Politics on the Hudson

What ever happened to the $5 million settlement for Ridge Hill in Yonkers?

The village of Ardsley is offering three property owners a total of $240,000 for portions of their properties along Route 9A for a road widening project.

The money comes from the $5 million settlement of a lawsuit by Ardsley, Hastings and the Town of Greenburgh against Westchester’s Ridge Hill. The communities had argued that the mall-office-residential complex would flood their streets with traffic.

The widening is expected to cost about $1.7 million.

Ardsley offer letters

Here’s a glance at today’s opinion content:

Astorino and the election: Editorial
In our Westchester-Putnam edition, we carried an editorial that analyzed the still-unclear results of Tuesday’s election. The Democratic “supermajority” on Westchester County Board of Legislators is in play and we look at the implications for Republican County Executive Rob Astorino.

Rockland’s vote
The day after Tuesday’s election in Rockland, in which voters selected a sheriff, town and village officials and members of the County Legislature, it’s clear that the regional trend toward Republican leadership is waning. Democrats scored key victories.

Election: Reisman
Phil Reisman weighs in on Westchester’s election results, focusing on the county board of legislators races, Mike Spano’s mayoral win in Yonkers and the return of Ernest Davis in Mount Vernon.

Rockland legislature: Baird
Bob Baird examines the results and implications of the Rockland County Legislature elections in today’s column.

Hugh Fox, chairman of the Westchester County Conservative Party, issued a “Dear Fellow Conservatives” letter today denouncing Yonkers mayoral candidate Mike Spano, who to the chagrin of party leaders has the party’s ballot line in Tuesday’s election. Fox wrote that Spano does not share the party’s ideals and principles, and called even an attempt for Spano to gain the party’s line the “absolute pinnacle of hypocrisy and calculated political opportunism.” Here’s his letter for more:

Hey, we’re not putting words in his mouth. That was the headline of an emailed letter Yonkers mayoral candidate Carlo Calvi sent out earlier today to his GOP opponent, John Murtagh, and the press. It seems Calvi and Murtagh were at a candidates’ night last night in Yonkers and Murtagh made what was a not-so-well received crack about Calvi’s wife. We’ll let Calvi take it from here:

November 4, 2011

Mr. John Murtagh:

Last night at the Mohegan Heights Civic Assoc. candidates’ night you made a comment towards me which that confirms your arrogant, condescending, pompous, ignorant attitude towards other people.

While I was speaking your cell phone rang aloud. I deferred for a moment, so that you could silence it. You then looked at your phone and said to me before the entire audience:

“It’s your wife. She wants you to go home.”

This bizarre statement, patently false, demonstrates a serious flaw in your character, which has been observed by many during your time in public life. Many have called you arrogant, rude, condescending, pompous, demeaning and insulting. Your comment certifies all of those appellations.

Obviously, you were annoyed that you had to turn off your cell phone, a gesture which others might consider common courtesy at a public forum. Yet, with indignity, you lashed out bringing a member of my family, into an insult directed at me.

By the way, don’t flatter yourself. Julie is way out of your league. You are probably one of the last people who would be honored to receive a phone call from her. Rest assured, however, that you insulted her, as well, in making the absurd statement.

You show that you have little regard or sensitivity for others unless they bow to you. How dare anyone challenge you or disagree with you?

The conclusion to be drawn is that you are unfit to be a public servant. You have little ability to care for people. If you can make such a sexist, insulting statement in a public forum to a peer or an elder, how could you sincerely have any desire to respect a constituency? You are unable to view others, except as inferior to you.
Members of the audience approached ma at the conclusion and expressed their outrage at your statement and conduct.

Your recent political mail had the theme of what nice words people use to describe you. You falsely complimented yourself by issuing that literature.

You also omitted one thing that many people do say to describe you:

“You are a Pompous Ass”.

No apology would be accepted, since it is sure to be insincere and vacant.

Carlo Calvi

Yonkers Inspector General Dan Schorr and Yonkers Councilwoman Patricia McDow both issued letters today about Schorr’s investigation into allegations that McDow got years of free parking at a public garage near her home.

Here are their letters:

McDow Ethics Board Referral

McDow response to IG ethics referral

Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick has two fund-raising events this week.

The two-term Democrat wouldn’t say on Friday what political office he’s considering, but it’s important to note that Yonkers will have its mayoral election in November next year.

Lesnick will hold a wine and chesse reception on Yonkers’ future tonight at a private home on Hudson Terrace. On Wednesday Lesnick will have a post-election morning reception with New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio at Akerman Senterfitt in Manhattan.

Lesnick raised $30,244.60 in the first half of 2010, according to his July 2010 campaign finance disclosure filing with the state Board of Elections. Lesnick declared $25,171.30 in expenses for the same period.

His biggest expense in the first half of 2010 was for $10,000 paid to Henry Berger, an election law attorney and former counsel to Hillary Clinton’s senatorial campaign.

Concerns that Yonkers voters did not know about two propositions on Tuesday’s ballot were premature given updated numbers from the Westchester County Board of Elections.

On Election Night, initial results for the two initiatives showed that no more than 250 people voted for the propositions, an impossibly low number that left residents wondering what went wrong.

Updated, though still unofficial results show that poll workers did indeed do their jobs and inform the public about the propositions, which were printed on the back of the ballots in Yonkers.

Proposition 1, which addressed mayoral appointments, was approved by 13,265 votes, about 52 percent of the total vote.

Proposition 2, which addressed mayoral succession, was approved by 18,650 votes, or almost 73 percent of the vote.

The updated unofficial results do not include one of the city’s 316 districts, nor do they include absentee or provisional ballots.

On Wednesday Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone appointed a new Charter Revision Commission to begin working on new charter amendments for next year’s November election.

City Council President Chuck Lesnick said today that Amicone’s appointment of the commission blocks any potential ballot initiatives from the public or the City Council’s ability to put a proposition on the ballot.

“It’s not circumventing anything. I called the Charter Revision Commission because over the years this charter has been left in its state and has not really changed with the times, and I?felt it was necessary for the CRC to each year look at several different issues and aspects of it that could improve the charter so that it better serves the people and the government and the City of Yonkers,” said Amicone, adding that council members can submit their suggestions to the commission. “Their input into it is no different from mine or a citizen’s input into what they can and should look at.”

The new commission’s members are:

Julius Walls, Chairman
Robert Gottschall, Vice-Chairman
Ralph Puma, Secretary
Martin Ball, Member
Joseph Tinelli, Member
Steve Szulhan, Member
Christopher Alkins, Member
Polli Jassal, Member
Oliver Charles, Member

Democrat Tom Abinanti and Republican Tom Bock, candidates for the 92nd Assembly district seat currently held by Richard Brodsky, met Thursday with the Editorial Board to discuss their candidacies. The district covers Mount Pleasant, Greenburgh and part of Yonkers.

Here are brief introductions the candidates made:

To watch the complete session, go to lohud.com/editorialspotlight and select the interview from the on-demand menu.

Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, D-Mount Vernon, does not face a significant financial threat from Samuel Rivers, an Independence Party candidate who is Pretlow’s only challenger in next month’s election in the 87th Assembly District.

Pretlow’s 2010 32 Day Pre-Primary Report Summary, which was due on Oct. 1, indicates that he raised $4,800 for the reporting period and spent $2,402.27 in the same period. That left him with a closing balance of $187,667.83.

By contrast Rivers reported raising just $82 in receipts in that period, with a closing balance of $82.

The 87th Assembly District includes Mount Vernon and the southwestern quadrant of Yonkers.

With just a month left until the general election, state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, has a war chest more than six times bigger than her Republican challenger Liam McLaughlin.

The two-term incumbent reported a closing balance of $201,586.96 in her 2010 32 Day Pre-General Report Summary, which was due on Oct. 1. Stewart-Cousins also reported that she took in $76,477 in contributions for the reporting period.

McLaughlin reported that he received $91,630.27 in contributions, which is greater than Stewart-Cousins’ haul, but his closing balance for the period was $29,639.58.