Politics on the Hudson

YONKERS – The city’s outgoing inspector general issued a report today calling for a merger of the Yonkers Parking Authority with other municipal departments, saying it would save the cash-poor city $2.64 million over four years.

Yonkers Inspector General Dan Schorr also said the city should scrap a pre-existing agreement to reimburse the authority for annual deficits it accrues from running its own, money-losing parking garage near the Yonkers waterfront.

Potential savings from such measures “are significant, even in a very conservative analysis,” Schorr wrote, “and Yonkers taxpayers deserve and need to realize those savings,” especially in a budget crisis.

Schorr’s report drew praise from Mayor Mike Spano, who ran for election last fall on a pledge to merge “redundant” agencies like the parking authority.

The analysis “proves what I have long believed – that consolidation will lead to millions of dollars in savings for Yonkers taxpayers,” Spano said today in a statement.

The parking authority’s executive director said the report is “seriously flawed” and omits key details such as the high cost of termination pay for employees who’d have to be let go under a merger.

“This is not a financial decision, if done, but a political decision,” said Lisa Mrijaj, who previously served as former Mayor Phil Amicone’s chief of staff.

Schorr is planning to step down as inspector general on April 21 to take a position as an investigator for an international security consulting firm.

Mayor Mike Spano appointed John Delaney as the city’s new budget director, he announced today.

Delaney will succeed Carl Maniscalco, who Spano fired along with human resources deputy commissioner Gerard Serpico on March 23 over a last-minute pay raise for former deputy Mayor William Regan.

As a result of the annual pay boost from $30,000 to $163,332, Regan collected a final paycheck in the first week of January of $40,200, or about five times what he previously stood to earn.

According to Spano’s press release, Delaney spent nine years with the Westchester County Budget Department, where he was responsible for the development and monitoring of the $1.8 billion general fund operating budget and the $206 million sewer, water and refuse districts operating budgets.

While there, Delaney also reviewed all Board of Acquisition and Contract resolutions involving capital projects and developed estimates of the county-wide revenues including sales and mortgage taxes. Previously, Delaney worked as a Budget Specialist at the Westchester County Clerk’s Office and as the Finance Program Specialist at Westchester County Social Services.

YONKERS—The mayor is elevating the city Industrial Development Agency’s chief fiscal officer to the organization’s helm.

Melvina Carter, a Yonkers native who has helped run the agency since 2005, will begin as its president and CEO immediately at a salary of $140,000.

Carter replaces Ellen Lynch, a real estate executive from White Plains who was appointed to the top post in 2006 under former Mayor Phil Amicone.

Mayor Mike Spano recently asked for Lynch’s resignation; he named Carter to the post Thursday at City Hall.

“It’s important to have somebody in that position who has the ideas and vision of the new mayor,” said Spano, the IDA’s chairman. Carter “is more than ready to take the next step.”

Plans to fill Carter’s former position have not been finalized.

During her more than six years as the IDA chief fiscal officer, Carter helped bring 37 projects to fruition, including two new hotels, improvements at the Cross County Shopping Center and an expansion of Empire City casino, Spano said. Prior to the IDA, Carter served for seven years as fiscal officer of the city’s Office of Downtown and Waterfront Development.

Her appointment comes as the agency prepares for several large-scale development projects, including high-rise housing at Teutonia Hall and a new hotel at the Cross County Shopping Center.

“The IDA can play a vital role in facilitating a wide range of job opportunities as well as enhance the quality of life for all of our residents,” Carter said Thursday. “I look forward to doing more, and clearly there is more work to be done.”

YONKERS—Mayor Mike Spano issued an executive order today requiring the city to adopt a four-year financial plan in response to recommendations by an independent financial commission last week.

Yonkers currently does not have such a plan.

Spano’s order requires the Yonkers finance commissioner to issue a four-year plan by April 15 each year. The commissioner, this year, will issue the plan for July 1. It must be based on “reasonable” revenue and expenditure estimates, the mayor said.

“Last week’s commission report on Yonkers’ financial status delivered a strong message – we must get the city’s finances under control and plan for not only the immediate future, but for the years ahead as well,” Spano said in a statement today.

“This executive order,” he continued, “ensures this city has the necessary long-term blueprint that will provide for a sound financial future for the people of Yonkers.”

The mayor’s Commission of Inquiry into the Finances of Yonkers also reported last week that the city’s estimated budget gap in 2013 is $89.3 million and up to $462 million by 2016.

Led by former Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch and former state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, the commission also found that since 2004, the city has used more than $500 million in “one-shot budget gimmicks,” or non-recurring revenue sources.

Spano will propose his executive budget on April 16.

YONKERS – Concluding a month-long tour, Mayor Mike Spano will hold his final “State of the City” town hall meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Chema Community Center at 435 Riverdale Ave.

“Engaging Yonkers residents in the process is critical as we move toward putting forth a very difficult budget that aims to address the fiscal challenges facing our city,” Spano said in a statement today. “This town hall tour has been very informative for both residents and the administration in understanding the issues most important to each community across Yonkers.”

YONKERS—Dan Schorr said today he is stepping down as the city’s inspector general next month to take a job at the risk and security consulting firm Kroll, Inc.

Click below to read the full press release.  More details coming soon on LoHud.com …

YONKERS – Calling for greater government transparency, the mayor on Tuesday called for mandatory background checks for potential appointees to city boards and commissions.

Candidates for these bodies, Mayor Mike Spano said, should be subject to the same “rigorous checks and balances” as city employees. The city personnel department will conduct the investigations.

In an executive order signed Tuesday, the mayor also called for the city’s website to begin featuring online applications and a registry of open positions on these bodies.

“I am committed to utilizing digital resources such as the Yonkers website to bring our government to the people in an accessible and transparent way,” Spano said in a statement.

His announcement follows the dramatic conclusion of the corruption trial of former Councilwoman Sandy Annabi and former GOP boss Zehy Jereis, who were found guilty Thursday of federal conspiracy, bribery and extortion charges.

In the wake of the trial, the mayor — whose brother, former state Sen. Nicholas Spano, pleaded guilty in February to federal tax-evasion charges — has also noted his efforts to beef up the city’s ethics code. Those include appointing three new ethics board members and requiring all city department employees to take annual ethics training.

As part of the online registry, the mayor’s office said it will post all information relating to mayoral board appointments, including board members, their terms, expired terms and current vacancies.

Billed as the first of its kind in Yonkers, the repository will also describe the duties of board membership and will provide instructions for the online application process.

YONKERS—Mayor Mike Spano will bring his “State of the City Town Hall Tour” to Lincoln Park Jewish Center, 311 Central Park Ave., at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

The mayor will be accompanied by city officials to field questions and address concerns from participants.

The tour’s previous stops were at the First Police Precinct and the Portuguese-American Community Center in Yonkers. The date of the final stop in the Third Precinct will be announced soon.

“It’s critical that we bring our plan of action to the people and engage our communities in becoming part of the process,” Spano said today. “We’ve had some very positive discussions with residents and have received great feedback on different solutions to address Yonkers’ fiscal problems and improve the quality of life in our city.”

YONKERS—Mayor Mike Spano issued an executive order today requiring mandatory ethics training for senior-level city employees, his office announced.

Now, all commissioners, acting commissioners, deputy commissioners and policy makers must undergo an annual training program approved by the city’s attorneys in consultation with the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

The training will include a review of state and local laws on ethics and lobbying as they apply to public officers.

“For government to succeed, it must have the people’s trust,” Spano said in a statement.

“Yonkers taxpayers and residents have the right to expect government programs to be administered and managed with the highest degree of professionalism and integrity. I intend that, going forward, there will be policies in place that will hold our employees to the level of standards in which they were hired.”

Every city officer and policy maker will have to participate in the ethics training within six months of the order’s enactment. New employees will be required to participate within two months of starting their city job.

The city’s Department of Human Resources will run the program with the Office of Corporation Counsel.

Sanctions for violating the mayor’s order may include termination.

Additional ethics training programs for all other city employees will be announced in the coming weeks.

YONKERS—Mayor Mike Spano, along with City Council President Chuck Lesnick and City Court Judge Michael Martinelli, will introduce three new members of the Yonkers Ethics Board at a press conference Thursday at 1:30 p.m. in the mayor’s reception room at City Hall, 40 South Broadway.

The seven-seat board is tasked with investigating all city ethics complaints, conducting hearings, recommending disciplinary action, rendering advisory opinions, administrating city employee disclosure statements, and providing ethics training for city employees.