Councilwoman Gronowski Calls for Suspension of Taxpayer Funded Parades and Festivals
Yonkers, NY -- Yonkers Third District Councilmember Joan Gronowski is calling upon the city administration to cancel all upcoming parades and festivals in the City of Yonkers for the 2010 fiscal year, unless they can be independently funded by the sponsoring organization.
Ms Gronowski cited Mayor Amicone’s cancellation of the city’s July 4th fireworks celebration as the rationale, noting that the mayor cited the anticipated costs of overtime for city employees as a prime factor. Ms Gronowski stated, “If this celebration of our nation's independence was sacrificed for budgetary reasons, then all other parades and festivals which depend upon the provision of city services at taxpayer expense, should be canceled as well”.
On July 9th, Ms Gronowski sent an email to the administration, requesting information as to funding sources of all upcoming public community events, asking how these costs would be reimbursed to the city, since the July 4th event was canceled due to budget constraints. She has received no response to date.
Gronowski further stated, “My office has been inundated with demands for the return of foot patrols and other police presence in many areas of the third district. I do realize the significance of the various parades and community festivals which proudly take place in our city, but the unfortunate economic climate calls for us to prioritize our spending, which first and foremost should be for the day-to-day safety and quality of life of our residents.”
A voice with common sense. Instead of figuing out ways to tax the people someone is saying cut. I just received my tax bill and I have to figure out where I can cut spending in order to pay for the increase. I am really disappointed in this administration failure to cut spending.
Posted by: annoymous | July 19, 2009 at 15:42
Go Joan! I agree with Annoymous - finally! A voice of reason! What's sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander. No 4th of July, then no PR parade, African-American, Irish, Columbus, whatever. The only thing that should be allowed are all-American festivities like Memorial Day or Veterans Day.
I just got my bill too! Why do I have to pay for the dead wood in City Hall? Not everybody is a slouch but boy oh boy, the ones who are - and we all know who are they are, don't we? - should be, if not outright canned, then cut to 1/4 or 1/3 pay. NO CARS except for commissioners or employees who really need them. What about that guy who takes a Yonkers truck to Poughkeepsie all the time? We need to clean house NOW!!!!
Posted by: LL | July 19, 2009 at 18:11
Annoymous, this is more than a failure. This is out of control arrogance. It is dereliction of duty. I don't think we can last 2 & a half more yrs. with this sicko at the helm
Posted by: STOP the INSANITY | July 19, 2009 at 18:36
Good call Joan. No black parade!!!
Posted by: Clock Watcher | July 19, 2009 at 18:39
Joan Gronowski certainly has this issue right. And I'd bet about 90 percent of the overburdened taxpaying residents agree with her.
You can't cancel the July 4 fireworks and enable ANY other parades or festivals go on this year -- unless they have private funding, including funding for any needed OT on the part of city employees.
Posted by: Anon E. Mous | July 19, 2009 at 19:18
As usual and more often than not she is 100% correct.
Posted by: Lady Gaga | July 19, 2009 at 20:47
Excellent and very common sense call by "The Big Granowski!"
Phil is in a dillisional state of mind and needs to be put in his his place.
Remember: CITY HALL WORKS FOR US!
It's not "his city" - pompous fool.
Posted by: GW. | July 19, 2009 at 21:10
They didn't hesitate to cancel the July 4 fireworks. Why do they have to be told to cancel all other parades and festivals????
Posted by: annoymous | July 19, 2009 at 21:14
may be 4th of july was just another childish reaction to trying shut down the whiskey rio ...
or a way for Amicone to scare the cops again.
or may be the crowd "too dark" for him.
either way it was another REACTIONARY stupid decision made by a Mayor who does not deserve to be called Mayor considerring he BACKSTABBED the ones who handed it to him!
Amicone and Regan are NERDS exploiting their "power" and it is backfiring on them because THEY ARE NOT LEADERS IN ANYWAY SHAPE OR FORM.
Posted by: godforbid. | July 19, 2009 at 21:23
So far:
*no minor league baseball field yet?
*the taxi ferry canceled
*taxes increase
*over 7 downtown/waterfront businesses closed
*4th of july canceled
*crime is rapidly increasing
*amackassin swim team is awesome
...yonkers is on a roll...good job phil, bill, lisa, flemming, peterson, hartnett, city council...is this still all spencer's fault...i guess it kind of is because spencer is the one and only reason phil is mayor - thanks spencer!!! lol!
Posted by: horrible | July 19, 2009 at 21:51
Sounds good ... what is the cost of the parades again ... the parades do not ask for the police but advise the police that there is going to be an event that requires traffic control.
Where do most of these groups get their money from - member items aka our tax money.
So instead of bogus, silly and not really tax reducing measures Councilmenber Joan should be focused on really reducing costs. Stop the personal mission on patronage and reduce fire and police (where the real costs are). It would mean closing fire companies. It would mean less cops.
It would mean a real effort at revaluation (tax fairness) so the City does not spend 19 MILLION dollars in tax refunds to businesses (and co-ops and condos).
Add up all the "perks" - did you add up to 100,000, maybe 250,000. It's alot for any individual but not in a City with what a 850 MILLION dollar budget. It is not even a rounding error.
Joan should be using her considerable skills to attack the big problem not the low hanging fruit with no real impact on the budget.
Posted by: anon | July 19, 2009 at 22:14
Oh by the way. Joan might want to take a look at the letter the City administration sent to several organizations in late June advising them that due to the budget cuts from the City Council they could no longer provide support for parades etc.
Maybe Joan should read her mail.
Posted by: anon | July 19, 2009 at 22:31
To anon at 10:31 pm.
I often do not get responses to my own correspondence to the mayor's offices and FOIL requests, let alone get copies of his letters to private organizations. I also find your choice of words - "several" organizations interesting. Who did and did not receive these notifications of the end of city funding.
Further, I should have received an answer to my request as to future parade/event funding if the city did, in fact, adopt a policy of discontinued funding of certain community events.
Joan Gronowski
Posted by: Joan Gronowski | July 20, 2009 at 00:46
Joan,
thanks for your work.
its refreshing to see someone stand up and suspect there is more support than realized.
thanks.
Posted by: * | July 20, 2009 at 01:45
if 10:31 is right about a letter going out from the administration to curtail the parades etc during these budget restraints, then WHY is the African American Parade still going forward....who is sponsoring it or does Pat McDow pay for it?
Posted by: no racial tensions over a parade please | July 20, 2009 at 05:21
The fair and equitable way to enact something such as this is to at least give the sponsoring entity a heads up and not spring it on them last minute.
If an organization is raising funds in order to have a parade/festival they need to build the overtime and details into their budget and not get hit with it at the 11th hour.
If the intent is to save money fine, but if the intent is to completely ruin an event no matter what, that's not right. There are those out there looking to derail events, not just save taxpayer moneys. What the councilperson might want to also do is to encourage private and corporate contributions to cultural organizations like the African Festival Committee, and the Columbus Day Committee to show good faith at insuring that these events can take place in a cost-effective manner.
Posted by: Fair | July 20, 2009 at 08:00
See, this is what happens when this mayor does his spiteful thing. Cancels the fireworks to make the city council look bad, without even having the sense to ask the reasonable question of how he can possibly continue funding any other community event thereafter. And, I'm sure the city took a hit in that they must have had to pay the fireworks vendor some money for canceling at the last minute. Way to go, Phil. Again, not your money so that will never bother you.
Further, it's not the council's job to solicit funding for private events. They do have organizations which get paid to perform that function.
Lastly, we're all grownups here, supposedly. If one season has to pass when parades and other large-scale taxpayer funded community events are not held due to valid, budgetary reasons (of course, 2nd floor still filled with patronage galore), I think we can survive.
Posted by: what goes around comes around | July 20, 2009 at 08:47
No one said the council should be soliciting - just encouraging, it's always nice for the organizations have a bit of help. The council and government officials have no problem standing for public flag raisings, getting introduced at events, and marching in the front to get all the accolades, events which will be now funded totally by the organizations. The least they can do is offer some encouragement and their kind words to help things along publicly.
Posted by: Can't hurt | July 20, 2009 at 09:13
anon 10:14 AM, Every single perk adds to the budget. It is also a perception problem. You simply cannot ask the taxpaying public to sacrifice and handover more money while the administration is spending like a bunch of teenagers at the mall. Example, Peterson and Lopez are only TWO of the patronage pigs, but have become the poster children for waste.
"A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon we're talking real money."
Sen. Wm. Mckinley Dirksen
Posted by: stopwaste | July 20, 2009 at 09:52
The problem are all of those spineless politicians who give in to the pressure of all of the unions. Joan is the exception.
Once you cave in to one union demand, they come back for more and more. Look at where we are at in Yonkers today.
Yonkers is a joke.
Posted by: Lady Gaga | July 20, 2009 at 11:23
Joan has taken on some big ideas and if they were followed like
cut cell phone$
cut car fleet down$
All parade cut$
---------------------
Mo Money Mo Money Mo Money!!
(for the tax payer)
Keep it up JG
Posted by: Wowzers | July 20, 2009 at 11:53
To Fair:
I think these festival committees run on tight budgets. If the Mayor's office came up with a $100K in police OT just for the fireworks, I don't think a small parade committee can come up with something even close to that, 11th hour or 11 months in advance, do you?
If the committee wants the event to be held, find a private venue and hire a security company like some local churches do when they have their fairs and festivals or maybe do a fair instead of a parade. Most parades aren't well attended and just generate traffic nightmares and litter. Maybe the whole concept of ethnic parades should be reconsidered.
And if you really are FAIR, then I'm sure you'd agree that cancelling an all-American holiday like the 4th should mean cancelling all the parades. And what about Riverfest? That has to be an OT nightmare?
Posted by: LL | July 20, 2009 at 12:53
America first.
Posted by: Cancel *this* | July 20, 2009 at 14:51
Have any of the idiotic poster on this site ever heard of the US Constitution?
The City can't deny a permit to hold a parade and the City can't require the parade organizers to pay for police or any other public service. The government can place reasonable restrictions as to date, time, etc., but anything more would be unreasonable and unconstitutional interference with FREE SPEECH AND ASSOCIATION.
Get over it! If the KKK wants to march down South Broadway they have every right to do so........and if the City needs 300 police officers on overtime to safeguard the marchers and to direct traffic, etc., then that is a cost the CITY will have to pay for - not the KKK.
I'm so sick and tired of the morons who post on this site.
Posted by: frank | July 20, 2009 at 15:17
Hey Frankie, put on your hood and try it you big dope.
Posted by: anonymous | July 20, 2009 at 15:42