).The city also cut its contribution to the Self-insurance fund by $100,000 for a savings of over $727,999

Mayor Roach said there would be no city raises in the coming budget. A member of the council promised there would be no surprise raises given commissioners and appointed officials after the budget is officially passed Thursday evening,(as there were last year)

The Commissioner of Finance Michael Genito told WPCNR today the only increases in pay are those “contractually required” based on merit increases tied to “longevity.”

The city budget now tops out at approximately $160.4 Million. The city tax rate moves from $167.82 last year to $176.11 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation.