Yorktown better than ever
To the Editor:
I am writing this letter responding to your editorial last week regarding Mr. Eric DiBartolo. First, there have only been three highway superintendents since 1950 when I moved to Yorktown. - Mr. Stanley Pavlica, Mr. Andrew Alimonti and Mr. Eric DiBartolo - that have done a job better then the rest of the other superintendents.
Last year, the town board gave Mr. DiBartolo a lot more responsibility and he stepped up to the task. He has been able to cut the cost of spending and reduce the budget of the highway department by 6.43 percent and the water department by 42 percent in a year.
Regarding the quote from Mr. Nick Bianco about it is a stipend so he can take it away if Mr. DiBartolo does not do the job: Mr. Bianco should be paid by stipend so we could take away all of his salary because he does nothing more that make promises and never follows through with them. This was made clear last election when Mr. Patel only lost by 349 votes. So please stop making it sound like you really care about the people of Yorktown.
Mr. Bruce Apar and Kathleen Fitzpatrick, you should both bow your heads in shame to what you have done to the North County News. Mr. Chase must be rolling over in his grave. You took a great newspaper and turned it into a one-sided weekly rag that is more opinionated that the National Enquirer. Please stop trying to sell your weekly rag on your own opinions and go back to snap photos and real stories about the truth and good of Yorktown. Not the rumor mill of Susan Siegel, who has cost the taxpayers of Yorktown many thousands of dollars in time and material so she can try to make the town supervisor, Don Peters, look bad. Where has she been for the last 12 years when Ms. Cooper was running the town? How about you report that Mr. Peters, in his first year, has done more then any other supervisor has done in the last 25 years.
Yorktown is back and better then ever.
Mary D’Alessandro
Yorktown
Testa is a true leader
To the Editor:
I guess it is not the newspaper's job to fact check letters. If someone wants to make a fool of themselves by lying then they will suffer the consequences. Such is the case for Drew Claxton. She has once again proven why she should not be a member of our city government.
Mr. Testa very carefully and factually explained the serious financial situation created by Claxton and her fellow council members. He used facts to back up everything he wrote and was very clear. Claxton has only used her time on the city council to fight against everything positive. Unbelievably, she voted against Target and Lowes coming to Peekskill as well as a wonderful plan for the waterfront and a major project for the downtown. All of these would have brought tax revenue, business, jobs, services and a new parking garage to downtown Peekskill.
Instead, Claxton would rather spend $2 million to fix a garage that could have been replaced for free. She prefers no progress, high taxes and to waste taxpayer money. Included in her hypocrisy is the issue of historic structures. She tries to portray herself as a champion for preservation but she voted to destroy the historic middle school and Centennial Firehouse. She was also against the restoration of the Lincoln Depot. Her partisanship runs deep and it shows. It blinds her reason and objectivity. To attack a man who devoted himself to this city and did more for it than anyone I know is unacceptable to me. I was sad when John Testa decided not to run for re-election and would love to see him return. Testa is a true leader who should be praised and not attacked.
Leesther Brown
Peekskill
Keep the dialogue going
To the Editor:
The Committee for a Yorktown Town Administrator would like to thank Mr. Bazzo for devoting last week’s “In my Opinion” column to the issue of town administrator. Our goal, after all, is to encourage a community-wide dialogue on whether Yorktown should hire an administrator in 2010.
And in pursuit of that goal, we respectfully offer the following response.
Accountability: A town administrator actually increases accountability. Informed accountability. Meaningful accountability.
Right now, we hold our elected officials accountable at the polls every two or four years. If we’re not happy with their job performance, we have to be patient and wait until the next election to vote them out of office. But let’s be honest with ourselves. Do we really have the facts to determine if our officials are managing the town efficiently and spending our money wisely? As Mr. Bazzo knowingly points out, officials don’t tell us about their mistakes.
Did you know that the town ended up spending $213,393 on temporary trailers to house the recreation department instead of $20,000 to fix the leaking roof on the former office building? And the new trailers are now leaking.
Under our current system, the full time supervisor and councilmen share responsibility for running the town on a day to day basis. In practice, that means that it’s often impossible to assign accountability when things go wrong. Not only does the public not know who to blame, but town board members can’t fire each other or other elected officials for poor job performance.
Did you know that the road widening at the triangle intersection originally budgeted at $170,000 ended up costing us $450,000?
Administrators are accountable each and every day. And they’re accountable to the people who are in a position to evaluate their job performance – our elected officials. Yes, that’s right. Our elected officials. It’s their job to keep an administrator’s toes to the fire and terminate the person if they’re not satisfied with his or her job performance. And if our elected officials aren’t doing their job, then it’s up to us to vote them out of office.
Cost: Using 2007 salaries, we estimate that an administrator will add between $50,000-$80,000 to the town budget. But an experienced administrator will be able to save that amount – and more – in his or her first year.
Did you know that because one department continues to use outdated customized software, data entered into that department’s computer has to be re-entered into the computer in a second department. And staff in a third department has to spend time reconciling the differences between its records and those in the first department.
An administrator will not require any additional staff. Yorktown already budgets for a full-time assistant to the supervisor and a full time secretary. That same support staff will be available to serve the full time administrator as well as the part time supervisor.
How much will an administrator earn? That all depends on how much the board values experience. You get what you pay for, and typically a candidate with 10 years experience is likely to command a higher salary than one with three years experience.
Experience of other towns: We may look at how other town governments are structured for ideas, but in the end, it’s what voters believe works best for Yorktown that counts.
Cortlandt saves millions of dollars each and every year by relying on the state police instead of having its own police department. Should Yorktown follow suit?
A majority of Westchester towns have found it more cost effective to have an appointed highway superintendent. Does that mean Yorktown should make the switch?
Candidate pool for supervisor: In reality, there’s actually a very limited pool of qualified candidates available to run for full-time supervisor. Stop for a moment and ask yourself: How many Yorktown residents with managerial experience and knowledge of local government are there who are ready to give up their full-time job, professional practice or business for a chance at a two year job with no guarantee that they’ll be re-elected for another two years?
There’s no magic bullet that can guarantee us a perfect government or lower taxes. In the end what matters most is the people who are running our town, not boxes on an organizational chart. So the question really boils down to how much of a gamble do we want to take when selecting the person who will manage our town on a day-to-day basis.
Do we want to take a chance with an inexperienced, untested, elected full-time supervisor and hope that the person turns out to be a quick learner and an effective manager, or should we hire a non partisan professional administrator with demonstrated skills and a proven track record who will work under the direction and supervision of a strong elected town board that is accountable to the voters.
The choice should be yours.
Susan Siegel
Coordinator, Committee for a Yorktown Town Administrator
‘No’ to administrator’s post
To the Editor:
My wife and I, Theresa and Jay Tinger, living in Yorktown have been getting the North County News for a long time, and upon picking up the Oct. 22 edition and reading it, noted the following: In this particular edition there were several articles, editorials, talking points, pertaining to the apparent push toward Yorktown adding another layer of governing – that of a full-time town administrator.
My wife and I, along with several friends also living in Yorktown, attended a meeting at town hall on Thursday, Oct. 16. This meeting was headed by one Susan Siegel, who is spearheading this Yorktown administrator scenario. She had brought in several persons who expressed their views on this matter, who all appeared to lean toward favoring this agenda. We received several paper handouts showing the supposed benefit of such position. Many items were discussed, ranging from cost efficiency, continuity issues, and salaries, so on and so forth.
For several days after this meeting, having read the printed handouts that we were given, along with the verbal information that was exchanged, we concluded the following: This newly created position’s salary would be somewhere between $160,000 and $200,000, depending on when this position would be included in the town’s government. By the time that this position would actually be in place and functioning, the actual cost could easily reach the $250,000 yearly amount.
The so-called “Continuity of Functioning” is already in place. The four current town board members, elected at staggered intervals, along with one of them serving as deputy supervisor and an administrative assistant provide for this. A newly elected full-time supervisor can be brought up to speed quickly on the town’s issues.
The salaries of the current system that is now in place – that of supervisor, four council members - adds up to approximately the same amount that the newly created town administrator’s position would. They now become part time; the salary of the board (supervisor and council members) would be in the vicinity of $100,000 a year. Now, adding this amount to the full-time administrator salary would bring the amount easily to over $250,000.
Our current form of governing is still the most logical, as far as my wife and I, along with several friends, are concerned.
Something that we do not understand is why a North County News editorial, written by the newspaper editor itself, would be so aggressively pushing this full-time administrator issue. We have always considered the North County News, for the most part, remaining neutral. We guess that we were wrong.
Jay and Theresa Tinger
Yorktown Heights
What really happened
To the Editor:
I read that a Neighborhood Watch group in Lincolndale had a meeting recently. The idea is a good one and some of the subjects are of concern.
Not all residents were present, nor were many of them aware of the meeting, so all subjects were not covered as completely or accurately as they could have been.
Unless the article referred to a different incident, the following is what really happened.
About a month ago, a 15-year-old boy along with some friends was enjoying a night in the garage belonging to one of them. Suddenly, a man came onto the private property waving a shovel and yelling that the boys were disturbing the peace. The boy told the man that the only person disturbing the peace was him. At that point the man grabbed him around the neck and started choking the boy. In the attempt to try to pull the man away from the boy, he was hurt enough to release the choke hold.
Police arrived and found no drugs or alcohol. The man at some point hit a car on the property with a shovel.
When his mother brought the boy to state police headquarter to show them the marks on his neck, they were acknowledged by police on duty and pictures were taken. When she tried to press charges, for reasons I don’t understand, the police chose not to and ended the matter.
On another subject, it would seem to me that with all the open space we have in Somers, a safe place would be put aside for ATVs. I don’t know who owns the property between Lincolndale and the Preserves, but that could possibly work, as could the hundreds of acres of Anglefly. This is healthy sport that helps keep the kids off the street and out of trouble.
As a dog owner and lover, I feel for the person whose dog was killed at the corner of Tulip. However, we have leash laws in town. So that sad death, in itself, should not be the reason for adding another stop sign.
Rick Apgar
Somers
Dodge decries bogus mailing
To the Editor:
I want to thank everyone who voted in our election on Nov. 4. It was a tremendous turn out and we, as a community, can be proud that we participated in our future by taking the time to vote. I want to say that I am honored to have served as your supervisor and I will continue to make Ossining a great place to live and work after I leave office on December 31.
What disturbs me and should disturb our entire community, is that my campaign and my work upset someone or some group so much that they spent a great deal of money (over 8,000 first class 42-cent stamps, printed envelopes, printed labels and copies) to mail out, anonymously, a flyer that looked like it came from me.
This mailing arrived at the home of registered Democrats the day before the election. There was no time to refute it or even understand the magnitude of the misleading mailing. This mailing used a return address of one of my neighbors and so it not only damaged my reputation, but also brought a feeling of unease to another family.
The mailing claimed to be from “More Friends of Martha”- not my campaign, “Friends of Martha Dodge.” It did not have any acknowledgement of who paid for it anywhere. My campaign, like all legitimate campaigns must, by law, acknowledge who paid for the material.
This mailing made a harsh accusation against the Ossining Town Democratic Party that I do not condone. The mailing also purported to have a list of issues that I stood on. The list was factually inaccurate, random and far from the local issues that I have dedicated my campaign to covering. This mailing upset my supporters and I spent time before the election assuring the people who contacted me that I had nothing to do with the mailing. This saved a few votes but who knows how many others looked at the material and dismissed me as someone who was not focused on the Town of Ossining.
I hope that the individual or group that did this to the residents of Ossining will apologize to the people. It was cruel, misleading, and an insult. The people of Ossining do not deserve to be treated like this.
Martha Dodge
Interim Supervisor
Town of Ossining
Aurora will be back
To the Editor:
To all Ossining residents, I want to thank everyone that believed in me throughout my campaign. In as little as two months I was able to take in almost 2,000 votes compared to my opponent’s 4,000.
I started my campaign because I wanted to make sure that no village board seat went unchallenged and as time went on I was able to meet so many residents that live in the Village of Ossining, most of which share the same concerns about the current and future issues facing Ossining.
Although I believe I would have been the better choice, I want to ask all of my supporters to stay strong, stay united, and look forward to my campaign next year. But most of all, for the good of Ossining as a whole, support the current village board and those now elected. I also ask that you stay active by making sure all of the issues we face are addressed. Together we can make Ossining a place for all of its citizens to be proud of. I look forward to building a stronger campaign in the year to come.
Mike Aurora
Ossining
Change for ‘opposite’ people
To the Editor:
I am writing this letter to express a number of thoughts. I would first like to congratulate the opposition on their victory this past Election Day. While it was easy to “ride” President-elect Obama’s coattails into office, the distinct message of Obama’s “change” applied to Ossining as well. Only this “change” was for the opposite party and opposite people. Ossining needs a change in leadership and financial reform. A town ethics board and televised work sessions are a part of this reform. Re-electing the same status quo will not change anything here in Ossining.
While it was also easy this election to vote across party lines, I urge voters (Democrat and Republican) to vote on the person, not the party. A famous man once said, “Political parties may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.” His name was George Washington.
I would also like to thank those who volunteered their time to help me, and those of you who donated money to my endeavors. And from the bottom of my heart I would like to thank the 4,580 of you who gave me your vote. I am honored that you believed in me and a better Ossining. I ask for your continued support as I will tirelessly work to gain representation for you on the town board, and ultimately work to make Ossining a more affordable and better place to live for people of all ages and income; for my parents and your children. Thank you.
Peter Tripodi IV
Former candidate
Ossining Town Council
Galef lauds voting machines
To the Editor:
Thank you so much to the voters of the 90th Assembly district for renewing your support and electing me to serve you for another two years in Albany. You can be sure I will continue to work hard to maintain and improve the quality of life here in Westchester and Putnam counties. It was truly an historic election. I watched with great interest as votes from around the nation were calculated using a wide variety of voting machine technology.
Going to the polls, you may have noticed some new machines in your own election district. The Sequoia/Dominion ImageCast system allowed voters with visual, hearing or mobile disabilities to mark a touch screen using a variety of aids. A paper ballot would print out, based on those markings, for verification and to be counted. This allowed voters with disabilities to vote independently for the first time in history. It also ensured compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
I have been working for years with groups like the League of Women Voters, New Yorkers for Verified Voting, Independent Living Centers, Westchester Disabled on the Move, other advocacy groups for the disabled, and citizen activists to make sure votes in New York would be accurately counted and have a legitimate paper trail. Initially, I worked with my colleagues in the state legislature to make sure that New York State imposed even more stringent requirements than the federal government’s HAVA principles. These included an exhaustive voting machine certification process and a demand that votes cast have a paper trail. Because of these additional requirements, New York was able to avoid the costly financial mistakes other states made when they purchased machines that did not accurately represent the votes cast. This saved our state millions of dollars.
The next step for New York is to replace the lever machines for all voters. The Boards of Elections in Westchester and Putnam counties have chosen to use a paper ballot optical scan system which these good government groups and I have supported. This is how 51 percent of the country voted in this past election and it was a success.
Democracy demands that best practices are in place for voting in our state and that every vote is accurately counted and can be recounted if necessary. I am proud to be at the forefront of this important initiative.
Sandy Galef
Assemblywoman
90th Assembly District
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