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 COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From County Legislator Ken Jenkins. (EDITED)December 23, 2008: The county has applied for a state grant for a study on improving assessment practices—including revaluation.  The County Board wrote in support of the application which was also supported by key municipal organizations. A grant of $25,000 was awarded in July 2008 and the study group has begun its work.  David Jackson, Executive Director of the Westchester County Tax Commission, is facilitating the wide-ranging and exhaustive discussion on this complex issue with representatives from the Westchester Assessors Association and the Municipal Officials Association.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. December 23, 2008: . Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors reported to WPCNR Monday that the district was continuing to look at and monitor school spending, but would not commit to cuts in school spending the last six months of the current budget year, the second half beginning January 1.  Connors said the district would continue to monitor and look at the budget, but would not commit to wage freezes for management, wage cuts or expense cuts.

Outgoing Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors

Connors reported  to WPCNR the school negotiations team and  the White Plains Teachers Association last Thursday afternoon met  separately with the New York State Public Employers Relations Board-appointed mediator, Karen Kenny in the first of three mediation sessions intended to break the impasse in salary and benefits negotiations that finds the city teachers working without a contract. Connors said the second  meeting would take place in January, but did not have the date readily available.

Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors told WPCNR the next session would be held sometime in January, but could not remember if the date was before or after the first  Community Forum on the budget, January 15.

Wen asked if the district was going to attempt to cut spending the last six months of the current fiscal year (due to possible school aid cuts and a minimum 7% increase to maintain the district current rate of spending)  he said wage freezes or cuts  on administrative personnel were difficult due to existing contracts with managers and administrators, but left open the possibility of some spending reductions somewhere, without specifying where they might occur. He said the district would continue to watch the budget. He said school energy costs had gone up because of the colder weather.

Connors, describing the mediation talks last Thursday afternoon, said “We met, both sides with the mediator. She certainly will make clear what each side is asking, ask questions, and help bring the parties together. “

WPCNR asked if he anticipated a settlement before the 2009-2010 budget is formed , Connors said “I hope we’re successful.”

WPCNR asked if there was an anticipated amount figured for the 2009-2010 budget for salaries,  and Connors said it depended on settling the new contract with the teachers. Asked if he’d be freezing wages for management, principals, Assistant Superintendents and managers  in anticipation of revenue shortfalls from reduced assessments and state aid, Connors said “There are things we can’t do in a vacuum without talking and negotiating with the parties involved. They have contracts.”

WPCNR wanted to know if there would spending cuts in the third quarter of the present school budget, in light of promised cuts in state aid.  Connors would not commit to cutting the present spending, saying “We’re continuing to look at and manage our money well.”

Raises added to Longevity Increases?

Connors said the current step raises in the expired teachers contract continue to guide teachers’ pay in the current 2008-2009 year. Asked if any salary increases would be added on top of those step raises, Connors said that the new contract would guide that, without saying whether step levels (amounting to an automatic 2% salary increase for each year a teacher has been in service were under negotiation. Connors said salary and benefits were under discussion.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. From City School District. December 22, 2008: The first Community Forum on the 2009-2010 School Budget, predicted by the television show White Plains Week to exceed $200 Million  has been scheduled for January 15 at White Plains High School at 7:30 P.M.

The new Community Forum format replaces the traditional discussion and evaluation of the budget by the Annual Budget Committee of some thirty persons, many of whom did not vary from year to year, who often commented on the passability and acceptability of budget decisions. This year, considering budget pressures, the Superintendent of Schools, Timothy P. Connors and the District Budget Committee decided to involve the entire community of White Plains in discussion of budget pressures.

Currently the School District and the White Plains Teachers now working without a contract, are in mediation talks of the amount of raise, supervised by the New York State Public Employers Relations Board, expected at this point to continue indefinitely. The present school budget is $284.4 Million, and if salaries and expenses continue at the same pace as last year, the budget would approach $197 Million, if  White Plains assessments stayed the same. 

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WPCNR SERGEANT JOE FRIDAY’S REPORT. December 22, 2008 UPDATED DECEMBER 23, 2008: The communications department of a major company has passed along this explanation of a proliferation of internet scams which have increased lately as the economy has slowed and conditions have worsened for Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. America. WPCNR passes along this advice

The following, published yesterday before The New York Times  admitted it, too, was victimized by an identify assumer who sent a bogus e-mail  critical of Caroline Kennedy, purportedly signed by the Mayor of Paris, which the Times apologized for yesterday. The following advice is particularly interesting and relevant:

“Phishing” and “email address spoofing” are the common twists on Internet fraud, and are bold and deceptive attempts to obtain your confidential and sensitive information, including credit card numbers, passwords, social security number and other important financial information. They often masquerade as legitimate businesses or organizations, such as eBay, PayPal or your local bank. 

Appearing in both emails and on fraudulent websites, these schemes are often very believable on the surface.   The hope is that a suspicious recipient will just look at the sender, see it says “admin@ebay.com” or “service@paypal.com,” and assume the message is legitimate. Spammers can alter the header of the email so that it appears the email message comes from someone else.   Please remember that what you see in the “From” field on an email has little bearing on where it was actually sent from.   

Here’s what’s going on:

In fact,  the scam may even look like an email comes from your own email address. When the spammers construct ‘From:’ addresses with your email address, there’s literally nothing you can do.  Why do spammers go through all these steps? Two reasons: first, they naturally want to hide where they’re sending from specifically so you can’t block them. Second, by setting the “From” address to be yours, if the mail cannot be delivered, you’ll still get it as the mail system attempts to return the mail to the sender identified by the “From:” address.

How did they get your email address? There are so many ways. One of the most common is  harvesting them from legitimate web pages or forums where you’ve provided your email address.

 What can you do about Spoofing?

Nothing.  If spoofers are constructing “From:” addresses with your email address there’s literally very little you can do. You wouldn’t want to block it because you’d be blocking yourself.

While (your company)  has put in place numerous procedures to catch these kinds of threats, incoming emails appearing to originate from (your company staff) may not be possible to be blocked.

 The best you can do for now is to use the delete key and simply delete the offending message(s).

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From the Governor’s Press Office. December 22,2008: Last week the Governor of New York State published a series of extensive news releases on his 2008-2009 Budget cuts and 2009-1010 Budget. This is his discussion on workforce spending cuts and proposals:

Governor David A. Paterson’s Executive Budget includes a number of proposals to streamline State government by eliminating duplicative services, consolidating overlapping State agencies, lowering the cost and size of the State workforce, and closing underutilized State facilities.

“With the State facing a fiscal emergency, we need to look for innovative ways to improve the operations of our government and deliver services more effectively,” said Governor Paterson. “These reforms are a first step toward fundamentally reevaluating the way we do business, which will mean significantly lower costs for taxpayers over the long term.”

Agency Consolidations

The Executive Budget recommends that seven State agencies merge or integrate with existing agencies, as a first step toward future consolidations. Two additional agencies would have their operations hosted by other agencies. In total, these actions would provide savings of more than $16.5 million in 2009-10.

• To streamline and improve the delivery of economic development services, the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) would merge with the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC). Further efficiencies and coordination will be achieved through enhanced integration of activities between the Department of Economic Development and ESDC ($13.3 million in 2009-10 savings).
  
• The State Employment Relations Board is eliminated and its functions absorbed by the Public Employment Relations Board ($1.4 million in 2009-10 savings).
  
• The Northeastern Queens Nature and Historical Preserve Commission and the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Council and Conservancy would merge into the Department of State ($1.1 million in 2009-10 savings).
  
• The New York State Theatre Institute would merge with the Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center Corporation (“The Egg”) and the Office of the Welfare Inspector General would merge with the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General. While neither of these actions would produce General Fund savings, they would create efficiencies within these organizations to strengthen their long-term operational and fiscal health.

Additionally, the Department of Taxation and Finance would host the operations of the Office of Real Property Services ($500,000 in 2009-10 savings) and the Division of the Lottery would host the operations of the Racing and Wagering Board ($225,000 in 2009-10 savings).

Pension Reform/Workforce

The Executive Budget creates a new tier of pension benefits (Tier V) for public employees. Many of the requirements for Tier V would remove pension enhancements added in recent years to Tier IV, including restoring the minimum retirement age from 55 to 62, requiring employees to contribute to the pension fund after their tenth year of service, restoring the minimum years of service required to draw a pension from five to ten, and others. New requirements for Tier V include excluding overtime compensation when calculating pension benefits, which will prevent “salary spiking” in an employee’s final years of service.

The Executive Budget reduces the size of the State workforce by 3,108 positions in 2009-10. This will be accomplished through a combination of specific programmatic actions, such as agency consolidations and facility closures, as well as the continued implementation of a hard hiring freeze. Layoffs are primarily limited to the impact of agency consolidations or facility closures.

Facility Closures

The Executive Budget recommends that several underutilized State facilities would be eliminated or downsized.

The Budget recommends the closure of four minimum-security camps . Pharsalia (located in Chenango County), Gabriels (located in Franklin County), Georgetown (located in Madison County), and Mt. McGregor (located in Saratoga County). These facilities are currently at less than 47 percent of capacity, reflecting a decline in the prison population of 10,500 (15 percent) since 1999. In addition, DOCS will close several annexes to further consolidate the system. These closures would provide savings of $26 million in 2009-10 and $29 million in 2010-11.

The Executive Budget also recommends closing six underutilized OCFS youth facilities (the Adirondack Residential Center in Clinton County, the Cattaraugus Residential Center and Great Valley Residential Center in Cattaraugus County, the Pyramid Reception Center in the Bronx, the Rochester Community Residential Home in Monroe County, and the Syracuse Community Residential Home in Onondaga County), downsizing two other youth facilities (the Allen Residential Center in Delaware County and the Tryon Residential Center in Fulton County) and closing three evening reporting centers (the Capital District Evening Reporting Center in Albany County, the Buffalo Evening Reporting Center in Erie County, and the Syracuse Evening Reporting Center in Onondaga County). The affected youth facilities have a vacancy rate of 63 percent. These actions will provide savings of $12 million in 2009-10 and $14 million in 2010-11.

Additionally, the Office of Mental Health would eliminate 450 beds (11 percent) from its inpatient psychiatric system, moving those patients to more appropriate settings, at a savings of $6.1 million in 2009-10 and $12.3 million in 2010-11. The Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services would close its 52-bed Manhattan Addiction Treatment Center (ATC), providing savings of $4.6 million in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Council on Shared State Operations (CSSO)

To build toward future efficiencies, the Executive Budget would also establish a new Council on Shared State Operations to oversee the development of a “shared services” model in New York, co-chaired by the Director of State Operations and the Director of the Budget. A shared services approach seeks to centralize back-office operations, thereby creating cost-savings while simultaneously improving the services offered . an approach that has been supported by private sector firms for years and has been increasingly adopted in the public sector. Consolidating administrative functions shared by multiple agencies will free agencies to focus on their core missions of providing essential services to New Yorkers, rather than administrative tasks.

Over the next several years, state agencies will work together to create shared service centers with expertise in six distinct operational areas. These centers would gradually become responsible for administering the following consolidated lines of business across state government:

• Financial Management System (FMS). The Division of the Budget, in partnership with the Office of the State Comptroller, will launch development of a system to support the delivery of statewide financial services including budgeting, procurement, accounts payable, and travel expense reporting.
  
• Procurement. A new Office of Procurement Services will evaluate and improve the State’s procurement policies, coordinate purchasing among State agencies, develop new approaches to leverage the buying power of the State, and assist in the development of an e-procurement system as part of the statewide Financial Management System. The new Office will be led by a Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) following a model used by the private sector and other states to capture savings through an ongoing identification of strategic opportunities to partner with sellers of goods and services.
  
• Human Resources. The Office of Civil Service and the Office of Employee Relations will explore how the State can better integrate its existing human resource systems and coordinate employee benefits, training, recruiting, and time and attendance.
  
• Technology. The Office for Technology will focus on the delivery of disaster recovery services, consolidation of servers into a statewide data center, required security, and improvements to telecommunications.
  
• Asset Management. The Office of General Services will focus on managing State-owned and leased real property, and explore fleet and surplus property initiatives.
  
• Customer Service. A consortium of agencies will also become responsible for developing statewide customer service activities, including a statewide web-based portal for “one-stop” applications for licensing and permits, and potentially a statewide call center.