Politics on the Hudson

The board of the Yonkers Alliance for Latino and Immigrant Services (YALIS) condemned Yonkers Inspector General Philip Zisman’s critical report accusing board members, who are also city employees, of mismanaging the charity.

Former board member and Mayor Phil Amicone’s special assistant Lorraine Lopez is accused in the report of filing misleading and inaccurate reimbursement documents with the city’s Planning Department and Zisman has forwarded his findings about her actions to the city’s ethics board.

Most of Zisman’s criticisms of YALIS board members involve their shoddy record-keeping, failure to repay a city loan for years, non-payment of state workers compensation and unemployment insurance, poor oversight of cash receipts and the filing of apparently misleading reimbursement paperwork with the city.

YALIS provides immigration counseling and social service referrals out of a small office on Ludlow Street.

Representing the YALIS board, Lopez accused Zisman of mishandling the investigation and she’s calling for the city ethics board to investigate him.

“While Zisman’s investigatory report on YALIS and subsequent follow-up memoranda point out some legitimate problems at YALIS, the methods used by Zisman would be graded an F by any first-grade teacher,” wrote Lopez, criticizing Zisman for not including a final memo from YALIS in his report.

Lopez mostly faults Zisman for possibly violating civil service rules regarding YALIS board member Anthony Piacente, another city employee who with Lopez is deemed most culpable of mismanagement

“Zisman’s report and the subsequent memoranda are riddled with innuendo, inconsistencies and cover-ups of shoddy, unprofessional work,” wrote Lopez. “YALIS will be requesting that the City of Yonkers Ethics Board look into his investigation to determine if Zisman’s errors and failures were due to extremely poor judgment or unethical be design.”

Yonkers City Council candidate Virgina Perez announced endorsements today by the Yonkers Police Benevolent Association, the Yonkers Captains, Lieutenants and Sergeants Association and the Yonkers Uniformed Officers Association.

Perez is running on the Conservative, Independence and Working Families lines against Democrat Wilson Terrero, who only beat her in the primary by 10 votes.

The two are vying to replace outgoing Councilwoman Sanday Annabi, a Democrat.

Perez’s other endorsements include the Yonkers Federation of Teachers and SEIU’s 32BJ and Local 704.

Westchester County Legislature candidate Sandy Annabi, a Yonkers councilwoman, is asking her supporters to contact the Justice Department’s voting rights hotline at 800-253-3931 if they encounter unfair treatment at the polls on Election Day.

Annabi is running on minor party lines in the 17th Legislative District against Democratic incumbent Jose Alvarado, who beat her in the primary by five votes.

Annabi has claimed voter fraud in the primary and she has sent her allegations to the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office and federal officials, though none have made any public conclusions about her claims.

In a press release this week, she claimed that the Justice Department set up the 800 number to take calls about election fraud in response to her allegations, but a Justice Department spokesman explained to The Journal News that the hotline has previously been available for anyone in the U.S. to call about voting irregularities.

Another interesting item in her release was a reference to Jose Alvarado supporter Wilson Soto, who Annabi claims broke the law by voting in Alvarado’s district.

Soto says he lives in the district but has owned property outside the district.

Alvarado’s campaign disclosure form from July 2009 indicates that Soto made an in-kind contribution of $1,000 and the listed address is well outside the 17th district. Soto said that the home belongs to his fiancee.

Westchester’s civil service employees  is backing County Executive Andy Spano. CSEA Local 860, which represents over 14,000 members, today announced its endorsement of Spano re-election.

“Andy Spano is someone we know and someone we can work with,” said Jack McPhillips, president of CSEA Westchester Local 860. “We endorse him as the candidate who will best look out for the county. He will provide the experienced leadership Westchester, and its workforce, need especially in these times.”

Spano said the union members were his partner in working for Westchester.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg may not be backing Rob Astorino, but former Gov. George Pataki is.

The two Republicans toured downtown Peekskill today on what they called a small business tour, assessing the challenges of mom-and-pop shop owners in the city where Pataki was once mayor.

They met at the Governor George E. Pataki Leadership and Learning Center on Division Street.

“I am grateful to Gov. Pataki for his support of my efforts to lower the tax burden in Westchester County,” Astorino said.  “Everyone feels the Spano taxes — senior citizens, young parents, aspiring homeowners, and single people and families who pay the taxes in their monthly rents.  Small business owners, who hire the vast majority of Americans, are getting especially pinched in Westchester, and that’s costing this county countless jobs.”

Gov. David Paterson has added a feature to his government Web site titled “Governor David A. Paterson: A Record Of Accomplishment.”

As he seeks to regain the public’s confidence in a bid to run for a full four-year term next year, the Web site lists a series of steps he has taken in his roughly 18 months in office.

And despite persistent talk that he may ultimately bow out of a run next year as he struggles with record-low poll numbers, Paterson again reiterated this morning that he’s running in 2010.

“Those articles are being planted,” Paterson said on John Gambling’s radio show. “People close to me are not talking to the media. People who say they are close to me who have other agendas are doing that.”

He added, “How many times do I have to say that I’m running?”

He was also asked about his sluggish fundraising, and again blamed it on the Senate coup in June, saying he had to cancel a number of events as he dealt with the turmoil in Albany.

His campaign Web site has several upcoming fundraisers listed.

Former Republican State Sen. Nick Spano announced that he’s throwing his support behind County Executive Andrew Spano, a Democrat.

In a letter, the Republican power broker turned lobbyist said Andy Spano is an “innovative leader who can guide us through these tough fiscal times.” He said the county executive has managed the government well with new technology and ideas.

“It’s the first time I’m making an endorsement of a Democrat with the exception of my brother,” Nick Spano told Politics on the Hudson today. His brother is Assemblyman Mike Spano, a Democrat from Yonkers who was once a Republican. Nick Spano said he felt strongly about the county executive’s “style of leadership.”

He also said he had real concerns with an element of the GOP that represents right wing politics to the extreme.

“Make no mistake, with that extremist power will come intolerance,” Nick Spano wrote in an letter that is going to select voters throughout the county. “Intolerance of people who live different lifestyles and intolerance to a woman’s right to choose. That’s an intolerance that I will not tolerate.”

Nick Spano makes no mention of Rob Astorino in his letter, though in a subsequent conversation, he said he was talking about some of his supporters. Although he said he wasn’t referring to the Conservative Party, which backed Andy Spano with a share of controversy and lawsuits, rather leaders like State Party Chairman Mike Long. (Earlier this week, Long came out to support Astorino.)

“I’m talking about a lot of people who are supporting him and who represent the extremists and intolerance. I think it’s a problem,” he said. “I don’t think a county run by Rob Astorino is a county I would like.”

A recent poll conducted by Regional News Network and Sienna Research Institute shows County Executive Andrew Spano and his Republican opponent Rob Astorino in a close battle.

Spano leads Astorino 47 percent to 41 percent with another 11 percent of likely voters remaining undecided — there’s a margin of error of 4.5 percent.

Also in that poll, 47 percent of responders gave Spano a favorable rating while 46 percent gave him an unfavorable one. Another 7 percent were undecided or had no opinion.

Astorino garnered a 37 percent approval rating and 15 percent unfavorable. Roughly 49 percent had no opinion on Astorino or didn’t know him.

Forty-five percent of the 483 respondents said Westchester County was headed in the wrong direction; 38 percent said it’s headed in the right direction and 17 percent didn’t know or had no opinion.

Fifty one percent said property taxes was the most important issues in the race, 29 percent said county government spending was and another 8 percent said the federal housing settlement was.

For more on the RNN poll, click here.

As reported today, Senate Republicans are teaming up with county clerks around the state to protest Democrats’ plan to increase fees on licenses and require people to get new ones when their vehicle registrations expire.

For example, Sen. Thomas Libous’s campaign has registered one of the online petitions—nonewplates.org —that is sponsored by Oswego County Clerk George Williams.

This morning, Sen. Stephen Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, put out two news releases, saying he and Columbia County Clerk Holly Tanner and Dutchess County Clerk Brad Kendal, will be distributing petitions. Saland has one on his Web site.

Gov. David Paterson was asked this morning The John Gambling Show about the protests and said he is willing to possibly reconsider the new fee, which will increase from $15 to $25. But he said he wants to close the current mid-year deficit first.

The state’s financial picture continues to get gloomier with projections today that the five-year deficit will balloon by 16 percent from projections just three months ago.

Gov. David Paterson’s budget office today is expected to release a mid-year report that shows the state’s deficit will grow to $44 billion over the next five years—an increase of $6 billion from projections in July.

Paterson indicated Thursday that the state’s mid-year budget deficit has grown to $3.2 billion, up from $2.1 billion in July.

He has called lawmakers back to Albany on Nov. 10 to close the current year’s deficit. The Democratic governor has proposed cutting aid in education and health-care to close a third of the gap, with the rest coming through proposals for new revenue and sweeps of money from other state accounts.

While state leaders grapple with this year’s fiscal woes, the long-term picture appears even worse, largely because the state is relying on federal stimulus to help close current budget gaps.

This year’s spending plan, which runs until March 31, uses about $6 billion in federal stimulus aid to help balance the budget.

But when the stimulus money runs out in the 2012-13 fiscal year, state deficits are expected to soar, with a two-year deficit of about $34 billion.