WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. May 5, 2009 UPDATES IN ITALICS, 10:50 A.M. E.D.T.: Monday night the Common Council, with the exception of Councilman Glen Hockley collectively rejected Mayor Joseph Delfino’s proposed 2009-2010 $160.7 Million budget, with Councilpersons Roach, Power, Malmud and Boykin all calling the budget inadequate and “dire.”
Councilperson Malmud vowed she would do everything “in my power” to limit increases in salaries of the union personnel. Roach, Power, Boykin and Malmud decried the $12 Million budget gap and vowed to cut the budget and reform it.
Grim Council Trashes Mayor's Budget. Vows Cuts. Situation Called "Dire."
Mayor Joseph Delfino welcomed the council resolve to cut, and said he looked forward to their “working together” to solve the deficit and their revenue suggestions. Boykin said the council would look for revenues to cut down on the budget gap and said that the city could not be left with a $5 Million deficit, for 2010-11, because only $1 Million of that $5 Million could be used.
After vowing to cut the budget deficit, the Council voted 5-2, with Hockley and Mayor Delfino voting “Nay,” to kill a home rule request for an extra ¼% in sales tax from
After the Common Council delivered their negative reviews, Malmud calling it "inadequate," Dennis Power, disingenuously informing the television audience that the Council had not had year-round budget "hands-on" responsibility for the budget or a Council-endorsed Budget Director to supervise the budget, while also claiming the Council had raised concerns over the budget last summer and in approving the current 2008-09 budget.
The only question that concerned the council on the budget before the economic plunge in the stock market in late fall was the whereabouts of the LCOR $5.5 Million default payment on the commuter lot property on Bank Street (paid in August). This reporter does not remember hearing any council concerns about budget building for 2009-10 until after the Mayor's staff reported a turn down in revenues in October, and even at that point they did not press the mayor for specific cut information, or make suggestions and further cuts. The council did not question or raise concerns when the Mayor reported 2008-09 budget numbers were "on track" in September.
Mayor Delfino, listening with a bemused expression to the council comments, (tip of his glasses in his mouth), appeared to be listening to the comments with amusement. In his comments, the Mayor defended the just-maligned budget by saying the budget was in trouble "because of the economy," which had caused revenue sources such as mortgage tax, sales tax and permit fees to soften.
Councilwoman Rita Malmud's comments notwithstanding about holding the line on salary increases in the new budget, the Council did not discuss or suggest any guidelines for union negotiations, in public sessions leading up to their rejection of the 3.5%, 4%, 4% settlement on wages in late fall. No suggestions were made by the council to trim benefits costs to this reporter's recollection. To be fair, the council may have suggested wage restraint in executive sessions, but never in public.
Have they or haven't they filed for arbitration?
Regarding the status of negotiations with the police and fire unions, which has been for weeks described as headed for binding arbitration, this was still unclear at the end of the evening.
The Mayor told WPCNR he did not know whether the police and fire unions had filed for binding arbitration through the Taylor Law. The Mayor told WPCNR he assumed they had, but he did not know. Asked if he would intervene and convince the union to continue negotiations as the budget crafting was now being taken over by the Common Council, the Mayor said he would not.
The Council takeover of the budget process begins Wednesday evening when the Budget and Management meets to give their recommendations on what revenue measures they feel the council should consider. This will be followed by a Special Meeting on the Budget Thursday evening at 6 P.M.
Save the Library Funding Main Mr. and Mrs. White Plains Issue.
The budget hearing tonight saw the most galvanizing comments having to do with the cutting of the library budget by $400,000. About five speakers, each speaking to sustained applause of library supporters, numbering about 25, urged the council to restore library funding. One speaker supported restoring $100,000 in funding to the Performing Arts Center, which she compared the city’s eliminating the $100,000 to New York City refusing to aid Broadway and Paris rejecting the Moulin Rouge. Paula Piekos, the activist, suggested stiffer fines for soil retention violators and other developer and homeowner violationists of city environmental laws.
League of Women Voters Pans Budget
Marjorie Davies of the League of Women Voters delivered a rare thumbs-down verdict from the League on the Mayor’s budget, deploring the $12 million budget gap, and rejecting leasing of the Galleria and Library garages, the selling of firehouses 4 and 5,and the sales tax as revenue measures.
Common Council candidate Democrat Beth Smayda, a financial marketing analyst, deplored the presented budget fund balance depletion, saying “To the extent fund balance is depleted, multiple notch downgrades (in city bond-rating) are possible, in such instances, access to future capital financing could be limited…Without access to capital markets, the City would have to rely more on its own ongoing cash flow for fixing roads, water and sewer system improvements, renovations to city facilities, leaving even lessmoney for employees and for providing services to residents….in short, poor financial decisions can set off a cascade of negative effects which could take years to repair.”
In other council action,
The Council approved referring out the Item 78, a zoning change allowing 5.11 acres of the Winbrook public housing to be rezoned residential-commercial so middle income, senior housing assised living, and professional offices could be built in that space, and expanding it to include both sides of Lexington Avenue. The council did not comment on this, and no explanation of the issue was given. The Mayor said “There will be plenty of discussion of this ahead, it is only being referred out.”
The Council closed the hearing on 1133 Westchester Avenue property developer, Robert Weisz request for a three year extension on his property, which would be taken up in a future work session.
The council reappointed City Judge J. Brian Hansbury in a move that was not officially on the agenda, to another 10-year term. This was vehemently projested by Elena Sassower during the Citizens to Be Heard portion of the meeting at 7 P.M. before CBS TV television cameras, which withdrew after the Sassowers’ comments. Sassower and her mother, Doris Sassower urged Hansbury not be reappointed. Elena Sassower shouted he was a “corrupt judge,” and alleged the Mayor’s Corporation Counsel had not transmitted their testimony on Judge Hansbury’s handling of a recent case involving the younger Ms. Sassower to the Judicial Screening Committee.
Rita Malmud in discussing resolutions on scheduled parades, urged that all parades with the exception of Memorial Day, require the sponsors to pay the cost of clean-up.