Politics on the Hudson

Last month when The Journal News published its round-up of the Yonkers City Council’s Third District primary election races we could not contact Republican candidate Michael Meyer, who called shortly after the story ran.

Meyer, 44, an art dealer, is a lifelong Yonkers resident who is married with three young children; two of them attend Sacred Heart Grade School. He will face Jay Bryant in the Sept. 13 Republican primary.

Meyer has never held an elected office and his community involvement includes coaching baseball and football for the North Yonkers Boys Club. That’s one of the reasons he’s running.

“I watch the gangs recruit the sixth, seventh and eighth graders right off the football field,” said Meyer, adding that there needs to be a greater police presence in his district’s streets to curb car break-ins.

“Each little area in the city of Yonkers has its own business district and there shoud be a policeman walking around,” Meyer said.

High taxes are another reason Meyer seeks a council seat. He said the city needs to evaluate all its programs and eliminate or change the programs that aren’t working.

He opposes “hostage taxes” like the city’s real estate transfer tax and “tax scams” like the red-light cameras that have been installed at intersections around the city.

“We actually have cameras watching us, but not the criminals,” he said.

Incumbent Councilwoman Joan Gronowski is not seeking reelection and a City Councilman is paid $37,905 annually.

Yonkers Assemblyman Mike Spano got a mayoral endorsement today from three of the Yonkers City Council’s Democrats.

Spano, the Democratic party’s endorsed candidate, faces a Sept. 13 Democratic primary challenge from City Council President Chuck Lesnick and Robert Flower.

“Mike is the only candidate who can bring the strong leadership our city needs to protect education and provide new opportunity in Yonkers,” said Councilwoman Patricia McDow, 1st District. “He’s been an effective advocate for Yonkers as an Assemblyman and will be the effective Mayor our city needs now more than ever.”

“It’s time to bring change to the Mayor’s office and implement the reforms that are important to us all, such as improving our schools so our kids get the support they need,” said Councilman Wilson Terrero, 2nd District. “Mike Spano is the clear choice to get that done. He has the vision to continue what is right and fix what is wrong.”

“Our city cannot afford to continue to be run by crisis year after year while spending more than our revenues allow,” said Councilwoman Joan Gronowski, 3rd District. “Yonkers voters have a real opportunity this year to elect a Mayor who has the ability to make real progress for our city.”

Former Yonkers Councilman Dennis Robertson told The Journal News today that he’s pulling out of the race to return to his former seat in the City Council.

Robertson, who left the council four years ago, said he decided not to mount a campaign for personal reasons. The city’s Democratic Party nominated Robertson for the Third District at its May 23 convention for council candidates.

City party chair Symra Brandon could not be reached this afternoon for comment about the status of the party’s Third District nomination.

Robertson said he’s aware of three candidates seeking to replace Councilwoman Joan Gronowski, who has decided not to seek a second term.

On Monday one of those contenders, Michael Sabatino, announced that he has received the Working Families Party’s endorsement. Last month Sabatino received the Independence Party’s nomination.

Yonkers Councilwoman Joan Gronowski, D-3rd District, issued a press release last night criticizing Mayor Phil Amicone and a city union for the city’s garbage disaster, which as of Wednesday had left some city residents with no pick-up for more than 10 days.

“This situation is totally unacceptable and it is shameful that the City of Yonkers has come to this – cuts in quality of life services, not “extras” – which have been sacrificed to city cars, cell phones, free parking, a downtown waterfront development sub-agency with more than $320,000 in annual salaries, mayoral aides funded by one agency and sitting in another,” Gronowski wrote in her release. “All of these egregious situations still exist and are slaps in the face to the taxpayer.”

Yesterday Amicone’s spokesman David Simpson blamed the Teamsters for the garbage mess, which began on June 28 when the city switched to one-day-a-week collection because of layoffs due to its budget crisis.

Simpson said the city has brought charges against some of its workers, accusing them of an illegal job action. He said some would face $500-a-day fines, though he could not say how many workers had been charged.

“As with anything civil service, there is a process in place and we are going through the process. Several crews and individuals have been questioned and some have been given disciplinary hearings. Others are being closely monitored. Penalties have yet to be determined because we have to give the unions time to respond. I think the point is, a clear message was sent that the mayor will not tolerate a work slow down,” Simpson wrote in an e-mail yesterday.

Here is Gronowski’s complete release:

Councilwoman Gronowski cites Mayor Amicone, DPW and union leaders for lack of response to garbage and COMMINGLE collection in Yonkers

Yonkers Third District Councilmember Joan Gronowski is calling for the Amicone administration to immediately take action in responding to the outcries of Yonkers residents that have garbage piling up in their neighborhoods.  Gronowski’s office has been inundated for two weeks with calls of angry residents that are disheartened by the dismal quality of life in their neighborhoods and that they no longer know where to turn for help.

Gronowski stated, “Today my office has received numerous complaints from residents who have not had any garbage pick up for two weeks – from the very start of the newly imposed one-day per week garbage collection.”  Varying accounts by both the DPW Commissioner and the Mayor have attributed delays to adapting to new schedules/routes and intentional work slow-downs, respectively.  Gronowski stated, “This situation is totally unacceptable and it is shameful that the City of Yonkers has come to this – cuts in quality of life services, not “extras” – which have been sacrificed to city cars, cell phones, free parking, a downtown waterfront development sub-agency with more than $320,000 in annual salaries, mayoral aides funded by one agency and sitting in another”.  “All of these egregious situations still exist and are slaps in the face to the taxpayer”.

Angered tax payers have reported, sanitation workers taking two to three hour breaks, selectively picking up garbage from some streets and leaving others, skipping partial to whole routes and picking up city garbage cans but not residential.  Gronowski concluded, “This is a severe health risk to many of our residents in Yonkers and the tax payers deserve an explanation and immediate action taken by the administration to rectify this situation.”

Councilwoman Joan Gronowski, D-3rd District, issued a press release this morning calling for an end to free parking for city employees at the Government Center Garage next to City Hall to help the Yonkers Parking Authority with an $800,000 debt it can’t afford.

The Yonkers Parking Authority needs $800,000 for an expected settlement of payment dispute it has with the former owner of a property at the corner of Saw Mill River Road and Lockwood Avenue.

The authority took the property using eminent domain and put a municipal parking lot there, which has been a money loser.

Last week Yonkers Inspector General Dan Schorr issued a report recommending that the city take out an $800,000 loan for the expected debt and have the authority slowly pay it back.

Gronowski writes that the city workers who currently get free parking should be required to pay for their parking to help the authority meet its debts.

Here’s her release:

Councilwoman gronowski questions city council bonding to pay parking authority settlement

Yonkers Third District Councilmember Joan Gronowski is criticizing a plan that calls for the Yonkers City Council to bond an $800,000 settlement facing the Yonkers Parking Authority stemming from its 2001 seizure of property through Eminent Domain.

The property is a parking lot at 310 Saw Mill River Road.  According to Deputy Mayor William Regan, also Chair of the Parking Authority Board, the agency doesn’t have enough money to pay for the settlement.

The City Council CIP bonding was an alternative financing option suggested by Yonkers Inspector General Dan Schorr, which includes annual repayments of approximately $85,000 by the Authority to the City of Yonkers until 2024.

In April 2009, Gronowski issued a statement calling upon the city administration to require all Yonkers employees using the Government Center Garage at City Hall to pay for parking.  Gronowski stated, “there are scores of employees – including Commissioners and elected officials and their staffs, who do not pay for parking at the facility”, further noting that she first highlighted this fact during her campaign for city council.

The Administration suggested city council legislation might be entertained,  but Gronowski had no support for her proposal.  However, Gronowski states,  “The Yonkers Parking Authority, at any time, could have implemented this policy which would have demonstrated good business sense and fair and equitable parking fee collection.  Perhaps if these procedures had been put in place in past years, the Authority would have had the necessary means to pay their own legal fees”.

Gronowski further noted that free parking, city cars, gas and cell phones all contribute to the sense of entitlement by city officials which have greatly contributed toward the fiscal problems facing us today.

Yonkers Inspector General Dan Schorr issued his first report since he assumed his office last month.

His inaugural report looks at the city’s response times to Freedom of Information Law requests.

Schorr concluded that the city generally responds to FOIL requests in a timely manner, but he noted that “there are too many requests that remain open for lengthy periods of time without the required response.”

Schorr recommended that city departments and the city’s FOIL office Eric Arena better facilitate the timely production of requested documents.

In 2009 the city received 246 FOIL requests for most of the city’s departments.

Schorr noted that while Arena has regular contacts in each city department, his communications are “generally informal and at times lends itself to unresponsiveness and a lack of accountability.”

Schorr recommended that each department have a FOIL liaison who would ensure that all FOIL requests are fully addressed. Other recommendations included: written memos between the FOIL officer and department liaisons; standardized response forms; written policies and procedures for responding to FOIL; and increased use of e-mail to respond to FOIL requests more quickly.

Yonkers Councilwoman Joan Gronowski, D-3rd District, initiated the resolution that prompted the IG to launch the FOIL review. This afternoon Gronowski said she’s glad Schorr did the review.

“I had issues two years ago with being given information that was not what I asked for,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s as much a problem today.”

Gronowski also said that she’s gotten quicker responses to her FOIL letters from Arena since the City Council asked the IG to review FOIL request responses.

A copy of the report is attached on the jump:

We noticed that all the Yonkers City Council laggards in filing state campaign financial disclosure reports are Democrats.

The January 2010 report should have been filed on Jan. 11, and as of today there are no such filings on the state Board of Elections’ Web site by Patricia McDow, D-1st District, and Wilson Terrero, D-2rd District.

Terrero, who was elected to the council in November, also has not filed his 27-Day Post-General report, which was due on Nov. 30.

City Council President Chuck Lesnick, also a Democrat,  was reelected in November and he is current on all his filings, as are the three Republicans on the council, two of whom were elected in November.

In an earlier version of the posting I incorrectly reported that Joan Gronowski, D-3rd District, had not filed her 2010 declaration, but her committee filed a termination with the state Board of Elections on June 30, 2009. She has no current registered committees and she is not required to make any filings as of June 30.

Yonkers Councilman John Murtagh, R-5th District, issued a call for the Yonkers City Council to take quick action on legislation requiring lobbyists to register before they could lobby city officials.

“Currently all lobbyists are required to register in Albany” Murtagh noted in his press release issued today, “but it is impractical for citizens in Yonkers to rely on registration in the State capitol to know who is trying to influence lawmakers in Yonkers”.

Murtagh and Councilwoman Joan Gronowski, D-3rd District, introduced the proposal in October but no action was taken. He issued today’s announcement in response to the federal indictment of former city Councilwoman Sandy Annabi, who is accused of accepting more than $167,000 cash and favors for changing her vote on two development proposals.

“In light of recent allegations of undue influence in City Hall, it is all the more important that we send a message of openness and transparency” Murtagh  stated.

His full statement is posted here: (more…)

The Yonkers City Council swore in new members on New Year’s Day and reorganized itself on Saturday by assigning committee chairmanships and designating party leadership posts.

Newly elected councilmen John Larkin, R-6th District, Dennis Shepherd, R-4th District and Wilson Terrero, D-2nd District, were sworn in at the Riverfront Library, along with City Council President Chuck Lesnick, a Democrat beginning a second term.

The next day the body designated Patricia McDow, D-1st District, the council’s majority leader and John Murtagh, R-5th District, the minority leader.

The new committee chairmanships are:

Lesnick: Rules Committee; Budget and Finance Committee

Murtagh: Municipal Operations and Public Safety Committee; Environmental, Sustainable Growth and Green Policy Committee

McDow: Real Estate Committee

Larkin: Legislation, Codes and Intergovernmental Relations Committee (two committees merged into one)

Shepherd: Community Development Committee

Terrero: Education Committee

Councilwoman Joan Gronowski, who formerly co-chaired the Municipal Operations Committee, did not take charge of any committee.

No chair was designated for the Franchises Committee, which did not meet in 2009.

The council also adopted a new rule stipulating that a committee meeting must meet within 15 minutes of its announced start time or it will be canceled.