Not quite Mr. Persuasion
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- May
- 8
Westchester County Executive Andy Spano’s proposal to buy a new building for the Board of Elections met “an unusual defeat”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070508/NEWS02/705080390/1026/NEWS10 in voting at the Board of Legislators last night, but not before Spano made an unusual stop to try to push it through.
Spano did not speak directly to the Democratic caucus about the project, sending deputy county executive Larry Schwartz down several times as his proxy. But with the voting nearing, and the measure still looking like it would come up one vote short, the top guy himself descended to the eighth floor of the Michaelian Office Building, spending about 20 minutes meeeting with the GOP caucus to try to pry another vote loose.
The situation led to an unusual scene: The board’s six Republican caucus members huddled behind closed doors with Spano while Democrats milled about, unsure exactly what was going on or when the meeting might start.
Spano’s efforts fell short; the measure was defeated with the 11-vote majority short of the 12 votes needed for key parts of the package. But Minority Leader George Oros, R-Cortlandt, was happy about the audience with the county’s top boss.
“We hope he does this more often,” said Oros, who called the meeting unprecedented in the Spano administration.
“It was nice to have him there and feel a little respected,” echoed Republican Gordon Burrows of Yonkers.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 10:35 am by Liz Anderson.
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