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 QUILL & EYESHADE.By John F. Bailey. June 5, 2010: “This took me completely by surprise. I was dumbfounded, when did they do this?” said a retiree from the city of White Plains who has been receiving city paid medical benefits over 15 years, waving the letter they received from the City of White Plains today.

 

It was the letter informing them and some 658 other city retirees that they had to pay the city the first quarter installment of their share of 15% of their medical benefits, due July 10.

 

 The retiree was asked in the letter from the city (below) to pay $378.44 of  a $10,000 premium by  July 10 or have their medical benefits cancelled. Similar letters are going out across the city today.

 

 

 

 

The person said they were unaware of the change (voted by the Common Council with no specific warning that retirees were affected at the adoption of the revised 2010-11 city budget two weeks ago).

 

Only by a news tip from a person familiar with union negotiations did this reporter become aware that the new city policy suggested by the Budget and Management Committee, of having managers, non-union appointees and elected personnel pay a 15% share of their medical premiums to the city also included union members who are retired if they joined the city before July 1, 1995.

 

This meant former councilpersons, commissioners, Mayors, and retirees since 1995 who worked with the city before 1995 pay $1,102 a year to continue a Single Person health benefit plan and $2,396 for a family plan.

 

“This really hurts persons in their cash flow,” said the puzzled retiree. He shook his head as he shared the letter with WPCNR.The intriguing letter also says that if the first quarter payment is not received by July 10, their health insurance will be cancelled.

 

A movement is being launched by White Plains Retirees Association to form a legal challenge to the new city policy.

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WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. From Antoinette Biordi, The Mayor’s Office.  June 4, 2010 (EDITED):  The City of White Plains and Westchester County are working together to make sure the clean up process continues along the Bronx River in White Plains.  On June 2, 2010 approximately several hundred gallons of heating oil leaked from a building on South Lexington Avenue and into the Bronx River.  White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley says, “The City, the County and NYSDEC have been working hard to make sure that the river is being cleaned up, and the wildlife population that was affected gets the proper rehabilitation needed.”

In a related development, White Plains Police Chief James Bradley said a repair to a furnace in the basement of 235 South Lexington Avenue had been completed at 5 P.M. Tuesday afternoon, shortly before the oil is believed to have leaked from the furnace heating oil tank, in such quantity that the spilled oil triggered a sump pump which circulated the oil into the city storm drains and subsequently into the Bronx River. It is unclear at this time whether the furnace repair caused the fuel tank to leak the oil.

The NYSDEC is reporting that they have crews walking along the shoreline from White Plains to Scarsdale overseeing the clean up.  The booms that were put in place along the river are preventing the oil from spreading further downstream.  There is a private contractor (Tri-State Environmental) that is supplying 15-20 employees to assist in cleaning up the oil with vacuums from the surface.

 

 Greenburgh Animal Control is actively looking for any wildlife that was affected. So far they have been able to retrieve three of them. A Canada goose and a duckling had oil on them and were taken to the Greenburgh Nature Center to be rehabilitated. One baby goose that was found survived several hours, but later died. A wildlife expert will be assisting with the rehabilitation of any impacted animals.

The investigation into the oil spill continues and the City and County will make sure that taxpayers will not be responsible for any of the costs associated with the cleanup.

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WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. From Antoinette Biordi, The Mayor’s Office. June 2, 2010 UPDATED 3 P.M. E.D.T UPDATED 9 P.M.: UPDATED FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2010: A home heating oil spillage in the Bronx River Wednesday morning, leaking from one of the buildings at 235 South Lexington Avenue has been contained according to a press advisory from the Mayor’s Office just issued.

Thursday, White Plains Police Chief James Bradley reported to the media that  repairs had been made on the furnace at 235 Lexington Avenue late Tuesday afternoon. Sometime afterwards, Bradley said, heating oil leaked from the fuel tank,  triggering a sump which pumped the spilled oil out into city storm drains and subsequently into the Bronx River several blocks away, causing the oil spill discovered in the river Wednesday morning.

Home heating oil that leaked from a nearby apartment building in White Plains made its way through a storm drain and into the Bronx River in White Plains near exit 21.  The NYS DEC is reporting that several hundred gallons leaked into the river and is now contained.

 

In the news conference held at the Exit 21 Bridge, Mayor Adam Bradley said that the cause of the spill was under investigation and the parties responsible would have to pay the cost of the clean-up. An undetermined number of geese and ducks  were observed coated in the oil. The Mayor said wildlife rehabilitation teams from the state would be brought in to clean the birds. He praised the swift cooperation of the emergency crews who responded to stop the spill at Crane Road.

 

A jogger in Scarsdale reported a heavy oil smell around 7:30 this morning. Emergency crews from White Plains Public Safety, Westchester County Police, New York State DEC, Westchester County Hazmat, Westchester County Health Department were all on the scene to contain the oil in the Bronx River by using booms.  The booms stop the oil from spreading downstream and a private contractor is using a vacuum to skim the oil from the top of the river

The source of the oil came from the basement of 235 South Lexington Avenue, at the corner of Maple Avenue and across the street from White Plains Hospital Medical Center.  A joint investigation is ongoing as to how the oil leaked into the storm drain.  No connection, but the building was also the site of a marijuana lab bust conducted by White Plains Police in February.

 

 

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WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE  News & Comment, By John F. Bailey. May 31, 2010 UPDATED JUNE 2, 2010:  This week’s “Journalism Quote of the Week,” reads:

 

“The real stories are in the back-up material. Read responsibly.”

 

In behind-the-scenes, unpublic maneuvers that made the Delfino Administration look good, the Common Council and the new “transparent” administration registered a new low on the Opacitometer” that measures the City’s  Transparency Index by the Council “whistling past the graveyard” vote on the budget last Monday.

 

That vote not only socked union and non-union  retirees (working for the city before July 1,1995) with a $1,102  payment for Single Person Coverage and a $2,395 for Family Coverage, the council coolly gave a round of raises to 21 Commissioners and managers ranging from 2.1% to 10.8%–lwhich just happened to cover the Commissioners’ and managers’ new 15% contribution to paying their medical benefits.

 

Admittedly the top brass had not had a raise in 2009-10, but the raises in an atmosphere of hand-wringing over finances  on the part of the Council and the Mayor the last five months take your breath away.

 

This reporter did not even think the salaries in the back-up material represented increases since the Council and the administration, had been railing forcefully against the 3.75% and 4% raises for police and fire and had gotten the CSEA and Teamsters to give back their negotiated raises and pledge no raises.

 

Wow!

 

Who knew?

 

The Journal News did not even notice it. WPCNR assumes they were tipped to it by one of the unions.

 

Wow.

 

This reporter looked at the backup material and noticed the15% in medical benefits but did not pickup the subtle language in the legislation that it applied to the union employees hired prior to July 1,1995. After being informed this affected 600 retirees, not the “handful” described by the Common Council in budget meetings, WPCNR found the 15% affects 700 retirees.

 

Then the council has the audacity and hypocrisy to slip through not only $1,106 to $2,396 in income takeaways from  union and non-union retirees, making them pay 15% of medical benefits premiums, but on the same night when they pontificated sickeningly on how the police and fire unions did not cooperate, thus “choosing layoffs,” the council was simultaneously slipping raises to the administration commissioners.

 

The really pathetic reality is these commissioners who received these raises have gotten just enough raise (and in some cases way more than enough) – to cover the 15% they have to pay in medical benefits.

 

How convenient!

 

Management sacrifice in this city?

 

How about salary CUTS!!

 

Unheard of.

 

What a coincidence?

 

Who knew?

 

How do you like that?

 

For months we have heard the hand-wringing, the agonizing over how all must sacrifice to restore fund balance and the council saying that the commissioners, non-management personnel and confidential employees were now going to pay 15% of their medical benefits.

 

However the management personnel targeted by the Council’s “Gotcha Adam Purge” of Adam Bradley aids: the Public Information Officer, the Administrative Officer, and an aid in the law department – all Bradley appointees are out of luck – unless of course the  administration brings them back under some positions that are still being funded, but not filled, like Commissioner of Recreation and Parks, Deputy Commissioner of Recreation and Parks, Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety, and Deputy Commissioner of Traffic.

 

However, according to Commissioner of Finance on Wednesday, Michael Genito, those vacant positions are not being funded, even though salaries are listed. Genito said the table of organization is simply to stipulate what those positions would be paid if filled.

 

The council sacked Adam Bradley’s appointees. But those three are still on the payroll until June 30.

 

Not so the hapless newest police officers and firefighters in White Plains, New York, USA. They are gone overnight.

 

The council took no time in in voting for those 21 Police and fireman layoffs, even though the Mayor said he was “hopeful” of a settlement. The next morning the day after the council decided on layoffs on Decision Night,  they were all fired. Gone. To stand on the unemployment line even though they were budgeted for through June 30.

 

No compassion there, was there? Do you see any?

 

But certainly a lot of compassion for the top brass without raises for one year.

 

Oh, the suffering!

 

This is a Common Council that did not even think about forstaying the binding arbitration process or protest it at all at the time the former Mayor (Joseph Delfino) was entering into it.

 

This is a Common Council (Beth Smayda and David Buchwald and Mayor Bradley are exempt from this folly perpetrated by Tom Roach, Milagros Lecouna, Benjamin Boykin and Dennis Power) who went along with that one, without a peep of protest.

 

Those four did not protest strongly at all despite media reports that sales tax was going south and the city was in trouble, all during 2008 and 2009.

 

However Ms. Smayda, Mr.Buchwald,and Mayor Bradley along with the feckless four: Roach, Lecouna, Boyin and Power) voted those raises for their Commissioners last Monday evening, in a zero% inflation environment (according to the state).

 

Under this sanctimonious cost-cutting and budget lowering, the Common Council approved $112,924 in salary increases for 21 Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners whose management decisions (with exception of the new arrivals: Michael Genito, John Callahan and David Chong) have helped get the city into its present financial predicament by their budgets of the last 12 years..

 

The raises are well above the rate of inflation ranging from 2.1% for the Library Director to 10.8% for the Commissioner of Parking and Acting Commissioner of Recreation, reflecting his double-duties. To be fair, commissioners did not receive increases in2009-10, but all we have been hearing for weeks is austerity, unions must give back to save the city. Few in the corporate world are getting raises of 4 to 5%.  

 

Let’s go down the Commissioner Lineup:

 

The Assessor :From $122,985 to $127,000 Raise:$4,015 Percentage: 3.3%

 

The Commissioner of Building: from $138,478 to $141,500. Raise: $3022  Pct: 2.1%

 

The Deputy Commissioner of Building: $122,357 to $126,000 Raise:$3,643 Pct: 3%

 

City Clerk: $95,437 to $101,000. Raise: $5,563. Pct: 5.8%

 

Corporation Counsel: $185,000 to $190,000. Raise: $5,000.  Pct.: 2.7% (after five months on job).

 

Chief Deputy Corporation Counsel: $152,069 to $158,000. Raise: $5,931. Pct: 3.9%

 

Deputy Corporation Counsel: $145,227 to $151,000. Raise: $5,773. Pct: 3.9%

 

Deputy Commissioner of Finance:$125,284 to $129,500. Raise:$4,216. Pct: 3.4%

 

Library Director: $138,086 to $141,000. Raise: $2,914. Pct:2.1%

 

Personnel Officer: $144,595 to $149,000. Raise: $4,405.Pct: 3%

 

Deputy Personnel Officer:$70,000 to $72,500. Raise: $2,500 Pct: 3.6

 

Commissioner of Parking/Recreation & Parks: $150,619 to $167,000. Raise: $16,381. Pct: 10.8%

 

Deputy Commissioner of Parking: $130,003 to $137,000. Raise:$6,997. Pct: 5.4%

 

Commissioner of Planning: from $156,207 to $162,000. Raise:$5,793. Pct: 3.7%

 

Commissioner of Public Works: from $164,545 to $170,000. Raise: $5,455. Pct: 3.3%

 

Deputy Commissioner of Public Works: $132,919 to $138,000 Raise: $5,081. Pct: 3.8%

 

Deputy Commissioner of Public Works: $121,253 to $125,000 Raise: $3,747. Pct.: 3.1%

 

Commissioner of Purchase: $107,075 to $111,000. Raise: $3,925. Pct: 3.7%

 

Commissioner of Traffic: $124,653 to $129,000. Raise: $4,347. Pct: 3.5%

 

Director of Youth Bureau. $118,406 to $123,000. Raise: $4,594. Pct: 3.9%

 

Deputy Director of Youth Bureau: $101,378 to $111,000. Raise: $9,622. Pct: 9.5%

 

This was done at the Common Council in a very untransparent manner, where they cut over 700 retirees incomes by $1,000 to $2,400 by decreeing by unanimous vote that they would have to pay 15% of their medical benefits. At no time when this was discussed was it made clear by the Common Council (though according to Councilpersons Power and Buchwald the council knew this), that this would apply to union member retirees (working for the city prior to July 1, 1995).

 

This sets the stage for the Common Council to ram through a 15% medical benefits charge on the police and fire unions when their contract expires June 30, which it is believed the city can do since the police and fire do not have a contract at that time.

 

Again, I draw your attention to the fact that all these raises to the Commishes easily cover whatever they will have to pay in medical benefits with a lot more than pocket change left over.

 

How feckless. They aren’t paying for their medical benefits. They’re being reimbursed  for those  payments for medical benefits with these raises.

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WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. By Paula Piekos. May 31, 2010:  For anyone who is or knows a veteran, and they or their veteran-friend have never done the Playland’s Salute to Veterans Day, I can tell you was it was great.   My dad does not do Veteran’s activities and takes it all as a personal day of reflection and remembrance, but this year, because of the press in the publicity given to the event, I went to the Veteran’s Office on Friday at 112 Post Rd and picked up the free parking pass to Playland.  I’d brought the shrunken discharge papers that my dad keeps in his wallet.

My Dad in North Africa. World War II It’s my favorite pic of my dad in WWII. He’s typing his troop carrier group’s diary somewhere in North Africa