Yonkers Tribune

POLITICAL ANALYSIS: Mayor Mike Spano’s Aversion to Risk Will Not Mitigate Yonkers Historical Past or Its Present and Future Challenges by His Wishful Thinking By HEZI ARIS

YONKERS, NY  — Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano strives to create an image that all is good and safe and positive in Yonkers. He is with all due respect simply wrong. His administration denied the very crisis first presented in the Yonkers Tribune over Peter Kelly’s X2o shenanigans. He and his staff maintain there are issues with regard to the sale of the Alder Manor estate yet he refuses to make it public, nor the games played by the mortgage holder that became the vehicle for alleged “under the table” dismissal of the entire mortgage claiming issues that mitigate full payment of the note. The concerns over the sub standard protocol expected of a wayward Yonkers Board of Education that are pushing ahead with a Public Private Partnership for Education with the intent of maintaining their entity as separate from the City of Yonkers yet dependent on the City for its funding and now promoting legislation in Albany that will have them tax the city despite their not having taxig ability.  The economic development debacle of Ridge Hill continues as sales tax revenues have yet to meet a threshold written into contractual agreements with Forest City Ratner that no matter who opens on the property have yet to pay off to a city that may only be described as broken by all these games and alleged thefts. The crisis of overbilling of water for as much as three years hence; similarly with regard to electricity, begs the question where is the money and how much has been stolen or used without authority. The payment of electricity and water and parking inducements that are easy access to the taxpayer’s pocket without their knowledge, and without their concurrence is an atrocity of governance continues unabated. Why? Why is the scandal of theft of services permitted at the Nepperhan Community Council? When will this madness end? Why has the Yonkers Board of Education been silent over this abuse by Rev. Dr. Jim Bostic?

ANALYSIS: Revised Demarcation to Redistricting Map Point to Potential Political Annihilation of Republican Party in Yonkers By HEZI ARIS

YONKERS, NY -- February 20, 2013 -- A population census is conducted nationwide every ten years. Once those demographics are compiled, politics intrudes itself upon those findings, no matter what they are. With population mobility what it is in the United States, the decade long hiatus from one census to the next usually reveals population shifts. The final population figures may either witness lower, equal, or high population densities. Yonkers experienced a growth in population over a ten-year time span that saw an increase in about 110 people through the city. This figure means little in any equation. In a population of almost 200,000 people, 110 people, give or take, do not amount to making too much of a difference. Which does lead to a need for a basic conclusion… must the six districts designated in the City of Yonkers (CoY) require a redrawing of the last map? Many people think not, Democrats, believing they somehow lost out in the last redistricting process believe changes are required. They have created a map that will strengthen their voting outcome by drawing the maps as they have. Republicans believe they were excluded from the process of drawing up the new demographically redefined redistricting map.  When the first redrawn map [designated the D-map] was revealed to the Republican minority by the Yonkers City Council Democratic majority, they collectively blew a gasket, they were so unnerved by what they saw. They were looking at a plan of their collective demise. It scared them so, they hires an expert in the field to counter with another map, to be designated the R-map, that would save their streak of red (Republicans) in an ever-increasing sea of blue (Democrats)

EXCLUSIVE: Update of Referendum Effort to Extend Two Term Limit Revealed By HEZI ARIS

Yonkers voters have twice visited the issue of term limits; both times, Yonkersites chose to limit the maximum number of terms for elected office to be restricted to two terms. The effort to rescind the two term limitation has been instigated by the focus and effort of Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick who is completing the third year of a four year maximum limit to his second and final term. Mr Lesnick hopes overturning the two-term limit will afford him a lifeline to his waning political prospects.  Which could happen were term limits rescinded in the City of Yonkers.

ANALYSIS Updated with Input by IAFF President McGoey - Yonkers Burning Issue May Prove Nothing But a Ploy By HEZI ARIS

Update at 8:15 pm, May 8, 2012 with Comment by IAFF Local 628 President Barry B. McGoey

Yonkers Fire Department Exacts 100 Plus Hours of Overtime in Aftermath of 76 Crotty Avenue Fire

Thirteen residents were displaced and a few pets were killed in a late afternoon fire that consumed the third floor and part of the second floor of what is known as a 2½ story multifamily dwelling on April 29, 2012. It would take almost four hours to extinguish the fire that burst into flames that week. The fire demanded the attention of 53 firefighters and 12 vehicles. Mutual Aid was afforded by the New Rochelle Fire Department who were called to man the Yonkers Firehouses until the return of the YFD from fighting the Crotty Avenue fire. Two Yonkers Firefighters suffered steam burns that demanded medical attention diagnosed as not life threatening. A third person was said to have twisted his ankle.

100 Days Out: Updating the Shifting Tectonic Political Plates in Yonkers By HEZI ARIS

Breaking News and Analysis Concerning Yonkers

It seemed as though the political prognosis for Chuck Lesnick, serving the last two-years of an eight-years-long, term limited stint in office would be his epitaph. Many had declared the affable and extremely astute, but too often conflicted Yonkers City Council President had run out of options. His lack of garnering party support, he is a Democrat, for the office of mayor against the victorious effort of now Mayor Mike Spano seemed the beginning of a torturous slide into oblivion.

ANALYSIS: Yonkers’ Financial Woes Reveal Past, Present, and Future By HEZI ARIS

YONKERS, NY – The City of Yonkers (CoY) issued a financial report Thursday, April 5, 2012, in which the third largest city in New York State divulged a budget shortfall that was as little as an $89 million gap, or as great as $150 million, which, when extrapolated over a three-year time frame would amount to a shortfall of between $465 million at the low end, to approximately $600, million at the higher end.

Substantiating the numbers between the lower and higher fiscal barometric measure was prepared by a commission created by Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, and led by former NYS Assemblyman Richard Brodsky and former Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch. It seems the $89 million figure is based on accepting no changes to the 2012-2013 budget year that will have taken place over the 2011-2012 budget. Excluded from the $89 million budget shortfall are over $20 million in anticipated pension fund costs. Also excluded are an expected student enrollment of over 1,000 additional pupils, among other financial concerns that, were they to be added to the $89 million “gap,” would reach the $150 million budget deficit figure, that upon reflection is seemingly a figure by which to gauge the enormity of the crisis facing CoY.

Analysis:The Numbers and What They Say By HEZI ARIS

The Conservative Party Primary Election took place on September 13, 2011. The Westchester County Board of Election concluded the final count on September 23, 2011. Richard Martinelli, candidate for mayor of Yonkers garnered 202 votes cast by ballot. Those numbers were however deficient in maintaining the designation afforded Mr Martinelli as far back as January 2011.  Minority Leader John Murtagh, vying to gain the designation of the Conservative Party to embellish his designation as the Republican nominee, earned the least number of write-in votes: a dismal 78. Carlo Calvi, the designated Independence Party nominee gained under 200 supporting write-in votes. Eclipsing them all is NYS Assemblyman Mike Spano who received 318 write-in votes capturing the Conservative Party line. This is the first ever situation in which a write-in vote eclipsed the regular vote usurping the intentions of the party heierarchy.

Analysis: Yonkers Mayor Amicone Continues to Play the Blame Game By HEZI ARIS

Yonkers Mayor Amicone addressed Assemblymen Mike Spano. J. Gary Pretlow, and Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins by letter admonishing them with regard to their letter of July 21, 2011, to Governor Andrew Cuomo, in which they requested discretionary funding for pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) and sports programs to benefit the Yonkers Public School District. Mayor Amicone admonished the three most prominent members of the Albany Delegation in his letter o them dated July 25, 2011

Mayor Amicone's seething verbal dressing down of the Albany Delegation asserts that Yonkers Board of Education (YBoE) Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio informed him that neither he nor the Board of Education Trustees, appointed to the board by Mayor Amicone, were consulted prior to the Albany Delegation addressing Governor Cuomo. Mayor Amicone’s tirade grew to greater heights of termerity when Mayor Amicone suggested the Albany Delegation is ignorant of the needed resources required by the YPS. His harangue continued when he stated further that he has implored them to comprehend that the YPS are desperately in need of and deserving to receive a fair share of education funding. Mayor Amicone escalated his contention that the Albany Delegation had acted on their own rather than having acted in unison and by his implied direction, especially in their communication with Governor Cuomo.

 

Murtagh’s Campaign Literature Deceives Voters by Historical Rewrite By HEZI ARIS

Yonkers City Council Minority Leader and 2011 Republican mayoral candidate John Murtagh in literature dated July 17, 2011, “applauded the recent NYS Supreme Court Ruling that stipulated the Yonkers Inspector General had the right to audit the books and records of the Teacher's Welfare Fund.” So far so good. Murtagh’s perspective becomes “untrue” when it is stated, “Councilman Murtagh has taken the lead on the Council in demanding accountability from the Board of Education and from municipal unions.” [Editor’s Note: If Murtagh “did take a lead,” why did he drop the ball by voting for Mayor Amicone’s Proposed FY 2010-2011 Budget when as he writes, “The so-called Welfare Fund is a discretionary fundmandated by the Teacher's Union contract. The fund costs Yonkers taxpayers millions of dollars annually but operates without any supervision or oversight from City Hall.”] [Another Editor’s Note: That being the case, why has Murtagh not introduced legislation or demand correction prior to the approval of the proposed budget?] Murtagh continues, “Despite being funded by the taxpayers the taxpayers were not permitted to know how the money was being spent.” [Editor’s Note: Duh, the facts were known for months. What did Murtagh do about it? Nothing, zero, nada. Is that the rationale for the historical re-writing now?].

The Hezitorial: Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone Designs City's Demise By HEZI ARIS

Neither New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, nor NYC Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, found Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone’s FY@2010-2011 Proposed Budget viable. Along with the Yonkers’ Albany Delegation, comprised of Senators Jeff Klein and Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assemblymen Tom Abinanti, Mike Spano, and J.Gary Pretlow, the insinuation of a wage cap, a contractual agreement arrived at by past agreements conducted under and approved by Mayor Amicone and the respective union leadership, and a Transitional Finance Authority (TFA), among other concerns, among which are the separation of the branches of government, the lack of scrutiny of “authorities,” etc., the proposal was deemed dead on arrival. What is Plan B?